Chapter 8

_Scene: A winter garden, with pots of flowering trees or fruit-trees. There are books about and some benches with cushions on them and many cushions on the ground. The young_ PRINCES _are sitting or lying at their ease. One is playing "Home, Sweet Home" on a harp. The_ SERVANT--_an old man_--_is standing in the background_.

_1st Prince_: Here, Gillie, will you please take off my shoe and see what there is in it that is pressing on my heel.

_Servant_: (_Taking it off and examining it_.) I see nothing.

_1st Prince_: Oh, yes, there is something; I have felt it all the morning. I have been thinking this long time of taking the shoe off, but I waited for you.

_Servant_: All I can find is a grain of poppy seed.

_1st Prince_: That is it of course--it was enough to hurt my skin.

_2nd Prince_: Gillie, there is a mayfly tickling my cheek. Will you please brush it away.

_Servant_: I will and welcome. (_Fans it off_.)

_3rd Prince_: Just give me, please, that book that is near my elbow. I cannot reach to it without taking my hand off my cheek.

_Servant_: I wouldn't wish you to do that. (_Gives him book_.)

_4th Prince_: Gillie, I think, I am nearly sure, there is a feather in this cushion that has the quill in it yet. I feel something hard.

_Servant_: Give it to me till I will open it and make a search.

_4th Prince_: No, wait a while till I am not lying on it. I will put up with the discomfort till then.

_5th Prince_: Would it give you too much trouble, Gillie, when you waken me in the morning, to come and call me three times, so that I can have the joy of dropping off again?

_Servant_: Why wouldn't I? And there is a thing I would wish to know. There will be a supper laid out here this evening for the Dowager Messengers that are coming to the Island, and I would wish to provide for yourselves whatever food would be pleasing to you.

_1st Prince_: It is too warm for eating. All I will ask is a few grapes from Spain.

_2nd Prince_: A mouthful of jelly in a silver spoon ...or in the shape of a little castle with towers. When will the Lady Messengers be here?

_Servant_: Not before the fall of day.

_2nd Prince_: The time passes so quietly and peaceably it does not feel like a year and a day since they came here before.

_Servant_: No wonder the time to pass easy and quiet where you are, with comfort all around you, and nothing to mark its course, and every season feeling the same as another, within the glass walls and the crystal roof of this place. And the old Queen, your godmother, sending her own Chamberlain to take charge of you, and to be your Guardian, and Governor of the Island. Sure, the wind itself must slacken coming to this sheltered place.

_3rd Prince_: That is a great thing. I would not wish the rough wind to be blowing upon me.

_4th Prince_: Or the dust to be rising and coming in among us to spoil our suits.

_5th Prince_: Or to be walking out on the hard roads, or climbing over stone walls, or tearing ourselves in hedges.

_1st Prince_: That is the reason we were sent here by the Queen, our Godmother, in place of being sent to any school. To be kept safe and secure.

_2nd Prince_: Not to be running here and there like our own poor five first cousins, that used to be slipping out and rambling in their young youth, till they were swallowed up by the sea.

_3rd Prince_: It was maybe by some big fish of the sea.

_2nd Prince_: It might be they were brought away by sea-robbers coming in a ship.

_3rd Prince_: Foolish they were and very foolish not to stay in peace and comfort in the house where they were safe.

_Servant_: There is no fear of _ye_ stirring from where you are, having every whole thing ye can wish.

_4th Prince_: Here is the Guardian coming!

(_They all rise_.)

_Guardian_: (_A very old man, much encumbered with wraps, coming slowly in_.) Are you all here, all the five of you?

_All_: We are here!

_Guardian_: (_Standing, leaning on a stick, to address them_.) It's a pity that these being holidays, your teachers and tutors are far away.

Gone off afloat in a cedar boat to a College of Learning out in Cathay.

_1st Prince_: It's a pity indeed they're not here to-day.

