The Fourth Pig
Page 13
—And her, the woman on my crupper sitting!—
I would not shake her off, I did not care.
What’s it to me—these mortals—though they dare
Follow and spy, creeping beneath the moon?
The fairies’ vengeance will be on her soon!
Oh nothing matters, nothing but the singing,
The night-long dances through the green hill swinging,
The tingling link of hands, the faery light
That glows beneath the turf all night, all night.
My pulse beats to the dance tune, quick or slow,
Oh cruel dawn, to check the ebb and flow!
Dawn … I must say the words that bid me go.
(He takes a step clear of the Fairies, lifts his hands towards the green wall and speaks commandingly.)
Open, open, Green Hill, and let the Prince go through!
(He takes a step through the curtains and out. Kate steps quickly from her hiding place and follows him.)
Kate:
And his lady him behind!
(She too goes out from the Hill, leaving the Fairies asleep.)
ACT III
SCENE I
A room in the castle. Ann sitting on a stool, still with the veil over her sheep’s-head, peeling carrots into a crockery bowl. The Porter comes in and wags a finger over her.
Porter:
Your sister has vanished,
I told you she would!
(Ann bleats and drops her carrots.)
Now, none of that squealing,
It does you no good!
Get on with those carrots
You ought to be peeling!
Your sister has vanished,
I told you she would.
Your duties to-day are,
(No squeaking I pray!) are:
First finish those carrots,
And then feed the pike,
And then feed the rabbits,
And then feed the parrots
Whose curious habits
I know you will like.
You must brush every feather,
Each red and green feather,
And pray do it neatly!
Your sister has vanished,
Has vanished completely,
And nothing whatever
Will do the least good.
Your sister has vanished,
I told you she would!
(Ann drops her head in her hands and bleats despairingly. The Porter continues.)
I flatter myself I can put beggar maids in their places! I have the manner. She will now attend to the Call of Duty.
(As he pats himself assertively on the chest, the Well Prince comes in and over to Ann.)
Well Prince:
In my brother’s room the light is dim,
Silence stays in it deep and grim.
He has gone again to the Green Hill people
And your sister Kate has gone with him.
On my poor brother the spell lies true,
Nothing’s to help and naught to do;
But Ann, poor Ann, you have lost your sister
Who was more than all of the world to you!
(Ann gets to her feet, wringing her hands and bleating piteously.)
Yet you must hope for another day,
Yet you must listen to what I say:
Ann, you must speak to your Prince who loves you,
Ann, you must take your veil away!
(He lays his hand on the veil to tear it away from Ann’s face; she bleats wildly, catching at his wrists to stop him.)
Porter (with satisfaction): Ah, that’s the way to treat these beggar girls!
(As they are struggling Kate comes in behind them.)
Kate: What, Prince! Here’s no way to make a poor girl fond of you!
(He lets go of Ann, who sobs in Kate’s arms.)
There, my Ann, I’m back safe and sound. It takes more than a fairy to steal your sister! Or a fairy tune … My Prince is sound asleep on his bed, a long sleep after his long ride. Yes, it was a night’s work, watching him! I shall sleep all day. Will you give Ann the peck of silver?
Porter: Here it is, mistress beggar maid!
(He fetches it.)
Kate: Spread your apron, Ann!
(Ann spreads her apron and the Porter pours in the peck of silver.)
I got nothing but nuts out of the woods in my apron. I am Kate Crackernuts, and now you are Ann Rainsilver!
Well Prince:
Kate, oh Kate, who has watched aright,
Whose eye is proud as her step is light,
Will you fetch him back from the Green Hill people,
Will you watch my brother another night?
Kate: Yes, I will watch, but not for the same price. This time, Prince, I must have a peck of gold.
Porter (scandalized): There’s a greedy beggar girl!
Well Prince:
She shall have that and welcome too,
For what is gold when the heart must rue?
And what is gold to my own, own brother,
Now I have found a watcher true!
(The Prince and the Porter go out. Kate holds Ann in her arms and speaks over her bowed head.)
Kate:
Ann shall have silver and Ann shall have gold,
Dresses and jewels to fondle and hold,
Gold and silver and her heart’s desire,
Ann shall sit at her own hearth fire.
Hen-wife’s magic shall not endure
When Ann’s own sister shall seek a cure.
The sheep’s-head curse shall tumble away,
Sister Kate will not let it stay!
For sister Kate as a sister can
Shall be a good sister to sister Ann.
SCENE II
The Fairy Hill. The Fairies are dancing as before, to the same tune, but there should be some variation in the dance itself.
Fairies (singing):
Below the hot, the steady blue
The thick-leaved woods lay calm all day,
But now the hooves tread down the grass,
The hazel boughs divide and sway.
Up and under, in and under,
Down and under, well or ill,
He’ll go the way he shouldna’ go
And find himself in the Fairy Hill!
Oh gladdening strong his mortal limbs
And steely sweet his mortal glance,
Who comes to find below the hill
His fairy partners in the dance.
