Here Chekhov's statement that the performance had improved upon the quality of his play was not only his modesty but also indicated some measure of his esteem for the unusual abilities of the Art Theater. Stanislavsky tells in a letter of how Chekhov at this time attended a rehearsal of Hauptmann's Michael Kramer and "danced about and leaped with joy" over the performance of the second act. Chekhov's criticism of the theater during the first years of their association centered mostly in Stanislavsky's inability at times to perccive the artistic focus of his plays and in some of the director's more extreme devices in staging. A failure of communication existed between the two men, and
Stanislavsky frankly admits that it was largely his fault. Blind to the essential simplicity of Chekhov's nature, Stanislavsky eould not behave in a simple way in his prcsenec. lie always felt that before him stood a eclebrity and hence he tried to seem elevercr than he was. This un- naturalness served to restrain Chekhov in his relations and no doubt contributed to the difficulties that later arose between the two men.
Chekhov had to share Olga with the theater during the height of its season. The directors were perfectionists and demanded a great deal from their aetors. Rehearsals eould last for six hours, and sometimes Olga did not get back to the new apartment till one in the morning. Then there were the performances. Her devotion to her work never flagged, for she was determined to become, and eventually did become, the first aetrcss of the Moseow Art Theater. But Olga seemed to have inexhaustible energy, loved late parties, sang well, played the piano, and handled fluently several foreign languages. Though she had few free hours, their life together seems to have been a full and intense one during his stay. She passionately loved her "Russian Maupassant," her "great talent," as she called him, and he endeavored to return her love to the extent that his frail health permitted. Ilis delicacy, refinement of feelings, and tender human qualities delighted Olga, although she imperfectly understood the emotional wellsprings that fed these qualities.
While she rehearsed, Chekhov renewed his contacts with Moseow friends, worked away at proofs, and answered correspondence. He read the first three acts of Gorky's manuscript play, The Petty Bourgeois, and wrote him a perfectly balanced critique of its virtues and failings — he had been pushing Gorky hard to offer a play to the Art Theater. Chekhov had also planned to go to Petersburg for a few days to sec his brothers Alexander and Misha. However, Alexander happened to eomc to Moseow in the middle of October and his warning about the unpleasant Petersburg weather convinced Chekhov that he should give up the projected trip. His appearance dismayed Alexander (who had not seen him for some time, and he wrote Misha: "I was with Anton in Moseow. He looks badly."
Indeed, the Moseow paee wore Chekhov down very quickly. On Oetober 23 he felt unwell enough to visit Dr. Shehurovsky. The advice apparently was to return to Yalta and he left Moscow three days later. Shortly before departing, however, he wrote Mirolyubov, for whose magazine he had long since promised his story, The Bishop: "Now I'm going home. I shall start again at the beginning and will send it to you, so don't worryl . . . My wife, to whom I've become accustomed, and very attached, remains alone in Moscow, and I am going away a lonely person. She weeps, but I will not ask her to give up the theater. In
short, it is a muddle." (October 19, 1901.)
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Though Chekhov wrote Olga, after the first rush of callers upon his return to Yalta, that he had dropped back up to his ears in the old rut which was so empty and boring, actually he took much pleasure in some of the visitors. He was happy to renew his acquaintance with the poet Konstantin Balmont, who was then attracting notice, and he wrote appreciatively of him to Olga. That winter he also met for the first time Leonid Andreev, whose widely acclaimed early tales had already begun to excite Olga. "Yes, he is a good writer," Chekhov replied to her request for a reaction, "and if he would only write more, he would be more popular. There is a lack of sincerity in him and little simplicity, and hence it is hard to get used to him. Sooner or later, however, the public will become accustomed to him and he will make a great name." (December 7, 1901.) Chekhov urged Balmont and Andreev, along with Teleshov and Fyodorov, to write plays for the Art Theater, and he jokingly added, in reporting the effort to Olga, that he ought to be paid a commission of at least one rouble per man.
The news that Gorky intended to settle in the area for some time excited Chekhov. Still under police surveillance after his release from imprisonment, Gorky, forbidden to go to Moscow or Petersburg, was allowed to live in the Crimea because of his health, but not in Yalta. Nevertheless, he stayed with Chekhov for about a week when he arrived on November 12, a permissible circumvention of the restrictions — he could stop at a private house as a visitor but no hotel could have registered him. A policeman stood on guard outside, and if Gorky left the house the captain in the local station would telephone Chekhov to learn of the suspect's whereabouts. Chekhov detested these prohibitions and spying, which had increased during this year of political tensions. Later that winter he criticized his good friend Mirolyubov in Petersburg for joining the recently formed Religious-Philosophical Society which was supported by reactionary clergy, "that policeman
Rozanov,"5 and the "hyper-satisfied Merezhkovsky."0 He would like to write him at great length on the subject of the Society, Chekhov told Mirolyubov, "but I had better restrain myself, all the more so since letters nowadays are read chiefly by those to whom they are not addressed. I'll only mention that in the problems which concern you, the important things are not the forgotten words, not the idealism, but the consciousness of your own decency. . . . One should believe in God, but if one does not have faith, then its place should not be taken by any hue and cry, but by seeking, seeking, and seeking, alone and face to face with one's conscience." (December 17, 1901.)
Chekhov and Gorky got to know each other still better on this visit and their friendship deepened. The same nice fellow, Chekhov described him to Olga, and a very simple-hearted man — if only he did not wear those peasant blouses which he affected. And during this stay in Chekhov's home, with visitors constantly coming and going, Gorky accumulated much of the material that he made such effective use of in his reminiscences of Chekhov. He observed that in Chekhov's presence everyone involuntarily felt in himself a desire to be simpler, more truthful. Gorky remembered the three well-dressed ladies who called and desperately struggled through a halting conversation which they had initiated on war and the Turks and the Greeks, until Chekhov could turn them to a discussion on candied fruits, where the talk went so much more happily and smoothly. Everyone, he told Gorky, when the ladies had left, should speak his own language. Again there was the case of the young, pompous crown prosecutor whose conversation Gorky also overheard. As he rattled on indefatigably about his fierce zeal in protecting the state's property against criminals, Chekhov suddenly broke in to ask if he liked gramophones. Of course, he did, an amazing invention, declared the young man. But Chekhov declared that he loathed the gramophone because it spoke and sang without feeling. However, the young zealot of the law missed the point, and when he departed Chekhov remarked to Gorky that the crown prosecutor, so thoughtlessly disposing of the fate of people, was like a pimple on the seat of justice.