by W. B. Yeats
[Then in a more solemn voice as he goes out]
Let the bravest take it up.
[CONALL takes up Helmet and gazes at it with delight]
LAEGAIRE
[Singing, with a swaggering stride]
Laegaire is best;
Between water and hill,
He fought in the west
With cat heads, until
At the break of day
All fell by his sword,
And he carried away
Their hidden hoard.
[He seizes the Helmet]
CONALL
Give it me, for what did you find in the bag
But the straw and the broken delf and the bits of dirty rag
You’d taken for good money?
CUCHULAIN
No, no, but give it me.
[He takes Helmet]
CONALL
The Helmet’s mine or Laegaire’s--you’re the youngest of us three.
CUCHULAIN
[Filling Helmet with ale]
I did not take it to keep it--the Red Man gave it for one,
But I shall give it to all--to all of us three or to none;
That is as you look upon it--we will pass it to and fro,
And time and time about, drink out of it and so
Stroke into peace this cat that has come to take our lives.
Now it is purring again, and now I drink to your wives,
And I drink to Emer, my wife.
[A great noise without and shouting]
Why, what in God’s name is that noise?
CONALL
What else but the charioteers and the kitchen and stable boys
Shouting against each other, and the worst of all is your own,
That chariot-driver, Laeg, and they’ll keep it up till the dawn,
And there’s not a man in the house that will close his eyes to-night,
Or be able to keep them from it, or know what set them to fight.
[A noise of horns without]
There, do you hear them now? such hatred has each for each
They have taken the hunting horns to drown one other’s speech
For fear the truth may prevail.--Here’s your good health and long life,
And, though she be quarrelsome, good health to Emer, your wife.
[The charioteers, Stable Boys and Kitchen Boys come running in.
They carry great horns, ladles and the like]
LAEG
I am Laeg, Cuchulain’s driver, and my master’s cock of the yard.
ANOTHER
Conall would scatter his feathers.
[Confused murmurs]
LAEGAIRE
[To CUCHULAIN]
No use, they won’t hear a word.
CONALL
They’ll keep it up till the dawn.
ANOTHER
It is Laegaire that is the best,
For he fought with cats in Connaught while Conall took his rest
And drained his ale pot.
ANOTHER
Laegaire--what does a man of his sort
Care for the like of us! He did it for his own sport.
ANOTHER
It was all mere luck at the best.
ANOTHER
But Conall, I say--
ANOTHER
Let me speak.
LAEG
You’d be dumb if the cock of the yard would but open his beak.
ANOTHER
Before your cock was born, my master was in the fight.
LAEG
Go home and praise your grand-dad. They took to the horns for spite,
For I said that no cock of your sort had been born since the fight began.
ANOTHER
Conall has got it, the best man has got it, and I am his man.
CUCHULAIN
Who was it started this quarrel?
A STABLE BOY
It was Laeg.
ANOTHER
It was Laeg done it all.
LAEG
A high, wide, foxy man came where we sat in the hall,
Getting our supper ready, with a great voice like the wind,
And cried that there was a helmet, or something of the kind,
That was for the foremost man upon the ridge of the earth.
So I cried your name through the hall,
[The others cry out and blow horns, partly drowning the rest of his
speech]
but they denied its worth,
Preferring Laegaire or Conall, and they cried to drown my voice;
But I have so strong a throat that I drowned all their noise
Till they took to the hunting horns and blew them into my face,
And as neither side would give in--we would settle it in this place.
Let the Helmet be taken from Conall.
A STABLE BOY
No, Conall is the best man here.
ANOTHER
Give it to Laegaire that made the murderous cats pay dear.
CUCHULAIN
It has been given to none: that our rivalry might cease,
We have turned that murderous cat into a cup of peace.
I drank the first; and then Conall; give it to Laegaire now,
[CONALL gives Helmet to LAEGAIRE]
That it may purr in his hand and all of our servants know
That since the ale went in, its claws went out of sight.
A SERVANT
That’s well--I will stop my shouting.
ANOTHER
Cuchulain is in the right;
I am tired of this big horn that has made me hoarse as a rook.
LAEG
Cuchulain, you drank the first.
