by W. B. Yeats
Because you hated peace. I can remember
The people crying out when Deirdre passed
And Maine Morgor had a cold grey eye.
Well, well, I’ll throw this heel-tap on the ground,
For it may be they are thirsty.
A KING.
Be silent, fool.
ANOTHER KING.
Be silent, Daire.
CONCOBAR.
Let him speak his mind.
I have no need to be afraid of ghosts,
For I have made but necessary wars.
I warred to strengthen Emain, or because
When wars are out they marry and beget
And have their generations like mankind
And there’s no help for it; but I’m well content
That they have ended and left the town so great,
That its mere name shall be in times to come
Like a great ale vat where the men of the world
Shall drink no common ale but the hard will,
The unquenchable hope, the friendliness of the sword.
(He takes thin boards on which plans have been carved by those about him.)
Give me the building plans, and have you written
That we — Cuchullain is looking in his shield;
It may be the pale riders of the wind
Throw pictures on it, or that Mananan,
His father’s friend and sometime fosterer,
Foreknower of all things, has cast a vision,
Out of the cold dark of the rich sea,
Foretelling Emain’s greatness.
CUCHULLAIN.
No, great King,
I looked on this out of mere idleness,
Imagining a woman that I loved.
(The sound of a trumpet without.)
CONCOBAR.
Open the door, for that is a herald’s trumpet.
(The great door at the back is flung open; a young man who is fully armed and carries a shield with a woman’s head painted on it, stands upon the threshold. Behind him are trumpeters. He walks into the centre of the hall, the trumpeting ceases.)
What is your message?
YOUNG MAN.
I am of Aoife’s army.
FIRST KING.
Queen Aoife and her army have fallen upon us.
SECOND KING.
Out swords! Out swords!
THIRD KING.
They are about the house.
FOURTH KING.
Rush out! Rush out! Before they have fired the thatch.
YOUNG MAN.
Aoife is far away. I am alone.
I have come alone in the midst of you
To weigh this sword against Cuchullain’s sword.
(There is a murmur amongst the Kings.)
CONCOBAR.
And are you noble? for if of common seed
You cannot weigh your sword against his sword
But in mixed battle.
YOUNG MAN.
I am under bonds
To tell my name to no man, but it’s noble.
CONCOBAR.
But I would know your name and not your bonds.
You cannot speak in the Assembly House
If you are not noble.
A KING.
Answer the High King.
YOUNG MAN.
(Drawing his sword.)
I will give no other proof than the hawk gives
That it’s no sparrow.
(He is silent a moment then speaks to all.)
Yet look upon me, Kings;
I too am of that ancient seed and carry
The signs about this body and in these bones.
CUCHULLAIN.
To have shown the hawk’s grey feather is enough
And you speak highly too.
(Cuchullain comes down from his great chair. He remains standing on the steps of the chair. The young Kings gather about him and begin to arm him.)
Give me that helmet!
I’d thought they had grown weary sending champions.
That coat will do. I’d half forgotten, boy,
How all those great kings came into the mouse-trap
That had been baited with Maeve’s pretty daughter.
How Findabair, that blue-eyed Findabair —
But the tale is worthy of a winter’s night.
That buckle should be tighter. Give me your shield.
There is good level ground at Baile’s Yew-tree
Some dozen yards from here, and it’s but truth
That I am sad to-day and this fight welcome.
(He looks hard at the Young Man, and then steps down on to the floor of the Assembly House. He grasps the Young Man by the shoulder.)
Hither into the light.
(Turning to one of the young Kings)
That’s the very tint
Of her that I was speaking of but now:
Not a pin’s difference.
(To the Young Man)
You are from the North
Where there are many that have that tint of hair
Red brown, the light red brown. Come nearer, boy!
For I would have another look at you.
There’s more likeness, a pale, a stone pale cheek.
What brought you, boy? Have you no fear of death?
YOUNG MAN.
Whether I live or die is in the Gods’ hands.
CUCHULLAIN.
That is all words, all words, a young man’s talk;
I am their plough, their harrow, their very strength,
For he that’s in the sun begot this body
Upon a mortal woman, and I have heard tell
It seemed as if he had outrun the moon,
That he must always follow through waste heaven,
He loved so happily. He’ll be but slow
To break a tree that was so sweetly planted.
Let’s see that arm; I’ll see it if I like.
That arm had a good father and a good mother
But it is not like this.
YOUNG MAN.
You are mocking me.
You think I am not worthy to be fought,
But I’ll not wrangle but with this talkative knife.
CUCHULLAIN.
Put up your sword, I am not mocking you.
I’d have you for my friend, but if it’s not
Because you have a hot heart and a cold eye
I cannot tell the reason. You’ve got her fierceness,
And nobody is as fierce as those pale women.
(To the young Kings)
We’ll keep him here in Muirthemne awhile.
A YOUNG KING.
You are the leader of our pack and therefore
May cry what you will.
CUCHULLAIN.
You’ll stop with us
And we will hunt the deer and the wild bulls
And, when we have grown weary, light our fires
In sandy places where the wool-white foam
Is murmuring and breaking, and it may be
That long-haired women will come out of the dunes
To dance in the yellow fire-light. You hang your head,
Young man, as if it was not a good life;
And yet what’s better than to hurl the spear,
And hear the long-remembering harp, and dance;
Friendship grows quicker in the murmuring dark;
But I can see there’s no more need for words
And that you’ll be my friend now.
