Act IV
Scene: Same as in First Act. There are neither curtains on the windows nor pictures on the walls: only a little furniture remains piled up in a corner as if for sale. There is a sense of desolation; near the outer door and in the background of the scene are packed trunks, travelling bags, etc. On the left the door is open, and from here the voices of Varya and Anya are audible. Lopahin is standing waiting. Yasha is holding a tray with glasses full of champagne. In front of the stage Epihodov is tying up a box. In the background behind the scene a hum of talk from the peasants who have come to say goodbye. The voice of Gaev: “Thanks, brothers, thanks!”
| Yasha | The peasants have come to say goodbye. In my opinion, Yermolay Alexeyevitch, the peasants are good-natured, but they don’t know much about things. |
| The hum of talk dies away. Enter across front of stage Lyubov Andreyevna and Gaev. She is not weeping, but is pale; her face is quivering—she cannot speak. | |
| Gaev | You gave them your purse, Lyuba. That won’t do—that won’t do! |
| Lyubov | I couldn’t help it! I couldn’t help it! |
| Both go out. | |
| Lopahin | In the doorway, calls after them. You will take a glass at parting? Please do. I didn’t think to bring any from the town, and at the station I could only get one bottle. Please take a glass a pause. What? You don’t care for any? Comes away from the door. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have bought it. Well, and I’m not going to drink it. Yasha carefully sets the tray down on a chair. You have a glass, Yasha, anyway. |
| Yasha | Good luck to the travellers, and luck to those that stay behind! Drinks. This champagne isn’t the real thing, I can assure you. |
| Lopahin | It cost eight roubles the bottle a pause. It’s devilish cold here. |
| Yasha | They haven’t heated the stove today—it’s all the same since we’re going laughs. |
| Lopahin | What are you laughing for? |
| Yasha | For pleasure. |
| Lopahin | Though it’s October, it’s as still and sunny as though it were summer. It’s just right for building! Looks at his watch; says in doorway. Take note, ladies and gentlemen, the train goes in forty-seven minutes; so you ought to start for the station in twenty minutes. You must hurry up! |
| Trofimov comes in from out of doors wearing a greatcoat. | |
| Trofimov | I think it must be time to start, the horses are ready. The devil only knows what’s become of my goloshes; they’re lost. In the doorway. Anya! My goloshes aren’t here. I can’t find them. |
| Lopahin | And I’m getting off to Harkov. I am going in the same train with you. I’m spending all the winter at Harkov. I’ve been wasting all my time gossiping with you and fretting with no work to do. I can’t get on without work. I don’t know what to do with my hands, they flap about so queerly, as if they didn’t belong to me. |
| Trofimov | Well, we’re just going away, and you will take up your profitable labours again. |
| Lopahin | Do take a glass. |
| Trofimov | No, thanks. |
| Lopahin | Then you’re going to Moscow now? |
| Trofimov | Yes. I shall see them as far as the town, and tomorrow I shall go on to Moscow. |
| Lopahin | Yes, I daresay, the professors aren’t giving any lectures, they’re waiting for your arrival. |
| Trofimov | That’s not your business. |
| Lopahin | How many years have you been at the University? |
| Trofimov | Do think of something newer than that—that’s stale and flat hunts for goloshes. You know we shall most likely never see each other again, so let me give you one piece of advice at parting: don’t wave your arms about—get out of the habit. And another thing, building villas, reckoning up that the summer visitors will in time become independent farmers—reckoning like that, that’s not the thing to do either. After all, I am fond of you: you have fine delicate fingers like an artist, you’ve a fine delicate soul. |
| Lopahin | Embraces him. Goodbye, my dear fellow. Thanks for everything. Let me give you money for the journey, if you need it. |
| Trofimov | What for? I don’t need it. |