_Guardian_: For it's likely you looked in your almanacs, or judged by the shape of the lessening moon, That your Godmother's Dowager Messengers are due to arrive this afternoon.

_2nd Prince_: We did and we think they'll be here very soon.

_Guardian_: But I know they'll be glad that each royal lad, put under my rule in place of a school, Can fashion his life without trouble or strife, and be shielded from care in a nice easy chair.

_3rd Prince_: As we always are and we always were.

_Guardian_: It is part of my knowledge that lads in a college, and made play one and all with a bat and a ball, Come often to harm with a knock on the arm, and their hands get as hard as the hands of a clown.

_4th Prince_: But ours are as soft as thistledown.

_Guardian_: And I've seen young princes not far from your age, go chasing beasts on a winter day, And carted home with a broken bone, and a yard of a doctor's bill to pay; Or going to sail in the teeth of a gale, when the waves were rising mountains high, Or fall from a height that was near out of sight, robbing rooks from their nest in a poplar tree.

_5th Prince: (To another_.) But that never happened to you or me.

_Guardian_: Or travelling far to a distant war, with battles and banners rilling their mind, And creeping back like a crumpled sack, content if they'd left no limbs behind.

_1st Prince_: But we'll have nothing to do with that, but stop at home with an easy mind.

_Guardian: (Sitting down.)_ That's right. And now I would wish you to say over some of your tasks, to make ready for the Dowager Messengers, that they may bring back a good report to the Queen, your Godmother.

_1st Prince_: We'll do that. We would wish to be a credit to you, sir, and to our teachers.

_Guardian_: Say out now some little piece of Latin; that one that is my favourite.

_1st Prince_:

Aere sub gelido nullus rosa fundit odores, Ut placeat tellus, sole calesce Dei.

_Guardian_: Say out the translation.

_2nd Prince_: Beneath a chilly blast the rose, loses its sweet, and scentless blows;

If you would have earth keep its charm, stop in the sunshine and keep warm.

_Guardian_: Very good. Now your history book; you were learning of late some genealogies of kings, might suit your Godmother.

_3rd Prince_:

William the First as the Conqueror known At the Battle of Hastings ascended the throne, His Acts were all made in the Norman tongue And at eight every evening the curfew was rung When each English subject by royal desire

Extinguished his candle and put out his fire. He bridled the kingdom with forts round the Border And the Tower of London was built by his order.

_2nd Prince_:

William called Rufus from having red hair, Of virtues possessed but a moderate share, But though he was one whom we covetous call, He built the famed structure called Westminster Hall. Walter Tyrrell his favourite, when hunting one day, Attempted a deer with an arrow to slay, But missing his aim, shot the King to the heart And the body was carried away in a cart.

_Guardian_: That will do. You have that very well in your memory. Now let me hear the grammar lesson.

_3rd Prince_:

A noun's the name of anything As school or garden, hoop or swing.

_Guardian_: Very good, go on.

_4th Prince_:

Adjectives tell the kind of noun As strong or pretty, white or brown.

_5th Prince_:

Conjunctions join the nouns together As men and children, wind or weather.

_Guardian_: It will be very useful to you to have that so well grafted in your mind.... What noise is that outside?

_Servant_: It is some strolling people.

_1st Prince_: Oh, Guardian, let them come in. We will do our work all the better if we have some amusement now.

_Guardian_: Maybe so. I am well pleased when amusements come to our door, that you can see without going outside the walls.

_(A Jester enters in very ragged green clothes and broken shoes.)_

But this is a very ragged looking man. Do you know anything about him, Gillie?

_Servant_: I seen him one time before.... At the time of the earthquake out in Foreign. A mad jester he was. A tramp class of a man. _(To Jester.)_ Where is it you stop?

_Jester_: Where do I stop? Where would I be but everywhere, like the bad weather. I stop in no place, but going through the whole roads of the world.

_Guardian_: What brought you in here?

