SAMHAIN
Edited for the Irish Literary
Theatre by W. B. Yeats and
containing a Play in Irish by
Douglas Hyde with English
translation by Lady Gregory
and Articles by George Moore
and by Edward Martyn.
Published in October 1901
by Sealy Bryers & Walker
in Dublin and by T. Fisher
Unwin in London and sold
at Sixpence.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAMHAIN Edited
for the Irish Literary Theatre
by W. B. Yeats.
Published in October 1901 by
Sealy Bryers & Walker and
by T. Fisher Unwin.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRINTED BY
SEALY, BRYERS AND WALKER,
MIDDLE ABBEY STREET,
DUBLIN.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windlestraws.
When Lady Gregory, Mr. Edward Martyn, and myself planned the Irish
Literary Theatre, we decided that it should be carried on in the form we
had projected for three years. We thought that three years would show
whether the country desired to take up the project, and make it a part
of the national life, and that we, at any rate, could return to our
proper work, in which we did not include theatrical management, at the
end of that time. A little later, Mr. George Moore joined us; and,
looking back now upon our work, I doubt if it could have been done at
all without his great knowledge of the stage; and certainly if the
performances of this present year bring our adventure to a successful
close, a chief part of the credit will be his. Many, however, have
helped us in various degrees, for in Ireland just now one has only to
discover an idea that seems of service to the country, for friends and
helpers to start up on every hand. While we needed guarantors we had
them in plenty, and though Mr. Edward Martyn’s public spirit made it
unnecessary to call upon them, we thank them none the less. We must also
thank those who are doing, this year, as in previous years, and without
seeking public recognition, the thousand and one things an adventure
like ours makes necessary.
* * * * *
Whether the Irish Literary Theatre has a successor made on its own model
or not, we can claim that a dramatic movement which will not die has
been started. When we began our work, we tried in vain to get a play in
Gaelic. We could not even get a condensed version of the dialogue of
Usheen and Patrick. We wrote to Gaelic enthusiasts in vain, for their
imagination had not yet turned towards the stage, and now there are
excellent Gaelic plays by Dr. Douglas Hyde, by Father O’Leary, by Father
Dineen, and by Mr. MacGinlay; and the Gaelic League has had a
competition for a one-act play in Gaelic, with what results I do not
know. There have been successful performances of plays in Gaelic at
Dublin and at Macroom, and at Letterkenny, and I think at other places;
and Mr. Fay has got together an excellent little company which plays
both in Gaelic and English. I may say, for I am perhaps writing an
epitaph, and epitaphs should be written in a genial spirit, that we have
turned a great deal of Irish imagination towards the stage. We could not
have done this if our movement had not opened a way of expression for an
impulse that was in the people themselves. The truth is that the Irish
people are at that precise stage of their history when imagination,
shaped by many stirring events, desires dramatic expression. One has
only to listen to a recitation of Raftery’s _Argument with Death_ at
some country Feis to understand this. When Death makes a good point, or
Raftery a good point, the audience applaud delightedly, and applaud, not
as a London audience would, some verbal dexterity, some piece of
smartness, but the movements of a simple and fundamental comedy. One
sees it too in the reciters themselves, whose acting is at times all but
perfect in its vivid simplicity. I heard a little Claddagh girl tell a
folk story at Galway Feis with a restraint and a delightful energy that
could hardly have been bettered by the most careful training.
* * * * *
The organization of this movement is of immediate importance. Some of
our friends propose that somebody begin at once to get a small stock
company together, and that he invite, let us say, Mr. Benson, to find us
certain well-trained actors, Irish if possible, but well trained of a
certainty, who will train our actors, and take the more difficult parts
at the beginning. These friends contend that it is necessary to import
our experts at the beginning, for our company must be able to compete
with travelling English companies, but that a few years will be enough
to make many competent Irish actors. The Corporation of Dublin should be
asked, they say, to give a small annual sum of money, such as they give
to the Academy of Music; and the Corporations of Cork and Limerick and
Waterford, and other provincial towns, to give small endowments in the
shape of a hall and attendants and lighting for a week or two out of
every year; and the Technical Board to give a small annual sum of money
to a school of acting which would teach fencing and declamation, and
gesture and the like. The stock company would perform in Dublin perhaps
three weeks in spring, and three weeks in autumn, and go on tour the
rest of the time through Ireland, and through the English towns where
there is a large Irish population. It would perform plays in Irish and
English, and also, it is proposed, the masterpieces of the world, making
a point of performing Spanish and Scandinavian, and French, and perhaps
Greek masterpieces rather more than Shakespeare, for Shakespeare one
sees, not well done indeed, but not unendurably ill done in the Theatre
of Commerce. It would do its best to give Ireland a hardy and shapely
national character by opening the doors to the four winds of the world,
instead of leaving the door that is towards the east wind open alone.
