Anya comes forward.
VARYAWhy are you still awake, Anya?
ANYAI just can’t get to sleep.
GAEVMy precious. (kissing Anya’s face and hands) My little one . . . (on the brink of tears) you’re more my angel than my niece, you’re everything to me. It’s the truth, believe me.
ANYAI do believe you, uncle. Everyone loves you and looks up to you, but, dear uncle, you must keep quiet, just keep quiet. What were you saying about my mother? About your own sister? What did you have to say that for?
GAEVI know, I know . . . (covering his face with her hand) That was dreadful of me. Oh God—help me! And I made a speech to a cupboard, how ridiculous—it wasn’t till I’d finished that I realised how absurd it was.
VARYAIt’s true, uncle dear, you should keep quiet, just keep quiet, that’s all.
ANYAIf you keep quiet you won’t go upsetting yourself.
GAEVI’m quiet. (kisses Anya’s and Varya’s hands) Quiet. There’s just one thing—it’s business. When I was down at the courts on Thursday, well, there was a group of us talking of this and that, and it seems that it might be possible to arrange a loan against a promissory note, enough to pay the bank interest.
VARYAOh, please God!
GAEVI’ll go down there on Tuesday and have another chat. (to Varya) Don’t howl. (to Anya) Your Mama will have a talk with Lopakhin. He’ll never refuse her. And when you feel rested, you’ll go to Yaroslavl to your great-aunt the countess. So there you are, we’ll attack on three fronts and it’s in the bag. We’ll pay the interest, no doubt about it. (putting a lemon drop in his mouth) On my honour—I’ll take any oath you like on it, the estate will not be sold!—(excited) on my happiness I swear it!—my hand on it, you can call me a worthless cad if the auction goes ahead—I swear it with every particle of my being!
ANYA (calm and happy again)You’re so good uncle, and so clever. (embracing her uncle) I feel calmer now! I’m quite calm! I’m happy!
Firs enters.
FIRS (reproachfully)Leonid Andreevich—aren’t you ashamed of yourself?—when are you going to bed?
GAEVI’m coming right this minute. You go off, Firs. I’ll undress myself. Night-night, my children—we’ll settle the details tomorrow, but now time for bed. (kissing Anya and Varya) I’m a man of the eighties. That was a period people don’t think much of nowadays, but I can say I’ve suffered for my convictions in my time. It’s not for no reason that I’m loved by the peasant people—one has to know the peasant!—one has to know with whom you’re—
ANYAYou’re doing it, uncle!
VARYAJust be quiet, uncle dear, be quiet.
FIRS (angrily)Leonid Andreevich!
GAEVI’m going, I’m going. Off to bed. Cushion, cushion, and into the middle pocket!—pot white!
Gaev goes out, Firs shuffles after him.
ANYA (as they go)Thank you, uncle. I’m easier in my mind now. I don’t fancy going to my great-aunt’s, I don’t like her . . . but I do feel better.
Anya sits down.
VARYAYou must go to sleep. I’m going to. Something really upsetting happened while you were away. You know the old servants’ quarters—nobody lives there now except a few of the ancients—Yefimyushka, Polya, Yevstignei, oh, and Karp, too. Well, they started letting stray people stay the night, suspicious characters passing through. I said nothing about it. Only, then I hear they’re putting it about I’d given orders that they’re fed on nothing but dried peas. Out of meanness, if you please, and Yevstignei’s behind it. Right, I thought—if that’s the case, just you wait. I send for him. (yawns) He comes in. What’s this you’ve been saying about me, you old fool? (glancing at Anya) Anechka! . . . (pause) Fallen asleep . . .
Varya takes Anya by the arm.
VARYA (cont.)Let’s be off to bed . . . come along! . . . (leading her) My little sleepyhead! Come along . . .
Varya and Anya move off.
In the distance, beyond the orchard, a shepherd plays a pipe. Trofimov enters and, seeing Varya and Anya, stops.
VARYA (cont.)Shhh . . . sleepy time . . . come along, darling . . .
ANYA (softly, half asleep)I’m so tired . . . I can still hear the harness bells . . . uncle . . . dear uncle, and Mama too . . .
VARYAHere we go, my lamb . . . this way . . .
They go into Anya’s room.
TROFIMOV (moved)My little ray of sunshine! My springtime!
