Inspector General
Comedy in five acts
Don't blame the looking-glass if your mug is crooked.
Popular proverb
CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY
ANTON ANTONOVICH SKVOZNIK-DMUKHANOVSKY, the Governor.
ANNA ANDREYEVNA, his wife.
MARYA ANTONOVNA, his daughter.
LUKA LUKICH KHLOPOV, the Inspector of Schools.
His Wife.
AMMOS FIODOROVICH LIAPKIN-TIAPKIN, the Judge.
ARTEMY FILIPPOVICH ZEMLIANIKA, the Superintendent of Charities.
IVAN KUZMICH SHPEKIN, the Postmaster.
PIOTR IVANOVICH DOBCHINSKY. }
PIOTR IVANOVICH BOBCHINSKY. } Country Squires.
IVAN ALEKSANDROVICH KHLESTAKOV, an official from St. Petersburg.
OSIP, his servant.
CHRISTIAN IVANOVICH HUBNER, the district Doctor.
FIODR ANDREYEVICH LULIUKOV. } ex-officials, }esteemed
IVAN LAZAREVICH RASTAKOVSKY. }personages
STEPAN IVANOVICH KOROBKIN. }of the town.
STEPAN ILYICH UKHOVERTOV, the Police Captain.
SVISTUNOV. }
PUGOVITZYN. }Police Sergeants.
DERZHIMORDA. }
ABDULIN, a Merchant.
FEVRONYA PETROVA POSHLIOPKINA, the Locksmith's wife.
The Widow of a non-commissioned Officer.
MISHKA, the Governor's Servant.
Servant at the Inn.
Guests, Merchants, Citizens, and Petitioners.
CHARACTERS AND COSTUMES
DIRECTIONS FOR ACTORS
THE GOVERNOR.—A man grown old in the service, by no means a fool in his own way.
Though he takes bribes, he carries himself with dignity. He is of a rather serious turn and even given somewhat to ratiocination. He speaks in a voice neither too loud nor too low and says neither too much nor too little.
Every word of his counts.
He has the typical hard stern features of the official who has worked his way up from the lowest rank in the arduous government service.
Coarse in his inclinations, he passes rapidly from fear to joy, from servility to arrogance.
He is dressed in uniform with frogs and wears Hessian boots with spurs.
His hair with a sprinkling of gray is close-cropped.
ANNA ANDREYEVNA.—A provincial coquette, still this side of middle age, educated on novels and albums and on fussing with household affairs and servants.
She is highly inquisitive and has streaks of vanity.
Sometimes she gets the upper hand over her husband, and he gives in simply because at the moment he cannot find the right thing to say. Her ascendency, however, is confined to mere trifles and takes the form of lecturing and twitting.
She changes her dress four times in the course of the play.
KHLESTAKOV.—A skinny young man of about twenty-three, rather stupid, being, as they say, "without a czar in his head," one of those persons called an "empty vessel" in the government offices.
He speaks and acts without stopping to think and utterly lacks the power of concentration.
The words burst from his mouth unexpectedly.
The more naivete and ingenousness the actor puts into the character the better will he sustain the role.
Khlestakov is dressed in the latest fashion.
OSIP.—A typical middle-aged servant, grave in his address, with eyes always a bit lowered.