No More Learning

ANDREW.

You will not find them to help you. They were scattering themselves
through the drinking-houses of the town, and why wouldn't they?

THOMAS.

Are you drunk too? You are worse than Martin. You are a disgrace!

ANDREW.

Disgrace yourself! Coming here to be making an attack on me and
badgering me and disparaging me! And what about yourself that turned me
to be a hypocrite?

THOMAS.

What are you saying?

ANDREW.

You did, I tell you! Weren't you always at me to be regular and to be
working and to be going through the day and the night without company
and to be thinking of nothing but the trade? What did I want with a
trade? I got a sight of the fairy gold one time in the mountains.
I would have found it again and brought riches from it but for you
keeping me so close to the work.

THOMAS.

Oh, of all the ungrateful creatures! You know well that I cherished
you, leading you to live a decent, respectable life.

ANDREW.

You never had respect for the ancient ways. It is after the mother you
take it, that was too soft and too lumpish, having too much of the
English in her blood. Martin is a Hearne like myself. It is he has the
generous heart! It is not Martin would make a hypocrite of me and force
me to do night-walking secretly, watching to be back by the setting of
the seven stars!

[_He begins to play his flute. _

THOMAS.

I will turn you out of this, yourself and this filthy troop! I will
have them lodged in gaol.

JOHNNY.

Filthy troop, is it? Mind yourself! The change is coming. The pikes
will be up and the traders will go down!

_All_ seize THOMAS and sing. _

When the Lion will lose his strength,
And the braket-thistle begin to pine,
The harp shall sound sweet, sweet at length,
Between the eight and the nine!

THOMAS.

Let me out of this, you villains!

NANNY.

We'll make a sieve of holes of you, you old bag of treachery!

BIDDY.

How well you threatened us with gaol, you skim of a weasel's milk!

JOHNNY.

You heap of sicknesses! You blinking hangman! That you may never die
till you'll get a blue hag for a wife!

[_MARTIN comes back with lighted lamp. _

MARTIN.

Let him go. [_They let THOMAS go, and fall back. _] Spread out the
banner. The moment has come to begin the war.

JOHNNY.

Up with the Unicorn and destroy the Lion! Success to Johnny Gibbons and
all good men!

MARTIN.

Heap all those things together there. Heap those pieces of the coach
one upon another. Put that straw under them. It is with this flame I
will begin the work of destruction. All nature destroys and laughs.

THOMAS.

Destroy your own golden coach!

MARTIN [_kneeling before THOMAS_].

I am sorry to go a way that you do not like and to do a thing that
will vex you. I have been a great trouble to you since I was a child
in the house, and I am a great trouble to you yet. It is not my fault.
I have been chosen for what I have to do. [_Stands up. _] I have to
free myself first and those that are near me. The love of God is a
very terrible thing! [_THOMAS tries to stop him, but is prevented by
_Beggars_. MARTIN takes a wisp of straw and lights it. _] We will
destroy all that can perish! It is only the soul that can suffer no
injury. The soul of man is of the imperishable substance of the stars!

[_He throws wisp into heap--it blazes up. _




ACT III


_Before dawn. A wild rocky place, NANNY and BIDDY LALLY
squatting by a fire. Rich stuffs, etc. , strewn about.
PAUDEEN watching by MARTIN, who is lying as if dead, a
sack over him. _

NANNY [_to PAUDEEN_].

Well, you are great heroes and great warriors and great lads
altogether, to have put down the Brownes the way you did, yourselves
and the Whiteboys of the quarry. To have ransacked the house and have
plundered it! Look at the silks and the satins and the grandeurs I
brought away! Look at that now! [_Holds up a velvet cloak. _] It's a
good little jacket for myself will come out of it. It's the singers
will be stopping their songs and the jobbers turning from their cattle
in the fairs to be taking a view of the laces of it and the buttons!
It's my far-off cousins will be drawing from far and near!

BIDDY.

There was not so much gold in it all as what they were saying there
was. Or maybe that fleet of Whiteboys had the place ransacked before
we ourselves came in. Bad cess to them that put it in my mind to go
gather up the full of my bag of horseshoes out of the forge. Silver
they were saying they were, pure white silver; and what are they in
the end but only hardened iron! A bad end to them! [_Flings away
horseshoes. _] The time I will go robbing big houses again it will
not be in the light of the full moon I will go doing it, that does
be causing every common thing to shine out as if for a deceit and a
mockery. It's not shining at all they are at this time, but duck yellow
and dark.

NANNY.

To leave the big house blazing after us, it was that crowned all!
Two houses to be burned to ashes in the one night. It is likely the
servant-girls were rising from the feathers and the cocks crowing
from the rafters for seven miles around, taking the flames to be the
whitening of the dawn.

