Part 4

MAURYA.--I could. There’s no person here to help him unless there would be a woman or two; but he is a great poet, and he has a curse that would split the trees and that would burst the stones. They say the seed will rot in the ground and the milk go from the cows when a poet like him makes a curse, if a person routed him out of the house; but if he were once out, I’ll go bail that I wouldn’t let him in again.

SHEELA.--If himself were to go out willingly, there would be no virtue in his curse then?

MAURYA.--There would not, but he will not go out willingly, and I cannot rout him out myself for fear of his curse.

SHEELA.--Look at poor Sheamus. He is going over to her (_SHEAMUS gets up and goes over to her_).

SHEAMUS.--Will you dance this reel with me, Oona, as soon as the piper is ready?

HANRAHAN (_rising up_).--I am Tumaus Hanrahan, and I am speaking now to Oona ni Regaun, and as long as she is willing to be talking to me, I will allow no living person to come between us.

SHEAMUS (_without heeding HANRAHAN_).--Will you not dance with me, Oona?

HANRAHAN (_savagely_).--Didn’t I tell you now that it was to me Oona ni Regaun was talking? Leave that on the spot you clown, and do not raise a disturbance here.

SHEAMUS.--Oona----

HANRAHAN (_shouting_)--Leave that! (_SHEAMUS goes away and comes over to the two old women_).

SHEAMUS.--Maurya Regaun, I am asking permission of you to throw that ill-mannerly, drunken vagabond out of the house. Myself and my two brothers will put him out if you will allow us; and when he’s outside I’ll settle with him.

MAURYA.--Sheamus, do not; I am afraid of him. That man has a curse they say that would split the trees.

SHEAMUS.--I don’t care if he had a curse that would overthrow the heavens, it is on me it will fall, and I defy him! If he were to kill me on the moment, I will not allow him to put his spells on Oona. Give me leave, Maurya.

SHEELA.--Do not, Sheamus. I have a better advice than that.

SHEAMUS.--What advice is that?

SHEELA.--I have a way in my head to put him out. If you follow my advice he will go out himself as quiet as a lamb, and when you get him out, slap the door on him, and never let him in again.

MAURYA.--Luck from God on you, Sheela, and tell us what’s in your head.

SHEELA.--We will do it as nice and easy as you ever saw. We will put him to twist a hay-rope till he is outside, and then we will shut the door on him.

SHEAMUS.--It’s easy to say, but not easy to do. He will say to you, “Make a hay-rope yourself.”

SHEELA.--We will say then that no one ever saw a hay-rope made, that there is no one at all in the house to make the beginning of it.

SHEAMUS.--But will _he_ believe that we never saw a hay-rope?

SHEELA.--He’d believe it, is it? He’d believe anything, he’d believe that himself is king over Ireland when he has a glass taken, as he has now.

SHEAMUS.--But what excuse can we make for saying we want a hay-rope?

MAURYA.--Can’t you think of something yourself, Sheamus?

SHEAMUS.--Sure I can say the wind is rising, and I must bind the thatch, or it will be off the house.

SHEELA.--But he’ll know the wind is not rising if he does but listen at the door. You must think of some other excuse, Sheamus.

SHEAMUS.--Wait, I have a good idea now; say that there is a coach upset at the bottom of the hill, and that they are asking for a hay-rope to mend it with. He can’t see as far as that from the door, and he wont know it’s not true it is.

MAURYA.--That’s the story, Sheela. Now, Sheamus, go among the people and tell them the secret. Tell them what they have to say, that no one at all in this country ever saw a hay-rope, and put a good skin on the lie yourself. (_SHEAMUS goes from person to person whispering to them, and some of them begin laughing. The piper has begun playing. Three or four couples rise up_).

HANRAHAN (_after looking at them for a couple of minutes_).--Whisht! Let ye sit down! Do ye call that dragging, dancing? You are tramping the floor like so many cattle. You are as heavy as bullocks, as awkward as asses. May my throat be choked if I would not rather be looking at as many lame ducks hopping on one leg through the house. Leave the floor to Oona ni Regaun and to me.

ONE OF THE MEN GOING TO DANCE.--And for what would we leave the floor to you?

