The Live Corpse. Tolstoy Leo
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The Live Corpse
ACT I
Scene 1
Protásov's 1 flat in Moscow. The scene represents a small dining-room.
Anna Pávlovna, a stout grey-haired lady, tightly laced, is sitting alone at the tea-table on which is a samovár. Enter nurse, carrying a teapot.
NURSE. May I have a little hot water, ma'am?
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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 PÁVLOVNA. But she seems quieter now.
NURSE. Quiet, indeed! It makes one ill to see her. She's been writing something, and crying.
Enter Sásha.
SÁSHA [to Nurse] Lisa is looking for you.
NURSE. I'm coming, I'm coming. [Exit].
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Nurse says she keeps on crying… Why can't she control herself?
SÁSHA. Well really, mother, you are amazing!.. A woman has left her husband, her child's father, and you expect her to be calm!
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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!
SÁSHA. 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 PÁVLOVNA. Yes indeed, a “wonderful” man – as soon as he has money in his pocket – his own or other people's…
SÁSHA. Mother! He has never taken other people's!
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Yes he has – his wife's! Where's the difference?
SÁSHA. But he gave all his property to his wife!
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Of course, when he knew that otherwise he was sure to squander it all!
SÁSHA. Squander or not, I only know that a wife must not separate from her husband, especially from such a one as Fédya.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Then, in your opinion she ought to wait till he has squandered everything, and brought his gipsy mistresses into the house?
SÁSHA. He has no mistresses!
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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.
SÁSHA. How lightly you say it!
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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.
SÁSHA. Perhaps it's not all over!
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Oh! If he only consents to a divorce…
SÁSHA. What good will that do?
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. This good; that she is young, and may again be happy.
SÁSHA. Oh mother! It's dreadful to hear you speak so! Lisa can't love another.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Why not, when she's free? Many a man a thousand times better than your Fédya might turn up who would be only too happy to marry Lisa.
SÁSHA. Mother, it's not right! I know you're thinking of Victor Karénin…
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. And why shouldn't I? He has loved her these ten years, and she loves him.
SÁSHA. Yes, but not as a husband! They have been friends from childhood.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. We know those friendships! If only the obstacles were out of the way!
Enter Maid.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. What is it?
MAID. The mistress has sent the porter with a note for Mr. Karénin.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. What mistress?
MAID.Our mistress – Mrs. Protásova.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Well?
MAID. Mr. Karénin has sent back word that he will come round at once.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA [surprised] We were just speaking of him! Only I can't think why … [to Sásha] Do you know?
SÁSHA. Perhaps I do, and perhaps I don't!
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. You always have secrets!
SÁSHA. Lisa will tell you herself when she comes.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA [shakes her head. To Maid] The samovár must be made to boil again. Take it, Dounyásha.
Maid takes samovár, and exit.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA [to Sásha who has risen and is going out] It turns out just as I told you! She sent for him at once…
SÁSHA. She may have sent for him for quite a different reason.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. What for, then?
SÁSHA. Now, at this moment, Karénin is the same to her as old Nurse Trífonovna.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Well, you'll see… Don't I know her? She has sent for him to comfort her.
SÁSHA. Oh mother, how little you know her, to be able to suppose …!
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Well, we'll see!.. And I am very, very glad.
SÁSHA. We shall see! [Exit, humming a tune].
ANNA PÁVLOVNA [alone, shakes her head and mutters] It's all right, it's all right!
Enter Maid.
MAID. Mr. Karénin has come.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Well then, show him in, and tell your mistress.
Maid exit by inner door. Enter Karénin, who bows to Anna Pávlovna.
KARÉNIN. Your daughter wrote to me to come. I meant to come and see you to-night, anyhow. So I was very pleased … Is Elisabeth Andréyevna2 well?
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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?
KARÉNIN. 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 PÁVLOVNA. Why of course! Naturally! To go through it all again would be intolerable.
KARÉNIN. 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 PÁVLOVNA. 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.
KARÉNIN. Why so?
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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?
KARÉNIN. Yes, but how can a woman be free when she is bound by marriage?
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. By divorce. He promised her a divorce, and we shall insist on it.
KARÉNIN. Yes, but Elisabeth Andréyevna loved him so…
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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?
KARÉNIN.
Protásov is his family name, but the name by which he is usually addressed is Fédya, an abbreviation of his Christian name – Theodore. The ceremonious form of address would be Theodore Vasílyevich.
Elisabeth Andréyevna is the polite way of speaking of Mrs. Protásova, otherwise Lisa.