The Seagull

Sadovsky’s, I assure you, honoured lady. Where is he now? Madame Arkadin You keep asking me about antediluvians. How should I know? Sits down. Shamraev With a sigh. Pashka Tchadin! There are no such actors now. The stage has gone down, Irina Nikolayevna! In old days there were mighty oaks, but now we see nothing but stumps. Dorn There are few actors of brilliant talents nowadays, that’s true; but the average level of acting is far higher than it was. Shamraev I can’t agree with you. But, of course, it’s a matter of taste. De gustibus aut bene aut nihil. Treplev comes out from behind the stage. Madame Arkadin To her son. My dear son, when is it going to begin? Treplev In a minute. I beg you to be patient. Madame Arkadin

Recites from Hamlet.

“Oh, Hamlet, speak no more!
Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.”

Treplev

From Hamlet.

And let me wring your heart, for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff.”

A horn is sounded behind the stage. Treplev Ladies and gentlemen, we begin! I beg you to attend a pause. I begin taps with a stick and recites aloud. Oh, you venerable old shadows that float at nighttime over this lake, lull us to sleep and let us dream of what will be in two hundred thousand years! Sorin There will be nothing in two hundred thousand years. Treplev Then let them present that nothing to us. Madame Arkadin Let them. We are asleep. The curtain rises; the view of the lake is revealed; the moon is above the horizon, its reflection in the water; Nina Zaretchny, all in white, is sitting on a big stone. Nina Men, lions, eagles and partridges, horned deer, geese, spiders, silent fish that dwell in the water, starfishes and creatures which cannot be seen by the eye⁠—all living things, all living things, all living things, having completed their cycle of sorrow, are extinct.⁠ ⁠… For thousands of years the earth has borne no living creature on its surface, and this poor moon lights its lamp in vain. On the meadow the cranes no longer waken with a cry, and there is no sound of the May beetles in the lime trees. It is cold, cold, cold! Empty, empty, empty! Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful! A pause. The bodies of living creatures have vanished into dust, and eternal matter has transformed them into rocks, into water, into clouds, while the souls of all have melted into one. That world-soul I am⁠—I⁠ ⁠… In me is the soul of Alexander the Great, of Caesar, of Shakespeare and of Napoleon, and of the lowest leech. In me the consciousness of men is blended with the instincts of the animals, and I remember all, all, all! And I live through every life over again in myself! Will-of-the-wisps appear. Madame Arkadin Softly. It’s something decadent. Treplev In an imploring and reproachful voice. Mother! Nina I am alone. Once in a hundred years I open my lips to speak, and my voice echoes mournfully in the void, and no one hears.⁠ ⁠… You too, pale lights, hear me not.⁠ ⁠… The stagnant marsh begets you before daybreak and you wander until dawn, but without thought, without will, without the tremor of life. For fear that life should spring up in you the father of eternal matter, the devil, keeps the atoms in you, as in the stones and in the water, in continual flux, and you are changing perpetually. For in all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit a pause. Like a prisoner cast into a deep, empty well I know not where I am and what awaits me. All is hidden from me but that in the cruel, persistent struggle with the devil⁠—the principle of the forces of matter⁠—I am destined to conquer, and, after that, matter and spirit will be blended in glorious harmony and the Kingdom of the Cosmic Will will come. But that will come only little by little, through long, long thousands of years when the moon and the bright Sirius and the earth are changed to dust.⁠ ⁠… Till then⁠—terror, terror⁠ ⁠… a pause; two red spots appear upon the background of the lake. Here my powerful foe, the devil, is approaching. I see his dreadful crimson eyes.⁠ ⁠… Madame Arkadin There’s a smell of sulphur. Is that as it should be? Treplev Yes. Madame Arkadin Laughs. Oh, it’s a stage effect! Treplev Mother! Nina He is dreary without man⁠— Polina To Dorn. You have taken your hat off. Put it on or you will catch cold. Madame Arkadin The doctor has taken his hat off to the devil, the father of eternal matter. Treplev Firing up, aloud. The play is over! Enough! Curtain! Madame Arkadin What are you cross about? Treplev Enough! The curtain! Let down the curtain! Stamping. Curtain! The curtain falls. I am sorry! I lost sight of the fact that only a few of the elect may write plays and act in them. I have infringed the monopoly. I⁠ ⁠… I⁠ ⁠… tries to say something more, but with a wave of his hand goes out on left. Madame Arkadin What’s the matter with him? Sorin Irina, you really must have more consideration for youthful vanity, my dear. Madame Arkadin What did I say to him? Sorin You hurt his feelings. Madame Arkadin He told us beforehand that it was a joke, and I regarded his play as a joke. Sorin All the same⁠ ⁠… Madame Arkadin Now it appears that he has written a great work. What next! So he has got up this performance and smothered us with sulphur not as a joke but as a protest.⁠ ⁠… He wanted to show us how to write and what to act. This is getting tiresome! These continual sallies at my expense⁠—these continual pinpricks would put anyone out of patience, say what you like. He is a vain, whimsical boy! Sorin He meant to give you pleasure.