Александр Пушкин
Boris Godunov

Rendered into English verse by Alfred Hayes

DRAMATIS PERSONAE¹

BORIS GODUNOV, afterwards Tsar.

PRINCE SHUISKY, Russian noble.

PRINCE VOROTINSKY, Russian noble.

SHCHELKALOV, Russian Minister of State.

FATHER PIMEN, an old monk and chronicler.

GREGORY OTREPIEV, a young monk, afterwards the Pretender to the throne of Russia.

THE PATRIARCH, Abbot of the Chudov Monastery.

MISSAIL, wandering friar.

VARLAAM, wandering friar.

ATHANASIUS MIKAILOVICH PUSHKIN, friend of Prince Shuisky.

FEODOR, young son of Boris Godunov.

SEMYON NIKITICH GODUNOV, secret agent of Boris Godunov.

GABRIEL PUSHKIN, nephew of A. M. Pushkin.

PRINCE KURBSKY, disgraced Russian noble.

KHRUSHCHOV, disgraced Russian noble.

KARELA, a Cossack.

PRINCE VISHNEVETSKY.

MNISHEK, Governor of Sambor.

BASMANOV, a Russian officer.

MARZHERET, officer of the Pretender.

ROZEN, officer of the Pretender.

DIMITRY, the Pretender, formerly Gregory Otrepiev.

MOSALSKY, a Boyar.

KSENIA, daughter of Boris Godunov.

NURSE of Ksenia.

MARINA, daughter of Mnishek.

ROUZYA, tire-woman of Ksenia.

HOSTESS of tavern.

Boyars, The People, Inspectors, Officers, Attendants, Guests, a Boy in attendance on Prince Shuisky, a Catholic Priest, a Polish Noble, a Poet, an Idiot, a Beggar, Gentlemen, Peasants, Guards, Russian, Polish, and German Soldiers, a Russian Prisoner of War, Boys, an old Woman, Ladies, Serving-women.

PALACE OF THE KREMLIN

(FEBRUARY 20th, A.D. 1598)

PRINCE SHUISKY and VOROTINSKY

   VOROTINSKY. To keep the city's peace, that is the task
   Entrusted to us twain, but you forsooth
   Have little need to watch; Moscow is empty;
   The people to the Monastery have flocked
   After the patriarch. What thinkest thou?
   How will this trouble end?

   SHUISKY.                 How will it end?
   That is not hard to tell. A little more
   The multitude will groan and wail, Boris
   Pucker awhile his forehead, like a toper
   Eyeing a glass of wine, and in the end
   Will humbly of his graciousness consent
   To take the crown; and then—and then will rule us
   Just as before.

   VOROTINSKY.   A month has flown already
   Since, cloistered with his sister, he forsook
   The world's affairs. None hitherto hath shaken
   His purpose, not the patriarch, not the boyars
   His counselors; their tears, their prayers he heeds not;
   Deaf is he to the wail of Moscow, deaf
   To the Great Council's voice; vainly they urged
   The sorrowful nun-queen to consecrate
   Boris to sovereignty; firm was his sister,
   Inexorable as he; methinks Boris
   Inspired her with this spirit. What if our ruler
   Be sick in very deed of cares of state
   And hath no strength to mount the throne? What
   Say'st thou?

   SHUISKY. I say that in that case the blood in vain
   Flowed of the young tsarevich, that Dimitry
   Might just as well be living.

   VOROTINSKY.                 Fearful crime!
   Is it beyond all doubt Boris contrived
   The young boy's murder?

   SHUISKY.              Who besides? Who else
   Bribed Chepchugov in vain? Who sent in secret
   The brothers Bityagovsky with Kachalov?
   Myself was sent to Uglich, there to probe
   This matter on the spot; fresh traces there
   I found; the whole town bore witness to the crime;
   With one accord the burghers all affirmed it;
   And with a single word, when I returned,
   I could have proved the secret villain's guilt.

   VOROTINSKY. Why didst thou then not crush him?

   SHUISKY.                        At the time,
   I do confess, his unexpected calmness,
   His shamelessness, dismayed me. Honestly
   He looked me in the eyes; he questioned me
   Closely, and I repeated to his face
   The foolish tale himself had whispered to me.

   VOROTINSKY. An ugly business, prince.

   SHUISKY.                    What could I do?
   Declare all to Feodor? But the tsar
   Saw all things with the eyes of Godunov.
   Heard all things with the ears of Godunov;
   Grant even that I might have fully proved it,
   Boris would have denied it there and then,
   And I should have been haled away to prison,
   And in good time—like mine own uncle—strangled
   Within the silence of some deaf-walled dungeon.
   I boast not when I say that, given occasion,
   No penalty affrights me. I am no coward,
   But also am no fool, and do not choose
   Of my free will to walk into a halter.

