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+Project Gutenberg's Where There is Nothing, by William Butler Yeats
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Where There is Nothing
+       Being Volume I of Plays for an Irish Theatre
+
+Author: William Butler Yeats
+
+Release Date: December 20, 2011 [EBook #38349]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE THERE IS NOTHING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brian Foley, Stephanie McKee and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+_BY THE SAME WRITER._
+
+  THE SECRET ROSE.
+  THE CELTIC TWILIGHT.
+  POEMS.
+  THE WIND AMONG THE REEDS.
+  THE SHADOWY WATERS.
+  IDEAS OF GOOD AND EVIL.
+
+
+
+
+PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE
+
+VOLUME I.
+
+
+
+
+WHERE THERE IS NOTHING:
+
+  BEING VOLUME ONE OF PLAYS
+  FOR AN IRISH THEATRE: BY
+  W. B. YEATS
+
+
+  LONDON: A. H. BULLEN, 47, GREAT
+  RUSSELL STREET, W.C. 1903
+
+
+
+
+  CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
+  TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION OF VOLUMES ONE AND TWO OF PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE.
+
+
+My dear Lady Gregory, I dedicate to you two volumes of plays
+that are in part your own.
+
+When I was a boy I used to wander about at Rosses Point and Ballisodare
+listening to old songs and stories. I wrote down what I heard and made
+poems out of the stories or put them into the little chapters of the
+first edition of "The Celtic Twilight," and that is how I began to write
+in the Irish way.
+
+Then I went to London to make my living, and though I spent a part of
+every year in Ireland and tried to keep the old life in my memory by
+reading every country tale I could find in books or old newspapers, I
+began to forget the true countenance of country life. The old tales were
+still alive for me indeed, but with a new, strange, half unreal life, as
+if in a wizard's glass, until at last, when I had finished "The Secret
+Rose," and was half-way through "The Wind Among the Reeds," a wise woman
+in her trance told me that my inspiration was from the moon, and that I
+should always live close to water, for my work was getting too full of
+those little jewelled thoughts that come from the sun and have no
+nation. I had no need to turn to my books of astrology to know that the
+common people are under the moon, or to Porphyry to remember the
+image-making power of the waters. Nor did I doubt the entire truth of
+what she said to me, for my head was full of fables that I had no longer
+the knowledge and emotion to write. Then you brought me with you to see
+your friends in the cottages, and to talk to old wise men on Slieve
+Echtge, and we gathered together, or you gathered for me, a great number
+of stories and traditional beliefs. You taught me to understand again,
+and much more perfectly than before, the true countenance of country
+life.
+
+One night I had a dream almost as distinct as a vision, of a cottage
+where there was well-being and firelight and talk of a marriage, and
+into the midst of that cottage there came an old woman in a long cloak.
+She was Ireland herself, that Cathleen ni Hoolihan for whom so many
+songs have been sung and about whom so many stories have been told and
+for whose sake so many have gone to their death. I thought if I could
+write this out as a little play I could make others see my dream as I
+had seen it, but I could not get down out of that high window of
+dramatic verse, and in spite of all you had done for me I had not the
+country speech. One has to live among the people, like you, of whom an
+old man said in my hearing, "She has been a serving-maid among us,"
+before one can think the thoughts of the people and speak with their
+tongue. We turned my dream into the little play, "Cathleen ni Hoolihan,"
+and when we gave it to the little theatre in Dublin and found that the
+working people liked it, you helped me to put my other dramatic fables
+into speech. Some of these have already been acted, but some may not be
+acted for a long time, but all seem to me, though they were but a part
+of a summer's work, to have more of that countenance of country life
+than anything I have done since I was a boy.
+
+W. B. Yeats.
+
+_Feb. 1903._
+
+
+
+
+  Paul Ruttledge, a Country Gentleman.
+  Thomas Ruttledge, his Brother.
+  Mrs. Thomas Ruttledge.
+  Mr. Dowler,          }
+  Mr. Algie,           } Magistrates.
+  Colonel Lawley,      }
+  Mr. Joyce,           }
+  Mr. Green, a Stipendiary Magistrate.
+  Sabina Silver,            }
+  Molly the Scold,          }
+  Charlie Ward,             } Tinkers.
+  Paddy Cockfight,          }
+  Tommy the Song,           }
+  Johneen, etc.             }
+  Father Jerome,       }
+  Father Aloysius,     } Friars.
+  Father Colman,       }
+  Father Bartley,      }
+  Other Friars, and a crowd of countrymen.
+
+
+
+
+WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
+
+
+
+
+ACT I.
+
+
+     Scene: _A lawn with croquet hoops, garden chairs and
+     tables. Door into house at left. Gate through hedge at back. The
+     hedge is clipped into shapes of farmyard fowl._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE
+     _is clipping at the hedge in front. A table with toys
+     on it._
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ [_Coming out on steps._] Paul, are you
+coming in to lunch?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No; you can entertain these people very well. They
+are your friends: you understand them.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ You might as well come in. You have been
+clipping at that old hedge long enough.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You needn't worry about me. I should be bored if I
+went in, and I don't want to be bored more than is necessary.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ What is that creature you are clipping at now? I
+can't make it out.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, it is a Cochin China fowl, an image of some of
+our neighbours, like the others.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ I don't see any likeness to anyone.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, yes there is, if you could see their minds
+instead of their bodies. That comb now----
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ [_Coming out on steps._] Thomas, are you
+coming in?
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Yes, I'm coming; but Paul won't come.
+
+     [THOMAS RUTTLEDGE _goes out._
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Oh! this is nonsense, Paul; you must come. All
+these men will think it so strange if you don't. It is nonsense to think
+you will be bored. Mr. Green is talking in the most interesting way.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! I know Green's conversation very well.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ And Mr. Joyce, your old guardian. Thomas says he
+was always so welcome in your father's time, he will think it so queer.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! I know all their virtues. There's Dowler, who
+puts away thousands a year in Consols, and Algie, who tells everybody all
+about it. Have I forgotten anybody? Oh, yes! Colonel Lawley, who used to
+lift me up by the ears, when I was a child, to see Africa. No, Georgina,
+I know all their virtues, but I'm not coming in.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ I can't imagine why you won't come in and be
+sociable.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You see I can't. I have something to do here. I
+have to finish this comb. You see it is a beautiful comb; but the wings
+are very short. The poor creature can't fly.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ But can't you finish that after lunch?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No, I have sworn.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Well, I am sorry. You are always doing
+uncomfortable things. I must go in to the others. I wish you would have
+come. [_She goes in._
+
+_Jerome._ [_Who has come to gate as she disappears._] Paul, you
+there! that is lucky. I was just going to ask for you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Flinging clipper away, and jumping up._]
+Oh, Father Jerome, I am delighted to see you. I haven't seen you for ever
+so long. Come and have a talk; or will you have some lunch?
+
+_Jerome._ No, thank you; I will stay a minute, but I won't go in.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That is just as well, for you would be bored to
+death. There has been a meeting of magistrates in the village, and my
+brother has brought them all in to lunch.
+
+_Jerome._ I am collecting for the Monastery, and my donkey has gone
+lame; I have had to put it up in the village. I thought you might be
+able to lend me one to go on with.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Of course, I'm delighted to lend you that or
+anything else. I'll go round to the yard with you and order it. But sit
+down here first. What have you been doing all this time?
+
+_Jerome._ Oh, we have been very busy. You know we are going to put
+up new buildings.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Absent-mindedly._] No, I didn't know that.
+
+_Jerome._ Yes, our school is increasing so much we are getting a
+grant for technical instruction. Some of the Fathers are learning
+handicrafts. Father Aloysius is going to study industries in France; but
+we are all busy. We are changing with the times, we are beginning to do
+useful things.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Useful things. I wonder what you have begun to
+call useful things. Do you see those marks over there on the grass?
+
+_Jerome._ What marks?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Those marks over there, those little marks of
+scratching.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Going over to the place_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _has
+pointed out._] I don't see anything.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You are getting blind, Jerome. Can't you see that
+the poultry have been scratching there?
+
+_Jerome._ No, the grass is perfectly smooth.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, the marks are there, whether you see them
+or not; for Mr. Green and Mr. Dowler and Mr. Algie and the rest of them
+run out of their houses when nobody is looking, in their real shapes,
+shapes like those on my hedge. And then they begin to scratch, they
+scratch all together, they don't dig but they scratch, and all the time
+their mouths keep going like that.
+
+     [_He holds out his hand and opens and shuts his fingers like a
+     bird's bill._
+
+_Jerome._ Oh, Paul, you are making fun of me.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Of course I am only talking in parables. I think
+all the people I meet are like farmyard creatures, they have forgotten
+their freedom, their human bodies are a disguise, a pretence they keep
+up to deceive one another.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Sitting down._] What is wrong with you?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, nothing of course. You see how happy I am. I
+have a good house and a good property, and my brother and his charming
+wife have come to look after me. You see the toys of their children here
+and everywhere. What should be wrong with me?
+
+_Jerome._ I know you too well not to see that there is something
+wrong with you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There is nothing except that I have been thinking
+a good deal lately.
+
+_Jerome._ Perhaps your old dreams or visions or whatever they were
+have come back. They always made you restless. You ought to see more of
+your neighbours.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There's nothing interesting but human nature, and
+that's in the single soul, but these neighbours of mine they think in
+flocks and roosts.
+
+_Jerome._ You are too hard on them. They are busy men, they hav'n't
+much time for thought, I daresay.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That's what I complain of. When I hear these
+people talking I always hear some organized or vested interest chirp or
+quack, as it does in the newspapers. Algie chirps. Even you, Jerome,
+though I have not found your armorial beast, are getting a little
+monastic; when I have found it I will put it among the others. There is a
+place for it there, but the worst of it is that it will take so long
+getting nice and green.
+
+_Jerome._ I don't know what creature you could make for me.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am not sure yet; I think it might be a pigeon,
+something cooing and gentle, and always coming home to the dovecot; not
+to the wild woods but to the dovecot.
+
+_Jerome._ I wonder what creature you yourself are like.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I daresay I am like some creature or other, for
+very few of us are altogether men; but if I am, I would like to be one
+of the wild sort. You are right about my dreams. They have been coming
+back lately. Do you remember those strange ones I had at college?
+
+_Jerome._ Those visions of pulling something down?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, they have come back to me lately. Sometimes I
+dream I am pulling down my own house, and sometimes it is the whole
+world that I am pulling down. [_Standing up._] I would like to have
+great iron claws, and to put them about the pillars, and to pull and
+pull till everything fell into pieces.
+
+_Jerome._ I don't see what good that would do you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, yes it would. When everything was pulled down
+we would have more room to get drunk in, to drink contentedly out of the
+cup of life, out of the drunken cup of life.
+
+_Jerome._ That is a terribly wild thought. I hope you don't believe
+all you say.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Perhaps not. I only know that I want to upset
+everything about me. Have you not noticed that it is a complaint many of
+us have in this country? and whether it comes from love or hate I don't
+know, they are so mixed together here.
+
+_Jerome._ I wish you would come and talk to our Superior. He has a
+perfect gift for giving advice.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, we'll go to the yard now. [_He gets
+up._
+
+_Jerome._ I have often thought you would come to the Monastery
+yourself in the end. You were so much the most pious of us all at
+school. You would be happy in a Monastery. Something is always happening
+there.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_As they go up the garden._] I daresay, I
+daresay; but I am not even sure that I am a Christian.
+
+_Jerome._ Well, anyway, I wish that you would come and talk to our
+Superior. [_They go out._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     CHARLIE WARD _and_ BOY _enter by the path beyond
+     the hedge and stand at gate._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ No use going up there, Johneen, it's too grand a
+place, it's a dog they might let loose on us. But I'll tell you what,
+just slip round to the back door and ask do they want any cans mended.
+
+_Johneen._ Let you take the rabbit then we're after taking out of
+the snare. I can't bring it round with me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Faith, you can't. They think as bad of us taking a
+rabbit that was fed and minded by God as if it was of their own rearing;
+give it here to me. It's hardly it will go in my pocket, it's as big as
+a hare. It's next my skin I'll have to put it, or it might be noticed on
+me. [_Boy goes out._
+
+     [CHARLIE WARD _is struggling to put rabbit inside his
+     coat when_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _comes back._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Is there anything I can do for you? Do you want to
+come in?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ I'm a tinker by trade, your honour. I wonder is
+there e'er a tin can the maids in the house might want mended or any
+chairs to be bottomed?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ A tinker; where do you live?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Faith, I don't stop long in any place. I go about
+like the crows; picking up my way of living like themselves.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Opening gate._] Come inside here.
+[CHARLIE WARD _hesitates._] Come in, you are welcome.
+
+     [_Puts his hand on his shoulder._ CHARLIE WARD _tries to
+     close his shirt over rabbit._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah, you have a rabbit there. The keeper told me
+he had come across some snares in my woods.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ If he did, sir, it was no snare of mine he found.
+This is a rabbit I bought in the town of Garreen early this morning.
+Sixpence I was made give for it, and to mend a tin can along with that.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Touching rabbit._] It's warm still, however.
+But the day is hot. Never mind; you are quite welcome to it. I daresay
+you will have a cheery meal of it by the roadside; my dinners are often
+tiresome enough. I often wish I could change--look here, will you change
+clothes with me?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Faith, I'd swap soon enough if you weren't humbugging
+me. It's I that would look well with that suit on me! The peelers would
+all be touching their caps to me. You'd see them running out for me to
+sign summonses for them.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ But I am not humbugging. I am in earnest.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ In earnest! Then when I go back I'll commit Paddy
+Cockfight to prison for hitting me yesterday.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You don't believe me, but I will explain. I'm dead
+sick of this life; I want to get away; I want to escape--as you say, to
+pick up my living like the crows for a while.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ To make your escape. Oh! that's different. [_Coming
+closer._] But what is it you did? You don't look like one that would be
+in trouble. But sometimes a gentleman gets a bit wild when he has a drop
+taken.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, never mind. I will explain better while we are
+changing. Come over here to the potting shed. Make haste, those
+magistrates will be coming out.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ The magistrates! Are they after you? Hurry on, then!
+Faith, they won't know you with this coat. [_Looking at his rags._] It's a
+pity I didn't put on my old one coming out this morning.
+
+     [_They go out through the garden._ THOMAS RUTTLEDGE _comes
+     down steps from house with_ COLONEL LAWLEY _and_
+     MR. GREEN.
+
+_Mr. Green._ Yes, they have made me President of the County
+Horticultural Society. My speech was quite a success; it was punctuated
+with applause. I said I looked upon the appointment not as a tribute to
+my own merits, but to their public spirit and to the Society, which I
+assured them had come to stay.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ What has become of Paul and Father Jerome? I thought
+I heard their voices out here, and now they are conspicuous by their
+absence.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ He seems to have no friend he cares for but that
+Father Jerome.
+
+_Mr. Green._ I wish he would come more into touch with his fellows.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ What a pity he didn't go into the army. I wish he
+would join the militia. Every man should try to find some useful sphere
+of employment.
+
+_Mr. Green._ Thomas, your brother will never come to see me, though
+I often ask him. He would find the best people--people worth meeting--at
+my house. I wonder if he would join the Horticultural Society? I know I
+voice the sentiments of all the members in saying this. I spoke to a
+number of them at the function the other day.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ I wish he would join something. Joyce wants him
+to join the Masonic Lodge. It is not a right life for him to keep hanging
+about the place and doing nothing.
+
+_Mr. Green._ He won't even come and sit on the Bench. It's not fair
+to leave so much of the work to me. I ought to get all the support
+possible from local men.
+
+     [MRS. RUTTLEDGE _comes down steps with_ MR. DOWLER,
+     MR. ALGIE, _and_ MR. JOYCE. _She is walking in front._
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ [_To_ THOMAS RUTTLEDGE.] Oh! Thomas, isn't it
+too bad, Paul has lent the donkey to that friar. I wanted Mr. Joyce to
+see the children in their panniers. Do speak to him about it.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Well, the donkey belongs to him, and for the
+matter of that so does the house and the place. It would be rather hard
+on him not to be able to use things as he likes.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ What a pleasure it must be to Paul to have you and the
+little ones living here. He certainly owes you a debt of gratitude. Man
+was not born to live alone.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Well, I think we have done him good. He hasn't done
+anything for years, except mope about the house and cut the bushes into
+those absurd shapes, and now we are trying to make him live more like
+other people.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ He was always inclined to be a bit of a faddist.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ [_To_ MR. ALGIE.] Do let me give you a lesson in
+croquet. I have learned all the new rules. [_To_ MR. JOYCE.] Please
+bring me that basket of balls. [_To COLONEL LAWLEY._] Will you
+bring me the mallets? Yes, I am afraid he is a faddist. We have done our
+best for him, but he ought to be more with men.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Yes, Mr. Dowler was just saying he ought to try and be
+made a director of the new railway.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ The militia--the militia.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ It's a great help to a man to belong to a Masonic Lodge.
+
+_Mr. Green._ The Horticultural Society is in want of new members.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Well, I wish he would join something.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     _Enter_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _in tinker's clothes, carrying a rabbit in
+     his hand._ CHARLIE WARD _follows in_ PAUL'S _clothes. All stand
+     aghast._
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Good God!
+
+     [_Drops basket._ COLONEL LAWLEY, _who has mallets in his hand, at
+     sight of_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _drops them, and stands still._
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Paul! are you out of your mind?
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ For goodness' sake, Paul, don't make such a fool of
+yourself.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ What on earth has happened, and who on earth is that
+man?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Opens gate for tinker. To_ CHARLIE WARD.] Wait for
+me, my friend, down there by the cross-road. [CHARLIE WARD _goes out._
+
+_Mr. Green._ Has he stolen your clothes?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! it's all right; I have changed clothes with him. I
+am going to join the tinkers.
+
+_All._ To join the tinkers!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Life is getting too monotonous; I would give it a
+little variety. [_To_ MR. GREEN.] As you would say, it has been running
+in grooves.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ [_To_ MRS. RUTTLEDGE.] This is only his humbugging
+talk; he never believes what he says.
+
+     [PAUL RUTTLEDGE _goes towards the steps._
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Surely you are not going into the house with those
+clothes?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You are quite right. Thomas will go in for me. [_To_
+THOMAS RUTTLEDGE.] Just go to my study, will you, and bring me my
+despatch-box; I want something from it before I go.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Where are you going to? I wish you would tell me
+what you are at.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ The despatch-box is on the top of the bureau.
+
+     [_THOMAS RUTTLEDGE goes out._
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ What does all this mean?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I will explain. [_Sits down on the edge of iron
+table._] Did you never wish to be a witch, and to ride through the air
+on a white horse?
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ I can't say I ever did.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Never? Only think of it--to ride in the darkness under
+the stars, to make one's horse leap from cloud to cloud, to watch the
+sea glittering under one's feet and the mountain tops going by.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ But what has this to do with the tinkers?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ As I cannot find a broomstick that will turn itself
+into a white horse, I am going to turn tinker.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ I suppose you have some picturesque idea about these
+people, but I assure you, you are quite wrong. They are nothing but
+poachers.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ They are nothing but thieves.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ They are the worst class in the country.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, I know that; they are quite lawless. That is what
+attracts me to them. I am going to be irresponsible.
+
+_Mr. Green._ One cannot escape from responsibility by joining a set of
+vagabonds.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Vagabonds--that is it. I want to be a vagabond, a
+wanderer. As I can't leap from cloud to cloud I want to wander from road
+to road. That little path there by the clipped edge goes up to the
+highroad. I want to go up that path and to walk along the highroad, and
+so on and on and on, and to know all kinds of people. Did you ever think
+that the roads are the only things that are endless; that one can walk
+on and on and on, and never be stopped by a gate or a wall? They are
+the serpent of eternity. I wonder they have never been worshipped. What
+are the stars beside them? They never meet one another. The roads are
+the only things that are infinite. They are all endless.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ But they must stop when they come to the sea?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! you are always so wise.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Stop talking nonsense, Paul, and throw away those filthy
+things.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That would be setting cleanliness before godliness. I
+have begun the regeneration of my soul.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ I don't see what godliness has got to do with it.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Nor I either.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There was a saint who said, "I must rejoice without
+ceasing, although the world shudder at my joy." He did not think he
+could save his soul without it. I agree with him, and as I was
+discontented here, I thought it time to make a change. Like that worthy
+man, I must be content to shock my friends.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ But you had everything here you could want.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That's just it. You who are so wealthy, you of all
+people should understand that I want to get rid of all that
+responsibility, answering letters and so on. It is not worth the trouble
+of being rich if one has to answer letters. Could you ever understand,
+Georgina, that one gets tired of many charming things? There are family
+responsibilities [_to_ MR. JOYCE], but I can see that you, who were my
+guardian, sympathize with me in that.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Indeed I do not.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ I should think you could be cheerful without ceasing
+to be a gentleman.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You are thinking of my clothes. We must feel at ease
+with the people we live amongst. I shall feel at ease with the great
+multitude in these clothes. I am beginning to be a man of the world. I
+am the beggarman of all the ages--I have a notion Homer wrote something
+about me.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ He is either making fun of us or talking great rot. I
+can't listen to any more of this nonsense. I can't see why a man with
+property can't let well alone. Algie are you coming my way?
+
+     [_They both go into the house, and come out presently with umbrella
+     and coat._
+
+_Mr. Green._ Depend upon it, he's going to write a book. There was a man
+who made quite a name for himself by sleeping in a casual ward.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! no, I'm not going to write about it; if one writes
+one can do nothing else. I am going to express myself in life. [_To_
+THOMAS RUTTLEDGE _who has returned with box._] I hope soon to live by the
+work of my hands, but every trade has to be learned, and I must take
+something to start with. [_To_ MRS. RUTTLEDGE.] Do you think you will
+have any kettles to mend when I come this way again?
+
+     [_He has taken box from_ THOMAS RUTTLEDGE _and unlocked it._
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ I can't make head or tail of what you are at.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ What he is at is fads.
+
+_Mr. Green._ I don't think his motive is far to seek. He has some idea
+of going back to the dark ages. Rousseau had some idea of the same kind,
+but it didn't work.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes; I want to go back to the dark ages.
+
+_Mr. Green._ Do you want to lose all the world has gained since then?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ What has it gained? I am among those who think that
+sin and death came into the world the day Newton eat the apple. [_To_
+MRS. RUTTLEDGE, _who is going to speak._] I know you are going to tell me
+he only saw it fall. Never mind, it is all the same thing.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ [_Beginning to cry._] Oh! he is going mad!
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ I'm afraid he is really leaving us.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Who has been looking at papers, tearing one or two,
+etc., takes out a packet of notes, which he puts in his breast._] I
+daresay this will last me long enough, Thomas. I am not robbing you of
+very much. Well, good-bye. [_Pats him gently on the shoulder._] I
+mustn't forget the rabbit, it may be my dinner to-night; I wonder who
+will skin it. Good-bye, Colonel, I think I've astonished you to-day.
+[_Slaps his shoulder._] That was too hard, was it? Forgive it, you know
+I'm a common man now. [_Lifts his hat and goes out of gate. Closes it
+after him and stands with his hands on it, and speaks with the voice of
+a common man._] Go on, live in your poultry-yard. Scratch straw and
+cluck and cackle at everything that you take for a fox. [_Exit._
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ [_Goes to_ MRS. RUTTLEDGE, _who has sat down and is wiping
+her eyes._] I am very sorry for this, for his father's sake, but it may
+be as well in the end. If it comes to the worst, you and Thomas will
+keep up the family name better than he would have done.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ He'll find the poor very different from what he thinks
+when they pick his pocket.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ To think that a magistrate should have such fads!
+
+_Mr. Green._ I venture to say you will see him here in a very different
+state of mind in a week.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ [_Who has been in a brown study._] He has done for himself
+in this world and the next. Why, he won't be asked to a single shoot if
+this is heard of.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ [_Turning from the gate._] Here are the children,
+Georgina. Don't say anything before the nurse.
+
+_Mr. Green._ Well, I must be off. [_Goes in for stick._
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Just bring me out my coat, Green.
+
+     [_They all prepare to go._ MRS. RUTTLEDGE _has gone to open gate and
+     children come in, one in a perambulator. All gather round them
+     admiringly._
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Have you a kiss for godfather to-day?
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ The poor darlings! I hope they will never know what
+has happened.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ Thank goodness, they have no nonsense in their heads.
+We know where we are with them.
+
+
+CURTAIN.
+
+
+
+
+ACT II.
+
+
+     Scene: _By the roadside. A wall of unmortared stone in the
+     background. Tinkers' encampment. Men, women, and children standing
+     round._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _standing by a fire._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ What do you mean by "tinning" the soldering iron?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ If the face of it is not well tinned it won't lift the
+solder. Show me here.
+
+     [_Takes soldering iron from_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S _hand._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sitting down and drawing a tin can to him._] Now,
+let me see how you mend this hole. It seems easy. I'm sure I will be
+able to learn it as well as any of you.
+
+     [_Two tinkers come and stand over him._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Pointing to one of them._] This, sir, is Tommy the
+Song. He's the best singer we have, but the divil a much good he is only
+that. He's a great warrant to snare hares.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ Is the gentleman going to join us?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Indeed I am, if you'll let me. There's nothing I'd
+like better.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ But are you going to learn the trade?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, if you'll teach me. I'm sure I'll make a good
+tinker. Look at that now, see how I've stopped that hole already.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Taking the can from him and looking at it._] If every
+can had a little hole in the middle like that, I think you _would_ be
+able to mend them; but there's the straight hole, and the crooked hole,
+the round hole, the square hole, the angle hole, the bottom hole, the
+top hole, the side leak, the open leak, the leak-all-round, but I won't
+frighten you with the names of them all, only this I will say, that,
+when you've learned to mend all the leakages in a can--and that should
+take you a year--you're only in the first day of the tinker's week.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ Don't believe him. He's only humbugging you. It's not
+the hardness of the work will daunt you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Thank you. I was not believing him at all. I'm quite
+sure I'll be able to mend any can at the end of a week, but the
+bottoming of them will take longer. I can see that's not so easy. When
+will you start to teach me that, Charlie?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_As another tinker comes up._] Paddy, here's the
+gentleman I was telling you about. He's going to join us for good and
+all. [_To_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Wait till we have time and some quiet place,
+and he'll show you as good a cockfight as ever you saw. [_A woman comes
+up._] This is his wife; Molly the Scold we call her; faith, she is a
+better fighter than any cock he ever had in a basket; he'd find it hard
+to shut the lid on her.
+
+_Molly the Scold._ The gentleman seems foolish. Is he all there?
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ Stop your chat, Molly, or I'll hit you a welt.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Keep your tongue quiet, Molly. If the gentleman has
+reasons for keeping out of the way it isn't for us to be questioning
+him. [_To_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Don't mind her, she's cross enough, but
+maybe your own ladies would be cross as well if they saw their young
+sons dying by the roadside in a little kennel of straw under the
+ass-cart the way she did; from first to last.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I suppose you have your troubles like others. But you
+seem cheerful enough.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ It isn't anything to fret about. Some of us go soon, and
+some travel the roads for their lifetime. What does it matter when we
+are under the nettles if it was with a short rope or a long one we were
+hanged?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, that is the way to take life. What does the
+length of our rope matter?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ We haven't time to be thinking of troubles like people
+that would be shut up in a house. We have the wide world before us to
+make our living out of. The people of the whole world are begrudging us
+our living, and we make it out of them for all that. When they will
+spread currant cakes and feather beds before us, it will be time for us
+to sit down and fret.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ It's likely you'll think the life too hard. Would you
+like to be passing by houses in the night-time, and the fire shining out
+of them, and you hardly given the loan of a sod to light your pipe, and
+the rain falling on you?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Why are the people so much against you?
+
+_Tommy the Song._ We are not like themselves. It's little we care about
+them or they about us. If their saint did curse us itself----
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Stop. I won't have you talking about that story here.
+Why would they think so much of the curse of one saint, and saints so
+plenty?
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ Where's the good of a gentleman being here? He'll be
+breaking down on the road. It's on the ass-cart he'll be wanting to sit.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ Indeed, I don't think he'll stand the hardship.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, I'll stand it well enough.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ You're not like us that were reared to it. You were
+not born like us with wandering in the heart.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh yes, I have wandering in the heart. I got sick of
+these lighted rooms you were talking of just now.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ That might be so. It's the dark is welcome to a man
+sometimes.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ The dark. Yes, I think that is what I want. [_Stands
+up._] The dark, where there is nothing that is anything, and nobody that
+is anybody; one can be free there, where there is nothing. Well, if you
+let me stay with you, I don't think you will hear any complaints from
+me. Charlie Ward, Paddy, and the rest of you, I want you to understand
+that from this out I am one of yourselves. I'll live as you live and do
+as you do.
+
+     [JOHNEEN _and other children come running in._
+
+_Johneen._ I was on the top of the bank and I seen a priest coming down
+the cross-road with his ass. It's collecting he is. We're going to set
+ourselves here to beg something from him.
+
+_Another Child._ [_Breathlessly._] And he has a whole lot of things on
+the ass. A whole lot of things up behind him.
+
+_Another Child._ O boys, O boys, we'll have our dealing trick out of
+them yet. The best way'll be---- [_He suddenly catches sight of_ PAUL
+RUTTLEDGE.] Whist, ye divils ye, don't you see the new gentleman?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Speak out, boys; don't be afraid of me; I'm one of
+yourselves now.
+
+_Child._ Oh! but we were going to---- But I won't tell you. [_To the
+other_ children.] Come away here, and we'll not tell him what we'll do.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] What are they going to do?
+They're putting their heads together.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ They're going to put a bush across the road, and when
+the friar gets down to pull it out of the way they'll snap what they can
+off the ass, and away with them.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And why wouldn't they tell me that? Am I not one of
+yourselves?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Ah! It's likely they'll never trust you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ But they will soon see that I am one of themselves.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ No; but that's the very thing, you're not one of
+ourselves. You were not born on the road, reared on the road, married on
+the road like us.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, it's too late for me to be reared on the road,
+but I don't see why I shouldn't marry on the road like you. I certainly
+would do it if it would make me one of you.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ It might make you one of us, there's no doubt about
+that. It's the only thing that would do it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, find a wife for me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Faith, you haven't far to go to find one. Paddy there
+will give you over his wife quick enough; he won't make a hard bargain
+over her.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ But I am in earnest. I want to cut myself off from my
+old life.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Oh! I was forgetting that.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ [_To_ MOLLY.] I wonder what was it he did? I wonder had
+he the misfortune to kill anybody?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Calling_ SABINA _over._] Here's a girl should make a
+good wife, Sabina Silver her name is. Her father is just dead; he didn't
+treat her over well.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ [_Coming over._] What is it?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ This gentleman wants to speak to you. I think he's
+looking out for a wife.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ [_Hanging her head._] Don't be humbugging me.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Indeed he's not, Sabina.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ You're only joking a poor girl. Sure, what would make
+you think of me at all?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Sabina, have you been always on the road with Charlie
+Ward and the others?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I have, indeed.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And you'd make a good tinker's wife?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ You're joking me, but I would be a better wife for a
+tinker than for anyone else.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Sabina, will you marry me?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Oh! but I'd be afraid.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Why, Sabina?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I'd be afraid you'd beat me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ You see her father used to beat her. She's afraid of the
+look of a man now.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I would not beat you, Sabina. How can you have got
+such an idea?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Will you promise me that you won't beat me? Will you
+swear it to me?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Of course I will.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ [_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] Will you make him swear it?
+Haven't you a little book in your pack? Bring it out and make him swear
+to me on it, and you'll be my witness.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ I think, Sibby, you need not be afraid.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ What's your name, gentleman?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ My name is Paul. Do you like it?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Then I won't marry you, Mr. Paul, till you swear to me
+upon the book that you will never beat me with any stick that you could
+call a stick, and that you will never strike a kick on me from behind.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Charlie, go and bring out that book to satisfy her. Of
+course I swear that; it is absurd.
+
+     [CHARLIE WARD _brings the book out of his pack._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I swear, Sabina, that I will never strike you with any
+stick of any kind, and that I will never kick you. There, will that do?
+[_He takes book and kisses it._
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I misdoubt you. Kiss the book again. [PAUL RUTTLEDGE
+_kisses it._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ That's all right.
+
+_A Child._ [_Crying from a distance._] He's coming now, the priest's
+coming!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Then the priest will marry us. That comes in very
+handy.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Scornfully._] A priest marry you, indeed he'll do
+nothing of the kind. I hate priests and friars. It's unlucky to get
+talking to them at all. You never know what trouble you're in for.
+
+_A Child._ [_Coming up._] That's true, indeed. The last time I spoke to
+a priest it's what he leathered me with a stick; may the divil fly away
+with him.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ But somebody must marry us.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Of course. You'll lep over the tinker's budget the usual
+way. You'll just marry her by lepping over the budget the same as the
+rest of us marry.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That's all I want to know. Please marry me in whatever
+is your usual way.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     JEROME _enters, leading the ass. He carries a pig's cheek, some
+     groceries, a string of onions, etc., on the ass, which still has
+     its nursery trappings. He goes up to_ CHARLIE WARD _thinking he is_
+     PAUL RUTTLEDGE.
+
+_Jerome._ Paul, what are you doing here?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Turning._] What do you want?
+
+_Jerome._ Oh! I'm mistaken. I thought----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am here, Father Jerome, but you're talking to the
+wrong man.
+
+_Jerome._ Good God, Paul, what has happened?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Nothing has happened that need surprise you. Don't you
+remember what we talked of to-day? You told me I was too much by myself.
+After you went away I thought I would make a change.
+
+_Jerome._ But a change like this!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Why should you find fault with it? I am richer now
+than I was then. I only lent you that donkey then, now I give him to
+you.
+
+_Jerome._ What has brought you among such people as these?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I find them on the whole better company than the
+people I left a little while ago. Let me introduce you to----
+
+_Jerome._ What can you possibly gain by coming here? Are you going to
+try and teach them?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! no, I am going to learn from them.
+
+_Jerome._ What can you learn from them?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ To pick up my living like the crows, and to solder tin
+cans. Just give me that one I mended a while ago.
+
+     [_Holds it out to_ FATHER JEROME.
+
+_Jerome._ That is all nonsense.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am happy. Do not your saints put all opponents to
+the rout by saying they alone of all mankind are happy?
+
+_Jerome._ I suppose you will not compare the happiness of these people
+with the happiness of saints?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There are all sorts of happiness. Some find their
+happiness like Thomas à Kempis, with a little book and a little cell.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ I would wonder at anybody that could be happy in a
+cell.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ These men fight in their way as your saints fought,
+for their hand is against the world. I want the happiness of men who
+fight, who are hit and hit back, not the fighting of men in red coats,
+that formal, soon-finished fighting, but the endless battle, the endless
+battle. Tell me, Father Jerome, did you ever listen in the middle of the
+night?
+
+_Jerome._ Listen for what?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Did you ever, when the monastery was silent, and the
+dogs had stopped barking, listen till you heard music?
+
+_Jerome._ What sort of music do you mean?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Not the music we hear with these ears [_touching his
+ears_], but the music of Paradise.
+
+_Jerome._ Brother Colman once said he heard harps in the night.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Harps! It was because he was shut in a cell he heard
+harps, maybe it sounds like harps in a cell. But the music I have heard
+sometimes is made of the continual clashing of swords. It comes
+rejoicing from Paradise.
+
+_Jerome._ These are very wild thoughts.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ I often heard music in the forths. There is many of us
+hear it when we lie with our heads on the ground at night.
+
+_Jerome._ That was not the music of Paradise.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Why should they not hear that music, although it may
+not set them praying, but dancing.
+
+_Jerome._ How can you think you will ever find happiness amongst their
+devils' mirth?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I have taken to the roads because there is a wild
+beast I would overtake, and these people are good snarers of beasts.
+They can help me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ What kind of a wild beast is it you want?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! it's a very terrible wild beast, with iron teeth
+and brazen claws that can root up spires and towers.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ It's best not to try and overtake a beast like that, but
+to cross running water and leave it after you.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ I heard one coming after me one night; very big and
+shadowy it was, and I could hear it breathing. But when it came up with
+me I lifted a hazel rod was in my hand, and it was gone on the moment.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ My wild beast is Laughter, the mightiest of the
+enemies of God. I will outrun it and make it friendly.
+
+_Jerome._ That is your old wild talk. Do have some sense and go back to
+your family.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am never going back to them. I am going to live
+among these people. I will marry among them.
+
+_Jerome._ That is nonsense; you will soon change your mind.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! no, I won't; I am taking my vows as you made yours
+when you entered religion. I have chosen my wife; I am going to marry
+before evening.
+
+_Jerome._ Thank God, you will have to stop short of that, the Church
+will never marry you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! I am not going to ask the help of the Church. But
+I am to be married by what may be as old a ceremony as yours. What is
+it I am to do, Charlie?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ To lep a budget, sir.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, that is it, the budget is there by the wall.
+
+_Jerome._ I command you, in the name of the Holy Church and of the
+teaching you have received from the Church, to leave this folly, this
+degradation, this sin!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You forget, Jerome, that I am on the track of the wild
+beast, and hunters in all ages have been a bad people to preach to. When
+I have tamed the beast, perhaps I will bring him to your religious house
+to be baptized.
+
+_Jerome._ I will not listen to this profanity. [_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] It
+is you who have put this madness on him as you have stolen his clothes!
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Stop your chat, ye petticoated preacher.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I think, Father Jerome, you had better be getting
+home. This people never gave in to the preaching of S. Patrick.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ I'll send you riding home with your face to the tail
+of the ass!
+
+_Tommy the Song._ No, stop till we show you that we can make as good
+curses as yourself. That you may never be warm in winter or cold in
+summer time----
+
+_Charlie Ward._ That's the chat! Bravo! Let him have it.
+
+_Tinkers._ Be off! be off out of this!
+
+_Molly the Scold._ Now curse him, Tommy.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ A wide hoarseness on you--a high hanging to you on a
+windy day; that shivering fever may stretch you nine times, and that the
+curses of the poor may be your best music, and you hiding behind the
+door. [JEROME _goes out._
+
+_Molly the Scold._ And you hiding behind the door, and squeezed between
+the hinges and the wall.
