THE KING’S THRESHOLD.

[i]

[ii] [iii]

[iv] [v]

THE KING’S THRESHOLD

[4] [5]

PERSONS IN THE PLAY

[6] [7]

THE KING’S THRESHOLD.

[68] [69]

ON BAILE’S STRAND

[70]

[71]

PERSONS IN THE PLAY

[72] [73]

ON BAILE’S STRAND

What a clever man you are though you are blind! There’s nobody with two eyes in his head that is as clever as you are. Who but you could have thought that the henwife sleeps every day a little at noon? I would never be able to steal anything if you didn’t tell me where[74] to look for it. And what a good cook you are! You take the fowl out of my hands after I have stolen it and plucked it, and you put it into the big pot at the fire there, and I can go out and run races with the witches at the edge of the waves and get an appetite, and when I’ve got it, there’s the hen waiting inside for me, done to the turn.

Done to the turn.

Come now, I’ll have a leg and you’ll have a leg, and we’ll draw lots for the wish-bone. I’ll be praising you, I’ll be praising you, while we’re eating it, for your good plans and for your good cooking. There’s nobody in the world like you, Blind Man. Come, come. Wait a minute. I shouldn’t have closed the door. There are some that look for me, and I wouldn’t like them not to find me. Don’t tell it to anybody, Blind Man. There are some that follow me. Boann herself out of the river and Fand out of the deep sea. Witches they are, and they come by in the wind, and they cry, ‘Give[75] a kiss, Fool, give a kiss,’ that’s what they cry. That’s wide enough. All the witches can come in now. I wouldn’t have them beat at the door and say: ‘Where is the Fool? Why has he put a lock on the door?’ Maybe they’ll hear the bubbling of the pot and come in and sit on the ground. But we won’t give them any of the fowl. Let them go back to the sea, let them go back to the sea.

Ah! [Then, in a louder voice as he feels the back of it.] Ah—ah—

Why do you say ‘Ah-ah’?

I know the big chair. It is to-day the High King Conchubar is coming. They have brought out his chair. He is going to be Cuchulain’s master in earnest from this day out. It is that he’s coming for.

He must be a great man to be Cuchulain’s master.

[76]

So he is. He is a great man. He is over all the rest of the kings of Ireland.

Cuchulain’s master! I thought Cuchulain could do anything he liked.

So he did, so he did. But he ran too wild, and Conchubar is coming to-day to put an oath upon him that will stop his rambling and make him as biddable as a house-dog and keep him always at his hand. He will sit in this chair and put the oath upon him.

How will he do that?

You have no wits to understand such things. [The BLIND MAN has got into the chair.] He will sit up in this chair and he’ll say: ‘Take the oath, Cuchulain. I bid you take the oath. Do as I tell you. What are your wits compared with mine, and what are your riches compared with mine? And what sons have you to pay your debts and to put a stone over[77] you when you die? Take the oath, I tell you. Take a strong oath.’

I will not. I’ll take no oath. I want my dinner.

Hush, hush! It is not done yet.

You said it was done to a turn.

Did I, now? Well, it might be done, and not done. The wings might be white, but the legs might be red. The flesh might stick hard to the bones and not come away in the teeth. But, believe me, Fool, it will be well done before you put your teeth in it.

My teeth are growing long with the hunger.

I’ll tell you a story—the kings have story-tellers while they are waiting for their dinner—I[78] will tell you a story with a fight in it, a story with a champion in it, and a ship and a queen’s son that has his mind set on killing somebody that you and I know.

Who is that? Who is he coming to kill?

Wait, now, till you hear. When you were stealing the fowl, I was lying in a hole in the sand, and I heard three men coming with a shuffling sort of noise. They were wounded and groaning.

Go on. Tell me about the fight.

There had been a fight, a great fight, a tremendous great fight. A young man had landed on the shore, the guardians of the shore had asked his name, and he had refused to tell it, and he had killed one, and others had run away.

That’s enough. Come on now to the fowl. I wish it was bigger. I wish it was as big as a goose.

[79]

Hush! I haven’t told you all. I know who that young man is. I heard the men who were running away say he had red hair, that he had come from Aoife’s country, that he was coming to kill Cuchulain.

Nobody can do that.

Hush! hush!

Out of the very bottom of the bitter black north.

[80]

Hush, I say!

Does Cuchulain know that he is coming to kill him?

