Guardian: Say out the translation.
2nd Prince: Beneath a chilly blast the rose,
loses its sweet, and scentless blows;
If you would have earth keep its charm, stop
in the sunshine and keep warm.
Guardian: Very good. Now your history book;
you were learning of late some genealogies of kings,
might suit your Godmother.
Guardian: That will do. You have that very
well in your memory. Now let me hear the
grammar lesson.
Guardian: Very good, go on.
Guardian: It will be very useful to you to have
that so well grafted in your mind.... What
noise is that outside?
Servant: It is some strolling people.
1st Prince: Oh, Guardian, let them come in.
We will do our work all the better if we have some
amusement now.
Guardian: Maybe so. I am well pleased when
amusements come to our door, that you can see
without going outside the walls.
(A Jester enters in very ragged green clothes
and broken shoes.)
But this is a very ragged looking man. Do you
know anything about him, Gillie?
Servant: I seen him one time before.... At
the time of the earthquake out in Foreign. A mad
jester he was. A tramp class of a man. (To Jester.)
Where is it you stop?
Jester: Where do I stop? Where would I be
but everywhere, like the bad weather. I stop in
no place, but going through the whole roads of
the world.
Guardian: What brought you in here?
Jester: Hearing questions going on, and answers.
I am well able to give help in that. It's
not long since I was giving instruction to the sons
of the King of Babylon. Here now is a question.
How many ladders would it take to reach to the
moon?
1st Prince: It should be a great many.
2nd Prince: I give it up.
Jester: One ...if it is long enough! Which
is it easier to spell, ducks or geese?
3rd Prince: Ducks I suppose because it's shorter.
Jester: Not at all but geese. Do you know
why? Because it is spelled with ees. Tell me
now, can you spell pup backwards?
4th Prince: P-u-p....
Jester: Not at all.
4th Prince: But it is.
Jester: No, that is pup straight forwards....
Can you run back and forwards at the same time?
4th Prince: Answer it yourself so.
Jester: You would be as wise as myself then.
But I'll show you some tricks. Look at these
three straws on my hand. Will I be able to blow
two of them away, and the other to stay in its place?
5th Prince: They would all blow away.
Jester: Look now. Puff! (He has put his
finger on the middle one.) Now is it possible?
5th Prince: It is easy when you know the way.
Jester: That is so with all knowledge. Can you
wag one ear and keep the other quiet?
1st Prince: Nobody can do that.
Jester: (Wagging one ear with his finger.) There,
now you see I have done it! There's more learning
than is taught in books. Wait now and I'll give
you out a song I'll engage you never heard. (Sings
or repeats.)
Guardian: That's enough now. I have no
fancy for that class of song. What other amusements
are there?
Servant: There are the Wrenboys are come here
at the end of their twelve days' funning.
Jester: That's it! The Wrenboys; a rambling
troop; rambling the world like myself. I will make
place for them. The old must give way to the
young.
(He goes and sits down in a corner, munching
a crust and dozing.)
Servant: Come in here let ye, and show what
ye can do!
(Wrenboys come in playing a fife. They are
wearing little masks and are dressed in
ragged tunics; they carry drum and, fife,
and stand in a line.)
All Five Wrenboys: (Together.)
(Princes laugh and clap hands.)
1st Prince: That is very good.
2nd Prince: We must give them some money to
bury the wren!
Guardian: Come on then and I will give you
some. They will be glad of it. Play now the
harp as you go.
(Princes go off playing, "Home, Sweet Home."
The Wrenboys sit down.)
1st Wrenboy: It is likely we'll get good treatment.
Jester: (Coming forward.) Ye should be tired.
2nd Wrenboy: We should be, but that we have
our feet well soled,—with the dust of the road!
3rd Wrenboy: If walking could tire us we might
be tired. But we're as well pleased to be moving,
where we have no house or home that you'll call a
house or a home.
Jester: That's not so with those young princes.
Wouldn't you be well pleased if ye could change
places with them? (He goes back to his corner.)
4th Wrenboy: They are lovely kind young
princes. I was near in dread they might set the
dogs at us.
5th Wrenboy: They would do that if they
knew the Ogre had sent us to spy out the place
for him.
1st Wrenboy: It failed us to see what he wanted
us to see. It is likely he will beat us, when we go
back, with his cat-o'-nine-tails.
2nd Wrenboy: Wouldn't it be good if we could
do as that Jester was saying and change places with
those sons of kings! They that can lie in the
sunshine on soft pillows.
3rd Wrenboy: They that can use food when they
ask it, and not have to wait till they can find it,
or steal it, or get it what way they can.
