Gogol Three Plays

The Government Inspector; Marriage; The Gamblers

Nikolai Gogol, Stephen Mulrine

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 1999
• ISBN:
  9781408148624
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

This collection contains Gogol's three completed plays

The Government Inspector, which satirises a corrupt society was regarded by Nabokov as the greatest play in the Russian language and is still widely studied in schools and universities: "I resolved to gather into one heap everything that was bad in Russia which I was aware of at that time, all the injustices being perpetrated in those places, and in those circumstances that especially cried out for justice, and tried to hold them all up to ridicule, at one fell swoop." (Nikolai Gogol) Marriage is a comedy about the business of matchmaking and matrimony; The Gamblers is an exoriating piece about the excesses of the Moscow aristocracy.

"Two and two make five, if not the square root of five, and it all happens quite naturally in Gogol's world... Gogol was a strange creature, but then genius is always strange" (Vladimir Nabokov)

The Government Inspector

If your face is twisted, it’s no use blaming the minor.

— Popular saying

Characters

Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, Anton, a provincial mayor

Anna, his wife

Mayor, his daughter

Khlopov, Superintendent of Schools

Khlopov’s wife

Lyapkin-Tyapkin a judge

Zemlyanika, Charities Warden

Shpyokin Postmaster

Khlestakov, a St Petersburg clerk

Osip, his manservant

Gibner, the district physician

Korobkin’s wife

Ukhovyortov, Chief of Police

Abdulin, a merchant

Poshlyopkina, a locksmith’s wife

Mishka, the Mayor’s manservant

A sergeant’s widow

A waiter at the inn

Guests, merchants, townsfolk, petitioners

A gendarme

Notes to the Actors:
Characters and Costumes

The Mayor: a man grown old in the service, and in his own way extremely shrewd. Despite his bribe-taking, he conducts himself with dignity; grave in demeanour, even rather sententious; speaks neither loudly or softly, neither too much nor too little. His every word is significant. His features are coarse and hard, someone who has worked his way up from the ranks. Rapid transitions from fear to joy, from servility to arrogance, reveal a man of crudely developed instincts. Routinely dressed in official uniform, with braided facings, topboots and spurs. Short grizzled hair.

Anna Aadreevna: his wife, a provincial coquette of a certain age, educated partly out of romantic novels and album verse, and partly from bustling around, overseeing the pantry and the maids’ room. She is extremely inquisitive and displays her vanity at every turn. Occasionally has the upper hand over her husband, but only when he is stuck for a reply, and her dominance extends no further than trivial matters, expressed in nagging and mockery. She has four complete changes of costume in the course of the play.

Khlestakov: a young man of about twenty-three, slim-built, almost skinny; a little scatterbrained, with, as they say, not a great deal upstairs; one of those people in government service referred to as ‘nitwits’. Speaks and acts without a thought. Quite incapable of concentrating on any particular idea. His delivery is rather staccato, and he says the first thing that comes into his head. The more naivety and simplicity the actor brings to his role, the more successful he will be. Dressed in the height of fashion.

Osip: his manservant, like the generality of servants who are getting on in years: sober-sided, eyes downcast most of the time; something of a moraliser, fond of repeating little maxims to himself, but for the benefit of his master. His voice is almost always level, but in conversation with Khlestakov, occasionally takes on a harsh, abrupt tone, to the point of rudeness. He is more intelligent than his master, and thus quicker on the uptake, but doesn’t say much, and craftily keeps his own counsel. Wears a shabby grey or dark blue coat.

Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky: both men are short and squat and intensely inquisitive; their resemblance to one another is quite extraordinary; both have little potbellies, both gabble at high speed, helped along by gestures and hand-waving. Dobchinsky is slightly taller and more sedate than Bobchinsky, but the latter is jollier and more animated..

Lyapkin-Tyapkin: the Judge, a man who has read five or six books and fancies himself a freethinker. Much given to conjecture, he weighs carefully his every word. The actor playing him must maintain a portentous expression at all times. Speaks in a deep bass voice, with a drawling delivery, and a throaty wheeze, like one of those antique clocks that hiss before they strike.

Zemlyanika: the Charities Warden, a rather fat, sluggish and cumbersome person, but a sly rogue nonetheless. Extremely servile and officious.

Postmaster: simple-minded to the point of naivety.

The other roles need no explanation. Their originals can be seen almost everywhere. The actors should pay close attention to the concluding tableau. The final lines should produce an immediate electrifying effect on all present, and the entire cast must adopt its new position instantly. A cry of astonishment must erupt from all the women simultaneously, as if from a single pair of lungs. Failure to observe these notes may ruin the whole effect.

Act One

A room in the Mayor’s house. The Mayor, Charities Warden, Schools Superintendent, Judge, Physician, and two Constables.

Mayor Gentlemen, I have invited you here to inform you of some extremely unpleasant news: we are about to receive a visit from an Inspector.

Judge An inspector?

Warden What sort of inspector?

Mayor A Government Inspector from St Petersburg, travelling incognito. With secret intructions, no less.