CURTAIN
ACT TWO
Outdoors among open fields: an old, long-abandoned, leaning little chapel; alongside it a well, large stones, which appear to be old gravestones, and an old bench. The track leading to the Gaevs’ estate can be seen. To one side, rise up the dark shapes of poplars where the cherry orchard begins. In the distance there is a row of telegraph poles, and beyond, on the horizon, a large town can just be made out, visible only on clear days. The sun will soon be setting.
Charlotta, Yasha and Dunyasha are sitting on the bench, lost in thought, while YEPIKHODOV stands beside them, playing something sad on a guitar. Charlotta, wearing an old cap, has taken a gun from her shoulder and is adjusting the buckle on the strap.
CHARLOTTA (meditatively)I’ve never had any proper papers, I don’t know how old I am, and I always think of myself as young. When I was little my father and Mama used to go round the fairs doing their shows, very good shows they were, too. And I’d do the leap of death and other tricks. Then when papa and Mama died, a German lady took me in and started giving me lessons. Well and good, so I grew up and went to be a governess. But who I am and where I’m from, I really don’t know, or who my parents were or whether perhaps they weren’t married, I don’t know. (takes a cucumber from her pocket and eats it) I don’t know anything. I long to have someone to talk to, but there isn’t anybody. I don’t have anyone.
YEPIKHODOV (plays the guitar and sings)“What do I care for the noisy world? Friend or foe, I hear you not . . .”
It’s a lovely thing to play the mandolin!
DUNYASHAIt’s not a mandolin, it’s a guitar.
Dunyasha looks in a small hand-mirror and powders herself.
YEPIKHODOVFor us who are mad for love it’s a mandolin . . . (starts to sing and Yasha joins in) “If only the girl I gave my heart would give her heart to me . . .”
CHARLOTTAWhat a horrible noise. They sing like hyenas, these people.
DUNYASHA (to Yasha)Still, you’re so lucky to have been abroad.
YASHAYes, I have to agree.
Yasha yawns, then lights a cigar.
YEPIKHODOVNaturally. Abroad has been going on for ages, it’s arrived at a certain state of arrival.
YASHAStands to reason.
YEPIKHODOVI’m someone who keeps up, I’ve read all sorts of amazing books, and yet I can’t work out the tendency of my inclination, to be or to shoot myself, that is the question. So I always carry a revolver to be on the safe side, look. (shows the revolver)
CHARLOTTADone. I’m off. (slinging the rifle over her shoulder) Yepikhodov, you’re a brilliant fellow and very scary. Women should be throwing themselves at you. Grrr! (as she goes) I’m surrounded by brainy idiots. There’s no one I can talk to, I’m all alone, utterly alone, I have no one, and who I am and what I’m doing here is a mystery.
Charlotta goes out, unhurriedly.
YEPIKHODOVSpeaking for myself, I’ll say one thing about me apart from anything else, which is that fate has got it in for me like a big storm for a small boat. If I’m wrong, supposing, why is it, for instance, that when I woke up this morning there was an enormous spider sitting on my chest? As big as this. (indicating with both his hands) Another example. I have a drink and there at the bottom of my glass is something utterly revolting, a cockroach or something. (pause) Have you read Buckle’s History of Civilisation in England? (pause) Dunyasha, could I trouble you for a couple of words?
DUNYASHAGo ahead.
YEPIKHODOVI’d prefer to have them in private.
Yepikhodov sighs, Dunyasha is embarrassed.
DUNYASHAOh, all right . . . but first could you bring my cape from indoors beside the cupboard . . . I’m feeling the damp out here.
YEPIKHODOVYes, all right. I’ll go and fetch it. Now I know what to do with my revolver . . .
Yepikhodov takes the guitar and begins to play as he goes out.
YASHAPoor old Catastrophe! Entre nous, the man’s a moron. (yawns)
DUNYASHAGod, I hope he’s not going to shoot himself. (pause) Everything makes me nervous, I’m so anxious all the time. Master and Mistress took me in when I was a little girl, and I’ve got unused to simple ways. Look at my hands, they’re white like a lady’s hands. I’ve become so sensitive I’m frightened of everything, it’s awful. If you deceive me, Yasha, I don’t know if my nerves could stand it.
YASHA (kissing her)My little cabbage! Of course, a girl must know her place. If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s a girl who doesn’t know how to behave herself.
