Mayor: And Prokhorov's drunk?
Chief of Police: Yes, sir.
Mayor: How could you let such a thing happen?
Chief of Police: God knows. There was a brawl outside town yesterday and he went to restore order -and he came back plastered.
Having found out that the inspector is already in town, the Mayor orders each of the officials to take measures of their sphere of activities, but just a few are able to complete this order and perform their duties. Some are drunk, some are sick, and others simply cannot be found. With this, the author depicts all the insidiousness and perfidy of the authorities.
It's no good blaming the mirror if the mug's crooked.
Gogol places this Russian folk proverb before the text to convey the message of the play: that people are often looking for someone to blame when they themselves are the problem. The officials in the Government Inspector are crooked indeed: they lie, solicit bribes, ignore their duties, oppress the townspeople, and care only for themselves. Interestingly, this epigraph can also be seen in relation to the very last scene of the play, in which the audience and actors essentially switch roles: the audience is being looked at by the actors, forced to turn inward due to the "mirror" of the mute scene.
"I've called you here, gentlemen, to tell you some news you're not going to like. A government inspector is coming to pay us a visit."
This succinct opener to the play introduces the plot immediately and indicates how troublesome the Mayor and his "gentlemen" will find this inspector's visit. According to Ronald Wilkes in the notes to the Penguin Books edition, Peter the Great introduced the post of the inspector to "seek out and then report back on corruption and inefficiency in the provinces." However, Russia was so vast and it took so long for the inspectors to get to the towns that "the locals had ample warning and were thus prepared well beforehand to cover things up." Wilkes quotes Dostoevsky's Notes from the House of the Dead (1860): "A government inspector is coming from St. Petersburg...Everyone's clearly scared, running around and wanting to show everything in the best light." The audience of the play thus would have been very aware of how scared the Mayor and his officials would be if there were an incognito inspector imminent.
"I don't need to tell you that there isn't a man alive who hasn't some little indiscretion on his conscience."
The Mayor relays to his officials that the inspector is coming and immediately begins to worry about what will happen to him. He thinks about the tensions with the shopkeepers and how he's taken bribes; in this quote, though, he comforts himself that every man has indiscretions. He even adds that this is the way God made man, as if to further justify the comment. Taken at face value, it is a true statement; after all, human beings are fallible creatures and no one is perfect. However, the Mayor uses this as an excuse to downplay the corrupt things he has done, an action that is mirrored by his cronies.
"Here, take these [hands Osip his cap and cane]. So, loafing around on my bed again?"
Khlestakov's first line calls attention to what Gogol has done with the character's name itself. It comes from the verb khlestat, which means 'to lash', with a secondary meaning of 'speaking idly', 'prattling', or 'lying'. Vladimir Nabokov commented on the brilliance of the name, stating, "Khlestakov's very name is a stroke of genius, for it conveys to the Russian reader an effect of lightness and rashness, a prattling tongue, the swish of a slim walking cane, the slapping sound of playing cards, the braggadocio of a nincompoop and the dashing ways of a lady-killer."
"I mix chiefly with the literary set—Pushkin and I are great pals."
Alexander Pushkin (1799-1834) is one of the most famous Russian authors of the 19th century, and he and Gogol were close friends. Gogol even suggested Pushkin give him a new plot, which apparently became The Government Inspector. The audience would know who Pushkin was, so it was clear that the characters in the play would also know who Pushkin was and would be suitably impressed. Gogol is giving his friend a nod and, given Pushkin's literary reputation, reinforcing the fact that it certainly was an honor, a brag-worthy fact, to know the writer.
"That's what I call a man! I've never been in the presence of such an important personage. I very nearly died of fright. What do you think his rank is?"
This utterance of Bobchinsky's to Dobchinsky after they meet Khlestakov is merely one example of the delightful and sustained dramatic irony that permeates nearly every line of the play. Khlestakov is NOT the high-ranking government official the town is waiting for; rather, he is a nonentity—a selfish, decadent, and amusing young man who, even when he realizes he's been mistaken for someone else, continues to laugh about the good fortune he's stumbled into. All of the fear, awe, sycophantic behavior thrown his way are completely and utterly useless, and it is this fact, coupled with the fact that the Mayor in particular had such grandiose dreams for himself in regard to his relationship with Khlestakov, that certainly "along will come some hack, some miserable pen-pusher and stick us all in a comedy" (304).
"She's quite a tasty dish too—not at all bad looking."
Khlestakov makes his passion for food known numerous times throughout the text. He is introduced angrily demanding that the waiter tell the landlord to bring him food, and then complaining when that food is not up to his satisfaction. He complains to the Mayor about the inn's food, then indulges himself excessively when the Mayor serves him a meal. He reminisces on his meals, talks about the food he's served at parties, and, as seen here, equates the pleasure of women with the pleasure of eating. He does not want any limitations placed on his pleasures, and he jumps from one to the other in his mind and conversation. His delight in these earthly offerings reinforces the reading of him as the Antichrist.
"What are you laughing at? You're laughing at yourselves, that's what!"
This comment was added by Gogol in a revision of the text and was intended to mirror the abuse the audience levied at the play on its first performance. The lines are usually delivered straight at the audience. The other reason for this line's inclusion is, like the mute scene at the end, to encourage the audience to look inward and reflect on whether they are privy to the same foibles and flaws as the characters they've been watching and laughing at.
"The official who has just arrived from St. Petersburg by Imperial command requires your presence at the inn immediately."
The gendarme announces the real government inspector in a completely different way than Khlestakov was announced. The gendarme is succinct, emotionless, and straightforward; there is no ambiguity, no arguing about the situation at hand. This is clearly the real government inspector, and the civil servants know it. By contrast, Khlestakov was first identified as the government inspector by Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, two dullards, who used the man's looks, his staring at their food, and the fact that he hadn't paid for anything and hadn't done anything for two weeks to decide that this must indeed be the man. The Mayor confirms this in his ludicrous first encounter with Khlestakov, an encounter rife with irony, misunderstanding, and amusement.
