ACT III
Scene: Same. Table cleared of all but vessels of
fruit, cocoa-nuts, etc. Queen and Taig sitting
in front, Nurse and Dall Glic standing in background.
Queen: Now, King, the dinner being at an end,
and the music, we have time and quiet to be
talking.
Taig: It is with the King's daughter I am come
to talk.
Queen: Go, Dall Glic, call the Princess. She
will be here on the minute, but it is best for you
to tell me out if it is to ask her in marriage you
are come.
Taig: It is so, where I was after being told
she would be given as a wife to the first man that
would come into the house.
Queen: And who in the world wide gave that
out?
Taig: It was the Gateman said it to a hawker
bringing lobsters from the strand, and that got no
leave to cross the threshold by reason of the oath
given out by the King. The half of the kingdom
she will get, they were telling me, and the king
living, and the whole of it after he will be dead.
Nurse: There did another come in before you.
Let me tell you that much!
Taig: There did not. The lobster man that
set a watch upon the door.
Queen: A great honour you did us coming
asking for her, and you being King of Sorcha!
Taig: Look at my ring and my crown. They
will bear witness that I am. And my kind coat of
cotton and my golden shirt! And under that
again there's a stiff pocket. (Slaps it.) Is there
e'er a looking-glass in any place? (Gets up.)
Dall Glic: There is the shining silver basin of
the swans in the garden without.
Taig: That will do. I would wish to look
tasty when I come looking for a lady of a wife.
(He and Dall Glic go outside window but in sight.)
(Princess comes in very proud and sad.)
Queen: You should be proud this day, Nuala,
and so grand a man coming asking you in marriage
as the King of Sorcha.
Nurse: Grand, indeed! As grand as hands and
pins can make him.
Princess: Are you not satisfied to have urged
me to one man and promised me to another since
sunrise?
Queen: What way could I know there was
this match on the way, and a better match beyond
measure? This is no black stranger going the
road, but a man having a copper crown over his
gateway and a silver crown over his palace door!
I tell you he has means to hang a pearl of gold
upon every rib of your hair! There is no one
ahead of him in all Ireland, with his chain and his
ring and his suit of the dearest silk!
Princess: If it was a suit I was to wed with he
might do well enough.
Queen: Equal in blood to ourselves! Brought
up to good behaviour and courage and mannerly ways.
Princess: In my opinion he is not.
Queen: You are talking foolishness. A King
of Sorcha must be mannerly, seeing it is he himself
sets the tune for manners.
Princess: He gave out a laugh when old Michelin
slipped on the threshold. He kicked at the dog
under the table that came looking for bones.
Queen: I tell you what might be ugly behaviour
in a common man is suitable and right in a king.
But you are so hard to please and so pettish, I am
seven times tired of yourself and your ways.
Princess: If no one could force me to give in
to the man that made a claim to me to-day, according
to my father's bond, that bond is there yet to
protect me from any other one.
Queen: Leave me alone! Myself and the
Dall Glic will take means to rid you of that lad
from the oven. I'll send in now to you the King
of Sorcha. Let you show civility to him, and the
wedding day will be to-morrow.
Princess: I will not see him, I will have nothing
to do with him; I tell you if he had the rents of
the whole world I would not go with him by day
or by night, on foot or on horseback, in light or in
darkness, in company or alone!
(Queen has gone while she cries this out.)
Nurse: The luck of the seven Saturdays on
himself and on the Queen!
Princess: Oh, Muime, do not let him come
near me! Have you no way to help me?
Nurse: It's myself that could help you if I
was not under bonds not to speak!
Princess: What is it you know? Why won't
you say one word?
Nurse: He put me under spells.... There
now, my tongue turned with the word to be dumb.
Taig: (At the window.) Not a fear of me,
Queen. It won't be long till I bring the Princess
around.
Princess: I will not stay! Keep him here till
I will hide myself out of sight! (Goes.)
Taig: (Coming in.) They told me the Princess
was in it.
Nurse: She has good sense, she is in some other
place.
Taig: (Sitting down.) Go call her to me.
Nurse: Who is it I will call her for?
Taig: For myself. You know who I am.
Nurse: My grief that I do not!
Taig: I am the King of Sorcha.
Nurse: If you say that lie again there will blisters
rise up on your face.
Taig: Take care what you are saying, you
hag!
Nurse: I know well what I am saying. I have
good judgment between the noble and the mean
blood of the world.
Taig: The Kings of Sorcha have high, noble
blood.
Nurse: If they have, there is not so much of
it in you as would redden a rib of scutch-grass.
Taig: You are crazed with folly and age.
Nurse: No, but I have my wits good enough.
You ought to be as slippery as a living eel, I'll
get satisfaction on you yet! I'll show out who
you are!
Taig: Who am I so?
Nurse: That is what I have to get knowledge
of, if I must ask it at the mouth of cold hell!
Taig: Do your best! I dare you!
Nurse: I will save my darling from you as sure
as there's rocks on the strand! A girl that refused
sons of the kings of the world!
Taig: And I will drag your darling from you
as sure as there's foxes in Oughtmana!