+
+_Other Tinkers._ Squeezed between the hinges and the wall. [_They follow_
+JEROME.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Crying after them._] Don't harm that gentleman; he
+is a friend of mine.
+
+     [_He goes to the wall, and stands there silently, looking upward._
+
+_Sabina Silver._ It was grand talk, indeed: I didn't understand a word
+of it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ The crows are beginning to fly home. There is a flock
+of them high up under that cloud. I wonder where their nests are.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ A long way off, among those big trees about Tillyra
+Castle.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, I remember. I have seen them coming home there on
+a windy evening, tossing and whirling like the sea. They may have seen
+what I am looking for, they fly so far. A sailor told me once that he
+saw a crow three hundred miles from land, but maybe he was a liar.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Well, they fly far, anyway.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ They tell one another what they have seen, too. That
+is why they make so much noise. Maybe their news goes round the world.
+[_He comes towards the others._] I think they have seen my wild beast,
+Laughter. They could tell me if he has a face smoky from the eternal
+fires, and wings of brass and claws of brass--claws of brass. [_Holds
+out his hands and moves them like claws._] Sabina, would you like to see
+a beast with eyes hard and cold and blue, like sapphires? Would you,
+Sabina? Well, it's time now for the wedding. So what shall we get for
+the wedding party? What would you like, Sabina?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I don't know.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ What do you say, Charlie? A wedding cake and
+champagne. How would you like champagne? [Tinkers _begin to return_.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ It might be middling.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ What would you say to a----
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     _One of the_ Boys _runs in carrying a pig's cheek. The rest of the_
+     Tinkers _return with him_.
+
+_Boy._ I knew I could do it. I told you I'd have my dealing trick out of
+the priest. I took a hold of this, and Johneen made a snap at the
+onions.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And he didn't catch you?
+
+_Boy._ He'd want to be a lot smarter than he is to do that.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You are a smart lad, anyway. What do you say we should
+have for our wedding party?
+
+_Boy._ Are you rich?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ More or less.
+
+_Boy._ I seen a whole truck full of cakes and bullseyes in the village
+below. Could you buy the whole of them?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Stop talking nonsense. What we want is porter.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ All right. How many public-houses are there in the
+village?
+
+_Tommy the Song._ Twenty-four.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Is there any place we can have barrels brought to?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ There's a shed near seems to be empty. We might go
+there.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Then go and order as many barrels as we can make use
+of to be brought there.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ We will; and we'll stop till we've drunk them out.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Taking out money._] I have more money than will pay
+for that. Sabina, we'll treat the whole neighbourhood in honour of our
+wedding. I'll have all the public-houses thrown open, and free drinks
+going for a week!
+
+_Tinkers._ Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Three cheers more, boys.
+
+_All._ Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
+
+_The Boys._ Now here's the budget.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Taking_ SABINA SILVER'S _hand_.] Now, Sabina, one,
+two, three!
+
+
+CURTAIN.
+
+
+
+
+ACT III.
+
+
+     Scene: _A large shed. Some sheepskins hanging up. Irons and pots
+     for branding sheep, some pitchforks, etc. Tinkers playing cards,_
+     PAUL RUTTLEDGE _sitting on an upturned basket_.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Stop that melodeon, now will ye, and we'll have a taste
+of the cocks. Paul didn't see them yet what they can do. Where's Tommy?
+Where in the earthly world is Tommy the Song?
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ He's over there in the corner.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ What are you doing there, Tommy?
+
+_Tommy the Song._ Taking a mouthful of prayers, I am.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Praying! did anyone ever hear the like of that? Pull him
+out of the corner.
+
+     [PADDY COCKFIGHT _pulls_ TOMMY THE SONG _out of the corner_.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ What is it you were praying for, I would like to know?
+
+_Tommy the Song._ I was praying that we might all soon die.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ Die, is it?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Is it die and all that porter about? Well! you have done
+enough praying, go over there and look for the basket. Who was it set
+him praying, I wonder? I am thinking it is the first prayer he ever said
+in his life.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ It's likely it was Paul. He's after talking to him
+through the length of an hour.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Maybe it was. Don't mind him. I said just now that
+when we were all dead and in heaven it would be a sort of drunkenness, a
+sort of ecstasy. There is a hymn about it, but it is in Latin. "Et calix
+meus inebrians quam praeclarus est." How splendid is the cup of my
+drunkenness!
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Well, that is a great sort of a hymn. I never thought
+there was a hymn like that, I never did.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ To think, now, there is a hymn like that. I mustn't
+let it slip out of my mind. How splendid is the cup of my drunkenness,
+that's it.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Have you found that old bird of mine?
+
+_Tommy the Song._ [_Who has been searching among the baskets._] Here he
+is, in the basket and a lot of things over it.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Get out that new speckled bird of yours, Paddy, I've
+been wanting to see how could he play for a week past.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Where do you get the cocks?
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ It was a man below Mullingar owned this one. The day
+I first seen him I fastened my two eyes on him, he preyed on my mind,
+and next night, if I didn't go back every foot of nine miles to put him
+in my bag.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Do you pay much for a good fighting cock?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ [_Laughs._] Do you pay much, Paddy?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Perhaps you don't pay anything.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I think Paddy gets them cheap.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He gets them cheaper than another man would, anyhow.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ He's the best cock I ever saw before or since.
+Believe me, I made no mistake when I pitched on him.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ I don't care what you think of him. I'll back the red;
+it's he has the lively eye.
+
+_Molly the Scold._ Andy Farrell had an old cock, and it bent double like
+himself, and all the feathers flittered out of it, but I hold you he'd
+leather both your red and your speckled cock together. I tell ye, boys,
+that was the cock!
+
+     [_Uproarious shouts and yells heard outside._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Those free drinks of yours, Paul, is playing the devil
+with them. Do you hear them now and every roar out of them? They're
+putting the cocks astray. [_He takes out a cock._] Sure they think it's
+thunder.
+
+_Molly the Scold._ There's not a man of them outside there now but would
+be ready to knock down his own brother.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ He wouldn't know him to knock him down. They're all
+blind. I never saw the like of it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You in here stood it better than that.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ When those common men drink it's what they fall down.
+They haven't the heads. They're not like us that have to keep heads and
+heels on us.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ It's well we kept them out of this, or they'd be
+lying on the floor now, and there'd be no place for my poor bird to show
+himself off. Look at him now! Isn't he the beauty! [_Takes out the
+cock._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Now boys, settle the place, put over those barrels out
+of that. [_They push barrels into a row at back._] Paul, you sit on the
+bin the way you'll get a good view.
+
+     [_A loud knock at the door. An authoritative voice outside._
+
+_Voice._ Open this door.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ That's Green, the Removable; I know his voice well!
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Clear away, boys. Back with those cocks. There, throw
+that sack over the baskets. Quick, will ye!
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ [_Outside._] Open this door at once.
+
+_Mr. Green._ [_Outside._] I insist on this door being opened.
+
+_Molly the Scold._ What do they want at all? I wish we didn't come into
+a place with no back door to it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There's nothing to be afraid of. Open the door,
+Charlie. [CHARLIE WARD _opens the door_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     _Enter_ MR. GREEN, COLONEL LAWLEY, MR. DOWLER, MR. JOYCE, MR. ALGIE
+     _and_ THOMAS RUTTLEDGE.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ All J.P.'s; I have looked at every one of them from
+the dock!
+
+_Mr. Green._ Mr. Ruttledge, this is very sad.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ This is a disgraceful business, Paul; the whole countryside
+is demoralized. There is not a man who has come to sensible years who is
+not drunk.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ This is a flagrant violation of all propriety. Society is
+shaken to its roots. My own servants have been led astray by the free
+drinks that are being given in the village. My butler, who has been with
+me for seven years, has not been seen for the last two days.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am sure you will echo Mr. Dowler, Algie.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Indeed I do. I endorse his sentiments completely. There has
+not been a stroke of work done for the last week. The hay is lying in
+ridges where it has been cut, there is not a man to be found to water
+the cattle. It is impossible to get as much as a horse shod in the
+village.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I think you have something to say, Colonel Lawley?
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ I have undoubtedly. I want to know when law and order
+are to be re-established. The police have been quite unable to cope with
+the disorder. Some of them have themselves got drunk. If my advice had
+been taken the military would have been called in.
+
+_Mr. Green._ The military are not indispensable on occasions like the
+present. There are plenty of police coming now. We have wired to Dublin
+for them, they will be here by the four o'clock train.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Gets down from his bin._] But you have not told me
+what you have come here for? Is there anything I can do for you?
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Won't you come home, Paul? The children have been
+asking for you, and we don't know what to say.
+
+_Mr. Green._ We have come to request you to go to the public-houses, to
+stop the free drinks, to send the people back to their work. As for
+those tinkers, the law will deal with them when the police arrive.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Oh, Paul, why have you upset the place like this?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, I wanted to give a little pleasure to my
+fellow-creatures.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ This seems rather a low form of pleasure.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I daresay it seems to you a little violent. But the
+poor have very few hours in which to enjoy themselves; they must take
+their pleasure raw; they haven't the time to cook it.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ But drunkenness!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Putting his hand on the shoulders of two of the
+magistrates._] Have we not tried sobriety? Do you like it? I found it
+very dull? [_A yell from outside._] There is not one of those people
+outside but thinks that he is a king, that he is riding the wind. There
+is not one of them that would not hit the world a slap in the face. Some
+poet has written that exuberance is beauty, and that the roadway of
+excess leads to the palace of wisdom. But I forgot--you do not read the
+poets.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ What we want to know is, are you going to send the people
+back to their work?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, work is such a little thing in comparison with
+experience. Think what it is to them to have their imagination like a
+blazing tar-barrel for a whole week. Work could never bring them such
+blessedness as that.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ Everyone knows there is no more valuable blessing than
+work.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Idleness is the curse of this country.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am prejudiced, for I have always been an idler.
+Doubtless, the poor must work. It was, no doubt, of them you were
+speaking. Yet, doesn't the Church say, doesn't it describe heaven as a
+place where saints and angels only sing and hold branches and wander
+about hand in hand. That must be changed. We must teach the poor to
+think work a thing fit for heaven, a blessed thing. I'll tell you what
+we'll do, Dowler. Will you subscribe, and you, and you, and we'll send
+lecturers about with magic lanterns showing heaven as it should be, the
+saints with spades and hammers in their hands and everybody working. The
+poor might learn to think more of work then. Will you join in that
+scheme, Dowler?
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ I think you'd better leave these subjects alone. It is
+obvious you have cut yourself off from both religion and society.
+
+_Mr. Green._ The world could not go on without work.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ The world could not go on without work! The world
+could not go on without work! I must think about it. [_Gets up on bin._]
+Why should the world go on? Perhaps the Christian teacher came to bring
+it to an end. Let us send messengers everywhere to tell the people to
+stop working, and then the world may come to an end. He spoke of the
+world, the flesh, and the devil. Perhaps it would be a good thing to end
+these one by one.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ Come away out of this. He has gone mad.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! I thought that would scare them.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ I wish, Paul, you would come back and live like a
+Christian.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Like a Christian?
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Come away, there's no use stopping here any longer.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sternly._] Wait, I have something to say to that.
+[_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] Do not let anyone leave this place.
+
+     [Tinkers _close together at the door_.
+
+_Mr. Green._ [_To_ Tinkers.] This is nonsense. Let me through.
+
+     [Tinker _spreads out his arms before him_.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You have come into a different kingdom now; the old
+kingdom of the people of the roads, the houseless people. We call
+ourselves tinkers, and you are going to put us on our trial if you can.
+You call yourselves Christians and we will put you on your trial first.
+I will put the world on its trial, and myself of yesterday. [_To a_
+Boy.] Run out, Johneen, keep a watch, and tell us when the train is
+coming. Sabina, that rope; we will set these gentlemen on those barrels.
+[Tinkers _take hold of them_.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ Keep your hands off me, you drunken scoundrel!
+
+     [_Strikes at_ CHARLIE WARD, _but_ Tinkers _seize his arms behind_.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Tie all their hands behind them.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ We'd better give in, there's no saying how many more of
+them there are.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ I'll be quiet, the odds are too great against us.
+
+_Mr. Green._ The police will soon be here; we may as well stay quietly.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ Here, give it to me, I'll put a good twist in it.
+Don't be afraid, sir, it's not about your neck I'm putting it----. There
+now, sit quiet and easy, and you won't feel it at all.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Are all their hands tied? Now then, heave them up on
+to the barrels.
+
+     [_Slight scuffle, during which all are put on the barrels in a
+     semicircle._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! yes, you are on my barrels now; last time I saw
+you, you were on your own dunghill. Let me see, is there anyone here who
+can write?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Nobody.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Never mind, you can keep count on your fingers. The
+rest must sit down and behave themselves as befits a court. They say
+they are living like Christians. Let us see.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Oh, Paul, don't make such a fool of yourself.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ The point is not wisdom or folly, but the Christian
+life.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ Don't answer him, Thomas. Let us preserve our dignity.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Yes, let us keep a dignified attitude--we won't answer
+these ruffians at all.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Respect the court! [_Turns to Colonel Lawley._] You
+have served your Queen and country in the field, and now you are a
+colonel of militia.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ Well, what is there to be ashamed of in that? Answer
+me that, now.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yet there is an old saying about turning the other
+cheek, an old saying, a saying so impossible that the world has never
+been able to get it out of its mind. You have helped to enlist men for
+the army, I think? Some of them have fought in the late war, and you
+have even sent some of your own militia there.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ If I did I'm proud of it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Did they think it was a just war?
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ That was not their business. They had taken the
+Queen's pay. They would have disgraced themselves if they had not gone.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Is it not the doctrine of your Christian Church, of
+your Catholic Church, that he who fights in an unjust war, knowing it to
+be unjust, loses his own soul?
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ I should like to know what would happen to the country
+if there weren't soldiers to protect it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ We are not discussing the country, we are discussing
+the Christian life. Has this gentleman lived the Christian life?
+
+_All the Tinkers._ He has not!
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ His sergeant tried to enlist me, giving me a
+shilling, and I drunk.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ [_Singing._]
+
+  She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
+  But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Stop your mouth, Tommy. This is not your show. [_To_ PAUL
+RUTTLEDGE.] Are you going to put a fine on the Colonel? If so I'd like
+his cloak.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Now we'll try Mr. Dowler, the rich man. [_Holds up his
+fingers in a ring._] Mr. Dowler, could you go through this?
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Don't answer him, Dowler; he's going beyond all bounds.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I was a rich man and I could not, and yet I am
+something smaller than a camel, and this is something larger than a
+needle's eye.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Don't answer this profanity.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ But what about the cloak?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! go and take it.
+
+     [CHARLIE WARD _goes and takes cloak off the_ COLONEL.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ You drunken rascal, I'll see you in the dock for this.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ You're encouraging robbery now.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Remember the commandment, "Give to him that asketh
+thee"; and the hard commandment goes even farther, "Him that taketh thy
+cloak forbid not to take thy coat also." [_Holding out his rags._]
+Have I not shown you what Mr. Green would call a shining example.
+Charlie, ask them all for their coats.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ I will, and their boots, too.
+
+_All the Tinkers._ [_Uproariously._] Give me your coat; I'll have your
+boots, etc.
+
+_Mr. Green._ Wait till the police come. I'll turn the tables on you; you
+may all expect hard labour for this.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_To the_ Tinkers.] Stand back, the trial is not over.
+Mr. Green, these friends of yours have been convicted of breaking the
+doctrine they boast of. They do not love their enemies; they do not give
+to every man that asks of them. Some of them, Mr. Dowler, for instance,
+lay up treasures upon earth; they ask their goods again of those who
+have taken them away. But you, Mr. Green, are the worst of all. They
+break the Law of Christ for their own pleasure, but you take pay for
+breaking it. When their goods are taken away you condemn the taker; when
+they are smitten on one cheek you punish the smiter. You encourage them
+in their breaking of the Law of Christ.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ He does, indeed. He gave me two months for snaring
+rabbits.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ He tried to put a fine on me for a cock I had, and he
+took five shillings off Molly for hitting a man.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Your evidence is not wanted. His own words are enough.
+[_Stretching out his arms._] Have any of these gentlemen been living the
+Christian life?
+
+_All._ They have not.
+
+_Johneen._ [_Coming in._] Ye'd best clear off now. I see the train
+coming in to the station.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ The police will find plenty to do in the village
+before they come to us; that's one good job.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ One moment. I have done trying the world I have left.
+You have accused me of upsetting order by my free drinks, and I have
+showed you that there is a more dreadful fermentation in the Sermon on
+the Mount than in my beer-barrels. Christ thought it in the
+irresponsibility of His omnipotence. [_Getting from his bin._] Charlie,
+give me that cloak. [_He flings it back._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Aren't you going to punish them anyway?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No, no, from this out I would punish nobody but
+myself.
+
+     [_Some of the_ Tinkers _have gone out_.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ We'd best be off while we can. Come along, Paul, Sibby's
+gone.
+
+     [_As they go out_ TOMMY THE SONG _is singing_,
+
+  Down by the sally garden my love and I did stand,
+  And on my leaning shoulder she laid her milk-white hand;
+  She bade me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
+  But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
+
+     [_All go out except_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, good-bye, Thomas; I don't suppose I'll see you
+again. Use all I have; spend it on your children; I'll never want it.
+[_To the others._] Will you come and join us? We will find rags for you
+all. Perhaps you will give up that dream that is fading from you, and
+come among the blind, homeless people; put off the threadbare clothes of
+the Apostles and run naked for awhile. [_Is going out._
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ You have nothing against me, have you, Paul?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, yes, I have; a little that I have said against all
+these, and a worse thing than all, though it is not in the book.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ What is it?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Looking back from the threshold._] You have begotten
+fools.
+
+
+CURTAIN.
+
+
+
+
+ACT IV.
+
+
+     Scene 1.--_Great door in the middle of the stage under a stone
+     cross, with flights of steps leading to door. Enter_ CHARLIE WARD,
+     PADDY COCKFIGHT, TOMMY THE SONG, _and_ SABINA SILVER. _They are
+     supporting_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE, _who is bent and limping._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ We must leave you here. The monks will take you in.
+We're very sorry, Paul. It's a heartscald to us to leave you and you
+know that, but what can we do? [_They lead_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _to steps._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! that was a bad stitch! [_Gasps._] Take care now;
+put me down gently.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Oh! can't we keep him with us anyway; he'll find no one
+to care him as well as myself.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ What way can you care him, Sibby? It's no way to have
+him lying out on the roadside under guano bags, like ourselves, and the
+rain coming down on him like it did last night. It's in hospital he'll
+be for the next month.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ We'd never leave you if you could even walk. If we have
+to give you to the monks itself, we'd keep round the place to encourage
+you, only for the last business. We'll have to put two counties at least
+between us and Gortmore after what we're after doing.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Never mind, boys, they'll never insult a tinker again
+in Gortmore as long as the town's a town.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Dear knows! it breaks my heart to think of the fine
+times we had of it since you joined us. Why the months seemed like days.
+And all the fine sprees we had together! Now you're gone from us we
+might as well be jailed at once.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ And how you took to the cocks! I believe you were a
+better judge than myself. No one but you would ever have fancied that
+black-winged cock--and he never met his match.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! well, I'm doubled up now like that old cock of
+Andy Farrell's.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ No, but you were the best warrant to set a snare that
+ever I came across.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sitting down with difficulty on the steps._] Yes; it
+was a grand time we had, and I wouldn't take back a day of it; but it's
+over now, I've hit my ribs against the earth and they're aching.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Oh! Paul, Paul, is it to leave you we must? And you
+never once struck a kick or a blow on me all this time, not even and you
+in pain with the rheumatism. [_A clock strikes inside._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ There's the clock striking. The monks will be getting
+up. We'd best be off after the others. I hear some noise inside; they'd
+best not catch us here. I'll stop and pull the bell. Be off with you,
+boys!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Sabina. Don't cry! you'll get another
+husband.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I'll never lep the budget with another man; I swear it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Paddy. Good-bye, Tommy. My mother Earth will
+have none of me and I will go look for my father that is in heaven.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ Come along, Sibby.
+
+     [_Takes her hand and hurries off._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Rings bell._] Are they sure to let you in, Paul? Have
+you got your story ready?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No fear, they won't refuse a sick man. No one knows me
+but Father Jerome, and he won't tell on me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ There's a step inside. I'll cut for it.
+
+     [_He goes out. Paul is left sitting on steps._
+
+
+     Scene 2.--_The crypt under the Monastery church. A small barred
+     window high up in the wall, through which the cold dawn is
+     breaking. Altar in a niche at the back of stage; there are seven
+     unlighted candles on the altar. A little hanging lamp near the
+     altar._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _is lying on the altar steps. Friars are
+     dancing slowly before him in the dim light_. FATHER ALOYSIUS _is
+     leaning against a pillar_.
+
+     _Some_ Friars _come in carrying lanterns_.
+
+_First Friar._ What are they doing? Dancing?
+
+_Second Friar._ I told you they were dancing, and you would not believe
+me.
+
+_First Friar._ What on earth are they doing it for?
+
+_Third Friar._ I heard them saying Father Paul told them to do it if
+they ever found him in a trance again. He told them it was a kind of
+prayer and would bring joy down out of heaven, and make it easier for
+him to preach.
+
+_Second Friar._ How still he is lying; you would nearly think him to be
+dead.
+
+_A Friar._ It is just a twelvemonth to-day since he was in a trance like
+this.
+
+_Second Friar._ That was the time he gave his great preaching. I can't
+blame those that went with him, for he all but persuaded me.
+
+_First Friar._ They think he is going to preach again when he awakes,
+that's why they are dancing. When he wakes one of them will go and call
+the others.
+
+_Third Friar._ We were all in danger when one so pious was led away.
+It's five years he has been with us now, and no one ever went so quickly
+from lay brother to novice, and novice to friar.
+
+_First Friar._ The way he fasted too! The Superior bade me watch him at
+meal times for fear he should starve himself.
+
+_Third Friar._ He thought a great deal of Brother Paul then, but he
+isn't so well pleased with him now.
+
+_Second Friar._ What is Father Aloysius doing there? standing so quiet
+and his eyes shut.
+
+_Third Friar._ He is meditating. Didn't you hear Brother Paul gives
+meditations of his own.
+
+_First Friar._ Colman was telling me about that. He gives them a joyful
+thought to fix their minds on. They must not let their minds stray to
+anything else. They must follow that single thought and put everything
+else behind them.
+
+_Third Friar._ Colman fainted the other day when he was at his
+meditation. He says it is a great labour to follow one thought always.
+
+_Second Friar._ What do they do it for?
+
+_First Friar._ To escape what they call the wandering of nature. They
+say it was in the trance Brother Paul got the knowledge of it. He says
+that if a man can only keep his mind on the one high thought he gets out
+of time into eternity, and learns the truth for itself.
+
+_Third Friar._ He calls that getting above law and number, and becoming
+king and priest in one's own house.
+
+_Second Friar._ A nice state of things it would be if every man was his
+own priest and his own king.
+
+_First Friar._ I wonder will he wake soon. I thought I saw him stir just
+now. Father Aloysius, will he wake soon?
+
+_Aloysius._ What did you say?
+
+_First Friar._ Will he wake soon?
+
+_Aloysius._ Yes, yes, he will wake very soon now.
+
+_Second Friar._ What are they going to do now; are they going to dance?
+
+_Third Friar._ He was too patient with him. He would have made short
+work of any of us if we had gone so far.
+
+_First Dancer._
+
+  Nam, et si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis,
+  Non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es.
+
+_First Friar._ They are singing the twenty-second Psalm. What madness to
+sing!
+
+_Second Dancer._
+
+  Virga tua, et baculus tuus,
+  Ipsa me consolata sunt.
+
+_First Dancer._
+
+  Parasti in conspectu meo mensam
+  Adversus eos qui tribulant me.
+
+_Second Dancer._
+
+Impinguasti in oleo caput meum;
+Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.
+
+_Second Friar._ Here is the Superior. There'll be bad work now.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     SUPERIOR _comes in_.
+
+_Superior._ [_Holding up his hand._] Silence!
+
+     [_They stop singing and dancing._
+
+_First Dancer._ It's the Superior.
+
+_Superior._ Stop this blasphemy! Leave the chapel at once! I will deal
+with you by-and-by. [_Dancing_ Friars _go out_.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Stooping over_ PAUL.] He has not wakened from the trance
+yet.
+
+_Aloysius._ [_Who still remains perfectly motionless._] Not yet, but he
+will soon awake--Paul!
+
+_Superior._ It is hardly worth while being angry with those poor fools
+whose heads he has turned with his talk. [_Stoops and touches his
+hand._] It is quite rigid. I will wait till he is alive again, there is
+no use wasting words on a dead body.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Stooping over him._] His eyes are beginning to quiver. Let
+me be the first to speak to him. He may say some wild things when he
+awakes, not knowing who is before him.
+
+_Superior._ He must not preach. I must have his submission at once.
+
+_Jerome._ I will do all I can with him. He is most likely to listen to
+me. I was once his close friend.
+
+_Superior._ Speak to him if you like, but entire submission is the only
+thing I will accept. [_To the other_ Monks.] Come with me, we will leave
+Father Jerome here to speak to him. [SUPERIOR _and_ Friars _go to the
+door_.] Such desecration, such blasphemy. Remember, Father Jerome,
+entire submission, and at once. [SUPERIOR _and_ Friars _go out_.
+
+_Jerome._ Where are the rest of his friends, Father Aloysius? Bartley
+and Colman ought to be with him when he is like this.
+
+_Aloysius._ They are resting, because, when he has given his message,
+they may never be able to rest again.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Bending over him._] My poor Paul, this will wear him out;
+see how thin he has grown!
+
+_Aloysius._ He is hard upon his body. He does not care what happens to
+his body.
+
+_Jerome._ He was like this when he was a boy; some wild thought would
+come on him, and he would not know day from night, he would forget even
+to eat. It is a great pity he was so hard to himself; it is a pity he
+had not always someone to look after him.
+
+_Aloysius._ God is taking care of him; what could men like us do for
+him? We cannot help him, it is he who helps us.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Going on his knee and taking his hand._] He is awaking. Help
+me to lift him up. [_They lift him into a chair._
+
+_Aloysius._ I will go and call the others now.
+
+_Jerome._ Do not let them come for a little time, I must speak to him
+first.
+
+_Aloysius._ I cannot keep them away long. One cannot know when the
+words may be put in his mouth.
+
+     [ALOYSIUS _goes out._ JEROME _stands by_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE, _holding his
+     hand_.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Raising his head._] Ah, you are there, Jerome. I am
+glad you are there. I could not get up to drive away the mouse that was
+eating the wax that dropped from the candles. Have you driven it away?
+
+_Jerome._ It is not evening now. It is almost morning. You were on your
+knees praying for a great many hours, and then I think you fainted.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't think I was praying. I was among people, a
+great many people, and it was very bright--I will remember presently.
+
+_Jerome._ Do not try to remember. You are tired, you must be weak, you
+must come and have food and rest.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I do not think I can rest. I think there is something
+else I have to do, I forget what it is.
+
+_Jerome._ I am afraid you are thinking of preaching again. You must not
+preach. The Superior says you must not. He is very angry; I have never
+seen him so angry. He will not allow you to preach again.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Did I ever preach?
+
+_Jerome._ Yes. It was in the garden you got the trance last time. We
+found you like this, and we lifted you to the bench under the yew tree,
+and then you began to speak. You spoke about getting out of the body
+while still alive, about getting away from law and number. All the
+friars came to listen to you. We had never heard such preaching before,
+but it was very like heresy.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Getting up._] Jerome, Jerome, I remember now where I
+was. I was in a great round place, and a great crowd of things came
+round me. I couldn't see them very clearly for a time, but some of them
+struck me with their feet, hard feet like hoofs, and soft cat-like feet;
+and some pecked me, and some bit me, and some clawed me. There were all
+sorts of beasts and birds as far as I could see.
+
+_Jerome._ Were they devils, Paul, were they the deadly sins?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't know, but I thought, and I don't know how the
+thought came to me, that they were the part of mankind that is not
+human; the part that builds up the things that keep the soul from God.
+
+_Jerome._ That was a terrible vision.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I struggled and I struggled with them, and they heaped
+themselves over me till I was unable to move hand or foot; and that went
+on for a long, long time.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Crossing himself._] God have mercy on us.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Then suddenly there came a bright light, and all in a
+minute the beasts were gone, and I saw a great many angels riding upon
+unicorns, white angels on white unicorns. They stood all round me, and
+they cried out, "Brother Paul, go and preach; get up and preach, Brother
+Paul." And then they laughed aloud, and the unicorns trampled the ground
+as though the world were already falling in pieces.
+
+_Jerome._ It was only a dream. Come with me. You will forget it when you
+have had food and rest.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Looking at his arm._] It was there one of them
+clawed me; one that looked at me with great heavy eyes.
+
+_Jerome._ The Superior has been here; try and listen to me. He says you
+must not preach.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Great heavy eyes and hard sharp claws.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Putting his hands on his shoulders._] You must awake from
+this. You must remember where you are. You are under rules. You must not
+break the rules you are under. The brothers will be coming in to hear
+you, you must not speak to them. The Superior has forbidden it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Touching_ JEROME'S _hand_.] I have always been a great
+trouble to you.
+
+_Jerome._ You must go and submit to the Superior. Go and make your
+submission now, for my sake. Think of what I have done for your sake.
+Remember how I brought you in, and answered for you when you came here.
+I did not tell about that wild business. I have done penance for that
+deceit.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, you have always been good to me, but do not ask
+me this. I have had other orders.
+
+_Jerome._ Last time you preached the whole monastery was upset. The
+Friars began to laugh suddenly in the middle of the night.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ If I have been given certain truths to tell, I must
+tell them at once before they slip away from me.
+
+_Jerome._ I cannot understand your ideas; you tell them impossible
+things. Things that are against the order of nature.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I have learned that one needs a religion so wholly
+supernatural, that is so opposed to the order of nature that the world
+can never capture it.
+
+     [_Some_ Friars _come in. They carry green branches in their hands_.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ They are coming. Will you stay and listen?
+
+_Jerome._ I must not stay. I must not listen.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Help me over to the candles. I am weak, my knees are
+weak. I shall be strong when the words come. I shall be able to teach.
+[_He lights a taper at the hanging lamp and tries to light the candles
+with a shaking hand. JEROME takes the taper from him and lights the
+candles._] Why are you crying, Jerome?
+
+_Jerome._ Because we that were friends are separated now. We shall never
+be together again.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Never again? The love of God is a very terrible thing.
+
+_Jerome._ I have done with meddling. I must leave you to authority now.
+I must tell the Superior you will not obey. [_He goes out._
+
+_First Friar._ Father Jerome had a very dark look going out.
+
+_Second Friar._ He was shut up with the Superior this morning. I wonder
+what they were talking about.
+
+_First Friar._ I wonder if the Superior will mind our taking the
+branches. They are only cut on Palm Sunday other years. What will he
+tell us, I wonder? It seems as if he was going to tell us how to do some
+great thing. Do you think he will teach us to do cures like the friars
+used at Esker?
+
+_Second Friar._ Those were great cures they did there, and they were not
+strange men, but just the same as ourselves. I heard of a man went to
+them dying on a cart, and he walked twenty miles home to Burren holding
+the horses head.
+
+_First Friar._ Maybe we'll be able to see visions the same as were seen
+at Knock. It's a great wonder all that was seen and all that was done
+there.
+
+_Third Friar._ I was there one time, and the whole place was full of
+crutches that had been thrown away by people that were cured. There was
+a silver crutch there some rich man from America had sent as an offering
+after getting his cure. Speak to him, Brother Colman. He seems to be in
+some sort of a dream. Ask if he is going to speak to us now.
+
+_Colman._ We are all here, Brother Paul.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Have you all been through your meditations? [_They all
+gather round him._
+
+_Bartley._ We have all tried; we have done our best; but it is hard to
+keep our mind on the one thing for long.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ "He ascended into heaven." Have you meditated upon
+that? Did you reject all earthly images that came into your mind till
+the light began to gather?
+
+_Third Friar._ I could not fix my mind well. When I put out one thought
+others came rushing in.
+
+_Colman._ When I was meditating, the inside of my head suddenly became
+all on fire.
+
+_Aloysius._ While I was meditating I felt a spout of fire going up
+between my shoulders.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That is the way it begins. You are ready now to hear
+the truth. Now I can give you the message that has come to me. Stand
+here at either side of the altar. Brother Colman, come beside me here.
+Lay down your palm branches before this altar; you have brought them as
+a sign that the walls are beginning to be broken up, that we are going
+back to the joy of the green earth. [_Goes up to the candles and
+speaks._] Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est. For a long time
+after their making men and women wandered here and there, half blind
+from the drunkenness of Eternity; they had not yet forgotten that the
+green Earth was the Love of God, and that all Life was the Will of God,
+and so they wept and laughed and hated according to the impulse of their
+hearts. [_He takes up the green boughs and presses them to his breast._]
+They gathered the green Earth to their breasts and their lips, as I
+gather these boughs to mine, in what they believed would be an eternal
+kiss. [_He remains a little while silent._
+
+_Second Friar._ I see a light about his head.
+
+_Third Friar._ I wonder if he has seen God.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ It was then that the temptation began. Not only the
+Serpent who goes upon his belly, but all the animal spirits that have
+loved things better than life, came out of their holes and began to
+whisper. The men and women listened to them, and because when they had
+lived according to the joyful Will of God in mother wit and natural
+kindness, they sometimes did one another an injury, they thought that it
+would be better to be safe than to be blessèd, they made the Laws. The
+Laws were the first sin. They were the first mouthful of the apple, the
+moment man had made them he began to die; we must put out the Laws as I
+put out this candle.
+
+     [_He puts out the candle with an extinguisher, still holding the
+     boughs with his left hand. Two orthodox Friars have come in._
+
+_First Orthodox Friar._ You had better go for the Superior.
+
+_Second Orthodox Friar._ I must stop and listen.
+
+     [_The First Orthodox Friar listens for a minute or two and then
+     goes out._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And when they had lived amidst the green Earth that is
+the Love of God, they were sometimes wetted by the rain, and sometimes
+cold and hungry, and sometimes alone from one another; they thought it
+would be better to be comfortable than to be blessèd. They began to
+build big houses and big towns. They grew wealthy and they sat
+chattering at their doors; and the embrace that was to have been
+eternal ended, lips and hands were parted. [_He lets the boughs slip out
+of his arms._] We must put out the towns as I put out this candle.
+[_Puts out another candle._
+
+_A Friar._ Yes, yes, we must uproot the towns.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ But that is not all, for man created a worse thing,
+yes, a worse defiance against God. [_The_ Friars _groan_.] God put
+holiness into everything that lives, for everything that desires is full
+of His Will, and everything that is beautiful is full of His Love; but
+man grew timid because it had been hard to find his way amongst so much
+holiness, and though God had made all time holy, man said that only the
+day on which God rested from life was holy, and though God had made all
+places holy, man said, "no place but this place that I put pillars and
+walls about is holy, this place where I rest from life"; and in this and
+like ways he built up the Church. We must destroy the Church, we must
+put it out as I put out this candle. [_Puts out another candle._
+
+_Friars._ [_Clasping one another's hands._] He is right, he is right.
+The Church must be destroyed. [_The_ SUPERIOR _comes in_.
+
+_First Friar._ Here is the Superior.
+
+_A Friar._ He has been saying----
+
+_Superior._ Hush! I will hear him to the end.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That is not all. These things may be accomplished and
+yet nothing be accomplished. The Christian's business is not reformation
+but revelation, and the only labours he can put his hand to can never be
+accomplished in Time. He must so live that all things shall pass away.
+[_He stands silent for a moment and then cries, lifting his hand above
+his head._] Give me wine out of thy pitchers; oh, God, how splendid is
+my cup of drunkenness. We must become blind, and deaf, and dizzy. We
+must get rid of everything that is not measureless eternal life. We
+must put out hope as I put out this candle. [_Puts out a candle._] And
+memory as I put out this candle. [_As before._] And thought, the waster
+of Life, as I put out this candle. [_As before._] And at last we must
+put out the light of the Sun and of the Moon, and all the light of the
+World and the World itself. [_He now puts out the last candle, the
+chapel is very dark. The only light is the faint light of morning coming
+through the window._] We must destroy the World; we must destroy
+everything that has Law and Number, for where there is nothing, there is
+God.
+
+     [_The_ SUPERIOR _comes forward. One of_ PAUL'S Friars _makes as if to
+     speak to him. The_ SUPERIOR _strikes at him with the back of his
+     hand_.
+
+_Superior._ [_To_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Get out of this, rebel, blasphemous
+rebel!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Do as you like to me, but you cannot silence my
+thoughts. I learned them from Jesus Christ, who made a terrible joy,
+and sent it to overturn governments, and all settled order.
+
+     [PAUL'S Friars _rush to save him from the_ SUPERIOR.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There is no need for violence. I am ready to go.
+
+_Colman._ [_Taking his hand._] I will go with you.
+
+_Aloysius._ I will go with you too.
+
+_Several other Friars._ And I, and I, and I.
+
+_Superior._ Whoever goes with this heretic goes straight into the pit.
+
+_Bartley._ Do not leave us behind you. Let us go with you.
+
+_Colman._ Teach us! teach us! we will help you to teach others.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Let me go alone, the one more, the one nearer
+falsehood.
+
+_Bartley._ We will go with you! We will go with you! We must go where we
+can hear your voice.
+
+_A Friar._ [_Who stands behind the_ SUPERIOR.] God is making him speak
+against himself.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No, the time has not come for you. You would be
+thinking of your food at midday and listening for the bells at prayer
+time. You have not yet heard the voices and seen the faces.
+
+_Superior._ A miracle! God is making the heretic speak against himself.
+Listen to him!
+
+_Aloysius._ We will not stay behind, we will go with you.
