SHABELSKI.Paul,give me some money.I will repay you in the next world.I would go to Paris and see my wife's grave.I have given away a great deal of money in my life,half my fortune indeed,and I have a right to ask for some now.Besides,I am asking a friend LEBEDIEFF.[Embarrassed]My dear boy,I haven't a penny.All right though.That is to say,I can't promise anything,but you understand--very well,very well.[Aside]This is agony!
Enter MARTHA.
MARTHA.Where is my partner?Count,how dare you leave me alone?
You are horrid![She taps SHABELSKI on the arm with her fan]
SHABELSKI.[Impatiently]Leave me alone!I can't abide you!
MARTHA.[Frightened]How?What?
SHABELSKI.Go away!
MARTHA.[Sinks into an arm-chair]Oh!Oh!Oh![She bursts into tears.]
Enter ZINAIDA crying.
ZINAIDA.Some one has just arrived;it must be one of the ushers.
It is time for the ceremony to begin.
SASHA.[Imploringly]Mother!
LEBEDIEFF.Well,now you are all bawling.What a quartette!Come,come,don't let us have any more of this dampness!Matthew!
Martha!If you go on like this,I--I--shall cry too.[Bursts into tears]Heavens!
ZINAIDA.If you don't need your mother any more,if you are determined not to obey her,I shall have to do as you want,and you have my blessing.
Enter IVANOFF,dressed in a long coat,with gloves on.
LEBEDIEFF This is the finishing touch!What do you want?
SHABELSKI.Why are you here?
IVANOFF.I beg your pardon,you must allow me to speak to Sasha alone.
LEBEDIEFF.The bridegroom must not come to see the bride before the wedding.It is time for you to go to the church.
IVANOFF.Paul,I implore you.
LEBEDIEFF shrugs his shoulders.LEBEDIEFF,ZINAIDA,SHABELSKI,and MARTHA go out.
SASHA.[Sternly]What do you want?
IVANOFF.I am choking with anger;I cannot speak calmly.Listen to me;as I was dressing just now for the wedding,I looked in the glass and saw how grey my temples were.Sasha,this must not be!Let us end this senseless comedy before it is too late.You are young and pure;you have all your life before you,but I--SASHA.The same old story;I have heard it a thousand times and Iam tired of it.Go quickly to the church and don't keep everybody waiting!
IVANOFF.I shall go straight home,and you must explain to your family somehow that there is to be no wedding.Explain it as you please.It is time we came to our senses.I have been playing the part of Hamlet and you have been playing the part of a noble and devoted girl.We have kept up the farce long enough.
SASHA.[Losing her temper]How can you speak to me like this?Iwon't have it.
IVANOFF.But I am speaking,and will continue to speak.
SASHA.What do you mean by coming to me like this?Your melancholy has become absolutely ridiculous!
IVANOFF.No,this is not melancholy.It is ridiculous,is it?
Yes,I am laughing,and if it were possible for me to laugh at myself a thousand times more bitterly I should do so and set the whole world laughing,too,in derision.A fierce light has suddenly broken over my soul;as I looked into the glass just now,I laughed at myself,and nearly went mad with shame.[He laughs]Melancholy indeed!Noble grief!Uncontrollable sorrow!It only remains for me now to begin to write verses!Shall I mope and complain,sadden everybody I meet,confess that my manhood has gone forever,that I have decayed,outlived my purpose,that I have given myself up to cowardice and am bound hand and foot by this loathsome melancholy?Shall I confess all this when the sun is shining so brightly and when even the ants are carrying their little burdens in peaceful self-content?No,thanks.Can I endure the knowledge that one will look upon me as a fraud,while another pities me,a third lends me a helping hand,or worst of all,a fourth listens reverently to my sighs,looks upon me as a new Mahomet,and expects me to expound a new religion every moment?No,thank God for the pride and conscience he has left me still.On my way here I laughed at myself,and it seemed to me that the flowers and birds were laughing mockingly too.
SASHA.This is not anger,but madness!
IVANOFF.You think so,do you?No,I am not mad.I see things in their right light now,and my mind is as clear as your conscience.We love each other,but we shall never be married.It makes no difference how I rave and grow bitter by myself,but Ihave no right to drag another down with me.My melancholy robbed my wife of the last year of her life.Since you have been engaged to me you have forgotten how to laugh and have aged five years.
Your father,to whom life was always simple and clear,thanks to me,is now unable to understand anybody.Wherever I go,whether hunting or visiting,it makes no difference,I carry depression,dulness,and discontent along with me.Wait!Don't interrupt me!
I am bitter and harsh,I know,but I am stifled with rage.Icannot speak otherwise.I have never lied,and I never used to find fault with my lot,but since I have begun to complain of everything,I find fault with it involuntarily,and against my will.When I murmur at my fate every one who hears me is seized with the same disgust of life and begins to grumble too.And what a strange way I have of looking at things!Exactly as if I were doing the world a favour by living in it.Oh,I am contemptible.
SASHA.Wait a moment.From what you have just said,it is obvious that you are tired of your melancholy mood,and that the time has come for you to begin life afresh.How splendid!
IVANOFF.I don't see anything splendid about it.How can I lead a new life?I am lost forever.It is time we both understood that.
A new life indeed!
SASHA.Nicholas,come to your senses.How can you say you are lost?What do you mean by such cynicism?No,I won't listen to you or talk with you.Go to the church!
IVANOFF.I am lost!
SASHA.Don't talk so loud;our guests will hear you!