Selected plays

Petty, vulgar creature: Lit., Meshchanka!, a female member of the petty bourgeoisie; since Andrey (and his sisters) are members of the gentry, Andrey has married beneath his class

three-horse sleigh: a troika

O fallacem...: O delusive hope of man! Act III

Act III: Bristow suggests the act begins between 2 and 3 a.m. during the summer of 1900

Behind the scenes a bell is ringing: A jarring noise made by a provincial church bell; Chekhov was particularly concerned with the sounds in Act III; in a letter he wrote that the only noise is off in the distance, off stage, vague and muffled, and everyone on stage is tired and sleepy

know where father is: Lit., Papasha, an affectionate form of address to an elderly man

In 1812 Moscow was burnt too: When the French under Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, the people of Moscow burned the city rather than let it fall into enemy hands

baby Sophie: Lit., Sofochka, Natasha's second child

The vulgarity!: The Russian word used here is poshlost', which has no English equivalent; Nabokov has suggested that it is 'not only the obviously trashy but also the falsely important, the falsely beautiful, the falsely clever, the falsely attractive.'

In vino veritas: There is truth in wine

May I offer you this fig?: In a letter Chekhov wrote that the song was from an operetta he once heard, but he could not recall its name

Young and old are bound by love, and precious are its pangs: An aria sung by Prince Gremin in Act III of Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin

Tram-tam-tam: In a letter Chekhov wrote that Vershinin says the words 'Tram-tam-tam' as a kind of question and Masha answers in kind; Masha should say 'tram-tam' and start to laugh, but not loud, just a little, almost to herself

I may provoke the geese: Refers to Krylov's fable 'The Geese'

Amo, amas...: Masha declines the Latin verb 'love'

Omnia mea mecum porto: All I own is what I carry with me

Gogol's madman: Memoirs of a Madman (1835)

your honour, to you: Lit., 'your worship'; Andrey wants to be addressed according to his rank, but Ferapont responds with a title of a higher rank

Zemstvo: A local council

you get a pension: A military pension because of their father's service Act IV

Act IV: Bristow suggests that this act begins at noon in the autumn of 1900

kochany: Polish for sweetheart

modus vivendi: mode of living

thinking it was a Latin word: The joke is that the Russian word for nonsense, chepukha, when written in Cyrillic cursive can be read as renixa in Latin

My heart of gold: In later editions Chekhov replaced this with: You've gone on far ahead, I won't catch up with you. I'm left behind like a migrant bird grown old and unable to fly. Fly, my dear, fly, and God be with you! [a pause] It's a pity you shaved your moustache, Fyodor Ilyich.

KULYGIN. Oh, drop it! [sighs]

ut consecutivum: A Latin grammar term