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
