William Butler Yeats

“ My time to die has not come. I have my pupils. I have a young wife and children that I cannot leave. Why must I die?
angel. You must die because no souls have passed over the threshold of Heaven since you came into this country. The threshold is grassy, and the gates are rusty, and the angels that keep watch there are lonely.
wise man. Where will death bring me to?
angel. The doors of Heaven will not open to you, for you have denied the existence of Heaven; and the doors of Purgatory will not open to you, for you have denied the existence of Purgatory. ”

“ Sometimes my feet are tired and my hands are quiet, but there is no quiet in my heart. When the people see me quiet, they think old age has come on me and that all the stir has gone out of me. But when the trouble is on me I must be talking to my friends. ”

“ Look at him, Peter; he has the look of a man that has got the touch. [Raising her voice.] Look here, Michael, at the wedding clothes. Such grand clothes as these are! You have a right to fit them on now, it would be a pity to-morrow if they did not fit. The boys would be laughing at you. Take them, Michael, and go into the room and fit them on. ”

“ He flings the contents of the cup in their faces. There, there! I have given it to you again. And now
Begone, or I will give my curse to you.
You have the leper’s blessing, but you think
Maybe the bread will something lack in savour
Unless you mix my curse into the dough. ”

“ Give me pennies! Give me some pennies!
a young man. What do you want pennies for, that great bag at your waist is heavy?
fool. I want to buy bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time when the sun is weak, and snares to catch rabbits and the squirrels that steal the nuts, and hares, and a great pot to cook them in.
a young man. Why don’t your friends tell you where buried treasures are?
another. Why don’t they make you dream about treasures? If one dreams three times there is always treasure.
fool [holding out his hat] . Give me pennies! Give me pennies! ”

“ You are just as bad as the others, just as bad as the others! Do not run away! Come back to me! [The children begin to cry and run away.] Why are you afraid? I will teach you better—no, I will never teach you again. ”

“ But now farewell, for I am weary with the weight of time.
wise man Blessed be the Father, blessed be the Son, blessed be the Spirit, blessed be the Messenger They have sent!
angel [at the door, and pointing at the glass] . In a little while the uppermost glass will be empty.
[Goes out. wise man. Everything will be well with me. I will call my pupils; they only say they doubt. [Pulls the bell] They will be here in a moment. I hear their feet outside on the path. They want to please me; they pretend that they disbelieve. Belief is too old to be overcome all in a minute. ”

“ What a fool you made of that monk in the market-place! He had not a word to say.
wise man [comes from his desk and stands among them in the middle of the room] . Pupils, dear friends, I have deceived you all this time. It was I myself who was ignorant. There is a God. There is a Heaven. There is fire that passes and there is fire that lasts for ever.
[teigue, through all this, is sitting on a stool by the door, reckoning on his fingers what he will buy with his money. a young man [to another] . He will not be satisfied till we dispute with him. [to the wise man] Prove it, Master. ”

“ Master, till you came, no teacher in this land was able to get rid of foolishness and ignorance. But every one has listened to you, every one has learned the truth. You have had your last disputation. ”

“ And dulse from Duras. Here is the dulse, your honour;
It’s wholesome, and has the good taste of the sea.
[Takes dulse in one hand and bread in other and presses them into seanchan's hands. seanchan shows by his movement his different feeling to brian first cripple. He has taken it, and there'll be nothing left!
second cripple. Nothing at all, he wanted his own sort.
What’s honey to a cat, corn to a dog,
Or a green apple to a ghost in a churchyard?
seanchan [pressing food back into brian's hands] . Eat it yourself, for you have come a journey,
And it may be ate nothing on the way. ”

“ It’s a misfortune that overtakes me, ma’am, every time I make an attempt to keep a pot of my own to boil it in, and I don’t like to be always under a compliment to the neighbours, asking the loan of one. ”

“ If there is one amongst you that has not changed, he will be my best friend. Surely there is one amongst you. [They are all silent.] Surely what you learned at your mother’s knees has not been so soon forgotten. ”

