_Hall of the COUNTESS
CATHLEEN
as before.
Yeats
Say quickly.
You are pale.
SERVANT.
Their eyes burn like the eyes of birds of prey:
I did not dare go near.
CATHLEEN.
God pity them!
Bring all the old and ailing to this house,
For I will have no sorrow of my own
From this day onward.
[_The SERVANT goes out. Some of the musicians follow
him, some linger in the doorway. The COUNTESS CATHLEEN
kneels beside OONA. _
Can you tell me, mother,
How I may mend the times, how staunch this wound
That bleeds in the earth, how overturn the famine,
How drive these demons to their darkness again?
OONA.
The demons hold our hearts between their hands,
For the apple is in our blood, and though heart break
There is no medicine but Michael's trump.
Till it has ended parting and old age
And hail and rain and famine and foolish laughter;
The dead are happy, the dust is in their ears.
ACT III.
_Hall of the COUNTESS CATHLEEN as before. SERVANT
enters and goes towards the oratory door. _
SERVANT.
Here is yet another would see your ladyship.
CATHLEEN [_within_].
Who calls me?
SERVANT.
There is a man would speak with you,
And by his face he has some pressing news,
Some moving tale.
CATHLEEN [_coming to chapel door_].
I cannot rest or pray,
For all day long the messengers run hither
On one another's heels, and every message
More evil than the one that had gone before.
Who is the messenger?
SERVANT.
Aleel, the poet.
CATHLEEN.
There is no hour he is not welcome to me,
Because I know of nothing but a harp-string
That can remember happiness.
[_SERVANT goes out and ALEEL comes in.
SERVANT.
Their eyes burn like the eyes of birds of prey:
I did not dare go near.
CATHLEEN.
God pity them!
Bring all the old and ailing to this house,
For I will have no sorrow of my own
From this day onward.
[_The SERVANT goes out. Some of the musicians follow
him, some linger in the doorway. The COUNTESS CATHLEEN
kneels beside OONA. _
Can you tell me, mother,
How I may mend the times, how staunch this wound
That bleeds in the earth, how overturn the famine,
How drive these demons to their darkness again?
OONA.
The demons hold our hearts between their hands,
For the apple is in our blood, and though heart break
There is no medicine but Michael's trump.
Till it has ended parting and old age
And hail and rain and famine and foolish laughter;
The dead are happy, the dust is in their ears.
ACT III.
_Hall of the COUNTESS CATHLEEN as before. SERVANT
enters and goes towards the oratory door. _
SERVANT.
Here is yet another would see your ladyship.
CATHLEEN [_within_].
Who calls me?
SERVANT.
There is a man would speak with you,
And by his face he has some pressing news,
Some moving tale.
CATHLEEN [_coming to chapel door_].
I cannot rest or pray,
For all day long the messengers run hither
On one another's heels, and every message
More evil than the one that had gone before.
Who is the messenger?
SERVANT.
Aleel, the poet.
CATHLEEN.
There is no hour he is not welcome to me,
Because I know of nothing but a harp-string
That can remember happiness.
[_SERVANT goes out and ALEEL comes in.
