Anton Chekhov

Name: On the High Road
Author: Anton Chekhov

On the High Road (1884)

Summary

“On the High Road”, published in 1884, is a work by Anton Chekhov. It explores elements such as devil, concertina and copecks.

Quotes from On the High Road (Anton Chekhov)

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ A VOICE FROM THE CORNER. A silly speech from a silly fool.
FEDYA. I can hear another of them. [Pause.]
NAZAROVNA. [To SAVVA] If you'd only lie where it was warm now, old man, and warm your feet. [Pause.] Old man! Man of God! [Shakes SAVVA] Are you going to die?
FEDYA. You ought to drink a little vodka, grandfather. Drink, and it'll burn, burn in your stomach, and warm up your heart. Drink, do!
NAZAROVNA. Don't swank, young man! Perhaps the old man is giving back his soul to God, or repenting for his sins, and you talk like that, and play your concertina. ... Put it down! You've no shame! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ MERIK. I want you, you fleecer, to take the boots off me, a poor tramp.
TIHON. Well, well ... don't get excited. Here have a glass. ... Have a drink, now!
MERIK. People, what do I want? Do I want him to stand me vodka, or to take off my boots? Didn't I say it properly? [To TIHON] Didn't you hear me rightly? I'll wait a moment, perhaps you'll hear me then.
[There is excitement among the pilgrims and tramps, who half-raise themselves in order to look at TIHON and MERIK. They wait in silence.]
TIHON. The devil brought you here! [Comes out from behind the bar] What a gentleman! Come on now. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ I'll bring in your five copecks on my way back from town. You can take it and choke yourself with it then! Choke yourself! I hope it sticks in your throat! [Coughs] I hate you!
TIHON. [Banging the bar-counter with his fist] Why do you keep on like that? What a man! What are you here for, you swindler?
BORTSOV. I want a drink! It's not I, it's my disease! Understand that!
TIHON. Don't you make me lose my temper, or you'll soon find yourself outside!
BORTSOV. What am I to do? [Retires from the bar-counter] What am I to do? [Is thoughtful.]
EFIMOVNA. It's the devil tormenting you. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ MARIA EGOROVNA. Take away this ... fool.
MERIK. Then the devil take you, you accursed woman!
[He swings his axe. General confusion. Everybody jumps up noisily and with cries of horror. SAVVA stands between MERIK and MARIA EGOROVNA. ... DENIS forces MERIK to one side and carries out his mistress. After this all stand as if turned to stone. A prolonged pause. BORTSOV suddenly waves his hands in the air.] ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ You walk a hundred versts, and not only isn't there a village; or a house, but you don't even see a dry stick. So you sleep on the ground. ...
KUSMA. Have you been long on this earth, old woman?
EFIMOVNA. Over seventy years, little father.
KUSMA. Over seventy years! You'll soon come to crow's years. [Looks at BORTSOV] And what sort of a raisin is this? [Staring at BORTSOV] Sir! [BORTSOV recognizes KUSMA and retires in confusion to a corner of the room, where he sits on a bench] Semyon Sergeyevitch! Is that you, or isn't it? Eh? What are you doing in this place? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ BORTSOV. Here, what's that? [Picks up the medallion] How dare you, you beast? What right have you? [Tearfully] Do you want me to kill you? You moujik! You boor!
TIHON. Don't be angry, sir. ... It isn't glass, it isn't broken. ... Have another drink and go to sleep. [Pours out] Here I've been listening to you all, and when I ought to have locked up long ago. [Goes and locks door leading out.]
BORTSOV. [Drinks] How dare he? The fool! [to MERIK] Do you understand? You're a fool, a donkey!
SAVVA. Children! If you please! Stop that talking! What's the good of making a noise? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ A woman's tongue is the devil's broom--it will sweep the good man and the clever man both out of the house. Don't you mind. ... [Waves his hands] But it's thin you are, brother of mine! Terrible! Like a dead skeleton! No life in you! Are you really dying? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ Just drink and drown your sorrows!
FEDYA. Drink mine, too, sir! Oh! [Throws down a five-copeck piece] If you drink, you die; if you don't drink, you die. It's good not to drink vodka, but by God you're easier when you've got some! Vodka takes grief away. ... It is hot!
BORTSOV. Boo! The heat!
MERIK. Give it here! [Takes the medallion from TIHON and examines her portrait] Hm. Ran off after the wedding. What a woman! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ TIHON. Where's the devil taking you to?
MERIK. To Kuban.
TIHON. My word!
FEDYA. To Kuban? Really? [Sitting up] It's a fine place. You wouldn't see such a country, brother, if you were to fall asleep and dream for three years. They say the birds there, and the beasts are--my God! The grass grows all the year round, the people are good, and they've so much land they don't know what to do with it! The authorities, they say ... a soldier was telling me the other day ... give a hundred dessiatins ahead. There's happiness, God strike me!
MERIK. Happiness. ... Happiness goes behind you. ... ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ MERIK. It's destruction for a weak man. A woman like that gets a hold on one and ... [Waves his hand] you're done for!
[KUSMA'S voice is heard. "Trrr. ... Stop, you brutes!" Enter KUSMA.]
KUSMA. There stands an inn upon my way. Shall I drive or walk past it, say? You can pass your own father and not notice him, but you can see an inn in the dark a hundred versts away. Make way, if you believe in God! Hullo, there! [Planks a five-copeck piece down on the counter] A glass of real Madeira! Quick!
