MARTIN DOURAS O Murtagh, Murtagh, sure you know you can't be alone. We're two old men, Murtagh.
MURTAGH COSGAR
He daren't go.
MATT
Because I'm the last of them he thinks he can dare me like that.
MURTAGH COSGAR
There was more of my blood in the others.
MATT
Do you say that?
MARTIN DOURAS
Don't say it again. For God's sake, don't say it again, Murtagh.
MURTAGH COSGAR
I do say it again. Them who dared to go had more of my blood in them!
MATT Ah, you have put me to it now, and I'm glad, glad. A little house, a bit of land. Do you think they could keep me here?
MURTAGH COSGAR (to Martin Douras) It's his own way he wants. I never had my own way. (To Matt) You're my last son. You're too young to know the hardship there was in rearing you.
MATT (exultantly) Your last son; that won't keep me here. I'm the last of my name, but that won't keep me here. I leave you your lands, your twenty years' purchase. Murtagh Cosgar, Murtagh Cosgar! isn't that a great name, Martin Douras—a name that's well planted, a name for generations? Isn't he a lucky man that has a name for generations? (He goes out)
MURTAGH COSGAR He can't go. How could he go and he the last of the name. Close the door, I say.
MARTIN DOURAS
He'll go to Ellen, surely. We'll lose both of them. Murtagh Cosgar,
God comfort you and me.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Ellen; who's Ellen? Ay, that daughter of yours. Close the door, I say.
He sits down at fireplace. Martin Douras closes door and goes to
him.
CURTAIN
ACT II
Interior of Martin Douras'. The entrance is at back left. There is a dresser against wall back; a table down from dresser; room doors right and left. The fireplace is below the room door right; there are stools and chairs about it. There is a little bookcase left of the dresser, and a mirror beside it. There are patriotic and religious pictures on the wall. There are cups and saucers on table, and a teapot beside fire. It is afternoon still. Ellen Douras is near the fire reading. Cornelius comes in slowly.
CORNELIUS I left the men down the road a bit. We ought to take great pride out of this day, Ellen. Father did more than any of them to bring it about.
ELLEN He suffered more than any of them. And it's little we'll get out of the day.
CORNELIUS It's a great thing to have prophesied it, even. We'll be here to see a great change.
ELLEN
There will be no change to make things better!
CORNELIUS
Will you be taking that school, Ellen?
ELLEN
I'll wait a while.
Sally coming in; she is hurried.
SALLY (breathlessly) Oh, God save you, Cornelius. Tell me, is my father gone? I dread going back and he there! It was all over that baste of a sow that has kept me slaving all through the spring till I don't know whether greens or potatoes is the fittest for her!
CORNELIUS
He didn't go, Sally. I went down a bit of the road myself with the men.
SALLY Oh, God help me! And I'll have to be going back to boil meal for her now. How are you, Ellen. (She goes to Ellen)
ELLEN Sit down for a while, Sally; it's a long time since I was speaking to you.
Sally sits down beside Ellen.
CORNELIUS
I'll leave this paper where they won't be looking for pipe-lights.
There are things in that paper I'd like to be saying. (He takes a
newspaper out of his pocket and goes to room right)
ELLEN (to Sally, who has been watching Cornelius) Tell me, Sally, are they always that busy in your house? Is your father as harsh as they say?
SALLY
Father 'ud keep us all working. He's a powerful great man.
ELLEN
Matt will be bringing a wife into the house soon from all I hear.
How would your father treat her?
SALLY
Oh, he'd have his way, and she'd have her way, I suppose.
ELLEN
And do you think your father will let him marry?
SALLY
Sure he must if the boy likes.
ELLEN
What would he say if Matt married a girl without a fortune?
SALLY In my mother's country there are lots of girls with fortunes that Matt could have.
ELLEN
Supposing he wanted a girl that had no fortune?
SALLY Oh, I suppose father would give in in the end. It wouldn't be clay against flint when Matt and father would be to it.
ELLEN You're a good girl, Sally. If I was Matt's wife, do you think you'd be fond of me?
SALLY
I'd like you as well as another, Ellen.
Cornelius comes down from room.
CORNELIUS
I suppose they'll be here soon.
ELLEN
I have tea ready for them.
SALLY
Who's coming at all?
CORNELIUS
Some of the boys and girls that are for America. They are going
to Gilroy's to-night, and are leaving from that in the morning.
They are coming in to see Ellen on their way down.
SALLY There are a good many going this flight. The land never troubles them in America, and they can wear fine clothes, and be as free as the larks over the bogs. It's a wonder you never thought of going, Ellen.
ELLEN Father wouldn't like me to be far from him, and so I went in for the school instead.
SALLY And now you've got a fine boy like Matt. It was lucky for you to be staying here.
ELLEN
Hush, Sally.
SALLY Oh, I knew all about it before you talked to me at all. Matt always goes to the place where he thinks you'd be.
ELLEN (rising) I'll be in the room when the girls come, Cornelius.
She goes into room left.
SALLY (going to Cornelius) God help us, but she's the silent creature. Isn't it a wonder she's not filled with talk of him after seeing him to-day? But Ellen's right. We shouldn't be talking about men, nor thinking about them either; and that's the way to keep them on our hands on the long run. I'll be going myself.
She goes towards door.
CORNELIUS (going to her) Don't be minding Ellen at all, Sally.
SALLY Well, as high as she is, and as mighty as she is, she came into his own house to see Matt. God between us and harm, Cornelius, maybe they'll be saying I came into your house to see you.
CORNELIUS Who'll know you came at all? And what isn't seen won't be spoken of.
SALLY
Would you like me to stay, Cornelius?
CORNELIUS
Ay, I would.
SALLY
Divil mind the sow,
They sit down together.
SALLY (after a pause) Would you like me to knit you a pair of socks, Cornelius?
CORNELIUS
Oh, I would, Sally; I'd love to wear them.
SALLY I'll knit them. We'll be getting rid of the sow tonight, maybe, and I'll have time after that.
