Act I

A room, which has always been called the nursery. One of the doors leads into Anya’s room. Dawn, sun rises during the scene. May, the cherry trees in flower, but it is cold in the garden with the frost of early morning. Windows closed.

Enter Dunyasha with a candle and Lopahin with a book in his hand.
Lopahin The train’s in, thank God. What time is it?
Dunyasha Nearly two o’clock puts out the candle. It’s daylight already.
Lopahin The train’s late! Two hours, at least yawns and stretches. I’m a pretty one; what a fool I’ve been. Came here on purpose to meet them at the station and dropped asleep.⁠ ⁠… Dozed off as I sat in the chair. It’s annoying.⁠ ⁠… You might have waked me.
Dunyasha I thought you had gone listens. There, I do believe they’re coming!
Lopahin Listens. No, what with the luggage and one thing and another a pause. Lyubov Andreyevna has been abroad five years; I don’t know what she is like now.⁠ ⁠… She’s a splendid woman. A good-natured, kindhearted woman. I remember when I was a lad of fifteen, my poor father⁠—he used to keep a little shop here in the village in those days⁠—gave me a punch in the face with his fist and made my nose bleed. We were in the yard here, I forget what we’d come about⁠—he had had a drop. Lyubov Andreyevna⁠—I can see her now⁠—she was a slim young girl then⁠—took me to wash my face, and then brought me into this very room, into the nursery. “Don’t cry, little peasant,” says she, “it will be well in time for your wedding day”⁠ ⁠… a pause. Little peasant.⁠ ⁠… My father was a peasant, it’s true, but here am I in a white waistcoat and brown shoes, like a pig in a bun shop. Yes, I’m a rich man, but for all my money, come to think, a peasant I was, and a peasant I am turns over the pages of the book. I’ve been reading this book and I can’t make head or tail of it. I fell asleep over it a pause.
Dunyasha The dogs have been awake all night, they feel that the mistress is coming.
Lopahin Why, what’s the matter with you, Dunyasha?
Dunyasha My hands are all of a tremble. I feel as though I should faint.
Lopahin You’re a spoilt soft creature, Dunyasha. And dressed like a lady too, and your hair done up. That’s not the thing. One must know one’s place.
Enter Epihodov with a nosegay; he wears a pea-jacket and highly polished creaking top-boots; he drops the nosegay as he comes in.
Epihodov Picking up the nosegay. Here! the gardener’s sent this, says you’re to put it in the dining-room gives Dunyasha the nosegay.
Lopahin And bring me some kvass.
Dunyasha I will goes out.
Epihodov It’s chilly this morning, three degrees of frost, though the cherries are all in flower. I can’t say much for our climate sighs. I can’t. Our climate is not often propitious to the occasion. Yermolay Alexeyevitch, permit me to call your attention to the fact that I purchased myself a pair of boots the day before yesterday, and they creak, I venture to assure you, so that there’s no tolerating them. What ought I to grease them with?
Lopahin Oh, shut up! Don’t bother me.
Epihodov Every day some misfortune befalls me. I don’t complain, I’m used to it, and I wear a smiling face.
Dunyasha comes in, hands Lopahin the kvass.
Epihodov I am going stumbles against a chair, which falls over. There! As though triumphant. There you see now, excuse the expression, an accident like that among others.⁠ ⁠… It’s positively remarkable goes out.
Dunyasha Do you know, Yermolay Alexeyevitch, I must confess, Epihodov has made me a proposal.
Lopahin Ah!
Dunyasha I’m sure I don’t know.⁠ ⁠… He’s a harmless fellow, but sometimes when he begins talking, there’s no making anything of it. It’s all very fine and expressive, only there’s no understanding it. I’ve a sort of liking for him too. He loves me to distraction. He’s an unfortunate man; every day there’s something. They tease him about it⁠—two and twenty misfortunes they call him.
Lopahin Listening. There! I do believe they’re coming.
Dunyasha They are coming! What’s the matter with me?⁠ ⁠… I’m cold all over.
Lopahin They really are coming. Let’s go and meet them. Will she know me? It’s five years since I saw her.
