白痴 英文版 The Idiot
陀思妥耶夫斯基 Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Idiot X. Page 1
THE prince did not die before his wedding--either by day ornight, as he had foretold that he might. Very probably he passeddisturbed nights, and was afflicted with bad dreams; but, duringthe daytime, among his fellow-men, he seemed as kind as ever, andeven contented; only a little thoughtful when alone.
The wedding was hurried on. The day was fixed for exactly a weekafter Evgenie's visit to the prince. In the face of such haste asthis, even the prince's best friends (if he had had any) wouldhave felt the hopelessness of any attempt to save" the poormadman." Rumour said that in the visit of Evgenie Pavlovitch wasto be discerned the influence of Lizabetha Prokofievna and herhusband... But if those good souls, in the boundless kindness oftheir hearts, were desirous of saving the eccentric young fellowfrom ruin, they were unable to take any stronger measures toattain that end. Neither their position, nor their privateinclination, perhaps (and only naturally), would allow them touse any more pronounced means.
Colia was occupied with his father at this time. The old man diedduring a second stroke, which took place just eight days afterthe first. The prince showed great sympathy in the grief of thefamily, and during the first days of their mourning he was at thehouse a great deal with Nina Alexandrovna. He went to thefuneral, and it was observable that the public assembled inchurch greeted his arrival and departure with whisperings, andwatched him closely.
The same thing happened in the park and in the street, whereverhe went. He was pointed out when he drove by, and he oftenoverheard the name of Nastasia Philipovna coupled with his own ashe passed. People looked out for her at the funeral, too, but shewas not there; and another conspicuous absentee was the captain'swidow, whom Lebedeff had prevented from coming.
The funeral service produced a great effect on the prince. Hewhispered to Lebedeff that this was the first time he had everheard a Russian funeral service since he was a little boy.Observing that he was looking about him uneasily, Lebedeff askedhim whom he was seeking.
"Nothing. I only thought I--"
"Is it Rogojin?"
"Why--is he here?"
"Yes, he's in church."
"I thought I caught sight of his eyes!" muttered the prince, inconfusion. "But what of it!--Why is he here? Was he asked?"
"Oh, dear, no! Why, they don't even know him! Anyone can come in,you know. Why do you look so amazed? I often meet him; I've seenhim at least four times, here at Pavlofsk, within the last week."
spokeof Rogojin. But once, about five days before the wedding, whenthe prince was at home, a messenger.
"I haven't seen him once--since that day!" the prince murmured.
As Nastasia Philipovna had not said a word about having metRogojin since "that day," the prince concluded that the latterhad his own reasons for wishing to keep out of sight. All the dayof the funeral our hero, was in a deeply thoughtful state, whileNastasia Philipovna was particularly merry, both in the daytimeand in the evening.
Colia had made it up with the prince before his father's death,and it was he who urged him to make use of Keller and Burdovsky,promising to answer himself for the former's behaviour. NinaAlexandrovna and Lebedeff tried to persuade him to have thewedding in St. Petersburg, instead of in the public fashioncontemplated, down here at Pavlofsk in the height of the season.But the prince only said that Nastasia Philipovna desired to haveit so, though he saw well enough what prompted their arguments.
The next day Keller came to visit the prince. He was in a highstate of delight with the post of honour assigned to him at thewedding.
Before entering he stopped on the threshold, raised his hand asif making a solemn vow, and cried:
"I won't drink!"
Then he went up to the prince, seized both his hands, shook themwarmly, and declared that he had at first felt hostile towardsthe project of this marriage, and had openly said so in thebilliard-rooms, but that the reason simply was that, with theimpatience of a friend, he had hoped to see the prince marry atleast a Princess de Rohan or de Chabot; but that now he saw thatthe prince's way of thinking was ten times more noble than thatof "all the rest put together." For he desired neither pomp norwealth nor honour, but only the truth! The sympathies of exaltedpersonages were well known, and the prince was too highly placedby his education, and so on, not to be in some sense an exaltedpersonage!
