Genre and literary direction
"The Brigadier" is a traditional farce sideshow for the 18th century. Each individual storyline seems to be a deviation from the poorly drawn main one (the love of Dobrolyubov and Sophia). The comicality of each plot situation becomes an end in itself. Combining separate intermedia passages into one plot is a whole art. "The Brigadier" is a classic comedy. Each character is a typical character, written in one or two strokes. In "The Brigadier" there are features of a sitcom: the situations in which the characters find themselves are comical. This is either a violation of the intimacy of the explanation of lovers, or an imaginary (adviser) or real (foreman) misunderstanding of amorous courtship or flirting.
As it should be in classic comedy, the action in "The Brigadier" is static, and the characters are sketchy.
Theme and problems, plot and composition
The theme of the comedy is connected with the satirical ridicule of the moral vices of society. The problem allows you to talk about where these vices come from, why negative characters are. It is no coincidence that the comedy is called "The Brigadier", although the foreman is not main character. But he, as a representative of the older generation, is responsible for why his son is vicious. The brigadier himself at some point realizes that he was too soft with his son, allowed his wife to spoil him and did not give him into military service. He keeps threatening to beat Ivan, but it's too late.
Another problem is related to bribery of officials. By the time the play was written, a decree had been issued to combat bribery. Accustomed to taking bribes, the adviser did not see the point in further service and retired to live in a village acquired by bribes.
Another problem is the predilection of young people for everything foreign. Ivan turns in separate French words and confesses to the adviser that he was taught by a French coachman. The counselor also babbles in French, but despises her teachers. Fonvizin ridicules such "education". For him, the ideal of enlightened nobles is Sophia and Dobrolyubov. They are smart, modest, educated and love the fatherland, respect their parents and their native language.
There are 5 actions in the Brigadier. They are united by the marriage of Ivan and Sophia. But in fact, the plot breaks up into separate episodes, each of which is associated with a vicious love couple. At the same time, the virtuous lovers Dobrolyubov and Sophia cannot be considered the main characters, they play too little a role, they do not connect everything. storylines together. Storylines connect at the end when they open love affairs heroes.
Heroes and images
The positive characters Sofya and Dobrolyubov are not spelled out in detail. They connect all the storylines and pronounce the author's enlightening ideas about the benefits of education. Sophia is an obedient daughter and does not go against the will of her father, although she explains her unwillingness to marry, so that the adviser even becomes ashamed to force her. But the adviser has his own interests: he wants to communicate more with Ivan's mother, the brigadier, with whom he is in love.
Negative characters make up love couples and triangles. The comic is that the foreman, surprisingly similar to the club-headed Box from Gogol's "Dead Souls", does not even understand that the adviser lusts for her. The adviser and Ivan in the triangle adviser - Ivan - the foreman seems to be made for each other. They have the same vices: they are prone to idleness and entertainment, they despise everything Russian and admire the French. At the same time, they are just as ignorant as the foreman and foreman, who do not know letters and consider it unnecessary. The diligent brigadier spares no money for a grammar book, so that the spouses do not teach reading and writing to their son, and the adviser tore the grammar into papilots. The vice of an adviser is hypocrisy, ostentatious piety and bribery. The foreman beats his wife, treats her worse than a horse. He is third in love triangle, the adviser pretends not to understand his hints, and the son is ready to challenge him to a duel.
The brigadier even causes sympathy. According to Fonvizin, she is very stupid, but she is the only one who does not try to seem smarter than she is. The adviser, on the contrary, considers her a smart and prudent woman, which she is in economic matters.
Topics of conversation bad guys just as limited as they are. The brigadier discusses military affairs, the adviser talks about the courts, Ivan talks about France, the adviser talks about outfits, and the brigadier talks about the household.
Conflict
The conflict in classic comedy is always external. Heroes are carriers of certain character traits, positive or negative. In the confrontation between vice and virtue, vice is ridiculed, and virtue triumphs. Dobrolyubov wins the lawsuit, despite the bribery of the judges, because he appeals to higher authorities. He becomes wealthy, and the adviser no longer interferes with his marriage to his daughter.
Artistic originality
The novelty of the comedy was that the action was transferred to an ordinary landowner's house. The audience felt like they were part of the play. Comedy is replete with everyday details, signs of the times. The characters even play cards and drink tea.
The speech of the characters deserves attention. The foreman compares everyone to animals, is rude, and constantly scolds. The adviser does not lag behind him. His speech is full of Church Slavonicisms and swearing. This fact leads to a comical situation when he hints about his love for the brigadier, drawing church analogies and using Old Slavonic words. His piety is external, hypocritical, as is the education of Ivan and the adviser, who speak French. The brigadier and the brigadier keep asking Ivan to speak Russian.
Brigadier Ignatiy Andreevich and his wife Akulina Timofeevna are going to marry their son Ivanushka to Sofya, the daughter of adviser Artamon Vlasich. The foreman's family is staying with the adviser in his village. Future relatives are talking about the upcoming wedding. Ivanushka has already managed to visit Paris, he always inserts French words into his speech. Father doesn't like it. He advises Ivanushka to "be diligent about business" and read "the article and military regulations." Housekeeping Akulina Timofeevna the best reading counts the account books. The adviser recommends that the future son-in-law familiarize himself with the code and decrees. And adviser Avdotya Potapyevna, Sophia's stepmother, prefers "amiable novels" to any other reading. Ivanushka fully agrees with her.