3rd Wrenboy: And not to be waiting till you'll
hear a rabbit squealing, with the teeth of a weasel
in his neck.
4th Wrenboy: And the weasel when you take
it to be spitting poison at you, the same as a serpent.
5th Wrenboy: It would be a nice thing to be
eating sweet red apples in place of the green crabs.
1st Wrenboy: Or to be maybe sucking marrow-bones.
2nd Wrenboy: It is likely they are as airy and
as careless as the blackbird singing on the bush.
3rd Wrenboy: It's likely they go following after
foxes on horses, having huntsmen and beagles at
their feet.
4th Wrenboy: Or go out sporting and fowling
with their greyhound and with their gun.
5th Wrenboy: Or matching fighting cocks.
1st Wrenboy: It's likely they lead a gentleman's
life, card-playing and eating and drinking, and
racing with jockeys in speckled clothes.
2nd Wrenboy: Their brooches were shining like
green fire, the same as a marten cat's eyes. They
have everything finer than another.
3rd Wrenboy: Their faces as clean as a linen
sheet. Their hair as if combed with a silver comb.
4th Wrenboy: There is no one to so much as
put a clean shirt on ourselves.
5th Wrenboy: (Rubbing his hand.) I never
felt uneasy at the dirt that is grinted into me till
I saw them so nice.
1st Wrenboy: That music they were playing
put me in mind of some far thing. It is dreamed
to me, and it is never leaving my mind, that there
is something I remember in the long ago ...
music in a house that was as bright as the moon,
or as the brightest night of stars.
5th Wrenboy: Whisht! They are coming!
(The Princes come back.)
1st Prince: Here are coppers for you.
2nd Prince: And white money.
3rd Prince: And here is a piece of gold.
3rd Wrenboy: We are thankful to you! We'll
bury the Wren in grand style now!
4th Prince: Have you far to go?
1st Wrenboy: Not very far if it was a straight
road. But it is through the forest we go, beyond
the lake.
2nd Wrenboy: We will hardly be there before
the moon rises.
1st Prince: Are you afraid in the night time?
2nd Wrenboy: I am not. But I've seen a great
deal of strange things at that time.
2nd Prince: What sort of things?
2nd Wrenboy: Fairies you'd see.
3rd Prince: Are there such things?
2nd Wrenboy: One night I was attending a
pot-still,
roasting oats for to make still-whiskey, and I
seen hares coming out of the wood, by fours and by
sixes, and they as thin as thin....
3rd Wrenboy: Hares are the biggest fairies of all.
4th Wrenboy: And down by the sea I met a
weasel bringing up a fish in his mouth from the
tide. And I often seen seals there, seals that are
enchanted and look like humans, and will hold up
a hand the same as a Christian.
5th Wrenboy: I that saw a hedgehog running
up the side of a mountain as swift as a racehorse.
1st Wrenboy: It's the moonlight is the only time!
1st Prince: I never saw the moon but through
a window.
1st Wrenboy: That's the time to go ramble.
(He chants.)
You'll see the crane in the water standing,
And never landing a fish, for fright,
For he can but shiver seeing in the river
His shadow shaking in the bright moonlight.
2nd Wrenboy: Or you may listen to the plover's
whistle,
When high above him the wild geese screech;
Or the mallard flying, as the night is dying,
His neck out-stretched towards the salt sea beach.
3rd Wrenboy: When dawn discloses the oak and shows
us
The wide sky whitening through the scanty ash,
High in the beeches the furry creatures,
Squirrel and marten lightly pass.
4th Wrenboy:
The badger scurries to find his burrow
The rabbit hurries to hide underground.
5th Wrenboy:
The pigeon rouses the thrush that drowses,
The woods awaken and the world goes round!
1st Wrenboy: Come now, it's time to be taking
the road. Thank you, noble Gentlemen! That
you may be doing the same thing this day fifty years!
(They go off playing fife and beating drum.)
1st Prince: I would nearly wish to be in their
place to go through the world at large.
2nd Prince: They can go visit strange cities,
sailing in white-sailed ships.
3rd Prince: They have no lessons to learn.
4th Prince: No hours to keep. No clocks to
strike.
5th Prince: No Lady Messengers coming to
show off to.
1st Prince: They should be as merry as midges.
2nd Prince: As free as the March wind.
3rd Prince: I don't know how we stopped so
long shut up in this place.
4th Prince: I would be nearly ready to change
places with them if such a thing were possible.
Jester: (Who has had his back to them comes
forward; the Princes stand on his right in a half
circle.) And why wouldn't you change?
