Scene 1.--_Great door in the middle of the stage under a stone
cross, with flights of steps leading to door. Enter_ CHARLIE WARD,
PADDY COCKFIGHT, TOMMY THE SONG, _and_ SABINA SILVER. _They are
supporting_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE, _who is bent and limping._
_Charlie Ward._ We must leave you here. The monks will take you in.
We're very sorry, Paul. It's a heartscald to us to leave you and you
know that, but what can we do? [_They lead_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _to steps._
_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! that was a bad stitch! [_Gasps._] Take care now;
put me down gently.
_Sabina Silver._ Oh! can't we keep him with us anyway; he'll find no one
to care him as well as myself.
_Tommy the Song._ What way can you care him, Sibby? It's no way to have
him lying out on the roadside under guano bags, like ourselves, and the
rain coming down on him like it did last night. It's in hospital he'll
be for the next month.
_Charlie Ward._ We'd never leave you if you could even walk. If we have
to give you to the monks itself, we'd keep round the place to encourage
you, only for the last business. We'll have to put two counties at least
between us and Gortmore after what we're after doing.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Never mind, boys, they'll never insult a tinker again
in Gortmore as long as the town's a town.
_Charlie Ward._ Dear knows! it breaks my heart to think of the fine
times we had of it since you joined us. Why the months seemed like days.
And all the fine sprees we had together! Now you're gone from us we
might as well be jailed at once.
_Paddy Cockfight._ And how you took to the cocks! I believe you were a
better judge than myself. No one but you would ever have fancied that
black-winged cock--and he never met his match.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! well, I'm doubled up now like that old cock of
Andy Farrell's.
_Paddy Cockfight._ No, but you were the best warrant to set a snare that
ever I came across.
_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sitting down with difficulty on the steps._] Yes; it
was a grand time we had, and I wouldn't take back a day of it; but it's
over now, I've hit my ribs against the earth and they're aching.
_Sabina Silver._ Oh! Paul, Paul, is it to leave you we must? And you
never once struck a kick or a blow on me all this time, not even and you
in pain with the rheumatism. [_A clock strikes inside._
_Charlie Ward._ There's the clock striking. The monks will be getting
up. We'd best be off after the others. I hear some noise inside; they'd
best not catch us here. I'll stop and pull the bell. Be off with you,
boys!
_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Sabina. Don't cry! you'll get another
husband.
_Sabina Silver._ I'll never lep the budget with another man; I swear it.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Paddy. Good-bye, Tommy. My mother Earth will
have none of me and I will go look for my father that is in heaven.
_Paddy Cockfight._ Come along, Sibby.
[_Takes her hand and hurries off._
_Charlie Ward._ [_Rings bell._] Are they sure to let you in, Paul? Have
you got your story ready?
_Paul Ruttledge._ No fear, they won't refuse a sick man. No one knows me
but Father Jerome, and he won't tell on me.
_Charlie Ward._ There's a step inside. I'll cut for it.
[_He goes out. Paul is left sitting on steps._
Scene 2.--_The crypt under the Monastery church. A small barred
window high up in the wall, through which the cold dawn is
breaking. Altar in a niche at the back of stage; there are seven
unlighted candles on the altar. A little hanging lamp near the
altar._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _is lying on the altar steps. Friars are
dancing slowly before him in the dim light_. FATHER ALOYSIUS _is
leaning against a pillar_.
_Some_ Friars _come in carrying lanterns_.
_First Friar._ What are they doing? Dancing?
_Second Friar._ I told you they were dancing, and you would not believe
me.
_First Friar._ What on earth are they doing it for?
_Third Friar._ I heard them saying Father Paul told them to do it if
they ever found him in a trance again. He told them it was a kind of
prayer and would bring joy down out of heaven, and make it easier for
him to preach.
_Second Friar._ How still he is lying; you would nearly think him to be
dead.
_A Friar._ It is just a twelvemonth to-day since he was in a trance like
this.
_Second Friar._ That was the time he gave his great preaching. I can't
blame those that went with him, for he all but persuaded me.
_First Friar._ They think he is going to preach again when he awakes,
that's why they are dancing. When he wakes one of them will go and call
the others.
_Third Friar._ We were all in danger when one so pious was led away.
It's five years he has been with us now, and no one ever went so quickly
from lay brother to novice, and novice to friar.
_First Friar._ The way he fasted too! The Superior bade me watch him at
meal times for fear he should starve himself.
_Third Friar._ He thought a great deal of Brother Paul then, but he
isn't so well pleased with him now.
_Second Friar._ What is Father Aloysius doing there? standing so quiet
and his eyes shut.
_Third Friar._ He is meditating. Didn't you hear Brother Paul gives
meditations of his own.
_First Friar._ Colman was telling me about that. He gives them a joyful
thought to fix their minds on. They must not let their minds stray to
anything else. They must follow that single thought and put everything
else behind them.
_Third Friar._ Colman fainted the other day when he was at his
meditation. He says it is a great labour to follow one thought always.
_Second Friar._ What do they do it for?
_First Friar._ To escape what they call the wandering of nature. They
say it was in the trance Brother Paul got the knowledge of it. He says
that if a man can only keep his mind on the one high thought he gets out
of time into eternity, and learns the truth for itself.
_Third Friar._ He calls that getting above law and number, and becoming
king and priest in one's own house.
_Second Friar._ A nice state of things it would be if every man was his
own priest and his own king.
_First Friar._ I wonder will he wake soon. I thought I saw him stir just
now. Father Aloysius, will he wake soon?
