idealism.

PAULINA. When women have loved you and thrown themselves at your head,
has that been idealism?

DORN. [Shrugging his shoulders] I can't say. There has been a great deal
that was admirable in my relations with women. In me they liked, above
all, the superior doctor. Ten years ago, you remember, I was the only
decent doctor they had in this part of the country--and then, I have
always acted like a man of honour.

PAULINA. [Seizes his hand] Dearest!

DORN. Be quiet! Here they come.

ARKADINA comes in on SORIN'S arm; also TRIGORIN, SHAMRAEFF, MEDVIEDENKO,
and MASHA.

SHAMRAEFF. She acted most beautifully at the Poltava Fair in 1873; she
was really magnificent. But tell me, too, where Tchadin the comedian is
now? He was inimitable as Rasplueff, better than Sadofski. Where is he
now?

ARKADINA. Don't ask me where all those antediluvians are! I know nothing
about them. [She sits down.]

SHAMRAEFF. [Sighing] Pashka Tchadin! There are none left like him. The
stage is not what it was in his time. There were sturdy oaks growing on
it then, where now but stumps remain.

DORN. It is true that we have few dazzling geniuses these days, but, on
the other hand, the average of acting is much higher.

SHAMRAEFF. I cannot agree with you; however, that is a matter of taste,
_de gustibus._

Enter TREPLIEFF from behind the stage.

ARKADINA. When will the play begin, my dear boy?

TREPLIEFF. In a moment. I must ask you to have patience.

ARKADINA. [Quoting from Hamlet] My son,

"Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black grained spots
As will not leave their tinct."

[A horn is blown behind the stage.]

TREPLIEFF. Attention, ladies and gentlemen! The play is about to begin.
[A pause] I shall commence. [He taps the door with a stick, and speaks
in a loud voice] O, ye time-honoured, ancient mists that drive at night
across the surface of this lake, blind you our eyes with sleep, and show
us in our dreams that which will be in twice ten thousand years!

SORIN. There won't be anything in twice ten thousand years.

TREPLIEFF. Then let them now show us that nothingness.

ARKADINA. Yes, let them--we are asleep.

The curtain rises. A vista opens across the lake. The moon hangs low
above the horizon and is reflected in the water. NINA, dressed in white,
is seen seated on a great rock.

NINA. All men and beasts, lions, eagles, and quails, horned stags,
geese, spiders, si