SCENE II
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 CATHLEENcomes in leaning uponALEEL'Sarm. OONAfollows them.
CATHLEEN (stopping)
Surely this leafy corner, where one smellsThe wild bee's honey, has a story too?
OONA
There is the house at last.
ALEEL
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 thereUpon that level place, and for three daysStretches and sighs and wets her long pale cheeks.
CATHLEEN
So she loves truly.
ALEEL
No, but wets her cheeks,Lady, because she has forgot his name.
CATHLEEN
She'd sleep that trouble away—though it must beA heavy trouble to forget his name—If she had better sense.
OONA
Your own house, lady.
ALEEL
She sleeps high up on wintry Knock-na-reaIn an old cairn of stones; while her poor womenMust lie and jog in the wave if they would sleep—Being water born—yet if she cry their namesThey run up on the land and dance in the moonTill 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 headsThey've such poor memories, though they weep for it.Oh, yes, they weep; that's when the moon is full.
CATHLEEN
Is it because they have short memoriesThey live so long?
ALEEL
What's memory but the ashThat chokes our fires that have begun to sink?And they've a dizzy, everlasting fire.
OONA
There is your own house, lady.
CATHLEEN
Why, that's true,And we'd have passed it without noticing.
ALEEL
A curse upon it for a meddlesome house!Had it but stayed away I would have knownWhat Queen Maeve thinks on when the moon is pinched;And whether now—as in the old days—the dancersSet their brief love on men.
OONA
Rest on my arm.These are no thoughts for any Christian ear.
ALEEL
I am younger, she would be too heavy for you.
(He begins taking his lute out of the bag, CATHLEEN,who has turned towardsOONA,turns back to him.)
This hollow box remembers every footThat 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 dancersThat in a ringRaved but nowOf the hearts that brakeLong, long agoFor their sake.
OONA
New friends are sweet.
ALEEL
"But the dance changes.Lift up the gown,All that sorrowIs trodden down."
OONA
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 slumberedWhen you were as helpless as a worm.
ALEEL
Stay with me till we come to your own house.
CATHLEEN (sitting down)
When I am rested I will need no help.
ALEEL
I thought to have kept her from rememberingThe evil of the times for full ten minutes;But now when seven are out you come between.
OONA
Talk on; what does it matter what you say,For you have not been christened?
ALEEL
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.
OONA
How does a man who never was baptizedKnow what Heaven pardons?
ALEEL
You are a sinful woman.
OONA
I care no more than if a pig had grunted.
(EnterCATHLEEN'SSteward.)
STEWARD
I am not to blame, for I had locked the gate,The forester's to blame. The men climbed inAt the east corner where the elm-tree is.
CATHLEEN
I do not understand you, who has climbed?
STEWARD
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.
CATHLEEN (rising)
Has some misfortune happened?
STEWARD
Yes, indeed.The forester that let the branches lieAgainst the wall's to blame for everything,For that is how the rogues got into the garden.
CATHLEEN
I thought to have escaped misfortune here.Has any one been killed?
STEWARD
Oh, no, not killed.They have stolen half a cart-load of green cabbage.
CATHLEEN
But maybe they were starving.
STEWARD
That is certain.To rob or starve, that was the choice they had.
CATHLEEN
A learned theologian has laid downThat starving men may take what's necessary,And yet be sinless.
OONA
Sinless and a thief!There should be broken bottles on the wall.
CATHLEEN
And if it be a sin, while faith's unbrokenGod cannot help but pardon. There is no soulBut it's unlike all others in the world,Nor one but lifts a strangeness to God's loveTill that's grown infinite, and therefore noneWhose loss were less than irremediableAlthough it were the wickedest in the world.
(EnterTEIGandSHEMUS.)
STEWARD
What are you running for? Pull off your cap,Do you not see who's there?
SHEMUS
I cannot wait.I am running to the world with the best newsThat has been brought it for a thousand years.
STEWARD
Then get your breath and speak.
SHEMUS
If you'd my newsYou'd run as fast and be as out of breath.
TEIG
Such news, we shall be carried on men's shoulders.
SHEMUS
There's something every man has carried with himAnd thought no more about than if it wereA mouthful of the wind; and now it's grownA marketable thing!
TEIG
And yet it seemedAs useless as the paring of one's nails.
SHEMUS
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.
TEIG (laughing)
There are two gentlemen who buy men's souls.
CATHLEEN
O God!
TEIG
And maybe there's no soul at all.
STEWARD
They're drunk or mad.
TEIG
Look at the price they give.
(Showing money.)
SHEMUS (tossing up money)
"Go cry it all about the world," they said."Money for souls, good money for a soul."
CATHLEEN
Give twice and thrice and twenty times their money,And get your souls again. I will pay all.
SHEMUS
Not we! not we! For souls—if there are souls—But keep the flesh out of its merriment.I shall be drunk and merry.
TEIG
Come, let's away.
(He goes.)
CATHLEEN
But there's a world to come.
SHEMUS
And if there is,I'd rather trust myself into the handsThat can pay money down than to the handsThat have but shaken famine from the bag.
(He goes outR.)
(Lilting)
"There's money for a soul, sweet yellow money.There's money for men's souls, good money, money."
CATHLEEN (toALEEL)
Go call them here again, bring them by force,Beseech them, bribe, do anything you like;
(ALEELgoes.)
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?
STEWARD
A hundred kegs of gold.
CATHLEEN
How much have I in castles?
STEWARD
As much more.
CATHLEEN
How much have I in pasture?
STEWARD
As much more.
CATHLEEN
How much have I in forests?
STEWARD
As much more.
CATHLEEN
Keeping this house alone, sell all I have,Go barter where you please, but come againWith herds of cattle and with ships of meal.
STEWARD
God's blessing light upon your ladyship.You will have saved the land.
CATHLEEN
Make no delay.
(He goesL.)
(ALEELandOONAreturn)
CATHLEEN
They have not come; speak quickly.
ALEEL
One drew his knifeAnd said that he would kill the man or womanThat stopped his way; and when I would have stopped himHe made this stroke at me; but it is nothing.
CATHLEEN
You shall be tended. From this day for everI'll have no joy or sorrow of my own.
OONA
Their eyes shone like the eyes of birds of prey.
CATHLEEN
Come, follow me, for the earth burns my feetTill I have changed my house to such a refugeThat the old and ailing, and all weak of heart,May escape from beak and claw; all, all, shall comeTill the walls burst and the roof fall on us.From this day out I have nothing of my own.
(She goes.)
OONA (takingALEELby the arm and as she speaks bandaging his wound)
She has found something now to put her hand to,And you and I are of no more accountThan flies upon a window-pane in the winter.
(They go out.)
END OF SCENE II.