FRONT SCENE. —A wood with perhaps distant view of turreted house at one side, but all in flat colour, without light and shade and against a diapered or gold background.
COUNTESS CATHLEEN comes in leaning upon ALEEL'S arm. OONA follows them.
Surely this leafy corner, where one smells
The wild bee's honey, has a story too?
There is the house at last.
A man, they say,
Loved Maeve the Queen of all the invisible host,
And died of his love nine centuries ago.
And now, when the moon's riding at the full,
She leaves her dancers lonely and lies there
Upon that level place, and for three days
Stretches and sighs and wets her long pale cheeks.
So she loves truly.
No, but wets her cheeks,
Lady, because she has forgot his name.
She'd sleep that trouble away – though it must be
A heavy trouble to forget his name —
If she had better sense.
Your own house, lady.
She sleeps high up on wintry Knock-na-rea
In an old cairn of stones; while her poor women
Must lie and jog in the wave if they would sleep —
Being water born – yet if she cry their names
They run up on the land and dance in the moon
Till they are giddy and would love as men do,
And be as patient and as pitiful.
But there is nothing that will stop in their heads
They've such poor memories, though they weep for it.
Oh, yes, they weep; that's when the moon is full.
Is it because they have short memories
They live so long?
What's memory but the ash
That chokes our fires that have begun to sink?
And they've a dizzy, everlasting fire.
There is your own house, lady.
Why, that's true,
And we'd have passed it without noticing.
A curse upon it for a meddlesome house!
Had it but stayed away I would have known
What Queen Maeve thinks on when the moon is pinched;
And whether now – as in the old days – the dancers
Set their brief love on men.
Rest on my arm.
These are no thoughts for any Christian ear.
I am younger, she would be too heavy for you.
(He begins taking his lute out of the bag, CATHLEEN, who has turned towards OONA, turns back to him.)
This hollow box remembers every foot
That danced upon the level grass of the world,
And will tell secrets if I whisper to it.
(Sings.)
Lift up the white knee;
Hear what they sing,
Those young dancers
That in a ring
Raved but now
Of the hearts that brake
Long, long ago
For their sake.
New friends are sweet.
"But the dance changes.
Lift up the gown,
All that sorrow
Is trodden down."
The empty rattle-pate! Lean on this arm,
That I can tell you is a christened arm,
And not like some, if we are to judge by speech.
But as you please. It is time I was forgot.
Maybe it is not on this arm you slumbered
When you were as helpless as a worm.
Stay with me till we come to your own house.
When I am rested I will need no help.
I thought to have kept her from remembering
The evil of the times for full ten minutes;
But now when seven are out you come between.
Talk on; what does it matter what you say,
For you have not been christened?
Old woman, old woman,
You robbed her of three minutes peace of mind,
And though you live unto a hundred years,
And wash the feet of beggars and give alms,
And climb Croaghpatrick, you shall not be pardoned.
How does a man who never was baptized
Know what Heaven pardons?
You are a sinful woman.
I care no more than if a pig had grunted.
(Enter CATHLEEN'S Steward.)
I am not to blame, for I had locked the gate,
The forester's to blame. The men climbed in
At the east corner where the elm-tree is.
I do not understand you, who has climbed?
Then God be thanked, I am the first to tell you.
I was afraid some other of the servants —
Though I've been on the watch – had been the first,
And mixed up truth and lies, your ladyship.
Has some misfortune happened?
Yes, indeed.
The forester that let the branches lie
Against the wall's to blame for everything,
For that is how the rogues got into the garden.
I thought to have escaped misfortune here.
Has any one been killed?
Oh, no, not killed.
They have stolen half a cart-load of green cabbage.
But maybe they were starving.
That is certain.
To rob or starve, that was the choice they had.
A learned theologian has laid down
That starving men may take what's necessary,
And yet be sinless.
Sinless and a thief!
There should be broken bottles on the wall.
And if it be a sin, while faith's unbroken
God cannot help but pardon. There is no soul
But it's unlike all others in the world,
Nor one but lifts a strangeness to God's love
Till that's grown infinite, and therefore none
Whose loss were less than irremediable
Although it were the wickedest in the world.
(Enter TEIG and SHEMUS.)
What are you running for? Pull off your cap,
Do you not see who's there?
I cannot wait.
I am running to the world with the best news
That has been brought it for a thousand years.
Then get your breath and speak.
