You should have asked
forgiveness
long ago.
Yeats
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Title: The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 4 (of 8)
The Hour-glass. Cathleen ni Houlihan. The Golden Helmet.
The Irish Dramatic Movement
Author: William Butler Yeats
Release Date: August 5, 2015 [EBook #49611]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS OF W B YEATS, VOL 4 ***
Produced by Emmy, mollypit and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www. pgdp. net (This file was
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THE COLLECTED WORKS OF
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
THE HOUR-GLASS. CATHLEEN NI
HOULIHAN. THE GOLDEN HELMET.
THE IRISH DRAMATIC MOVEMENT
:: BEING THE FOURTH VOLUME OF
THE COLLECTED WORKS IN VERSE &
PROSE OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
IMPRINTED AT THE SHAKESPEARE
HEAD PRESS STRATFORD-ON-AVON
MCMVIII
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE HOUR-GLASS 1
CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN 31
THE GOLDEN HELMET 55
THE IRISH DRAMATIC MOVEMENT 79
APPENDIX I:
'THE HOUR-GLASS' 233
APPENDIX II:
'CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN' 240
APPENDIX III:
'THE GOLDEN HELMET' 243
APPENDIX IV:
DATES AND PLACES OF THE FIRST PERFORMANCE
OF NEW PLAYS PRODUCED BY THE NATIONAL
THEATRE SOCIETY AND ITS PREDECESSORS 244
THE HOUR-GLASS:
A MORALITY
_PERSONS IN THE PLAY_
A WISE MAN
A FOOL
SOME PUPILS
AN ANGEL
THE WISE MAN'S WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN
THE HOUR-GLASS:
A MORALITY
_A large room with a door at the back and another at
the side, or else a curtained place where persons can
enter by parting the curtains. A desk and a chair at
one side. An hour-glass on a bracket or stand near the
door. A creepy stool near it. Some benches. A WISE MAN
sitting at his desk. _
WISE MAN.
[_Turning over the pages of a book. _]
WHERE is that passage I am to explain to my pupils to-day? Here it
is, and the book says that it was written by a beggar on the walls of
Babylon: 'There are two living countries, the one visible and the one
invisible; and when it is winter with us it is summer in that country,
and when the November winds are up among us it is lambing-time there. '
I wish that my pupils had asked me to explain any other passage. [_The
FOOL comes in and stands at the door holding out his hat. He has a pair
of shears in the other hand. _] It sounds to me like foolishness; and
yet that cannot be, for the writer of this book, where I have found
so much knowledge, would not have set it by itself on this page, and
surrounded it with so many images and so many deep colours and so much
fine gilding, if it had been foolishness.
FOOL.
Give me a penny.
WISE MAN [_turns to another page_].
Here he has written: 'The learned in old times forgot the visible
country. ' That I understand, but I have taught my learners better.
FOOL.
Won't you give me a penny?
WISE MAN.
What do you want? The words of the wise Saracen will not teach you much.
FOOL.
Such a great wise teacher as you are will not refuse a penny to a fool.
WISE MAN.
What do you know about wisdom?
FOOL.
Oh, I know! I know what I have seen.
WISE MAN.
What is it you have seen?
FOOL.
When I went by Kilcluan where the bells used to be ringing at the
break of every day, I could hear nothing but the people snoring in
their houses. When I went by Tubbervanach, where the young men used
to be climbing the hill to the blessed well, they were sitting at the
crossroads playing cards. When I went by Carrigoras, where the friars
used to be fasting and serving the poor, I saw them drinking wine and
obeying their wives. And when I asked what misfortune had brought all
these changes, they said it was no misfortune, but it was the wisdom
they had learned from your teaching.
WISE MAN.
Run round to the kitchen, and my wife will give you something to eat.
FOOL.
That is foolish advice for a wise man to give.
WISE MAN.
Why, Fool?
FOOL.
What is eaten is gone. I want pennies for my bag. I must buy bacon
in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time
when the sun is weak. And I want snares to catch the rabbits and the
squirrels and the hares, and a pot to cook them in.
WISE MAN.
Go away. I have other things to think of now than giving you pennies.
FOOL.
