VOICE FROM THE RECEPTION ROOM: “To the health of all the guests . . .”
Fanfare and cheers.
He’ll live beautifully to a ripe old age, and die with a clear conscience . . . No, I’ll strip you bare, I’ll tear the mask off you . . . You won’t smile that way at me . . . When everybody learns what kind of bird you are, that’ll wipe the grin off your face . . . (Nervously buttons up his frock coat.) I’m a decent person, and it’s my duty to open people’s eyes . . . (Nervously clears his throat.) I’ll do my duty and tomorrow clear out of this damned district . . . (Loudly.) Nikolay Alekseevich Ivanov, I declare in the hearing of everyone present, that you are a bastard!
An uproar in the reception room.
IX
LVOV, IVANOV, SHABELSKY, LEBEDEV, BORKIN, KOSYKH, then SASHA.
IVANOV. Why? why? Tell me: why? (Enervated, he drops on to a sofa.)
EVERYONE. Why?
LEBEDEV (to Lvov). Explain, for Christ’s sake, why did you insult him? (Clutches his head and walks around in agitation.)
SHABELSKY (to Ivanov). Nicolas, Nicolas, for heaven’s sake . . . Don’t pay any attention . . . Rise above it . . .
BORKIN. My good sir . . . this is an outrage . . . I challenge you to a duel . . .
LVOV. Mister Borkin, I consider it degrading to talk to you, let alone fight you . . . But Mister Ivanov may receive satisfaction at any time, if he so desires.
SASHA (enters from the reception room, staggers). Why? Why did you insult him? Gentlemen, please, make him tell me . . . why?
LVOV. Aleksandra Pavlovna, I did not insult him without sufficient reason. I came here as a decent person to open your eyes, and I beg you to hear me out. I will tell all . . .
SASHA. What can you tell? what secrets do you know? That he drove his first wife to the grave? That’s what everybody says. That he married me for the dowry and to keep from paying his debt to my mother? That’s common knowledge in the whole neighborhood as well. Ah, these cruel, petty, insignificant people . . . (To her husband.) Nikolay, let’s get out of here . . . (Takes him by the arm.)
LEBEDEV (to Lvov). I, as the host in my own house . . . as the father of my son-in-law . . . I mean, daughter, my good sir . . .
SASHA screams loudly and drops on to her husband . . .
Everyone runs over to Ivanov.
Holy saints, he’s dead . . . water . . . a doctor . . .
SHABELSKY (weeping). Nicolas! Nicolas!
EVERYONE. Water, a doctor, he’s dead . . .
Curtain
VARIANTS TO
Ivanov, First Version
Variants in the censor’s copy for the performance at Korsh’s Theatre in 1887.
ACT ONE
page 338 / Replace: SHABELSKY (after a moment’s thought). I? First of all I’d go to Moscow and listen to gypsy music.
with: SHABELSKY. I? (after a moment’s thought). First of all I’d go to Moscow, listen to gypsy music.
page 341 / Replace: (comes out of the house in a hat and overcoat)
with: (comes quickly out of the house in a hat and overcoat)
ACT TWO
page 352 / After: spoke ill of anyone . . . — Honorable, big-hearted, trustworthy, malleable as wax . . .
page 360 / Before: What’s the matter — the stage direction: (affectionately)
ACT THREE
page 369 / Before: And suddenly, of all the bad luck — the stage direction: (to the Count.)
ACT FOUR
TABLEAU ONE
page 386 / After: in a wet towel — limply.
TABLEAU TWO
page 399 / After: we’ll make a fortune . . . — It’s a profitable deal and won’t make us break a sweat.
page 401 / After: (Exits. — Fanfare and cheers.
page 402 / After: out of this damned district . . . — Well, it’s high time . . .
The following changes were made in the 1888 revision for the production at the Alexandra Theatre in St. Petersburg, and are taken from the censor’s copy.
ACT TWO
page 359 / Replace: Scenes VI and X
with:
VI
SASHA (entering through the door at right with Ivanov). Let’s go into the garden . . . It’s stuffy here.
IVANOV. Here’s how things stand, Shurochka. I do nothing and think about nothing, and am weary in body and soul and brain . . . Day and night my conscience aches, I feel that I am profoundly at fault, but precisely where my fault lies, I do not understand . . . On top of that there’s my wife’s illness, lack of money, constant squabbling, gossip, noise . . . My house has become repulsive to me, and living in it is for me worse than torture . . . I don’t know, Shurochka, what’s come over me, but I tell you frankly, what’s become unbearable is the company of my wife, who loves me . . . and such foul selfish thoughts creep into my head, which I couldn’t even conceive of before . . .
Pause.
Vile and nasty . . . I’m pestering everyone with my tedium, Shurochka, forgive me, but I only can forget it for a moment while I’m talking to you, my friend . . . When I’m with you I’m like a dog barking at the bright sun. Shurochka, I’ve known you since you were born, I’ve always loved you, spoiled you . . . I would give a great deal to have a daughter like you right now . . .
SASHA (joking through tears). Nikolay Alekseevich, let’s run away to America . . .
IVANOV. I feel too listless to cross this threshold, and you come up with America . . .
They walk to the entry to the garden.
Well, now, Shura, is it hard to go on living? I see, I see it all . . . This air doesn’t suit you . . .
page 361 /
X
ANNA PETROVNA and LVOV enter from the door at right.
LVOV. Now why, I ask you, have we come here?
ANNA PETROVNA. Never mind, they’ll be glad we came. There’s no one here . . . I suppose, they’re in the garden . . . Let’s go into the garden . . .