CORNELIUS And you come along the road when I'm herding. I don't want to be going near your father's house.
SALLY
O Cornelius, it won't be lucky for us when father hears about
Ellen and Matt.
CORNELIUS
That's true. No man sees his house afire but looks to his rick.
SALLY Come down a bit of the road with me, Cornelius. The sow will be grunting and grunting, reminding father that I'm away. Och, a minute ago I was as contented as if there was no land or pigs, or harsh words to trouble one. (She goes to the door) The boys and girls for America are coming here.
CORNELIUS Give me your hands to hold, Sally. (She gives him her hands) We are as young as any of them after all.
They hold each other's hands, then stand apart.
SALLY It's a fine time for them to be going when the leaves are opening on the trees.
Three boys and three girls enter. They are dressed for going away.
SALLY God save you, girls. Good-bye, Cornelius. I'll have to run like a redshank.
Sally goes out.
CORNELIUS I'll call Ellen down to you. (He goes to the room door and calls) I'm going herding myself. Herding is pleasant when you have thoughts with you.
He takes up the rod and goes out. The girls begin whispering, then chattering.
FIRST GIRL Sure I know. Every night I'm dreaming of the sea and the great towns. Streets and streets of houses and every street as crowded as the road outside the chapel when the people do be coming from Mass. I could watch the crowd in the street; I would think it better than any sight I ever knew.
SECOND GIRL
And the shops and the great houses.
SECOND BOY There's no stir here. There's no fine clothes, nor fine manners, nor fine things to be seen.
THIRD BOY There's no money. One could never get a shilling together here. In America there's money to have and to spend and to send home.
THIRD GIRL
Every girl gets married in America.
Ellen comes down.
ELLEN
I'm glad you came. I have tea ready for you. I can't go to
Gilroy's to-night.
Some come to the table and some remain near the door.
A GIRL (at table, to Ellen) They say that a peat fire like that will seem very strange to us after America. Bridget wondered at it when she came back. "Do civilized people really cook at the like of them?" said she.
A BOY It's the little houses with only three rooms in them that will seem strange. I'm beginning to wonder myself at their thatch and their mud walls.
ANOTHER GIRL
Houses in bogs and fields. It was a heart-break trying
to keep them as we'd like to keep them. A GIRL (at door) Ah, but
I'll never forget Gortan and the little road to Aughnalee.
ANOTHER GIRL I think I'll be lonesome for a long time. I'll be thinking on my brothers and sisters. I nursed and minded all the little ones.
FIRST BOY
A girl like you, Ellen, is foolish to be staying here.
SECOND BOY
She'll be coming in the fall. We'll be glad to see you,
Ellen.
ELLEN
I have no friends in America.
FIRST GIRL I have no friends there, either. But I'll get on. You could get on better than any of us, Ellen.
SECOND GIRL She's waiting for her school. It will be a little place by the side of a bog.
THIRD GIRL (going to Ellen) There would be little change in that. And isn't it a life altogether different from this life that we have been longing for? To be doing other work, and to be meeting strange people. And instead of bare roads and market-towns, to be seeing streets, and crowds, and theaters.
ELLEN (passionately) O what do you know about streets and theaters? You have only heard of them. They are finer than anything you could say. They are finer than anything you could think of, after a story, when you'd be A GIRL You'll be going after all, Ellen.
ELLEN
I won't be going.
FIRST GIRL
Well, maybe you'll be down at Gilroy's. We must go now.
The girls go to the door. Ellen goes with them.
ONE OF THE BOYS Phil said that an egg was all he could touch while he was on the sea.
SECOND BOY
God help us, if that was all Phil could take.
THIRD BOY
Light your pipes now, and we'll go.
Ellen has parted with the girls. The boys light their pipes at fire.
They go to door, and shake hands with Ellen. The boys go out.
ELLEN Theaters! What do they know of theaters? And it's their like will be enjoying them.
Sally comes back. She is more hurried than before.
SALLY Ellen! Ellen! I have wonders to tell. Where is Cornelius, at all? He's never here when you have wonders to tell.
ELLEN
What have you to tell?
SALLY Oh, I don't know how I'll get it all out! Matt and father had an odious falling out, and it was about you. And Matt's going to America; and he's to bring you with him. And Cornelius was saying that if father found out about yourself and Matt—
ELLEN
Sally, Sally, take breath and tell it.
SALLY Matt is going to America, like the others, and he's taking you with him.
ELLEN
Sally, Sally, is it the truth you're telling?
SALLY
It is the truth. Honest as day, it is the truth.
ELLEN And I thought I'd be content with a new house. Now we can go away together. I can see what I longed to see. I have a chance of knowing what is in me. (She takes Sally's hands) It's great news you've brought me. No one ever brought me such news before. Take this little cross. You won't have a chance of getting fond of me after all. (She wears a cross at her throat; she breaks the string, and gives it to Sally)
SALLY I don't know why I was so fervent to tell you. There's the stool before me that myself and Cornelius were sitting on, and he saying—(She goes to the door) Here's Matt! Now we'll hear all about it.
ELLEN So soon; so soon. (She goes to the mirror. After a pause, turning to Sally) Go down the road a bit, when he comes in. Sally, you have a simple mind; you might be saying a prayer that it will be for the best.
SALLY (going to the door muttering) Go down the road a bit! 'Deed and I will not till I know the whole ins and outs of it. Sure I'm as much concerned in it as herself! "No man sees his house afire but watches his rick," he was saying. Ah, there's few of them could think of as fine a thing as that.
Matt comes in.
MATT
Well, Sally, were you home lately?
SALLY I was—leastways as far as the door. Father and oul' Martin were discoursing.
MATT I've given them something to discourse about. Maybe you'll be treated better from this day. Sally.
SALLY
O Matt, I'm sorry.
She goes out.
MATT (going to Ellen) It happened at last, Ellen; the height of the quarrel came.
ELLEN
It was bound to come. I knew it would come, Matt.