+
+_Bartley._ We cannot live without hearing you!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am led by hands that are colder than ice and harder
+than diamonds. They will lead me where there will be hard thoughts of me
+in the hearts of all that love me, and there will be a fire in my heart
+that will make it as bare as the wilderness.
+
+_Aloysius._ We will go with you. We too will take those hands that are
+colder than ice and harder than diamonds.
+
+_Several Monks._ We too! we too!
+
+_Patrick._ Bring us to the hands that are colder than ice and harder
+than diamonds.
+
+_Other Monks._ Pull them away! pull them away from him!
+
+     [_They are about to seize the Monks who are with_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.
+
+_Superior._ [_Going between them._] Back! back! I will have no scuffling
+here. Let the devil take his children if he has a mind to. God will call
+His own.
+
+     [_The_ Monks _fall back_. SUPERIOR _goes up to altar, takes the cross
+     from it and turns, standing on the steps_.
+
+_Superior._ Father Aloysius, come to me here. [ALOYSIUS _takes_ PAUL
+RUTTLEDGE'S _hand_.] Father Bartley, Father Colman. [_They go nearer to_
+PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Father Patrick! [_A_ Friar _comes towards him_.] Kneel
+down! [FATHER PATRICK _kneels_.] Father Clement, Father Nestor, Father
+James ... leave the heretic--you are on the very edge of the pit. Your
+shoes are growing red hot.
+
+_A Friar._ I am afraid, I am afraid. [_He kneels._
+
+_Superior._ Kneel down; return to your God. [_Several_ Monks _kneel_.
+
+_Colman._ They have deserted us.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Many will forsake the truth before the world is pulled
+down. [_Stretching out his arms over his head._] I pulled down my own
+house, now I go out to pull down the world.
+
+_Superior._ Strip off those holy habits.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Taking off his habit._] One by one I am plucking off
+the rags and tatters of the world.
+
+
+
+
+ACT V.
+
+
+     Scene: _Smooth level grass near the Shannon. Ecclesiastical ruins,
+     a part of which have been roofed in. Rocky plain in the distance,
+     with a river._ FATHER COLMAN _sorting some bundles of osiers_.
+
+     ALOYSIUS _enters with an empty bag_.
+
+_Colman._ You are the first to come back Aloysius. Where is Brother
+Bartley?
+
+_Aloysius._ He parted from me at the cross roads and went on to preach
+at Shanaglish. He should soon be back now.
+
+_Colman._ Have you anything in the bag?
+
+_Aloysius._ Nothing. [_Throws the bag down._] It doesn't seem as if our
+luck was growing. We have but food enough to last till to-morrow. We
+have hardly that. The rats from the river got at the few potatoes I
+gathered from the farmers at Lisheen last week, in the corner where they
+were.
+
+_Colman._ This is the first day you got nothing at all. Maybe you didn't
+ask the right way.
+
+_Aloysius._ I asked for alms for the sake of the love of God. But the
+first place where I asked it, the man of the house was giving me a
+handful of meal, and the woman came and called out that we were serving
+the devil in the name of God, and she drove me from the door.
+
+_Colman._ It is since the priests preached against us they say that. Did
+you go on to Lisheen. They used always to treat us well there.
+
+_Aloysius._ I did, but I got on no better there.
+
+_Colman._ That is a wonder, after the woman that had the jaundice being
+cured with prayers by Brother Paul.
+
+_Aloysius._ That's just it. If he did cure her, they say the two best of
+her husband's bullocks died of the blackwater the next day, and he was
+no way thankful to us after that.
+
+_Colman._ Did you try the houses along the bog road?
+
+_Aloysius._ I did, and the children coming back from school called out
+after me and asked who was it did away with the widow Cloran's cow.
+
+_Colman._ The widow Cloran's cow?
+
+_Aloysius._ That was the cow that died after grazing in the ruins here.
+
+_Colman._ If it did, it was because of an old boot it picked up and ate,
+and that never belonged to us.
+
+_Aloysius._ I wish we had something ourselves to eat. They should be
+sitting down to their dinner in the monastery now. They will be having a
+good dinner to-day to carry them over the fast to-morrow.
+
+_Colman._ I am thinking sometimes, Brother Paul should give more thought
+to us than he does. It is all very well for him, he is so taken up with
+his thoughts and his visions he doesn't know if he is full or fasting.
+
+_Aloysius._ He has such holy thoughts and visions no one would like to
+trouble him. He ought not to be in the world at all, or to do the
+world's work.
+
+_Colman._ So long as he is in the world, he must give some thought to
+it. There must be something wrong in the way he is doing things now. I
+thought he would have had half Ireland with him by this time with his
+great preaching, but someway when he preaches to the people, they don't
+seem to mind him much.
+
+_Aloysius._ He is too far above them; they have not education to
+understand him.
+
+_Colman._ They understand me well enough when I give my mind to it. But
+it is harder to preach now than it was in the monastery. We had
+something to offer then; absolution here, and heaven after.
+
+_Aloysius._ Isn't it enough for them to hear that the kingdom of heaven
+is within them, and that if they do the right meditations----
+
+_Colman._ What can poor people that have their own troubles on them get
+from a few words like that they hear at a cross road or a market, and
+the wind maybe blowing them away? If we could gather them together
+now.... Look, Aloysius, at these sally rods; I have a plan in my mind
+about them.
+
+     [_He has stuck some of the rods in the ground, and begins weaving
+     others through them._
+
+_Aloysius._ Are you going to make baskets like you did in the monastery
+schools?
+
+_Colman._ We must make something if we are to live. But it is more than
+that I was thinking of; we might coax some of the youngsters to come and
+learn the basket making; it would make them take to us better if we
+could put them in the way of earning a few pence.
+
+_Aloysius._ [_Taking up some of the osiers and beginning to twist
+them._] That might be a good way to come at them; they could work
+through the day, and at evening we could tell them how to repeat the
+words till the light comes inside their heads. But would Paul think well
+of it? He is more for pulling down than building up.
+
+_Colman._ When I explain it to him I am sure he will think well of it;
+he can't go on for ever without anyone to listen to him.
+
+_Aloysius._ I suppose not, and with no way of living. But I don't know,
+I'm afraid he won't like it.
+
+_Colman._ Hush! Here he is coming.
+
+_Aloysius._ If one had a plan now for doing some destruction----
+
+_Colman._ Hush! don't you see there is somebody with him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     PAUL RUTTLEDGE _comes in with_ CHARLIE WARD.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ This is Charlie Ward, my old friend.
+
+_Aloysius._ The Charlie Ward you lived on the roads with?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, when I went looking for the favour of my hard
+mother, Earth, he helped me. He is her good child and she loves him.
+
+_Colman._ He is welcome. How did he find you out?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't know. How did you find me out, Charlie?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Oh, I didn't lose sight of you so much as you thought. I
+had to stop away from Gortmore a good while after we left you at the
+gate, but I sent Paddy Cockfight one time to get news, and he mended
+cans for the laundry of the monastery, and they told him you were well
+again, and a monk as good as the rest. But a while ago I got word there
+was a monk had gone near to break up the whole monastery with his talk
+and his piety, and I said to myself, "That's Paul!" And then I heard
+there was a monk had been driven out for not keeping the rules, and I
+said to myself, "That's Paul!" And the other day when what's left of us
+came to Athlone, I heard talk of some disfrocked monks that were
+upsetting the whole neighbourhood, and I said, "That's Paul." To Sabina
+Silver I said that. "That merry chap Paul," I said.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I'm afraid you have a very bad opinion of me, Charlie.
+Well, maybe I earned it.
+
+_Aloysius._ You cannot know much of him if you have a bad opinion of
+him. He will be made a saint some day.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He will, if there's such a thing as a saint of mischief.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ A saint of mischief? Well, why not that as well as
+another? He would upset all the beehives, he would throw them into the
+market-place. Sit down now, Charlie, and eat a bit with us.
+
+_Colman._ You are welcome, indeed, to all we can give you, but we have
+not a bit of food that is worth offering you. Aloysius got nothing at
+all in the villages to-day, Brother Paul. The people are getting cross.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, sit down, anyway. The country people liked me
+well enough once, there was no man they liked so much as myself when I
+gave them drink for nothing. Didn't they, Charlie?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Oh, that was a great time. They were lying thick about
+the roads. I'll be thinking of it to my dying day.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I have given them another kind of drink now.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ What sort of a drink is that?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ We have rolled a great barrel out of a cellar that is
+under the earth. We have rolled it right into the midst of them. [_He
+moves his hand about as if he were moving a barrel._] It's heavy, and
+when they have drunk what is in it, I would like to see the man that
+would be their master.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ That would be a great drink, but I wouldn't be sure that
+you're in earnest.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Colman and Aloysius will tell you all about it. It was
+made in a good still, the barley was grown in a field that's down under
+the earth.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ That's likely enough. I often heard of places like that.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And when they have drunk from my barrel, they will
+break open the door, they will put law and number under their two feet;
+and they will have a hot palm and a cold palm, for they will put down
+the moon and the sun with their two hands.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ There's no mistake but you're the same Paul still; nice
+and plain and simple, only for your hard talk. And what about the
+rheumatism? It's hardly you got through that fit you had, and you don't
+look as if much hardship would agree with you now.
+
+_Aloysius._ He does not, indeed, and if he doesn't kill himself one way
+he will another. Wait now till I tell you the way he is living. I don't
+think he tasted bit or sup to-day, and all he had last night was a
+couple of dry potatoes.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Is that so? [_Takes_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S _arm_.] You haven't
+much more flesh on you than a crane in moonlight. They don't seem to
+have much notion of minding you here, you that were reared soft. It
+would be better for you to come back to us; bad as our lodging is,
+there'd be a bit in the pot for you and Sabina to care you. It's she
+would give you a good welcome.
+
+_Colman._ [_Starting up._] We can mind him well enough here. I have a
+plan. We haven't been getting on the way we ought with the people. It's
+no way to be getting on with people to be asking things of them always,
+they have no opinion at all of us seeing us the way we are. They have no
+notion of the respect they should show to Brother Paul, and the way all
+the Brothers used to be listening to his preaching, and the townspeople
+as well. And I, myself, the time I preached in Dublin----
+
+_Aloysius._ Yes, indeed, Paul, think of the great crowds used to come
+when you preached in the Abbey church, and all the money that was
+gathered that time of the Mission.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, I used to like once to see all the faces looking
+up at me. But now all that is gone from me. Now I think it is enough to
+be a witness for the truth, and to think the thoughts I like. God will
+bring the people to me. He will make of my silence a great wind that
+will shatter the ships of the world.
+
+_Colman._ That is all very well, but the people are not coming.
+
+_Aloysius._ And more than that, they are driving us away from their
+doors now, Paul.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ The way they do to us. But Paul was not born on the
+roads. [_Lights his pipe._
+
+_Colman._ It's no use stopping waiting for a wind; if we have anything
+to say that's worth the people listening to, we must bring them to hear
+it one way or another. Now, it is what I was saying to Aloysius, we must
+begin teaching them to make things, they never had the chance of any
+instruction of the sort here.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ To make things? This sort of things? [_Takes the
+half-made basket from_ COLMAN.
+
+_Colman._ Those and other things, we got a good training in the old
+days. And we'll get a grant from the Technical Board. The Board pays up
+to four hundred pounds to some of its instructors.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And then?
+
+_Aloysius._ Oh, then we'll sell all the things we make. I'm sure we'll
+get a market for them.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, I understand; you will sell them. And what about
+the dividing of the money? You will need to make laws about that.
+
+_Colman._ Of course; we will have to make rules, and to pay according to
+work.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, we will grow quite rich in time. What are we to do
+then? we can't go on living in this ruin?
+
+_Colman._ Of course not. We'll build workshops and houses for those who
+come to work from a distance, good houses, slated, not thatched.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Turning to_ ALOYSIUS _and_ CHARLIE WARD.] Yes, you see
+his plan. To gather the people together, to build houses for them; to
+make them rich too, and to keep their money safe. And the Kingdom of God
+too? What about that?
+
+_Colman._ Oh, I'm just coming to that. They will think so much more of
+our teaching when we have got them under our influence by other things.
+Of course we will teach them their meditations, and give them a regular
+religious life. We must settle out some little place for them to pray
+in--there's a high gable over there where we could hang a bell----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh yes, I understand. You would weave them together
+like this [_weaves the osiers in and out_], you would add one thing to
+another, laws and money and church and bells, till you had got
+everything back again that you have escaped from. But it is my business
+to tear things asunder like this [_tears pieces from the basket_], and
+this, and this----
+
+_Aloysius._ I told him you'd never agree to it. He ought to have known
+that himself.
+
+_Colman._ We must have something to offer the people.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You say that because you got nothing to-day. Aloysius
+has got nothing in his sack. [_Taking sack and turning it upside down._]
+It is quite empty. Every religious teacher before me has offered
+something to his followers, but I offer them nothing. [_Plunging his arm
+down into the sack._] My sack is quite empty. I will never dip my hand
+into nature's full sack of illusions; I am tired of that old conjuring
+bag. [_He walks up and down muttering._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_To_ COLMAN.] You may as well give up trying to settle
+him down to anything. He was a tinker once, and he'll be a tinker
+always; he has got the wandering into his blood. Will you come back to
+the roads, Paul, to your old friends and to Sabina?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sitting down beside him._] Ah, my old friends, they
+were very kind to me; but these friends too are very kind to me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Well, come and see them anyway; they'll be glad to see
+you, those that are left of us.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Those that are left of you? Where are the others?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Some are dead, and some are jailed, and some are on the
+roads here and there. Sabina is with us always, and Johneen is a great
+hand with the tools now, but Tommy the Song----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, Tommy the Song, does he pray still? He was
+beginning to pray. Did he ever get an answer?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Well, I don't know about an answer, but I believe he
+heard something one night beside an old thorn tree, some sort of a voice
+it was.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ A voice? What did it say to him? Did he see anything?
+We have learned too much, our minds are like troubled water--we get
+nothing but broken images. He who knew nothing may have seen all. Is he
+praying still?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ If he is, it's in Galway gaol he's praying, with or
+without a thorn tree.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Did he tell no one what the voice said to him?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He did not, unless he might have told Johneen or some
+other one.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I will go with you and see them. [_Gets up._
+
+_Colman._ [_To_ ALOYSIUS, _with whom he has been whispering_.] Take care,
+but if he goes back to his old friends, he'll stop with them and leave
+us.
+
+_Aloysius._ [_Putting his hand on_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S _arm_.] Don't go,
+Brother Paul, till I talk to you awhile.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Do you want me? Well, Charlie, I will stay here, I
+won't go; but bring all the rest to see me, I want to ask them about
+that vision.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ I'll bring one of them, anyway. [_Exit._
+
+_Aloysius._ Brother Paul, it is what I am thinking; now the tinkers have
+come back to you, you could begin to gather a sort of an army; you can't
+fight your battle without an army. They could call to the other tinkers,
+and the tramps and the beggars, and the sieve-makers and all the
+wandering people. It would be a great army.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, that would be a great army, a great wandering
+army.
+
+_Aloysius._ The people would be afraid to refuse us then; we would march
+on----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, we could march on. We could march on the towns,
+and we could break up all settled order; we could bring back the old
+joyful, dangerous, individual life. We would have banners, we would each
+have a banner, banners with angels upon them--we will march upon the
+world with banners----
+
+_Colman._ We would not be in want of food then, we could take all we
+wanted.
+
+_Aloysius._ We could take all we wanted, we would be too many to put in
+gaol; all the people would join us in the end; you would be able to
+persuade them all, Brother Paul, you would be their leader; we would
+make great stores of food----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ We will have one great banner that will go in front,
+it will take two men to carry it, and on it we will have Laughter, with
+his iron claws and his wings of brass and his eyes like sapphires----
+
+_Aloysius._ That will be the banner for the front, we will have
+different troops, we will have captains to organize them, to give them
+orders----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Standing up._] To organize? That is to bring in law
+and number? Organize--organize--that is how all the mischief has been
+done. I was forgetting, we cannot destroy the world with armies, it is
+inside our minds that it must be destroyed, it must be consumed in a
+moment inside our minds. God will accomplish his last judgment, first in
+one man's mind and then in another. He is always planning last
+judgments. And yet it takes a long time, and that is why he laments in
+the wind and in the reeds and in the cries of the curlews.
+
+_Colman._ I think we had better go down to the river and see are there
+any eels on the lines we set. We must find something for supper. It is
+near sunset; see how the crows are flying home.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Looking up._] The crows are my darlings! I like
+their harsh merriment better than those sad cries of the wind and the
+rushes. Look at them, they are tossing about like witches, tossing about
+on the wind, drunk with the wind.
+
+_Colman._ Well, I'll go look at the lines, anyhow. Put turf on the fire,
+Aloysius; Bartley should soon be home from Shanaglish.
+
+_Aloysius._ I wonder why he isn't home by this. I'm uneasy till I see
+him, after the way the people treated me to-day. [_Shades his eyes to
+look out._] Here he is! He's running!
+
+_Colman._ [_Coming over to him._] He is running hard! He must be in some
+danger----
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     _Enter_ BARTLEY _out of breath_.
+
+_Bartley._ Run, run, come away, there's not a minute to lose.
+
+_Colman._ What is the matter? what has happened?
+
+_Bartley._ The people are coming up the road! They attacked me in the
+market! They followed me, they are on the road. I slipped away across
+the fields. Run, run!
+
+_Colman._ What is it? What are they going to do to us?
+
+_Bartley._ You would know that if you saw them! They have stones and
+sticks. Raging they are, and calling for our lives. They say we brought
+witchcraft and ill-luck on the place! Come to the boat, it's in the
+rushes; they won't see us, we'll get to the island. Hurry, hurry! [_He
+runs out._
+
+_Aloysius._ Come, Brother Paul, hurry, hurry!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am going to stay.
+
+_Bartley._ They will kill us if we stay! Brother Colman said they have
+stones and sticks; I think I hear them!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You are afraid because you have been shut up so long.
+I am not afraid because I have lived upon the roads, where one is ready
+for anything that may happen. One has to learn that, like any other
+thing. I will stay.
+
+_Aloysius._ He wants the crown!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Where is Bartley?
+
+_Colman._ He is gone. Come, you must go too, we can't leave you here.
+You have too much to do to throw your life away, we have all too much to
+do.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No, no. There is nothing to do; I am going to stay.
+
+_Aloysius._ I will stay with you. [_Takes his hand._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Death is the last adventure, the first perfect joy,
+for at death the soul comes into possession of itself, and returns to
+the joy that made it. [_A great shout outside._
+
+_Colman._ [_Seizing ALOYSIUS._] Come, come, Aloysius! come, Paul! We
+haven't a moment, here they are. [_Drags_ ALOYSIUS _away_.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Aloysius, good-bye, Colman. Keep a pick
+going at the foundations of the world.
+
+     [COLMAN _and_ ALOYSIUS _run on_.
+
+_One of the Mob outside._ They are here in the ruins!
+
+_Another Voice._ This way! This way!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I will not go. I have a little reason for staying, but
+no reason is too little to be the foundation of martyrdom. People have
+been martyred for all kinds of reasons, and my reason that is not worth
+a rush will do as well as any other. [_Looks round._] Ah! they are gone.
+A little reason, a little reason. I have entered into the second
+freedom--the irresponsibility of the saints.
+
+_Sings._
+
+  Parasti in conspectu meo mensam
+  Adversus eos qui tribulant me.
+  Impinguasti in oleo caput meum,
+  Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.
+
+    [People _rush in with sticks uplifted._
+
+_One of the Mob._ Where are the heretics?
+
+_Another._ We'll make an end of their witchcraft!
+
+_Another._ Here is the worst of them!
+
+_Another._ Give me back my cattle you put the sickness on!
+
+_Another._ We'll have no witchcraft here! Drive away the unfrocked
+priest!
+
+_Another._ Make an end of him when we have the chance!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, make an end of me. I have tried hard to live a
+good life; give me a good death now.
+
+_One of the Crowd._ Quick, don't give him time to put the evil eye on
+us!
+
+     [_They rush at him. His hands are seen swaying about above the
+     crowd._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I go to the invisible heart of flame!
+
+_One of the Crowd._ Throw him there now! Where are the others?
+
+_Another._ They must be among the rocks.
+
+_Another._ They are not; they are gone down the road!
+
+_Another._ I tell you it's in the rocks they are! It's in the rocks
+they're hiding!
+
+_Another._ They are not; they couldn't run in the rocks; they're running
+down the road.
+
+_Several Voices._ They're on the road; they're on the road.
+
+     [_They all rush out, leaving_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _lying on the ground. It
+     grows darker_. FATHERS COLMAN _and_ ALOYSIUS _creep up_.
+
+_Colman._ Paul, Paul, come; we have still time to get to the boat.
+
+_Aloysius._ Oh! they have killed him; there is a wound in his neck! Oh!
+he has been the first of us to get the crown!
+
+_Colman._ There are voices! They must be coming back! Come to the boat,
+maybe we can bury him to-morrow!
+
+     [_They go out._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _half rises and sinks back_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     _Enter_ CHARLIE WARD _and_ SABINA SILVER.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ They have done for him. I thought they would.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Oh, Paul, I never thought to find you like this! He's
+not dead; he'll come round yet.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Opens his shirt and puts in his hand on his heart._]
+Paul!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! Charlie, give me the soldering iron--no, bring me
+the lap anvil--I'm as good a tinker as any of you.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He thinks he's back on the roads with us! He is done
+for.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I knew he'd have to come back to me to die after all;
+it's a lonesome thing to die among strangers.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That is right, that is right, take me up in your
+brazen claws. But no--no--I will not go out beyond Saturn into the
+dark. Take me down--down to that field under the earth, under the roots
+of the grave.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I don't know what he is saying. I never could
+understand his talk.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ O plunge me into the wine barrel, into the wine barrel
+of God.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Won't you speak to me, Paul? Don't you know me? I am
+Sibby; don't you remember me, Sibby, your wife?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He sees you now; I think he knows you.
+
+     [PAUL RUTTLEDGE _has raised himself on his elbow and is looking at_
+     SABINA SILVER.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ He knows me. I was sure he would know me.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Colman, Colman, remember always where there is nothing
+there is God. [_He sinks down again._
+
+_One of the Crowd._ [_Coming back with two or three others._] I knew
+they must be in the rocks.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Well, he's gone! There'll soon be none of us left at
+all. And I never knew what it was he did that brought him to us.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Oh, Paul, Paul!
+
+     [_Begins to keen very low, swaying herself to and fro._
+
+_One of the Crowd._ [_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] Was he a friend of yours?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He was, indeed. I must do what I can for him now.
+
+_One of the Crowd._ That's natural, that's natural. It's a pity they did
+it. They'd best have left him alone. We'd best be going back to the
+town.
+
+     [SABINA SILVER _raises the keen louder. The_ Strangers _and_ CHARLIE
+     WARD _take off their hats._
+
+
+
+CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT,
+CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+The original text contained a great deal of italic, bold and small-capped
+formatting. For the purposes of producing this text version, the
+underscore symbol surrounds italicized text and small-capped text is
+converted to all-caps.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Where There is Nothing, by William Butler Yeats
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Where There is Nothing, by W. B. Yeats
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Where There is Nothing, by William Butler Yeats
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Where There is Nothing
+       Being Volume I of Plays for an Irish Theatre
+
+Author: William Butler Yeats
+
+Release Date: December 20, 2011 [EBook #38349]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE THERE IS NOTHING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brian Foley, Stephanie McKee and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h3><i>BY THE SAME WRITER.</i></h3>
+
+<div class="center">
+THE SECRET ROSE.<br />
+THE CELTIC TWILIGHT.<br />
+POEMS.<br />
+THE WIND AMONG THE REEDS.<br />
+THE SHADOWY WATERS.<br />
+IDEAS OF GOOD AND EVIL.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1>
+PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE<br />
+<br />
+<small>VOLUME I.</small><br />
+</h1>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+WHERE THERE IS NOTHING:<br />
+BEING VOLUME ONE OF PLAYS<br />
+FOR AN IRISH THEATRE: BY<br />
+W. B. YEATS<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+LONDON: A. H. BULLEN, 47, GREAT<br />
+RUSSELL STREET, W.C. 1903<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.<br />
+TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.<br />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="centerbox">
+<a href="#DEDICATION"><b>DEDICATION OF VOLUMES ONE AND TWO OF PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE</b></a><br/>
+<a href="#WHERE_THERE_IS_NOTHING"><b>WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#ACT_I"><b>ACT I.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#ACT_II"><b>ACT II.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#ACT_III"><b>ACT III.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#ACT_IV"><b>ACT IV.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#ACT_V"><b>ACT V.</b></a><br />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="DEDICATION" id="DEDICATION"></a>DEDICATION OF VOLUMES ONE AND TWO OF PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Lady Gregory</span>, I dedicate to you two volumes of plays
+that are in part your own.</p>
+
+<p>When I was a boy I used to wander about at Rosses Point and Ballisodare
+listening to old songs and stories. I wrote down what I heard and made
+poems out of the stories or put them into the little chapters of the
+first edition of "The Celtic Twilight," and that is how I began to write
+in the Irish way.</p>
+
+<p>Then I went to London to make my living, and though I spent a part of
+every year in Ireland and tried to keep the old life in my memory by
+reading every country tale I could find in books or old newspapers, I
+began to forget the true countenance of country life. The old tales were
+still alive for me indeed, but with a new, strange, half unreal life, as
+if in a wizard's glass, until at last, when I had finished "The Secret
+Rose," and was half-way through "The Wind Among the Reeds," a wise woman
+in her trance told me that my inspiration was from the moon, and that I
+should always live close to water, for my work was getting too full of
+those little jewelled thoughts that come from the sun and have no
+nation. I had no need to turn to my books of astrology to know that the
+common people are under the moon, or to Porphyry to remember the
+image-making power of the waters. Nor did I doubt the entire truth of
+what she said to me, for my head was full of fables that I had no longer
+the knowledge and emotion to write. Then you brought me with you to see
+your friends in the cottages, and to talk to old wise men on Slieve
+Echtge, and we gathered together, or you gathered for me, a great number
+of stories and traditional beliefs. You taught me to understand again,
+and much more perfectly than before, the true countenance of country
+life.</p>
+
+<p>One night I had a dream almost as distinct as a vision, of a cottage
+where there was well-being and firelight and talk of a marriage, and
+into the midst of that cottage there came an old woman in a long cloak.
+She was Ireland herself, that Cathleen ni Hoolihan for whom so many
+songs have been sung and about whom so many stories have been told and
+for whose sake so many have gone to their death. I thought if I could
+write this out as a little play I could make others see my dream as I
+had seen it, but I could not get down out of that high window of
+dramatic verse, and in spite of all you had done for me I had not the
+country speech. One has to live among the people, like you, of whom an
+old man said in my hearing, "She has been a serving-maid among us,"
+before one can think the thoughts of the people and speak with their
+tongue. We turned my dream into the little play, "Cathleen ni Hoolihan,"
+and when we gave it to the little theatre in Dublin and found that the
+working people liked it, you helped me to put my other dramatic fables
+into speech. Some of these have already been acted, but some may not be
+acted for a long time, but all seem to me, though they were but a part
+of a summer's work, to have more of that countenance of country life
+than anything I have done since I was a boy.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">W. B. Yeats.</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Feb. 1903.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Dramatis Personae">
+<tr>
+<td align="right" valign="middle" style="white-space: nowrap">
+<span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>,<br/><span class="smcap">Mrs. Thomas Ruttledge.</span>
+<br/><span class="smcap">Thomas Ruttledge,</span></td>
+<td valign="middle" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap;">&nbsp;</td>
+<td valign="middle" class="tdleft">a Country Gentleman.<br /><br/>his Brother.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right" valign="middle" style="white-space: nowrap">
+      &nbsp;<br />
+<span class="smcap">Mr. Dowler</span>,       <br />
+<span class="smcap">Mr. Algie</span>,          <br />
+<span class="smcap">Colonel Lawley</span>,  <br />
+<span class="smcap">Mr. Joyce</span>,          <br />
+</td>
+<td valign="middle" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-size: 82pt">
+      }</td>
+    <td valign="middle" class="tdleft">
+     Magistrates.</td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" valign="middle" style="white-space: nowrap">
+<span class="smcap">Mr. Green</span>,</td>
+<td valign="middle" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap;">&nbsp;</td>
+<td valign="middle" class="tdleft"> a Stipendiary Magistrate.<br /></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" valign="middle" style="white-space: nowrap">
+      &nbsp;<br />
+<span class="smcap">Sabina Silver</span>,                <br />
+<span class="smcap">Molly the Scold</span>,           <br />
+<span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span>,                <br />
+<span class="smcap">Paddy Cockfight</span>,         <br />
+<span class="smcap">Tommy the Song</span>,         <br />
+<span class="smcap">Johneen</span>, etc.               <br /></td>
+<td valign="middle" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-size: 82pt">
+      }</td>
+    <td valign="middle" class="tdleft">
+     Tinkers.</td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" valign="middle" style="white-space: nowrap">
+      &nbsp;<br />
+<span class="smcap">Father Jerome</span>,        <br />
+<span class="smcap">Father Aloysius</span>,       <br />
+<span class="smcap">Father Colman</span>,       <br />
+<span class="smcap">Father Bartley</span>,        <br /></td>
+<td valign="middle" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-size: 82pt">
+      }</td>
+    <td valign="middle" class="tdleft">
+     Friars.</td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" valign="middle" style="white-space: nowrap">
+<span class="smcap">Other Friars, <br/>and a crowd of countrymen.</span><br />
+</td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p001" id="Page_p001">[1]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1><a name="WHERE_THERE_IS_NOTHING" id="WHERE_THERE_IS_NOTHING"></a>WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.</h1>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="ACT_I" id="ACT_I"></a>ACT I.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>A lawn with croquet hoops, garden chairs and
+tables. Door into house at left. Gate through hedge at back. The
+hedge is clipped into shapes of farmyard fowl.</i> <span class="smcap">Paul
+Ruttledge</span> <i>is clipping at the hedge in front. A table with toys
+on it.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Coming out on steps.</i>] Paul, are you
+coming in to lunch?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> No; you can entertain these people very well. They
+are your friends: you understand them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> You might as well come in. You have been
+clipping at that old hedge long enough.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You needn't worry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p002" id="Page_p002">[2]</a></span> about me. I should be bored if I
+went in, and I don't want to be bored more than is necessary.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> What is that creature you are clipping at now? I
+can't make it out.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, it is a Cochin China fowl, an image of some of
+our neighbours, like the others.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> I don't see any likeness to anyone.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, yes there is, if you could see their minds
+instead of their bodies. That comb now&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Coming out on steps.</i>] Thomas, are you
+coming in?</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> Yes, I'm coming; but Paul won't come.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">[<span class="smcap">Thomas Ruttledge</span> <i>goes out.</i></div>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> Oh! this is nonsense, Paul; you must come. All
+these men will think it so strange if you don't. It is nonsense to think
+you will be bored. Mr. Green is talking in the most interesting way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p003" id="Page_p003">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh! I know Green's conversation very well.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> And Mr. Joyce, your old guardian. Thomas says he
+was always so welcome in your father's time, he will think it so queer.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh! I know all their virtues. There's Dowler, who
+puts away thousands a year in Consols, and Algie, who tells everybody all
+about it. Have I forgotten anybody? Oh, yes! Colonel Lawley, who used to
+lift me up by the ears, when I was a child, to see Africa. No, Georgina,
+I know all their virtues, but I'm not coming in.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> I can't imagine why you won't come in and be
+sociable.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You see I can't. I have something to do here. I
+have to finish this comb. You see it is a beautiful comb; but the wings
+are very short. The poor creature can't fly.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> But can't you finish that after lunch?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p004" id="Page_p004">[4]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> No, I have sworn.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> Well, I am sorry. You are always doing
+uncomfortable things. I must go in to the others. I wish you would have
+come. [<i>She goes in.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> [<i>Who has come to gate as she disappears.</i>] Paul, you
+there! that is lucky. I was just going to ask for you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Flinging clipper away, and jumping up.</i>]
+Oh, Father Jerome, I am delighted to see you. I haven't seen you for ever
+so long. Come and have a talk; or will you have some lunch?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> No, thank you; I will stay a minute, but I won't go in.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> That is just as well, for you would be bored to
+death. There has been a meeting of magistrates in the village, and my
+brother has brought them all in to lunch.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I am collecting for the Monastery, and my donkey has gone
+lame; I have had to put it up in the village. I thought you might be
+able to lend me one to go on with.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p005" id="Page_p005">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Of course, I'm delighted to lend you that or
+anything else. I'll go round to the yard with you and order it. But sit
+down here first. What have you been doing all this time?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Oh, we have been very busy. You know we are going to put
+up new buildings.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Absent-mindedly.</i>] No, I didn't know that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Yes, our school is increasing so much we are getting a
+grant for technical instruction. Some of the Fathers are learning
+handicrafts. Father Aloysius is going to study industries in France; but
+we are all busy. We are changing with the times, we are beginning to do
+useful things.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Useful things. I wonder what you have begun to
+call useful things. Do you see those marks over there on the grass?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> What marks?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Those marks over there, those little marks of
+scratching.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p006" id="Page_p006">[6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> [<i>Going over to the place</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>has
+pointed out.</i>] I don't see anything.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You are getting blind, Jerome. Can't you see that
+the poultry have been scratching there?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> No, the grass is perfectly smooth.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Well, the marks are there, whether you see them
+or not; for Mr. Green and Mr. Dowler and Mr. Algie and the rest of them
+run out of their houses when nobody is looking, in their real shapes,
+shapes like those on my hedge. And then they begin to scratch, they
+scratch all together, they don't dig but they scratch, and all the time
+their mouths keep going like that.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>He holds out his hand and opens and shuts his fingers like a
+bird's bill.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Oh, Paul, you are making fun of me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Of course I am only talking in parables. I think
+all the people I meet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p007" id="Page_p007">[7]</a></span> are like farmyard creatures, they have forgotten
+their freedom, their human bodies are a disguise, a pretence they keep
+up to deceive one another.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> [<i>Sitting down.</i>] What is wrong with you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, nothing of course. You see how happy I am. I
+have a good house and a good property, and my brother and his charming
+wife have come to look after me. You see the toys of their children here
+and everywhere. What should be wrong with me?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I know you too well not to see that there is something
+wrong with you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> There is nothing except that I have been thinking
+a good deal lately.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Perhaps your old dreams or visions or whatever they were
+have come back. They always made you restless. You ought to see more of
+your neighbours.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> There's nothing inter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p008" id="Page_p008">[8]</a></span>esting but human nature, and
+that's in the single soul, but these neighbours of mine they think in
+flocks and roosts.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> You are too hard on them. They are busy men, they hav'n't
+much time for thought, I daresay.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> That's what I complain of. When I hear these
+people talking I always hear some organized or vested interest chirp or
+quack, as it does in the newspapers. Algie chirps. Even you, Jerome,
+though I have not found your armorial beast, are getting a little
+monastic; when I have found it I will put it among the others. There is a
+place for it there, but the worst of it is that it will take so long
+getting nice and green.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I don't know what creature you could make for me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I am not sure yet; I think it might be a pigeon,
+something cooing and gentle, and always coming home to the dovecot; not
+to the wild woods but to the dovecot.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p009" id="Page_p009">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I wonder what creature you yourself are like.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I daresay I am like some creature or other, for
+very few of us are altogether men; but if I am, I would like to be one
+of the wild sort. You are right about my dreams. They have been coming
+back lately. Do you remember those strange ones I had at college?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Those visions of pulling something down?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, they have come back to me lately. Sometimes I
+dream I am pulling down my own house, and sometimes it is the whole
+world that I am pulling down. [<i>Standing up.</i>] I would like to have
+great iron claws, and to put them about the pillars, and to pull and
+pull till everything fell into pieces.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I don't see what good that would do you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, yes it would. When everything was pulled down
+we would have more room to get drunk in, to drink con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p010" id="Page_p010">[10]</a></span>tentedly out of the
+cup of life, out of the drunken cup of life.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> That is a terribly wild thought. I hope you don't believe
+all you say.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Perhaps not. I only know that I want to upset
+everything about me. Have you not noticed that it is a complaint many of
+us have in this country? and whether it comes from love or hate I don't
+know, they are so mixed together here.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I wish you would come and talk to our Superior. He has a
+perfect gift for giving advice.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Well, we'll go to the yard now. [<i>He gets
+up.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I have often thought you would come to the Monastery
+yourself in the end. You were so much the most pious of us all at
+school. You would be happy in a Monastery. Something is always happening
+there.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>As they go up the garden.</i>] I daresay, I
+daresay; but I am not even sure that I am a Christian.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p011" id="Page_p011">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Well, anyway, I wish that you would come and talk to our
+Superior. [<i>They go out.</i><br/><br/></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Boy</span> <i>enter by the path beyond
+the hedge and stand at gate.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> No use going up there, Johneen, it's too grand a
+place, it's a dog they might let loose on us. But I'll tell you what,
+just slip round to the back door and ask do they want any cans mended.</p>
+
+<p><i>Johneen.</i> Let you take the rabbit then we're after taking out of
+the snare. I can't bring it round with me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Faith, you can't. They think as bad of us taking a
+rabbit that was fed and minded by God as if it was of their own rearing;
+give it here to me. It's hardly it will go in my pocket, it's as big as
+a hare. It's next my skin I'll have to put it, or it might be noticed on
+me. [<i>Boy goes out.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>is struggling to put rabbit inside his
+coat when</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>comes back.</i></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p012" id="Page_p012">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Is there anything I can do for you? Do you want to
+come in?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> I'm a tinker by trade, your honour. I wonder is
+there e'er a tin can the maids in the house might want mended or any
+chairs to be bottomed?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> A tinker; where do you live?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Faith, I don't stop long in any place. I go about
+like the crows; picking up my way of living like themselves.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Opening gate.</i>] Come inside here.
+[<span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>hesitates.</i>] Come in, you are welcome.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Puts his hand on his shoulder.</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>tries to
+close his shirt over rabbit.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Ah, you have a rabbit there. The keeper told me
+he had come across some snares in my woods.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> If he did, sir, it was no snare of mine he found.
