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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+ <head>
+ <title>
+ The Hour-glass, by W. B. Yeats
+ </title>
+ <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+ body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+ P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
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+ hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+ .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+ .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+ .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+ .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;}
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+ <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hour Glass, by W. B. 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: The Hour Glass
+
+Author: W. B. Yeats
+
+Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7448]
+Last Updated: February 7, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUR GLASS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nichole Apostola and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+ <div style="height: 8em;">
+ <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </div>
+ <h1>
+ THE HOUR-GLASS
+ </h1>
+ <h2>
+ A MORALITY
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ <br />
+ </p>
+ <h2>
+ By W. B. Yeats
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <p class="toc">
+ <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> DRAMATIS PERSONAE </a>
+ </p>
+ <p class="toc">
+ <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> THE HOUR-GLASS </a>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+ <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
+ </p>
+ <h2>
+ DRAMATIS PERSONAE
+ </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+ A WISE MAN
+ A FOOL
+ SOME PUPILS
+ AN ANGEL
+ THE WISE MAN'S WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN
+</pre>
+ <p>
+ <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+ <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <h2>
+ THE HOUR-GLASS
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ SCENE: A large room with a door at the back and another at the side
+ opening to an inner room. A desk and a chair in the middle. An hour-glass
+ on a bracket near the door. A creepy stool near it. Some benches. The WISE
+ MAN sitting at his desk.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN [turning over the pages of a book]. Where is that passage I am to
+ explain to my pupils to-day? Here it is, and the book says that it was
+ written by a beggar on the walls of Babylon: "There are two living
+ countries, the one visible and the one invisible; and when it is winter
+ with us it is summer in that country; and when the November winds are up
+ among us it is lambing-time there." I wish that my pupils had asked me to
+ explain any other passage, for this is a hard passage. [The FOOL comes in
+ and stands at the door, holding out his hat. He has a pair of shears in
+ the other hand.] It sounds to me like foolishness; and yet that cannot be,
+ for the writer of this book, where I have found so much knowledge, would
+ not have set it by itself on this page, and surrounded it with so many
+ images and so many deep colors and so much fine gilding, if it had been
+ foolishness.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Give me a penny.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. [Turns to another page.] Here he has written: "The learned in
+ old times forgot the visible country." That I understand, but I have
+ taught my learners better.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Won't you give me a penny?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. What do you want? The words of the wise Saracen will not teach
+ you much.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Such a great wise teacher as you are will not refuse a penny to a
+ Fool.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. What do you know about wisdom?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Oh, I know! I know what I have seen.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. What is it you have seen?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. When I went by Kilcluan where the bells used to be ringing at the
+ break of every day, I could hear nothing but the people snoring in their
+ houses. When I went by Tubbervanach where the young men used to be
+ climbing the hill to the blessed well, they were sitting at the crossroads
+ playing cards. When I went by Carrigoras where the friars used to be
+ fasting and serving the poor, I saw them drinking wine and obeying their
+ wives. And when I asked what misfortune had brought all these changes,
+ they said it was no misfortune, but it was the wisdom they had learned
+ from your teaching.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Run round to the kitchen, and my wife will give you something to
+ eat.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. That is foolish advice for a wise man to give.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Why, Fool?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. What is eaten is gone. I want pennies for my bag. I must buy bacon
+ in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time when
+ the sun is weak. And I want snares to catch the rabbits and the squirrels
+ and the bares, and a pot to cook them in.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Go away. I have other things to think of now than giving you
+ pennies.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Give me a penny and I will bring you luck. Bresal the Fisherman lets
+ me sleep among the nets in his loft in the winter-time because he says I
+ bring him luck; and in the summer-time the wild creatures let me sleep
+ near their nests and their holes. It is lucky even to look at me or to
+ touch me, but it is much more lucky to give me a penny. [Holds out his
+ hand.] If I wasn't lucky, I'd starve.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. What have you got the shears for?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. I won't tell you. If I told you, you would drive them away.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Whom would I drive away?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. I won't tell you.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Not if I give you a penny?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. No.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Not if I give you two pennies.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. You will be very lucky if you give me two pennies, but I won't tell
+ you.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Three pennies?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Four, and I will tell you!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Very well, four. But I will not call you Teigue the Fool any
+ longer.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Let me come close to you where nobody will hear me. But first you
+ must promise you will not drive them away. [WISE MAN nods.] Every day men
