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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncle Vanya, by Anton Checkov
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Uncle Vanya
+
+Author: Anton Checkov
+
+Posting Date: November 23, 2008 [EBook #1756]
+Release Date: May, 1999
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCLE VANYA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer
+
+
+
+
+
+UNCLE VANYA
+
+SCENES FROM COUNTRY LIFE
+
+IN FOUR ACTS
+
+By Anton Checkov
+
+
+
+
+CHARACTERS
+
+ALEXANDER SEREBRAKOFF, a retired professor
+
+HELENA, his wife, twenty-seven years old
+
+SONIA, his daughter by a former marriage
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA, widow of a privy councilor, and mother of Serebrakoff's
+first wife
+
+IVAN (VANYA) VOITSKI, her son
+
+MICHAEL ASTROFF, a doctor
+
+ILIA (WAFFLES) TELEGIN, an impoverished landowner
+
+MARINA, an old nurse
+
+A WORKMAN
+
+The scene is laid on SEREBRAKOFF'S country place
+
+
+
+
+UNCLE VANYA
+
+
+
+
+ACT I
+
+A country house on a terrace. In front of it a garden. In an avenue of
+trees, under an old poplar, stands a table set for tea, with a samovar,
+etc. Some benches and chairs stand near the table. On one of them is
+lying a guitar. A hammock is swung near the table. It is three o'clock
+in the afternoon of a cloudy day.
+
+MARINA, a quiet, grey-haired, little old woman, is sitting at the table
+knitting a stocking.
+
+ASTROFF is walking up and down near her.
+
+MARINA. [Pouring some tea into a glass] Take a little tea, my son.
+
+ASTROFF. [Takes the glass from her unwillingly] Somehow, I don't seem to
+want any.
+
+MARINA. Then will you have a little vodka instead?
+
+ASTROFF. No, I don't drink vodka every day, and besides, it is too hot
+now. [A pause] Tell me, nurse, how long have we known each other?
+
+MARINA. [Thoughtfully] Let me see, how long is it? Lord--help me to
+remember. You first came here, into our parts--let me think--when was
+it? Sonia's mother was still alive--it was two winters before she died;
+that was eleven years ago--[thoughtfully] perhaps more.
+
+ASTROFF. Have I changed much since then?
+
+MARINA. Oh, yes. You were handsome and young then, and now you are an
+old man and not handsome any more. You drink, too.
+
+ASTROFF. Yes, ten years have made me another man. And why? Because I am
+overworked. Nurse, I am on my feet from dawn till dusk. I know no rest;
+at night I tremble under my blankets for fear of being dragged out to
+visit some one who is sick; I have toiled without repose or a day's
+freedom since I have known you; could I help growing old? And then,
+existence is tedious, anyway; it is a senseless, dirty business, this
+life, and goes heavily. Every one about here is silly, and after
+living with them for two or three years one grows silly oneself. It is
+inevitable. [Twisting his moustache] See what a long moustache I have
+grown. A foolish, long moustache. Yes, I am as silly as the rest, nurse,
+but not as stupid; no, I have not grown stupid. Thank God, my brain is
+not addled yet, though my feelings have grown numb. I ask nothing, I
+need nothing, I love no one, unless it is yourself alone. [He kisses her
+head] I had a nurse just like you when I was a child.
+
+MARINA. Don't you want a bite of something to eat?
+
+ASTROFF. No. During the third week of Lent I went to the epidemic at
+Malitskoi. It was eruptive typhoid. The peasants were all lying side by
+side in their huts, and the calves and pigs were running about the floor
+among the sick. Such dirt there was, and smoke! Unspeakable! I slaved
+among those people all day, not a crumb passed my lips, but when I got
+home there was still no rest for me; a switchman was carried in from the
+railroad; I laid him on the operating table and he went and died in
+my arms under chloroform, and then my feelings that should have been
+deadened awoke again, my conscience tortured me as if I had killed the
+man. I sat down and closed my eyes--like this--and thought: will our
+descendants two hundred years from now, for whom we are breaking the
+road, remember to give us a kind word? No, nurse, they will forget.
+
+MARINA. Man is forgetful, but God remembers.
+
+ASTROFF. Thank you for that. You have spoken the truth.
+
+Enter VOITSKI from the house. He has been asleep after dinner and
+looks rather dishevelled. He sits down on the bench and straightens his
+collar.
+
+VOITSKI. H'm. Yes. [A pause] Yes.
+
+ASTROFF. Have you been asleep?
+
+VOITSKI. Yes, very much so. [He yawns] Ever since the Professor and his
+wife have come, our daily life seems to have jumped the track. I sleep
+at the wrong time, drink wine, and eat all sorts of messes for luncheon
+and dinner. It isn't wholesome. Sonia and I used to work together and
+never had an idle moment, but now Sonia works alone and I only eat and
+drink and sleep. Something is wrong.
+
+MARINA. [Shaking her head] Such a confusion in the house! The Professor
+gets up at twelve, the samovar is kept boiling all the morning, and
+everything has to wait for him. Before they came we used to have dinner
+at one o'clock, like everybody else, but now we have it at seven. The
+Professor sits up all night writing and reading, and suddenly, at two
+o'clock, there goes the bell! Heavens, what is that? The Professor wants
+some tea! Wake the servants, light the samovar! Lord, what disorder!
+
+ASTROFF. Will they be here long?
+
+VOITSKI. A hundred years! The Professor has decided to make his home
+here.
+
+MARINA. Look at this now! The samovar has been on the table for two
+hours, and they are all out walking!
+
+VOITSKI. All right, don't get excited; here they come.
+
+Voices are heard approaching. SEREBRAKOFF, HELENA, SONIA, and TELEGIN
+come in from the depths of the garden, returning from their walk.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Superb! Superb! What beautiful views!
+
+TELEGIN. They are wonderful, your Excellency.
+
+SONIA. To-morrow we shall go into the woods, shall we, papa?
+
+VOITSKI. Ladies and gentlemen, tea is ready.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Won't you please be good enough to send my tea into the
+library? I still have some work to finish.
+
+SONIA. I am sure you will love the woods.
+
+HELENA, SEREBRAKOFF, and SONIA go into the house. TELEGIN sits down at
+the table beside MARINA.
+
+VOITSKI. There goes our learned scholar on a hot, sultry day like this,
+in his overcoat and goloshes and carrying an umbrella!
+
+ASTROFF. He is trying to take good care of his health.
+
+VOITSKI. How lovely she is! How lovely! I have never in my life seen a
+more beautiful woman.
+
+TELEGIN. Do you know, Marina, that as I walk in the fields or in
+the shady garden, as I look at this table here, my heart swells with
+unbounded happiness. The weather is enchanting, the birds are singing,
+we are all living in peace and contentment--what more could the soul
+desire? [Takes a glass of tea.]
+
+VOITSKI. [Dreaming] Such eyes--a glorious woman!
+
+ASTROFF. Come, Ivan, tell us something.
+
+VOITSKI. [Indolently] What shall I tell you?
+
+ASTROFF. Haven't you any news for us?
+
+VOITSKI. No, it is all stale. I am just the same as usual, or perhaps
+worse, because I have become lazy. I don't do anything now but croak
+like an old raven. My mother, the old magpie, is still chattering about
+the emancipation of woman, with one eye on her grave and the other on
+her learned books, in which she is always looking for the dawn of a new
+life.
+
+ASTROFF. And the Professor?
+
+VOITSKI. The Professor sits in his library from morning till night, as
+usual--
+
+   "Straining the mind, wrinkling the brow,
+    We write, write, write,
+    Without respite
+    Or hope of praise in the future or now."
+
+Poor paper! He ought to write his autobiography; he would make a
+really splendid subject for a book! Imagine it, the life of a retired
+professor, as stale as a piece of hardtack, tortured by gout, headaches,
+and rheumatism, his liver bursting with jealousy and envy, living on the
+estate of his first wife, although he hates it, because he can't afford
+to live in town. He is everlastingly whining about his hard lot, though,
+as a matter of fact, he is extraordinarily lucky. He is the son of
+a common deacon and has attained the professor's chair, become the
+son-in-law of a senator, is called "your Excellency," and so on. But
+I'll tell you something; the man has been writing on art for twenty-five
+years, and he doesn't know the very first thing about it. For
+twenty-five years he has been chewing on other men's thoughts about
+realism, naturalism, and all such foolishness; for twenty-five years he
+has been reading and writing things that clever men have long known and
+stupid ones are not interested in; for twenty-five years he has been
+making his imaginary mountains out of molehills. And just think of the
+man's self-conceit and presumption all this time! For twenty-five years
+he has been masquerading in false clothes and has now retired absolutely
+unknown to any living soul; and yet see him! stalking across the earth
+like a demi-god!
+
+ASTROFF. I believe you envy him.
+
+VOITSKI. Yes, I do. Look at the success he has had with women! Don Juan
+himself was not more favoured. His first wife, who was my sister, was
+a beautiful, gentle being, as pure as the blue heaven there above us,
+noble, great-hearted, with more admirers than he has pupils, and she
+loved him as only beings of angelic purity can love those who are as
+pure and beautiful as themselves. His mother-in-law, my mother, adores
+him to this day, and he still inspires a sort of worshipful awe in her.
+His second wife is, as you see, a brilliant beauty; she married him in
+his old age and has surrendered all the glory of her beauty and freedom
+to him. Why? What for?
+
+ASTROFF. Is she faithful to him?
+
+VOITSKI. Yes, unfortunately she is.
+
+ASTROFF. Why unfortunately?
+
+VOITSKI. Because such fidelity is false and unnatural, root and branch.
+It sounds well, but there is no logic in it. It is thought immoral for a
+woman to deceive an old husband whom she hates, but quite moral for her
+to strangle her poor youth in her breast and banish every vital desire
+from her heart.
+
+TELEGIN. [In a tearful voice] Vanya, I don't like to hear you talk so.
+Listen, Vanya; every one who betrays husband or wife is faithless, and
+could also betray his country.
+
+VOITSKI. [Crossly] Turn off the tap, Waffles.
+
+TELEGIN. No, allow me, Vanya. My wife ran away with a lover on the day
+after our wedding, because my exterior was unprepossessing. I have never
+failed in my duty since then. I love her and am true to her to this day.
+I help her all I can and have given my fortune to educate the daughter
+of herself and her lover. I have forfeited my happiness, but I have kept
+my pride. And she? Her youth has fled, her beauty has faded according to
+the laws of nature, and her lover is dead. What has she kept?
+
+HELENA and SONIA come in; after them comes MME. VOITSKAYA carrying a
+book. She sits down and begins to read. Some one hands her a glass of
+tea which she drinks without looking up.
+
+SONIA. [Hurriedly, to the nurse] There are some peasants waiting out
+there. Go and see what they want. I shall pour the tea. [Pours out some
+glasses of tea.]
+
+MARINA goes out. HELENA takes a glass and sits drinking in the hammock.
+
+ASTROFF. I have come to see your husband. You wrote me that he had
+rheumatism and I know not what else, and that he was very ill, but he
+appears to be as lively as a cricket.
+
+HELENA. He had a fit of the blues yesterday evening and complained of
+pains in his legs, but he seems all right again to-day.
