The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Chronicles #31 ｜ The Seagull

00:00:00.000 Hello, and welcome to this episode of Chronicles, where today we're going to be talking all about

00:00:18.480 The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. Now, I have been really looking forward to getting into Chekhov

00:00:24.720 for quite some time, not only because he is undoubtedly one of the most important writers

00:00:30.640 to ever exist. In some ways, there is theatre and acting and writing before Chekhov, and there is

00:00:39.060 theatre and acting and writing after Chekhov. He was a truly transformative writer, and I wanted to

00:00:46.580 start with The Seagull, though it isn't his first play. His first play is Ivanov. I wanted to do

00:00:53.880 The Seagull, which is his second major play, because as well as being a fantastic play,

00:01:00.740 the history of the play itself is as interesting as a play. And so I think that by talking about

00:01:08.840 The Seagull, we'll have a great deal to discuss. But before we start talking about the play itself,

00:01:14.800 let's just talk a little bit about Chekhov, shall we? So Anton Chekhov was born in 1860,

00:01:21.720 and he died in 1904 due to complications of terrible health and TB and respiratory illnesses,

00:01:31.160 blessing, at the age of 44. But in that span of his life, he left, as I say, an indelible impression,

00:01:38.760 not only on Russian culture, Russian literature, Russian theatre, but would go on to have, I think,

00:01:47.360 an influence that even he didn't quite anticipate on theatre and acting throughout the West. And we'll

00:01:56.120 discuss that a little bit more in due time. But he had a very interesting upbringing as well.

00:02:00.780 His father was a grocer. Chekhov was born at a seaport town on the Sea of Azov in the Russian Empire,

00:02:11.040 and his father was a grocer. His mother had travelled quite a lot as a young woman due to her father's

00:02:17.760 trade. And Chekhov's grandfather had actually been a serf. Obviously, at the time when Chekhov was born

00:02:26.060 in 1860, serfdom was still around in the Russian Empire, and his grandfather had actually been able

00:02:34.200 to buy his way out of serfdom back in 1840. And so over the course of Chekhov's somewhat shortened

00:02:42.520 life, there was a great deal of change and mobility in Russia itself, not only socially, culturally,

00:02:51.200 but of course, as we know, and it's not something that Chekhov himself will live through to see,

00:02:57.520 but obviously you have the Russian Revolution as well just on the horizon. Now, on this particular

00:03:04.480 occasion, I think it makes more sense to front load this particular episode of Chronicles with the

00:03:11.880 some history of Russian theatre, as opposed to what we were talking about a few episodes ago

00:03:19.060 with writers such as Lope de Vega, you know, born in the 1500s, and one of the titans of the Spanish

00:03:27.100 golden age of literature, writing through the 1500s, early 1600s. Of course, in England, you had

00:03:33.120 Shakespeare and Marlowe. In France, you had playwrights, you know, going into the 16th and,

00:03:39.200 sorry, the 17th and 18th centuries, such as Racine and Molière. My point with this is that all of these

00:03:45.800 different Western European countries, they all grew a very, very organic style and character

00:03:53.500 with their theatres, you know, they could point to playwrights that were their possession, that

00:03:59.000 their own, that were part of their heritage, particular to them, their countries, and their people.

00:04:05.280 But actually, Russia, by comparison, was rather late to the game with all of this.

00:04:11.100 Pre-17th century, there was no real formal theatre. There was, of course, entertainment,

00:04:18.740 but it was very much in the manner that you would expect when you were talking about England,

00:04:23.960 say, in the 1400s. We were still looking at folk performers and travelling theatres and

00:04:30.000 jesters and musicians and things like that. And of course, all sorts of religious plays and

00:04:37.160 rituals that come from Russian heritage. But in terms of a great number of playwrights and writers,

00:04:46.340 of course, they were, as I say, a little bit slow off the start. The change really began in Russia

00:04:53.520 in about 1702, when Peter the Great basically ordered for the creation of a public theatre