_Aloysius._ What did you say?
_First Friar._ Will he wake soon?
_Aloysius._ Yes, yes, he will wake very soon now.
_Second Friar._ What are they going to do now; are they going to dance?
_Third Friar._ He was too patient with him. He would have made short
work of any of us if we had gone so far.
_First Dancer._
Nam, et si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis,
Non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es.
_First Friar._ They are singing the twenty-second Psalm. What madness to
sing!
_Second Dancer._
Virga tua, et baculus tuus,
Ipsa me consolata sunt.
_First Dancer._
Parasti in conspectu meo mensam
Adversus eos qui tribulant me.
_Second Dancer._
Impinguasti in oleo caput meum;
Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.
_Second Friar._ Here is the Superior. There'll be bad work now.
* * * * *
SUPERIOR _comes in_.
_Superior._ [_Holding up his hand._] Silence!
[_They stop singing and dancing._
_First Dancer._ It's the Superior.
_Superior._ Stop this blasphemy! Leave the chapel at once! I will deal
with you by-and-by. [_Dancing_ Friars _go out_.
_Jerome._ [_Stooping over_ PAUL.] He has not wakened from the trance
yet.
_Aloysius._ [_Who still remains perfectly motionless._] Not yet, but he
will soon awake--Paul!
_Superior._ It is hardly worth while being angry with those poor fools
whose heads he has turned with his talk. [_Stoops and touches his
hand._] It is quite rigid. I will wait till he is alive again, there is
no use wasting words on a dead body.
_Jerome._ [_Stooping over him._] His eyes are beginning to quiver. Let
me be the first to speak to him. He may say some wild things when he
awakes, not knowing who is before him.
_Superior._ He must not preach. I must have his submission at once.
_Jerome._ I will do all I can with him. He is most likely to listen to
me. I was once his close friend.
_Superior._ Speak to him if you like, but entire submission is the only
thing I will accept. [_To the other_ Monks.] Come with me, we will leave
Father Jerome here to speak to him. [SUPERIOR _and_ Friars _go to the
door_.] Such desecration, such blasphemy. Remember, Father Jerome,
entire submission, and at once. [SUPERIOR _and_ Friars _go out_.
_Jerome._ Where are the rest of his friends, Father Aloysius? Bartley
and Colman ought to be with him when he is like this.
_Aloysius._ They are resting, because, when he has given his message,
they may never be able to rest again.
_Jerome._ [_Bending over him._] My poor Paul, this will wear him out;
see how thin he has grown!
_Aloysius._ He is hard upon his body. He does not care what happens to
his body.
_Jerome._ He was like this when he was a boy; some wild thought would
come on him, and he would not know day from night, he would forget even
to eat. It is a great pity he was so hard to himself; it is a pity he
had not always someone to look after him.
_Aloysius._ God is taking care of him; what could men like us do for
him? We cannot help him, it is he who helps us.
_Jerome._ [_Going on his knee and taking his hand._] He is awaking. Help
me to lift him up. [_They lift him into a chair._
_Aloysius._ I will go and call the others now.
_Jerome._ Do not let them come for a little time, I must speak to him
first.
_Aloysius._ I cannot keep them away long. One cannot know when the
words may be put in his mouth.
[ALOYSIUS _goes out._ JEROME _stands by_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE, _holding his
hand_.
_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Raising his head._] Ah, you are there, Jerome. I am
glad you are there. I could not get up to drive away the mouse that was
eating the wax that dropped from the candles. Have you driven it away?
_Jerome._ It is not evening now. It is almost morning. You were on your
knees praying for a great many hours, and then I think you fainted.
_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't think I was praying. I was among people, a
great many people, and it was very bright--I will remember presently.
_Jerome._ Do not try to remember. You are tired, you must be weak, you
must come and have food and rest.
_Paul Ruttledge._ I do not think I can rest. I think there is something
else I have to do, I forget what it is.
_Jerome._ I am afraid you are thinking of preaching again. You must not
preach. The Superior says you must not. He is very angry; I have never
seen him so angry. He will not allow you to preach again.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Did I ever preach?
_Jerome._ Yes. It was in the garden you got the trance last time. We
found you like this, and we lifted you to the bench under the yew tree,
and then you began to speak. You spoke about getting out of the body
while still alive, about getting away from law and number. All the
friars came to listen to you. We had never heard such preaching before,
but it was very like heresy.
_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Getting up._] Jerome, Jerome, I remember now where I
was. I was in a great round place, and a great crowd of things came
round me. I couldn't see them very clearly for a time, but some of them
struck me with their feet, hard feet like hoofs, and soft cat-like feet;
and some pecked me, and some bit me, and some clawed me. There were all
sorts of beasts and birds as far as I could see.
_Jerome._ Were they devils, Paul, were they the deadly sins?
_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't know, but I thought, and I don't know how the
thought came to me, that they were the part of mankind that is not
human; the part that builds up the things that keep the soul from God.
_Jerome._ That was a terrible vision.
_Paul Ruttledge._ I struggled and I struggled with them, and they heaped
themselves over me till I was unable to move hand or foot; and that went
on for a long, long time.
_Jerome._ [_Crossing himself._] God have mercy on us.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Then suddenly there came a bright light, and all in a
minute the beasts were gone, and I saw a great many angels riding upon
unicorns, white angels on white unicorns. They stood all round me, and
they cried out, "Brother Paul, go and preach; get up and preach, Brother
Paul." And then they laughed aloud, and the unicorns trampled the ground
as though the world were already falling in pieces.
