Chapter XV: Act IV

SCENE.--_As before. The_ GOVERNOR, ANNA ANDREYEVNA, _and_ MARYA. _A
police-officer enters_.

GOVERNOR (_addressing the policeman_): Ivan Karpovitch, summon the
merchants here, brother. Complaining of me, indeed! Cursed lot of Jews!
Little turtle doves! Ascertain who brought petitions; and take care to
let them know how heaven has honoured the governor. His daughter is
going to marry a man without an equal in the world; who can achieve
everything, everything, everything. Let everybody know! Shout it out to
everybody! Ring the bells! Devil take it; now that at length I triumph,
triumph I will!

The police-officer retires. The governor and Anna indulge in roseate prospects of their coming prosperity. Of course they will not stay in these mean surroundings, but will remove to St. Petersburg. Suddenly the merchants enter. The governor receives them with the utmost indignation, assails them with a shower of vituperation. They abjectly entreat pardon. They promise to make amends by sending very handsome presents, and they are enjoined not to forget to do so. The wedding gifts are to be worthy of the occasion. The merchants retire crestfallen, and callers stream in with profuse congratulations. Anna, with studied haughtiness, makes them fully understand that the family will now be far above them all. All the people secretly express to each other their hatred and contempt for the governor and his family.

POSTMASTER (_breathlessly entering with an open letter in his hand_):
An astonishing fact, gentlemen! The official which we took for an
inspector-general is not one! I have discovered this from a letter
which he wrote and which I saw was addressed "Post Office Street."
So, as I said to myself that he had been reporting to the authorities
something he had found wrong in the postal department, I felt a
supernatural impulse constraining me to open the letter.

GOVERNOR: You dared to open the letter of so powerful a personage?

POSTMASTER: That is just the joke; that he is neither powerful nor
a personage. I will read the letter. (_Reads_) "I hasten to inform
you, my dear Tryapitchkin, of my experiences. I was cleared out of
everything on the way by an infantry captain, so that an innkeeper
wanted to put me in prison; when, owing to my Petersburg appearance
and dress, the whole town suddenly took me for the governor-general.
So now I am living with the governor, enjoy myself, and flirt with his
wife and daughter. These people all lend me as much money as ever I
please. The governor is as stupid as a grey gelding. The postmaster is
a tippler. The charity commissioner is a pig in a skull-cap."

GOVERNOR: I am crushed--crushed--completely crushed. Catch him!

POSTMASTER: How can we catch him? I, as if purposely, specially
ordered for him the very best post-carriage and three horses.

GOVERNOR: What an old fool I am! I have been thirty years in the
service; not a tradesman nor contractor could cheat me; rogues upon
rogues have I outwitted; three governors-general have I deceived!

ANNA ANDREYEVNA: But this cannot be, Antosha. He is engaged to
Mashenka.

GOVERNOR (_enraged_): Engaged! Rubbish! Look, look; all the world,
all Christendom, all of you look how the governor is fooled! Fool,
fool; old driveller that I am! (_Shakes his fist at himself_) Ah, you
fat-nose! Taking a rag for a man of rank! And now he is jingling his
bells along the road. Who first said he was an inspector-general?
Answer!

[_All point to_ BOBCHINSKI _and_ DOBCHINSKI, _who fall to
accusing each other. A gendarme enters_.

GENDARME: The inspector-general sent by imperial command has
arrived, and requires you to attend him immediately. He awaits you at
the inn.

[_Thunderstruck at this announcement, the whole group
remained as if petrified, and the curtain falls_.

FOOTNOTES:

[C] Nicolai Vasilieyitch Gogol is famous not only as the prince of Russian humorists, but as the real founder of both the modern drama and the novel in Russian literature. He was born on March 31, 1809, in the province of Poltava, in South, or "Little," Russia, and died at Moscow on March 3, 1852. His life was replete with romantic episodes. After a short career on the stage, in St. Petersburg, followed by the tenure of a minor Government office, he returned to the South, and at once found his true vocation and achieved a wide popularity by a collection of stories and sketches of Cossack life, entitled "Evenings at a Farm House," which appeared in 1830. Other "Cossack Tales" rapidly followed, including the famous "Taras Bulba"; in recognition of which, and of his project for writing a history of Russia in the Middle Ages, he was rewarded with a chair of history at St. Petersburg. This he held but for a short time, however. Turning his attention to comedy, Gogol now produced the drama "The Inspector-General" ("Revizor") in 1836, the play achieving a tremendous success on the stage in the spring of the same year, whilst in 1842 his novel entitled "Dead Souls" embodied the fruits of the same idea in fiction. The play is intended to bring a scathing indictment against the corruptions and abuses of officialism and administration. The following epitome has been prepared from the original Russian.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH[D]

She Stoops to Conquer

_Persons in the Play_

MR. HARDCASTLE MARLOW

TONY LUMPKIN KATE HARDCASTLE

HASTINGS SIR CHARLES MARLOW

MRS. HARDCASTLE CONSTANCE NEVILLE

SERVANTS