by W. B. Yeats
DEIRDRE. — Were it not most strange
That women should put evil in men’s hearts
And lack it in themselves? And yet I think
That being half good I might change round again
Were we aboard our ship and on the sea.
NAISI. We’ll to the horses and take ship again
FERGUS. Fool, she but seeks to rouse your jealousy
With crafty words.
DEIRDRE. Were we not born to wander?
These jewels have been reaped by the innocent sword
Upon a mountain, and a mountain bred me;
But who can tell what change can come to love
Among the valleys? I speak no falsehood now.
Away to windy summits, and there mock
The night-jar and the valley-keeping bird!
FERGUS. Men blamed you that you stirred a quarrel up
That has brought death to many. I have made peace;
Poured water on the fire, but if you fly
King Conchubar may think that he is mocked
And the house blaze again; and in what quarter,
If Conchubar were the treacherous man you think,
Would you find safety now that you have come
Into the very middle of his power,
Under his very eyes.
DEIRDRE. — Under his eyes
And in the very middle of his power.
Then there is but one way to make all safe,
I’ll spoil this beauty that brought misery
And houseless wandering on the man I loved.
These wanderers will show me how to do it;
To clip this hair to baldness, blacken my skin
With walnut juice, and tear my face with briars.
Oh, that the creatures of the woods had torn
My body with their claws!
FERGUS. — What, wilder yet!
DEIRDRE. [to NAISI]. Whatever were to happen to my face
I’d be myself, and there’s not any way
But this to bring all trouble to an end.
NAISI. Leave the gods’ handiwork unblotched, and wait
For their decession, our decession is past.
[A dark-faced messenger comes to the threshold.
FERGUS. Peace, peace; the messenger is at the door;
He stands upon the threshold; he stands there;
He stands, King Conchubar’s purpose on his lips.
MESSENGER.Supper is on the table, Conchubar
Is waiting for his guests.
FERGUS. — All’s well again!
All’s well! all’s well! You cried your doubts so loud
That I had almost doubted.
NAISI. — We doubted him,
And he the while but busy in his house
For the more welcome.
DEIRDRE. The message is not finished.
FERGUS. Come quickly. Conchubar will laugh, that I —
Although I held out boldly in my speech —
That I, even I —
DEIRDRE. Wait, wait! He is not done.
MESSENGER.Deirdre and Fergus, son of
Roigh, are summoned;
But not the traitor that bore off the queen.
It is enough that the king pardon her,
And call her to his table and his bed.
NAISI. So then, it’s treachery.
FERGUS. — I’ll not believe it.
NAISI. Lead on and I will follow at your heels
That I may challenge him before his court
To match me there, or match me in some place
Where none can come between us but our swords,
For I have found no truth on any tongue
That’s not of iron.
MESSENGER.I am Conchubar’s man,
I am content to serve an iron tongue:
That Tongue commands that Fergus, son of Roigh
And Deirdre come this night into his house
And none but they.
[He goes followed by NAISI.
FERGUS. Some rogue, some enemy,
Has bribed him to embroil us with the king;
I know that he has lied because I know
King Conchubar’s mind as if it were my own,
But I’ll find out the truth.
[He is about to follow NAISI, but DEIRDRE stops him.
DEIRDRE. — No, no, old man,
You thought the best, and the worst came of it;
We listened to the counsel of the wise,
And so turned fools. But ride and bring your friends.
Go, and go quickly. Conchubar has not seen me;
It may be that his passion is asleep,
And that we may escape.
FERGUS. — But I’ll go first,
And follow up that Libyan heel, and send
Such words to Conchubar, that he may know
At how great peril he lays hands upon you.
NAISI enters.
NAISI. The Libyan, knowing that a servant’s life
Is safe from hands like mine, but turned and mocked.
FERGUS. I’ll call my friends, and call the reaping-hooks,
And carry you in safety to the ships.
My name has still some power. I will protect,
Or, if that is impossible, revenge.
[Goes out by other door.
NAISI [who is calm, like a man who has passed beyond life”]. The crib has fallen and the birds are in it;
There is not one of the great oaks about us
But shades a hundred men.
DEIRDRE. — Let’s out and die,
Or break away, if the chance favour us.
NAISI. They would but drag you from me, stained with blood.
Their barbarous weapons would but mar that beauty,
And I would have you die as a queen should —
In a death chamber. You are in my charge.