Sophia is not happy about the upcoming marriage: she considers her fiancé a fool. Her stepmother, on the contrary, is delighted with Ivanushka and his "Parisian" manners.
The general conversation of future relatives is not glued. The brigadier is only interested in what concerns military affairs, his wife thinks only about the household, the adviser is only interested in legal issues, and Ivanushka and the adviser find all these topics base. The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Dobrolyubov. The adviser, Sophia and the foreman with his wife go to meet him.
The counselor and Ivanushka are left alone. They quickly find mutual understanding: the young man scolds his parents, and the adviser scolds her husband. Ivanushka admits that she does not want to marry Sophia. Guessing on the cards, Ivan and Avdotya Potapyevna declare their love to each other. The adviser reveals to the young man that Sophia has long loved Dobrolyubov and is loved by him.
When Sophia and Dobrolyubov appear, Ivanushka and her adviser immediately leave, leaving the lovers alone. Sophia guesses about the feelings of her fiancé and stepmother. She also notices that her father looks tenderly at the foreman, and the foreman at the adviser. Only Sofya and Dobrolyubov love each other with love "based on honest intentions." An obstacle to their marriage is Dobrolyubov's poverty. But he hopes that with the end of the trial, his wealth will increase.
Sophia asks her father not to marry her off to Ivanushka. But the adviser does not even want to listen: Ivanushka has “fair villages,” he explains. Artamon Vlasich advises his daughter to please her mother-in-law and honor her. True reason the stubbornness of the adviser is the love for the foreman. Having given his daughter in marriage to Ivanushka, Artamon Vlasich will be able to see Akulina Timofeevna often by kinship.
The pious adviser is ashamed of his sinful love, but still, at the sight of the brigadier, he cannot refrain from telling her about his feelings. True, the ingenuous brigadier does not understand anything, because the adviser inserts Church Slavonic expressions into his speech. When Artamon Vlasich kneels before Akulina Timofeevna, Ivanushka unexpectedly enters. At the sight of this scene, he laughs and applauds. The dumbfounded adviser exits. The son explains to the bewildered brigadier that the adviser is "amusing" with her.
The brigadier is furious. She promises to tell her husband everything. But the adviser who appeared explains to Ivanushka that this secret cannot be divulged: if the foreman finds out about something, he will immediately take his wife and son home. Ivan and Avdotya Potapyevna convince the angry brigadier that Ivanushka was just joking, and the adviser was not at all "amorous". Akulina Timofeevna, believing, calms down.
Ivanushka and the adviser are happy to note that they are people of "one mind, one taste, one disposition." The adviser has only one drawback in Ivan's eyes: she is Russian. The young man hopes to make amends for this "misfortune" by taking his beloved to Paris. Avdotya Potapyevna tells Ivan that the brigadier is "mortally in love" with her. Ivanushka gets excited: he is ready to challenge his father to a duel. The Brigadier appears. He wants to drive his son out of the room and talk to the adviser himself. But Avdotya Potapyevna leaves with Ivanushka.
The brigadier scolds Ivanushka for "tomfoolery" and addiction to everything French. He replies disrespectfully. Ignatius Andreevich threatens his son with beatings, but the adviser who appears protects Ivan from his father's wrath. She persuades young man talk about your stay in France. The son says that he "has already become more French than Russian." The councilor and foreman are delighted with this story, but the foreman is annoyed. Ivan leaves with annoyance at his father, his mother follows him. And the foreman begins to express his love for the adviser. But since he uses military terms, the adviser pretends not to understand him.
Dobrolyubov tells the adviser that his trial is over and now he has two thousand souls. The judges turned out to be bribe-takers, so Dobrolyubov had to turn directly to "higher justice", and justice finally prevailed. Dobrolyubov asks for Sophia's hand. The counselor is happy about this, but her husband doubts: he does not say yes or no.
Dobrolyubov and Sofya hope that the adviser's greed will induce him to agree to their marriage. The lovers stop talking at the sight of the crying foreman: Akulina Timofeevna was again scolded by her husband. Ignatiy Timofeevich is generally of a tough temper and heavy on his hands: once he jokingly pushed his wife so that she almost gave her soul to God.
Ivanushka, adviser, Sofya and Dobrolyubov card game in a quadrille. Brigadier of this fashion game does not know and is compelled only to observe. The adviser and the foreman are playing chess.
The brigadier recalls the village game of pigs. Telling the adviser about this fun, she takes the cards from the players. Ivanushka is annoyed, and the foreman takes the opportunity to scold his wife. The offended brigadier leaves.
Artamon Vlasich reproaches the brigadier for mistreating his wife. Then Ignatius Andreevich, in turn, hints that the adviser is not indifferent to Ivanushka. But the adviser doesn't believe it. The brigadier is also sure that "there is no such fool in the world" who would take it into his head to drag Akulina Timofeevna.
The brigadier persuades her son to marry. But Ivan's parental example does not inspire. In addition, he does not like the bride. Akulina Timofeevna explains that the choice of the bride is not the business of the groom, but the parents. She herself, for example, had never spoken to Ignatiy Andreevich before the wedding.