+This is a rabbit I bought in the town of Garreen early this morning.
+Sixpence I was made give for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p013" id="Page_p013">[13]</a></span> it, and to mend a tin can along with that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Touching rabbit.</i>] It's warm still, however.
+But the day is hot. Never mind; you are quite welcome to it. I daresay
+you will have a cheery meal of it by the roadside; my dinners are often
+tiresome enough. I often wish I could change&mdash;look here, will you change
+clothes with me?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Faith, I'd swap soon enough if you weren't humbugging
+me. It's I that would look well with that suit on me! The peelers would
+all be touching their caps to me. You'd see them running out for me to
+sign summonses for them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> But I am not humbugging. I am in earnest.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> In earnest! Then when I go back I'll commit Paddy
+Cockfight to prison for hitting me yesterday.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You don't believe me, but I will explain. I'm dead
+sick of this life; I want to get away; I want to escape&mdash;as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p014" id="Page_p014">[14]</a></span> you say, to
+pick up my living like the crows for a while.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> To make your escape. Oh! that's different. [<i>Coming
+closer.</i>] But what is it you did? You don't look like one that would be
+in trouble. But sometimes a gentleman gets a bit wild when he has a drop
+taken.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Well, never mind. I will explain better while we are
+changing. Come over here to the potting shed. Make haste, those
+magistrates will be coming out.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> The magistrates! Are they after you? Hurry on, then!
+Faith, they won't know you with this coat. [<i>Looking at his rags.</i>] It's a
+pity I didn't put on my old one coming out this morning.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>They go out through the garden.</i> <span class="smcap">Thomas Ruttledge</span> <i>comes
+down steps from house with</i> <span class="smcap">Colonel Lawley</span> <i>and</i>
+<span class="smcap">Mr. Green</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> Yes, they have made me President of the County
+Horticultural Society. My speech was quite a success;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p015" id="Page_p015">[15]</a></span> it was punctuated
+with applause. I said I looked upon the appointment not as a tribute to
+my own merits, but to their public spirit and to the Society, which I
+assured them had come to stay.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> What has become of Paul and Father Jerome? I thought
+I heard their voices out here, and now they are conspicuous by their
+absence.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> He seems to have no friend he cares for but that
+Father Jerome.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> I wish he would come more into touch with his fellows.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> What a pity he didn't go into the army. I wish he
+would join the militia. Every man should try to find some useful sphere
+of employment.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> Thomas, your brother will never come to see me, though
+I often ask him. He would find the best people&mdash;people worth meeting&mdash;at
+my house. I wonder if he would join the Horticultural Society? I know I
+voice the sentiments of all the members in saying this. I spoke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p016" id="Page_p016">[16]</a></span> to a
+number of them at the function the other day.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> I wish he would join something. Joyce wants him
+to join the Masonic Lodge. It is not a right life for him to keep hanging
+about the place and doing nothing.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> He won't even come and sit on the Bench. It's not fair
+to leave so much of the work to me. I ought to get all the support
+possible from local men.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<span class="smcap">Mrs. Ruttledge</span> <i>comes down steps with</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Dowler</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Mr. Algie</span>, <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Joyce</span>. <i>She is walking in front.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Thomas Ruttledge</span>.] Oh! Thomas, isn't it
+too bad, Paul has lent the donkey to that friar. I wanted Mr. Joyce to
+see the children in their panniers. Do speak to him about it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> Well, the donkey belongs to him, and for the
+matter of that so does the house and the place. It would be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p017" id="Page_p017">[17]</a></span> rather hard
+on him not to be able to use things as he likes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> What a pleasure it must be to Paul to have you and the
+little ones living here. He certainly owes you a debt of gratitude. Man
+was not born to live alone.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> Well, I think we have done him good. He hasn't done
+anything for years, except mope about the house and cut the bushes into
+those absurd shapes, and now we are trying to make him live more like
+other people.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> He was always inclined to be a bit of a faddist.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Algie</span>.] Do let me give you a lesson in
+croquet. I have learned all the new rules. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Joyce</span>.] Please
+bring me that basket of balls. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Colonel Lawley</span>.] Will you
+bring me the mallets? Yes, I am afraid he is a faddist. We have done our
+best for him, but he ought to be more with men.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> Yes, Mr. Dowler was just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p018" id="Page_p018">[18]</a></span> saying he ought to try and be
+made a director of the new railway.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> The militia&mdash;the militia.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> It's a great help to a man to belong to a Masonic Lodge.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> The Horticultural Society is in want of new members.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> Well, I wish he would join something.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>in tinker's clothes, carrying a rabbit in
+his hand.</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>follows in</i> <span class="smcap">Paul's</span> <i>clothes. All stand
+aghast.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> Good God!</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Drops basket.</i> <span class="smcap">Colonel Lawley</span>, <i>who has mallets in his hand, at
+sight of</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>drops them, and stands still.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> Paul! are you out of your mind?</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> For goodness' sake, Paul, don't make such a fool of
+yourself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p019" id="Page_p019">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> What on earth has happened, and who on earth is that
+man?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Opens gate for tinker. To</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span>.] Wait for
+me, my friend, down there by the cross-road.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">[<span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>goes out.</i></div>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> Has he stolen your clothes?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh! it's all right; I have changed clothes with him. I
+am going to join the tinkers.</p>
+
+<p><i>All.</i> To join the tinkers!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Life is getting too monotonous; I would give it a
+little variety. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Green</span>.] As you would say, it has been running
+in grooves.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Ruttledge</span>.] This is only his humbugging
+talk; he never believes what he says.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">[<span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>goes towards the steps.</i></div>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> Surely you are not going into the house with those
+clothes?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You are quite right. Thomas will go in for me. [<i>To</i>
+<span class="smcap">Thomas Ruttledge</span>.] Just go to my study, will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p020" id="Page_p020">[20]</a></span> you, and bring me my
+despatch-box; I want something from it before I go.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> Where are you going to? I wish you would tell me
+what you are at.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> The despatch-box is on the top of the bureau.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">[<span class="smcap">Thomas Ruttledge</span> <i>goes out.</i></div>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> What does all this mean?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I will explain. [<i>Sits down on the edge of iron
+table.</i>] Did you never wish to be a witch, and to ride through the air
+on a white horse?</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> I can't say I ever did.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Never? Only think of it&mdash;to ride in the darkness under
+the stars, to make one's horse leap from cloud to cloud, to watch the
+sea glittering under one's feet and the mountain tops going by.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> But what has this to do with the tinkers?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> As I cannot find a broomstick that will turn itself
+into a white horse, I am going to turn tinker.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p021" id="Page_p021">[21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> I suppose you have some picturesque idea about these
+people, but I assure you, you are quite wrong. They are nothing but
+poachers.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> They are nothing but thieves.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> They are the worst class in the country.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, I know that; they are quite lawless. That is what
+attracts me to them. I am going to be irresponsible.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> One cannot escape from responsibility by joining a set of
+vagabonds.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Vagabonds&mdash;that is it. I want to be a vagabond, a
+wanderer. As I can't leap from cloud to cloud I want to wander from road
+to road. That little path there by the clipped edge goes up to the
+highroad. I want to go up that path and to walk along the highroad, and
+so on and on and on, and to know all kinds of people. Did you ever think
+that the roads are the only things that are endless; that one can walk
+on and on and on, and never be stopped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p022" id="Page_p022">[22]</a></span> by a gate or a wall? They are
+the serpent of eternity. I wonder they have never been worshipped. What
+are the stars beside them? They never meet one another. The roads are
+the only things that are infinite. They are all endless.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> But they must stop when they come to the sea?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Ah! you are always so wise.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> Stop talking nonsense, Paul, and throw away those filthy
+things.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> That would be setting cleanliness before godliness. I
+have begun the regeneration of my soul.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> I don't see what godliness has got to do with it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> Nor I either.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> There was a saint who said, "I must rejoice without
+ceasing, although the world shudder at my joy." He did not think he
+could save his soul without it. I agree with him, and as I was
+discontented here, I thought it time to make a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p023" id="Page_p023">[23]</a></span> change. Like that worthy
+man, I must be content to shock my friends.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> But you had everything here you could want.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> That's just it. You who are so wealthy, you of all
+people should understand that I want to get rid of all that
+responsibility, answering letters and so on. It is not worth the trouble
+of being rich if one has to answer letters. Could you ever understand,
+Georgina, that one gets tired of many charming things? There are family
+responsibilities [<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Joyce</span>], but I can see that you, who were my
+guardian, sympathize with me in that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> Indeed I do not.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> I should think you could be cheerful without ceasing
+to be a gentleman.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You are thinking of my clothes. We must feel at ease
+with the people we live amongst. I shall feel at ease with the great
+multitude in these clothes. I am beginning to be a man of the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p024" id="Page_p024">[24]</a></span> I
+am the beggarman of all the ages&mdash;I have a notion Homer wrote something
+about me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> He is either making fun of us or talking great rot. I
+can't listen to any more of this nonsense. I can't see why a man with
+property can't let well alone. Algie are you coming my way?</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>They both go into the house, and come out presently with umbrella
+and coat.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> Depend upon it, he's going to write a book. There was a man
+who made quite a name for himself by sleeping in a casual ward.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh! no, I'm not going to write about it; if one writes
+one can do nothing else. I am going to express myself in life. [<i>To</i>
+<span class="smcap">Thomas Ruttledge</span> <i>who has returned with box.</i>] I hope soon to live by the
+work of my hands, but every trade has to be learned, and I must take
+something to start with. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Ruttledge</span>.] Do you think you will
+have any kettles to mend when I come this way again?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p025" id="Page_p025">[25]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>He has taken box from</i> <span class="smcap">Thomas Ruttledge</span> <i>and unlocked it.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> I can't make head or tail of what you are at.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> What he is at is fads.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> I don't think his motive is far to seek. He has some idea
+of going back to the dark ages. Rousseau had some idea of the same kind,
+but it didn't work.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes; I want to go back to the dark ages.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> Do you want to lose all the world has gained since then?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> What has it gained? I am among those who think that
+sin and death came into the world the day Newton eat the apple. [<i>To</i>
+<span class="smcap">Mrs. Ruttledge</span>, <i>who is going to speak.</i>] I know you are going to tell me
+he only saw it fall. Never mind, it is all the same thing.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Beginning to cry.</i>] Oh! he is going mad!</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> I'm afraid he is really leaving us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p026" id="Page_p026">[26]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Who has been looking at papers, tearing one or two,
+etc., takes out a packet of notes, which he puts in his breast.</i>] I
+daresay this will last me long enough, Thomas. I am not robbing you of
+very much. Well, good-bye. [<i>Pats him gently on the shoulder.</i>] I
+mustn't forget the rabbit, it may be my dinner to-night; I wonder who
+will skin it. Good-bye, Colonel, I think I've astonished you to-day.
+[<i>Slaps his shoulder.</i>] That was too hard, was it? Forgive it, you know
+I'm a common man now. [<i>Lifts his hat and goes out of gate. Closes it
+after him and stands with his hands on it, and speaks with the voice of
+a common man.</i>] Go on, live in your poultry-yard. Scratch straw and
+cluck and cackle at everything that you take for a fox. [<i>Exit.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> [<i>Goes to</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Ruttledge</span>, <i>who has sat down and is wiping
+her eyes.</i>] I am very sorry for this, for his father's sake, but it may
+be as well in the end. If it comes to the worst, you and Thomas will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p027" id="Page_p027">[27]</a></span>
+keep up the family name better than he would have done.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> He'll find the poor very different from what he thinks
+when they pick his pocket.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> To think that a magistrate should have such fads!</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> I venture to say you will see him here in a very different
+state of mind in a week.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> [<i>Who has been in a brown study.</i>] He has done for himself
+in this world and the next. Why, he won't be asked to a single shoot if
+this is heard of.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Turning from the gate.</i>] Here are the children,
+Georgina. Don't say anything before the nurse.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> Well, I must be off. [<i>Goes in for stick.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> Just bring me out my coat, Green.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">[<i>They all prepare to go.</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Ruttledge</span> <i>has gone to open gate and
+children come in, one in a perambulator.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p028" id="Page_p028">[28]</a></span>
+<i>All gather round them admiringly.</i></div>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> Have you a kiss for godfather to-day?</p>
+
+<p><i>Mrs. Ruttledge.</i> The poor darlings! I hope they will never know what
+has happened.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> Thank goodness, they have no nonsense in their heads.
+We know where we are with them.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curtain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p029" id="Page_p029">[29]</a></span></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="ACT_II" id="ACT_II"></a>ACT II.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>By the roadside. A wall of unmortared stone in the
+background. Tinkers' encampment. Men, women, and children standing
+round.</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>standing by a fire.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> What do you mean by "tinning" the soldering iron?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> If the face of it is not well tinned it won't lift the
+solder. Show me here.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Takes soldering iron from</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge's</span> <i>hand.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Sitting down and drawing a tin can to him.</i>] Now,
+let me see how you mend this hole. It seems easy. I'm sure I will be
+able to learn it as well as any of you.</p>
+
+<p>[<i>Two tinkers come and stand over him.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p030" id="Page_p030">[30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> [<i>Pointing to one of them.</i>] This, sir, is Tommy the
+Song. He's the best singer we have, but the divil a much good he is only
+that. He's a great warrant to snare hares.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> Is the gentleman going to join us?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Indeed I am, if you'll let me. There's nothing I'd
+like better.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> But are you going to learn the trade?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, if you'll teach me. I'm sure I'll make a good
+tinker. Look at that now, see how I've stopped that hole already.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> [<i>Taking the can from him and looking at it.</i>] If every
+can had a little hole in the middle like that, I think you <i>would</i> be
+able to mend them; but there's the straight hole, and the crooked hole,
+the round hole, the square hole, the angle hole, the bottom hole, the
+top hole, the side leak, the open leak, the leak-all-round, but I won't
+frighten you with the names of them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p031" id="Page_p031">[31]</a></span> all, only this I will say, that,
+when you've learned to mend all the leakages in a can&mdash;and that should
+take you a year&mdash;you're only in the first day of the tinker's week.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> Don't believe him. He's only humbugging you. It's not
+the hardness of the work will daunt you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Thank you. I was not believing him at all. I'm quite
+sure I'll be able to mend any can at the end of a week, but the
+bottoming of them will take longer. I can see that's not so easy. When
+will you start to teach me that, Charlie?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> [<i>As another tinker comes up.</i>] Paddy, here's the
+gentleman I was telling you about. He's going to join us for good and
+all. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>.] Wait till we have time and some quiet place,
+and he'll show you as good a cockfight as ever you saw. [<i>A woman comes
+up.</i>] This is his wife; Molly the Scold we call her; faith, she is a
+better fighter than any cock he ever had in a basket; he'd find it hard
+to shut the lid on her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p032" id="Page_p032">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Molly the Scold.</i> The gentleman seems foolish. Is he all there?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> Stop your chat, Molly, or I'll hit you a welt.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Keep your tongue quiet, Molly. If the gentleman has
+reasons for keeping out of the way it isn't for us to be questioning
+him. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>.] Don't mind her, she's cross enough, but
+maybe your own ladies would be cross as well if they saw their young
+sons dying by the roadside in a little kennel of straw under the
+ass-cart the way she did; from first to last.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I suppose you have your troubles like others. But you
+seem cheerful enough.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> It isn't anything to fret about. Some of us go soon, and
+some travel the roads for their lifetime. What does it matter when we
+are under the nettles if it was with a short rope or a long one we were
+hanged?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, that is the way to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p033" id="Page_p033">[33]</a></span> take life. What does the
+length of our rope matter?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> We haven't time to be thinking of troubles like people
+that would be shut up in a house. We have the wide world before us to
+make our living out of. The people of the whole world are begrudging us
+our living, and we make it out of them for all that. When they will
+spread currant cakes and feather beds before us, it will be time for us
+to sit down and fret.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> It's likely you'll think the life too hard. Would you
+like to be passing by houses in the night-time, and the fire shining out
+of them, and you hardly given the loan of a sod to light your pipe, and
+the rain falling on you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Why are the people so much against you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> We are not like themselves. It's little we care about
+them or they about us. If their saint did curse us itself&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Stop. I won't have you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p034" id="Page_p034">[34]</a></span> talking about that story here.
+Why would they think so much of the curse of one saint, and saints so
+plenty?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> Where's the good of a gentleman being here? He'll be
+breaking down on the road. It's on the ass-cart he'll be wanting to sit.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> Indeed, I don't think he'll stand the hardship.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, I'll stand it well enough.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> You're not like us that were reared to it. You were
+not born like us with wandering in the heart.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh yes, I have wandering in the heart. I got sick of
+these lighted rooms you were talking of just now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> That might be so. It's the dark is welcome to a man
+sometimes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> The dark. Yes, I think that is what I want. [<i>Stands
+up.</i>] The dark, where there is nothing that is anything, and nobody that
+is anybody; one can be free there, where there is nothing. Well, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p035" id="Page_p035">[35]</a></span> you
+let me stay with you, I don't think you will hear any complaints from
+me. Charlie Ward, Paddy, and the rest of you, I want you to understand
+that from this out I am one of yourselves. I'll live as you live and do
+as you do.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<span class="smcap">Johneen</span> <i>and other children come running in.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Johneen.</i> I was on the top of the bank and I seen a priest coming down
+the cross-road with his ass. It's collecting he is. We're going to set
+ourselves here to beg something from him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Another Child.</i> [<i>Breathlessly.</i>] And he has a whole lot of things on
+the ass. A whole lot of things up behind him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Another Child.</i> O boys, O boys, we'll have our dealing trick out of
+them yet. The best way'll be&mdash;&mdash; [<i>He suddenly catches sight of</i> <span class="smcap">Paul
+Ruttledge.</span>] Whist, ye divils ye, don't you see the new gentleman?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Speak out, boys; don't be afraid of me; I'm one of
+yourselves now.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p036" id="Page_p036">[36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Child.</i> Oh! but we were going to&mdash;&mdash; But I won't tell you. [<i>To the
+other</i> children.] Come away here, and we'll not tell him what we'll do.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span>.] What are they going to do?
+They're putting their heads together.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> They're going to put a bush across the road, and when
+the friar gets down to pull it out of the way they'll snap what they can
+off the ass, and away with them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> And why wouldn't they tell me that? Am I not one of
+yourselves?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Ah! It's likely they'll never trust you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> But they will soon see that I am one of themselves.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> No; but that's the very thing, you're not one of
+ourselves. You were not born on the road, reared on the road, married on
+the road like us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Well, it's too late for me to be reared on the road,
+but I don't see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p037" id="Page_p037">[37]</a></span> why I shouldn't marry on the road like you. I certainly
+would do it if it would make me one of you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> It might make you one of us, there's no doubt about
+that. It's the only thing that would do it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Well, find a wife for me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Faith, you haven't far to go to find one. Paddy there
+will give you over his wife quick enough; he won't make a hard bargain
+over her.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> But I am in earnest. I want to cut myself off from my
+old life.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Oh! I was forgetting that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Molly.</span>] I wonder what was it he did? I wonder had
+he the misfortune to kill anybody?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> [<i>Calling</i> <span class="smcap">Sabina</span> <i>over.</i>] Here's a girl should make a
+good wife, Sabina Silver her name is. Her father is just dead; he didn't
+treat her over well.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> [<i>Coming over.</i>] What is it?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p038" id="Page_p038">[38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> This gentleman wants to speak to you. I think he's
+looking out for a wife.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> [<i>Hanging her head.</i>] Don't be humbugging me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Indeed he's not, Sabina.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> You're only joking a poor girl. Sure, what would make
+you think of me at all?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Sabina, have you been always on the road with Charlie
+Ward and the others?</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> I have, indeed.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> And you'd make a good tinker's wife?</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> You're joking me, but I would be a better wife for a
+tinker than for anyone else.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Sabina, will you marry me?</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> Oh! but I'd be afraid.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Why, Sabina?</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> I'd be afraid you'd beat me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p039" id="Page_p039">[39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> You see her father used to beat her. She's afraid of the
+look of a man now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I would not beat you, Sabina. How can you have got
+such an idea?</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> Will you promise me that you won't beat me? Will you
+swear it to me?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Of course I will.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span>.] Will you make him swear it?
+Haven't you a little book in your pack? Bring it out and make him swear
+to me on it, and you'll be my witness.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> I think, Sibby, you need not be afraid.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> What's your name, gentleman?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> My name is Paul. Do you like it?</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> Then I won't marry you, Mr. Paul, till you swear to me
+upon the book that you will never beat me with any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p040" id="Page_p040">[40]</a></span> stick that you could
+call a stick, and that you will never strike a kick on me from behind.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Charlie, go and bring out that book to satisfy her. Of
+course I swear that; it is absurd.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>brings the book out of his pack.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I swear, Sabina, that I will never strike you with any
+stick of any kind, and that I will never kick you. There, will that do?
+[<i>He takes book and kisses it.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> I misdoubt you. Kiss the book again. [<span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>
+<i>kisses it.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> That's all right.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Child.</i> [<i>Crying from a distance.</i>] He's coming now, the priest's
+coming!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Then the priest will marry us. That comes in very
+handy.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> [<i>Scornfully.</i>] A priest marry you, indeed he'll do
+nothing of the kind. I hate priests and friars. It's unlucky to get
+talking to them at all. You never know what trouble you're in for.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p041" id="Page_p041">[41]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>A Child.</i> [<i>Coming up.</i>] That's true, indeed. The last time I spoke to
+a priest it's what he leathered me with a stick; may the divil fly away
+with him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> But somebody must marry us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Of course. You'll lep over the tinker's budget the usual
+way. You'll just marry her by lepping over the budget the same as the
+rest of us marry.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> That's all I want to know. Please marry me in whatever
+is your usual way.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Jerome</span> <i>enters, leading the ass. He carries a pig's cheek, some
+groceries, a string of onions, etc., on the ass, which still has
+its nursery trappings. He goes up to</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>thinking he is</i>
+<span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Paul, what are you doing here?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> [<i>Turning.</i>] What do you want?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p042" id="Page_p042">[42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Oh! I'm mistaken. I thought&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I am here, Father Jerome, but you're talking to the
+wrong man.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Good God, Paul, what has happened?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Nothing has happened that need surprise you. Don't you
+remember what we talked of to-day? You told me I was too much by myself.
+After you went away I thought I would make a change.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> But a change like this!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Why should you find fault with it? I am richer now
+than I was then. I only lent you that donkey then, now I give him to
+you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> What has brought you among such people as these?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I find them on the whole better company than the
+people I left a little while ago. Let me introduce you to&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> What can you possibly gain by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p043" id="Page_p043">[43]</a></span> coming here? Are you going to
+try and teach them?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh! no, I am going to learn from them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> What can you learn from them?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> To pick up my living like the crows, and to solder tin
+cans. Just give me that one I mended a while ago.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Holds it out to</i> <span class="smcap">Father Jerome</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> That is all nonsense.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I am happy. Do not your saints put all opponents to
+the rout by saying they alone of all mankind are happy?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I suppose you will not compare the happiness of these people
+with the happiness of saints?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> There are all sorts of happiness. Some find their
+happiness like Thomas &agrave; Kempis, with a little book and a little cell.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> I would wonder at anybody that could be happy in a
+cell.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> These men fight in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p044" id="Page_p044">[44]</a></span> way as your saints fought,
+for their hand is against the world. I want the happiness of men who
+fight, who are hit and hit back, not the fighting of men in red coats,
+that formal, soon-finished fighting, but the endless battle, the endless
+battle. Tell me, Father Jerome, did you ever listen in the middle of the
+night?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Listen for what?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Did you ever, when the monastery was silent, and the
+dogs had stopped barking, listen till you heard music?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> What sort of music do you mean?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Not the music we hear with these ears [<i>touching his
+ears</i>], but the music of Paradise.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Brother Colman once said he heard harps in the night.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Harps! It was because he was shut in a cell he heard
+harps, maybe it sounds like harps in a cell. But the music I have heard
+sometimes is made of the continual clashing of swords. It comes
+rejoicing from Paradise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p045" id="Page_p045">[45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> These are very wild thoughts.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> I often heard music in the forths. There is many of us
+hear it when we lie with our heads on the ground at night.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> That was not the music of Paradise.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Why should they not hear that music, although it may
+not set them praying, but dancing.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> How can you think you will ever find happiness amongst their
+devils' mirth?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I have taken to the roads because there is a wild
+beast I would overtake, and these people are good snarers of beasts.
+They can help me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> What kind of a wild beast is it you want?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh! it's a very terrible wild beast, with iron teeth
+and brazen claws that can root up spires and towers.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> It's best not to try and overtake a beast like that, but
+to cross running water and leave it after you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> I heard one coming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p046" id="Page_p046">[46]</a></span> after me one night; very big and
+shadowy it was, and I could hear it breathing. But when it came up with
+me I lifted a hazel rod was in my hand, and it was gone on the moment.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> My wild beast is Laughter, the mightiest of the
+enemies of God. I will outrun it and make it friendly.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> That is your old wild talk. Do have some sense and go back to
+your family.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I am never going back to them. I am going to live
+among these people. I will marry among them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> That is nonsense; you will soon change your mind.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh! no, I won't; I am taking my vows as you made yours
+when you entered religion. I have chosen my wife; I am going to marry
+before evening.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Thank God, you will have to stop short of that, the Church
+will never marry you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh! I am not going to ask the help of the Church. But
+I am to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p047" id="Page_p047">[47]</a></span> be married by what may be as old a ceremony as yours. What is
+it I am to do, Charlie?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> To lep a budget, sir.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, that is it, the budget is there by the wall.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I command you, in the name of the Holy Church and of the
+teaching you have received from the Church, to leave this folly, this
+degradation, this sin!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You forget, Jerome, that I am on the track of the wild
+beast, and hunters in all ages have been a bad people to preach to. When
+I have tamed the beast, perhaps I will bring him to your religious house
+to be baptized.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I will not listen to this profanity. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span>.] It
+is you who have put this madness on him as you have stolen his clothes!</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Stop your chat, ye petticoated preacher.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I think, Father Jerome, you had better be getting
+home. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p048" id="Page_p048">[48]</a></span> people never gave in to the preaching of S. Patrick.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> I'll send you riding home with your face to the tail
+of the ass!</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> No, stop till we show you that we can make as good
+curses as yourself. That you may never be warm in winter or cold in
+summer time&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> That's the chat! Bravo! Let him have it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tinkers.</i> Be off! be off out of this!</p>
+
+<p><i>Molly the Scold.</i> Now curse him, Tommy.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> A wide hoarseness on you&mdash;a high hanging to you on a
+windy day; that shivering fever may stretch you nine times, and that the
+curses of the poor may be your best music, and you hiding behind the
+door. [<span class="smcap">Jerome</span> <i>goes out.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Molly the Scold.</i> And you hiding behind the door, and squeezed between
+the hinges and the wall.</p>
+
+<p><i>Other Tinkers.</i> Squeezed between the hinges and the wall. [<i>They follow</i>
+<span class="smcap">Jerome</span>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p049" id="Page_p049">[49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Crying after them.</i>] Don't harm that gentleman; he
+is a friend of mine.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>He goes to the wall, and stands there silently, looking upward.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> It was grand talk, indeed: I didn't understand a word
+of it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> The crows are beginning to fly home. There is a flock
+of them high up under that cloud. I wonder where their nests are.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> A long way off, among those big trees about Tillyra
+Castle.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, I remember. I have seen them coming home there on
+a windy evening, tossing and whirling like the sea. They may have seen
+what I am looking for, they fly so far. A sailor told me once that he
+saw a crow three hundred miles from land, but maybe he was a liar.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Well, they fly far, anyway.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> They tell one another what they have seen, too. That
+is why<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p050" id="Page_p050">[50]</a></span> they make so much noise. Maybe their news goes round the world.
+[<i>He comes towards the others.</i>] I think they have seen my wild beast,
+Laughter. They could tell me if he has a face smoky from the eternal
+fires, and wings of brass and claws of brass&mdash;claws of brass. [<i>Holds
+out his hands and moves them like claws.</i>] Sabina, would you like to see
+a beast with eyes hard and cold and blue, like sapphires? Would you,
+Sabina? Well, it's time now for the wedding. So what shall we get for
+the wedding party? What would you like, Sabina?</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> I don't know.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> What do you say, Charlie? A wedding cake and
+champagne. How would you like champagne? [Tinkers <i>begin to return</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> It might be middling.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> What would you say to a&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p051" id="Page_p051">[51]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>One of the</i> Boys <i>runs in carrying a pig's cheek. The rest of the</i>
+Tinkers <i>return with him</i>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Boy.</i> I knew I could do it. I told you I'd have my dealing trick out of
+the priest. I took a hold of this, and Johneen made a snap at the
+onions.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> And he didn't catch you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Boy.</i> He'd want to be a lot smarter than he is to do that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You are a smart lad, anyway. What do you say we should
+have for our wedding party?</p>
+
+<p><i>Boy.</i> Are you rich?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> More or less.</p>
+
+<p><i>Boy.</i> I seen a whole truck full of cakes and bullseyes in the village
+below. Could you buy the whole of them?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Stop talking nonsense. What we want is porter.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> All right. How many public-houses are there in the
+village?</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> Twenty-four.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p052" id="Page_p052">[52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Is there any place we can have barrels brought to?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> There's a shed near seems to be empty. We might go
+there.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Then go and order as many barrels as we can make use
+of to be brought there.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> We will; and we'll stop till we've drunk them out.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Taking out money.</i>] I have more money than will pay
+for that. Sabina, we'll treat the whole neighbourhood in honour of our
+wedding. I'll have all the public-houses thrown open, and free drinks
+going for a week!</p>
+
+<p><i>Tinkers.</i> Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Three cheers more, boys.</p>
+
+<p><i>All.</i> Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!</p>
+
+<p><i>The Boys.</i> Now here's the budget.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Taking</i> <span class="smcap">Sabina Silver's</span> <i>hand.</i>] Now, Sabina, one,
+two, three!</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curtain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p053" id="Page_p053">[53]</a></span></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="ACT_III" id="ACT_III"></a>ACT III.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>A large shed. Some sheepskins hanging up. Irons and pots
+for branding sheep, some pitchforks, etc. Tinkers playing cards,</i>
+<span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>sitting on an upturned basket.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Stop that melodeon, now will ye, and we'll have a taste
+of the cocks. Paul didn't see them yet what they can do. Where's Tommy?
+Where in the earthly world is Tommy the Song?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> He's over there in the corner.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> What are you doing there, Tommy?</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> Taking a mouthful of prayers, I am.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Praying! did anyone ever hear the like of that? Pull him
+out of the corner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p054" id="Page_p054">[54]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">[<span class="smcap">Paddy Cockfight</span> <i>pulls</i> <span class="smcap">Tommy the Song</span> <i>out of the corner.</i></div>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> What is it you were praying for, I would like to know?</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> I was praying that we might all soon die.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> Die, is it?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Is it die and all that porter about? Well! you have done
+enough praying, go over there and look for the basket. Who was it set
+him praying, I wonder? I am thinking it is the first prayer he ever said
+in his life.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> It's likely it was Paul. He's after talking to him
+through the length of an hour.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Maybe it was. Don't mind him. I said just now that
+when we were all dead and in heaven it would be a sort of drunkenness, a
+sort of ecstasy. There is a hymn about it, but it is in Latin. "Et calix
+meus inebrians quam praeclarus est." How splendid is the cup of my
+drunkenness!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p055" id="Page_p055">[55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Well, that is a great sort of a hymn. I never thought
+there was a hymn like that, I never did.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> To think, now, there is a hymn like that. I mustn't
+let it slip out of my mind. How splendid is the cup of my drunkenness,
+that's it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Have you found that old bird of mine?</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> [<i>Who has been searching among the baskets.</i>] Here he
+is, in the basket and a lot of things over it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Get out that new speckled bird of yours, Paddy, I've
+been wanting to see how could he play for a week past.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Where do you get the cocks?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> It was a man below Mullingar owned this one. The day
+I first seen him I fastened my two eyes on him, he preyed on my mind,
+and next night, if I didn't go back every foot of nine miles to put him
+in my bag.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p056" id="Page_p056">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Do you pay much for a good fighting cock?</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> [<i>Laughs.</i>] Do you pay much, Paddy?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Perhaps you don't pay anything.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> I think Paddy gets them cheap.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> He gets them cheaper than another man would, anyhow.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> He's the best cock I ever saw before or since.
+Believe me, I made no mistake when I pitched on him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> I don't care what you think of him. I'll back the red;
+it's he has the lively eye.</p>
+
+<p><i>Molly the Scold.</i> Andy Farrell had an old cock, and it bent double like
+himself, and all the feathers flittered out of it, but I hold you he'd
+leather both your red and your speckled cock together. I tell ye, boys,
+that was the cock!</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Uproarious shouts and yells heard outside.</i></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p057" id="Page_p057">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Those free drinks of yours, Paul, is playing the devil
+with them. Do you hear them now and every roar out of them? They're
+putting the cocks astray. [<i>He takes out a cock.</i>] Sure they think it's
+thunder.</p>
+
+<p><i>Molly the Scold.</i> There's not a man of them outside there now but would
+be ready to knock down his own brother.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> He wouldn't know him to knock him down. They're all
+blind. I never saw the like of it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You in here stood it better than that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> When those common men drink it's what they fall down.
+They haven't the heads. They're not like us that have to keep heads and
+heels on us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> It's well we kept them out of this, or they'd be
+lying on the floor now, and there'd be no place for my poor bird to show
+himself off. Look at him now! Isn't he the beauty! [<i>Takes out the
+cock.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Now boys, settle the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p058" id="Page_p058">[58]</a></span> place, put over those barrels out
+of that. [<i>They push barrels into a row at back.</i>] Paul, you sit on the
+bin the way you'll get a good view.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>A loud knock at the door. An authoritative voice outside.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Voice.</i> Open this door.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> That's Green, the Removable; I know his voice well!</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Clear away, boys. Back with those cocks. There, throw
+that sack over the baskets. Quick, will ye!</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> [<i>Outside.</i>] Open this door at once.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> [<i>Outside.</i>] I insist on this door being opened.</p>
+
+<p><i>Molly the Scold.</i> What do they want at all? I wish we didn't come into
+a place with no back door to it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> There's nothing to be afraid of. Open the door,
+Charlie. [<span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>opens the door.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p059" id="Page_p059">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Green, Colonel Lawley, Mr. Dowler, Mr. Joyce, Mr. Algie</span>
+<i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Thomas Ruttledge</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> All J.P.'s; I have looked at every one of them from
+the dock!</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> Mr. Ruttledge, this is very sad.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> This is a disgraceful business, Paul; the whole countryside
+is demoralized. There is not a man who has come to sensible years who is
+not drunk.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> This is a flagrant violation of all propriety. Society is
+shaken to its roots. My own servants have been led astray by the free
+drinks that are being given in the village. My butler, who has been with
+me for seven years, has not been seen for the last two days.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I am sure you will echo Mr. Dowler, Algie.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> Indeed I do. I endorse his sentiments completely. There has
+not been a stroke of work done for the last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p060" id="Page_p060">[60]</a></span> week. The hay is lying in
+ridges where it has been cut, there is not a man to be found to water
+the cattle. It is impossible to get as much as a horse shod in the
+village.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I think you have something to say, Colonel Lawley?</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> I have undoubtedly. I want to know when law and order
+are to be re-established. The police have been quite unable to cope with
+the disorder. Some of them have themselves got drunk. If my advice had
+been taken the military would have been called in.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> The military are not indispensable on occasions like the
+present. There are plenty of police coming now. We have wired to Dublin
+for them, they will be here by the four o'clock train.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Gets down from his bin.</i>] But you have not told me
+what you have come here for? Is there anything I can do for you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> Won't you come home, Paul? The children have been
+ask<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p061" id="Page_p061">[61]</a></span>ing for you, and we don't know what to say.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> We have come to request you to go to the public-houses, to
+stop the free drinks, to send the people back to their work. As for
+those tinkers, the law will deal with them when the police arrive.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> Oh, Paul, why have you upset the place like this?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Well, I wanted to give a little pleasure to my
+fellow-creatures.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> This seems rather a low form of pleasure.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I daresay it seems to you a little violent. But the
+poor have very few hours in which to enjoy themselves; they must take
+their pleasure raw; they haven't the time to cook it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> But drunkenness!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Putting his hand on the shoulders of two of the
+magistrates.</i>] Have we not tried sobriety? Do you like it? I found it
+very dull? [<i>A yell from outside.</i>] There is not one of those people
+outside but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p062" id="Page_p062">[62]</a></span> thinks that he is a king, that he is riding the wind. There
+is not one of them that would not hit the world a slap in the face. Some
+poet has written that exuberance is beauty, and that the roadway of
+excess leads to the palace of wisdom. But I forgot&mdash;you do not read the
+poets.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> What we want to know is, are you going to send the people
+back to their work?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, work is such a little thing in comparison with
+experience. Think what it is to them to have their imagination like a
+blazing tar-barrel for a whole week. Work could never bring them such
+blessedness as that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> Everyone knows there is no more valuable blessing than
+work.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> Idleness is the curse of this country.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I am prejudiced, for I have always been an idler.
+Doubtless, the poor must work. It was, no doubt, of them you were
+speaking. Yet, doesn't the Church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p063" id="Page_p063">[63]</a></span> say, doesn't it describe heaven as a
+place where saints and angels only sing and hold branches and wander
+about hand in hand. That must be changed. We must teach the poor to
+think work a thing fit for heaven, a blessed thing. I'll tell you what
+we'll do, Dowler. Will you subscribe, and you, and you, and we'll send
+lecturers about with magic lanterns showing heaven as it should be, the
+saints with spades and hammers in their hands and everybody working. The
+poor might learn to think more of work then. Will you join in that
+scheme, Dowler?</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> I think you'd better leave these subjects alone. It is
+obvious you have cut yourself off from both religion and society.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> The world could not go on without work.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> The world could not go on without work! The world
+could not go on without work! I must think about it. [<i>Gets up on bin.</i>]
+Why should the world<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p064" id="Page_p064">[64]</a></span> go on? Perhaps the Christian teacher came to bring
+it to an end. Let us send messengers everywhere to tell the people to
+stop working, and then the world may come to an end. He spoke of the
+world, the flesh, and the devil. Perhaps it would be a good thing to end
+these one by one.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> Come away out of this. He has gone mad.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Ah! I thought that would scare them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> I wish, Paul, you would come back and live like a
+Christian.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Like a Christian?</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> Come away, there's no use stopping here any longer.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Sternly.</i>] Wait, I have something to say to that.
