Poems

THE COUNTESS CATHLEEN

TO

MAUD GONNE

Shemus Rua

A Peasant Mary

His Wife

Teig

His Son

Aleel

A Poet

The Countess Cathleen

Oona

Her Foster Mother

Two Demons disguised as Merchants

Peasants, Servants, Angelical Beings

The Scene is laid in Ireland and in old times

SCENE I

Scene.—A room with lighted fire, and a door into the open air, through which one sees, perhaps, the trees of a wood, and these trees should be painted in flat colour upon a gold or diapered sky. The walls are of one colour. The scent should have the effect of missal painting. Mary, awoman of forty years or so, is grinding a quern.

MARY

What can have made the grey hen flutter so?

(TEIG, a boy of fourteen, is coming in with turf, which he lays beside the hearth.)

TEIG

They say that now the land is famine struck

The graves are walking.

MARY

There is something that the hen hears.

TEIG

And that is not the worst; at Tubber-vanach

A woman met a man with ears spread out,

And they moved up and down like a bat's wing.

MARY

What can have kept your father all this while?

TEIG

Two nights ago, at Carrick-orus churchyard,

A herdsman met a man who had no mouth,

Nor eyes, nor ears; his face a wall of flesh;

He saw him plainly by the light of the moon.

MARY

Look out, and tell me if your father's coming.

(TEIG goes to door.)

TEIG

Mother!

MARY

What is it?

TEIG

In the bush beyond,

There are two birds—if you can call them birds—

I could not see them rightly for the leaves.

But they've the shape and colour of horned owls

And I'm half certain they've a human face.

MARY

Mother of God, defend us!

TEIG

They're looking at me.

What is the good of praying? father says.

God and the Mother of God have dropped asleep.

What do they care, he says, though the whole land

Squeal like a rabbit under a weasel's tooth?

MARY

You'll bring misfortune with your blasphemies

Upon your father, or yourself, or me.

I would to God he were home—ah, there he is.

(SHEMUS comes in.)

What was it kept you in the wood? You know

I cannot get all sorts of accidents

Out of my mind till you are home again.

SHEMUS

I'm in no mood to listen to your clatter.

Although I tramped the woods for half a day,

I've taken nothing, for the very rats,

Badgers, and hedgehogs seem to have died of drought,

And there was scarce a wind in the parched leaves.

TEIG

Then you have brought no dinner.

SHEMUS

After that

I sat among the beggars at the cross-roads,

And held a hollow hand among the others.

MARY

What, did you beg?

SHEMUS

I had no chance to beg,

For when the beggars saw me they cried out

They would not have another share their alms,

And hunted me away with sticks and stones.

TEIG

You said that you would bring us food or money.

SHEMUS

What's in the house?

TEIG

A bit of mouldy bread.

MARY

There's flour enough to make another loaf.

TEIG

And when that's gone?

MARY

There is the hen in the coop.

SHEMUS

My curse upon the beggars, my curse upon them!

TEIG

And the last penny gone.

SHEMUS

When the hen's gone,

What can we do but live on sorrel and dock,

And dandelion, till our mouths are green?

MARY

God, that to this hour's found bit and sup,

Will cater for us still.

SHEMUS

His kitchen's bare.

There were five doors that I looked through this day

And saw the dead and not a soul to wake them.

MARY

Maybe He'd have us die because He knows,

When the ear is stopped and when the eye is stopped,

That every wicked sight is hid from the eye,

And all fool talk from the ear.

SHEMUS

Who's passing there?

And mocking us with music?

(A stringed instrument without.)

TEIG

A young man plays it,

There's an old woman and a lady with him.

SHEMUS

What is the trouble of the poor to her?

Nothing at all or a harsh radishy sauce

For the day's meat.

MARY

God's pity on the rich.

Had we been through as many doors, and seen

The dishes standing on the polished wood

In the wax candle light, we'd be as hard,

And there's the needle's eye at the end of all.

SHEMUS

My curse upon the rich.

TEIG

They're coming here.

SHEMUS

Then down upon that stool, down quick, I say,

And call up a whey face and a whining voice,

And let your head be bowed upon your knees.

MARY

Had I but time to put the place to rights.

(CATHLEEN, OONA, and ALEEL enter.)

CATHLEEN

God save all here. There is a certain house,

An old grey castle with a kitchen garden,

A cider orchard and a plot for flowers,

Somewhere among these woods.

MARY

We know it, lady.

A place that's set among impassable walls

As though world's trouble could not find it out.

CATHLEEN

It may be that we are that trouble, for we—

Although we've wandered in the wood this hour—

Have lost it too, yet I should know my way,

For I lived all my childhood in that house.

MARY

Then you are Countess Cathleen?