00:05:00.080 and so that he could watch comedy. And this was set up in the Red Square in Moscow. And after that,

00:05:07.300 of course, once the king sets the trend and that becomes the fashion, of course, many other places

00:05:12.760 were doing it throughout the Russian Empire as well. But obviously, as with everywhere in Europe at the

00:05:18.200 time, there was a great deal of censorship in terms of what could be performed and what couldn't

00:05:23.560 and what speech could even be heard in the public place. And obviously, one of the other things to

00:05:31.260 say is that Russia went on to really take into its heart and its own sense of identity ballet. And ballet

00:05:40.660 came to Russia in about 1741. And from there, that was one of the great versions of art and

00:05:48.480 entertainment throughout the empire. But in terms of the 19th century, you know, by this point,

00:05:56.000 all very well established in Europe by this point. But in Russia, the 19th century in terms of its

00:06:03.940 literature is probably, for the most part, defined by the novels, right? When we think of Russian

00:06:10.740 literature, probably the names that will, you know, most instantly come to your mind are those from that

00:06:15.680 period, you know, people like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and Turgenev, and ultimately, these great,

00:06:23.600 famous Russian novelists. By comparison, a lot of the theatre that was being performed in Russia

00:06:30.100 during the 19th century was melodramas and, you know, versions of other European, you know, 0.88

00:06:40.200 types of theatre, performances of Moliere and Shakespeare. And so there was a shallower sense

00:06:47.740 of Russian identity in theatre than there was perhaps in other aspects of its literary pedigree.

00:06:54.820 And Chekhov was one of the great writers, and he was very frustrated by how stuck in its ways

00:07:04.980 the Russian theatre scene was. He wanted innovation, he wanted to build it a character of its own that

00:07:13.060 spoke to contemporary Russian society. And so it's very customary with this view to see all sorts of

00:07:22.200 characters in Chekhov's plays from all social backgrounds in Russian society. He was someone

00:07:29.320 who wanted to chronicle the moment, that moment in history in Russia. He wanted to grab it by the

00:07:37.240 horns and really say something about it. And I have a quote from him here, which I think is worth sharing

00:07:43.880 with you, which is where he says,

00:07:45.540 The people I fear are the ones who look for tendentiousness between the lines and are so

00:07:50.400 determined to see me as either liberal or conservative. I am neither liberal nor conservative,

00:07:55.900 nor gradualist nor monk. I would like to be a free artist, and regret God has not given me the

00:08:02.640 strength to be one. I hate lies and violence in all their forms. Phariseeism, dull-wittedness and

00:08:09.500 tyranny reign not only in merchants' homes and police stations, but in science and literature among the

00:08:16.500 younger generation. That is why I cultivate no predilection for policemen, scientists, writers,

00:08:22.620 or the younger generation. I look upon tags and labels as prejudices. My holy of holies is a human

00:08:29.540 body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and the most absolute freedom from violence

00:08:36.620 and lies. And so there are a few things in that quote that I actually just want to draw out. The first

00:08:42.740 of all is that when Chekhov says God has not given him the strength to be a free artist, this is something

00:08:50.700 that we will see very, very prevalent in The Seagull as well. It's one of the anxieties about the

00:08:57.740 character of Trigorin. And we also see as well this need to drive beyond the rigid and seemingly immovable

00:09:06.860 tastes of Russian society at the time. This desire to create something genuinely new and innovative

00:09:12.940 is the animating principle of what I would think is the main character of the piece, Constantine.

00:09:19.980 And so we'll see how those two things clash once we've been through the story. Which, speaking of,

00:09:27.740 I suppose now is a good time to talk you through the story of The Seagull.