The adviser and Ivanushka talk about their love and about the danger from the adviser and the foreman. Ivanushka tells her beloved about his education. Before going to Paris, it turns out that he was brought up by a French coachman - Ivan owes his love for France to him.
The adviser and the brigadier find Ivan on his knees before Avdotya Potapyevna. They hear the words of lovers. The secret is revealed. Ignatiy Andreevich is going to beat his son, and the adviser is going to recover money from Ivan for dishonor. The brigadier, Sofya and Dobrolyubov, who entered, immediately find out about what happened. Sophia refuses to marry Ivan. The adviser and foreman agree to this.
Then Ivan and the adviser reveal all the secrets they know. Ivanushka tells how the adviser knelt before the foreman. And Avdotya Potapevna - about how the foreman "declared his love to her."
The brigadier and adviser part in great anger. Ignatius Andreevich takes away his family: “In what we are standing, in that we are out of the yard!”. The adviser and Ivan touchingly say goodbye - the adviser and the foreman barely manage to separate them.
The adviser stays with his wife and daughter. Dobrolyubov again asks for Sophia's hand. Artamon Vlasich, Avdotya Potapyevna and Sofya herself express their consent.
The comedy Brigadier was ultimately a devastating satire on the feudal lords, although Fonvizin did not directly touch upon the topic of serfdom in it. Since the playwright pursued the goal of giving collective image of the whole estate, it is difficult to single out the main character in the play. Formally, the threads of intrigue converge on the young petimeter and gallomaniac Ivanushka, but his image sets off in sufficient detail only the shortcomings of noble education.
The images of the Brigadier and the Brigadier, from which she got her name, are also not at the center of the comedy, despite the fact that Fonvizin gave these characters for the first time special meaning. As a result, each of actors the play not only exists on its own, but also complements the collective portrait of the Russian nobility, as it was seen by Fonvizin.
In "The Brigadier" is used common in the comedy of the XVIII century. love story: Parents try to arrange an advantageous marriage between their children, while the hearts of their children are given to others. But the writer also used this story with a traditionally happy ending for the purpose of satirical exposure, giving it a pamphlet sound. "The Brigadier" is a comedy dedicated to the nobility as an estate.
The two families meet to marry the foreman's son Ivan, who has just returned from Paris, to the stepdaughter of the Counsellor, Sophia. In fact love relationship are not developing as expected. The Brigadier, it turns out, is fascinated by the Counselor, the Brigadier seems smarter and more attractive than all the women in the world, and Ivan and the Counselor throw themselves into each other's arms, because everyone else is considered fools.
The theme of "stupidity" unites the heroes of "The Brigadier" to no lesser extent than class affiliation. That which, according to their ideas, is the mind, the playwright exposes before the audience as gross self-interest, ignorance, lack of a sense of patriotism, elementary immorality.
The brigadier considers himself smart person because he reached the 5th grade according to the “Table of Ranks” and knows by heart the “Article” and “Military Charter”. The adviser reduces all the knowledge and mind necessary for a nobleman to the ability to interpret the Code in such a way as to rob both the right and the wrong.
The adviser complains that her husband and all her neighbors are brutes and ignoramuses, because they do not read novels and did not take lessons from French teachers. Ivan generally believes that without having been to Paris, a Russian person cannot be smart. Even the simple-hearted Brigadier, who has heard all her life from her husband what a fool she is, deep down is sure that she, “thank God, does not occupy her mind,” and in her own right, because, in her own words, “it’s bad to live without a mind, what will you make without him? ”, And she knows how to make money. Each of the heroes also applies his standard of "mind" to others.
The rude martinet Brigadier sees in the simpering Counselor a secular lady, a “strong fortress”, and since she commands an old husband, he finds in her “a whole chamber of mind”. The brigadier, who "is glad to endure a fever with spots for a ruble," irresistibly likes the Counselor, who, in turn, is "stingy and hard as flint." The adviser is crazy about Ivan, because she herself only raves about French fashions and love affairs, and he, for the same reason, is from her.
It does not occur to the only Brigadier to cheat on her husband. Although he beats her, she understands only him alone: "... he pronounces all the words so clearly, so eloquently, like a parrot."
The amorous intentions of the characters are depicted by Fonvizin as a parody of true love and constantly put them in a ridiculous relationship with each other. Throughout the entire action of the play, a complete discrepancy between the behavior of the characters is continuously revealed. common sense And moral standard what are the funniest scenes. On the stage, the question is seriously discussed, to what rank according to the “Table of Ranks” does the Creator “the hair of our head has been read the essence”, a love explanation is taken for a request to lend money, etc.
A typical method of such self-exposing of heroes is, for example, the boasting with which Ivan talks about his successes in Paris: to hide it, declared it with such an extraordinary laugh, which directly proved that they were thinking of me.
In terms of genre, Brigadier was a completely new phenomenon for Russian dramaturgy. Fonvizin created the first "comedy of manners". The classic "comedy of characters" brought vicious or ridiculous characters onto the stage, whose properties were primordial and did not require explanation. All their stage behavior was a logical consequence of the main feature: stinginess, jealousy, hypocrisy, stupidity, etc. By "morals" they meant such human qualities which were acquired by upbringing and worldly experience in a broad sense.