+ go out dressed in black and spread great black nets over the hill, great
+ black nets.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Why do they do that?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. That they may catch the feet of the angels. But every morning, just
+ before the dawn, I go out and cut the nets with my shears, and the angels
+ fly away.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Ah, now I know that you are Teigue the Fool. You have told me
+ that I am wise, and I have never seen an angel.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. I have seen plenty of angels.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Do you bring luck to the angels too.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Oh, no, no! No one could do that. But they are always there if one
+ looks about one; they are like the blades of grass.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. When do you see them?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. When one gets quiet; then something wakes up inside one, something
+ happy and quiet like the stars&mdash;not like the seven that move, but
+ like the fixed stars. [He points upward.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. And what happens then?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Then all in a minute one smells summer flowers, and tall people go
+ by, happy and laughing, and their clothes are the color of burning sods.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Is it long since you have seen them, Teigue the Fool?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Not long, glory be to God! I saw one coming behind me just now. It
+ was not laughing, but it had clothes the color of burning sods, and there
+ was something shining about its head.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Well, there are your four pennies. You, a fool, say "Glory be to
+ God," but before I came the wise men said it. Run away now. I must ring
+ the bell for my scholars.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Four pennies! That means a great deal of luck. Great teacher, I have
+ brought you plenty of luck! [He goes out shaking the bag.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Though they call him Teigue the Fool, he is not more foolish
+ than everybody used to be, with their dreams and their preachings and
+ their three worlds; but I have overthrown their three worlds with the
+ seven sciences. [He touches the books with his hands.] With Philosophy
+ that was made for the lonely star, I have taught them to forget Theology;
+ with Architecture, I have hidden the ramparts of their cloudy heaven; with
+ Music, the fierce planets' daughter whose hair is always on fire, and with
+ Grammar that is the moon's daughter, I have shut their ears to the
+ imaginary harpings and speech of the angels; and I have made formations of
+ battle with Arithmetic that have put the hosts of heaven to the rout. But,
+ Rhetoric and Dialectic, that have been born out of the light star and out
+ of the amorous star, you have been my spearman and my catapult! Oh! my
+ swift horseman! Oh! my keen darting arguments, it is because of you that I
+ have overthrown the hosts of foolishness! [An ANGEL, in a dress the color
+ of embers, and carrying a blossoming apple bough in his hand and with a
+ gilded halo about his head, stands upon the threshold.] Before I came,
+ men's minds were stuffed with folly about a heaven where birds sang the
+ hours, and about angels that came and stood upon men's thresholds. But I
+ have locked the visions into heaven and turned the key upon them. Well, I
+ must consider this passage about the two countries. My mother used to say
+ something of the kind. She would say that when our bodies sleep our souls
+ awake, and that whatever withers here ripens yonder, and that harvests are
+ snatched from us that they may feed invisible people. But the meaning of
+ the book must be different, for only fools and women have thoughts like
+ that; their thoughts were never written upon the walls of Babylon. [He
+ sees the ANGEL.] What are you? Who are you? I think I saw some that were
+ like you in my dreams when I was a child&mdash;that bright thing, that
+ dress that is the color of embers! But I have done with dreams, I have
+ done with dreams.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANGEL. I am the Angel of the Most High God.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Why have you come to me?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANGEL. I have brought you a message.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. What message have you got for me?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANGEL. You will die within the hour. You will die when the last grains
+ have fallen in this glass. [He turns the hour-glass.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. My time to die has not come. I have my pupils. I have a young
+ wife and children that I cannot leave. Why must I die?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANGEL. You must die because no souls have passed over the threshold of
+ heaven since you came into this country. The threshold is grassy, and the
+ gates are rusty, and the angels that keep watch there are lonely.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Where will death bring me to?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANGEL. The doors of heaven will not open to you, for you have denied the
+ existence of heaven; and the doors of purgatory will not open to you, for
+ you have denied the existence of purgatory.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. But I have also denied the existence of hell!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANGEL. Hell is the place of those who deny.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN [kneeling]. I have indeed denied everything and have taught
+ others to deny. I have believed in nothing but what my senses told me.
+ But, oh! beautiful Angel, forgive me, forgive me!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANGEL. You should have asked forgiveness long ago.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Had I seen your face as I see it now, oh! beautiful Angel, I
+ would have believed, I would have asked forgiveness. Maybe you do not know
+ how easy it is to doubt. Storm, death, the grass rotting, many sicknesses,
+ those are the messengers that came to me. Oh! why are you silent? You
+ carry the pardon of the Most High; give it to me! I would kiss your hands
+ if I were not afraid&mdash; no, no, the hem of your dress!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANGEL. You let go undying hands too long ago to take hold of them now.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. You cannot understand. You live in that country people only see
+ in their dreams. You live in a country that we can only dream about. Maybe
+ it is as hard for you to understand why we disbelieve as it is for us to
+ believe. Oh! what have I said! You know everything! Give me time to undo
+ what I have done. Give me a year&mdash;a month&mdash;a day&mdash;an hour!
