To A. P. Lensky, 8 December 1889. Moscow.
А. П. ЛЕНСКОМУ, 8 декабря 1889 г. Москва.
Headnote
A short, dashed-off note to Alexander Pavlovich Lensky (1847-1908), the celebrated Maly Theatre actor and director, written from Moscow in December 1889 – the season following the disastrous premiere of Chekhov’s play "The Wood Demon" and not long after the death of his brother Nikolai. The letter mixes a theatrical favor, a health complaint, and a scrap of gossip in the space of a few lines, which is typical of Chekhov’s brisk private correspondence with theater friends of this period.
The core of the letter is a relayed message from the actress Alexandra Karatygina, forwarded verbatim (marked in the original as underlined, i.e. emphasized in her own hand) and quoted by Chekhov rather than paraphrased – this is embedded real correspondence, not fabricated material, and should be treated as a direct quotation within the letter. Karatygina, sardonically dubbed "the unfortunate Penelope" by Chekhov (a literary jab, likely playing on her waiting on an uncertain outcome, as Penelope waited for Odysseus), asks Chekhov to have Lensky quietly sound out Alexander Chernevsky about "her matter" with Alexei Pchelnikov – almost certainly a question of her position, contract, or benefit performance at the Imperial (Maly) Theatre, where Pchelnikov was an administrator. The name Krivenko appears as an intermediary source for a rumor that Pchelnikov could decide the matter independently, said to have been extracted via the actor Konstantin Varlamov ("I set Varlamov loose on Krivenko").
Chekhov then pivots to his own health (a lingering "influenza" he jokes may be something worse – "some other filthy business"), sends greetings to Lensky’s wife Lidia Nikolaevna Kupriyanova-Iolshina (an actress performing as Lidia Nikolaevna Lenskaya) and to "Sasik" (a family nickname, likely for a child or close relation in the Lensky household, unidentified further), signs off, and closes with an unrelated one-line postscript-style item of gossip: a Dr. Obolonsky is getting married and Chekhov will serve as his best man ("шафер" – literally the groom’s attendant in an Orthodox wedding). This is likely Nikolai Obolonsky, a physician and friend of Chekhov’s from his medical circles.