The Plays of Anton Chekhov

SONYA: Give it back. Why do you frighten us? [Tenderly] Give it back, Uncle Vanya! I may be no less unhappy than you, but I don’t become desperate. I endure and will endure until my life comes to a natural end ... You must endure.

  [A pause.]

  Give it back! [Kisses his hands.] Dear, wonderful, sweet Uncle, give it back! [Cries.] You are kind, you’ll feel sorry for us and give it back. You must endure, Uncle! Endure!

  VOYNITSKY [getting the jar out of a table drawer and giving it to Astrov]:There, take it! [To Sonya] But we must quickly get to work, do something, otherwise I can’t ... I can’t ...

  SONYA: Yes, yes, work. As soon as we’ve said goodbye to them, we’ll sit down and work ... [Nervously turns over papers on the table.] We’ve let everything get into a mess.

  ASTROV [putting the jar into his medicine chest and tightening the straps]: Now I can get on the road.

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA [entering]: Ivan Petrovich, are you here? We’re leaving now ... Go in to Aleksandr, he wants to say something to you.

  SONYA: Go, Uncle Vanya. [Taking Voynitsky by the arm] Let’s go. You and Papa must make it up. It’s essential.

  [Exeunt SONYA and VOYNITSKY.]

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA: I’m leaving. [Giving Astrov her hand.] Goodbye.

  ASTROV: So soon?

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA: They’ve already brought the horses.

  ASTROV: Goodbye.

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA: You promised me today you would leave here.

  ASTROV: I remember. I’m going now.

  [A pause.]

  Were you frightened? [Taking her hand.] Was it so frightening?

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA: Yes.

  ASTROV: Otherwise you might have stayed! So? Tomorrow at the forestry station ...

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA: No ... It’s decided now ... And I’m brave enough to look at you because our departure is now settled ... I ask you one thing: think better of me. I want you to respect me.

  ASTROV: Oh! [with an impatient gesture]. Stay, please. Admit it, you have nothing to do on this earth, you have no goal in life, you have nothing to hold your interest, and sooner or later you will surrender to feeling — it’s inevitable. So rather than doing that in Kharkov or somewhere in Kursk, do it here in the bosom of nature ... It’s at least poetic, even the autumn is beautiful ... Here we have forestry plantations, crumbling country houses à la Turgenev ...

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA: What an amusing man you are ... I’m angry with you, but still ... I shall remember you with pleasure. You are interesting and original. We shall never see one another again, so — why not be open about it? — I even fell for you a little. Well, let’s shake hands and part friends. Don’t think badly of me.

  ASTROV [shaking her hand] : Yes, go ... [Reflectively] I think you are a good, sincere person but there’s also something strange in your whole being. You came here with your husband and everyone who was busily working here and creating something had to drop what they were doing and devote the whole summer to looking after your husband’s gout and you yourself. Both of you — he and you — infected all of us with your idleness. I was attracted and did nothing for a whole month, and during that time people were ill, and the peasants put their cattle out to feed in my woods with their young trees ... And so, wherever you and your husband tread, you bring destruction. I’m joking of course, but still ... it’s strange, and I’m convinced that if you had stayed, the devastation would have been enormous. And I would have been lost, and you ... it wouldn’t have been good for you. So, leave. Finita la commedia!2

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA [taking a pencil from his table and quickly putting it away]: I’m taking this pencil as a souvenir.

  ASTROV: Isn’t it strange ... We were friends and suddenly, for some reason ... we won’t ever see each other again. It’s like everything in the world ... While there’s no one here, before Uncle Vanya comes in with a bunch of flowers, allow me to ... kiss you ... To say goodbye ... Yes? [Kisses her on the cheek.] So ... good.

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA: I wish you all the best! [Having looked round.] Just once in my life, come what may. [Impulsively embraces him and both immediately separate.] We must leave.

  ASTROV: Leave quickly. If the horses are ready, then go.

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA: I think someone’s coming.

  [Both listen.]

  ASTROV: Finita!

  [Enter SEREBRYAKOV, VOYNITSKY, MARIYA VASILYEVNA with a book, TELEGIN and SONYA.]