FIRST OLD KING.
Concobar,
Forbid their friendship, for it will get twisted
To a reproach against us.
CONCOBAR.
Until now
I’d never need to cry Cuchullain on
And would not now.
FIRST OLD KING.
They’ll say his manhood’s quenched.
CUCHULLAIN.
I’ll give you gifts, but I’ll have something too,
An arm-ring or the like, and if you w
ill
We’ll fight it out when you are older, boy.
AN OLD KING.
Aoife will make some story out of this.
CUCHULLAIN.
Well, well, what matter, I’ll have that arm-ring, boy.
YOUNG MAN.
There is no man I’d sooner have my friend
Than you whose name has gone about the world
As if it had been the wind, but Aoife’d say
I had turned coward.
CUCHULLAIN.
I’ll give you gifts
That Aoife’ll know and all her people know
To have been my gifts. Mananan son of the sea
Gave me this heavy purple cloak. Nine Queens
Of the Land-under-Wave had woven it
Out of the fleeces of the sea. O! tell her
I was afraid, or tell her what you will.
No! tell her that I heard a raven croak
On the north side of the house and was afraid.
AN OLD KING.
Some witch of the air has troubled Cuchullain’s mind.
CUCHULLAIN.
No witchcraft, his head is like a woman’s head
I had a fancy for.
SECOND OLD KING.
A witch of the air
Can make a leaf confound us with memories.
They have gone to school to learn the trick of it.
CUCHULLAIN.
But there’s no trick in this. That arm-ring, boy.
THIRD OLD KING.
He shall not go unfought, I’ll fight with him.
FOURTH OLD KING.
No! I will fight with him.
FIRST OLD KING.
I claim the fight,
For when we sent an army to her land —
SECOND OLD KING.
I claim the fight, for one of Aoife’s galleys
Stole my great cauldron and a herd of pigs.
THIRD OLD KING.
No, no, I claim it, for at Lammas’ time —
CUCHULLAIN.
Back! Back! Put up your swords! Put up your swords!
There’s none alive that shall accept a challenge
I have refused. Laegaire, put up your sword.
YOUNG MAN.
No, let them come, let any three together.
If they’ve a mind to, I’ll try it out with four.
CUCHULLAIN.
That’s spoken as I’d spoken it at your age,
But you are in my house. Whatever man
Would fight with you shall fight it out with me.
They’re dumb. They’re dumb. How many of you would meet (drawing his sword)
This mutterer, this old whistler, this sand-piper,
This edge that’s greyer than the tide, this mouse
That’s gnawing at the timbers of the world,
This, this — Boy, I would meet them all in arms
If I’d a son like you. He would avenge me
When I have withstood for the last time the men
Whose fathers, brothers, sons, and friends I have killed
Upholding Ullad; when the four provinces
Have gathered with the ravens over them.
But I’d need no avenger. You and I
Would scatter them like water from a dish.
YOUNG MAN.
We’ll stand by one another from this out.
Here is the ring.
CUCHULLAIN.
No, turn and turn about
But my turn is first, because I am the older.
Cliodna embroidered these bird wings, but Fand
Made all these little golden eyes with the hairs
That she had stolen out of Aengus’ beard,
And therefore none that has this cloak about him
Is crossed in love. The heavy inlaid brooch
That Buan hammered has a merit too.
(He begins spreading the cloak out on a bench, showing it to the Young Man. Suddenly Concobar beats with his silver rod on a pillar beside his chair. All turn towards him.)
CONCOBAR.
(In a loud voice.) No more of that, I will not have this friendship.
Cuchullain is my man and I forbid it;
He shall not go unfought for I myself —
CUCHULLAIN.
(Seizing Concobar.) You shall not stir, High King, I’ll hold you there.
CONCOBAR.
Witchcraft has maddened you.
THE KINGS.
(Shouting.) Yes, witchcraft, witchcraft.
A KING.
You saw another’s head upon his shoulders
All of a sudden, a woman’s head, Cuchullain,
Then raised your hand against the King of Ullad.
CUCHULLAIN.
(Letting Concobar go, and looking wildly about him.)
Yes, yes, all of a sudden, all of a sudden.
DAIRE.
Why, there’s no witchcraft in it, I myself
Have made a hundred of these sudden friendships
And fought it out next day. But that was folly,
For now that I am old I know it is best
To live in comfort.
A KING.
Pull the fool away.
DAIRE.
I’ll throw a heel-tap to the one that dies.
CONCOBAR.
Some witch is floating in the air above us.
CUCHULLAIN.
Yes, witchcraft, witchcraft and the power of witchcraft.
(To the Young Man)
Why did you do it? was it Calatin’s daughters?
Out, out, I say, for now it’s sword on sword.
YOUNG MAN.
But, but, I did not.
CUCHULLAIN.
Out, I say, out, out!
Sword upon sword.
(He goes towards the door at back, followed by Young Man. He turns on the threshold and cries out, looking at the Young Man.)
That hair my hands were drowned in!
(He goes out, followed by Young Man. The other Kings begin to follow them out.)
A KING.
I saw him fight with Ferdiad.
SECOND KING.
We’ll be too late
They’re such a long time getting through the door.
THIRD KING.
Run quicker, quicker.
DAIRE.
I was at the Smith’s
When he that was the boy Setanta then —
(Sound of fighting outside.)