The folk-tales,
and Keating in his description of Hell, make use, however, of the
ordinary symbolism of fire.
and Keating in his description of Hell, make use, however, of the
ordinary symbolism of fire.
Yeats - Poems
If I ever
learn the old pronunciation, I will revise all these poems, but at
present I can only affirm that I have not treated my Irish names as
badly as the mediaeval writers of the stories of King Arthur treated
their Welsh names.
_Mythological Gods and Heroes. _--I refer the reader for such names as
Balor and Finn and Usheen to Lady Gregory's "Cuchulain of Muirthemne"
and to her "Gods and Fighting Men. "
_The Ballad of Father Gilligan. _--A tradition among the people of
Castleisland, Kerry.
_The Ballad of Father O'Hart. _--This ballad is founded on the story of a
certain Father O'Hart, priest of Coloony, Sligo, in the last century, as
told by the present priest of Coloony in his _History of Ballisodare and
Kilvarnet_. The robbery of the lands of Father O'Hart was a kind of
robbery which occurred but rarely during the penal laws. Catholics,
forbidden to own landed property, evaded the law by giving a Protestant
nominal possession of their estates. There are instances on record in
which poor men were nominal owners of immense estates.
_The Ballad of the Foxhunter. _--Founded on an incident, probably itself
a Tipperary tradition, in Kickham's _Knockagow_.
_Bell-branch. _--A legendary branch whose shaking casts all men into a
sleep.
_The Countess Cathleen. _--I found the story of the Countess Cathleen in
what professed to be a collection of Irish folk-lore in an Irish
newspaper some years ago. I wrote to the compiler, asking about its
source, but got no answer, but have since heard that it was translated
from _Les Matinees de Timothe Trimm_ a good many years ago, and has been
drifting about the Irish press ever since. Leo Lespes gives it as an
Irish story, and though the editor of _Folklore_ has kindly advertised
for information, the only Christian variant I know of is a Donegal tale,
given by Mr. Larminie in his _West Irish Folk Tales and Romances_, of a
woman who goes to hell for ten years to save her husband, and stays
there another ten, having been granted permission to carry away as many
souls as could cling to her skirt. Leo Lespes may have added a few
details, but I have no doubt of the essential antiquity of what seems to
me the most impressive form of one of the supreme parables of the world.
The parable came to the Greeks in the sacrifice of Alcestis, but her
sacrifice was less overwhelming, less apparently irremediable. Leo
Lespes tells the story as follows:--
Ce que je vais vous dire est un recit du careme Irlandais. Le
boiteux, l'aveugle, le paralytique des rues de Dublin ou de
Limerick, vous le diraient mieux que moi, cher lecteur, si vous
alliez le leur demander, un sixpense d'argent a la main. --Il n'est
pas une jeune fille catholique a laquelle on ne l'ait appris
pendant les jours de preparation a la communion sainte, pas un
berger des bords de la Blackwater qui ne le puisse redire a la
veillee.
Il y a bien longtemps qu'il apparut tout-a-coup dans la vielle
Irlande deux marchands inconnus dont personne n'avait oui parler,
et qui parlaient neanmoins avec la plus grande perfection la langue
du pays. Leurs cheveux etaient noirs et ferres avec de l'or et
leurs robes d'une grande magnificence.
Tous deux semblaient avoir le meme age; ils paraissaient etre des
hommes de cinquante ans, car leur barbe grisonnait un peu.
Or, a cette epoque, comme aujourd'hui, l'Irlande etait pauvre, car
le soleil avait ete rare, et des recoltes presque nulles. Les
indigents ne savaient a quel sainte se vouer, et la misere devenait
de plus en plus terrible.
Dans l'hotellerie ou descendirent les marchands fastueux on chercha
a penetrer leurs desseins: mais ce fut en vain, ils demeurerent
silencieux et discrets.
Et pendant qu'ils demeurerent dans l'hotellerie, ils ne cesserent
de compter et de recompter des sacs de pieces d'or, dont la vive
clarte s'apercevait a travers les vitres du logis.
Gentlemen, leur dit l'hotesse un jour, d'ou vient que vous etes si
opulents, et que, venus pour secourir la misere publique, vous ne
fassiez pas de bonnes oeuvres?
--Belle hotesse, repondit l'un d'eux, nous n'avons pas voulu aller
au-devant d'infortunes honorables, dans la crainte d'etre trompes
par des miseres fictives: que la douleur frappe a la porte, nous
ouvrirons.
Le lendemain, quand on sut qu'il existait deux opulents etrangers
prets a prodiguer l'or, la foule assiegea leur logis; mais les
figures des gens qui en sortaient etaient bien diverses. Les uns
avaient la fierte dans le regard, les autres portaient la honte au
front. Les deux trafiquants achetaient des ames pour le demon.
L'ame d'un vieillard valait vingt pieces d'or, pas un penny de
plus; car Satan avait eu le temps d'y former hypotheque. L'ame
d'une epose en valait cinquante quand elle etait jolie, ou cent
quand elle etait laide. L'ame d'une jeune fille se payait des prix
fous: les fleurs les plus belles et les plus pures sont les plus
cheres.
Pendant ce temps, il existait dans la ville un ange de beaute, la
comtesse Ketty O'Connor. Elle etait l'idole du peuple, et la
providence des indigents. Des qu'elle eut appris que des mecreants
profitaient de la misere publique pour derober des coeurs a Dieu,
elle fit appeler son majordome.
--Master Patrick, lui dit elle, combien ai-je de pieces d'or dans
mon coffre?