Nurse: Oughtmana ...Is that now your living
place?
Taig: It is not.... I told you I came from
the far-off kingdom of Sorcha. Look at my cloak
that has on it the sign of the risen sun!
Nurse: Cloaks and suits and fringes. You have
a great deal of talk of them.... Have you e'er a
needle around you, or a shears?
Taig: (His hand goes to breast of coat, but he
withdraws it quickly.) Here ...no ...What
are you talking about? I know nothing at all of
such things.
Nurse: In my opinion you do. Hearken now.
I know where is the real King of Sorcha!
Taig: Bring him before me now till I'll down
him!
Nurse: Say that the time you will come face
to face with him! Well, I'm under bonds to tell
out nothing about him, but I have liberty to make
known all I will find out about yourself.
Taig: Hurry on so. Little I care when once
I'm wed with the King's daughter!
Nurse: That will never be!
Taig: The Queen is befriending me and in
dread of losing me. I will threaten her if there
is any delay I'll go look for another girl of a
wife.
Nurse: I will make no delay. I'll have my
story and my testimony before the white dawn
of the morrow.
Taig: Do so and welcome! Before the yellow
light of this evening I'll be the King's son-in-law!
Bring your news, then, and little thanks you'll
get for it! The King and Queen must keep up
my name then for their own credit's sake. (Makes
a face at her as King comes in with Dall Glic, and
servants with cushions. Nurse goes out, shaking her
fist.) (Rises.) I was just asking to see you, King,
to say there is a hurry on me....
King: (Sitting down on window seat while Servant
arranges cushions about him.) Keep your business
a while. It's a poor thing to be going through
business the very minute the dinner is ended.
Taig: I wouldn't but that it is pressing.
King: Go now to the Queen, in her parlour,
and be chatting and whistling to the birds. I give
you my word since I rose up from the table I am
going here and there, up and down, craving and
striving to find a place where I'll get leave to lay
my head on the cushions for one little minute.
(Taig goes reluctantly.)
Dall Glic: (Taking cushions from servants.) Let
you go now and leave the King to his rest.
(They go out.)
King: I don't know in the world why anyone
would consent to be a king, and never to be left
to himself, but to be worried and wearied and
interfered with from dark to daybreak and from
morning to the fall of night.
Dall Glic: I will be going out now. I have
but one word only to say....
King: Let it be a short word! I would be
better pleased to hear the sound of breezes in
the sycamores, and the humming of bees in the
hive and the crooning and sleepy sounds of the
sea!
Dall Glic: There is one thing only could cause
me to annoy you.
King: It should be a queer big thing that
wouldn't wait till I have my rest taken.
Dall Glic: So it is a big matter, and a weighty
one.
King: Not to be left in quiet and all I am after
using! Food that was easy to eat! Drink that
was easy to drink! That's the dinner that was
a dinner. That cook now is a wonder!
Dall Glic: That is now the very one I am wishful
to speak about.
King: I give you my word, I'd sooner have
one goose dressed by him than seven dressed by
any other one!
Dall Glic: The Queen that was urging me for
to put my mind to make out some way to get quit
of him.
King: Isn't it a hard thing the very minute
I find a lad can dress a dinner to my liking, I must
be made an attack on to get quit of him?
Dall Glic: It is on the head of the Princess Nu.
King: Tell me this, Dall Glic. Supposing, now,
he was ...in spite of me ...to wed with her
...against my will ...and it might be unknownst
to me.
Dall Glic: Such a thing must not happen.
King: To be sure, it must not happen. Why
would it happen? But supposing—I only said
supposing it did. Would you say would that
lad grow too high in himself to go into the kitchen
...it might be only an odd time ...to oblige
me ...and dress a dinner the same as he did
to-day?
Dall Glic: I am sure and certain that he would
not. It is the way, it is, with the common sort,
the lower orders. He'd be wishful to sit on a chair
at his ease and to leave his hand idle till he'd grow
to be bulky and wishful for sleep.
King: That is a pity, a great pity, and a great
loss to the world. A big misfortune he to have
got it in his head to take a liking to the girl. I
tell you he was a great lad behind the saucepans!
Dall Glic: Since he did get it in his head, it is
what we have to do now, to make an end of
him.
King: To gaol him now, and settle up ovens
and spits and all sorts in the cell, wouldn't he,
to shorten the day, be apt to start cooking?
Dall Glic: In my belief he will do nothing at
all, but to hold you to the promise you made,
and to force you to send away the King of Sorcha.
King: To have the misfortune of a cook for
a son-in-law, and without the good luck of profiting
by what he can do in his trade! That is a hard thing
for a father to put up with, let alone a king!
Dall Glic: If you will but listen to the advice
I have to give....
King: I know it without you telling me. You
are asking me to make away with the lad! And
who knows but the girl might turn on me after,
women are so queer, and say I had a right to have
asked leave from herself?
Dall Glic: There will no one suspect you of
doing it, and you to take my plan. Bid them
heat the big oven outside on the lawn that is for
roasting a bullock in its full bulk.
King: Don't be talking of roasted meat! I
think I can eat no more for a twelvemonth!