“ What does the age of it matter? A hen’s a hen when it’s on the table. [Sitting down to pluck chicken.] Why couldn’t the Kernans have given the priest his dinner the way they always do? What did it matter their mother’s brother to have died? It is an excuse they had made up to put the expense of the dinner on me.
john. Well, I hope you have a good bit of bacon to put in the pot along with the chicken.
sibby. Let me alone. The taste of meat on the knife is all that high-up people like the clergy care for, nice genteel people, no way greedy like potato diggers or harvest men. ”

“ I always knew I was too good for you! [She goes on humming.]
john. Well, he has the poor woman bewitched.
sibby [suddenly coming to her wits] . Did you take the chicken out yet?
tramp [taking it out and giving it a good squeeze into the pot.] I did, ma’am. Look at it there.
[He takes it and lays on table.
john. How is the broth getting on?
tramp [tasting it with a spoon] . It’s grand. It’s always grand.
sibby. Give me a taste of it.
tramp [takes the pot off and slips the ham bone behind him] . Give me some vessel till I'll give this sky-woman a taste of it. ”

“ If I was a beggar, ma'am, it is to common people I would be going and not to a nice grand woman like yourself, that is only used to be talking with high-up noble people.
sibby. Well, what is it you are asking? If it's a bit to eat you want, I can’t give it to you, for I have company coming that will clear all before them. ”

“ Let them that have their limbs
Starve if they will. We have to keep in mind
The stomach God has left us.
mayor. Hush! I have it!
The King was said to be most friendly to us,
And we have reason, as you'll recollect,
For thinking that he was about to give
Those grazing lands inland we so much need,
Being pinched between the water and the stones.
Our mowers mow with knives between the stones;
The sea washes the meadows. You know well
We have asked nothing but what’s reasonable.
seanchan. Reason in plenty. ”

“ Well, I never saw the man, gentle or simple, wouldn’t be glad of his fill of bacon and be hungry.
sibby. Let me alone, I'll show the Kernans what I can do. I have what is better than bacon, a nice bit of a ham I am keeping in the chest this good while, thinking we might want it for company. [She catches sight of tramp and calls out.] Who is there? A beggar man is it? Then you may quit this house if you please. We have nothing for you. [She gets up and opens the door.]
tramp [comes forward] . It is a mistake you are making, ma'am, it is not asking anything I am. ”

“ For the dead that shall die to-morrow. . .
they will have no need of prayers, they will have no need of prayers.
michael. I do not know what that song means, but tell me something I can do for you.
peter. Come over to me, Michael.
Michael. Hush, father, listen to her.
old woman. It is a hard service they take that help me. Many that are red-cheeked now will be pale-cheeked; many that have been free to walk the hills and the bogs and the rushes, will be sent to walk hard streets in far countries; many a good plan will be broken; many that have gathered money will not stay to spend it ”

“ He goes into the palace. The soldiers block the way before the pupils soldier. Here is no place for you.
For he and his pretensions now are finished.
Begone before the men-at-arms are bidden
To beat you from the door. ”

“ There's an old woman coming down the road. I don't know is it here she is coming?
bridget. It will be a neighbour coming to hear about Michael's wedding. Can you see who it is?
patrick. I think it is a stranger, but she’s not coming to the house. She’s turned into the gap that goes down where Murteen and his sons are shearing sheep. [He turns towards bridget.] Do you remember what Winny of the Cross Roads was saying the other night about the strange woman that goes through the country whatever time there's war or trouble coming? ”

“ And a little old devil looking out of every wrinkle!
brian [speaking at the same time with mayor and cripples] . And nobody, will sing for him,
And nobody will hunt for him,
And nobody will fish for him,
And nobody will pray for him,
But ever and always curse him and abuse him.
mayor [speaking at same time with cripples and brian] . What good is in a poet? ”

“ The monk plucks his habit away and goes into palace. seanchan holds up his hand as if a bird perched upon it. He pretends to stroke the bird. A little God,
With comfortable feathers, and bright eyes.
first girl. There will be no more dancing in our time,
For nobody will play the harp or the fiddle. ”

“ He keeps his face to chamberlain, and keeps bowing. The chamberlain shoves him with his staff. mayor. We could not make the poet eat, my lord.
[
chamberlain shoves him with his staff. Much honoured [is shoved again] ——honoured to speak with you, my lord;
But I'll go find the girl that he’s to marry.
She’s coming, but I’ll hurry her, my lord.
Between ourselves, my lord [is shoved again] , she is a great coaxer.
Much honoured, my lord. Oh, she’s the girl to do it;
For when the intellect is out, my lord,
Nobody but a woman’s any good. ”

