The Countess Cathleen | Page 9

a thing?
FIRST MERCHANT. Some sell because the money gleams, and some Because they are in terror of the grave,?And some because their neighbours sold before,?And some because there is a kind of joy?In casting hope away, in losing joy,?In ceasing all resistance, in at last?Opening one's arms to the eternal flames,
In casting all sails out upon the wind;?To this--full of the gaiety of the lost--?Would all folk hurry if your gold were gone.
CATHLEEN. There is something, Merchant, in your voice?That makes me fear. When you were telling how?A man may lose his soul and lose his God?Your eyes were lighted up, and when you told?How my poor money serves the people, both--?Merchants forgive me--seemed to smile.
FIRST MERCHANT. Man's sins?Move us to laughter only; we have seen?So many lands and seen so many men.?How strange that all these people should be swung?As on a lady's shoe-string,--under them?The glowing leagues of never-ending flame.
CATHLEEN. There is a something in you that I fear;?A something not of us; but were you not born?In some most distant corner of the world?
(The SECOND MERCHANT, who has been listening at the door, comes forward, and as he comes a sound of voices and feet is heard.)
SECOND MERCHANT. Away now--they are in the passage--hurry,?For they will know us, and freeze up our hearts?With Ave Marys, and burn all our skin?With holy water.
FIRST MERCHANT. Farewell; for we must ride?Many a mile before the morning come;?Our horses beat the ground impatiently.
(They go out. A number of PEASANTs enter by other door.)
FIRST PEASANT. Forgive us, lady, but we heard a noise.
SECOND PEASANT. We sat by the fireside telling vanities.
FIRST PEASANT.?We heard a noise, but though we have searched the house?We have found nobody.
CATHLEEN. You are too timid.?For now you are safe from all the evil times.?There is no evil that can find you here.
OONA (entering hurriedly)?Ochone! Ochone! The treasure room is broken in,?The door stands open, and the gold is gone.
(PEASANTS raise a lamentable cry.)
CATHLEEN. Be silent.
(The cry ceases.)
Have you seen nobody?
OONA Ochone!?That my good mistress should lose all this money.
CATHLEEN. Let those among you--not too old to ride--?Get horses and search all the country round,?I'll give a farm to him who finds the thieves.
(A man with keys at his girdle has come in while she speaks. There is a general murmur of The Porter! the porter!")
PORTER. Demons were here. I sat beside the door?In my stone niche, and two owls passed me by,?Whispering with human voices.
OLD PEASANT. God forsakes us.
CATHLEEN. Old man, old man, He never closed a door?Unless one opened. I am desolate,?For a most sad resolve wakes in my heart?But I have still my faith; therefore be silent?For surely He does not forsake the world,?But stands before it modelling in the clay?And moulding there His image. Age by age?The clay wars with His fingers and pleads hard?For its old, heavy, dull and shapeless ease;?But sometimes--though His hand is on it still--?It moves awry and demon hordes are born.
(PEASANTS cross themselves.)
Yet leave me now, for I am desolate,?I hear a whisper from beyond the thunder.
(She comes from the oratory door.)
Yet stay an instant. When we meet again?I may have grown forgetful. Oona, take?These two--the larder and the dairy keys.
(To the PORTER.)
But take you this. It opens the small room?Of herbs for medicine, of hellebore,?Of vervain, monkshood, plantain, and self-heal.?The book of cures is on the upper shelf.
PORTER. Why do you do this, lady; did you see?Your coffin in a dream?
CATHLEEN. Ah, no, not that.?A sad resolve wakes in me. I have heard?A sound of wailing in unnumbered hovels,?And I must go down, down--I know not where--?Pray for all men and women mad from famine;?Pray, you good neighbours.
(The PEASANTS all kneel. COUNTESS CATHLEEN ascends the steps to the door of the oratory, and turning round stands there?motionless for a little, and then cries in a loud voice :)
Mary, Queen of angels,?And all you clouds on clouds of saints, farewell!
END OF SCENE 3.
SCENE 4
SCENE.--A wood near the Castle, as in Scene 2. The SPIRITS pass one by one carrying bags.
FIRST SPIRIT. I'll never dance another step, not one.
SECOND SPIRIT. Are all the thousand years of dancing done?
THIRD SPIRIT. How can we dance after so great a sorrow?
FOURTH SPIRIT. But how shall we remember it to-morrow?
FIFTH SPIRIT. To think of all the things that we forget.
SIXTH SPIRIT. That's why we groan and why our lids are wet.
(The SPIRITS go out. A group Of PEASANTS Pass.)
FIRST PEASANT. I have seen silver and copper, but not gold.
SECOND PEASANT. It's yellow and it shines.
FIRST PEASANT. It's beautiful.?The most beautiful thing under the sun, That's what I've heard.
THIRD PEASANT. I have seen gold enough.
FOURTH PEASANT. I would not say that it's so beautiful.
FIRST PEASANT. But doesn't a gold piece glitter like the sun? That's what my father, who'd seen better days,?Told me when I was but