Selected plays

honour . . . excuse me, sir, I've forgotten your name. . . .

MASHA. Bring it here, nanny, I'm not going there.

IRINA. Nanny!

ANFISA. I'm coming!

NATASHA [to SOLYONY] Little babies understand very well. 'Good morning, Bobik, good morning, darling,' I said. He looked at me in quite a special way. You think I say that because I'm a mother, but no, I assure you! He's an extraordinary child.

SOLYONY. If that child were mine, I'd fry him in a frying pan and eat him. [Takes his glass, comes into the drawing-room and sits down in a corner.]

NATASHA [covers her face with her hands]. Rude, ill-bred man!

MASHA. Happy people don't notice whether it is winter or summer. I think if I lived in Moscow I wouldn't mind what the weather was like, . . .

VERSHININ. The other day I was reading the diary of a French minister written in prison. The minister was condemned for the Panama affair. With what enthusiasm and delight he describes the birds he sees from the prison window, which he never noticed before when he was a minister. Now that he's released, of course he notices birds no more than he did before. In the same way, you won't notice Moscow when you live in it. We have no happiness and never do have, we only long for it.

TUZENBAKH [takes a box from the table]. What has become of the sweets?

IRINA. Solyony has eaten them.

TUZENBAKH. All?

ANFISA [serving tea]. There's a letter for you, sir.

VERSHININ. For me? [Takes the letter.] From my daughter [reads]. Yes, of course, . . . Excuse me, Marya Sergeyevna, I'll slip away. I won't have tea [gets up in agitation]. Always these upsets. . . .

MASHA. What is it? Not a secret?

VERSHININ [in a low voice]. My wife has taken poison again. I must go. I'll slip off unnoticed. Horribly unpleasant it all is. [Kisses MASHA'S hand] My fine, dear, splendid woman. . . . I'll go this way without being seen . . . [goes out].

ANFISA. Where is he off to? I've just given him his tea. . . What a man.

MASHA [getting angry]. Leave me alone! Don't pester, you give me no peace . . . [goes with her cup to the table]. You bother me, old lady.

ANFISA. Why are you so huffy? Darling!

[Andrey's voice: 'Anfisa!']

ANFISA [mimicking]. Anfisa! He sits there. . . . [goes out].

MASHA [by the table in the dining-room, angrily]. Let me sit down! [Mixes the cards on the table.] You take up all the table with your cards . Drink your tea!

IRINA. How mean you are, Masha!

MASHA. If I'm mean, don't talk to me. Don't interfere with me.

CHEBUTYKIN [laughing]. Don't interfere, don't interfere!

MASHA. You're sixty years old, but you talk rot like a schoolboy, just to raise hell.

NATASHA [sighs]. Dear Masha, why make