Give me a penny and I will bring you luck. Bresal the Fisherman lets me
sleep among the nets in his loft in the winter-time because he says I
bring him luck; and in the summer-time the wild creatures let me sleep
near their nests and their holes. It is lucky even to look at me or to
touch me, but it is much more lucky to give me a penny. [_Holds out his
hand. _] If I wasn't lucky, I'd starve.
WISE MAN.
What have you got the shears for?
FOOL.
I won't tell you. If I told you, you would drive them away.
WISE MAN.
Whom would I drive away?
FOOL.
I won't tell you.
WISE MAN.
Not if I give you a penny?
FOOL.
No.
WISE MAN.
Not if I give you two pennies?
FOOL.
You will be very lucky if you give me two pennies, but I won't tell you!
WISE MAN.
Three pennies?
FOOL.
Four, and I will tell you!
WISE MAN.
Very well, four. But I will not call you Teig the Fool any longer.
FOOL.
Let me come close to you where nobody will hear me. But first you must
promise you will not drive them away. [_WISE MAN nods. _] Every day men
go out dressed in black and spread great black nets over the hills,
great black nets.
WISE MAN.
Why do they do that?
FOOL.
That they may catch the feet of the angels. But every morning, just
before the dawn, I go out and cut the nets with my shears, and the
angels fly away.
WISE MAN.
Ah, now I know that you are Teig the Fool. You have told me that I am
wise, and I have never seen an angel.
FOOL.
I have seen plenty of angels.
WISE MAN.
Do you bring luck to the angels too?
FOOL.
Oh, no, no! No one could do that. But they are always there if one
looks about one; they are like the blades of grass.
WISE MAN.
When do you see them?
FOOL.
When one gets quiet, then something wakes up inside one, something
happy and quiet like the stars--not like the seven that move, but like
the fixed stars. [_He points upward. _
WISE MAN.
And what happens then?
FOOL.
Then all in a minute one smells summer flowers, and tall people go by,
happy and laughing, and their clothes are the colour of burning sods.
WISE MAN.
Is it long since you have seen them, Teig the Fool?
FOOL.
Not long, glory be to God! I saw one coming behind me just now. It was
not laughing, but it had clothes the colour of burning sods, and there
was something shining about its head.
WISE MAN.
Well, there are your four pennies. You, a fool, say 'Glory be to God,'
but before I came the wise men said it.
FOOL.
Four pennies! That means a great deal of luck. Great teacher, I have
brought you plenty of luck! [_He goes out shaking the bag. _
WISE MAN.
Though they call him Teig the Fool, he is not more foolish than
everybody used to be, with their dreams and their preachings and
their three worlds; but I have overthrown their three worlds with the
seven sciences. With Philosophy that was made from the lonely star, I
have taught them to forget Theology; with Architecture, I have hidden
the ramparts of their cloudy heaven; with Music, the fierce planets'
daughter whose hair is always on fire, and with Grammar that is the
moon's daughter, I have shut their ears to the imaginary harpings
and speech of the angels; and I have made formations of battle with
Arithmetic that have put the hosts of heaven to the rout. But, Rhetoric
and Dialectic, that have been born out of the light star and out of
the amorous star, you have been my spearman and my catapult! Oh! my
swift horsemen! Oh! my keen darting arguments, it is because of you
that I have overthrown the hosts of foolishness! [_An ANGEL, in a dress
the colour of embers, and carrying a blossoming apple-bough in her
hand and a gilded halo about her head, stands upon the threshold. _]
Before I came, men's minds were stuffed with folly about a heaven
where birds sang the hours, and about angels that came and stood upon
men's thresholds. But I have locked the visions into heaven and turned
the key upon them. Well, I must consider this passage about the two
countries. My mother used to say something of the kind. She would
say that when our bodies sleep our souls awake, and that whatever
withers here ripens yonder, and that harvests are snatched from us
that they may feed invisible people. But the meaning of the book may
be different, for only fools and women have thoughts like that; their
thoughts were never written upon the walls of Babylon. I must ring
the bell for my pupils. [_He sees the ANGEL. _] What are you? Who are
you? I think I saw some that were like you in my dreams when I was a
child--that bright thing, that dress that is the colour of embers! But I
have done with dreams, I have done with dreams.
ANGEL.
I am the Angel of the Most High God.
WISE MAN.
Why have you come to me?
ANGEL.