Judge Oh dear!

Warden That’s the last thing we need!

Superintendent Good Lord! Secret instructions!

Mayor You know, I had a premonition: the whole of last night I kept dreaming about two extraordinary rats. I tell you, I’ve never seen anything like it: huge, black things, monsters. They came up and started sniffing around, then cleared off. I’ll read you this letter, which I’ve just received from Andrei Ivanovich – I think you know him, Warden. Anyway, this is what he says: ‘My dear friend, godfather and benefactor … (Muttering under his breath as he scans the paper.) … to inform you that …’ Ah, here it is: ‘Meanwhile, I hasten to inform you that an official has just arrived with orders to inspect the whole province, and in particular, our district … (Holds up finger, meaningfully.) … I have this on the most reliable authority, although he is passing himself off as a private citizen. So, as I know you have your little vices like the rest of us, being a sensible chap, who never lets anything slip through his fingers …’ (Stops.) Well, we’re among friends here. ‘… I advise you to take precautions. He may arrive at any time, if indeed he hasn’t arrived already and is staying incognito somewhere … Yesterday afternoon I …’ Ah, now he goes on to family business: ‘Cousin Anna paid us a visit with her husband; Cousin Ivan has got very stout, but can still play the fiddle …’ et cetera, et cetera. So there we are, gentlemen, that’s the situation.

Judge Yes, it’s a most unusual situation – most unusual. There’s something behind it.

Superintendent But why, Mister Mayor? What on earth for? And why us?

Mayor Why? It’s fate, obviously! (Sighs.) Until now, thanks be to God, they’ve poked around in other towns. Now it’s our turn.

Judge Well, I fancy we’re seeing some quite subtle realpolitik here, Mister Mayor. I think it means that Russia … Yes, that’s it, we’re going to declare war, and the Government, you see, have sent out this official, to check for treason.

Mayor Oh, don’t be ridiculous! And you’re supposed to be clever? Treason, in this neck of the woods, really! It’s not as if we’re on the frontier, are we? Good God, you could gallop out of here for three years and still not reach a foreign country!

Judge No, seriously … You don’t know … I mean … They have some extremely shrewd ideas, the Government. Distance doesn’t come into it, they keep their eyes peeled just the same.

Mayor Well, eyes peeled or unpeeled, don’t say I haven’t warned you, gentlemen. As you’ll see, I’ve made certain arrangements in my own department, and I advise you to do likewise. Especially you, Warden! Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the first thing any visiting official will want to inspect is your charity institutions, so you’d better get them into decent order: clean nightcaps, for a start. We don’t want the patients looking like coal-miners, the way they usually go about.

Warden That’s all right. I dare say we can stick clean night-caps on them.

Mayor Good. Oh, and hang a notice in Latin or something above each bed – this is your department now, Doctor – the name of the illness, when they took sick, the day of the week and month … And it’s not a good idea letting patients smoke that foul tobacco so you start coughing and spluttering the minute you go in there. Yes, and you’d better discharge a few: otherwise they’ll put it down to bad management or the Doctor’s incompetence.

Warden Well, really! Dr Gibner and I have our own system, that’s all. As far as treatment’s concerned, the closer to Nature the better. That’s why we don’t bother with expensive medicines. Man is a simple creature: if he’s going to die, he’ll die; if he’s going to recover, he’ll recover. Actually, the Doctor would have trouble communicating with them anyway – he doesn’t speak a word of Russian.

The Physician utters a sound, mid-way between ‘ee’ and ‘eh’.

Mayor And I’d advise you, Judge, to do something about that court-house of yours. The watchmen keep geese in the hall, where the clients are supposed to go, and the goslings are getting under people’s feet. All right, poultry-farming’s a thoroughly respectable business – why shouldn’t the watchmen engage in it? But it’s not decent, in a court-house. I ought to have mentioned that before, only it slipped my mind.

Judge Fine, I’ll have the lot whipped off into the kitchen today. You can come to dinner, if you like.

Mayor What’s more, it isn’t very nice hanging all sorts of rubbish up to dry in the courtroom, and dumping your riding tackle on top of the document chest. I know you’re keen on hunting and all that, but you’d better keep it out of sight for a while. You can hang it back up again, once the Inspector’s moved on. And that clerk of yours … well, I dare say he knows his job, but he smells as if he’d emerged straight from a distillery – that’s not very nice, either. I’ve been meaning to have a word with you about that too, but I got sidetracked somehow, I don’t remember. Anyway, there’s surely something he can take for that, if, as he says, it’s just his natural odour. You should tell him to eat onions, or garlic, or something. In fact, the Doctor might be of use here, with those medicines of his.

The Physician utters the same curious sound.

Judge No, he can’t get rid of it. He says his nurse dropped him when he was a baby and he’s given off a slight whiff of vodka ever since.

Mayor Well, it...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• The Government Inspector, Marriage, The Gamblers
• Chronology
• Introduction
• The Government Inspector
• Marriage
• The Gamblers
• Imprint