Dunyasha In a flutter. I shall drop this very minute.⁠ ⁠… Ah, I shall drop.
There is a sound of two carriages driving up to the house. Lopahin and Dunyasha go out quickly. The stage is left empty. A noise is heard in the adjoining rooms. Firs, who has driven to meet Madame Ranevsky, crosses the stage hurriedly leaning on a stick. He is wearing old-fashioned livery and a high hat. He says something to himself, but not a word can be distinguished. The noise behind the scenes goes on increasing. A voice: “Come, let’s go in here.” Enter Lyubov Andreyevna, Anya, and Charlotta Ivanonva with a pet dog on a chain, all in travelling dresses, Varya in an outdoor coat with a kerchief over her head, Gaev, Semyonov-Pishtchik, Lopahin, Dunyasha with bag and parasol, servants with other articles. All walk across the room.
Anya Let’s come in here. Do you remember what room this is, mamma?
Lyubov Joyfully, through her tears. The nursery!
Varya How cold it is, my hands are numb. To Lyubov Andreyevna. Your rooms, the white room and the lavender one, are just the same as ever, mamma.
Lyubov My nursery, dear delightful room.⁠ ⁠… I used to sleep here when I was little⁠ ⁠… cries. And here I am, like a little child⁠ ⁠… kisses her brother and Varya, and then her brother again. Varya’s just the same as ever, like a nun. And I knew Dunyasha kisses Dunyasha.
Gaev The train was two hours late. What do you think of that? Is that the way to do things?
Charlotta To Pishtchik. My dog eats nuts, too.
Pishtchik Wonderingly. Fancy that!
They all go out except Anya and Dunyasha.
Dunyasha We’ve been expecting you so long takes Anya’s hat and coat.
Anya I haven’t slept for four nights on the journey. I feel dreadfully cold.
Dunyasha You set out in Lent, there was snow and frost, and now? My darling! Laughs and kisses her. I have missed you, my precious, my joy. I must tell you⁠ ⁠… I can’t put it off a minute.⁠ ⁠…
Anya Wearily. What now?
Dunyasha Epihodov, the clerk, made me a proposal just after Easter.
Anya It’s always the same thing with you⁠ ⁠… straightening her hair. I’ve lost all my hairpins⁠ ⁠… she is staggering from exhaustion.
Dunyasha I don’t know what to think, really. He does love me, he does love me so!
Anya Looking towards her door, tenderly. My own room, my windows just as though I had never gone away. I’m home! Tomorrow morning I shall get up and run into the garden.⁠ ⁠… Oh, if I could get to sleep! I haven’t slept all the journey, I was so anxious and worried.
Dunyasha Pyotr Sergeyevitch came the day before yesterday.
Anya Joyfully. Petya!
Dunyasha He’s asleep in the bath house, he has settled in there. I’m afraid of being in their way, says he. Glancing at her watch. I was to have waked him, but Varvara Mihalovna told me not to. Don’t you wake him, says she.
Enter Varya with a bunch of keys at her waist.
Varya Dunyasha, coffee and make haste.⁠ ⁠… Mamma’s asking for coffee.
Dunyasha This very minute goes out.
Varya Well, thank God, you’ve come. You’re home again petting her. My little darling has come back! My precious beauty has come back again!
Anya I have had a time of it!
Varya I can fancy!
Anya We set off in Holy Week⁠—it was so cold then, and all the way Charlotta would talk and show off her tricks. What did you want to burden me with Charlotta for?
Varya You couldn’t have travelled all alone, darling. At seventeen!
Anya We got to Paris at last, it was cold there⁠—snow. I speak French shockingly. Mamma lives on the fifth floor, I went up to her, and there were a lot of French people, ladies, an old priest with a book. The place smelt of tobacco and so comfortless. I felt sorry, oh! so sorry for mamma all at once, I put my arms round her neck, and hugged her and wouldn’t let her go. Mamma was as kind as she could be, and she cried.⁠ ⁠…
Varya Through her tears. Don’t speak of it, don’t speak of it!