I have brought you a message.
WISE MAN.
What message have you got for me?
ANGEL.
You will die within the hour. You will die when the last grains have
fallen in this glass.
[_She turns the hour-glass. _
WISE MAN.
My time to die has not come. I have my pupils. I have a young wife and
children that I cannot leave. Why must I die?
ANGEL.
You must die because no souls have passed over the threshold of Heaven
since you came into this country. The threshold is grassy, and the
gates are rusty, and the angels that keep watch there are lonely.
WISE MAN.
Where will death bring me to?
ANGEL.
The doors of Heaven will not open to you, for you have denied the
existence of Heaven; and the doors of Purgatory will not open to you,
for you have denied the existence of Purgatory.
WISE MAN.
But I have also denied the existence of Hell!
ANGEL.
Hell is the place of those who deny.
WISE MAN [_kneels_].
I have, indeed, denied everything, and have taught others to deny. I
have believed in nothing but what my senses told me. But, oh! beautiful
Angel, forgive me, forgive me!
ANGEL.
You should have asked forgiveness long ago.
WISE MAN.
Had I seen your face as I see it now, oh! beautiful angel, I would have
believed, I would have asked forgiveness. Maybe you do not know how
easy it is to doubt. Storm, death, the grass rotting, many sicknesses,
those are the messengers that came to me. Oh! why are you silent? You
carry the pardon of the Most High; give it to me! I would kiss your
hands if I were not afraid--no, no, the hem of your dress!
ANGEL.
You let go undying hands too long ago to take hold of them now.
WISE MAN.
You cannot understand. You live in a country that we can only dream
about. Maybe it is as hard for you to understand why we disbelieve as
it is for us to believe. Oh! what have I said! You know everything!
Give me time to undo what I have done. Give me a year--a month--a day--an
hour! Give me to this hour's end, that I may undo what I have done!
ANGEL.
You cannot undo what you have done. Yet I have this power with my
message. If you can find one that believes before the hour's end, you
shall come to Heaven after the years of Purgatory. For, from one fiery
seed, watched over by those that sent me, the harvest can come again to
heap the golden threshing-floor. But now farewell, for I am weary of
the weight of time.
WISE MAN.
Blessed be the Father, blessed be the Son, blessed be the Spirit,
blessed be the Messenger They have sent!
ANGEL.
[_At the door and pointing at the hour-glass. _]
In a little while the uppermost glass will be empty. [_Goes out. _
WISE MAN.
Everything will be well with me. I will call my pupils; they only say
they doubt. [_Pulls the bell. _] They will be here in a moment. They
want to please me; they pretend that they disbelieve. Belief is too
old to be overcome all in a minute. Besides, I can prove what I once
disproved. [_Another pull at the bell. _] They are coming now. I will go
to my desk. I will speak quietly, as if nothing had happened.
[_He stands at the desk with a fixed look in his eyes.
The voices of THE PUPILS are heard singing these words_:
I was going the road one day--
O the brown and the yellow beer--
And I met with a man that was no right man:
O my dear, O my dear!
_Enter PUPILS and the FOOL. _
FOOL.
Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Who is that pulling at my bag? King's
son, do not pull at my bag.
A YOUNG MAN.
Did your friends the angels give you that bag? Why don't they fill your
bag for you?
FOOL.
Give me pennies! Give me some pennies!
A YOUNG MAN.
What do you want pennies for? that great bag at your waist is heavy.
FOOL.
I want to buy bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong
drink for the time when the sun is weak, and snares to catch rabbits
and the squirrels that steal the nuts, and hares, and a great pot to
cook them in.
A YOUNG MAN.
Why don't your friends tell you where buried treasures are? Why don't
they make you dream about treasures? If one dreams three times there is
always treasure.
FOOL [_holding out his hat_].
Give me pennies! Give me pennies!
[_They throw pennies into his hat. He is standing close
to the door, that he may hold out his hat to each
newcomer. _
A YOUNG MAN.
Master, will you have Teig the Fool for a scholar?
ANOTHER YOUNG MAN.
Teig, will you give us your pennies if we teach you lessons? No, he
goes to school for nothing on the mountains. Tell us what you learn on
the mountains, Teig?
WISE MAN.
