MAURICE: No. Much later. Perhaps never . . . STAVROGIN: YOU are saying that to set my mind at rest.
MAURICE: To set your mind at rest! A little blood more or less—what does that matter to you! STAVROGIN (after a pause): I assure you that I am deeply touched by your proposition. However, what makes you think that my feelings for Lisa are such that I want to marry her?
MAURICE (rising suddenly); What? Don’t you love her? Didn’t you try to win her hand? STAVROGIN: I can’t ever talk to anyone of my feelings for a woman, except to the woman herself. Forgive me, but that’s a quirk of my nature. However, I can tell you the truth as to everything else: I am married, and hence it is not possible for me to marry another woman or to try
to win her hand, as yon say.
(MAURICE NICOLAEVICH looks at him as if petrified, grows pale, and strikes the table violently with his fist.)
MAURICE: If after such a confession you don’t leave Lisa alone, I’ll take a club and beat you to death like a dog.
(He leaps up and rushes out, at the door bumping into PETER VERKHOVENSKY, who is on the point of coming in.)]
PETER: Why, he’s crazy I What did you do to him?
STAVROGIN (laughing): Nothing. Besides, it doesn’t concern you.
PETER: I am sure he came to offer you his fiancee. Eh? I am the one who indirectly pushed him into it, if you want to know. And if he refuses to give her to us, we’ll take her ourselves, won’t we?
She’s a juicy morsel.*
STAVROGIN: You still intend to help me take her, I see.
PETER: As soon as you decide to. We’ll get rid of your responsibilities for you. It won’t cost you anything.
STAVROGIN: Oh, yes it will. Fifteen hundred rubles * After omitting the preceding scene, the following text was substituted for the last three lines:
ALEXEY (coming in): Peter Verkhovensky insists on seeing you.
PETER (following him closely): I have just met Maurice Nicolaevich. He wanted to give you his fiancee. I advised him to wait. Besides, we don’t really need him; she is crazy to come. We’ll go and get her ourselves, won’t we? She’s a juicy morsel. . . . By the way, what have you come for? PETER: What? Have you forgotten? What about our meeting? I have come to remind you that it takes place in an hour.
STAVROGIN: Oh, to be sure! Excellent idea. You couldn’t have picked a more opportune moment. I feel like having a good time. What part am I supposed to play?
PETER: YOU are one of the members of the Central Committee and you know all about the whole secret organization.
STAVROGiN: What am I to do?
PETER: just assume a mysterious look, that’s all. STAVROGiN: But there is no Central Committee? PETER: Yes, there is. You and I.
STAVROGIN: In other words, you. And there is no organization?
PETER: There will be one if I can manage to organize those idiots into a group, to weld them into a single unit.
STAVROGIN: How will you go about it?
PETER: Well, to begin with, titles and functions— secretary, treasurer, president—you know the kind of thing! Then sentimentality. For them justice is a matter of sentimentality. Hence, they must be given plenty of opportunity to talk, especially the stupider ones. In any case, they are united by fear of opinion. That is the motivating force, the real cement. The thing they fear most of all is being taken for reactionaries. Consequently, they are obliged to be revolutionaries. They would be ashamed of thinking for themselves, of having an individual Idea. As a result, they will think as I want them to.
STAVROGIN : Excellent program! But I know a much better way of cementing this pretty group together. Force four members to kill the fifth on the pretext that he is a stool pigeon, and they will be bound by blood. But how stupid I am—it’s precisely your idea, isn’t it, since you want to have Shatov killed?
PETER: I! Why . . . what makes you think of such a thing!
STAVROGIN: No, Vm not thinking of It. But you are. And if you want my opinion, it’s not at all stupid. [In order to bind men together, there is something stronger than sentimentality or fear of opinion; it is dishonor.] The best way of attracting our fellow citizens and of sweeping them along with you is to preach publicly the right to dishonor.
PETER: Yes, I know it. Hurrah for dishonor and everybody will come to us; no one will want to lag behind. Ah, Stavrogin, you understand everything! You will be the leader and I’ll be your secretary. We shall set sail on a noble ship. The masts will be of polished wood, the sails silken, and on the high stern we shall put Lisa Nicolayevna.