Anya She had sold her villa at Mentone, she had nothing left, nothing. I hadn’t a farthing left either, we only just had enough to get here. And mamma doesn’t understand! When we had dinner at the stations, she always ordered the most expensive things and gave the waiters a whole rouble. Charlotta’s just the same. Yasha too must have the same as we do; it’s simply awful. You know Yasha is mamma’s valet now, we brought him here with us.
Varya Yes, I’ve seen the young rascal.
Anya Well, tell me⁠—have you paid the arrears on the mortgage?
Varya How could we get the money?
Anya Oh, dear! Oh, dear!
Varya In August the place will be sold.
Anya My goodness!
Lopahin Peeps in at the door and moo’s like a cow. Moo! Disappears.
Varya Weeping. There, that’s what I could do to him shakes her fist.
Anya Embracing Varya, softly. Varya, has he made you an offer? Varya shakes her head. Why, but he loves you. Why is it you don’t come to an understanding? What are you waiting for?
Varya I believe that there never will be anything between us. He has a lot to do, he has no time for me⁠ ⁠… and takes no notice of me. Bless the man, it makes me miserable to see him.⁠ ⁠… Everyone’s talking of our being married, everyone’s congratulating me, and all the while there’s really nothing in it; it’s all like a dream. In another tone. You have a new brooch like a bee.
Anya Mournfully. Mamma bought it. Goes into her own room and in a lighthearted childish tone. And you know, in Paris I went up in a balloon!
Varya My darling’s home again! My pretty is home again!
Dunyasha returns with the coffeepot and is making the coffee.
Varya Standing at the door. All day long, darling, as I go about looking after the house, I keep dreaming all the time. If only we could marry you to a rich man, then I should feel more at rest. Then I would go off by myself on a pilgrimage to Kiev, to Moscow⁠ ⁠… and so I would spend my life going from one holy place to another.⁠ ⁠… I would go on and on.⁠ ⁠… What bliss!
Anya The birds are singing in the garden. What time is it?
Varya It must be nearly three. It’s time you were asleep, darling going into Anya’s room. What bliss!
Yasha enters with a rug and a travelling bag.
Yasha Crosses the stage, mincingly. May one come in here, pray?
Dunyasha I shouldn’t have known you, Yasha. How you have changed abroad.
Yasha H’m!⁠ ⁠… And who are you?
Dunyasha When you went away, I was that high shows distance from floor. Dunyasha, Fyodor’s daughter.⁠ ⁠… You don’t remember me!
Yasha H’m!⁠ ⁠… You’re a peach! Looks round and embraces her: she shrieks and drops a saucer. Yasha goes out hastily.
Varya In the doorway, in a tone of vexation. What now?
Dunyasha Through her tears. I have broken a saucer.
Varya Well, that brings good luck.
Anya Coming out of her room. We ought to prepare mamma: Petya is here.
Varya I told them not to wake him.
Anya Dreamily. It’s six years since father died. Then only a month later little brother Grisha was drowned in the river, such a pretty boy he was, only seven. It was more than mamma could bear, so she went away, went away without looking back shuddering.⁠ ⁠… How well I understand her, if only she knew! A pause. And Petya Trofimov was Grisha’s tutor, he may remind her.
Enter Firs: he is wearing a pea-jacket and a white waistcoat.
Firs Goes up to the coffe-pot, anxiously. The mistress will be served here puts on white gloves. Is the coffee ready? Sternly to Dunyasha. Girl! Where’s the cream?
Dunyasha Ah, mercy on us! Goes out quickly.
Firs Fussing round the coffeepot. Ech! you good-for-nothing! Muttering to himself. Come back from Paris. And the old master used to go to Paris too⁠ ⁠… horses all the way laughs.
Varya What is it, Firs?
Firs What is your pleasure? Gleefully. My lady has come home! I have lived to see her again! Now I can die weeps with joy.
Enter Lyubov Andreyevna, Gaev and Semyonov-Pishtchik; the latter is in a short-waisted full coat of fine cloth, and full trousers. Gaev, as he comes in, makes a gesture with his arms and his whole body, as though he were playing billiards.
