ACT I
Scene: A winter garden, with pots of flowering
trees or fruit-trees. There are books about and
some benches with cushions on them and many
cushions on the ground. The young PRINCES are
sitting or lying at their ease. One is playing
"Home, Sweet Home" on a harp. The
SERVANT—an old man—is standing in the
background.
1st Prince: Here, Gillie, will you please take off
my shoe and see what there is in it that is pressing
on my heel.
Servant: (Taking it off and examining it.) I
see nothing.
1st Prince: Oh, yes, there is something; I have
felt it all the morning. I have been thinking this
long time of taking the shoe off, but I waited for
you.
Servant: All I can find is a grain of poppy seed.
1st Prince: That is it of course—it was enough
to hurt my skin.
2nd Prince: Gillie, there is a mayfly tickling
my cheek. Will you please brush it away.
Servant: I will and welcome. (Fans it off.)
3rd Prince: Just give me, please, that book
that is near my elbow. I cannot reach to it without
taking my hand off my cheek.
Servant: I wouldn't wish you to do that.
(Gives him book.)
4th Prince: Gillie, I think, I am nearly sure,
there is a feather in this cushion that has the quill
in it yet. I feel something hard.
Servant: Give it to me till I will open it and
make a search.
4th Prince: No, wait a while till I am not lying
on it. I will put up with the discomfort till then.
5th Prince: Would it give you too much trouble,
Gillie, when you waken me in the morning, to
come and call me three times, so that I can have
the joy of dropping off again?
Servant: Why wouldn't I? And there is a
thing I would wish to know. There will be a
supper laid out here this evening for the Dowager
Messengers that are coming to the Island, and I
would wish to provide for yourselves whatever
food would be pleasing to you.
1st Prince: It is too warm for eating. All I
will ask is a few grapes from Spain.
2nd Prince: A mouthful of jelly in a silver
spoon ...or in the shape of a little castle with
towers. When will the Lady Messengers be here?
Servant: Not before the fall of day.
2nd Prince: The time passes so quietly and
peaceably it does not feel like a year and a day since
they came here before.
Servant: No wonder the time to pass easy and
quiet where you are, with comfort all around you,
and nothing to mark its course, and every season
feeling the same as another, within the glass walls
and the crystal roof of this place. And the old
Queen, your godmother, sending her own Chamberlain
to take charge of you, and to be your Guardian,
and Governor of the Island. Sure, the wind
itself must slacken coming to this sheltered place.
3rd Prince: That is a great thing. I would
not wish the rough wind to be blowing upon me.
4th Prince: Or the dust to be rising and coming
in among us to spoil our suits.
5th Prince: Or to be walking out on the hard
roads, or climbing over stone walls, or tearing
ourselves in hedges.
1st Prince: That is the reason we were sent
here by the Queen, our Godmother, in place of
being sent to any school. To be kept safe and
secure.
2nd Prince: Not to be running here and there
like our own poor five first cousins, that used to
be slipping out and rambling in their young youth,
till they were swallowed up by the sea.
3rd Prince: It was maybe by some big fish of
the sea.
2nd Prince: It might be they were brought
away by sea-robbers coming in a ship.
3rd Prince: Foolish they were and very foolish
not to stay in peace and comfort in the house where
they were safe.
Servant: There is no fear of ye stirring from
where you are, having every whole thing ye can
wish.
4th Prince: Here is the Guardian coming!
(They all rise.)
Guardian: (A very old man, much encumbered
with wraps, coming slowly in.) Are you all here,
all the five of you?
All: We are here!
Guardian: (Standing, leaning on a stick, to
address them.) It's a pity that these being holidays,
your teachers and tutors are far away.
Gone off afloat in a cedar boat to a College of
Learning out in Cathay.
1st Prince: It's a pity indeed they're not here
to-day.
Guardian: For it's likely you looked in your
almanacs, or judged by the shape of the lessening
moon, That your Godmother's Dowager Messengers are
due to arrive this afternoon.
2nd Prince: We did and we think they'll be
here very soon.
Guardian: But I know they'll be glad that each
royal lad, put under my rule in place of a school,
Can fashion his life without trouble or strife, and
be shielded from care in a nice easy chair.
3rd Prince: As we always are and we always
were.
Guardian: It is part of my knowledge that lads
in a college, and made play one and all with a bat
and a ball,
Come often to harm with a knock on the arm,
and their hands get as hard as the hands of a clown.
4th Prince: But ours are as soft as thistledown.
Guardian: And I've seen young princes not
far from your age, go chasing beasts on a winter day,
And carted home with a broken bone, and a
yard of a doctor's bill to pay;
Or going to sail in the teeth of a gale, when the
waves were rising mountains high,
Or fall from a height that was near out of sight,
robbing rooks from their nest in a poplar tree.
