The Sea-Gull | Page 6

wife never will let me come here; they call
this place Bohemia and are afraid I shall become an actress. But this
lake attracts me as it does the gulls. My heart is full of you. [She
glances about her.]
TREPLIEFF. We are alone.
NINA. Isn't that some one over there?
TREPLIEFF. No. [They kiss one another.]
NINA. What is that tree?
TREPLIEFF. An elm.
NINA. Why does it look so dark?
TREPLIEFF. It is evening; everything looks dark now. Don't go away
early, I implore you.
NINA. I must.
TREPLIEFF. What if I were to follow you, Nina? I shall stand in your
garden all night with my eyes on your window.
NINA. That would be impossible; the watchman would see you, and
Treasure is not used to you yet, and would bark.
TREPLIEFF. I love you.
NINA. Hush!
TREPLIEFF. [Listening to approaching footsteps] Who is that? Is it

you, Jacob?
JACOB. [On the stage] Yes, sir.
TREPLIEFF. To your places then. The moon is rising; the play must
commence.
NINA. Yes, sir.
TREPLIEFF. Is the alcohol ready? Is the sulphur ready? There must be
fumes of sulphur in the air when the red eyes shine out. [To NINA] Go,
now, everything is ready. Are you nervous?
NINA. Yes, very. I am not so much afraid of your mother as I am of
Trigorin. I am terrified and ashamed to act before him; he is so famous.
Is he young?
TREPLIEFF. Yes.
NINA. What beautiful stories he writes!
TREPLIEFF. [Coldly] I have never read any of them, so I can't say.
NINA. Your play is very hard to act; there are no living characters in it.
TREPLIEFF. Living characters! Life must be represented not as it is,
but as it ought to be; as it appears in dreams.
NINA. There is so little action; it seems more like a recitation. I think
love should always come into every play.
NINA and TREPLIEFF go up onto the little stage; PAULINA and
DORN come in.
PAULINA. It is getting damp. Go back and put on your goloshes.
DORN. I am quite warm.
PAULINA. You never will take care of yourself; you are quite

obstinate about it, and yet you are a doctor, and know quite well that
damp air is bad for you. You like to see me suffer, that's what it is. You
sat out on the terrace all yesterday evening on purpose.
DORN. [Sings]
"Oh, tell me not that youth is wasted."
PAULINA. You were so enchanted by the conversation of Madame
Arkadina that you did not even notice the cold. Confess that you
admire her.
DORN. I am fifty-five years old.
PAULINA. A trifle. That is not old for a man. You have kept your
looks magnificently, and women still like you.
DORN. What are you trying to tell me?
PAULINA. You men are all ready to go down on your knees to an
actress, all of you.
DORN. [Sings]
"Once more I stand before thee."
It is only right that artists should be made much of by society and
treated differently from, let us say, merchants. It is a kind of idealism.
PAULINA. When women have loved you and thrown themselves at
your head, has that been idealism?
DORN. [Shrugging his shoulders] I can't say. There has been a great
deal that was admirable in my relations with women. In me they liked,
above all, the superior doctor. Ten years ago, you remember, I was the
only decent doctor they had in this part of the country--and then, I have
always acted like a man of honour.
PAULINA. [Seizes his hand] Dearest!

DORN. Be quiet! Here they come.
ARKADINA comes in on SORIN'S arm; also TRIGORIN,
SHAMRAEFF, MEDVIEDENKO, and MASHA.
SHAMRAEFF. She acted most beautifully at the Poltava Fair in 1873;
she was really magnificent. But tell me, too, where Tchadin the
comedian is now? He was inimitable as Rasplueff, better than Sadofski.
Where is he now?
ARKADINA. Don't ask me where all those antediluvians are! I know
nothing about them. [She sits down.]
SHAMRAEFF. [Sighing] Pashka Tchadin! There are none left like him.
The stage is not what it was in his time. There were sturdy oaks
growing on it then, where now but stumps remain.
DORN. It is true that we have few dazzling geniuses these days, but, on
the other hand, the average of acting is much higher.
SHAMRAEFF. I cannot agree with you; however, that is a matter of
taste, de gustibus.
Enter TREPLIEFF from behind the stage.
ARKADINA. When will the play begin, my dear boy?
TREPLIEFF. In a moment. I must ask you to have patience.
ARKADINA. [Quoting from Hamlet] My son,
"Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black
grained spots As will not leave their tinct."