LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. Oh, my darling, my sweet, beautiful orchard! . . . My life, my youth, my happiness, good-bye! . . . Good-bye! . . .
ANYA’s voice (gaily, appealing): “Mama!. . .”
TROFIMOVs voice (gaily, excited): “Yoo-hoo!. . .”
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. One last look at the walls, the windows . . . Our poor mother loved to walk in this room . . .
GAEV. Sister dear, sister dear! . . .
ANYA’s voice: “Mama! . . .”
TROFIMOV’s voice: “Yoo-hoo!. . .”
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. We’re coming! . . .
They go out.
The stage is empty. We hear all the doors being locked with a key, and then the carriages driving off. It grows quiet. In the stillness there is the dull thud of an axe against a tree, sounding forlorn and dismal.
We hear footsteps. From the door at right FIRS appears. He’s dressed as always, in a jacket and white waistcoat, slippers on his feet. He is ill.
FIRS (crosses to the door, tries the knob). Locked. They’ve gone . . . (Sits on the sofa.) Forgot about me . . . Never mind . . . I’ll sit here a spell . . . And Leonid Andreich, I’ll bet, didn’t put on his fur coat, went out in his topcoat . . . (Sighs, anxiously.) I didn’t see to it . . . When they’re young, they’re green! (Mutters something that cannot be understood.) This life’s gone by like I ain’t lived. (Lies down.) I’ll lie down a spell . . . Not a bit o’ strength left in you, nothing left, nothing . . . Eh you . . . half-baked bungler! . . . (Lies immobile.)
We hear the distant sound, as if from the sky, the sound of a breaking string, dying away mournfully. Silence ensues, and all we hear far away in the orchard is the thud of an axe on a tree.
Curtain
VARIANTS TO
The Cherry Orchard
Lines come from the original manuscript version (A1), a subsequent set of corrections (A2), the manuscript with the addition to Act Two (AA), and the first publication in the anthology Knowledge (Znanie) (K).
ACT ONE
page 986 / Replace: Everyone talks about our getting married . . . it’s all like a dream . . .
with: Everyone talks about our getting married, everyone offers congratulations, and he looks just as if he was about to propose any minute now, but in fact there’s nothing to it, it’s all like a dream, an unsettling, bad dream . . . Sometimes it even gets scary, I don’t know what to do with myself . . . (A2)
page 991 / Replace: I’d like to tell you . . . Here’s my plan.
with: This is what I want to say before I go. (After a glance at his watch.) Now about the estate . . . in two words . . . I want to propose to you a means of finding a way out. So that your estate doesn’t incur losses, you’d have to get up every day at four in the morning and work all day long. For you, of course, that’s impossible, I understand . . . But there is another way out. (A1)
page 994 / Replace: Nothing doing. I want to go to bed. (Exits.)
with: (walking over to the door). Who is that standing in the doorway? Who’s there? (Knock on the door from that side.) Who’s that knocking? (Knock.) That gentleman is my fiancé. (Exits.) Everyone laughs. (A1 & 2)
page 995 / After: He’s a good man. — By the way, how much do we owe him?
GAEV. For the second mortgage just a trifle — about forty thousand. (A1)
Stage direction: a peaceful mood has returned to her, she is happy. (A1 & 2)
page 1001 /
ACT TWO
Opening stage direction: YASHA and DUNYASHA are sitting on a bench, YEPIKHODOV stands nearby. From the estate along the road TROFIMOV and ANYA pass by.
ANYA. Great Aunt lives alone, she’s very rich. She doesn’t like Mamma. At first it was hard for me staying with her, she didn’t talk much to me. Then nothing, she relented. She promised to send the money, gave me and Charlotta Ivanovna something for the trip. But how awful, how hard it is to feel that one is a poor relation.
TROFIMOV. There’s somebody here already, it looks like . . . They’re sitting down. In that case, let’s walk along a little farther.
ANYA. Three weeks I’ve been away from home. I missed it so much!
They leave. (A1 & 2)
page 1004 / After: Tasty little pickle! — Pause. (A2, AA)
page 1004 / After: a girl who misbehaves . . . — (Sings quietly, and because he has no ear, extremely off-key) “Would you know my soul’s unrest.” (A2)
page 1004 / After: The masters . . . — (Rapidly.) Come here today when it gets dark. Be sure to come . . . (A1 & 2)
page 1006 / After: Maybe we’ll think of something. —
VARYA and CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA pass by on the road from the estate. CHARLOTTA is in a man’s cap with a gun.
VARYA. She’s an intelligent, well-bred girl, nothing can happen, but all the same it’s not right to leave her alone with a young man. Supper’s at nine, Charlotta Ivanovna.
CHARLOTTA. I don’t want to eat. (Quietly hums a ditty.)
VARYA. It doesn’t matter. You have to for decency’s sake. There, you see, they’re sitting there on the riverbank . . .
VARYA and CHARLOTTA leave. (A1 & 2)
page 1008 / After: (Inspects him.) — Today should be the lightweight gray suit, but this one’s a disgrace. (A1)
page 1011 / After: ANYA (dreamily). There goes Yepikhodov . . . —
VARYA. How come he’s living with us? He only eats on the run and drinks tea all day long . . .
LOPAKHIN. And makes plans to shoot himself.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. But I love Yepikhodov. When he talks about his troubles, it gets so funny. Don’t discharge him, Varya.
VARYA. There’s no other way, Mamma dear. We have to discharge him, the good-for-nothing. (A2)
page 1015 / Replace: TROFIMOV. Believe me, Anya, believe! . . . Curtain
with: TROFIMOV. Tsss . . . Someone’s coming. That Varya again! (Angrily.) Exasperating!
ANYA. So what? Let’s go to the river. It’s nice there . . .
TROFIMOV. Let’s go . . .
They start out.
ANYA. Soon the moon will rise.
They leave.
Enter FIRS, then CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA. FIRS, muttering, is looking for something on the ground near the bench, lights a match.
CHARLOTTA. That you, Firs? What are you up to?
FIRS (mutters). Eh, you half-baked bungler!
CHARLOTTA (sits on the bench and removes her cap). That you, Firs? What are you looking for?