The atmosphere of Tchekov’s plays is laden with gloom, but it is a darkness of the last hour before the dawn begins. His note is not in the least a note of despair: it is a note of invincible trust in the coming day. The burden of his work is this—life is difficult, there is nothing to be done but to work and to continue to work as cheerfully as one can; and his triumph as a playwright is that for the first time he has shown in prose,—for the great poets have done little else,—behind the footlights, what it is that makes life difficult. Life is too tremendous, too cheerful, and too sad a thing to be condensed into an abstract problem of lines and alphabetical symbols; and those who in writing for the stage attempt to do this, achieve a result which is both artificial and tedious. Tchekov disregarded all theories and all rules which people have hitherto laid down as the indispensable qualities of stage writing; he put on the stage the things which interested him because they were human and true; things great or infinitesimally small; as great as love and as small as a discussion as to what are the best hors d’œuvres; and they interest us for the same reason.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] Two volumes of selections from his stories have been admirably translated by Mr. Long.
[25] It proved a success.
[26] The dramatic critics of these newspapers are not the Mr. William Archers, the Mr. Walkleys, not the Faguets or the Lemaîtres of Russia, if any such exist. I have never come across anything of interest in their articles; on the other hand, they are perhaps more representative of public opinion.
[27] Since this was written Mr. Shaw’s genius has had greater justice done to it in Russia. His Cæsar and Cleopatra has proved highly successful. It was produced at the State Theatre of Moscow in the autumn of 1909 and is still running as I write. Several intelligent articles were written on it in the Moscow press.
[28] Not to mention many modern French comedies, such as those of Lemaître, Capus, etc.
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Transcriber’s Notes
A few minor omissions and inconsistencies in punctuation have been fixed.