Dall Glic: There will be nothing roasted that
any person will have occasion to eat. When the
oven door will be open, give orders to your bullies
and your foot-soldiers to give a tip to him that
will push him in. When evening comes, news will
go out that he left the meat to burn and made off
on his rambles, and no more about him.
King: What way can I send orders when I'm
near crazed in my wits with the want of rest. A
little minute of sleep might soothe and settle my
brain.
(Lies down.)
Dall Glic: The least little word to give leave
...or a sign ...such as to nod the head.
King: I give you my word, my head is tired
nodding! Be off now and close the door after
you and give out that anyone that comes to this
side of the house at all in the next half-hour, his
neck will be on the block before morning!
Dall Glic: (Hurriedly.) I'm going! I'm
going.
(Goes.)
King: (Locking door and drawing window curtains.)
That you may never come back till I ask you!
(Lies down and settles himself on pillows.) I'll be
lying here in my lone listening to the pigeons
seeking their meal. "Coo-coo," they're saying,
"Coo-coo."
(Closes eyes.)
Nurse: (At door.) Who is it locked the door?
(Shakes it.) Who is it is in it? What is going on
within? Is it that some bad work is after being
done in this place? Hi! Hi! Hi!
King: (Sitting up.) Get away out of that,
you torment of a nurse! Be off before I'll have
the life of you!
Nurse: The Lord be praised, it is the King's
own voice! There's time yet!
King: There's time, is there? There's time
for everyone to give out their chat and their gab,
and to do their business and take their ease and have
a comfortable life, only the King! The beasts
of the field have leave to lay themselves down in the
meadow and to stretch their limbs on the green
grass in the heat of the day, without being pestered
and plagued and tormented and called to and
wakened and worried, till a man is no less than
wore out!
Nurse: Up or down, I'll say what I have to
say, if it cost me my life. It is that I have to tell
you of a plot that is made and a plan!
King: I won't listen! I heard enough of
plots and plans within the last three minutes!
Nurse: You didn't hear this one. No one knows
of it only myself.
King: I was told it by the Dall Glic.
Nurse: You were not! I am only after making
it out on the moment!
King: A plot against the lad of the saucepans?
Nurse: That's it! That's it! Open now the door!
King: (Putting a cushion over each ear and
settling himself to sleep.) Tell away and welcome!
(Shuts eyes.)
Nurse: That's right! You're listening. Give
heed now. That schemer came a while ago letting
on to be the King of Sorcha is no such thing! What
do you say?...Maybe you knew it before?
I wonder the Dall Glic not to have seen that for
himself with his one eye.... Maybe you don't
believe it? Well, I'll tell it out and prove it.
I have got sure word by running messenger that
came cross-cutting over the ridge of the hill....
That carrion that came in a coach, pressing to bring
away the Princess before nightfall, giving himself
out to be some great one, is no other than Taig the
Tailor, that should be called Taig the Twister,
down from his mother's house from Oughtmana,
that stole grand clothes which were left in the
mother's charge, he being out at the time cutting
cloth and shaping lies, and has himself dressed out
in them the way you'd take him to be King! (King
has slumbered peacefully all through.) Now, what
do you say? Now, will you open the door?
Queen: (Outside.) What call have you to
shouting and disturbing the King?
Nurse: I have good right and good reason to
disturb him!
Queen: Go away and let me open the door.
Nurse: I will go and welcome now; I have
told out my whole story to the King.
Queen: (Shaking door.) Open the door, my
dear! It is I myself that is here! (King looks
up, listens, shakes his head and sinks back.) Are
you there at all, or what is it ails you?
Nurse: He is there, and is after conversing
with myself.
Queen: (Shaking again.) Let me in, my dear
King! Open! Open! Open! unless that the
falling sickness is come upon you, or that you are
maybe lying dead upon the floor!
Nurse: Not a dead in the world.
Queen: Go, Nurse, I tell you, bring the smith
from the anvil till he will break asunder the lock
of the door!
(King annoyed, waddles to door and opens it
suddenly. Queen stumbles in.)
King: What at all has taken place that you
come bawling and calling and disturbing my rest?
Queen: Oh! Are you sound and well? I was
in dread there did something come upon you,
when you gave no answer at all.
King: Am I bound to answer every call and
clamour the same as a hall-porter at the door?
Queen: It is business that cannot wait. Here
now is a request I have written to the bully of
the King of Alban, bidding him to strike the head
off whatever man will put the letter in his hand.
Write your name and sign to it, in three royal words.
King: I wouldn't sign a letter out of my right
hour if it was to make the rivers run gold. There
is nothing comes of signing letters but more trouble
in the end.
Queen: Give me, so, to bind it a drop of your
own blood as a token and a seal. You will not
refuse, and I telling you the messenger will go
with it, and that will lose his head through it, is no
less than that troublesome cook!
King: (With a roar.) Anyone to say that word
again I will not leave a head on any neck in the
kingdom! I declare on my oath it would be
best for me to take the world for my pillow and
put that lad upon the throne!
(Queen goes back frightened to door.)
Gateman: (Coming in.) There is a man coming
in that will take no denial. It is Fintan the
Astrologer.