_Jerome._ It was only a dream. Come with me. You will forget it when you
have had food and rest.
_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Looking at his arm._] It was there one of them
clawed me; one that looked at me with great heavy eyes.
_Jerome._ The Superior has been here; try and listen to me. He says you
must not preach.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Great heavy eyes and hard sharp claws.
_Jerome._ [_Putting his hands on his shoulders._] You must awake from
this. You must remember where you are. You are under rules. You must not
break the rules you are under. The brothers will be coming in to hear
you, you must not speak to them. The Superior has forbidden it.
_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Touching_ JEROME'S _hand_.] I have always been a great
trouble to you.
_Jerome._ You must go and submit to the Superior. Go and make your
submission now, for my sake. Think of what I have done for your sake.
Remember how I brought you in, and answered for you when you came here.
I did not tell about that wild business. I have done penance for that
deceit.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, you have always been good to me, but do not ask
me this. I have had other orders.
_Jerome._ Last time you preached the whole monastery was upset. The
Friars began to laugh suddenly in the middle of the night.
_Paul Ruttledge._ If I have been given certain truths to tell, I must
tell them at once before they slip away from me.
_Jerome._ I cannot understand your ideas; you tell them impossible
things. Things that are against the order of nature.
_Paul Ruttledge._ I have learned that one needs a religion so wholly
supernatural, that is so opposed to the order of nature that the world
can never capture it.
[_Some_ Friars _come in. They carry green branches in their hands_.
_Paul Ruttledge._ They are coming. Will you stay and listen?
_Jerome._ I must not stay. I must not listen.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Help me over to the candles. I am weak, my knees are
weak. I shall be strong when the words come. I shall be able to teach.
[_He lights a taper at the hanging lamp and tries to light the candles
with a shaking hand. JEROME takes the taper from him and lights the
candles._] Why are you crying, Jerome?
_Jerome._ Because we that were friends are separated now. We shall never
be together again.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Never again? The love of God is a very terrible thing.
_Jerome._ I have done with meddling. I must leave you to authority now.
I must tell the Superior you will not obey. [_He goes out._
_First Friar._ Father Jerome had a very dark look going out.
_Second Friar._ He was shut up with the Superior this morning. I wonder
what they were talking about.
_First Friar._ I wonder if the Superior will mind our taking the
branches. They are only cut on Palm Sunday other years. What will he
tell us, I wonder? It seems as if he was going to tell us how to do some
great thing. Do you think he will teach us to do cures like the friars
used at Esker?
_Second Friar._ Those were great cures they did there, and they were not
strange men, but just the same as ourselves. I heard of a man went to
them dying on a cart, and he walked twenty miles home to Burren holding
the horses head.
_First Friar._ Maybe we'll be able to see visions the same as were seen
at Knock. It's a great wonder all that was seen and all that was done
there.
_Third Friar._ I was there one time, and the whole place was full of
crutches that had been thrown away by people that were cured. There was
a silver crutch there some rich man from America had sent as an offering
after getting his cure. Speak to him, Brother Colman. He seems to be in
some sort of a dream. Ask if he is going to speak to us now.
_Colman._ We are all here, Brother Paul.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Have you all been through your meditations? [_They all
gather round him._
_Bartley._ We have all tried; we have done our best; but it is hard to
keep our mind on the one thing for long.
_Paul Ruttledge._ "He ascended into heaven." Have you meditated upon
that? Did you reject all earthly images that came into your mind till
the light began to gather?
_Third Friar._ I could not fix my mind well. When I put out one thought
others came rushing in.
_Colman._ When I was meditating, the inside of my head suddenly became
all on fire.
_Aloysius._ While I was meditating I felt a spout of fire going up
between my shoulders.
_Paul Ruttledge._ That is the way it begins. You are ready now to hear
the truth. Now I can give you the message that has come to me. Stand
here at either side of the altar. Brother Colman, come beside me here.
Lay down your palm branches before this altar; you have brought them as
a sign that the walls are beginning to be broken up, that we are going
back to the joy of the green earth. [_Goes up to the candles and
speaks._] Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est. For a long time
after their making men and women wandered here and there, half blind
from the drunkenness of Eternity; they had not yet forgotten that the
green Earth was the Love of God, and that all Life was the Will of God,
and so they wept and laughed and hated according to the impulse of their
hearts. [_He takes up the green boughs and presses them to his breast._]
They gathered the green Earth to their breasts and their lips, as I
gather these boughs to mine, in what they believed would be an eternal
kiss. [_He remains a little while silent._
_Second Friar._ I see a light about his head.
_Third Friar._ I wonder if he has seen God.
_Paul Ruttledge._ It was then that the temptation began. Not only the
Serpent who goes upon his belly, but all the animal spirits that have
loved things better than life, came out of their holes and began to
whisper. The men and women listened to them, and because when they had
lived according to the joyful Will of God in mother wit and natural
kindness, they sometimes did one another an injury, they thought that it
would be better to be safe than to be blessed, they made the Laws. The
Laws were the first sin. They were the first mouthful of the apple, the
moment man had made them he began to die; we must put out the Laws as I
put out this candle.
[_He puts out the candle with an extinguisher, still holding the
boughs with his left hand. Two orthodox Friars have come in._
_First Orthodox Friar._ You had better go for the Superior.
_Second Orthodox Friar._ I must stop and listen.