MATT
He was a foolish man to put shame on me after all I did for the land.
ELLEN
You had too much thought for the land.
MATT I had in troth. The others went when there was less to be done. They could not stand him. Even the girls stole away.
ELLEN
There was the high spirit in the whole of you.
MATT I showed it to him. "Stop," said I; "no more, or I fling lands and house and everything aside."
ELLEN
You said that.
MATT Ay. "Your other children went for less," said I; "do you think there's no blood in me at all?"
ELLEN
What happened then?
MATT "I'm your last son," I said; "keep your land and your twenty years' purchase. I'm with the others; and it's poor your land will leave you, and you without a son to bring down your name. A bit of land, a house," said I; "do you think these will keep me here?"
ELLEN I knew they could not keep you here, Matt. You have broken from them at last; and now the world is before us. Think of all that is before us—the sea, and the ships, the strange life, and the great cities.
MATT
Ay—there before us—if we like.
ELLEN
Surely we like.
MATT I was always shy of crowds. I'm simple, after all, Ellen, and have no thought beyond the land.
ELLEN You said that house and land could not keep you. You told him you were going as your brothers went.
MATT And I felt I was going. I frightened him. He'll be glad to see me back. It will be long before he treats me that way again.
ELLEN (suddenly) Matt!
MATT
What is it, Ellen?
ELLEN I don't know—I was upset—thinking of the quarrel (putting her hands on his shoulders) My poor Matt. It was about me you quarrelled.
MATT
Ay, he spoke against you. I couldn't put up with that.
ELLEN
He does not know your high spirit. He does not know your strength.
MATT Ellen, it's no shame for a man to have harsh words said to him when it's about a woman like you.
ELLEN Let nothing come between us now. I saw you in the winter making drains and ditches, and it wet. It's a poor story, the life of a man on the land.
MATT
I had too much thought for the land.
ELLEN You had. Have thought for me now. There is no one in fair or market but would notice me. I was never a favourite. I lived to myself. I did not give my love about. You have never offered me anything. In the song a man offers towns to his sweetheart. You can offer me the sights of great towns, and the fine manners, and the fine life.
MATT Ellen! (He draws a little away) It's not me that could offer the like of that. I never had anything to my hand but a spade.
ELLEN
Your brothers—think of them.
MATT
They all left some one behind them. I am the last of my name.
ELLEN
Why should that keep you back?
MATT His name is something to a man. Could you hear of your own name melting away without unease? And you are a woman. A man feels it more.
ELLEN I do not understand men. Will you go back to your father's house after he shaming you out of it?
MATT He'll be glad to see me back. He'll never cast it up to me that I went.
ELLEN Matt, your father said words against me. Will you go to him and take his hand after that?
MATT It was little he said against you. It was against your father he spoke.
ELLEN (sinking down on a chair, and putting hands before her face) My God! After all my waiting, you talk like that.
MATT (going to her) Ellen, Ellen, tell me what I can do for you? There's land and houses to be had here. Father will let me have my own way after this.
ELLEN (rising, with anger) What does it matter to me whether he lets you have your own way or not? Do you think I could go into a farmer's house?
MATT
Ellen!
ELLEN It's a bad hand I'd make of a farmer's house. I'm not the sort to be in one. I'm not like Sally.
MATT (getting angry) Don't be talking that way, Ellen Douras.
ELLEN (with great vehemence) I must be talking like this. If you take me, you will have to go from your father's house. I always knew it. You ought to know it now, Matt Cosgar.
MATT You didn't know it always. And you have let some one come between us when you talk like that.
ELLEN I'm not one to be listening to what people say about you. Nor do I be talking in the markets about you.
MATT I suppose not. You wouldn't have people think you gave any thought to me; I'm not good enough for you. The people you know are better.
ELLEN
You are foolish to be talking like that. You are foolish, I say.
MATT I know I am foolish. Fit only to be working in drains and ditches in the winter. That's what you think.
ELLEN
Maybe it is.
MATT Ellen Douras! Ellen Douras! A farmer's roof will be high enough for you some day.
ELLEN May I never see the day. Go back, go back. Make it up with your father. Your father will be glad of a labourer.
MATT Maybe you won't be glad if I go back; thinking on what you've said.
ELLEN I said too much. We don't know each other at all. Go back. You have made your choice.
She goes up to room left.
MATT Very well, then. God above, am I to be treated everywhere like a heifer strayed into a patch of oats? Neither man nor woman will make me put up with this any longer. (Going to door) When Ellen Douras wants me, she knows the place to send to. (He stands at door. There is no sound from room. Going back he speaks loudly) I'll be waiting two days or three days to hear from Ellen Douras.
There is no sound. Matt goes out. The room door is thrown open, and Ellen comes down.
ELLEN (furiously) Two days or three days he'll wait for me. As if I'd go into Murtagh Cosgar's house. As if I'd go into any farmer's house. As if I'd get married at all, and the world before me. Two days or three days you'll wait. Maybe it's lonesome, weary years you'll be waiting, Matt Cosgar.
CURTAIN
ACT III
Interior of Murtagh Cosgar's. It is towards sunset. Murtagh Cosgar is standing before the door looking out. Martin Douras is sitting at the fire in an armchair.
MARTIN DOURAS
It's getting late, Murtagh Cosgar.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Ay, it's getting late.
MARTIN DOURAS
It's time for me to be going home. I should be seeing
Ellen. (He rises)
MURTAGH COSGAR Stay where you are. (Turning round) We're two old men, as you say. We should keep each other's company for a bit.
MARTIN DOURAS
I should be going home to see Ellen.
MURTAGH COSGAR
If she's going, you can't stay her. Let you keep here.
MARTIN DOURAS
She'll be wondering what happened to me.
MURTAGH COSGAR Divil a bit it will trouble her. You're going to the fair anyway?
MARTIN DOURAS
I have no heart to be going into a fair.
