Why must you be always putting
yourself
up against Leagerie and myself?
Yeats
OLD WOMAN.
[_Who is standing in the doorway. _]
They are wondering that there were songs made for me; there have been
many songs made for me. I heard one on the wind this morning.
[_Sings. _] Do not make a great keening
When the graves have been dug to-morrow.
Do not call the white-scarfed riders
To the burying that shall be to-morrow.
Do not spread food to call strangers
To the wakes that shall be to-morrow;
Do not give money for prayers
For the dead that shall die to-morrow . . .
they will have no need of prayers, they will have no need of prayers.
MICHAEL.
I do not know what that song means, but tell me something I can do for
you.
PETER.
Come over to me, Michael.
MICHAEL.
Hush, father, listen to her.
OLD WOMAN.
It is a hard service they take that help me. Many that are red-cheeked
now will be pale-cheeked; many that have been free to walk the hills
and the bogs and the rushes, will be sent to walk hard streets in far
countries; many a good plan will be broken; many that have gathered
money will not stay to spend it; many a child will be born and there
will be no father at its christening to give it a name. They that had
red cheeks will have pale cheeks for my sake; and for all that, they
will think they are well paid.
[_She goes out; her voice is heard outside singing. _
They shall be remembered for ever,
They shall be alive for ever,
They shall be speaking for ever,
The people shall hear them for ever.
BRIDGET [_to PETER_].
Look at him, Peter; he has the look of a man that has got the touch.
[_Raising her voice. _] Look here, Michael, at the wedding clothes.
Such grand clothes as these are! You have a right to fit them on now,
it would be a pity to-morrow if they did not fit. The boys would be
laughing at you. Take them, Michael, and go into the room and fit them
on.
[_She puts them on his arm. _
MICHAEL.
What wedding are you talking of? What clothes will I be wearing
to-morrow?
BRIDGET.
These are the clothes you are going to wear when you marry Delia Cahel
to-morrow.
MICHAEL.
I had forgotten that.
[_He looks at the clothes and turns towards the inner
room, but stops at the sound of cheering outside. _
PETER.
There is the shouting come to our own door. What is it has happened?
[Neighbours_ come crowding in, PATRICK and DELIA with
them. _
PATRICK.
There are ships in the Bay; the French are landing at Killala!
[_PETER takes his pipe from his mouth and his hat off
and stands up. The clothes slip from MICHAEL'S arm. _
DELIA.
Michael! [_He takes no notice. _] Michael! [_He turns towards her. _] Why
do you look at me like a stranger?
[_She drops his arm. BRIDGET goes over towards her. _
PATRICK.
The boys are all hurrying down the hill-sides to join the French.
DELIA.
Michael won't be going to join the French.
BRIDGET [_to PETER_].
Tell him not to go, Peter.
PETER.
It's no use. He doesn't hear a word we're saying.
BRIDGET.
Try and coax him over to the fire.
DELIA.
Michael, Michael! You won't leave me! You won't join the French, and we
going to be married!
[_She puts her arms about him, he turns towards her as
if about to yield. _
OLD WOMAN'S _voice outside_.
They shall be speaking for ever,
The people shall hear them for ever.
[_MICHAEL breaks away from DELIA, stands for a second
at the door, then rushes out, following the OLD WOMAN'S
voice. BRIDGET takes DELIA, who is crying silently,
into her arms. _
PETER.
[_To PATRICK, laying a hand on his arm. _]
Did you see an old woman going down the path?
PATRICK.
I did not, but I saw a young girl, and she had the walk of a queen.
THE GOLDEN HELMET
_PERSONS IN THE PLAY_
CUCHULAIN
LEAGERIE
CONAL
EMER, _Cuchulain's wife_
LEAGERIE'S WIFE
CONAL'S WIFE
LAEG, _Cuchulain's chariot-driver_
RED MAN
HORSEBOYS AND SCULLIONS
THREE BLACK MEN
THE GOLDEN HELMET
_A house made of logs. There are two windows at the
back and a door which cuts off one of the corners of
the room. Through the door one can see rocks, which
make the ground outside the door higher than it is
within, and the sea. Through the windows one can see
nothing but the sea. There are three great chairs at
the opposite side to the door, with a table before
them. There are cups and a flagon of ale on the table. _
_At the Abbey Theatre the house is orange red, and the
chairs, tables and flagons black, with a slight purple
tinge which is not clearly distinguishable from the
black. The rocks are black, with a few green touches.