Up and under, in and under,
Down and under, well or ill,
He’ll go the way he shouldna’ go
And find himself in the Fairy Hill!
(Enter the Sick Prince and Kate immediately behind him. But Kate hides so quickly between the folds of the green curtain that the Fairies do not see her.)
Fairy (speaks):
Did she come, did she follow,
The mortal maiden,
By hill and hollow
Of the nut groves fair?
Or did you ride on
A horse unladen
Through the midnight air?
Sick Prince (strangely):
I do not know,
Fairies.
She is kind and gentle,
With silence shod.
I can hardly hate her.
She is cool as snow,
Strong and supple as hazel,
As a tall hazel rod.
There is no art, no magic,
Her kindness to enhance.
I cannot tell if she came with me, fairies!
Come, let us dance.
Fairy (rapidly):
Forget, forget her,
She is kind with a purpose,
A mortal purpose,
Do not let, do not let her
Break the spell,
Break the tune!
All’s well
Under stars and moon,
Hear and tell,
Come soon!
Now the dance,
the dance, the dance and the dance tune!
(The Fairies begin to dance again, sweeping the Prince in with them.)
Fairies (singing):
Asleep the birds, the foxes sleep,
In hazel coverts sleeps the fawn,
Forget, forget the mortal world
Until the breaking of the dawn.
Up and under, in and under,
Down and under, well or ill,
He’s come the way he shouldna’ come
And found himself in the Fairy Hill!
(The Fairies dance out and away with the Prince. The dance tune sounds faintly. Kate comes out from behind the curtain. She holds up with one hand her apron full of nuts.)
Kate: He said I was kind … that’s sweet, sweet hearing. I would be kind to him for always … kinder than all the fairies under the world. Kinder and merrier. And maybe his brother would be as kind to my Ann … If I could but find a cure for her … What’s here?
(She hides again quickly. Two FAIRY WOMEN come in, one carrying a FAIRY BABY. She puts him down on the floor.)
Fairy Woman: Star-cap, Star-cap, where’s thy ball? I plucked him as fine a puff ball as ever lifted its head, grown between sweet dusk and dawn of midsummer night. But babes are ever the best losers, under turf or under roof!
Other Fairy: Give him the wand, Gossip. Star-cap, Star-cap, here’s a pretty toy for thee!
(She picks up a bright silver and gold wand, pointed with a crescent moon, and gives it to the baby.)
Fairy Woman: Dost know the power of the wand thou hast given my Star-cap?
Other Fairy: Tell me, Gossip.
Fairy Woman: One stroke of that wand, Gossip, would make Kate Crackernuts’ sick sister Ann as hale and bonny as ever she was!
Other Fairy: Then it’s well Kate Crackernuts is not here in the Hill, or our wand would be stolen away!
(They go out, leaving the baby playing on the floor with the wand. Kate steps cautiously out from between the folds of the curtain, glances about her, and kneels down on the floor beside the Fairy baby.)
Kate: Can I see thy toy, Star-cap? Show it me then, show it to Kate. Oh, the pretty wand!
(She tries to take it, but the baby will not let it go.)
Look, then, Star-cap—see what Kate has for thee!
(She takes nuts out of her apron and begins to roll them about the floor. The Fairy baby is interested.)
Nuts. Hazel nuts from up above the Hill in the blue air. Nuts that Kate Crackernuts plucked down for thee from the brushing branches.
(The baby begins to play with the nuts, dropping the wand and leaving it.)
Shall Kate have thy pretty toy, then? And thou have the nuts, Star-cap? Look, shalt have them every one.
(The baby picks up most of the nuts and trots out with them, leaving Kate with the wand. Kate stands up, holding it in both hands, triumphantly.)
I have it, I have it, I have stolen the wand!
I have set my will to the fairies’ and my will has won.
I will get my sister Ann free of her sore, sore bond,
Out of the cruel web that the Hen-wife’s magic spun.
Oh bonny the hazel groves and the good pastures beyond,
I will be out and away at the rising of the sun!
(She hides the wand in the breast of her dress and listens. Perhaps the lights should go down again now to indicate the passing of time and a few notes of the fairy tune heard. She speaks, slowly.)
The Fairy tune again … but I am steel against it. There’s no power left in it. I would not dance if I could. Oh Ann, Ann, Ann, if you but knew how soon you would be your own bonny self again!
(She darts behind the curtain as the dancers come in again, the Sick Prince in their midst.)
Fairies (singing):
Our dancing feet at dusk leapt up
And oh, we would be dancing more,
But sleep at dawn like mist is laid
All white about the dancing floor.
Up and under, in and under,
Down and under, well or ill,
You’ll go the way you shouldna’ go
And find yourself in the Fairy Hill!
(The Fairies settle to sleep all about the Prince, one only remaining half upright at his side.)
Fairy (sleepily):
Dawn again the dance has found,
You must leave the fairy ground
And the dancers dreaming
Of a dancing, streaming,
Ribbon of dancing all unbound.