They could coincide with the basic properties, but even in this case they were, as it were, postulated by external circumstances. The “petty-bourgeois drama” made a great contribution to the development of the “theory of morals”, and there is no doubt that Fonvizin’s study of the experience of Diderot, late classic comedy and participation in the Elagin-Lukin circle had a great influence on the method of portraying the heroes of The Brigadier.
Each of them is stupid in his own way, not to mention the fact that each character is not always limited to one of some traits. Fonvizin does not show the process of character formation, but explains the different behavior of the characters by biographical circumstances.
So, the natural stupidity of Akulina Timofeevna is aggravated by the fact that the Brigadier hammered the thought of this into her all her life. Ivan and the Counselor are not only stupid, but also badly brought up. In the image of the Counselor, the features of the “orderly” freely vary: hypocrisy and religious hypocrisy are added to stinginess and greed. Unlike the Brigadier, the Counselor is just a long-serving nobleman, and he bought the village shortly before the decree prohibiting bribes.
Thus, the behavior of the characters, their features are closely associated with everyday life, and a comedy "in Russian manners" arises. At the same time, although Fonvizin follows one of the basic principles of the "philistine drama", explaining the characters by education, in general, "The Brigadier" is not at all like the plays of Diderot and his followers.
There, the "funny" was deliberately sacrificed to the "serious". Fonvizin, without losing sight of a serious satirical goal, makes laughter, and not direct denunciation, the main weapon of struggle. Therefore, in the educational play, which grew out of a new understanding of human nature, the playwright used the form and techniques of the "comedy of positions" of the Moliere type.
Fonvizin's first comedy is not without elements of buffoonery. If there are no fights right on the stage, then the Brigadier throughout the whole action scatters threats to the right and left to start a fight. Most widely, however, Fonvizin uses not play, but purely literary, verbal devices comic. These include Ivan and the Counselor's macaronic speech, inappropriately interspersed with French words.
Fonvizin loves to use puns and build whole scenes on them. The adviser, inspiring his daughter with respect for the future mother-in-law and praising the Brigadier, wants to emphasize that the respectable woman is specially noted in the Book of the Belly (i.e., in the Book of Life), but calls her the Book of Animals. In general, the word "cattle" is a kind of dominant in the text of "The Brigadier", an indicator of the extreme degradation of an egoistic person.
As a true artist, Fonvizin in The Brigadier is far from declarative. Although the author's point of view is constantly felt in the play, the viewer is left to participate in the sentencing of the vicious heroes of the comedy. Fonvizin uses here the method of self-disclosure of characters.
His characters talk about education, science, family virtues and love. The spectator is amused and indignant at their judgments, behind which stands Fonvizin, the enlightener, who made the triumphant hero of the comedy - laughter at the abominations of life.
The Brigadier depicts and compares two generations of the Russian nobility. Outwardly, Ivan is strikingly unlike his parents, but in essence, as Fonvizin shows, both the young and old generations are both bad. It is no coincidence that at the beginning of the play the Brigadier utters the phrase: “We are all nobles, we are all equal,” and it ends with a quarrel over insulting the honor of a nobleman.
The concept of "honor" is one of the main categories of noble ideology. For Fonvizin and his contemporaries, it was not only a synonym for personal dignity. " Fair man does not obey the law,” wrote Fonvizin in “The Experience of the Russian Soslovnik”. “There is something majestic in his soul that draws him to think and act nobly.”
A sense of duty gave the nobility the right to lead society. The heroes of the "Brigadier", who were arguing about how much and who should receive for "disgrace" according to the law, turned out to be no longer capable of this.
Fonvizin's educational hopes are connected with other people, represented by Sophia and Dobrolyubov. Artistic weakness was rightly noted positive images"Brigadier". However, we must not forget that it is these images that are deliberately opposed to the ridiculed characters, and this determines their importance as spokesmen for the author's ideas. If Sofya and Dobrolyubov cannot be called vitally convincing images, they were still sketches of Fonvizin's favorite ideal.
In each other, they respect the person, and the fate of the Brigadier revolts in them "humanity". They are alien to self-interest, which drives the rest of the heroes. Unexpected wealth, to the complete surprise of the Counselor, does not turn Dobrolyubov's head, and he remains true to his love for Sophia; Sofya and Dobrolyubov express approximately the same range of moral ideas, the echoes of which can be found in Fonvizin's correspondence with his relatives, and in his autobiographical "Frank-hearted confession."
The Brigadier reflected the illusory hopes of the early Russian enlighteners, connected with the legislative commission of 1767, for decisive state reforms. Fonvizin laughed at what seemed to him to be a thing of the past - the dominance of stupidity and abuse of the "nettle seed." Other, reasonable people were to come into life, capable of arranging it on new principles.6 Therefore, his Brigadier and Counselor are already retired, and Dobrolyubov's court case is decided "by the will of the highest justice."
But there were no reforms. Catherine II realized that real strength on which she can rely autocratically, is not a narrow circle of enlightened nobles, but advisers and foremen, ridiculed by Fonvizin. The myth of the enlightened empress was destroyed, and since that time the Russian educators began to fight against Catherine's autocracy.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983
"Undergrowth" is one of greatest works Russian literature of the 18th century. Its author is the writer Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin. "Undergrowth", the analysis of which is presented in this article, is a work included in the mandatory school curriculum on literature.