(Fintan enters with Dall Glic, Nurse, Princess,
Taig, Manus and Prince of the Marshes
crowding after him.)
King: Another disturbance! The whole world
would seem to be on the move!
Queen: Fintan! What brings him here again?
Fintan: A great deceit? A terrible deception!
King: What at all is it?
Fintan: Long and all as I'm in the world, such
a thing never happened in my lifetime!
Queen: What is it has happened?
Fintan: It is not any fault of myself or any
miscounting of my own! I am certain sure of
that much. Is it that the stars of heaven are
gone astray, they that are all one with a clock—
unless it might be on a stormy night when they
are wild-looking around the moon.
King: Go on with your story and stop your
raving.
Fintan: The first time ever I came to this place
I made a prophecy.
Dall Glic: You did, about the child was in the
cradle.
Fintan: And that was but new in the world.
It is what I said, that she was born under a certain
star, and that in a score of years all but two,
whatever acting was going on in that star at the
time she was born, she would get her crosses in the
same way.
Dall Glic: The cross you foretold to her was
to be ate by a Dragon. You laid down it would
come upon a twelvemonth from this very day.
Fintan: That's it. That was according to
my reckoning. There was no mistake in that.
And I thought better of the Seven Stars than
they to make a fool of me, after all the respect
I had showed them, giving my life to watching
themselves and the plans they have laid down
for men and for mortals.
King: It seems as if I myself was the best prophet
and that there is no Dragon at all.
Fintan: What a bad opinion you have of me
that I would be so far out as that! It would be
a deception and a disappointment out of measure,
there to come no Dragon, and I after foretelling
and prophesying him.
King: Troth, it would be no disappointment
at all to ourselves.
Fintan: It would be better, I tell you, a score
of king's daughters to be ate and devoured, than
the high stars in their courses to be proved wrong.
But it must be right, it surely must be right. I
gave the prophecy according to her birth hour,
that was one hour before the falling back of the sun.
Dall Glic: It was not, but an hour before the
rising of the sun.
Fintan: Not at all! It was the Nurse herself
told me it was at evening she was born.
Queen: There is the Nurse now. Let you ask
her account.
Fintan: (To Nurse.) It was yourself laid down
it was evening!
Nurse: Sure I wasn't in the place at all till
Samhuin time, when she was near three months
in the world.
Fintan: Then it was some other hag the very
spit of you! I wish she didn't tell a lie.
Nurse: Sure that one was banished out of this
on the head of telling lies. An hour ere sunrise,
and before the crowing of the cocks. The Dall
Glic will tell you that much.
Dall Glic: That is so. I have it marked upon
the genealogies in the chest.
Fintan: That is great news! It was a heavy
wrong was done me! It had me greatly upset.
Twelve hours out in laying down the birth-time!
That clears the character of myself and
of the carwheel of the stars. I knew I could
make no mistake in my office and in my
billet!
King: Will you stop praising yourself and give
out some sense?
Fintan: Knowledge is surely the greatest thing
in the world! And truth! Twelve hours with
the planets is equal to twelve months on earth.
I am well satisfied now.
Queen: So the Dragon is not coming, and the
girl is in no danger at all?
Fintan: Not coming! Heaven help your poor
head! Didn't I get word within the last half-hour
he is after leaving his den in the Kingdoms of the
Cold, and is at this minute ploughing his way to
Ireland, the same as I foretold him, but that I
made a miscount of a year?
Nurse: (Putting her arm round Princess.) Och!
do not listen or give heed to him at all!
Queen: When is he coming so?
Fintan: Amn't I tired telling you this day
in the place of this day twelvemonth. But as to
the minute, there's too much lies in this place
for me to be rightly sure.
King: The curse of the seven elements upon
him!
Fintan: Little he'll care for your cursing. The
whole world wouldn't stop him coming to your
own grand gate.
Princess: (Coming forward.) Then I am to die
to-night?
Fintan: You are, without he will be turned
back by someone having a stronger star than your
own, and I know of no star is better, unless it might
be the sun.
Queen: If you had minded me, and given in
to ring the wedding bells, you would be safe out
of this before now.
Fintan: That Dragon not to find her before
him, he will ravage and destroy the whole district
with the poisonous spittle of his jaw, till the want
will be so great the father will disown his son and
will not let him in the door. Well, good-bye to ye!
Ye'll maybe believe me to have foreknowledge
another time, and I proved to be right. I have
knocked great comfort out of that!
(Goes.)
King: Oh, my poor child! My poor little
Nu! I thought it never would come to pass, I
to be sending you to the slaughter. And I too
bulky to go out and face him, having led an easy life!
Princess: Do not be fretting.
King: The world is gone to and fro! I'll
never ask satisfaction again either in bed or board,
but to be wasting away with watercresses and rising
up of a morning before the sun rises in Babylon!
(Weeps.) Oh, we might make out a way to baffle
him yet! Is there no meal will serve him only
flesh and blood? Try him with Grecian wine,
and with what was left of the big dinner a while ago!