If you'd my news
You'd run as fast and be as out of breath.
Such news, we shall be carried on men's shoulders.
There's something every man has carried with him
And thought no more about than if it were
A mouthful of the wind; and now it's grown
A marketable thing!
And yet it seemed
As useless as the paring of one's nails.
What sets me laughing when I think of it,
Is that a rogue who's lain in lousy straw,
If he but sell it, may set up his coach.
There are two gentlemen who buy men's souls.
O God!
And maybe there's no soul at all.
They're drunk or mad.
Look at the price they give.
(Showing money.)
"Go cry it all about the world," they said.
"Money for souls, good money for a soul."
Give twice and thrice and twenty times their money,
And get your souls again. I will pay all.
Not we! not we! For souls – if there are souls —
But keep the flesh out of its merriment.
I shall be drunk and merry.
Come, let's away.
(He goes.)
But there's a world to come.
And if there is,
I'd rather trust myself into the hands
That can pay money down than to the hands
That have but shaken famine from the bag.
(He goes out R.)
(Lilting)
"There's money for a soul, sweet yellow money.
There's money for men's souls, good money, money."
Go call them here again, bring them by force,
Beseech them, bribe, do anything you like;
(ALEEL goes.)
And you too follow, add your prayers to his.
(OONA, who has been praying, goes out.)
Steward, you know the secrets of my house.
How much have I?
A hundred kegs of gold.
How much have I in castles?
As much more.
How much have I in pasture?
As much more.
How much have I in forests?
As much more.
Keeping this house alone, sell all I have,
Go barter where you please, but come again
With herds of cattle and with ships of meal.
God's blessing light upon your ladyship.
You will have saved the land.
Make no delay.
(He goes L.)
(ALEEL and OONA return)
They have not come; speak quickly.
One drew his knife
And said that he would kill the man or woman
That stopped his way; and when I would have stopped him
He made this stroke at me; but it is nothing.
You shall be tended. From this day for ever
I'll have no joy or sorrow of my own.
Their eyes shone like the eyes of birds of prey.
Come, follow me, for the earth burns my feet
Till I have changed my house to such a refuge
That the old and ailing, and all weak of heart,
May escape from beak and claw; all, all, shall come
Till the walls burst and the roof fall on us.
From this day out I have nothing of my own.
(She goes.)
She has found something now to put her hand to,
And you and I are of no more account
Than flies upon a window-pane in the winter.
(They go out.)
Scene. —Hall in the house of Countess Cathleen. At the Left an oratory with steps leading up to it. At the Right a tapestried wall, more or less repeating the form of the oratory, and a great chair with its back against the wall. In the Centre are two or more arches through which one can see dimly the trees of the garden. Cathleen is kneeling in front of the altar in the oratory; there is a hanging lighted lamp over the altar. Aleel enters.
I have come to bid you leave this castle and fly
Out of these woods.
What evil is there here
That is not everywhere from this to the sea?
They who have sent me walk invisible.
So it is true what I have heard men say,
That you have seen and heard what others cannot.
I was asleep in my bed, and while I slept
My dream became a fire; and in the fire
One walked and he had birds about his head.
I have heard that one of the old gods walked so.
It may be that he is angelical;
And, lady, he bids me call you from these woods.
And you must bring but your old foster-mother,
And some few serving men, and live in the hills,
Among the sounds of music and the light
Of waters, till the evil days are done.
For here some terrible death is waiting you,
Some unimagined evil, some great darkness
That fable has not dreamt of, nor sun nor moon
Scattered.
No, not angelical.
This house
You are to leave with some old trusty man,
And bid him shelter all that starve or wander
While there is food and house room.
He bids me go
Where none of mortal creatures but the swan
Dabbles, and there you would pluck the harp, when the trees
Had made a heavy shadow about our door,
And talk among the rustling of the reeds,
When night hunted the foolish sun away
With stillness and pale tapers. No – no – no!
I cannot. Although I weep, I do not weep
Because that life would be most happy, and here
I find no way, no end. Nor do I weep
Because I had longed to look upon your face,
But that a night of prayer has made me weary.
Let Him that made mankind, the angels and devils
And dearth and plenty, mend what He has made,
For when we labour in vain and eye still sees
Heart breaks in vain.
How would that quiet end?
How but in healing?
You have seen my tears
And I can see your hand shake on the floor.
I thought but of healing. He was angelical.