[_The First Orthodox Friar listens for a minute or two and then
goes out._
_Paul Ruttledge._ And when they had lived amidst the green Earth that is
the Love of God, they were sometimes wetted by the rain, and sometimes
cold and hungry, and sometimes alone from one another; they thought it
would be better to be comfortable than to be blessed. They began to
build big houses and big towns. They grew wealthy and they sat
chattering at their doors; and the embrace that was to have been
eternal ended, lips and hands were parted. [_He lets the boughs slip out
of his arms._] We must put out the towns as I put out this candle.
[_Puts out another candle._
_A Friar._ Yes, yes, we must uproot the towns.
_Paul Ruttledge._ But that is not all, for man created a worse thing,
yes, a worse defiance against God. [_The_ Friars _groan_.] God put
holiness into everything that lives, for everything that desires is full
of His Will, and everything that is beautiful is full of His Love; but
man grew timid because it had been hard to find his way amongst so much
holiness, and though God had made all time holy, man said that only the
day on which God rested from life was holy, and though God had made all
places holy, man said, "no place but this place that I put pillars and
walls about is holy, this place where I rest from life"; and in this and
like ways he built up the Church. We must destroy the Church, we must
put it out as I put out this candle. [_Puts out another candle._
_Friars._ [_Clasping one another's hands._] He is right, he is right.
The Church must be destroyed. [_The_ SUPERIOR _comes in_.
_First Friar._ Here is the Superior.
_A Friar._ He has been saying----
_Superior._ Hush! I will hear him to the end.
_Paul Ruttledge._ That is not all. These things may be accomplished and
yet nothing be accomplished. The Christian's business is not reformation
but revelation, and the only labours he can put his hand to can never be
accomplished in Time. He must so live that all things shall pass away.
[_He stands silent for a moment and then cries, lifting his hand above
his head._] Give me wine out of thy pitchers; oh, God, how splendid is
my cup of drunkenness. We must become blind, and deaf, and dizzy. We
must get rid of everything that is not measureless eternal life. We
must put out hope as I put out this candle. [_Puts out a candle._] And
memory as I put out this candle. [_As before._] And thought, the waster
of Life, as I put out this candle. [_As before._] And at last we must
put out the light of the Sun and of the Moon, and all the light of the
World and the World itself. [_He now puts out the last candle, the
chapel is very dark. The only light is the faint light of morning coming
through the window._] We must destroy the World; we must destroy
everything that has Law and Number, for where there is nothing, there is
God.
[_The_ SUPERIOR _comes forward. One of_ PAUL'S Friars _makes as if to
speak to him. The_ SUPERIOR _strikes at him with the back of his
hand_.
_Superior._ [_To_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Get out of this, rebel, blasphemous
rebel!
_Paul Ruttledge._ Do as you like to me, but you cannot silence my
thoughts. I learned them from Jesus Christ, who made a terrible joy,
and sent it to overturn governments, and all settled order.
[PAUL'S Friars _rush to save him from the_ SUPERIOR.
_Paul Ruttledge._ There is no need for violence. I am ready to go.
_Colman._ [_Taking his hand._] I will go with you.
_Aloysius._ I will go with you too.
_Several other Friars._ And I, and I, and I.
_Superior._ Whoever goes with this heretic goes straight into the pit.
_Bartley._ Do not leave us behind you. Let us go with you.
_Colman._ Teach us! teach us! we will help you to teach others.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Let me go alone, the one more, the one nearer
falsehood.
_Bartley._ We will go with you! We will go with you! We must go where we
can hear your voice.
_A Friar._ [_Who stands behind the_ SUPERIOR.] God is making him speak
against himself.
_Paul Ruttledge._ No, the time has not come for you. You would be
thinking of your food at midday and listening for the bells at prayer
time. You have not yet heard the voices and seen the faces.
_Superior._ A miracle! God is making the heretic speak against himself.
Listen to him!
_Aloysius._ We will not stay behind, we will go with you.
_Bartley._ We cannot live without hearing you!
_Paul Ruttledge._ I am led by hands that are colder than ice and harder
than diamonds. They will lead me where there will be hard thoughts of me
in the hearts of all that love me, and there will be a fire in my heart
that will make it as bare as the wilderness.
_Aloysius._ We will go with you. We too will take those hands that are
colder than ice and harder than diamonds.
_Several Monks._ We too! we too!
_Patrick._ Bring us to the hands that are colder than ice and harder
than diamonds.
_Other Monks._ Pull them away! pull them away from him!
[_They are about to seize the Monks who are with_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.
_Superior._ [_Going between them._] Back! back! I will have no scuffling
here. Let the devil take his children if he has a mind to. God will call
His own.
[_The_ Monks _fall back_. SUPERIOR _goes up to altar, takes the cross
from it and turns, standing on the steps_.
_Superior._ Father Aloysius, come to me here. [ALOYSIUS _takes_ PAUL
RUTTLEDGE'S _hand_.] Father Bartley, Father Colman. [_They go nearer to_
PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Father Patrick! [_A_ Friar _comes towards him_.] Kneel
down! [FATHER PATRICK _kneels_.] Father Clement, Father Nestor, Father
James ... leave the heretic--you are on the very edge of the pit. Your
shoes are growing red hot.
_A Friar._ I am afraid, I am afraid. [_He kneels._
_Superior._ Kneel down; return to your God. [_Several_ Monks _kneel_.
_Colman._ They have deserted us.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Many will forsake the truth before the world is pulled
down. [_Stretching out his arms over his head._] I pulled down my own
house, now I go out to pull down the world.
_Superior._ Strip off those holy habits.
_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Taking off his habit._] One by one I am plucking off
the rags and tatters of the world.