| Lopahin | Why, you haven’t got a halfpenny. |
| Trofimov | Yes, I have, thank you. I got some money for a translation. Here it is in my pocket, anxiously but where can my goloshes be! |
| Varya | From the next room. Take the nasty things! Flings a pair of goloshes on to the stage. |
| Trofimov | Why are you so cross, Varya? h’m! … but those aren’t my goloshes. |
| Lopahin | I sowed three thousand acres with poppies in the spring, and now I have cleared forty thousand profit. And when my poppies were in flower, wasn’t it a picture! So here, as I say, I made forty thousand, and I’m offering you a loan because I can afford to. Why turn up your nose? I am a peasant—I speak bluntly. |
| Trofimov | Your father was a peasant, mine was a chemist—and that proves absolutely nothing whatever. Lopahin takes out his pocketbook. Stop that—stop that. If you were to offer me two hundred thousand I wouldn’t take it. I am an independent man, and everything that all of you, rich and poor alike, prize so highly and hold so dear, hasn’t the slightest power over me—it’s like so much fluff fluttering in the air. I can get on without you. I can pass by you. I am strong and proud. Humanity is advancing towards the highest truth, the highest happiness, which is possible on earth, and I am in the front ranks. |
| Lopahin | Will you get there? |
| Trofimov | I shall get there a pause. I shall get there, or I shall show others the way to get there. |
| In the distance is heard the stroke of an axe on a tree. | |
| Lopahin | Goodbye, my dear fellow; it’s time to be off. We turn up our noses at one another, but life is passing all the while. When I am working hard without resting, then my mind is more at ease, and it seems to me as though I too know what I exist for; but how many people there are in Russia, my dear boy, who exist, one doesn’t know what for. Well, it doesn’t matter. That’s not what keeps things spinning. They tell me Leonid Andreyevitch has taken a situation. He is going to be a clerk at the bank—6,000 roubles a year. Only, of course, he won’t stick to it—he’s too lazy. |
| Anya | In the doorway. Mamma begs you not to let them chop down the orchard until she’s gone. |
| Trofimov | Yes, really, you might have the tact walks out across the front of the stage. |
| Lopahin | I’ll see to it! I’ll see to it! Stupid fellows! Goes out after him. |
| Anya | Has Firs been taken to the hospital? |
| Yasha | I told them this morning. No doubt they have taken him. |
| Anya | To Epihodov, who passes across the drawing-room. Semyon Pantaleyevitch, inquire, please, if Firs has been taken to the hospital. |
| Yasha | In a tone of offence. I told Yegor this morning—why ask a dozen times? |
| Epihodov | Firs is advanced in years. It’s my conclusive opinion no treatment would do him good; it’s time he was gathered to his fathers. And I can only envy him puts a trunk down on a cardboard hatbox and crushes it. There, now, of course—I knew it would be so. |
| Yasha | Jeeringly. Two and twenty misfortunes! |
| Varya | Through the door. Has Firs been taken to the hospital? |
| Anya | Yes. |
| Varya | Why wasn’t the note for the doctor taken too? |
| Anya | Oh, then, we must send it after them goes out. |
| Varya | From the adjoining room. Where’s Yasha? Tell him his mother’s come to say goodbye to him. |
| Yasha | Waves his hand. They put me out of all patience! Dunyasha has all this time been busy about the luggage. Now, when Yasha is left alone, she goes up to him. |
| Dunyasha | You might just give me one look, Yasha. You’re going away. You’re leaving me weeps and throws herself on his neck. |
| Yasha | What are you crying for? Drinks the champagne. In six days I shall be in Paris again. Tomorrow we shall get into the express train and roll away in a flash. I can scarcely believe it! Vive la France! It doesn’t suit me here—it’s not the life for me; there’s no doing anything. I have seen enough of the ignorance here. I have had enough of it drinks champagne. What are you crying for? Behave yourself properly, and then you won’t cry. |