The history of the creation of the work
Fonvizin worked on "Undergrowth" for a long time. The first edition of the comedy dates back to the 60s. It contains socio-political motives, the theme of serfdom is still absent and only a picture of the upbringing of the landowner's son Ivanushka (that was the name of the comedy hero in the first edition) is given. The adult ignoramus Ivanushka, who already “shaves his beard”, is opposed in the first edition by Milovid - a young educated officer, the son of a cultured metropolitan nobleman Dobromyslov (Milovid and Dobromyslov - the future Milon and Starodum). The images of Skotinin, Sophia, Pravdin and some others are still missing in the first version.
The second edition of the comedy was created in the late 70s and early 80s, i.e. in the period after the Pugachev uprising. At this time, the advanced part of the nobility was forced to think more and more about the reasons peasant uprisings. In addition, during these years, the reactionary Potemkin regime, which relied on the irreconcilable feudal lords, clearly strengthened. Thus the situation of the 1970s and 1980s brought the question of serfdom to the fore in comedy. Among the characters of the second edition of the comedy, sharply defined images of the feudal lords Prostakova and Skotinin appear. Idea content comedy is complicated.
"Foreman" and Undergrowth ": similarities and differences
The comedy "Undergrowth" is the main work of Fonvizin, and both in terms of the seriousness of the idea and the artistry of execution far exceeds his first comedy. As in The Brigadier, in the new comedy Fonvizin touched on the issue of education, but here he touched on this issue much deeper. Having brought out in The Brigadier the Frenchman Ivanushka - the fruit of the upbringing of French tutors and French salons, he touched on a phenomenon that, in the end, is more comical than disastrous, and which had its own and the good side. This external adoption of the customs and fashions of foreigners undermined the prejudice of fear of everything foreign and opened up the possibility for a more serious rapprochement with the civilized world.
In The Undergrowth we are dealing with just the opposite. Mitrofanushka is brought up in a rude and uncultured environment, imbued with an instinctive fear of any teaching. Here we are not confronted with people who have slightly grasped the heights of education, as in "The Brigadier", but with people who are not at all affected by general movement to enlightenment, completely alien to the new influences of the century and from the new only firmly assimilating the "decree on the freedom of the nobility." Deducing this side of life, Fonvizin undoubtedly touched on a more serious and more widespread ulcer of society.
The problem of serfdom
In The Undergrowth (1782) Fonvizin contrasts the rude, ignorant, greedy feudal landowners with enlightened and humane people. Serfdom, whose representatives are Skotinin and Prostakova, is shown truthfully and vividly; from the actions and statements of the characters emerges the whole picture local life, feudal arbitrariness and violence.
Fonvizin clearly shows the economic enslavement of the peasants. The writer notes the complete oppression of their personality. Prostakova calls the faithful maid Eremeevna "a dog's daughter", " old witch»; he not only scolds his servants, but also beats him severely. “I don’t rest my hands,” she declares, “I scold, then I fight; That's how the house is kept, my father. It is not for nothing that the teacher Kuteikin compares the life of serfs among the landlords with a combat situation, with "battles", and the retired soldier Tsyfirkin strengthens this comparison: "I myself saw a quick fire here for three hours in a day." Skotinins generally do not consider the peasant to be a person. “Lies as if noble,” Prostakova is sincerely indignant at the illness of her maid.
The interests of the serf-owners are base. Skotinin, who feels better among pigs than in human society, thinks of marrying Sofya only in order to get rich. Prostakov also pursues exceptionally selfish goals, trying to marry his Mitrofanushka to Sophia. Such is the circle of people against whom Fonvizin directs the edge of his satire.
The value of education and upbringing
The comedy strongly emphasizes the importance of education and upbringing for solving national problems. In the right upbringing, the author leads the "guarantee of the welfare of the state." The playwright makes demands on the king himself. He holds the idea that the subjects were not created for the king, but the king for the subjects, and requires the monarch to be responsible in the affairs of government. In accordance with the idea of enlightened and humane officials, the play shows Pravdin, who "pacifies" the evil feudal lords - the Prostakovs and Skotinins.
Comedy in five acts
Characters
Brigadier. Ivanushka, his son. Brigadier. Advisor . Counsellor, his wife. Sophia, daughter of a counselor. Dobrolyubov, Sophia's lover. Advisory servant.
Act one
Phenomenon I
The theater presents a room decorated in a rustic way. Brigadier, in a frock coat, walks and smokes tobacco. His son, in dezabile, squirming, drinks tea. The adviser, in a kazakin, looks at the calendar. On the other side there is a table with a tea set, next to which sits an adviser in dezabille and a cornet, and, simpering, pours tea. The brigadier sits at an odal and knits a stocking. Sofya also sits as an odal and sews in the vestibule.