Gateman: (Coming in.) There is some strange
thing in the ocean from Aran out. At first it was
but like a bird's shadow on the sea, and now you
would nearly say it to be the big island would have
left its moorings, and it steering its course towards
Aughanish!
Dall Glic: I'm in dread it should be the Dragon
that has cleared the ocean at a leap!
King: (Holding Princess.) I will not give you
up! Let him devour myself along with you!
Dull Glic: (To Princess.) It is best for me
to put you in a hiding-hole under the ground,
that has seven locked doors and seven locks on
the farthest door. It might fail him to make
you out.
Nurse: Oh, it would be hard for her to go
where she cannot hear the voice of a friend or
see the light of day!
Princess: Would you wish me to save myself
and let all the district perish? You heard what
Fintan said. It is not right for destruction to be
put on a whole province, and the women and the
children that I know.
Queen: There is maybe time yet for you to
wed.
Princess: So long as I am living I have a choice.
I will not be saved in that way. It is alone I will
be in my death.
Manus: (Coming to King.) I am going out
from you, King. I might not be coming in to
you again. I would wish to set you free from
the promise you made me a while ago, and the bond.
King: What does it signify now? What does
anything signify, and the world turning here and
there!
Manus: And another thing. I would wish to
ask pardon of the King's daughter. I ought not
to have laid any claim to her, being a stranger in
this place and without treasure or attendance.
And yet ...and yet ...(stoops and kisses hem
of her dress), she was dear to me. It is a man who
never may look on her again is saying that.
(Turns to door.)
Taig: He is going to run from the Dragon!
It is kind father for a scullion to be timid!
Queen: It is in his blood. He is maybe not
to blame for what is according to his nature.
Manus: That is so. I am doing what is according
to my nature.
(Goes, Nurse goes after him.)
Queen: (To Dall Glic.) Go throw a dishcloth
after him that the little lads may be mocking him
along the road!
Dall Glic: I will not. I have meddled enough
at your bidding. I am done with living under
dread. Let you blind me entirely! I am free
of you. It might be best for me the two eyes to
be withered, and I seeing nothing but the ever-living
laws!
Prince of Marshes: (Coming to Princess.) It is
my grief that with all the teachers I had there was
not one to learn me the handling of weapons or
of arms. But for all that I will not run away,
but will strive to strike one blow in your defence
against that wicked beast.
Princess: It is a good friend that would rid
us of him. But it grieves me that you should
go into such danger.
Prince of Marshes: (To Dall Glic.) Give me
some sword or casting spears.
(Dall Glic gives him spears.)
Princess: I am sorry I made fun of you a while
ago. I think you are a good kind man.
Prince of Marshes; (Kissing her hand.) Having
that word of praise I will bring a good heart into
the fight.
(Goes.)
(Taig is slipping out after him.)
Queen: See now the King of Sorcha slipping
away into the fight. Stop here now! (Pulls him
back.) You have a life that is precious to many
besides yourself. Do not go without being well
armed—and with a troop of good fighting men
at your back.
Taig: I am greatly obliged to you. I think
I'll be best with myself.
Queen: You have no suit or armour upon you.
Taig: That is what I was thinking.
Queen: Here anyway is a sword.
Taig: (Taking it.) That's a nice belt now.
Well worked, silver thread and gold.
Queen: The King's own guard will go out with
you.
Taig: I wouldn't ask one of them! What
would you think of me wanting help! A Dragon!
Little I'd think of him. I'll knock the life out of
him. I'll give him cruelty!
Queen: You have great courage indeed!
Taig: I'll cut him crossways and lengthways
the same as a yard of frieze! I'll make garters of
his body! I'll smooth him with a smoothing iron!
Not a fear of me! I never lost a bet yet that I
wasn't able to pay it!
Gateman: (As he rushes in, Taig slips away.)
The Dragon! The Dragon! I seen it coming and
its mouth open and a fiery flame from it! And
nine miles of the sea is dry with all it drank of it!
The whole country is gathering the same as of a
fair day for to see him devour the Princess.
(Princess trembles and sinks into a chair.
King, Queen and Dall Glic look from
window. They turn to her as they
speak.)
Queen: There is a terrible splashing in the sea!
It is like as if the Dragon's tail had beaten it into
suds of soap!
Dall Glic: He is near as big as a whale!
King: He is, and bigger!
Queen: I see him! I see him! He would seem
to have seven heads!
Dall Glic: I see but one.
Queen: You would see more if you had your
two eyes! He has six heads at the least!
King: He has but one. He is twisting and
turning it around.
Dall Glic: He is coming up towards the flaggy
shore!
King: I hear him! He is snoring like a flock
of pigs!
Queen: He is rearing his head in the air! He
has teeth as long as a tongs!
Doll Glic: No, but his tail he is rearing up!
It would take a ladder forty feet long to get to
the tip of it!
Queen: There is the King of Sorcha going out
the gate for to make an end of him.
Dall Glic: So he is, too. That is great bravery.
King: He is going to one side. He is come
to a stop.
Dall Glic: It seems to me he is ready to fall in
his standing. He is gone into a little thicket of
furze. He is not coming out, but is lying crouched
up in it the same as a hare in a tuft. I can see his
shoulders narrowed up.
