The Countess Cathleen, Yates

• Scene 1
• TIEG. They say that now the land is famine struck The graves are walking.
• MARY. Look out, and tell me if your father's coming.
• SHEMUS. I had no chance to beg, For when the beggars saw me they cried out They would not have another share their alms, And hunted me away with sticks and stones.
• TIEG. You said you would bring us food or money.
• SHEMUS. His kitchen's bare. There were five doors that I looked through this day And saw the dead and not a soul to wake them.
• CATHLEEN. God save all here. There is a certain house, An old grey castle with a kitchen garden, A cider orchard and a plot for flowers, Somewhere among these woods.
• CATHLEEN. It may be that we are that trouble, for we-- Although we've wandered in the wood this hour-- Have lost it too, yet I should know my way, For I lived all my childhood in that house.
• MARY. You have still some way, But I can put you on the trodden path Your servants take when they are marketing. But first sit down and rest yourself awhile, For my old fathers served your fathers, lady, Longer than books can tell--and it were strange If you and yours should not be welcome here.
• (She gives money.)
• CATHLEEN. I gave for all and that was all I had. Look, my purse is empty. I have passed By the starving men and women all this day, And they have had the rest; but take the purse, The silver clasps on't may be worth a trifle. But if you'll come to-morrow to my house You shall have twice the sum.
• SHEMUS. Thank her, For seven halfpence and a silver bit?
• SHEMUS. I'll have no bolts, for there is not a thing That walks above the ground or under it I had not rather welcome to this house Than any more of mankind, rich or poor.
• MARY. Is it call devils? Call devils from the wood, call them in here?
• (He hits her.)
• SHEMUS. ... Come, share what bread and meat is in the house, And stretch your heels and warm them in the ashes. And after that, let's share and share alike And curse all men and women. Come in, come in. What, is there no one there?
• FIRST MERCHANT. We've travelled a long road, For we are merchants that must tramp the world, And now we look for supper and a fire And a safe corner to count money in.
• FIRST MERCHANT. Our Master bids us pay So good a price, that all who deal with us Shall eat, drink, and be merry.
• MARY. If you are not demons, And seeing what great wealth is spread out there, Give food or money to the starving poor.
• FIRST MERCHANT. If we knew how to find deserving poor We'd do our share.
• SHEMUS. You come to buy our souls?
• MARY. Destroyers of souls, God will destroy you quickly. You shall at last dry like dry leaves and hang Nailed like dead vermin to the doors of God.
• Scene 2
• OONA. This is your own house, lady.
• STEWARD. I am not to blame, for I had locked the gate, The forester's to blame. The men climbed in At the east corner where the elm-tree is.
• STEWARD. Oh, no, not killed. They have stolen half a cart-load of green cabbage.
• CATHLEEN. But maybe they were starving.
• CATHLEEN. A learned theologian has laid down That starving men may take what's necessary, And yet be sinless.
• TEIG. (laughing) There are two gentlemen who buy men's souls.
• CATHLEEN. Give twice and thrice and twenty times their money, And get your souls again. I will pay all.
• CATHLEEN. Keeping this house alone, sell all I have, Go barter where you please, but come again With herds of cattle and with ships of meal.
• STEWARD. God's blessing light upon your ladyship. You will have saved the land.
• CATHLEEN. Come, follow me, for the earth burns my feet Till I have changed my house to such a refuge That the old and ailing, and all weak of heart, May escape from beak and claw; all, all, shall come Till the walls burst and the roof fall on us. From this day out I have nothing of my own.
• Scene 3
• ALEEL. I have come to bid you leave this castle and fly Out of these woods.
• ALEEL. They who have sent me walk invisible.
• ALEEL. ... For some terrible death is waiting you, Some unimaginable evil, some darkness That fable has not dreamt of, nor sun nor moon Scattered.
• ALEEL. This house You are to leave with some trusty old man, And bid him shelter all that starve or wander While there is food and house room.
• CATHLEEN. I kiss your forehead. An yet I send you from me. Do not speak;
• FIRST MERCHANT. And so I must endure the weight of the world, Far from my Master and the revelry, That's lasted since--shaped as a worm--he bore The knowledgable pippin in his mouth To the first woman.