Advisor (looking at the calendar). So if God bless, then the twenty-sixth will be a wedding. Son . Helas! Brigadier. Very pretty, good neighbor. Although we have recently recognized each other, this did not prevent me, on my way home from St. Petersburg, from stopping by your village with my wife and son. Such an adviser as you is worthy of being a friend from the army to the brigadier, and I have already begun to do without ranks with all of you. Counsellor. For us, sir, styles are not needed. We ourselves in the village treat everyone without ceremony. Brigadier. Ah, my mother! What a ceremony between us when (pointing to adviser) he wants to marry our Ivanushka his daughter, and you your stepdaughter, with God's blessing? And so that you can rely on him better, gentlemen, you give her your parental reward. What's the ceremony for? Counsellor. Oh, how happy our daughter is! She goes for the one who was in Paris. Ah, my joy! I know quite well what it is like to live with a husband who has not been to Paris. Son (having listened, lifts the bump of the cap). Madame! I thank you for your courtesy. I confess that I myself would like to have such a wife with whom I could not speak a language other than French. Our life would go much happier. Brigadier. Oh Ivanushka! God is merciful. Of course, you will live better than ours. Thank God you are military service did not serve, and your wife will neither go on campaigns without a salary, nor answer at home for teasing her husband in the ranks. My Ignaty Andreevich took out the guilt of every private on me. Brigadier. Wife, don't lie everything you know. Advisor . All right, neighbor. Do not sin, for God's sake. Don't be angry gentlemen. Do you know what a reasonable partner you have? She is fit to be the president of the college. That's how wise Akulina Timofeevna is. Brigadier. wisdom! Here you go, neighbor! You, favoring us, deign to speak like that, but it seems to me that her wisdom is very much like stupidity. Your Avdotya Potapyevna is another matter. ABOUT! I can tell her, to her eyes and behind her eyes, that she has a whole ward of mind. I am a man and a foreman, but she-she would be glad to lose all my patents for ranks, which I bought with my blood, if only to have the mind of her nobility. Son . Dieu! How many wonderful compliments, father! father-in-law! mother! mother-in-law! And how many minds, the head of the head is better. Advisor . And I can also say about you, dear son-in-law, that there will be a path in you. Get down to business, read more. Son . For what business? What to read? Brigadier. Read? Article and military charter; It is also not bad to read the boundary instruction for a young man. Advisor . Most of all, if you please, read the code and decrees. Whoever, being a judge, knows how to interpret them, that, my friend son-in-law, cannot be a beggar. Brigadier. It is not bad to run through my account notebooks as well. Better rogues-people will not deceive you. You won’t give five kopecks there, where you need to give four kopecks with money. Counsellor. God save you from filling your head with anything other than amiable novels! Throw, my soul, everything in the world of science. You won't believe how books like this enlighten. If I didn't read them, I would risk remaining a fool forever. Son . Madame, you are telling the truth. ABOUT! Vous avez raison. I myself, apart from novels, have not read anything, and that is why I am the way you see me. Sophia (aside). That's why you're an idiot. Son . Mademoiselle, what would you like to say? Sophia. What I think of you. Son . And what would it be? Je vous prie, don't flatter me. Advisor . Leave her, son-in-law. She, I don't know about something, is going crazy. Brigadier. ABOUT! it will pass. Before the wedding, my wife staggered around crazy for a week and a half; however, after that ten or three years, she is in such perfect prudence that no one can even notice that she has ever been smarter. Brigadier. God bless you, father, health. God prolong your long eyelids; and I, with you tenacious, have not lost my mind. Advisor . Of course, and I am very pleased that my daughter will have such a prudent mother-in-law. Counselor (sighs). Why should my stepdaughter not be your daughter-in-law? We are all nobles. We are all equal. Advisor . She speaks the truth. We are equal in almost everything. You, dear friend and matchmaker, are exactly the same in military service that I am in civilian life. Even before you were a brigadier, your head was smashed, and before I was a councilor in Moscow, I went blind in the collegium. The only consolation left is that God blessed me enough, which I acquired by virtue of decrees. Perhaps I would have had my own piece of bread and better, if my wife were not such a hunter for cornets, cuffs and other healthy things that do not serve either temporary or eternal bliss. Counsellor. Are you calling me a reel, father? Come to your senses. Fully skilyazhnichat. I am capable to divorce you, if you still start to slap me like that. Advisor . It is impossible for us to divorce without the power of the Creator and the Holy Synod. Here is my opinion. God combines, man does not separate. Son . Does God interfere in such matters in Russia? At least, my lords, in France he left it to the will of the people - to love, change, marry and divorce. Advisor . Yes, in France, and not with us, the faithful. No, dear son-in-law, both we and our wives are in the hands of the creator. He has all the hair of the head of ours read