FEDYA. Oh, you devil! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ Eh, the people are cruel nowadays. There's no gentleness or kindness in them. ... A savage people! A man is drowning and they shout to him: "Hurry up and drown, we've got no time to look at you; we've got to go to work." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ You needn't go to the churchyard to see ghosts, when they get up from under the floor to give advice to their relations. ... A sin! ... Don't you teach people your silly notions! You're an ignorant lot of people living in darkness. ... [Lights his pipe] My father was a peasant and used to be fond of teaching people. One night he stole a sack of apples from the village priest, and he brings them along and tells us, "Look, children, mind you don't eat any apples before Easter, it's a sin." You're like that. ... You don't know what a devil is, but you go calling people devils. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ From the beginning of the ages, since the world has been in existence, people have complained. ... It's not for nothing that in the songs and stories, the devil and the woman are put side by side. ... Not for nothing! It's half true, at any rate ... [Pause] Here's the gentleman playing the fool, but I had more sense, didn't I, when I left my father and mother, and became a tramp? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ The brother-in-law's a thief. ... The swindler knows which side his bread's buttered and won't budge an inch. ... So he doesn't pay up. ... So our man had to pay up the whole thirty thousand. [Sighs] The fool is suffering for his folly. His wife's got children now by the lawyer and the brother-in-law has bought an estate near Poltava, and our man goes round inns like a fool, and complains to the likes of us: "I've lost all faith, brothers! I can't believe in anybody now!" It's cowardly! Every man has his grief, a snake that sucks at his heart, and does that mean that he must drink? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ KUSMA. His brain's all right. ... It all happened because of his cowardice! From too much fat. First of all, children, because of a woman. ... He fell in love with a woman of the town, and it seemed to him that there wasn't any more beautiful thing in the wide world. A fool may love as much as a wise man. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ FEDYA. Oh, you swindler, with your "spare five copecks." Won't you have some water?
BORTSOV. How I am degrading myself! I don't want it! I don't want anything! I was joking!
MERIK. You won't get it out of him, sir. ... He's a famous skinflint. ... Wait, I've got a five-copeck piece somewhere. ... We'll have a glass between us--half each [Searches in his pockets] The devil ... it's lost somewhere. ... Thought I heard it tinkling just now in my pocket. ... No; no, it isn't there, brother, it's your luck! [A pause.]
BORTSOV. But if I can't drink, I'll commit a crime or I'll kill myself. ... ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ Looked too long at the portrait. [Laughs] What a business! Educated people go and invent all sorts of machines and medicines, but there hasn't yet been a man wise enough to invent a medicine against the female sex. ... They try to cure every sort of disease, and it never occurs to them that more people die of women than of disease. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ Wait a bit, and I'll let go. ... Just let me say one word to you. ... One word, so that you may understand. ... Just wait. ... [Turns to TIHON and DENIS] Get away, you rogues, let go! I shan't let you go till I've had my say! Stop ... one moment. [Strikes his forehead with his fist] No, God hasn't given me the wisdom! I can't think of the word for you!
MARIA EGOROVNA. [Tears away her hand] Get away! Drunkards ... ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ The wind is wailing like a dog. ... [Shrinking back] It's cold! My clothes are wet, it's all coining in through the open door ... you might put me through a wringer. ... [Plays softly] My concertina's damp, and so there's no music for you, my Orthodox brethren, or else I'd give you such a concert, my word!--Something marvellous! You can have a quadrille, or a polka, if you like, or some Russian dance for two. ... I can do them all. In the town, where I was an attendant at the Grand Hotel, I couldn't make any money, but I did wonders on my concertina. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ KUSMA. [In a semitone which gradually becomes his ordinary voice] How shouldn't she? He was a man of means. ... Of course you'll fall in love when the man has a thousand dessiatins and money to burn. ... He was a solid, dignified, sober gentleman ... always the same, like this ... give me your hand [Takes MERIK'S hand] "How do you do and good-bye, do me the favour." Well, I was going one evening past his garden--and what a garden, brother, versts of it--I was going along quietly, and I look and see the two of them sitting on a seat and kissing each other. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ He carries an axe in his belt] A vagrant may sweat where a bear will freeze. I am hot. [Puts his axe on the floor and takes off his jacket] You get rid of a pailful of sweat while you drag one leg out of the mud. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Anton Chekhov, On the High Road (1884)

“ Tihon Evstigneyev, the proprietor of a inn on the main road Semyon Sergeyevitch Bortsov, a ruined landowner Maria Egorovna, his wife Savva, an aged pilgrim Nazarovna, women pilgrim Efimovna, women pilgrim Fedya, a labourer Egor Merik, a tramp Kusma, a driver Postman Bortsov's Wife's Coachman Pilgrims, Cattle-dealers, etc. ”

Anton Chekhov

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Quotes from On the High Road (Anton Chekhov)

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