5th Prince: (To another.) But that never
happened to you or me.
Guardian: Or travelling far to a distant war,
with battles and banners rilling their mind,
And creeping back like a crumpled sack, content
if they'd left no limbs behind.
1st Prince: But we'll have nothing to do with
that, but stop at home with an easy mind.
Guardian: (Sitting down.) That's right. And
now I would wish you to say over some of your
tasks, to make ready for the Dowager Messengers,
that they may bring back a good report to the
Queen, your Godmother.
1st Prince: We'll do that. We would wish to be
a credit to you, sir, and to our teachers.
Guardian: Say out now some little piece of
Latin; that one that is my favourite.
1st Prince
:
Aere sub gelido nullus rosa fundit odores,
Ut placeat tellus, sole calesce Dei.
Guardian: Say out the translation.
2nd Prince: Beneath a chilly blast the rose,
loses its sweet, and scentless blows;
If you would have earth keep its charm, stop
in the sunshine and keep warm.
Guardian: Very good. Now your history book;
you were learning of late some genealogies of kings,
might suit your Godmother.
3rd Prince
:
William the First as the Conqueror known
At the Battle of Hastings ascended the throne,
His Acts were all made in the Norman tongue
And at eight every evening the curfew was rung
When each English subject by royal desire
Extinguished his candle and put out his fire.
He bridled the kingdom with forts round the Border
And the Tower of London was built by his order.
2nd Prince
:
William called Rufus from having red hair,
Of virtues possessed but a moderate share,
But though he was one whom we covetous call,
He built the famed structure called Westminster Hall.
Walter Tyrrell his favourite, when hunting one day,
Attempted a deer with an arrow to slay,
But missing his aim, shot the King to the heart
And the body was carried away in a cart.
Guardian: That will do. You have that very
well in your memory. Now let me hear the
grammar lesson.
3rd Prince
:
A noun's the name of anything
As school or garden, hoop or swing.
Guardian: Very good, go on.
4th Prince
:
Adjectives tell the kind of noun
As strong or pretty, white or brown.
5th Prince
:
Conjunctions join the nouns together
As men and children, wind or weather.
Guardian: It will be very useful to you to have
that so well grafted in your mind.... What
noise is that outside?
Servant: It is some strolling people.
1st Prince: Oh, Guardian, let them come in.
We will do our work all the better if we have some
amusement now.
Guardian: Maybe so. I am well pleased when
amusements come to our door, that you can see
without going outside the walls.
(A Jester enters in very ragged green clothes
and broken shoes.)
But this is a very ragged looking man. Do you
know anything about him, Gillie?
Servant: I seen him one time before.... At
the time of the earthquake out in Foreign. A mad
jester he was. A tramp class of a man. (To Jester.)
Where is it you stop?
Jester: Where do I stop? Where would I be
but everywhere, like the bad weather. I stop in
no place, but going through the whole roads of
the world.
Guardian: What brought you in here?
Jester: Hearing questions going on, and answers.
I am well able to give help in that. It's
not long since I was giving instruction to the sons
of the King of Babylon. Here now is a question.
How many ladders would it take to reach to the
moon?
1st Prince: It should be a great many.
2nd Prince: I give it up.
Jester: One ...if it is long enough! Which
is it easier to spell, ducks or geese?
3rd Prince: Ducks I suppose because it's shorter.
Jester: Not at all but geese. Do you know
why? Because it is spelled with ees. Tell me
now, can you spell pup backwards?
4th Prince: P-u-p....
Jester: Not at all.
4th Prince: But it is.
Jester: No, that is pup straight forwards....
Can you run back and forwards at the same time?
4th Prince: Answer it yourself so.
Jester: You would be as wise as myself then.
But I'll show you some tricks. Look at these
three straws on my hand. Will I be able to blow
two of them away, and the other to stay in its place?
5th Prince: They would all blow away.
Jester: Look now. Puff! (He has put his
finger on the middle one.) Now is it possible?
5th Prince: It is easy when you know the way.
Jester: That is so with all knowledge. Can you
wag one ear and keep the other quiet?
1st Prince: Nobody can do that.
Jester: (Wagging one ear with his finger.) There,
now you see I have done it! There's more learning
than is taught in books. Wait now and I'll give
you out a song I'll engage you never heard. (Sings
or repeats.)
It's I can rhyme you out the joy
That's ready for a lively boy.
Cuchulain flung a golden ball
And followed it where it would fall,
And when they counted him a child
He took the flying swans alive.
And Finn was given hares to mind
Till he outran them and the wind;
And he could swim and overtake
The wild duck swimming on the lake.
Osgar's young music was to thwack
The enemy and drive him back....
Guardian: That's enough now. I have no
fancy for that class of song. What other amusements
are there?