  SEREBRYAKOV [to Voynitsky] : A curse on anyone who brings up the past. After what happened, in these last few hours I’ve experienced so much and changed my thinking so much that I think I could write a whole treatise on how to live for the edification of posterity. I willingly accept your apologies and I myself ask you to forgive me. Goodbye. [He and VOYNITSKY kiss three times.]

  VOYNITSKY: You will receive exactly what you used to receive. Everything will be as before.

  [YELENA ANDREYEVNA embraces Sonya.]

  SEREBRYAKOV [kissing Mariya Vasilyevna’s hand]: Maman ...

  MARIYA VASILYEVNA [kissing him]: Aleksandr, get your photograph taken again and send it to me. You know how dear you are to me.

  TELEGIN: Goodbye, Your Excellency! Don’t forget us!

  SEREBRYAKOV [kissing his daughter]: Goodbye ... Goodbye to you all! [Giving his hand to Astrov.] Thank you for your pleasant company ... I respect your way of thinking, your enthusiasms, your impulses, but let an old man include just one observation in his farewell greetings: my friends, one must do a job of work! One must do a job of work! [A bow to everyone.] All the best! [Goes out followed by MARIYA VASILYEVNA and SONYA.]

  VOYNITSKY [firmly kissing Yelena Andreyevna’s hand]: Goodbye ... Forgive me ... We’ll never see each other again.

  YELENA ANDREYEVNA [touched]: Goodbye, my dear. [Kisses him on the head and goes out.]

  ASTROV [to Telegin]: Waffle, tell them to bring my horses round at the same time.

  TELEGIN: I hear and obey, old chap. [Goes out.]

  [Only ASTROV and VOYNITSKY remain.]

  ASTROV [clearing the paints from the table and packing them into his suitcase]: Why don’t you go and see them off?

  VOYNITSKY: Let them leave, I ... I can’t. I feel wretched. I must quickly occupy myself with something ... To work, to work! [Rummages in the papers on the table.]

  [A pause; the sound of harness bells.]

  ASTROV: They’ve gone. The Professor’s probably pleased. Wild horses wouldn’t get him back here.

  MARINA [entering]: They’ve gone. [Sits down in an armchair and knits a stocking.]

  SONYA [entering]: They’ve gone. [Wiping her eyes.] God grant them a safe journey. [To her uncle] Well, Uncle Vanya, let’s do something.

  VOYNITSKY: To work, to work ...

  SONYA: It’s a long, long time since we sat together at this table. [Lights the lamp on the table.] I don’t think there’s any ink ... [Takes the inkpot, goes to the cupboard and pours in ink.] But I’m sad they’ve gone.

  MARIYA VASILYEVNA [entering slowly]: They’ve gone. [Sits down and absorbs herself in reading.]

  SONYA [sitting down at the table and leafing through an account book]: Uncle Vanya, first of all let’s write out the bills. We’ve let things go dreadfully. Today someone sent a reminder. Start writing. You write out one bill, I’ll do another ...

  VOYNITSKY [writing]: ‘Account for Mr ...’

  [Both write in silence.]

  MARINA [yawning]: Bedtime calls ...

  ASTROV: It’s quiet. The pens are scratching, the cricket’s chirping. It’s warm, cosy ... I don’t want to leave here.

  [The sound of harness bells.]

  There, they’re bringing the horses ... So, my friends, it remains for me to say goodbye to you, to say goodbye to my table, and — we’re off! [He puts the maps away in the portfolio.]

  MARINA: Why have you started fussing? You should sit down.

  ASTROV: I mustn’t.

  VOYNITSKY: ‘Two seventy-five outstanding ...’

  [Enter a WORKMAN.]

  W
ORKMAN: Mikhail Lvovich, the horses are ready.

  ASTROV: Right. [Gives him the medicine chest, the suitcase and the portfolio.] Take these. Watch out you don’t crush the portfolio.

  WORKMAN: Yes, sir. [Goes out.]

  ASTROV: Well ... [Moves to say goodbye.]

  SONYA: When shall we meet again?

  ASTROV: It won’t be before the summer. Unlikely in the winter ... Of course, if something happens, then let me know — I’ll come. [Shakes hands.] Thank you for your hospitality, for looking after me ... in short, for everything. [Goes to the nyanya and kisses her on the head.] Goodbye, my old dear.