"But all the common herd judge 'differently; in the town, at themeetings, in the villas, at the band, in the inns and thebilliard-rooms, the coming event has only to be mentioned andthere are shouts and cries from everybody. I have even heard talkof getting up a 'charivari' under the windows on the wedding-night. So if 'you have need of the pistol' of an honest man,prince, I am ready to fire half a dozen shots even before yourise from your nuptial couch!"
Keller also advised, in anticipation of the crowd making a rushafter the ceremony, that a fire-hose should be placed at theentrance to the house; but Lebedeff was opposed to this measure,which he said might result in the place being pulled down.
"I assure you, prince, that Lebedeff is intriguing against you.He wants to put you under control. Imagine that! To take 'fromyou the use of your free-will and your money--that' is to say,the two things that distinguish us from the animals! I have heardit said positively. It is the sober truth."
The prince recollected that somebody had told him something ofthe kind before, and he had, of course, scoffed at it. He onlylaughed now, and forgot the hint at once.
Lebedeff really had been busy for some little while; but, asusual, his plans had become too complex to succeed, through sheerexcess of ardour. When he came to the prince--the very day beforethe wedding--to confess (for he always confessed to the personsagainst whom he intrigued, especially when the plan failed), heinformed our hero that he himself was a born Talleyrand, but forsome unknown reason had become simple Lebedeff. He then proceededto explain his whole game to the prince, interesting the latterexceedingly.
According to Lebedeff's account, he had first tried what he coulddo with General Epanchin. The latter informed him that he wishedwell to the unfortunate young man, and would gladly do what hecould to "save him," but that he did not think it would be seemlyfor him to interfere in this matter. Lizabetha Prokofievna wouldneither hear nor see him. Prince S. and Evgenie Pavlovitch onlyshrugged their shoulders, and implied that it was no business oftheirs. However, Lebedeff had not lost heart, and went off to aclever lawyer,--a worthy and respectable man, whom he knew well.This old gentleman informed him that the thing was perfectlyfeasible if he could get hold of competent witnesses as toMuishkin's mental incapacity. Then, with the assistance of a fewinfluential persons, he would soon see the matter arranged.
Lebedeff immediately procured the services of an old doctor, andcarried the latter away to Pavlofsk to see the prince, by way ofviewing the ground, as it were, and to give him (Lebedeff)counsel as to whether the thing was to be done or not. The visitwas not to be official, but merely friendly.
Muishkin remembered the doctor's visit quite well. He rememberedthat Lebedeff had said that he looked ill, and had better see adoctor; and although the prince scouted the idea, Lebedeff hadturned up almost immediately with his old friend, explaining thatthey had just met at the bedside of Hippolyte, who was very ill,and that the doctor had something to tell the prince about thesick man.
The prince had, of course, at once received him, and had plungedinto a conversation about Hippolyte. He had given the doctor anaccount of Hippolyte's attempted suicide; and had proceededthereafter to talk of his own malady,--of Switzerland, ofSchneider, and so on; and so deeply was the old man interested bythe prince's conversation and his description of Schneider'ssystem, that he sat on for two hours.
Muishkin gave him excellent cigars to smoke, and Lebedeff, forhis part, regaled him with liqueurs, brought in by Vera, to whomthe doctor--a married man and the father of a family--addressedsuch compliments that she was filled with indignation. Theyparted friends, and, after leaving the prince, the doctor said toLebedeff: "If all such people were put under restraint, therewould be no one left for keepers." Lebedeff then, in tragictones, told of the approaching marriage, whereupon the othernodded his head and replied that, after all, marriages like thatwere not so rare; that he had heard that the lady was veryfascinating and of extraordinary beauty, which was enough toexplain the infatuation of a wealthy man; that, further, thanksto the liberality of Totski and of Rogojin, she possessed--so hehad heard--not only money, but pearls, diamonds, shawls, andfurniture, and consequently she could not be considered a badmatch. In brief, it seemed to the doctor that the prince'schoice, far from being a sign of foolishness, denoted, on thecontrary, a shrewd, calculating, and practical mind. Lebedeff hadbeen much struck by this point of view, and he terminated hisconfession by assuring the prince that he was ready, if need be,to shed his very life's blood for him.