00:09:33.180 Our story begins on a summer evening at a grand estate in the Russian countryside. It borders a

00:09:44.060 beautiful lake and the play's characters are already beginning to gather around a makeshift stage

00:09:50.220 for the performance of Konstantin Treplev's new play. A school teacher named Medvedenko accompanies

00:09:58.060 Masher, the daughter of the estate's manager, and the two engage in a tense conversation about

00:10:03.340 unrequited love. Why do you always wear mourning? I dress in black to match my life. I am unhappy.

00:10:11.820 Why should you be unhappy? I don't understand it. You are healthy, and though your father is not rich,

00:10:18.140 he has a good competency. My life is far harder than yours. I only have 23 rubles a month to live on,

00:10:25.260 but I don't wear mourning. Happiness does not depend on riches. Poor men are often happy.

00:10:31.660 In theory, yes, but not in reality. Take my case, for instance. My mother, my two sisters,

00:10:38.060 my little brother and I must all live somehow on my salary of 23 rubles a month. We have to eat and

00:10:44.300 drink, I take it. You wouldn't have us go without tea and sugar, would you? Or tobacco. Answer me that,

00:10:50.300 if you can. The play will soon begin. Yes. Nina Zarechnia is going to act in Treplev's play.

00:10:57.500 They love one another, and their two souls will unite tonight in the effort to interpret the same

00:11:02.700 idea by different means. There is no ground on which your soul and mine can meet. I love you.

00:11:09.660 Too restless and sad to stay at home. I tramp here every day, six miles and back to be met only by your

00:11:15.900 indifference. I am poor. My family is large. You can have no inducement to marry a man who cannot even

00:11:22.220 find sufficient food for his own mouth. Soon, Constantine and Soren arrive. The young playwright

00:11:29.260 is anxious and grave, not only because his lead actress Nina is late, but also because his mother

00:11:35.900 will be attending the performance. She is a renowned actress throughout the Russian Empire,

00:11:41.260 and Constantine yearns for her approval. My mother is a psychological curiosity. Without doubt, brilliant

00:11:48.300 and talented, capable of sobbing over a novel or reciting all necrosolves of poetry by heart,

00:11:54.700 and of nursing the sick like an angel of heaven. I love my mother. I love her devotedly, but I think

00:12:01.340 she leads a stupid life. She always has this man of letters of hers on her mind, and the newspapers are 1.00

00:12:07.900 always frightening her to death, and I am tired of it. Plain human egoism sometimes speaks in my heart,

00:12:15.260 and I regret that my mother is a famous actress. If she were an ordinary woman, I think I should be 0.93

00:12:20.860 a happier man. What could be more intolerable and foolish than my position, uncle, when I find myself 0.98

00:12:26.940 the only non-entity among a crowd of her guests, all celebrated authors and artists? I feel that they 0.84

00:12:33.740 only endure me because I am her son. Personally, I am nothing, nobody. I pulled through my third

00:12:40.060 year at college by the skin of my teeth, as they say. I have neither money nor brains, and on my

00:12:45.100 passport you may read that I am simply a citizen of Kiev. So was my father, but he was a well-known actor.

00:12:51.980 When the celebrities that frequent my mother's drawing room deem to notice me at all, I know they only look

00:12:57.980 at me to measure my insignificance. I read their thoughts and suffer from humiliation.

00:13:04.220 The stakes are high. To Constantine's relief, a flustered Nina finally arrives, apologising for

00:13:10.700 being late. Her father and stepmother disapprove of her acting, so she had to wait until she could slip

00:13:16.300 away from her home across the lake. Constantine kisses his leading lady, Nina, with whom he is

00:13:23.180 passionately in love, the only uncomplicated joy in his life. Moments later, his mother, Irina Arkadina,

00:13:31.580 arrives with her lover, Boris Trigorin, one of the most esteemed novelists in all Russia. When everyone

00:13:39.500 is gathered, the play begins. Nina plays the spirit of the universe, speaking with omniscient distance

00:13:46.540 from an age long after the extinction of the human race. She recounts her struggle against Satan,

00:13:52.780 and her inevitable triumph after the passage of innumerable eons, when even the stars perish into

00:13:59.340 dust. The performance is not to the taste of some of the spectators, least of all Constantine's mother,

00:14:06.300 who considers her son a foolish young man wasting his time. Humiliated, Constantine storms off. 0.95

00:14:14.220 With the play ending prematurely, Nina announces her intention to return home quickly.