HANRAHAN.--The swan of the brink of the waves, the royal phœnix, the pearl of the white breast, the Venus amongst the women, Oona ni Regaun is standing up with me, and any place where she rises up the sun and the moon bow to her, and so shall ye yet. She is too handsome, too sky-like for any other woman to be near her. But wait awhile! Before I’ll show you how the fine Connacht boy can dance, I will give you the poem I made on the star of the province of Munster, on Oona ni Regaun. Get up, O sun among women, and we will sing the song together, verse about, and then we’ll show them what right dancing is! (_OONA rises_).

HANRAHAN.

She is white Oona of the yellow hair, The Coolin that was destroying my heart inside me; She is my secret love and my lasting affection, I care not for ever for any woman but her.

OONA.

O bard of the black eye, it is you Who have found victory in the world and fame; I call on yourself and I praise your mouth; You have set my heart in my breast astray.

HANRAHAN.

O fair Oona of the golden hair, My desire my affection, my love and my store Herself will go with her bard afar; She has hurt his heart in his breast greatly.

OONA.

I would not think the night long nor the day, Listening to your fine discourse; More melodious is your mouth than the singing of the birds, From my heart in my breast you have found love.

HANRAHAN.

I walked myself the entire world, England, Ireland, France and Spain; I never saw at home or afar Any girl under the sun like fair Oona.

OONA.

I have heard the melodious harp On the street of Cork playing to us; More melodious by far did I think your voice More melodious by far your mouth than that.

HANRAHAN.

I was myself one time a poor barnacle goose, The night was not plain to me more than the day Until I beheld her, she is the love of my heart, That banished from me my grief and my misery.

OONA.

I was myself on the morning of yesterday Walking beside the wood at the break of day; There was a bird there was singing sweetly How I love love, and is it not beautiful.

(_A shout and a noise, and SHEAMUS O’HERAN rushes in_.)

SHEAMUS.--Ububu! Ohone-y-o, go deo! The big coach is overthrown at the foot of the hill! The bag in which the letters of the country are is bursted, and there is neither tie nor cord nor rope nor anything to bind it up. They are calling out now for a hay sugaun, whatever kind of thing that is; the letters and the coach will be lost for want of a hay sugaun to bind them.

HANRAHAN.--Do not be bothering us; we have our poem done and we are going to dance. The coach does not come this way at all.

SHEAMUS.--The coach does come this way now, but sure you’re a stranger and you don’t know. Doesn’t the coach come over the hill now, neighbours?

ALL.--It does, it does, surely.

HANRAHAN.--I don’t care whether it does come or whether it doesn’t. I would sooner twenty coaches to be overthrown on the road than the pearl of the white breast to be stopped from dancing to us. Tell the coachman to twist a rope for himself.

SHEAMUS.--O murder, he can’t. There’s that much vigour and fire and activity and courage in the horses that my poor coachman must take them by the heads, it’s on the pinch of his life he’s able to control them, he’s afraid of his soul they’ll go from him of a rout. They are neighing like anything, you never saw the like of them for wild horses.

HANRAHAN.--Are there no other people in the coach that will make a rope, if the coachman has to be at the horses’ heads? Leave that, and let us dance.

SHEAMUS.--There are three others in it, but as to one of them, he is one-handed, and another man of them, he’s shaking and trembling with the fright he got; its not in him now to stand up on his two feet with the fear that’s on him, and as for the third man, there isn’t a person in this country would speak to him about a rope at all, for his own father was hanged with a rope last year for stealing sheep.

HANRAHAN.--Then let one of yourselves twist a rope so, and leave the floor to us. [_To OONA_] Now, O star of women, show me how Juno goes among the gods, or Helen for whom Troy was destroyed. By my word, since Deirdre died, for whom Naoise, son of Usnech, was put to death, her heir is not in Ireland to-day but yourself. Let us begin.

SHEAMUS.--Do not begin until we have a rope, we are not able to twist a rope, there’s nobody here can twist a rope.

HANRAHAN.--There’s nobody here is able to twist a rope?

ALL.--Nobody at all.