The sea is green and luminous, and all the characters,
except the RED MAN and the _Black Men_ are dressed in
various tints of green, one or two with touches of
purple which looks nearly black. The _Black Men_ are
in dark purple and the RED MAN is altogether dressed
in red. He is very tall and his height is increased by
horns on the Golden Helmet. The Helmet has in reality
more dark green than gold about it. The _Black Men_
have cats' heads painted on their black cloth caps. The
effect is intentionally violent and startling. _
CONAL.
Not a sail, not a wave, and if the sea were not purring a little like a
cat, not a sound. There is no danger yet. I can see a long way for the
moonlight is on the sea. [_A horn sounds. _
LEAGERIE.
Ah, there is something.
CONAL.
It must be from the land, and it is from the sea that danger comes. We
need not be afraid of anything that comes from the land. [_Looking out
of door. _] I cannot see anybody, the rocks and the trees hide a great
part of the pathway upon that side.
LEAGERIE [_sitting at table_].
It sounded like Cuchulain's horn, but that's not possible.
CONAL.
Yes, that's impossible. He will never come home from Scotland. He
has all he wants there. Luck in all he does. Victory and wealth and
happiness flowing in on him, while here at home all goes to rack, and a
man's good name drifts away between night and morning.
LEAGERIE.
I wish he would come home for all that, and put quiet and respect for
those that are more than she is into that young wife of his. Only this
very night your wife and my wife had to forbid her to go into the
dining-hall before them. She is young, and she is Cuchulain's wife, and
so she must spread her tail like a peacock.
CONAL [_at door_].
I can see the horn-blower now, a young man wrapped in a cloak.
LEAGERIE.
Do not let him come in. Tell him to go elsewhere for shelter. This is
no place to seek shelter in.
CONAL.
That is right. I will tell him to go away, for nobody must know the
disgrace that is to fall upon Ireland this night.
LEAGERIE.
Nobody of living men but us two must ever know that.
CONAL [_outside door_].
Go away, go away!
[_A YOUNG MAN covered by a long cloak is standing upon
the rocks outside door. _
YOUNG MAN.
I am a traveller, and I am looking for sleep and food.
CONAL.
A law has been made that nobody is to come into this house to-night.
YOUNG MAN.
Who made that law?
CONAL.
We two made it, and who has so good a right? for we have to guard
this house and to keep it from robbery, and from burning and from
enchantment.
YOUNG MAN.
Then I will unmake the law. Out of my way!
[_He struggles with CONAL and shoves past into the
house. _
CONAL.
I thought no living man but Leagerie could have stood against me; and
Leagerie himself could not have shoved past me. What is more, no living
man could if I were not taken by surprise. How could I expect to find
so great a strength?
LEAGERIE.
Go out of this: there is another house a little further along the
shore; our wives are there with their servants, and they will give you
food and drink.
YOUNG MAN.
It is in this house I will have food and drink.
LEAGERIE [_drawing his sword_].
Go out of this, or I will make you.
[_The YOUNG MAN seizes LEAGERIE'S arm, and thrusting
it up, passes him, and puts his shield over the chair
where there is an empty place. _
YOUNG MAN [_at table_].
It is here I will spend the night, but I won't tell you why till I
have drunk. I am thirsty. What, the flagon full and the cups empty and
Leagerie and Conal there! Why, what's in the wind that Leagerie and
Conal cannot drink?
LEAGERIE.
It is Cuchulain.
CONAL.
Better go away to Scotland again, or if you stay here ask no one what
has happened or what is going to happen.
CUCHULAIN.
What more is there that can happen so strange as that I should come
home after years and that you should bid me begone?
CONAL.