CATHLEEN

And this woman,

Oona, my nurse, should have remembered it,

For we were happy for a long time there.

OONA

The paths are overgrown with thickets now,

Or else some change has come upon my sight.

CATHLEEN

And this young man, that should have known the woods—

Because we met him on their border but now,

Wandering and singing like a wave of the sea—

Is so wrapped up in dreams of terrors to come

That he can give no help.

MARY

You have still some way,

But I can put you on the trodden path

Your servants take when they are marketing.

But first sit down and rest yourself awhile,

For my old fathers served your fathers, lady,

Longer than books can tell—and it were strange

If you and yours should not be welcome here.

CATHLEEN

And it were stranger still were I ungrateful

For such kind welcome—but I must be gone,

For the night's gathering in.

SHEMUS

It is a long while

Since I've set eyes on bread or on what buys it.

CATHLEEN

So you are starving even in this wood,

Where I had thought I would find nothing changed.

But that's a dream, for the old worm o' the world

Can eat its way into what place it pleases.

(She gives money.)

TEIG

Beautiful lady, give me something too;

I fell but now, being weak with hunger and thirst

And lay upon the threshold like a log.

CATHLEEN

I gave for all and that was all I had.

Look, my purse is empty. I have passed

By starving men and women all this day,

And they have had the rest; but take the purse,

The silver clasps on't may be worth a trifle.

But if you'll come to-morrow to my house

You shall have twice the sum.

(ALEEL begins to play.)

SHEMUS (muttering)

What, music, music!

CATHLEEN

Ah, do not blame the finger on the string;

The doctors bid me fly the unlucky times

And find distraction for my thoughts, or else

Pine to my grave.

SHEMUS

I have said nothing, lady.

Why should the like of us complain?

OONA

Have done.

Sorrows that she's but read of in a book

Weigh on her mind as if they had been her own.

(OONA, MARY, and CATHLEEN go out. ALEEL looks defiantly at SHEMUS.)

ALEEL (singing)

Were I but crazy for love's sake

I know who'd measure out his length,

I know the heads that I should break,

For crazy men have double strength.

There! all's out now to leave or take,

And who mocks music mocks at love;

And when I'm crazy for love's sake

I'll not go far to choose.

(Snapping his fingers in SHEMUS' face.)

Enough!

I know the heads that I shall break.

(He takes a step towards the door and then turns again.)

Shut to the door before the night has fallen,

For who can say what walks, or in what shape

Some devilish creature flies in the air, but now

Two grey-horned owls hooted above our heads.

(He goes out, his singing dies away. MARY comes in. SHEMUS has been counting the money.)

SHEMUS

So that fool's gone.

TEIG

He's seen the horned owls too.

There's no good luck in owls, but it may be

That the ill luck's to fall upon his head.

MARY

You never thanked her ladyship.

SHEMUS

Thank her,

For seven halfpence and a silver bit?

TEIG

But for this empty purse?

SHEMUS

What's that for thanks,

Or what's the double of it that she promised?

With bread and flesh and every sort of food

Up to a price no man has heard the like of

And rising every day.

MARY

We have all she had;

She emptied out the purse before our eyes.

SHEMUS (to MARY, who has gone to close the door)

Leave that door open.

MARY

When those that have read books,

And seen the seven wonders of the world,

Fear what's above or what's below the ground,

It's time that poverty should bolt the door.

SHEMUS

I'll have no bolts, for there is not a thing

That walks above the ground or under it

I had not rather welcome to this house

Than any more of mankind, rich or poor.

TEIG

So that they brought us money.

SHEMUS

I heard say

There's something that appears like a white bird,

A pigeon or a seagull or the like,

But if you hit it with a stone or a stick

It clangs as though it had been made of brass,

And that if you dig down where it was scratching

You'll find a crock of gold.

TEIG

But dream of gold

For three nights running, and there's always gold.

SHEMUS

You might be starved before you've dug it out.

TEIG

But maybe if you called, something would come,

They have been seen of late.

MARY

Is it call devils?

Call devils from the wood, call them in here?

SHEMUS

So you'd stand up against me, and you'd say

Who or what I am to welcome here. (He hits her.)

That is to show who's master.

TEIG

Call them in.

MARY

God help us all!

SHEMUS

Pray, if you have a mind to.

It's little that the sleepy ears above

Care for your words; but I'll call what I please.

TEIG

There is many a one, they say, had money from them.

SHEMUS (at door)

Whatever you are that walk the woods at night,

So be it that you have not shouldered up

Out of a grave—for I'll have nothing human—

And have free hands, a friendly trick of speech,

I welcome you. Come, sit beside the fire.

What matter if your head's below your arms

Or you've a horse's tail to whip your flank,

Feathers instead of hair, that's but a straw,

Come, share what bread and meat is in the house,

And stretch your heels and warm them in the ashes.