   VOROTINSKY. Monstrous misdeed! Listen; I warrant you
   Remorse already gnaws the murderer;
   Be sure the blood of that same innocent child
   Will hinder him from mounting to the throne.

   SHUISKY. That will not baulk him; Boris is not so timid!
   What honour for ourselves, ay, for all Russia!
   A slave of yesterday, a Tartar, son
   By marriage of Maliuta, of a hangman,
   Himself in soul a hangman, he to wear
   The crown and robe of Monomakh!—

   VOROTINSKY.                   You are right;
   He is of lowly birth; we twain can boast
   A nobler lineage.

   SHUISKY.        Indeed we may!

   VOROTINSKY. Let us remember, Shuisky, Vorotinsky
   Are, let me say, born princes.

   SHUISKY.                     Yea, born princes,
   And of the blood of Rurik.

   VOROTINSKY.              Listen, prince;
   Then we, 'twould seem, should have the right to mount
   Feodor's throne.

   SHUISKY.       Rather than Godunov.

   VOROTINSKY. In very truth 'twould seem so.

   SHUISKY.                      And what then?
   If still Boris pursue his crafty ways,
   Let us contrive by skilful means to rouse
   The people. Let them turn from Godunov;
   Princes they have in plenty of their own;
   Let them from out their number choose a tsar.

   VOROTINSKY. Of us, Varyags in blood, there are full many,
   But 'tis no easy thing for us to vie
   With Godunov; the people are not wont
   To recognise in us an ancient branch
   Of their old warlike masters; long already
   Have we our appanages forfeited,
   Long served but as lieutenants of the tsars,
   And he hath known, by fear, and love, and glory,
   How to bewitch the people.

   SHUISKY. (Looking through a window.) He has dared,
   That's all—while we—Enough of this. Thou seest
   Dispersedly the people are returning.
   We'll go forthwith and learn what is resolved.

THE RED SQUARE

THE PEOPLE

   1ST PERSON. He is inexorable! He thrust from him
   Prelates, boyars, and Patriarch; in vain
   Prostrate they fall; the splendour of the throne
   Affrights him.

   2ND PERSON. O, my God, who is to rule us?
   O, woe to us!

   3RD PERSON. See! The Chief Minister
   Is coming out to tell us what the Council
   Has now resolved.

   THE PEOPLE.     Silence! Silence! He speaks,
   The Minister of State. Hush, hush! Give ear!

   SHCHELKALOV. (From the Red Balcony.)
   The Council have resolved for the last time
   To put to proof the power of supplication
   Upon our ruler's mournful soul. At dawn,
   After a solemn service in the Kremlin,
   The blessed Patriarch will go, preceded
   By sacred banners, with the holy ikons
   Of Donsky and Vladimir; with him go
   The Council, courtiers, delegates, boyars,
   And all the orthodox folk of Moscow; all
   Will go to pray once more the queen to pity
   Fatherless Moscow, and to consecrate
   Boris unto the crown. Now to your homes
   Go ye in peace: pray; and to Heaven shall rise
   The heart's petition of the orthodox.

(The PEOPLE disperse.)

THE VIRGIN'S FIELD

THE NEW NUNNERY. The People

   1ST PERSON. To plead with the tsaritsa in her cell
   Now are they gone. Thither have gone Boris,
   The Patriarch, and a host of boyars.

   2ND PERSON.                        What news?

   3RD PERSON. Still is he obdurate; yet there is hope.

   PEASANT WOMAN. (With a child.)
   Drat you! Stop crying, or else the bogie-man
   Will carry you off. Drat you, drat you! Stop crying!

   1ST PERSON. Can't we slip through behind the fence?

   2ND PERSON.                         Impossible!
   No chance at all! Not only is the nunnery
   Crowded; the precincts too are crammed with people.
   Look what a sight! All Moscow has thronged here.
   See! Fences, roofs, and every single storey
   Of the Cathedral bell tower, the church-domes,
   The very crosses are studded thick with people.

   1ST PERSON. A goodly sight indeed!

   2ND PERSON.                     What is that noise?

   3RD PERSON. Listen! What noise is that?—The people groaned;
   See there! They fall like waves, row upon row—
   Again—again—Now, brother, 'tis our turn;
   Be quick, down on your knees!

   THE PEOPLE. (On their knees, groaning and wailing.)
                                     Have pity on us,
   Our father! O, rule over us! O, be
   Father to us, and tsar!

   1ST PERSON. (Sotto voce.) Why are they wailing?

   2ND PERSON. How can we know? The boyars know well enough.
   It's not our business.