ANOTHER
By drinking the first he took
The whole of the honours himself.
LAEG
Cuchulain, you drank the first.
ANOTHER
If Laegaire drink from it now he claims to be last and worst.
ANOTHER
Cuchulain and Conall have drunk.
ANOTHER
He is lost if he taste a drop.
LAEGAIRE
[Laying Helmet on table]
Did you claim to be better than us by drinking first from the cup?
CUCHULAIN
[His words are partly drowned by the murmurs of the crowd though he
speaks very loud]
That juggler from the sea, that old red herring it is
Who has set us all by the ears--he brought the Helmet for this,
And because we would not quarrel he ran elsewhere to shout
That Conall and Laegaire wronged me, till all had fallen out.
[The murmur grows less so that his words are heard]
Who knows where he is now or who he is spurring to fight?
So get you gone, and whatever may cry aloud in the night,
Or show itself in the air, be silent until morn.
A SERVANT
Cuchulain is in the right--I am tired of this big horn.
CUCHULAIN
Go!
[The Servants turn toward the door but stop on hearing the voices
of Women outside]
LAEGAIRE’S WIFE
[Without]
Mine is the better to look at.
CONALL’S WIFE
[Without]
But mine is better born.
EMER
[Without]
My man is the pithier man.
CUCHULAIN
Old hurricane, well done!
You’ve set our wives to the game that they may egg us on;
We are to kill each other that you may sport with us.
Ah, now, they’ve begun to wrestle as to who’ll be first at the house.
[The Women come to the door struggling]
EMER
No, I have the right of place for I married the better man.
CONALL’S WIFE
[Pulling Emer back]
My nails in your neck and shoulder.
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br /> LAEGAIRE’S WIFE
And go before me if you can.
My husband fought in the West.
CONALL’S WIFE
[Kneeling in the door so as to keep the others out who pull at
her]
But what did he fight with there
But sidelong and spitting and helpless shadows of the dim air?
And what did he carry away but straw and broken delf?
LAEGAIRE’S WIFE
Your own man made up that tale trembling alone by himself,
Drowning his terror.
EMER
[Forcing herself in front]
I am Emer, it is I go first through the door.
No one shall walk before me, or praise any man before
My man has been praised.
CUCHULAIN
[Spreading his arms across the door so as to close it]
Come, put an end to their quarrelling:
One is as fair as the other, and each one the wife of a king.
Break down the painted boards between the sill and the floor
That they come in together, each one at her own door.
[LAEGAIRE and CONALL begin to break out the bottoms of the windows,
then their wives go to the windows, each to the window where her
husband is. EMER stands at the door and sings while the boards are
being broken out]
EMER
Nothing that he has done,
His mind that is fire,
His body that is sun,
Have set my head higher
Than all the world’s wives.
Himself on the wind
Is the gift that he gives,
Therefore womenkind,
When their eyes have met mine,
Grow cold and grow hot,
Troubled as with wine
By a secret thought,
Preyed upon, fed upon
By jealousy and desire.
I am moon to that sun,
I am steel to that fire,
[The windows are now broken down to floor. CUCHULAIN takes his
spear from the door, and the three Women come in at the same
moment]
EMER
Cuchulain, put off this sloth and awake:
I will sing till I’ve stiffened your lip against every knave that would
take
A share of your honour.
LAEGAIRE’S WIFE
You lie, for your man would take from my man.
CONALL’S WIFE
[To LAEGAIRE’S WIFE]
You say that, you double-face, and your own husband began.
CUCHULAIN
[Taking up Helmet from table]
Town land may rail at town land till all have gone to wrack,
The very straws may wrangle till they’ve thrown down the stack;
The very door-posts bicker till they’ve pulled in the door,
The very ale-jars jostle till the ale is on the floor,
But this shall help no further.
[He throws Helmet into the sea]
LAEGAIRE’S WIFE
It was not for your head,
And so you would let none wear it, but fling it away instead.
CONALL’S WIFE
But you shall answer for it, for you’ve robbed my man by this.
CONALL
You have robbed us both, Cuchulain.
LAEGAIRE
The greatest wrong there is
On the wide ridge of the world has been done to us two this day.