  MARINA: So you’re going without having tea?

  ASTROV: I don’t want any, Nyanya.

  MARINA: Perhaps you’d like some vodka?

  ASTROV [indecisively]: Maybe ...

  [MARINA goes out.]

  [After a pause.] My trace-horse has gone a bit lame. I noticed it when Petrushka took them to drink.

  VOYNITSKY: You need new shoes.

  ASTROV: I’ll have to go to the blacksmith at Rozhdestvennoye. I’ve no choice. [Goes up to the map ofAfrica.] It must be boiling now there in Africa — terrible!

  VOYNITSKY: Yes, it probably is.

  MARINA [returning with a tray on which are a glass of vodka and a piece of bread]: Eat.

  [ASTROV drinks the vodka.]

  Your good health, my dear. [Bows low.] And send it down with a little bit of bread.

  ASTROV: No, I’ll have it without ... Good luck then! [To Marina] Don’t see me off, Nyanya. You mustn’t. [Goes out. SONYA follows him with a candle to see him off; MARINA sits down in her armchair.]

  VOYNITSKY [writing]: ‘2nd February vegetable oil twenty pounds ... 16th February vegetable oil again twenty pounds ... Buckwheat ...’

  [A pause. The sound of harness bells.]

  MARINA: He’s gone.

  [A pause.]

  SONYA [returning and putting the candle on the table]: He’s gone.

  VOYNITSKY [counting up on the abacus and writing down]: ‘Total . . . fifteen ... twenty-five ...’

  [SONYA sits down and writes.]

  MARINA [yawning]: Oh, forgive us our trespasses ...

  [Enter TELEGIN on tiptoe. Sits down by the door and quietly tunes his guitar.]

  VOYNITSKY [to Sonya, stroking her hair]: My child, how heavy my heart is. If you only knew how heavy.

  SONYA: What can we do, we’ve got to live!

  [A pause.]

  We shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live out many, many days and long evenings; we shall patiently bear the trials fate sends us; we shall labour for others both now and in our old age, knowing no rest, and when our time comes, we shall meekly die, and there beyond the grave we shall say that we suffered, that we wept, that we were sorrowful, and God will have pity on us, and you and I, dear Uncle, shall see a life that is bright and beautiful and full of grace, we shall rejoice and look back on our present woes with tenderness, with a smile — and we shall rest. I believe that, Uncle, I believe fervently, passionately ... [Kneels before him and lays her head on his hands; in an exhausted voice] We shall rest!

  [TELEGIN quietly plays his guitar.]

  We shall rest! We shall hear the angels, we shall see the whole sky paved with diamonds, we shall see all earthly evil, all our sufferings covered by the sea of mercy which shall fill the whole earth, and our life will become quiet, tender, sweet as a caress. I believe, I believe ... [Wipes away his tears with a handkerchief.] Poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you’re crying. [With tears in her eyes] You’ve known no joys in your life, but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait ... We shall rest ... [Hugs him.] We shall rest!

  [The night-watchman knocks. TELEGIN plays quietly; MARIYA VASILYEVNA makes notes in the margins of a pamphlet; MARINA knits a stocking.]

  We shall rest!

  [The curtain slowly falls.]

  Three Sisters

  A Drama in Four Acts

  CHARACTERS

  ANDREY SERGEYEVICH PROZOROV [also ANDRYUSHA, ANDRYUSHANCHIK]

  NATALYA IVANOVNA [also NATASHA], his fiancée, later his wife

  OLGA [also OLECHKA, OLYA, OLYUSHKA]

  MASHA [also MARIYA, MARYA, MASHKA, his MASHENKA] sisters

  IRINA [also ARINUSHKA, ARISHA]

