Woe from Wit

A Verse Comedy in Four Acts

Elizabeth Hulick

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• ISBN:
  9780231548519
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Alexander Griboedov's Woe from Wit is one of the masterpieces of Russian drama. A verse comedy set in Moscow high society after the Napoleonic wars, it offers sharply drawn characters and clever repartee, mixing meticulously crafted banter and biting social critique. Its protagonist, Chatsky, is an idealistic ironist, a complex Romantic figure who would be echoed in Russian literature from Pushkin onward. Chatsky returns from three years abroad hoping to rekindle a romance with his childhood sweetheart, Sophie. In the meantime, she has fallen in love with Molchalin, her reactionary father Famusov's scheming secretary. Chatsky speaks out against the hypocrisy of aristocratic society—and as scandal erupts, he is met with accusations of madness.

Woe from Wit was written in 1823 and was an immediate sensation, but under heavy-handed tsarist censorship, it was not published in full until forty years later. Its influence is felt not just in Russian literary language but in everyday speech. It is the source of a remarkable number of frequently quoted aphorisms and turns of phrase, comparable to Shakespeare's influence on English. Yet owing to its complex rhyme scheme and verse structure, the play has frequently been considered almost untranslatable. Betsy Hulick's translation brings Griboedov's sparkling wit, spirited dialogue, and effortless crossing of registers from elevated to colloquial into a lively contemporary English.

WOE FROM WIT

ACT I

A drawing room. Grandfather clock. To the right SOPHIE’S bedroom, from where a piano and flute can be heard. The music stops. liza is asleep, half falling out of an armchair in the middle of the room. Day is breaking.

LIZA

(waking suddenly, gets up and looks around)

It’s dawn! The night has slipped away.

I asked to go to bed, but nothing doing.

“Our friend is coming. Someone has to stay

awake and watch.” “Someone” meaning me, of course.

I must have drifted off. So much the worse.

It’s light out, time her visitor was going.

(knocks on SOPHIE’S door)

Miss Sophie! Hurry up! Come out!

You’ve talked the night away. Enough!

Have both of you gone deaf, or what!?

A lot they care if they get caught.

(walks away from the door)

What can they be thinking of?

Suppose her father, Mister Famusov—

God help the maid whose mistress is in love!

(back at the door)

Come on! The sun is up. Break it off!

SOPHIE’S VOICE

What time is it?

LIZA

Everyone’s been up for ages!

SOPHIE’S VOICE

What time is it?

LIZA

Seven at least; no, more like eightish.

SOPHIE’S VOICE

Liar!

LIZA

Damn you, meddling Cupid!

She thinks it’s smart to act as if she’s stupid.

I know what. I’ll get the clock to play;

then they’ll listen. There’ll be hell to pay,

but in my place, you can’t be popular

and useful too.

(She climbs on a chair, sets the hands; the clock strikes and plays a tune. Enter FAMUSOV.)

The master!

FAMUSOV

Right you are!

So you’re the one who’s up to mischief.

I couldn’t imagine what was going on.

I heard a flute, and then I could have sworn

a piano too. It can’t be that your mistress

is practicing her instruments at dawn.

LIZA

No sir. It was an accident. You see …

FAMUSOV

An accident! I like that!

Of course it was deliberate.

Admit it, then. You can’t fool me.

(He squeezes her playfully.)

Up to nothing good!

LIZA

I’d say that’s what you are!

FAMUSOV

She may seem modest as a nun,

but underneath, she’s full of fun.

LIZA

Let go of me. You go too far.

At your age, it’s ridiculous.

FAMUSOV

I’m not so old, you can’t be nice to me.

LIZA

But someone may come in on us.

FAMUSOV

Who? Sophie’s sleeping, isn’t she?

LIZA

She just this minute went to bed.

FAMUSOV

Just this minute! What’d she do all night?

LIZA

Locked herself inside and read.

FAMUSOV

Good heavens! Why on earth do that?

LIZA

A book in French! Aloud.

FAMUSOV

She must be mad.

You’d better warn her she can lose her sight.

What good is there in books? The French ones keep

you up, the Russian make you sleep.

LIZA

First ...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents 
• Introduction by Angela Brintlinger
• Translator’s Note
• Dramatis Personae
• Woe from Wit
• Series List