No, not angelical, but of the old gods,
Who wander about the world to waken the heart —
The passionate, proud heart – that all the angels,
Leaving nine heavens empty, would rock to sleep.
(She goes to chapel door; ALEEL holds his clasped hands towards her for a moment hesitatingly, and then lets them fall beside him.)
Do not hold out to me beseeching hands.
This heart shall never waken on earth. I have sworn,
By her whose heart the seven sorrows have pierced,
To pray before this altar until my heart
Has grown to Heaven like a tree, and there
Rustled its leaves, till Heaven has saved my people.
When one so great has spoken of love to one
So little as I, though to deny him love,
What can he but hold out beseeching hands,
Then let them fall beside him, knowing how greatly
They have overdared?
(He goes towards the door of the hall. The COUNTESS CATHLEEN takes a few steps towards him.)
If the old tales are true,
Queens have wed shepherds and kings beggar-maids;
God's procreant waters flowing about your mind
Have made you more than kings or queens; and not you
But I am the empty pitcher.
Being silent,
I have said all, yet let me stay beside you.
No, no, not while my heart is shaken. No,
But you shall hear wind cry and water cry,
And curlew cry, and have the peace I longed for.
Give me your hand to kiss.
I kiss your forehead.
And yet I send you from me. Do not speak;
There have been women that bid men to rob
Crowns from the Country-under-Wave or apples
Upon a dragon-guarded hill, and all
That they might sift men's hearts and wills,
And trembled as they bid it, as I tremble
That lay a hard task on you, that you go,
And silently, and do not turn your head;
Goodbye; but do not turn your head and look;
Above all else, I would not have you look.
(ALEEL goes.)
I never spoke to him of his wounded hand,
And now he is gone. (She looks out.)
I cannot see him, for all is dark outside.
Would my imagination and my heart
Were as little shaken as this holy flame!
(She goes slowly into the chapel. The distant sound of an alarm bell. The two MERCHANTS enter hurriedly.)
They are ringing the alarm, and in a moment
They'll be upon us.
Here is the Treasury,
You'd my commands to put them all to sleep.
Some angel or else her prayers protected them.
(Goes into the Treasury and returns with bags of treasure. FIRST MERCHANT has been listening at the oratory door.)
She has fallen asleep.
(SECOND MERCHANT goes out through one of the arches at the back and stands listening. The bags are at his feet.)
We've all the treasure now,
So let's away before they've tracked us out.
I have a plan to win her.
You have time enough
If you would kill her and bear off her soul
Before they are upon us with their prayers;
They search the Western Tower.
That may not be.
We cannot face the heavenly host in arms.
Her soul must come to us of its own will,
But being of the ninth and mightiest Hell
Where all are kings, I have a plan to win it.
Lady, we've news that's crying out for speech.
(CATHLEEN wakes and comes to door of chapel.)
Who calls?
We have brought news.
What are you?
We are merchants, and we know the book of the world
Because we have walked upon its leaves; and there
Have read of late matters that much concern you;
And noticing the castle door stand open,
Came in to find an ear.
The door stands open,
That no one who is famished or afraid,
Despair of help or of a welcome with it.
But you have news, you say.
We saw a man,
Heavy with sickness in the bog of Allen,
Whom you had bid buy cattle. Near Fair Head
We saw your grain ships lying all becalmed
In the dark night; and not less still than they,
Burned all their mirrored lanthorns in the sea.
My thanks to God, to Mary and the angels,
That I have money in my treasury,
And can buy grain from those who have stored it up
To prosper on the hunger of the poor.
But you've been far and know the signs of things,
When will this famine end?
Day copies day,
And there's no sign of change, nor can it change,
With the wheat withered and the cattle dead.
And heard you of the demons who buy souls?
There are some men who hold they have wolves' heads,
And say their limbs – dried by the infinite flame —
Have all the speed of storms; others, again,
Say they are gross and little; while a few
Will have it they seem much as mortals are,
But tall and brown and travelled – like us, lady —
Yet all agree a power is in their looks
That makes men bow, and flings a casting-net
About their souls, and that all men would go
And barter those poor vapours, were it not
You bribe them with the safety of your gold.
Praise be to God, to Mary, and the angels
That I am wealthy! Wherefore do they sell?
As we came in at the great door we saw
Your porter sleeping in his niche – a soul
Too little to be worth a hundred pence,
And yet they buy it for a hundred crowns.