EMER
[Drawing her dagger]
Who is for Cuchulain?
CUCHULAIN
Silence!
EMER
Who is for Cuchulain, I say?
[She sings the same words as before, flourishing her dagger about.
While she is singing, CONALL’S WIFE and LAEGAIRE’S WIFE draw their
daggers and run at her, but CUCHULAIN forces them back. LAEGAIRE and
CONALL draw their swords to strike CUCHULAIN]
LAEGAIRE’S WIFE
[Crying out so as to be heard through EMER’S singing]
Deafen her singing with horns!
CONALL’S WIFE
Cry aloud! blow horns! make a noise!
LAEGAIRE’S WIFE
Blow horns, clap hands, or shout, so that you smother her voice!
[The Horse Boys and Scullions blow their horns or fight among
themselves. There is a deafening noise and a confused fight.
Suddenly three black hands come through the windows and put out the
torches. It is now pitch dark, but for a faint light outside the
house which merely shows that there are moving forms, but not who or
what they are, and in the darkness one can hear low terrified
voices]
A VOICE
Coal-black, and headed like cats, they came up over the strand.
ANOTHER VOICE
And I saw one stretch to a torch and cover it with his hand.
ANOTHER VOICE
Another sooty fellow has plucked the moon from the air.
[A light gradually comes into the house from the sea, on which the
moon begins to show once more. There is no light within the house,
and the great beams of the walls are dark and full of shadows, and
the persons of the play dark too against the light. The RED MAN is
seen standing in the midst of the house. The black cat-headed Men
crouch and stand about the door. One carries the Helmet, one the
great sword]
RED MAN
I demand the debt that’s owing. Let some man kneel down there
That I may cut his head off, or all shall go to wrack.
CUCHULAIN
He played and paid with his head and it’s right that we pay him back,
And give him more than he gave, for he comes in here as a guest:
So I will give him my head.
[EMER begins to keen]
Little wife, little wife, be at rest.
Alive I have been far off in all lands under sun,
And been no faithful man; but when my story is done
My fame shall spring up and laugh, and set you high above all.
EMER
[Putting her arms about him]
It is you, not your fame, that I love.
CUCHULAIN
[Tries to put her from him]
You are young, you are wise, you can call
Some kinder and comelier man that will sit at home in the house.
EMER
Live and be faithless still.
CUCHULAIN
[Throwing her from him]
Would you stay the great barnacle-goose
When its eyes are turned to the sea and its beak to the salt of the air?
EMER
[Lifting her dagger to stab herself]
I, too, on the grey wing’s path.
CUCHULAIN
[Seizing dagger]
Do you dare, do you dare, do you dare?
Bear children and sweep the house.
[Forcing his way through the Servants who gather round]
Wail, but keep from the road.
[He kneels before RED MAN. There is a pause]
Quick to your work, old Radish, you will fade when the cocks have crowed.
[A black cat-headed Man holds out the Helmet. The RED MAN takes it]
RED MAN
I have not come for your hurt, I’m the Rector of this land,
And with my spitting cat-heads, my frenzied moon-bred band,
Age after age I sift it, and choose for its championship
The man who hits my fancy.
[He places the Helmet on CUCHULAIN’S head]
And I choose the laughing lip
That shall not turn from laughing whatever rise or fall,
The heart that grows no bitterer although betrayed by all;
The hand that loves to scatter; the life like a gambler’s throw;
And these things I make prosper, till a day come that I know,
When heart and mind shall darken that the weak may end the strong,
And the long remembering harpers have matter for their song.
THE SHADOWY WATERS
PERSONS IN THE PLAY
FORGAEL.
AIBRIC.
SAILORS.
DECTORA.
THE SHADOWY WATERS
A mast and a great sail, a large tiller, a poop rising several feet above the stage, and from the overhanging stern a lanthorn hanging. The sea or sky is represented by a semi- circular cloth of which nothing can be seen except a dark abyss. The persons move but little. Some sailors are discovered crouching by the sail. FORGAEL is asleep and AIBRIC standing by the tiller on the raised poop.
FIRST SAILOR. It is long enough, and too long, Forgael has been bringing us through the waste places of the great sea.