The Government Inspector and other works by Nikolai Gogol

Author:Nikolai Gogol
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Limited
Published: 2015-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

‘To please me, Ivan Ivanovitch!’

‘I cannot; I thank you!’ With this Ivan Ivanovitch bowed and sat down.

‘Ivan Ivanovitch! Come now, as a friend, just one cup!’

‘No, very much obliged for your kindness!’ Saying this, Ivan Ivanovitch bowed and sat down.

‘Just one cup! One cup!’

Ivan Ivanovitch put out his hand to the tray and took a cup.

Well, I am blessed! How that man could keep up his dignity; how ready he was!

‘I have,’ said Ivan Ivanovitch, after drinking the last drop, ‘urgent business with you, Demyan Demyanovitch: I wish to lodge a complaint.’ With this Ivan Ivanovitch put down his cup and took from his pocket a sheet of stamped paper covered with writing. ‘A complaint against my enemy, my sworn foe.’

‘Against whom is that?’

‘Against Ivan Nikiforovitch Dovgotchun!’

At these words the judge almost fell off his chair. ‘What are you saying!’ he articulated, flinging up his hands; ‘Ivan Ivanovitch! Is this you?’

‘You see for yourself it is I!’

‘The Lord be with you and all the Holy Saints! What! You, Ivan Ivanovitch, have become the enemy of Ivan Nikiforovitch! Was it your lips uttered those words? Say it again! Was not someone hiding behind you and speaking with your voice . ’

‘What is there so incredible in it? I cannot bear the sight of him: he has done me a deadly injury, he has insulted my honour!’

‘Holy Trinity! How shall I ever tell my mother? She, poor old dear, says every day when my sister and I quarrel: “You live like cats and dogs, children. If only you would take example from Ivan Ivanovitch and Ivan Nikiforovitch: once friends, always friends! To be sure they are friends! To be sure they are excellent people!” Fine friends after all! Tell me what’s it all about? How is it?’

‘It’s a delicate matter, Demyan Demyanovitch! It cannot be told by word of mouth: better bid your secretary read my petition. Take it in that way; it would be more proper here.’

‘Read it aloud, Taras Tihonovitch!’ said the judge, turning to the secretary. Taras Tihonovitch took the petition and, blowing his nose as all secretaries in district courts do blow their noses, that is, with the help of two fingers, began reading:

‘From Ivan, son of Ivan, Pererepenko, gentleman and landowner of the Mirgorod district, a petition; whereof the following points ensue:

‘(1) Whereas the gentleman Ivan, son of Nikifor, Dovgotchun, notorious to all the world for his godless lawfully-criminal actions which overstep all bounds and provoke aversion, did, on the seventh day of July of the present year 1810, perpetrate a deadly insult upon me, both personally affecting my honour and likewise for the humiliation and confusion of my rank and family. The said gentleman is, moreover, of loathsome appearance, has a quarrelsome temper, and abounds with blasphemous and abusive words of every description . ’

Here the reader made a slight pause to blow his nose again, while the judge folded his arms with a feeling of reverence and said to himself: ‘What a smart pen! Lord

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