The other people at the hotel were mostly English, so they gave it a peculiar English flavor to everything there too. There was a strictness of everything and everyone acted exactly as they were expected to act and everyone was satisfied even though they didn't know anyone from anyone else. It was the absolute in social decorum acted out. Propriety reigned and no one really spoke to one another. It made the narrator feel as if he had been punished as a kid and had to sit silently in a chair while others had fun. The narrator has no strength to fight the way of the entire room because that is his type of character. He tried to fight it a bit when he first entered their society at the hotel, but he was given simply the same thoughtless answers that everyone always gets in these places when asked the same questions.
The interesting thing about these people is that they were not stupid and lived interesting lives, in fact more interesting than the life the narrator lived, but he could not understand why they would deprive themselves of the most interesting part of life - the conversations and the relationships that come up between men. How different this was than the conversations he used to have in Paris when he met with a table full of people from different countries around the world and spoke different broken versions of each other's languages. There, nobody felt inclined to act only as propriety demanded, but spoke straight from the heart. They even danced into the evenings. It was not good or graceful, but they were human. They were superficial, but at least they had a good time and the narrator wonders with all the finery what they couldn't do to make others happy.
The narrator left the dinner before it was over and went for a walk in the city to try to relieve his melancholy, but it just increased in the city because there were muddy streets without lights and no people and everything shuddered up. Then on the way back he hears the familiar sound of music coming from somewhere. It immediately makes him happy and makes him look around curiously at his surroundings and actually see what is around him. There was a group of people standing in front of a church near some trees where some other people were playing guitar and others singing. They were not playing any certain song, but only the hint at a them that sounded like a mazurka. Tolstoy describes the music they produce with the use of Ostranenie. The music makes the narrator feel different about himself in this place. It gives him inexplicable energy and a desire to do something. He finds the feeling strange, but just takes it all in. The singer was singing as if he was asking the people watching what they wanted and all they had to do was to take it in from the music. The singer was dressed poorly and ratty. It didn't take anything away from the spectacle of the singer, but did give him a pathos.
Everyone watched in silence and listened intently. The other spectators seemed to be taking in the music in the same way as the narrator. They were all one on the quay. More and more people were coming to listen and they all either approved or stood on balconies and listed in silence. The narrator became more and more enthralled with the music and the singing and he understood that the words of the songs were coming to the singer only as he sang them. There came a cook and a servant that also came to listen. The cook was enthralled, but the servant was not that impressed. The narrator started to talk to the servant and found out that this was a man that lived as a beggar and came around here a couple times a summer. The servant looked at the singer as one of his class and said that there were a lot people like him, but none of the others sang. The singer liked wine according to the servant, but so do all the other people like him.
The singer stopped singing his first song and put out his hat for money, but almost no one gave anything. The narrator gave a bit. Then the singer started singing a new song that was even better than the last. He repeated the wish for money from the crowd with a french phrase, but he got nothing but laughter from the people. They started promenading around again after they had been so still during the singing. The singer muttered something between his teeth and walked away with some people following not too far behind laughing at him. The narrator could not believe his eyes. He could not understand the crowd's reaction to the singing man and was left with the worst feeling in his heart and soul. It was oppressing him.
In the entrance the narrator meets an English family that is wearing the most expensive wears and walking out with great importance. However, they are too impressed with the night and the surroundings to even speak about it. They held everything in contempt and viewed everything as their right. The Swiss should move aside for them and make the beds and make everything just right for them as it should be. They were so content in their world that it made the narrator sick when he compared them to the singer. The singer may not have had anything, but these people had everything and didn't deserve it. This was the weight that was oppressive to the narrator's soul. The narrator felt very good about himself as he elbowed the father of the family in the stomach twice as he passed him in the hall. The narrator went out into the night again and sought out the singer and offered him to join him in a bottle of wine.
A few passersby stopped when they saw the narrator with the singer and listened to what he talked about and even followed him back to the hotel which is where the cafe was that the singer proposed. The singer was not even dismayed at going back to the hotel where he was served so poorly by the crowd and was not in the least abashed with his dress. Other people followed them back to the entrance waiting for more entertainment. The narrator and the singer were given the worst seats in the cafe near where a woman was washing dishes and the benches were only wooden. The waiter was a prick and looked down on the woman washing dishes and even gave out the impression that it was below him even to serve the narrator. The narrator passed on the ordinary wine and asked for the most expensive champagne they had. This did not put off the waiter at all. A couple of other waiters came and sat down close and just sat and watched the narrator and the singer with a haughty look. The dishwasher actually felt sorry for the N and S. The light in the room was better and the N got a better look at the S. He was almost a dwarf in stature, but was not ugly, but dark and hairy, but with a handsome mouth. He had the look of a tradesman more than that of an artist. He was not that clean either. He was 37 and only in his eyes and mouth was there the look of genius. He had been wandering for 18 years and had no family and had had his arm injured while working as a carpenter. He started singing and begging and learned his trade that way on the guitar. It was also the only luggage he had. He traveled around despite having eye, leg and voice problems every year worsening with rheumatism. Yet he was content with his life. He made the other waiters laugh with his humor, but still made the washer woman look sad and she even picked up his hat once. He didn't consider himself an artist, but only worked as a means of existence. He did not write the songs he sang, but they all came from the region in which he was born - Tyrolian. The song he sang was maybe composed by him, but he gives it no importance. He has it in his repretoir only so he has something new to give his audience.