And after that, let's share and share alike

And curse all men and women. Come in, come in.

What, is there no one there? (Turning from door)

And yet they say

They are as common as the grass, and ride

Even upon the book in the priest's hand.

(TEIG lifts one arm slowly and points toward the door and begins moving backwards. SHEMUS turns, he also sees something and begins moving backward. MARY does the same. A man dressed as an Eastern merchant comes in carrying a small carpet. He unrolls it and sits cross-legged at one end of it. Another man dressed in the same way follows, and sits at the other end. This is done slowly and deliberately. When they are seated they take money out of embroidered purses at their girdles and begin arranging it on the carpet.)

TEIG

You speak to them.

SHEMUS

No, you.

TEIG

'Twas you that called them.

SHEMUS (coming nearer)

I'd make so bold, if you would pardon it,

To ask if there's a thing you'd have of us.

Although we are but poor people, if there is,

Why, if there is——

FIRST MERCHANT

We've travelled a long road,

For we are merchants that must tramp the world,

And now we look for supper and a fire

And a safe corner to count money in.

SHEMUS

I thought you were ... but that's no matter now—

There had been words between my wife and me

Because I said I would be master here,

And ask in what I pleased or who I pleased

And so.... but that is nothing to the point,

Because it's certain that you are but merchants.

FIRST MERCHANT

We travel for the Master of all merchants.

SHEMUS

Yet if you were that I had thought but now

I'd welcome you no less. Be what you please

And you'll have supper at the market rate,

That means that what was sold for but a penny

Is now worth fifty.

(MERCHANTS begin putting money on carpet.)

FIRST MERCHANT

Our Master bids us pay

So good a price, that all who deal with us

Shall eat, drink, and be merry.

SHEMUS (to MARY)

Bestir yourself,

Go kill and draw the fowl, while Teig and I

Lay out the plates and make a better fire.

MARY

I will not cook for you.

SHEMUS

Not cook! not cook!

Do not be angry. She wants to pay me back

Because I struck her in that argument.

But she'll get sense again. Since the dearth came

We rattle one on another as though we were

Knives thrown into a basket to be cleaned.

MARY

I will not cook for you, because I know

In what unlucky shape you sat but now

Outside this door.

TEIG

It's this, your honours:

Because of some wild words my father said

She thinks you are not of those who cast a shadow.

SHEMUS

I said I'd make the devils of the wood

Welcome, if they'd a mind to eat and drink;

But it is certain that you are men like us.

FIRST MERCHANT

It's strange that she should think we cast no shadow,

For there is nothing on the ridge of the world

That's more substantial than the merchants are

That buy and sell you.

MARY

If you are not demons,

And seeing what great wealth is spread out there,

Give food or money to the starving poor.

FIRST MERCHANT

If we knew how to find deserving poor

We'd do our share.

MARY

But seek them patiently.

FIRST MERCHANT

We know the evils of mere charity.

MARY

Those scruples may befit a common time.

I had thought there was a pushing to and fro,

At times like this, that overset the scale

And trampled measure down.

FIRST MERCHANT

But if already

We'd thought of a more prudent way than that?

SECOND MERCHANT

If each one brings a bit of merchandise,

We'll give him such a price he never dreamt of.

MARY

Where shall the starving come at merchandise?

FIRST MERCHANT

We will ask nothing but what all men have.

MARY

Their swine and cattle, fields and implements

Are sold and gone.

FIRST MERCHANT

They have not sold all yet.

For there's a vaporous thing—that may be nothing,

But that's the buyer's risk—a second self,

They call immortal for a story's sake.

SHEMUS

They come to buy our souls?

TEIG

I'll barter mine.

Why should we starve for what may be but nothing?

MARY

Teig and Shemus——

SHEMUS

What can it be but nothing?

What has God poured out of His bag but famine?

Satan gives money.

TEIG

Yet no thunder stirs.

FIRST MERCHANT

There is a heap for each.

(SHEMUS goes to take money.)

But no, not yet,

For there's a work I have to set you to.

SHEMUS

So then you're as deceitful as the rest,

And all that talk of buying what's but a vapour

Is fancy bread. I might have known as much,

Because that's how the trick-o'-the-loop man talks.

FIRST MERCHANT

That's for the work, each has its separate price;

But neither price is paid till the work's done.

TEIG

The same for me.

MARY

Oh, God, why are you still?

FIRST MERCHANT

You've but to cry aloud at every cross-road,

At every house door, that we buy men's souls.

And give so good a price that all may live

In mirth and comfort till the famine's done,

Because we are Christian men.

SHEMUS

Come, let's away.

TEIG

I shall keep running till I've earned the price.

SECOND MERCHANT

(who has risen and gone towards fire)

Stop; you must have proof behind the words.

