you are Countess Cathleen?And this woman,
Oona, my nurse, should have remembered it,
For we were happy for a long time there.
The paths are overgrown with thickets now,
Or else some change has come upon my sight.
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.
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.
And it were stranger still were I ungrateful
For such kind welcome – but I must be gone,
For the night's gathering in.
It is a long while
Since I've set eyes on bread or on what buys it.
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.)
Beautiful lady, give me something too;
I fell but now, being weak with hunger and thirst
And lay upon the threshold like a log.
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.)
What, music, music!
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.
I have said nothing, lady.
Why should the like of us complain?
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.)
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.)
So that fool's gone.
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.
You never thanked her ladyship.
Thank her,
For seven halfpence and a silver bit?
But for this empty purse?
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.
We have all she had;
She emptied out the purse before our eyes.
Leave that door open.
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.
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.
So that they brought us money.
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.
But dream of gold
For
