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The Live Corpse, a play by Leo Tolstoy |
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Act 1 Scene 1 |
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_ ACT I SCENE I [Protasov's[1] flat in Moscow. The scene represents a small dining-room.] NOTE 1: Protasov is his family name, but the name by which he is usually addressed is Fedya, an abbreviation of his Christian name--Theodore. The ceremonious form of address would be Theodore Vasilyevich. [Anna Pavlovna, a stout grey-haired lady, tightly laced, is sitting alone at the tea-table on which is a samovar. Enter nurse, carrying a teapot.] NURSE. May I have a little hot water, ma'am? ANNA PAVLOVNA. Yes. How's Baby? NURSE. He's restless.... There's nothing worse than for a lady to nurse her baby herself! She has her troubles, and the child must suffer. What can her milk be like, when she lies awake crying all night? ANNA PAVLOVNA. But she seems quieter now. NURSE. Quiet, indeed! It makes one ill to see her. She's been writing something, and crying. [Enter Sasha.] SASHA [to Nurse] Lisa is looking for you. NURSE. I'm coming, I'm coming. [Exit]. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Nurse says she keeps on crying.... Why can't she control herself? SASHA. Well really, mother, you are amazing!... A woman has left her husband, her child's father, and you expect her to be calm! ANNA PAVLOVNA. Well, not calm ... But what's done is done! If I, her mother, not only allowed my daughter to leave her husband, but am even glad she has done it, that shows he deserved it. One ought to rejoice, not to grieve, at the chance of freeing oneself from such a bad man! SASHA. Mother, why say such things? You know it's not true! He's not bad--but on the contrary, he's a wonderful man, in spite of his weaknesses. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Yes indeed, a "wonderful" man--as soon as he has money in his pocket--his own or other people's.... SASHA. Mother! He has never taken other people's! ANNA PAVLOVNA. Yes he has--his wife's! Where's the difference? SASHA. But he gave all his property to his wife! ANNA PAVLOVNA. Of course, when he knew that otherwise he was sure to squander it all! SASHA. Squander or not, I only know that a wife must not separate from her husband, especially from such a one as Fedya. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Then, in your opinion she ought to wait till he has squandered everything, and brought his gipsy mistresses into the house? SASHA. He has no mistresses! ANNA PAVLOVNA. That's the misfortune--he seems to have bewitched you all! But not me--no! He won't come over me! I see through him, and he knows it. Had I been in Lisa's place I should have left him a year ago. SASHA. How lightly you say it! ANNA PAVLOVNA. Not lightly at all. It's not a light thing for me, as a mother, to see my daughter divorced. Believe me it's not! But yet it is better than ruining a young life.... No, I'm thankful to God that she has at last made up her mind, and that it is all over. SASHA. Perhaps it's not all over! ANNA PAVLOVNA. Oh! If he only consents to a divorce.... SASHA. What good will that do? ANNA PAVLOVNA. This good; that she is young, and may again be happy. SASHA. Oh mother! It's dreadful to hear you speak so! Lisa can't love another. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Why not, when she's free? Many a man a thousand times better than your Fedya might turn up who would be only too happy to marry Lisa. SASHA. Mother, it's not right! I know you're thinking of Victor Karenin.... ANNA PAVLOVNA. And why shouldn't I? He has loved her these ten years, and she loves him. SASHA. Yes, but not as a husband! They have been friends from childhood. ANNA PAVLOVNA. We know those friendships! If only the obstacles were out of the way! [Enter Maid.] ANNA PAVLOVNA. What is it? MAID. The mistress has sent the porter with a note for Mr. Karenin. ANNA PAVLOVNA. What mistress? MAID. _Our_ mistress--Mrs. Protasova. