The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy/Volume 18/The Power of Darkness/Act 5
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ OF ACT V.
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Nikíta.
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Second Girl.
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ACT V.
The threshing-floor. Nearest to the audience, the grain-ricks; on the left, the even floor; on the right, the barn of the threshing-floor. The doors of the barn are open. Through the doors straw is seen; in the background, the yard. Songs and tambourines are heard. Two girls walk on the path near the barn, toward the house.
Scene I. Two girls.
First Girl. You see, we have come without getting our shoes dirty; through the village the road is dreadful! so dirty. (They stop to clean their shoes with straw.)
First Girl (looking into the straw and seeing something). What is this?
Second Girl (looking in). That is Mítrich, their hired hand. See how drunk he is!
First Girl. He must have been drinking heavily.
Second Girl. Evidently before this day.
First Girl. Look! He evidently came to fetch some straw. The rope is still in his hands, just as he fell asleep with it.
Second Girl (listening). They are still receiving. Evidently they have not pronounced the blessing yet. They say Akulína did not even howl.
First Girl. Mamma said that she was marrying against her will. Her stepfather threatened her, or else she would never have married. They have been saying some dreadful things about her!
Scene II. The same and Marína (catching up with the girls).
Marína. Good day, girls!
The Girls. Good day, aunty!
Marína. Are you going to the wedding, my dear ones?
First Girl. That is over. We just came to take a look.
Marína. Call my old man, Semén of Zúev. You know him, perhaps?
First Girl. Why not? I think he is the bride-groom's relative.
Marína. Yes. The bridegroom is my husband's nephew.
Second Girl. Why don't you go there yourself? You have come to the wedding, then why don't you go?
Marína. I don't feel like it, girl, and I have no time. We must leave. We did not start out for the wedding. We were going to town with oats. We stopped to feed the horses, and they called in my old man.
First Girl. Where did you stop? At Fédorych's?
Marína. Yes. So I will wait here, while you, dear one, call my old man. Call him, my dear! Say: "Your wife, Marína, tells you to start. Your companions are hitching up the horses!"
First Girl. All right, since you will not go yourself. (The girls walk along the path to the yard. Songs and tambourines are heard.)
Scene III. Marína (alone).
Marína (in thought). I don't like to go there, because I have not seen him since he gave me up. It is nearly two years now. I should like to take a peep at him and Anísya, to see how they are getting along. People say they do not live in peace. She is a coarse, headstrong woman. He has, no doubt, thought of me more than once. He wanted to have an easy life, so he took her in my stead. God be with him, I wish him no evil. Then it hurt me. Yes, it pained me then. But now I am over it, and have forgotten it. But I should like to see him— (Looking toward the yard and seeing Nikíta.) I declare! What is he coming for? Have the girls told him? Why has he left the guests? I will go away.
Scene IV. Marína and Nikíta (who walks at first with drooping head, and swinging his arms. Mumbling).
Marína. How gloomy he looks!
Nikíta (sees Marina and recognizes her). Marína! Dear friend! Marína! What are you doing here?
Marína. I came to get my old man.
Nikíta. Why did you not come to the wedding? You might have looked at me, and laughed at me.
Marína. Why should I laugh at you? I came to get my husband.
Nikíta. Oh, Marína! (Wants to embrace her.)
Marína (angrily turns away). Nikíta, leave your old tricks! What has been, is no more. I came to get my husband. Is he in your house?
Nikíta. So you will not let me recall the past?
Marína. There is no reason for recalling the past. What has been is no more.
Nikíta. And it will not return?
Marína. No, it will not. But why did you go away? You are the host, and you have left the wedding-feast.
Nikíta (sitting down on the straw). Why have I come away? Ah, if you only knew! I feel badly, Marína, I feel so badly that I wish my eyes did not see it all. I left the table and went away from the people, just not to look at them.
Marína (coming nearer to him). What is it?
Nikíta. It is something that neither my eating, nor my drinking, nor my sleep will make me forget. Oh, I feel so mean, so mean! But the worst thing about it is, Marína, that I have no one to share my sorrow with.
Marína. You can't live without sorrow, Nikíta. I, too, have wept much, but it has all passed.
Nikíta. You are speaking of what has been. Oh, my friend! You got through weeping, but I am all undone.