| Dunyasha | Powders her face, looking in a pocket-mirror. Do send me a letter from Paris. You know how I loved you, Yasha—how I loved you! I am a tender creature, Yasha. |
| Yasha | Here they are coming! |
| Busies himself about the trunks, humming softly. Enter Lyubov Andreyevna, Gaev, Anya and Charlotta Ivanovna. | |
| Gaev | We ought to be off. There’s not much time now looking at Yasha. What a smell of herrings! |
| Lyubov | In ten minutes we must get into the carriage casts a look about the room. Farewell, dear house, dear old home of our fathers! Winter will pass and spring will come, and then you will be no more; they will tear you down! How much those walls have seen! Kisses her daughter passionately. My treasure, how bright you look! Your eyes are sparkling like diamonds! Are you glad? Very glad? |
| Anya | Very glad! A new life is beginning, mamma. |
| Gaev | Yes, really, everything is all right now. Before the cherry orchard was sold, we were all worried and wretched, but afterwards, when once the question was settled conclusively, irrevocably, we all felt calm and even cheerful. I am a bank clerk now—I am a financier—cannon off the red. And you, Lyuba, after all, you are looking better; there’s no question of that. |
| Lyubov | Yes. My nerves are better, that’s true. Her hat and coat are handed to her. I’m sleeping well. Carry out my things, Yasha. It’s time. To Anya. My darling, we shall soon see each other again. I am going to Paris. I can live there on the money your Yaroslavl auntie sent us to buy the estate with—hurrah for auntie!—but that money won’t last long. |
| Anya | You’ll come back soon, mamma, won’t you? I’ll be working up for my examination in the high school, and when I have passed that, I shall set to work and be a help to you. We will read all sorts of things together, mamma, won’t we? Kisses her mother’s hands. We will read in the autumn evenings. We’ll read lots of books, and a new wonderful world will open out before us dreamily. Mamma, come soon. |
| Lyubov | I shall come, my precious treasure embraces her. |
| Enter Lopahin. Charlotta softly hums a song. | |
| Gaev | Charlotta’s happy; she’s singing! |
| Charlotta | Picks up a bundle like a swaddled baby. Bye, bye, my baby. A baby is heard crying: “Ooah! ooah!” Hush, hush, my pretty boy! Ooah! ooah! Poor little thing! Throws the bundle back. You must please find me a situation. I can’t go on like this. |
| Lopahin | We’ll find you one, Charlotta Ivanovna. Don’t you worry yourself. |
| Gaev | Everyone’s leaving us. Varya’s going away. We have become of no use all at once. |
| Charlotta | There’s nowhere for me to be in the town. I must go away. Hums. What care I … |
| Enter Pishtchik. | |
| Lopahin | The freak of nature! |
| Pishtchik | Gasping. Oh! … let me get my breath. … I’m worn out … my most honoured … Give me some water. |
| Gaev | Want some money, I suppose? Your humble servant! I’ll go out of the way of temptation goes out. |
| Pishtchik | It’s a long while since I have been to see you … dearest lady. To Lopahin. You are here … glad to see you … a man of immense intellect … take … here gives Lopahin money 400 roubles. That leaves me owing 840. |
| Lopahin | Shrugging his shoulders in amazement. It’s like a dream. Where did you get it? |
| Pishtchik | Wait a bit … I’m hot … a most extraordinary occurrence! Some Englishmen came along and found in my land some sort of white clay. To Lyubov Andreyevna. And 400 for you … most lovely … wonderful gives money. The rest later sips water. A young man in the train was telling me just now that a great philosopher advises jumping off a housetop. “Jump!” says he; “the whole gist of the problem lies in that.” Wonderingly. Fancy that, now! Water, please! |
| Lopahin | What Englishmen? |
| Pishtchik | I have made over to them the rights to dig the clay for twenty-four years … and now, excuse me … I can’t stay … I must be trotting on. I’m going to Znoikovo … to Kardamanovo. … I’m in debt all round sips. … To your very good health! … I’ll come in on Thursday. |
| Lyubov | We are just off to the town, and tomorrow I start for abroad. |
