Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton ChekhovTO HIS SISTER.PETERSBURG, March 16. Midnight.I have just seen the Italian actress Duse in Shakespeare’s Cleopatra.I don’t know Italian, but she acted so well that it seemed to me Iunderstood every word. A remarkable actress! I have never seen anythinglike it before. I gazed at that Duse and felt overcome withmisery at the thought that we have to educate our temperamentsand tastes on such wooden actresses as N. and her like, whom wecall great because we have seen nothing better. Looking at Duse Iunderstood why it is that the Russian theatre is so dull.I sent three hundred roubles to-day, did you get them?After Duse it was amusing to read the address I enclose.* MyGod, how low taste and a sense of justice have sunk! And these arethe students—the devil take them! Whether it is Solovtsov or whetherit is Salvini, it’s all the same to them, both equally “stir a warmresponse in the hearts of the young.” They are worth a farthing, allthose hearts.We set off for Warsaw at half-past one to-morrow. My greetingsto all, even the mongooses, though they don’t deserve it. I will write.*A newspaper cutting containing an address: From the Students ofthe Technological Institute of Harkov to M. M. Solovtsov, was enclosed.223