MURTAGH COSGAR It's myself used to have the great heart. Driving in on my own side-car, and looking down on the crowd of them. It's twenty years since I took a sup of drink. Oh, we'll have drinking to-morrow that will soften the oul' skin of you. You'll be singing songs about the Trojans to charm every baste in the fair.
MARTIN DOURAS
We're both old men, Murtagh Cosgar.
MURTAGH COSGAR And is there any reason in your scholarship why oul' men should be dry men? Answer me that!
MARTIN DOURAS I won't answer you at all, Murtagh Cosgar. There's no use in talking to you.
MURTAGH COSGAR Put it down on a piece of paper that oul' men should have light hearts when their care is gone from them. They should be like—
MARTIN DOURAS There's nothing in the world like men with their rearing gone from them, and they old.
Sally comes to the door. She enters stealthily.
MURTAGH COSGAR Ha, here's one of the clutch home. Well, did you see that brother of yours?
SALLY
I did. He'll be home soon, father.
MURTAGH COSGAR What's that you say? Were you talking to him? Did he say he'd be home?
SALLY
I heard him say it, father.
MARTIN DOURAS
God bless you for the news, Sally.
MURTAGH COSGAR How could he go and he the last of them? Sure it would be against nature. Where did you see him, Sally?
SALLY
At Martin Douras's, father.
MURTAGH COSGAR It's that Ellen Douras that's putting him up to all this. Don't you be said by her, Sally.
SALLY
No, father.
MURTAGH COSGAR You're a good girl, and if you haven't wit, you have sense. He'll be home soon, did you say?
SALLY
He was coming home. He went round the long way, I'm thinking.
Ellen Douras was vexed with him, father. She isn't going either,
Matt says, but I'm thinking that you might as well try to keep a
corncrake in the meadow for a whole winter, as to try to keep Ellen
Douras in Aughnalee.
MURTAGH COSGAR Make the place tidy for him to come into. He'll have no harsh words from me. (He goes up to the room)
SALLY
Father's surely getting ould.
MARTIN DOURAS (sitting down) He's gone up to rest himself, God help him. Sally, a stor, I'm that fluttered, I dread going into my own house.
SALLY I'll get ready now, and let you have a good supper before you go to the fair.
MARTIN DOURAS
Sit down near me, and let me hear everything, Sally.
Was it Matt that told you, or were you talking to Ellen herself?
SALLY O, indeed, I had a talk with Ellen, but she won't give much of her mind away. It was Matt that was telling me. "Indeed she's not going," said he, "and a smart young fellow like myself thinking of her. Ellen is too full of notions." Here's Matt himself. Father won't have a word to say to him. He's getting mild as he's getting ould, and maybe it's a fortune he'll be leaving to myself.
Matt comes to the door. He enters.
MATT
Where is he? He's not gone to the fair so early?
SALLY
He's in the room.
MATT Were you talking to him at all? Were you telling him you saw myself?
SALLY
I was telling him that you were coming back.
MATT
How did he take it?
SALLY
Very quiet. God help us all; I think father's losing his spirit.
MATT (going to Martin) Well, you see I've come back, Martin.
MARTIN DOURAS Ay, you're a good lad. I always said you were a good lad.
MATT
How did father take it, Martin?
MARTIN DOURAS
Quietly, quietly. You saw Ellen?
MATT Ay, I saw Ellen (gloomily). She shouldn't talk the way she talks, Martin. What she said keeps coming into my mind, and I'm troubled. God knows I've trouble enough on my head.
MARTIN DOURAS (eagerly) What did she say, Matt Cosgar?
MATT
It wasn't what she said. She has that school in her mind, I know.
MARTIN DOURAS
And is there anything to keep her here, Matt Cosgar?
MATT I don't know that she thinks much of me now. We had a few words, but there's nothing in the world I put above Ellen Douras.
MARTIN DOURAS
I should be going to her.
MATT Wait a bit, and I'll be going with you. Wait a bit. Let us talk it over. She wouldn't go from you, and you old.
MARTIN DOURAS God forgive my age, if it would keep her here. Would I have my Ellen drawing turf, or minding a cow, or feeding pigs?
MATT I'm fond of her, Martin. She couldn't go, and I so fond of her. What am I doing here? I should be making it up with her. What good will anything be if Ellen Douras goes? (He turns to the door, then stops) I came to settle with him. I mustn't be running about like a frightened child.
The room door opens, and Murtagh Cosgar is seen. Sally has hung a pot over the fire, and is cleaning the dishes at the dresser.
MURTAGH COSGAR (at the room door) Sally, it's time to be putting on the meal. If you have any cabbage left, put it through the meal. (To Matt) You put the thong in the harness?
MATT
I did (pause) Well, I've come back to you.
MURTGAH COSGAR
You're welcome. We were making ready for the fair.
MATT
I'll be going out again before nightfall.
MURTAGH COSGAR
I'll not be wanting you here, or at the fair.
MATT (sullenly) There's no good talking to me like that.
MURTAGH COSGAR You said, "I've come back," and I said, "you're welcome." You said, "I'm going out again," and I said, "I'll not be wanting you."
MATT
Father, have you no feeling for me at all?
MURTAGH COSGAR Sure the wild raven on the tree has thought for her young.
MATT Ay, but do you feel for me, and I standing here, trying to talk to you?
MURTAGH COSGAR You're my son, and so I feel sorry for you; and you beginning to know your own foolishness. (He turns to Sally) I'm not taking the pigs. Put a fresh bedding under them to-night.
SALLY
I will, father.
MURTAGH COSGAR Be up early, and let the cows along the road, or they'll be breaking into the young meadow.
SALLY
I'll do that, too.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Be sure to keep enough fresh milk for the young calf.
SALLY
I'll be sure to do it, father.
She goes out. Martin takes out his paper, and begins to read it
again.
MATT (turning on Murtag) Before I go out again there's something I want settled.
MURTAGH COSGAR
What is it you want?
MATT
Would you have me go, or would you have me stay?