--Cent mille.
--Combien de bijoux?
--Peur autant d'argent.
--Combien de chateux, de bois et de terres?
--Pour le double de ces sommes.
--Eh bien! Patrick, vendez tout ce qui n'est pas or et
apportez-m'en le montant. Je ne veux garder a moi que ce castel et
le champ qui l'entoure.
Deux jours apres, les ordres de la pieuse Ketty etaient executes et
le tresor etait distribue aux pauvres au fur et a mesure de leurs
besoins.
Ceci ne faisait pas le compte, dit la tradition, des
commis-voyageurs du malin esprit, qui ne trouvaient plus d'ames a
acheter.
Aides par un valet infame, ils penetrerent dans la retraite de la
noble dame et lui deroberent le reste de son tresor . . . en vain
lutta-t-elle de toutes ses forces pour sauver le contenu de son
coffre, les larrons diaboliques furent les plus forts. Si Ketty
avait eu les moyens de faire un signe de croix, ajoute la legende
Irlandaise, elle les eut mis en fuite, mais ses mains etaient
captives--Le larcin fut effectue. Alors les pauvres solliciterent
en vain pres de Ketty depouillee, elle ne pouvait plus secourir
leur misere;--elle les abandonnait a la tentation. Pourtant il n'y
avait plus que huit jours a passer pour que les grains et lea
fourrages arrivassent en abondance des pays d'Orient. Mais, huit
jours, c'etait un siecle: huit jours necessitaient une somme
immense pour subvenir aux exigences de la disette, et les pauvres
allaient ou expirer dans les angousses de la faim, ou, reniant les
saintes maximes de l'Evangile, vendre a vil prix leur ame, le plus
beau present de la munificence du Seigneur tout-puissant.
Et Ketty n'avait plus une obole, car elle avait abandonne son
chateux aux malheureux.
Elle passa douze heures dans les larmes et le deuil, arrachant ses
cheveux couleur de soleil et meurtrissant son sein couleur du lis:
puis elle se leva resolue, animee par un vif sentiment de
desespoir.
Elle se rendit chez les marchands d'ames.
--Que voulez-vous? dirent ils.
--Vous achetez des ames?
--Oui, un peu malgre vous, n'est ce pas, sainte aux yeux de saphir?
--Aujourd'hui je viens vous proposer un marche, reprit elle.
--Lequel?
--J'ai une ame a vendre; mais elle est chere.
--Qu'importe si elle est precieuse? l'ame, comme le diamant,
s'apprecie a sa blancheur.
--C'est la mienne, dit Ketty.
Les deux envoyes de Satan tressaillirent. Leurs griffes
s'allongerent sous leurs gants de cuir; leurs yeux gris
etincelerent--l'ame, pure, immaculee, virginale de Ketty! . . .
c'etait une acquisition inappreciable.
--Gentille dame, combien voulez-vous?
--Cent cinquante mille ecus d'or.
--C'est fait, dirent les marchands: et ils tendirent a Ketty un
parchemin cachete de noir, qu'elle signa en frissonnant.
La somme lui fut comptee.
Des qu'elle fut rentree, elle dit au majordome:
--Tenez, distribuez ceci. Avec la somme que je vous donne les
pauvres attendront la huitaine necessaire et pas une de leurs ames
ne sera livree au demon.
Puis elle s'enferma et recommanda qu'on ne vint pas la deranger.
Trois jours se passerent; elle n'appela pas; elle ne sortit pas.
Quand on ouvrit sa porte, on la trouva raide et froide: elle etait
morte de douleur.
Mais la vente de cette ame si adorable dans sa charite fut declaree
nulle par le Seigneur: car elle avait sauve ses concitoyens de la
morte eternelle.
Apres la huitaine, des vaisseaux nombreux amenerent a l'Irlande
affamee d'immenses provisions de grains.
La famine n'etait plus possible. Quant aux marchands, ils
disparurent de leur hotellerie, sans qu'on sut jamais ce qu'ils
etaient devenus.
Toutefois, les pecheurs de la Blackwater pretendent qu'ils sont
enchaines dans une prison souterraine par ordre de Lucifer jusqu'au
moment ou ils pourront livrer l'ame de Ketty qui leur a echappe. Je
vous dis la legende telle que je la sais.
--Mais les pauvres l'ont raconte d'age en age et les enfants de
Cork et de Dublin chantent encore la ballade dont voici les
derniers couplets:--
Pour sauver les pauvres qu'elle aime
Ketty donna
Son esprit, sa croyance meme:
Satan paya
Cette ame au devoument sublime,
En ecus d'or,
Disons pour racheter son crime,
_Confiteor_.
Mais l'ange qui se fit coupable
Par charite
Au sejour d'amour ineffable
Est remonte.
Satan vaincu n'eut pas de prise
Sur ce coeur d'or;
Chantons sous la nef de l'eglise,
_Confiteor_.
N'est ce pas que ce recit, ne de l'imagination des poetes
catholiques de la verte Erin, est une veritable recit de careme?
_The Countess Cathleen_ was acted in Dublin in 1899, with Mr. Marcus St.