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Well? MAID. Mr. Karenin has sent back word that he will come round at once. ANNA PAVLOVNA [surprised] We were just speaking of him! Only I can't think why ... [to Sasha] Do you know? SASHA. Perhaps I do, and perhaps I don't! ANNA PAVLOVNA. You always have secrets! SASHA. Lisa will tell you herself when she comes. ANNA PAVLOVNA [shakes her head. To Maid] The samovar must be made to boil again. Take it, Dounyasha. [Maid takes samovar, and exit.] ANNA PAVLOVNA [to Sasha who has risen and is going out] It turns out just as I told you! She sent for him at once.... SASHA. She may have sent for him for quite a different reason. ANNA PAVLOVNA. What for, then? SASHA. Now, at this moment, Karenin is the same to her as old Nurse TrIfonovna. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Well, you'll see.... Don't I know her? She has sent for him to comfort her. SASHA. Oh mother, how little you know her, to be able to suppose ...! ANNA PAVLOVNA. Well, we'll see!... And I am very, very glad. SASHA. We _shall_ see! [Exit, humming a tune]. ANNA PAVLOVNA [alone, shakes her head and mutters] It's all right, it's all right! [Enter Maid.] MAID. Mr. Karenin has come. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Well then, show him in, and tell your mistress. [Maid exit by inner door. Enter Karenin, who bows to Anna Pavlovna.] KARENIN. Your daughter wrote to me to come. I meant to come and see you to-night, anyhow. So I was very pleased ... Is Elisabeth Andreyevna[2] well? [NOTE[2] Elisabeth Andreyevna is the polite way of speaking of Mrs. Protasova, otherwise Lisa.] ANNA PAVLOVNA. Yes, she is well, but Baby is a bit restless. She will be here directly. [In a melancholy voice] Ah yes! It is a sad time.... But you know all about it, don't you? KARENIN. I do. I was here, you know, the day before yesterday, when his letter came. But is it possible that everything is irrevocably settled? ANNA PAVLOVNA. Why of course! Naturally! To go through it all again would be intolerable. KARENIN. This is a case where the proverb applies: "Measure ten times before you cut once." ... It is very painful to cut into the quick. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Of course it is; but then their marriage has long had a rift in it, so that the tearing asunder was easier than one would have thought. He himself sees that, after what has occurred, it is impossible for him to return. KARENIN. Why so? ANNA PAVLOVNA. How can you expect it, after all his horrid goings-on--after he swore it should not happen again, and that if it did he would renounce all rights as a husband and set her perfectly free? KARENIN. Yes, but how can a woman be free when she is bound by marriage? ANNA PAVLOVNA. By divorce. He promised her a divorce, and we shall insist on it. KARENIN. Yes, but Elisabeth Andreyevna loved him so.... ANNA PAVLOVNA. Ah, but her love has suffered such trials that there can hardly be anything left of it! Drunkenness, deception, and infidelity ... Can one love such a husband? KARENIN. Nothing is impossible to love. ANNA PAVLOVNA. You talk of love! But how can one love such a man--a broken reed, whom one can never depend on? Don't you know what it came to ...? [Looks round at the door, and continues hurriedly] All his affairs in a muddle, everything pawned, nothing to pay with! Then their uncle sends 2,000 roubles to pay the interest on their mortgaged estates, and he takes the money and disappears. His wife is left at home, with a sick baby, waiting for him--and at last gets a note asking her to send him his clothes and things! KARENIN. Yes, yes; I know. [Enter Lisa and Sasha.] ANNA PAVLOVNA. Well, here is Victor Mihaylovich,[3] obedient to your summons. [NOTE 3: The polite way of naming Mr. Karenin.]