So here's your entertainment on the road.

(He throws a bag of money on the ground.)

Live as you please; our Master's generous.

(TEIG and SHEMUS have stopped. TEIG takes the money. They go out.)

MARY

Destroyers of souls, God will destroy you quickly.

You shall at last dry like dry leaves and hang

Nailed like dead vermin to the doors of God.

SECOND MERCHANT

Curse to your fill, for saints will have their dreams.

FIRST MERCHANT

Though we're but vermin that our Master sent

To overrun the world, he at the end

Shall pull apart the pale ribs of the moon

And quench the stars in the ancestral night.

MARY

God is all powerful.

SECOND MERCHANT

Pray, you shall need Him.

You shall eat dock and grass, and dandelion,

Till that low threshold there becomes a wall,

And when your hands can scarcely drag your body

We shall be near you.

(MARY faints.)

(The FIRST MERCHANT takes up the carpet, spreads it before the fire and stands in front of it warming his hands.)

FIRST MERCHANT

Our faces go unscratched,

Wring the neck o' that fowl, scatter the flour

And look if there is bread upon the shelves.

We'll turn the fowl upon the spit and roast it,

And eat the supper we were bidden to,

Now that the house is quiet, praise our Master,

And stretch and warm our heels among the ashes.

END OF SCENE I.

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 CATHLEEN comes in leaning upon ALEEL'S arm. OONA follows them.

CATHLEEN (stopping)

Surely this leafy corner, where one smells

The 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 there

Upon that level place, and for three days

Stretches 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 be

A 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-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.

CATHLEEN

Is it because they have short memories

They live so long?

ALEEL

What's memory but the ash

That 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 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.

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 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.

OONA

New friends are sweet.

ALEEL

"But the dance changes.

Lift up the gown,

All that sorrow

Is 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 slumbered

When 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 remembering

The 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 baptized

Know what Heaven pardons?

ALEEL

You are a sinful woman.

OONA

I care no more than if a pig had grunted.

(Enter CATHLEEN'S Steward.)

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.

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 lie

Against 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 down

That 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 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.)

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 news

That has been brought it for a thousand years.

STEWARD

Then get your breath and speak.

SHEMUS

If you'd my news

You'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 him

And thought no more about than if it were

A mouthful of the wind; and now it's grown

A marketable thing!

TEIG

And yet it seemed

As 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 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."

CATHLEEN (to ALEEL)

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?

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 again

With 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 goes L.)

(ALEEL and OONA return)

CATHLEEN

They have not come; speak quickly.

ALEEL

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.

CATHLEEN

You shall be tended. From this day for ever

I'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 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.)

OONA (taking ALEEL by 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 account

Than flies upon a window-pane in the winter.

(They go out.)

END OF SCENE II.

SCENE III

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.

ALEEL

I have come to bid you leave this castle and fly

Out of these woods.

CATHLEEN

What evil is there here

That is not everywhere from this to the sea?

ALEEL

They who have sent me walk invisible.

CATHLEEN

So it is true what I have heard men say,

That you have seen and heard what others cannot.

ALEEL

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.

CATHLEEN

I have heard that one of the old gods walked so.

ALEEL

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.

CATHLEEN

No, not angelical.

ALEEL

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.

CATHLEEN

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.

ALEEL (prostrating himself before her)

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.

CATHLEEN

How would that quiet end?

ALEEL

How but in healing?

CATHLEEN

You have seen my tears

And I can see your hand shake on the floor.

ALEEL (faltering)

I thought but of healing. He was angelical.

CATHLEEN (turning away from him)

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.)

CATHLEEN

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.

ALEEL (who has risen)

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.)

CATHLEEN

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.

ALEEL

Being silent,

I have said all, yet let me stay beside you.

CATHLEEN

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.

ALEEL

Give me your hand to kiss.

CATHLEEN

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.)

SECOND MERCHANT

They are ringing the alarm, and in a moment

They'll be upon us.

FIRST MERCHANT (going to a door at the side)

Here is the Treasury,

You'd my commands to put them all to sleep.

SECOND MERCHANT

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.)

FIRST MERCHANT

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.)

SECOND MERCHANT

We've all the treasure now,

So let's away before they've tracked us out.

FIRST MERCHANT

I have a plan to win her.

SECOND MERCHANT

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.

FIRST MERCHANT

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.)

CATHLEEN

Who calls?

FIRST MERCHANT

We have brought news.

CATHLEEN

What are you?

FIRST MERCHANT

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.

CATHLEEN

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.

FIRST MERCHANT

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.

CATHLEEN

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?

FIRST MERCHANT

Day copies day,

And there's no sign of change, nor can it change,

With the wheat withered and the cattle dead.