+
+ASTROFF. And I galloped over here twenty miles at break-neck speed! No
+matter, though, it is not the first time. Once here, however, I am going
+to stay until to-morrow, and at any rate sleep _quantum satis._
+
+SONIA. Oh, splendid! You so seldom spend the night with us. Have you had
+dinner yet?
+
+ASTROFF. No.
+
+SONIA. Good. So you will have it with us. We dine at seven now. [Drinks
+her tea] This tea is cold!
+
+TELEGIN. Yes, the samovar has grown cold.
+
+HELENA. Don't mind, Monsieur Ivan, we will drink cold tea, then.
+
+TELEGIN. I beg your pardon, my name is not Ivan, but Ilia, ma'am--Ilia
+Telegin, or Waffles, as I am sometimes called on account of my
+pock-marked face. I am Sonia's godfather, and his Excellency, your
+husband, knows me very well. I now live with you, ma'am, on this estate,
+and perhaps you will be so good as to notice that I dine with you every
+day.
+
+SONIA. He is our great help, our right-hand man. [Tenderly] Dear
+godfather, let me pour you some tea.
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. Oh! Oh!
+
+SONIA. What is it, grandmother?
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. I forgot to tell Alexander--I have lost my memory--I
+received a letter to-day from Paul Alexevitch in Kharkoff. He has sent
+me a new pamphlet.
+
+ASTROFF. Is it interesting?
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. Yes, but strange. He refutes the very theories which he
+defended seven years ago. It is appalling!
+
+VOITSKI. There is nothing appalling about it. Drink your tea, mamma.
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. It seems you never want to listen to what I have to say.
+Pardon me, Jean, but you have changed so in the last year that I
+hardly know you. You used to be a man of settled convictions and had an
+illuminating personality----
+
+VOITSKI. Oh, yes. I had an illuminating personality, which illuminated
+no one. [A pause] I had an illuminating personality! You couldn't say
+anything more biting. I am forty-seven years old. Until last year I
+endeavoured, as you do now, to blind my eyes by your pedantry to the
+truths of life. But now--Oh, if you only knew! If you knew how I lie
+awake at night, heartsick and angry, to think how stupidly I have wasted
+my time when I might have been winning from life everything which my old
+age now forbids.
+
+SONIA. Uncle Vanya, how dreary!
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. [To her son] You speak as if your former convictions
+were somehow to blame, but you yourself, not they, were at fault. You
+have forgotten that a conviction, in itself, is nothing but a dead
+letter. You should have done something.
+
+VOITSKI. Done something! Not every man is capable of being a writer
+_perpetuum mobile_ like your Herr Professor.
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. What do you mean by that?
+
+SONIA. [Imploringly] Mother! Uncle Vanya! I entreat you!
+
+VOITSKI. I am silent. I apologise and am silent. [A pause.]
+
+HELENA. What a fine day! Not too hot. [A pause.]
+
+VOITSKI. A fine day to hang oneself.
+
+TELEGIN tunes the guitar. MARINA appears near the house, calling the
+chickens.
+
+MARINA. Chick, chick, chick!
+
+SONIA. What did the peasants want, nurse?
+
+MARINA. The same old thing, the same old nonsense. Chick, chick, chick!
+
+SONIA. Why are you calling the chickens?
+
+MARINA. The speckled hen has disappeared with her chicks. I am afraid
+the crows have got her.
+
+TELEGIN plays a polka. All listen in silence. Enter WORKMAN.
+
+WORKMAN. Is the doctor here? [To ASTROFF] Excuse me, sir, but I have
+been sent to fetch you.
+
+ASTROFF. Where are you from?
+
+WORKMAN. The factory.
+
+ASTROFF. [Annoyed] Thank you. There is nothing for it, then, but to go.
+[Looking around him for his cap] Damn it, this is annoying!
+
+SONIA. Yes, it is too bad, really. You must come back to dinner from the
+factory.
+
+ASTROFF. No, I won't be able to do that. It will be too late. Now where,
+where--[To the WORKMAN] Look here, my man, get me a glass of vodka, will
+you? [The WORKMAN goes out] Where--where--[Finds his cap] One of the
+characters in Ostroff's plays is a man with a long moustache and short
+wits, like me. However, let me bid you good-bye, ladies and gentlemen.
+[To HELENA] I should be really delighted if you would come to see me
+some day with Miss Sonia. My estate is small, but if you are interested
+in such things I should like to show you a nursery and seed-bed whose
+like you will not find within a thousand miles of here. My place is
+surrounded by government forests. The forester is old and always ailing,
+so I superintend almost all the work myself.
+
+HELENA. I have always heard that you were very fond of the woods. Of
+course one can do a great deal of good by helping to preserve them, but
+does not that work interfere with your real calling?
+
+ASTROFF. God alone knows what a man's real calling is.
+
+HELENA. And do you find it interesting?
+
+ASTROFF. Yes, very.
+
+VOITSKI. [Sarcastically] Oh, extremely!
+
+HELENA. You are still young, not over thirty-six or seven, I should say,
+and I suspect that the woods do not interest you as much as you say they
+do. I should think you would find them monotonous.
+
+SONIA. No, the work is thrilling. Dr. Astroff watches over the old woods
+and sets out new plantations every year, and he has already received a
+diploma and a bronze medal. If you will listen to what he can tell you,
+you will agree with him entirely. He says that forests are the ornaments
+of the earth, that they teach mankind to understand beauty and attune
+his mind to lofty sentiments. Forests temper a stern climate, and in
+countries where the climate is milder, less strength is wasted in the
+battle with nature, and the people are kind and gentle. The inhabitants
+of such countries are handsome, tractable, sensitive, graceful in speech
+and gesture. Their philosophy is joyous, art and science blossom among
+them, their treatment of women is full of exquisite nobility----
+
+VOITSKI. [Laughing] Bravo! Bravo! All that is very pretty, but it is
+also unconvincing. So, my friend [To ASTROFF] you must let me go on
+burning firewood in my stoves and building my sheds of planks.
+
+ASTROFF. You can burn peat in your stoves and build your sheds of stone.
+Oh, I don't object, of course, to cutting wood from necessity, but why
+destroy the forests? The woods of Russia are trembling under the blows
+of the axe. Millions of trees have perished. The homes of the wild
+animals and birds have been desolated; the rivers are shrinking, and
+many beautiful landscapes are gone forever. And why? Because men are too
+lazy and stupid to stoop down and pick up their fuel from the ground.
+[To HELENA] Am I not right, Madame? Who but a stupid barbarian could
+burn so much beauty in his stove and destroy that which he cannot make?
+Man is endowed with reason and the power to create, so that he may
+increase that which has been given him, but until now he has not
+created, but demolished. The forests are disappearing, the rivers are
+running dry, the game is exterminated, the climate is spoiled, and the
+earth becomes poorer and uglier every day. [To VOITSKI] I read irony in
+your eye; you do not take what I am saying seriously, and--and--after
+all, it may very well be nonsense. But when I pass peasant-forests
+that I have preserved from the axe, or hear the rustling of the young
+plantations set out with my own hands, I feel as if I had had some small
+share in improving the climate, and that if mankind is happy a thousand
+years from now I will have been a little bit responsible for their
+happiness. When I plant a little birch tree and then see it budding
+into young green and swaying in the wind, my heart swells with pride and
+I--[Sees the WORKMAN, who is bringing him a glass of vodka on a tray]
+however--[He drinks] I must be off. Probably it is all nonsense, anyway.
+Good-bye.
+
+He goes toward the house. SONIA takes his arm and goes with him.
+
+SONIA. When are you coming to see us again?
+
+ASTROFF. I can't say.
+
+SONIA. In a month?
+
+ASTROFF and SONIA go into the house. HELENA and VOITSKI walk over to the
+terrace.
+
+HELENA. You have behaved shockingly again. Ivan, what sense was there
+in teasing your mother and talking about _perpetuum mobile?_ And at
+breakfast you quarreled with Alexander again. Really, your behaviour is
+too petty.
+
+VOITSKI. But if I hate him?
+
+HELENA. You hate Alexander without reason; he is like every one else,
+and no worse than you are.
+
+VOITSKI. If you could only see your face, your gestures! Oh, how tedious
+your life must be.
+
+HELENA. It is tedious, yes, and dreary! You all abuse my husband and
+look on me with compassion; you think, "Poor woman, she is married to
+an old man." How well I understand your compassion! As Astroff said just
+now, see how you thoughtlessly destroy the forests, so that there will
+soon be none left. So you also destroy mankind, and soon fidelity and
+purity and self-sacrifice will have vanished with the woods. Why cannot
+you look calmly at a woman unless she is yours? Because, the doctor
+was right, you are all possessed by a devil of destruction; you have no
+mercy on the woods or the birds or on women or on one another.
+
+VOITSKI. I don't like your philosophy.
+
+HELENA. That doctor has a sensitive, weary face--an interesting face.
+Sonia evidently likes him, and she is in love with him, and I can
+understand it. This is the third time he has been here since I have
+come, and I have not had a real talk with him yet or made much of him.
+He thinks I am disagreeable. Do you know, Ivan, the reason you and I are
+such friends? I think it is because we are both lonely and unfortunate.
+Yes, unfortunate. Don't look at me in that way, I don't like it.
+
+VOITSKI. How can I look at you otherwise when I love you? You are my
+joy, my life, and my youth. I know that my chances of being loved in
+return are infinitely small, do not exist, but I ask nothing of you.
+Only let me look at you, listen to your voice--
+
+HELENA. Hush, some one will overhear you.
+
+[They go toward the house.]
+
+VOITSKI. [Following her] Let me speak to you of my love, do not drive me
+away, and this alone will be my greatest happiness!
+
+HELENA. Ah! This is agony!
+
+TELEGIN strikes the strings of his guitar and plays a polka. MME.
+VOITSKAYA writes something on the leaves of her pamphlet.
+
+The curtain falls.
+
+
+
+
+ACT II
+
+The dining-room of SEREBRAKOFF'S house. It is night. The tapping of the
+WATCHMAN'S rattle is heard in the garden. SEREBRAKOFF is dozing in an
+arm-chair by an open window and HELENA is sitting beside him, also half
+asleep.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [Rousing himself] Who is here? Is it you, Sonia?
+
+HELENA. It is I.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Oh, it is you, Nelly. This pain is intolerable.
+
+HELENA. Your shawl has slipped down. [She wraps up his legs in the
+shawl] Let me shut the window.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. No, leave it open; I am suffocating. I dreamt just now that
+my left leg belonged to some one else, and it hurt so that I woke. I
+don't believe this is gout, it is more like rheumatism. What time is it?
+
+HELENA. Half past twelve. [A pause.]
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. I want you to look for Batushka's works in the library
+to-morrow. I think we have him.
+
+HELENA. What is that?
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Look for Batushka to-morrow morning; we used to have him, I
+remember. Why do I find it so hard to breathe?
+
+HELENA. You are tired; this is the second night you have had no sleep.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. They say that Turgenieff got angina of the heart from gout.
+I am afraid I am getting angina too. Oh, damn this horrible, accursed
+old age! Ever since I have been old I have been hateful to myself, and I
+am sure, hateful to you all as well.