| Pishtchik | What! In agitation. Why to the town? Oh, I see the furniture … the boxes. No matter … through his tears … no matter … men of enormous intellect … these Englishmen. … Never mind … be happy. God will succour you … no matter … everything in this world must have an end kisses Lyubov Andreyevna’s hand. If the rumour reaches you that my end has come, think of this … old horse, and say: “There once was such a man in the world … Semyonov-Pishtchik … the kingdom of heaven be his!” … most extraordinary weather … yes. Goes out in violent agitation, but at once returns and says in the doorway. Dashenka wishes to be remembered to you goes out. |
| Lyubov | Now we can start. I leave with two cares in my heart. The first is leaving Firs ill. Looking at her watch. We have still five minutes. |
| Anya | Mamma, Firs has been taken to the hospital. Yasha sent him off this morning. |
| Lyubov | My other anxiety is Varya. She is used to getting up early and working; and now, without work, she’s like a fish out of water. She is thin and pale, and she’s crying, poor dear! A pause. You are well aware, Yermolay Alexeyevitch, I dreamed of marrying her to you, and everything seemed to show that you would get married whispers to Anya and motions to Charlotta and both go out. She loves you—she suits you. And I don’t know—I don’t know why it is you seem, as it were, to avoid each other. I can’t understand it! |
| Lopahin | I don’t understand it myself, I confess. It’s queer somehow, altogether. If there’s still time, I’m ready now at once. Let’s settle it straight off, and go ahead; but without you, I feel I shan’t make her an offer. |
| Lyubov | That’s excellent. Why, a single moment’s all that’s necessary. I’ll call her at once. |
| Lopahin | And there’s champagne all ready too looking into the glasses. Empty! Someone’s emptied them already. Yasha coughs. I call that greedy. |
| Lyubov | Eagerly. Capital! We will go out. Yasha, allez! I’ll call her in. At the door. Varya, leave all that; come here. Come along! Goes out with Yasha. |
| Lopahin | Looking at his watch. Yes. |
| A pause. Behind the door, smothered laughter and whispering, and, at last, enter Varya. | |
| Varya | Looking a long while over the things. It is strange, I can’t find it anywhere. |
| Lopahin | What are you looking for? |
| Varya | I packed it myself, and I can’t remember a pause. |
| Lopahin | Where are you going now, Varvara Mihailova? |
| Varya | I? To the Ragulins. I have arranged to go to them to look after the house—as a housekeeper. |
| Lopahin | That’s in Yashnovo? It’ll be seventy miles away a pause. So this is the end of life in this house! |
| Varya | Looking among the things. Where is it? Perhaps I put it in the trunk. Yes, life in this house is over—there will be no more of it. |
| Lopahin | And I’m just off to Harkov—by this next train. I’ve a lot of business there. I’m leaving Epihodov here, and I’ve taken him on. |
| Varya | Really! |
| Lopahin | This time last year we had snow already, if you remember; but now it’s so fine and sunny. Though it’s cold, to be sure—three degrees of frost. |
| Varya | I haven’t looked a pause. And besides, our thermometer’s broken a pause. |
| Voice at the door from the yard: “Yermolay Alexeyevitch!” | |
| Lopahin | As though he had long been expecting this summons. This minute! |
| Lopahin goes out quickly. Varya sitting on the floor and laying her head on a bag full of clothes, sobs quietly. The door opens. Lyubov Andreyevna comes in cautiously. | |
| Lyubov | Well? A pause. We must be going. |
| Varya | Has wiped her eyes and is no longer crying. Yes, mamma, it’s time to start. I shall have time to get to the Ragulins today, if only you’re not late for the train. |
| Lyubov | In the doorway. Anya, put your things on. |
| Enter Anya, then Gaev and Charlotta Ivanovna. Gaev has on a warm coat with a hood. Servants and cabmen come in. Epihodov bustles about the luggage. | |
| Lyubov | Now we can start on our travels. |
| Anya | Joyfully. On our travels! |
