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  [ Transcriber's Note:
    This e-book belongs to Tolstoy's Plays (Complete Edition). The
    front matter, including the table of contents, can be found in
    e-book #26660; it lists the other plays in the collection.

    Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
    possible; changes (corrections of spelling and punctuation) made to
    the original text are listed at the end of this file.
  ]




                      THE LIGHT SHINES IN DARKNESS

                                 DRAMA




CHARACTERS


NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH SARÝNTSOV.

MARY IVÁNOVNA SARÝNTSOVA. His wife.

LYÚBA. Their daughter.

STYÓPA. Their son.

VÁNYA. A younger son.

MISSY. Their daughter.

THE SARÝNTSOVS' LITTLE CHILDREN.

ALEXANDER MIKÁYLOVICH STARKÓVSKY. (Lyúba's betrothed in Act IV).

MITROFÁN ERMÍLYCH. Ványa's tutor.

THE SARÝNTSOVS' GOVERNESS.

ALEXÁNDRA IVÁNOVNA KÓHOVTSEVA. Mary Ivánovna's sister.

PETER SEMYÓNOVICH KÓHOVTSEV. Her husband.

LISA. Their daughter.

PRINCESS CHEREMSHÁNOV.

BORÍS. Her son.

TÓNYA. Her daughter.

A YOUNG PRIEST.

THE SARÝNTSOVS' NURSE.

THE SARÝNTSOVS' MEN-SERVANTS.

IVÁN ZYÁBREV. A peasant.

A PEASANT WOMAN. His wife.

MALÁSHKA. His daughter (carrying her baby-brother).

PETER. A peasant.

A RURAL POLICEMAN.

FATHER GERÁSIM. A priest.

A NOTARY.

A CARPENTER.

A GENERAL.

HIS ADJUTANT.

A COLONEL.

A REGIMENTAL CLERK.

A SENTINEL.

TWO SOLDIERS.

A GENDARME OFFICER.

HIS CLERK.

THE CHAPLAIN OF THE REGIMENT.

THE CHIEF DOCTOR IN A MILITARY ASYLUM.

AN ASSISTANT DOCTOR.

WARDERS.

AN INVALID OFFICER.

PIANIST.

COUNTESS.

ALEXANDER PETRÓVICH.

PEASANT MEN AND WOMEN, STUDENTS, LADIES, DANCING COUPLES.




                      THE LIGHT SHINES IN DARKNESS




ACT I


SCENE 1

    The scene represents the verandah of a fine country-house, in front
    of which a croquet-lawn and tennis-court are shown, also a
    flower-bed. The children are playing croquet with their governess.
    Mary Ivánovna Sarýntsova, a handsome elegant woman of forty; her
    sister, Alexándra Ivánovna Kóhovtseva, a stupid, determined woman of
    forty-five; and her husband, Peter Semyónovich Kóhovtsef, a fat
    flabby man, dressed in a summer suit, with a pince-nez, are sitting
    on the verandah at a table with a samovár and coffee-pot. Mary
    Ivánovna Sarýntsova, Alexándra Ivánovna Kóhovtseva, and Peter
    Semyónovich Kóhovtsev are drinking coffee, and the latter is
    smoking.

ALEXÁNDRA IVÁNOVNA. If you were not my sister, but a stranger, and
Nicholas Ivánovich not your husband, but merely an acquaintance, I
should think all this very original, and perhaps