(Then she, too, sinks to the ground in sleep. The Sick Prince looks down at them gently.)
Sick Prince:
Fairies, sleep well, sleep well, my partners dear
In your green cave below the changing year.
The hazels drop their leaves, thin falls the snow:
But winter’s nothing to you here below.
Bare twigs and catkins next; and in July
The thick green leaves that prop the thick blue sky.
And now the nuts are ripe, the autumn dew
Drenches the moss-bright turf. But over you
The sweet year passes as an eagle passes,
One high, faint fleck above the moorland grasses.
Sleep well, dear partners, in a gentle flow
Of easy dreaming dancing to and fro.
Dawn … I must speak the words that bid me go.
(He steps clear of the Fairies and lifts his hand commandingly towards the green wall.)
Open, open, Green Hill, and let the Prince go through!
(He steps through the curtains and out. Kate follows quickly from her hiding place.)
Kate: And his lady him behind!
(She follows him out of the Hill, leaving the fairies asleep.
SCENE III
A room in the castle, empty. Kate comes in, excited, her hands clasped over the breast of her dress, and the wand.
Kate: Ann? (She looks all round.) Ann! Oh, Ann! She doesn’t know yet. But I know.
(Ann runs in and up to her, bleating.)
Ann, my sweet, I’m back again. They couldn’t stop me, they couldn’t stop Kate Crackernuts. And see what I have here, Ann, see what I have here! (She pulls out wand.) This tiny, shiny, fairy thing. Ann, let me unwind the veil from your head.
(Ann shakes her head in refusal, bleating.)
No, but let me, Ann! Your Prince shall not see you with the sheep’s-head. It is only your sister Kate.
(She unwinds the veil from the sheep’s-head and looks at it.)
Now, ugly thing, that has sat thyself on my Ann’s bonny shoulders, I’ll deal with thee! (She strikes at it with her wand.) Off! Off! (It does not budge.) What, what, have the fairies cheated me? No, I’ll not have it!
(She catches the sheep’s-head by the ears and pulls. It comes off and there is Ann herself under it.)
Oh, Ann, is that you again, is that you …!
Ann: Oh, Kate …
(She gives a little, quick sob, feeling about with her hands. Kate throws the sheep’s-head down on to the ground.)
Kate:
I went to the Fairy Hill
To heal and steal and be wise.
I looked in the fairy eyes
And I set my human will
Not to dance, not to play, not to sing,
Not to join in the fairy thing.
And I stooped like a hawk on the wing
To snatch at the prey I needed!
And oh I have cheated the fairies
And stolen the fairy thing!
Ann: Oh Kate … I can speak with my own voice …
Kate: My dear.
Ann:
Kate!
It is off, it’s away,
The thing I hate!
Oh joy, oh bright day,
Sweet sun, clear air!
I was so long in there,
So long inside,
So long, as if I had died
And been buried under earth.
Now I can laugh and say
Oh gay, oh
mirth!
Good-bye, thing I hate,
Gone for ever away,
And thanks, and thanks to Kate,
My darling Kate, my dear
Sister without blame or fear,
My sister Kate!
(They kiss one another. Enter the Well Prince.)
Kate:
The spell is off my sister Ann
And here she stands so bonny.
Come and kiss her if you can,
Sweet as bread and honey!
Well Prince:
If I have dreamt, the dream’s come true,
Girl of roses and honey dew!
Ann, oh Ann, may I be your husband,
I the watcher and lover of you?
Ann:
Prince, oh Prince, it was my dream too!
Though I was dumb, yet I was true,
I will be wife if you’ll be husband,
I the watcher and lover of you.
(They take hands and kiss. Enter the Porter.)
Porter: Why, here’s our beggar maid back again, and—lawkamercyme, what’s come to the little dumb thing?
Well Prince: She has come back to herself.
Porter: Well, well, well, as sure as my name’s Peter, such a thing has never happened since I was a little boy-porter! I have the peck of gold measured out and ready for you, Mistress Clever.
Kate: If I am to watch a third night, to watch another night against the fairies, I must have a better reward yet at the end of it.
Porter: Now, what might that be?
Kate: I must have the Sick Prince to marry me.
Porter: There’s askings indeed!
Kate: Yet that’s what I must have.
Ann: Sister Kate, what will the Sick Prince say to that?
Kate: I do not know. Yes, I do know.
(She hides her face in her hands.)
Well Prince:
Kate, oh Kate, you shall have your will,
If you will stay and watch him still.
You shall have my brother for your own lover
If you bring him safe from the Fairy Hill.
(The Prince and Ann go out one way, the Porter another, shaking his head dubiously.)
Kate:
I will go back,
Back to the angry fairies,
Down the long hazel track
Under the quivering moon.
Oh hands, come help me again,
Cling to the horse’s back,
Cling fast through wind and rain,
Ears, be deaf to the tune!
Oh eyes, be quick to see,
Heart, head, to dare,
If the fairies find it is me,
Kate, the stealer!