the essence. Brigadier. Look, Ignatii Andreevich, you often scold me for counting money and money every now and then. How is it? The Lord Himself deigns to count our hairs, but we, His servants, we are too lazy to count money - money that is so rare that you can get a whole wig of chiselled hair for thirty altyn. Brigadier. Vraki. I don't believe that everyone's hair is counted. No wonder ours are numbered. I am a foreman, and if five classes of hair are not counted, then who should count them for him? Brigadier. Do not sin, my father, for God's sake. He has a general, headquarters and chief officers in the same rank. Brigadier. Hey wife! I'm telling you, don't get involved. Or I will soon do something that really will have nothing to count on your head. How would you know God more, so you wouldn’t talk such a wasteland. How can you think that God, who knows everything, is not known as if our table of ranks? Shameful business. Counsellor. Stop talking like that. Is it not possible to discuss something else? They chose such a serious matter that I do not understand. Brigadier. I myself, mother, do not say that it is amusing to argue about such matter, which does not belong either to an exercise, or to battles, and nothing that would ... Advisor . What would at least at least serve to the office of judge, plaintiff or defendant. I myself, to tell the truth, am reluctant to talk about what, when talking, one can not refer to either decrees or regulations. Brigadier. I myself are bored with those speeches from which there is no profit. (To the adviser.) Let's change, my light, speech. Please tell me what you have goes to people, table or money? Do horses eat their own oats or bought ones? Son . C "est plus interesting. Counsellor. You joke, joy. Why do I know what all this cattle eats? Counselor (to wife). Don't shame me! Matushka Akulina Timofeevna, our people are eating table food. Do not be angry with my wife. She doesn’t care about that: I give out bread and oats myself. Brigadier. That's how I have my Ignatius Andreevich: he doesn't care about anything. I go alone to the anbars. Advisor (aside). Treasure, not a woman! What honeyed lips she has! Listen to her only, so you will be a slave of sin: it is impossible not to be seduced. Brigadier. What are you talking about, matchmaker? (Aside.) The hostess here is not like my grandmother. Advisor . I commend your wife's sensible care for domestic economy. Brigadier. I am grateful for her savings. She thinks more about the livestock for her than about me. Brigadier. How about it, my father? He can't think of himself to drive cattle. So don't I need to think about it? You seem to be smarter than him, but you want me to look after you. Brigadier. Listen, wife, I don't care if you're lying foolishly or out of your mind, but I tell you in all honest company that you don't open your mouth again. Hey, it's going to be bad! Son . Mon pere! Don't get excited. Brigadier. What, don't get excited? Son . Mon père, I say don't get excited. Brigadier. Yes, the first word, the devil knows, I do not understand. Son . Ha-ha-ha-ha, now it's my fault that you don't know French! Brigadier. Eck, he loosened his throat. Yes, you, understanding in Russian, why are you talking about what they don’t understand here? Counsellor. Complete, sir. Is your son supposed to speak to you only in the language that you know? Brigadier. Father, Ignatius Andreyevich, let Ivanushka speak as he pleases. It doesn't matter to me. He says something else, it seems, in Russian, but I don’t understand a word how to die. Needless to say, learning is light, ignorance is darkness. Advisor . Of course, mother! To whom God has revealed letters, so over him shines his grace. Now, thank God, not the old days. How many literates we have divorced: and so and so, to whom the Lord will open the wind. Before, it happened that those who wrote well in Russian knew the grammar so well; and now no one knows her, but everyone writes. How many serviceable secretaries we have, which extracts compose without grammar, it's a pleasure to watch! I have in mind one who, when he writes, so another scientist and with grammar can never understand it. Brigadier. What, matchmaker, grammar? Without her, I lived to almost sixty years, and raised children. Now Ivanushka is well over twenty, and he is in good hour to say, to be silent at the worst - and never heard of grammar. Brigadier. Of course, grammar is not needed. Before you begin to teach it, you still need to buy it. You pay eight hryvnias for it, and whether you learn it or not, God knows. Counsellor. Damn it, if grammar is needed for anything, and especially in the countryside. In the city, at least I tore one into papillotas. Son . J "en suis d" accord, what a grammar! I myself wrote a thousand billiards, and it seems to me that my light, my soul, adieu, ma reine can be said without looking at the grammar.Phenomenon II
Same and servant .
Servant. Mr. Dobrolyubov deigned to come. Sophia (aside). My God! He arrived, and I am the bride of another. Advisor . Let us go to meet my friend's son and take a walk with him in the garden. Brigadier (to the adviser). Would you like to go through? Counsellor. No, sir, I will stay here. Your son will keep me company. Son . De tout mon coeur, I'm glad to be alone with you. Advisor (to the foreman). You, mother, would you also like to take a walk? Brigadier. Please, please, my father. Counselor (Sophia). And you at least keep your mother-in-law company.Phenomenon III
Counsellor, son.