+
+HELENA. You speak as if we were to blame for your being old.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. I am more hateful to you than to any one.
+
+HELENA gets up and walks away from him, sitting down at a distance.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. You are quite right, of course. I am not an idiot; I can
+understand you. You are young and healthy and beautiful, and longing for
+life, and I am an old dotard, almost a dead man already. Don't I know
+it? Of course I see that it is foolish for me to live so long, but wait!
+I shall soon set you all free. My life cannot drag on much longer.
+
+HELENA. You are overtaxing my powers of endurance. Be quiet, for God's
+sake!
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. It appears that, thanks to me, everybody's power of
+endurance is being overtaxed; everybody is miserable, only I am
+blissfully triumphant. Oh, yes, of course!
+
+HELENA. Be quiet! You are torturing me.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. I torture everybody. Of course.
+
+HELENA. [Weeping] This is unbearable! Tell me, what is it you want me to
+do?
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Nothing.
+
+HELENA. Then be quiet, please.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. It is funny that everybody listens to Ivan and his old
+idiot of a mother, but the moment I open my lips you all begin to feel
+ill-treated. You can't even stand the sound of my voice. Even if I am
+hateful, even if I am a selfish tyrant, haven't I the right to be one
+at my age? Haven't I deserved it? Haven't I, I ask you, the right to be
+respected, now that I am old?
+
+HELENA. No one is disputing your rights. [The window slams in the wind]
+The wind is rising, I must shut the window. [She shuts it] We shall have
+rain in a moment. Your rights have never been questioned by anybody.
+
+The WATCHMAN in the garden sounds his rattle.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. I have spent my life working in the interests of learning.
+I am used to my library and the lecture hall and to the esteem and
+admiration of my colleagues. Now I suddenly find myself plunged in this
+wilderness, condemned to see the same stupid people from morning till
+night and listen to their futile conversation. I want to live; I long
+for success and fame and the stir of the world, and here I am in exile!
+Oh, it is dreadful to spend every moment grieving for the lost past, to
+see the success of others and sit here with nothing to do but to fear
+death. I cannot stand it! It is more than I can bear. And you will not
+even forgive me for being old!
+
+HELENA. Wait, have patience; I shall be old myself in four or five
+years.
+
+SONIA comes in.
+
+SONIA. Father, you sent for Dr. Astroff, and now when he comes you
+refuse to see him. It is not nice to give a man so much trouble for
+nothing.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. What do I care about your Astroff? He understands medicine
+about as well as I understand astronomy.
+
+SONIA. We can't send for the whole medical faculty, can we, to treat
+your gout?
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. I won't talk to that madman!
+
+SONIA. Do as you please. It's all the same to me. [She sits down.]
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. What time is it?
+
+HELENA. One o'clock.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. It is stifling in here. Sonia, hand me that bottle on the
+table.
+
+SONIA. Here it is. [She hands him a bottle of medicine.]
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [Crossly] No, not that one! Can't you understand me? Can't
+I ask you to do a thing?
+
+SONIA. Please don't be captious with me. Some people may like it, but
+you must spare me, if you please, because I don't. Besides, I haven't
+the time; we are cutting the hay to-morrow and I must get up early.
+
+VOITSKI comes in dressed in a long gown and carrying a candle.
+
+VOITSKI. A thunderstorm is coming up. [The lightning flashes] There it
+is! Go to bed, Helena and Sonia. I have come to take your place.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [Frightened] No, n-o, no! Don't leave me alone with him!
+Oh, don't. He will begin to lecture me.
+
+VOITSKI. But you must give them a little rest. They have not slept for
+two nights.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Then let them go to bed, but you go away too! Thank you. I
+implore you to go. For the sake of our former friendship do not protest
+against going. We will talk some other time----
+
+VOITSKI. Our former friendship! Our former----
+
+SONIA. Hush, Uncle Vanya!
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [To his wife] My darling, don't leave me alone with him. He
+will begin to lecture me.
+
+VOITSKI. This is ridiculous.
+
+MARINA comes in carrying a candle.
+
+SONIA. You must go to bed, nurse, it is late.
+
+MARINA. I haven't cleared away the tea things. Can't go to bed yet.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. No one can go to bed. They are all worn out, only I enjoy
+perfect happiness.
+
+MARINA. [Goes up to SEREBRAKOFF and speaks tenderly] What's the
+matter, master? Does it hurt? My own legs are aching too, oh, so badly.
+[Arranges his shawl about his legs] You have had this illness such a
+long time. Sonia's dead mother used to stay awake with you too, and wear
+herself out for you. She loved you dearly. [A pause] Old people want to
+be pitied as much as young ones, but nobody cares about them somehow.
+[She kisses SEREBRAKOFF'S shoulder] Come, master, let me give you some
+linden-tea and warm your poor feet for you. I shall pray to God for you.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [Touched] Let us go, Marina.
+
+MARINA. My own feet are aching so badly, oh, so badly! [She and SONIA
+lead SEREBRAKOFF out] Sonia's mother used to wear herself out with
+sorrow and weeping. You were still little and foolish then, Sonia. Come,
+come, master.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF, SONIA and MARINA go out.
+
+HELENA. I am absolutely exhausted by him, and can hardly stand.
+
+VOITSKI. You are exhausted by him, and I am exhausted by my own self. I
+have not slept for three nights.
+
+HELENA. Something is wrong in this house. Your mother hates everything
+but her pamphlets and the professor; the professor is vexed, he won't
+trust me, and fears you; Sonia is angry with her father, and with me,
+and hasn't spoken to me for two weeks; I am at the end of my strength,
+and have come near bursting into tears at least twenty times to-day.
+Something is wrong in this house.
+
+VOITSKI. Leave speculating alone.
+
+HELENA. You are cultured and intelligent, Ivan, and you surely
+understand that the world is not destroyed by villains and
+conflagrations, but by hate and malice and all this spiteful tattling.
+It is your duty to make peace, and not to growl at everything.
+
+VOITSKI. Help me first to make peace with myself. My darling! [Seizes
+her hand.]
+
+HELENA. Let go! [She drags her hand away] Go away!
+
+VOITSKI. Soon the rain will be over, and all nature will sigh and awake
+refreshed. Only I am not refreshed by the storm. Day and night the
+thought haunts me like a fiend, that my life is lost for ever. My past
+does not count, because I frittered it away on trifles, and the present
+has so terribly miscarried! What shall I do with my life and my love?
+What is to become of them? This wonderful feeling of mine will be wasted
+and lost as a ray of sunlight is lost that falls into a dark chasm, and
+my life will go with it.
+
+HELENA. I am as it were benumbed when you speak to me of your love, and
+I don't know how to answer you. Forgive me, I have nothing to say to
+you. [She tries to go out] Good-night!
+
+VOITSKI. [Barring the way] If you only knew how I am tortured by the
+thought that beside me in this house is another life that is being lost
+forever--it is yours! What are you waiting for? What accursed philosophy
+stands in your way? Oh, understand, understand----
+
+HELENA. [Looking at him intently] Ivan, you are drunk!
+
+VOITSKI. Perhaps. Perhaps.
+
+HELENA. Where is the doctor?
+
+VOITSKI. In there, spending the night with me. Perhaps I am drunk,
+perhaps I am; nothing is impossible.
+
+HELENA. Have you just been drinking together? Why do you do that?
+
+VOITSKI. Because in that way I get a taste of life. Let me do it,
+Helena!
+
+HELENA. You never used to drink, and you never used to talk so much. Go
+to bed, I am tired of you.
+
+VOITSKI. [Falling on his knees before her] My sweetheart, my beautiful
+one----
+
+HELENA. [Angrily] Leave me alone! Really, this has become too
+disagreeable.
+
+HELENA goes out. A pause.
+
+VOITSKI [Alone] She is gone! I met her first ten years ago, at her
+sister's house, when she was seventeen and I was thirty-seven. Why did I
+not fall in love with her then and propose to her? It would have been so
+easy! And now she would have been my wife. Yes, we would both have been
+waked to-night by the thunderstorm, and she would have been frightened,
+but I would have held her in my arms and whispered: "Don't be afraid!
+I am here." Oh, enchanting dream, so sweet that I laugh to think of it.
+[He laughs] But my God! My head reels! Why am I so old? Why won't
+she understand me? I hate all that rhetoric of hers, that morality of
+indolence, that absurd talk about the destruction of the world----[A
+pause] Oh, how I have been deceived! For years I have worshipped that
+miserable gout-ridden professor. Sonia and I have squeezed this estate
+dry for his sake. We have bartered our butter and curds and peas like
+misers, and have never kept a morsel for ourselves, so that we could
+scrape enough pennies together to send to him. I was proud of him and
+of his learning; I received all his words and writings as inspired, and
+now? Now he has retired, and what is the total of his life? A blank! He
+is absolutely unknown, and his fame has burst like a soap-bubble. I have
+been deceived; I see that now, basely deceived.
+
+ASTROFF comes in. He has his coat on, but is without his waistcoat or
+collar, and is slightly drunk. TELEGIN follows him, carrying a guitar.
+
+ASTROFF. Play!
+
+TELEGIN. But every one is asleep.
+
+ASTROFF. Play!
+
+TELEGIN begins to play softly.
+
+ASTROFF. Are you alone here? No women about? [Sings with his arms
+akimbo.]
+
+   "The hut is cold, the fire is dead;
+    Where shall the master lay his head?"
+
+The thunderstorm woke me. It was a heavy shower. What time is it?
+
+VOITSKI. The devil only knows.
+
+ASTROFF. I thought I heard Helena's voice.
+
+VOITSKI. She was here a moment ago.
+
+ASTROFF. What a beautiful woman! [Looking at the medicine bottles on
+the table] Medicine, is it? What a variety we have; prescriptions from
+Moscow, from Kharkoff, from Tula! Why, he has been pestering all the
+towns of Russia with his gout! Is he ill, or simply shamming?
+
+VOITSKI. He is really ill.
+
+ASTROFF. What is the matter with you to-night? You seem sad. Is it
+because you are sorry for the professor?
+
+VOITSKI. Leave me alone.
+
+ASTROFF. Or in love with the professor's wife?
+
+VOITSKI. She is my friend.
+
+ASTROFF. Already?
+
+VOITSKI. What do you mean by "already"?
+
+ASTROFF. A woman can only become a man's friend after having first been
+his acquaintance and then his beloved--then she becomes his friend.
+
+VOITSKI. What vulgar philosophy!
+
+ASTROFF. What do you mean? Yes, I must confess I am getting vulgar, but
+then, you see, I am drunk. I usually only drink like this once a month.
+At such times my audacity and temerity know no bounds. I feel capable
+of anything. I attempt the most difficult operations and do them
+magnificently. The most brilliant plans for the future take shape in
+my head. I am no longer a poor fool of a doctor, but mankind's greatest
+benefactor. I evolve my own system of philosophy and all of you seem to
+crawl at my feet like so many insects or microbes. [To TELEGIN] Play,
+Waffles!
+
+TELEGIN. My dear boy, I would with all my heart, but do listen to
+reason; everybody in the house is asleep.
+
+ASTROFF. Play!
+
+TELEGIN plays softly.