John and Mr. Trevor Lowe as the First and Second Demon, Mr. Valentine
Grace as Shemus Rua, Master Charles Sefton as Teig, Madame San Carola as
Mary, Miss Florence Farr as Aleel, Miss Anna Mather as Oona, Mr. Charles
Holmes as the Herdsman, Mr. Jack Wilcox as the Gardener, Mr. Walford as
a Peasant, Miss Dorothy Paget as a Spirit, Miss M. Kelly as a Peasant
Woman, Mr. T. E. Wilkinson as a Servant, and Miss May Whitty as The
Countess Kathleen. They had to face a very vehement opposition stirred
up by a politician and a newspaper, the one accusing me in a pamphlet,
the other in long articles day after day, of blasphemy because of the
language of the demons or of Shemus Rua, and because I made a woman sell
her soul and yet escape damnation, and of a lack of patriotism because I
made Irish men and women, who, it seems, never did such a thing, sell
theirs. The politician or the newspaper persuaded some forty Catholic
students to sign a protest against the play, and a Cardinal, who avowed
that he had not read it, to make another, and both politician and
newspaper made such obvious appeals to the audience to break the peace,
that a score or so of police were sent to the theatre to see that they
did not. I had, however, no reason to regret the result, for the stalls,
containing almost all that was distinguished in Dublin, and a gallery of
artisans alike insisted on the freedom of literature.
After the performance in 1899 I added the love scene between Aleel and
the Countess, and in this new form the play was revived in New York by
Miss Wycherley as well as being played a good deal in England and
America by amateurs. Now at last I have made a complete revision to make
it suitable for performance at the Abbey Theatre. The first two scenes
are almost wholly new, and throughout the play I have added or left out
such passages as a stage experience of some years showed me encumbered
the action; the play in its first form having been written before I knew
anything of the theatre. I have left the old end, however, in the
version printed in the body of this book, because the change for
dramatic purposes has been made for no better reason than that
audiences--even at the Abbey Theatre--are almost ignorant of Irish
mythology--or because a shallow stage made the elaborate vision of armed
angels upon a mountain-side impossible. The new end is particularly
suited to the Abbey stage, where the stage platform can be brought out
in front of the proscenium and have a flight of steps at one side up
which the Angel comes, crossing towards the back of the stage at the
opposite side. The principal lighting is from two arc lights in the
balcony which throw their lights into the faces of the players, making
footlights unnecessary. The room at Shemus Rua's house is suggested by a
great grey curtain--a colour which becomes full of rich tints under the
stream of light from the arcs. The two or more arches in the third scene
permit the use of a gauze. The short front scene before the last is just
long enough when played with incidental music to allow the scene set
behind it to be changed. The play when played without interval in this
way lasts a little over an hour.
The play was performed at the Abbey Theatre for the first time on
December 14, 1911, Miss Maire O'Neill taking the part of the Countess,
and the last scene from the going out of the Merchants was as follows:--
(MERCHANTS _rush out_. ALEEL _crawls into the middle of the room;
the twilight has fallen and gradually darkens as the scene goes
on_. )
ALEEL
They're rising up--they're rising through the earth,
Fat Asmodel and giddy Belial,
And all the fiends. Now they leap in the air.
But why does Hell's gate creak so? Round and round.
Hither and hither, to and fro they're running.
(_He moves about as though the air was full of spirits. _ OONA _enters_. )
Crouch down, old heron, out of the blind storm.
OONA
Where is the Countess Cathleen? All this day
Her eyes were full of tears, and when for a moment
Her hand was laid upon my hand, it trembled.
And now I do not know where she is gone.
ALEEL
Cathleen has chosen other friends than us,
And they are rising through the hollow world.
Demons are out, old heron.
OONA
God guard her soul.
ALEEL
She's bartered it away this very hour,
As though we two were never in the world.
(_He kneels beside her, but does not seem to hear her words. The_
PEASANTS _return. They carry the_ COUNTESS CATHLEEN _and lay her upon
the ground before_ OONA _and_ ALEEL. _She lies there as if dead. _)
OONA
O, that so many pitchers of rough clay
Should prosper and the porcelain break in two!
(_She kisses the hands of_ CATHLEEN. )
A PEASANT
We were under the tree where the path turns
When she grew pale as death and fainted away.
CATHLEEN
O, hold me, and hold me tightly, for the storm
Is dragging me away.
(OONA _takes her in her arms_. A WOMAN _begins to wail_. )
PEASANTS
Hush!
PEASANTS
Hush!
PEASANT WOMEN
Hush!
OTHER PEASANT WOMEN
Hush!
CATHLEEN (_half rising_)
Lay all the bags of money in a heap,
And when I am gone, old Oona, share them out
To every man and woman: judge, and give
According to their needs.
A PEASANT WOMAN
And will she give
Enough to keep my children through the dearth?
ANOTHER PEASANT WOMAN
O, Queen of Heaven, and all you blessed saints,
Let us and ours be lost, so she be shriven.
CATHLEEN
Bend down your faces, Oona and Aleel;
I gaze upon them as the swallow gazes
Upon the nest under the eave, before
She wander the loud waters. Do not weep
Too great a while, for there is many a candle
On the High Altar though one fall. Aleel,
Who sang about the dancers of the woods,
That know not the hard burden of the world,
Having but breath in their kind bodies, farewell!
And farewell, Oona, you who played with me
And bore me in your arms about the house
When I was but a child--and therefore happy,
Therefore happy even like those that dance.
The storm is in my hair and I must go.
(_She dies. _)
OONA
Bring me the looking-glass.
(A WOMAN _brings it to her out of inner room_. OONA _holds glass over
the lips of_ CATHLEEN. _All is silent for a moment, then she speaks in a
half-scream. _)
O, she is dead!
A PEASANT
She was the great white lily of the world.
A PEASANT
She was more beautiful than the pale stars.
AN OLD PEASANT WOMAN
The little plant I loved is broken in two.