BIDDY.

It is the lad is stretched beyond you have to be thankful to for that.
There was never seen a leader was his equal for spirit and for daring.
Making a great scatter of the guards the way he did. Running up roofs
and ladders, the fire in his hand, till you'd think he would be apt to
strike his head against the stars.

NANNY.

I partly guessed death was near him, and the queer shining look he
had in his two eyes, and he throwing sparks east and west through the
beams. I wonder now was it some inward wound he got, or did some hardy
lad of the Brownes give him a tip on the skull unknownst in the fight?
It was I myself found him, and the troop of the Whiteboys gone, and he
lying by the side of a wall as weak as if he had knocked a mountain. I
failed to waken him trying him with the sharpness of my nails, and his
head fell back when I moved it, and I knew him to be spent and gone.

BIDDY.

It's a pity you not to have left him where he was lying and said no
word at all to Paudeen or to that son you have, that kept us back from
following on, bringing him here to this shelter on sacks and upon poles.

NANNY.

What way could I help letting a screech out of myself, and the life but
just gone out of him in the darkness, and not a living Christian by his
side but myself and the great God?

BIDDY.

It's on ourselves the vengeance of the red soldiers will fall, they to
find us sitting here the same as hares in a tuft. It would be best for
us follow after the rest of the army of the Whiteboys.

NANNY.

Whisht! I tell you. The lads are cracked about him. To get but the wind
of the word of leaving him, it's little but they'd knock the head off
the two of us. Whisht!

_Enter JOHNNY BACACH with candles. _

JOHNNY [_standing over MARTIN_].

Wouldn't you say now there was some malice or some venom in the air,
that is striking down one after another the whole of the heroes of the
Gael?

PAUDEEN.

It makes a person be thinking of the four last ends, death and
judgment, heaven and hell. Indeed and indeed my heart lies with him. It
is well I knew what man he was under his by-name and his disguise.

[_Sings. _] Oh, Johnny Gibbons, it's you were the prop to us.
You to have left us, we are put astray!

JOHNNY.

It is lost we are now and broken to the end of our days. There is no
satisfaction at all but to be destroying the English, and where now
will we get so good a leader again? Lay him out fair and straight upon
a stone, till I will let loose the secret of my heart keening him!

[_Sets out candles on a rock, propping them up with
stones. _

NANNY.

Is it mould candles you have brought to set around him, Johnny Bacach?
It is great riches you should have in your pocket to be going to those
lengths and not to be content with dips.

JOHNNY.

It is lengths I will not be going to the time the life will be gone out
of your own body. It is not your corpse I will be wishful to hold in
honour the way I hold this corpse in honour.

NANNY.

That's the way always, there will be grief and quietness in the house
if it is a young person has died, but funning and springing and
tricking one another if it is an old person's corpse is in it. There is
no compassion at all for the old.

PAUDEEN.

It is he would have got leave for the Gael to be as high as the Gall.
Believe me, he was in the prophecies. Let you not be comparing yourself
with the like of him.

NANNY.

Why wouldn't I be comparing myself? Look at all that was against me in
the world. Would you be matching me against a man of his sort, that had
the people shouting him and that had nothing to do but to die and to go
to heaven?

JOHNNY.

The day you go to heaven that you may never come back alive out of it!
But it is not yourself will ever hear the saints hammering at their
musics! It is you will be moving through the ages, chains upon you,
and you in the form of a dog or a monster. I tell you that one will go
through Purgatory as quick as lightning through a thorn-bush.

NANNY.

That's the way, that the way.

[_Croons. _] Three that are watching my time to run,
The worm, the devil, and my son,
To see a loop around their neck
It's that would make my heart to lep!

JOHNNY.

Five white candles. I wouldn't begrudge them to him indeed. If he had
held out and held up it is my belief he would have freed Ireland!

PAUDEEN.

Wait till the full light of the day and you'll see the burying he'll
have. It is not in this place we will be waking him. I'll make a call
to the two hundred Ribbons he was to lead on to the attack on the
barracks at Aughanish. They will bring him marching to his grave upon
the hill. He had surely some gift from the other world, I wouldn't say
but he had power from the other side.

ANDREW [_coming in very shaky_].

Well, it was a great night he gave to the village, and it is long
till it will be forgotten. I tell you the whole of the neighbours are
up against him. There is no one at all this morning to set the mills
going. There was no bread baked in the night-time, the horses are not
fed in the stalls, the cows are not milked in the sheds. I met no man
able to make a curse this night but he put it on my head and on the
head of the boy that is lying there before us . . . Is there no sign of
life in him at all?