DUNYASHAI’m terribly in love with you. You’re educated. You know what to think about everything. (pause)
YASHA (yawns)True, true. To my way of thinking, if a girl falls in love, she’s asking for it. (pause) There’s nothing like a cigar in the fresh air . . . (listens) They’re coming this way, it’s the Mistress and that lot.
Dunyasha kisses him impulsively.
YASHA (cont.)Go back to the house—take the path from the river as though you’ve been for a swim, otherwise you’ll meet them and they’ll think I’m keeping company with you—I can’t be doing with that.
DUNYASHA (quietly coughing)Your cigar’s given me a headache.
Dunyasha goes out.
Yasha puts out his cigar and remains, sitting beside the chapel. Liubov Andreevna, Gaev, and Lopakhin enter.
LOPAKHINYou have to decide once and for all. Time will not wait for you. The question couldn’t be simpler. Will you agree to give the land over to building plots, or not? Yes or no?
LIUBOVWho’s been smoking cheap cigars?
Liubov sits down.
GAEVIt’s so convenient now they’ve built the railway—lunch in town and home again. (sitting down) Pot red into the middle pocket. I wouldn’t mind going up to the house for a game now . . .
LIUBOVYou’ll have plenty of time.
LOPAKHINJust say one word! (pleading) Give me an answer!
GAEV (yawning)To what?
LIUBOV (looking in her purse)There was lots of money in here yesterday, and now there’s hardly any. Poor Varya’s economising, feeding us on slops, and the old ones in the kitchen only get dried peas . . . and here am I spending money without a thought, I don’t know where it goes . . . (the purse drops, scattering coins) And now I’ve dropped it everywhere . . .
Liubov is annoyed. Yasha gathers the coins.
YASHAAllow me, I’ll pick it up.
LIUBOVBe so kind, Yasha. And why ever did I go out for lunch? That frightful restaurant of yours, with that music and tablecloths smelling of soap . . . Why do you drink so much, Lyonya? And eat so much? Why do you talk so much? In the restaurant you were rambling on about the seventies and the Decadents, and for whose benefit? Who but you would lecture the waiters about the Decadent movement?
LOPAKHINNo one.
GAEV (making a dismissive gesture)Clearly I’m beyond help. (irritably, to Yasha) Why are you always hovering about in front of my face?
YASHA (laughs)Just hearing your voice makes me laugh.
GAEV (to his sister)It’s him or me.
LIUBOVGo away, Yasha, go on.
YASHA (handing Liubov her purse)I’m going. (barely restraining his laughter) I’ve gone.
Yasha goes out.
LOPAKHINThat millionaire Deriganov wants to buy your estate. They say he’s coming to the auction in person.
LIUBOVWho told you?
LOPAKHINIt’s what they’re saying in town.
GAEVOur aunt in Yaroslavl has promised to let us have some money, we don’t know how much . . .
LOPAKHINA hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand?
LIUBOVOh, really! Ten, perhaps fifteen thousand, and lucky to get that.
LOPAKHINForgive me for saying so, but you two are the most irresponsible, the strangest, most unbusinesslike people I’ve ever met. I’m telling you in words of one syllable that your house and land are about to be sold off, and it just doesn’t get through.
LIUBOVWell, what are we supposed to do about it? Go on, tell us.
LOPAKHINI tell you every day. I keep telling you. You have to lease out the cherry orchard and your land for summer cottages—right now—as soon as you can. The auction is coming and soon. Get that into your heads! The moment you give the word, you’ll get all the money you want, and you’ll be saved.
LIUBOVSummer cottages and weekenders . . . I’m sorry but it’s all so tawdry.
GAEVCouldn’t agree more.
LOPAKHINI’m going to scream or burst into tears, or faint clean away—I can’t do it anymore, you’re driving me crazy. (to Gaev) You old woman!
GAEVWho?
LOPAKHIN (going)You! I said you’re an old woman!
LIUBOV (frightened)Oh—don’t go away, please don’t go, my dear. Perhaps we’ll think of something!
LOPAKHINWhat more is there to think about!
LIUBOVPlease, please stay! You cheer me up somehow, despite yourself. (pause) I keep expecting something to happen, as though the house were to fall around our ears.
GAEV (deep in thought)Screw back off the cushion into the corner pocket—cross over for the middle pocket . . .
LIUBOVWe must be paying for our sins . . . so many sins . . .