SHEELA.--And that’s true; nobody in this place ever made a hay sugaun. I don’t believe there’s a person in this house who ever saw one itself but me. It’s well I remember when I was a little girsha that I saw one of them on a goat that my grandfather brought with him out of Connacht. All the people used to be saying: Aurah, what sort of thing is that at all? And he said that it was a sugaun that was in it, and that people used to make the like of that down in Connacht. He said that one man would go holding the hay, and another man twisting it. I’ll hold the hay now, and you’ll go twisting it.

SHEAMUS.--I’ll bring in a lock of hay. [_He goes out._]

HANRAHAN.

I will make a dispraising of the province of Munster: They do not leave the floor to us, It isn’t in them to twist even a sugaun; The province of Munster without nicety, without prosperity!

Disgust for ever on the province of Munster, That they do not leave us the floor; The province of Munster of the foul clumsy people. They cannot even twist a sugaun!

SHEAMUS [_coming back_].--Here’s the hay now.

HANRAHAN.--Give it here to me; I’ll show ye what the well-learned handy, honest, clever, sensible Connachtman will do, who has activity and full deftness in his hands, and sense in his head, and courage in his heart, but that the misfortune and the great trouble of the world directed him among the _lebidins_ of the province of Munster, without honour, without nobility, without knowledge of the swan beyond the duck, or of the gold beyond the brass, or of the lily beyond the thistle, or of the star of young women and the pearl of the white breast beyond their own share of sluts and slatterns. Give me a kippeen (_a man hands him a stick, he puts a wisp of hay round it, and begins twisting it, and SHEELA giving him out the hay_).

HANRAHAN.

There is a pearl of a woman giving light to us; She is my love; she is my desire; She is fair Oona, the gentle queen-woman. And the Munstermen do not understand half her courtesy. These Munster men are blinded by God; They do not recognise the swan beyond the grey duck, But she will come with me, my fine Helen, Where her person and her beauty shall be praised for ever.

Arrah, wisha, wisha, wisha, isn’t this the fine village, isn’t this the exceeding village! The village where there be that many rogues hanged that the people have no want of ropes with all the ropes that they steal from the hangman!

The sensible Connachtman makes A rope for himself; But the Munsterman steals it From the hangman; That I may see a fine rope, A rope of hemp yet A stretching on the throats Of every person here!

On account of one woman only the Greeks departed, and they never stopped, and they never greatly stayed, till they destroyed Troy; and on account of one woman only this village shall be damned; go deo, ma neoir and to the womb of judgment, by God of the graces, eternally and everlastingly, because they did not understand that Oona ni Regaun is the second Helen, who was born in their midst, and that she overcame in beauty Deirdre and Venus, and all that came before or that will come after her!

But she will come with me, my pearl of a woman, To the province of Connacht of the fine people, She will receive feast, wine and meat, High dances, sport and music!

O, wisha, wisha, that the sun may never rise upon this village, and that the stars may never shine on it, and that----. (_He is by this time outside the door. All the men make a rush at the door, and shut it. OONA runs towards the door, but the women seize her. SHEAMUS goes over to her._)

OONA.--Oh, oh, oh, do not put him out, let him back, that is Tumaus Hanrahan; he is a poet, he is a bard, he is a wonderful man. O, let him back, do not do that to him!

SHEAMUS.--Oh, Oona bawn, acushla deelish, let him be, he is gone now, and his share of spells with him. He will be gone out of your head to-morrow, and you will be gone out of his head. Don’t you know that I like you better than a hundred thousand Deirdres, and that you are my one pearl of a woman in the world.

HANRAHAN (_outside, beating on the door_).--Open, open, open, let me in! Oh, my seven hundred thousand curses on you, the curse of the weak and of the strong, the curse of the poets and of the bards upon you! The curse of the priests on you and the friars! The curse of the bishops upon you and the Pope! The curse of the widows on you and the children! Open! (_He beats at the door again and again._)

SHEAMUS.--I am thankful to ye, neighbours, and Oona will be thankful to ye to-morrow. Beat away you vagabond! Do your dancing out there with yourself now! Isn’t it a fine thing for a man to be listening to the storm outside, and himself quiet and easy beside the fire. Beat away, beat away! Where’s Connacht now?

Kennedy’s Bread.

FINEST QUALITY MADE.

_BAKERIES_:

_127 & 128 Gt. Britain Street_,

.._AND_..

