The Sea-Gull | Page 4

Anton Chekhov

MASHA. It is not that. [She takes snuff] I am touched by your
affection, but I cannot return it, that is all. [She offers him the snuff-box]
Will you take some?
MEDVIEDENKO. No, thank you. [A pause.]
MASHA. The air is sultry; a storm is brewing for to-night. You do
nothing but moralise or else talk about money. To you, poverty is the
greatest misfortune that can befall a man, but I think it is a thousand
times easier to go begging in rags than to-- You wouldn't understand
that, though.
SORIN leaning on a cane, and TREPLIEFF come in.
SORIN. For some reason, my boy, country life doesn't suit me, and I
am sure I shall never get used to it. Last night I went to bed at ten and
woke at nine this morning, feeling as if, from oversleep, my brain had
stuck to my skull. [Laughing] And yet I accidentally dropped off to
sleep again after dinner, and feel utterly done up at this moment. It is
like a nightmare.

TREPLIEFF. There is no doubt that you should live in town. [He
catches sight of MASHA and MEDVIEDENKO] You shall be called
when the play begins, my friends, but you must not stay here now. Go
away, please.
SORIN. Miss Masha, will you kindly ask your father to leave the dog
unchained? It howled so last night that my sister was unable to sleep.
MASHA. You must speak to my father yourself. Please excuse me; I
can't do so. [To MEDVIEDENKO] Come, let us go.
MEDVIEDENKO. You will let us know when the play begins?
MASHA and MEDVIEDENKO go out.
SORIN. I foresee that that dog is going to howl all night again. It is
always this way in the country; I have never been able to live as I like
here. I come down for a month's holiday, to rest and all, and am
plagued so by their nonsense that I long to escape after the first day.
[Laughing] I have always been glad to get away from this place, but I
have been retired now, and this was the only place I had to come to.
Willy-nilly, one must live somewhere.
JACOB. [To TREPLIEFF] We are going to take a swim, Mr.
Constantine.
TREPLIEFF. Very well, but you must be back in ten minutes.
JACOB. We will, sir.
TREPLIEFF. [Looking at the stage] Just like a real theatre! See, there
we have the curtain, the foreground, the background, and all. No
artificial scenery is needed. The eye travels direct to the lake, and rests
on the horizon. The curtain will be raised as the moon rises at half-past
eight.
SORIN. Splendid!
TREPLIEFF. Of course the whole effect will be ruined if Nina is late.

She should be here by now, but her father and stepmother watch her so
closely that it is like stealing her from a prison to get her away from
home. [He straightens SORIN'S collar] Your hair and beard are all on
end. Oughtn't you to have them trimmed?
SORIN. [Smoothing his beard] They are the tragedy of my existence.
Even when I was young I always looked as if I were drunk, and all.
Women have never liked me. [Sitting down] Why is my sister out of
temper?
TREPLIEFF. Why? Because she is jealous and bored. [Sitting down
beside SORIN] She is not acting this evening, but Nina is, and so she
has set herself against me, and against the performance of the play, and
against the play itself, which she hates without ever having read it.
SORIN. [Laughing] Does she, really?
TREPLIEFF. Yes, she is furious because Nina is going to have a
success on this little stage. [Looking at his watch] My mother is a
psychological curiosity. Without doubt brilliant and talented, capable of
sobbing over a novel, of reciting all Nekrasoff's poetry by heart, and of
nursing the sick like an angel of heaven, you should see what happens
if any one begins praising Duse to her! She alone must be praised and
written about, raved over, her marvellous acting in "La Dame aux
Camelias" extolled to the skies. As she cannot get all that rubbish in the
country, she grows peevish and cross, and thinks we are all against her,
and to blame for it all. She is superstitious, too. She dreads burning
three candles, and fears the thirteenth day of the month. Then she is
stingy. I know for a fact that she has seventy thousand roubles in a
bank at Odessa, but she is ready to burst into tears if you ask her to lend
you a penny.
SORIN. You have taken it into your head that your mother dislikes
your play, and the thought of it has excited you, and all. Keep calm;
your mother adores
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