+
+ASTROFF. I want a drink. Come, we still have some brandy left. And then,
+as soon as it is day, you will come home with me. [He sees SONIA, who
+comes in at that moment.]
+
+ASTROFF. I beg your pardon, I have no collar on.
+
+[He goes out quickly, followed by TELEGIN.]
+
+SONIA. Uncle Vanya, you and the doctor have been drinking! The good
+fellows have been getting together! It is all very well for him, he has
+always done it, but why do you follow his example? It looks dreadfully
+at your age.
+
+VOITSKI. Age has nothing to do with it. When real life is wanting one
+must create an illusion. It is better than nothing.
+
+SONIA. Our hay is all cut and rotting in these daily rains, and here you
+are busy creating illusions! You have given up the farm altogether.
+I have done all the work alone until I am at the end of my
+strength--[Frightened] Uncle! Your eyes are full of tears!
+
+VOITSKI. Tears? Nonsense, there are no tears in my eyes. You looked at
+me then just as your dead mother used to, my darling--[He eagerly kisses
+her face and hands] My sister, my dearest sister, where are you now? Ah,
+if you only knew, if you only knew!
+
+SONIA. If she only knew what, Uncle?
+
+VOITSKI. My heart is bursting. It is awful. No matter, though. I must
+go. [He goes out.]
+
+SONIA. [Knocks at the door] Dr. Astroff! Are you awake? Please come here
+for a minute.
+
+ASTROFF. [Behind the door] In a moment.
+
+He appears in a few seconds. He has put on his collar and waistcoat.
+
+ASTROFF. What do you want?
+
+SONIA. Drink as much as you please yourself if you don't find it
+revolting, but I implore you not to let my uncle do it. It is bad for
+him.
+
+ASTROFF. Very well; we won't drink any more. I am going home at once.
+That is settled. It will be dawn by the time the horses are harnessed.
+
+SONIA. It is still raining; wait till morning.
+
+ASTROFF. The storm is blowing over. This is only the edge of it. I must
+go. And please don't ask me to come and see your father any more. I tell
+him he has gout, and he says it is rheumatism. I tell him to lie down,
+and he sits up. To-day he refused to see me at all.
+
+SONIA. He has been spoilt. [She looks in the sideboard] Won't you have a
+bite to eat?
+
+ASTROFF. Yes, please. I believe I will.
+
+SONIA. I love to eat at night. I am sure we shall find something in
+here. They say that he has made a great many conquests in his life, and
+that the women have spoiled him. Here is some cheese for you.
+
+[They stand eating by the sideboard.]
+
+ASTROFF. I haven't eaten anything to-day. Your father has a very
+difficult nature. [He takes a bottle out of the sideboard] May I? [He
+pours himself a glass of vodka] We are alone here, and I can speak
+frankly. Do you know, I could not stand living in this house for even a
+month? This atmosphere would stifle me. There is your father, entirely
+absorbed in his books, and his gout; there is your Uncle Vanya with his
+hypochondria, your grandmother, and finally, your step-mother--
+
+SONIA. What about her?
+
+ASTROFF. A human being should be entirely beautiful: the face, the
+clothes, the mind, the thoughts. Your step-mother is, of course,
+beautiful to look at, but don't you see? She does nothing but sleep
+and eat and walk and bewitch us, and that is all. She has no
+responsibilities, everything is done for her--am I not right? And an
+idle life can never be a pure one. [A pause] However, I may be judging
+her too severely. Like your Uncle Vanya, I am discontented, and so we
+are both grumblers.
+
+SONIA. Aren't you satisfied with life?
+
+ASTROFF. I like life as life, but I hate and despise it in a little
+Russian country village, and as far as my own personal life goes, by
+heaven! there is absolutely no redeeming feature about it. Haven't you
+noticed if you are riding through a dark wood at night and see a little
+light shining ahead, how you forget your fatigue and the darkness and
+the sharp twigs that whip your face? I work, that you know--as no one
+else in the country works. Fate beats me on without rest; at times I
+suffer unendurably and I see no light ahead. I have no hope; I do not
+like people. It is long since I have loved any one.
+
+SONIA. You love no one?
+
+ASTROFF. Not a soul. I only feel a sort of tenderness for your old nurse
+for old-times' sake. The peasants are all alike; they are stupid and
+live in dirt, and the educated people are hard to get along with. One
+gets tired of them. All our good friends are petty and shallow and see
+no farther than their own noses; in one word, they are dull. Those that
+have brains are hysterical, devoured with a mania for self-analysis.
+They whine, they hate, they pick faults everywhere with unhealthy
+sharpness. They sneak up to me sideways, look at me out of a corner of
+the eye, and say: "That man is a lunatic," "That man is a wind-bag." Or,
+if they don't know what else to label me with, they say I am strange. I
+like the woods; that is strange. I don't eat meat; that is strange, too.
+Simple, natural relations between man and man or man and nature do not
+exist. [He tries to go out; SONIA prevents him.]
+
+SONIA. I beg you, I implore you, not to drink any more!
+
+ASTROFF. Why not?
+
+SONIA. It is so unworthy of you. You are well-bred, your voice is sweet,
+you are even--more than any one I know--handsome. Why do you want to
+resemble the common people that drink and play cards? Oh, don't, I beg
+you! You always say that people do not create anything, but only destroy
+what heaven has given them. Why, oh, why, do you destroy yourself? Oh,
+don't, I implore you not to! I entreat you!
+
+ASTROFF. [Gives her his hand] I won't drink any more.
+
+SONIA. Promise me.
+
+ASTROFF. I give you my word of honour.
+
+SONIA. [Squeezing his hand] Thank you.
+
+ASTROFF. I have done with it. You see, I am perfectly sober again, and
+so I shall stay till the end of my life. [He looks his watch] But, as
+I was saying, life holds nothing for me; my race is run. I am old, I
+am tired, I am trivial; my sensibilities are dead. I could never attach
+myself to any one again. I love no one, and never shall! Beauty alone
+has the power to touch me still. I am deeply moved by it. Helena could
+turn my head in a day if she wanted to, but that is not love, that is
+not affection--
+
+[He shudders and covers his face with his hands.]
+
+SONIA. What is it?
+
+ASTROFF. Nothing. During Lent one of my patients died under chloroform.
+
+SONIA. It is time to forget that. [A pause] Tell me, doctor, if I had a
+friend or a younger sister, and if you knew that she, well--loved you,
+what would you do?
+
+ASTROFF. [Shrugging his shoulders] I don't know. I don't think I should
+do anything. I should make her understand that I could not return her
+love--however, my mind is not bothered about those things now. I must
+start at once if I am ever to get off. Good-bye, my dear girl. At this
+rate we shall stand here talking till morning. [He shakes hands with
+her] I shall go out through the sitting-room, because I am afraid your
+uncle might detain me. [He goes out.]
+
+SONIA. [Alone] Not a word! His heart and soul are still locked from me,
+and yet for some reason I am strangely happy. I wonder why? [She laughs
+with pleasure] I told him that he was well-bred and handsome and that
+his voice was sweet. Was that a mistake? I can still feel his voice
+vibrating in the air; it caresses me. [Wringing her hands] Oh! how
+terrible it is to be plain! I am plain, I know it. As I came out of
+church last Sunday I overheard a woman say, "She is a dear, noble girl,
+but what a pity she is so ugly!" So ugly!
+
+HELENA comes in and throws open the window.
+
+HELENA. The storm is over. What delicious air! [A pause] Where is the
+doctor?
+
+SONIA. He has gone. [A pause.]
+
+HELENA. Sonia!
+
+SONIA. Yes?
+
+HELENA. How much longer are you going to sulk at me? We have not hurt
+each other. Why not be friends? We have had enough of this.
+
+SONIA. I myself--[She embraces HELENA] Let us make peace.
+
+HELENA. With all my heart. [They are both moved.]
+
+SONIA. Has papa gone to bed?
+
+HELENA. No, he is sitting up in the drawing-room. Heaven knows what
+reason you and I had for not speaking to each other for weeks. [Sees the
+open sideboard] Who left the sideboard open?
+
+SONIA. Dr. Astroff has just had supper.
+
+HELENA. There is some wine. Let us seal our friendship.
+
+SONIA. Yes, let us.
+
+HELENA. Out of one glass. [She fills a wine-glass] So, we are friends,
+are we?
+
+SONIA. Yes. [They drink and kiss each other] I have long wanted to make
+friends, but somehow, I was ashamed to. [She weeps.]
+
+HELENA. Why are you crying?
+
+SONIA. I don't know. It is nothing.
+
+HELENA. There, there, don't cry. [She weeps] Silly! Now I am crying
+too. [A pause] You are angry with me because I seem to have married your
+father for his money, but don't believe the gossip you hear. I swear to
+you I married him for love. I was fascinated by his fame and learning. I
+know now that it was not real love, but it seemed real at the time. I
+am innocent, and yet your clever, suspicious eyes have been punishing me
+for an imaginary crime ever since my marriage.
+
+SONIA. Peace, peace! Let us forget the past.
+
+HELENA. You must not look so at people. It is not becoming to you. You
+must trust people, or life becomes impossible.
+
+SONIA. Tell me truly, as a friend, are you happy?
+
+HELENA. Truly, no.
+
+SONIA. I knew it. One more question: do you wish your husband were
+young?
+
+HELENA. What a child you are! Of course I do. Go on, ask something else.
+
+SONIA. Do you like the doctor?
+
+HELENA. Yes, very much indeed.
+
+SONIA. [Laughing] I have a stupid face, haven't I? He has just gone out,
+and his voice is still in my ears; I hear his step; I see his face in
+the dark window. Let me say all I have in my heart! But no, I cannot
+speak of it so loudly. I am ashamed. Come to my room and let me tell you
+there. I seem foolish to you, don't I? Talk to me of him.
+
+HELENA. What can I say?
+
+SONIA. He is clever. He can do everything. He can cure the sick, and
+plant woods.
+
+HELENA. It is not a question of medicine and woods, my dear, he is a man
+of genius. Do you know what that means? It means he is brave, profound,
+and of clear insight. He plants a tree and his mind travels a thousand
+years into the future, and he sees visions of the happiness of the human
+race. People like him are rare and should be loved. What if he does
+drink and act roughly at times? A man of genius cannot be a saint in
+Russia. There he lives, cut off from the world by cold and storm and
+endless roads of bottomless mud, surrounded by a rough people who are
+crushed by poverty and disease, his life one continuous struggle, with
+never a day's respite; how can a man live like that for forty years and
+keep himself sober and unspotted? [Kissing SONIA] I wish you happiness
+with all my heart; you deserve it. [She gets up] As for me, I am a
+worthless, futile woman. I have always been futile; in music, in love,
+in my husband's house--in a word, in everything. When you come to think
+of it, Sonia, I am really very, very unhappy. [Walks excitedly up and
+down] Happiness can never exist for me in this world. Never. Why do you
+laugh?
+
+SONIA. [Laughing and covering her face with her hands] I am so happy, so
+happy!
+
+HELENA. I want to hear music. I might play a little.
+
+SONIA. Oh, do, do! [She embraces her] I could not possibly go to sleep
+now. Do play!
+
+HELENA. Yes, I will. Your father is still awake. Music irritates him
+when he is ill, but if he says I may, then I shall play a little. Go,
+Sonia, and ask him.