How would he know that with his head in the clouds? He doesn’t care for common fighting. Why would he put himself out, and nobody in it but that young man? Now, if it were a white fawn that might turn into a queen before morning—

Come to the fowl. I wish it was as big as a pig; a fowl with goose grease and pig’s crackling.

No hurry, no hurry. I know whose son it is. I wouldn’t tell anybody else, but I will tell you,—a secret is better to you than your dinner. You like being told secrets.

Tell me the secret.

[81]

That young man is Aoife’s son. I am sure it is Aoife’s son, it flows in upon me that it is Aoife’s son. You have often heard me talking of Aoife, the great woman-fighter Cuchulain got the mastery over in the north?

I know, I know. She is one of those cross queens that live in hungry Scotland.

I am sure it is her son. I was in Aoife’s country for a long time.

That was before you were blinded for putting a curse upon the wind.

There was a boy in her house that had her own red colour on him and everybody said he was to be brought up to kill Cuchulain, that she hated Cuchulain. She used to put a helmet on a pillar-stone and call it Cuchulain and set him casting at it. There is a step outside—Cuchulain’s step.

[82]

Where is Cuchulain going?

He is going to meet Conchubar that has bidden him to take the oath.

Ah, an oath, Blind Man. How can I remember so many things at once? Who is going to take an oath?

Cuchulain is going to take an oath to Conchubar who is High King.

What a mix-up you make of everything, Blind Man. You were telling me one story, and now you are telling me another story.... How can I get the hang of it at the end if you mix everything at the beginning? Wait till I settle it out. There now, there’s Cuchulain [he points to one foot], and there is the young man [he points to the other foot] that is coming to kill him, and Cuchulain doesn’t know. But[83] where’s Conchubar? [Takes bag from side.] That’s Conchubar with all his riches—Cuchulain, young man, Conchubar—And where’s Aoife? [Throws up cap.] There is Aoife, high up on the mountains in high hungry Scotland. Maybe it is not true after all. Maybe it was your own making up. It’s many a time you cheated me before with your lies. Come to the cooking-pot, my stomach is pinched and rusty. Would you have it to be creaking like a gate?

I tell you it’s true. And more than that is true. If you listen to what I say, you’ll forget your stomach.

I won’t.

Listen. I know who the young man’s father is, but I won’t say. I would be afraid to say. Ah, Fool, you would forget everything if you could know who the young man’s father is.

Who is it? Tell me now quick, or I’ll shake you. Come, out with it, or I’ll shake you.

[84]

Wait, wait. There’s somebody coming. . . . It is Cuchulain is coming. He’s coming back with the High King. Go and ask Cuchulain. He’ll tell you. It’s little you’ll care about the cooking-pot when you have asked Cuchulain that. . . .

I’ll ask him. Cuchulain will know. He was in Aoife’s country. [Goes up stage.] I’ll ask him. [Turns and goes down stage.] But, no. I won’t ask him, I would be afraid. [Going up again.] Yes, I will ask him. What harm in asking? The Blind Man said I was to ask him. [Going down.] No, no. I’ll not ask him. He might kill me. I have but killed hens and geese and pigs. He has killed kings. [Goes up again almost to big door.] Who says I’m afraid? I’m not afraid. I’m no coward. I’ll ask him. No, no, Cuchulain, I’m not going to ask you.

[85]

[99]

You have eaten it, you have eaten it! You have left me nothing but the bones.

[113]

O, that I should have to endure such a plague! O, I ache all over! O, I am pulled to pieces! This is the way you pay me all the good I have done you!

You have eaten it! You have told me lies. I might have known you had eaten it when I saw your slow, sleepy walk. Lie there till the kings come. O, I will tell Conchubar and Cuchulain and all the kings about you!

What would have happened to you but for me, and you without your wits? If I did not take care of you, what would you do for food and warmth?

You take care of me! You stay safe, and send me into every kind of danger. You sent me down the cliff for gulls’ eggs while you warmed your blind eyes in the sun; and then you ate all that were good for food. You left me the eggs that were neither egg nor bird. [BLIND MAN tries to rise; FOOL makes him lie down again.] Keep quiet now, till I shut the door. There is[114] some noise outside—a high vexing noise, so that I can’t be listening to myself. [Shuts the big door.] Why can’t they be quiet! why can’t they be quiet! [BLIND MAN tries to get away.] Ah! you would get away, would you! [Follows BLIND MAN and brings him back.] Lie there! lie there! No, you won’t get away! Lie there till the kings come. I’ll tell them all about you. I will tell it all. How you sit warming yourself, when you have made me light a fire of sticks, while I sit blowing it with my mouth. Do you not always make me take the windy side of the bush when it blows, and the rainy side when it rains?

