Have you
forgiven
him?
Yeats
DEIRDRE.
Even this last hour.
[_CONCHUBAR enters with dark-faced men. _]
CONCHUBAR.
One woman and two men; that is a quarrel
That knows no mending. Bring the man she chose
Because of his beauty and the strength of his youth.
[_The dark-faced men drag in NAISI entangled in a net. _
NAISI.
I have been taken like a bird or a fish.
CONCHUBAR.
He cried 'Beast, beast! ' and in a blind-beast rage
He ran at me and fell into the nets,
But we were careful for your sake, and took him
With all the comeliness that woke desire
Unbroken in him. I being old and lenient--
I would not hurt a hair upon his head.
DEIRDRE.
What do you say?
Have you forgiven him?
NAISI.
He is but mocking us. What's left to say
Now that the seven years' hunt is at an end?
DEIRDRE.
He never doubted you until I made him,
And therefore all the blame for what he says
Should fall on me.
CONCHUBAR.
But his young blood is hot,
And if we're of one mind, he shall go free,
And I ask nothing for it, or, if something,
Nothing I could not take. There is no king
In the wide world that, being so greatly wronged,
Could copy me, and give all vengeance up.
Although her marriage-day had all but come,
You carried her away; but I'll show mercy.
Because you had the insolent strength of youth
You carried her away; but I've had time
To think it out through all these seven years.
I will show mercy.
NAISI.
You have many words.
CONCHUBAR.
I will not make a bargain; I but ask
What is already mine.
