To A. I. Sumbatov, 11 March 1891. Moscow.
А. И. СУМБАТОВУ (ЮЖИНУ), 11 марта 1891 г. Москва.
Headnote
A short note of 11 March 1891, from Moscow, to Prince Alexander Ivanovich Sumbatov (stage name Yuzhin; 1857–1927), the Maly Theatre actor and playwright already established in this corpus. dateline (given twice, in full and abbreviated form), a two-sentence body, a closing wish, a wry aside on the weather, signature, and the address panel ("on the reverse") with recipient name, title, and street.
Chekhov tells Sumbatov that his sister will send him the volume of Leskov she is currently reading, wishes him well, and notes ironically that snow is falling in Moscow while roses are supposedly already blooming "in our Italy" – a joking reference to some shared nickname or running joke about a place (perhaps a dacha or a room), not a literal claim that Chekhov is in Italy.