KARENIN. Yes, but I am sorry I was delayed for a few minutes. LISA. Thank you. I have a great favour to ask of you, and I have no one to turn to but you. KARENIN. Anything in my power ... LISA. You know all about ...? KARENIN. I do. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Well then, I shall leave you [To Sasha] Come, we'll leave them alone. [Exit with Sasha]. LISA. Yes, he wrote to me saying that he considers everything at an end ... [struggling with her tears] ... and I was hurt!... and so ... In a word, I consented to break--I answered, accepting his renunciation. KARENIN. And now you repent? LISA. Yes. I feel that I was wrong, and that I cannot do it. Anything is better than to be separated from him. In short--I want you to give him this letter.... Please, Victor, give him the letter, and tell him ... and bring him back! KARENIN [surprised] Yes, but how? LISA. Tell him I ask him to forget everything, and to return. I might simply send the letter, but I know him: his first impulse, as always, will be the right one--but then someone will influence him, and he'll change his mind and not do what he really wants to.... KARENIN. I will do what I can. LISA. You're surprised at my asking _you_? KARENIN. No.... Yet, to tell you the truth--yes, I am surprised. LISA. But you are not angry? KARENIN. As if I could be angry with you! LISA. I asked you because I know you care for him. KARENIN. Him, and you too! You know that. I am thinking not of myself, but of you. Thank you for trusting me! I will do what I can. LISA. I know.... I will tell you everything. To-day I went to AfrEmov's to find out where he was. I was told he had gone to the gipsies--which is what I feared most of all. I know he will get carried away if he is not stopped in time--and that's what has to be done.... So you'll go? KARENIN. Of course, and at once. LISA. Go!... Find him, and tell him all is forgotten and I am waiting for him. KARENIN. But where am I to look for him? LISA. He is with the gipsies. I went there myself.... I went as far as the porch, and wished to send in the letter, but changed my mind and decided to ask you. Here is the address.... Well, then, tell him to return: tell him nothing has happened ... all is forgotten. Do it for love of him, and for the sake of our friendship! KARENIN. I will do all in my power! [Bows, and exit]. LISA. I can't, I can't! Anything rather than ... I can't! [Enter Sasha.] SASHA. Well, have you sent? [Lisa nods affirmatively.] SASHA. And he agreed? LISA. Of course. SASHA. But why just _him_? I don't understand. LISA. But who else? SASHA. Don't you know he is in love with you? LISA. That's dead and gone. Whom would you have had me send?... Do you think he _will_ come back? SASHA. I am sure of it, because ... [Enter Anna Pavlovna. Sasha is silent.] ANNA PAVLOVNA. And where is Victor Mihaylovich? LISA. He's gone. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Gone! How's that? LISA. I asked him to do something for me. ANNA PAVLOVNA. "Do something?" Another secret! LISA. It's not a secret. I simply asked him to give a letter into FEdya's own hands. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Fedya? What--to Theodore Vasilyevich? LISA. Yes, to Fedya. ANNA PAVLOVNA. I thought all relations between you were over! LISA. I can't part from him. ANNA PAVLOVNA. What? Are you going to begin all over again? LISA. I wanted to, and tried ... but I can't! Anything you like--only I can't part from him! ANNA PAVLOVNA. Then do you want to have him back again? LISA. Yes. ANNA PAVLOVNA. To let that skunk into the house again? LISA. Mother, I beg you not to speak so of my husband! ANNA PAVLOVNA. He _was_ your husband. LISA. No, he is my husband still. ANNA PAVLOVNA. A spendthrift, a drunkard, a rake ... and you can't part from him? LISA. Why do you torment me! You seem to want to do it.... It's hard enough for me without that. ANNA PAVLOVNA. I torment you! Well then, I'll go. I can't stand by and see it.... [Lisa is silent.] ANNA PAVLOVNA. I see! That's just what you want--I'm in your way.... I can't live so. I can't make you out at all! It's all so new-fangled--first you make up your mind to separate, then you suddenly send for a man who is in love with you ... LISA. Nothing of the kind. ANNA PAVLOVNA. Karenin proposed to you ... and you send him to fetch your husband! Why? To arouse jealousy? LISA. Mother, what you are saying is terrible! Leave me alone! ANNA PAVLOVNA. Very well! Turn your mother out of the house, and let in your rake of a husband!... Yes, I will not remain here! Good-bye, then--I leave you to your fate; you can do as you please! [Exit slamming door]. LISA [drops into a chair] That's the last straw! SASHA. Never mind.... It will be all right; we'll soon pacify Mother. ANNA PAVLOVNA [passing through] Dounyasha! My trunk! SASHA. Mother, listen!... [follows her out with a significant glance to Lisa]. [Curtain.] _ |
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