Comedy plays; Russia -- Social life and customs -- Drama; Russian drama -- Translations into English
BOBCHINSKY. Yes, of rather good appearance and dressed in citizen's
clothes--walking up and down the room. There was something out of the
usual about his face, you know, something deep--and a manner about
him--and here [raises his hand to his forehead and turns it around
several times] full, full of everything. I had a sort of feeling, and I
said to Dobchinsky, "Something's up. This is no ordinary matter."
Yes, and Dobchinsky beckoned to the landlord, Vlas, the innkeeper,
you know,--three weeks ago his wife presented him with a baby--a
bouncer--he'll grow up just like his father and keep a tavern.--Well,
we beckoned to Vlas, and Dobchinsky asked him on the quiet, "Who," he
asked, "is that young man?" "That young man," Vlas replied, "that young
man"--Oh, don't interrupt, Piotr Ivanovich, please don't interrupt. You
can't tell the story. Upon my word, you can't. You lisp and one tooth in
your mouth makes you whistle. I know what I'm saying. "That young man,"
he said, "is an official."--Yes, sir.--"On his way from St. Petersburg.
And his name," he said, "is Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, and he's
going," he said "to the government of Saratov," he said. "And he acts
so queerly. It's the second week he's been here and he's never left the
house; and he won't pay a penny, takes everything on account." When
Vlas told me that, a light dawned on me from above, and I said to Piotr
Ivanovich, "Hey!"--
DOBCHINSKY. No, Piotr Ivanovich, I said "HEY!"
BOBCHINSKY. Well first YOU said it, then I did. "Hey!" said both of us,
"And why does he stick here if he's going to Saratov?"--Yes, sir, that's
he, the official.
GOVERNOR. Who? What official?
BOBCHINSKY. Why, the official who you were notified was coming, the
Inspector.
GOVERNOR [terrified]. Great God! What's that you're saying. It can't be
he.
DOBCHINSKY. It is, though. Why, he doesn't pay his bills and he doesn't
leave. Who else can it be? And his postchaise is ordered for Saratov.
BOBCHINSKY. It's he, it's he, it's he--why, he's so alert, he
scrutinized everything. He saw that Dobchinsky and I were eating
salmon--chiefly on account of Dobchinsky's stomach--and he looked at our
plates so hard that I was frightened to death.
GOVERNOR. The Lord have mercy on us sinners! In what room is he staying?
DOBCHINSKY. Room number 5 near the stairway.
BOBCHINSKY. In the same room that the officers quarreled in when they
passed through here last year.
GOVERNOR. How long has he been here?
DOBCHINSKY. Two weeks. He came on St. Vasili's day.
GOVERNOR. Two weeks! [Aside.] Holy Fathers and saints preserve me! In
those two weeks I have flogged the wife of a non-commissioned officer,
the prisoners were not given their rations, the streets are dirty as a
pothouse--a scandal, a disgrace! [Clutches his head with both hands.]
ARTEMY. What do you think, Anton Antonovich, hadn't we better go in
state to the inn?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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