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.