Lyubov How does it go? Let me remember. Cannon off the red!
Gaev That’s it⁠—in off the white! Why, once, sister, we used to sleep together in this very room, and now I’m fifty-one, strange as it seems.
Lopahin Yes, time flies.
Gaev What do you say?
Lopahin Time, I say, flies.
Gaev What a smell of patchouli!
Anya I’m going to bed. Good night, mamma kisses her mother.
Lyubov My precious darling kisses her hands. Are you glad to be home? I can’t believe it.
Anya Good night, uncle.
Gaev Kissing her face and hands. God bless you! How like you are to your mother! To his sister. At her age you were just the same, Lyuba.
Anya shakes hands with Lopahin and Pishtchik, then goes out, shutting the door after her.
Lyubov She’s quite worn out.
Pishtchik Aye, it’s a long journey, to be sure.
Varya To Lopahin and Pishtchik. Well, gentlemen? It’s three o’clock and time to say goodbye.
Lyubov Laughs. You’re just the same as ever, Varya draws her to her and kisses her. I’ll just drink my coffee and then we will all go and rest. Firs puts a cushion under her feet. Thanks, friend. I am so fond of coffee, I drink it day and night. Thanks, dear old man kisses Firs.
Varya I’ll just see whether all the things have been brought in goes out.
Lyubov Can it really be me sitting here? Laughs. I want to dance about and clap my hands. Covers her face with her hands. And I could drop asleep in a moment! God knows I love my country, I love it tenderly; I couldn’t look out of the window in the train, I kept crying so. Through her tears. But I must drink my coffee, though. Thank you, Firs, thanks, dear old man. I’m so glad to find you still alive.
Firs The day before yesterday.
Gaev He’s rather deaf.
Lopahin I have to set off for Harkov directly, at five o’clock.⁠ ⁠… It is annoying! I wanted to have a look at you, and a little talk.⁠ ⁠… You are just as splendid as ever.
Pishtchik Breathing heavily. Handsomer, indeed.⁠ ⁠… Dressed in Parisian style⁠ ⁠… completely bowled me over.
Lopahin Your brother, Leonid Andreyevitch here, is always saying that I’m a lowborn knave, that I’m a moneygrubber, but I don’t care one straw for that. Let him talk. Only I do want you to believe in me as you used to. I do want your wonderful tender eyes to look at me as they used to in the old days. Merciful God! My father was a serf of your father and of your grandfather, but you⁠—you⁠—did so much for me once, that I’ve forgotten all that; I love you as though you were my kin⁠ ⁠… more than my kin.
Lyubov I can’t sit still, I simply can’t⁠ ⁠… jumps up and walks about in violent agitation. This happiness is too much for me.⁠ ⁠… You may laugh at me, I know I’m silly.⁠ ⁠… My own bookcase kisses the bookcase. My little table.
Gaev Nurse died while you were away.
Lyubov Sits down and drinks coffee. Yes, the Kingdom of Heaven be hers! You wrote me of her death.
Gaev And Anastasy is dead. Squinting Petrushka has left me and is in service now with the police captain in the town takes a box of caramels out of his pocket and sucks one.
Pishtchik My daughter, Dashenka, wishes to be remembered to you.
Lopahin I want to tell you something very pleasant and cheering glancing at his watch. I’m going directly⁠ ⁠… there’s no time to say much⁠ ⁠… well, I can say it in a couple of words. I needn’t tell you your cherry orchard is to be sold to pay your debts; the 22nd of August is the date fixed for the sale; but don’t you worry, dearest lady, you may sleep in peace, there is a way of saving it.⁠ ⁠… This is what I propose. I beg your attention! Your estate is not twenty miles from the town, the railway runs close by it, and if the cherry orchard and the land along the river bank were cut up into building plots and then let on lease for summer villas, you would make an income of at least 25,000 roubles a year out of it.
Gaev That’s all rot, if you’ll excuse me.
Lyubov I don’t quite understand you, Yermolay Alexeyevitch.
