lack of steadiness and uprightness and sanity, be with you all the days of thy lives.
(Cannon fire.)
(The Tsaritsa, pulling up her skirt, begins to dance.)
Peter
Count Tolstoi, it has come to our attention that you have an unnatural aversion to oysters. Is it so?
Tolstoi (backing away)
I can’t abide the filthy things.
Peter
Therefore, you must consume two buckets of them.
(Tolstoi bolts to escape but the Cardinals grab him and bring him back. A servant with two pails of oysters appears. Peter shucks one and dangles it before Tolstoi’s face.)
Peter (laughing)
Open wide.
Tolstoi (through his teeth)
Never!
Peter
Will you refuse your Tsar?
Tolstoi
About this, yes!
Peter (grasping Tolstoi’s jaw and prying it open by brute force)
For Tsar and Country, Count.
(More cannon fire. Alexis, who has been drinking, now slumps down in a stupor. Several persons are beginning to fight. Catherine whirls by in a wild dance. Peter forces the oyster down Tolstoi’s throat.)
Peter (shucking another oyster)
One down. Only a hundred and forty-nine more.
(Tolstoi looks bilious and tries to vomit. More cannon fire.)
ACT I
SCENE 3
The other side of the Neva river, across from the Peterhof gardens, the same night.
A clearing with barges. Cannon fire and cheers can be heard from the other side of the river.
Ivan (singing)
A coffin of pinewood tree
Stands ready prepared for me.
Within its narrow wall,
I wait the trumpet call.
Cornelius (an old man)
Come to supper, Ivan.
(Larion Dokoukin enters.)
Dokoukin
May I join you, brothers?
Cornelius
If you come with God.
Dokoukin
I do.
Ivan
You are welcome.
Cornelius (suspiciously)
You come from Petersburg?
Dokoukin
From that cursed place.
Cornelius
The times are sad for fear that Antichrist is invading the world.
(Cannonading.)
Ivan
What hellish thing are they doing in the Palace?
Dokoukin
They have found a statue of a female devil and are worshipping it.
(They all cross themselves.)
All
Abominations!
Cornelius
The world’s sands are running short.
Dokoukin
The Lord be merciful unto us.
All
Amen.
Ivan
I heard today, in the market, that there is no Tsar in Russia. This Peter publicly dances with foreign courtesans and drinks wine and spirits like a drunkard. He calls his drinking companions by holy names like Bishop and Cardinal to defile sacred names.
Dokoukin
It is true. I have seen it. And worse still, he defiles icons.
Cornelius
He keeps the true Tsaritsa, Eudoxia shut up in a nunnery.
Ivan
They say the present Tsaritsa, Catherine, had a lover. The Tsar beheaded him and makes the Tsaritsa keep the head in a bottle on her dressing table.
Dokoukin
He is trying his best to make the Tsarevitch imitate him, but cannot succeed. That is why Peter wants to rid himself of his son.
Cornelius
Lord. What trouble God has sent. Father against son—son against father.
Dokoukin
The Tsar loves foreigners; the Tsarevitch loves Russians.
Cornelius
Truly, The Tsarevitch dearly loves the ancient ways.
Dokoukin
Amen, amen. Since this Peter was sent to rule over us we have seen no happy days. How is it God tolerates so much cruelty to the godly?
Ivan
He is only a mock Tsar.
Cornelius
Three attempts have been made to kill the Tsar, but all have failed. Why? Because evil spirits attend and protect him.
Ivan (showing his hand)
See what the demon has done to me, brothers.
Cornelius
What is it?
Ivan
The Tsar decreed that recruits are to be marked by pricking a cross with a needle and rubbing gunpowder in it. It is the devil’s mark. Try as I may to bless