Queen: He maybe got a weakness.
King: He did, maybe, of courage. Shaking
and shivering, he is like a hen in thunder. In my
opinion, he is hiding from the fight.
Queen: There is the Prince of the Marshes
going out now, and his coach after him! And
his two aunts sitting in it and screeching to him
not to run into danger!
King: He will not do much. He has not pith
or power to handle arms. That sort brings a bad
name on kings.
Dall Glic: He is gone away from the coach.
He is facing to the flaggy shore!
Queen: Oh, the Dragon has put up his head
and is spitting at him!
King: He has cast a spear into its jaw! Good man!
(Princess goes over to window.)
Dall Glic: He is casting another! His hand
shook ...it did not go straight. He is gone
on again! He has cast another spear! It should
hit the beast ...it let a roar!
Princess: Good little Prince! What way is
the battle now?
Dall Glic: It will kill him with its fiery breath!
He is running now ...he is stumbling ...the
Dragon is after him! He is up again! The two
Aunts have pushed him into the coach and have
closed the iron door.
King: It will fail the beast to swallow him coach
and all. It is gone back to refresh itself in the sea.
You can hear it puffing and plunging!
Queen: There is nothing to stop it now. (To
Princess.) If you have e'er a prayer, now is the
time to say it.
Dall Glic: Stop a minute ...there is another
champion going out.
King: A man wearing a saffron suit ...who
is he at all? He has the look of one used to giving
orders.
Princess: (Looking out.) Oh! he is but going
to his death. It would be better for me to throw
myself into the tide and make an end of it.
(Is rushing to door.)
King: (Holding her.) He is drawing his sword.
Himself and the Dragon are thrusting at one
another on the flags!
Princess: Oh, close the curtains! Shut out the
sound of the battle.
(Dall Glic closes curtains.)
King: Strike up now a tune of music that will
deafen the sound!
(Orchestra plays. Princess is kneeling by
King. Music changes from discord to
victory. Two Aunts and Gateman rush
in. Noise of cheering heard without as
the Gateman silences music.)
Gateman: Great news and wonderful news and
a great story!
First Aunt: The fight is ended!
Second Aunt: The Dragon is brought to his
last goal!
Gateman: That young fighting man that has
him flogged! Made at him like a wave breaking
on the strand! They crashed at one another like
two days of judgment! Like the battle of the
cold with the heat!
First Aunt: You'd say he was going through
dragons all his life!
Second Aunt: It can hardly put a stir out of
itself!
Gateman: That champion has it baffled and
mastered! It is after being chased over seven
acres of ground!
First Aunt: Drove it to its knees on the flaggy
shore and made an end of it!
King: God bless that man to-day and to-morrow!
Second Aunt: He has put it in a way it will eat
no more kings' daughters!
Princess: And the stranger that mastered it—
is he safe?
First Aunt: What signifies if he is or is not, so
long as we have our own young prince to bring
home!
Gatekeeper: He is not safe. No sooner had he
the beast killed and conquered than he fell dead,
and the life went out of him.
Princess: Oh, that is not right! He to be dead
and I living after him!
King: He was surely noble and high-blooded.
There are some that will be sorry for his death.
Princess: And who should be more sorry than
I myself am sorry? Who should keen him unless
myself? There is a man that gave his life for me,
and he young and all his days before him and shut
his eyes on the white world for my sake!
Queen: Indeed he was a man you might have
been content to wed with, hard and all as you are
to please.
Princess: I never will wed with any man so
long as my life will last, that was bought for me
with a life was more worthy by far than my own!
He is gone out of my reach; let him wait for me
to give him my thanks on the other side. Bring
me now his sword and his shield till I will put
them before me and cry my eyes down with grief!
Gateman: Here is his cap for you, anyway, and
his cleaver and his bunch of skivers. For the
champion you are crying was no other than that
lad of a cook!
Queen: That is not true! It is not possible!
Gateman: Sure I seen him myself going out the
gate a while ago. He put off his cook's apparel
and threw it along with these behind the turfstack. I
gathered them up presently and I coming in the door.
King: The world is gone beyond me entirely!
But what I was saying all through, there was
something beyond the common in that boy!
Queen: (To Princess, who is clinging to chair.)
Let you be comforted now, knowing he cannot
come back to lay claim to you in marriage, as it
is likely he would, and he living.
Princess: It is he saved me after my unkindness!...
Oh, I am ashamed ...ashamed!
Queen: It is a queer thing a king's daughter
to be crying after a man used to twisting the spit
in place of weapons, and over skivers in the place
of a sword!
Princess: (Gropes and totters.) What has happened?
There is something gone astray! I have
no respect for myself.... I cannot live! I am
ashamed. Where is Nurse? Muime! Come to
me, Muime!...My grief! The man that died
for me, whether he is of the noble or the simple
of the world, it is to him I have given the love of
my soul!
(Dall Glic supports her and lays her on
window seat.)
Nurse: (Rushing in.) What is it, honey?
What at all are they after doing to you?
Queen: Throw over her a skillet of water. She
is gone into a faint.