MURTAGH COSGAR Don't be talking of going or staying, and you the last of them.
MATT But I will be talking of it. You must treat me differently if you want me to stay. You must treat me differently to the way you treat Sally.
MURTAGH COSGAR You were always treated differently, Matt. In no house that ever I remember was there a boy treated as well as you are treated here.
MATT The houses that you remember are different from the houses that are now. Will you have me go, or will you have me stay?
MURTAGH COSGAR You're very threatening. I'd have you stay. For the sake of the name, I'd have you stay.
MATT
Let us take hands on it, then.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Wait, we'll see what you want first.
MATT You have no feeling. I'd go out of this house, only I want to give you a chance.
MURTAGH COSGAR Stop. We can have kindness in this. We needn't be beating each other down, like men at a fair.
MATT
We're not men at a fair. May God keep the kindness in our hearts.
Martin rises.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Don't be going, Martin Douras.
MATT
Don't be going yet. I'll be with you, when you're going.
Martin sits down.
MURTAGH COSGAR (to Matt) You'll be getting married, I suppose, if you stay?
MATT
Maybe I will.
MURTAGH COSGAR (bitterly) In the houses that are now, the young marry where they have a mind to. It's their own business, they say.
MATT Maybe it is their own business. I'm going to marry Ellen Douras, if she'll have me.
MURTAGH COSGAR Ellen is a good girl, and clever, I'm told. But I would not have you deal before you go into the fair.
MATT
I'm going to marry Ellen Douras.
MURTAGH COSGAR Her father is here, and we can settle it now. What fortune will you be giving Ellen, Martin? That 100 pounds that was saved while you were in Maryborough gaol?
Martin shakes his head.
MATT (stubbornly) I'm going to marry Ellen Douras, with or without a fortune.
MURTAGH COSGAR (passionately) Boy, your father built this house. He got these lands together. He has a right to see that you and your generations are in the way of keeping them together.
MATT
I'll marry Ellen Douras, with or without a fortune.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Marry her, then. Marry Ellen Douras.
MATT Now, Martin, we mustn't let an hour pass without going to her. (He takes Martin's arm, and they go to the door)
MURTAGH COSGAR Marry Ellen Douras, I bid you. Break what I have built, scatter what I have put together. That is what all the young will be doing,
Ellen Douras comes to the door as Matt and Martin reach it.
MATT
Ellen!
She shrinks back.
ELLEN
It's my father I came to speak to.
MURTAGH COSGAR (going to the door, and drawing the bolt from the half-door) When you come to my house, Ellen Douras, you are welcome within.
Ellen comes in,
ELLEN It's right that I should speak to you all. Matt Cosgar, I am going from here.
MATT
Ellen, Ellen, don't be saying that. Don't be thinking of the
few words between us. It's all over now. Father agrees to us marrying.
Speak, father, and let her hear yourself say it.
ELLEN
I can't go into a farmer's house.
MATT You said that out of passion. Don't keep your mind on it any longer.
ELLEN It's true, it's true. I can't go into a farmer's house. This place is strange to me.
MATT
How can you talk like that? I'm always thinking of you.
ELLEN I've stayed here long enough. I want my own way; I want to know the world.
MATT If you go, how will I be living, day after day? The heart will be gone out of me.
MURTAGH COSGAR
You'll be owning the land, Matt Cosgar.
MATT (passionately) I've worked on the land all my days. Don't talk to me about it now.
Ellen goes to Martin. Murtagh goes up to the door, and then turns and speaks.
MURTAGH COSGAR Listen to me, Matt Cosgar; and you listen too, Ellen Douras. It's a new house you want maybe. This house was built for me and my generations; but I'll build a new house for you both. It's hard for a man to part with his land before the hour of his death; and it's hard for a man to break his lands; but I'll break them, and give a share of land to you.
ELLEN You were never friendly to me; but you have the high spirit, and you deserve a better daughter than I would make. The land and house you offer would be a drag on me. (She goes to the door)
MATT
Ellen, what he offers is nothing, after all; but I care for you.
Sure you won't go from me like that?
ELLEN
Oh, can't you let me go?
I care for you as much as I care for any one. But it's my freedom I
want.
MATT
Then you're going surely?
ELLEN
I am. Good-bye.
She goes out, Martin follows her. Matt stands dazed. Murtagh
closes the door, then goes and takes Matt's arm, and brings him down.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Be a man. We offered her everything, and she went.
There's no knowing what the like of her wants. The men will be in
soon, and we'll drink to the new ownership.
MATT Oh, what's the good in talking about that now? If Ellen was here, we might be talking about it.
MURTAGH COSGAR To-morrow you and me might go together. Ay, the bog behind the meadow is well drained by this, and we might put the plough over it. There will be a fine, deep soil in it, I'm thinking. Don't look that way, Matt, my son.
MATT When I meet Ellen Douras again, it's not a farmer's house I'll be offering her, nor life in a country place.
MURTAGH COSGAR No one could care for you as I care for you. I know the blood between us, and I know the thoughts I had as I saw each of you grow up.
Matt moves to the door.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Where are you going?
MATT
To see the boys that are going away.
MURTAGH COSGAR Wait till the fall and I'll give you money to go and come back. Farrell Kavanagh often goes to America. You could go with him.
MATT I'll go by myself, unless Ellen Douras comes now. The creamery owes me money for the carting, and I'll get it.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Then go. Good-bye to you, Matt Cosgar.
MATT
Good-bye to you.
He goes out. Murtagh stands, then moves about vaguely
MURTAGH COSGAR The floor swept, the hearth tidied. It's a queer end to it all. Twenty years I bid them offer. Twenty years, twenty years!
Martin comes back.
MURTAGH COSGAR
The men will be coming back.
MARTIN DOURAS
I suppose they will.
MURTAGH COSGAR You're a queer fellow, Martin Douras. You went to gaol for some meeting.
MARTIN DOURAS
Ay.
