to your master; beg your life of him;
Show him the halter that is round your necks.
If his heart’s set upon it, he may die;
But you shall all die with him. [Goes up steps.
Beg your lives!
Begin, for you have little time to lose.
Begin it, you that are the oldest pupil.
OLDEST PUPIL.
Die, Seanchan, and proclaim the right of the poets.
KING.
Silence! you are as crazy as your master.
But that young boy, that seems the youngest of you,
I’d have him speak. Kneel down before him, boy;
Hold up your hands to him, that you may pluck
That milky-coloured neck out of the noose.
YOUNGEST PUPIL.
Die, Seanchan, and proclaim the right of the poets.
OLDEST PUPIL.
Gather the halters up into your hands
And drive us where you will, for in all things,
But in our Art, we are obedient.
[They hold the ends of the halter towards the KING. The KING comes slowly down steps.
KING.
Kneel down, kneel down; he has the greater power.
There is no power but has its root in his—
I understand it now. There is no power
But his that can withhold the crown or give it,
Or make it reverend in the eyes of men,
And therefore I have laid it in his hands,
And I will do his will.
[He has put the crown into SEANCHAN’S hands.
SEANCHAN.
[Who has been assisted to rise by his pupils.]
O crown! O crown!
It is but right the hands that made the crown
In the old time should give it where they please.
[He places the crown on the KING’S head.
O silver trumpets! Be you lifted up,
And cry to the great race that is to come.
Long-throated swans, amid the waves of Time,
Sing loudly, for beyond the wall of the world
It waits, and it may hear and come to us.
[The PUPILS blow a trumpet blast.
ON BAILE’S STRAND
To William Fay
BECAUSE OF THE BEAUTIFUL PHANTASY OF HIS
PLAYING IN THE CHARACTER OF
THE FOOL
PERSONS IN THE PLAY
A Fool
A Blind Man
Cuchulain, King of Muirthemne
Conchubar, High King of Ulad
A Young Man, Son of Cuchulain
Kings and Singing Women
ON BAILE’S STRAND
A great hall at Dundealgan, not ‘Cuchulain’s great ancient house’ but an assembly house nearer to the sea. A big door at the back, and through the door misty light as of sea mist. There are many chairs and one long bench. One of these chairs, which is towards the front of the stage, is bigger than the others. Somewhere at the back there is a table with flagons of ale upon it and drinking-horns. There is a small door at one side of the hall. A FOOL and BLIND MAN, both ragged, come in through the door at the back. The BLIND MAN leans upon a staff.
FOOL.
What a clever man you are though you are blind! There’s nobody with two eyes in his head that is as clever as you are. Who but you could have thought that the henwife sleeps every day a little at noon? I would never be able to steal anything if you didn’t tell me where to look for it. And what a good cook you are! You take the fowl out of my hands after I have stolen it and plucked it, and you put it into the big pot at the fire there, and I can go out and run races with the witches at the edge of the waves and get an appetite, and when I’ve got it, there’s the hen waiting inside for me, done to the turn.
BLIND MAN.
[Who is feeling about with his stick.]
Done to the turn.
FOOL.
[Putting his arm round Blind Man’s neck.]
Come now, I’ll have a leg and you’ll have a leg, and we’ll draw lots for the wish-bone. I’ll be praising you, I’ll be praising you, while we’re eating it, for your good plans and for your good cooking. There’s nobody in the world like you, Blind Man. Come, come. Wait a minute. I shouldn’t have closed the door. There are some that look for me, and I wouldn’t like them not to find me. Don’t tell it to anybody, Blind Man. There are some that follow me. Boann herself out of the river and Fand out of the deep sea. Witches they are, and they come by in the wind, and they cry, ‘Give a kiss, Fool, give a kiss,’ that’s what they cry. That’s wide enough. All the witches can come in now. I wouldn’t have them beat at the door and say: ‘Where is the Fool? Why has he put a lock on the door?’ Maybe they’ll hear the bubbling of the pot and come in and sit on the ground. But we won’t give them any of the fowl. Let them go back to the sea, let them go back to the sea.
BLIND MAN.
[Feeling legs of big chair with his hands.]
Ah! [Then, in a louder voice as he feels the back of it.] Ah—ah—