Be silent all! [_He has been standing silent, looking away. _] Stand
still in your places, for there is something I would have you tell me.
[_A moment's pause. They all stand round in their
places. TEIG still stands at the door. _
WISE MAN.
Is there any one amongst you who believes in God? In Heaven? Or in
Purgatory? Or in Hell?
ALL THE YOUNG MEN.
No one, Master! No one!
WISE MAN.
I knew you would all say that; but do not be afraid. I will not be
angry. Tell me the truth. Do you not believe?
A YOUNG MAN.
We once did, but you have taught us to know better.
WISE MAN.
Oh! teaching, teaching does not go very deep! The heart remains
unchanged under it all. You have the faith that you always had, and you
are afraid to tell me.
A YOUNG MAN.
No, no, Master!
WISE MAN.
If you tell me that you have not changed I shall be glad and not angry.
A YOUNG MAN [_to his _Neighbour_].
He wants somebody to dispute with.
HIS NEIGHBOUR.
I knew that from the beginning.
A YOUNG MAN.
That is not the subject for to-day; you were going to talk about the
words the beggar wrote upon the walls of Babylon.
WISE MAN.
If there is one amongst you that believes, he will be my best friend.
Surely there is one amongst you. [_They are all silent. _] Surely what
you learned at your mother's knees has not been so soon forgotten.
A YOUNG MAN.
Master, till you came, no teacher in this land was able to get rid of
foolishness and ignorance. But every one has listened to you, every one
has learned the truth. You have had your last disputation.
ANOTHER.
What a fool you made of that monk in the market-place! He had not a
word to say.
WISE MAN.
[_Comes from his desk and stands among them in the
middle of the room. _]
Pupils, dear friends, I have deceived you all this time. It was I
myself who was ignorant. There is a God. There is a Heaven. There is
fire that passes, and there is fire that lasts for ever.
[_TEIG, through all this, is sitting on a stool by the
door, reckoning on his fingers what he will buy with
his money. _
A YOUNG MAN [_to _Another_].
He will not be satisfied till we dispute with him. [_To the WISE MAN. _]
Prove it, Master. Have you seen them?
WISE MAN [_in a low, solemn voice_].
Just now, before you came in, someone came to the door, and when I
looked up I saw an angel standing there.
A YOUNG MAN.
You were in a dream. Anybody can see an angel in his dreams.
WISE MAN.
Oh, my God! It was not a dream! I was awake, waking as I am now. I tell
you I was awake as I am now.
A YOUNG MAN.
Some dream when they are awake, but they are the crazy, and who would
believe what they say? Forgive me, Master, but that is what you taught
me to say. That is what you said to the monk when he spoke of the
visions of the saints and the martyrs.
ANOTHER YOUNG MAN.
You see how well we remember your teaching.
WISE MAN.
Out, out from my sight! I want someone with belief. I must find that
grain the Angel spoke of before I die. I tell you I must find it, and
you answer me with arguments. Out with you, out of my sight!
[_The _Young Men_ laugh. _
A YOUNG MAN.
How well he plays at faith! He is like the monk when he had nothing
more to say.
WISE MAN.
Out, out! This is no time for laughter! Out with you, though you are a
king's son!
[_They begin to hurry out. _
A YOUNG MAN.
Come, come; he wants us to find someone who will dispute with him.
[_All go out. _
WISE MAN.
[_Alone; he goes to the door at the side. _]
I will call my wife. She will believe; women always believe. [_He opens
the door and calls. _] Bridget! Bridget! [_BRIDGET comes in wearing her
apron, her sleeves turned up from her floury arms. _] Bridget, tell me
the truth; do not say what you think will please me. Do you sometimes
say your prayers?
BRIDGET.
Prayers! No, you taught me to leave them off long ago. At first I was
sorry, but I am glad now for I am sleepy in the evenings.
WISE MAN.
But do you not believe in God?
BRIDGET.
Oh, a good wife only believes what her husband tells her!
WISE MAN.
But sometimes when you are alone, when I am in the school and the
children asleep, do you not think about the saints, about the things
you used to believe in? What do you think of when you are alone?
BRIDGET [_considering_].
I think about nothing. Sometimes I wonder if the linen is bleaching
white, or I go out to see if the crows are picking up the chickens'
food.
WISE MAN.
