BORIS.
Why, do you make verse?
KULIGIN.
Yes, sir, in the old-fashioned style. I have read Lomonosov and Derzhavin.
Lomonosov was a deep thinker, an investigator of nature…. And he was
one of us plain working folk too.
BORIS.
You should write. That would be interesting.
KULIGIN. How could I, sir! They'd tear me to pieces, they'd skin me alive. Even as it is, sir, I have had to pay for my chattering; but I can't help it, I love to speak my mind freely. I meant to say something about their family life, sir, but we'll talk of that some other time. There's plenty to tell about that too.
[Enter Feklusha and another woman.
FEKLUSHA. De-lightful, my clear, de-lightful! Divinely beautiful! But what's the use of talking! You live in the Promised Land, simply! And the merchant gentry are all a devout people, and famed for many a virtue! liberality and much almsgiving! I am well content, my good soul, full to the brim of content! For their liberality to us will their abundance be greatly increased, especially in the house of Kabanova.
[Exeunt.
BORIS.
Kabanova?
KULIGIN. A fanatical hypocrite, sir. She gives to the poor, but her own household she worries to death. (Silence.) All I want, sir, is to find out the secret of perpetual motion!
BORIS.
Why, what would you do?
KULIGIN. How can you ask, sir! Why, the English offer millions for it. I should use all the money for public purposes,—we want to provide work for the working people. Here they have hands to work, and no work to do.
BORIS.
And you hope to discover perpetual motion?
KULIGIN. Not a doubt, I shall, sir! I have only to scrape up enough money for models. Good-bye, sir!
[Exit.
SCENE IV
BORIS (alone). I haven't the heart to disillusion him! What a good fellow! He dreams and is happy. But I, it seems, must waste my youth in this wretched hole. I was utterly crushed before, and now this madness creeping into my mind! So suitable! Me give myself up to tender sentiments! Trampled upon, broken-spirited, and as if that's not enough, in my idiocy I must needs fall in love! And of all people in the world! With a woman, whom I may never have the luck to speak a word to. (Silence.) But for all that, I can't get her out of my head, try as I will. Here she is! Coming with her husband, oh! and the mother-in-law with them! Ah, what a fool I am! I must snatch a look at her round the corner, and then home again.
[Exit. From the opposite side, enter Mme. Kabanova, Kabanov, Katerina and Varvara.]
SCENE V
MADAME KABANOVA, KABANOV, KATERINA and VARVARA.
MME. KABANOVA. If you care to listen to your mother, you'll do as I have told you, directly you get there.
KABANOV.
How could I possibly disobey you, mother!
MME. KABANOVA.
Young folks show little respect to their elders, nowadays.
VARVARA (to herself).
Not respect you, my dear? That's likely!
KABANOV.
I think, mamma, I never depart a hairsbreadth from your will.
MME. KABANOVA. I might believe you, my son, if I hadn't seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears how little reverence parents receive nowadays from children! They might at least remember all the sufferings a mother has to put up with for her children.
KABANOV.
Mamma, I….
MME. KABANOVA. If the mother that bore you does at times say a word that wounds your pride surely you might put up with it! Hey, what do you think?
KABANOV.
But, mamma, when have I not put up with anything from you?
MME. KABANOVA. The mother's old, and foolish, to be sure; you young people must not be too exacting with us old fools.
KABANOV (sighs, aside). Oh, merciful Heavens! (To his mother) We should never dare think such a thing for a moment, mamma!
MME. KABANOVA. It's out of love that parents are severe with you, out of love they scold even—they're always thinking how to train you in the right way. To be sure, that's not in favour nowadays. And children go about among folks proclaiming that their mother's a scold, that their mother won't let them stir, that she's the plague of their life. And if—Lord save us—some word of hers doesn't please her daughter-in-law, then it's the talk all over the place, that the mother-in-law worries her to death.
KABANOV.
You don't mean that anyone talks about you, mamma?
MME. KABANOVA. I haven't heard so, my son, I haven't; I don't want to tell a lie about it. If I had, indeed, I shouldn't be talking to you like this, my dear. (Sighs) Ah, sin is a heavy burden! Sin is never far off! Something said goes to the heart, and there, one sins, one gets angry. No, my son, say what you like about me, there's no forbidding anyone to talk; if they don't dare before one's face, they'll do it behind one's back.
KABANOV.
May my tongue wither up and…
MME. KABANOVA. Hush, hush, don't swear! It's a sin! I've seen plain enough for a long time past that your wife's dearer to you than your mother. Ever since you were married, I don't see the same love for me that I did in you.
KABANOV.
In what way do you see me changed, mamma?
MME. KABANOVA. In everything, my son! When a mother doesn't see a thing with her eyes, her heart's so sensitive she can feel it with her heart. Or maybe it's your wife sets you against me, I can't say.
KABANOV.
Oh no, mamma! how can you say so, really?
KATERINA. I look upon you as I would on my own mother, and indeed Tihon loves you too.
MME. KABANOVA. You might hold your tongue, I should think, till you're asked a question. You've no need to defend him, young madam, I'm not going to hurt him, no fear! He's my son too, let me tell you; don't you forget it! What do you want to fire up and display your feelings before folks for! That we may see you love your husband? We know that, we know that, you show off before everyone.