  FYODOR ILYICH KULYGIN [also FEDYA], a teacher in a Gymnasium,1Masha’s husband

  ALEKSANDR IGNATYEVICH VERSHININ, Lieutenant-Colonel and battery commander

  BARON NIKOLAY LVOVICH TUZENBAKH, Lieutenant

  VASILY VASILYEVICH SOLYONY, Staff Captain

  IVAN ROMANOVICH CHEBUTYKIN, an army doctor

  ALEKSEY PETROVICH FEDOTIK, Second Lieutenant

  VLADIMIR KARLOVICH RODE, Second Lieutenant

  FERAPONT, an old man, a District Council watchman

  ANFISA, an eighty-year-old nyanya2

  A MAID

  The action takes place in a provincial capital.3

  Act One

  The Prozorovs’ house. A drawing-room with columns, beyond which a large reception hall is visible. Midday; outside it is sunny and cheerful. In the hall a table is being laid for lunch. OLGA, wearing the dark blue uniform dress of a teacher in a Girls’ Gymnasium, carries on correcting pupils’ exercise books as she stands and walks about; MASH Ain a black dress is sitting with a hat on her knees and reading a book; IRINA is standing lost in thought.

  OLGA: Father died exactly a year ago, on this very day, the fifth of May, your name-day,1 Irina. It was very cold, it was snowing then. I thought I wouldn’t live through it, you lay in a faint as if you were dead. But now a year has passed and we’re remembering it without pain, you’re wearing white again, your face is radiant ... [The clock strikes twelve.] The clock struck that noon too.

  [A pause.]

  I remember a band played at Father’s funeral and they fired a salute at the graveside. He was a general, in command of a brigade, but there weren’t many people there. However, it was raining that day. Heavy rain and snow.

  IRINA: Why bring it all back!

  [BARON TUZENBAKH, CHEBUTYKIN and SOLYONY appear beyond the columns, by the table in the hall.]

  OLGA: Today it’s warm, we can keep the windows open, but the birches aren’t in leaf yet. Father got his brigade and we left Moscow eleven years ago, and I remember very well, at the beginning of May just now in Moscow everything is already in bloom, it’s warm, everything’s bathed in sunshine. Eleven years have passed and I remember it all there as if we’d left yesterday. My God! This morning I woke up, I saw a mass of light, I saw the spring, and joy welled up in my soul and I had a huge longing for home.

  CHEBUTYKIN: The devil it is!

  TUZENBAKH: Of course, that’s nonsense.

  [MASHA, lost in thought over her book, quietly whistles a song.]

  OLGA: Don’t whistle, Masha. How can you!

  [A pause.]

  Every day I teach at the Gymnasium and afterwards I give lessons until evening, and so I’ve got a constant headache and my thoughts are those of an old woman. And indeed, during these four years I’ve been teaching at the Gymnasium, I’ve felt my strength and my youth draining from me every day, drop by drop. And one single thought grows stronger and stronger ...

  IRINA: To leave for Moscow. To sell the house, finish with everything here and — to Moscow ...

  OLGA: Yes! To Moscow, soon.

  [CHEBUTYKIN and TUZENBAKH laugh.]

  IRINA: Andrey will probably get a professor’s chair and in any case he won’t live here. The only problem is poor Masha.

  OLGA: Masha will come to Moscow for the whole summer, every year.

  [MASHA quietly whistles a song.]

  IRINA: Everything will come out all right, God willing. [Looking out of the window.] The weather’s good today. I don’t know why I feel so radiant. This morning I remembered it’s my name-day, and suddenly I felt joy and I remembered my childhood when Mama was still alive. And what wonderful thoughts stirred me, what thoughts!

  OLGA: Today you’re all aglow, you look exceptionally beautiful. A
nd Masha is beautiful too. Andrey could be good-looking, only he’s filled out a lot and it doesn’t suit him. But I’ve become old, I’ve got very thin, I suppose because I lose my temper with the girls at the Gymnasium. Today I’m free, I’m at home and I have no headache, I feel younger than yesterday. I’m only twenty-eight ... Life is good, everything in life comes from God, but I think it would be better if I were to marry and be sitting at home all day.

  [A pause.]

  I’d love my husband.

  TUZENBAKH [to Solyony]: You talk such rubbish, I’m fed up listening to you. [Entering the drawing-room.] I forgot to say. Today our new battery commander Vershinin will be paying a call on you. [Sits down at the piano.]

  OLGA: Really! I’m so pleased.

  IRINA: Is he old?

  TUZENBAKH: No. Not very. At most, forty, forty-five. [Plays quietly.] He seems a good fellow. He’s not stupid — there’s no doubt about that. Only he talks a lot.