00:14:19.500 She is distraught that she cannot stay, as she is dazzled by the high-class guests,

00:14:24.620 and the company of celebrated figures such as Trigorin. It was a curious play, wasn't it?

00:14:30.700 Very. I couldn't understand it at all, but I watched it with the greatest pleasure,

00:14:35.740 because you acted with such sincerity, and the setting was beautiful. There must be a lot of fish

00:14:42.300 in this lake. Yes, there are. I love fishing. I know of nothing pleasanter than to sit on a

00:14:48.860 lake shore in the evening with one's eye on a floating cork. Why, I should think that for one

00:14:54.380 who has tasted the joys of creation, no other pleasure could exist. Don't talk like that. He

00:15:00.620 always begins to flounder when people say nice things to him. Nina departs. Constantine returns,

00:15:07.340 his eyes red with the evidence of tears. Dr. Dawn assures him that he has great potential,

00:15:13.580 and that there was a real craft and beauty in his work. Constantine withdraws in solitude.

00:15:20.460 Act 1 ends with Masha confiding in Dawn that she loves Constantine, and that is why she is unhappy.

00:15:27.580 Act 2 begins some weeks after. Our cast of characters languidly lie in the clement weather.

00:15:33.820 Nina is with them, as her parents have gone away for a few days. They all talk and philosophise,

00:15:39.740 but Constantine is not amongst them. He is found by Nina, and to her alarm and confusion,

00:15:45.660 the young writer drops a dead seagull at her feet. I was base enough today to kill this gull. I lay it 0.60

00:15:51.420 at your feet. What is happening to you? So shall I soon end my own life? You have changed so that I

00:15:57.820 failed to recognise you. Yes, I have changed since the time when I ceased to recognise you.

00:16:03.420 You have failed me. Your look is cold. You do not like to have me near you. You have grown so

00:16:08.780 irritable lately, and you talk so darkly and symbolically that you must forgive me if I fail

00:16:15.020 to follow you. I am too simple to understand you. All this began when my play failed so dismally.

00:16:22.620 A woman can never forgive failure. I have burnt the manuscript to the last page. You say you are too 1.00

00:16:28.220 simple to understand me. But oh, what is there to understand? You dislike my play. You have no

00:16:33.580 faith in my powers. You already think of me as commonplace and worthless as many are.

00:16:38.780 He sees Trigorin, who approaches, reading a book. Ah, there comes real genius, striding along like

00:16:45.420 another hamlet, and with a book too. Ooh, words, words, words. You feel the warmth of that sun already.

00:16:52.940 You smile. Your eyes melt and glow liquid in its rays. I shall not disturb you.

00:16:58.540 Trigorin shall be leaving shortly, never to see Nina again. He laments his shortcomings as a writer,

00:17:04.300 and how he doesn't understand young women. I should like to change places with you, if but for an hour,

00:17:10.060 to look out at the world through your eyes, and so find out what sort of a little person you are.

00:17:16.380 And I should like to change places with you. Why? To find out how a famous genius feels.

00:17:25.020 What is it like to be famous? What sensations does it give you? But Trigorin does not enjoy his fame.

00:17:32.220 I see nothing especially lovely about it. Day and night I am held in the grip of one besetting

00:17:38.300 thought. To write, write, write. Hardly have I finished one book. Then someone urges me to write

00:17:44.460 another. And then the third, and then the fourth. I write ceaselessly. Oh, it is a wild life. Even now,

00:17:52.140 thrilled as I am by talking to you, I do not forget for an instant that an unfinished story is awaiting me.

