Turgenev’s gout has developed into angina pectoris. I am afraid that this will happen in my case, too. Cursed, loathsome old age! Curse it! Since I’ve grown old I’ve become disgusting to myself. And to all of you I must present a disgusting spectacle.
ELENA ANDREYEVNA: You speak of your old age in such a tone as if we all were to blame for your growing old.
SEREBRYAKOV: You are the first to be disgusted by me.
ELENA ANDREYEVNA: How stupid of you!
(Moving away and sitting down at some distance.)
SEREBRYAKOV: Of course, you’re right. I’m not a fool and quite understand. You’re young, healthy, handsome, you’re eager for life; and I am an old man, almost a corpse. Well? Don’t I real-ze it all? And, of course, it is foolish of me to be still alive., But wait a little while, I’ll free you all soon.
ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Alexander, it’s crushing me! If I deserve any reward for the sleepless nights, I ask only this from you: be quiet! For the love of Christ, be quiet! I ask for nothing else.
SEREBRYAKOV: It comes to this then, that, thanks to me, all of you have become crushed, and are bored and wasting your youth; and I am the only one who is enjoying life and is content. Just so, of course!
ELENA ANDREYEVNA ‘. Be quiet! You’ve worn me out!
SEREBRYAKOV: I have worn out everyone. Of course!
ELENA ANDREYEVNA (crying): It’s unbearable! Tell me what you want from me.
SEREBRYAKOV: Nothing.
ELENA ANDREYEVNA Be quiet, then, I beg.
SEREBRYAKOV: Isn’t it curious, if George or that old idiot Marie Vassilievna starts speaking, it seems all right; everybody listens to them. But if I say a single word, everybody begins to feel distressed. Even my voice is disgusting. Well, let us suppose I am disgusting, I am an egotist, I am a despot; but indeed haven’t I, even in my old age, a certain right to egotism? Haven’t I indeed deserved it? My life has been hard. I and Orlovsky were undergraduates together. Ask him. He had a good time and went about with gipsy women; he was my benefactor; and I at that time lived in a cheap, dirty room. I worked day and night, like an ox. I starved and worried because I lived at someone else’s expense. Then I went to Heidelberg University, but I saw nothing of Heidelberg; I went to Paris, but I saw nothing of Paris — all the time I sat within four walls and worked. And since I became professor, and all through my life, I have served science, as they say, with faith and truth, as I am still serving her. Indeed, for all this, I ask you, have I not the right to a peaceful old age, to some consideration from people?
ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Nobody disputes your right. (The window is rattling in the wind.) The wind is getting up; I’ll shut the window. (Shutting it.) It’s going to rain presently, … Nobody disputes your rights.
(A pause. Outside the night watchman knocks and sings a song.)
SEREBRYAKOV: To work all one’s life long for science, to get accustomed to one’s study, to one’s audience, to respected colleagues, and then all of a sudden, without rhyme or reason, to find oneself in this sepulchre, to have to see stupid people, day in and day out to hear trivial conversations! I want to live, I love success, I love popularity, noise; but here I am — in exile. Every minute pining for the past, watching the successes of others, afraid of death! … I cannot! I haven’t the strength! And here some people won’t even forgive me my old age!
ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Wait awhile, have patience: in five or six years’ time I too shall be old.
ENTER SONYA.
SCENE II
The same and SONYA
SONYA: I wonder why the doctor has not come yet. I told Stepan, if the Zemstvo doctor was out, to drive over and fetch the Wood Demon.
SEREBRYAKOV: Of what use is your Wood Demon to me? He understands as much about medicine as I do about astronomy.
SONYA: You don’t want us to call in the whole medical faculty to treat your gout?
SEREBRYAKOV: I am not even going to talk to that crazy fellow.
SONYA: Just as you please. (Sitting down.) I don’t mind.
SEREBRYAKOV: What’s the time now?
ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Not yet tWO.
SEREBRYAKOV: It’s stifling here… Sonya, give me the medicine on the table.
SONYA: Certainly. (Handing him the medicine.)
SEREBRYAKOV (irritably): Ah, not this one. It’s no use asking for anything!
SONYA: Please, don’t be capricious! Some may like it, but pray spare me. I don’t like it.
SEREBRYAKOV: That girl has an impossible character. Why are you cross?
SONYA: And why do you speak in such a mournful tone! Anyone might think that you are actually unhappy. Yet there are very few people as happy as you are.
SEREBRYAKOV: Just so, of course I I am very, very it PRY.
SONYA: Certainly, you’re happy… And if you uve gout, you know perfectly well that the attack will pass by the morning. Why grieve then? Why make a fuss?
Enter VOYNITSKY in a dressing-gown, with a candle.
SCENE III
The same and VOYNITSKY
VOYNITSKY: There’s a storm coming on. (A flash of lightning.) Isay! Elena and Sonya, go to bed; I’ll take your place here.
SEREBRYAKOV (frightened): No, no, don’t leave me with him! No, he’ll talk my head off.
VOYNITSKY: But they need a rest! They’ve not slept for two nights.
SEREBRYAKOV: Let them go to bed, but you too must go away. Thank you. I implore you to go. In the name of our past friendship, don’t refuse me. We will have a talk some other time.
VOYNITSKY: Our past friendship! … This, I must say, is news to me.
ELENA ANQREYEVNA: Be quiet, George!
SEREBRYAKOV: My dear, don’t leave me with him! He’ll talk my head off.
VOYNITSKY: It is getting ridiculous.
KHROUSCHOV’S VOICE (behind the scenes): They’re in the dining-room? Here? Please attend to my horse!
VOYNITSKY: The doctor has come.
ENTER KHROUSCHOV.
SCENE IV
The same and KHROUSCHOV
KHROUSCHOV: What weather! The rain ran after me, but I just managed to escape it. How do you do?
(Greeting them.)
SEREBRYAKOV: I’m sorry we troubled you. I did not want it at all.
KHROUSCHOV: Never mind, it’s perfectly all right! But what’s the matter with you, Alexander Vladimirovich? Aren’t we ashamed of being seedy? Oh, we mustn’t! What’s wrong?
SEREBRYAKOV: Why do doctors always speak to patients in a condescending tone?
KHROUSCHOV (laughing): Well,