Certainly, the national character, which is so essentially different
from the English that Spanish and French influences may well be most
healthy, is at present like one of those miserable thorn bushes one sees
twisted towards one side by some prevailing wind.
* * * * *
It is contended that there is no reason why the company should not be as
successful as similar companies in Germany and Scandinavia, and that it
would be even of commercial advantage to Dublin by making it a
pleasanter place to live in, besides doing incalculable good to the
whole intellect of the country. One, at any rate, of those who press the
project on us has much practical knowledge of the stage and of
theatrical management, and knows what is possible and what is not
possible.
* * * * *
Others among our friends, and among these are some who have had more
than their share of the hard work which has built up the intellectual
movement in Ireland, argue that a theatre of this kind would require too
much money to be free, that it could not touch on politics, the most
vital passion and vital interest of the country, as they say, and that
the attitude of continual compromise between conviction and interest,
which it would necessitate, would become demoralising to everybody
concerned, especially at moments of political excitement. They tell us
that the war between an Irish Ireland and an English Ireland is about to
become much fiercer, to divide families and friends it may be, and that
the organisations that will lead in the war must be able to say
everything the people are thinking. They would have Irishmen give their
plays to a company like Mr. Fay’s, when they are within its power, and
if not, to Mr. Benson or to any other travelling company which will play
them in Ireland without committees, where everybody compromises a
little. In this way they contend, we would soon build up an Irish
theatre from the ground, escaping to some extent the conventions of the
ordinary theatre, and English voices which gave a foreign air to one’s
words. And though we might have to wait some years we would get even the
masterpieces of the world in good time. Let us, they think, be poor
enough to whistle at the thief who would take away some of our thoughts,
and after Mr. Fay has taken his company, as he plans, through the
villages and the country towns, he will get the little endowment that is
necessary, or if he does not some other will.
* * * * *
I do not know what Lady Gregory or Mr. Moore think of these projects. I
am not going to say what I think. I have spent much of my time and more
of my thought these last ten years on Irish organisation, and now that
the Irish Literary Theatre has completed the plan I had in my head ten
years ago, and that others may have had in their heads for all I know, I
want to get back to primary ideas. I want to put old stories into verse,
and if I put them into dramatic verse it will matter less to me
henceforward who plays them than what they play, and how they play it. I
hope to get our heroic age into verse, and to solve, for all Mr. Moore’s
unbelief, some problems of the speaking of verse to musical notes.
* * * * *
There is only one question which is raised by the two projects I have
described on which I will give an opinion. It is of the first importance
that those among us who want to write for the stage, study the dramatic
masterpieces of the world. If they can get them on the stage so much the
better, but study them they must if Irish drama is to mean anything to
Irish intellect. At the present moment, Shakespeare being the only great
dramatist known to Irish writers, has made them cast their work too much
on the English model. Miss Milligan’s _Red Hugh_, which was successfully
acted in Dublin the other day, had no business to be in two scenes; and
Father O’Leary’s _Tadg Saor_, despite its most vivid and picturesque,
though far too rambling dialogue, shows in its half dozen changes of
scene the influence of the same English convention which arose when
there was no scene painting, and is often a difficulty where there is,
and is always an absurdity, breaking up the emotion and sending one’s
thoughts astray, in a farce of thirty minutes. Mr. MacGinlay’s _Elis
agus an bhean deirce_ has not this defect and though I had not Irish
enough to follow it when I saw it played, and excellently played, by Mr.