CATHLEEN

And heard you of the demons who buy souls?

FIRST MERCHANT

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.

CATHLEEN

Praise be to God, to Mary, and the angels

That I am wealthy! Wherefore do they sell?

FIRST MERCHANT

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.

CATHLEEN

How can a heap of crowns pay for a soul?

Is the green grave so terrible a thing?

FIRST MERCHANT

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.

CATHLEEN

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.

FIRST MERCHANT

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.

CATHLEEN

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.)

SECOND MERCHANT

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.

FIRST MERCHANT

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.)

FIRST PEASANT

Forgive us, lady, but we heard a noise.

SECOND PEASANT

We sat by the fireside telling vanities.

FIRST PEASANT

We heard a noise, but though we have searched the house

We have found nobody.

CATHLEEN

You are too timid,

For now you are safe from all the evil times,

There is no evil that can find you here.

OONA (entering hurriedly)

Ochone! Ochone! The treasure room is broken in.

The door stands open, and the gold is gone.

(PEASANTS raise a lamentable cry.)

CATHLEEN

Be silent. (The cry ceases.) Have you seen nobody?

OONA

Ochone!

That my good mistress should lose all this money.

CATHLEEN

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!")

PORTER

Demons were here. I sat beside the door

In my stone niche, and two owls passed me by,

Whispering with human voices.

OLD PEASANT

God forsakes us.

CATHLEEN

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.

PORTER

Why do you do this, lady; did you see

Your coffin in a dream?

CATHLEEN

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!

END OF SCENE III.

SCENE IV

Scene.—A wood near the Castle, as in Scene II. A group of PEASANTS pass.

FIRST PEASANT

I have seen silver and copper, but not gold.

SECOND PEASANT

It's yellow and it shines.

FIRST PEASANT

It's beautiful.

The most beautiful thing under the sun,

That's what I've heard.

THIRD PEASANT

I have seen gold enough.

FOURTH PEASANT

I would not say that it's so beautiful.

FIRST PEASANT

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.

SECOND PEASANT

There's nothing in the world it cannot buy.

FIRST PEASANT

They've bags and bags of it.

(They go out. The two MERCHANTS follow silently. Then ALEEL passes over the stage singing.)

ALEEL

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.

END OF SCENE IV.

SCENE V

Scene.—The house of SHEMUS RUA. There is an alcove at the back with curtains; in it a bed, and on the bed is the body of MARY with candles round it. The two MERCHANTS while they speak put a large book upon a table, arrange money, and so on.

FIRST MERCHANT

Thanks to that lie I told about her ships

And that about the herdsman lying sick,

We shall be too much thronged with souls to-morrow.

SECOND MERCHANT

What has she in her coffers now but mice?

FIRST MERCHANT

When the night fell and I had shaped myself

Into the image of the man-headed owl,

I hurried to the cliffs of Donegal,

And saw with all their canvas full of wind

And rushing through the parti-coloured sea

Those ships that bring the woman grain and meal.

They're but three days from us.

SECOND MERCHANT

When the dew rose

I hurried in like feathers to the east,

And saw nine hundred oxen driven through Meath

With goads of iron. They're but three days from us.

FIRST MERCHANT

Three days for traffic.

(PEASANTS crowd in with TEIG and SHEMUS.)

SHEMUS

Come in, come in, you are welcome.

That is my wife. She mocked at my great masters,

And would not deal with them. Now there she is;

She does not even know she was a fool,

So great a fool she was.

TEIG

She would not eat

One crumb of bread bought with our master's money,

But lived on nettles, dock, and dandelion.

SHEMUS

There's nobody could put into her head

That Death is the worst thing can happen us.

Though that sounds simple, for her tongue grew rank

With all the lies that she had heard in chapel.

Draw to the curtain. (TEIG draws it.) You'll not play the fool

While these good gentlemen are there to save you.

SECOND MERCHANT

Since the drought came they drift about in a throng,

Like autumn leaves blown by the dreary winds.

Come, deal—come, deal.

FIRST MERCHANT

Who will come deal with us?

SHEMUS

They are out of spirit, sir, with lack of food,

Save four or five. Here, sir, is one of these;

The others will gain courage in good time.

MIDDLE-AGED-MAN

I come to deal—if you give honest price.

FIRST MERCHANT (reading in a book)

"John Maher, a man of substance, with dull mind,

And quiet senses and unventurous heart.

The angels think him safe." Two hundred crowns,

All for a soul, a little breath of wind.

THE MAN

I ask three hundred crowns. You have read there

That no mere lapse of days can make me yours.

FIRST MERCHANT

There is something more writ here—"Often at night

He is wakeful from a dread of growing poor,

And thereon wonders if there's any man

That he could rob in safety."

A PEASANT

Who'd have thought it?