Son (sits very close to the adviser). It seems to me, madam, that your partner knows no more than the world how much it takes for a retired councillor. Counsellor. You told the truth: he never treated anyone in his life like secretaries and clerks. Son . He, I see, resembles my father, who in his age reasonable people ran. Counsellor. Ah, my joy! I love your sincerity. You do not spare your father! This is the direct virtue of our age. Son . Damn me if I'm thinking of managing him. Counsellor. In fact, my life, it seems to me, he is no smarter than my husband, who is more stupid in the world and there are, but very rarely. Son . Your rationale is correct. Tell me, madame, what do you think of my mother? Counsellor. How joy! It's embarrassing to tell you this in my face. Son . Perhaps, say what you want. I am indifferent in all that is due to my father and mother. Counsellor. Isn't it true that she knows the world as much as your father does? Son . Dieu! What a connoisseur of people you are! You can say you see through people. I see that it is necessary to talk about this without any dessimulation. (Sighing) So, you know that I am a very unhappy person. I have been living for twenty-five years and have a father and a mother. You know what it's like to live with good fathers, and I, damn it, I live with animals. Counsellor. I myself suffer, my soul, from my freak. My husband is a direct command line. I live for several years with him here in the village and I swear to you that all means of revenge have been taken away from me until now. All our neighbors are such ignoramuses, such cattle who sit at home, embracing their wives. And their wives - ha-ha-ha-ha! — their wives still don’t know that this is disabillation, and they think that it’s possible to live in this world in half a dressing gown. They, my soul, think of nothing more than table provisions; straight pigs... Son . Pardieu! Therefore, my mother is fit to be among your neighbors; How long have you lived with such a creature? Counsellor. My husband retired the same year the decree on extortion came out. He saw that there was nothing for him to do in the collegium, and for this he took me to torture me in the village. Son . Which, of course, he acquired before the decree. Counsellor. For all that, he is stingy and hard as flint. Son . Or like my mother. I can say about her without flattery that she is glad to endure a fever with spots for a ruble. Counsellor. For all that, my freak is a terrible hypocrite: he doesn’t miss mass or breakfast, and thinks, my joy, that God is so complex that he will forgive him during the vigil for what was stolen during the day. Son . On the contrary, my father, except at dawn, never prayed. He, they say, before his marriage did not believe that the devil exists; however, when he married my mother, he soon believed that an unclean spirit existed. Counsellor. Let's change the speech, je vous en prie; my ears hate to hear about devils and those people who are so much like them. Son . Madame! Tell me how do you spend your time? Counsellor. Oh, my soul, I'm dying of boredom. And if in the morning I had not sat for three hours at the toilet, I can say that it would have been all the same for me to die; I only breathe because from Moscow they often send me hats, which I now and then put on my head. Son . In my opinion, lace and blondes make up the head the best decoration. Pedants think that this is nonsense and that it is necessary to decorate the head from the inside, and not from the outside. What a void! The devil sees what is hidden, but everyone sees the outside. Counsellor. So, my soul: I myself have the same sentiments with you; I see that you have powder on your head, but if there is anything in your head, I can’t, damn it, notice it. Son . Pardieu! Of course, no one can notice this. Counsellor. After the toilet, my best pastime is that I think in cards. Son . You know how to guess, grand dieu! I can call myself a prophet. Would you like me to show you my art? Counsellor. Ah, my soul! You will lend me immensely. Son (pulling up table with cards). First you tell me, and then I tell you. Counsellor. With joy. Feel free to think of a king and a lady. Son (thinking). Guessed. advisor (lays out cards). Ah, what do I see! Wedding! (Sighs) The king is getting married. Son . My God! He is getting married! What is more unbearable to me! Counsellor. And the lady doesn't love him... Son . Damn me if I love you too. No, there is no more strength to endure. I thought about myself. Ah, madam! Or do you not see that I do not want to get married? advisor (sighing and sighing). You don't want to get married? Has not my stepdaughter captivated your heart enough? She is so consistent! Son . It is constant!.. Oh, the height of my misfortune! She is also permanent! I swear to you that if I notice this in her when I marry, I will divorce her that very minute. A permanent wife produces horror in me. Ah, madam! If you were my wife, I would never divorce you. Counsellor. Ah, my life! What cannot be, why worry about it? I think that you would not bore me with unnecessary claims. Son . Let me now, madame, guess something for you. Think of a king and a queen too. Counsellor. Very good. The King of Clubs and the Queen of Kernels. Son (laying out the cards). The king is mortally in love with a lady. Counsellor. Ah, what do I hear! I'm amazed. I am overjoyed. Son (looking at her tenderly). And the lady is not without inclination towards him. Counsellor. Ah, my soul, not without inclination! Tell me better, in love with madness. Son . I would give my life, I would give thousands of lives to find out who this ceramic lady is. You blush, you turn pale. Of course it is... Counsellor. Oh, how unbearable to confess one's passion! Son (with haste). So it's you... advisor (pretending to be the last word it costs a lot). Me, myself. Son (sigh). And who is this prosperous king of clubs, who was able to pierce the heart of a cow lady? Counsellor. You want me to tell you all of a sudden. Son (getting up). Yes, madam, yes. I want this, and if I am not that prosperous king of clubs, then my flame is badly rewarded for you. Counsellor. How! And are you on fire for me? Son (falling to his knees). You are a curvy lady! COUNSELOR (picking him up). You are the king of clubs! Son (in admiration). Oh happiness! Oh bonheur! Counsellor. Perhaps you, my soul, do not even know that your bride is in love with Dobrolyubov and that he himself is mortally in love with her. Son . St... St... They're coming. If this is true, oh, que nous sommes heureux! We must by all means leave them alone, so that in time they will leave us alone.Event IV
The same, Dobrolyubov and Sophia.
Sophia. You deigned to be left here alone, mother; I came to you on purpose so that you alone would not be bored. Dobrolyubov. And I, madam, took the liberty of escorting her to you. Counsellor. We are very bored here. We guessed at the cards. Son . It seems to me, mademoiselle, that you are here on purpose to inquire about your wedding. Sophia. What does it mean? Counsellor. We thought about you, and if you believe the cards, which, however, can never lie, then your marriage is not very successful. Sophia. I know this even without maps, mother. Son . You know that, what are you risking? Sophia. There is no risk here, but there is my obvious death, into which my father and mother are leading me. Counsellor. Perhaps, ma'am, don't blame me. You yourself know that I never wanted what your father wants. Son . What are these explanations for? (To the adviser.) Madame, we quite understand each other; would you like to join the company? Counsellor. For me there is nothing more comfortable