STAVROGIN: There are only two objections to that prophecy. The first is that I shall not be your leader—
PETER: YOU will; I’ll explain to you.
STAVROGIN: The second is that I’ll not help you Second Part no kill Shatov to bind your idiots together. (He laughs uproariously.)
PETER (bursting with ivrath): I … I must go and tell Kirilov.
(He rushes out. The moment he is gone, STAVROGIN ceases laughing and sits down on the sofa, silent and sinisterlooking.)
BLACKOUT
The street, PETER VERKHOVENSKY is walking toward Kirilov’s.
THE NARRATOR (suddenly appearing as VERKHOVENSKY disappears): At the same time that Peter Verkhovensky arrived, something began spreading over the town. Mysterious fires broke out; the number of thefts doubled. A second lieutenant who had got into the habit of lighting candles in his room in front of books expounding materialistic ideas suddenly scratched and bit his commanding officer. A lady of the highest society began beating her children at fixed intervals and insulting the poor whenever she had an opportunity. And another wanted to practice free love with her husband. “That’s impossible,” she was told. “What do you mean?” she exclaimed; “we’re free, aren’t we?” We were free indeed, but of what?
SCENE 12
KIRILOV, FEDKA, and PETER VERKHOVENSKY in the living room of the Filipov rooming house. Shatoifs room is dimly lighted.
PETER (to FEDKA) : Mr. Kirilov will hide you. FEDKA: You are a vile little insect, but I’ll obey you, I’ll obey you. Just remember what you promised me.
PETER: Go and hide.
FEDKA: I’ll obey. Just remember, (FEDKA disappears.)
KIRILOV (as if noting a fact): He loathes you. PETER: He doesn’t have to like me; all he has to do is obey me. Sit down, I have something to say to you. I came to remind you of the agreement binding us.
KIRILOV: I am not bound by anything or to anything.
PETER (giving a start): What, have you changed your mind?
KIRILOV: I have not changed my mind. But I act according to my own will. I am free.
PETER: All right, all right. I am willing to admit that it is your own free will, provided that your will hasn’t changed. You get excited about a word. You have become very irritable of late. KIRILOV: I am not irritable, but I don’t like you. Yet I shall keep my word.
PETER: But it must be very clear between us. You still intend to kill yourself?
KIRILQV: Still.
PETER: Fine. Admit that no one is forcing you to it.
KIRILOV: You are expressing yourself stupidly. PETER: All right, all right. I expressed myself very stupidly. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, no one can force you. Let me go on. You belonged to our organization and you confessed your plan to one of its members?
KIRILOV: I did not confess anything; I simply said what I would do.
PETER: Good, good. Indeed, there was no reason to confess anything. You simply made a statement. Fine.
KIRILOV: No, it’s not fine. You’re just talking. I made up my mind to kill myself because I want to. You saw that my suicide could help the organization. If you commit a crime here and the guilty are pursued, I blow out my brains, leaving a letter in which I declare that I am the guilty one. So you asked me to wait a while before killing myself. I answered that I would wait, since it didn’t matter to me.
PETER: Good. But you gave your word to write the letter with my help and to wait for my orders. Only in this matter, of course, for in everything else you are free.
KIRILOV: I didn’t give my word. I agreed because it was a matter of indifference to me.
PETER: If you wish. Do you still feel the same? KIRILOV: Yes. Will it be soon?
PETER: * In a few days.
KIRILOV (rising as if reflecting):’ Of what should I declare myself guilty?
PETER: You’ll know In time.
KIRILOV: Good. But don’t forget this: I’ll not help you In any way against Stavrogin.
PETER: All right, all right.
(SHATOV enters from an inner room, KIRILOV sits down in a corner.)
PETER: It’s good of you to have come. SHATOV: I don’t need your approval.
PETER: You are wrong. In the fix you are In, you will need my help, and I have already used up considerable breath in your favor.
SHATOV: I don’t have to answer to anyone. I am free.
PETER: Not altogether.