MURTAGH COSGAR Them was the stirring times. I can't help but think of you in gaol, and by yourself. What brings you back now?
MARTIN DOURAS
Ellen told me to go back. I should say something to
Matt, I think.
MURTAGH COSGAR
He went out as you came in.
MARTIN DOURAS I'll go in when the house is quiet. I'll have a few prayers to be saying this night.
MURTAGH COSGAR
I'm going to the fair.
MARTIN DOURAS
I won't be going to the fair.
MURTAGH COSGAR Why won't you be going to the fair? Didn't you ask me for a lift? You'll be going with me.
MARTIN DOURAS
I won't be going, and don't be overbearing me now,
Murtagh Cosgar.
MURTAGH COSGAR
You will be going to the fair, if it was only to be
showing that, seemly face of yours. (Going to the door, he calls)
"Sally!" (He turns to Martin Douras) I've a daughter still, Martin
Douras.
MARTIN DOURAS
You have, and I have a son.
MURTAGH COSGAR
What would you say to a match between them, Martin
Douras?
MARTIN DOURAS
I have nothing to say again it.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Then a match it will be.
Sally comes in from yard.
SALLY If you fed that baste on honey, she'd turn on you. Cabbage I gave her and got into trouble for it, and now she's gone and trampled the bad potatoes till they're hardly worth the boiling. I'll put the bush in the gap when I'm going out again, father.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Ay. Is that Cornelius Douras that's coming up the path?
SALLY
O faith it is. I'll get him to give me a hand with the trough.
Cornelius comes in.
CORNELIUS
Well, Murtagh Cosgar, a great and memorial day is ended.
May you live long to enjoy the fruits of it. Twenty years on the
first term, and the land is ours and our children's. I met the men.
MURTAGH COSGAR Ours and our children's, ay. We've been making a match between yourself and Sally.
CORNELIUS
Between me and Sally?
SALLY
Between Cornelius and myself?
MURTAGH COSGAR
Ay, shake hands on it now.
CORNELIUS
And tell me one thing, Murtagh Cosgar. Is it true that
Matt's going to America, and that Ellen will wait for him for a year
at the school? I met them together, and they told me that.
MURTAGH COSGAR What they say is true, I'm sure. The land is yours and your children's.
SALLY (wiping her hands in her apron) O Cornelius.
CORNELIUS Aren't they foolish to be going away like that, father, and we at the mouth of the good times? The men will be coming in soon, and you might say a few words. (Martin shakes his head) Indeed you might, father; they'll expect it of you. (Martin shakes his head. Murtagh and Sally try to restrain him) "Men of Ballykillduff," you might say, "stay on the land, and you'll be saved body and soul; you'll be saved in the man and in the nation. The nation, men of Ballykillduff, do you ever think of it at all? Do you ever think of the Irish nation that is waiting all this time to be born?"
He becomes more excited; he is seen to be struggling with words.
END OF PLAY
THE LAND was first produced at the Abbey Theater, Dublin, in June, 1905, by The Irish National Theater Society, under the direction of W.G. Fay, with the following cast:—
MURTAGH COSGAR W. G. Fay
MATT Proinsias MacSiubhlaigh
SALLY Sara Allgood
MARTIN DOURAS F.J. Fay
CORNELIUS Arthur Sinclair
ELLEN Maire Ni Gharbhaigh.
THOMAS MUSKERRY
CHARACTERS
THOMAS MUSKERRY The Master of Garrisowen Workhouse
MRS. CRILLY His Daughter
CROFTON CRILLY His Son-in-law
ALBERT CRILLY His Grandson
ANNA CRILLY His Granddaughter
JAMES SCOLLARD Thomas Muskerry's Successor
FELIX TOURNOUR The Porter at Workhouse Lodge
MYLES GORMAN A Blind Piper
CHRISTY CLARKE A Boy reared in the Workhouse
SHANLEY |
MICKIE CRIPES | Paupers in Workhouse
AN OLD MAN |
SCENE: Garrisowen, a town in the Irish Midlands.
ACT FIRST
The Master's office in Garrisowen Workhouse. It is partly an office, partly a living room. To the right is a door opening on corridor, and in the back, left, a door leading to the Master's apartments. There is an iron stove down from back and towards right, and a big grandfather's clock back towards door of apartments. A basket arm chair down from stove, and a wooden chair beside it. There is a desk against wall, left, and an office stool before it. Down from this desk a table on which is a closed desk. On table are books, papers, and files. On a wooden chair beside the arm chair is a heap of newspapers and periodicals. There is a rack beside corridor door, and on rack a shawl, an old coat, a hat, and a bunch of big keys. In the corner, right, is a little cabinet, and on it a small mirror. Above door of apartments a picture of Daniel O'Connell. The grandfather's clock is ticking audibly. It is 8.45 p.m. The gas over desk is lighted.
Christy Clarke, a youth of about seventeen, is seated in the armchair reading a periodical. His clothes are threadbare, but brushed and clean. He looks studious, and has intellectual possibilities. The clock ticks on, the boy reads, but with little attention. At the corridor door there is a knocking. Christy Clarke turns slightly. The door opens, and a tall man in the ugly dress of a pauper is seen. The man is Felix Tournour. He carries in a bucket of coal. He performs this action like one who has acquired the habit of work under an overseer. He is an ugly figure in his pauper dress. His scanty beard is coal black. He has a wide mouth and discoloured teeth. His forehead is narrow and bony. He is about forty-five.
TOURNOUR (in a harsh voice, after looking around) Is he not back yet?
CHRISTY (without stirring) Is who not back yet?
TOURNOUR The master I'm talking about. I don't know where he does be going those evenings.
He shovels coal into the stove.
CHRISTY
And what is it to you where he does be going?
TOURNOUR Don't talk to me like that, young fellow. You're poorhouse rearing, even though you are a pet. Will he be sitting up here to-night, do you know?
CHRISTY
What's that to you whether he will or not?
TOURNOUR
If he's sitting up late he'll want more coal to his fire.