_Jester_: Hearing questions going on, and answers. I am well able to give help in that. It's not long since I was giving instruction to the sons of the King of Babylon. Here now is a question. How many ladders would it take to reach to the moon?

_1st Prince_: It should be a great many.

_2nd Prince_: I give it up.

_Jester_: One ...if it is long enough! Which is it easier to spell, ducks or geese?

_3rd Prince_: Ducks I suppose because it's shorter.

_Jester_: Not at all but geese. Do you know why? Because it is spelled with _ees_. Tell me now, can you spell pup backwards?

_4th Prince_: P-u-p....

_Jester_: Not at all.

_4th Prince_: But it is.

_Jester_: No, that is pup straight forwards.... Can you run back and forwards at the same time?

_4th Prince_: Answer it yourself so.

_Jester_: You would be as wise as myself then. But I'll show you some tricks. Look at these three straws on my hand. Will I be able to blow two of them away, and the other to stay in its place?

_5th Prince_: They would all blow away.

_Jester_: Look now. Puff! (_He has put his finger on the middle one_.) Now is it possible?

_5th Prince_: It is easy when you know the way.

_Jester_: That is so with all knowledge. Can you wag one ear and keep the other quiet?

_1st Prince_: Nobody can do that.

_Jester: (Wagging one ear with his finger.)_ There, now you see I have done it! There's more learning than is taught in books. Wait now and I'll give you out a song I'll engage you never heard. (_Sings or repeats_.)

It's I can rhyme you out the joy That's ready for a lively boy. Cuchulain flung a golden ball And followed it where it would fall, And when they counted him a child He took the flying swans alive. And Finn was given hares to mind Till he outran them and the wind; And he could swim and overtake The wild duck swimming on the lake. Osgar's young music was to thwack The enemy and drive him back....

_Guardian_: That's enough now. I have no fancy for that class of song. What other amusements are there?

_Servant_: There are the Wrenboys are come here at the end of their twelve days' funning.

_Jester_: That's it! The Wrenboys; a rambling troop; rambling the world like myself. I will make place for them. The old must give way to the young.

(_He goes and sits down in a corner, munching a crust and dozing_.)

_Servant_: Come in here let ye, and show what ye can do!

(_Wrenboys come in playing a fife. They are wearing little masks and are dressed in ragged tunics; they carry drum and, fife, and stand in a line_.)

_All Five Wrenboys: (Together.)_

The wren, the wren, the King of all birds, On Stephen's Day was caught in the furze. Although he's small his family's great, Rise up kind gentry and give us a treat! (_Rub-a-tub-tub-tub, on the drum_.)

Down with the kettle and up with the pan And give us money to bury the wren! _(Rub-a-tub.)_

We followed him twenty miles since morn, The Wrenboys are all tattered and torn. From Kyle-na-Gno we started late And here we are at this grand gate! _(Rub-a-tub.)_

He dipped his wing in a barrel of beer-- We wish you all a Happy New Year! Give us now money to buy him a bier And if you don't, we'll bury him here! (_Rub-a-tub, and fife_.)

(_Princes laugh and clap hands_.)

_1st Prince_: That is very good.

_2nd Prince_: We must give them some money to bury the wren!

_Guardian_: Come on then and I will give you some. They will be glad of it. Play now the harp as you go.

(_Princes go off playing, "Home, Sweet Home_." _The Wrenboys sit down_.)

_1st Wrenboy_: It is likely we'll get good treatment.

_Jester: (Coming forward.)_ Ye should be tired.

_2nd Wrenboy_: We should be, but that we have our feet well soled,--with the dust of the road!

_3rd Wrenboy_: If walking could tire us we might be tired. But we're as well pleased to be moving, where we have no house or home that you'll call a house or a home.

_Jester_: That's not so with those young princes. Wouldn't you be well pleased if ye could change places with them? (_He goes back to his corner_.)

