Works of Alexander Pushkin (102 page)

1ST OFFICER. (To GREGORY.) Then, evidently, you like a
joke, brother.

(During the reading GREGORY stands with downcast
head, and his hand in his breast.)

VARLAAM. (Continues.) “And in stature he is small, chest
broad, one arm shorter than the other, blue eyes, red
hair, a wart on his cheek, another on his forehead.”
Then is it not you, my friend?

(GREGORY suddenly draws a dagger; all give way
before him; he dashes through the window.)

OFFICERS. Hold him! Hold him!

(All run out in disorder.)

MOSCOW. SHUISKY’S HOUSE

SHUISKY. A number of Guests. Supper

SHUISKY. More wine! Now, my dear guests.

(He rises; all rise after him.)

                    The final draught!
Read the prayer, boy.

Boy.                Lord of the heavens, Who art
Eternally and everywhere, accept
The prayer of us Thy servants. For our monarch,
By Thee appointed, for our pious tsar,
Of all good Christians autocrat, we pray.
Preserve him in the palace, on the field
Of battle, on his nightly couch; grant to him
Victory o’er his foes; from sea to sea
May he be glorified; may all his house
Blossom with health, and may its precious branches
O’ershadow all the earth; to us, his slaves,
May he, as heretofore, be generous.
Gracious, long-suffering, and may the founts
Of his unfailing wisdom flow upon us;
Raising the royal cup, Lord of the heavens,
For this we pray.

SHUISKY. (Drinks.) Long live our mighty sovereign!
Farewell, dear guests. I thank you that ye scorned not
My bread and salt. Farewell; good-night.

(Exeunt Guests: he conducts them to the door.)

PUSHKIN. Hardly could they tear themselves away; indeed,
Prince Vassily Ivanovitch, I began to think that we
should not succeed in getting any private talk.

SHUISKY. (To the Servants.) You there, why do you stand
Gaping? Always eavesdropping on gentlemen! Clear
the table, and then be off.

(Exeunt Servants.)

                        What is it, Athanasius
Mikailovitch?

PUSHKIN.    Such a wondrous thing!
A message was sent here to me today
From Cracow by my nephew Gabriel Pushkin.

SHUISKY. Well?

PUSHKIN. ‘Tis strange news my nephew writes. The son
Of the Terrible — But stay —

(Goes to the door and examines it.)

                        The royal boy,
Who murdered was by order of Boris —

SHUISKY. But these are no new tidings.

PUSHKIN.                        Wait a little;
Dimitry lives.

SHUISKY.     So that’s it! News indeed!
Dimitry living! — Really marvelous!
And is that all?

PUSHKIN.       Pray listen to the end;
Whoe’er he be, whether he be Dimitry
Rescued, or else some spirit in his shape,
Some daring rogue, some insolent pretender,
In any case Dimitry has appeared.

SHUISKY. It cannot be.

PUSHKIN.             Pushkin himself beheld him
When first he reached the court, and through the ranks
Of Lithuanian gentlemen went straight
Into the secret chamber of the king.

SHUISKY. What kind of man? Whence comes he?

PUSHKIN.                             No one knows.
‘Tis known that he was Vishnevetsky’s servant;
That to a ghostly father on a bed
Of sickness he disclosed himself; possessed
Of this strange secret, his proud master nursed him,
From his sick bed upraised him, and straightway
Took him to Sigismund.

SHUISKY.             And what say men
Of this bold fellow?

PUSHKIN.           ‘Tis said that he is wise,
Affable, cunning, popular with all men.
He has bewitched the fugitives from Moscow,
The Catholic priests see eye to eye with him.
The King caresses him, and, it is said,
Has promised help.

SHUISKY.         All this is such a medley
That my head whirls. Brother, beyond all doubt
This man is a pretender, but the danger
Is, I confess, not slight. This is grave news!
And if it reach the people, then there’ll be
A mighty tempest.