JOHNNY.

What way would there be a sign of life and the life gone out of him
this three hours or more?

ANDREW.

He was lying in his sleep for a while yesterday, and he wakened again
after another while.

NANNY.

He will not waken, I tell you. I held his hand in my own and it getting
cold as if you were pouring on it the coldest cold water, and no
running in his blood. He is gone sure enough and the life is gone out
of him.

ANDREW.

Maybe so, maybe so.
It seems to me yesterday his cheeks were bloomy all
the while, and now he is as pale as wood ashes. Sure we all must come
to it at the last. Well, my white-headed darling, it is you were the
bush among us all, and you to be cut down in your prime. Gentle and
simple, everyone liked you. It is no narrow heart you had, it is you
were for spending and not for getting. It is you made a good wake for
yourself, scattering your estate in one night only in beer and in wine
for the whole province; and that you may be sitting in the middle of
Paradise and in the chair of the Graces!

JOHNNY.

Amen to that. It's pity I didn't think the time I sent for yourself to
send the little lad of a messenger looking for a priest to overtake
him. It might be in the end the Almighty is the best man for us all!

ANDREW.

Sure I sent him on myself to bid the priest to come. Living or dead I
would wish to do all that is rightful for the last and the best of my
own race and generation.

BIDDY [_jumping up_].

Is it the priest you are bringing in among us? Where is the sense
in that? Aren't we robbed enough up to this with the expense of the
candles and the like?

JOHNNY.

If it is that poor starved priest he called to that came talking in
secret signs to the man that is gone, it is likely he will ask nothing
for what he has to do. There is many a priest is a Whiteboy in his
heart.

NANNY.

I tell you, if you brought him tied in a bag he would not say an Our
Father for you, without you having a half-crown at the top of your
fingers.

BIDDY.

There is no priest is any good at all but a spoiled priest. A one that
would take a drop of drink, it is he would have courage to face the
hosts of trouble. Rout them out he would, the same as a shoal of fish
from out the weeds. It's best not to vex a priest, or to run against
them at all.

NANNY.

It's yourself humbled yourself well to one the time you were sick in
the gaol and had like to die, and he bade you to give over the throwing
of the cups.

BIDDY.

Ah, plaster of Paris I gave him. I took to it again and I free upon the
roads.

NANNY.

Much good you are doing with it to yourself or any other one. Aren't
you after telling that corpse no later than yesterday that he was
coming within the best day of his life?

JOHNNY.

Whisht, let ye. Here is the priest coming.

_FATHER JOHN comes in. _

FATHER JOHN.

It is surely not true that he is dead?

JOHNNY.

The spirit went from him about the middle hour of the night. We brought
him here to this sheltered place. We were loth to leave him without
friends.

FATHER JOHN.

Where is he?

JOHNNY [_taking up sacks_].

Lying there stiff and stark. He has a very quiet look as if there was
no sin at all or no great trouble upon his mind.

FATHER JOHN [_kneels and touches him_].

He is not dead.

BIDDY [_pointing to NANNY_].

He is dead. If it was letting on he was, he would not have let that one
rob him and search him the way she did.

FATHER JOHN.

It has the appearance of death, but it is not death. He is in a trance.

PAUDEEN.

Is it Heaven and Hell he is walking at this time to be bringing back
newses of the sinners in pain?

BIDDY.

I was thinking myself it might away he was, riding on white horses with
the riders of the forths.

JOHNNY.

He will have great wonders to tell out the time he will rise up from
the ground. It is a pity he not to waken at this time and to lead us on
to overcome the troop of the English. Sure those that are in a trance
get strength, that they can walk on water.

ANDREW.

It was Father John wakened him yesterday the time he was lying in the
same way. Wasn't I telling you it was for that I called to him?

BIDDY.

Waken him now till they'll see did I tell any lie in my foretelling. I
knew well by the signs, he was coming within the best day of his life.

PAUDEEN.

And not dead at all! We'll be marching to attack Dublin itself within a
week. The horn will blow for him, and all good men will gather to him.
Hurry on, Father, and waken him.

FATHER JOHN.

I will not waken him. I will not bring him back from where he is.

JOHNNY.

And how long will it be before he will waken of himself?

FATHER JOHN.

Maybe to-day, maybe to-morrow, it is hard to be certain.

BIDDY.

If it is _away_ he is he might be away seven years. To be lying like
a stump of a tree and using no food and the world not able to knock a
word out of him, I know the signs of it well.

JOHNNY.

We cannot be waiting and watching through seven years. If the business
he has started is to be done we have to go on here and now. The
time there is any delay, that is the time the Government will get
information. Waken him now, Father, and you'll get the blessing of the
generations.