_4th Wrenboy_: They are lovely kind young princes. I was near in dread they might set the dogs at us.

_5th Wrenboy_: They would do that if they knew the Ogre had sent us to spy out the place for him.

_1st Wrenboy_: It failed us to see what he wanted us to see. It is likely he will beat us, when we go back, with his cat-o'-nine-tails.

_2nd Wrenboy_: Wouldn't it be good if we could do as that Jester was saying and change places with those sons of kings! They that can lie in the sunshine on soft pillows.

_3rd Wrenboy_: They that can use food when they ask it, and not have to wait till they can find it, or steal it, or get it what way they can.

_3rd Wrenboy_: And not to be waiting till you'll hear a rabbit squealing, with the teeth of a weasel in his neck.

_4th Wrenboy_: And the weasel when you take it to be spitting poison at you, the same as a serpent.

_5th Wrenboy_: It would be a nice thing to be eating sweet red apples in place of the green crabs.

_1st Wrenboy_: Or to be maybe sucking marrow-bones.

_2nd Wrenboy_: It is likely they are as airy and as careless as the blackbird singing on the bush.

_3rd Wrenboy_: It's likely they go following after foxes on horses, having huntsmen and beagles at their feet.

_4th Wrenboy_: Or go out sporting and fowling with their greyhound and with their gun.

_5th Wrenboy_: Or matching fighting cocks.

_1st Wrenboy_: It's likely they lead a gentleman's life, card-playing and eating and drinking, and racing with jockeys in speckled clothes.

_2nd Wrenboy_: Their brooches were shining like green fire, the same as a marten cat's eyes. They have everything finer than another.

_3rd Wrenboy_: Their faces as clean as a linen sheet. Their hair as if combed with a silver comb.

_4th Wrenboy_: There is no one to so much as put a clean shirt on ourselves.

_5th Wrenboy: (Rubbing his hand_.) I never felt uneasy at the dirt that is grinted into me till I saw them so nice.

_1st Wrenboy_: That music they were playing put me in mind of some far thing. It is dreamed to me, and it is never leaving my mind, that there is something I remember in the long ago ... music in a house that was as bright as the moon, or as the brightest night of stars.

_5th Wrenboy_: Whisht! They are coming!

(_The Princes come back_.)

_1st Prince_: Here are coppers for you.

_2nd Prince_: And white money.

_3rd Prince_: And here is a piece of gold.

_3rd Wrenboy_: We are thankful to you! We'll bury the Wren in grand style now!

_4th Prince_: Have you far to go?

_1st Wrenboy_: Not very far if it was a straight road. But it is through the forest we go, beyond the lake.

_2nd Wrenboy_: We will hardly be there before the moon rises.

_1st Prince_: Are you afraid in the night time?

_2nd Wrenboy_: I am not. But I've seen a great deal of strange things at that time.

_2nd Prince_: What sort of things?

_2nd Wrenboy_: Fairies you'd see.

_3rd Prince_: Are there such things?

_2nd Wrenboy_: One night I was attending a pot-still, roasting oats for to make still-whiskey, and I seen hares coming out of the wood, by fours and by sixes, and they as thin as thin....

_3rd Wrenboy_: Hares are the biggest fairies of all.

_4th Wrenboy_: And down by the sea _I_ met a weasel bringing up a fish in his mouth from the tide. And I often seen seals there, seals that are enchanted and look like humans, and will hold up a hand the same as a Christian.

_5th Wrenboy_: I that saw a hedgehog running up the side of a mountain as swift as a racehorse.

_1st Wrenboy_: It's the moonlight is the only time!

_1st Prince_: I never saw the moon but through a window.

_1st Wrenboy_: That's the time to go ramble. _(He chants_.) You'll see the crane in the water standing, And never landing a fish, for fright, For he can but shiver seeing in the river His shadow shaking in the bright moonlight.