+[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span>.] Do not let anyone leave this place.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[Tinkers <i>close together at the door</i>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> [<i>To</i> Tinkers.] This is nonsense. Let me through.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[Tinker <i>spreads out his arms before him</i>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You have come into a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p065" id="Page_p065">[65]</a></span> different kingdom now; the old
+kingdom of the people of the roads, the houseless people. We call
+ourselves tinkers, and you are going to put us on our trial if you can.
+You call yourselves Christians and we will put you on your trial first.
+I will put the world on its trial, and myself of yesterday. [<i>To a</i>
+Boy.] Run out, Johneen, keep a watch, and tell us when the train is
+coming. Sabina, that rope; we will set these gentlemen on those barrels.
+[Tinkers <i>take hold of them</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> Keep your hands off me, you drunken scoundrel!</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Strikes at</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span>, <i>but</i> Tinkers <i>seize his arms behind.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Tie all their hands behind them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> We'd better give in, there's no saying how many more of
+them there are.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> I'll be quiet, the odds are too great against us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> The police will soon be here; we may as well stay quietly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p066" id="Page_p066">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> Here, give it to me, I'll put a good twist in it.
+Don't be afraid, sir, it's not about your neck I'm putting it&mdash;&mdash;. There
+now, sit quiet and easy, and you won't feel it at all.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Are all their hands tied? Now then, heave them up on
+to the barrels.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Slight scuffle, during which all are put on the barrels in a
+semicircle.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Ah! yes, you are on my barrels now; last time I saw
+you, you were on your own dunghill. Let me see, is there anyone here who
+can write?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Nobody.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Never mind, you can keep count on your fingers. The
+rest must sit down and behave themselves as befits a court. They say
+they are living like Christians. Let us see.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> Oh, Paul, don't make such a fool of yourself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> The point is not wisdom or folly, but the Christian
+life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p067" id="Page_p067">[67]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Dowler.</i> Don't answer him, Thomas. Let us preserve our dignity.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> Yes, let us keep a dignified attitude&mdash;we won't answer
+these ruffians at all.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Respect the court! [<i>Turns to Colonel Lawley.</i>] You
+have served your Queen and country in the field, and now you are a
+colonel of militia.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> Well, what is there to be ashamed of in that? Answer
+me that, now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yet there is an old saying about turning the other
+cheek, an old saying, a saying so impossible that the world has never
+been able to get it out of its mind. You have helped to enlist men for
+the army, I think? Some of them have fought in the late war, and you
+have even sent some of your own militia there.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> If I did I'm proud of it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Did they think it was a just war?</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> That was not their business. They had taken the
+Queen's pay.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p068" id="Page_p068">[68]</a></span> They would have disgraced themselves if they had not gone.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Is it not the doctrine of your Christian Church, of
+your Catholic Church, that he who fights in an unjust war, knowing it to
+be unjust, loses his own soul?</p>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> I should like to know what would happen to the country
+if there weren't soldiers to protect it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> We are not discussing the country, we are discussing
+the Christian life. Has this gentleman lived the Christian life?</p>
+
+<p><i>All the Tinkers.</i> He has not!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> His sergeant tried to enlist me, giving me a
+shilling, and I drunk.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> [<i>Singing.</i>]</p>
+
+<p>
+She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,<br />
+But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Stop your mouth, Tommy. This is not your show. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Paul
+Ruttledge</span>.] Are you going to put a fine on the Colonel? If so I'd like
+his cloak.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p069" id="Page_p069">[69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Now we'll try Mr. Dowler, the rich man. [<i>Holds up his
+fingers in a ring.</i>] Mr. Dowler, could you go through this?</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Algie.</i> Don't answer him, Dowler; he's going beyond all bounds.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I was a rich man and I could not, and yet I am
+something smaller than a camel, and this is something larger than a
+needle's eye.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> Don't answer this profanity.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> But what about the cloak?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh! go and take it.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>goes and takes cloak off the</i> <span class="smcap">Colonel</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Colonel Lawley.</i> You drunken rascal, I'll see you in the dock for this.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Joyce.</i> You're encouraging robbery now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Remember the commandment, "Give to him that asketh
+thee"; and the hard commandment goes even farther, "Him that taketh thy
+cloak forbid not to take thy coat also." [<i>Holding out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p070" id="Page_p070">[70]</a></span> his rags.</i>]
+Have I not shown you what Mr. Green would call a shining example.
+Charlie, ask them all for their coats.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> I will, and their boots, too.</p>
+
+<p><i>All the Tinkers.</i> [<i>Uproariously.</i>] Give me your coat; I'll have your
+boots, etc.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Green.</i> Wait till the police come. I'll turn the tables on you; you
+may all expect hard labour for this.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>To the</i> Tinkers.] Stand back, the trial is not over.
+Mr. Green, these friends of yours have been convicted of breaking the
+doctrine they boast of. They do not love their enemies; they do not give
+to every man that asks of them. Some of them, Mr. Dowler, for instance,
+lay up treasures upon earth; they ask their goods again of those who
+have taken them away. But you, Mr. Green, are the worst of all. They
+break the Law of Christ for their own pleasure, but you take pay for
+breaking it. When their goods are taken away you condemn the taker; when
+they are smitten on one cheek you punish the smiter. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p071" id="Page_p071">[71]</a></span> encourage them
+in their breaking of the Law of Christ.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> He does, indeed. He gave me two months for snaring
+rabbits.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> He tried to put a fine on me for a cock I had, and he
+took five shillings off Molly for hitting a man.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Your evidence is not wanted. His own words are enough.
+[<i>Stretching out his arms.</i>] Have any of these gentlemen been living the
+Christian life?</p>
+
+<p><i>All.</i> They have not.</p>
+
+<p><i>Johneen.</i> [<i>Coming in.</i>] Ye'd best clear off now. I see the train
+coming in to the station.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> The police will find plenty to do in the village
+before they come to us; that's one good job.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> One moment. I have done trying the world I have left.
+You have accused me of upsetting order by my free drinks, and I have
+showed you that there is a more dreadful fermentation in the Sermon on
+the Mount than in my beer-barrels.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p072" id="Page_p072">[72]</a></span> Christ thought it in the
+irresponsibility of His omnipotence. [<i>Getting from his bin.</i>] Charlie,
+give me that cloak. [<i>He flings it back.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Aren't you going to punish them anyway?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> No, no, from this out I would punish nobody but
+myself.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Some of the</i> Tinkers <i>have gone out</i>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> We'd best be off while we can. Come along, Paul, Sibby's
+gone.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>As they go out</i> <span class="smcap">Tommy the Song</span> <i>is singing</i>,</p></div>
+
+<p>
+Down by the sally garden my love and I did stand,<br />
+And on my leaning shoulder she laid her milk-white hand;<br />
+She bade me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,<br />
+But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.<br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>All go out except</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Well, good-bye, Thomas;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p073" id="Page_p073">[73]</a></span> I don't suppose I'll see you
+again. Use all I have; spend it on your children; I'll never want it.
+[<i>To the others.</i>] Will you come and join us? We will find rags for you
+all. Perhaps you will give up that dream that is fading from you, and
+come among the blind, homeless people; put off the threadbare clothes of
+the Apostles and run naked for awhile. [<i>Is going out.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> You have nothing against me, have you, Paul?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, yes, I have; a little that I have said against all
+these, and a worse thing than all, though it is not in the book.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thomas Ruttledge.</i> What is it?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Looking back from the threshold.</i>] You have begotten
+fools.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Curtain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p074" id="Page_p074">[74]</a></span></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="ACT_IV" id="ACT_IV"></a>ACT IV.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Scene 1.</span>&mdash;<i>Great door in the middle of the stage under a stone
+cross, with flights of steps leading to door. Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward,
+Paddy Cockfight, Tommy The Song</span>, <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Sabina Silver</span>. <i>They are
+supporting</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>, <i>who is bent and limping.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> We must leave you here. The monks will take you in.
+We're very sorry, Paul. It's a heartscald to us to leave you and you
+know that, but what can we do? [<i>They lead</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>to steps.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Ah! that was a bad stitch! [<i>Gasps.</i>] Take care now;
+put me down gently.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> Oh! can't we keep him with us anyway; he'll find no one
+to care him as well as myself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p075" id="Page_p075">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Tommy the Song.</i> What way can you care him, Sibby? It's no way to have
+him lying out on the roadside under guano bags, like ourselves, and the
+rain coming down on him like it did last night. It's in hospital he'll
+be for the next month.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> We'd never leave you if you could even walk. If we have
+to give you to the monks itself, we'd keep round the place to encourage
+you, only for the last business. We'll have to put two counties at least
+between us and Gortmore after what we're after doing.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Never mind, boys, they'll never insult a tinker again
+in Gortmore as long as the town's a town.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Dear knows! it breaks my heart to think of the fine
+times we had of it since you joined us. Why the months seemed like days.
+And all the fine sprees we had together! Now you're gone from us we
+might as well be jailed at once.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> And how you took to the cocks! I believe you were a
+better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p076" id="Page_p076">[76]</a></span> judge than myself. No one but you would ever have fancied that
+black-winged cock&mdash;and he never met his match.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Ah! well, I'm doubled up now like that old cock of
+Andy Farrell's.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> No, but you were the best warrant to set a snare that
+ever I came across.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Sitting down with difficulty on the steps.</i>] Yes; it
+was a grand time we had, and I wouldn't take back a day of it; but it's
+over now, I've hit my ribs against the earth and they're aching.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> Oh! Paul, Paul, is it to leave you we must? And you
+never once struck a kick or a blow on me all this time, not even and you
+in pain with the rheumatism. [<i>A clock strikes inside.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> There's the clock striking. The monks will be getting
+up. We'd best be off after the others. I hear some noise inside; they'd
+best not catch us here. I'll stop and pull the bell. Be off with you,
+boys!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p077" id="Page_p077">[77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Good-bye, Sabina. Don't cry! you'll get another
+husband.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> I'll never lep the budget with another man; I swear it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Good-bye, Paddy. Good-bye, Tommy. My mother Earth will
+have none of me and I will go look for my father that is in heaven.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paddy Cockfight.</i> Come along, Sibby.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Takes her hand and hurries off.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> [<i>Rings bell.</i>] Are they sure to let you in, Paul? Have
+you got your story ready?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> No fear, they won't refuse a sick man. No one knows me
+but Father Jerome, and he won't tell on me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> There's a step inside. I'll cut for it.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>He goes out. Paul is left sitting on steps.</i></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p078" id="Page_p078">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Scene 2.</span>&mdash;<i>The crypt under the Monastery church. A small barred
+window high up in the wall, through which the cold dawn is
+breaking. Altar in a niche at the back of stage; there are seven
+unlighted candles on the altar. A little hanging lamp near the
+altar.</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>is lying on the altar steps. Friars are
+dancing slowly before him in the dim light.</i> <span class="smcap">Father Aloysius</span> <i>is
+leaning against a pillar.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Some</i> Friars <i>come in carrying lanterns.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> What are they doing? Dancing?</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> I told you they were dancing, and you would not believe
+me.</p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> What on earth are they doing it for?</p>
+
+<p><i>Third Friar.</i> I heard them saying Father Paul told them to do it if
+they ever found him in a trance again. He told them it was a kind of
+prayer and would bring joy down out of heaven, and make it easier for
+him to preach.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p079" id="Page_p079">[79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> How still he is lying; you would nearly think him to be
+dead.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Friar.</i> It is just a twelvemonth to-day since he was in a trance like
+this.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> That was the time he gave his great preaching. I can't
+blame those that went with him, for he all but persuaded me.</p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> They think he is going to preach again when he awakes,
+that's why they are dancing. When he wakes one of them will go and call
+the others.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third Friar.</i> We were all in danger when one so pious was led away.
+It's five years he has been with us now, and no one ever went so quickly
+from lay brother to novice, and novice to friar.</p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> The way he fasted too! The Superior bade me watch him at
+meal times for fear he should starve himself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third Friar.</i> He thought a great deal of Brother Paul then, but he
+isn't so well pleased with him now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> What is Father Aloysius<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p080" id="Page_p080">[80]</a></span> doing there? standing so quiet
+and his eyes shut.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third Friar.</i> He is meditating. Didn't you hear Brother Paul gives
+meditations of his own.</p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> Colman was telling me about that. He gives them a joyful
+thought to fix their minds on. They must not let their minds stray to
+anything else. They must follow that single thought and put everything
+else behind them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third Friar.</i> Colman fainted the other day when he was at his
+meditation. He says it is a great labour to follow one thought always.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> What do they do it for?</p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> To escape what they call the wandering of nature. They
+say it was in the trance Brother Paul got the knowledge of it. He says
+that if a man can only keep his mind on the one high thought he gets out
+of time into eternity, and learns the truth for itself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third Friar.</i> He calls that getting above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p081" id="Page_p081">[81]</a></span> law and number, and becoming
+king and priest in one's own house.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> A nice state of things it would be if every man was his
+own priest and his own king.</p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> I wonder will he wake soon. I thought I saw him stir just
+now. Father Aloysius, will he wake soon?</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> What did you say?</p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> Will he wake soon?</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> Yes, yes, he will wake very soon now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> What are they going to do now; are they going to dance?</p>
+
+<p><i>Third Friar.</i> He was too patient with him. He would have made short
+work of any of us if we had gone so far.</p>
+
+<p><i>First Dancer.</i></p>
+
+<p>
+Nam, et si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis,<br />
+Non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> They are singing the twenty-second Psalm. What madness to
+sing!</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Dancer.</i></p>
+
+<p>
+Virga tua, et baculus tuus,<br />
+Ipsa me consolata sunt.<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p082" id="Page_p082">[82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>First Dancer.</i></p>
+
+<p>
+Parasti in conspectu meo mensam<br />
+Adversus eos qui tribulant me.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Dancer.</i></p>
+
+<p>
+Impinguasti in oleo caput meum;<br />
+Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> Here is the Superior. There'll be bad work now.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><i><span class="smcap">Superior</span> comes in.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> [<i>Holding up his hand.</i>] Silence!</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>They stop singing and dancing.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>First Dancer.</i> It's the Superior.</p>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> Stop this blasphemy! Leave the chapel at once! I will deal
+with you by-and-by. [<i>Dancing</i> Friars <i>go out</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> [<i>Stooping over</i> <span class="smcap">Paul</span>.] He has not wakened from the trance
+yet.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> [<i>Who still remains perfectly motionless.</i>] Not yet, but he
+will soon awake&mdash;Paul!</p>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> It is hardly worth while being angry with those poor fools
+whose heads he has turned with his talk. [<i>Stoops and touches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p083" id="Page_p083">[83]</a></span> his
+hand.</i>] It is quite rigid. I will wait till he is alive again, there is
+no use wasting words on a dead body.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> [<i>Stooping over him.</i>] His eyes are beginning to quiver. Let
+me be the first to speak to him. He may say some wild things when he
+awakes, not knowing who is before him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> He must not preach. I must have his submission at once.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I will do all I can with him. He is most likely to listen to
+me. I was once his close friend.</p>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> Speak to him if you like, but entire submission is the only
+thing I will accept. [<i>To the other</i> Monks.] Come with me, we will leave
+Father Jerome here to speak to him. [<span class="smcap">Superior</span> <i>and</i> Friars <i>go to the
+door</i>.] Such desecration, such blasphemy. Remember, Father Jerome,
+entire submission, and at once. [<span class="smcap">Superior</span> <i>and</i> Friars <i>go out.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Where are the rest of his friends, Father Aloysius? Bartley
+and Colman ought to be with him when he is like this.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p084" id="Page_p084">[84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> They are resting, because, when he has given his message,
+they may never be able to rest again.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> [<i>Bending over him.</i>] My poor Paul, this will wear him out;
+see how thin he has grown!</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> He is hard upon his body. He does not care what happens to
+his body.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> He was like this when he was a boy; some wild thought would
+come on him, and he would not know day from night, he would forget even
+to eat. It is a great pity he was so hard to himself; it is a pity he
+had not always someone to look after him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> God is taking care of him; what could men like us do for
+him? We cannot help him, it is he who helps us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> [<i>Going on his knee and taking his hand.</i>] He is awaking. Help
+me to lift him up. [<i>They lift him into a chair.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I will go and call the others now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Do not let them come for a little time, I must speak to him
+first.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I cannot keep them away long.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p085" id="Page_p085">[85]</a></span> One cannot know when the
+words may be put in his mouth.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<span class="smcap">Aloysius</span> <i>goes out.</i> <span class="smcap">Jerome</span> <i>stands by</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>, <i>holding his
+hand.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Raising his head.</i>] Ah, you are there, Jerome. I am
+glad you are there. I could not get up to drive away the mouse that was
+eating the wax that dropped from the candles. Have you driven it away?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> It is not evening now. It is almost morning. You were on your
+knees praying for a great many hours, and then I think you fainted.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I don't think I was praying. I was among people, a
+great many people, and it was very bright&mdash;I will remember presently.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Do not try to remember. You are tired, you must be weak, you
+must come and have food and rest.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I do not think I can rest. I think there is something
+else I have to do, I forget what it is.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p086" id="Page_p086">[86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I am afraid you are thinking of preaching again. You must not
+preach. The Superior says you must not. He is very angry; I have never
+seen him so angry. He will not allow you to preach again.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Did I ever preach?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Yes. It was in the garden you got the trance last time. We
+found you like this, and we lifted you to the bench under the yew tree,
+and then you began to speak. You spoke about getting out of the body
+while still alive, about getting away from law and number. All the
+friars came to listen to you. We had never heard such preaching before,
+but it was very like heresy.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Getting up.</i>] Jerome, Jerome, I remember now where I
+was. I was in a great round place, and a great crowd of things came
+round me. I couldn't see them very clearly for a time, but some of them
+struck me with their feet, hard feet like hoofs, and soft cat-like feet;
+and some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p087" id="Page_p087">[87]</a></span> pecked me, and some bit me, and some clawed me. There were all
+sorts of beasts and birds as far as I could see.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Were they devils, Paul, were they the deadly sins?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I don't know, but I thought, and I don't know how the
+thought came to me, that they were the part of mankind that is not
+human; the part that builds up the things that keep the soul from God.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> That was a terrible vision.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I struggled and I struggled with them, and they heaped
+themselves over me till I was unable to move hand or foot; and that went
+on for a long, long time.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> [<i>Crossing himself.</i>] God have mercy on us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Then suddenly there came a bright light, and all in a
+minute the beasts were gone, and I saw a great many angels riding upon
+unicorns, white angels on white unicorns. They stood all round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p088" id="Page_p088">[88]</a></span> me, and
+they cried out, "Brother Paul, go and preach; get up and preach, Brother
+Paul." And then they laughed aloud, and the unicorns trampled the ground
+as though the world were already falling in pieces.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> It was only a dream. Come with me. You will forget it when you
+have had food and rest.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Looking at his arm.</i>] It was there one of them
+clawed me; one that looked at me with great heavy eyes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> The Superior has been here; try and listen to me. He says you
+must not preach.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Great heavy eyes and hard sharp claws.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> [<i>Putting his hands on his shoulders.</i>] You must awake from
+this. You must remember where you are. You are under rules. You must not
+break the rules you are under. The brothers will be coming in to hear
+you, you must not speak to them. The Superior has forbidden it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p089" id="Page_p089">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Touching</i> <span class="smcap">Jerome's</span> <i>hand.</i>] I have always been a great
+trouble to you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> You must go and submit to the Superior. Go and make your
+submission now, for my sake. Think of what I have done for your sake.
+Remember how I brought you in, and answered for you when you came here.
+I did not tell about that wild business. I have done penance for that
+deceit.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, you have always been good to me, but do not ask
+me this. I have had other orders.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Last time you preached the whole monastery was upset. The
+Friars began to laugh suddenly in the middle of the night.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> If I have been given certain truths to tell, I must
+tell them at once before they slip away from me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I cannot understand your ideas; you tell them impossible
+things. Things that are against the order of nature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p090" id="Page_p090">[90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I have learned that one needs a religion so wholly
+supernatural, that is so opposed to the order of nature that the world
+can never capture it.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Some </i>Friars<i> come in. They carry green branches in their hands.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> They are coming. Will you stay and listen?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I must not stay. I must not listen.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Help me over to the candles. I am weak, my knees are
+weak. I shall be strong when the words come. I shall be able to teach.
+[<i>He lights a taper at the hanging lamp and tries to light the candles
+with a shaking hand.</i> <span class="smcap">Jerome</span> <i>takes the taper from him and lights the
+candles.</i>] Why are you crying, Jerome?</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> Because we that were friends are separated now. We shall never
+be together again.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Never again? The love of God is a very terrible thing.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jerome.</i> I have done with meddling. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p091" id="Page_p091">[91]</a></span> must leave you to authority now.
+I must tell the Superior you will not obey. [<i>He goes out.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> Father Jerome had a very dark look going out.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> He was shut up with the Superior this morning. I wonder
+what they were talking about.</p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> I wonder if the Superior will mind our taking the
+branches. They are only cut on Palm Sunday other years. What will he
+tell us, I wonder? It seems as if he was going to tell us how to do some
+great thing. Do you think he will teach us to do cures like the friars
+used at Esker?</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> Those were great cures they did there, and they were not
+strange men, but just the same as ourselves. I heard of a man went to
+them dying on a cart, and he walked twenty miles home to Burren holding
+the horses head.</p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> Maybe we'll be able to see visions the same as were seen
+at Knock.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p092" id="Page_p092">[92]</a></span> It's a great wonder all that was seen and all that was done
+there.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third Friar.</i> I was there one time, and the whole place was full of
+crutches that had been thrown away by people that were cured. There was
+a silver crutch there some rich man from America had sent as an offering
+after getting his cure. Speak to him, Brother Colman. He seems to be in
+some sort of a dream. Ask if he is going to speak to us now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> We are all here, Brother Paul.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Have you all been through your meditations? [<i>They all
+gather round him.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Bartley.</i> We have all tried; we have done our best; but it is hard to
+keep our mind on the one thing for long.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> "He ascended into heaven." Have you meditated upon
+that? Did you reject all earthly images that came into your mind till
+the light began to gather?</p>
+
+<p><i>Third Friar.</i> I could not fix my mind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p093" id="Page_p093">[93]</a></span> well. When I put out one thought
+others came rushing in.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> When I was meditating, the inside of my head suddenly became
+all on fire.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> While I was meditating I felt a spout of fire going up
+between my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> That is the way it begins. You are ready now to hear
+the truth. Now I can give you the message that has come to me. Stand
+here at either side of the altar. Brother Colman, come beside me here.
+Lay down your palm branches before this altar; you have brought them as
+a sign that the walls are beginning to be broken up, that we are going
+back to the joy of the green earth. [<i>Goes up to the candles and
+speaks.</i>] Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est. For a long time
+after their making men and women wandered here and there, half blind
+from the drunkenness of Eternity; they had not yet forgotten that the
+green Earth was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p094" id="Page_p094">[94]</a></span> Love of God, and that all Life was the Will of God,
+and so they wept and laughed and hated according to the impulse of their
+hearts. [<i>He takes up the green boughs and presses them to his breast.</i>]
+They gathered the green Earth to their breasts and their lips, as I
+gather these boughs to mine, in what they believed would be an eternal
+kiss. [<i>He remains a little while silent.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Second Friar.</i> I see a light about his head.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third Friar.</i> I wonder if he has seen God.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> It was then that the temptation began. Not only the
+Serpent who goes upon his belly, but all the animal spirits that have
+loved things better than life, came out of their holes and began to
+whisper. The men and women listened to them, and because when they had
+lived according to the joyful Will of God in mother wit and natural
+kindness, they sometimes did one another an injury, they thought that it
+would be better to be safe than to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p095" id="Page_p095">[95]</a></span> be bless&egrave;d, they made the Laws. The
+Laws were the first sin. They were the first mouthful of the apple, the
+moment man had made them he began to die; we must put out the Laws as I
+put out this candle.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>He puts out the candle with an extinguisher, still holding the
+boughs with his left hand. Two orthodox Friars have come in.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>First Orthodox Friar.</i> You had better go for the Superior.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Orthodox Friar.</i> I must stop and listen.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>The First Orthodox Friar listens for a minute or two and then
+goes out.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> And when they had lived amidst the green Earth that is
+the Love of God, they were sometimes wetted by the rain, and sometimes
+cold and hungry, and sometimes alone from one another; they thought it
+would be better to be comfortable than to be bless&egrave;d. They began to
+build big houses and big towns. They grew wealthy and they sat
+chattering at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p096" id="Page_p096">[96]</a></span> their doors; and the embrace that was to have been
+eternal ended, lips and hands were parted. [<i>He lets the boughs slip out
+of his arms.</i>] We must put out the towns as I put out this candle.
+[<i>Puts out another candle.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>A Friar.</i> Yes, yes, we must uproot the towns.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> But that is not all, for man created a worse thing,
+yes, a worse defiance against God. [<i>The</i> Friars <i>groan</i>.] God put
+holiness into everything that lives, for everything that desires is full
+of His Will, and everything that is beautiful is full of His Love; but
+man grew timid because it had been hard to find his way amongst so much
+holiness, and though God had made all time holy, man said that only the
+day on which God rested from life was holy, and though God had made all
+places holy, man said, "no place but this place that I put pillars and
+walls about is holy, this place where I rest from life"; and in this and
+like ways he built up the Church. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p097" id="Page_p097">[97]</a></span> must destroy the Church, we must
+put it out as I put out this candle. [<i>Puts out another candle.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Friars.</i> [<i>Clasping one another's hands.</i>] He is right, he is right.
+The Church must be destroyed. [<i>The</i> <span class="smcap">Superior</span> <i>comes in.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>First Friar.</i> Here is the Superior.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Friar.</i> He has been saying&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> Hush! I will hear him to the end.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> That is not all. These things may be accomplished and
+yet nothing be accomplished. The Christian's business is not reformation
+but revelation, and the only labours he can put his hand to can never be
+accomplished in Time. He must so live that all things shall pass away.
+[<i>He stands silent for a moment and then cries, lifting his hand above
+his head.</i>] Give me wine out of thy pitchers; oh, God, how splendid is
+my cup of drunkenness. We must become blind, and deaf, and dizzy. We
+must get rid of everything that is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p098" id="Page_p098">[98]</a></span> measureless eternal life. We
+must put out hope as I put out this candle. [<i>Puts out a candle.</i>] And
+memory as I put out this candle. [<i>As before.</i>] And thought, the waster
+of Life, as I put out this candle. [<i>As before.</i>] And at last we must
+put out the light of the Sun and of the Moon, and all the light of the
+World and the World itself. [<i>He now puts out the last candle, the
+chapel is very dark. The only light is the faint light of morning coming
+through the window.</i>] We must destroy the World; we must destroy
+everything that has Law and Number, for where there is nothing, there is
+God.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>The</i> <span class="smcap">Superior</span> <i>comes forward. One of</i> <span class="smcap">Paul's</span> Friars <i>makes as if to
+speak to him. The </i><span class="smcap">Superior</span> <i>strikes at him with the back of his
+hand.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>.] Get out of this, rebel, blasphemous
+rebel!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Do as you like to me, but you cannot silence my
+thoughts. I learned them from Jesus Christ, who made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p099" id="Page_p099">[99]</a></span> a terrible joy,
+and sent it to overturn governments, and all settled order.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<span class="smcap">Paul's</span> Friars <i>rush to save him from the</i> <span class="smcap">Superior</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> There is no need for violence. I am ready to go.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> [<i>Taking his hand.</i>] I will go with you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I will go with you too.</p>
+
+<p><i>Several other Friars.</i> And I, and I, and I.</p>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> Whoever goes with this heretic goes straight into the pit.</p>
+
+<p><i>Bartley.</i> Do not leave us behind you. Let us go with you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Teach us! teach us! we will help you to teach others.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Let me go alone, the one more, the one nearer
+falsehood.</p>
+
+<p><i>Bartley.</i> We will go with you! We will go with you! We must go where we
+can hear your voice.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Friar.</i> [<i>Who stands behind the</i> <span class="smcap">Superior</span>.] God is making him speak
+against himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p100" id="Page_p100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> No, the time has not come for you. You would be
+thinking of your food at midday and listening for the bells at prayer
+time. You have not yet heard the voices and seen the faces.</p>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> A miracle! God is making the heretic speak against himself.
+Listen to him!</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> We will not stay behind, we will go with you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Bartley.</i> We cannot live without hearing you!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I am led by hands that are colder than ice and harder
+than diamonds. They will lead me where there will be hard thoughts of me
+in the hearts of all that love me, and there will be a fire in my heart
+that will make it as bare as the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> We will go with you. We too will take those hands that are
+colder than ice and harder than diamonds.</p>
+
+<p><i>Several Monks.</i> We too! we too!</p>
+
+<p><i>Patrick.</i> Bring us to the hands that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p101" id="Page_p101">[101]</a></span> are colder than ice and harder
+than diamonds.</p>
+
+<p><i>Other Monks.</i> Pull them away! pull them away from him!</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>They are about to seize the Monks who are with</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> [<i>Going between them.</i>] Back! back! I will have no scuffling
+here. Let the devil take his children if he has a mind to. God will call
+His own.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>The</i> Monks <i>fall back.</i> <span class="smcap">Superior</span> <i>goes up to altar, takes the cross
+from it and turns, standing on the steps.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> Father Aloysius, come to me here. [<span class="smcap">Aloysius</span> <i>takes</i> <span class="smcap">Paul
+Ruttledge's</span> <i>hand.</i>] Father Bartley, Father Colman. [<i>They go nearer to</i>
+<span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span>.] Father Patrick! [<i>A</i> Friar <i>comes towards him.</i>] Kneel
+down! [<span class="smcap">Father Patrick</span> <i>kneels.</i>] Father Clement, Father Nestor, Father
+James ... leave the heretic&mdash;you are on the very edge of the pit. Your
+shoes are growing red hot.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p102" id="Page_p102">[102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>A Friar.</i> I am afraid, I am afraid. [<i>He kneels.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> Kneel down; return to your God. [<i>Several</i> Monks <i>kneel.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> They have deserted us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Many will forsake the truth before the world is pulled
+down. [<i>Stretching out his arms over his head.</i>] I pulled down my own
+house, now I go out to pull down the world.</p>
+
+<p><i>Superior.</i> Strip off those holy habits.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Taking off his habit.</i>] One by one I am plucking off
+the rags and tatters of the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p103" id="Page_p103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="ACT_V" id="ACT_V"></a>ACT V.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>Smooth level grass near the Shannon. Ecclesiastical ruins,
+a part of which have been roofed in. Rocky plain in the distance,
+with a river.</i> <span class="smcap">Father Colman</span> <i>sorting some bundles of osiers.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Aloysius</span> <i>enters with an empty bag.</i>
+</p></div>
+
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> You are the first to come back Aloysius. Where is Brother
+Bartley?</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> He parted from me at the cross roads and went on to preach
+at Shanaglish. He should soon be back now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Have you anything in the bag?</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> Nothing. [<i>Throws the bag down.</i>] It doesn't seem as if our
+luck was growing. We have but food enough to last till to-morrow. We
+have hardly that. The rats from the river got at the few potatoes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p104" id="Page_p104">[104]</a></span> I
+gathered from the farmers at Lisheen last week, in the corner where they
+were.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> This is the first day you got nothing at all. Maybe you didn't
+ask the right way.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I asked for alms for the sake of the love of God. But the
+first place where I asked it, the man of the house was giving me a
+handful of meal, and the woman came and called out that we were serving
+the devil in the name of God, and she drove me from the door.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> It is since the priests preached against us they say that. Did
+you go on to Lisheen. They used always to treat us well there.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I did, but I got on no better there.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> That is a wonder, after the woman that had the jaundice being
+cured with prayers by Brother Paul.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> That's just it. If he did cure her, they say the two best of
+her husband's bullocks died of the blackwater the next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p105" id="Page_p105">[105]</a></span> day, and he was
+no way thankful to us after that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Did you try the houses along the bog road?</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I did, and the children coming back from school called out
+after me and asked who was it did away with the widow Cloran's cow.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> The widow Cloran's cow?</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> That was the cow that died after grazing in the ruins here.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> If it did, it was because of an old boot it picked up and ate,
+and that never belonged to us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I wish we had something ourselves to eat. They should be
+sitting down to their dinner in the monastery now. They will be having a
+good dinner to-day to carry them over the fast to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> I am thinking sometimes, Brother Paul should give more thought
+to us than he does. It is all very well for him, he is so taken up with
+his thoughts and his visions he doesn't know if he is full or fasting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p106" id="Page_p106">[106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> He has such holy thoughts and visions no one would like to
+trouble him. He ought not to be in the world at all, or to do the
+world's work.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> So long as he is in the world, he must give some thought to
+it. There must be something wrong in the way he is doing things now. I
+thought he would have had half Ireland with him by this time with his
+great preaching, but someway when he preaches to the people, they don't
+seem to mind him much.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> He is too far above them; they have not education to
+understand him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> They understand me well enough when I give my mind to it. But
+it is harder to preach now than it was in the monastery. We had
+something to offer then; absolution here, and heaven after.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> Isn't it enough for them to hear that the kingdom of heaven
+is within them, and that if they do the right meditations&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p107" id="Page_p107">[107]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> What can poor people that have their own troubles on them get
+from a few words like that they hear at a cross road or a market, and
+the wind maybe blowing them away? If we could gather them together
+now.... Look, Aloysius, at these sally rods; I have a plan in my mind
+about them.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>He has stuck some of the rods in the ground, and begins weaving
+others through them.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> Are you going to make baskets like you did in the monastery
+schools?</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> We must make something if we are to live. But it is more than
+that I was thinking of; we might coax some of the youngsters to come and
+learn the basket making; it would make them take to us better if we
+could put them in the way of earning a few pence.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> [<i>Taking up some of the osiers and beginning to twist
+them.</i>] That might be a good way to come at them; they could work
+through the day, and at evening we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p108" id="Page_p108">[108]</a></span> could tell them how to repeat the
+words till the light comes inside their heads. But would Paul think well
+of it? He is more for pulling down than building up.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> When I explain it to him I am sure he will think well of it;
+he can't go on for ever without anyone to listen to him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I suppose not, and with no way of living. But I don't know,
+I'm afraid he won't like it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Hush! Here he is coming.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> If one had a plan now for doing some destruction&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Hush! don't you see there is somebody with him.<br/><br/></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>comes in with</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> This is Charlie Ward, my old friend.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> The Charlie Ward you lived on the roads with?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, when I went looking for the favour of my hard
+mother,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p109" id="Page_p109">[109]</a></span> Earth, he helped me. He is her good child and she loves him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> He is welcome. How did he find you out?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I don't know. How did you find me out, Charlie?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Oh, I didn't lose sight of you so much as you thought. I
+had to stop away from Gortmore a good while after we left you at the
+gate, but I sent Paddy Cockfight one time to get news, and he mended
+cans for the laundry of the monastery, and they told him you were well
+again, and a monk as good as the rest. But a while ago I got word there
+was a monk had gone near to break up the whole monastery with his talk
+and his piety, and I said to myself, "That's Paul!" And then I heard
+there was a monk had been driven out for not keeping the rules, and I
+said to myself, "That's Paul!" And the other day when what's left of us
+came to Athlone, I heard talk of some disfrocked monks that were
+upsetting the whole neighbourhood,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p110" id="Page_p110">[110]</a></span> and I said, "That's Paul." To Sabina
+Silver I said that. "That merry chap Paul," I said.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I'm afraid you have a very bad opinion of me, Charlie.
