FRUITS OF CULTURE, The (PLOW/ PROSIVYESHCHENIYA). Count Tolstoi recognized in the drama an immense power for driving home his ethical teachings. His second play, 'The Fruits of Culture' (or 'The Fruits of Enlightenment,' 1889), is a satirical comedy with a triple purpose — to show up the ab surdity of superstition, whether manifested by people of culture or by simple-minded peasants; to discredit the medical profession ; and to con trast the frivolity of the so-called educated and wealthy classes with the simplicity and dignity of the sons of the soil. Spiritualism is the principal target. The scene is laid in the Mos cow mansion of Leonid Svedintsef, a landed proprietor and an ardent spiritualist. He is ad dressed by three peasants from the province of Kursk who are commissioned by their commune to buy land from him and to pay for it by instalments. Svedintsef insists that the whole amount be paid at once. The peasants have friends among the servants, and are promised that the master shall sign the paper that they desire. So Tanya the chambermaid and Sem yon the kitchen-boy arrange a spiritualistic séance, in which the latter appears as a medium, and which the master attends with enthusiasm.
His credulity rises to the occasion, and, when directed by the medium, he of course signs the paper granting the peasants their request.
Much of the fun of the play arises from fre quent and unexpected encounters between the peasants and the lady of the house, who has 'a horror of disease germs and who is convinced that in the garments of these creatures lurk the germs of various dreadful diseases. The sub plot concerns the fortunes of Tanya and Sem yon, who are to be married, and who agree that the only real life is life in the country, where they propose to live. The list of characters include doctors, princes and other nobles, cooks and other servants, all of whom are differ entiated with Tolstoi's masterly skill. It is all capital comedy and capital satire, has often been presented on the European stage, in Russian, in French and in German. It was first translated into English (from the French) by George S. Schumm in 1891, and is also included in the works of Tolstoi as translated by Nathan Haskell Dole, by Louise and Aylmer Maude, by Leo Wiener and by Mrs. Constance Garnett.