00:17:58.940 My eye falls on that cloud there, which has the shape of a grand piano. I instantly make a mental

00:18:04.860 note that I must remember to mention in my story. A cloud floating by that looks like a grand piano.

00:18:11.180 I smell heliotrope. I mutter to myself. A sickly smell. The colour worn by widows. I must remember that

00:18:17.980 in writing my next description of a summer evening. I catch an idea in every sentence of yours, or of my

00:18:24.620 own, and hasten to lock all these treasures in my literary storeroom, thinking that someday they may

00:18:30.460 be useful to me. As soon as I stop working, I rush off to the theatre or go fishing, in the hope that

00:18:36.620 I may find oblivion there. But no. Some new subject for a story, sure to come rolling through my brain

00:18:43.740 like an iron cannonball. I hear my desk calling, and have to go back to it, and begin to write,

00:18:49.260 write, write once more. And so it goes for everlasting. I cannot escape myself, though I feel that I am

00:18:57.180 consuming my life. To prepare the honey I feed to unknown crowds, I am doomed to brush the bloom from

00:19:03.340 my dearest flowers, to tear them from their stems, and trample the roots that bore them underfoot. 0.97

00:19:09.260 The best years of my youth were made one continual agony for me by my writing.

00:19:14.540 A young author, especially if at first he does not succeed, feels clumsy, ill at ease, and superfluous

00:19:21.900 in the world. His nerves are all on edge, and stretched to the point of breaking. He is irresistibly

00:19:27.980 attracted, to literary and artistic people, and hovers about them unknown and unnoticed,

00:19:34.300 fearing to look them bravely in the eye like a man with a passion for gambling, whose money is

00:19:40.460 all gone. But don't your inspiration and the act of creation give you moments of lofty happiness?

00:19:47.660 Yes, writing is a pleasure to me, and so is reading the proofs, but no sooner does a book leave the press

00:19:53.740 then it becomes odious to me. It is not what I meant it to be, I made a mistake to write it at all.

00:19:59.500 I am provoked and discouraged. Then the public reads it and says,

00:20:03.900 Yes, it is clever and pretty, but not nearly as good as Tolstoy, or

00:20:08.220 It is a lovely thing, but not as good as Turgenev's fathers and sons, and so it will always be.

00:20:14.860 To my dying day I shall hear people say, clever and pretty and nothing more.

00:20:20.220 Then when I am gone, those that knew me will say as they pass my grave,

00:20:25.420 Here lies Tregorin, a clever writer, but who was not as good as Turgenev.

00:20:31.660 You must excuse me, but I decline to understand what you are talking about.

00:20:36.380 The fact is, you have been spoiled by your success.

00:20:39.660 What success have I had? I have never pleased myself. As a writer, I do not like myself at all.

00:20:45.180 I love this lake, these trees, the blue heaven. Nature's voice speaks to me and wakes a feeling

00:20:51.900 of passion in my heart, and I am overcome by an uncontrollable desire to write.

00:20:58.380 But I am not only a painter of landscapes. I am a man of the city besides. I love my country too,

00:21:04.940 and her people. I feel that, as a writer, it is my duty to speak of their sorrows, of their future,

00:21:11.180 also a science, of the rights of man, and so forth. So I write on every subject, and the public hounds

00:21:19.020 me on all sides, sometimes in anger, and I race and dodge like a fox with a pack of hounds on his trail.

00:21:26.300 I see life and knowledge flitting away before me. I am left behind them like a peasant,

00:21:33.100 who has missed his train at a station. And finally, I come back to the conclusion that all I am fit for

00:21:39.020 is to describe landscapes, and that whatever else I attempt rings abominably false.

00:21:45.100 You work too hard to realise the importance of your writings. What if you are discontented with

00:21:50.620 yourself? To others, you appear a great and splendid man. If I were a writer like you,

00:21:56.540 I should devote my whole life to the service of the Russian people, knowing at a time that their

00:22:01.660 welfare depended on their power to rise to the heights I had attained. And the people should send

00:22:06.940 me before them in a chariot of triumph. In a chariot? Do you think I am Agamemnon?