+
+SONIA. Very well.
+
+[She goes out. The WATCHMAN'S rattle is heard in the garden.]
+
+HELENA. It is long since I have heard music. And now, I shall sit and
+play, and weep like a fool. [Speaking out of the window] Is that you
+rattling out there, Ephim?
+
+VOICE OF THE WATCHMAN. It is I.
+
+HELENA. Don't make such a noise. Your master is ill.
+
+VOICE OF THE WATCHMAN. I am going away this minute. [Whistles a tune.]
+
+SONIA. [Comes back] He says, no.
+
+The curtain falls.
+
+
+
+
+ACT III
+
+The drawing-room of SEREBRAKOFF'S house. There are three doors: one to
+the right, one to the left, and one in the centre of the room. VOITSKI
+and SONIA are sitting down. HELENA is walking up and down, absorbed in
+thought.
+
+VOITSKI. We were asked by the professor to be here at one o'clock.
+[Looks at his watch] It is now a quarter to one. It seems he has some
+communication to make to the world.
+
+HELENA. Probably a matter of business.
+
+VOITSKI. He never had any business. He writes twaddle, grumbles, and
+eats his heart out with jealousy; that's all he does.
+
+SONIA. [Reproachfully] Uncle!
+
+VOITSKI. All right. I beg your pardon. [He points to HELENA] Look at
+her. Wandering up and down from sheer idleness. A sweet picture, really.
+
+HELENA. I wonder you are not bored, droning on in the same key from
+morning till night. [Despairingly] I am dying of this tedium. What shall
+I do?
+
+SONIA. [Shrugging her shoulders] There is plenty to do if you would.
+
+HELENA. For instance?
+
+SONIA. You could help run this place, teach the children, care for the
+sick--isn't that enough? Before you and papa came, Uncle Vanya and I
+used to go to market ourselves to deal in flour.
+
+HELENA. I don't know anything about such things, and besides, they don't
+interest me. It is only in novels that women go out and teach and heal
+the peasants; how can I suddenly begin to do it?
+
+SONIA. How can you live here and not do it? Wait awhile, you will get
+used to it all. [Embraces her] Don't be sad, dearest. [Laughing] You
+feel miserable and restless, and can't seem to fit into this life, and
+your restlessness is catching. Look at Uncle Vanya, he does nothing now
+but haunt you like a shadow, and I have left my work to-day to come here
+and talk with you. I am getting lazy, and don't want to go on with it.
+Dr. Astroff hardly ever used to come here; it was all we could do to
+persuade him to visit us once a month, and now he has abandoned his
+forestry and his practice, and comes every day. You must be a witch.
+
+VOITSKI. Why should you languish here? Come, my dearest, my beauty, be
+sensible! The blood of a Nixey runs in your veins. Oh, won't you let
+yourself be one? Give your nature the reins for once in your life; fall
+head over ears in love with some other water sprite and plunge down head
+first into a deep pool, so that the Herr Professor and all of us may
+have our hands free again.
+
+HELENA. [Angrily] Leave me alone! How cruel you are! [She tries to go
+out.]
+
+VOITSKI. [Preventing her] There, there, my beauty, I apologise. [He
+kisses her hand] Forgive me.
+
+HELENA. Confess that you would try the patience of an angel.
+
+VOITSKI. As a peace offering I am going to fetch some flowers which I
+picked for you this morning: some autumn roses, beautiful, sorrowful
+roses. [He goes out.]
+
+SONIA. Autumn roses, beautiful, sorrowful roses!
+
+[She and HELENA stand looking out of the window.]
+
+HELENA. September already! How shall we live through the long winter
+here? [A pause] Where is the doctor?
+
+SONIA. He is writing in Uncle Vanya's room. I am glad Uncle Vanya has
+gone out, I want to talk to you about something.
+
+HELENA. About what?
+
+SONIA. About what?
+
+[She lays her head on HELENA'S breast.]
+
+HELENA. [Stroking her hair] There, there, that will do. Don't, Sonia.
+
+SONIA. I am ugly!
+
+HELENA. You have lovely hair.
+
+SONIA. Don't say that! [She turns to look at herself in the glass] No,
+when a woman is ugly they always say she has beautiful hair or eyes. I
+have loved him now for six years, I have loved him more than one loves
+one's mother. I seem to hear him beside me every moment of the day. I
+feel the pressure of his hand on mine. If I look up, I seem to see him
+coming, and as you see, I run to you to talk of him. He is here every
+day now, but he never looks at me, he does not notice my presence. It
+is agony. I have absolutely no hope, no, no hope. Oh, my God! Give me
+strength to endure. I prayed all last night. I often go up to him and
+speak to him and look into his eyes. My pride is gone. I am not mistress
+of myself. Yesterday I told Uncle Vanya I couldn't control myself, and
+all the servants know it. Every one knows that I love him.
+
+HELENA. Does he?
+
+SONIA. No, he never notices me.
+
+HELENA. [Thoughtfully] He is a strange man. Listen, Sonia, will you
+allow me to speak to him? I shall be careful, only hint. [A pause]
+Really, to be in uncertainty all these years! Let me do it!
+
+SONIA nods an affirmative.
+
+HELENA. Splendid! It will be easy to find out whether he loves you or
+not. Don't be ashamed, sweetheart, don't worry. I shall be careful; he
+will not notice a thing. We only want to find out whether it is yes or
+no, don't we? [A pause] And if it is no, then he must keep away from
+here, is that so?
+
+SONIA nods.
+
+HELENA. It will be easier not to see him any more. We won't put off the
+examination an instant. He said he had a sketch to show me. Go and tell
+him at once that I want to see him.
+
+SONIA. [In great excitement] Will you tell me the whole truth?
+
+HELENA. Of course I will. I am sure that no matter what it is, it will
+be easier for you to bear than this uncertainty. Trust to me, dearest.
+
+SONIA. Yes, yes. I shall say that you want to see his sketch. [She
+starts out, but stops near the door and looks back] No, it is better not
+to know--and yet--there may be hope.
+
+HELENA. What do you say?
+
+SONIA. Nothing. [She goes out.]
+
+HELENA. [Alone] There is no greater sorrow than to know another's secret
+when you cannot help them. [In deep thought] He is obviously not in love
+with her, but why shouldn't he marry her? She is not pretty, but she
+is so clever and pure and good, she would make a splendid wife for a
+country doctor of his years. [A pause] I can understand how the poor
+child feels. She lives here in this desperate loneliness with no one
+around her except these colourless shadows that go mooning about talking
+nonsense and knowing nothing except that they eat, drink, and sleep.
+Among them appears from time to time this Dr. Astroff, so different, so
+handsome, so interesting, so charming. It is like seeing the moon
+rise on a dark night. Oh, to surrender oneself to his embrace! To lose
+oneself in his arms! I am a little in love with him myself! Yes, I am
+lonely without him, and when I think of him I smile. That Uncle Vanya
+says I have the blood of a Nixey in my veins: "Give rein to your nature
+for once in your life!" Perhaps it is right that I should. Oh, to be
+free as a bird, to fly away from all your sleepy faces and your talk and
+forget that you have existed at all! But I am a coward, I am afraid; my
+conscience torments me. He comes here every day now. I can guess why,
+and feel guilty already; I should like to fall on my knees at Sonia's
+feet and beg her forgiveness, and weep.
+
+ASTROFF comes in carrying a portfolio.
+
+ASTROFF. How do you do? [Shakes hands with her] Do you want to see my
+sketch?
+
+HELENA. Yes, you promised to show me what you had been doing. Have you
+time now?
+
+ASTROFF. Of course I have!
+
+He lays the portfolio on the table, takes out the sketch and fastens it
+to the table with thumb-tacks.
+
+ASTROFF. Where were you born?
+
+HELENA. [Helping him] In St. Petersburg.
+
+ASTROFF. And educated?
+
+HELENA. At the Conservatory there.
+
+ASTROFF. You don't find this life very interesting, I dare say?
+
+HELENA. Oh, why not? It is true I don't know the country very well, but
+I have read a great deal about it.
+
+ASTROFF. I have my own desk there in Ivan's room. When I am absolutely
+too exhausted to go on I drop everything and rush over here to forget
+myself in this work for an hour or two. Ivan and Miss Sonia sit rattling
+at their counting-boards, the cricket chirps, and I sit beside them and
+paint, feeling warm and peaceful. But I don't permit myself this luxury
+very often, only once a month. [Pointing to the picture] Look there!
+That is a map of our country as it was fifty years ago. The green tints,
+both dark and light, represent forests. Half the map, as you see, is
+covered with it. Where the green is striped with red the forests were
+inhabited by elk and wild goats. Here on this lake, lived great flocks
+of swans and geese and ducks; as the old men say, there was a power of
+birds of every kind. Now they have vanished like a cloud. Beside the
+hamlets and villages, you see, I have dotted down here and there the
+various settlements, farms, hermit's caves, and water-mills. This
+country carried a great many cattle and horses, as you can see by the
+quantity of blue paint. For instance, see how thickly it lies in this
+part; there were great herds of them here, an average of three horses to
+every house. [A pause] Now, look lower down. This is the country as it
+was twenty-five years ago. Only a third of the map is green now with
+forests. There are no goats left and no elk. The blue paint is lighter,
+and so on, and so on. Now we come to the third part; our country as it
+appears to-day. We still see spots of green, but not much. The elk, the
+swans, the black-cock have disappeared. It is, on the whole, the picture
+of a regular and slow decline which it will evidently only take about
+ten or fifteen more years to complete. You may perhaps object that it
+is the march of progress, that the old order must give place to the new,
+and you might be right if roads had been run through these ruined woods,
+or if factories and schools had taken their place. The people then would
+have become better educated and healthier and richer, but as it is, we
+have nothing of the sort. We have the same swamps and mosquitoes;
+the same disease and want; the typhoid, the diphtheria, the burning
+villages. We are confronted by the degradation of our country, brought
+on by the fierce struggle for existence of the human race. It is the
+consequence of the ignorance and unconsciousness of starving, shivering,
+sick humanity that, to save its children, instinctively snatches
+at everything that can warm it and still its hunger. So it destroys
+everything it can lay its hands on, without a thought for the morrow.
+And almost everything has gone, and nothing has been created to take its
+place. [Coldly] But I see by your face that I am not interesting you.
+
+HELENA. I know so little about such things!
+
+ASTROFF. There is nothing to know. It simply isn't interesting, that's
+all.
+
+HELENA. Frankly, my thoughts were elsewhere. Forgive me! I want to
+submit you to a little examination, but I am embarrassed and don't know
+how to begin.
+
+ASTROFF. An examination?
+
+HELENA. Yes, but quite an innocent one. Sit down. [They sit down] It is
+about a certain young girl I know. Let us discuss it like honest people,
+like friends, and then forget what has passed between us, shall we?
+
+ASTROFF. Very well.
+
+HELENA. It is about my step-daughter, Sonia. Do you like her?
+
+ASTROFF. Yes, I respect her.
+
+HELENA. Do you like her--as a woman?
+
+ASTROFF. [Slowly] No.
+
+HELENA. One more word, and that will be the last. You have not noticed
+anything?
+
+ASTROFF. No, nothing.