CHRISTY
Well, the abstracts will have to be finished to-night.
TOURNOUR Then he will be staying up. He goes out for a walk in the evenings now, and I don't know where he does be going.
CHRISTY
He goes out for a walk in the country. (Tournour makes a
leer of contempt) Do you never go for a walk in the country, Felix
Tournour?
TOURNOUR They used to take me out for walks when I was a little fellow, but they never got me out into the country since.
CHRISTY I suppose, now that you're in the porter's lodge, you watch every one that goes up and down the road?
TOURNOUR
It gratifies me to do so—would you believe that now?
CHRISTY
You know a lot, Felix Tournour.
TOURNOUR We're told to advance in knowledge, young fellow. How long is Tom Muskerry the Master of Garrisowen Workhouse?
CHRISTY
Thirty years this spring.
TOURNOUR
Twenty-nine years.
CHRISTY
He's here thirty years according to the books.
TOURNOUR
Twenty-nine years.
CHRISTY
Thirty years.
TOURNOUR Twenty-nine years. I was born in the workhouse, and I mind when the Master came in to it. Whist now, here he is, and time for him.
He falls into an officious manner. He closes up the stove and puts bucket away. Then he goes over to desk, and, with his foot on the rung of the office stool, he turns the gas on full. Christy Clarke gets out of armchair, and begins to arrange the periodicals that are on wooden chair. The corridor door opens. The man who appears is not the Master, however. He is the blind piper, Myles Gorman, who is dressed in the pauper garb. Myles Gorman is a Gael of the West of Ireland, with a face full of intellectual vigour. He is about sixty, and carries himself with energy. His face is pale and he has a fringe of a white beard. The eye-balls in his head are contracted, but it is evident he has some vestiges of sight. Before the others are aware who he is, he has advanced into the room. He stands there now turning the attentive face of the blind.
GORMAN
Mister Muskerry! Are you there, Mister Muskerry?
TOURNOUR
What do you want, my oul' fellow?
GORMAN (with a puzzled look) Well, now, I've a favour to ask of your honour.
TOURNOUR
Be off out of this to your ward.
GORMAN
Is that Mister Muskerry?
CHRISTY
Mister Muskerry isn't here.
GORMAN
And who am I talking to?
CHRISTY
You are talking to Felix Tournour.
GORMAN Felix Tournour! Ay, ay. Good night, Felix Tournour. When will the Master be back?
TOURNOUR (coming to him) Not till you're out of this, and back in your ward.
GORMAN
Wasn't there a boy speaking to me?
CHRISTY Yes (speaking as if to a deaf man) The Master will be going the rounds in a while, and you can speak to him in the ward.
GORMAN I've a favour to ask the Master, and I don't want to ask it before the others. (To Christy) Will the Master be here soon, a vick vig? [6]
TOURNOUR (taking him by the shoulders) Here, now, come on, this is your way out.
He turns Gorman to the door. As he is putting him out Thomas Muskerry enters
TOURNOUR This oul' fellow came into the office, and I was leading him back into his ward.
MUSKERRY
Leave the man alone.
Tournour retreats to the stove and takes up the bucket; after a look behind he goes out and closes the corridor door. Christy Clarke takes the periodicals over to table and sits down. Myles Gorman has been eager and attentive. Thomas Muskerry stands with his back to the stove. He is over sixty. He is a large man, fleshy in face and figure, sanguine and benevolent in disposition. He has the looks and movements of one in authority. His hair is white and long; his silver beard is trimmed. His clothes are loosely fitting. He wears no overcoat, but has a white knitted muffler round his neck. He has on a black, broad-brimmed hat, and carries a walking-stick.
[Footnote 6: A mhic bhig, my little son.]
MUSKERRY
Well, my good man?
GORMAN
I'm here to ask a favour from you, Master.
MUSKERRY
You should proffer your request when I'm in the ward.
However, I'm ready to give you my attention.
GORMAN I'm a blinded man, Master, and when you're in the ward I can't get you by yourself conveniently. I can't come up to you like the other oul' men and speak to you private like.
MUSKERRY
Well, now, what can I do for you?
GORMAN (eagerly) They tell me that to-morrow's the market-day, and I thought that you might give me a pass, and let me go out about the town.
MUSKERRY
We'll consider it, Gorman.
GORMAN
Master, let me out in the town on the market-day.
MUSKERRY
We couldn't let you out to play your pipes through the town.
GORMAN I'm not thinking of the music at all, Master, but to be out in the day and to feel the throng moving about, and to be talking to the men that do be on the roads.
MUSKERRY We'll consider it, Gorman. (He takes off muffler, and puts it on back of armchair)
GORMAN
Well, I'm very much obliged to your honour. Good night to you,
Master. (He passes Muskerry and goes towards the door. Muskerry has
been regarding him)
MUSKERRY
Tell me this, Gorman, were you always on the roads?
GORMAN I was driving cattle, and I was dealing in horses. Then I took up with an oul' man, and he taught me the pipes. I'm playing the pipes ever since, and that's thirty years ago. Well, the eyes began to wither up on me, and now I've only a stim of sight. I'm a blinded man from this out, Master.
MUSKERRY
And what will you do?
GORMAN
Oh, sure the roads of Ireland are before me when I leave this;
I'll be playing my bit of music. (He moves to the door)
MUSKERRY
Tell me; have you any family yourself?
GORMAN
Ne'er a chick nor child belonging to me. Ne'er a woman lay by
me. I went the road by myself. Will you think of what I asked you,
Master?
MUSKERRY
I'll consider it.
GORMAN
Good night to your honour. Remember my name, Master—Gorman,
Myles Gorman.
Muskerry stands looking after Gorman.
MUSKERRY Now, Christy Clarke, I consider that the man gone out is a very exceptional man.
CHRISTY
Is it Myles Gorman?
MUSKERRY
Yes. I'd even say that, considering his station in life,
Myles Gorman is a very superior man.
CHRISTY
They say he's not a good musician.