Lopahin You will get a rent of at least twenty-five roubles a year for a three-acre plot from summer visitors, and if you say the word now, I’ll bet you what you like there won’t be one square foot of ground vacant by the autumn, all the plots will be taken up. I congratulate you; in fact, you are saved. It’s a perfect situation with that deep river. Only, of course, it must be cleared⁠—all the old buildings, for example, must be removed, this house too, which is really good for nothing, and the old cherry orchard must be cut down.
Lyubov Cut down? My dear fellow, forgive me, but you don’t know what you are talking about. If there is one thing interesting⁠—remarkable indeed⁠—in the whole province, it’s just our cherry orchard.
Lopahin The only thing remarkable about the orchard is that it’s a very large one. There’s a crop of cherries every alternate year, and then there’s nothing to be done with them, no one buys them.
Gaev This orchard is mentioned in the Encyclopaedia.
Lopahin Glancing at his watch. If we don’t decide on something and don’t take some steps, on the 22nd of August the cherry orchard and the whole estate too will be sold by auction. Make up your minds! There is no other way of saving it, I’ll take my oath on that. No, no!
Firs In old days, forty or fifty years ago, they used to dry the cherries, soak them, pickle them, make jam too, and they used⁠—
Gaev Be quiet, Firs.
Firs And they used to send the preserved cherries to Moscow and to Harkov by the wagon-load. That brought the money in! And the preserved cherries in those days were soft and juicy, sweet and fragrant.⁠ ⁠… They knew the way to do them then.⁠ ⁠…
Lyubov And where is the recipe now?
Firs It’s forgotten. Nobody remembers it.
Pishtchik To Lyubov Andreyevna. What’s it like in Paris? Did you eat frogs there?
Lyubov Oh, I ate crocodiles.
Pishtchik Fancy that now!
Lopahin There used to be only the gentlefolks and the peasants in the country, but now there are these summer visitors. All the towns, even the small ones, are surrounded nowadays by these summer villas. And one may say for sure, that in another twenty years there’ll be many more of these people and that they’ll be everywhere. At present the summer visitor only drinks tea in his verandah, but maybe he’ll take to working his bit of land too, and then your cherry orchard would become happy, rich and prosperous.⁠ ⁠…
Gaev Indignant. What rot!
Enter Varya and Yasha.
Varya There are two telegrams for you, mamma takes out keys and opens an old-fashioned bookcase with a loud crack. Here they are.
Lyubov From Paris tears the telegrams, without reading them. I have done with Paris.
Gaev Do you know, Lyuba, how old that bookcase is? Last week I pulled out the bottom drawer and there I found the date branded on it. The bookcase was made just a hundred years ago. What do you say to that? We might have celebrated its jubilee. Though it’s an inanimate object, still it is a book case.
Pishtchik Amazed. A hundred years! Fancy that now.
Gaev Yes.⁠ ⁠… It is a thing⁠ ⁠… feeling the bookcase. Dear, honoured, bookcase! Hail to thee who for more than a hundred years hast served the pure ideals of good and justice; thy silent call to fruitful labour has never flagged in those hundred years, maintaining in tears in the generations of man, courage and faith in a brighter future and fostering in us ideals of good and social consciousness a pause.
Lopahin Yes.⁠ ⁠…
Lyubov You are just the same as ever, Leonid.
Gaev A little embarassed. Cannon off the right into the pocket!
Lopahin Looking at his watch. Well, it’s time I was off.
Yasha Handing Lyubov Andreyevna medicine. Perhaps you will take your pills now.
Pishtchik You shouldn’t take medicines, my dear madam⁠ ⁠… they do no harm and no good. Give them here⁠ ⁠… honoured lady takes the pillbox, pours the pills into the hollow of his hand, blows on them, puts them in his mouth and drinks off some kvass. There!
Lyubov In alarm. Why, you must be out of your mind!
Pishtchik I have taken all the pills.
Lopahin What a glutton! All laugh.
Firs His honour stayed with us in Easter week, ate a gallon and a half of cucumbers⁠ ⁠… mutters.
Lyubov What is he saying?
Varya He has taken to muttering like that for the last three years. We are used to it.