+
+HELENA. [Taking his hand] You do not love her. I see that in your eyes.
+She is suffering. You must realise that, and not come here any more.
+
+ASTROFF. My sun has set, yes, and then I haven't the time. [Shrugging
+his shoulders] Where shall I find time for such things? [He is
+embarrassed.]
+
+HELENA. Bah! What an unpleasant conversation! I am as out of breath as
+if I had been running three miles uphill. Thank heaven, that is over!
+Now let us forget everything as if nothing had been said. You are
+sensible. You understand. [A pause] I am actually blushing.
+
+ASTROFF. If you had spoken a month ago I might perhaps have
+considered it, but now--[He shrugs his shoulders] Of course, if she is
+suffering--but I cannot understand why you had to put me through this
+examination. [He searches her face with his eyes, and shakes his finger
+at her] Oho, you are wily!
+
+HELENA. What does this mean?
+
+ASTROFF. [Laughing] You are a wily one! I admit that Sonia is suffering,
+but what does this examination of yours mean? [He prevents her from
+retorting, and goes on quickly] Please don't put on such a look of
+surprise; you know perfectly well why I come here every day. Yes, you
+know perfectly why and for whose sake I come! Oh, my sweet tigress!
+don't look at me in that way; I am an old bird!
+
+HELENA. [Perplexed] A tigress? I don't understand you.
+
+ASTROFF. Beautiful, sleek tigress, you must have your victims! For a
+whole month I have done nothing but seek you eagerly. I have thrown over
+everything for you, and you love to see it. Now then, I am sure you knew
+all this without putting me through your examination. [Crossing his arms
+and bowing his head] I surrender. Here you have me--now, eat me.
+
+HELENA. You have gone mad!
+
+ASTROFF. You are afraid!
+
+HELENA. I am a better and stronger woman than you think me. Good-bye.
+[She tries to leave the room.]
+
+ASTROFF. Why good-bye? Don't say good-bye, don't waste words. Oh, how
+lovely you are--what hands! [He kisses her hands.]
+
+HELENA. Enough of this! [She frees her hands] Leave the room! You have
+forgotten yourself.
+
+ASTROFF. Tell me, tell me, where can we meet to-morrow? [He puts his arm
+around her] Don't you see that we must meet, that it is inevitable?
+
+He kisses her. VOITSKI comes in carrying a bunch of roses, and stops in
+the doorway.
+
+HELENA. [Without seeing VOITSKI] Have pity! Leave me, [lays her head on
+ASTROFF'S shoulder] Don't! [She tries to break away from him.]
+
+ASTROFF. [Holding her by the waist] Be in the forest tomorrow at two
+o'clock. Will you? Will you?
+
+HELENA. [Sees VOITSKI] Let me go! [Goes to the window deeply
+embarrassed] This is appalling!
+
+VOITSKI. [Throws the flowers on a chair, and speaks in great excitement,
+wiping his face with his handkerchief] Nothing--yes, yes, nothing.
+
+ASTROFF. The weather is fine to-day, my dear Ivan; the morning was
+overcast and looked like rain, but now the sun is shining again.
+Honestly, we have had a very fine autumn, and the wheat is looking
+fairly well. [Puts his map back into the portfolio] But the days are
+growing short.
+
+HELENA. [Goes quickly up to VOITSKI] You must do your best; you must use
+all your power to get my husband and myself away from here to-day! Do
+you hear? I say, this very day!
+
+VOITSKI. [Wiping his face] Oh! Ah! Oh! All right! I--Helena, I saw
+everything!
+
+HELENA. [In great agitation] Do you hear me? I must leave here this very
+day!
+
+SEREBRAKOFF, SONIA, MARINA, and TELEGIN come in.
+
+TELEGIN. I am not very well myself, your Excellency. I have been limping
+for two days, and my head--
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Where are the others? I hate this house. It is a regular
+labyrinth. Every one is always scattered through the twenty-six enormous
+rooms; one never can find a soul. [Rings] Ask my wife and Madame
+Voitskaya to come here!
+
+HELENA. I am here already.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Please, all of you, sit down.
+
+SONIA. [Goes up to HELENA and asks anxiously] What did he say?
+
+HELENA. I'll tell you later.
+
+SONIA. You are moved. [looking quickly and inquiringly into her face] I
+understand; he said he would not come here any more. [A pause] Tell me,
+did he?
+
+HELENA nods.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [To TELEGIN] One can, after all, become reconciled to being
+an invalid, but not to this country life. The ways of it stick in my
+throat and I feel exactly as if I had been whirled off the earth and
+landed on a strange planet. Please be seated, ladies and gentlemen.
+Sonia! [SONIA does not hear. She is standing with her head bowed sadly
+forward on her breast] Sonia! [A pause] She does not hear me. [To
+MARINA] Sit down too, nurse. [MARINA sits down and begins to knit her
+stocking] I crave your indulgence, ladies and gentlemen; hang your ears,
+if I may say so, on the peg of attention. [He laughs.]
+
+VOITSKI. [Agitated] Perhaps you do not need me--may I be excused?
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. No, you are needed now more than any one.
+
+VOITSKI. What is it you want of me?
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. You--but what are you angry about? If it is anything I have
+done, I ask you to forgive me.
+
+VOITSKI. Oh, drop that and come to business; what do you want?
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA comes in.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Here is mother. Ladies and gentlemen, I shall begin. I
+have asked you to assemble here, my friends, in order to discuss a very
+important matter. I want to ask you for your assistance and advice, and
+knowing your unfailing amiability I think I can count on both. I am a
+book-worm and a scholar, and am unfamiliar with practical affairs. I
+cannot, I find, dispense with the help of well-informed people such as
+you, Ivan, and you, Telegin, and you, mother. The truth is, _manet omnes
+una nox,_ that is to say, our lives are in the hands of God, and as I
+am old and ill, I realise that the time has come for me to dispose of
+my property in regard to the interests of my family. My life is nearly
+over, and I am not thinking of myself, but I have a young wife and
+daughter. [A pause] I cannot continue to live in the country; we were
+not made for country life, and yet we cannot afford to live in town on
+the income derived from this estate. We might sell the woods, but that
+would be an expedient we could not resort to every year. We must find
+some means of guaranteeing to ourselves a certain more or less fixed
+yearly income. With this object in view, a plan has occurred to me which
+I now have the honour of presenting to you for your consideration. I
+shall only give you a rough outline, avoiding all details. Our estate
+does not pay on an average more than two per cent on the money invested
+in it. I propose to sell it. If we then invest our capital in bonds,
+it will earn us four to five per cent, and we should probably have a
+surplus over of several thousand roubles, with which we could buy a
+summer cottage in Finland--
+
+VOITSKI. Hold on! Repeat what you just said; I don't think I heard you
+quite right.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. I said we would invest the money in bonds and buy a cottage
+in Finland with the surplus.
+
+VOITSKI. No, not Finland--you said something else.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. I propose to sell this place.
+
+VOITSKI. Aha! That was it! So you are going to sell the place? Splendid.
+The idea is a rich one. And what do you propose to do with my old mother
+and me and with Sonia here?
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. That will be decided in due time. We can't do everything at
+once.
+
+VOITSKI. Wait! It is clear that until this moment I have never had a
+grain of sense in my head. I have always been stupid enough to think
+that the estate belonged to Sonia. My father bought it as a wedding
+present for my sister, and I foolishly imagined that as our laws were
+made for Russians and not Turks, my sister's estate would come down to
+her child.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Of course it is Sonia's. Has any one denied it? I don't
+want to sell it without Sonia's consent; on the contrary, what I am
+doing is for Sonia's good.
+
+VOITSKI. This is absolutely incomprehensible. Either I have gone mad
+or--or--
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. Jean, don't contradict Alexander. Trust to him; he knows
+better than we do what is right and what is wrong.
+
+VOITSKI. I shan't. Give me some water. [He drinks] Go ahead! Say
+anything you please--anything!
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. I can't imagine why you are so upset. I don't pretend
+that my scheme is an ideal one, and if you all object to it I shall not
+insist. [A pause.]
+
+TELEGIN. [With embarrassment] I not only nourish feelings of respect
+toward learning, your Excellency, but I am also drawn to it by family
+ties. My brother Gregory's wife's brother, whom you may know; his name
+is Constantine Lakedemonoff, and he used to be a magistrate--
+
+VOITSKI. Stop, Waffles. This is business; wait a bit, we will talk of
+that later. [To SEREBRAKOFF] There now, ask him what he thinks; this
+estate was bought from his uncle.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Ah! Why should I ask questions? What good would it do?
+
+VOITSKI. The price was ninety-five thousand roubles. My father paid
+seventy and left a debt of twenty-five. Now listen! This place could
+never have been bought had I not renounced my inheritance in favour of
+my sister, whom I deeply loved--and what is more, I worked for ten years
+like an ox, and paid off the debt.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. I regret ever having started this conversation.
+
+VOITSKI. Thanks entirely to my own personal efforts, the place is
+entirely clear of debts, and now, when I have grown old, you want to
+throw me out, neck and crop!
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. I can't imagine what you are driving at.
+
+VOITSKI. For twenty-five years I have managed this place, and have sent
+you the returns from it like the most honest of servants, and you have
+never given me one single word of thanks for my work, not one--neither
+in my youth nor now. You allowed me a meagre salary of five hundred
+roubles a year, a beggar's pittance, and have never even thought of
+adding a rouble to it.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. What did I know about such things, Ivan? I am not a
+practical man and don't understand them. You might have helped yourself
+to all you wanted.
+
+VOITSKI. Yes, why did I not steal? Don't you all despise me for not
+stealing, when it would have been only justice? And I should not now
+have been a beggar!
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. [Sternly] Jean!
+
+TELEGIN. [Agitated] Vanya, old man, don't talk in that way. Why spoil
+such pleasant relations? [He embraces him] Do stop!
+
+VOITSKI. For twenty-five years I have been sitting here with my mother
+like a mole in a burrow. Our every thought and hope was yours and yours
+only. By day we talked with pride of you and your work, and spoke your
+name with veneration; our nights we wasted reading the books and papers
+which my soul now loathes.
+
+TELEGIN. Don't, Vanya, don't. I can't stand it.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [Wrathfully] What under heaven do you want, anyway?
+
+VOITSKI. We used to think of you as almost superhuman, but now the
+scales have fallen from my eyes and I see you as you are! You write on
+art without knowing anything about it. Those books of yours which I used
+to admire are not worth one copper kopeck. You are a hoax!
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Can't any one make him stop? I am going!
+
+HELENA. Ivan, I command you to stop this instant! Do you hear me?
+
+VOITSKI. I refuse! [SEREBRAKOFF tries to get out of the room, but
+VOITSKI bars the door] Wait! I have not done yet! You have wrecked my
+life. I have never lived. My best years have gone for nothing, have been
+ruined, thanks to you. You are my most bitter enemy!
+
+TELEGIN. I can't stand it; I can't stand it. I am going. [He goes out in
+great excitement.]
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. But what do you want? What earthly right have you to use
+such language to me? Ruination! If this estate is yours, then take it,
+and let me be ruined!
+
+HELENA. I am going away out of this hell this minute. [Shrieks] This is
+too much!