ACT V.
Scene: _Smooth level grass near the Shannon. Ecclesiastical ruins,
a part of which have been roofed in. Rocky plain in the distance,
with a river._ FATHER COLMAN _sorting some bundles of osiers_.
ALOYSIUS _enters with an empty bag_.
_Colman._ You are the first to come back Aloysius. Where is Brother
Bartley?
_Aloysius._ He parted from me at the cross roads and went on to preach
at Shanaglish. He should soon be back now.
_Colman._ Have you anything in the bag?
_Aloysius._ Nothing. [_Throws the bag down._] It doesn't seem as if our
luck was growing. We have but food enough to last till to-morrow. We
have hardly that. The rats from the river got at the few potatoes I
gathered from the farmers at Lisheen last week, in the corner where they
were.
_Colman._ This is the first day you got nothing at all. Maybe you didn't
ask the right way.
_Aloysius._ I asked for alms for the sake of the love of God. But the
first place where I asked it, the man of the house was giving me a
handful of meal, and the woman came and called out that we were serving
the devil in the name of God, and she drove me from the door.
_Colman._ It is since the priests preached against us they say that. Did
you go on to Lisheen. They used always to treat us well there.
_Aloysius._ I did, but I got on no better there.
_Colman._ That is a wonder, after the woman that had the jaundice being
cured with prayers by Brother Paul.
_Aloysius._ That's just it. If he did cure her, they say the two best of
her husband's bullocks died of the blackwater the next day, and he was
no way thankful to us after that.
_Colman._ Did you try the houses along the bog road?
_Aloysius._ I did, and the children coming back from school called out
after me and asked who was it did away with the widow Cloran's cow.
_Colman._ The widow Cloran's cow?
_Aloysius._ That was the cow that died after grazing in the ruins here.
_Colman._ If it did, it was because of an old boot it picked up and ate,
and that never belonged to us.
_Aloysius._ I wish we had something ourselves to eat. They should be
sitting down to their dinner in the monastery now. They will be having a
good dinner to-day to carry them over the fast to-morrow.
_Colman._ I am thinking sometimes, Brother Paul should give more thought
to us than he does. It is all very well for him, he is so taken up with
his thoughts and his visions he doesn't know if he is full or fasting.
_Aloysius._ He has such holy thoughts and visions no one would like to
trouble him. He ought not to be in the world at all, or to do the
world's work.
_Colman._ So long as he is in the world, he must give some thought to
it. There must be something wrong in the way he is doing things now. I
thought he would have had half Ireland with him by this time with his
great preaching, but someway when he preaches to the people, they don't
seem to mind him much.
_Aloysius._ He is too far above them; they have not education to
understand him.
_Colman._ They understand me well enough when I give my mind to it. But
it is harder to preach now than it was in the monastery. We had
something to offer then; absolution here, and heaven after.
_Aloysius._ Isn't it enough for them to hear that the kingdom of heaven
is within them, and that if they do the right meditations----
_Colman._ What can poor people that have their own troubles on them get
from a few words like that they hear at a cross road or a market, and
the wind maybe blowing them away? If we could gather them together
now.... Look, Aloysius, at these sally rods; I have a plan in my mind
about them.
[_He has stuck some of the rods in the ground, and begins weaving
others through them._
_Aloysius._ Are you going to make baskets like you did in the monastery
schools?
_Colman._ We must make something if we are to live. But it is more than
that I was thinking of; we might coax some of the youngsters to come and
learn the basket making; it would make them take to us better if we
could put them in the way of earning a few pence.
_Aloysius._ [_Taking up some of the osiers and beginning to twist
them._] That might be a good way to come at them; they could work
through the day, and at evening we could tell them how to repeat the
words till the light comes inside their heads. But would Paul think well
of it? He is more for pulling down than building up.
_Colman._ When I explain it to him I am sure he will think well of it;
he can't go on for ever without anyone to listen to him.
_Aloysius._ I suppose not, and with no way of living. But I don't know,
I'm afraid he won't like it.
_Colman._ Hush! Here he is coming.
_Aloysius._ If one had a plan now for doing some destruction----
_Colman._ Hush! don't you see there is somebody with him.
* * * * *
PAUL RUTTLEDGE _comes in with_ CHARLIE WARD.
_Paul Ruttledge._ This is Charlie Ward, my old friend.
_Aloysius._ The Charlie Ward you lived on the roads with?
_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, when I went looking for the favour of my hard
mother, Earth, he helped me. He is her good child and she loves him.
_Colman._ He is welcome. How did he find you out?
_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't know. How did you find me out, Charlie?
_Charlie Ward._ Oh, I didn't lose sight of you so much as you thought. I
had to stop away from Gortmore a good while after we left you at the
gate, but I sent Paddy Cockfight one time to get news, and he mended
cans for the laundry of the monastery, and they told him you were well
again, and a monk as good as the rest. But a while ago I got word there
was a monk had gone near to break up the whole monastery with his talk
and his piety, and I said to myself, "That's Paul!" And then I heard
there was a monk had been driven out for not keeping the rules, and I
said to myself, "That's Paul!" And the other day when what's left of us
came to Athlone, I heard talk of some disfrocked monks that were
upsetting the whole neighbourhood, and I said, "That's Paul." To Sabina
Silver I said that. "That merry chap Paul," I said.
_Paul Ruttledge._ I'm afraid you have a very bad opinion of me, Charlie.
Well, maybe I earned it.
