THE PROPOSAL

THE PROPOSAL

Characters

STEPAN STEPANOVITCH CHUBUKOV : a landowner

NATALYA STEPANOVNA : his daughter, twenty-five years old

IVAN VASSILEVITCH LOMOV : a neighbour of Chubukov, a large and

hearty, but very suspicious, landowner

A drawing-room in Chubukov‘s house.

Lomov enters, wearing a dress-jacket and white gloves. Chubukov rises

to meet him.

CHUBUKOV : My dear fellow, whom do I see! Ivan Vassilevitch! I am

extremely glad! [Squeezes his hand] Now this is a

surprise, my darling... How are you?

LOMOV : Thank you. And how may you be getting on?

CHUBUKOV : We just get along somehow, my angel, thanks to your

prayers, and so on. Sit down, please do... Now, you know,

you shouldn’t forget all about your neighbours, my darling.

My dear fellow, why are you so formal in your get-up!

Evening dress, gloves, and so on. Can you be going

anywhere, my treasure?

LOMOV : No. I’ve come only to see you, honoured Stepan

Stepanovitch.

CHUBUKOV : Then why are you in evening dress, my precious? As if

you’re paying a New Year’s Eve visit!

LOMOV : Well, you see, it’s like this. [Takes his arm] I’ve come to you,

honoured Stepan Stepanovitch, to trouble you with a request.

Not once or twice have I already had the privilege of applying

to you for help, and you have always, so to speak... I must

ask your pardon, I am getting excited. I shall drink some

water, honoured Stepan Stepanovitch.

[Drinks.]

CHUBUKOV : [aside] He’s come to borrow money. Shan’t give him any!

[aloud] What is it, my beauty?

LOMOV : You see, Honoured Stepanitch... I beg pardon Stepan

Honouritch... I mean, I’m awfully excited, as you will

please notice... In short, you alone can help me, though I

don’t deserve it, of course... and haven’t any right to

count on your assistance...

CHUBUKOV : Oh, don’t go round and round it, darling! Spit it out! Well?

LOMOV : One moment... this very minute. The fact is I’ve come to

ask the hand of your daughter, Natalya Stepanovna,Stepanovna is an excellent housekeeper, not bad-looking,

well-educated. What more do I want? But I’m getting a

noise in my ears from excitement. [Drinks] And it’s

impossible for me not to marry. In the first place, I’m

already 35 — a critical age, so to speak. In the second

place, I ought to lead a quiet and regular life. I suffer

from palpitations, I’m excitable and always getting

awfully upset; at this very moment my lips are trembling,

and there’s a twitch in my right eyebrow. But the very

worst of all is the way I sleep. I no sooner get into bed

and begin to go off, when suddenly something in my left

side gives a pull, and I can feel it in my shoulder and

head... I jump up like a lunatic, walk about a bit and lie

down again, but as soon as I begin to get off to sleep

there’s another pull! And this may happen twenty times...

[Natalya Stepanovna comes in.]

NATLYA : Well, there! It’s you, and papa said, “Go; there’s a

merchant come for his goods.” How do you do, Ivan

Vassilevitch?

LOMOV : How do you do, honoured Natalya Stepanovna?

NATALYA : You must excuse my apron and neglige. We’re shelling

peas for drying. Why haven’t you been here for such a

long time? Sit down... [They seat themselves.] Won’t you

have some lunch?

LOMOV : No, thank you, I’ve had some already.

NATALYA : Then smoke. Here are the matches. The weather is

splendid now, but yesterday it was so wet that the workmen

didn’t do anything all day. How much hay have you

stacked? Just think, I felt greedy and had a whole field

cut, and now I’m not at all pleased about it because I’m

afraid my hay may rot. I ought to have waited a bit. But

what’s this? Why, you’re in evening dress! Well, I never!

Are you going to a ball or what? Though I must say you

look better... Tell me, why are you got up like that?

LOMOV : [excited] You see, honoured Natalya Stepanovna... the

fact is, I’ve made up my mind to ask you to hear me out...