Hippolyte, too, was a source of some distraction to the prince atthis time; he would send for him at any and every hour of theday. They lived,--Hippolyte and his mother and the children,--ina small house not far off, and the little ones were happy, ifonly because they were able to escape from the invalid into thegarden. The prince had enough to do in keeping the peace betweenthe irritable Hippolyte and his mother, and eventually the formerbecame so malicious and sarcastic on the subject of theapproaching wedding, that Muishkin took offence at last, andrefused to continue his visits.
A couple of days later, however, Hippolyte's mother came withtears in her eyes, and begged the prince to come back, "or HEwould eat her up bodily." She added that Hippolyte had a greatsecret to disclose. Of course the prince went. There was nosecret, however, unless we reckon certain pantings and agitatedglances around (probably all put on) as the invalid begged hisvisitor to "beware of Rogojin."
"He is the sort of man," he continued,. "who won't give up hisobject, you know; he is not like you and me, prince--he belongsto quite a different order of beings. If he sets his heart on athing he won't be afraid of anything--" and so on.
Hippolyte was very ill, and looked as though he could not longsurvive. He was tearful at first, but grew more and moresarcastic and malicious as the interview proceeded.
The prince questioned him in detail as to his hints aboutRogojin. He was anxious to seize upon some facts which mightconfirm Hippolyte's vague warnings; but there were none; onlyHippolyte's own private impressions and feelings.
However, the invalid--to his immense satisfaction--ended byseriously alarming the prince.
At first Muishkin had not cared to make any reply to his sundryquestions, and only smiled in response to Hippolyte's advice to"run for his life--abroad, if necessary. There are Russianpriests everywhere, and one can get married all over the world."
But it was Hippolyte's last idea which upset him.
"What I am really alarmed about, though," he said, "is AglayaIvanovna. Rogojin knows how you love her. Love for love. You tookNastasia Philipovna from him. He will murder Aglaya Ivanovna; forthough she is not yours, of course, now, still such an act wouldpain you,--wouldn't it?"
He had attained his end. The prince left the house beside himselfwith terror.
These warnings about Rogojin were expressed on the day before thewedding. That evening the prince saw Nastasia Philipovna for thelast time before they were to meet at the altar; but Nastasia wasnot in a position to give him any comfort or consolation. On thecontrary, she only added to his mental perturbation as theevening went on. Up to this time she had invariably done her bestto cheer him--she was afraid of his looking melancholy; she wouldtry singing to him, and telling him every sort of funny story orreminiscence that she could recall. The prince nearly alwayspretended to be amused, whether he were so actually or no; butoften enough he laughed sincerely, delighted by the brilliancy ofher wit when she was carried away by her narrative, as she veryoften was. Nastasia would be wild with joy to see the impressionshe had made, and to hear his laugh of real amusement; and shewould remain the whole evening in a state of pride and happiness.But this evening her melancholy and thoughtfulness grew withevery hour.
The prince had told Evgenie Pavlovitch with perfect sinceritythat he loved Nastasia Philipovna with all his soul. In his lovefor her there was the sort of tenderness one feels for a sick,unhappy child which cannot be left alone. He never spoke of hisfeelings for Nastasia to anyone, not even to herself. When theywere together they never discussed their "feelings," and therewas nothing in their cheerful, animated conversation which anoutsider could not have heard. Daria Alexeyevna, with whomNastasia was staying, told afterwards how she had been filledwith joy and delight only to look at them, all this time.
Thanks to the manner in which he regarded Nastasia's mental andmoral condition, the prince was to some extent freed from otherperplexities. She was now quite different from the woman he hadknown three months before. He was not astonished, for instance,to see her now so impatient to marry him--she who formerly hadwept with rage and hurled curses and reproaches at him if hementioned marriage! "It shows that she no longer fears, as shedid then, that she would make me unhappy by marrying me," hethought. And he felt sure that so sudden a change could not be anatural one. This rapid growth of self-confidence could not bedue only to her hatred for Aglaya. To suppose that would be tosuspect the depth of her feelings. Nor could it arise from dreadof the fate that awaited her if she married Rogojin. Thesecauses, indeed, as well as others, might have played a part init, but the true reason, Muishkin decided, was the one he hadlong suspected--that the poor sick soul had come to the end ofits forces. Yet this was an explanation that did not procure himany peace of mind. At times he seemed to be making violentefforts to think of nothing, and one would have said that helooked on his marriage as an unimportant formality, and on hisfuture happiness as a thing not worth considering. As toconversations such as the one held with Evgenie Pavlovitch, heavoided them as far as possible, feeling that there were certainobjections to which he could make no answer.