5th Prince: It is a thing not possible.
Jester: I never could know the meaning of that
word "impossible." Where there's a will there's
a way.
1st Prince: It seems to me like the sound of a
bell ringing a long way off, that I had leave at one
time to go here and there.
Jester: If you are in earnest wanting to come to
that freedom again you will get it.
2nd Prince: No, we would be followed and
brought back through kindness.
Jester: If you have the strong wish to make
the change you can make it.
1st Prince: I think I was never so much in
earnest in all my life.
(The Jester takes his pipe and plays a note
on it. The Wrenboys come back beating
their drum. They stand in a half circle
on Jester's left.)
Wrenboys: (Together.) We will change! We will!
2nd Prince: They will know us, they will know us!
Jester: Change your clothes, change your clothes!
3rd Prince: They will know us every place.
Jester: Put their masks upon your face.
(Throws a handful of dust over all the boys.)
5th Prince: (To a Wrenboy.)
(They all rapidly change coats and caps.)
Jester: That will do, that is enough.
1st Wrenboy: But my hands are very rough.
Guardian: (Off stage.) Gillie, do as you are
told, shut the door, it's getting cold.
1st Prince: Oh, I'm in dread! What will be
said!
2nd Prince: I'd sooner stay in my old way!
1st Wrenboy: I'll be ashamed if I am blamed.
2nd Wrenboy: I have no grace or lovely face!
Jester: (To Princes.) Too late, too late! Go
out the gate!
(The Princes have taken up fife and drum.
They march out playing.)
CURTAIN
ACT II
ACT II
SCENE I
(A front scene. A poor hut or tent, the
Princes are coming in slowly, some limping.
They are in Wrenboys' clothes and the
masks are in their hands.)
1st Prince: This should be the hut where the
Wrenboys told us to come.
2nd Prince: It is a poor looking place.
3d Prince: It is good to have any place to sit
down in for a while. My back is aching.
4th Prince: My feet are all scratched and torn.
There are blisters rising.
5th Prince: I thought we would never come to
the end of the road. The stones by the lake were
so hard and so sharp.
1st Prince: It was a root of a tree I fell over
that made these bruises on my knees. I was
watching a hawk that was still and quiet up in the
air, and when it made a swoop all of a sudden
I stumbled and fell.
2nd Prince: It was in slipping where the rocks
are high I gave this twist to my arm. I can hardly
move it.
3rd Prince: But wasn't the sight of the sunset
splendid over the lake? And the hills so blue!
4th Prince: I like the tall trees best. I tried
to climb up one of them, but it was so smooth I
did but slip and fall.
1st Prince: I would wish to walk as far as the
hills, and to have a view of the ocean that is beyond.
5th Prince: I am hungry. I wonder where we
will get our supper.
4th Prince: Not in this place, anyway, it must
be making ready in some big guesthouse.
3rd, Prince: What will they give us, I wonder?
2nd Prince: I wish we had in our hand what
they have ready for us at home.
1st Prince: What use would it be to us? Do
you remember what we asked to be given, some
jellies and a few grapes? It is not that much
would satisfy me now.
2nd Prince: Indeed it would not. I never felt
so sharp a hunger in my longest memory.
3rd Prince: It is roasted meat I would wish for.
4th Prince: There were pigeons in the tall
trees. They will maybe give us a pigeon pie.
5th Prince: I would be content with a plate of
minced turkey with poached eggs.
1st Prince: I would sooner have a roasted
chicken, with bread sauce.
2nd Prince: Be quiet.... I think I hear someone
coming! (Looks out.)
3rd Prince: (Looking out.) I see him. He is not
a right man ...he is very strange looking....
4th Prince: (Looking out.) Oh! It is an Ogre!
A Grugach!
(All shrink back and hurriedly put on masks.)
Ogre: (Coming in: he wears a frightful mask, has
red hair and a cloak of rough skins and carries a
whip with many lashes.) What makes ye late to-night,
ye young schemers? What was it delayed
ye? Lagging along the road.
1st Prince: We came as fast as we could. It
was getting dusk in the wood.
Ogre: Dusk, good morrow to you! I'll dusk
ye! I had a mind to go after ye and to change
myself into the form of a wolf, and catch a hold of
ye with my long sharp teeth!
2nd Prince: We did not know there was any
great hurry.
Ogre: There is always hurry when you are on
my messages. What did I bring you away from
your own house for and put ye on the shaughraun
for and keep ye wandering, if it was not to be
serviceable and helpful to myself. Show me now
what ye have in your pocket or your bag.
3rd Prince: This is all we got in the bag.
