No More Learning

Inspired partly by his feelings towards Frau von Stein, whom Goethe
"credited with knowing every trait of his being," and partly by the
"Iphigenia in Tauris" of Euripides, the play is totally different from
anything that had as yet come from his pen. Although it lacks some of
the pomp and circumstance of the best Greek tragedy, it is written with
great dignity in the strictest classical form, admirably suggesting
the best in French classical drama. The prominent motive of the piece
is the struggle between truth and falsehood. "It is," one critic has
remarked, "a poetic drama of the soul. " On its production at Weimar,
the German public received it indifferently.




GOGOL[C]




The Inspector-General


_Persons in the Play_

ANTON ANTONOVITCH, _governor of a small town_
ANNA ANDREYEVNA, _his wife_
MARYA, _their daughter_
LUKA, _director of schools_
KHELSTAKOV, _a St. Petersburg official_
OSIP, _his servant-man_
BOBCHINSKI _and_ DOBCHINSKI, _independent gentlemen_
A JUDGE, A CHARITY COMMISSIONER, A POSTMASTER
POLICE SUPERINTENDENT and CONSTABLES
A WAITER AT THE INN


ACT I

SCENE. --_A room in the_ GOVERNOR'S _house. The_ GOVERNOR, _a coarse
and ill-educated official, and several functionaries of the
town_.

GOVERNOR (_addressing the functionaries_): I have bad news. An
inspector-general is coming from St. Petersburg. You must see that
your various departments are set in order. The hospital must be tidied
up and the patients must be provided with nice white night-caps. The
school-teachers must coach up the scholars in their subjects.
[_Enter_ BOBCHINSKI _and_ DOBCHINSKI _breathlessly_.

BOBCHINSKI: What an extraordinary incident!

DOBCHINSKI: A startling announcement!

ALL: What is it? What is it?

BOBCHINSKI: I will tell you correctly. After you had received the
letter from St. Petersburg, I ran out to tell the postmaster what it
had announced. On the way Dobchinski pressed me to go into the inn
for refreshment. Into the restaurant came an elegant young man with a
fashionable aspect. The landlord told us he was an official on his way
from Petersburg to Saratov, and that he is acting strangely, for he has
been here more than a fortnight, and pays for nothing.

GOVERNOR: Good lord! Surely it cannot be he! Been here a fortnight?
May heaven help us. You, sirs, get all your departments in proper trim.