The prince had observed that Nastasia knew well enough whatAglaya was to him. He never spoke of it, but he had seen her facewhen she had caught him starting off for the Epanchins' house onseveral occasions. When the Epanchins left Pavlofsk, she hadbeamed with radiance and happiness. Unsuspicious and unobservantas he was, he had feared at that time that Nastasia might havesome scheme in her mind for a scene or scandal which would driveAglaya out of Pavlofsk. She had encouraged the rumours andexcitement among the inhabitants of the place as to her marriagewith the prince, in order to annoy her rival; and, finding itdifficult to meet the Epanchins anywhere, she had, on oneoccasion, taken him for a drive past their house. He did notobserve what was happening until they were almost passing thewindows, when it was too late to do anything. He said nothing,but for two days afterwards he was ill.
Nastasia did not try that particular experiment again. A few daysbefore that fixed for the wedding, she grew grave and thoughtful.She always ended by getting the better of her melancholy, andbecoming merry and cheerful again, but not quite so unaffectedlyhappy as she had been some days earlier.
The prince redoubled his attentive study of her symptoms. It wasa most curious circumstance, in his opinion, that she never spokeof Rogojin. But once, about five days before the wedding, whenthe prince was at home, a messenger arrived begging him to comeat once, as Nastasia Philipovna was very ill.
act wouldpain you,--wouldn't it?"thoughtful when alone. at first?
He had found her in a condition approaching to absolute madness.She screamed, and trembled, and cried out that Rogojin was hidingout there in the garden--that she had seen him herself--and thathe would murder her in the night--that he would cut her throat.She was terribly agitated all day. But it so happened that theprince called at Hippolyte's house later on, and heard from hismother that she had been in town all day, and had there receiveda visit from Rogojin, who had made inquiries about Pavlofsk. Oninquiry, it turned out that Rogojin visited the old lady in townat almost the same moment when Nastasia declared that she hadseen him in the garden; so that the whole thing turned out to bean illusion on her part. Nastasia immediately went across toHippolyte's to inquire more accurately, and returned immenselyrelieved and comforted.
On the day before the wedding, the prince left Nastasia in astate of great animation. Her wedding-dress and all sorts offinery had just arrived from town. Muishkin had not imagined thatshe would be so excited over it, but he praised everything, andhis praise rendered her doubly happy.
But Nastasia could not hide the cause of her intense interest inher wedding splendour. She had heard of the indignation in thetown, and knew that some of the populace was getting up a sort ofcharivari with music, that verses had been composed for theoccasion, and that the rest of Pavlofsk society more or lessencouraged these preparations. So, since attempts were being madeto humiliate her, she wanted to hold her head even higher thanusual, and to overwhelm them all with the beauty and taste of hertoilette. "Let them shout and whistle, if they dare!" Her eyesflashed at the thought. But, underneath this, she had anothermotive, of which she did not speak. She thought that possiblyAglaya, or at any rate someone sent by her, would be presentincognito at the ceremony, or in the crowd, and she wished to beprepared for this eventuality.
The prince left her at eleven, full of these thoughts, and wenthome. But it was not twelve o'clock when a messenger came to saythat Nastasia was very bad, and he must come at once.
their shoulders, and implied that it was no business.
On hurrying back he found his bride locked up in her own room andcould hear her hysterical cries and sobs. It was some time beforeshe could be made to hear that the prince had come, and then sheopened the door only just sufficiently to let him in, andimmediately locked it behind him. She then fell on her knees athis feet. (So at least Dana Alexeyevna reported.)