+ Give me this hour's end, that I may undo what I have done!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANGEL. You cannot undo what you have done. Yet I have this power with my
+ message. If you can find one that believes before the hour's end, you
+ shall come to heaven after the years of purgatory. For, from one fiery
+ seed, watched over by those that sent me, the harvest can come again to
+ heap the golden threshing-floor. But now farewell, for I am weary of the
+ weight of time.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Blessed be the Father, blessed be the Son, blessed be the
+ Spirit, blessed be the Messenger They have sent!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANGEL [at the door and pointing at the hour-glass]. In a little while the
+ uppermost glass will be empty. [Goes out.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Everything will be well with me. I will call my pupils; they
+ only say they doubt. [Pulls the bell.] They will be here in a moment. I
+ hear their feet outside on the path. They want to please me; they pretend
+ that they disbelieve. Belief is too old to be overcome all in a minute.
+ Besides, I can prove what I once disproved. [Another pull at the bell.]
+ They are coming now. I will go to my desk. I will speak quietly, as if
+ nothing had happened.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [He stands at the desk with a fixed look in his eyes.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [Enter PUPILS and the FOOL.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Who is that pulling at my bag?
+ King's son, do not pull at my bag.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. Did your friends the angels give you that bag? Why don't they
+ fill your bag for you?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Give me pennies! Give me some pennies!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. Let go his cloak, it is coming to pieces. What do you want
+ pennies for, with that great bag at your waist?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. I want to buy bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong
+ drink for the time when the sun is weak, and snares to catch rabbits and
+ the squirrels that steal the nuts, and hares, and a great pot to cook them
+ in.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. Why don't your friends tell you where buried treasures are?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANOTHER. Why don't they make you dream about treasures? If one dreams
+ three times, there is always treasure.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL [holding out his hat]. Give me pennies! Give me pennies!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [They throw pennies into his hat. He is standing close to the door, that
+ he may hold out his hat to each newcomer.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. Master, will you have Teigue the Fool for a scholar?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANOTHER YOUNG MAN. Teigue, will you give us pennies if we teach you
+ lessons? No, he goes to school for nothing on the mountains. Tell us what
+ you learn on the mountains, Teigue?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Be silent all. [He has been standing silent, looking away.]
+ Stand still in your places, for there is something I would have you tell
+ me.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [A moment's pause. They all stand round in their places. TEIGUE still
+ stands at the door.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Is there any one amongst you who believes in God? In heaven? Or
+ in purgatory? Or in hell?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ALL THE YOUNG MEN. No one; Master! No one!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. I knew you would all say that; but do not be afraid. I will not
+ be angry. Tell me the truth. Do you not believe?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. We once did, but you have taught us to know better.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Oh! teaching, teaching does not go very deep! The heart remains
+ unchanged under it all. You believe just as you always did, and you are
+ afraid to tell me.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. No, no, master.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. If you tell me that you believe I shall be glad and not angry.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. [To his neighbor.] He wants somebody to dispute with.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ HIS NEIGHBOR. I knew that from the beginning.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. That is not the subject for to-day; you were going to talk
+ about the words the beggar wrote upon the walls of Babylon.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. If there is one amongst you that believes, he will be my best
+ friend. Surely there is one amongst you. [They are all silent.] Surely
+ what you learned at your mother's knees has not been so soon forgotten.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. Master, till you came, no teacher in this land was able to
+ get rid of foolishness and ignorance. But every one has listened to you,
+ every one has learned the truth. You have had your last disputation.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANOTHER. What a fool you made of that monk in the market-place! He had not
+ a word to say.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. [Comes from his desk and stands among them in the middle of the
+ room.] Pupils, dear friends, I have deceived you all this time. It was I
+ myself who was ignorant. There is a God. There is a heaven. There is fire
+ that passes, and there is fire that lasts for ever.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [TEIGUE, through all this, is sitting on a stool by the door, reckoning on
+ his fingers what he will buy with his money.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN [to another]. He will not be satisfied till we dispute with
+ him. [To the WISE MAN.] Prove it, master. Have you seen them?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN [in a low, solemn voice]. Just now, before you came in, some one
+ came to the door, and when I looked up I saw an angel standing there.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. You were in a dream. Anybody can see an angel in his dreams.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Oh, my God! it was not a dream. I was awake, waking as I am now.