Yasha His declining years!
Charlotta Ivanovna, a very thin, lanky figure in a white dress with a lorgnette in her belt, walks across the stage.
Lopahin I beg your pardon, Charlotta Ivanovna, I have not had time to greet you tries to kiss her hand.
Charlotta Pulling away her hand. If I let you kiss my hand, you’ll be wanting to kiss my elbow, and then my shoulder.
Lopahin I’ve no luck today! All laugh. Charlotta Ivanovna, show us some tricks!
Lyubov Charlotta, do show us some tricks!
Charlotta I don’t want to. I’m sleepy goes out.
Lopahin In three weeks’ time we shall meet again kisses Lyubov Andreyevna’s hand. Goodbye till then⁠—I must go. To Gaev. Goodbye. Kisses Pishtchik. Goodbye. Gives his hand to Varya, then to Firs and Yasha. I don’t want to go. To Lyubov Andreyevna. If you think over my plan for the villas and make up your mind, then let me know; I will lend you 50,000 roubles. Think of it seriously.
Varya Angrily. Well, do go, for goodness sake.
Lopahin I’m going, I’m going goes out.
Gaev Lowborn knave! I beg pardon, though⁠ ⁠… Varya is going to marry him, he’s Varya’s fiancé.
Varya Don’t talk nonsense, uncle.
Lyubov Well, Varya, I shall be delighted. He’s a good man.
Pishtchik He is, one must acknowledge, a most worthy man. And my Dashenka⁠ ⁠… says too that⁠ ⁠… she says⁠ ⁠… various things snores, but at once wakes up. But all the same, honoured lady, could you oblige me⁠ ⁠… with a loan of 240 roubles⁠ ⁠… to pay the interest on my mortgage tomorrow?
Varya Dismayed. No, no.
Lyubov I really haven’t any money.
Pishtchik It will turn up laughs. I never lose hope. I thought everything was over, I was a ruined man, and lo and behold⁠—the railway passed through my land and⁠ ⁠… they paid me for it. And something else will turn up again, if not today, then tomorrow⁠ ⁠… Dashenka’ll win two hundred thousand⁠ ⁠… she’s got a lottery ticket.
Lyubov Well, we’ve finished our coffee, we can go to bed.
Firs Brushes Gaev, reprovingly. You have got on the wrong trousers again! What am I to do with you?
Varya Softly. Anya’s asleep. Softly opens the window. Now the sun’s risen, it’s not a bit cold. Look, mamma, what exquisite trees! My goodness! And the air! The starlings are singing!
Gaev Opens another window. The orchard is all white. You’ve not forgotten it, Lyuba? That long avenue that runs straight, straight as an arrow, how it shines on a moonlight night. You remember? You’ve not forgotten?
Lyubov Looking out of the window into the garden. Oh, my childhood, my innocence! It was in this nursery I used to sleep, from here I looked out into the orchard, happiness waked with me every morning and in those days the orchard was just the same, nothing has changed laughs with delight. All, all white! Oh, my orchard! After the dark gloomy autumn, and the cold winter; you are young again, and full of happiness, the heavenly angels have never left you.⁠ ⁠… If I could cast off the burden that weighs on my heart, if I could forget the past!
Gaev H’m! and the orchard will be sold to pay our debts; it seems strange.⁠ ⁠…
Lyubov See, our mother walking⁠ ⁠… all in white, down the avenue! Laughs with delight. It is she!
Gaev Where?
Varya Oh, don’t, mamma!
Lyubov There is no one. It was my fancy. On the right there, by the path to the arbour, there is a white tree bending like a woman.⁠ ⁠…
Enter Trofimov wearing a shabby student’s uniform and spectacles.
Lyubov What a ravishing orchard! White masses of blossom, blue sky.⁠ ⁠…
Trofimov Lyubov Andreyevna! She looks round at him. I will just pay my respects to you and then leave you at once kisses her hand warmly. I was told to wait until morning, but I hadn’t the patience to wait any longer.⁠ ⁠…
Lyubov Andreyevna looks at him in perplexity.