Of course you’ll be surprised and perhaps even angry,

but a... [aside] It’s awfully cold!

NATALYA : What’s the matter? [pause] Well?

LOMOV : I shall try to be brief. You must know, honoured Natalya

Stepanovna, that I have long, since my childhood, in fact,had the privilege of knowing your family. My late aunt

and her husband, from whom, as you know, I inherited

my land, always had the greatest respect for your father

and your late mother. The Lomovs and the Chubukovs

have always had the most friendly, and I might almost

say the most affectionate, regard for each other. And, as

you know, my land is a near neighbour of yours. You will

remember that my Oxen Meadows touch your birchwoods.

NATALYA : Excuse my interrupting you. You say, “my Oxen Meadows”.

But are they yours?

LOMOV : Yes, mine.

NATALYA : What are you talking about? Oxen Meadows are ours,

not yours!

LOMOV : No, mine, honoured Natalya Stepanovna.

NATALYA : Well, I never knew that before. How do you make that

out?

LOMOV : How? I’m speaking of those Oxen Meadows which are

wedged in between your birchwoods and the Burnt

Marsh.

NATALYA : Yes, yes... they’re ours.

LOMOV : No, you’re mistaken, honoured Natalya Stepanovna,

they’re mine.

NATALYA : Just think, Ivan Vassilevitch! How long have they been

yours?

LOMOV : How long? As long as I can remember.

NATALYA : Really, you won’t get me to believe that!

LOMOV : But you can see from the documents, honoured Natalya

Stepanovna. Oxen Meadows, it’s true, were once the

subject of dispute, but now everybody knows that they

are mine. There’s nothing to argue about. You see my

aunt’s grandmother gave the free use of these Meadows

in perpetuity to the peasants of your father’s grandfather,

in return for which they were to make bricks for her. The

peasants belonging to your father’s grandfather had the

free use of the Meadows for forty years, and had got into

the habit of regarding them as their own, when it

happened that...

NATALYA : No, it isn’t at all like that! Both grandfather and great-

grandfather reckoned that their land extended to Burnt

Marsh — which means that Oxen Meadows were ours. I

don’t see what there is to argue about. It’s simply silly!LOMOV : I’ll show you the documents, Natalya Stepanovna!

NATALYA : No, you’re simply joking, or making fun of me. What a

surprise! We’ve had the land for nearly three hundred

years, and then we’re suddenly told that it isn’t ours!

Ivan Vassilevitch, I can hardly believe my own ears. These

Meadows aren’t worth much to me. They only come to

five dessiatins, and are worth perhaps 300 roubles, but I

can’t stand unfairness. Say what you will, I can’t stand

unfairness.

LOMOV : Hear me out, I implore you! The peasants of your father’s

grandfather, as I have already had the honour of

explaining to you, used to bake bricks for my aunt’s

grandmother. Now my aunt’s grandmother, wishing to

make them a pleasant...

NATALYA : I can’t make head or tail of all this about aunts and

grandfathers and grandmothers. The Meadows are ours,

that’s all.

LOMOV : Mine.

NATALYA : Ours! You can go on proving it for two days on end, you

can go and put on fifteen dress jackets, but I tell you

they’re ours, ours, ours! I don’t want anything of yours

and I don’t want to give anything of mine. So there!

LOMOV : Natalya Stepanovna, I don’t want the Meadows, but I am

acting on principle. If you like, I’ll make you a present

of them.

NATALYA : I can make you a present of them myself, because they’re

mine! Your behaviour, Ivan Vassilevitch, is strange, to

say the least! Up to this we have always thought of you

as a good neighbour, a friend; last year we lent you our

threshing-machine, although on that account we had to

put off our own threshing till November, but you behave

to us as if we were gypsies. Giving me my own land,

indeed! No, really, that’s not at all neighbourly! In my

opinion, it’s even impudent, if you want to know.

LOMOV : Then you make out that I’m a landgrabber? Madam, never

in my life have I grabbed anybody else’s land and I shan’t

allow anybody to accuse me of having done so. [Quickly

steps to the carafe and drinks more water] Oxen Meadows