I tell you that this is no fit house to welcome you, for it is a
disgraced house.
CUCHULAIN.
What is it you are hinting at? You were sitting there with ale beside
you and the door open, and quarrelsome thoughts. You are waiting for
something or someone. It is for some messenger who is to bring you to
some spoil, or to some adventure that you will keep for yourselves.
LEAGERIE.
Better tell him, for he has such luck that it may be his luck will
amend ours.
CONAL.
Yes, I had better tell him, for even now at this very door we saw what
luck he had. He had the slope of the ground to help him. Is the sea
quiet?
LEAGERIE [_looks out of window_].
There is nothing stirring.
CONAL.
Cuchulain, a little after you went out of this country we were sitting
here drinking. We were merry. It was late, close on to midnight, when a
strange-looking man with red hair and a great sword in his hand came in
through that door. He asked for ale and we gave it to him, for we were
tired of drinking with one another. He became merry, and for every joke
we made he made a better, and presently we all three got up and danced,
and then we sang, and then he said he would show us a new game. He said
he would stoop down and that one of us was to cut off his head, and
afterwards one of us, or whoever had a mind for the game, was to stoop
down and have his head whipped off. 'You take off my head,' said he,
'and then I take off his head, and that will be a bargain and a debt
between us. A head for a head, that is the game,' said he. We laughed
at him and told him he was drunk, for how could he whip off a head when
his own had been whipped off? Then he began abusing us and calling
us names, so I ran at him and cut his head off, and the head went on
laughing where it lay, and presently he caught it up in his hands and
ran out and plunged into the sea.
CUCHULAIN [_laughs_].
I have imagined as good, when I had as much ale, and believed it too.
LEAGERIE [_at table_].
I tell you, Cuchulain, you never did. You never imagined a story like
this.
CONAL.
Why must you be always putting yourself up against Leagerie and myself?
and what is more, it was no imagination at all. We said to ourselves
that all came out of the flagon, and we laughed, and we said we will
tell nobody about it. We made an oath to tell nobody. But twelve months
after when we were sitting by this table, the flagon between us--
LEAGERIE.
But full up to the brim--
CONAL.
The thought of that story had put us from our drinking--
LEAGERIE.
We were telling it over to one another--
CONAL.
Suddenly that man came in with his head on his shoulders again, and the
big sword in his hand. He asked for payment of his debt, and because
neither I nor Leagerie would let him cut off our heads he began abusing
us and making little of us, and saying that we were a disgrace, and
that all Ireland was disgraced because of us. We had not a word to say.
LEAGERIE.
If you had been here you would have been as silent as we were.
CONAL.
At last he said he would come again in twelve months and give us one
more chance to keep our word and pay our debt. After that he went down
into the sea again. Will he tell the whole world of the disgrace that
has come upon us, do you think?
CUCHULAIN.
Whether he does or does not, we will stand there in the door with our
swords out and drive him down to the sea again.
CONAL.
What is the use of fighting with a man whose head laughs when it has
been cut off?
LEAGERIE.
We might run away, but he would follow us everywhere.
CONAL.
He is coming; the sea is beginning to splash and rumble as it did
before he came the last time.
CUCHULAIN.
Let us shut the door and put our backs against it.
LEAGERIE.
It is too late. Look, there he is at the door. He is standing on the
threshold.
[_A MAN dressed in red, with a great sword and red
ragged hair, and having a Golden Helmet on his head, is
standing on the threshold. _
CUCHULAIN.
Go back into the sea, old red head! If you will take off heads,
take off the head of the sea turtle of Muirthemne, or of the pig
of Connaught that has a moon in his belly, or of that old juggler
Manannan, son of the sea, or of the red man of the Boyne, or of the
King of the Cats, for they are of your own sort, and it may be they
understand your ways. Go, I say, for when a man's head is off it does
not grow again. What are you standing there for? Go down, I say. If I
cannot harm you with the sword I will put you down into the sea with my
hands. Do you laugh at me, old red head? Go down before I lay my hands
upon you.
RED MAN.