Varya Through her tears. This is Petya Trofimov.
Trofimov Petya Trofimov, who was your Grisha’s tutor.⁠ ⁠… Can I have changed so much?
Lyubov Andreyevna embraces him and weeps quietly.
Gaev In confusion. There, there, Lyuba.
Varya Crying. I told you, Petya, to wait till tomorrow.
Lyubov My Grisha⁠ ⁠… my boy⁠ ⁠… Grisha⁠ ⁠… my son!
Varya We can’t help it, mamma, it is God’s will.
Trofimov Softly through his tears. There⁠ ⁠… there.
Lyubov Weeping quietly. My boy was lost⁠ ⁠… drowned. Why? Oh, why, dear Petya? More quietly. Anya is asleep in there, and I’m talking loudly⁠ ⁠… making this noise.⁠ ⁠… But, Petya? Why have you grown so ugly? Why do you look so old?
Trofimov A peasant-woman in the train called me a mangy-looking gentleman.
Lyubov You were quite a boy then, a pretty little student, and now your hair’s thin⁠—and spectacles. Are you really a student still? Goes towards the door.
Trofimov I seem likely to be a perpetual student.
Lyubov Kisses her brother, then Varya. Well, go to bed.⁠ ⁠… You are older too, Leonid.
Pishtchik Follows her. I suppose it’s time we were asleep.⁠ ⁠… Ugh! my gout. I’m staying the night; Lyubov Andreyevna, my dear soul, if you could⁠ ⁠… tomorrow morning⁠ ⁠… 240 roubles.
Gaev That’s always his story.
Pishtchik 240 roubles⁠ ⁠… to pay the interest on my mortgage.
Lyubov My dear man, I have no money.
Pishtchik I’ll pay it back, my dear⁠ ⁠… a trifling sum.
Lyubov Oh, well, Leonid will give it you.⁠ ⁠… You give him the money, Leonid.
Gaev Me give it him! Let him wait till he gets it!
Lyubov It can’t be helped, give it him. He needs it. He’ll pay it back.
Lyubov Andreyevna, Trofimov, Pishtchik and Firs go out. Gaev, Varya and Yasha remain.
Gaev Sister hasn’t got out of the habit of flinging away her money. To Yasha. Get away, my good fellow, you smell of the henhouse.
Yasha With a grin. And you, Leonid Andreyevitch, are just the same as ever.
Gaev What’s that? To Varya. What did he say?
Varya To Yasha. Your mother has come from the village; she has been sitting in the servants’ room since yesterday, waiting to see you.
Yasha Oh, bother her!
Varya For shame!
Yasha What’s the hurry? She might just as have come tomorrow goes out.
Varya Mamma’s just the same as ever, she hasn’t changed a bit. If she had her own way, she’d give away everything.
Gaev Yes a pause. If a great many remedies are suggested for some disease, it means that the disease is incurable. I keep thinking and racking my brains; I have many schemes, a great many, and that really means none. If we could only come in for a legacy from somebody, or marry our Anya to a very rich man, or we might go to Yaroslavl and try our luck with our old aunt, the Countess. She’s very, very rich, you know.
Varya Weeps. If God would help us.
Gaev Don’t blubber. Aunt’s very rich, but she doesn’t like us. First, sister married a lawyer instead of a nobleman.⁠ ⁠…
Anya appears in the doorway.
Gaev And then her conduct, one can’t call it virtuous. She is good, and kind, and nice, and I love her, but, however one allows for extenuating circumstances, there’s no denying that she’s an immoral woman. One feels it in her slightest gesture.
Varya In a whisper. Anya’s in the doorway.
Gaev What do you say? A pause. It’s queer, there seems to be something wrong with my right eye. I don’t see as well as I did. And on Thursday when I was in the district Court⁠ ⁠…
Enter Anya.
Varya Why aren’t you asleep, Anya?
Anya I can’t get to sleep.
Gaev My pet kisses Anya’s face and hands. My child weeps. You are not my niece, you are my angel, you are everything to me. Believe me, believe⁠ ⁠…
Anya I believe you, uncle. Everyone loves you and respects you⁠ ⁠… but, uncle dear, you must be silent⁠ ⁠… simply be silent. What were you saying just now about my mother, about your own sister? What made you say that?