+
+VOITSKI. My life has been a failure. I am clever and brave and strong.
+If I had lived a normal life I might have become another Schopenhauer
+or Dostoieffski. I am losing my head! I am going crazy! Mother, I am in
+despair! Oh, mother!
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. [Sternly] Listen, Alexander!
+
+SONIA falls on her knees beside the nurse and nestles against her.
+
+SONIA. Oh, nurse, nurse!
+
+VOITSKI. Mother! What shall I do? But no, don't speak! I know what to
+do. [To SEREBRAKOFF] And you will understand me!
+
+He goes out through the door in the centre of the room and MME.
+VOITSKAYA follows him.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Tell me, what on earth is the matter? Take this lunatic out
+of my sight! I cannot possibly live under the same roof with him. His
+room [He points to the centre door] is almost next door to mine. Let him
+take himself off into the village or into the wing of the house, or I
+shall leave here at once. I cannot stay in the same house with him.
+
+HELENA. [To her husband] We are leaving to-day; we must get ready at
+once for our departure.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. What a perfectly dreadful man!
+
+SONIA. [On her knees beside the nurse and turning to her father. She
+speaks with emotion] You must be kind to us, papa. Uncle Vanya and I
+are so unhappy! [Controlling her despair] Have pity on us. Remember how
+Uncle Vanya and Granny used to copy and translate your books for you
+every night--every, every night. Uncle Vanya has toiled without rest;
+he would never spend a penny on us, we sent it all to you. We have not
+eaten the bread of idleness. I am not saying this as I should like to,
+but you must understand us, papa, you must be merciful to us.
+
+HELENA. [Very excited, to her husband] For heaven's sake, Alexander, go
+and have a talk with him--explain!
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. Very well, I shall have a talk with him, but I won't
+apologise for a thing. I am not angry with him, but you must confess
+that his behaviour has been strange, to say the least. Excuse me, I
+shall go to him.
+
+[He goes out through the centre door.]
+
+HELENA. Be gentle with him; try to quiet him. [She follows him out.]
+
+SONIA. [Nestling nearer to MARINA] Nurse, oh, nurse!
+
+MARINA. It's all right, my baby. When the geese have cackled they will
+be still again. First they cackle and then they stop.
+
+SONIA. Nurse!
+
+MARINA. You are trembling all over, as if you were freezing. There,
+there, little orphan baby, God is merciful. A little linden-tea, and it
+will all pass away. Don't cry, my sweetest. [Looking angrily at the door
+in the centre of the room] See, the geese have all gone now. The devil
+take them!
+
+A shot is heard. HELENA screams behind the scenes. SONIA shudders.
+
+MARINA. Bang! What's that?
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [Comes in reeling with terror] Hold him! hold him! He has
+gone mad!
+
+HELENA and VOITSKI are seen struggling in the doorway.
+
+HELENA. [Trying to wrest the revolver from him] Give it to me; give it
+to me, I tell you!
+
+VOITSKI. Let me go, Helena, let me go! [He frees himself and rushes in,
+looking everywhere for SEREBRAKOFF] Where is he? Ah, there he is! [He
+shoots at him. A pause] I didn't get him? I missed again? [Furiously]
+Damnation! Damnation! To hell with him!
+
+He flings the revolver on the floor, and drops helpless into a chair.
+SEREBRAKOFF stands as if stupefied. HELENA leans against the wall,
+almost fainting.
+
+HELENA. Take me away! Take me away! I can't stay here--I can't!
+
+VOITSKI. [In despair] Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?
+
+SONIA. [Softly] Oh, nurse, nurse!
+
+The curtain falls.
+
+
+
+
+ACT IV
+
+VOITSKI'S bedroom, which is also his office. A table stands near
+the window; on it are ledgers, letter scales, and papers of every
+description. Near by stands a smaller table belonging to ASTROFF, with
+his paints and drawing materials. On the wall hangs a cage containing a
+starling. There is also a map of Africa on the wall, obviously of no use
+to anybody. There is a large sofa covered with buckram. A door to the
+left leads into an inner room; one to the right leads into the front
+hall, and before this door lies a mat for the peasants with their muddy
+boots to stand on. It is an autumn evening. The silence is profound.
+TELEGIN and MARINA are sitting facing one another, winding wool.
+
+TELEGIN. Be quick, Marina, or we shall be called away to say good-bye
+before you have finished. The carriage has already been ordered.
+
+MARINA. [Trying to wind more quickly] I am a little tired.
+
+TELEGIN. They are going to Kharkoff to live.
+
+MARINA. They do well to go.
+
+TELEGIN. They have been frightened. The professor's wife won't stay here
+an hour longer. "If we are going at all, let's be off," says she, "we
+shall go to Kharkoff and look about us, and then we can send for our
+things." They are travelling light. It seems, Marina, that fate has
+decreed for them not to live here.
+
+MARINA. And quite rightly. What a storm they have just raised! It was
+shameful!
+
+TELEGIN. It was indeed. The scene was worthy of the brush of Aibazofski.
+
+MARINA. I wish I'd never laid eyes on them. [A pause] Now we shall have
+things as they were again: tea at eight, dinner at one, and supper in
+the evening; everything in order as decent folks, as Christians like to
+have it. [Sighs] It is a long time since I have eaten noodles.
+
+TELEGIN. Yes, we haven't had noodles for ages. [A pause] Not for ages.
+As I was going through the village this morning, Marina, one of the
+shop-keepers called after me, "Hi! you hanger-on!" I felt it bitterly.
+
+MARINA. Don't pay the least attention to them, master; we are all
+dependents on God. You and Sonia and all of us. Every one must work, no
+one can sit idle. Where is Sonia?
+
+TELEGIN. In the garden with the doctor, looking for Ivan. They fear he
+may lay violent hands on himself.
+
+MARINA. Where is his pistol?
+
+TELEGIN. [Whispers] I hid it in the cellar.
+
+VOITSKI and ASTROFF come in.
+
+VOITSKI. Leave me alone! [To MARINA and TELEGIN] Go away! Go away and
+leave me to myself, if but for an hour. I won't have you watching me
+like this!
+
+TELEGIN. Yes, yes, Vanya. [He goes out on tiptoe.]
+
+MARINA. The gander cackles; ho! ho! ho!
+
+[She gathers up her wool and goes out.]
+
+VOITSKI. Leave me by myself!
+
+ASTROFF. I would, with the greatest pleasure. I ought to have gone long
+ago, but I shan't leave you until you have returned what you took from
+me.
+
+VOITSKI. I took nothing from you.
+
+ASTROFF. I am not jesting, don't detain me, I really must go.
+
+VOITSKI. I took nothing of yours.
+
+ASTROFF. You didn't? Very well, I shall have to wait a little longer,
+and then you will have to forgive me if I resort to force. We shall have
+to bind you and search you. I mean what I say.
+
+VOITSKI. Do as you please. [A pause] Oh, to make such a fool of myself!
+To shoot twice and miss him both times! I shall never forgive myself.
+
+ASTROFF. When the impulse came to shoot, it would have been as well had
+you put a bullet through your own head.
+
+VOITSKI. [Shrugging his shoulders] Strange! I attempted murder, and am
+not going to be arrested or brought to trial. That means they think
+me mad. [With a bitter laugh] Me! I am mad, and those who hide their
+worthlessness, their dullness, their crying heartlessness behind a
+professor's mask, are sane! Those who marry old men and then deceive
+them under the noses of all, are sane! I saw you kiss her; I saw you in
+each other's arms!
+
+ASTROFF. Yes, sir, I did kiss her; so there. [He puts his thumb to his
+nose.]
+
+VOITSKI. [His eyes on the door] No, it is the earth that is mad, because
+she still bears us on her breast.
+
+ASTROFF. That is nonsense.
+
+VOITSKI. Well? Am I not a madman, and therefore irresponsible? Haven't I
+the right to talk nonsense?
+
+ASTROFF. This is a farce! You are not mad; you are simply a ridiculous
+fool. I used to think every fool was out of his senses, but now I
+see that lack of sense is a man's normal state, and you are perfectly
+normal.
+
+VOITSKI. [Covers his face with his hands] Oh! If you knew how ashamed
+I am! These piercing pangs of shame are like nothing on earth. [In an
+agonised voice] I can't endure them! [He leans against the table] What
+can I do? What can I do?
+
+ASTROFF. Nothing.
+
+VOITSKI. You must tell me something! Oh, my God! I am forty-seven years
+old. I may live to sixty; I still have thirteen years before me; an
+eternity! How shall I be able to endure life for thirteen years?
+What shall I do? How can I fill them? Oh, don't you see? [He presses
+ASTROFF'S hand convulsively] Don't you see, if only I could live the
+rest of my life in some new way! If I could only wake some still, bright
+morning and feel that life had begun again; that the past was forgotten
+and had vanished like smoke. [He weeps] Oh, to begin life anew! Tell me,
+tell me how to begin.
+
+ASTROFF. [Crossly] What nonsense! What sort of a new life can you and I
+look forward to? We can have no hope.
+
+VOITSKI. None?
+
+ASTROFF. None. Of that I am convinced.
+
+VOITSKI. Tell me what to do. [He puts his hand to his heart] I feel such
+a burning pain here.
+
+ASTROFF. [Shouts angrily] Stop! [Then, more gently] It may be that
+posterity, which will despise us for our blind and stupid lives, will
+find some road to happiness; but we--you and I--have but one hope, the
+hope that we may be visited by visions, perhaps by pleasant ones, as we
+lie resting in our graves. [Sighing] Yes, brother, there were only two
+respectable, intelligent men in this county, you and I. Ten years or so
+of this life of ours, this miserable life, have sucked us under, and we
+have become as contemptible and petty as the rest. But don't try to talk
+me out of my purpose! Give me what you took from me, will you?
+
+VOITSKI. I took nothing from you.
+
+ASTROFF. You took a little bottle of morphine out of my medicine-case.
+[A pause] Listen! If you are positively determined to make an end
+to yourself, go into the woods and shoot yourself there. Give up the
+morphine, or there will be a lot of talk and guesswork; people will
+think I gave it to you. I don't fancy having to perform a post-mortem on
+you. Do you think I should find it interesting?
+
+SONIA comes in.
+
+VOITSKI. Leave me alone.
+
+ASTROFF. [To SONIA] Sonia, your uncle has stolen a bottle of morphine
+out of my medicine-case and won't give it up. Tell him that his
+behaviour is--well, unwise. I haven't time, I must be going.
+
+SONIA. Uncle Vanya, did you take the morphine?
+
+ASTROFF. Yes, he took it. [A pause] I am absolutely sure.
+
+SONIA. Give it up! Why do you want to frighten us? [Tenderly] Give it
+up, Uncle Vanya! My misfortune is perhaps even greater than yours, but I
+am not plunged in despair. I endure my sorrow, and shall endure it until
+my life comes to a natural end. You must endure yours, too. [A pause]
+Give it up! Dear, darling Uncle Vanya. Give it up! [She weeps] You are
+so good, I am sure you will have pity on us and give it up. You must
+endure your sorrow, Uncle Vanya; you must endure it.
+
+VOITSKI takes a bottle from the drawer of the table and hands it to
+ASTROFF.
