Poems. William Butler Yeats

thing!

TEIG

      And yet it seemed

      As useless as the paring of one's nails.

SHEMUS

      What sets me laughing when I think of it,

      Is that a rogue who's lain in lousy straw,

      If he but sell it, may set up his coach.

TEIG (laughing)

      There are two gentlemen who buy men's souls.

CATHLEEN

      O God!

TEIG

      And maybe there's no soul at all.

STEWARD

      They're drunk or mad.

TEIG

      Look at the price they give.

      (Showing money.)

SHEMUS (tossing up money)

      "Go cry it all about the world," they said.

      "Money for souls, good money for a soul."

CATHLEEN

      Give twice and thrice and twenty times their money,

      And get your souls again. I will pay all.

SHEMUS

      Not we! not we! For souls – if there are souls —

      But keep the flesh out of its merriment.

      I shall be drunk and merry.

TEIG

      Come, let's away.

      (He goes.)

CATHLEEN

      But there's a world to come.

SHEMUS

      And if there is,

      I'd rather trust myself into the hands

      That can pay money down than to the hands

      That have but shaken famine from the bag.

      (He goes out R.)

      (Lilting)

      "There's money for a soul, sweet yellow money.

      There's money for men's souls, good money, money."

CATHLEEN (to ALEEL)

      Go call them here again, bring them by force,

      Beseech them, bribe, do anything you like;

      (ALEEL goes.)

      And you too follow, add your prayers to his.

      (OONA, who has been praying, goes out.)

      Steward, you know the secrets of my house.

      How much have I?

STEWARD

      A hundred kegs of gold.

CATHLEEN

      How much have I in castles?

STEWARD

      As much more.

CATHLEEN

      How much have I in pasture?

STEWARD

      As much more.

CATHLEEN

      How much have I in forests?

STEWARD

      As much more.

CATHLEEN

      Keeping this house alone, sell all I have,

      Go barter where you please, but come again

      With herds of cattle and with ships of meal.

STEWARD

      God's blessing light upon your ladyship.

      You will have saved the land.

CATHLEEN

      Make no delay.

      (He goes L.)

      (ALEEL and OONA return)

CATHLEEN

      They have not come; speak quickly.

ALEEL

      One drew his knife

      And said that he would kill the man or woman

      That stopped his way; and when I would have stopped him

      He made this stroke at me; but it is nothing.

CATHLEEN

      You shall be tended. From this day for ever

      I'll have no joy or sorrow of my own.

OONA

      Their eyes shone like the eyes of birds of prey.

CATHLEEN

      Come, follow me, for the earth burns my feet

      Till I have changed my house to such a refuge

      That the old and ailing, and all weak of heart,

      May escape from beak and claw; all, all, shall come

      Till the walls burst and the roof fall on us.

      From this day out I have nothing of my own.

      (She goes.)

OONA (taking ALEEL by the arm and as she speaks bandaging his wound)

      She has found something now to put her hand to,

      And you and I are of no more account

      Than flies upon a window-pane in the winter.

      (They go out.)

END OF SCENE II

      SCENE III

      Scene. —Hall in the house of Countess Cathleen. At the Left an oratory with steps leading up to it. At the Right a tapestried wall, more or less repeating the form of the oratory, and a great chair with its back against the wall. In the Centre are two or more arches through which one can see dimly the trees of the garden. Cathleen is kneeling in front of the altar in the oratory; there is a hanging lighted lamp over the altar. Aleel enters.

ALEEL

      I have come to bid you leave this castle and fly

      Out of these woods.

CATHLEEN

      What evil is there here

      That is not everywhere from this to the sea?

ALEEL

      They who have sent me walk invisible.

CATHLEEN

      So it is true what I have heard men say,

      That you have seen and heard what others cannot.

ALEEL

      I was asleep in my bed, and while I slept

      My dream became a fire; and in the fire

      One walked and he had birds about his head.

CATHLEEN

      I have heard that one of the old gods walked so.

ALEEL

      It may be that he is angelical;

      And, lady, he bids me call you from these woods.

      And you must bring but your old foster-mother,

      And some few serving men, and live in the hills,

      Among the sounds of music and the light

      Of waters, till the evil days are done.

      For here some terrible death is waiting you,

      Some