But for a soul like yours, I heard them say,
They would give five hundred thousand crowns and more.
How can a heap of crowns pay for a soul?
Is the green grave so terrible a thing?
Some sell because the money gleams, and some
Because they are in terror of the grave,
And some because their neighbours sold before,
And some because there is a kind of joy
In casting hope away, in losing joy,
In ceasing all resistance, in at last
Opening one's arms to the eternal flames,
In casting all sails out upon the wind;
To this – full of the gaiety of the lost —
Would all folk hurry if your gold were gone.
There is a something, Merchant, in your voice
That makes me fear. When you were telling how
A man may lose his soul and lose his God
Your eyes were lighted up, and when you told
How my poor money serves the people, both —
Merchants forgive me – seemed to smile.
I laugh
To think that all these people should be swung
As on a lady's shoe-string, – under them
The glowing leagues of never-ending flame.
There is a something in you that I fear;
A something not of us; were you not born
In some most distant corner of the world?
(The SECOND MERCHANT, who has been listening at the door, comes forward, and as he comes a sound of voices and feet is heard.)
Away now – they are in the passage – hurry,
For they will know us, and freeze up our hearts
With Ave Marys, and burn all our skin
With holy water.
Farewell; for we must ride
Many a mile before the morning come;
Our horses beat the ground impatiently.
(They go out. A number of PEASANTS enter by other door.)
Forgive us, lady, but we heard a noise.
We sat by the fireside telling vanities.
We heard a noise, but though we have searched the house
We have found nobody.
You are too timid,
For now you are safe from all the evil times,
There is no evil that can find you here.
Ochone! Ochone! The treasure room is broken in.
The door stands open, and the gold is gone.
(PEASANTS raise a lamentable cry.)
Be silent. (The cry ceases.) Have you seen nobody?
Ochone!
That my good mistress should lose all this money.
Let those among you – not too old to ride —
Get horses and search all the country round,
I'll give a farm to him who finds the thieves.
(A man with keys at his girdle has come in while she speaks. There is a general murmur of "The porter! the porter!")
Demons were here. I sat beside the door
In my stone niche, and two owls passed me by,
Whispering with human voices.
God forsakes us.
Old man, old man, He never closed a door
Unless one opened. I am desolate,
Because of a strange thought that's in my heart;
But I have still my faith; therefore be silent;
For surely He does not forsake the world,
But stands before it modelling in the clay
And moulding there His image. Age by age
The clay wars with His fingers and pleads hard
For its old, heavy, dull and shapeless ease;
But sometimes – though His hand is on it still —
It moves awry and demon hordes are born.
(PEASANTS cross themselves.)
Yet leave me now, for I am desolate,
I hear a whisper from beyond the thunder.
(She comes from the oratory door.)
Yet stay an instant. When we meet again
I may have grown forgetful. Oona, take
These two – the larder and the dairy keys.
(To the PORTER.)
But take you this. It opens the small room
Of herbs for medicine, of hellebore,
Of vervain, monkshood, plantain, and self-heal.
The book of cures is on the upper shelf.
Why do you do this, lady; did you see
Your coffin in a dream?
Ah, no, not that.
But I have come to a strange thought. I have heard
A sound of wailing in unnumbered hovels,
And I must go down, down – I know not where —
Pray for all men and women mad from famine;
Pray, you good neighbours.
(The PEASANTS all kneel. COUNTESS CATHLEEN ascends the steps to the door of the oratory, and turning round stands there motionless for a little, and then cries in a loud voice:)
Mary, Queen of angels,
And all you clouds on clouds of saints, farewell!
Scene. —A wood near the Castle, as in Scene II. A group of PEASANTS pass.
I have seen silver and copper, but not gold.
It's yellow and it shines.
It's beautiful.
The most beautiful thing under the sun,
That's what I've heard.
I have seen gold enough.
I would not say that it's so beautiful.
But doesn't a gold piece glitter like the sun?
That's what my father, who'd seen better days,
Told me when I was but a little boy —
So high – so high, it's shining like the sun,
Round and shining, that is what he said.
There's nothing in the world it cannot buy.
They've bags and bags of it.
(They go out. The two MERCHANTS follow silently. Then ALEEL passes over the stage singing.)
Impetuous heart be still, be still,
Your sorrowful love can never be told,
Cover it up with a lonely tune.
He who could bend all things to His will
Has covered the door of the infinite fold
With the pale stars and the wandering moon.