Gaev Yes, yes⁠ ⁠… puts his hand over his face. Really, that was awful! My God, save me! And today I made a speech to the bookcase⁠ ⁠… so stupid! And only when I had finished, I saw how stupid it was.
Varya It’s true, uncle, you ought to keep quiet. Don’t talk, that’s all.
Anya If you could keep from talking, it would make things easier for you, too.
Gaev I won’t speak kisses Anya’s and Varya’s hands. I’ll be silent. Only this is about business. On Thursday I was in the district Court; well, there was a large party of us there and we began talking of one thing and another, and this and that, and do you know, I believe that it will be possible to raise a loan on an I.O.U. to pay the arrears on the mortgage.
Varya If the Lord would help us!
Gaev I’m going on Tuesday; I’ll talk of it again. To Varya. Don’t blubber. To Anya. Your mamma will talk to Lopahin; of course, he won’t refuse her. And as soon as you’re rested you shall go to Yaroslavl to the Countess, your great-aunt. So we shall all set to work in three directions at once, and the business is done. We shall pay off arrears, I’m convinced of it puts a caramel in his mouth. I swear on my honour, I swear by anything you like, the estate shan’t be sold excitedly. By my own happiness, I swear it! Here’s my hand on it, call me the basest, vilest of men, if I let it come to an auction! Upon my soul I swear it!
Anya Her equanimity has returned, she is quite happy. How good you are, uncle, and how clever! Embraces her uncle. I’m at peace now! Quite at peace! I’m happy!
Enter Firs.
Firs Reproachfully. Leonid Andreyevitch, have you no fear of God? When are you going to bed?
Gaev Directly, directly. You can go, Firs. I’ll⁠ ⁠… yes, I will undress myself. Come, children, bye-bye. We’ll go into details tomorrow, but now go to bed kisses Anya and Varya. I’m a man of the eighties. They run down that period, but still I can say I have had to suffer not a little for my convictions in my life. It’s not for nothing that the peasant loves me. One must know the peasant! One must know how⁠ ⁠…
Anya At it again, uncle!
Varya Uncle dear, you’d better be quiet!
Firs Angrily. Leonid Andreyevitch!
Gaev I’m coming. I’m coming. Go to bed. Potted the shot⁠—there’s a shot for you! A beauty! Goes out, Firs hobbling after him.
Anya My mind’s at rest now. I don’t want to go to Yaroslavl, I don’t like my great-aunt, but still my mind’s at rest. Thanks to uncle sits down.
Varya We must go to bed. I’m going. Something unpleasant happened while you were away. In the old servants’ quarters there are only the old servants, as you know⁠—Efimyushka, Polya and Yevstigney⁠—and Karp too. They began letting stray people in to spend the night⁠—I said nothing. But all at once I heard they had been spreading a report that I gave them nothing but pease pudding to eat. Out of stinginess, you know.⁠ ⁠… And it was all Yevstigney’s doing.⁠ ⁠… Very well, I said to myself.⁠ ⁠… If that’s how it is, I thought, wait a bit. I sent for Yevstigney⁠ ⁠… yawns. He comes. “How’s this, Yevstigney,” I said, “you could be such a fool as to?⁠ ⁠…” Looking at Anya. Anitchka! A pause. She’s asleep puts her arm round Anya. Come to bed⁠ ⁠… come along! Leads her. My darling has fallen asleep! Come⁠ ⁠… They go.
Far away beyond the orchard a shepherd plays on a pipe. Trofimov crosses the stage and, seeing Varya and Anya, stands still.
Varya ’Sh! She’s asleep, asleep. Come, my own.
Anya Softly, half asleep. I’m so tired. Still those bells. Uncle⁠ ⁠… dear⁠ ⁠… mamma and uncle.⁠ ⁠…
Varya Come, my own, come along.
They go into Anya’s room.
Trofimov Tenderly. My sunshine! My spring!
Curtain.