0 The Brothers Karamazov
And such love won’t do for me.
Then a gypsy comes along and he, too, tries:
The gypsy came to try the girls:
Would they love him, would they not?
But they couldn’t love the gypsy either:
He would be a thief, I fear,
And would cause me many a tear.
And many more men come to try their luck, among them
a soldier:
The soldier came to try the girls:
Would they love him, would they not?
But the soldier is rejected with contempt, in two inde-
cent lines, sung with absolute frankness and producing a
furore in the audience. The song ends with a merchant:
The merchant came to try the girls:
Would they love him, would they not?
And it appears that he wins their love because:
The merchant will make gold for me
And his queen I’ll gladly be.
Kalgonov was positively indignant.
‘That’s just a song of yesterday,’ he said aloud. ‘Who
writes such things for them? They might just as well have
had a railwayman or a Jew come to try his luck with the
girls; they’d have carried all before them.’
And, almost as though it were a personal affront, he de-
clared, on the spot, that he was bored, sat down on the sofa
and immediately fell asleep. His pretty little face looked
rather pale, as it fell back on the sofa cushion.
‘Look how pretty he is,’ said Grushenka, taking Mitya up