PUSHKIN.        Such a storm that hardly
Will Tsar Boris contrive to keep the crown
Upon his clever head; and losing it
Will get but his deserts! He governs us
As did the tsar Ivan of evil memory.
What profits it that public executions
Have ceased, that we no longer sing in public
Hymns to Christ Jesus on the field of blood;
That we no more are burnt in public places,
Or that the tsar no longer with his sceptre
Rakes in the ashes? Is there any safety
In our poor life? Each day disgrace awaits us;
The dungeon or Siberia, cowl or fetters,
And then in some deaf nook a starving death,
Or else the halter. Where are the most renowned
Of all our houses, where the Sitsky princes,
Where are the Shestunovs, where the Romanovs,
Hope of our fatherland? Imprisoned, tortured,
In exile. Do but wait, and a like fate
Will soon be thine. Think of it! Here at home,
Just as in Lithuania, we’re beset
By treacherous slaves — and tongues are ever ready
For base betrayal, thieves bribed by the State.
We hang upon the word of the first servant
Whom we may please to punish. Then he bethought him
To take from us our privilege of hiring
Our serfs at will; we are no longer masters
Of our own lands. Presume not to dismiss
An idler. Willy nilly, thou must feed him!
Presume not to outbid a man in hiring
A labourer, or you will find yourself
In the Court’s clutches. — Was such an evil heard of
Even under tsar Ivan? And are the people
The better off? Ask them. Let the pretender
But promise them the old free right of transfer,
Then there’ll be sport.

SHUISKY.              Thou’rt right; but be advised;
Of this, of all things, for a time we’ll speak
No word.

PUSHKIN. Assuredly, keep thine own counsel.
Thou art — a person of discretion; always
I am glad to commune with thee; and if aught
At any time disturbs me, I endure not
To keep it from thee; and, truth to tell, thy mead
And velvet ale today have so untied
My tongue...Farewell then, prince.

SHUISKY.                 Brother, farewell.
Farewell, my brother, till we meet again.

(He escorts PUSHKIN out.)

PALACE OF THE TSAR

The TSAREVICH is drawing a map. The TSAREVNA. The NURSE of the Tsarevna

KSENIA. (Kisses a portrait.) My dear bridegroom, comely
son of a king, not to me wast thou given, not to thy
affianced bride, but to a dark sepulchre in a strange
land; never shall I take comfort, ever shall I weep for
thee.

NURSE. Eh, tsarevna! A maiden weeps as the dew falls;
the sun will rise, will dry the dew. Thou wilt have
another bridegroom — and handsome and affable. My
charming child, thou wilt learn to love him, thou wilt
forget Ivan the king’s son.

KSENIA. Nay, nurse, I will be true to him even in death.

(Boris enters.)

TSAR. What, Ksenia? What, my sweet one? In thy girlhood
Already a woe-stricken widow, ever
Bewailing thy dead bridegroom! Fate forbade me
To be the author of thy bliss. Perchance
I angered Heaven; it was not mine to compass
Thy happiness. Innocent one, for what
Art thou a sufferer? And thou, my son,
With what art thou employed? What’s this?

FEODOR.                           A chart
Of all the land of Muscovy; our tsardom
From end to end. Here you see; there is Moscow,
There Novgorod, there Astrakhan. Here lies
The sea, here the dense forest tract of Perm,
And here Siberia.

TSAR.           And what is this
Which makes a winding pattern here?

FEODOR.                           That is
The Volga.

TSAR.    Very good! Here’s the sweet fruit
Of learning. One can view as from the clouds
Our whole dominion at a glance; its frontiers,
Its towns, its rivers. Learn, my son; ‘tis science
Which gives to us an abstract of the events
Of our swift-flowing life. Some day, perchance
Soon, all the lands which thou so cunningly
Today hast drawn on paper, all will come
Under thy hand. Learn, therefore; and more smoothly,
More clearly wilt thou take, my son, upon thee
The cares of state.

(SEMYON Godunov enters.)

                But there comes Godunov
Bringing reports to me. (To KSENIA.) Go to thy chamber
Dearest; farewell, my child; God comfort thee.

(Exeunt KSENIA and NURSE.)

What news hast thou for me, Semyon Nikitich?

SEMYON G. Today at dawn the butler of Prince Shuisky
And Pushkin’s servant brought me information.

TSAR. Well?

SEMYON G. In the first place Pushkin’s man deposed
That yestermorn came to his house from Cracow
A courier, who within an hour was sent
Without a letter back.

TSAR.                Arrest the courier.

SEMYON G. Some are already sent to overtake him.

TSAR. And what of Shuisky?

SEMYON G.               Last night he entertained
His friends; the Buturlins, both Miloslavskys,
And Saltikov, with Pushkin and some others.
They parted late. Pushkin alone remained
Closeted with his host and talked with him
A long time more.

TSAR.           For Shuisky send forthwith.

SEMYON G. Sire, he is here already.

TSAR.                       Call him hither.

(Exit SEMYON Godunov.)

Dealings with Lithuania? What means this?
I like not the seditious race of Pushkins,
Nor must I trust in Shuisky, obsequious,
But bold and wily —

(Enter SHUISKY.)

               Prince, I must speak with thee.
But thou thyself, it seems, hast business with me,
And I would listen first to thee.

