Uncle Vanya

at you, listen to your voice.⁠ ⁠… Yelena Hush, they may hear you! They go into the house. Voynitsky Following her. Let me speak of my love, don’t drive me away⁠—that alone will be the greatest happiness for me.⁠ ⁠… Yelena This is agonising. Both go into the house. Telyegin strikes the strings and plays a polka. Marya Vassilyevna makes a note on the margin of a pamphlet. Curtain.

Act II

Dining-room in Serebryakov’s house. Night. A watchman can be heard tapping in the garden.

	Serebryakov, sitting in an armchair before an open window, dozing, and Yelena Andreyevna sitting beside him, dozing too.
Serebryakov	Waking. Who is it? Sonya, is it you?
Yelena	It’s me.
Serebryakov	You, Lenotchka!⁠ ⁠… I am in unbearable pain.
Yelena	Your rug has fallen on the floor wrapping it round his legs. I’ll shut the window, Alexandr.
Serebryakov	No, I feel suffocated.⁠ ⁠… I just dropped asleep and I dreamed that my left leg did not belong to me. I was awakened by the agonising pain. No, it’s not gout; it’s more like rheumatism. What time is it now?
Yelena	Twenty minutes past twelve a pause.
Serebryakov	Look for Batyushkov in the library in the morning. I believe we have his works.
Yelena	What?
Serebryakov	Look for Batyushkov in the morning. I remember we did have him. But why is it so difficult for me to breathe?
Yelena	You are tired. This is the second night you have not slept.
Serebryakov	I have been told that Turgenev got angina pectoris from gout. I am afraid I may have it. Hateful, detestable old age. Damnation take it! Since I have grown old I have grown hateful to myself. And you must all hate the sight of me.
Yelena	You talk of your age as though we were all responsible for it.
Serebryakov	I am most of all hateful to you.
	Yelena Andreyevna gets up and sits down farther away.
Serebryakov	Of course, you are right. I am not a fool, and I understand. You are young and strong and good-looking. You want life and I am an old man, almost a corpse. Do you suppose I don’t understand? And, of course, it is stupid of me to go on living. But wait a little, I shall soon set you all free. I shan’t have to linger on much longer.
Yelena	I am worn out⁠ ⁠… for God’s sake be quiet!
Serebryakov	It seems that, thanks to me, everyone is worn out, depressed, wasting their youth, and I am the only one enjoying life and satisfied. Oh yes, of course!
Yelena	Be quiet! You make me miserable!
Serebryakov	I make everyone miserable. Of course.
Yelena	Through tears. It’s insufferable! Say, what is it you want of me?
Serebryakov	Nothing.
Yelena	Well, be quiet then. I implore you!
Serebryakov	It’s a strange thing, Ivan Petrovitch may speak and that old idiot, Marya Vassilyevna, and there is nothing against it, everyone listens⁠—but if I say a word everyone begins to feel miserable. They dislike the very sound of my voice. Well, suppose I am disagreeable, egoistic and tyrannical⁠—haven’t I a right, even in my old age, to think of myself? Haven’t I earned it? Haven’t I the right, I ask you, to be quiet in my old age, to be cared for by other people?
Yelena	No one is disputing your rights. The window bangs in the wind. The wind has got up; I’ll shut the window shuts the window. There will be rain directly. No one disputes your rights.
	A pause; the watchman in the garden taps and sings.
Serebryakov	After devoting all one’s life to learning, after growing used to one’s study, to one’s lecture-room, to the society of honourable colleagues⁠—all of a sudden to find oneself here in this vault, every day to see stupid people, to hear foolish conversation. I want life, I like success, I like fame, I like distinction, renown, and here⁠—it’s like being an exile. Every moment to be grieving for the past, watching the successes of others, dreading death. I can’t bear it! It’s too much for me! And then they won’t forgive me my age!
Yelena	Wait a little, have patience: in five or six years I shall be old too.
	Enter Sonya.
Sonya	Father, you told us to send for Doctor Astrov yourself, and now that he has come you won’t see him. It isn’t nice. You’ve troubled him for nothing.
Serebryakov	What good is your Astrov to me? He knows as much about medicine as I do about astronomy.
Sonya	We can’t send for all the great medical authorities here for your gout.
Serebryakov	I am not going to talk to that crazy crank.
Sonya	That’s as you please sits down. It doesn’t matter to me.
Serebryakov	What’s the time?
Yelena	Nearly one o’clock.
Serebryakov	I feel stifled.⁠ ⁠… Sonya, fetch me my drops from the table.
Sonya	In a minute gives him the drops.
Serebryakov	Irritably. Oh, not those! It’s no use asking for anything!
Sonya	Please don’t be peevish. Some people may like it, but please spare me! I don’t like it. And I haven’t the time. I have to get up early in the morning, we are haymaking tomorrow.
	Enter Voynitsky in a dressing-gown with a candle in his hand.
Voynitsky	There’s a storm coming on. A flash of lightning. There, look! Hélène and Sonya, go to bed. I have come to take your place.
Serebryakov	Frightened. No, no! Don’t leave me with him! No! He will be the death of me with his talking!
Voynitsky	But you must let them have some rest! This is the second night they have had no sleep.
Serebryakov	Let them go to bed, but you go too. Thank you. I entreat you to go. For the sake of our past friendship, don’t make any objections! We’ll talk some other time.
Voynitsky	Mockingly. Our past friendship.⁠ ⁠… Past.⁠ ⁠…
Sonya	Be quiet, Uncle Vanya.
Serebryakov	To his wife. My love, don’t leave me alone with him! He will be the death of me with his talking!
Voynitsky	This is really getting laughable.
	Enter