ACT II
SCENE I
(A front scene. A poor hut or tent, the
Princes are coming in slowly, some limping.
They are in Wrenboys' clothes and the
masks are in their hands.)
1st Prince: This should be the hut where the
Wrenboys told us to come.
2nd Prince: It is a poor looking place.
3d Prince: It is good to have any place to sit
down in for a while. My back is aching.
4th Prince: My feet are all scratched and torn.
There are blisters rising.
5th Prince: I thought we would never come to
the end of the road. The stones by the lake were
so hard and so sharp.
1st Prince: It was a root of a tree I fell over
that made these bruises on my knees. I was
watching a hawk that was still and quiet up in the
air, and when it made a swoop all of a sudden
I stumbled and fell.
2nd Prince: It was in slipping where the rocks
are high I gave this twist to my arm. I can hardly
move it.
3rd Prince: But wasn't the sight of the sunset
splendid over the lake? And the hills so blue!
4th Prince: I like the tall trees best. I tried
to climb up one of them, but it was so smooth I
did but slip and fall.
1st Prince: I would wish to walk as far as the
hills, and to have a view of the ocean that is beyond.
5th Prince: I am hungry. I wonder where we
will get our supper.
4th Prince: Not in this place, anyway, it must
be making ready in some big guesthouse.
3rd, Prince: What will they give us, I wonder?
2nd Prince: I wish we had in our hand what
they have ready for us at home.
1st Prince: What use would it be to us? Do
you remember what we asked to be given, some
jellies and a few grapes? It is not that much
would satisfy me now.
2nd Prince: Indeed it would not. I never felt
so sharp a hunger in my longest memory.
3rd Prince: It is roasted meat I would wish for.
4th Prince: There were pigeons in the tall
trees. They will maybe give us a pigeon pie.
5th Prince: I would be content with a plate of
minced turkey with poached eggs.
1st Prince: I would sooner have a roasted
chicken, with bread sauce.
2nd Prince: Be quiet.... I think I hear someone
coming! (Looks out.)
3rd Prince: (Looking out.) I see him. He is not
a right man ...he is very strange looking....
4th Prince: (Looking out.) Oh! It is an Ogre!
A Grugach!
(All shrink back and hurriedly put on masks.)
Ogre: (Coming in: he wears a frightful mask, has
red hair and a cloak of rough skins and carries a
whip with many lashes.) What makes ye late to-night,
ye young schemers? What was it delayed
ye? Lagging along the road.
1st Prince: We came as fast as we could. It
was getting dusk in the wood.
Ogre: Dusk, good morrow to you! I'll dusk
ye! I had a mind to go after ye and to change
myself into the form of a wolf, and catch a hold of
ye with my long sharp teeth!
2nd Prince: We did not know there was any
great hurry.
Ogre: There is always hurry when you are on
my messages. What did I bring you away from
your own house for and put ye on the shaughraun
for and keep ye wandering, if it was not to be
serviceable and helpful to myself. Show me now
what ye have in your pocket or your bag.
3rd Prince: This is all we got in the bag. (Holds
it out.) It is but very little.
Ogre: (Turning it out and counting it.) Coppers!
Silver! What is this? A piece of gold! Is that
what ye call little? What notions ye have! Take
care did ye keep any of it back! If ye did I'll
skin ye with the lash of my cat-o'-nine-tails.
(Shakes it.)
4th Prince: That is all we got. It should maybe
pay for our supper in some place.
Ogre: What supper? To go buy supper with
my money! It will go to add to my store of
treasure in the cave that is under ground.
5th Prince: We are hungry, very hungry. When
will the supper be ready?
Ogre: It will be ready whenever ye will ready
it for yourselves. Ye should know that by this time.
1st Prince: We would make it ready if we were
acquainted with the way.
Ogre: It is gone cracked ye are? What is it
ye are thinking to get for your supper? What
ailed ye that ye didn't climb a tree and suck a few
pigeon's eggs?
2nd Prince: We were thinking of a pigeon pie.
Ogre: A what!!!
2nd Prince: A pigeon pie.
Ogre: Hurry on then making your pigeon pie!
There are pigeons enough there in the corner, that
a hawk that is my carrier brought me in a while
ago. And there's a pike that was in the lake these
hundred years, an otter is after leaving at my door.
3rd Prince: (Taking a pigeon.) I don't think
this is a right pigeon.
4th Prince: Pigeons in a pie are not the pigeons
that have feathers.
5th Prince: (To Ogre.) Please, sir, where can
we find pigeons without feathers, that are trussed
on a silver skewer?
