strongest and most interesting actors, there are left only the mediocrities. The death of the actor is awful; it is as though you gave the spectator a sudden box on the ear apropos of nothing without preparing him in any way. How the baron got into the doss-house and why he is a baron is also not sufficiently clear.
* * * * *
Andreyev's 'Thought' is something pretentious, difficult to understand, and apparently no good, but it is worked out with talent. Andreyev has no simplicity, and his talent reminds me of an artificial nightingale. Skitalets now is a sparrow, but he is a real living sparrow....
TO S. P. DYAGILEV.
YALTA, December 30, 1902.
... You write that we talked of a serious religious movement in Russia. We talked of a movement not in Russia but in the intellectual class. I won't say anything about Russia; the intellectuals so far are only playing at religion, and for the most part from having nothing to do. One may say of the cultured part of our public that it has moved away from religion, and is moving further and further away from it, whatever people may say and however many philosophical and religious societies may be formed. Whether it is a good or a bad thing I cannot undertake to decide; I will only say that the religious movement of which you write is one thing, and the whole trend of modern culture is another, and one cannot place the second in any causal connection with the first. Modern culture is only the first beginning of work for a great future, work which will perhaps go on for tens of thousands of years, in order that man may if only in the remote future come to know the truth of the real God--that is not, I conjecture, by seeking in Dostoevsky, but by clear knowledge, as one knows twice two are four. Modern culture is the first beginning of the work, while the religious movement of which we talked is a survival, almost the end of what has ceased, or is ceasing to exist. But it is a long story, one can't put it all into a letter....
TO A. S. SUVORIN.
MOSCOW, June 29, 1903.
... One feels a warm sympathy, of course, for Gorky's letter about the Kishinev pogrom, as one does for everything he writes; the letter is not written though, but put together, there is neither youthfulness in it nor confidence, like Tolstoy's.
* * * * *
July 1, 1903.
You are reading belles-lettres now, so read Veresaev's stories. Begin with a little story in the second volume called 'Lizar.' I think you will be very much pleased with it. Veresaev is a doctor; I have got to know him lately. He makes a very good impression....
TO S. P. DYAGILEV.
YALTA, July 12, 1903.
... I have been thinking over your letter for a long time, and alluring as your suggestion or offer is, yet in the end I must answer it as neither you nor I would wish.
I cannot be the editor of
Don't be cross with me, dear Sergey Pavlovitch: it seems to me that if you go on editing the magazine for another five years you will come to agree with me. A magazine, like a picture or a poem, must bear the stamp of one personality and one will must be felt in it. This has been hitherto the case in the
TO K. S. STANISLAVSKY.
YALTA, July 28, 1903.
... My play 'The Cherry Orchard' is not yet finished; it makes slow progress, which I put down to laziness, fine weather, and the difficulty of the subject....
I think your part [Translator's Note: Stanislavsky acted Lopahin.] is all right, though I can't undertake to decide, as I can judge very little of a play by reading it....
TO MADAME STANISLAVSKY.
YALTA, September 15, 1903.
... Don't believe anybody--no living soul has read my play yet; I have written for you not the part of a 'canting hypocrite,' but of a very nice girl, with which you will, I hope, be satisfied. I have almost finished the play, but eight or ten days ago I was taken ill, with coughing and weakness--in fact, last year's business over again. Now--that is to-day--it is warmer and I feel better, but still I cannot write, as my head is aching. Olga will not bring the play; I will send the four acts together as soon as it is possible for me to set to work for a whole day. It has turned out not a drama, but a comedy, in parts a farce, indeed, and I am afraid I shall catch it from Vladimir Ivanitch [Footnote: Nemirovitch Dantchenko.]....
I can't come for the opening of your season, I must stay in Yalta till November. Olga, who has grown fatter and stronger in the summer, will probably come to Moscow on Sunday. I shall remain alone, and of course shall take advantage of that. As a writer it is essential for me to observe women, to study them, and so, I regret to say, I cannot be a faithful husband. As I observe women chiefly for the sake of my plays, in my opinion the Art Theatre ought to increase my wife's salary or give her a pension! ...
TO K. S. STANISLAVSKY.
YALTA, October 30, 1903.
... Many thanks for your letter and telegram. Letters are very precious to me now--in the first place, because I am utterly alone here; and in the second, because I sent the play three weeks ago and only got your letter yesterday, and if it were not for my wife, I should know nothing at all and might imagine any mortal thing. When I was writing Lopahin, I thought of it as a part for you. If for any reason you don't care for it, take the part of Gaev. Lopahin is a merchant, of course, but he is a very decent person in every sense. He must behave with perfect decorum, like an educated man, with no petty ways or tricks of any sort, and it seemed to me this part, the central one of the play, would come out brilliantly in your hands.... In choosing an actor for the part you must remember that Varya, a serious and religious girl, is in love with Lopahin; she wouldn't be in love with a mere money- grubber....
TO V. I. NEMIROVITCH DANTCHENKO.
YALTA, November 2, 1903.
... About the play.
1. Anya can be played by anyone you like, even by a quite unknown actress, so long as she is young and looks like a girl, and speaks in a youthful singing voice. It is not an important part.
(2) Varya is a more serious part.... She is a character in a black dress, something of a nun, foolish, tearful, etc.
... Gorky is younger than you or I, he has his life before him.... As for the Nizhni theatre, that's a mere episode; Gorky will try it, 'sniff it and reject it.' And while we are on this subject, the whole idea of a 'people's' theatre and 'people's' literature is foolishness and lollipops for the people. We mustn't bring Gogol down to the people but raise the people up to Gogol....
TO A. L. VISHNEVSKY.
YALTA, November 7, 1903.
