Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second SeriesChekhov, Anton Pavlovich
General
Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904 -- Translations into English; Russian drama -- Translations into English
VARYA. I packed it myself and I don’t remember. [Pause.]
LOPAKHIN. Where are you going to now, Barbara Mihailovna?
VARYA. I? To the Ragulins.... I’ve got an agreement to go and look after
their house... as housekeeper or something.
LOPAKHIN. Is that at Yashnevo? It’s about fifty miles. [Pause] So life
in this house is finished now....
VARYA. [Looking at the luggage] Where is it?... perhaps I’ve put it away
in the trunk.... Yes, there’ll be no more life in this house....
LOPAKHIN. And I’m off to Kharkov at once... by this train. I’ve a lot of
business on hand. I’m leaving Epikhodov here... I’ve taken him on.
VARYA. Well, well!
LOPAKHIN. Last year at this time the snow was already falling, if you
remember, and now it’s nice and sunny. Only it’s rather cold.... There’s
three degrees of frost.
VARYA. I didn’t look. [Pause] And our thermometer’s broken.... [Pause.]
VOICE AT THE DOOR. Ermolai Alexeyevitch!
LOPAKHIN. [As if he has long been waiting to be called] This minute.
[Exit quickly.]
[VARYA, sitting on the floor, puts her face on a bundle of clothes and
weeps gently. The door opens. LUBOV ANDREYEVNA enters carefully.]
LUBOV. Well? [Pause] We must go.
VARYA. [Not crying now, wipes her eyes] Yes, it’s quite time, little
mother. I’ll get to the Ragulins to-day, if I don’t miss the train....
LUBOV. [At the door] Anya, put on your things. [Enter ANYA, then GAEV,
CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA. GAEV wears a warm overcoat with a cape. A servant
and drivers come in. EPIKHODOV bustles around the luggage] Now we can go
away.
ANYA. [Joyfully] Away!
GAEV. My friends, my dear friends! Can I be silent, in leaving this
house for evermore?--can I restrain myself, in saying farewell, from
expressing those feelings which now fill my whole being...?
ANYA. [Imploringly] Uncle!
VARYA. Uncle, you shouldn’t!
GAEV. [Stupidly] Double the red into the middle.... I’ll be quiet.
[Enter TROFIMOV, then LOPAKHIN.]
TROFIMOV. Well, it’s time to be off.
LOPAKHIN. Epikhodov, my coat!
LUBOV. I’ll sit here one more minute. It’s as if I’d never really
noticed what the walls and ceilings of this house were like, and now I
look at them greedily, with such tender love....
GAEV. I remember, when I was six years old, on Trinity Sunday, I sat at
this window and looked and saw my father going to church....
LUBOV. Have all the things been taken away?
LOPAKHIN. Yes, all, I think. [To EPIKHODOV, putting on his coat] You see
that everything’s quite straight, Epikhodov.
EPIKHODOV. [Hoarsely] You may depend upon me, Ermolai Alexeyevitch!
LOPAKHIN. What’s the matter with your voice?
EPIKHODOV. I swallowed something just now; I was having a drink of
water.
YASHA. [Suspiciously] What manners....
LUBOV. We go away, and not a soul remains behind.
LOPAKHIN. Till the spring.
VARYA. [Drags an umbrella out of a bundle, and seems to be waving it
about. LOPAKHIN appears to be frightened] What are you doing?... I never
thought...
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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