Oh, good Fool! listen to me. Think of the care I have taken of you. I have brought you to many a warm hearth, where there was a good welcome for you, but you would not stay there; you were always wandering about.

The last time you brought me in it was not I who wandered away, but you that got put out because you took the crubeen out of the pot when nobody was looking. Keep quiet, now!

[115]

Witchcraft! There is no witchcraft on the earth, or among the witches of the air, that these hands cannot break.

Listen to me, Cuchulain. I left him turning the fowl at the fire. He ate it all, though I had stolen it. He left me nothing but the feathers.

Fill me a horn of ale!

I gave him what he likes best. You do not know how vain this fool is. He likes nothing so well as a feather.

He left me nothing but the bones and feathers. Nothing but the feathers, though I had stolen it.

Give me that horn! Quarrels here, too! [Drinks.] What is there between you two that is worth a quarrel? Out with it![116]

Where would he be but for me? I must be always thinking—thinking to get food for the two of us, and when we’ve got it, if the moon is at the full or the tide on the turn, he’ll leave the rabbit in the snare till it is full of maggots, or let the trout slip back through his hands into the stream.

Listen to him, now. That’s the sort of talk I have to put up with day out, day in.

He has taken my feathers to wipe his sword. It is blood that he is wiping from his sword.[117]

They are standing about his body. They will not awaken him, for all his witchcraft.

It is that young champion that he has killed. He that came out of Aoife’s country.

He thought to have saved himself with witchcraft.

That blind man there said he would kill you. He came from Aoife’s country to kill you. That blind man said they had taught him every kind of weapon that he might do it. But I always knew that you would kill him.

You knew him, then?

I saw him, when I had my eyes, in Aoife’s country.

You were in Aoife’s country?

[118]

I knew him and his mother there.

He was about to speak of her when he died.

He was a queen’s son.

What queen? what queen? [Seizes BLIND MAN, who is now sitting upon the bench.] Was it Scathach? There were many queens. All the rulers there were queens.

No, not Scathach.

It was Uathach, then? Speak! speak!

I cannot speak; you are clutching me too tightly. [CUCHULAIN lets him go.] I cannot remember who it was. I am not certain. It was some queen.

He said a while ago that the young man was Aoife’s son.

[119]

She? No, no! She had no son when I was there.

That blind man there said that she owned him for her son.

I had rather he had been some other woman’s son. What father had he? A soldier out of Alba? She was an amorous woman—a proud, pale, amorous woman.

None knew whose son he was.

None knew! Did you know, old listener at doors?

No, no; I knew nothing.

He said awhile ago that he heard Aoife boast that she’d never but the one lover, and he the only man that had overcome her in battle.

[120]

Somebody is trembling, Fool! The bench is shaking. Why are you trembling? Is Cuchulain going to hurt us? It was not I who told you, Cuchulain.

It is Cuchulain who is trembling. It is Cuchulain who is shaking the bench.

It is his own son he has slain.

He is outside the door.

Outside the door?

Between the door and the sea.

Conchubar, Conchubar! the sword into your heart![122]

He is going up to King Conchubar. They are all about the young man. No, no, he is standing still. There is a great wave going to break, and he is looking at it. Ah! now he is running down to the sea, but he is holding up his sword as if he were going into a fight. [Pause.] Well struck! well struck!

What is he doing now?

O! he is fighting the waves!

He sees King Conchubar’s crown on every one of them.

There, he has struck at a big one! He has struck the crown off it; he has made the foam fly. There again, another big one![123]

Where are the kings? What are the kings doing?

They are shouting and running down to the shore, and the people are running out of the houses. They are all running.

You say they are running out of the houses? There will be nobody left in the houses. Listen, Fool!

There, he is down! He is up again. He is going out into the deep water. There is a big wave. It has gone over him. I cannot see him now. He has killed kings and giants, but the waves have mastered him, the waves have mastered him!

Come here, Fool!

The waves have mastered him.

[124]

Come here!

The waves have mastered him.

Come here, I say!

What is it?

There will be nobody in the houses. Come this way; come quickly! The ovens will be full. We will put our hands into the ovens.

[125]

DEIRDRE

[126]

[127]

PERSONS IN THE PLAY

[128] [129]

DEIRDRE

[179]

THE SHADOWY WATERS

[180]

[181]

[183]

THE HARP OF AENGUS

PERSONS IN THE PLAY

[185]

[230] [231]