_19 Patrick Street_,

DUBLIN.

Sealy, Bryers & Walker,

PRINTERS and BOOKBINDERS,

Undertake the Printing in a First-class Style of

BOOKS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION,

INCLUDING

DIVINITY, LAW, MEDICAL and MATHEMATICAL WORKS.

_Works in the Irish Language a Specialty._

Estimates Free.

94, 95, 96 MIDDLE ABBEY STREET, DUBLIN.

SKETCHES OF LIFE IN THE WEST OF IRELAND.

BY JACK B. YEATS.

NINE MERRION ROW, DUBLIN.

OPEN DAILY FROM OCTOBER 23RD TO NOVEMBER 2ND.

ADMISSION SIXPENCE, INCLUDING CATALOGUE.

“He seems to have a real imagination, a faculty that works directly upon the report of the eyes, and converts it into an expression of the feelings.”

R.A.M.S., in the “Pall Mall Gazette.”

Transcriber’s Notes

The play _Casadh an tSugáin_ was originally printed in Cló Gaelach (Irish script), with lenition indicated by a dot over the affected consonant. This edition replaces the lenition dots with the letter “h,” as is standard in modern written Irish. The Irish text uses the Tironian et (⁊) rather than the Roman ampersand (&) to indicate “agus.”

As both plays are now set in Roman type, the formatting of each has been standardised, with, for example, stage directions in the Irish play set in italics and the formatting of the songs changed in the English version to match the Irish formatting.

This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. Flourishes and decorations in advertising copy have not been included in this plain text version.

The following changes and corrections have been made:

• p. 6: Added period after “Mr.” in phrase “Mr. MacGinlay’s _Elis agus an bhean deirce_ has not this defect.” • p. 9: Removed after “separated” in phrase “it is difficult to write well in a language which has been long separated from the ‘folk-speech’.” • p. 11: Replaced “enthusiams” with “enthusiasms” in phrase “to create a sort of rallying point for the many literary enthusiasms and aspirations.” • p. 12: Replaced “Rembrandts” with “Rembrandt’s” in phrase “Green landscapes are not required in Rembrandt’s portraits.” • p. 13: Added period after phrase “this would have been a base vanity, and unworthy a Gaelic Leaguer.” • p. 20: Added period after phrase “file Connachtach atá ar seachrán.” • p. 20: Replaced “d’a” with “d’á” in phrase “mé ag éisteacht le n-a bhfuil seisean d’á rádh liom.” • p. 20: Replaced “nocht” with “anocht” in phrase “go dtáinig mé ann so anocht.” • p. 21: Replaced “anoish” with “anois” in phrase “sin le Úna in san gcoirneull anois.” • p. 22: Replaced “Eirinn” with “Éirinn” in phrase “deir siad nach bhfuil damhsóir eile i n-Éirinn chomh maith leis.” • p. 23: Replaced “Una” with “Úna” in phrase “A Úna----.” • p. 23: Replaced “SÉAMAS” with “SÉAMUS” before phrase “Is cuma liom má tá mallacht aige do leagfadh na spéartha.” • p. 27: Replaced “Seó” with “Seo” in phrase “Seo an féar anois.” • p. 29: Replaced “mllacht” with “mallacht” in phrase “O mo sheacht gcéad míle mallacht orraibh.” • p. 30: Added period after phrase “Engaged to OONA.” • p. 31: Replaced “its” with “it’s” in phrase “it’s Hanrahan the rogue he ought to have been christened by right.” • p. 32: Replaced “myself” with “himself” in phrase “there was a kind of friendship between himself and the first husband I had.” • p. 32: Replaced “its” with “it’s” in phrase “and it’s often I heard from poor Diarmuid.” • p. 36: Replaced “dont” with “don’t” in phrase “I don’t believe there’s a person in this house who ever saw one.” • p. 36: Added exclamation mark after phrase “The province of Munster without nicety, without prosperity!” • p. 38: Replaced “aud” with “and” in phrase “All the men make a rush at the door, and shut it.”

In addition, in several places in the English version of The Twisting of the Rope, “Shemus” has been replaced with “Sheamus” and “Mauyra” with “Maurya”; periods have silently been added after character names; and character names in stage directions have had small caps markup added.