+Well, maybe I earned it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> You cannot know much of him if you have a bad opinion of
+him. He will be made a saint some day.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> He will, if there's such a thing as a saint of mischief.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> A saint of mischief? Well, why not that as well as
+another? He would upset all the beehives, he would throw them into the
+market-place. Sit down now, Charlie, and eat a bit with us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> You are welcome, indeed, to all we can give you, but we have
+not a bit of food that is worth offering you. Aloysius got nothing at
+all in the villages to-day, Brother Paul. The people are getting cross.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Well, sit down, anyway. The country people liked me
+well enough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p111" id="Page_p111">[111]</a></span> once, there was no man they liked so much as myself when I
+gave them drink for nothing. Didn't they, Charlie?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Oh, that was a great time. They were lying thick about
+the roads. I'll be thinking of it to my dying day.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I have given them another kind of drink now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> What sort of a drink is that?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> We have rolled a great barrel out of a cellar that is
+under the earth. We have rolled it right into the midst of them. [<i>He
+moves his hand about as if he were moving a barrel.</i>] It's heavy, and
+when they have drunk what is in it, I would like to see the man that
+would be their master.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> That would be a great drink, but I wouldn't be sure that
+you're in earnest.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Colman and Aloysius will tell you all about it. It was
+made in a good still, the barley was grown in a field that's down under
+the earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p112" id="Page_p112">[112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> That's likely enough. I often heard of places like that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> And when they have drunk from my barrel, they will
+break open the door, they will put law and number under their two feet;
+and they will have a hot palm and a cold palm, for they will put down
+the moon and the sun with their two hands.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> There's no mistake but you're the same Paul still; nice
+and plain and simple, only for your hard talk. And what about the
+rheumatism? It's hardly you got through that fit you had, and you don't
+look as if much hardship would agree with you now.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> He does not, indeed, and if he doesn't kill himself one way
+he will another. Wait now till I tell you the way he is living. I don't
+think he tasted bit or sup to-day, and all he had last night was a
+couple of dry potatoes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Is that so? [<i>Takes</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge's</span> <i>arm.</i>] You haven't
+much more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p113" id="Page_p113">[113]</a></span> flesh on you than a crane in moonlight. They don't seem to
+have much notion of minding you here, you that were reared soft. It
+would be better for you to come back to us; bad as our lodging is,
+there'd be a bit in the pot for you and Sabina to care you. It's she
+would give you a good welcome.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> [<i>Starting up.</i>] We can mind him well enough here. I have a
+plan. We haven't been getting on the way we ought with the people. It's
+no way to be getting on with people to be asking things of them always,
+they have no opinion at all of us seeing us the way we are. They have no
+notion of the respect they should show to Brother Paul, and the way all
+the Brothers used to be listening to his preaching, and the townspeople
+as well. And I, myself, the time I preached in Dublin&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> Yes, indeed, Paul, think of the great crowds used to come
+when you preached in the Abbey church, and all the money that was
+gathered that time of the Mission.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p114" id="Page_p114">[114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, I used to like once to see all the faces looking
+up at me. But now all that is gone from me. Now I think it is enough to
+be a witness for the truth, and to think the thoughts I like. God will
+bring the people to me. He will make of my silence a great wind that
+will shatter the ships of the world.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> That is all very well, but the people are not coming.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> And more than that, they are driving us away from their
+doors now, Paul.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> The way they do to us. But Paul was not born on the
+roads. [<i>Lights his pipe.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> It's no use stopping waiting for a wind; if we have anything
+to say that's worth the people listening to, we must bring them to hear
+it one way or another. Now, it is what I was saying to Aloysius, we must
+begin teaching them to make things, they never had the chance of any
+instruction of the sort here.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p115" id="Page_p115">[115]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> To make things? This sort of things? [<i>Takes the
+half-made basket from</i> <span class="smcap">Colman</span>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Those and other things, we got a good training in the old
+days. And we'll get a grant from the Technical Board. The Board pays up
+to four hundred pounds to some of its instructors.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> And then?</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> Oh, then we'll sell all the things we make. I'm sure we'll
+get a market for them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, I understand; you will sell them. And what about
+the dividing of the money? You will need to make laws about that.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Of course; we will have to make rules, and to pay according to
+work.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, we will grow quite rich in time. What are we to do
+then? we can't go on living in this ruin?</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Of course not. We'll build workshops and houses for those who
+come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p116" id="Page_p116">[116]</a></span> to work from a distance, good houses, slated, not thatched.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Turning to</i> <span class="smcap">Aloysius</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span>.] Yes, you see
+his plan. To gather the people together, to build houses for them; to
+make them rich too, and to keep their money safe. And the Kingdom of God
+too? What about that?</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Oh, I'm just coming to that. They will think so much more of
+our teaching when we have got them under our influence by other things.
+Of course we will teach them their meditations, and give them a regular
+religious life. We must settle out some little place for them to pray
+in&mdash;there's a high gable over there where we could hang a bell&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh yes, I understand. You would weave them together
+like this [<i>weaves the osiers in and out</i>], you would add one thing to
+another, laws and money and church and bells, till you had got
+everything back again that you have escaped from. But it is my business
+to tear things<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p117" id="Page_p117">[117]</a></span> asunder like this [<i>tears pieces from the basket</i>], and
+this, and this&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I told him you'd never agree to it. He ought to have known
+that himself.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> We must have something to offer the people.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You say that because you got nothing to-day. Aloysius
+has got nothing in his sack. [<i>Taking sack and turning it upside down.</i>]
+It is quite empty. Every religious teacher before me has offered
+something to his followers, but I offer them nothing. [<i>Plunging his arm
+down into the sack.</i>] My sack is quite empty. I will never dip my hand
+into nature's full sack of illusions; I am tired of that old conjuring
+bag. [<i>He walks up and down muttering.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Colman</span>.] You may as well give up trying to settle
+him down to anything. He was a tinker once, and he'll be a tinker
+always; he has got the wandering into his blood. Will you come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p118" id="Page_p118">[118]</a></span> back to
+the roads, Paul, to your old friends and to Sabina?</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Sitting down beside him.</i>] Ah, my old friends, they
+were very kind to me; but these friends too are very kind to me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Well, come and see them anyway; they'll be glad to see
+you, those that are left of us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Those that are left of you? Where are the others?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Some are dead, and some are jailed, and some are on the
+roads here and there. Sabina is with us always, and Johneen is a great
+hand with the tools now, but Tommy the Song&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Oh, Tommy the Song, does he pray still? He was
+beginning to pray. Did he ever get an answer?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Well, I don't know about an answer, but I believe he
+heard something one night beside an old thorn tree, some sort of a voice
+it was.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> A voice? What did it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p119" id="Page_p119">[119]</a></span> say to him? Did he see anything?
+We have learned too much, our minds are like troubled water&mdash;we get
+nothing but broken images. He who knew nothing may have seen all. Is he
+praying still?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> If he is, it's in Galway gaol he's praying, with or
+without a thorn tree.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Did he tell no one what the voice said to him?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> He did not, unless he might have told Johneen or some
+other one.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I will go with you and see them. [<i>Gets up.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Aloysius</span>, <i>with whom he has been whispering</i>.] Take care,
+but if he goes back to his old friends, he'll stop with them and leave
+us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> [<i>Putting his hand on</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge's</span> <i>arm.</i>] Don't go,
+Brother Paul, till I talk to you awhile.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Do you want me? Well, Charlie, I will stay here, I
+won't go;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p120" id="Page_p120">[120]</a></span> but bring all the rest to see me, I want to ask them about
+that vision.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> I'll bring one of them, anyway. [<i>Exit.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> Brother Paul, it is what I am thinking; now the tinkers have
+come back to you, you could begin to gather a sort of an army; you can't
+fight your battle without an army. They could call to the other tinkers,
+and the tramps and the beggars, and the sieve-makers and all the
+wandering people. It would be a great army.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, that would be a great army, a great wandering
+army.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> The people would be afraid to refuse us then; we would march
+on&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, we could march on. We could march on the towns,
+and we could break up all settled order; we could bring back the old
+joyful, dangerous, individual life. We would have banners, we would each
+have a banner, banners with angels upon them&mdash;we will march upon the
+world with banners&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p121" id="Page_p121">[121]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> We would not be in want of food then, we could take all we
+wanted.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> We could take all we wanted, we would be too many to put in
+gaol; all the people would join us in the end; you would be able to
+persuade them all, Brother Paul, you would be their leader; we would
+make great stores of food&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> We will have one great banner that will go in front,
+it will take two men to carry it, and on it we will have Laughter, with
+his iron claws and his wings of brass and his eyes like sapphires&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> That will be the banner for the front, we will have
+different troops, we will have captains to organize them, to give them
+orders&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Standing up.</i>] To organize? That is to bring in law
+and number? Organize&mdash;organize&mdash;that is how all the mischief has been
+done. I was forgetting, we cannot destroy the world with armies, it is
+inside our minds that it must be destroyed, it must be consumed in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p122" id="Page_p122">[122]</a></span>
+moment inside our minds. God will accomplish his last judgment, first in
+one man's mind and then in another. He is always planning last
+judgments. And yet it takes a long time, and that is why he laments in
+the wind and in the reeds and in the cries of the curlews.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> I think we had better go down to the river and see are there
+any eels on the lines we set. We must find something for supper. It is
+near sunset; see how the crows are flying home.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> [<i>Looking up.</i>] The crows are my darlings! I like
+their harsh merriment better than those sad cries of the wind and the
+rushes. Look at them, they are tossing about like witches, tossing about
+on the wind, drunk with the wind.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Well, I'll go look at the lines, anyhow. Put turf on the fire,
+Aloysius; Bartley should soon be home from Shanaglish.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I wonder why he isn't home by this. I'm uneasy till I see
+him, after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p123" id="Page_p123">[123]</a></span> the way the people treated me to-day. [<i>Shades his eyes to
+look out.</i>] Here he is! He's running!</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> [<i>Coming over to him.</i>] He is running hard! He must be in some
+danger&mdash;&mdash;<br/><br/></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Bartley</span> <i>out of breath.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Bartley.</i> Run, run, come away, there's not a minute to lose.</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> What is the matter? what has happened?</p>
+
+<p><i>Bartley.</i> The people are coming up the road! They attacked me in the
+market! They followed me, they are on the road. I slipped away across
+the fields. Run, run!</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> What is it? What are they going to do to us?</p>
+
+<p><i>Bartley.</i> You would know that if you saw them! They have stones and
+sticks. Raging they are, and calling for our lives. They say we brought
+witchcraft and ill-luck on the place! Come to the boat, it's in the
+rushes; they won't see us, we'll get to the island. Hurry, hurry! [<i>He
+runs out.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p124" id="Page_p124">[124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> Come, Brother Paul, hurry, hurry!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I am going to stay.</p>
+
+<p><i>Bartley.</i> They will kill us if we stay! Brother Colman said they have
+stones and sticks; I think I hear them!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> You are afraid because you have been shut up so long.
+I am not afraid because I have lived upon the roads, where one is ready
+for anything that may happen. One has to learn that, like any other
+thing. I will stay.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> He wants the crown!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Where is Bartley?</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> He is gone. Come, you must go too, we can't leave you here.
+You have too much to do to throw your life away, we have all too much to
+do.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> No, no. There is nothing to do; I am going to stay.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> I will stay with you. [<i>Takes his hand.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Death is the last adventure, the first perfect joy,
+for at death the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p125" id="Page_p125">[125]</a></span> soul comes into possession of itself, and returns to
+the joy that made it. [<i>A great shout outside.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> [<i>Seizing</i> <span class="smcap">Aloysius</span>.] Come, come, Aloysius! come, Paul! We
+haven't a moment, here they are. [<i>Drags</i> <span class="smcap">Aloysius</span> <i>away.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Good-bye, Aloysius, good-bye, Colman. Keep a pick
+going at the foundations of the world.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Colman</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Aloysius</span> <i>run on.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>One of the Mob outside.</i> They are here in the ruins!</p>
+
+<p><i>Another Voice.</i> This way! This way!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I will not go. I have a little reason for staying, but
+no reason is too little to be the foundation of martyrdom. People have
+been martyred for all kinds of reasons, and my reason that is not worth
+a rush will do as well as any other. [<i>Looks round.</i>] Ah! they are gone.
+A little reason, a little reason. I have entered into the second
+freedom&mdash;the irresponsibility of the saints.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p126" id="Page_p126">[126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Sings.</i></p>
+
+<p>
+Parasti in conspectu meo mensam<br />
+Adversus eos qui tribulant me.<br />
+Impinguasti in oleo caput meum,<br />
+Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.<br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+[People <i>rush in with sticks uplifted.</i><br />
+</div>
+
+<p><i>One of the Mob.</i> Where are the heretics?</p>
+
+<p><i>Another.</i> We'll make an end of their witchcraft!</p>
+
+<p><i>Another.</i> Here is the worst of them!</p>
+
+<p><i>Another.</i> Give me back my cattle you put the sickness on!</p>
+
+<p><i>Another.</i> We'll have no witchcraft here! Drive away the unfrocked
+priest!</p>
+
+<p><i>Another.</i> Make an end of him when we have the chance!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Yes, make an end of me. I have tried hard to live a
+good life; give me a good death now.</p>
+
+<p><i>One of the Crowd.</i> Quick, don't give him time to put the evil eye on
+us!</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>They rush at him. His hands are seen swaying about above the
+crowd.</i></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p127" id="Page_p127">[127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> I go to the invisible heart of flame!</p>
+
+<p><i>One of the Crowd.</i> Throw him there now! Where are the others?</p>
+
+<p><i>Another.</i> They must be among the rocks.</p>
+
+<p><i>Another.</i> They are not; they are gone down the road!</p>
+
+<p><i>Another.</i> I tell you it's in the rocks they are! It's in the rocks
+they're hiding!</p>
+
+<p><i>Another.</i> They are not; they couldn't run in the rocks; they're running
+down the road.</p>
+
+<p><i>Several Voices.</i> They're on the road; they're on the road.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>They all rush out, leaving</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>lying on the ground. It
+grows darker.</i> <span class="smcap">Fathers Colman</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Aloysius</span> <i>creep up.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> Paul, Paul, come; we have still time to get to the boat.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aloysius.</i> Oh! they have killed him; there is a wound in his neck! Oh!
+he has been the first of us to get the crown!</p>
+
+<p><i>Colman.</i> There are voices! They must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p128" id="Page_p128">[128]</a></span> be coming back! Come to the boat,
+maybe we can bury him to-morrow!</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>They go out.</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>half rises and sinks back.</i></p></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Sabina Silver</span>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> They have done for him. I thought they would.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> Oh, Paul, I never thought to find you like this! He's
+not dead; he'll come round yet.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> [<i>Opens his shirt and puts in his hand on his heart.</i>]
+Paul!</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Ah! Charlie, give me the soldering iron&mdash;no, bring me
+the lap anvil&mdash;I'm as good a tinker as any of you.</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> He thinks he's back on the roads with us! He is done
+for.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> I knew he'd have to come back to me to die after all;
+it's a lonesome thing to die among strangers.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> That is right, that is right, take me up in your
+brazen claws. But no&mdash;no&mdash;I will not go out beyond<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p129" id="Page_p129">[129]</a></span> Saturn into the
+dark. Take me down&mdash;down to that field under the earth, under the roots
+of the grave.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> I don't know what he is saying. I never could
+understand his talk.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> O plunge me into the wine barrel, into the wine barrel
+of God.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> Won't you speak to me, Paul? Don't you know me? I am
+Sibby; don't you remember me, Sibby, your wife?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> He sees you now; I think he knows you.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<span class="smcap">Paul Ruttledge</span> <i>has raised himself on his elbow and is looking at</i>
+<span class="smcap">Sabina Silver</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> He knows me. I was sure he would know me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Paul Ruttledge.</i> Colman, Colman, remember always where there is nothing
+there is God. [<i>He sinks down again.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>One of the Crowd.</i> [<i>Coming back with two or three others.</i>] I knew
+they must be in the rocks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_p130" id="Page_p130">[130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> Well, he's gone! There'll soon be none of us left at
+all. And I never knew what it was he did that brought him to us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sabina Silver.</i> Oh, Paul, Paul!</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<i>Begins to keen very low, swaying herself to and fro.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><i>One of the Crowd.</i> [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie Ward</span>.] Was he a friend of yours?</p>
+
+<p><i>Charlie Ward.</i> He was, indeed. I must do what I can for him now.</p>
+
+<p><i>One of the Crowd.</i> That's natural, that's natural. It's a pity they did
+it. They'd best have left him alone. We'd best be going back to the
+town.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[<span class="smcap">Sabina Silver</span> <i>raises the keen louder. The</i> Strangers <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Charlie
+Ward</span> <i>take off their hats.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<h4>
+CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.<br />
+TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.<br />
+</h4>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Where There is Nothing, by William Butler Yeats
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+Project Gutenberg's Where There is Nothing, by William Butler Yeats
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Where There is Nothing
+       Being Volume I of Plays for an Irish Theatre
+
+Author: William Butler Yeats
+
+Release Date: December 20, 2011 [EBook #38349]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE THERE IS NOTHING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brian Foley, Stephanie McKee and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+_BY THE SAME WRITER._
+
+  THE SECRET ROSE.
+  THE CELTIC TWILIGHT.
+  POEMS.
+  THE WIND AMONG THE REEDS.
+  THE SHADOWY WATERS.
+  IDEAS OF GOOD AND EVIL.
+
+
+
+
+PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE
+
+VOLUME I.
+
+
+
+
+WHERE THERE IS NOTHING:
+
+  BEING VOLUME ONE OF PLAYS
+  FOR AN IRISH THEATRE: BY
+  W. B. YEATS
+
+
+  LONDON: A. H. BULLEN, 47, GREAT
+  RUSSELL STREET, W.C. 1903
+
+
+
+
+  CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
+  TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION OF VOLUMES ONE AND TWO OF PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE.
+
+
+My dear Lady Gregory, I dedicate to you two volumes of plays
+that are in part your own.
+
+When I was a boy I used to wander about at Rosses Point and Ballisodare
+listening to old songs and stories. I wrote down what I heard and made
+poems out of the stories or put them into the little chapters of the
+first edition of "The Celtic Twilight," and that is how I began to write
+in the Irish way.
+
+Then I went to London to make my living, and though I spent a part of
+every year in Ireland and tried to keep the old life in my memory by
+reading every country tale I could find in books or old newspapers, I
+began to forget the true countenance of country life. The old tales were
+still alive for me indeed, but with a new, strange, half unreal life, as
+if in a wizard's glass, until at last, when I had finished "The Secret
+Rose," and was half-way through "The Wind Among the Reeds," a wise woman
+in her trance told me that my inspiration was from the moon, and that I
+should always live close to water, for my work was getting too full of
+those little jewelled thoughts that come from the sun and have no
+nation. I had no need to turn to my books of astrology to know that the
+common people are under the moon, or to Porphyry to remember the
+image-making power of the waters. Nor did I doubt the entire truth of
+what she said to me, for my head was full of fables that I had no longer
+the knowledge and emotion to write. Then you brought me with you to see
+your friends in the cottages, and to talk to old wise men on Slieve
+Echtge, and we gathered together, or you gathered for me, a great number
+of stories and traditional beliefs. You taught me to understand again,
+and much more perfectly than before, the true countenance of country
+life.
+
+One night I had a dream almost as distinct as a vision, of a cottage
+where there was well-being and firelight and talk of a marriage, and
+into the midst of that cottage there came an old woman in a long cloak.
+She was Ireland herself, that Cathleen ni Hoolihan for whom so many
+songs have been sung and about whom so many stories have been told and
+for whose sake so many have gone to their death. I thought if I could
+write this out as a little play I could make others see my dream as I
+had seen it, but I could not get down out of that high window of
+dramatic verse, and in spite of all you had done for me I had not the
+country speech. One has to live among the people, like you, of whom an
+old man said in my hearing, "She has been a serving-maid among us,"
+before one can think the thoughts of the people and speak with their
+tongue. We turned my dream into the little play, "Cathleen ni Hoolihan,"
+and when we gave it to the little theatre in Dublin and found that the
+working people liked it, you helped me to put my other dramatic fables
+into speech. Some of these have already been acted, but some may not be
+acted for a long time, but all seem to me, though they were but a part
+of a summer's work, to have more of that countenance of country life
+than anything I have done since I was a boy.
+
+W. B. Yeats.
+
+_Feb. 1903._
+
+
+
+
+  Paul Ruttledge, a Country Gentleman.
+  Thomas Ruttledge, his Brother.
+  Mrs. Thomas Ruttledge.
+  Mr. Dowler,          }
+  Mr. Algie,           } Magistrates.
+  Colonel Lawley,      }
+  Mr. Joyce,           }
+  Mr. Green, a Stipendiary Magistrate.
+  Sabina Silver,            }
+  Molly the Scold,          }
+  Charlie Ward,             } Tinkers.
+  Paddy Cockfight,          }
+  Tommy the Song,           }
+  Johneen, etc.             }
+  Father Jerome,       }
+  Father Aloysius,     } Friars.
+  Father Colman,       }
+  Father Bartley,      }
+  Other Friars, and a crowd of countrymen.
+
+
+
+
+WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
+
+
+
+
+ACT I.
+
+
+     Scene: _A lawn with croquet hoops, garden chairs and
+     tables. Door into house at left. Gate through hedge at back. The
+     hedge is clipped into shapes of farmyard fowl._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE
+     _is clipping at the hedge in front. A table with toys
+     on it._
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ [_Coming out on steps._] Paul, are you
+coming in to lunch?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No; you can entertain these people very well. They
+are your friends: you understand them.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ You might as well come in. You have been
+clipping at that old hedge long enough.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You needn't worry about me. I should be bored if I
+went in, and I don't want to be bored more than is necessary.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ What is that creature you are clipping at now? I
+can't make it out.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, it is a Cochin China fowl, an image of some of
+our neighbours, like the others.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ I don't see any likeness to anyone.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, yes there is, if you could see their minds
+instead of their bodies. That comb now----
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ [_Coming out on steps._] Thomas, are you
+coming in?
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Yes, I'm coming; but Paul won't come.
+
+     [THOMAS RUTTLEDGE _goes out._
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Oh! this is nonsense, Paul; you must come. All
+these men will think it so strange if you don't. It is nonsense to think
+you will be bored. Mr. Green is talking in the most interesting way.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! I know Green's conversation very well.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ And Mr. Joyce, your old guardian. Thomas says he
+was always so welcome in your father's time, he will think it so queer.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! I know all their virtues. There's Dowler, who
+puts away thousands a year in Consols, and Algie, who tells everybody all
+about it. Have I forgotten anybody? Oh, yes! Colonel Lawley, who used to
+lift me up by the ears, when I was a child, to see Africa. No, Georgina,
+I know all their virtues, but I'm not coming in.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ I can't imagine why you won't come in and be
+sociable.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You see I can't. I have something to do here. I
+have to finish this comb. You see it is a beautiful comb; but the wings
+are very short. The poor creature can't fly.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ But can't you finish that after lunch?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No, I have sworn.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Well, I am sorry. You are always doing
+uncomfortable things. I must go in to the others. I wish you would have
+come. [_She goes in._
+
+_Jerome._ [_Who has come to gate as she disappears._] Paul, you
+there! that is lucky. I was just going to ask for you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Flinging clipper away, and jumping up._]
+Oh, Father Jerome, I am delighted to see you. I haven't seen you for ever
+so long. Come and have a talk; or will you have some lunch?
+
+_Jerome._ No, thank you; I will stay a minute, but I won't go in.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That is just as well, for you would be bored to
+death. There has been a meeting of magistrates in the village, and my
+brother has brought them all in to lunch.
+
+_Jerome._ I am collecting for the Monastery, and my donkey has gone
+lame; I have had to put it up in the village. I thought you might be
+able to lend me one to go on with.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Of course, I'm delighted to lend you that or
+anything else. I'll go round to the yard with you and order it. But sit
+down here first. What have you been doing all this time?
+
+_Jerome._ Oh, we have been very busy. You know we are going to put
+up new buildings.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Absent-mindedly._] No, I didn't know that.
+
+_Jerome._ Yes, our school is increasing so much we are getting a
+grant for technical instruction. Some of the Fathers are learning
+handicrafts. Father Aloysius is going to study industries in France; but
+we are all busy. We are changing with the times, we are beginning to do
+useful things.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Useful things. I wonder what you have begun to
+call useful things. Do you see those marks over there on the grass?
+
+_Jerome._ What marks?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Those marks over there, those little marks of
+scratching.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Going over to the place_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _has
+pointed out._] I don't see anything.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You are getting blind, Jerome. Can't you see that
+the poultry have been scratching there?
+
+_Jerome._ No, the grass is perfectly smooth.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, the marks are there, whether you see them
+or not; for Mr. Green and Mr. Dowler and Mr. Algie and the rest of them
+run out of their houses when nobody is looking, in their real shapes,
+shapes like those on my hedge. And then they begin to scratch, they
+scratch all together, they don't dig but they scratch, and all the time
+their mouths keep going like that.
+
+     [_He holds out his hand and opens and shuts his fingers like a
+     bird's bill._
+
+_Jerome._ Oh, Paul, you are making fun of me.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Of course I am only talking in parables. I think
+all the people I meet are like farmyard creatures, they have forgotten
+their freedom, their human bodies are a disguise, a pretence they keep
+up to deceive one another.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Sitting down._] What is wrong with you?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, nothing of course. You see how happy I am. I
+have a good house and a good property, and my brother and his charming
+wife have come to look after me. You see the toys of their children here
+and everywhere. What should be wrong with me?
+
+_Jerome._ I know you too well not to see that there is something
+wrong with you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There is nothing except that I have been thinking
+a good deal lately.
+
+_Jerome._ Perhaps your old dreams or visions or whatever they were
+have come back. They always made you restless. You ought to see more of
+your neighbours.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There's nothing interesting but human nature, and
+that's in the single soul, but these neighbours of mine they think in
+flocks and roosts.
+
+_Jerome._ You are too hard on them. They are busy men, they hav'n't
+much time for thought, I daresay.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That's what I complain of. When I hear these
+people talking I always hear some organized or vested interest chirp or
+quack, as it does in the newspapers. Algie chirps. Even you, Jerome,
+though I have not found your armorial beast, are getting a little
+monastic; when I have found it I will put it among the others. There is a
+place for it there, but the worst of it is that it will take so long
+getting nice and green.
+
+_Jerome._ I don't know what creature you could make for me.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am not sure yet; I think it might be a pigeon,
+something cooing and gentle, and always coming home to the dovecot; not
+to the wild woods but to the dovecot.
+
+_Jerome._ I wonder what creature you yourself are like.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I daresay I am like some creature or other, for
+very few of us are altogether men; but if I am, I would like to be one
+of the wild sort. You are right about my dreams. They have been coming
+back lately. Do you remember those strange ones I had at college?
+
+_Jerome._ Those visions of pulling something down?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, they have come back to me lately. Sometimes I
+dream I am pulling down my own house, and sometimes it is the whole
+world that I am pulling down. [_Standing up._] I would like to have
+great iron claws, and to put them about the pillars, and to pull and
+pull till everything fell into pieces.
+
+_Jerome._ I don't see what good that would do you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, yes it would. When everything was pulled down
+we would have more room to get drunk in, to drink contentedly out of the
+cup of life, out of the drunken cup of life.
+
+_Jerome._ That is a terribly wild thought. I hope you don't believe
+all you say.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Perhaps not. I only know that I want to upset
+everything about me. Have you not noticed that it is a complaint many of
+us have in this country? and whether it comes from love or hate I don't
+know, they are so mixed together here.
+
+_Jerome._ I wish you would come and talk to our Superior. He has a
+perfect gift for giving advice.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, we'll go to the yard now. [_He gets
+up._
+
+_Jerome._ I have often thought you would come to the Monastery
+yourself in the end. You were so much the most pious of us all at
+school. You would be happy in a Monastery. Something is always happening
+there.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_As they go up the garden._] I daresay, I
+daresay; but I am not even sure that I am a Christian.
+
+_Jerome._ Well, anyway, I wish that you would come and talk to our
+Superior. [_They go out._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     CHARLIE WARD _and_ BOY _enter by the path beyond
+     the hedge and stand at gate._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ No use going up there, Johneen, it's too grand a
+place, it's a dog they might let loose on us. But I'll tell you what,
+just slip round to the back door and ask do they want any cans mended.
+
+_Johneen._ Let you take the rabbit then we're after taking out of
+the snare. I can't bring it round with me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Faith, you can't. They think as bad of us taking a
+rabbit that was fed and minded by God as if it was of their own rearing;
+give it here to me. It's hardly it will go in my pocket, it's as big as
+a hare. It's next my skin I'll have to put it, or it might be noticed on
+me. [_Boy goes out._
+
+     [CHARLIE WARD _is struggling to put rabbit inside his
+     coat when_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _comes back._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Is there anything I can do for you? Do you want to
+come in?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ I'm a tinker by trade, your honour. I wonder is
+there e'er a tin can the maids in the house might want mended or any
+chairs to be bottomed?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ A tinker; where do you live?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Faith, I don't stop long in any place. I go about
+like the crows; picking up my way of living like themselves.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Opening gate._] Come inside here.
+[CHARLIE WARD _hesitates._] Come in, you are welcome.
+
+     [_Puts his hand on his shoulder._ CHARLIE WARD _tries to
+     close his shirt over rabbit._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah, you have a rabbit there. The keeper told me
+he had come across some snares in my woods.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ If he did, sir, it was no snare of mine he found.
+This is a rabbit I bought in the town of Garreen early this morning.
+Sixpence I was made give for it, and to mend a tin can along with that.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Touching rabbit._] It's warm still, however.
+But the day is hot. Never mind; you are quite welcome to it. I daresay
+you will have a cheery meal of it by the roadside; my dinners are often
+tiresome enough. I often wish I could change--look here, will you change
+clothes with me?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Faith, I'd swap soon enough if you weren't humbugging
+me. It's I that would look well with that suit on me! The peelers would
+all be touching their caps to me. You'd see them running out for me to
+sign summonses for them.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ But I am not humbugging. I am in earnest.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ In earnest! Then when I go back I'll commit Paddy
+Cockfight to prison for hitting me yesterday.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You don't believe me, but I will explain. I'm dead
+sick of this life; I want to get away; I want to escape--as you say, to
+pick up my living like the crows for a while.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ To make your escape. Oh! that's different. [_Coming
+closer._] But what is it you did? You don't look like one that would be
+in trouble. But sometimes a gentleman gets a bit wild when he has a drop
+taken.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, never mind. I will explain better while we are
+changing. Come over here to the potting shed. Make haste, those
+magistrates will be coming out.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ The magistrates! Are they after you? Hurry on, then!
+Faith, they won't know you with this coat. [_Looking at his rags._] It's a
+pity I didn't put on my old one coming out this morning.
+
+     [_They go out through the garden._ THOMAS RUTTLEDGE _comes
+     down steps from house with_ COLONEL LAWLEY _and_
+     MR. GREEN.
+
+_Mr. Green._ Yes, they have made me President of the County
+Horticultural Society. My speech was quite a success; it was punctuated
+with applause. I said I looked upon the appointment not as a tribute to
+my own merits, but to their public spirit and to the Society, which I
+assured them had come to stay.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ What has become of Paul and Father Jerome? I thought
+I heard their voices out here, and now they are conspicuous by their
+absence.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ He seems to have no friend he cares for but that
+Father Jerome.
+
+_Mr. Green._ I wish he would come more into touch with his fellows.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ What a pity he didn't go into the army. I wish he
+would join the militia. Every man should try to find some useful sphere
+of employment.
+
+_Mr. Green._ Thomas, your brother will never come to see me, though
+I often ask him. He would find the best people--people worth meeting--at
+my house. I wonder if he would join the Horticultural Society? I know I
+voice the sentiments of all the members in saying this. I spoke to a
+number of them at the function the other day.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ I wish he would join something. Joyce wants him
+to join the Masonic Lodge. It is not a right life for him to keep hanging
+about the place and doing nothing.
+
+_Mr. Green._ He won't even come and sit on the Bench. It's not fair
+to leave so much of the work to me. I ought to get all the support
+possible from local men.
+
+     [MRS. RUTTLEDGE _comes down steps with_ MR. DOWLER,
+     MR. ALGIE, _and_ MR. JOYCE. _She is walking in front._
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ [_To_ THOMAS RUTTLEDGE.] Oh! Thomas, isn't it
+too bad, Paul has lent the donkey to that friar. I wanted Mr. Joyce to
+see the children in their panniers. Do speak to him about it.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Well, the donkey belongs to him, and for the
+matter of that so does the house and the place. It would be rather hard
+on him not to be able to use things as he likes.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ What a pleasure it must be to Paul to have you and the
+little ones living here. He certainly owes you a debt of gratitude. Man
+was not born to live alone.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Well, I think we have done him good. He hasn't done
+anything for years, except mope about the house and cut the bushes into
+those absurd shapes, and now we are trying to make him live more like
+other people.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ He was always inclined to be a bit of a faddist.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ [_To_ MR. ALGIE.] Do let me give you a lesson in
+croquet. I have learned all the new rules. [_To_ MR. JOYCE.] Please
+bring me that basket of balls. [_To COLONEL LAWLEY._] Will you
+bring me the mallets? Yes, I am afraid he is a faddist. We have done our
+best for him, but he ought to be more with men.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Yes, Mr. Dowler was just saying he ought to try and be
+made a director of the new railway.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ The militia--the militia.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ It's a great help to a man to belong to a Masonic Lodge.
+
+_Mr. Green._ The Horticultural Society is in want of new members.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Well, I wish he would join something.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     _Enter_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _in tinker's clothes, carrying a rabbit in
+     his hand._ CHARLIE WARD _follows in_ PAUL'S _clothes. All stand
+     aghast._
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Good God!
+
+     [_Drops basket._ COLONEL LAWLEY, _who has mallets in his hand, at
+     sight of_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _drops them, and stands still._
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Paul! are you out of your mind?
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ For goodness' sake, Paul, don't make such a fool of
+yourself.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ What on earth has happened, and who on earth is that
+man?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Opens gate for tinker. To_ CHARLIE WARD.] Wait for
+me, my friend, down there by the cross-road. [CHARLIE WARD _goes out._
+
+_Mr. Green._ Has he stolen your clothes?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! it's all right; I have changed clothes with him. I
+am going to join the tinkers.
+
+_All._ To join the tinkers!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Life is getting too monotonous; I would give it a
+little variety. [_To_ MR. GREEN.] As you would say, it has been running
+in grooves.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ [_To_ MRS. RUTTLEDGE.] This is only his humbugging
+talk; he never believes what he says.
+
+     [PAUL RUTTLEDGE _goes towards the steps._
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ Surely you are not going into the house with those
+clothes?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You are quite right. Thomas will go in for me. [_To_
+THOMAS RUTTLEDGE.] Just go to my study, will you, and bring me my
+despatch-box; I want something from it before I go.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Where are you going to? I wish you would tell me
+what you are at.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ The despatch-box is on the top of the bureau.
+
+     [_THOMAS RUTTLEDGE goes out._
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ What does all this mean?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I will explain. [_Sits down on the edge of iron
+table._] Did you never wish to be a witch, and to ride through the air
+on a white horse?
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ I can't say I ever did.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Never? Only think of it--to ride in the darkness under
+the stars, to make one's horse leap from cloud to cloud, to watch the
+sea glittering under one's feet and the mountain tops going by.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ But what has this to do with the tinkers?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ As I cannot find a broomstick that will turn itself
+into a white horse, I am going to turn tinker.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ I suppose you have some picturesque idea about these
+people, but I assure you, you are quite wrong. They are nothing but
+poachers.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ They are nothing but thieves.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ They are the worst class in the country.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, I know that; they are quite lawless. That is what
+attracts me to them. I am going to be irresponsible.
+
+_Mr. Green._ One cannot escape from responsibility by joining a set of
+vagabonds.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Vagabonds--that is it. I want to be a vagabond, a
+wanderer. As I can't leap from cloud to cloud I want to wander from road
+to road. That little path there by the clipped edge goes up to the
+highroad. I want to go up that path and to walk along the highroad, and
+so on and on and on, and to know all kinds of people. Did you ever think
+that the roads are the only things that are endless; that one can walk
+on and on and on, and never be stopped by a gate or a wall? They are
+the serpent of eternity. I wonder they have never been worshipped. What
+are the stars beside them? They never meet one another. The roads are
+the only things that are infinite. They are all endless.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ But they must stop when they come to the sea?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! you are always so wise.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Stop talking nonsense, Paul, and throw away those filthy
+things.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That would be setting cleanliness before godliness. I
+have begun the regeneration of my soul.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ I don't see what godliness has got to do with it.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Nor I either.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There was a saint who said, "I must rejoice without
+ceasing, although the world shudder at my joy." He did not think he
+could save his soul without it. I agree with him, and as I was
+discontented here, I thought it time to make a change. Like that worthy
+man, I must be content to shock my friends.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ But you had everything here you could want.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That's just it. You who are so wealthy, you of all
+people should understand that I want to get rid of all that
+responsibility, answering letters and so on. It is not worth the trouble
+of being rich if one has to answer letters. Could you ever understand,
+Georgina, that one gets tired of many charming things? There are family
+responsibilities [_to_ MR. JOYCE], but I can see that you, who were my
+guardian, sympathize with me in that.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Indeed I do not.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ I should think you could be cheerful without ceasing
+to be a gentleman.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You are thinking of my clothes. We must feel at ease
+with the people we live amongst. I shall feel at ease with the great
+multitude in these clothes. I am beginning to be a man of the world. I
+am the beggarman of all the ages--I have a notion Homer wrote something
+about me.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ He is either making fun of us or talking great rot. I
+can't listen to any more of this nonsense. I can't see why a man with
+property can't let well alone. Algie are you coming my way?
+
+     [_They both go into the house, and come out presently with umbrella
+     and coat._
+
+_Mr. Green._ Depend upon it, he's going to write a book. There was a man
+who made quite a name for himself by sleeping in a casual ward.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! no, I'm not going to write about it; if one writes
+one can do nothing else. I am going to express myself in life. [_To_
+THOMAS RUTTLEDGE _who has returned with box._] I hope soon to live by the
+work of my hands, but every trade has to be learned, and I must take
+something to start with. [_To_ MRS. RUTTLEDGE.] Do you think you will
+have any kettles to mend when I come this way again?
+
+     [_He has taken box from_ THOMAS RUTTLEDGE _and unlocked it._
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ I can't make head or tail of what you are at.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ What he is at is fads.
+
+_Mr. Green._ I don't think his motive is far to seek. He has some idea
+of going back to the dark ages. Rousseau had some idea of the same kind,
+but it didn't work.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes; I want to go back to the dark ages.
+
+_Mr. Green._ Do you want to lose all the world has gained since then?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ What has it gained? I am among those who think that
+sin and death came into the world the day Newton eat the apple. [_To_
+MRS. RUTTLEDGE, _who is going to speak._] I know you are going to tell me
+he only saw it fall. Never mind, it is all the same thing.
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ [_Beginning to cry._] Oh! he is going mad!
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ I'm afraid he is really leaving us.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Who has been looking at papers, tearing one or two,
+etc., takes out a packet of notes, which he puts in his breast._] I
+daresay this will last me long enough, Thomas. I am not robbing you of
+very much. Well, good-bye. [_Pats him gently on the shoulder._] I
+mustn't forget the rabbit, it may be my dinner to-night; I wonder who
+will skin it. Good-bye, Colonel, I think I've astonished you to-day.
+[_Slaps his shoulder._] That was too hard, was it? Forgive it, you know
+I'm a common man now. [_Lifts his hat and goes out of gate. Closes it
+after him and stands with his hands on it, and speaks with the voice of
+a common man._] Go on, live in your poultry-yard. Scratch straw and
+cluck and cackle at everything that you take for a fox. [_Exit._
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ [_Goes to_ MRS. RUTTLEDGE, _who has sat down and is wiping
+her eyes._] I am very sorry for this, for his father's sake, but it may
+be as well in the end. If it comes to the worst, you and Thomas will
+keep up the family name better than he would have done.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ He'll find the poor very different from what he thinks
+when they pick his pocket.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ To think that a magistrate should have such fads!