+ I tell you I was awake as I am now.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. Some dream when they are awake, but they are the crazy, and
+ who would believe what they say? Forgive me, master, but that is what you
+ taught me to say. That is what you said to the monk when he spoke of the
+ visions of the saints and the martyrs.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANOTHER YOUNG MAN. You see how well we remember your teaching.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Out, out from my sight! I want some one with belief. I must find
+ that grain the Angel spoke of before I die. I tell you I must find it, and
+ you answer me with arguments. Out with you, or I will beat you with my
+ stick! [The young men laugh.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. How well he plays at faith! He is like the monk when he had
+ nothing more to say.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Out, out, or I will lay this stick about your shoulders! Out
+ with you, though you are a king's son!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [They begin to hurry out.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. Come, come; he wants us to find some one who will dispute
+ with him. [All go out.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN [alone. He goes to the door at the side]. I will call my wife.
+ She will believe; women always believe. [He opens the door and calls.]
+ Bridget! Bridget! [BRIDGET comes in wearing her apron, her sleeves turned
+ up from her floury arms.] Bridget, tell me the truth; do not say what you
+ think will please me. Do you sometimes say your prayers?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ BRIDGET. Prayers! No, you taught me to leave them off long ago. At first I
+ was sorry, but I am glad now, for I am sleepy in the evenings.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. But do you not believe in God?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ BRIDGET. Oh, a good wife only believes what her husband tells her!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. But sometimes when you are alone, when I am in the school and
+ the children asleep, do you not think about the saints, about the things
+ you used to believe in? What do you think of when you are alone?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ BRIDGET [considering]. I think about nothing. Sometimes I wonder if the
+ pig is fattening well, or I go out to see if the crows are picking up the
+ chickens' food.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Oh, what can I do! Is there nobody who believes? I must go and
+ find somebody! [He goes toward the door but with his eyes fixed on the
+ hour-glass.] I cannot go out; I cannot leave that!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ BRIDGET. You want somebody to get up argument with.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Oh, look out of the door and tell me if there is anybody there
+ in the street. I cannot leave this glass; somebody might shake it! Then
+ the sand would fall quickly.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ BRIDGET. I don't understand what you are saying. [Looks out.] There is a
+ crowd of people talking to your pupils.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Oh, run out, Bridget, and see if they have found somebody that
+ believes!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ BRIDGET [wiping her arms in her apron and pulling down her sleeves]. It's
+ a hard thing to be married to a man of learning that must be always having
+ arguments. [Goes out and shouts through the kitchen door.] Don't be
+ meddling with the bread, children, while I'm out.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. [Kneels down.] "Salvum me fac, Deus&mdash;salvum&mdash;salvum...."
+ I have forgotten it all. It is thirty years since I said a prayer. I must
+ pray in the common tongue, like a clown begging in the market like Teigue
+ the Fool! [He prays.] Help me, Father, Son, and Spirit!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [BRIDGET enters, followed by the FOOL, who is holding out his hat to her.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Give me something; give me a penny to buy bacon in the shops, and
+ nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time when the sun grows weak.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ BRIDGET. I have no pennies. [To the WISE MAN.] Your pupils cannot find
+ anybody to argue with you. There is nobody in the whole country who had
+ enough belief to fill a pipe with since you put down the monk. Can't you
+ be quiet now and not always be wanting to have arguments? It must be
+ terrible to have a mind like that.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. I am lost! I am lost!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ BRIDGET. Leave me alone now; I have to make the bread for you and the
+ children.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Out of this, woman, out of this, I say! [BRIDGET goes through
+ the kitchen door.] Will nobody find a way to help me! But she spoke of my
+ children. I had forgotten them. They will believe. It is only those who
+ have reason that doubt; the young are full of faith. Bridget, Bridget,
+ send my children to me!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ BRIDGET [inside]. Your father wants you, run to him now.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [The two children came in. They stand together a little way from the
+ threshold of the kitchen door, looking timidly at their father.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Children, what do you believe? Is there a heaven? Is there a
+ hell? Is there a purgatory?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FIRST CHILD. We haven't forgotten, father.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ THE OTHER CHILD. Oh, no, father. [They both speak together as if in
+ school.] There is no heaven; there is no hell; there is nothing we cannot
+ see.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FIRST CHILD. Foolish people used to think that there were, but you are
+ very learned and you have taught us better.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. You are just as bad as the others, just as bad as the others!