(ALEEL _takes looking-glass from_ OONA _and flings it upon floor, so
that it is broken in many pieces_. )
ALEEL
I shatter you in fragments, for the face
That brimmed you up with beauty is no more;
And die, dull heart, for you that were a mirror
Are but a ball of passionate dust again!
And level earth and plumy sea, rise up!
And haughty sky, fall down!
A PEASANT WOMAN
Pull him upon his knees,
His curses will pluck lightning on our heads.
ALEEL
Angels and devils clash in the middle air,
And brazen swords clang upon brazen helms.
Look, look, a spear has gone through Belial's eye!
(_A winged_ ANGEL, _carrying a torch and a sword, enters from the_ R.
_with eyes fixed upon some distant thing. The_ ANGEL _is about to pass
out to the_ L. _when_ ALEEL _speaks. The_ ANGEL _stops a moment and
turns_. )
Look no more on the half-closed gates of Hell,
But speak to me whose mind is smitten of God,
That it may be no more with mortal things:
And tell of her who lies there.
(_The_ ANGEL _turns again and is about to go, but is seized by_ ALEEL. )
Till you speak
You shall not drift into eternity.
THE ANGEL
The light beats down; the gates of pearl are wide.
And she is passing to the floor of peace,
And Mary of the seven times wounded heart
Has kissed her lips, and the long blessed hair
Has fallen on her face; the Light of Lights
Looks always on the motive, not the deed,
The Shadow of Shadows on the deed alone.
(ALEEL _releases the_ ANGEL _and kneels_. )
OONA
Tell them to walk upon the floor of peace,
That I would die and go to her I love;
The years like great black oxen tread the world,
And God the herdsman goads them on behind,
And I am broken by their passing feet.
_Down by the Salley Gardens. _--An extension of three lines sung to me by
an old woman at Ballisodare.
_Findrinny (Findruine). _--A kind of white bronze.
_Finvarra (Finbar). _--The king of the faeries of Connaught.
_Hell. _--In the older Irish books Hell is always cold, and it may be
because the Fomoroh, or evil powers, ruled over the north and the
winter. Christianity adopted as far as possible the Pagan symbolism in
Ireland as elsewhere, and Irish poets, when they spoke of "the cold
flagstone of Hell," may have repeated Pagan symbolism.
The folk-tales,
and Keating in his description of Hell, make use, however, of the
ordinary symbolism of fire.
_The Lamentation of the Pensioner. _--This poem is little more than a
translation into verse of the very words of an old Wicklow peasant. Fret
means doom or destiny.
_The Land of Heart's Desire. _--This little play was produced at the
Avenue Theatre in the spring of 1894, with the following cast:--Maurteen
Bruin, Mr. James Welch; Shawn Bruin, Mr. A. E. W. Mason; Father Hart, Mr.
G. R. Foss; Bridget Bruin, Miss Charlotte Morland; Maire Bruin, Miss
Winifred Fraser; A Faery Child, Miss Dorothy Paget. It ran for a little
over six weeks. It was revived in America in 1901, when it was taken on
tour by Mrs. Lemoyne. It has been played two or three times
professionally since then in America and a great many times in England
and America by amateurs. Till lately it was not part of the repertory of
the Abbey Theatre, for I had grown to dislike it without knowing what I
disliked in it. This winter, however, I have made many revisions and now
it plays well enough to give me pleasure. It is printed in this book in
the new form, which was acted for the first time on February 22, 1912,
at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. At the Abbey Theatre, where the platform
of the stage comes out in front of the curtain, the curtain falls before
the priest's last words. He remains outside the curtain and the words
are spoken to the audience like an epilogue.
_The Meditation of the Old Fisherman. _--This poem is founded upon some
things a fisherman said to me when out fishing in Sligo Bay.
_Northern Cold. _--The Fomor, the powers of death and darkness and cold
and evil, came from the north.
_Nuala. _--The wife of Finvarra.
_Rose. _--The rose is a favourite symbol with the Irish poets, and has
given a name to several poems both Gaelic and English, and is used in
love poems, in addresses to Ireland like Mr. Aubrey de Vere's poem
telling how "The little black rose shall be red at last," and in
religious poems, like the old Gaelic one which speaks of "the Rose of
Friday," meaning the Rose of Austerity.
_Salley. _--Willow.
_Seven Hazel-trees. _--There was once a well overshadowed by seven sacred
hazel-trees, in the midst of Ireland. A certain woman plucked their
fruit, and seven rivers arose out of the well and swept her away. In my
poems this well is the source of all the waters of this world, which are
therefore seven-fold.
_The Wanderings of Usheen. _--The poem is founded upon the middle Irish
dialogues of S. Patric and Usheen and a certain Gaelic poem of the last
century. The events it describes, like the events in most of the poems
in this volume, are supposed to have taken place rather in the
indefinite period, made up of many periods, described by the folk-tales,
than in any particular century; it therefore, like the later Fenian
stories themselves, mixes much that is mediaeval with much that is
ancient. The Gaelic poems do not make Usheen go to more than one island,
but a story in _Silva Gadelica_ describes "four paradises," an island to
the north, an island to the west, an island to the south, and Adam's
paradise in the east.
_Printed in Great Britain by_
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED
WOKING AND LONDON
Transcriber's Notes:
Page 16: 'thictkes' changed to 'thickets'
Page 172: 'He brings in' could be 'She brings in'
Page 263: 'Before this duy' changed to 'Before this day'
Page 290: 'Far from the hazel and oak. ' changed to 'Far from
the hazel and oak,'
Page 295: 'move far off' could be 'move far oft'
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learn the old pronunciation, I will revise all these poems, but at
present I can only affirm that I have not treated my Irish names as
badly as the mediaeval writers of the stories of King Arthur treated
their Welsh names.
