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diff --git a/38349-8.txt b/38349-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c86641 --- /dev/null +++ b/38349-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3402 @@ +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. 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