FATHER JOHN.

I will not bring him back. God will bring him back in his own good
time. For all I know he may be seeing the hidden things of God.

JOHNNY.

He might slip away in his dream. It is best to raise him up now.

ANDREW.

Waken him, Father John. I thought he was surely dead this time,
and what way could I go face Thomas through all that is left of my
lifetime, after me standing up to face him the way I did? And if I do
take a little drop of an odd night, sure I'd be very lonesome if I did
not take it. All the world knows it's not for love of what I drink, but
for love of the people that do be with me! Waken him, Father, or maybe
I would waken him myself. [_Shakes him. _]

FATHER JOHN.

Lift your hand from touching him. Leave him to himself and to the power
of God.

JOHNNY.

If you will not bring him back why wouldn't we ourselves do it? Go on
now, it is best for you to do it yourself.

FATHER JOHN.

I woke him yesterday. He was angry with me, he could not get to the
heart of the command.

JOHNNY.

If he did not, he got a command from myself that satisfied him, and a
message.

FATHER JOHN.

He did--he took it from you--and how do I know what devil's message it
may have been that brought him into that devil's work, destruction and
drunkenness and burnings! That was not a message from heaven! It was
I awoke him, it was I kept him from hearing what was maybe a divine
message, a voice of truth, and he heard you speak and he believed the
message was brought by you. You have made use of your deceit and his
mistaking--you have left him without house or means to support him, you
are striving to destroy and to drag him to entire ruin. I will not help
you, I would rather see him die in his trance and go into God's hands
than awake him and see him go into hell's mouth with vagabonds and
outcasts like you!

JOHNNY [_turning to BIDDY_].

You should have knowledge, Biddy Lally, of the means to bring back a
man that is away.

BIDDY.

The power of the earth will do it through its herbs, and the power of
the air will do it kindling fire into flame.

JOHNNY.

Rise up and make no delay. Stretch out and gather a handful of an herb
that will bring him back from whatever place he is in.

BIDDY.

Where is the use of herbs, and his teeth clenched the way he could not
use them?

JOHNNY.

Take fire so in the devil's name, and put it to the soles of his feet.

[_Takes a lighted sod from fire. _

FATHER JOHN.

Let him alone, I say! [_Dashes away the sod. _

JOHNNY.

I will not leave him alone! I will not give in to leave him swooning
there and the country waiting for him to awake!

FATHER JOHN.

I tell you I awoke him! I sent him into thieves' company! I will not
have him wakened again and evil things it maybe waiting to take hold of
him! Back from him, back, I say! Will you dare to lay a hand on me! You
cannot do it! You cannot touch him against my will!

BIDDY.

Mind yourself, do not be bringing us under the curse of the Church.

[_JOHNNY steps back. MARTIN moves. _

FATHER JOHN.

It is God has him in His care. It is He is awaking him. [_MARTIN has
risen to his elbow. _] Do not touch him, do not speak to him, he may be
hearing great secrets.

MARTIN.

That music, I must go nearer--sweet marvellous music--louder than the
trampling of the unicorns; far louder, though the mountain is shaking
with their feet--high joyous music.

FATHER JOHN.

Hush, he is listening to the music of Heaven!

MARTIN.

Take me to you, musicians, wherever you are! I will go nearer to you;
I hear you better now, more and more joyful; that is strange, it is
strange.

FATHER JOHN.

He is getting some secret.

MARTIN.

It is the music of Paradise, that is certain, somebody said that. It is
certainly the music of Paradise. Ah, now I hear, now I understand. It
is made of the continual clashing of swords!

JOHNNY.

That is the best music. We will clash them sure enough. We will clash
our swords and our pikes on the bayonets of the red soldiers. It is
well you rose up from the dead to lead us! Come on, now, come on!

MARTIN.

Who are you? Ah, I remember--where are you asking me to come to?

PAUDEEN.

To come on, to be sure, to the attack on the barracks at Aughanish. To
carry on the work you took in hand last night.

MARTIN.

What work did I take in hand last night? Oh, yes, I remember--some big
house--we burned it down--but I had not understood the vision when I did
that. I had not heard the command right. That was not the work I was
sent to do.

PAUDEEN.

Rise up now and bid us what to do. Your great name itself will clear
the road before you. It is you yourself will have freed all Ireland
before the stooks will be in stacks!

MARTIN.

Listen, I will explain--I have misled you. It is only now I have the
whole vision plain. As I lay there I saw through everything, I know
all. It was but a frenzy that going out to burn and to destroy. What
have I to do with the foreign army? What I have to pierce is the wild
heart of time. My business is not reformation but revelation.