• FIRST MERCHANT. ... Come, all you elemental populace From Cruachan and Finbar's ancient house. Come, break up the long dance under the hill, Or if you lie in the hollows of the sea, Leave lonely the long hoarding surges, leave The cymbals of the waves to clash alone, And shaking the sea-tangles from your hair Gather about us.
• FIRST SPIRIT. (singing) Our hearts are sore, but we come Because we have heard you call.
• (He comes down the stage and stands facing the arches. He makes a gesture of command. The SPIRITS come back whimpering. They lift the bags and go out. Three speak as they are taking ub the bags.)
• FIRST SPIRIT. From this day out we'll never dance again.
• SECOND MERCHANT. Too late; For somebody is stirring in the house; the noise That the sea creatures made as they came hither, Their singing and their endless chattering, Has waked the house. I hear the chairs pushed back, And many shuffling feet. All the old men and women She's gathered in the house are coming hither.
• (CATHLEEN wakes and comes to door of the chapel.)
• FIRST MERCHANT> We are merchants, and we know the book of the world Because we have walked upon its leaves; and there Have read of late matters that much concern you; And noticing the castle door stand open, Came in to find an ear.
• CATHLEEN. My thanks to God, to Mary and the angels, That I have money in my treasury, And can buy grain from those who have stored it up To prosper on the hunger of the poor. But you've been far and know the signs of things, When will this yellow vapour no more hang And creep about the fields, and this great heat Vanish away, and grass show its green shoots?
• FIRST MERCHANT. ... In you is all the hope of the land.
• CATHLEEN. And heard you of the demons who buy souls?
• CATHLEEN. There is something, Merchant, in your voice That makes me fear. When you were telling how A man may lose his soul and lose his God Your eyes were lighted up, and when you told How my poor money serves the people, both-- Merchants forgive me--seemed to smile.
• SECOND MERCHANT. Away now--they are in the passage--hurry, For they will know us, and freeze up our hearts With Ave Marys, and burn all our skin With holy water.
• OONA. (entering hurriedly) Ochone! Ochone! The treasure room is broken in, The door stands open, and the gold is gone.
• CATHLEEN. Let this among you--not too old to ride-- Get horses and search all the country round, I'll give a farm to him who finds the thieves.
• CATHLEEN. Ah, no, not that. A sad resolve wakes in me. I have heard A sound of wailing in the unnumbered hovels, And I must go down, down--I know not where-- Pray for all men and women made from famine; Pray you good neighbours.
• Scene 4
• SCENE.--A wood near the Castle, as in Scene 2. The SPIRITS pass one by one carrying bags.
• SECOND SPIRIT. Are all the thousand years of dancing done?
• THIRD SPIRIT. How can we dance after so great a sorrow?
• FIRST PEASANT. But doesn't a gold piece glitter like the sun? That's what my father, who'd seen better days, Told me when I was but a little boy-- So high--so high, it's shining like the sun, Round and shining, that is what he said.
• FIRST PEASANT. They've bags and bags of it.
• (They go out. The two MERCHANTS follow silently.)
• Scene 5
• SCENE.--The house of SHEMUS RUA. There is an alcove at the back with curtains; in it a bed and on the bed is the body of MARY with candles round it. The two MERCHANTS while they speak put a large book upon a table, arrange money, and so on.
• FIRST MERCHANT. When the night fell and I had shaped myself Into the image of the man-headed owl, I hurried to the cliffs of Donegal, And saw with all their canvas full of wind And rushing through the parti-coloured sea Those ships that bring the woman grain and meal. They're but three days from us.
• SECOND MERCHANT. When the dew rose I hurried in like feathers to the east, And saw nine hundred oxen driven through Meath With goads of iron, They're but three days from us.
• (PEASANT crowd in with TEIG and SHEMUS.)
• SHEMUS. Come in, come in, you are welcome. That is my wife. She mocked at my great masters. And would not deal with them. Now there she is; She does not even know she was a fool, So great a fool she was.
• TIEG. She would not eat One crumb of bread bought with our master's money, But lived on nettles, dock, and dandelion.
• FIRST MERCHANT. (reading in a book) John Maher, a man of substance, with dull mind, And quiet senses and unventurous heart. The angels think him safe." Two hundred crowns, All for a soul, a little breath of wind.