   PEASANT WOMAN. (With child.)
                        Now, what's this? Just when
   It ought to cry, the child stops crying. I'll show you!
   Here comes the bogie-man! Cry, cry, you spoilt one!

(Throws it on the ground; the child screams.)

   That's right, that's right!

   1ST PERSON.               As everyone is crying,
   We also, brother, will begin to cry.

   2ND PERSON. Brother, I try my best, but can't.

   1ST PERSON.                             Nor I.
   Have you not got an onion?

   2ND PERSON.              No; I'll wet
   My eyes with spittle. What's up there now?

   1ST PERSON.                      Who knows
   What's going on?

   THE PEOPLE.    The crown for him! He is tsar!
   He has yielded!—Boris!—Our tsar!—Long live Boris!

THE PALACE OF THE KREMLIN

BORIS, PATRIARCH, Boyars

   BORIS. Thou, father Patriarch, all ye boyars!
   My soul lies bare before you; ye have seen
   With what humility and fear I took
   This mighty power upon me. Ah! How heavy
   My weight of obligation! I succeed
   The great Ivans; succeed the angel tsar!—
   O Righteous Father, King Of kings, look down
   From Heaven upon the tears of Thy true servants,
   And send on him whom Thou hast loved, whom Thou
   Exalted hast on earth so wondrously,
   Thy holy blessing. May I rule my people
   In glory, and like Thee be good and righteous!
   To you, boyars, I look for help. Serve me
   As ye served him, what time I shared your labours,
   Ere I was chosen by the people's will.
   BOYARS. We will not from our plighted oath depart.
   BORIS. Now let us go to kneel before the tombs
   Of Russia's great departed rulers. Then
   Bid summon all our people to a feast,
   All, from the noble to the poor blind beggar.
   To all free entrance, all most welcome guests.

(Exit, the Boyars following.)

   PRINCE VOROTINSKY. (Stopping Shuisky.)
   You rightly guessed.

   SHUISKY.           Guessed what?

   VOROTINSKY.                Why, you remember—
   The other day, here on this very spot.

   SHUISKY. No, I remember nothing.

   VOROTINSKY.                    When the people
   Flocked to the Virgin's Field, thou said'st—

   SHUISKY.                           'Tis not
   The time for recollection. There are times
   When I should counsel you not to remember,
   But even to forget. And for the rest,
   I sought but by feigned calumny to prove thee,
   The truelier to discern thy secret thoughts.
   But see! The people hail the tsar—my absence
   May be remarked. I'll join them.

   VOROTINSKY.                    Wily courtier!

NIGHT

Cell in the Monastery of Chudov (A.D. 1603)

FATHER PIMEN, GREGORY (sleeping)

PIMEN (Writing in front of a sacred lamp.)

   One more, the final record, and my annals
   Are ended, and fulfilled the duty laid
   By God on me a sinner. Not in vain
   Hath God appointed me for many years
   A witness, teaching me the art of letters;
   A day will come when some laborious monk
   Will bring to light my zealous, nameless toil,
   Kindle, as I, his lamp, and from the parchment
   Shaking the dust of ages will transcribe
   My true narrations, that posterity
   The bygone fortunes of the orthodox
   Of their own land may learn, will mention make
   Of their great tsars, their labours, glory, goodness—
   And humbly for their sins, their evil deeds,
   Implore the Saviour's mercy.—In old age
   I live anew; the past unrolls before me.—
   Did it in years long vanished sweep along,
   Full of events, and troubled like the deep?
   Now it is hushed and tranquil. Few the faces
   Which memory hath saved for me, and few
   The words which have come down to me;—the rest
   Have perished, never to return.—But day
   Draws near, the lamp burns low, one record more,
   The last. (He writes.)

   GREGORY. (Waking.) Ever the selfsame dream! Is 't possible?
   For the third time! Accursed dream! And ever
   Before the lamp sits the old man and writes—
   And not all night, 'twould seem, from drowsiness,
   Hath closed his eyes. I love the peaceful sight,
   When, with his soul deep in the past immersed,
   He keeps his chronicle. Oft have I longed
   To guess what 'tis he writes of. Is 't perchance
   The dark dominion of the Tartars? Is it
   Ivan's grim punishments, the stormy Council
   of Novgorod? Is it about the glory
   Of our dear fatherland?—I ask in vain!
   Not on his lofty brow, nor in his looks
   May one peruse his secret thoughts; always
   The same aspect; lowly at once, and lofty—
   Like some state Minister grown grey in office,
   Calmly alike he contemplates the just
   And guilty, with indifference he hears
   Evil and good, and knows not wrath nor pity.

   PIMEN. Wakest thou, brother?

   GREGORY.             Honoured father, give me
   Thy blessing.