_Aloysius._ You cannot know much of him if you have a bad opinion of
him. He will be made a saint some day.
_Charlie Ward._ He will, if there's such a thing as a saint of mischief.
_Paul Ruttledge._ A saint of mischief? Well, why not that as well as
another? He would upset all the beehives, he would throw them into the
market-place. Sit down now, Charlie, and eat a bit with us.
_Colman._ You are welcome, indeed, to all we can give you, but we have
not a bit of food that is worth offering you. Aloysius got nothing at
all in the villages to-day, Brother Paul. The people are getting cross.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Well, sit down, anyway. The country people liked me
well enough once, there was no man they liked so much as myself when I
gave them drink for nothing. Didn't they, Charlie?
_Charlie Ward._ Oh, that was a great time. They were lying thick about
the roads. I'll be thinking of it to my dying day.
_Paul Ruttledge._ I have given them another kind of drink now.
_Charlie Ward._ What sort of a drink is that?
_Paul Ruttledge._ We have rolled a great barrel out of a cellar that is
under the earth. We have rolled it right into the midst of them. [_He
moves his hand about as if he were moving a barrel._] It's heavy, and
when they have drunk what is in it, I would like to see the man that
would be their master.
_Charlie Ward._ That would be a great drink, but I wouldn't be sure that
you're in earnest.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Colman and Aloysius will tell you all about it. It was
made in a good still, the barley was grown in a field that's down under
the earth.
_Charlie Ward._ That's likely enough. I often heard of places like that.
_Paul Ruttledge._ And when they have drunk from my barrel, they will
break open the door, they will put law and number under their two feet;
and they will have a hot palm and a cold palm, for they will put down
the moon and the sun with their two hands.
_Charlie Ward._ There's no mistake but you're the same Paul still; nice
and plain and simple, only for your hard talk. And what about the
rheumatism? It's hardly you got through that fit you had, and you don't
look as if much hardship would agree with you now.
_Aloysius._ He does not, indeed, and if he doesn't kill himself one way
he will another. Wait now till I tell you the way he is living. I don't
think he tasted bit or sup to-day, and all he had last night was a
couple of dry potatoes.
_Charlie Ward._ Is that so? [_Takes_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S _arm_.] You haven't
much more flesh on you than a crane in moonlight. They don't seem to
have much notion of minding you here, you that were reared soft. It
would be better for you to come back to us; bad as our lodging is,
there'd be a bit in the pot for you and Sabina to care you. It's she
would give you a good welcome.
_Colman._ [_Starting up._] We can mind him well enough here. I have a
plan. We haven't been getting on the way we ought with the people. It's
no way to be getting on with people to be asking things of them always,
they have no opinion at all of us seeing us the way we are. They have no
notion of the respect they should show to Brother Paul, and the way all
the Brothers used to be listening to his preaching, and the townspeople
as well. And I, myself, the time I preached in Dublin----
_Aloysius._ Yes, indeed, Paul, think of the great crowds used to come
when you preached in the Abbey church, and all the money that was
gathered that time of the Mission.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, I used to like once to see all the faces looking
up at me. But now all that is gone from me. Now I think it is enough to
be a witness for the truth, and to think the thoughts I like. God will
bring the people to me. He will make of my silence a great wind that
will shatter the ships of the world.
_Colman._ That is all very well, but the people are not coming.
_Aloysius._ And more than that, they are driving us away from their
doors now, Paul.
_Charlie Ward._ The way they do to us. But Paul was not born on the
roads. [_Lights his pipe._
_Colman._ It's no use stopping waiting for a wind; if we have anything
to say that's worth the people listening to, we must bring them to hear
it one way or another. Now, it is what I was saying to Aloysius, we must
begin teaching them to make things, they never had the chance of any
instruction of the sort here.
_Paul Ruttledge._ To make things? This sort of things? [_Takes the
half-made basket from_ COLMAN.
_Colman._ Those and other things, we got a good training in the old
days. And we'll get a grant from the Technical Board. The Board pays up
to four hundred pounds to some of its instructors.
_Paul Ruttledge._ And then?
_Aloysius._ Oh, then we'll sell all the things we make. I'm sure we'll
get a market for them.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, I understand; you will sell them. And what about
the dividing of the money? You will need to make laws about that.
_Colman._ Of course; we will have to make rules, and to pay according to
work.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, we will grow quite rich in time. What are we to do
then? we can't go on living in this ruin?
_Colman._ Of course not. We'll build workshops and houses for those who
come to work from a distance, good houses, slated, not thatched.
_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Turning to_ ALOYSIUS _and_ CHARLIE WARD.] Yes, you see
his plan. To gather the people together, to build houses for them; to
make them rich too, and to keep their money safe. And the Kingdom of God
too? What about that?
_Colman._ Oh, I'm just coming to that. They will think so much more of
our teaching when we have got them under our influence by other things.
Of course we will teach them their meditations, and give them a regular
religious life. We must settle out some little place for them to pray
in--there's a high gable over there where we could hang a bell----
_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh yes, I understand. You would weave them together
like this [_weaves the osiers in and out_], you would add one thing to
another, laws and money and church and bells, till you had got
everything back again that you have escaped from. But it is my business
to tear things asunder like this [_tears pieces from the basket_], and
this, and this----
_Aloysius._ I told him you'd never agree to it. He ought to have known
that himself.
_Colman._ We must have something to offer the people.