The S seemed to be ill at ease when he drank the champagne. He understood by the taste that it was very good. This started a conversation about Italy. The N wanted to propose that in Italy the people appreciated good music and art, but the S did not agree. He said that the people there were all musicians so pleasing them is more difficult. Only because he is exotic does it mean that he gets any appreciation in Italy. The N wanted to propose that the people there are at least more generous and the scene that took place at the hotel tonight would not have happened in Italy. The S disagreed again. He replied that he had been walking and singing for 10 hours already that day and was tired. Sometimes people don't want to listen to his songs or his voice is not right. He says that the important thing is the police. There are laws that state that he should not be singing and if they want to stop him then they will and maybe even put you in Jail if they catch you a second time - he spent three months in jail once. In Italy, there are no such laws and he may sing anywhere he wants. The S said that if he could work he would, but he is a cripple and cannot. It is all a question of the right laws. The republic supports the laws that say he cannot sing. If that is so then he doesn't want a republic. The rich may do what they want, but he may not sing. What harm is he doing to anyone?
The N insisted on the S drinking, but the S said that he was just trying to get him drunk to see what he could get out of him - The N denied it and the S was a bit ambarrased and said it was a joke.
The waiters stayed there and were staring at them and to the N it seemed that they were making fun of him, which made the N angrier. A Swiss man that had previously bowed to the N now came into the room and sat near the N and put his elbows on the table - this made the N even angrier. He ultimately blew up at the Swiss and the waiter saying that he was insulted and so was the S, although the S wanted to leave and was put out by the scene. The washer woman got involved and tried to get the N calmed and the waiter out of there. The N said that he would have done something else had he been at home. He railed against the republic for having such disregard for lower people and only serving rich people.
The S wanted to leave, but the N insisted that the other rooms were not closed as the waiter said and wanted to go there. The head waiter got involved and just gave the N what he wanted and even let them sit at a table with some other English people that were seated there. The N insisted on sitting with them and having the bottle brought. The English were insulted by the two of them and they left. The N wanted more people to challenge them, but they did not. The S drank the rest of the bottle only to get away the sooner.
The S thanked the N profusely and they left together. The N thanked the S again in front of the waiters and one of them laughed. They thought he had lost his wits. The N went up to bed, but was too riled up and went outside. He saw no one, but the Swiss who turned around when he saw the N.
Tolstoy starts to lecture here:
The fate of poetry - the most important thing, but one that people give the least power when money is involved. You English people say that money is the only thing that gives them happiness - what then? How is it then that you sat out here for an hour and even came here in the first place if it wasn't for poetry? How is it that you don't even know what makes you happy? How is it that you love poetry like children, but you will not admit it or pay for it? You understand obligations incorrectly. You do nothing for a man that served you for an hour with his poetry, but you will bow to a man that does nothing for you and pleases you less.
How can you Christian people see this man begging and serving you and do nothing? There are asylums for beggars in your countries, but you cannot acknowledge them or else you would forced to feel sympathy for them. In fact all of you listened well, then jeered him instead of giving him something. You as a crowd may be made up of decent people, but individually you choose to do nothing, but humiliate him. This speaks as something that goes beyond the history books of events that take place that include wars and the acts of kings. This speaks of human civilization and progress - or the lack thereof. Is this the equality we have been fighting for? What about all the civilized people that gather here? What is their civilization come to if we have no humanity? Why does the law support the lack of progress? Why should a servant be better dressed and taken care of than a musician? How can someone that does no harm, but only tries to feed himself end up in prison?
If our laws and civilization can be called good, yet these events take place, then how can we really know the difference between right and wrong? Maybe they are better seen together in each being. There is only being that is able to judge the difference from above and he commands all of the world. Who can do the judging of the singer and the rich man. In the S there is no malice, he just sings and who knows what takes place in the hearts of the rich man? Who knows if their lives are as good and unencumbered as the lonely singer? Who, but God can understand all these contradictions and who can even call them contradictions? Even the N who was angry at the waiter disrupted instead of seeing the flow of life.
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