   PIMEN.      May God bless thee on this day,
   Tomorrow, and for ever.

   GREGORY.              All night long
   Thou hast been writing and abstained from sleep,
   While demon visions have disturbed my peace,
   The fiend molested me. I dreamed I scaled
   By winding stairs a turret, from whose height
   Moscow appeared an anthill, where the people
   Seethed in the squares below and pointed at me
   With laughter. Shame and terror came upon me—
   And falling headlong, I awoke. Three times
   I dreamed the selfsame dream. Is it not strange?

   PIMEN. 'Tis the young blood at play; humble thyself
   By prayer and fasting, and thy slumber's visions
   Will all be filled with lightness. Hitherto
   If I, unwillingly by drowsiness
   Weakened, make not at night long orisons,
   My old-man's sleep is neither calm nor sinless;
   Now riotous feasts appear, now camps of war,
   Scuffles of battle, fatuous diversions
   Of youthful years.

   GREGORY.         How joyfully didst thou
   Live out thy youth! The fortress of Kazan
   Thou fought'st beneath, with Shuisky didst repulse
   The army of Litva. Thou hast seen the court,
   And splendour of Ivan. Ah! Happy thou!
   Whilst I, from boyhood up, a wretched monk,
   Wander from cell to cell! Why unto me
   Was it not given to play the game of war,
   To revel at the table of a tsar?
   Then, like to thee, would I in my old age
   Have gladly from the noisy world withdrawn,
   To vow myself a dedicated monk,
   And in the quiet cloister end my days.

   PIMEN. Complain not, brother, that the sinful world
   Thou early didst forsake, that few temptations
   The All-Highest sent to thee. Believe my words;
   The glory of the world, its luxury,
   Woman's seductive love, seen from afar,
   Enslave our souls. Long have I lived, have taken
   Delight in many things, but never knew
   True bliss until that season when the Lord
   Guided me to the cloister. Think, my son,
   On the great tsars; who loftier than they?
   God only. Who dares thwart them? None. What then?
   Often the golden crown became to them
   A burden; for a cowl they bartered it.
   The tsar Ivan sought in monastic toil
   Tranquility; his palace, filled erewhile
   With haughty minions, grew to all appearance
   A monastery; the very rakehells seemed
   Obedient monks, the terrible tsar appeared
   A pious abbot. Here, in this very cell
   (At that time Cyril, the much suffering,
   A righteous man, dwelt in it; even me
   God then made comprehend the nothingness
   Of worldly vanities), here I beheld,
   Weary of angry thoughts and executions,
   The tsar; among us, meditative, quiet
   Here sat the Terrible; we motionless
   Stood in his presence, while he talked with us
   In tranquil tones. Thus spake he to the abbot
   And all the brothers: "My fathers, soon will come
   The longed-for day; here shall I stand before you,
   Hungering for salvation; Nicodemus,
   Thou Sergius, Cyril thou, will all accept
   My spiritual vow; to you I soon shall come
   Accurst in sin, here the clean habit take,
   Prostrate, most holy father, at thy feet."
   So spake the sovereign lord, and from his lips
   Sweetly the accents flowed. He wept; and we
   With tears prayed God to send His love and peace
   Upon his suffering and stormy soul.—
   What of his son Feodor? On the throne
   He sighed to lead the life of calm devotion.
   The royal chambers to a cell of prayer
   He turned, wherein the heavy cares of state
   Vexed not his holy soul. God grew to love
   The tsar's humility; in his good days
   Russia was blest with glory undisturbed,
   And in the hour of his decease was wrought
   A miracle unheard of; at his bedside,
   Seen by the tsar alone, appeared a being
   Exceeding bright, with whom Feodor 'gan
   To commune, calling him great Patriarch;—
   And all around him were possessed with fear,
   Musing upon the vision sent from Heaven,
   Since at that time the Patriarch was not present
   In church before the tsar. And when he died
   The palace was with holy fragrance filled.
   And like the sun his countenance outshone.
   Never again shall we see such a tsar.—
   O, horrible, appalling woe! We have sinned,
   We have angered God; we have chosen for our ruler
   A tsar's assassin.

   GREGORY.         Honoured father, long
   Have I desired to ask thee of the death
   Of young Dimitry, the tsarevich; thou,
   'Tis said, wast then at Uglich.

   PIMEN.                        Ay, my son,
   I well remember. God it was who led me
   To witness that ill deed, that bloody sin.
   I at that time was sent to distant Uglich
   Upon some mission. I arrived at night.
   Next morning, at the hour of holy mass,
   I heard upon a sudden a bell toll;
   'Twas the alarm bell. Then a cry, an uproar;
   Men rushing to the court of the tsaritsa.