And I was once alone with him at midnight.

ANOTHER PEASANT

I will not trust my mother after this.

FIRST MERCHANT

There is this crack in you—two hundred crowns.

A PEASANT

That's plenty for a rogue.

ANOTHER PEASANT

I'd give him nothing.

SHEMUS

You'll get no more—so take what's offered you.

(A general murmur, during which the MIDDLE-AGED MAN takes money, and slips into background, where he sinks on to a seat.)

FIRST MERCHANT

Has no one got a better soul than that?

If only for the credit of your parishes,

Traffic with us.

A WOMAN

What will you give for mine?

FIRST MERCHANT (reading in book)

"Soft, handsome, and still young"—not much, I think.

"It's certain that the man she's married to

Knows nothing of what's hidden in the jar

Between the hour-glass and the pepper-pot."

THE WOMAN

The scandalous book.

FIRST MERCHANT

"Nor how when he's away

At the horse fair the hand that wrote what's hid

Will tap three times upon the window-pane."

THE WOMAN

And if there is a letter, that is no reason

Why I should have less money than the others.

FIRST MERCHANT

You're almost safe, I give you fifty crowns.

(She turns to go.)

A hundred, then.

SHEMUS

Woman, have sense—come, come.

Is this a time to haggle at the price?

There, take it up. There, there. That's right.

(She takes them and goes into the crowd.)

FIRST MERCHANT

Come, deal, deal, deal. It is but for charity

We buy such souls at all; a thousand sins

Made them our Master's long before we came.

(ALEEL enters.)

ALEEL

Here, take my soul, for I am tired of it.

I do not ask a price.

SHEMUS

Not ask a price?

How can you sell your soul without a price?

I would not listen to his broken wits;

His love for Countess Cathleen has so crazed him

He hardly understands what he is saying.

ALEEL

The trouble that has come on Countess Cathleen,

The sorrow that is in her wasted face,

The burden in her eyes, have broke my wits,

And yet I know I'd have you take my soul.

FIRST MERCHANT

We cannot take your soul, for it is hers.

ALEEL

No, but you must. Seeing it cannot help her

I have grown tired of it.

FIRST MERCHANT

Begone from me,

I may not touch it.

ALEEL

Is your power so small?

And must I bear it with me all my days?

May you be scorned and mocked!

FIRST MERCHANT

Drag him away.

He troubles me.

(TEIG and SHEMUS lead ALEEL into the crowd.)

SECOND MERCHANT

His gaze has filled me, brother,

With shaking and a dreadful fear.

FIRST MERCHANT

Lean forward

And kiss the circlet where my Master's lips

Were pressed upon it when he sent us hither;

You shall have peace once more.

(SECOND MERCHANT kisses the gold circlet that is about the head of the FIRST MERCHANT.)

I, too, grow weary,

But there is something moving in my heart

Whereby I know that what we seek the most

Is drawing near—our labour will soon end.

Come, deal, deal, deal, deal, deal; are you all dumb?

What, will you keep me from our ancient home,

And from the eternal revelry?

SECOND MERCHANT

Deal, deal.

SHEMUS

They say you beat the woman down too low.

FIRST MERCHANT

I offer this great price: a thousand crowns

For an old woman who was always ugly.

(An old PEASANT WOMAN comes forward, and he takes up a book and reads:)

There is but little set down here against her.

"She has stolen eggs and fowl when times were bad,

But when the times grew better has confessed it;

She never missed her chapel of a Sunday

And when she could, paid dues." Take up your money.

OLD WOMAN

God bless you, sir. (She screams.) Oh, sir, a pain went through me!

FIRST MERCHANT

That name is like a fire to all damned souls.

(Murmur among the PEASANTS, who shrink back from her as she goes out.)

A PEASANT

How she screamed out!

SECOND PEASANT

And maybe we shall scream so.

THIRD PEASANT

I tell you there is no such place as hell.

FIRST MERCHANT

Can such a trifle turn you from your profit?

Come, deal; come, deal.

MIDDLE-AGED MAN

Master, I am afraid.

FIRST MERCHANT

I bought your soul, and there's no sense in fear

Now the soul's gone.

MIDDLE-AGED MAN

Give me my soul again.

WOMAN (going on her knees and clinging to MERCHANT)

And take this money too, and give me mine.

SECOND MERCHANT

Bear bastards, drink or follow some wild fancy;

For sighs and cries are the soul's work,

And you have none.

(Throws the woman off.)

PEASANT

Come, let's away.

ANOTHER PEASANT

Yes, yes.

ANOTHER PEASANT

Come quickly; if that woman had not screamed

I would have lost my soul.

ANOTHER PEASANT

Come, come away.

(They turn to door, but are stopped by shouts of "Countess Cathleen! Countess Cathleen!")