Marína. What is the matter?
Nikíta. I am tired of life. I am tired of myself. Oh, Marína, you did not know how to keep me, and you have ruined me and yourself, too. What kind of a life is this?
Marína (standing near the barn, weeping, and holding herself back). Nikíta, I do not complain of my own life. May God grant that everybody lead such a life! I confessed to my old man, and he forgave me everything. He does not reproach me for it. I cannot complain about my life. The old man is peaceable. He is good to me, and I dress and wash his children! He takes good care of me, so why should I complain? It evidently was God's fate. And how is your life? You are wealthy—
Nikíta. My life! I just did not want to disturb the wedding, or I would have taken a rope, this rope (picks up the rope from the straw),—and would have thrown it across this beam. Then I would have made a good noose, would have climbed on the beam, and would have put my head into it. That is the life I lead.
Marína. Stop talking that way! Christ protect you!
Nikíta. You think I am jesting? Do you think I am drunk? No, I am not. can't get drunk to-day. Pining, pining is eating me up! I am completely undone, and nothing gives me pleasure. Oh, Marína, what a time we passed together, shortening the nights on the railroad!
Marína. Nikíta, don't tear open old sores! I have accepted the Law, and you have, too. Don't stir up the past!
Nikíta. What shall I do with my heart? Where shall I go?
Marína. What shall you do? You have a wife of your own don't covet other women, but take care of your own! You loved Anísya before,—love her now!
Nikíta. Oh, this Anísya is as bitter as wormwood to me, and she has enmeshed my feet like bad weeds.
Marína. Still, she is your wife— What is the use of talking? Go to your guests, and send my husband to me!
Nikíta. Oh, if you knew everything! What is the use of mentioning it?
Scene V. Nikíta, Marína, her husband, and Anyútka
Marína's Husband (coming from the yard, red in his face and drunk). Marína! Wife! Old woman! Are you here?
Nikíta. Here is your husband. He is calling you. Go!
Marína. And what will you do?
Nikíta. I? I will lie down here. (Lies down in the straw.)
Marína's Husband. Where is she?
Anyútka. There she is, grandfather, near the barn.
Marína's Husband. What are you standing there for? Go to the wedding! The hosts ask you to come and honour them. The wedding will soon be over, and then we will go.
Marína (walking toward her husband). I did not feel like it.
Marína's Husband. Go, I say! We will drink a glass, and you will congratulate rogue Petrúnka. The hosts will feel offended if you don't, and we shall have plenty of time to attend to our business. (Marína's husband embraces her and, tottering, goes away with her.)
Scene VI. Nikíta and Anyútka.
Nikíta (gets up and sits down on the straw). I feel even worse since I saw her. What a life it was I led with her! And now I am lost, I am ruined! (Lies down.) Whither shall I go? Oh, mother earth, cleave open for me!
Anyútka (seeing Nikíta and running up to him). Father, O father! They are looking for you. The sponsor and everybody else have blessed them already, and they are angry.
Nikíta (aside). Where shall I go?
Anyútka. What is it? What are you saying?
Nikíta. Nothing. Don't bother me!
Anyútka. Father! Come with me! (Nikíta is silent. Anyútka pulls him by the hand.) Father, go and bless them! Really, they are very angry.
Nikíta (pulling away his hand). Leave me alone!
Anyútka. Come!
Nikíta (threatening her with the reins). Go, I say! I will teach you!
Anyútka. I will send mamma to you. (Runs away.)
Scene VII. Nikíta (alone. Rising).
Nikíta. How can I go? How can I look into their faces? How can I look into her eyes? (Again lies down.) Oh, if there were a hole in the ground, I would go through it. People would not see me, and I would not see them. (Again gets up.) I will not go— To perdition with them! I will not go. (Takes off his boots and picks up the rope; makes a noose of it, and puts it around his neck.) That's what I will do.
Matréna (running up out of breath). Nikíta, O Nikíta! I declare, he does not answer. Nikíta, are you drunk? Come, Nikíta, come! The people are waiting for you.
Nikíta. What have you done with me? I am no longer a man.
Matréna. What is the matter with you? Go, my dear, and bless them in all honour, as is proper: The people are waiting for you.
Nikíta. How can I bless them?