+
+_Mr. Green._ I venture to say you will see him here in a very different
+state of mind in a week.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ [_Who has been in a brown study._] He has done for himself
+in this world and the next. Why, he won't be asked to a single shoot if
+this is heard of.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ [_Turning from the gate._] Here are the children,
+Georgina. Don't say anything before the nurse.
+
+_Mr. Green._ Well, I must be off. [_Goes in for stick._
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Just bring me out my coat, Green.
+
+     [_They all prepare to go._ MRS. RUTTLEDGE _has gone to open gate and
+     children come in, one in a perambulator. All gather round them
+     admiringly._
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Have you a kiss for godfather to-day?
+
+_Mrs. Ruttledge._ The poor darlings! I hope they will never know what
+has happened.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ Thank goodness, they have no nonsense in their heads.
+We know where we are with them.
+
+
+CURTAIN.
+
+
+
+
+ACT II.
+
+
+     Scene: _By the roadside. A wall of unmortared stone in the
+     background. Tinkers' encampment. Men, women, and children standing
+     round._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _standing by a fire._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ What do you mean by "tinning" the soldering iron?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ If the face of it is not well tinned it won't lift the
+solder. Show me here.
+
+     [_Takes soldering iron from_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S _hand._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sitting down and drawing a tin can to him._] Now,
+let me see how you mend this hole. It seems easy. I'm sure I will be
+able to learn it as well as any of you.
+
+     [_Two tinkers come and stand over him._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Pointing to one of them._] This, sir, is Tommy the
+Song. He's the best singer we have, but the divil a much good he is only
+that. He's a great warrant to snare hares.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ Is the gentleman going to join us?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Indeed I am, if you'll let me. There's nothing I'd
+like better.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ But are you going to learn the trade?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, if you'll teach me. I'm sure I'll make a good
+tinker. Look at that now, see how I've stopped that hole already.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Taking the can from him and looking at it._] If every
+can had a little hole in the middle like that, I think you _would_ be
+able to mend them; but there's the straight hole, and the crooked hole,
+the round hole, the square hole, the angle hole, the bottom hole, the
+top hole, the side leak, the open leak, the leak-all-round, but I won't
+frighten you with the names of them all, only this I will say, that,
+when you've learned to mend all the leakages in a can--and that should
+take you a year--you're only in the first day of the tinker's week.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ Don't believe him. He's only humbugging you. It's not
+the hardness of the work will daunt you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Thank you. I was not believing him at all. I'm quite
+sure I'll be able to mend any can at the end of a week, but the
+bottoming of them will take longer. I can see that's not so easy. When
+will you start to teach me that, Charlie?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_As another tinker comes up._] Paddy, here's the
+gentleman I was telling you about. He's going to join us for good and
+all. [_To_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Wait till we have time and some quiet place,
+and he'll show you as good a cockfight as ever you saw. [_A woman comes
+up._] This is his wife; Molly the Scold we call her; faith, she is a
+better fighter than any cock he ever had in a basket; he'd find it hard
+to shut the lid on her.
+
+_Molly the Scold._ The gentleman seems foolish. Is he all there?
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ Stop your chat, Molly, or I'll hit you a welt.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Keep your tongue quiet, Molly. If the gentleman has
+reasons for keeping out of the way it isn't for us to be questioning
+him. [_To_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Don't mind her, she's cross enough, but
+maybe your own ladies would be cross as well if they saw their young
+sons dying by the roadside in a little kennel of straw under the
+ass-cart the way she did; from first to last.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I suppose you have your troubles like others. But you
+seem cheerful enough.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ It isn't anything to fret about. Some of us go soon, and
+some travel the roads for their lifetime. What does it matter when we
+are under the nettles if it was with a short rope or a long one we were
+hanged?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, that is the way to take life. What does the
+length of our rope matter?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ We haven't time to be thinking of troubles like people
+that would be shut up in a house. We have the wide world before us to
+make our living out of. The people of the whole world are begrudging us
+our living, and we make it out of them for all that. When they will
+spread currant cakes and feather beds before us, it will be time for us
+to sit down and fret.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ It's likely you'll think the life too hard. Would you
+like to be passing by houses in the night-time, and the fire shining out
+of them, and you hardly given the loan of a sod to light your pipe, and
+the rain falling on you?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Why are the people so much against you?
+
+_Tommy the Song._ We are not like themselves. It's little we care about
+them or they about us. If their saint did curse us itself----
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Stop. I won't have you talking about that story here.
+Why would they think so much of the curse of one saint, and saints so
+plenty?
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ Where's the good of a gentleman being here? He'll be
+breaking down on the road. It's on the ass-cart he'll be wanting to sit.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ Indeed, I don't think he'll stand the hardship.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, I'll stand it well enough.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ You're not like us that were reared to it. You were
+not born like us with wandering in the heart.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh yes, I have wandering in the heart. I got sick of
+these lighted rooms you were talking of just now.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ That might be so. It's the dark is welcome to a man
+sometimes.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ The dark. Yes, I think that is what I want. [_Stands
+up._] The dark, where there is nothing that is anything, and nobody that
+is anybody; one can be free there, where there is nothing. Well, if you
+let me stay with you, I don't think you will hear any complaints from
+me. Charlie Ward, Paddy, and the rest of you, I want you to understand
+that from this out I am one of yourselves. I'll live as you live and do
+as you do.
+
+     [JOHNEEN _and other children come running in._
+
+_Johneen._ I was on the top of the bank and I seen a priest coming down
+the cross-road with his ass. It's collecting he is. We're going to set
+ourselves here to beg something from him.
+
+_Another Child._ [_Breathlessly._] And he has a whole lot of things on
+the ass. A whole lot of things up behind him.
+
+_Another Child._ O boys, O boys, we'll have our dealing trick out of
+them yet. The best way'll be---- [_He suddenly catches sight of_ PAUL
+RUTTLEDGE.] Whist, ye divils ye, don't you see the new gentleman?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Speak out, boys; don't be afraid of me; I'm one of
+yourselves now.
+
+_Child._ Oh! but we were going to---- But I won't tell you. [_To the
+other_ children.] Come away here, and we'll not tell him what we'll do.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] What are they going to do?
+They're putting their heads together.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ They're going to put a bush across the road, and when
+the friar gets down to pull it out of the way they'll snap what they can
+off the ass, and away with them.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And why wouldn't they tell me that? Am I not one of
+yourselves?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Ah! It's likely they'll never trust you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ But they will soon see that I am one of themselves.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ No; but that's the very thing, you're not one of
+ourselves. You were not born on the road, reared on the road, married on
+the road like us.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, it's too late for me to be reared on the road,
+but I don't see why I shouldn't marry on the road like you. I certainly
+would do it if it would make me one of you.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ It might make you one of us, there's no doubt about
+that. It's the only thing that would do it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, find a wife for me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Faith, you haven't far to go to find one. Paddy there
+will give you over his wife quick enough; he won't make a hard bargain
+over her.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ But I am in earnest. I want to cut myself off from my
+old life.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Oh! I was forgetting that.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ [_To_ MOLLY.] I wonder what was it he did? I wonder had
+he the misfortune to kill anybody?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Calling_ SABINA _over._] Here's a girl should make a
+good wife, Sabina Silver her name is. Her father is just dead; he didn't
+treat her over well.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ [_Coming over._] What is it?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ This gentleman wants to speak to you. I think he's
+looking out for a wife.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ [_Hanging her head._] Don't be humbugging me.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Indeed he's not, Sabina.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ You're only joking a poor girl. Sure, what would make
+you think of me at all?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Sabina, have you been always on the road with Charlie
+Ward and the others?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I have, indeed.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And you'd make a good tinker's wife?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ You're joking me, but I would be a better wife for a
+tinker than for anyone else.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Sabina, will you marry me?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Oh! but I'd be afraid.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Why, Sabina?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I'd be afraid you'd beat me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ You see her father used to beat her. She's afraid of the
+look of a man now.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I would not beat you, Sabina. How can you have got
+such an idea?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Will you promise me that you won't beat me? Will you
+swear it to me?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Of course I will.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ [_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] Will you make him swear it?
+Haven't you a little book in your pack? Bring it out and make him swear
+to me on it, and you'll be my witness.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ I think, Sibby, you need not be afraid.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ What's your name, gentleman?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ My name is Paul. Do you like it?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Then I won't marry you, Mr. Paul, till you swear to me
+upon the book that you will never beat me with any stick that you could
+call a stick, and that you will never strike a kick on me from behind.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Charlie, go and bring out that book to satisfy her. Of
+course I swear that; it is absurd.
+
+     [CHARLIE WARD _brings the book out of his pack._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I swear, Sabina, that I will never strike you with any
+stick of any kind, and that I will never kick you. There, will that do?
+[_He takes book and kisses it._
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I misdoubt you. Kiss the book again. [PAUL RUTTLEDGE
+_kisses it._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ That's all right.
+
+_A Child._ [_Crying from a distance._] He's coming now, the priest's
+coming!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Then the priest will marry us. That comes in very
+handy.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Scornfully._] A priest marry you, indeed he'll do
+nothing of the kind. I hate priests and friars. It's unlucky to get
+talking to them at all. You never know what trouble you're in for.
+
+_A Child._ [_Coming up._] That's true, indeed. The last time I spoke to
+a priest it's what he leathered me with a stick; may the divil fly away
+with him.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ But somebody must marry us.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Of course. You'll lep over the tinker's budget the usual
+way. You'll just marry her by lepping over the budget the same as the
+rest of us marry.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That's all I want to know. Please marry me in whatever
+is your usual way.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     JEROME _enters, leading the ass. He carries a pig's cheek, some
+     groceries, a string of onions, etc., on the ass, which still has
+     its nursery trappings. He goes up to_ CHARLIE WARD _thinking he is_
+     PAUL RUTTLEDGE.
+
+_Jerome._ Paul, what are you doing here?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Turning._] What do you want?
+
+_Jerome._ Oh! I'm mistaken. I thought----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am here, Father Jerome, but you're talking to the
+wrong man.
+
+_Jerome._ Good God, Paul, what has happened?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Nothing has happened that need surprise you. Don't you
+remember what we talked of to-day? You told me I was too much by myself.
+After you went away I thought I would make a change.
+
+_Jerome._ But a change like this!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Why should you find fault with it? I am richer now
+than I was then. I only lent you that donkey then, now I give him to
+you.
+
+_Jerome._ What has brought you among such people as these?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I find them on the whole better company than the
+people I left a little while ago. Let me introduce you to----
+
+_Jerome._ What can you possibly gain by coming here? Are you going to
+try and teach them?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! no, I am going to learn from them.
+
+_Jerome._ What can you learn from them?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ To pick up my living like the crows, and to solder tin
+cans. Just give me that one I mended a while ago.
+
+     [_Holds it out to_ FATHER JEROME.
+
+_Jerome._ That is all nonsense.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am happy. Do not your saints put all opponents to
+the rout by saying they alone of all mankind are happy?
+
+_Jerome._ I suppose you will not compare the happiness of these people
+with the happiness of saints?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There are all sorts of happiness. Some find their
+happiness like Thomas a Kempis, with a little book and a little cell.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ I would wonder at anybody that could be happy in a
+cell.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ These men fight in their way as your saints fought,
+for their hand is against the world. I want the happiness of men who
+fight, who are hit and hit back, not the fighting of men in red coats,
+that formal, soon-finished fighting, but the endless battle, the endless
+battle. Tell me, Father Jerome, did you ever listen in the middle of the
+night?
+
+_Jerome._ Listen for what?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Did you ever, when the monastery was silent, and the
+dogs had stopped barking, listen till you heard music?
+
+_Jerome._ What sort of music do you mean?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Not the music we hear with these ears [_touching his
+ears_], but the music of Paradise.
+
+_Jerome._ Brother Colman once said he heard harps in the night.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Harps! It was because he was shut in a cell he heard
+harps, maybe it sounds like harps in a cell. But the music I have heard
+sometimes is made of the continual clashing of swords. It comes
+rejoicing from Paradise.
+
+_Jerome._ These are very wild thoughts.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ I often heard music in the forths. There is many of us
+hear it when we lie with our heads on the ground at night.
+
+_Jerome._ That was not the music of Paradise.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Why should they not hear that music, although it may
+not set them praying, but dancing.
+
+_Jerome._ How can you think you will ever find happiness amongst their
+devils' mirth?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I have taken to the roads because there is a wild
+beast I would overtake, and these people are good snarers of beasts.
+They can help me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ What kind of a wild beast is it you want?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! it's a very terrible wild beast, with iron teeth
+and brazen claws that can root up spires and towers.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ It's best not to try and overtake a beast like that, but
+to cross running water and leave it after you.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ I heard one coming after me one night; very big and
+shadowy it was, and I could hear it breathing. But when it came up with
+me I lifted a hazel rod was in my hand, and it was gone on the moment.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ My wild beast is Laughter, the mightiest of the
+enemies of God. I will outrun it and make it friendly.
+
+_Jerome._ That is your old wild talk. Do have some sense and go back to
+your family.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am never going back to them. I am going to live
+among these people. I will marry among them.
+
+_Jerome._ That is nonsense; you will soon change your mind.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! no, I won't; I am taking my vows as you made yours
+when you entered religion. I have chosen my wife; I am going to marry
+before evening.
+
+_Jerome._ Thank God, you will have to stop short of that, the Church
+will never marry you.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! I am not going to ask the help of the Church. But
+I am to be married by what may be as old a ceremony as yours. What is
+it I am to do, Charlie?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ To lep a budget, sir.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, that is it, the budget is there by the wall.
+
+_Jerome._ I command you, in the name of the Holy Church and of the
+teaching you have received from the Church, to leave this folly, this
+degradation, this sin!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You forget, Jerome, that I am on the track of the wild
+beast, and hunters in all ages have been a bad people to preach to. When
+I have tamed the beast, perhaps I will bring him to your religious house
+to be baptized.
+
+_Jerome._ I will not listen to this profanity. [_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] It
+is you who have put this madness on him as you have stolen his clothes!
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Stop your chat, ye petticoated preacher.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I think, Father Jerome, you had better be getting
+home. This people never gave in to the preaching of S. Patrick.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ I'll send you riding home with your face to the tail
+of the ass!
+
+_Tommy the Song._ No, stop till we show you that we can make as good
+curses as yourself. That you may never be warm in winter or cold in
+summer time----
+
+_Charlie Ward._ That's the chat! Bravo! Let him have it.
+
+_Tinkers._ Be off! be off out of this!
+
+_Molly the Scold._ Now curse him, Tommy.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ A wide hoarseness on you--a high hanging to you on a
+windy day; that shivering fever may stretch you nine times, and that the
+curses of the poor may be your best music, and you hiding behind the
+door. [JEROME _goes out._
+
+_Molly the Scold._ And you hiding behind the door, and squeezed between
+the hinges and the wall.
+
+_Other Tinkers._ Squeezed between the hinges and the wall. [_They follow_
+JEROME.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Crying after them._] Don't harm that gentleman; he
+is a friend of mine.
+
+     [_He goes to the wall, and stands there silently, looking upward._
+
+_Sabina Silver._ It was grand talk, indeed: I didn't understand a word
+of it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ The crows are beginning to fly home. There is a flock
+of them high up under that cloud. I wonder where their nests are.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ A long way off, among those big trees about Tillyra
+Castle.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, I remember. I have seen them coming home there on
+a windy evening, tossing and whirling like the sea. They may have seen
+what I am looking for, they fly so far. A sailor told me once that he
+saw a crow three hundred miles from land, but maybe he was a liar.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Well, they fly far, anyway.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ They tell one another what they have seen, too. That
+is why they make so much noise. Maybe their news goes round the world.
+[_He comes towards the others._] I think they have seen my wild beast,
+Laughter. They could tell me if he has a face smoky from the eternal
+fires, and wings of brass and claws of brass--claws of brass. [_Holds
+out his hands and moves them like claws._] Sabina, would you like to see
+a beast with eyes hard and cold and blue, like sapphires? Would you,
+Sabina? Well, it's time now for the wedding. So what shall we get for
+the wedding party? What would you like, Sabina?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I don't know.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ What do you say, Charlie? A wedding cake and
+champagne. How would you like champagne? [Tinkers _begin to return_.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ It might be middling.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ What would you say to a----
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     _One of the_ Boys _runs in carrying a pig's cheek. The rest of the_
+     Tinkers _return with him_.
+
+_Boy._ I knew I could do it. I told you I'd have my dealing trick out of
+the priest. I took a hold of this, and Johneen made a snap at the
+onions.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And he didn't catch you?
+
+_Boy._ He'd want to be a lot smarter than he is to do that.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You are a smart lad, anyway. What do you say we should
+have for our wedding party?
+
+_Boy._ Are you rich?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ More or less.
+
+_Boy._ I seen a whole truck full of cakes and bullseyes in the village
+below. Could you buy the whole of them?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Stop talking nonsense. What we want is porter.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ All right. How many public-houses are there in the
+village?
+
+_Tommy the Song._ Twenty-four.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Is there any place we can have barrels brought to?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ There's a shed near seems to be empty. We might go
+there.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Then go and order as many barrels as we can make use
+of to be brought there.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ We will; and we'll stop till we've drunk them out.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Taking out money._] I have more money than will pay
+for that. Sabina, we'll treat the whole neighbourhood in honour of our
+wedding. I'll have all the public-houses thrown open, and free drinks
+going for a week!
+
+_Tinkers._ Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Three cheers more, boys.
+
+_All._ Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
+
+_The Boys._ Now here's the budget.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Taking_ SABINA SILVER'S _hand_.] Now, Sabina, one,
+two, three!
+
+
+CURTAIN.
+
+
+
+
+ACT III.
+
+
+     Scene: _A large shed. Some sheepskins hanging up. Irons and pots
+     for branding sheep, some pitchforks, etc. Tinkers playing cards,_
+     PAUL RUTTLEDGE _sitting on an upturned basket_.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Stop that melodeon, now will ye, and we'll have a taste
+of the cocks. Paul didn't see them yet what they can do. Where's Tommy?
+Where in the earthly world is Tommy the Song?
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ He's over there in the corner.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ What are you doing there, Tommy?
+
+_Tommy the Song._ Taking a mouthful of prayers, I am.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Praying! did anyone ever hear the like of that? Pull him
+out of the corner.
+
+     [PADDY COCKFIGHT _pulls_ TOMMY THE SONG _out of the corner_.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ What is it you were praying for, I would like to know?
+
+_Tommy the Song._ I was praying that we might all soon die.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ Die, is it?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Is it die and all that porter about? Well! you have done
+enough praying, go over there and look for the basket. Who was it set
+him praying, I wonder? I am thinking it is the first prayer he ever said
+in his life.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ It's likely it was Paul. He's after talking to him
+through the length of an hour.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Maybe it was. Don't mind him. I said just now that
+when we were all dead and in heaven it would be a sort of drunkenness, a
+sort of ecstasy. There is a hymn about it, but it is in Latin. "Et calix
+meus inebrians quam praeclarus est." How splendid is the cup of my
+drunkenness!
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Well, that is a great sort of a hymn. I never thought
+there was a hymn like that, I never did.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ To think, now, there is a hymn like that. I mustn't
+let it slip out of my mind. How splendid is the cup of my drunkenness,
+that's it.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Have you found that old bird of mine?
+
+_Tommy the Song._ [_Who has been searching among the baskets._] Here he
+is, in the basket and a lot of things over it.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Get out that new speckled bird of yours, Paddy, I've
+been wanting to see how could he play for a week past.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Where do you get the cocks?
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ It was a man below Mullingar owned this one. The day
+I first seen him I fastened my two eyes on him, he preyed on my mind,
+and next night, if I didn't go back every foot of nine miles to put him
+in my bag.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Do you pay much for a good fighting cock?
+
+_Sabina Silver._ [_Laughs._] Do you pay much, Paddy?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Perhaps you don't pay anything.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I think Paddy gets them cheap.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He gets them cheaper than another man would, anyhow.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ He's the best cock I ever saw before or since.
+Believe me, I made no mistake when I pitched on him.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ I don't care what you think of him. I'll back the red;
+it's he has the lively eye.
+
+_Molly the Scold._ Andy Farrell had an old cock, and it bent double like
+himself, and all the feathers flittered out of it, but I hold you he'd
+leather both your red and your speckled cock together. I tell ye, boys,
+that was the cock!
+
+     [_Uproarious shouts and yells heard outside._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Those free drinks of yours, Paul, is playing the devil
+with them. Do you hear them now and every roar out of them? They're
+putting the cocks astray. [_He takes out a cock._] Sure they think it's
+thunder.
+
+_Molly the Scold._ There's not a man of them outside there now but would
+be ready to knock down his own brother.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ He wouldn't know him to knock him down. They're all
+blind. I never saw the like of it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You in here stood it better than that.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ When those common men drink it's what they fall down.
+They haven't the heads. They're not like us that have to keep heads and
+heels on us.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ It's well we kept them out of this, or they'd be
+lying on the floor now, and there'd be no place for my poor bird to show
+himself off. Look at him now! Isn't he the beauty! [_Takes out the
+cock._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Now boys, settle the place, put over those barrels out
+of that. [_They push barrels into a row at back._] Paul, you sit on the
+bin the way you'll get a good view.
+
+     [_A loud knock at the door. An authoritative voice outside._
+
+_Voice._ Open this door.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ That's Green, the Removable; I know his voice well!
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Clear away, boys. Back with those cocks. There, throw
+that sack over the baskets. Quick, will ye!
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ [_Outside._] Open this door at once.
+
+_Mr. Green._ [_Outside._] I insist on this door being opened.
+
+_Molly the Scold._ What do they want at all? I wish we didn't come into
+a place with no back door to it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There's nothing to be afraid of. Open the door,
+Charlie. [CHARLIE WARD _opens the door_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     _Enter_ MR. GREEN, COLONEL LAWLEY, MR. DOWLER, MR. JOYCE, MR. ALGIE
+     _and_ THOMAS RUTTLEDGE.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ All J.P.'s; I have looked at every one of them from
+the dock!
+
+_Mr. Green._ Mr. Ruttledge, this is very sad.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ This is a disgraceful business, Paul; the whole countryside
+is demoralized. There is not a man who has come to sensible years who is
+not drunk.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ This is a flagrant violation of all propriety. Society is
+shaken to its roots. My own servants have been led astray by the free
+drinks that are being given in the village. My butler, who has been with
+me for seven years, has not been seen for the last two days.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am sure you will echo Mr. Dowler, Algie.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Indeed I do. I endorse his sentiments completely. There has
+not been a stroke of work done for the last week. The hay is lying in
+ridges where it has been cut, there is not a man to be found to water
+the cattle. It is impossible to get as much as a horse shod in the
+village.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I think you have something to say, Colonel Lawley?
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ I have undoubtedly. I want to know when law and order
+are to be re-established. The police have been quite unable to cope with
+the disorder. Some of them have themselves got drunk. If my advice had
+been taken the military would have been called in.
+
+_Mr. Green._ The military are not indispensable on occasions like the
+present. There are plenty of police coming now. We have wired to Dublin
+for them, they will be here by the four o'clock train.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Gets down from his bin._] But you have not told me
+what you have come here for? Is there anything I can do for you?
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Won't you come home, Paul? The children have been
+asking for you, and we don't know what to say.
+
+_Mr. Green._ We have come to request you to go to the public-houses, to
+stop the free drinks, to send the people back to their work. As for
+those tinkers, the law will deal with them when the police arrive.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Oh, Paul, why have you upset the place like this?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, I wanted to give a little pleasure to my
+fellow-creatures.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ This seems rather a low form of pleasure.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I daresay it seems to you a little violent. But the
+poor have very few hours in which to enjoy themselves; they must take
+their pleasure raw; they haven't the time to cook it.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ But drunkenness!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Putting his hand on the shoulders of two of the
+magistrates._] Have we not tried sobriety? Do you like it? I found it
+very dull? [_A yell from outside._] There is not one of those people
+outside but thinks that he is a king, that he is riding the wind. There
+is not one of them that would not hit the world a slap in the face. Some
+poet has written that exuberance is beauty, and that the roadway of
+excess leads to the palace of wisdom. But I forgot--you do not read the
+poets.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ What we want to know is, are you going to send the people
+back to their work?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, work is such a little thing in comparison with
+experience. Think what it is to them to have their imagination like a
+blazing tar-barrel for a whole week. Work could never bring them such
+blessedness as that.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ Everyone knows there is no more valuable blessing than
+work.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Idleness is the curse of this country.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am prejudiced, for I have always been an idler.
+Doubtless, the poor must work. It was, no doubt, of them you were
+speaking. Yet, doesn't the Church say, doesn't it describe heaven as a
+place where saints and angels only sing and hold branches and wander
+about hand in hand. That must be changed. We must teach the poor to
+think work a thing fit for heaven, a blessed thing. I'll tell you what
+we'll do, Dowler. Will you subscribe, and you, and you, and we'll send
+lecturers about with magic lanterns showing heaven as it should be, the
+saints with spades and hammers in their hands and everybody working. The
+poor might learn to think more of work then. Will you join in that
+scheme, Dowler?
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ I think you'd better leave these subjects alone. It is
+obvious you have cut yourself off from both religion and society.
+
+_Mr. Green._ The world could not go on without work.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ The world could not go on without work! The world
+could not go on without work! I must think about it. [_Gets up on bin._]
+Why should the world go on? Perhaps the Christian teacher came to bring
+it to an end. Let us send messengers everywhere to tell the people to
+stop working, and then the world may come to an end. He spoke of the
+world, the flesh, and the devil. Perhaps it would be a good thing to end
+these one by one.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ Come away out of this. He has gone mad.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! I thought that would scare them.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ I wish, Paul, you would come back and live like a
+Christian.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Like a Christian?
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Come away, there's no use stopping here any longer.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sternly._] Wait, I have something to say to that.
+[_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] Do not let anyone leave this place.
+
+     [Tinkers _close together at the door_.
+
+_Mr. Green._ [_To_ Tinkers.] This is nonsense. Let me through.
+
+     [Tinker _spreads out his arms before him_.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You have come into a different kingdom now; the old
+kingdom of the people of the roads, the houseless people. We call
+ourselves tinkers, and you are going to put us on our trial if you can.
+You call yourselves Christians and we will put you on your trial first.
+I will put the world on its trial, and myself of yesterday. [_To a_
+Boy.] Run out, Johneen, keep a watch, and tell us when the train is
+coming. Sabina, that rope; we will set these gentlemen on those barrels.
+[Tinkers _take hold of them_.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ Keep your hands off me, you drunken scoundrel!
+
+     [_Strikes at_ CHARLIE WARD, _but_ Tinkers _seize his arms behind_.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Tie all their hands behind them.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ We'd better give in, there's no saying how many more of
+them there are.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ I'll be quiet, the odds are too great against us.
+
+_Mr. Green._ The police will soon be here; we may as well stay quietly.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ Here, give it to me, I'll put a good twist in it.
+Don't be afraid, sir, it's not about your neck I'm putting it----. There
+now, sit quiet and easy, and you won't feel it at all.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Are all their hands tied? Now then, heave them up on
+to the barrels.
+
+     [_Slight scuffle, during which all are put on the barrels in a
+     semicircle._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! yes, you are on my barrels now; last time I saw
+you, you were on your own dunghill. Let me see, is there anyone here who
+can write?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Nobody.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Never mind, you can keep count on your fingers. The
+rest must sit down and behave themselves as befits a court. They say
+they are living like Christians. Let us see.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ Oh, Paul, don't make such a fool of yourself.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ The point is not wisdom or folly, but the Christian
+life.
+
+_Mr. Dowler._ Don't answer him, Thomas. Let us preserve our dignity.
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Yes, let us keep a dignified attitude--we won't answer
+these ruffians at all.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Respect the court! [_Turns to Colonel Lawley._] You
+have served your Queen and country in the field, and now you are a
+colonel of militia.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ Well, what is there to be ashamed of in that? Answer
+me that, now.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yet there is an old saying about turning the other
+cheek, an old saying, a saying so impossible that the world has never
+been able to get it out of its mind. You have helped to enlist men for
+the army, I think? Some of them have fought in the late war, and you
+have even sent some of your own militia there.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ If I did I'm proud of it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Did they think it was a just war?
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ That was not their business. They had taken the
+Queen's pay. They would have disgraced themselves if they had not gone.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Is it not the doctrine of your Christian Church, of
+your Catholic Church, that he who fights in an unjust war, knowing it to
+be unjust, loses his own soul?
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ I should like to know what would happen to the country
+if there weren't soldiers to protect it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ We are not discussing the country, we are discussing
+the Christian life. Has this gentleman lived the Christian life?
+
+_All the Tinkers._ He has not!
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ His sergeant tried to enlist me, giving me a
+shilling, and I drunk.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ [_Singing._]
+
+  She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
+  But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Stop your mouth, Tommy. This is not your show. [_To_ PAUL
+RUTTLEDGE.] Are you going to put a fine on the Colonel? If so I'd like
+his cloak.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Now we'll try Mr. Dowler, the rich man. [_Holds up his
+fingers in a ring._] Mr. Dowler, could you go through this?
+
+_Mr. Algie._ Don't answer him, Dowler; he's going beyond all bounds.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I was a rich man and I could not, and yet I am
+something smaller than a camel, and this is something larger than a
+needle's eye.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ Don't answer this profanity.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ But what about the cloak?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh! go and take it.
+
+     [CHARLIE WARD _goes and takes cloak off the_ COLONEL.
+
+_Colonel Lawley._ You drunken rascal, I'll see you in the dock for this.
+
+_Mr. Joyce._ You're encouraging robbery now.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Remember the commandment, "Give to him that asketh
+thee"; and the hard commandment goes even farther, "Him that taketh thy
+cloak forbid not to take thy coat also." [_Holding out his rags._]
+Have I not shown you what Mr. Green would call a shining example.
+Charlie, ask them all for their coats.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ I will, and their boots, too.
+
+_All the Tinkers._ [_Uproariously._] Give me your coat; I'll have your
+boots, etc.
+
+_Mr. Green._ Wait till the police come. I'll turn the tables on you; you
+may all expect hard labour for this.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_To the_ Tinkers.] Stand back, the trial is not over.
+Mr. Green, these friends of yours have been convicted of breaking the
+doctrine they boast of. They do not love their enemies; they do not give
+to every man that asks of them. Some of them, Mr. Dowler, for instance,
+lay up treasures upon earth; they ask their goods again of those who
+have taken them away. But you, Mr. Green, are the worst of all. They
+break the Law of Christ for their own pleasure, but you take pay for
+breaking it. When their goods are taken away you condemn the taker; when
+they are smitten on one cheek you punish the smiter. You encourage them
+in their breaking of the Law of Christ.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ He does, indeed. He gave me two months for snaring
+rabbits.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ He tried to put a fine on me for a cock I had, and he
+took five shillings off Molly for hitting a man.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Your evidence is not wanted. His own words are enough.
+[_Stretching out his arms._] Have any of these gentlemen been living the
+Christian life?
+
+_All._ They have not.
+
+_Johneen._ [_Coming in._] Ye'd best clear off now. I see the train
+coming in to the station.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ The police will find plenty to do in the village
+before they come to us; that's one good job.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ One moment. I have done trying the world I have left.
+You have accused me of upsetting order by my free drinks, and I have
+showed you that there is a more dreadful fermentation in the Sermon on
+the Mount than in my beer-barrels. Christ thought it in the
+irresponsibility of His omnipotence. [_Getting from his bin._] Charlie,
+give me that cloak. [_He flings it back._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Aren't you going to punish them anyway?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No, no, from this out I would punish nobody but
+myself.
+
+     [_Some of the_ Tinkers _have gone out_.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ We'd best be off while we can. Come along, Paul, Sibby's
+gone.
+
+     [_As they go out_ TOMMY THE SONG _is singing_,
+
+  Down by the sally garden my love and I did stand,
+  And on my leaning shoulder she laid her milk-white hand;
+  She bade me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
+  But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
+
+     [_All go out except_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, good-bye, Thomas; I don't suppose I'll see you
+again. Use all I have; spend it on your children; I'll never want it.
+[_To the others._] Will you come and join us? We will find rags for you
+all. Perhaps you will give up that dream that is fading from you, and
+come among the blind, homeless people; put off the threadbare clothes of
+the Apostles and run naked for awhile. [_Is going out._
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ You have nothing against me, have you, Paul?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, yes, I have; a little that I have said against all
+these, and a worse thing than all, though it is not in the book.
+
+_Thomas Ruttledge._ What is it?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Looking back from the threshold._] You have begotten
+fools.
+
+
+CURTAIN.
+
+
+
+
+ACT IV.
+
+
+     Scene 1.--_Great door in the middle of the stage under a stone
+     cross, with flights of steps leading to door. Enter_ CHARLIE WARD,
+     PADDY COCKFIGHT, TOMMY THE SONG, _and_ SABINA SILVER. _They are
+     supporting_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE, _who is bent and limping._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ We must leave you here. The monks will take you in.
+We're very sorry, Paul. It's a heartscald to us to leave you and you
+know that, but what can we do? [_They lead_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _to steps._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! that was a bad stitch! [_Gasps._] Take care now;
+put me down gently.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Oh! can't we keep him with us anyway; he'll find no one
+to care him as well as myself.
+
+_Tommy the Song._ What way can you care him, Sibby? It's no way to have
+him lying out on the roadside under guano bags, like ourselves, and the
+rain coming down on him like it did last night. It's in hospital he'll
+be for the next month.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ We'd never leave you if you could even walk. If we have
+to give you to the monks itself, we'd keep round the place to encourage
+you, only for the last business. We'll have to put two counties at least
+between us and Gortmore after what we're after doing.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Never mind, boys, they'll never insult a tinker again
+in Gortmore as long as the town's a town.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Dear knows! it breaks my heart to think of the fine
+times we had of it since you joined us. Why the months seemed like days.
+And all the fine sprees we had together! Now you're gone from us we
+might as well be jailed at once.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ And how you took to the cocks! I believe you were a
+better judge than myself. No one but you would ever have fancied that
+black-winged cock--and he never met his match.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! well, I'm doubled up now like that old cock of
+Andy Farrell's.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ No, but you were the best warrant to set a snare that
+ever I came across.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sitting down with difficulty on the steps._] Yes; it
+was a grand time we had, and I wouldn't take back a day of it; but it's
+over now, I've hit my ribs against the earth and they're aching.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Oh! Paul, Paul, is it to leave you we must? And you
+never once struck a kick or a blow on me all this time, not even and you
+in pain with the rheumatism. [_A clock strikes inside._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ There's the clock striking. The monks will be getting
+up. We'd best be off after the others. I hear some noise inside; they'd
+best not catch us here. I'll stop and pull the bell. Be off with you,
+boys!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Sabina. Don't cry! you'll get another
+husband.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I'll never lep the budget with another man; I swear it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Paddy. Good-bye, Tommy. My mother Earth will
+have none of me and I will go look for my father that is in heaven.
+
+_Paddy Cockfight._ Come along, Sibby.
+
+     [_Takes her hand and hurries off._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Rings bell._] Are they sure to let you in, Paul? Have
+you got your story ready?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No fear, they won't refuse a sick man. No one knows me
+but Father Jerome, and he won't tell on me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ There's a step inside. I'll cut for it.
+
+     [_He goes out. Paul is left sitting on steps._
+
+
+     Scene 2.--_The crypt under the Monastery church. A small barred
+     window high up in the wall, through which the cold dawn is
+     breaking. Altar in a niche at the back of stage; there are seven
+     unlighted candles on the altar. A little hanging lamp near the
+     altar._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _is lying on the altar steps. Friars are
+     dancing slowly before him in the dim light_. FATHER ALOYSIUS _is
+     leaning against a pillar_.
+
+     _Some_ Friars _come in carrying lanterns_.
+
+_First Friar._ What are they doing? Dancing?
+
+_Second Friar._ I told you they were dancing, and you would not believe
+me.
+
+_First Friar._ What on earth are they doing it for?
+
+_Third Friar._ I heard them saying Father Paul told them to do it if
+they ever found him in a trance again. He told them it was a kind of
+prayer and would bring joy down out of heaven, and make it easier for
+him to preach.
+
+_Second Friar._ How still he is lying; you would nearly think him to be
+dead.
+
+_A Friar._ It is just a twelvemonth to-day since he was in a trance like
+this.
+
+_Second Friar._ That was the time he gave his great preaching. I can't
+blame those that went with him, for he all but persuaded me.
+
+_First Friar._ They think he is going to preach again when he awakes,
+that's why they are dancing. When he wakes one of them will go and call
+the others.
+
+_Third Friar._ We were all in danger when one so pious was led away.
+It's five years he has been with us now, and no one ever went so quickly
+from lay brother to novice, and novice to friar.
+
+_First Friar._ The way he fasted too! The Superior bade me watch him at
+meal times for fear he should starve himself.
+
+_Third Friar._ He thought a great deal of Brother Paul then, but he
+isn't so well pleased with him now.
+
+_Second Friar._ What is Father Aloysius doing there? standing so quiet
+and his eyes shut.
+
+_Third Friar._ He is meditating. Didn't you hear Brother Paul gives
+meditations of his own.
+
+_First Friar._ Colman was telling me about that. He gives them a joyful
+thought to fix their minds on. They must not let their minds stray to
+anything else. They must follow that single thought and put everything
+else behind them.
+
+_Third Friar._ Colman fainted the other day when he was at his
+meditation. He says it is a great labour to follow one thought always.
+
+_Second Friar._ What do they do it for?
+
+_First Friar._ To escape what they call the wandering of nature. They
+say it was in the trance Brother Paul got the knowledge of it. He says
+that if a man can only keep his mind on the one high thought he gets out
+of time into eternity, and learns the truth for itself.
+
+_Third Friar._ He calls that getting above law and number, and becoming
+king and priest in one's own house.
+
+_Second Friar._ A nice state of things it would be if every man was his
+own priest and his own king.
+
+_First Friar._ I wonder will he wake soon. I thought I saw him stir just
+now. Father Aloysius, will he wake soon?
+
+_Aloysius._ What did you say?