CATHLEEN (entering)

And so you trade once more?

FIRST MERCHANT

In spite of you.

What brings you here, saint with the sapphire eyes?

CATHLEEN

I come to barter a soul for a great price.

SECOND MERCHANT

What matter, if the soul be worth the price?

CATHLEEN

The people starve, therefore the people go

Thronging to you. I hear a cry come from them

And it is in my ears by night and day,

And I would have five hundred thousand crowns

That I may feed them till the dearth go by.

FIRST MERCHANT

It may be the soul's worth it.

CATHLEEN

There is more:

The souls that you have bought must be set free.

FIRST MERCHANT

We know of but one soul that's worth the price.

CATHLEEN

Being my own it seems a priceless thing.

SECOND MERCHANT

You offer us——

CATHLEEN

I offer my own soul.

A PEASANT

Do not, do not, for souls the like of ours

Are not precious to God as your soul is.

O! what would Heaven do without you, lady?

ANOTHER PEASANT

Look how their claws clutch in their leathern gloves.

FIRST MERCHANT

Five hundred thousand crowns; we give the price.

The gold is here; the souls even while you speak

Have slipped out of our bond, because your face

Has shed a light on them and filled their hearts.

But you must sign, for we omit no form

In buying a soul like yours.

SECOND MERCHANT

Sign with this quill

It was a feather growing on the cock

That crowed when Peter dared deny his Master,

And all who use it have great honour in Hell.

(CATHLEEN leans forward to sign.)

ALEEL (rushing forward and snatching the pen from her)

Leave all things to the builder of the heavens.

CATHLEEN

I have no thoughts; I hear a cry—a cry.

ALEEL (casting the pen on the ground)

I have seen a vision under a green hedge,

A hedge of hips and haws—men yet shall hear

The Archangels rolling Satan's empty skull

Over the mountain-tops.

FIRST MERCHANT

Take him away.

(TEIG and SHEMUS drag him roughly away so that he falls upon the floor among the PEASANTS. CATHLEEN picks up parchment and signs, then turns towards the PEASANTS.)

CATHLEEN

Take up the money, and now come with me;

When we are far from this polluted place

I will give everybody money enough.

(She goes out, the PEASANTS crowding round her and kissing her dress. ALEEL and the two MERCHANTS are left alone.)

SECOND MERCHANT

We must away and wait until she dies,

Sitting above her tower as two grey owls,

Waiting as many years as may be, guarding

Our precious jewel; waiting to seize her soul.

FIRST MERCHANT

We need but hover over her head in the air,

For she has only minutes. When she signed

Her heart began to break. Hush, hush, I hear

The brazen door of Hell move on its hinges,

And the eternal revelry float hither

To hearten us.

SECOND MERCHANT

Leap feathered on the air

And meet them with her soul caught in your claws.

(They rush out. ALEEL crawls into the middle of the room. The twilight has fallen and gradually darkens as the scene goes on. There is a distant muttering of thunder and a sound of rising storm.)

ALEEL

The brazen door stands wide, and Balor comes

Borne in his heavy car, and demons have lifted

The age-weary eyelids from the eyes that of old

Turned gods to stone; Barach, the traitor, comes

And the lascivious race, Cailitin,

That cast a druid weakness and decay

Over Sualtem's and old Dectera's child;

And that great king Hell first took hold upon

When he killed Naisi and broke Deirdre's heart

And all their heads are twisted to one side,

For when they lived they warred on beauty and peace

With obstinate, crafty, sidelong bitterness.

(He moves about as though the air above him was full of spirits. OONA enters.)

Crouch down, old heron, out of the blind storm.

OONA

Where is the Countess Cathleen? All this day

Her eyes were full of tears, and when for a moment

Her hand was laid upon my hand it trembled,

And now I do not know where she is gone.

ALEEL

Cathleen has chosen other friends than us,

And they are rising through the hollow world.

Demons are out, old heron.

OONA

God guard her soul.

ALEEL

She's bartered it away this very hour,

As though we two were never in the world.

(He points downward.)

First, Orchill, her pale, beautiful head

Her body shadowy as vapour drifting

Under the dawn, for she who awoke desire

Has but a heart of blood when others die;

About her is a vapoury multitude

Of women alluring devils with soft laughter;

Behind her a host heat of the blood made sin,

But all the little pink-white nails have grown

To be great talons.

(He seizes OONA and drags her into the middle of the room and points downward with vehement gestures. The wind roars.)

They begin a song

And there is still some music on their tongues.

OONA (casting herself face downwards on the floor)

O, Maker of all, protect her from the demons,

And if a soul must need be lost, take mine.

(ALEEL kneels beside her, but does not seem to hear her words. The PEASANTS return. They carry the COUNTESS CATHLEEN and lay her upon the ground before OONA and ALEEL. She lies there as if dead.)

