(The door is opened and THEDKA, the footman of the Baron, enters. SIMON pushes the slipper behind him.) Thedka. Good day to you! Simon (uneasily). Good day! What can we do for you? Simon. Yes? What about them? (MICHAEL, unseen by the others, goes into the other room.) Thedka. My master will not want them now. He is dead. Matrena. What are you saying? Thedka. He died on the way home. When we went to help him alight, he lay limp as a meal sack on the floor of the carriage. Matrena. God help us! Thedka. My mistress sent me to tell the bootmaker to use the leather for a pair of slippers for the corpse and to make them as quickly as he can. (MATRENA and SIMON look at each other with wonderment in their eyes. They turn to where MICHAEL stood by the inner door, but he has disappeared.) Simon. You shall have them in an hour. Thedka. I shall return. Good day, my master, and good luck to you! Simon. And to you! (THEDKA goes out, leaving SIMON and MATRENA gazing at each other in awe.) Matrena. Michael is no ordinary being. We might have guessed before this. Simon. You remember how he smiled? Simon. Let us see what he is doing. Matrena. You do not suppose he would go from us without a word, do you? (They go into the other room. Immediately the LITTLE DEVIL appears in the doorway at the back and the GUARDIAN ANGEL is seen in the shadow of the curtains at the left.) Angel. You have lost! Devil (with a stamp of his foot). I have lost Simon's soul, but I have the Baron. He shall be my torch this night in hell. Angel. The faith of Simon was great. Devil. Thou didst not save him! Angel. One greater than I saved Simon. It was God! (At the word, the DEVIL stamps his foot again, slams the door, and goes. The ANGEL disappears. From the other room come MATRENA and SIMON, crossing to the hearth.) Simon. He was in prayer. Matrena. His face was illumined, and such a light shone from him that at first I thought it was a fire. Oh, Simon, who is this that has dwelt with us? (MICHAEL comes in from the other room; goes to the steps, where he turns and faces them.) Michael. God has pardoned me, good master and mistress. Do you also pardon me? Simon. Tell us, Michael, who you are and why God punished you. Michael. I was an angel in Heaven and God punished me because I disobeyed Him. He sent me to earth to bear away a woman's soul. But the woman, who had given birth to twin babies, cried to me, "Angel of God, I cannot leave them! They will die. I have no kin to care for them. Do not take away my soul. Children cannot live without mother or father!" So I hearkened to the mother and flew back to God, saying, "Little children cannot live without mother or father, so I did not take away the mother's soul." Then God said to me, "Go thou and fetch away the soul of the childing woman, and before thou return to Heaven thou shalt learn three words. Thou shalt learn both what that is which dwelleth in men, and what that is which is not given to men to know, and what that is whereby men live. When thou hast learned these words, thou mayst return to Heaven." Matrena. Tell us what you did, Michael. Michael. I went to earth and took the soul of the childing woman. Then I rose above the village and tried to bear the soul to God, but a wind caught me, so that my wings hung down and were blown from me. The soul returned alone to God, while I fell to earth along the roadside. (SIMON and MATRENA marvel; SIMON speaks.) Simon. Tell me, Michael, why you smiled three times, and what were the three words of God. Michael. When you, Simon, took me to your home and Matrena's heart prompted her to share her last crust, I smiled because I knew the first word of God. "Thou shalt learn what that is which dwelleth in men," and I knew by your goodness that what dwelleth in men is love. I felt glad that God had seen fit to reveal this to me, and I smiled. Matrena. What was it you saw over the shoulder of the Baron that made you smile? Michael. I saw the Angel of Death. No one else saw him, and I thought: Here is this man planning for boots that shall last a year, when he is to die before the nightfall. Then I smiled when I remembered that God had said, "Thou shalt learn what it is not given to men to know." Simon. What was it made you smile at the story of the good Sonia Ivanich? Michael. I recognized in the children the twins that I had thought would die. Yet this woman had fed them and loved them. In her I beheld love and pity of the living God, and I understood what that is whereby men live. And I smiled. This much do I tell you to repay your kindness: That men only appear to live by taking thought of themselves; in reality, they live by Love alone. He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him; for God is Love. (The room is suddenly black with night. Then a hymn bursts forth as though from a great choir of voices, and in the doorway MICHAEL, bathed in light, stands looking upward. Before him, at the foot of the stairs, kneel the two peasants.) CURTAIN This play has been given successfully by many schools at the Christmas assembly. The stage setting is easy, and the play contains enough characters so that many pupils may have a part. Count Leo Tolstoi (1828-1910) was a Russian social reformer, who disliked the inequalities of modern society and the tyranny of despotic governments. Although a nobleman, he lived the life of a religious hermit, working his own lands and sharing his food with the humblest who came his way. He was known as the Christian prophet of renunciation." In addition to short stories, such as the one which formed the basis for this play, he wrote several novels of note. Plays of the life of upper-class Russian people were written by Checkov. It would be interesting to compare them with Tolstoi's story. I. Which do you think are the most dramatic moments in the play? 2. Look at each character separately and list two qualities which the person playing each part should have. 3. How will the characters be dressed? Find in geographies pictures of Russian peasant life. What is there in the play that suggests Russian life? 4. How is the play like a myth or legend? What lines express the lesson this "prophet of renunciation " wished to teach? 5. You would enjoy comparing this play with Galsworthy's story of the shoemaker called "Quality" in his volume entitled Caravan. EXPLANATORY NOTES Ruble (page 268), a Russian silver coin worth about fifty cents at par. It is no longer issued. Kaftan (page 270), a long-sleeved gown worn by men in eastern countries. Copeck (page 271), a Russian coin worth about half a cent. A dessiatine of land (page 272), a small measure, used in Russia to indicate area. Vodka (page 273), a kind of Russian liquor distilled from fermenting rye, potatoes, or maize. Kvass (page 277), a Russian fermented drink usually made from rye. HOW TO USE THE LIBRARY For the sake of convenience, books are grouped on the library shelves according to subject; that is, all books of fiction are shelved together, all history books, all biographies, or all geographical works. Most libraries use as their system of classification the ten groups suggested in the Dewey decimal system. Each group is given a number from 000 to 1000, as follows: Each of these classes is again divided into ten groups, with a number assigned to each. The groups most useful to the student of literature are these: The books are arranged on the shelves in order from ooo to 1000. Within each group the books are arranged alphabetically by authors' last names, with the exception of individual biography, which is grouped according to the name of the subject written about. Every book is given a call number, by which it is placed on the shelves and called for by the person wishing to borrow it from the |