_Mythological Gods and Heroes. _--I refer the reader for such names as
Balor and Finn and Usheen to Lady Gregory's "Cuchulain of Muirthemne"
and to her "Gods and Fighting Men. "
_The Ballad of Father Gilligan. _--A tradition among the people of
Castleisland, Kerry.
_The Ballad of Father O'Hart. _--This ballad is founded on the story of a
certain Father O'Hart, priest of Coloony, Sligo, in the last century, as
told by the present priest of Coloony in his _History of Ballisodare and
Kilvarnet_. The robbery of the lands of Father O'Hart was a kind of
robbery which occurred but rarely during the penal laws. Catholics,
forbidden to own landed property, evaded the law by giving a Protestant
nominal possession of their estates. There are instances on record in
which poor men were nominal owners of immense estates.
_The Ballad of the Foxhunter. _--Founded on an incident, probably itself
a Tipperary tradition, in Kickham's _Knockagow_.
_Bell-branch. _--A legendary branch whose shaking casts all men into a
sleep.
_The Countess Cathleen. _--I found the story of the Countess Cathleen in
what professed to be a collection of Irish folk-lore in an Irish
newspaper some years ago. I wrote to the compiler, asking about its
source, but got no answer, but have since heard that it was translated
from _Les Matinees de Timothe Trimm_ a good many years ago, and has been
drifting about the Irish press ever since. Leo Lespes gives it as an
Irish story, and though the editor of _Folklore_ has kindly advertised
for information, the only Christian variant I know of is a Donegal tale,
given by Mr. Larminie in his _West Irish Folk Tales and Romances_, of a
woman who goes to hell for ten years to save her husband, and stays
there another ten, having been granted permission to carry away as many
souls as could cling to her skirt. Leo Lespes may have added a few
details, but I have no doubt of the essential antiquity of what seems to
me the most impressive form of one of the supreme parables of the world.
The parable came to the Greeks in the sacrifice of Alcestis, but her
sacrifice was less overwhelming, less apparently irremediable. Leo
Lespes tells the story as follows:--
Ce que je vais vous dire est un recit du careme Irlandais. Le
boiteux, l'aveugle, le paralytique des rues de Dublin ou de
Limerick, vous le diraient mieux que moi, cher lecteur, si vous
alliez le leur demander, un sixpense d'argent a la main. --Il n'est
pas une jeune fille catholique a laquelle on ne l'ait appris
pendant les jours de preparation a la communion sainte, pas un
berger des bords de la Blackwater qui ne le puisse redire a la
veillee.
Il y a bien longtemps qu'il apparut tout-a-coup dans la vielle
Irlande deux marchands inconnus dont personne n'avait oui parler,
et qui parlaient neanmoins avec la plus grande perfection la langue
du pays. Leurs cheveux etaient noirs et ferres avec de l'or et
leurs robes d'une grande magnificence.
Tous deux semblaient avoir le meme age; ils paraissaient etre des
hommes de cinquante ans, car leur barbe grisonnait un peu.
Or, a cette epoque, comme aujourd'hui, l'Irlande etait pauvre, car
le soleil avait ete rare, et des recoltes presque nulles. Les
indigents ne savaient a quel sainte se vouer, et la misere devenait
de plus en plus terrible.
Dans l'hotellerie ou descendirent les marchands fastueux on chercha
a penetrer leurs desseins: mais ce fut en vain, ils demeurerent
silencieux et discrets.
Et pendant qu'ils demeurerent dans l'hotellerie, ils ne cesserent
de compter et de recompter des sacs de pieces d'or, dont la vive
clarte s'apercevait a travers les vitres du logis.
Gentlemen, leur dit l'hotesse un jour, d'ou vient que vous etes si
opulents, et que, venus pour secourir la misere publique, vous ne
fassiez pas de bonnes oeuvres?
--Belle hotesse, repondit l'un d'eux, nous n'avons pas voulu aller
au-devant d'infortunes honorables, dans la crainte d'etre trompes
par des miseres fictives: que la douleur frappe a la porte, nous
ouvrirons.
Le lendemain, quand on sut qu'il existait deux opulents etrangers
prets a prodiguer l'or, la foule assiegea leur logis; mais les
figures des gens qui en sortaient etaient bien diverses. Les uns
avaient la fierte dans le regard, les autres portaient la honte au
front. Les deux trafiquants achetaient des ames pour le demon.
L'ame d'un vieillard valait vingt pieces d'or, pas un penny de
plus; car Satan avait eu le temps d'y former hypotheque. L'ame
d'une epose en valait cinquante quand elle etait jolie, ou cent
quand elle etait laide. L'ame d'une jeune fille se payait des prix
fous: les fleurs les plus belles et les plus pures sont les plus
cheres.
Pendant ce temps, il existait dans la ville un ange de beaute, la
comtesse Ketty O'Connor. Elle etait l'idole du peuple, et la
providence des indigents. Des qu'elle eut appris que des mecreants
profitaient de la misere publique pour derober des coeurs a Dieu,
elle fit appeler son majordome.
--Master Patrick, lui dit elle, combien ai-je de pieces d'or dans
mon coffre?
--Cent mille.
--Combien de bijoux?
--Peur autant d'argent.