OONA

O, that so many pitchers of rough clay

Should prosper and the porcelain break in two!

(She kisses the hands of CATHLEEN.)

A PEASANT

We were under the tree where the path turns,

When she grew pale as death and fainted away.

And while we bore her hither cloudy gusts

Blackened the world and shook us on our feet;

Draw the great bolt, for no man has beheld

So black, bitter, blinding, and sudden a storm.

(One who is near the door draws the bolt.)

CATHLEEN

O, hold me, and hold me tightly, for the storm

Is dragging me away.

(OONA takes her in her arms. A woman begins to wail.)

PEASANT

Hush!

PEASANTS

Hush!

PEASANT WOMEN

Hush!

OTHER PEASANT WOMEN

Hush!

CATHLEEN (half rising)

Lay all the bags of money in a heap,

And when I am gone, old Oona, share them out

To every man and woman: judge, and give

According to their needs.

A PEASANT WOMAN

And will she give

Enough to keep my children through the dearth?

ANOTHER PEASANT WOMAN

O, Queen of Heaven, and all you blessed saints,

Let us and ours be lost so she be shriven.

CATHLEEN

Bend down your faces, Oona and Aleel;

I gaze upon them as the swallow gazes

Upon the nest under the eave, before

She wander the loud waters. Do not weep

Too great a while, for there is many a candle

On the High Altar though one fall. Aleel,

Who sang about the dancers of the woods,

That know not the hard burden of the world,

Having but breath in their kind bodies, farewell!

And farewell, Oona, you who played with me,

And bore me in your arms about the house

When I was but a child and therefore happy,

Therefore happy, even like those that dance.

The storm is in my hair and I must go.

(She dies.)

OONA

Bring me the looking-glass.

(A woman brings it to her out of the inner room. OONA holds it over the lips of CATHLEEN. All is silent for a moment. And then she speaks in a half scream:)

O, she is dead!

A PEASANT

She was the great white lily of the world.

A PEASANT

She was more beautiful than the pale stars.

AN OLD PEASANT WOMAN

The little plant I love is broken in two.

(ALEEL takes looking-glass from OONA and flings it upon the floor so that it is broken in many pieces.)

ALEEL

I shatter you in fragments, for the face

That brimmed you up with beauty is no more:

And die, dull heart, for she whose mournful words

Made you a living spirit has passed away

And left you but a ball of passionate dust.

And you, proud earth and plumy sea, fade out!

For you may hear no more her faltering feet,

But are left lonely amid the clamorous war

Of angels upon devils.

(He stands up; almost every one is kneeling, but it has grown so dark that only confused forms can be seen.)

And I who weep

Call curses on you, Time and Fate and Change,

And have no excellent hope but the great hour

When you shall plunge headlong through bottomless space.

(A flash of lightning followed immediately by thunder.)

A PEASANT WOMAN

Pull him upon his knees before his curses

Have plucked thunder and lightning on our heads.

ALEEL

Angels and devils clash in the middle air,

And brazen swords clang upon brazen helms.

(A flash of lightning followed immediately by thunder.)

Yonder a bright spear, cast out of a sling,

Has torn through Balor's eye, and the dark clans

Fly screaming as they fled Moytura of old.

(Everything is lost in darkness.)

AN OLD MAN

The Almighty wrath at our great weakness and sin

Has blotted out the world and we must die.

(The darkness is broken by a visionary light. The PEASANTS seem to be kneeling upon the rocky slope of a mountain, and vapour full of storm and ever-changing light is sweeping above them and behind them. Half in the light, half in the shadow, stand armed angels. Their armour is old and worn, and their drawn swords dim and dinted. They stand as if upon the air in formation of battle and look downward with stern faces. The PEASANTS cast themselves on the ground.)

ALEEL

Look no more on the half-closed gates of Hell,

But speak to me, whose mind is smitten of God,

That it may be no more with mortal things,

And tell of her who lies there.

(He seizes one of the angels.)

Till you speak

You shall not drift into eternity.

THE ANGEL

The light beats down; the gates of pearl are wide

And she is passing to the floor of peace,

And Mary of the seven times wounded heart

Has kissed her lips, and the long blessed hair

Has fallen on her face; The Light of Lights

Looks always on the motive, not the deed,

The Shadow of Shadows on the deed alone.

(ALEEL releases the ANGEL and kneels.)

OONA

Tell them who walk upon the floor of peace

That I would die and go to her I love;

The years like great black oxen tread the world,

And God the herdsman goads them on behind

And I am broken by their passing feet.

(A sound of far-off horns seems to come from the heart of the Light. The vision melts away, and the forms of the kneeling PEASANTS appear faintly in the darkness.)