00:22:12.940 Tregorin is inspired by her innocence, and begins to imagine a new novel. A young girl grows up on the

00:22:19.740 shores of a lake as you have. She loves the lake as the gulls do, and is as happy and free as they.

00:22:26.140 But a man sees her who chances to come that way, and he destroys her out of idleness,

00:22:31.820 as this gull here has been destroyed. Weeks pass once more as we enter the third act. In the interim,

00:22:38.700 Constantine has failed in a suicide attempt. He challenges Tregorin to a duel, embittered by

00:22:45.100 Nina's blooming infatuation towards him. Soren pleads with Irina to give the boy some money,

00:22:51.660 so that he can have some good clothes and possibly go abroad to experience some pleasure and adventure.

00:22:57.260 But Irina insists that she has no money, and Soren suddenly collapses due to ongoing health problems,

00:23:03.420 and is carried away to lie down. Irina then refreshes her son's bandages,

00:23:08.940 and Constantine reflects on the miseries of his life. He believes that he has more talent than anyone

00:23:15.260 he knows, and he despises Tregorin for his status as the lover of his mother, his fame as a writer,

00:23:23.660 and his winning over of Nina. Nina has been inspired by Tregorin, and asks him whether he believes that

00:23:30.860 she has the talent to become a successful actress in her own right. She leaves a coded message for the 0.97

00:23:36.300 great man, which he figures out to mean, if ever my life is of use to you, come and take it. With swift

00:23:43.740 clarity, Tregorin realises that he is in love. Irina is not impressed, as she manipulatively attempts to

00:23:51.260 persuade her celebrity lover to stay with her, and it seems that Tregorin relents. But as the carriage

00:23:57.580 is about to depart, Tregorin returns inside, under the pretence of getting his cane, but inside he

00:24:04.060 sees Nina, and she tells him that she wants to go with him, to experience the wonders of the city,

00:24:09.900 and wholeheartedly commit herself to a pursuit of acting. They agree to the plan, and seal it with an

00:24:15.820 impassioned kiss. But Irina returns from the carriage, and tells Tregorin that they will not be leaving

00:24:21.500 after all. Our final act begins two years on, and Masha and Medveenko are now wed and have a baby.

00:24:29.340 It is not a happy marriage, as the husband was hardly Masha's first choice, and he is an irrepressibly

00:24:35.420 dull man. Soren is even weaker than before, and though Konstantin has managed to have a few short stories

00:24:42.300 published, he remains gravely depressed. Nina was left to tour with a second-rate theatre group,

00:24:48.620 and Tregorin, whom she worshipped, left her to return to Irina. Her dreams of fame and fortune came

00:24:55.580 to nothing. The company retires to a drawing room, save for Konstantin, who is visited unexpectedly by Nina.

00:25:05.660 Laying her head on his chest and stifling her sobs, she says,

00:25:10.060 I was afraid you might hate me. I dream every night that you look at me without recognising me.

00:25:16.300 I have been wandering about on the shores of the lake ever since I came back.

00:25:21.180 I have often been near your house, but I have never had the courage to come in.

00:25:25.660 Let us sit down and talk our hearts out. It's so quiet and warm in here. Do you hear the wind

00:25:33.500 whistling outside? As Turgenev says, happy is he who can sit at night under the roof of his home,

00:25:40.540 who has a warm corner in which to take refuge. I am a seagull, and yet…

00:25:46.780 No. What was I saying? Oh yes, Turgenev. He says, and God help all houseless wanderers.

00:25:56.140 Nina, you are crying again, Nina.