Servant: There are the Wrenboys are come here
at the end of their twelve days' funning.
Jester: That's it! The Wrenboys; a rambling
troop; rambling the world like myself. I will make
place for them. The old must give way to the
young.
(He goes and sits down in a corner, munching
a crust and dozing.)
Servant: Come in here let ye, and show what
ye can do!
(Wrenboys come in playing a fife. They are
wearing little masks and are dressed in
ragged tunics; they carry drum and, fife,
and stand in a line.)
All Five Wrenboys: (Together.)
The wren, the wren, the King of all birds,
On Stephen's Day was caught in the furze.
Although he's small his family's great,
Rise up kind gentry and give us a treat!
(
Rub-a-tub-tub-tub, on the drum
.)
Down with the kettle and up with the pan
And give us money to bury the wren!
(Rub-a-tub.)
We followed him twenty miles since morn,
The Wrenboys are all tattered and torn.
From Kyle-na-Gno we started late
And here we are at this grand gate!
(Rub-a-tub.)
He dipped his wing in a barrel of beer—
We wish you all a Happy New Year!
Give us now money to buy him a bier
And if you don't, we'll bury him here!
(
Rub-a-tub, and fife
.)
(Princes laugh and clap hands.)
1st Prince: That is very good.
2nd Prince: We must give them some money to
bury the wren!
Guardian: Come on then and I will give you
some. They will be glad of it. Play now the
harp as you go.
(Princes go off playing, "Home, Sweet Home."
The Wrenboys sit down.)
1st Wrenboy: It is likely we'll get good treatment.
Jester: (Coming forward.) Ye should be tired.
2nd Wrenboy: We should be, but that we have
our feet well soled,—with the dust of the road!
3rd Wrenboy: If walking could tire us we might
be tired. But we're as well pleased to be moving,
where we have no house or home that you'll call a
house or a home.
Jester: That's not so with those young princes.
Wouldn't you be well pleased if ye could change
places with them? (He goes back to his corner.)
4th Wrenboy: They are lovely kind young
princes. I was near in dread they might set the
dogs at us.
5th Wrenboy: They would do that if they
knew the Ogre had sent us to spy out the place
for him.
1st Wrenboy: It failed us to see what he wanted
us to see. It is likely he will beat us, when we go
back, with his cat-o'-nine-tails.
2nd Wrenboy: Wouldn't it be good if we could
do as that Jester was saying and change places with
those sons of kings! They that can lie in the
sunshine on soft pillows.
3rd Wrenboy: They that can use food when they
ask it, and not have to wait till they can find it,
or steal it, or get it what way they can.
3rd Wrenboy: And not to be waiting till you'll
hear a rabbit squealing, with the teeth of a weasel
in his neck.
4th Wrenboy: And the weasel when you take
it to be spitting poison at you, the same as a serpent.
5th Wrenboy: It would be a nice thing to be
eating sweet red apples in place of the green crabs.
1st Wrenboy: Or to be maybe sucking marrow-bones.
2nd Wrenboy: It is likely they are as airy and
as careless as the blackbird singing on the bush.
3rd Wrenboy: It's likely they go following after
foxes on horses, having huntsmen and beagles at
their feet.
4th Wrenboy: Or go out sporting and fowling
with their greyhound and with their gun.
5th Wrenboy: Or matching fighting cocks.
1st Wrenboy: It's likely they lead a gentleman's
life, card-playing and eating and drinking, and
racing with jockeys in speckled clothes.
2nd Wrenboy: Their brooches were shining like
green fire, the same as a marten cat's eyes. They
have everything finer than another.
3rd Wrenboy: Their faces as clean as a linen
sheet. Their hair as if combed with a silver comb.
4th Wrenboy: There is no one to so much as
put a clean shirt on ourselves.
5th Wrenboy: (Rubbing his hand.) I never
felt uneasy at the dirt that is grinted into me till
I saw them so nice.
1st Wrenboy: That music they were playing
put me in mind of some far thing. It is dreamed
to me, and it is never leaving my mind, that there
is something I remember in the long ago ...
music in a house that was as bright as the moon,
or as the brightest night of stars.
5th Wrenboy: Whisht! They are coming!
(The Princes come back.)
1st Prince: Here are coppers for you.
2nd Prince: And white money.
3rd Prince: And here is a piece of gold.
3rd Wrenboy: We are thankful to you! We'll
bury the Wren in grand style now!
4th Prince: Have you far to go?
1st Wrenboy: Not very far if it was a straight
road. But it is through the forest we go, beyond
the lake.
2nd Wrenboy: We will hardly be there before
the moon rises.
1st Prince: Are you afraid in the night time?
2nd Wrenboy: I am not. But I've seen a great
deal of strange things at that time.
2nd Prince: What sort of things?
2nd Wrenboy: Fairies you'd see.