Fay’s company, I could see from the continual laughter of the audience
that it held them with an unbroken emotion. The best Gaelic play, after
Dr. Hyde’s is, I think, Father Dineen’s _Creideamh agus gorta_, and
though it changes the scene a little oftener than is desirable under
modern conditions, it does not remind me of an English model. It reminds
me of Calderon by its treatment of a religious subject, and by something
in Father Dineen’s sympathy with the people that is like his. But I
think if Father Dineen had studied that great Catholic dramatist he
would not have failed, as he has done once or twice, to remember some
necessary detail of a situation. In the first scene he makes a servant
ask his fellow-servants about things he must have known as well as they;
and he loses a dramatic moment in his third scene by forgetting that
Seagan Gorm has a pocket-full of money which he would certainly, being
the man he was, have offered to the woman he was urging into temptation.
The play towards the end changes from prose to verse, and the reverence
and simplicity of the verse makes one think of a mediæval miracle play.
The subject has been so much a part of Irish life that it was bound to
be used by an Irish dramatist, though certainly I shall always prefer
plays which attack a more eternal devil than the proselytiser. He has
been defeated, and the arts are at their best when they are busy with
battles that can never be won. It is possible, however, that we may have
to deal with passing issues until we have re-created the imaginative
tradition of Ireland, and filled the popular imagination again with
saints and heroes. These short plays (though they would be better if
their writers knew the masters of their craft) are very dramatic as they
are, but there is no chance of our writers of Gaelic, or our writers of
English, doing good plays of any length if they do not study the
masters. If Irish dramatists had studied the romantic plays of Ibsen,
the one great master the modern stage has produced, they would not have
sent the Irish Literary Theatre imitations of Boucicault, who had no
relation to literature, and Father O’Leary would have put his gift for
dialogue, a gift certainly greater than, let us say Mr. Jones’ or Mr.
Grundy’s, to better use than the writing of that long rambling
dramatisation of the _Tain bo Cuailgne_, in which I hear in the midst of
the exuberant Gaelic dialogue the worn-out conventions of English poetic
drama. The moment we leave even a little the folk tradition of the
peasant, as we must in drama, if we do not know the best that has been
said and written in the world, we do not even know ourselves. It is no
great labour to know the best dramatic literature, for there is very
little of it. We Irish must know it all, for we have, I think, far
greater need of the severe discipline of French and Scandinavian drama
than of Shakespeare’s luxuriance.
* * * * *
If the _Diarmuid and Grania_ and the _Casadh an t-sugain_ are not well
constructed, it is not because Mr. Moore and Dr. Hyde and myself do not
understand the importance of construction, and Mr. Martyn has shown by
the triumphant construction of _The Heather Field_ how much thought he
has given to the matter; but for the most part our Irish plays read as
if they were made without a plan, without a “scenario,” as it is called.
European drama began so, but the European drama had centuries for its
growth, while our art must grow to perfection in a generation or two if
it is not to be smothered before it is well above the earth by the
commercial art of England.
* * * * *
Let us learn construction from the masters, and dialogue from ourselves.
A relation of mine has just written me a letter, in which he says: “It
is natural to an Irishman to write plays, he has an inborn love of
dialogue and sound about him, of a dialogue as lively, gallant, and
passionate as in the times of great Eliza. In these days an Englishman’s
dialogue is that of an amateur, that is to say, it is never spontaneous.
I mean in _real life_. Compare it with an Irishman’s, above all a poor
Irishman’s, reckless abandonment and naturalness, or compare it with the
only fragment that has come down to us of Shakespeare’s own
conversation.” (He is thinking of a passage in, I think, Ben Johnson’s
_Underwoods_.) “Petty commerce and puritanism have brought to the front
the wrong type of Englishman; the lively, joyous, yet tenacious man has
transferred himself to Ireland. We have him and we will keep him unless
the combined nonsense of ... and ... and ... succeed in suffocating
him.”
* * * * *
The names I have crossed out are the names of three eminent authorities
on education. They no longer matter to us Irish, for we have for good
and all taken over the intellectual government of our country, and if
the degeneration of England goes on as quickly as it has these last
years, we shall take over for certain generations the intellectual
government of that country also whether we will or no; and because we
believe, when others have ceased to believe, we have, I think, taken up
the wheel of life in our hands that we may set it to whirl upon a new
axle tree.