• (A general murmur, during which the MIDDLE-AGED-MAN takes money, and slips into background, where he sinks on to a seat.)
• SHEMUS. Woman, have sense-come, Come. Is this the time to haggle at the price? There, take it up. There, there. That's right.
• (She takes them and goes into the crowd.)
• ALEEL. Here, take my soul, for I am tired of it. I do not ask a price.
• FIRST MERCHANT. We cannot take your soul, for it is hers.
• FIRST MERCHANT. I offer this great price: a-thousand crowns For an old woman who was always ugly.
• (She screams.)
• A PEASANT. How she screamed out!
• MIDDLE-AGED MAN. Give me my soul again.
• WOMAN (going on her knees and clinging to MERCHANT.) And take this money too, and give me mine.
• SECOND MERCHANT. Bear bastards, drink or follow some wild fancy; For sighs and cries are the soul's work, And you have none.
• CATHLEEN (entering) And so you trade once more?
• CATHlEEN. I came to barter a soul for a great price.
• CATHLEEN. The people starve, therefore the people go Thronging to you. I hear a cry come form them And it is in my hears by night and day, And I would have five hundred thousand crowns That I may feed them till the dearth go by.
• CATHLEEN. There is more: The souls that you have bought must be set free.
• FIRST MERCHANT. We know of but one soul that's worth the price.
• A PEASANT. Do not, do not, for souls the like of ours Are not precious to God as your soul is. O! what would Heaven do without you, lady?
• FIRST MERCHANT. Five hundred thousand crowns; we give the price. The gold is here; the souls even while you speak Have slipped out of our bond, because your face Has shed a light on them and filled their hearts. But you must sign, for we omit no form In buying a soul like yours.
• ALEEL. (casting the parchment on the ground) I have seen a vision under a greed hedge, A hedge of hips and haws-men yet shall hear The Archangels rolling Satan's empty skull Over the mountain-tops.
• (TEIG and SHEMUS drag him roughly away so that he falls upon the floor among the PEASANTS. CATHLEEN picks up the parchment and signs, then turns toward the PEASANTS.)
• CATHLEEN. Take up the money, and now come with me; When we are far from this polluted place I will give everybody money enough.
• FIRST MERCHANT. We need but hover over her head in the air, For she has only minutes. When she signed Her heart began to break. Hush, hush, I hear The brazen door of Hell move on its hinges, And eternal revelry float hither To hearten us.
• OONA. Where is the Countess Cathleen? All this day Her eyes were full of tears, and when for a moment Her hand was laid upon my hand it trembled, And now I do not know where she is gone.
• OONA. God guard her soul.
• ALEEL. She's bartered it away this very hour, As though we two were never in the world. And they are rising through the hollow world.
• OONA. (casting herself face downwards on the floor) O, Maker of all, protect her from the demons, And if a soul must need be lost, take mine.
• (ALEEL kneels beside her, but does not seem to hear her words. The PEASANTS return. They carry the COUNTESS CATHLEEN and lay her upon the ground before OONA and ALEEL. She lies there as if dead.)
• CATHLEEN. O, hold me, and hold me tightly, for the storm Is dragging me away.
• CATHLEEN. (half rising) Lay all the bags of money in a heap, And when I am gone, old Oona, share them out To every man and woman: judge, and give According to their needs.
• (She dies.)
• AN OLD MAN. The Almighty wrath at our great weakness and sin Has blotted out the world and we must die.
• (The darkness is broken by a visionary light. The PEASANTS seem to be kneeling upon the rocky slope of a mountain, and vapour full of storm and ever-changing light is sweeping above them and behind them. Half in the light, half in the shadow, stand armed angels. Their armour is old and worn, and their drawn swords dim and dinted. They stand as if upon the air in formation of battle and look downward with stern faces. The PEASANTS cast themselves on the ground.)
• THE ANGEL. The light beats down the gates of pearl are wide. And she is passing to the floor of peace, And Mary of the seven times wounded heart Has kissed her lips, and the long blessed hair Has fallen on her face; The Light of Lights Looks always on the motive, not the deed, The Shadow of Shadows on the deed alone.
• (A sound of far-off horns seems to come from the heart of the Light. The vision melts away, and the forms of the kneeling PEASANTS appear faintly in the darkness.)