LOPAKHINOh, yes? And what sins would they be?
GAEV (putting a sweet in his mouth)They say I’ve consumed my patrimony in lemon drops . . . (laughs)
LIUBOVOh, my sins! I’ve always squandered money without a thought like some madwoman, and then I married a man who did nothing but run up debts. My husband died of champagne, he was a terrible drinker. Then I had the misfortune to fall in love and take up with someone else just at the moment when . . . and this was my first punishment, like a blow to the head—it “was here—here in this river, my little boy drowned, and I went abroad, I didn’t pause—I meant never to return, to see this river ever again. I shut my eyes and fled, not knowing where I was going, and he came after me, he wouldn’t give up, he was merciless. I bought a little house near Menton when he fell ill there, and for the next three years I had no rest day or night, he wore me out, my soul dried up. Then last year when the house had to go to pay the debts, I went to Paris, and there he robbed me of everything. He threw me over and went off with another woman, and I tried to poison myself. It was all so stupid and humiliating. And all of a sudden I knew I had to come back to Russia, to my home, to my daughter. (wipes away tears) Oh God forgive me, forgive my sins! Don’t punish me any more! (takes a telegram from her pocket). I got this from Paris this morning. He asks me to forgive him, and implores me to go back. (tears up the telegram) Isn’t that music I can hear? (listens)
GAEVThat’s our famous Jewish orchestra. Do you remember them? Four fiddles with flute and double bass.
LIUBOVAre they still going? We must have them up to the house some time, arrange an evening.
LOPAKHIN (listening)I can’t hear anything. (softly sings) “Russians is what we are, we pay the Germans to make us French . . .” I went to the theatre last night, saw a very funny play . . .
LIUBOVI bet it wasn’t. People shouldn’t go to plays, they should spend the time looking in the mirror, at their grey lives and pointless conversations.
LOPAKHINYou’re right. The truth is life is a stupid business. (pause) My father was a typical peasant, a fool who knew nothing. Taught me nothing, just beat me with his stick when he got drunk. In actual fact I’m not much different, an ignoramus and a clod. I’ve no education, my handwriting is so bad I’m ashamed for people to see it, it’s like if a pig could write.
LIUBOVWhat you need to do, my dear, is get married.
LOPAKHINYes . . . true
enough.
LIUBOVTo someone like our Varya. She’s a good girl.
LOPAKHINShe is.
LIUBOVShe comes from simple folk, so she can work all day long, but the main thing is she’s in love with you. And you’ve liked her for a long time, haven’t you?
LOPAKHINWell, yes. I’m not against it. She’s a good girl.
Pause.
GAEVThey’re offering me a place in the bank. Six thousand a year. Had you heard?
LIUBOVWhat, you in a bank? You just stay where you are. Sit tight.
Firs enters; he has brought an overcoat.
FIRS (to Gaev)Please be so good, sir, put this on or you’ll get damp.
GAEV (putting on the overcoat)You’re a damn nuisance, dear friend.
FIRSSticks and stones. You didn’t tell me you were going out.
Firs looks Gaev over.
LIUBOVYou’ve got so old, Firs!
FIRSWhat can I do for you?
LOPAKHINShe says you’ve got old!
FIRSWell, I’ve lived a long time. I was being married off before your father had even come into this world. (laughs) And when the freedom was declared I was already head valet. I didn’t take my freedom. I stayed with Master and Mistress. (pause) I remember how everyone was happy, little did they know.
LOPAKHINOh yes, they were good times before ‘61, you could be flogged in those days.
FIRS (mishearing)I should say so! The peasants belonged to the masters and the masters belonged to the peasants, but now it’s all higgledy-piggledy, you don’t know where you are.
GAEVThat’s enough from you for now, Firs. I’m going into town tomorrow. I’ve been promised an introduction to a general who might put up some money against my signature.
LOPAKHINIt’ll come to nothing, and anyway what would you pay the interest with?
LIUBOVHe’s raving. There aren’t any generals.
Trofimov, Anya, and Varya are seen.
GAEVAh, here are some more of us.
ANYAMama’s over there, look.
LIUBOV (tenderly)Come and join us. Come over, my darlings. (embracing Anya and Varya) You don’t know how much I love you both, come and sit by me.
Everyone sits down.
LOPAKHINThe Eternal Student’s never far from the young ladies.