The Seagull

bed. Polina Sighing. Old people are like children goes up to the writing-table, and leaning on her elbow, looks at the manuscript; a pause. Medvedenko Well, I am going then. Goodbye, Masha kisses his wife’s hand. Goodbye, mother tries to kiss his mother-in-law’s hand. Polina With vexation. Come, if you are going, go. Medvedenko Goodbye, Konstantin Gavrilitch. Treplev gives him his hand without speaking; Medvedenko goes out. Polina Looking at the MS. No one would have guessed or thought that you would have become a real author, Kostya. And now, thank God, they send you money from the magazines. Passes her hand over his hair. And you have grown good-looking too.⁠ ⁠… Dear, good Kostya, do be a little kinder to my Mashenka! Masha As she makes the bed. Leave him alone, mother. Polina To Treplev. She is a nice little thing a pause. A woman wants nothing, you know, Kostya, so long as you give her a kind look. I know from myself. Treplev gets up from the table and walks away without speaking. Masha Now you have made him angry. What induced you to pester him? Polina I feel so sorry for you, Mashenka. Masha Much use that is! Polina My heart aches for you. I see it all, you know, I understand it all. Masha It’s all foolishness. There is no such thing as hopeless love except in novels. It’s of no consequence. The only thing is one mustn’t let oneself go and keep expecting something, waiting for the tide to turn.⁠ ⁠… When love gets into the heart there is nothing to be done but to clear it out. Here they promised to transfer my husband to another district. As soon as I am there, I shall forget it all⁠ ⁠… I shall tear it out of my heart. Two rooms away a melancholy waltz is played. Polina That’s Kostya playing. He must be depressed. Masha Noiselessly dances a few waltz steps. The great thing, mother, is not to have him before one’s eyes. If they only give my Semyon his transfer, trust me, I shall get over it in a month. It’s all nonsense. Door on left opens. Dorn and Medvedenko wheel in Sorin in his chair. Medvedenko I have six of them at home now. And flour is two kopeks per pound. Dorn You’ve got to look sharp to make both ends meet. Medvedenko It’s all very well for you to laugh. You’ve got more money than you know what to do with. Dorn Money? After thirty years of practice, my boy, troublesome work during which I could not call my soul my own by day or by night, I only succeeded in saving two thousand roubles, and that I spent not long ago abroad. I have nothing. Masha To her husband. You have not gone? Medvedenko Guiltily. Well, how can I when they won’t let me have a horse? Masha With bitter vexation in an undertone. I can’t bear the sight of you. The wheelchair remains in the left half of the room; Polina Andreyevna, Masha and Dorn sit down beside it, Medvedenko moves mournfully to one side. Dorn What changes there have been here! The drawing-room has been turned into a study. Masha It is more convenient for Konstantin Gavrilitch to work here. Whenever he likes, he can walk out into the garden and think there. A watchman taps. Sorin Where is my sister? Dorn She has gone to the station to meet Trigorin. She will be back directly. Sorin Since you thought it necessary to send for my sister, I must be dangerously ill. After a silence. It’s a queer thing, I am dangerously ill and here they don’t give me any medicines. Dorn Well, what would you like to have? Valerian drops? Soda? Quinine? Sorin Ah, he is at his moralising again! What an infliction it is! With a motion of his head towards the sofa. Is that bed for me? Polina Yes, it’s for you, Pyotr Nikolayevitch. Sorin Thank you. Dorn Hums. “The moon is floating in the midnight sky.” Sorin I want to give Kostya a subject for a story. It ought to be called “The Man Who Wished”⁠—L’homme qui a voulu. In my youth I wanted to become a literary man⁠—and didn’t; I wanted to speak well⁠—and I spoke horribly badly, mimicking himself “and all the rest of it, and all that, and so on, and so forth”⁠ ⁠… and I would go plodding on and on, trying to sum up till I was in a regular perspiration; I wanted to get married⁠—and I didn’t; I always wanted to live in town and here I am ending my life in the country⁠—and so on. Dorn I wanted to become an actual civil councillor⁠—and I have. Sorin Laughs. That I had no hankerings after. That happened of itself. Dorn To be expressing dissatisfaction with life at sixty-two is really ungracious, you know. Sorin What a persistent fellow he is! You might understand that one wants to live! Dorn That’s just frivolity. It’s the law of nature that every life must have an end. Sorin You argue like a man who has had enough. You are satisfied and so you are indifferent to life, nothing matters to you. But even you will be afraid to die. Dorn The dread of death is an animal fear. One must overcome it. A rational fear of death is only possible for those who believe in eternal life and are conscious of their sins. And you, in the first place, don’t believe, and, in the second, what sins have you to worry about? You have served in the courts of justice for twenty-five years⁠—that’s all. Sorin Laughs. Twenty-eight. Treplev comes in and sits down on a stool at Sorin’s feet. Masha never takes her eyes off him. Dorn We are hindering Konstantin Gavrilitch from working. Treplev Oh no, it doesn’t matter a pause. Medvedenko Allow me to ask you, doctor, what town did you like best abroad? Dorn Genoa. Treplev Why Genoa?