Matréna. As usual. Don't you know how?
Nikíta. I know, I know. Whom shall I bless? What have I done with her?
Matréna. What have you done? There you are again at it! Nobody knows about it: neither cat nor kit nor the pope knows it. The girl is marrying of her own will.
Nikíta. How of her own will?
Matréna. She is marrying through fear. Anyway she is marrying. What is to be done? She ought to have thought in time. Now she can't refuse. There is no offence to the suitors. They saw the girl twice and they get the money. Everything is in tip-top shape.
Nikíta. And what about the cellar?
Matréna (laughing). The cellar? In the cellar there are mushrooms, cabbage, potatoes, I suppose. What is the use of thinking of the past?
Nikíta. I should like not to think of it, but I can't. Every time I think of it, I hear it. Oh, what have you done with me?
Matréna. Don't act the fool!
Nikíta (lying down, face downward). Mother! Don't torment me! I am sick of it all!
Matréna. But you must go. The people are talking as it is, and now the father goes away and does not dare bless them. They will begin to put things together. They will figure it all out. The moment you are slow they will begin to guess. Put on a good face and they will receive you with grace. Above everything else, my son, don't be timid, or they will make it out at once.
Nikíta. Oh, you have entangled me!
Matréna. Stop that! Come with me! Go and bless them! Do everything in proper shape, and that will be the end of it.
Nikíta (still lying face downward). I cannot.
Matréna (aside). What has happened? Everything was going well, and suddenly this has come over him. He must be bewitched. Nikíta, get up! See, Anísya has left the guests and is coming this way
Scene IX. Nikíta, Matréna, and Anísya.
Anísya (dressed up, red in her face, under the influence of liquor). Everything is going so well, mother! So well and honourably! And how satisfied the people are!—where is he?
Matréna. Here he is, my dear, here. He is lying in the straw and won't get up.
Nikíta (looking at his wife). I declare, she is drunk, too. It sickens me to look at her. How can I live with her? (Turns his face downward.) I will kill her some day. It will only be worse.
Anísya. So you have hidden yourself in the straw! Has the liquor knocked you down? (Laughing.) I should like to lie down with you myself, but I have no time. Come, I will lead you in. Oh, how nice everything is in the house! It makes one feel good to look at it. There is an accordion! The women are singing so nicely. They are all drunk, as is proper. It is so nice!
Nikíta. What is nice?
Anísya. The wedding, the merry wedding. All people say that it is a rare wedding. Everything is so nice and proper. Come now! We will go together—I have had some liquor, but I will manage to take you there. (Takes him by the hand.)
Nikíta (pulling himself away in disgust). Go by yourself! I will be there.
Anísya. What are you pouting about? We are rid of all our trouble and have made her a bride,—so now we can live an easy life. Everything is done so properly, and according to the Law. I can't tell you how happy I am. I feel as though I were marrying you again. And the people are so satisfied! They are all very thankful. And such nice guests. Iván Moséich and the officer, too. They have honoured us, too.
Nikíta. Very well, stay with them! What did you come here for?
Anísya. You must come! How will it look for the hosts to run away from the guests? And they are such nice guests!
Nikíta (getting up and picking off the straw). Go! I will be there in a minute.
Matréna. The cuckoo of the night has cuckooed better than the cuckoo of the day. He did not listen to me, but he obeys his wife. (Matréna and Anísya walk away.)
Matréna. Are you coming?
Nikíta. I will be there right away. You go, and I will follow you. I will come to bless them— (The women stop.) Go, and I will follow you. Go, I say! (The women exeunt.)
Nikíta (looking in their direction, in thought).
Scene X. Nikíta (alone), then Mítrich.
Nikíta (sits down and takes off his coat). Wait until I come! You look for me on the beam! I will straighten the noose and jump from the beam, and then you may look for me. The reins are here, that is good. (In thought.) If it were any kind of a sorrow, it would pass in time; but this is in the heart, and it cannot be taken out. (Looking at the yard.) She is coming again, I think. (Mocking Anísya.) Oh, how nice it is! I will lie down with you!" Oh, you contemptible witch! Embrace me when they take me off from the beam. There will be an end of it. (Takes the rope and pulls it.)