Dall Glic: (Who is bending over her.) She is
in no faint. She is gone out.
Nurse: Oh, my child and my darling! What
call had I to leave you among them at all?
King: Raise her up. It is impossible she can
be gone.
Dall Glic: Gone out and spent, as sudden as
a candle in a blast of wind.
King: Who would think grief would do away
with her so sudden, there to be seven of the like
of him dead?
Nurse: (Rises.) What did you do to her at all,
at all? Or was it through the fright and terror
of the beast?
Queen: She died of the heartbreak, being told
that the strange champion that had put down the
Dragon was killed dead.
Nurse: Killed, is it? Who now put that lie
out of his mouth? (Shouts in her ear.) What
would ail him to be dead? It is myself can tell
you the true story. No man in Ireland ever was
half as good as him! It was himself mastered the
beast and dragged the heart out of him and forced
down a squirrel's heart in its place, and slapped a
bridle on him. And he himself did but stagger
and go to his knees in the heat and drunkenness
of the battle, and rose up after as good as ever he
was! It is out putting ointments on him that I
was up to this, and healing up his cuts and wounds!
Oh, what ails you, honey, that you will not waken?
Queen: She thought it to be a champion and a
high up man that had died for her sake. It is
what broke her down in the latter end, hearing
him to be no big man at all, but a clown!
Nurse: Oh, my darling! And I not here to
tell you! You are a motherless child, and the
curse of your mother will be on me! It was no
clown fought for you, but a king, having generations
of kings behind him, the young King of Sorcha,
Manus, son of Solas son of Lugh.
King: I would believe that now sooner than
many a thing I would hear.
Nurse: (Keening.) Oh, my child, and my
share! I thought it was you would be closing my
eyes, and now I am closing your own! You to
be brought away in your young youth! Your hand
that was whiter than the snow of one night, and
the colour of the foxglove on your cheek.
(A great shouting outside and burst of music.
A march played. Manus comes in, followed
by Fintan and Prince of the Marshes.
Shouts and music continue. He leads the
Dragon by a bridle. The others are in
front of Princess, huddled from Dragon.
Queen gets up on a chair.)
Manus: Where is the Princess Nu? I have
brought this beast to bow itself at her feet.
(All are silent. Manus flings bridle to
Fintan's hand. Dragon backs out. All
go aside from Princess.)
Nurse: She is here dead before you.
Manus: That cannot be! She was well and
living half an hour ago.
Nurse: (Rises.) Oh, if she could but waken
and hear your voice! She died with the fret of
losing you, that is heaven's truth! It is tormented
she was with these giving out you were done away
with, and mocking at your weapons that they laid
down to be the cleaver and the spit, till the heart
broke in her like a nut.
Manus: (Kneeling beside her.) Then it is myself
have brought the death darkness upon you at the
very time I thought to have saved you!
Nurse: There is no blame upon you, but some
that had too much talk!
(Goes on keening.)
Manus: What call had I to come humbugging
and letting on as I did, teasing and tormenting
her, and not coming as a King should that is come
to ask for a Queen! Oh, come back for one minute
only till I will ask your pardon!
Dall Glic: She cannot come to you or answer
you at all for ever.
Manus: Then I myself will go follow you and
will ask for your forgiveness wherever you are gone,
on the Plain of Wonder or in the Many-Coloured
Land! That is all I can do ...to go after you
and tell you it was no want of respect that brought
me in that dress, but hurry and folly and taking
my own way. For it is what I have to say to you,
that I gave you my heart's love, what I never gave
to any other, since first I saw you before me in
my sleep! Here, now, is a short road to reach you!
(Takes sword.)
Prince of Marshes: (Catching his hand.) Go
easy now, go easy.
Manus: Take off your hand! I say I will die
with her!
Prince of Marshes: That will not raise her up
again. But I, now, if I have no skill in killing
beasts or men, have maybe the means of bringing
her back to life.
Nurse: Oh, my blessing on you! What is it
you have at all?
Prince of Marshes: (Taking bag from his Aunt.)
These three leaves from the Tree of Power that
grows by the Well of Healing. Here they are
now for you, tied with a thread of the wool of
the sheep of the Land of Promise. There is power
in them to bring one person only back to life.
First Aunt: Give them back to me! You
have your own life to think of as well as any other
one!
Second Aunt: Do not spend and squander that
cure on any person but yourself!
Prince of Marshes: (Giving the leaves.) And if
I have given her my love that it is likely I will
give to no other woman for ever, indeed and
indeed, I would not ask her or wish her to wed
with a very frightened man, and that is what I
was a while ago. But you yourself have earned her,
being brave.
Manus: (Taking leaves.) I never will forget it
to you. You will be a brave man yet.
Prince of Marshes: Give me in place of it your
sword; for I am going my lone through the world
for a twelvemonth and a day, till I will learn to
fight with my own hand.
(Manus gives him sword. He throws off cloak
and outer coat and fastens it on.)
Nurse: Stand back, now. Let the whole of ye
stand back. (She lays a leaf on the Princess's mouth
and one on each of her hands.) I call on you by
the power of the Seven Belts of the Heavens, of
the Twelve Winds of the World, of the Three
Waters of the Sea!