“ They that have red cheeks will have pale cheeks for my sake, and for all that, they will think they are well paid.
[She goes out; her voice is heard outside singing.
They shall be remembered for ever,
They shall be alive for ever,
They shall be speaking for ever,
The people shall hear them for ever.
bridget [to peter] . ”

“ And I came up at last to the edge of a gravel pit where there were a few withered furze bushes, and there was my fine hound sitting up, and it shivering, and a little old man sitting before him, and he taking off a hareskin coat. [Looking round at the ham bone.] Give me the loan of a kippeen to stir the pot with. . . . [He takes the ham bone and puts it into the pot.]
john. Oh! the ham bone!
tramp. I didn’t say a ham bone, I said a hare-skin coat.
sibby. Hold your tongue, John, if it’s deaf you are getting.
tramp [stirring the pot with the ham bone] . ”

“ For a bowed head becomes a mourner best.
[They lay harps and trumpets down one by one, and then go out very solemnly and slowly, following one another. Enter mayor, two cripples, and brian, an old servant. The mayor, who has been heard, before he came upon the stage, muttering 'Chief Poet,’ ‘Ireland,’ etc., crosses in front of seanchan to the other side of the steps. brian takes food out of basket. The cripples are watching the basket. The mayor has an Ogham stick in his hand. mayor [as he crosses] . ”

“ It is proud she must be to get you; a good steady boy that will make use of the money, and not be running through it or spending it on drink like another.
peter. It’s likely Michael himself was not thinking much of the fortune either, but of what sort the girl was to look at.
Michael [coming over towards the table] . Well, you would like a nice comely girl to be beside you, and to go walking with you. The fortune only lasts for a while, but the woman will be there always.
patrick [turning round from the window] . They are cheering again down in the town. ”

“ Not if I give you two pennies?
fool. You will be very lucky if you give me two pennies, but I won’t tell you!
wise man. Three pennies?
fool. Four, and I will tell you!
wise man. Very well, four. But I will not call you Teigue the Fool any longer.
fool. Let me come close to you where nobody will hear me. But first you must promise you will not drive them away. [wise man nods.] Every day men go out dressed in black and spread great black nets over the hills, great black nets.
wise man. Why do they do that?
fool. That they may catch the feet of the angels. ”

“ But there were others that died for love of me a long time ago.
michael. Were they neighbours of your own, ma’am?
old woman. Come here beside me and I'll tell you about them. [michael sits down beside her at the hearth.] There was a red man of the O'Donells from the north, and a man of the O'Sullivans from the south, and there was one Brian that lost his life at Clontarf by the sea, and there were a great many in the west, some that died hundreds of years ago, and there are some that will die tomorrow.
michael. Is it in the west that men will die to-morrow? ”

“ And murmured it, until the tailors heard it.
chamberlain. If you would but eat something you'd find out.
That you have had these thoughts from lack of food,
For hunger makes us feverish.
seanchan. Cry aloud,
That when we are driven out we come again
Like a great wind that runs out of the waste
To blow the tables flat; and thereupon
Lie down upon the threshold till the King
Restore to us the ancient right of the poets.
monk. You cannot shake him. I will to the King,
And offer him consolation in his trouble,
For that man there has set his teeth to die. ”

“ It must be the strange woman Patrick saw a while ago.
michael. I don’t think it's one of the neighbours anyway, but she has her cloak over her face.
bridget. It might be some poor woman heard we were making ready for the wedding and came to look for her share.
peter. I may as well put the money out of sight. There is no use leaving it out for every stranger to look at.
[He goes over to a large box in the corner, opens it and puts the bag in and fumbles at the lock. michael. There she is, father! [An old woman passes the window slowly, she looks at michael as she passes.] ”

“ There is the shouting come to our own door. What is it has happened?
[neighbours come crowding in, patrick and delia with them. patrick. There are ships in the Bay; the French are landing at Killala!
[peter takes his pipe from his mouth and his hat off, and stands up. The clothes slip from michael's arm. delia. Michael! [He takes no notice.] Michael! [He turns towards her.] Why do you look at me like a stranger? ”