The Hour Glass | Page 5

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 pig is fattening well, or I go out to see if the crows are picking up the chickens' food.
WISE MAN. Oh, what can I do! Is there nobody who believes? I must go and find somebody! [He goes toward the door but with his eyes fixed on the hour-glass.] I cannot go out; I cannot leave that!
BRIDGET. You want somebody to get up argument with.
WISE MAN. Oh, look out of the door and tell me if there is anybody there in the street. I cannot leave this glass; somebody might shake it! Then the sand would fall quickly.
BRIDGET. I don't understand what you saying. [Looks out.] There is a great of people talking to your pupils.
WISE MAN. Oh, run out, Bridget, and see if they have found somebody that believes!
BRIDGET [wiping her arms in her apron and pulling down her sleeves]. It's a hard thing to be married to a man of learning that must be always having arguments. [Goes out and shouts through the kitchen door.] Don't be meddling with the bread, children, while I'm out.
WISE MAN. [Kneels down.] "Salvum me fac, Deus--salvum--salvum. ..." I have forgotten it all. It is thirty years since I said a prayer. I must pray in the common tongue, like a clown begging in the market like Teigue the Fool! [He prays.] Help me, Father, Son, and Spirit!
[BRIDGET enters, followed by the FOOL, who is holding out his hat to her.]
FOOL. Give me something; give me a penny to buy bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time when the sun grows weak.
BRIDGET. I have no pennies. [To the WISE MAN.] Your pupils cannot find anybody to argue with you. There is nobody in the whole country who had enough belief to fill a pipe with since you put down the monk. Can't you be quiet now and not always be wanting to have arguments? It must be terrible to have a mind like that.
WISE MAN. I am lost! I am lost!
BRIDGET. Leave me alone now; I have to make the bread for you and the children.
WISE MAN. Out of this, woman, out of this, I say! [BRIDGET goes through the kitchen door.] Will nobody find a way to help me! But she spoke of my children. I had forgotten them. They will believe. It is only those who have reason that doubt; the young are full of faith. Bridget, Bridget, send my children to me!
BRIDGET [inside]. Your father wants you, run to him now.
[The two children came in. They stand together a little way from the threshold of the kitchen door, looking timidly at their father.]
WISE MAN. Children, what do you believe? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Is there a purgatory?
FIRST CHILD. We haven't forgotten, father.
THE OTHER CHILD. Oh, no, father. [They both speak together as if in school.] There is no heaven; there is no hell; there is nothing we cannot see.
FIRST CHILD. Foolish people used to think that there were, but you are very learned and you have taught us better.
WISE MAN. You are just as bad as the others, just as bad as the others! Out of the room with you, out of the room! [The children begin to cry and run away.] Go away, go away! I will teach you better--no, I will never teach you again. Go to your mother--no, she will not be able to teach them. ... Help them, O God! [Alone.] The grains are going very quickly. There is very little sand in the uppermost glass. Somebody will come for me in a moment; perhaps he is at the door now! All creatures that have reason doubt. O that the grass and the planets could speak! Somebody has said that they would wither if they doubted. O speak to me, O grass blades! O fingers of God's certainty, speak to me. You are millions and you will not speak. I dare not know the moment the messenger will come for me. I will cover the glass. [He covers it and brings it to the desk, and the FOOL, is sitting by the door fiddling with some flowers which he has stuck in his hat. He has begun to blow a dandelion head.] What are you doing?
FOOL. Wait a moment. [He blows.] Four, five, six.
WISE MAN. What are you doing that for?
FOOL. I am blowing at the dandelion to find out what time it is.
WISE MAN. You have heard everything! That is why you want to find out what hour it is! You are waiting to see