SHUISKY.                        Yea, sire;
It is my duty to convey to thee
Grave news.

TSAR.     I listen.

SHUISKY. (Sotto voce, pointing to FEODOR.)
                But, sire —

TSAR.                      The tsarevich
May learn whate’er Prince Shuisky knoweth. Speak.

SHUISKY. My liege, from Lithuania there have come
Tidings to us —

TSAR.        Are they not those same tidings
Which yestereve a courier bore to Pushkin?

SHUISKY. Nothing is hidden from him! — Sire, I thought
Thou knew’st not yet this secret.

TSAR.                           Let not that
Trouble thee, prince; I fain would scrutinise
Thy information; else we shall not learn
The actual truth.

SHUISKY.        I know this only, Sire;
In Cracow a pretender hath appeared;
The king and nobles back him.

TSAR.                       What say they?
And who is this pretender?

SHUISKY.                 I know not.

TSAR. But wherein is he dangerous?

SHUISKY.                         Verily
Thy state, my liege, is firm; by graciousness,
Zeal, bounty, thou hast won the filial love
Of all thy slaves; but thou thyself dost know
The mob is thoughtless, changeable, rebellious,
Credulous, lightly given to vain hope,
Obedient to each momentary impulse,
To truth deaf and indifferent; it feedeth
On fables; shameless boldness pleaseth it.
So, if this unknown vagabond should cross
The Lithuanian border, Dimitry’s name
Raised from the grave will gain him a whole crowd
Of fools.

TSAR. Dimitry’s? — What? — That child’s? — Dimitry’s?
Withdraw, tsarevich.

SHUISKY.           He flushed; there’ll be a storm!

FEODOR. Suffer me, Sire —

TSAR.                  Impossible, my son;
Go, go!

(Exit FEODOR.)

    Dimitry’s name!

SHUISKY.            Then he knew nothing.

TSAR. Listen: take steps this very hour that Russia
Be fenced by barriers from Lithuania;
That not a single soul pass o’er the border,
That not a hare run o’er to us from Poland,
Nor crow fly here from Cracow. Away!

SHUISKY.                           I go.

TSAR. Stay! — Is it not a fact that this report
Is artfully concocted? Hast ever heard
That dead men have arisen from their graves
To question tsars, legitimate tsars, appointed,
Chosen by the voice of all the people, crowned
By the great Patriarch? Is’t not laughable?
Eh? What? Why laugh’st thou not thereat?

SHUISKY.                               I, Sire?

TSAR. Hark, Prince Vassily; when first I learned this child
Had been — this child had somehow lost its life,
‘Twas thou I sent to search the matter out.
Now by the Cross and God I do adjure thee,
Declare to me the truth upon thy conscience;
Didst recognise the slaughtered boy; was’t not
A substitute? Reply.

SHUISKY.           I swear to thee —

TSAR. Nay, Shuisky, swear not, but reply; was it
Indeed Dimitry?

SHUISKY.      He.

TSAR.           Consider, prince.
I promise clemency; I will not punish
With vain disgrace a lie that’s past. But if
Thou now beguile me, then by my son’s head
I swear — an evil fate shall overtake thee,
Requital such that Tsar Ivan Vasilievich
Shall shudder in his grave with horror of it.

SHUISKY. In punishment no terror lies; the terror
Doth lie in thy disfavour; in thy presence
Dare I use cunning? Could I deceive myself
So blindly as not recognise Dimitry?
Three days in the cathedral did I visit
His corpse, escorted thither by all Uglich.
Around him thirteen bodies lay of those
Slain by the people, and on them corruption
Already had set in perceptibly.
But lo! The childish face of the tsarevich
Was bright and fresh and quiet as if asleep;
The deep gash had congealed not, nor the lines
Of his face even altered. No, my liege,
There is no doubt; Dimitry sleeps in the grave.

TSAR. Enough, withdraw.

(Exit SHUISKY.)

              I choke! — let me get my breath!
I felt it; all my blood surged to my face,
And heavily fell back. — So that is why
For thirteen years together I have dreamed
Ever about the murdered child. Yes, yes —
‘Tis that! — now I perceive. But who is he,
My terrible antagonist? Who is it
Opposeth me? An empty name, a shadow.
Can it be a shade shall tear from me the purple,
A sound deprive my children of succession?
Fool that I was! Of what was I afraid?
Blow on this phantom — and it is no more.
So, I am fast resolved; I’ll show no sign
Of fear, but nothing must be held in scorn.
Ah! Heavy art thou, crown of Monomakh!