--Combien de chateux, de bois et de terres?
--Pour le double de ces sommes.
--Eh bien! Patrick, vendez tout ce qui n'est pas or et
apportez-m'en le montant. Je ne veux garder a moi que ce castel et
le champ qui l'entoure.
Deux jours apres, les ordres de la pieuse Ketty etaient executes et
le tresor etait distribue aux pauvres au fur et a mesure de leurs
besoins.
Ceci ne faisait pas le compte, dit la tradition, des
commis-voyageurs du malin esprit, qui ne trouvaient plus d'ames a
acheter.
Aides par un valet infame, ils penetrerent dans la retraite de la
noble dame et lui deroberent le reste de son tresor . . . en vain
lutta-t-elle de toutes ses forces pour sauver le contenu de son
coffre, les larrons diaboliques furent les plus forts. Si Ketty
avait eu les moyens de faire un signe de croix, ajoute la legende
Irlandaise, elle les eut mis en fuite, mais ses mains etaient
captives--Le larcin fut effectue. Alors les pauvres solliciterent
en vain pres de Ketty depouillee, elle ne pouvait plus secourir
leur misere;--elle les abandonnait a la tentation. Pourtant il n'y
avait plus que huit jours a passer pour que les grains et lea
fourrages arrivassent en abondance des pays d'Orient. Mais, huit
jours, c'etait un siecle: huit jours necessitaient une somme
immense pour subvenir aux exigences de la disette, et les pauvres
allaient ou expirer dans les angousses de la faim, ou, reniant les
saintes maximes de l'Evangile, vendre a vil prix leur ame, le plus
beau present de la munificence du Seigneur tout-puissant.
Et Ketty n'avait plus une obole, car elle avait abandonne son
chateux aux malheureux.
Elle passa douze heures dans les larmes et le deuil, arrachant ses
cheveux couleur de soleil et meurtrissant son sein couleur du lis:
puis elle se leva resolue, animee par un vif sentiment de
desespoir.
Elle se rendit chez les marchands d'ames.
--Que voulez-vous? dirent ils.
--Vous achetez des ames?
--Oui, un peu malgre vous, n'est ce pas, sainte aux yeux de saphir?
--Aujourd'hui je viens vous proposer un marche, reprit elle.
--Lequel?
--J'ai une ame a vendre; mais elle est chere.
--Qu'importe si elle est precieuse? l'ame, comme le diamant,
s'apprecie a sa blancheur.
--C'est la mienne, dit Ketty.
Les deux envoyes de Satan tressaillirent. Leurs griffes
s'allongerent sous leurs gants de cuir; leurs yeux gris
etincelerent--l'ame, pure, immaculee, virginale de Ketty! . . .
c'etait une acquisition inappreciable.
--Gentille dame, combien voulez-vous?
--Cent cinquante mille ecus d'or.
--C'est fait, dirent les marchands: et ils tendirent a Ketty un
parchemin cachete de noir, qu'elle signa en frissonnant.
La somme lui fut comptee.
Des qu'elle fut rentree, elle dit au majordome:
--Tenez, distribuez ceci. Avec la somme que je vous donne les
pauvres attendront la huitaine necessaire et pas une de leurs ames
ne sera livree au demon.
Puis elle s'enferma et recommanda qu'on ne vint pas la deranger.
Trois jours se passerent; elle n'appela pas; elle ne sortit pas.
Quand on ouvrit sa porte, on la trouva raide et froide: elle etait
morte de douleur.
Mais la vente de cette ame si adorable dans sa charite fut declaree
nulle par le Seigneur: car elle avait sauve ses concitoyens de la
morte eternelle.
Apres la huitaine, des vaisseaux nombreux amenerent a l'Irlande
affamee d'immenses provisions de grains.
La famine n'etait plus possible. Quant aux marchands, ils
disparurent de leur hotellerie, sans qu'on sut jamais ce qu'ils
etaient devenus.
Toutefois, les pecheurs de la Blackwater pretendent qu'ils sont
enchaines dans une prison souterraine par ordre de Lucifer jusqu'au
moment ou ils pourront livrer l'ame de Ketty qui leur a echappe. Je
vous dis la legende telle que je la sais.
--Mais les pauvres l'ont raconte d'age en age et les enfants de
Cork et de Dublin chantent encore la ballade dont voici les
derniers couplets:--
Pour sauver les pauvres qu'elle aime
Ketty donna
Son esprit, sa croyance meme:
Satan paya
Cette ame au devoument sublime,
En ecus d'or,
Disons pour racheter son crime,
_Confiteor_.
Mais l'ange qui se fit coupable
Par charite
Au sejour d'amour ineffable
Est remonte.
Satan vaincu n'eut pas de prise
Sur ce coeur d'or;
Chantons sous la nef de l'eglise,
_Confiteor_.
N'est ce pas que ce recit, ne de l'imagination des poetes
catholiques de la verte Erin, est une veritable recit de careme?
_The Countess Cathleen_ was acted in Dublin in 1899, with Mr. Marcus St.