We will wait here, and when they come upon us,
I’ll hold them from the doors, and when that’s over,
Give you a cleanly death with this grey edge.
DEIRDRE. I will stay here; but you go out and fight.
Our way of life has brought no friends to us,
And if we do not buy them leaving it,
We shall be ever friendless.
NAISI. — What do they say?
That Lughaidh Redstripe and that wife of his
Sat at this chessboard, waiting for their end.
They knew that there was nothing that could save them,
And so played chess as they had any night
For years, and waited for the stroke of sword.
I never heard a death so out of reach
Of common hearts, a high and comely end.
What need have I, that gave up all for love,
To die like an old king out of a fable,
Fighting and passionate? What need is there
For all that ostentation at my setting?
I have loved truly and betrayed no man.
I need no lightning at the end, no beating
In a vain fury at the cage’s door.
[To musicians.] Had you been here when that man and his queen
Played at so high a game, could you have found
An ancient poem for the praise of it?
It should have set out plainly that those two,
Because no man and woman have loved better,
Might sit on there contentedly, and weigh
The joy comes after. I have heard the seamew
Sat there, with all the colour in her cheeks,
As though she’d say: ‘There’s nothing happening
But that a king and queen are playing chess.’
DEIRDRE. He’s in the right, though I have not been born
Of the cold, haughty waves, my veins being hot,
And though I have loved better than that queen,
I’ll have as quiet fingers on the board.
Oh, singing women, set it down in a book,
; That love is all we need, even though it is
But the last drops we gather up like this;
And though the drops are all we have known of life,
For we have been most friendless — praise us for it
And praise the double sunset, for naught’s lacking,
But a good end to the long, cloudy day.
NAISI. Light torches there and drive the shadows out.
For day’s grey end comes up.
[A musician lights a torch in the fire and then crosses before the chess-players, and slowly lights the torches in the sconces. The light is almost gone from the wood, but there is a clear evening light in the sky, increasing the sense of solitude and loneliness.
DEIRDRE. — Make no sad music.
What is it but a king and queen at chess?
They need a music that can mix itself
Into imagination, but not break
The steady thinking that the hard game needs.
[“During the chess, the musicians sing this song.]
Love is an immoderate thing
And can never be content,
Till it dip an ageing wing,
Where some laughing element
Leaps and Time’s old lanthorn dims.
What’s the merit in love-play,
In the tumult of the limbs
That dies out before ‘tis day,
Heart on heart, or mouth on mouth,
All that mingling of our breath,
When love longing is but drouth
For the things come after death?
[During the last verses DEIRDRE rises from the board and kneels at NAISI’s feet.
DEIRDRE. I cannot go on playing like that woman
That had but the cold blood of the sea in her veins.
NAISI. It is your move. Take up your man again.
DEIRDRE. Do you remember that first night in the woods
We lay all night on leaves, and looking up,
When the first grey of the dawn awoke the birds,
Saw leaves above us? You thought that I still slept,
And bending down to kiss me on the eyes,
Found they were open. Bend and kiss me now,
For it may be the last before our death.
And when that’s over, we’ll be different;
Imperishable things, a cloud or a fire.
And I know nothing but this body, nothing
But that old vehement, bewildering kiss.
[CONCHUBAR comes to the door.
MUS. Children, beware!
NAISI [laughing]. He has taken up my challenge;
Whether I am a ghost or living man
When day has broken, I’ll forget the rest,
And say that there is kingly stuff in him.
[Turns to fetch spear and shield, and then sees that CONCHUBAR has gone.
FIRST MUS. He came to spy upon you, not to fight.
NAISI. A prudent hunter, therefore, but no king.
He’d find if what has fallen in the pit
Were worth the hunting, but has come too near,
And I turn hunter. You’re not man, but beast.
Go scurry in the bushes, now, beast, beast,
For now it’s topsy-turvy. I upon you.
[He rushes out after CONCHUBAR.
DEIRDRE. You have a knife there, thrust into your girdle.
I’d have you give it me.
MUS. — No, but I dare not.
DEIRDRE. No, but you must.
m us. — If harm should come to you,
They’d know I gave it.
DEIRDRE. [snatching knife]. There is no mark on this
To make it different from any other
Out of a common forge.
[Goes to the door and looks out.
MUS. — You have taken it,
I did not give it you; but there are times
When such a thing is all the friend one has.