| Gaev | My friends—my dear, my precious friends! Leaving this house forever, can I be silent? Can I refrain from giving utterance at leave-taking to those emotions which now flood all my being? |
| Anya | Supplicatingly. Uncle! |
| Varya | Uncle, you mustn’t! |
| Gaev | Dejectedly. Cannon and into the pocket … I’ll be quiet. … |
| Enter Trofimov and afterwards Lopahin. | |
| Trofimov | Well, ladies and gentlemen, we must start. |
| Lopahin | Epihodov, my coat! |
| Lyubov | I’ll stay just one minute. It seems as though I have never seen before what the walls, what the ceilings in this house were like, and now I look at them with greediness, with such tender love. |
| Gaev | I remember when I was six years old sitting in that window on Trinity Day watching my father going to church. |
| Lyubov | Have all the things been taken? |
| Lopahin | I think all. Putting on overcoat, to Epihodov. You, Epihodov, mind you see everything is right. |
| Epihodov | In a husky voice. Don’t you trouble, Yermolay Alexeyevitch. |
| Lopahin | Why, what’s wrong with your voice? |
| Epihodov | I’ve just had a drink of water, and I choked over something. |
| Yasha | Contemptuously. The ignorance! |
| Lyubov | We are going—and not a soul will be left here. |
| Lopahin | Not till the spring. |
| Varya | Pulls a parasol out of a bundle, as though about to hit someone with it. Lopahin makes a gesture as though alarmed. What is it? I didn’t mean anything. |
| Trofimov | Ladies and gentlemen, let us get into the carriage. It’s time. The train will be in directly. |
| Varya | Petya, here they are, your goloshes, by that box. With tears. And what dirty old things they are! |
| Trofimov | Putting on his goloshes. Let us go, friends! |
| Gaev | Greatly agitated, afraid of weeping. The train—the station! Double baulk, ah! |
| Lyubov | Let us go! |
| Lopahin | Are we all here? Locks the side-door on left. The things are all here. We must lock up. Let us go! |
| Anya | Goodbye, home! Goodbye to the old life! |
| Trofimov | Welcome to the new life! |
| Trofimov goes out with Anya. Varya looks round the room and goes out slowly. Yasha and Charlotta Ivanovna, with her dog, go out. | |
| Lopahin | Till the spring, then! Come, friends, till we meet! Goes out. |
| Lyubov Andreyevna and Gaev remain alone. As though they had been waiting for this, they throw themselves on each other’s necks, and break into subdued smothered sobbing, afraid of being overheard. | |
| Gaev | In despair. Sister, my sister! |
| Lyubov | Oh, my orchard!—my sweet, beautiful orchard! My life, my youth, my happiness, goodbye! goodbye! |
| Voice of Anya | Calling gaily. Mamma! |
| Voice of Trofimov | Gaily, excitedly. Aa‑oo! |
| Lyubov | One last look at the walls, at the windows. My dear mother loved to walk about this room. |
| Gaev | Sister, sister! |
| Voice of Anya | Mamma! |
| Voice of Trofimov | Aa‑oo! |
| Lyubov | We are coming. They go out. |
| The stage is empty. There is the sound of the doors being locked up, then of the carriages driving away. There is silence. In the stillness there is the dull stroke of an axe in a tree, clanging with a mournful lonely sound. Footsteps are heard. Firs appears in the doorway on the right. He is dressed as always—in a pea-jacket and white waistcoat, with slippers on his feet. He is ill. | |
| Firs | Goes up to the doors, and tries the handles. Locked! They have gone … sits down on sofa. They have forgotten me. … Never mind … I’ll sit here a bit. … I’ll be bound Leonid Andreyevitch hasn’t put his fur coat on and has gone off in his thin overcoat sighs anxiously. I didn’t see after him. … These young people … mutters something that can’t be distinguished. Life has slipped by as though I hadn’t lived. Lies down. I’ll lie down a bit. … There’s no strength in you, nothing left you—all gone! Ech! I’m good for nothing lies motionless. |
| A sound is heard that seems to come from the sky, like a breaking harp-string, dying away mournfully. All is still again, and there is heard nothing but the strokes of the axe far away in the orchard. | |
| Curtain. |