00:25:58.300 It is all right. I shall feel better after this. I have not cried for two years. I went into the garden

00:26:07.020 last night to see if our old theatre was still standing. I see it is. I wept there for the first

00:26:14.460 time in two years, and my heart grew lighter and my soul saw more clearly again. See? I am not crying

00:26:22.140 now. So? You are an author now. And I am an actress. We have both been sucked into the whirlpool. My life

00:26:30.540 used to be as happy as a child's. I used to wake singing in the morning. I loved you and dreamt of fame.

00:26:38.540 And what is the reality? Tomorrow morning early I must start for Elts by train in a third-class carriage

00:26:45.260 with a lot of peasants. And at Elts the educated tradespeople would pursue me with compliments.

00:26:51.660 It is a rough life. Why are you going to Elts? I have accepted an engagement there for the winter.

00:26:57.580 It is time for me to go. Nina, I have cursed you and hated you and torn up your photograph, 0.94

00:27:03.740 and yet I have known every minute of my life that my heart and soul were yours forever.

00:27:09.180 To cease from loving you is beyond my power. I have suffered continually from the time I lost

00:27:15.580 you and began to write, and my life has been almost unendurable. My youth was suddenly plucked from me

00:27:22.060 then, and I seem now to have lived in this world for ninety years. I have called out to you. I have kissed the

00:27:28.940 ground you walked on. Wherever I looked, I have seen your eyes before me and the smile that had illuminated

00:27:35.500 me for the best years of my life. Constantine pleads for Nina to stay, but she tells him that after all

00:27:43.180 her ill fortune, she is at once hopeful for the future again. That she feels the joy of the stage,

00:27:50.380 and that her acting is improving. You have found your way. You know where you are going. But I am still

00:27:55.820 groping in the chaos of phantoms and dreams, not knowing whom and what end I am serving by at all.

00:28:01.740 I do not believe in anything, and I do not know what my calling is.

00:28:06.300 Hush. Hush. I must go. Goodbye. When I have become a famous actress, you must come and see me.

00:28:13.740 Will you promise to come? But now...

00:28:17.100 It is late. I can hardly stand. I am fainting. I am hungry.

00:28:22.460 Stay in. Let me bring you some supper. No. No. And don't come out. I can find the way alone.

00:28:29.340 My carriage is not far from here. So she brought him back with her. However,

00:28:35.740 what difference can that make to me? Don't tell Tregoran anything when you see him.

00:28:41.500 I love him. I love him. I love him even more than I used to. It is an idea for a short story. I love him.

00:28:49.340 I love him passionately. I love him to despair. Have you forgotten, Constantine?

00:28:55.500 How pleasant the old times were. What a gay, bright, gentle, pure life we led.

00:29:02.220 How a feeling as sweet and tender as a flower blossomed in our hearts.

00:29:07.020 There is nothing Constantine can say. And Nina weakly leaves, ready to move on with her life.

00:29:13.180 Constantine is despondent. He methodically tears up his manuscripts and works before going outside,

00:29:21.740 just as the other characters return to the room to play more games for the evening.

00:29:26.380 But they all panic when they hear the sound of a gunshot.

00:29:29.500 What was that? Nothing at all. Probably one of my medicine bottles has blown up. Don't worry.

00:29:36.620 He goes out through the door on the right and comes back in a few moments.

00:29:40.540 It is as I thought. A flask of ether has exploded. Spellbound once more, I stand before thee.

00:29:48.620 Oh heavens, I was really frightened. That noise reminded me of...

00:29:53.900 Everything is black before my eyes. There was an article from America in this magazine about two months ago

00:29:59.900 that I wanted to ask you about, among other things. Dawn leads Trigoran away from the others.

00:30:05.740 I am very much interested in this question. You must take Madame Arkadina away from here. 0.97

00:30:12.140 What I wanted to say was that Constantine has shot himself.

00:30:16.940 If you enjoyed this piece of premium content from The Lotus Eaters, head to our website where you can find more.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - January 24, 2026

PREVIEW： Chronicles #31 ｜ The Seagull

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