_Paul Ruttledge._ You say that because you got nothing to-day. Aloysius
has got nothing in his sack. [_Taking sack and turning it upside down._]
It is quite empty. Every religious teacher before me has offered
something to his followers, but I offer them nothing. [_Plunging his arm
down into the sack._] My sack is quite empty. I will never dip my hand
into nature's full sack of illusions; I am tired of that old conjuring
bag. [_He walks up and down muttering._
_Charlie Ward._ [_To_ COLMAN.] You may as well give up trying to settle
him down to anything. He was a tinker once, and he'll be a tinker
always; he has got the wandering into his blood. Will you come back to
the roads, Paul, to your old friends and to Sabina?
_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sitting down beside him._] Ah, my old friends, they
were very kind to me; but these friends too are very kind to me.
_Charlie Ward._ Well, come and see them anyway; they'll be glad to see
you, those that are left of us.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Those that are left of you? Where are the others?
_Charlie Ward._ Some are dead, and some are jailed, and some are on the
roads here and there. Sabina is with us always, and Johneen is a great
hand with the tools now, but Tommy the Song----
_Paul Ruttledge._ Oh, Tommy the Song, does he pray still? He was
beginning to pray. Did he ever get an answer?
_Charlie Ward._ Well, I don't know about an answer, but I believe he
heard something one night beside an old thorn tree, some sort of a voice
it was.
_Paul Ruttledge._ A voice? What did it say to him? Did he see anything?
We have learned too much, our minds are like troubled water--we get
nothing but broken images. He who knew nothing may have seen all. Is he
praying still?
_Charlie Ward._ If he is, it's in Galway gaol he's praying, with or
without a thorn tree.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Did he tell no one what the voice said to him?
_Charlie Ward._ He did not, unless he might have told Johneen or some
other one.
_Paul Ruttledge._ I will go with you and see them. [_Gets up._
_Colman._ [_To_ ALOYSIUS, _with whom he has been whispering_.] Take care,
but if he goes back to his old friends, he'll stop with them and leave
us.
_Aloysius._ [_Putting his hand on_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S _arm_.] Don't go,
Brother Paul, till I talk to you awhile.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Do you want me? Well, Charlie, I will stay here, I
won't go; but bring all the rest to see me, I want to ask them about
that vision.
_Charlie Ward._ I'll bring one of them, anyway. [_Exit._
_Aloysius._ Brother Paul, it is what I am thinking; now the tinkers have
come back to you, you could begin to gather a sort of an army; you can't
fight your battle without an army. They could call to the other tinkers,
and the tramps and the beggars, and the sieve-makers and all the
wandering people. It would be a great army.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, that would be a great army, a great wandering
army.
_Aloysius._ The people would be afraid to refuse us then; we would march
on----
_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, we could march on. We could march on the towns,
and we could break up all settled order; we could bring back the old
joyful, dangerous, individual life. We would have banners, we would each
have a banner, banners with angels upon them--we will march upon the
world with banners----
_Colman._ We would not be in want of food then, we could take all we
wanted.
_Aloysius._ We could take all we wanted, we would be too many to put in
gaol; all the people would join us in the end; you would be able to
persuade them all, Brother Paul, you would be their leader; we would
make great stores of food----
_Paul Ruttledge._ We will have one great banner that will go in front,
it will take two men to carry it, and on it we will have Laughter, with
his iron claws and his wings of brass and his eyes like sapphires----
_Aloysius._ That will be the banner for the front, we will have
different troops, we will have captains to organize them, to give them
orders----
_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Standing up._] To organize? That is to bring in law
and number? Organize--organize--that is how all the mischief has been
done. I was forgetting, we cannot destroy the world with armies, it is
inside our minds that it must be destroyed, it must be consumed in a
moment inside our minds. God will accomplish his last judgment, first in
one man's mind and then in another. He is always planning last
judgments. And yet it takes a long time, and that is why he laments in
the wind and in the reeds and in the cries of the curlews.
_Colman._ I think we had better go down to the river and see are there
any eels on the lines we set. We must find something for supper. It is
near sunset; see how the crows are flying home.
_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Looking up._] The crows are my darlings! I like
their harsh merriment better than those sad cries of the wind and the
rushes. Look at them, they are tossing about like witches, tossing about
on the wind, drunk with the wind.
_Colman._ Well, I'll go look at the lines, anyhow. Put turf on the fire,
Aloysius; Bartley should soon be home from Shanaglish.
_Aloysius._ I wonder why he isn't home by this. I'm uneasy till I see
him, after the way the people treated me to-day. [_Shades his eyes to
look out._] Here he is! He's running!
_Colman._ [_Coming over to him._] He is running hard! He must be in some
danger----
* * * * *
_Enter_ BARTLEY _out of breath_.
_Bartley._ Run, run, come away, there's not a minute to lose.
_Colman._ What is the matter? what has happened?
_Bartley._ The people are coming up the road! They attacked me in the
market! They followed me, they are on the road. I slipped away across
the fields. Run, run!
_Colman._ What is it? What are they going to do to us?
_Bartley._ You would know that if you saw them! They have stones and
sticks. Raging they are, and calling for our lives. They say we brought
witchcraft and ill-luck on the place! Come to the boat, it's in the
rushes; they won't see us, we'll get to the island. Hurry, hurry! [_He
runs out._
_Aloysius._ Come, Brother Paul, hurry, hurry!
_Paul Ruttledge._ I am going to stay.
_Bartley._ They will kill us if we stay! Brother Colman said they have
stones and sticks; I think I hear them!
_Paul Ruttledge._ You are afraid because you have been shut up so long.
I am not afraid because I have lived upon the roads, where one is ready
for anything that may happen. One has to learn that, like any other
thing. I will stay.