Ogre: Aye? What's that?
1st Prince: Never mind. You'll anger him.
Maybe we can pull the feathers off these. I have
read of plucking a pigeon in our books. (They
begin to pluck.)
2nd Prince: It is very hard work.
3rd Prince: I never knew feathers could stick
in so hard.
4th Prince: The more we pull out the more
there would seem to be left.
5th Prince: It will be a feather pie we will be
getting in the end.
1st Prince: (Throwing it down.) It is no use.
We might work at it to-day and to-morrow and be
no nearer to a finish.
2nd Prince: The pike might be better.
3rd Prince: It has no feathers anyway.
4th Prince: (Touching it.) It is raw and bleeding!
5th Prince: We might roast it.
1st Prince: The fire is black out.
2nd Prince: I wonder what way can we kindle it?
3rd Prince: Better ask him. (Points to Ogre.)
2nd Prince: Please, sir, what way can we kindle
the fire?
Ogre: What!
4th Prince: We would wish to light the fire.
Ogre: Well, do so.
5th Prince: If we had a box of matches....
Ogre: Matches! What are you talking about?
Matches won't be invented for the next seven
hundred years.
1st Prince: What can we do then, we are starving
with hunger.
Ogre: Let ye blow a breath upon a coal under
the ashes, and bring in small sticks from the wood.
2nd Prince: (Blowing.) The ashes are choking me.
Ogre: Very good. Then you'll put no delay
on me, waiting till you'll cook your supper.
3rd Prince: Where can we get it then?
Ogre: You'll go without it, as you were too
helpless to catch it, or to dress it, there's no one
will force you to eat it.
4th Prince: If there is nothing for us to eat we
had best pass the time in sleep.
5th Prince: I am all covered with ashes and
dirt. (To Ogre.) Please, where can I find a towel
and a piece of soap?
Ogre: Soap! Is it bewitched ye are or demented
in the head? Did ever anyone hear of
soap unless of a Saturday night? Letting on to be
as dainty and as useless as those young princes
beyond, that are kept closed up in a tower of glass.
Come on now. If there is no food that suits you,
leave it. It is time for us to get to work.
1st Prince: But it is bed-time.
Ogre: Your bed-time is the time when I have
no more use for you. Don't you know I have
made a plan? What was it I sent you for, spying
out that place of the young princes? Wasn't it
to see where is it that treasure is kept, the golden-handled
sword of Justice that is used by the
Guardian when he turns Judge.
2nd Prince: That is kept in the Courthouse.
Ogre: That's right ...in what part of it?
3rd Prince: What do you want it for?
Ogre: I have it in my mind this long time to
get and to keep it in my cave under ground, along
with the rest of my treasures that are in charge of
my two enchanted cats. I have had near enough
of grubbing for gold with a pick in the clefts and
crannies of the earth. It is time for me to find
some rest, and get into my hand what is ready
worked and smelted and purified. We are going
to that Courthouse to-night. If we cannot get in
at the door, I will put ye in at the window and ye
can open the door to myself. I will find out
where the sword is, and away with us, and it in
my hand.
4th Prince: But that would be stealing.
Ogre: What else would it be?
4th Prince: But that is wrong. It is against the law.
Ogre: The law! That is the Judge's trade.
Breaking it is mine.
5th Prince: Ask him for it and maybe he will
give it to you, he is so kind.
Ogre: I'll take no charity! What I get I'll
earn by taking it. I would feel no pleasure it being
given to me, any more than a huntsman would
take pleasure being made a present of a dead fox,
in place of getting a run across country after it.
Come on now! We'll have the moon wasted.
We'll hardly get there before the dawn of day.
1st Prince: Whatever time you get there the
Guardian will be awake. There is a cock of Denmark
perched on the curtain rod of his bed,
specially to waken him if there is any stir.
Ogre: There is, is there? What a fool you
think me to be. Do you see that pot?
2nd Prince: We do see it.
Ogre: Look what there is in it.
3rd Prince: Nothing but a few bare bones.
Ogre: Well, that is all that is left of the Judge's
cock of Denmark, that was brought to me awhile
ago by a fox that is my messenger, and that I have
boiled and ate and devoured.
All the Princes: O! O! O!
Ogre: (Cracking his whip.) He was boiled in
the little pot. Come on now and lead the way, or
I give you my word it is in the big pot your own
bones will be making broth for my breakfast in the
morning! (Cracks whip.) Now, right about face!
Quick march!
CURTAIN