WISE MAN. Oh, look out of the door and tell me if there is anybody there in the street. I cannot leave this glass; somebody might shake it! Then the sand would fall quickly.
BRIDGET. I don't understand what you are saying. [Looks out.] There is a crowd of people talking to your pupils.
WISE MAN. Oh, run out, Bridget, and see if they have found somebody that believes!
BRIDGET [wiping her arms in her apron and pulling down her sleeves]. It's a hard thing to be married to a man of learning that must be always having arguments. [Goes out and shouts through the kitchen door.] Don't be meddling with the bread, children, while I'm out.
WISE MAN. [Kneels down.] "Salvum me fac, Deus—salvum—salvum...." I have forgotten it all. It is thirty years since I said a prayer. I must pray in the common tongue, like a clown begging in the market like Teigue the Fool! [He prays.] Help me, Father, Son, and Spirit!
[BRIDGET enters, followed by the FOOL, who is holding out his hat to her.]
FOOL. Give me something; give me a penny to buy bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time when the sun grows weak.
BRIDGET. I have no pennies. [To the WISE MAN.] Your pupils cannot find anybody to argue with you. There is nobody in the whole country who had enough belief to fill a pipe with since you put down the monk. Can't you be quiet now and not always be wanting to have arguments? It must be terrible to have a mind like that.
WISE MAN. I am lost! I am lost!
BRIDGET. Leave me alone now; I have to make the bread for you and the children.