Mítrich (drunk. Pulls the rope back and gets up). I won't let you. I won't let anybody. I will bring it myself. I told you: I will bring the straw myself. Nikíta, is it you? (Laughing.) Oh, the devil! Did you come for the straw?
Nikíta. Let me have the rope!
Mítrich. No, wait! The peasants sent me for it. I will bring it. (Rises to his feet and begins to scrape up some straw; but he totters, and finally falls down.) The liquor is stronger: it has me down.
Nikíta. Let me have the reins!
Mítrich. I told you I wouldn't. Nikíta, you are a stupid! (Laughing.) I love you, but you are a stupid. You see I am drunk. The devil I care for you! You think that I need you— Look at me! I am an under-officer! You are a stupid, and you can't even pronounce it: Under-officer of the very first regiment of her Majesty's Grenadiers. I have served my Tsar and my country faithfully and honestly. What am I? You think I am a soldier? No, I am not a soldier, but the very worst kind of a man,—an erring orphan. I swore off drinking, and see how I am swilling! Well, do you think I am afraid of you? I guess not. I am not afraid of anybody. When I drink, I drink! I'll be on a tear for two weeks now,—I'll paint things red! I will spend everything I have on me for drinks: I will sell my cap, pawn my passport,—and I am not afraid of a soul! They used to flog me in the army to make me stop drinking. They walloped me: "Well," they said, "will you stop it?" "No," said I. I was not afraid of them,—that's the kind of a man I am! I am on the rampage now, and I will drink! I am not afraid of anybody. I am telling you the truth— Why should I be afraid of them, darn it! That's what! There was a pope who used to tell me that the devil is a braggart,—the moment you begin to brag, you lose your courage. And the moment you lose your courage before people, the devil grabs you and jams you where he has a mind to. As I am not afraid of people, I live an easy life. I'll spit into his beard, with his claws,—and on the mother of his brood of pigs! Here, chaw at it!
Nikíta (crossing himself). How foolish it was of me! (Throwing away the rope.)
Mítrich. What?
Nikíta (rising). You say I ought not to be afraid of people?
Mítrich. What is there to be afraid of, darn it! Look at them in the bath-house! They are all made of the same dough. One has a bigger belly than another—that is all the difference between them. So, whom are you to be afraid of? Pea-pie choke them!
Scene XI. Nikíta, Mítrich, and Matréna (coming out of the yard).
Matréna (calling). Well, are you coming?
Nikíta. Oh! Yes, it is better this way! I am coming! (Goes toward the yard.)
Curtain.
Part II.
Change of scenery. The room, as in the First Act, is full of people, sitting at tables, and standing. In the fore corner, Akulína and her husband. On a table are images and bread. Among the guests are Marina, her husband, and the officer. Women sing songs; Anísya serves the liquor. The songs stop.
Driver. It is time to start,—the church is far off.
Best Man. Just let the stepfather bless them. Where is he?
Anísya. He will be here in a minute, my dear, he will. Take another glass,—don't refuse me!
Bridegroom's Mother. What keeps him away? We have been waiting so long.
Anísya. He will come,—in a minute. He will be here before a clean-shaven girl will have plaited her braids. Take another glass, my dear guests! (Serves them.) He will be here at once. Pretty girls, sing another song in the meantime!
Driver. They have sung all the songs waiting for him. (The women sing. During the song enter Nikíta and Akím.)
Scene II. The same, Nikíta, and Akím.
Nikíta (holding Akim by his hand and pushing him before himself). Go, father! I can't do it without you.
Akím. I don't like it, so to speak—
Nikíta (to the women). Stop your singing! (Surveying everybody in the room.) Marína, are you here?
Bridegroom's Mother. Take the image and bless them!
Nikíta. Wait, give me a chance! (Looking around him.) Akulína, are you here?
Bridegroom's Mother. Why are you calling up all the people? Where else is she to be? How strange he is—
Anísya. O Lord! He is undressed.
Nikíta. Father, are you here? Look at me! Orthodox people, you are all here, and so am I! Here I am! (Kneeling down.)
Anísya. Nikíta, what is the matter with you? Oh, my head!
Bridegroom's Mother. Well, I declare!
Matréna. I say he has drunk too much French wine. Come to your senses! What is the matter with you? (People try to lift him, but he pays no attention to anybody, and keeps looking in front of him.)