So you also believe I was in earnest when I asked for a man's head?
It was but a drinker's joke, an old juggling feat, to pass the time.
I am the best of all drinkers and tipsy companions, the kindest there
is among the Shape-changers of the world. Look, I have brought this
Golden Helmet as a gift. It is for you or for Leagerie or for Conal,
for the best man, and the bravest fighting-man amongst you, and you
yourselves shall choose the man. Leagerie is brave, and Conal is brave.
They risk their lives in battle, but they were not brave enough for my
jokes and my juggling. [_He lays the Golden Helmet on the ground. _]
Have I been too grim a joker? Well, I am forgiven now, for there is the
Helmet, and let the strongest take it.
[_He goes out. _
CONAL [_taking Helmet_].
It is my right. I am a year older than Leagerie, and I have fought in
more battles.
LEAGERIE [_strutting about stage, sings_].
Leagerie of the Battles
Has put to the sword
The cat-headed men
And carried away
Their hidden gold.
[_He snatches Helmet at the last word. _
CONAL.
Give it back to me, I say. What was the treasure but withered leaves
when you got to your own door?
CUCHULAIN.
[_Taking the Helmet from LEAGERIE. _]
Give it to me, I say.
CONAL.
You are too young, Cuchulain. What deeds have you to be set beside our
deeds?
CUCHULAIN.
I have not taken it for myself. It will belong to us all equally. [_He
goes to table and begins filling Helmet with ale. _] We will pass it
round and drink out of it turn about and no one will be able to claim
that it belongs to him more than another. I drink to your wife, Conal,
and to your wife, Leagerie, and I drink to Emer my own wife. [_Shouting
and blowing of horns in the distance. _] What is that noise?
CONAL.
It is the horseboys and the huntboys and the scullions quarrelling.
I know the sound, for I have heard it often of late. It is a good
thing that you are home, Cuchulain, for it is your own horseboy and
chariot-driver, Laeg, that is the worst of all, and now you will keep
him quiet. They take down the great hunting-horns when they cannot
drown one another's voices by shouting. There--there--do you hear them
now? [_Shouting so as to be heard above the noise. _] I drink to your
good health, Cuchulain, and to your young wife, though it were well if
she did not quarrel with my wife.
_Many men, among whom is LAEG, chariot-driver of
CUCHULAIN, come in with great horns of many fantastic
shapes. _
LAEG.
I am Cuchulain's chariot-driver, and I say that my master is the best.
ANOTHER.
He is not, but Leagerie is.
ANOTHER.
No, but Conal is.
LAEG.
Make them listen to me, Cuchulain.
ANOTHER.
No, but listen to me.
LAEG.
When I said Cuchulain should have the Helmet, they blew the horns.
ANOTHER.
Conal has it. The best man has it.
CUCHULAIN.
Silence, all of you. What is all this uproar, Laeg, and who began it?
[_The _Scullions_ and the _Horseboys_ point at LAEG and
cry, '_He began it_. ' They keep up an all but continual
murmur through what follows. _
LAEG.
A man with a red beard came where we were sitting, and as he passed me
he cried out that they were taking a golden helmet or some such thing
from you and denying you the championship of Ireland. I stood up on
that and I cried out that you were the best of the men of Ireland. But
the others cried for Leagerie or Conal, and because I have a big voice
they got down the horns to drown my voice, and as neither I nor they
would keep silent we have come here to settle it. I demand that the
Helmet be taken from Conal and be given to you.
[_The _Horseboys_ and the _Scullions_ shout, '_No, no;
give it to Leagerie_,' '_The best man has it_,' etc. _
CUCHULAIN.
It has not been given to Conal or to anyone. I have made it into a
drinking-cup that it may belong to all. I drank and then Conal drank.
Give it to Leagerie, Conal, that he may drink. That will make them see
that it belongs to all of us.
A SCULLION OR HORSEBOY.
Cuchulain is right.
ANOTHER.
Cuchulain is right, and I am tired blowing on the big horn.
LAEG.
Cuchulain, you drank first.
ANOTHER.