(Holds
it out.) It is but very little.
Ogre: (Turning it out and counting it.)
Coppers!
Silver! What is this? A piece of gold! Is that
what ye call little? What notions ye have! Take
care did ye keep any of it back! If ye did I'll
skin ye with the lash of my cat-o'-nine-tails.
(Shakes it.)
4th Prince: That is all we got. It should maybe
pay for our supper in some place.
Ogre: What supper? To go buy supper with
my money! It will go to add to my store of
treasure in the cave that is under ground.
5th Prince: We are hungry, very hungry. When
will the supper be ready?
Ogre: It will be ready whenever ye will ready
it for yourselves. Ye should know that by this time.
1st Prince: We would make it ready if we were
acquainted with the way.
Ogre: It is gone cracked ye are? What is it
ye are thinking to get for your supper? What
ailed ye that ye didn't climb a tree and suck a few
pigeon's eggs?
2nd Prince: We were thinking of a pigeon pie.
Ogre: A what!!!
2nd Prince: A pigeon pie.
Ogre: Hurry on then making your pigeon pie!
There are pigeons enough there in the corner, that
a hawk that is my carrier brought me in a while
ago. And there's a pike that was in the lake these
hundred years, an otter is after leaving at my door.
3rd Prince: (Taking a pigeon.) I don't
think
this is a right pigeon.
4th Prince: Pigeons in a pie are not the pigeons
that have feathers.
5th Prince: (To Ogre.) Please, sir, where
can
we find pigeons without feathers, that are trussed
on a silver skewer?
Ogre: Aye? What's that?
1st Prince: Never mind. You'll anger him.
Maybe we can pull the feathers off these. I have
read of plucking a pigeon in our books. (They
begin to pluck.)
2nd Prince: It is very hard work.
3rd Prince: I never knew feathers could stick
in so hard.
4th Prince: The more we pull out the more
there would seem to be left.
5th Prince: It will be a feather pie we will be
getting in the end.
1st Prince: (Throwing it down.) It is no
use.
We might work at it to-day and to-morrow and be
no nearer to a finish.
2nd Prince: The pike might be better.
3rd Prince: It has no feathers anyway.
4th Prince: (Touching it.) It is raw and bleeding!
5th Prince: We might roast it.
1st Prince: The fire is black out.
2nd Prince: I wonder what way can we kindle it?
3rd Prince: Better ask him. (Points to Ogre.)
2nd Prince: Please, sir, what way can we kindle
the fire?
Ogre: What!
4th Prince: We would wish to light the fire.
Ogre: Well, do so.
5th Prince: If we had a box of matches....
Ogre: Matches! What are you talking about?
Matches won't be invented for the next seven
hundred years.
1st Prince: What can we do then, we are starving
with hunger.
Ogre: Let ye blow a breath upon a coal under
the ashes, and bring in small sticks from the wood.
2nd Prince: (Blowing.) The ashes are choking me.
Ogre: Very good. Then you'll put no delay
on me, waiting till you'll cook your supper.
3rd Prince: Where can we get it then?
Ogre: You'll go without it, as you were too
helpless to catch it, or to dress it, there's no one
will force you to eat it.
4th Prince: If there is nothing for us to eat we
had best pass the time in sleep.
5th Prince: I am all covered with ashes and
dirt. (To Ogre.) Please, where can I find a towel
and a piece of soap?
Ogre: Soap! Is it bewitched ye are or demented
in the head? Did ever anyone hear of
soap unless of a Saturday night? Letting on to be
as dainty and as useless as those young princes
beyond, that are kept closed up in a tower of glass.
Come on now. If there is no food that suits you,
leave it. It is time for us to get to work.
1st Prince: But it is bed-time.
Ogre: Your bed-time is the time when I have
no more use for you. Don't you know I have
made a plan? What was it I sent you for, spying
out that place of the young princes? Wasn't it
to see where is it that treasure is kept, the
golden-handled
sword of Justice that is used by the
Guardian when he turns Judge.
2nd Prince: That is kept in the Courthouse.
Ogre: That's right ...in what part of it?
3rd Prince: What do you want it for?
Ogre: I have it in my mind this long time to
get and to keep it in my cave under ground, along
with the rest of my treasures that are in charge of
my two enchanted cats. I have had near enough
of grubbing for gold with a pick in the clefts and
crannies of the earth. It is time for me to find
some rest, and get into my hand what is ready
worked and smelted and purified. We are going
to that Courthouse to-night. If we cannot get in
at the door, I will put ye in at the window and ye
can open the door to myself. I will find out
where the sword is, and away with us, and it in
my hand.