DEIRDRE. The leaves hide all, and there’s no way to find
What path to follow. Why is there no sound?
[She goes from door to window.
MUS. Where would you go?
DEIRDRE. To strike a blow for Naisi,
If Conchubar call the Libyans to his aid.
But why is there no clash? They have met by this!
MUS. Listen. I am called wise. If Conchubar win,
You have a woman’s wile that can do much,
Even with men in pride of victory.
He is in love and old. What were one knife
Among a hundred?
DEIRDRE. [going towards them]. Women, if I die,
If Naisi die this night, how will you praise?
What words seek out? for that will stand to you;
For being but dead we shall have many friends.
All through your wanderings, the doors of kings
Shall be thrown wider open, the poor man’s hearth
Heaped with new turf, because you are wearing this
[Gives musician a bracelet.
To show that you have Deirdre’s story right.
MUS. Have you not been paid servants in love’s house
To sweep the ashes out and keep the doors?
And though you have suffered all for mere love’s sake
You’d live your lives again.
DEIRDRE. — Even this last hour.
CONCHUBAR enters with dark-faced men.
CONCHUBAR One woman and two men; that is the quarrel
That knows no mending. Bring in the man she chose
Because of his beauty and the strength of his youth.
[The dark-faced men drag in NAISI entangled in a net.
NAISI. I have been taken like a bird or a fish.
CONCHUBAR He cried ‘Beast, beast!’ and in a blind-beast rage
He ran at me and fell into the nets,
But we were careful for your sake, and took him
With all the comeliness that woke desire
Unbroken in him. I being old and lenient
I would not hurt a hair upon his head.
DEIRDRE. What do you say? Have you forgiven him?
NAISI. He is but mocking us. What’s left to say
Now that the seven years’ hunt is at an end?
DEIRDRE. He never doubted you until I made him,
And therefore all the blame for what he says
Should fall on me.
CONCHUBAR But his young blood is hot,
And if we’re of one mind, he shall go free,
And I ask nothing for it, or, if something,
Nothing I could not take. There is no king
In the wide world that, being so greatly wronged,
Could copy me, and give all vengeance up.
Although her marriage-day had all but come,
You carried her away; but I’ll show mercy.
Because you had the insolent strength of youth
You carried her away; but I’ve had time
To think it out through all these seven years.
I will show mercy.
NAISI. — You have many words.
CONCHUBAR I will not make a bargain; I but ask
What is already mine.
[DEIRDRE moves slowly towards CONCHUBAR while he is speakings her eyes fixed upon him.
You may go free
If Deirdre will but walk into my house
Before the people’s eyes, that they may know
When I have put the crown upon her head
I have not taken her by force and guile.
The doors are open, and the floors are strewed
And in the bridal chamber curtains sewn
With all enchantments that give happiness,
By races that are germane to the sun,
And nearest him, and have no blood in their veins —
For when they’re wounded the wound drips with wine —
Nor speech but singing. At the bridal door
Two fair king’s daughters carry in their hands
T
he crown and robe.
DEIRDRE. Oh, no! Not that, not that.
Ask any other thing but that one thing.
Leave me with Naisi. We will go away.
Into some country at the ends of the earth.
We’ll trouble you no more; and there is no one
That will not praise you if you pardon us.
‘He is good, he is good,’ they’ll say to one another;
‘There’s nobody like him, for he forgave
Deirdre and Naisi.’
CONCHUBAR — Do you think that I
Shall let you go again, after seven years
Of longing and of planning here and there,
And trafficking with merchants for the stones
That make all sure, and watching my own face
That none might read it?
DEIRDRE. to NAISI. It’s better to go with him.
Why should you die when one can bear it all?
My life is over; it’s better to obey.
Why should you die? I will not live long,
NAISI.
I’d not have you believe I’d long stay living;
Oh no, no, no! You will go far away.
You will forget me. Speak, speak, Naisi, speak,
And say that it is better that I go.
I will not ask it. Do not speak a word,
For I will take it all upon myself.
Conchubar, I will go.
NAISI. — And do you think
That, were I given life at such a price,
I would not cast it from me? O my eagle!
Why do you beat vain wings upon the rock
When hollow night’s above?
DEIRDRE. — It’s better, Naisi.
It may be hard for you, but you’ll forget.
For what am I, to be remembered always?
And there are other women. There was one,
The daughter of the King of Leodas;