John and Mr. Trevor Lowe as the First and Second Demon, Mr. Valentine
Grace as Shemus Rua, Master Charles Sefton as Teig, Madame San Carola as
Mary, Miss Florence Farr as Aleel, Miss Anna Mather as Oona, Mr. Charles
Holmes as the Herdsman, Mr. Jack Wilcox as the Gardener, Mr. Walford as
a Peasant, Miss Dorothy Paget as a Spirit, Miss M. Kelly as a Peasant
Woman, Mr. T. E. Wilkinson as a Servant, and Miss May Whitty as The
Countess Kathleen. They had to face a very vehement opposition stirred
up by a politician and a newspaper, the one accusing me in a pamphlet,
the other in long articles day after day, of blasphemy because of the
language of the demons or of Shemus Rua, and because I made a woman sell
her soul and yet escape damnation, and of a lack of patriotism because I
made Irish men and women, who, it seems, never did such a thing, sell
theirs. The politician or the newspaper persuaded some forty Catholic
students to sign a protest against the play, and a Cardinal, who avowed
that he had not read it, to make another, and both politician and
newspaper made such obvious appeals to the audience to break the peace,
that a score or so of police were sent to the theatre to see that they
did not. I had, however, no reason to regret the result, for the stalls,
containing almost all that was distinguished in Dublin, and a gallery of
artisans alike insisted on the freedom of literature.
After the performance in 1899 I added the love scene between Aleel and
the Countess, and in this new form the play was revived in New York by
Miss Wycherley as well as being played a good deal in England and
America by amateurs. Now at last I have made a complete revision to make
it suitable for performance at the Abbey Theatre. The first two scenes
are almost wholly new, and throughout the play I have added or left out
such passages as a stage experience of some years showed me encumbered
the action; the play in its first form having been written before I knew
anything of the theatre. I have left the old end, however, in the
version printed in the body of this book, because the change for
dramatic purposes has been made for no better reason than that
audiences--even at the Abbey Theatre--are almost ignorant of Irish
mythology--or because a shallow stage made the elaborate vision of armed
angels upon a mountain-side impossible. The new end is particularly
suited to the Abbey stage, where the stage platform can be brought out
in front of the proscenium and have a flight of steps at one side up
which the Angel comes, crossing towards the back of the stage at the
opposite side. The principal lighting is from two arc lights in the
balcony which throw their lights into the faces of the players, making
footlights unnecessary. The room at Shemus Rua's house is suggested by a
great grey curtain--a colour which becomes full of rich tints under the
stream of light from the arcs. The two or more arches in the third scene
permit the use of a gauze. The short front scene before the last is just
long enough when played with incidental music to allow the scene set
behind it to be changed. The play when played without interval in this
way lasts a little over an hour.
The play was performed at the Abbey Theatre for the first time on
December 14, 1911, Miss Maire O'Neill taking the part of the Countess,
and the last scene from the going out of the Merchants was as follows:--
(MERCHANTS _rush out_. ALEEL _crawls into the middle of the room;
the twilight has fallen and gradually darkens as the scene goes
on_. )
ALEEL
They're rising up--they're rising through the earth,
Fat Asmodel and giddy Belial,
And all the fiends. Now they leap in the air.
But why does Hell's gate creak so? Round and round.
Hither and hither, to and fro they're running.
(_He moves about as though the air was full of spirits. _ OONA _enters_. )
Crouch down, old heron, out of the blind storm.
OONA
Where is the Countess Cathleen? All this day
Her eyes were full of tears, and when for a moment
Her hand was laid upon my hand, it trembled.
And now I do not know where she is gone.
ALEEL
Cathleen has chosen other friends than us,
And they are rising through the hollow world.
Demons are out, old heron.
OONA
God guard her soul.
ALEEL
She's bartered it away this very hour,
As though we two were never in the world.
(_He kneels beside her, but does not seem to hear her words. The_
PEASANTS _return. They carry the_ COUNTESS CATHLEEN _and lay her upon
the ground before_ OONA _and_ ALEEL. _She lies there as if dead. _)
OONA
O, that so many pitchers of rough clay
Should prosper and the porcelain break in two!
(_She kisses the hands of_ CATHLEEN. )
A PEASANT
We were under the tree where the path turns
When she grew pale as death and fainted away.
CATHLEEN
O, hold me, and hold me tightly, for the storm
Is dragging me away.
(OONA _takes her in her arms_. A WOMAN _begins to wail_. )
PEASANTS
Hush!
PEASANTS
Hush!
PEASANT WOMEN
Hush!
OTHER PEASANT WOMEN
Hush!
CATHLEEN (_half rising_)
Lay all the bags of money in a heap,
And when I am gone, old Oona, share them out
To every man and woman: judge, and give
According to their needs.
A PEASANT WOMAN
And will she give
Enough to keep my children through the dearth?
ANOTHER PEASANT WOMAN
O, Queen of Heaven, and all you blessed saints,
Let us and ours be lost, so she be shriven.
CATHLEEN
Bend down your faces, Oona and Aleel;
I gaze upon them as the swallow gazes
Upon the nest under the eave, before
She wander the loud waters. Do not weep
Too great a while, for there is many a candle
On the High Altar though one fall. Aleel,
Who sang about the dancers of the woods,
That know not the hard burden of the world,
Having but breath in their kind bodies, farewell!
And farewell, Oona, you who played with me
And bore me in your arms about the house
When I was but a child--and therefore happy,
Therefore happy even like those that dance.
The storm is in my hair and I must go.
(_She dies. _)
OONA
Bring me the looking-glass.
(A WOMAN _brings it to her out of inner room_. OONA _holds glass over
the lips of_ CATHLEEN. _All is silent for a moment, then she speaks in a
half-scream. _)
O, she is dead!
A PEASANT
She was the great white lily of the world.
A PEASANT
She was more beautiful than the pale stars.
AN OLD PEASANT WOMAN
The little plant I loved is broken in two.