He gives it to Leagerie now, but he has taken the honour of it for
himself. Did you hear him say he drank the first? He claimed to be the
best by drinking first.
ANOTHER.
Did Cuchulain drink the first?
LAEG [_triumphantly_].
You drank the first, Cuchulain.
CONAL.
Did you claim to be better than us by drinking first?
[_LEAGERIE and CONAL draw their swords. _
CUCHULAIN.
Is it that old dried herring, that old red juggler who has made us
quarrel for his own comfort? [_The _Horseboys_ and the _Scullions_
murmur excitedly. _] He gave the Helmet to set us by the ears, and
because we would not quarrel over it, he goes to Laeg and tells him
that I am wronged. Who knows where he is now, or who he is stirring up
to make mischief between us? Go back to your work and do not stir from
it whatever noise comes to you or whatever shape shows itself.
A SCULLION.
Cuchulain is right. I am tired blowing on the big horn.
CUCHULAIN.
Go in silence.
[_The _Scullions_ and _Horseboys_ turn towards
the door, but stand still on hearing the voice of
LEAGERIE'S WIFE outside the door. _
LEAGERIE'S WIFE.
My man is the best. I will go in the first. I will go in the first.
EMER.
My man is the best, and I will go in first.
CONAL'S WIFE.
No, for my man is the best, and it is I that should go first.
[_LEAGERIE'S WIFE and CONAL'S WIFE struggle in the
doorway. _
_LEAGERIE'S WIFE sings. _
My man is the best.
What other has fought
The cat-headed men
That mew in the sea
And carried away
Their long-hidden gold?
They struck with their claws
And bit with their teeth,
But Leagerie my husband
Put all to the sword.
CONAL'S WIFE.
[_Putting her hand over the other's mouth and getting
in front of her. _]
My husband has fought
With strong men in armour.
Had he a quarrel
With cats, it is certain
He'd war with none
But the stout and heavy
With good claws on them.
What glory in warring
With hollow shadows
That helplessly mew?
EMER.
[_Thrusting herself between them and forcing both of
them back with her hands. _]
I am Emer, wife of Cuchulain, and no one shall go in front of me, or
sing in front of me, or praise any that I have not a mind to hear
praised.
[_CUCHULAIN puts his spear across the door. _
CUCHULAIN.
All of our three wives shall come in together, and by three doors equal
in height and in breadth and in honour. Break down the bottoms of the
windows.
[_While CONAL and LEAGERIE are breaking down the
bottoms of the windows each of their wives goes to the
window where her husband is. _
_While the windows are being broken down EMER sings. _
My man is the best.
And Conal's wife
And the wife of Leagerie
Know that they lie
When they praise their own
Out of envy of me.
My man is the best,
First for his own sake,
Being the bravest
And handsomest man
And the most beloved
By the women of Ireland
That envy me,
And then for his wife's sake
Because I'm the youngest
And handsomest queen.
[_When the windows have been made into doors, CUCHULAIN
takes his spear from the door where EMER is, and all
three come in at the same moment. _
EMER.
I am come to praise you and to put courage into you, Cuchulain, as a
wife should, that they may not take the championship of the men of
Ireland from you.
LEAGERIE'S WIFE.
You lie, Emer, for it is Cuchulain and Conal who are taking the
championship from my husband.
CONAL'S WIFE.
Cuchulain has taken it.
CUCHULAIN.
Townland against townland, barony against barony, kingdom against
kingdom, province against province, and if there be but two door-posts
to a door the one fighting against the other. [_He takes up the Helmet
which LEAGERIE had laid down upon the table when he went to break out
the bottom of the window. _] This Helmet will bring no more wars into
Ireland. [_He throws it into the sea. _]
LEAGERIE'S WIFE.
You have done that to rob my husband.
CONAL'S WIFE.
You could not keep it for yourself, and so you threw it away that
nobody else might have it.
CONAL.
You should not have done that, Cuchulain.
LEAGERIE.
You have done us a great wrong.
EMER.
Who is for Cuchulain?
CUCHULAIN.
Let no one stir.
EMER.