Nikíta. Orthodox people! I am guilty, and I want to make my confession.
Matréna (pulling him by the shoulder). What is the matter with you? Are you insane? Dear people, he is out of his mind,—we ought to take him away.
Nikíta (brushing her aside with his shoulder). Leave me alone! Father, listen to me! First of all, Marína, look toward me! (Bowing to her and getting up.) I am guilty toward you: I had promised to marry you, and I seduced you. I deceived you and abandoned you,—forgive me for Christ's sake! (Again bows to her to the ground.)
Anísya. What are you raving about? How indecent! Nobody is asking you about it. Get up and stop disgracing yourself!
Matréna. Oh, oh, he is bewitched. What is the matter with him? He has the evil eye upon him. Get up and stop talking nonsense! (Pulls him.)
Nikíta (shaking his head). Don't touch me! Forgive me, Marína! I have sinned toward you. Forgive me, for Christ's sake! (Marína covers her face with her hands and keeps silent.)
Anísya. Get up, I say, and stop disgracing yourself! Don't recall the past! Don't act like that! Shame on you! Oh, my head! He must be insane.
Nikíta (pushing away his wife and turning to Akulína). Akulína, now I have something to say to you. Listen, Orthodox people! I am a wretched sinner. Akulína, I am guilty toward you! Your father did not die a natural death. He was poisoned.
Anísya (shouting). My head! What is he talking about?
Matréna. He is beside himself. Take him away! (People walk up toward him, wishing to take him away.)
Akím (warding them off). Wait! Good men, wait, so to speak!
Nikíta. Akulína, I poisoned him. Forgive me, for Christ's sake!
Akulína (jumping up). He is lying. I know who has poisoned him.
Bridegroom's Mother. Stop! Sit down!
Akím. O Lord! The sin, the sin!
Officer. Take him! Send for the elder and the posse! I must write up a protocol. Get up and come over here!
Akím (to the officer). You, bright-buttons, so to speak, wait awhile, so to speak! Give him a chance, so to speak, to tell everything!
Officer (to Akím). You, old man, look out, and don't interfere! I must write up a protocol.
Akím. What a queer fellow, so to speak, you are! Wait, I say! Don't talk now about the protocol! God's business, so to speak, is being done here—a man is making his confession, so to speak, and he talks about the protocol, so to speak—
Officer. Send for the elder!
Akím. Let him first attend to God's business, so to speak, and then you may attend to yours, so to speak!
Nikíta. Akulína, there is another sin I have committed toward you. I have seduced you,—forgive me, for Christ's sake! (Bows to the ground before her.)
Akulína (coming out from behind the table). Let me go,—I will not be married! He compelled me to,—but now I won't!
Officer. Repeat what you have said!
Nikíta. Wait, Mr. Officer! Let me finish first!
Akím (in transport). Speak, my child! Tell everything, and you will feel better! Repent you before God, and don't be afraid of people! God is the main thing, God!
Nikíta. I killed your father, and I, dog, have ruined his daughter. I had the power over her, and I killed also her baby.
Akulína. That is true, that is true!
Nikíta. I choked the baby to death with a board. I sat down upon it. I choked it and its bones crunched. (Weeping.) Then I buried it in the ground. I did it, all by myself.
Akulína. He is lying. I told him to.
(Silence.)
Officer. Bind him! Your wedding is evidently broken up. (People come up with their belts.)
Nikíta. Wait awhile, you will have time enough. (Bowing to the ground before his father.) Father dear! Forgive me, sinful man! You told me, when I first started on this life of debauch: "When the claw is caught, the whole bird is lost," but I, dog, did not pay any attention to you, and so everything turned out as you said. Forgive me, for Christ's sake!
Akím (in transport). God will forgive you, my own child! (Embraces him.) You did not pity yourself, but He will. God is the main thing, God!
Scene III. The same and the Elder.
Elder (enter). We have a posse here. Officer. We will hold the inquest at once. (Nikita is being bound.)
Akulína (walking up and standing near him.) I will tell the truth! Ask me, too!
Nikíta (bound). There is nothing to ask. I have done it all myself. It was my plan, and my deed. Lead me where I belong! I sha'n't say another word!
Curtain.