The Russian Masters: Works by Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev and More. Максим Горький

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СКАЧАТЬ Madame Traitress.

      Harlequin (off): Don’t be afraid, Columbine! Go in fearlessly. I’ve persuaded him, and, word of honour, he’s consented.

      Columbine (enters): Consented?! Here’s a fine thing! Consented! What, you little beast, that’s all you think of your wife! You don’t care if she betrays you? You don’t care? Answer! (Beats Pierrot.)

      Pierrot (agonised): But listen, Columbine.

      Columbine: What? I must listen to you? Listen to the worst little beast of a husband of all little beasts of husbands? ——

      Pierrot: But, Columbine.

      Columbine: Blockhead!

      Pierrot: You don’t let me utter a word.

      Columbine (beats him): You’ve got no excuse! And I, poor thing, married a little beast like you! Gave you all the best there was in me! And he can’t even stand up for my conjugal honour! Take that, and that, and that, you good-for-nothing!

      Pierrot: But that’s too much! Harlequin, protect me.

      Harlequin: This is your own business.

      Pierrot: Yes, but, dear old chap ——

      Harlequin: I haven’t been brought up to interfere in other people’s private matters.

      Columbine (to Pierrot): There, that’s how you love me! That’s how jealous you are of me! Where are your vows, you pagan?

      Pierrot (coming to himself): Oh, to Hell with this, I never heard of such a thing! Why, you impudent woman, you came here yourself to a rendezvous and yet you dare say ——

      Columbine: That’s enough! Be quiet! I know the little ways of rogues like you: when you’re found out you start to find fault with the innocent, so as to get out of the difficulty. But you don’t deceive me, you good-for-nothing.

      Harlequin (interposing): Friends, don’t let’s waste precious time! When supper’s waiting, is it worth while spoiling one's appetite?

      Columbine and Pierrot: But it is irritating!

      Harlequin: I don’t like to see quarrels starting.

      Columbine and Pierrot: It’s not my fault.

      Harlequin: Better make friends!

      Columbine and Pierrot: Not for anything.

      Harlequin: What obstinacy!

      Columbine and Pierrot: I’ve been wounded in my finest feelings.

      Harlequin: Come, enough.

      Columbineand Pierrot: No.

      Columbine: First he ought to be punished.

      Harlequin: In what way?

      Columbine: Kiss me, Harlequin! Dear, sweet Harlequin.

      Harlequin: Not to offend you with a refusal — (kisses her). I was always an obliging cavalier. (Kisses her.) Besides that, I’ve got a tender heart. (Kisses her.) Even children know it. (Kisses her.) And finally, as host — (kisses her) — I ought to be polite to my guests — (kisses her) — especially when it concerns — (kisses her) — the fair sex. (Kisses her.)

      Pierrot: Wretches! They don’t suspect that I’m already revenged and so can be absolutely calm.

      Columbine (to Harlequin): Kiss me more warmly, more strongly, more painfully, almost biting me, without losing breath. (Is kissed as she desires.)

      Pierrot: They imagine they’re mortally provoking me.

      Columbine (to Harlequin): Once more! Once more! (To Pierrot.) Oh! you unfeeling log!

      Pierrot: Please do what you like. (To Audience.) My conscience is clean; I have vindicated my honour and have nothing to worry about.

      Columbine (to Harlequin): Kiss my eyes, my forehead, my cheeks, my chin, my temples. (Harlequin does not wait to be asked a second time.)

      Pierrot (to Audience): Gentlemen, you are witnesses that I’ve taken my revenge.

      Columbine (to Harlequin): Kiss my neck where the hair ends and where a sweet shivering comes from your kisses.

      Pierrot: I don’t care. Let them do as they want. I have fulfilled the duty of an affronted husband and never felt better in my life.

      Columbine (stamping at Pierrot): There, you brute! Is all this nothing to you?

      Pierrot (to Audience): I’m wearing them out with my nonchalance.

      Columbine (to Harlequin): Well, shall we celebrate our Dance of Love, in spite of him.

      Harlequin: I don’t dare refuse you, but ——

      Columbine: What “but”?

      Harlequin: But if Pierrot isn’t such a lover of dancing as to forget everything in the world!

      Pierrot: Please, don’t mind me? (To Audience.) I’m revenged for everything in advance and needn’t be disturbed, whatever happens.

      Harlequin (giving him the lute): Perhaps you’ll accompany us?

      Columbine: Of course! Is he to do nothing?

      Pierrot: With the greatest pleasure, if it helps you. (To Audience.) I hope you understand what a matter of indifference this is to a husband who can vindicate his wounded honour.

      Columbine: Play!

      Pierrot (to Audience): Lord, how easy you are, when you’re revenged, and nobody has any right to laugh at you. (Plays vigorously. Dance. Suddenly Harlequin falls in a faint on the bed. Pierrot stops playing.)

      Columbine: What’s happened to you? What’s the matter?

      Harlequin (holding his heart): No — it’s nothing, a trifle. (His heart beats like a sledge-hammer, and he breathes like an engine.)

      Columbine: How furiously your heart’s beating! What terrible breathing!

      Pierrot (to Audience, joyfully): Harlequin’s giving in. Harlequin’s weakening. Rejoice with me, poor husbands—you whose wives are in danger!

      Columbine (to Harlequin): Nothing like this has ever happened to you before.

      Pierrot (to Audience): By the way, don’t be angry with me, because, after all, Harlequin's my friend, and there’s an end of it. I’m not going to quarrel with him, indeed, for a harlot! And if he’s more to Columbine’s taste than I, he’s not to blame, but Columbine, for having such bad taste. By the way, I said this from envy. (Reflects.)

      Harlequin (stands up and smiles, and kisses СКАЧАТЬ