(Princess stirs slightly.)
King: That is a wonder of wonders! She is stirring!
Manus: Oh, my share of the world! Are you
come back to me?
Princess: It was a hard fight he wrestled with.
...I thought I heard his voice.... Is he come
from danger?
Nurse: He did. Here he is. He that saved
you and that killed the Dragon, and that let on
to be a serving boy, and he no less than one of
the world's kings!
Manus: Here I am, my dear, beside you, to be
your comrade and your company for ever.
Princess: You!...Yes, it is yourself. Forgive
me. I am sorry that I spoke unkindly to you
a while ago; I am ashamed that it failed me to
know you to be a king.
(She stands up, helped by Nurse.)
Manus: It was my own fault and my folly.
What way could you know it? There is nothing
to forgive.
Princess: But ...if I did not recognise you
as a king ...anyway ...the time you dropped
the eggs ...I was nearly certain that you were
no cook!
(They embrace.)
Queen: There now I have everything brought
about very well in the finish!
(A scream at door. Taig rushes in, followed
by Sibby, in country dress. He kneels at
the Queen's feet, holding on to her skirt.)
Sibby: Bad luck and bad cess to you! Torment
and vexation on you! (Seizes him by back of neck
and shakes him.) You dirty little scum and leavings!
You puny shrimp you! You miserable ninth part
of a man!
Queen: Is it King or the Dragon Killer he is
letting on to be yet, or do you know what he is
at all?
Sibby: It's myself knows that, and does know
it! He being Taig the tailor, my own son and
my misfortune, that stole away from me a while
ago, bringing with him the grand clothes of that
young champion (points to Manus) and his gold!
To borrow a team of horses from the plough he
did, and to bring away the magistrate's coach! But
I followed him! I came tracking him on the road!
Put off now those shoes that are too narrow for
you, you red thief, you! For, believe me, you'll
go facing home on shank's mare!
Taig: (Whimpering.) It's a very unkind thing
you to go screeching that out before the King,
that will maybe strike my head off!
Sibby: Did ever you know of anyone making a
quarrel in a whisper? To wed with the King's
daughter, you would? To go vanquish the water-worm,
you would? I'll engage you ran before you
went anear him!
Taig: If I didn't I'd be tore with his claws
and scorched with his fiery breath. It is likely
I'd be going home dead!
Sibby: Strip off now that cloak and that body-coat
and come along with me, or I'll make split
marrow of you! What call have you to a suit
that is worth more than the whole of the County
Mayo? You're tricky and too much tricks in you,
and you were born for tricks! It would be right
you to be turned into the shape of a limping
foxy cat!
Taig: (Weeping as he takes off clothes.) Sure
I thought it no harm to try to go better
myself.
Prince of Marshes: (Giving his cloak and coat.)
Here, I bestow these to you. If you were a while
ago a tailor among kings, from this out you will
be a king among tailors.
Sibby: (Curtseying.) Well, then, my thousand
blessings on you! He'll be as proud as the world
of that. Now, Taig, you'll be as dressed up as the
best of them! Come on now to Oughtmana, as
it is long till you'll quit it.
(They go towards door.)
Dragon: (Putting his head in at window.) Manus,
King of Sorcha, I am starved with the want of food.
Give me a bit to eat.
Fintan: He is not put down! He will devour
the whole of us! I'd sooner face a bullet and
ten guns!
Dragon: It is not mannerly to eat without
being invited. Is it any harm to ask where will
I find a meal will suit me?
Princess: Oh, does he ask to make a meal of
me, after all?
Dragon: I am hungry and dancing with the
hunger! It was you, Manus, stopped me from the
one meal. Let you set before me another.
King: There is reason in that. Drive up now
for him a bullock from the meadow.
Dragon: Manus, it is not bullocks I am craving,
since the time you changed the heart within me
for the heart of a little squirrel of the wood.
Manus: (Taking a cocoa-nut from table.) Here
is a nut from the island of Lanka, that is called
Adam's Paradise. Milk there is in it, and a kernel
as white as snow.
(He throws it out. Dragon is heard crunching.)
Dragon: (Putting head in again.) More! Give
me more of them! Give them out to me by the
dozen and by the score!
Manus: You must go seek them in the east of
the world, where you can gather them in bushels
on the strand.
Dragon: So I will go there! I'll make no delay!
I give you my word, I'd sooner one of them than
to be cracking the skulls of kings' daughters, and
the blood running down my jaws. Blood! Ugh!
It would disgust me! I'm in dread it would cause
vomiting. That and to have the plaits of hair
tickling and tormenting my gullet!
Princess: (Claps hands.) That is good hearing,
and a great change of heart.
Dragon: But if it's a tame dragon I am from this
out, I'm thinking it's best for me to make away
before you know it, or it's likely you'll be yoking
me to harrow the clods, or to be dragging the
water-car from the spring well. So good-bye the
whole of ye, and get to your supper. Much good
may it do you! I give you my word there is
nothing in the universe I despise, only the flesh-eaters
of Adam's race!
CURTAIN.