_Aloysius._ He wants the crown!
_Paul Ruttledge._ Where is Bartley?
_Colman._ He is gone. Come, you must go too, we can't leave you here.
You have too much to do to throw your life away, we have all too much to
do.
_Paul Ruttledge._ No, no. There is nothing to do; I am going to stay.
_Aloysius._ I will stay with you. [_Takes his hand._
_Paul Ruttledge._ Death is the last adventure, the first perfect joy,
for at death the soul comes into possession of itself, and returns to
the joy that made it. [_A great shout outside._
_Colman._ [_Seizing ALOYSIUS._] Come, come, Aloysius! come, Paul! We
haven't a moment, here they are. [_Drags_ ALOYSIUS _away_.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Aloysius, good-bye, Colman. Keep a pick
going at the foundations of the world.
[COLMAN _and_ ALOYSIUS _run on_.
_One of the Mob outside._ They are here in the ruins!
_Another Voice._ This way! This way!
_Paul Ruttledge._ I will not go. I have a little reason for staying, but
no reason is too little to be the foundation of martyrdom. People have
been martyred for all kinds of reasons, and my reason that is not worth
a rush will do as well as any other. [_Looks round._] Ah! they are gone.
A little reason, a little reason. I have entered into the second
freedom--the irresponsibility of the saints.
_Sings._
Parasti in conspectu meo mensam
Adversus eos qui tribulant me.
Impinguasti in oleo caput meum,
Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.
[People _rush in with sticks uplifted._
_One of the Mob._ Where are the heretics?
_Another._ We'll make an end of their witchcraft!
_Another._ Here is the worst of them!
_Another._ Give me back my cattle you put the sickness on!
_Another._ We'll have no witchcraft here! Drive away the unfrocked
priest!
_Another._ Make an end of him when we have the chance!
_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, make an end of me. I have tried hard to live a
good life; give me a good death now.
_One of the Crowd._ Quick, don't give him time to put the evil eye on
us!
[_They rush at him. His hands are seen swaying about above the
crowd._
_Paul Ruttledge._ I go to the invisible heart of flame!
_One of the Crowd._ Throw him there now! Where are the others?
_Another._ They must be among the rocks.
_Another._ They are not; they are gone down the road!
_Another._ I tell you it's in the rocks they are! It's in the rocks
they're hiding!
_Another._ They are not; they couldn't run in the rocks; they're running
down the road.
_Several Voices._ They're on the road; they're on the road.
[_They all rush out, leaving_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _lying on the ground. It
grows darker_. FATHERS COLMAN _and_ ALOYSIUS _creep up_.
_Colman._ Paul, Paul, come; we have still time to get to the boat.
_Aloysius._ Oh! they have killed him; there is a wound in his neck! Oh!
he has been the first of us to get the crown!
_Colman._ There are voices! They must be coming back! Come to the boat,
maybe we can bury him to-morrow!
[_They go out._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _half rises and sinks back_.
* * * * *
_Enter_ CHARLIE WARD _and_ SABINA SILVER.
_Charlie Ward._ They have done for him. I thought they would.
_Sabina Silver._ Oh, Paul, I never thought to find you like this! He's
not dead; he'll come round yet.
_Charlie Ward._ [_Opens his shirt and puts in his hand on his heart._]
Paul!
_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! Charlie, give me the soldering iron--no, bring me
the lap anvil--I'm as good a tinker as any of you.
_Charlie Ward._ He thinks he's back on the roads with us! He is done
for.
_Sabina Silver._ I knew he'd have to come back to me to die after all;
it's a lonesome thing to die among strangers.
_Paul Ruttledge._ That is right, that is right, take me up in your
brazen claws. But no--no--I will not go out beyond Saturn into the
dark. Take me down--down to that field under the earth, under the roots
of the grave.
_Sabina Silver._ I don't know what he is saying. I never could
understand his talk.
_Paul Ruttledge._ O plunge me into the wine barrel, into the wine barrel
of God.
_Sabina Silver._ Won't you speak to me, Paul? Don't you know me? I am
Sibby; don't you remember me, Sibby, your wife?
_Charlie Ward._ He sees you now; I think he knows you.
[PAUL RUTTLEDGE _has raised himself on his elbow and is looking at_
SABINA SILVER.
_Sabina Silver._ He knows me. I was sure he would know me.
_Paul Ruttledge._ Colman, Colman, remember always where there is nothing
there is God. [_He sinks down again._
_One of the Crowd._ [_Coming back with two or three others._] I knew
they must be in the rocks.
_Charlie Ward._ Well, he's gone! There'll soon be none of us left at
all. And I never knew what it was he did that brought him to us.
_Sabina Silver._ Oh, Paul, Paul!
[_Begins to keen very low, swaying herself to and fro._
_One of the Crowd._ [_To_ CHARLIE WARD.] Was he a friend of yours?
_Charlie Ward._ He was, indeed. I must do what I can for him now.
_One of the Crowd._ That's natural, that's natural. It's a pity they did
it. They'd best have left him alone. We'd best be going back to the
town.
[SABINA SILVER _raises the keen louder. The_ Strangers _and_ CHARLIE
WARD _take off their hats._
CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT,
CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
Transcriber's Note:
The original text contained a great deal of italic, bold and small-capped
formatting. For the purposes of producing this text version, the
underscore symbol surrounds italicized text and small-capped text is
converted to all-caps.
End of Project Gutenberg's Where There is Nothing, by William Butler Yeats