+
+_First Friar._ Will he wake soon?
+
+_Aloysius._ Yes, yes, he will wake very soon now.
+
+_Second Friar._ What are they going to do now; are they going to dance?
+
+_Third Friar._ He was too patient with him. He would have made short
+work of any of us if we had gone so far.
+
+_First Dancer._
+
+  Nam, et si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis,
+  Non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es.
+
+_First Friar._ They are singing the twenty-second Psalm. What madness to
+sing!
+
+_Second Dancer._
+
+  Virga tua, et baculus tuus,
+  Ipsa me consolata sunt.
+
+_First Dancer._
+
+  Parasti in conspectu meo mensam
+  Adversus eos qui tribulant me.
+
+_Second Dancer._
+
+Impinguasti in oleo caput meum;
+Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.
+
+_Second Friar._ Here is the Superior. There'll be bad work now.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     SUPERIOR _comes in_.
+
+_Superior._ [_Holding up his hand._] Silence!
+
+     [_They stop singing and dancing._
+
+_First Dancer._ It's the Superior.
+
+_Superior._ Stop this blasphemy! Leave the chapel at once! I will deal
+with you by-and-by. [_Dancing_ Friars _go out_.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Stooping over_ PAUL.] He has not wakened from the trance
+yet.
+
+_Aloysius._ [_Who still remains perfectly motionless._] Not yet, but he
+will soon awake--Paul!
+
+_Superior._ It is hardly worth while being angry with those poor fools
+whose heads he has turned with his talk. [_Stoops and touches his
+hand._] It is quite rigid. I will wait till he is alive again, there is
+no use wasting words on a dead body.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Stooping over him._] His eyes are beginning to quiver. Let
+me be the first to speak to him. He may say some wild things when he
+awakes, not knowing who is before him.
+
+_Superior._ He must not preach. I must have his submission at once.
+
+_Jerome._ I will do all I can with him. He is most likely to listen to
+me. I was once his close friend.
+
+_Superior._ Speak to him if you like, but entire submission is the only
+thing I will accept. [_To the other_ Monks.] Come with me, we will leave
+Father Jerome here to speak to him. [SUPERIOR _and_ Friars _go to the
+door_.] Such desecration, such blasphemy. Remember, Father Jerome,
+entire submission, and at once. [SUPERIOR _and_ Friars _go out_.
+
+_Jerome._ Where are the rest of his friends, Father Aloysius? Bartley
+and Colman ought to be with him when he is like this.
+
+_Aloysius._ They are resting, because, when he has given his message,
+they may never be able to rest again.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Bending over him._] My poor Paul, this will wear him out;
+see how thin he has grown!
+
+_Aloysius._ He is hard upon his body. He does not care what happens to
+his body.
+
+_Jerome._ He was like this when he was a boy; some wild thought would
+come on him, and he would not know day from night, he would forget even
+to eat. It is a great pity he was so hard to himself; it is a pity he
+had not always someone to look after him.
+
+_Aloysius._ God is taking care of him; what could men like us do for
+him? We cannot help him, it is he who helps us.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Going on his knee and taking his hand._] He is awaking. Help
+me to lift him up. [_They lift him into a chair._
+
+_Aloysius._ I will go and call the others now.
+
+_Jerome._ Do not let them come for a little time, I must speak to him
+first.
+
+_Aloysius._ I cannot keep them away long. One cannot know when the
+words may be put in his mouth.
+
+     [ALOYSIUS _goes out._ JEROME _stands by_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE, _holding his
+     hand_.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Raising his head._] Ah, you are there, Jerome. I am
+glad you are there. I could not get up to drive away the mouse that was
+eating the wax that dropped from the candles. Have you driven it away?
+
+_Jerome._ It is not evening now. It is almost morning. You were on your
+knees praying for a great many hours, and then I think you fainted.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't think I was praying. I was among people, a
+great many people, and it was very bright--I will remember presently.
+
+_Jerome._ Do not try to remember. You are tired, you must be weak, you
+must come and have food and rest.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I do not think I can rest. I think there is something
+else I have to do, I forget what it is.
+
+_Jerome._ I am afraid you are thinking of preaching again. You must not
+preach. The Superior says you must not. He is very angry; I have never
+seen him so angry. He will not allow you to preach again.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Did I ever preach?
+
+_Jerome._ Yes. It was in the garden you got the trance last time. We
+found you like this, and we lifted you to the bench under the yew tree,
+and then you began to speak. You spoke about getting out of the body
+while still alive, about getting away from law and number. All the
+friars came to listen to you. We had never heard such preaching before,
+but it was very like heresy.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Getting up._] Jerome, Jerome, I remember now where I
+was. I was in a great round place, and a great crowd of things came
+round me. I couldn't see them very clearly for a time, but some of them
+struck me with their feet, hard feet like hoofs, and soft cat-like feet;
+and some pecked me, and some bit me, and some clawed me. There were all
+sorts of beasts and birds as far as I could see.
+
+_Jerome._ Were they devils, Paul, were they the deadly sins?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't know, but I thought, and I don't know how the
+thought came to me, that they were the part of mankind that is not
+human; the part that builds up the things that keep the soul from God.
+
+_Jerome._ That was a terrible vision.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I struggled and I struggled with them, and they heaped
+themselves over me till I was unable to move hand or foot; and that went
+on for a long, long time.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Crossing himself._] God have mercy on us.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Then suddenly there came a bright light, and all in a
+minute the beasts were gone, and I saw a great many angels riding upon
+unicorns, white angels on white unicorns. They stood all round me, and
+they cried out, "Brother Paul, go and preach; get up and preach, Brother
+Paul." And then they laughed aloud, and the unicorns trampled the ground
+as though the world were already falling in pieces.
+
+_Jerome._ It was only a dream. Come with me. You will forget it when you
+have had food and rest.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Looking at his arm._] It was there one of them
+clawed me; one that looked at me with great heavy eyes.
+
+_Jerome._ The Superior has been here; try and listen to me. He says you
+must not preach.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Great heavy eyes and hard sharp claws.
+
+_Jerome._ [_Putting his hands on his shoulders._] You must awake from
+this. You must remember where you are. You are under rules. You must not
+break the rules you are under. The brothers will be coming in to hear
+you, you must not speak to them. The Superior has forbidden it.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Touching_ JEROME'S _hand_.] I have always been a great
+trouble to you.
+
+_Jerome._ You must go and submit to the Superior. Go and make your
+submission now, for my sake. Think of what I have done for your sake.
+Remember how I brought you in, and answered for you when you came here.
+I did not tell about that wild business. I have done penance for that
+deceit.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, you have always been good to me, but do not ask
+me this. I have had other orders.
+
+_Jerome._ Last time you preached the whole monastery was upset. The
+Friars began to laugh suddenly in the middle of the night.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ If I have been given certain truths to tell, I must
+tell them at once before they slip away from me.
+
+_Jerome._ I cannot understand your ideas; you tell them impossible
+things. Things that are against the order of nature.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I have learned that one needs a religion so wholly
+supernatural, that is so opposed to the order of nature that the world
+can never capture it.
+
+     [_Some_ Friars _come in. They carry green branches in their hands_.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ They are coming. Will you stay and listen?
+
+_Jerome._ I must not stay. I must not listen.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Help me over to the candles. I am weak, my knees are
+weak. I shall be strong when the words come. I shall be able to teach.
+[_He lights a taper at the hanging lamp and tries to light the candles
+with a shaking hand. JEROME takes the taper from him and lights the
+candles._] Why are you crying, Jerome?
+
+_Jerome._ Because we that were friends are separated now. We shall never
+be together again.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Never again? The love of God is a very terrible thing.
+
+_Jerome._ I have done with meddling. I must leave you to authority now.
+I must tell the Superior you will not obey. [_He goes out._
+
+_First Friar._ Father Jerome had a very dark look going out.
+
+_Second Friar._ He was shut up with the Superior this morning. I wonder
+what they were talking about.
+
+_First Friar._ I wonder if the Superior will mind our taking the
+branches. They are only cut on Palm Sunday other years. What will he
+tell us, I wonder? It seems as if he was going to tell us how to do some
+great thing. Do you think he will teach us to do cures like the friars
+used at Esker?
+
+_Second Friar._ Those were great cures they did there, and they were not
+strange men, but just the same as ourselves. I heard of a man went to
+them dying on a cart, and he walked twenty miles home to Burren holding
+the horses head.
+
+_First Friar._ Maybe we'll be able to see visions the same as were seen
+at Knock. It's a great wonder all that was seen and all that was done
+there.
+
+_Third Friar._ I was there one time, and the whole place was full of
+crutches that had been thrown away by people that were cured. There was
+a silver crutch there some rich man from America had sent as an offering
+after getting his cure. Speak to him, Brother Colman. He seems to be in
+some sort of a dream. Ask if he is going to speak to us now.
+
+_Colman._ We are all here, Brother Paul.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Have you all been through your meditations? [_They all
+gather round him._
+
+_Bartley._ We have all tried; we have done our best; but it is hard to
+keep our mind on the one thing for long.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ "He ascended into heaven." Have you meditated upon
+that? Did you reject all earthly images that came into your mind till
+the light began to gather?
+
+_Third Friar._ I could not fix my mind well. When I put out one thought
+others came rushing in.
+
+_Colman._ When I was meditating, the inside of my head suddenly became
+all on fire.
+
+_Aloysius._ While I was meditating I felt a spout of fire going up
+between my shoulders.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That is the way it begins. You are ready now to hear
+the truth. Now I can give you the message that has come to me. Stand
+here at either side of the altar. Brother Colman, come beside me here.
+Lay down your palm branches before this altar; you have brought them as
+a sign that the walls are beginning to be broken up, that we are going
+back to the joy of the green earth. [_Goes up to the candles and
+speaks._] Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est. For a long time
+after their making men and women wandered here and there, half blind
+from the drunkenness of Eternity; they had not yet forgotten that the
+green Earth was the Love of God, and that all Life was the Will of God,
+and so they wept and laughed and hated according to the impulse of their
+hearts. [_He takes up the green boughs and presses them to his breast._]
+They gathered the green Earth to their breasts and their lips, as I
+gather these boughs to mine, in what they believed would be an eternal
+kiss. [_He remains a little while silent._
+
+_Second Friar._ I see a light about his head.
+
+_Third Friar._ I wonder if he has seen God.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ It was then that the temptation began. Not only the
+Serpent who goes upon his belly, but all the animal spirits that have
+loved things better than life, came out of their holes and began to
+whisper. The men and women listened to them, and because when they had
+lived according to the joyful Will of God in mother wit and natural
+kindness, they sometimes did one another an injury, they thought that it
+would be better to be safe than to be blessed, they made the Laws. The
+Laws were the first sin. They were the first mouthful of the apple, the
+moment man had made them he began to die; we must put out the Laws as I
+put out this candle.
+
+     [_He puts out the candle with an extinguisher, still holding the
+     boughs with his left hand. Two orthodox Friars have come in._
+
+_First Orthodox Friar._ You had better go for the Superior.
+
+_Second Orthodox Friar._ I must stop and listen.
+
+     [_The First Orthodox Friar listens for a minute or two and then
+     goes out._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And when they had lived amidst the green Earth that is
+the Love of God, they were sometimes wetted by the rain, and sometimes
+cold and hungry, and sometimes alone from one another; they thought it
+would be better to be comfortable than to be blessed. They began to
+build big houses and big towns. They grew wealthy and they sat
+chattering at their doors; and the embrace that was to have been
+eternal ended, lips and hands were parted. [_He lets the boughs slip out
+of his arms._] We must put out the towns as I put out this candle.
+[_Puts out another candle._
+
+_A Friar._ Yes, yes, we must uproot the towns.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ But that is not all, for man created a worse thing,
+yes, a worse defiance against God. [_The_ Friars _groan_.] God put
+holiness into everything that lives, for everything that desires is full
+of His Will, and everything that is beautiful is full of His Love; but
+man grew timid because it had been hard to find his way amongst so much
+holiness, and though God had made all time holy, man said that only the
+day on which God rested from life was holy, and though God had made all
+places holy, man said, "no place but this place that I put pillars and
+walls about is holy, this place where I rest from life"; and in this and
+like ways he built up the Church. We must destroy the Church, we must
+put it out as I put out this candle. [_Puts out another candle._
+
+_Friars._ [_Clasping one another's hands._] He is right, he is right.
+The Church must be destroyed. [_The_ SUPERIOR _comes in_.
+
+_First Friar._ Here is the Superior.
+
+_A Friar._ He has been saying----
+
+_Superior._ Hush! I will hear him to the end.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That is not all. These things may be accomplished and
+yet nothing be accomplished. The Christian's business is not reformation
+but revelation, and the only labours he can put his hand to can never be
+accomplished in Time. He must so live that all things shall pass away.
+[_He stands silent for a moment and then cries, lifting his hand above
+his head._] Give me wine out of thy pitchers; oh, God, how splendid is
+my cup of drunkenness. We must become blind, and deaf, and dizzy. We
+must get rid of everything that is not measureless eternal life. We
+must put out hope as I put out this candle. [_Puts out a candle._] And
+memory as I put out this candle. [_As before._] And thought, the waster
+of Life, as I put out this candle. [_As before._] And at last we must
+put out the light of the Sun and of the Moon, and all the light of the
+World and the World itself. [_He now puts out the last candle, the
+chapel is very dark. The only light is the faint light of morning coming
+through the window._] We must destroy the World; we must destroy
+everything that has Law and Number, for where there is nothing, there is
+God.
+
+     [_The_ SUPERIOR _comes forward. One of_ PAUL'S Friars _makes as if to
+     speak to him. The_ SUPERIOR _strikes at him with the back of his
+     hand_.
+
+_Superior._ [_To_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Get out of this, rebel, blasphemous
+rebel!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Do as you like to me, but you cannot silence my
+thoughts. I learned them from Jesus Christ, who made a terrible joy,
+and sent it to overturn governments, and all settled order.
+
+     [PAUL'S Friars _rush to save him from the_ SUPERIOR.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ There is no need for violence. I am ready to go.
+
+_Colman._ [_Taking his hand._] I will go with you.
+
+_Aloysius._ I will go with you too.
+
+_Several other Friars._ And I, and I, and I.
+
+_Superior._ Whoever goes with this heretic goes straight into the pit.
+
+_Bartley._ Do not leave us behind you. Let us go with you.
+
+_Colman._ Teach us! teach us! we will help you to teach others.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Let me go alone, the one more, the one nearer
+falsehood.
+
+_Bartley._ We will go with you! We will go with you! We must go where we
+can hear your voice.
+
+_A Friar._ [_Who stands behind the_ SUPERIOR.] God is making him speak
+against himself.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No, the time has not come for you. You would be
+thinking of your food at midday and listening for the bells at prayer
+time. You have not yet heard the voices and seen the faces.
+
+_Superior._ A miracle! God is making the heretic speak against himself.
+Listen to him!
+
+_Aloysius._ We will not stay behind, we will go with you.
+
+_Bartley._ We cannot live without hearing you!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am led by hands that are colder than ice and harder
+than diamonds. They will lead me where there will be hard thoughts of me
+in the hearts of all that love me, and there will be a fire in my heart
+that will make it as bare as the wilderness.
+
+_Aloysius._ We will go with you. We too will take those hands that are
+colder than ice and harder than diamonds.
+
+_Several Monks._ We too! we too!
+
+_Patrick._ Bring us to the hands that are colder than ice and harder
+than diamonds.
+
+_Other Monks._ Pull them away! pull them away from him!
+
+     [_They are about to seize the Monks who are with_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.
+
+_Superior._ [_Going between them._] Back! back! I will have no scuffling
+here. Let the devil take his children if he has a mind to. God will call
+His own.
+
+     [_The_ Monks _fall back_. SUPERIOR _goes up to altar, takes the cross
+     from it and turns, standing on the steps_.
+
+_Superior._ Father Aloysius, come to me here. [ALOYSIUS _takes_ PAUL
+RUTTLEDGE'S _hand_.] Father Bartley, Father Colman. [_They go nearer to_
+PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Father Patrick! [_A_ Friar _comes towards him_.] Kneel
+down! [FATHER PATRICK _kneels_.] Father Clement, Father Nestor, Father
+James ... leave the heretic--you are on the very edge of the pit. Your
+shoes are growing red hot.
+
+_A Friar._ I am afraid, I am afraid. [_He kneels._
+
+_Superior._ Kneel down; return to your God. [_Several_ Monks _kneel_.
+
+_Colman._ They have deserted us.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Many will forsake the truth before the world is pulled
+down. [_Stretching out his arms over his head._] I pulled down my own
+house, now I go out to pull down the world.
+
+_Superior._ Strip off those holy habits.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Taking off his habit._] One by one I am plucking off
+the rags and tatters of the world.
+
+
+
+
+ACT V.
+
+
+     Scene: _Smooth level grass near the Shannon. Ecclesiastical ruins,
+     a part of which have been roofed in. Rocky plain in the distance,
+     with a river._ FATHER COLMAN _sorting some bundles of osiers_.
+
+     ALOYSIUS _enters with an empty bag_.
+
+_Colman._ You are the first to come back Aloysius. Where is Brother
+Bartley?
+
+_Aloysius._ He parted from me at the cross roads and went on to preach
+at Shanaglish. He should soon be back now.
+
+_Colman._ Have you anything in the bag?
+
+_Aloysius._ Nothing. [_Throws the bag down._] It doesn't seem as if our
+luck was growing. We have but food enough to last till to-morrow. We
+have hardly that. The rats from the river got at the few potatoes I
+gathered from the farmers at Lisheen last week, in the corner where they
+were.
+
+_Colman._ This is the first day you got nothing at all. Maybe you didn't
+ask the right way.
+
+_Aloysius._ I asked for alms for the sake of the love of God. But the
+first place where I asked it, the man of the house was giving me a
+handful of meal, and the woman came and called out that we were serving
+the devil in the name of God, and she drove me from the door.
+
+_Colman._ It is since the priests preached against us they say that. Did
+you go on to Lisheen. They used always to treat us well there.
+
+_Aloysius._ I did, but I got on no better there.
+
+_Colman._ That is a wonder, after the woman that had the jaundice being
+cured with prayers by Brother Paul.
+
+_Aloysius._ That's just it. If he did cure her, they say the two best of
+her husband's bullocks died of the blackwater the next day, and he was
+no way thankful to us after that.
+
+_Colman._ Did you try the houses along the bog road?
+
+_Aloysius._ I did, and the children coming back from school called out
+after me and asked who was it did away with the widow Cloran's cow.
+
+_Colman._ The widow Cloran's cow?
+
+_Aloysius._ That was the cow that died after grazing in the ruins here.
+
+_Colman._ If it did, it was because of an old boot it picked up and ate,
+and that never belonged to us.
+
+_Aloysius._ I wish we had something ourselves to eat. They should be
+sitting down to their dinner in the monastery now. They will be having a
+good dinner to-day to carry them over the fast to-morrow.
+
+_Colman._ I am thinking sometimes, Brother Paul should give more thought
+to us than he does. It is all very well for him, he is so taken up with
+his thoughts and his visions he doesn't know if he is full or fasting.
+
+_Aloysius._ He has such holy thoughts and visions no one would like to
+trouble him. He ought not to be in the world at all, or to do the
+world's work.
+
+_Colman._ So long as he is in the world, he must give some thought to
+it. There must be something wrong in the way he is doing things now. I
+thought he would have had half Ireland with him by this time with his
+great preaching, but someway when he preaches to the people, they don't
+seem to mind him much.
+
+_Aloysius._ He is too far above them; they have not education to
+understand him.
+
+_Colman._ They understand me well enough when I give my mind to it. But
+it is harder to preach now than it was in the monastery. We had
+something to offer then; absolution here, and heaven after.
+
+_Aloysius._ Isn't it enough for them to hear that the kingdom of heaven
+is within them, and that if they do the right meditations----
+
+_Colman._ What can poor people that have their own troubles on them get
+from a few words like that they hear at a cross road or a market, and
+the wind maybe blowing them away? If we could gather them together
+now.... Look, Aloysius, at these sally rods; I have a plan in my mind
+about them.
+
+     [_He has stuck some of the rods in the ground, and begins weaving
+     others through them._
+
+_Aloysius._ Are you going to make baskets like you did in the monastery
+schools?
+
+_Colman._ We must make something if we are to live. But it is more than
+that I was thinking of; we might coax some of the youngsters to come and
+learn the basket making; it would make them take to us better if we
+could put them in the way of earning a few pence.
+
+_Aloysius._ [_Taking up some of the osiers and beginning to twist
+them._] That might be a good way to come at them; they could work
+through the day, and at evening we could tell them how to repeat the
+words till the light comes inside their heads. But would Paul think well
+of it? He is more for pulling down than building up.
+
+_Colman._ When I explain it to him I am sure he will think well of it;
+he can't go on for ever without anyone to listen to him.
+
+_Aloysius._ I suppose not, and with no way of living. But I don't know,
+I'm afraid he won't like it.
+
+_Colman._ Hush! Here he is coming.
+
+_Aloysius._ If one had a plan now for doing some destruction----
+
+_Colman._ Hush! don't you see there is somebody with him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     PAUL RUTTLEDGE _comes in with_ CHARLIE WARD.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ This is Charlie Ward, my old friend.
+
+_Aloysius._ The Charlie Ward you lived on the roads with?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, when I went looking for the favour of my hard
+mother, Earth, he helped me. He is her good child and she loves him.
+
+_Colman._ He is welcome. How did he find you out?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't know. How did you find me out, Charlie?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Oh, I didn't lose sight of you so much as you thought. I
+had to stop away from Gortmore a good while after we left you at the
+gate, but I sent Paddy Cockfight one time to get news, and he mended
+cans for the laundry of the monastery, and they told him you were well
+again, and a monk as good as the rest. But a while ago I got word there
+was a monk had gone near to break up the whole monastery with his talk
+and his piety, and I said to myself, "That's Paul!" And then I heard
+there was a monk had been driven out for not keeping the rules, and I
+said to myself, "That's Paul!" And the other day when what's left of us
+came to Athlone, I heard talk of some disfrocked monks that were
+upsetting the whole neighbourhood, and I said, "That's Paul." To Sabina
+Silver I said that. "That merry chap Paul," I said.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I'm afraid you have a very bad opinion of me, Charlie.
+Well, maybe I earned it.
+
+_Aloysius._ You cannot know much of him if you have a bad opinion of
+him. He will be made a saint some day.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He will, if there's such a thing as a saint of mischief.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ A saint of mischief? Well, why not that as well as
+another? He would upset all the beehives, he would throw them into the
+market-place. Sit down now, Charlie, and eat a bit with us.
+
+_Colman._ You are welcome, indeed, to all we can give you, but we have
+not a bit of food that is worth offering you. Aloysius got nothing at
+all in the villages to-day, Brother Paul. The people are getting cross.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, sit down, anyway. The country people liked me
+well enough once, there was no man they liked so much as myself when I
+gave them drink for nothing. Didn't they, Charlie?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Oh, that was a great time. They were lying thick about
+the roads. I'll be thinking of it to my dying day.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I have given them another kind of drink now.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ What sort of a drink is that?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ We have rolled a great barrel out of a cellar that is
+under the earth. We have rolled it right into the midst of them. [_He
+moves his hand about as if he were moving a barrel._] It's heavy, and
+when they have drunk what is in it, I would like to see the man that
+would be their master.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ That would be a great drink, but I wouldn't be sure that
+you're in earnest.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Colman and Aloysius will tell you all about it. It was
+made in a good still, the barley was grown in a field that's down under
+the earth.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ That's likely enough. I often heard of places like that.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And when they have drunk from my barrel, they will
+break open the door, they will put law and number under their two feet;
+and they will have a hot palm and a cold palm, for they will put down
+the moon and the sun with their two hands.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ There's no mistake but you're the same Paul still; nice
+and plain and simple, only for your hard talk. And what about the
+rheumatism? It's hardly you got through that fit you had, and you don't
+look as if much hardship would agree with you now.
+
+_Aloysius._ He does not, indeed, and if he doesn't kill himself one way
+he will another. Wait now till I tell you the way he is living. I don't
+think he tasted bit or sup to-day, and all he had last night was a
+couple of dry potatoes.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Is that so? [_Takes_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S _arm_.] You haven't
+much more flesh on you than a crane in moonlight. They don't seem to
+have much notion of minding you here, you that were reared soft. It
+would be better for you to come back to us; bad as our lodging is,
+there'd be a bit in the pot for you and Sabina to care you. It's she
+would give you a good welcome.
+
+_Colman._ [_Starting up._] We can mind him well enough here. I have a
+plan. We haven't been getting on the way we ought with the people. It's
+no way to be getting on with people to be asking things of them always,
+they have no opinion at all of us seeing us the way we are. They have no
+notion of the respect they should show to Brother Paul, and the way all
+the Brothers used to be listening to his preaching, and the townspeople
+as well. And I, myself, the time I preached in Dublin----
+
+_Aloysius._ Yes, indeed, Paul, think of the great crowds used to come
+when you preached in the Abbey church, and all the money that was
+gathered that time of the Mission.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, I used to like once to see all the faces looking
+up at me. But now all that is gone from me. Now I think it is enough to
+be a witness for the truth, and to think the thoughts I like. God will
+bring the people to me. He will make of my silence a great wind that
+will shatter the ships of the world.
+
+_Colman._ That is all very well, but the people are not coming.
+
+_Aloysius._ And more than that, they are driving us away from their
+doors now, Paul.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ The way they do to us. But Paul was not born on the
+roads. [_Lights his pipe._
+
+_Colman._ It's no use stopping waiting for a wind; if we have anything
+to say that's worth the people listening to, we must bring them to hear
+it one way or another. Now, it is what I was saying to Aloysius, we must
+begin teaching them to make things, they never had the chance of any
+instruction of the sort here.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ To make things? This sort of things? [_Takes the
+half-made basket from_ COLMAN.
+
+_Colman._ Those and other things, we got a good training in the old
+days. And we'll get a grant from the Technical Board. The Board pays up
+to four hundred pounds to some of its instructors.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ And then?
+
+_Aloysius._ Oh, then we'll sell all the things we make. I'm sure we'll
+get a market for them.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, I understand; you will sell them. And what about
+the dividing of the money? You will need to make laws about that.
+
+_Colman._ Of course; we will have to make rules, and to pay according to
+work.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, we will grow quite rich in time. What are we to do
+then? we can't go on living in this ruin?
+
+_Colman._ Of course not. We'll build workshops and houses for those who
+come to work from a distance, good houses, slated, not thatched.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Turning to_ ALOYSIUS _and_ CHARLIE WARD.] Yes, you see
+his plan. To gather the people together, to build houses for them; to
+make them rich too, and to keep their money safe. And the Kingdom of God
+too? What about that?
+
+_Colman._ Oh, I'm just coming to that. They will think so much more of
+our teaching when we have got them under our influence by other things.
+Of course we will teach them their meditations, and give them a regular
+religious life. We must settle out some little place for them to pray
+in--there's a high gable over there where we could hang a bell----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh yes, I understand. You would weave them together
+like this [_weaves the osiers in and out_], you would add one thing to
+another, laws and money and church and bells, till you had got
+everything back again that you have escaped from. But it is my business
+to tear things asunder like this [_tears pieces from the basket_], and
+this, and this----
+
+_Aloysius._ I told him you'd never agree to it. He ought to have known
+that himself.
+
+_Colman._ We must have something to offer the people.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You say that because you got nothing to-day. Aloysius
+has got nothing in his sack. [_Taking sack and turning it upside down._]
+It is quite empty. Every religious teacher before me has offered
+something to his followers, but I offer them nothing. [_Plunging his arm
+down into the sack._] My sack is quite empty. I will never dip my hand
+into nature's full sack of illusions; I am tired of that old conjuring
+bag. [_He walks up and down muttering._
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_To_ COLMAN.] You may as well give up trying to settle
+him down to anything. He was a tinker once, and he'll be a tinker
+always; he has got the wandering into his blood. Will you come back to
+the roads, Paul, to your old friends and to Sabina?
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sitting down beside him._] Ah, my old friends, they
+were very kind to me; but these friends too are very kind to me.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Well, come and see them anyway; they'll be glad to see
+you, those that are left of us.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Those that are left of you? Where are the others?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Some are dead, and some are jailed, and some are on the
+roads here and there. Sabina is with us always, and Johneen is a great
+hand with the tools now, but Tommy the Song----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, Tommy the Song, does he pray still? He was
+beginning to pray. Did he ever get an answer?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Well, I don't know about an answer, but I believe he
+heard something one night beside an old thorn tree, some sort of a voice
+it was.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ A voice? What did it say to him? Did he see anything?
+We have learned too much, our minds are like troubled water--we get
+nothing but broken images. He who knew nothing may have seen all. Is he
+praying still?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ If he is, it's in Galway gaol he's praying, with or
+without a thorn tree.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Did he tell no one what the voice said to him?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He did not, unless he might have told Johneen or some
+other one.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I will go with you and see them. [_Gets up._
+
+_Colman._ [_To_ ALOYSIUS, _with whom he has been whispering_.] Take care,
+but if he goes back to his old friends, he'll stop with them and leave
+us.
+
+_Aloysius._ [_Putting his hand on_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S _arm_.] Don't go,
+Brother Paul, till I talk to you awhile.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Do you want me? Well, Charlie, I will stay here, I
+won't go; but bring all the rest to see me, I want to ask them about
+that vision.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ I'll bring one of them, anyway. [_Exit._
+
+_Aloysius._ Brother Paul, it is what I am thinking; now the tinkers have
+come back to you, you could begin to gather a sort of an army; you can't
+fight your battle without an army. They could call to the other tinkers,
+and the tramps and the beggars, and the sieve-makers and all the
+wandering people. It would be a great army.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, that would be a great army, a great wandering
+army.
+
+_Aloysius._ The people would be afraid to refuse us then; we would march
+on----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, we could march on. We could march on the towns,
+and we could break up all settled order; we could bring back the old
+joyful, dangerous, individual life. We would have banners, we would each
+have a banner, banners with angels upon them--we will march upon the
+world with banners----
+
+_Colman._ We would not be in want of food then, we could take all we
+wanted.
+
+_Aloysius._ We could take all we wanted, we would be too many to put in
+gaol; all the people would join us in the end; you would be able to
+persuade them all, Brother Paul, you would be their leader; we would
+make great stores of food----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ We will have one great banner that will go in front,
+it will take two men to carry it, and on it we will have Laughter, with
+his iron claws and his wings of brass and his eyes like sapphires----
+
+_Aloysius._ That will be the banner for the front, we will have
+different troops, we will have captains to organize them, to give them
+orders----
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Standing up._] To organize? That is to bring in law
+and number? Organize--organize--that is how all the mischief has been
+done. I was forgetting, we cannot destroy the world with armies, it is
+inside our minds that it must be destroyed, it must be consumed in a
+moment inside our minds. God will accomplish his last judgment, first in
+one man's mind and then in another. He is always planning last
+judgments. And yet it takes a long time, and that is why he laments in
+the wind and in the reeds and in the cries of the curlews.
+
+_Colman._ I think we had better go down to the river and see are there
+any eels on the lines we set. We must find something for supper. It is
+near sunset; see how the crows are flying home.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Looking up._] The crows are my darlings! I like
+their harsh merriment better than those sad cries of the wind and the
+rushes. Look at them, they are tossing about like witches, tossing about
+on the wind, drunk with the wind.
+
+_Colman._ Well, I'll go look at the lines, anyhow. Put turf on the fire,
+Aloysius; Bartley should soon be home from Shanaglish.
+
+_Aloysius._ I wonder why he isn't home by this. I'm uneasy till I see
+him, after the way the people treated me to-day. [_Shades his eyes to
+look out._] Here he is! He's running!
+
+_Colman._ [_Coming over to him._] He is running hard! He must be in some
+danger----
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     _Enter_ BARTLEY _out of breath_.
+
+_Bartley._ Run, run, come away, there's not a minute to lose.
+
+_Colman._ What is the matter? what has happened?
+
+_Bartley._ The people are coming up the road! They attacked me in the
+market! They followed me, they are on the road. I slipped away across
+the fields. Run, run!
+
+_Colman._ What is it? What are they going to do to us?
+
+_Bartley._ You would know that if you saw them! They have stones and
+sticks. Raging they are, and calling for our lives. They say we brought
+witchcraft and ill-luck on the place! Come to the boat, it's in the
+rushes; they won't see us, we'll get to the island. Hurry, hurry! [_He
+runs out._
+
+_Aloysius._ Come, Brother Paul, hurry, hurry!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I am going to stay.
+
+_Bartley._ They will kill us if we stay! Brother Colman said they have
+stones and sticks; I think I hear them!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ You are afraid because you have been shut up so long.
+I am not afraid because I have lived upon the roads, where one is ready
+for anything that may happen. One has to learn that, like any other
+thing. I will stay.
+
+_Aloysius._ He wants the crown!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Where is Bartley?
+
+_Colman._ He is gone. Come, you must go too, we can't leave you here.
+You have too much to do to throw your life away, we have all too much to
+do.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ No, no. There is nothing to do; I am going to stay.
+
+_Aloysius._ I will stay with you. [_Takes his hand._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Death is the last adventure, the first perfect joy,
+for at death the soul comes into possession of itself, and returns to
+the joy that made it. [_A great shout outside._
+
+_Colman._ [_Seizing ALOYSIUS._] Come, come, Aloysius! come, Paul! We
+haven't a moment, here they are. [_Drags_ ALOYSIUS _away_.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Aloysius, good-bye, Colman. Keep a pick
+going at the foundations of the world.
+
+     [COLMAN _and_ ALOYSIUS _run on_.
+
+_One of the Mob outside._ They are here in the ruins!
+
+_Another Voice._ This way! This way!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I will not go. I have a little reason for staying, but
+no reason is too little to be the foundation of martyrdom. People have
+been martyred for all kinds of reasons, and my reason that is not worth
+a rush will do as well as any other. [_Looks round._] Ah! they are gone.
+A little reason, a little reason. I have entered into the second
+freedom--the irresponsibility of the saints.
+
+_Sings._
+
+  Parasti in conspectu meo mensam
+  Adversus eos qui tribulant me.
+  Impinguasti in oleo caput meum,
+  Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.
+
+    [People _rush in with sticks uplifted._
+
+_One of the Mob._ Where are the heretics?
+
+_Another._ We'll make an end of their witchcraft!
+
+_Another._ Here is the worst of them!
+
+_Another._ Give me back my cattle you put the sickness on!
+
+_Another._ We'll have no witchcraft here! Drive away the unfrocked
+priest!
+
+_Another._ Make an end of him when we have the chance!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, make an end of me. I have tried hard to live a
+good life; give me a good death now.
+
+_One of the Crowd._ Quick, don't give him time to put the evil eye on
+us!
+
+     [_They rush at him. His hands are seen swaying about above the
+     crowd._
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ I go to the invisible heart of flame!
+
+_One of the Crowd._ Throw him there now! Where are the others?
+
+_Another._ They must be among the rocks.
+
+_Another._ They are not; they are gone down the road!
+
+_Another._ I tell you it's in the rocks they are! It's in the rocks
+they're hiding!
+
+_Another._ They are not; they couldn't run in the rocks; they're running
+down the road.
+
+_Several Voices._ They're on the road; they're on the road.
+
+     [_They all rush out, leaving_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _lying on the ground. It
+     grows darker_. FATHERS COLMAN _and_ ALOYSIUS _creep up_.
+
+_Colman._ Paul, Paul, come; we have still time to get to the boat.
+
+_Aloysius._ Oh! they have killed him; there is a wound in his neck! Oh!
+he has been the first of us to get the crown!
+
+_Colman._ There are voices! They must be coming back! Come to the boat,
+maybe we can bury him to-morrow!
+
+     [_They go out._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _half rises and sinks back_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     _Enter_ CHARLIE WARD _and_ SABINA SILVER.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ They have done for him. I thought they would.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Oh, Paul, I never thought to find you like this! He's
+not dead; he'll come round yet.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ [_Opens his shirt and puts in his hand on his heart._]
+Paul!
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! Charlie, give me the soldering iron--no, bring me
+the lap anvil--I'm as good a tinker as any of you.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He thinks he's back on the roads with us! He is done
+for.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I knew he'd have to come back to me to die after all;
+it's a lonesome thing to die among strangers.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ That is right, that is right, take me up in your
+brazen claws. But no--no--I will not go out beyond Saturn into the
+dark. Take me down--down to that field under the earth, under the roots
+of the grave.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ I don't know what he is saying. I never could
+understand his talk.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ O plunge me into the wine barrel, into the wine barrel
+of God.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Won't you speak to me, Paul? Don't you know me? I am
+Sibby; don't you remember me, Sibby, your wife?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He sees you now; I think he knows you.
+
+     [PAUL RUTTLEDGE _has raised himself on his elbow and is looking at_
+     SABINA SILVER.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ He knows me. I was sure he would know me.
+
+_Paul Ruttledge._ Colman, Colman, remember always where there is nothing
+there is God. [_He sinks down again._
+
+_One of the Crowd._ [_Coming back with two or three others._] I knew
+they must be in the rocks.
+
+_Charlie Ward._ Well, he's gone! There'll soon be none of us left at
+all. And I never knew what it was he did that brought him to us.
+
+_Sabina Silver._ Oh, Paul, Paul!
+
+     [_Begins to keen very low, swaying herself to and fro._
+
+_One of the Crowd._ [_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] Was he a friend of yours?
+
+_Charlie Ward._ He was, indeed. I must do what I can for him now.
+
+_One of the Crowd._ That's natural, that's natural. It's a pity they did
+it. They'd best have left him alone. We'd best be going back to the
+town.
+
+     [SABINA SILVER _raises the keen louder. The_ Strangers _and_ CHARLIE
+     WARD _take off their hats._
+
+
+
+CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT,
+CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+The original text contained a great deal of italic, bold and small-capped
+formatting. For the purposes of producing this text version, the
+underscore symbol surrounds italicized text and small-capped text is
+converted to all-caps.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Where There is Nothing, by William Butler Yeats
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE THERE IS NOTHING ***
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