(ALEEL _takes looking-glass from_ OONA _and flings it upon floor, so
that it is broken in many pieces_. )
ALEEL
I shatter you in fragments, for the face
That brimmed you up with beauty is no more;
And die, dull heart, for you that were a mirror
Are but a ball of passionate dust again!
And level earth and plumy sea, rise up!
And haughty sky, fall down!
A PEASANT WOMAN
Pull him upon his knees,
His curses will pluck lightning on our heads.
ALEEL
Angels and devils clash in the middle air,
And brazen swords clang upon brazen helms.
Look, look, a spear has gone through Belial's eye!
(_A winged_ ANGEL, _carrying a torch and a sword, enters from the_ R.
_with eyes fixed upon some distant thing. The_ ANGEL _is about to pass
out to the_ L. _when_ ALEEL _speaks. The_ ANGEL _stops a moment and
turns_. )
Look no more on the half-closed gates of Hell,
But speak to me whose mind is smitten of God,
That it may be no more with mortal things:
And tell of her who lies there.
(_The_ ANGEL _turns again and is about to go, but is seized by_ ALEEL. )
Till you speak
You shall not drift into eternity.
THE ANGEL
The light beats down; the gates of pearl are wide.
And she is passing to the floor of peace,
And Mary of the seven times wounded heart
Has kissed her lips, and the long blessed hair
Has fallen on her face; the Light of Lights
Looks always on the motive, not the deed,
The Shadow of Shadows on the deed alone.
(ALEEL _releases the_ ANGEL _and kneels_. )
OONA
Tell them to walk upon the floor of peace,
That I would die and go to her I love;
The years like great black oxen tread the world,
And God the herdsman goads them on behind,
And I am broken by their passing feet.
_Down by the Salley Gardens. _--An extension of three lines sung to me by
an old woman at Ballisodare.
_Findrinny (Findruine). _--A kind of white bronze.
_Finvarra (Finbar). _--The king of the faeries of Connaught.
_Hell. _--In the older Irish books Hell is always cold, and it may be
because the Fomoroh, or evil powers, ruled over the north and the
winter. Christianity adopted as far as possible the Pagan symbolism in
Ireland as elsewhere, and Irish poets, when they spoke of "the cold
flagstone of Hell," may have repeated Pagan symbolism.
The folk-tales,
and Keating in his description of Hell, make use, however, of the
ordinary symbolism of fire.
_The Lamentation of the Pensioner. _--This poem is little more than a
translation into verse of the very words of an old Wicklow peasant. Fret
means doom or destiny.
_The Land of Heart's Desire. _--This little play was produced at the
Avenue Theatre in the spring of 1894, with the following cast:--Maurteen
Bruin, Mr. James Welch; Shawn Bruin, Mr. A. E. W. Mason; Father Hart, Mr.
G. R. Foss; Bridget Bruin, Miss Charlotte Morland; Maire Bruin, Miss
Winifred Fraser; A Faery Child, Miss Dorothy Paget. It ran for a little
over six weeks. It was revived in America in 1901, when it was taken on
tour by Mrs. Lemoyne. It has been played two or three times
professionally since then in America and a great many times in England
and America by amateurs. Till lately it was not part of the repertory of
the Abbey Theatre, for I had grown to dislike it without knowing what I
disliked in it. This winter, however, I have made many revisions and now
it plays well enough to give me pleasure. It is printed in this book in
the new form, which was acted for the first time on February 22, 1912,
at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. At the Abbey Theatre, where the platform
of the stage comes out in front of the curtain, the curtain falls before
the priest's last words. He remains outside the curtain and the words
are spoken to the audience like an epilogue.
_The Meditation of the Old Fisherman. _--This poem is founded upon some
things a fisherman said to me when out fishing in Sligo Bay.
_Northern Cold. _--The Fomor, the powers of death and darkness and cold
and evil, came from the north.
_Nuala. _--The wife of Finvarra.
_Rose. _--The rose is a favourite symbol with the Irish poets, and has
given a name to several poems both Gaelic and English, and is used in
love poems, in addresses to Ireland like Mr. Aubrey de Vere's poem
telling how "The little black rose shall be red at last," and in
religious poems, like the old Gaelic one which speaks of "the Rose of
Friday," meaning the Rose of Austerity.
_Salley. _--Willow.
_Seven Hazel-trees. _--There was once a well overshadowed by seven sacred
hazel-trees, in the midst of Ireland. A certain woman plucked their
fruit, and seven rivers arose out of the well and swept her away. In my
poems this well is the source of all the waters of this world, which are
therefore seven-fold.
_The Wanderings of Usheen. _--The poem is founded upon the middle Irish
dialogues of S. Patric and Usheen and a certain Gaelic poem of the last
century. The events it describes, like the events in most of the poems
in this volume, are supposed to have taken place rather in the
indefinite period, made up of many periods, described by the folk-tales,
than in any particular century; it therefore, like the later Fenian
stories themselves, mixes much that is mediaeval with much that is
ancient. The Gaelic poems do not make Usheen go to more than one island,
but a story in _Silva Gadelica_ describes "four paradises," an island to
the north, an island to the west, an island to the south, and Adam's
paradise in the east.
_Printed in Great Britain by_
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED
WOKING AND LONDON
Transcriber's Notes:
Page 16: 'thictkes' changed to 'thickets'
Page 172: 'He brings in' could be 'She brings in'
Page 263: 'Before this duy' changed to 'Before this day'
Page 290: 'Far from the hazel and oak. ' changed to 'Far from
the hazel and oak,'
Page 295: 'move far off' could be 'move far oft'
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