Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchTO A. S. SUVORIN.MELIHOVO, October 22, 1896.In your last letter (of October 18) you three times call me womanish,and say that I was in a funk. Why this libel? After the performanceI had supper at Romanov’s. On my word of honour. Then Iwent to bed, slept soundly, and next day went home without utteringa sound of complaint. If I had been in a funk I should have runfrom editor to editor and actor to actor, should have nervously entreatedthem to be considerate, should nervously have inserted uselesscorrections and should have spent two or three weeks in Petersburgfussing over my “Seagull,” in excitement, in a cold perspiration,in lamentation …. When you were with me the night after theperformance you told me yourself that it would be the best thingfor me to go away; and next morning I got a letter from you to saygood-bye. How did I show funk? I acted as coldly and reasonably asa man who has made an offer, received a refusal, and has nothingleft but to go. Yes, my vanity was stung, but you know it was not abolt from the blue; I was expecting a failure, and was prepared forit, as I warned you with perfect sincerity beforehand.When I got home I took a dose of castor oil, and had a cold bath,and now I am ready to write another play. I no longer feel exhaustedand irritable, and am not afraid that Davydov and Jean will come tome and talk about the play. I agree with your corrections, and athousand thanks for them. Only please don’t regret that you werenot at the rehearsals. You know there was in reality only one rehearsal,at which one could make out nothing. One could not seethe play at all through the loathsome acting.I have got a telegram from Potapenko—“A colossal success.” Ihave had a letter from Mlle. Veselitsky (Mikulitch) whom I don’tknow. She expresses her sympathy in a tone as if one of my familywere dead. It’s really quite inappropriate; that’s all nonsense, though.My sister is delighted with you and Anna Ivanovna, and I aminexpressibly glad of it, for I love your family like my own. Shehastened home from Petersburg, possibly imagining that I wouldhang myself ….342
Anton ChekhovTO E. M. S.MELIHOVO, November, 1896.If, O honoured “One of the Audience”, you are writing of thefirst performance, then allow—oh, allow me to doubt your sincerity.You hasten to pour healing balsam on the author’s wounds, supposingthat, under the circumstances, that is more necessary andbetter than sincerity; you are kind, very kind, and it does credit toyour heart. At the first performance I did not see all, but what I didsee was dingy, grey, dismal and wooden. I did not distribute theparts and was not given new scenery. There were only two rehearsals,the actors did not know their parts—and the result was a generalpanic and utter depression; even Madame Kommissarzhevsky’sacting was not up to much, though at one of the rehearsals sheacted marvellously, so that people sitting in the stalls wept with bowedheads.In any case I am grateful and very, very much touched. All myplays are being printed, and as soon as they are ready I shall sendyou a copy ….343
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Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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