+
+VOITSKI. There it is! [To SONIA] And now, we must get to work at once;
+we must do something, or else I shall not be able to endure it.
+
+SONIA. Yes, yes, to work! As soon as we have seen them off we shall
+go to work. [She nervously straightens out the papers on the table]
+Everything is in a muddle!
+
+ASTROFF. [Putting the bottle in his case, which he straps together] Now
+I can be off.
+
+HELENA comes in.
+
+HELENA. Are you here, Ivan? We are starting in a moment. Go to
+Alexander, he wants to speak to you.
+
+SONIA. Go, Uncle Vanya. [She takes VOITSKI 'S arm] Come, you and papa
+must make peace; that is absolutely necessary.
+
+SONIA and VOITSKI go out.
+
+HELENA. I am going away. [She gives ASTROFF her hand] Good-bye.
+
+ASTROFF. So soon?
+
+HELENA. The carriage is waiting.
+
+ASTROFF. Good-bye.
+
+HELENA. You promised me you would go away yourself to-day.
+
+ASTROFF. I have not forgotten. I am going at once. [A pause] Were you
+frightened? Was it so terrible?
+
+HELENA. Yes.
+
+ASTROFF. Couldn't you stay? Couldn't you? To-morrow--in the forest--
+
+HELENA. No. It is all settled, and that is why I can look you so bravely
+in the face. Our departure is fixed. One thing I must ask of you: don't
+think too badly of me; I should like you to respect me.
+
+ASTROFF. Ah! [With an impatient gesture] Stay, I implore you! Confess
+that there is nothing for you to do in this world. You have no object
+in life; there is nothing to occupy your attention, and sooner or later
+your feelings must master you. It is inevitable. It would be better if
+it happened not in Kharkoff or in Kursk, but here, in nature's lap.
+It would then at least be poetical, even beautiful. Here you have the
+forests, the houses half in ruins that Turgenieff writes of.
+
+HELENA. How comical you are! I am angry with you and yet I shall always
+remember you with pleasure. You are interesting and original. You and
+I will never meet again, and so I shall tell you--why should I conceal
+it?--that I am just a little in love with you. Come, one more last
+pressure of our hands, and then let us part good friends. Let us not
+bear each other any ill will.
+
+ASTROFF. [Pressing her hand] Yes, go. [Thoughtfully] You seem to be
+sincere and good, and yet there is something strangely disquieting about
+all your personality. No sooner did you arrive here with your husband
+than every one whom you found busy and actively creating something was
+forced to drop his work and give himself up for the whole summer to
+your husband's gout and yourself. You and he have infected us with your
+idleness. I have been swept off my feet; I have not put my hand to
+a thing for weeks, during which sickness has been running its course
+unchecked among the people, and the peasants have been pasturing their
+cattle in my woods and young plantations. Go where you will, you and
+your husband will always carry destruction in your train. I am joking of
+course, and yet I am strangely sure that had you stayed here we should
+have been overtaken by the most immense desolation. I would have gone
+to my ruin, and you--you would not have prospered. So go! E finita la
+comedia!
+
+HELENA. [Snatching a pencil off ASTROFF'S table, and hiding it with a
+quick movement] I shall take this pencil for memory!
+
+ASTROFF. How strange it is. We meet, and then suddenly it seems that
+we must part forever. That is the way in this world. As long as we are
+alone, before Uncle Vanya comes in with a bouquet--allow me--to kiss you
+good-bye--may I? [He kisses her on the cheek] So! Splendid!
+
+HELENA. I wish you every happiness. [She glances about her] For once
+in my life, I shall! and scorn the consequences! [She kisses him
+impetuously, and they quickly part] I must go.
+
+ASTROFF. Yes, go. If the carriage is there, then start at once. [They
+stand listening.]
+
+ASTROFF. E finita!
+
+VOITSKI, SEREBRAKOFF, MME. VOITSKAYA with her book, TELEGIN, and SONIA
+come in.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [To VOITSKI] Shame on him who bears malice for the past. I
+have gone through so much in the last few hours that I feel capable of
+writing a whole treatise on the conduct of life for the instruction
+of posterity. I gladly accept your apology, and myself ask your
+forgiveness. [He kisses VOITSKI three times.]
+
+HELENA embraces SONIA.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [Kissing MME. VOITSKAYA'S hand] Mother!
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. [Kissing him] Have your picture taken, Alexander, and
+send me one. You know how dear you are to me.
+
+TELEGIN. Good-bye, your Excellency. Don't forget us.
+
+SEREBRAKOFF. [Kissing his daughter] Good-bye, good-bye all. [Shaking
+hands with ASTROFF] Many thanks for your pleasant company. I have a deep
+regard for your opinions and your enthusiasm, but let me, as an old man,
+give one word of advice at parting: do something, my friend! Work! Do
+something! [They all bow] Good luck to you all. [He goes out followed by
+MME. VOITSKAYA and SONIA.]
+
+VOITSKI [Kissing HELENA'S hand fervently] Good-bye--forgive me. I shall
+never see you again!
+
+HELENA. [Touched] Good-bye, dear boy.
+
+She lightly kisses his head as he bends over her hand, and goes out.
+
+ASTROFF. Tell them to bring my carriage around too, Waffles.
+
+TELEGIN. All right, old man.
+
+ASTROFF and VOITSKI are left behind alone. ASTROFF collects his paints
+and drawing materials on the table and packs them away in a box.
+
+ASTROFF. Why don't you go to see them off?
+
+VOITSKI. Let them go! I--I can't go out there. I feel too sad. I must go
+to work on something at once. To work! To work!
+
+He rummages through his papers on the table. A pause. The tinkling of
+bells is heard as the horses trot away.
+
+ASTROFF. They have gone! The professor, I suppose, is glad to go. He
+couldn't be tempted back now by a fortune.
+
+MARINA comes in.
+
+MARINA. They have gone. [She sits down in an arm-chair and knits her
+stocking.]
+
+SONIA comes in wiping her eyes.
+
+SONIA. They have gone. God be with them. [To her uncle] And now, Uncle
+Vanya, let us do something!
+
+VOITSKI. To work! To work!
+
+SONIA. It is long, long, since you and I have sat together at this
+table. [She lights a lamp on the table] No ink! [She takes the inkstand
+to the cupboard and fills it from an ink-bottle] How sad it is to see
+them go!
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA comes slowly in.
+
+MME. VOITSKAYA. They have gone.
+
+She sits down and at once becomes absorbed in her book. SONIA sits down
+at the table and looks through an account book.
+
+SONIA. First, Uncle Vanya, let us write up the accounts. They are in a
+dreadful state. Come, begin. You take one and I will take the other.
+
+VOITSKI. In account with [They sit silently writing.]
+
+MARINA. [Yawning] The sand-man has come.
+
+ASTROFF. How still it is. Their pens scratch, the cricket sings; it is
+so warm and comfortable. I hate to go. [The tinkling of bells is heard.]
+
+ASTROFF. My carriage has come. There now remains but to say good-bye to
+you, my friends, and to my table here, and then--away! [He puts the map
+into the portfolio.]
+
+MARINA. Don't hurry away; sit a little longer with us.
+
+ASTROFF. Impossible.
+
+VOITSKI. [Writing] And carry forward from the old debt two
+seventy-five--
+
+WORKMAN comes in.
+
+WORKMAN. Your carriage is waiting, sir.
+
+ASTROFF. All right. [He hands the WORKMAN his medicine-case, portfolio,
+and box] Look out, don't crush the portfolio!
+
+WORKMAN. Very well, sir.
+
+SONIA. When shall we see you again?
+
+ASTROFF. Hardly before next summer. Probably not this winter, though, of
+course, if anything should happen you will let me know. [He shakes
+hands with them] Thank you for your kindness, for your hospitality, for
+everything! [He goes up to MARINA and kisses her head] Good-bye, old
+nurse!
+
+MARINA. Are you going without your tea?
+
+ASTROFF. I don't want any, nurse.
+
+MARINA. Won't you have a drop of vodka?
+
+ASTROFF. [Hesitatingly] Yes, I might.
+
+MARINA goes out.
+
+ASTROFF. [After a pause] My off-wheeler has gone lame for some reason. I
+noticed it yesterday when Peter was taking him to water.
+
+VOITSKI. You should have him re-shod.
+
+ASTROFF. I shall have to go around by the blacksmith's on my way home.
+It can't be avoided. [He stands looking up at the map of Africa hanging
+on the wall] I suppose it is roasting hot in Africa now.
+
+VOITSKI. Yes, I suppose it is.
+
+MARINA comes back carrying a tray on which are a glass of vodka and a
+piece of bread.
+
+MARINA. Help yourself.
+
+ASTROFF drinks
+
+MARINA. To your good health! [She bows deeply] Eat your bread with it.
+
+ASTROFF. No, I like it so. And now, good-bye. [To MARINA] You needn't
+come out to see me off, nurse.
+
+He goes out. SONIA follows him with a candle to light him to the
+carriage. MARINA sits down in her armchair.
+
+VOITSKI. [Writing] On the 2d of February, twenty pounds of butter; on
+the 16th, twenty pounds of butter again. Buckwheat flour--[A pause.
+Bells are heard tinkling.]
+
+MARINA. He has gone. [A pause.]
+
+SONIA comes in and sets the candle stick on the table.
+
+SONIA. He has gone.
+
+VOITSKI. [Adding and writing] Total, fifteen--twenty-five--
+
+SONIA sits down and begins to write.
+
+[Yawning] Oh, ho! The Lord have mercy.
+
+TELEGIN comes in on tiptoe, sits down near the door, and begins to tune
+his guitar.
+
+VOITSKI. [To SONIA, stroking her hair] Oh, my child, I am miserable; if
+you only knew how miserable I am!
+
+SONIA. What can we do? We must live our lives. [A pause] Yes, we shall
+live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live through the long procession of days
+before us, and through the long evenings; we shall patiently bear the
+trials that fate imposes on us; we shall work for others without rest,
+both now and when we are old; and when our last hour comes we shall
+meet it humbly, and there, beyond the grave, we shall say that we have
+suffered and wept, that our life was bitter, and God will have pity on
+us. Ah, then dear, dear Uncle, we shall see that bright and beautiful
+life; we shall rejoice and look back upon our sorrow here; a tender
+smile--and--we shall rest. I have faith, Uncle, fervent, passionate
+faith. [SONIA kneels down before her uncle and lays her head on his
+hands. She speaks in a weary voice] We shall rest. [TELEGIN plays softly
+on the guitar] We shall rest. We shall hear the angels. We shall see
+heaven shining like a jewel. We shall see all evil and all our pain sink
+away in the great compassion that shall enfold the world. Our life will
+be as peaceful and tender and sweet as a caress. I have faith; I have
+faith. [She wipes away her tears] My poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you are
+crying! [Weeping] You have never known what happiness was, but wait,
+Uncle Vanya, wait! We shall rest. [She embraces him] We shall rest. [The
+WATCHMAN'S rattle is heard in the garden; TELEGIN plays softly; MME.
+VOITSKAYA writes something on the margin of her pamphlet; MARINA knits
+her stocking] We shall rest.
+
+The curtain slowly falls.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncle Vanya, by Anton Checkov
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