3rd Prince: Are there such things?
2nd Wrenboy: One night I was attending a pot-still,
roasting oats for to make still-whiskey, and I
seen hares coming out of the wood, by fours and by
sixes, and they as thin as thin....
3rd Wrenboy: Hares are the biggest fairies of all.
4th Wrenboy: And down by the sea I met a
weasel bringing up a fish in his mouth from the
tide. And I often seen seals there, seals that are
enchanted and look like humans, and will hold up
a hand the same as a Christian.
5th Wrenboy: I that saw a hedgehog running
up the side of a mountain as swift as a racehorse.
1st Wrenboy: It's the moonlight is the only time!
1st Prince: I never saw the moon but through
a window.
1st Wrenboy: That's the time to go ramble.
(He chants.)
You'll see the crane in the water standing,
And never landing a fish, for fright,
For he can but shiver seeing in the river
His shadow shaking in the bright moonlight.
2nd Wrenboy: Or you may listen to the plover's whistle,
When high above him the wild geese screech;
Or the mallard flying, as the night is dying,
His neck out-stretched towards the salt sea beach.
3rd Wrenboy: When dawn discloses the oak and shows us
The wide sky whitening through the scanty ash,
High in the beeches the furry creatures,
Squirrel and marten lightly pass.
4th Wrenboy:
The badger scurries to find his burrow
The rabbit hurries to hide underground.
5th Wrenboy:
The pigeon rouses the thrush that drowses,
The woods awaken and the world goes round!
1st Wrenboy: Come now, it's time to be taking
the road. Thank you, noble Gentlemen! That
you may be doing the same thing this day fifty years!
(They go off playing fife and beating drum.)
1st Prince: I would nearly wish to be in their
place to go through the world at large.
2nd Prince: They can go visit strange cities,
sailing in white-sailed ships.
3rd Prince: They have no lessons to learn.
4th Prince: No hours to keep. No clocks to
strike.
5th Prince: No Lady Messengers coming to
show off to.
1st Prince: They should be as merry as midges.
2nd Prince: As free as the March wind.
3rd Prince: I don't know how we stopped so
long shut up in this place.
4th Prince: I would be nearly ready to change
places with them if such a thing were possible.
Jester: (Who has had his back to them comes
forward; the Princes stand on his right in a half
circle.) And why wouldn't you change?
5th Prince: It is a thing not possible.
Jester: I never could know the meaning of that
word "impossible." Where there's a will there's
a way.
1st Prince: It seems to me like the sound of a
bell ringing a long way off, that I had leave at one
time to go here and there.
Jester: If you are in earnest wanting to come to
that freedom again you will get it.
2nd Prince: No, we would be followed and
brought back through kindness.
Jester: If you have the strong wish to make
the change you can make it.
1st Prince: I think I was never so much in
earnest in all my life.
(The Jester takes his pipe and plays a note
on it. The Wrenboys come back beating
their drum. They stand in a half circle
on Jester's left.)
Jester: (To all.)
If it's true ye wish to change,
Some to have a wider range,
Some to have an easy life,
Some to rove into the wild,
If you do it, do it fast,
Do it while you have the chance.
Wrenboys: (Together.) We will change! We will!
Jester: (To Princes.)
If you wish to leave your ease
And live wild and free like these
Like the fawn free and wild,
Not closed in as is a child,
Take your chance as it has come,
Let you run and run and run,
Where you'll get your joy and fun!
2nd Prince: They will know us, they will know us!
Jester: Change your clothes, change your clothes!
3rd Prince: They will know us every place.
Jester: Put their masks upon your face.
(Wrenboys give them the masks.)
You never will be missed
For I will throw a dust
Before everybody's eye
That wants to look or pry
To see if you are here,—
And if you should appear
To be someway strange or queer
They will think themselves are blind
Or confused in the mind!
(Throws a handful of dust over all the boys.)
Dust of Mullein, work your spell;
Keep the double secret well!
5th Prince: (To a Wrenboy.)
Give me here your coat now fast
I don't want to be the last.
(They all rapidly change coats and caps.)
Jester: That will do, that is enough.
1st Wrenboy: But my hands are very rough.
Jester
:
Never mind; never mind,
The truth is hard to find!
Guardian: (Off stage.) Gillie, do as you are
told, shut the door, it's getting cold.
1st Prince: Oh, I'm in dread! What will be
said!
2nd Prince: I'd sooner stay in my old way!
Jester
:
Never mind, never mind!
The truth is hard to find!
Keep steady. Are you ready?
1st Wrenboy: I'll be ashamed if I am blamed.
2nd Wrenboy: I have no grace or lovely face!
Jester: (To Princes.) Too late, too late! Go
out the gate!
(The Princes have taken up fife and drum.
They march out playing.)
CURTAIN