+ Out of the room with you, out of the room! [The children begin to cry and
+ run away.] Go away, go away! I will teach you better&mdash;no, I will
+ never teach you again. Go to your mother&mdash;no, she will not be able to
+ teach them.... Help them, O God! [Alone.] The grains are going very
+ quickly. There is very little sand in the uppermost glass. Somebody will
+ come for me in a moment; perhaps he is at the door now! All creatures that
+ have reason doubt. O that the grass and the planets could speak! Somebody
+ has said that they would wither if they doubted. O speak to me, O grass
+ blades! O fingers of God's certainty, speak to me. You are millions and
+ you will not speak. I dare not know the moment the messenger will come for
+ me. I will cover the glass. [He covers it and brings it to the desk, and
+ the FOOL, is sitting by the door fiddling with some flowers which he has
+ stuck in his hat. He has begun to blow a dandelion head.] What are you
+ doing?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Wait a moment. [He blows.] Four, five, six.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. What are you doing that for?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. I am blowing at the dandelion to find out what time it is.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. You have heard everything! That is why you want to find out what
+ hour it is! You are waiting to see them coming through the door to carry
+ me away. [FOOL goes on blowing.] Out through the door with you! I will
+ have no one here when they come. [He seizes the FOOL by the shoulders, and
+ begins to force him out through the door, then suddenly changes his mind.]
+ No, I have something to ask you. [He drags him back into the room.] Is
+ there a heaven? Is there a hell? Is there a purgatory?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. So you ask me now. I thought when you were asking your pupils, I
+ said to myself, if he would ask Teigue the Fool, Teigue could tell him all
+ about it, for Teigue has learned all about it when he has been cutting the
+ nets.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Tell me; tell me!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. I said, Teigue knows everything. Not even the owls and the hares
+ that milk the cows have Teigue's wisdom. But Teigue will not speak; he
+ says nothing.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Tell me, tell me! For under the cover the grains are falling,
+ and when they are all fallen I shall die; and my soul will be lost if I
+ have not found somebody that believes! Speak, speak!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL [looking wise]. No, no, I won't tell you what is in my mind, and I
+ won't tell you what is in my bag. You might steal away my thoughts. I met
+ a bodach on the road yesterday, and he said, "Teigue, tell me how many
+ pennies are in your bag. I will wager three pennies that there are not
+ twenty pennies in your bag; let me put in my hand and count them." But I
+ pulled the strings tighter, like this; and when I go to sleep every night
+ I hide the bag where no one knows.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. [Goes toward the hour-glass as if to uncover it.] No, no, I have
+ not the courage! [He kneels.] Have pity upon me, Fool, and tell me!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Ah! Now, that is different. I am not afraid of you now. But I must
+ come near you; somebody in there might hear what the Angel said.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. Oh, what did the Angel tell you?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Once I was alone on the hills, and an Angel came by and he said,
+ "Teigue the Fool, do not forget the Three Fires: the Fire that punishes,
+ the Fire that purifies, and the Fire wherein the soul rejoices for ever!"
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ WISE MAN. He believes! I am saved! Help me. The sand has run out. I am
+ dying.... [FOOL helps him to his chair.] I am going from the country of
+ the seven wandering stars, and I am going to the country of the fixed
+ stars! Ring the bell. [FOOL rings the bell.] Are they coming ? Ah! now I
+ hear their feet.... I will speak to them. I understand it all now. One
+ sinks in on God: we do not see the truth; God sees the truth in us. I
+ cannot speak, I am too weak. Tell them, Fool, that when the life and the
+ mind are broken, the truth comes through them like peas through a broken
+ peascod. But no, I will pray&mdash;yet I cannot pray. Pray Fool, that they
+ may be given a sign and save their souls alive. Your prayers are better
+ than mine.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [FOOL bows his head. WISE MAN'S head sinks on his arm on the books. PUPILS
+ enter.]
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A YOUNG MAN. Look at the Fool turned bell-ringer!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANOTHER. What have you called us in for, Teigue? What are you going to
+ tell us?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ ANOTHER. No wonder he has had dreams! See, he is fast asleep now. [Goes
+ over and touches the WISE MAN.] Oh, he is dead!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ FOOL. Do not stir! He asked for a sign that you might be saved. [All are
+ silent for a moment.] Look what has come from his mouth... a little winged
+ thing... a little shining thing. It has gone to the door. [The ANGEL
+ appears in the doorway, stretches out her hands and closes them again.]
+ The Angel has taken it in her hands... she will open her hands in the
+ Garden of Paradise.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [They all kneel.]
+ </p>
+ <div style="height: 6em;">
+ <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
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