To A. S. Lazarev, 15 November 1887. Moscow.

1 Written four days before the fraught Moscow premiere of "Ivanov" (19 November 1887), this letter is addressed to the young writer Alexander Lazarev, who published under the pen name "Gruzinsky." Lazarev had left Moscow without saying goodbye, and Chekhov opens in mock-official style – "a most severe reprimand, to be entered in your service record" – before turning, as he says himself, to business.

2 The letter is a working brief for a collaborative vaudeville the two men were planning together, provisionally called "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" (a joke title for what would become a very unserious backstage farce, not a Shakespeare adaptation). Chekhov asks for a progress report, requests the return of his own draft manuscript by post, and then lays out numbered "conditions" for the piece – a thorough muddle of plot, sharply individuated characters, no longueurs, constant motion, specific named actors and actresses of the Korsh company to write parts for, and pointed satire of theatrical customs. The letter closes with Chekhov’s own nervous anticipation of the "Ivanov" premiere, likening his dread to a fever, and a wry note that rehearsals have left him "almost content, though irritated."