4th Prince: But that would be stealing.
Ogre: What else would it be?
4th Prince: But that is wrong. It is against the law.
Ogre: The law! That is the Judge's trade.
Breaking it is mine.
5th Prince: Ask him for it and maybe he will
give it to you, he is so kind.
Ogre: I'll take no charity! What I get I'll
earn by taking it. I would feel no pleasure it being
given to me, any more than a huntsman would
take pleasure being made a present of a dead fox,
in place of getting a run across country after it.
Come on now! We'll have the moon wasted.
We'll hardly get there before the dawn of day.
1st Prince: Whatever time you get there the
Guardian will be awake. There is a cock of Denmark
perched on the curtain rod of his bed,
specially to waken him if there is any stir.
Ogre: There is, is there? What a fool you
think me to be. Do you see that pot?
2nd Prince: We do see it.
Ogre: Look what there is in it.
3rd Prince: Nothing but a few bare bones.
Ogre: Well, that is all that is left of the
Judge's
cock of Denmark, that was brought to me awhile
ago by a fox that is my messenger, and that I have
boiled and ate and devoured.
All the Princes: O! O! O!
Ogre: (Cracking his whip.) He was boiled
in
the little pot. Come on now and lead the way, or
I give you my word it is in the big pot your own
bones will be making broth for my breakfast in the
morning! (Cracks whip.) Now, right about face!
Quick march!
CURTAIN
SCENE II
(The Winter Garden, evening. The Servant
settling benches and a table.)
Guardian: (Coming in.) Are the Dowager
Messengers come? They are late.
Servant: They are come. They are at the
looking-glasses settling themselves.
Guardian: As soon as they are ready you will
call in the Princes for their examination before
them, and their tasks.
Servant: I will.
Guardian: The Messengers will have a good
report to bring back of them. They have come
to be good scholars, in poetry, in music, in languages,
in history, in numbers and all sorts. The
old Queen-Godmother will be well satisfied with
their report.
Servant: She might and she might not.
Guardian: They would be hard to please if they
are not well pleased with the lads, as to learning
and as to manners and behaviour.
Servant: Maybe so. Maybe so. There are
strange things in the world.
Guardian: You're in bad humour, my poor
Gillie. Have you been quarrelling with the cook,
or did you get up on the wrong side of your
bed?
Servant: There is times when it is hard not to
be in a bad humour.
Guardian: What are you grumbling and hinting at?
Servant: There's times when it's hard to believe
that witchcraft is gone out of the world.
Guardian: That is a thing that has been done
away with in this Island through my government,
and through enlightenment and through learning.
Servant: Maybe so. Maybe so.
Guardian: I suppose a three-legged chicken has
come out of the shell, or a magpie has come before
you in your path? Or maybe some token in the
stars?
Servant: It would take more than that to put
me astray.
Guardian: Whatever it is you had best tell it out.
Servant: To see lads of princes, sons of kings,
and the makings of kings, that were mannerly and
well behaved and as civil as a child a few hours
ago, to be sitting in a corner at one time as if in
dread of the light, and tricking and fooling and
grabbing at other times.
Guardian: Oh, is that all! The poor lads.
They're out of their habits because of their Godmother's
Messengers coming. They are making
merry and funning, thinking there might be
messages for them or presents.
Servant: Funning is natural. But blowing their
nose with their fingers is not natural.
Guardian: High spirits. Just to torment you
in their joy.
Servant: To get a bit of chalk, and to make
marks in the Hall of dancing, and to go playing
hop-scotch.
Guardian: High spirits, high spirits! I never
saw boys better behaved or more gentle or with
more sweetness of speech. I am thinking there is
not one among them but will earn the name of
Honey-mouth.
Servant: Have it your own way. But is it a
natural thing, I am asking, for the finger nails to
make great growth in one day?
Guardian: Stop, stop, be quiet. Here now are
the Dowager Messengers. (Two old ladies in
travelling costume appear; bowing low to them.)
You are welcome for the sake of her that sent you,
and for your own sakes.
1st Dowager Messenger: We are come from the
Court of the Godmother Queen, for news of the
Princes now in your charge;
She hopes they have manners, are minded well,
and never let run at large;
For she never has yet got over the fret, of their
five little cousins were swept away.
Guardian: Let your mind be at ease, for you'll
be well pleased with the youngsters you're going
to see to-day.
They're learning the laws to speak and to pause—
may be orators then, or Parliament men.
2nd Dowager Messenger: Are they shielded from
harm?
Guardian:
In my sheltering arm;