The Countess Cathleen | Page 4

SHEMUS. Yet if you were that I had thought but now
I'd welcome
you no less. Be what you please
And you'll have supper at the market
rate,
That means that what was sold for but a penny
Is now worth
fifty.
(MERCHANTS begin putting money on carpet.)
FIRST MERCHANT. Our Master bids us pay
So good a price, that
all who deal with us
Shall eat, drink, and be merry.
SHEMUS. (to MARY) Bestir yourself,
Go kill and draw the fowl,
while Teig and I
Lay out the plates and make a better fire.
MARY. I will not cook for you.
SHEMUS. Not cook! not cook!
Do not be angry. She wants to pay
me back
Because I struck her in that argument.
But she'll get sense
again. Since the dearth came
We rattle one on another as though we
were
Knives thrown into a basket to be cleaned.

MARY. I will not cook for you, because I know
In what unlucky
shape you sat but now
Outside this door.
TEIG. It's this, your honours:
Because of some wild words my father
said
She thinks you are not of those who cast a shadow.
SHEMUS. I said I'd make the devils of the wood
Welcome, if they'd
a mind to eat and drink;
But it is certain that you are men like us.
FIRST MERCHANT.
It's strange that she should think we cast no
shadow,
For there is nothing on the ridge of the world
That's more
substantial than the merchants are
That buy and sell you.
MARY. If you are not demons,
And seeing what great wealth is
spread out there,
Give food or money to the starving poor.
FIRST MERCHANT. If we knew how to find deserving poor
We'd
do our share.
MARY. But seek them patiently.
FIRST MERCHANT. We know the evils of mere charity.
MARY. Those scruples may befit a common time.
I had thought
there was a pushing to and fro,
At times like this, that overset the
scale
And trampled measure down.
FIRST MERCHANT. But if already
We'd thought of a more prudent
way than that?
SECOND MERCHANT. If each one brings a bit of merchandise,

We'll give him such a price he never dreamt of.
MARY. Where shall the starving come at merchandise?
FIRST MERCHANT. We will ask nothing but what all men have.

MARY. Their swine and cattle, fields and implements
Are sold and
gone.
FIRST MERCHANT. They have not sold all yet.
For there's a
vaporous thing--that may be nothing,
But that's the buyer's risk--a
second self,
They call immortal for a story's sake.
SHEMUS. You come to buy our souls?
TEIG. I'll barter mine.
Why should we starve for what may be but
nothing?
MARY. Teig and Shemus--
SHEMUS. What can it be but nothing?
What has God poured out of
His bag but famine?
Satan gives money.
TEIG. Yet no thunder stirs.
FIRST MERCHANT. There is a heap for each.
(SHEMUS goes to take money.)
But no, not yet,
For there's a work I have to set you to.
SHEMUS. So then you're as deceitful as the rest,
And all that talk of
buying what's but a vapour
Is fancy bred. I might have known as
much,
Because that's how the trick-o'-the-loop man talks.
FIRST MERCHANT. That's for the work, each has its separate price;
But neither price is paid till the work's done.
TEIG. The same for me.
MARY. Oh, God, why are you still?
FIRST MERCHANT. You've but to cry aloud at every cross-road, At

every house door, that we buy men's souls,
And give so good a price
that all may live
In mirth and comfort till the famine's done,

Because we are Christian men.
SHEMUS. Come, let's away.
TREIG> I shall keep running till I've earned the price.
SECOND MERCHANT. (who has risen and gone towards fire)
Stop,
for we obey a generous Master,
That would be served by Comfortable
men.
And here's your entertainment on the road.
(TRIG and SHEMUS have stopped. TEIG takes the money. They go
out.)
MARY. Destroyers of souls, God will destroy you quickly.
You shall
at last dry like dry leaves and hang
Nailed like dead vermin to the
doors of God.
SECOND MERCHANT.
Curse to your fill, for saints will have their
dreams.
FIRST MERCHANTm Though we're but vermin that our Master sent
To overrun the world, he at the end
Shall pull apart the pale ribs of
the moon
And quench the stars in the ancestral night.
MARY., God is all powerful.
SECOND MERCHANT. Pray, you shall need Him.
You shall eat
dock and grass, and dandelion,
Till that low threshold there becomes
a wall,
And when your hands can scarcely drag your body
We shall
be near you.
(MARY faints.) (The FIRST MERCHANT takes up the carPet, spreads
it before the fire and stands in front of it warming his hands.)
FIRST MERCHANT. Our faces go unscratched,
For she has fainted.

Wring the neck o' that fowl,
Scatter the flour and search the shelves
for bread.
We'll turn the fowl upon the spit and roast it,
And eat the
supper we were bidden to,
Now that the house is quiet, praise