No More Learning

I have poured
Water upon the fire, but if you fly
A second time the house is in a blaze
And all the screaming household can but blame
The savage heart of beauty for it all;
And Naisi that but helped to tar the wisp
Be but a hunted outlaw all his days.

DEIRDRE.

I will be blamed no more! there's but one way.
I'll spoil this beauty that brought misery
And houseless wandering on the man I loved,
And so buy peace between him and the king.
These wanderers will show me how to do it,
To clip my hair to baldness, blacken my skin
With walnut juice, and tear my face with briars.
Oh! that wild creatures of the woods had torn
This body with their claws.

NAISI.

What is your meaning?
What are you saying? That he loves you still?

DEIRDRE.

Whatever were to happen to this face,
I'd be myself; and there's not any way
But this way to bring trouble to an end.

NAISI.
Answer me--does King Conchubar still love--
Does he still covet you?

DEIRDRE.

Tell out the plot,
The plan, the network, all the treachery,
And of the bridal chamber and the bed,
The magical stones, the wizard's handiwork.

NAISI.

Take care of Deirdre, if I die in this,
For she must never fall into his hands,
Whatever the cost.

DEIRDRE.

Where would you go to, Naisi?

NAISI.

I go to drag the truth from Conchubar,
Before his people, in the face of his army,
And if it be as black as you have made it,
To kill him there.

DEIRDRE.

You never would return;
I'd never look upon your face again.
Oh, keep him, Fergus; do not let him go,
But hold him from it. You are both wise and kind.

NAISI.

When you were all but Conchubar's wife, I took you;
He tried to kill me, and he would have done it
If I had been so near as I am now.
And now that you are mine, he has planned to take you.