The Countess Cathleen | Page 5

our
master,
And stretch and warm our heels among the ashes.
END OF SCENE 1
SCENE 2
FRONT SCENE.--A wood with perhaps distant view of turreted house
at one side, but all in flat colour, without light and shade and against a
diafiered or gold background.
COUNTESS CATHLEEN comes in leaning UpOn ALEEL's arm.
OONA follows them.
CATHLEEN. (Stopping) Surely this leafy corner, where one smells
The wild bee's honey, has a story too?
OONA. There is the house at last.
ALEEL. A man, they say,
Loved Maeve the Queen of all the invisible
host,
And died of his love nine centuries ago.
And now, when the
moon's riding at the full,
She leaves her dancers lonely and lies there

Upon that level place, and for three days
Stretches and sighs and
wets her long pale cheeks.
CATHLEEN. So she loves truly.
ALEEL. No, but wets her cheeks,
Lady, because she has forgot his
name.
CATHLEEN. She'd sleep that trouble away--though it must be
A
heavy trouble to forget his name--
If she had better sense.
OONA. Your own house, lady.

ALEEL. She sleeps high up on wintry Knock-na-rea
In an old cairn
of stones; while her poor women
Must lie and jog in the wave if they
would sleep
Being water born--yet if she cry their names
They run
up on the land and dance in the moon
Till they are giddy and would
love as men do,
And be as patient and as pitiful.
But there is
nothing that will stop in their heads,
They've such poor memories,
though they weep for it.
Oh, yes, they weep; that's when the moon is
full.
CATHLEEN. is it because they have short memories
They live so
long?
ALEEL. What's memory but the ash
That chokes our fires that have
begun to sink?
And they've a dizzy, everlasting fire.
OONA. There is your own house, lady.
CATHLEEN. Why, that's true,
And we'd have passed it without
noticing.
ALEEL. A curse upon it for a meddlesome house!
Had it but stayed
away I would have known
What Queen Maeve thinks on when the
moon is pinched;
And whether now--as in the old days--the dancers

Set their brief love on men.
OONA. Rest on my arm.
These are no thoughts for any Christian ear.
ALEEL. I am younger, she would be too heavy for you.
(He begins taking his lute out of the bag, CATHLEEN, Who has turned
towards OONA, turns back to him.)
This hollow box remembers every foot
That danced upon the level
grass of the world,
And will tell secrets if I whisper to it.
(Sings.)
Lift up the white knee;
That's what they sing,
Those young dancers

That in a ring
Raved but now
Of the hearts that break
Long,

long ago
For their sake.
OONA. New friends are sweet.
ALEEL. "But the dance changes.
Lift up the gown,
All that sorrow
Is trodden down."
OONA. The empty rattle-pate! Lean on this arm,
That I can tell you
is a christened arm,
And not like some, if we are to judge by speech.

But as you please. It is time I was forgot.
Maybe it is not on this
arm you slumbered
When you were as helpless as a worm.
ALEEL. Stay with me till we come to your own house.
CATHLEEN (Sitting down) When I am rested I will need no help.
ALEEL. I thought to have kept her from remembering
The evil of the times for full ten minutes;
But now when seven are
out you come between.
OONA. Talk on; what does it matter what you say,
For you have not
been christened?
ALEEL. Old woman, old woman,
You robbed her of three minutes
peace of mind,
And though you live unto a hundred years,
And
wash the feet of beggars and give alms,
And climb Croaghpatrick,
you shall not be pardoned.
OONA. How does a man who never was baptized
Know what
Heaven pardons?
ALEEL. You are a sinful woman
OONA. I care no more than if a pig had grunted.

(Enter CATHLEEN's Steward.)
STEWARD. I am not to blame, for I had locked the gate,
The
forester's to blame. The men climbed in
At the east corner where the
elm-tree is.
CATHLEEN. I do not understand you, who has climbed?
STEWARD. Then God be thanked, I am the first to tell you.
I was
afraid some other of the servants--
Though I've been on the
watch--had been the first
And mixed up truth and lies, your ladyship.
CATHLEEN (rising) Has some misfortune happened?
STEWARD. Yes, indeed.
The forester that let the branches lie

Against the wall's to blame for everything,
For that is how the rogues
got into the garden.
CATHLEEN. I thought to have escaped misfortune here.
Has any one
been killed?
STEWARD. Oh, no, not killed.
They have stolen half a cart-load of
green cabbage.
CATHLEEN. But maybe they were starving.
STEWARD. That is certain.
To rob or starve, that was the choice
they had.
CATHLEEN. A learned theologian has laid down
That starving men
may take what's necessary,
And yet be sinless.
OONA. Sinless and a thief
There should be broken bottles on the
wall.
CATHLEEN. And if it be