_2nd Wrenboy_: Or you may listen to the plover's whistle, When high above him the wild geese screech; Or the mallard flying, as the night is dying, His neck out-stretched towards the salt sea beach.

_3rd Wrenboy_: When dawn discloses the oak and shows us The wide sky whitening through the scanty ash, High in the beeches the furry creatures, Squirrel and marten lightly pass.

_4th Wrenboy_: The badger scurries to find his burrow The rabbit hurries to hide underground.

_5th Wrenboy_: The pigeon rouses the thrush that drowses, The woods awaken and the world goes round!

_1st Wrenboy_: Come now, it's time to be taking the road. Thank you, noble Gentlemen! That you may be doing the same thing this day fifty years! _(They go off playing fife and beating drum_.)

_1st Prince_: I would nearly wish to be in their place to go through the world at large.

_2nd Prince_: They can go visit strange cities, sailing in white-sailed ships.

_3rd Prince_: They have no lessons to learn.

_4th Prince_: No hours to keep. No clocks to strike.

_5th Prince_: No Lady Messengers coming to show off to.

_1st Prince_: They should be as merry as midges.

_2nd Prince_: As free as the March wind.

_3rd Prince_: I don't know how we stopped so long shut up in this place.

_4th Prince_: I would be nearly ready to change places with them if such a thing were possible.

_Jester: (Who has had his back to them comes forward; the Princes stand on his right in a half circle.)_ And why wouldn't you change?

_5th Prince_: It is a thing not possible.

_Jester_: I never could know the meaning of that word "impossible." Where there's a will there's a way.

_1st Prince_: It seems to me like the sound of a bell ringing a long way off, that I had leave at one time to go here and there.

_Jester_: If you are in earnest wanting to come to that freedom again you will get it.

_2nd Prince_: No, we would be followed and brought back through kindness.

_Jester_: If you have the strong wish to make the change you can make it.

_1st Prince_: I think I was never so much in earnest in all my life.

_(The Jester takes his pipe and plays a note on it. The Wrenboys come back beating their drum. They stand in a half circle on Jester's left.)_

_Jester: (To all.)_

If it's true ye wish to change, Some to have a wider range, Some to have an easy life, Some to rove into the wild, If you do it, do it fast, Do it while you have the chance.

_Wrenboys: (Together.)_ We will change! We will!

_Jester: (To Princes.)_

If you wish to leave your ease And live wild and free like these Like the fawn free and wild, Not closed in as is a child, Take your chance as it has come, Let you run and run and run, Where you'll get your joy and fun!

_2nd Prince:_ They will know us, they will know us!

_Jester:_ Change your clothes, change your clothes!

_3rd Prince:_ They will know us every place.

_Jester:_ Put their masks upon your face.

_(Wrenboys give them the masks.)_

You never will be missed For I will throw a dust Before everybody's eye That wants to look or pry To see if you are here,-- And if you should appear To be someway strange or queer They will think themselves are blind Or confused in the mind!

_(Throws a handful of dust over all the boys.)_

Dust of Mullein, work your spell; Keep the double secret well!

_5th Prince: (To a Wrenboy.)_

Give me here your coat now fast I don't want to be the last.

_(They all rapidly change coats and caps.)_

_Jester:_ That will do, that is enough.

_1st Wrenboy_: But my hands are very rough.

_Jester_:

Never mind; never mind, The truth is hard to find!

_Guardian: (Off stage.)_ Gillie, do as you are told, shut the door, it's getting cold.

_1st Prince_: Oh, I'm in dread! What will be said!

_2nd Prince_: I'd sooner stay in my old way!

_Jester_:

Never mind, never mind! The truth is hard to find! Keep steady. Are you ready?

_1st Wrenboy_: I'll be ashamed if I am blamed.

_2nd Wrenboy_: I have no grace or lovely face!

_Jester: (To Princes.)_ Too late, too late! Go out the gate!

(_The Princes have taken up fife and drum. They march out playing_.)

CURTAIN