MUSKERRY And maybe he's not. I consider, however, that there's great intelligence in his face. He stands before you, and you feel that he has the life of a young colt, and then you're bound to think that, in spite of the fact that he's blind and a wanderer, the man has not wasted his life. (Muskerry settles himself in the armchair)
CHRISTY
Will you give leave for to-morrow?
MUSKERRY
No, Christy, I will not.
CHRISTY
Why not, Mister Muskerry?
MUSKERRY
That man would break bounds and stay away.
CHRISTY
Do you think he would?
MUSKERRY He'd fly off, like the woodquest flying away from the tame pigeons.
CHRISTY He and his brother had a farm between them. His brother was married, and one day the brother told Myles to go to Dublin to see a comrade of his who was sick. Myles was home in a week, and when he came back he found that his brother had sold the place and was gone out of the country.
MUSKERRY
His brother did wrong, but he didn't do so much wrong to
Myles Gorman.
CHRISTY
How is that, Mister Muskerry?
MUSKERRY He sent Myles Gorman to his own life. He's a man who went his own way always; a man who never had any family nor any affairs; a man far different from me, Christy Clarke. I was always in the middle of affairs. Then, too, I busied myself about other people. It was for the best, I think; but that's finished. On the desk under your hand is a letter, and I want you to bring it to me.
CHRISTY (going through papers idly) "I am much obliged for your favour—"
MUSKERRY
That's not it.
CHRISTY (reading another letter) "I am about to add to the obligations under which I stand to you, by recommending to your notice my grandson, Albert Crilly—"
MUSKERRY That's the letter. It's the last of its kind. Bring it to me. (Christy Clarke brings over the letter) There comes a turn in the blood and a turn in the mind, Christy. This while back I've been going out to the country instead of into the town, and coming back here in the evenings I've seen the workhouse with the big wall around it, and the big gate going into it, and I've said to myself that Thomas Muskerry ought to be as secure and contented here as if he was in his own castle.
CHRISTY
And so you ought, Mister Muskerry.
MUSKERRY Look round at the office, Christy. I've made it as fit for me as the nest for the wren. I'll spend a few more years here, and then I'll go out on pension. I won't live in the town, I've seen a place in the country I'd like, and the people will be leaving it in a year or two.
CHRISTY
Where is it, Mister Muskerry?
MUSKERRY I'll say no more about it now, but it's not far from this, and its near the place, where I was reared.
CHRISTY
And so you'll go back to your own place?
MUSKERRY As Oliver Goldsmith my fellow county man, and I might almost say, my fellow parishioner, says—What's this the lines are about the hare, Christy?
CHRISTY "And like the Hare whom Hounds and Horns pursue Pants to the place from whence at first he flew."
MUSKERRY Aye. "And like the Hare whom Hounds and Horns pursue"— (The clock strikes nine)
CHRISTY
You weren't on the rounds yet?
MUSKERRY (startled) Would you believe it, now, it was nearly passing my mind to go on the rounds? (He rises, putting the letter in his pocket) Where's that fellow, Albert Crilly? He was to have been in here to give me a hand with the abstracts. Christy Clarke, go down to Miss Coghlan's and get me two novelettes. Bring me up two nice love stories, and be here when I come back.
Christy Clarke takes his cap off rack and goes out. Thomas Muskerry puts on his scarf, goes to the rack and takes down the bunch of keys. As he is going out Felix Tournour enters with a bucket of coal. He carries it over to the stove.
MUSKERRY
Now, Tournour, sweep up this place.
Thomas Muskerry goes out by corridor door. Felix Tournour takes brush from under desk, left, and begins to sweep in the direction of corridor door.
TOURNOUR Sweeping, sweeping! I'll run out of the house some day on account of the work I've to do for Master Thomas Muskerry. (He leans on his brush in front of stove) I know why you're going for walks in the country, my oul' cod. There's them in town that you've got enough of. You don't want to go bail for Madam Daughter, nor for Count Crofton Crilly, your son-in-law, nor for the Masters and Mistresses; all right, my oul' cod-fish. That I may see them laying you out on the flags of Hell. (He puts the brush standing upright, and speaks to it):
"The Devil went out for a ramble at night,
Through Garrisowen Union to see every sight.
The ould men were dreaming of meat to come near them,
And the Devil cocked ears at the words for to hear them.
'Twice a year we get meat,' said the toothless oul' men,
'Oh, Lord send the meat won't be too tough again.'
To clear away dishes Mick Fogarty goes,
May the Devil burn the nails off his toes.
Deep dreaming that night of fast days before,
Sagging the walls with the pull of his snore,
In his chamber above Thomas Muskerry lay snug,
When the Devil this summons roared in his lug—"
The door of the Master's apartments is opened and Albert Crilly enters. Albert Crilly is a young man, who might be a bank clerk or a medical student. He is something of a dude, but has a certain insight and wit.
ALBERT (lighting a cigarette) Is the grandparent here, Tournour?
TOURNOUR
He's gone on the rounds, Mister Albert.
ALBERT
What time was he up this morning?
TOURNOUR He was late enough. He wasn't up in time to come to Mass with us.
ALBERT
The old man will get into trouble.
TOURNOUR
If the nuns hear about it.
ALBERT
He'll have to give the whole thing up soon.
TOURNOUR He's well off that can get somebody else to do the work for him. (He continues to sweep towards corridor)
ALBERT Tournour, you're a damned clever fellow. I heard a piece of yours yesterday that I thought was damned good.
TOURNOUR
Was it a rhyme?
ALBERT
It was something called "The Devil's Rambles."
TOURNOUR (taking a step towards him) Don't let the boss hear, and I'll tell it to you, Mr. Albert. (He holds the brush in his hands and is about to begin the recitation when Crofton Crilly enters from the Master's apartments. Crofton Crilly has a presentable appearance. He is big and well made, has a fair beard and blue eyes. A pipe is always in his mouth. He is a loiterer, a talker, a listener)