PREFACE

In a note at the end of my last book 'The Wild Swans at Coole' (Cuala Press.) I explained why I preferred this kind of drama, and where I had found my models, and where and how my first play after this kind was performed, and when and how I would have it performed in the future. I can but refer the reader to the note or to the long introduction to 'Certain Noble Plays of Japan' (Cuala Press.)

W. B. Yeats. October 11th. 1918

P. S. That I might write 'The Dreaming of the Bones,' Mr. W. A. Henderson with great kindness wrote out for me all historical allusions to Dervorgilla.

[Pg 1]

THE DREAMING OF THE BONES

The stage is any bare place in a room close to the wall. A screen with a pattern of mountain and sky can stand against the wall, or a curtain with a like pattern hang upon it, but the pattern must only symbolize or suggest. One musician enters and then two others, the first stands singing while the others take their places. Then all three sit down against the wall by their instruments, which are already there—a drum, a zither, and a flute. Or they unfold a cloth as in 'The Hawk's Well,' while the instruments are carried in.

FIRST MUSICIAN

(A young man enters, praying in Irish)

(A man and a girl both in the costume of a past time, come in. They wear heroic masks)

YOUNG MAN

[Pg 3]

STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

(The Girl blows out lantern)

STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

[Pg 4]

STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

[Pg 5]

STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

STRANGER

(They go round the stage once)

FIRST MUSICIAN

(They go once round the stage. The first musician speaks.)

(They go round the stage. The first musician speaks.)

THE STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

STRANGER

YOUNG MAN

THE GIRL

YOUNG MAN

YOUNG GIRL

YOUNG MAN

YOUNG GIRL

YOUNG MAN

THE GIRL

YOUNG MAN

THE GIRL

YOUNG MAN

THE GIRL

YOUNG MAN

THE GIRL

YOUNG MAN

THE GIRL

YOUNG MAN

THE GIRL

[Pg 13]

YOUNG MAN

THE GIRL

YOUNG MAN

(They go once round stage)

THE GIRL

YOUNG MAN

THE GIRL

YOUNG MAN

(The Musicians begin unfolding and folding a black cloth. The First Musician comes forward to the front of the stage, at the centre. He holds the cloth before him. The other two come one on either side and unfold it. They afterwards fold it up in the same way. While it is unfolded, the Young Man leaves the stage)

THE MUSICIANS

I

II

[Pg 17]

THE ONLY JEALOUSY OF EMER

Enter Musicians, who are dressed as in the earlier play. They have the same musical instruments, which can either be already upon the stage or be brought in by the First Musician before he stands in the centre with the cloth between his hands, or by a player when the cloth is unfolded. The stage as before can be against the wall of any room.

FIRST MUSICIAN

(During the unfolding and folding of the cloth)

(When the cloth is folded again the Musicians take their place against wall. The folding of the cloth shows on one side of the stage the curtained bed or litter on which lies a man in his grave-clothes. He wears an heroic mask. Another man with exactly similar clothes and mask crouches near the front. Emer is sitting beside the bed.)

FIRST MUSICIAN

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

[Pg 20]

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

(She pulls the curtains of the bed so as to hide the sick man's face, that the actor may change his mask unseen. She goes to one side of platform and moves[Pg 23] her hand as though putting logs on a fire and stirring it into a blaze. While she makes these movements the Musicians play, marking the movements with drum and flute perhaps.

Having finished she stands beside the imaginary fire at a distance from Cuchulain & Eithne Inguba.)

Call on Cuchulain now.

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

EITHNE INGUBA

EMER

[Pg 25]

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

(sitting up and showing its distorted face. Eithne Inguba goes out)

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

(He touches her eyes with his left hand, the right being withered)

[Pg 28]

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

(a Woman of the Sidhe has entered and stands a little inside the door)

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

EMER

(She draws a knife from her girdle)

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

(They are about to kiss, he turns away)

WOMAN of the SIDHE

[Pg 33]

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

(Their lips approach but Cuchulain turns away as Emer speaks.)

EMER

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

GHOST of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

(The Ghost of Cuchulain goes out)

WOMAN of the SIDHE (to Figure of Cuchulain)

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

FIGURE of CUCHULAIN

WOMAN of the SIDHE

(The Figure of Cuchulain falls back, the Woman of the Sidhe goes out. Drum taps, music resembling horse hoofs.)

EITHNE INGUBA (entering quickly)

[Pg 37]

EMER

(The figure turns round. It once more wears the heroic mask.)

CUCHULAIN

(The First Musician comes to the front of stage, the others from each side and unfold the cloth singing)

THE MUSICIANS

(When the cloth is folded again the stage is bare.)

[Pg 39]

Here ends, 'Two Plays for Dancers,' by William Butler Yeats. Four hundred copies of this book have been printed and published by Elizabeth Corbet Yeats on paper made in Ireland, at the Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, in the County of Dublin, Ireland. Finished on the tenth day of January in the year nineteen hundred and nineteen.