* * * * *
In Dublin the other day I saw a poster advertising a play by a Miss
Lefanu, under the patronage of certain lords and marquises. I had little
hope of finding any reality in it, but I sat out two acts. Its dialogue
was above the average, although the characters were the old rattle-traps
of the stage, the wild Irish girl, and the Irish servant, and the bowing
Frenchman, and the situations had all been squeezed dry generations ago.
One saw everywhere the shadowy mind of a woman of the Irish upper
classes, but under it all there was a kind of life, though it was but
the life of a string and a wire. I do not know who Miss Lefanu is, but I
know that she is young, for I saw her portrait in a weekly paper, and I
think that she is clever enough to make her work of some importance. If
she goes on doing bad work she will make money, perhaps a great deal of
money, but she will do a little harm to her country. If, on the other
hand, she gets into an original relation with life, she will, perhaps,
make no money, and she will certainly have her class against her.
* * * * *
The Irish upper classes put everything into a money measure. When anyone
among them begins to write or paint they ask him ‘How much money have
you made?’ ‘Will it pay?’ Or they say ‘If you do this or that you will
make more money.’ The poor Irish clerk or shop boy, who writes verses or
articles in his brief leisure, writes for the glory of God and of his
country, and because his motive is high, there is not one vulgar thought
in the countless little ballad books that have been written from
Callinan’s day to this. They are often clumsily written for they are in
English and if you have not read a great deal, it is difficult to write
well in a language which has been long separated from the ‘folk-speech’;
but they have not a thought, a proud and simple man would not have
written. The writers were poor men, but they left that money measure to
the Irish upper classes. All Irish writers have to choose whether they
will write as the upper classes have done, not to express but to exploit
this country; or join the intellectual movement which has raised the cry
that was heard in Russia in the seventies, the cry ‘to the people.’
* * * * *
Moses was little good to his people until he had killed an Egyptian; and
for the most part a writer or public man of the upper classes is useless
to this country till he has done something that separates him from his
class. We wish to grow peaceful crops, but we must dig our furrows with
the sword.
* * * * *
Our plays this year will be produced by Mr. Benson at the Gaiety Theatre
on October the 21st., and on some of the succeeding days. They are Dr.
Douglas Hyde’s _Casadh an t-Sugain_, which is founded on a well known
Irish story of a wandering poet; and _Diarmuid and Grania_, a play in
three acts and in prose by Mr. George Moore and myself, which is founded
on the most famous of all Irish stories, the story of the lovers whose
beds were the cromlechs. The first scene is in the great banqueting hall
of Tara, and the second and third on the slopes of Ben Bulben in Sligo.
We do not think there is anything in either play to offend anybody, but
we make no promises. We thought our plays inoffensive last year and the
year before, but we were accused the one year of sedition, and the other
of heresy. We await the next accusation with a cheerful curiosity.
* * * * *
As Dr. Douglas Hyde does not reserve the Irish acting rights of his
play, any friends of the language who like may play it after October
26th.
* * * * *
I have called this little collection of writings _Samhain_, the old name
for the beginning of winter, because our plays this year are in October,
and because our Theatre is coming to an end in its present shape. The
profits on the sale of _Samhain_ will be given to the Gaelic League. The
three numbers of _Beltaine_ may still be had from the Unicorn Press,
bound together into one volume. They contain a record of our first two
years, and a good deal of dramatic criticism.
W. B. YEATS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Irish Literary Theatre.
It is now nearly three years since Mr. Yeats and Mr. Martyn explained to
me their project of The Irish Literary Theatre. I imagine that they were
moved by a disinterested love of Ireland; by a desire to create a sort
of rallying point for the many literary enthusiasms and aspirations they
saw beginning in Ireland. I was moved to join them because I had come to
know the hopelessness of all artistic effort in England. I discovered
the English decadence before I discovered my conscience; at that time I
merely despaired of any new literary movement ever rising in England. I
saw nothing about me but intellectual decay and moral degradation, so I
said: “Well, my friends, let us try.” I knew Mr. Edward Martyn’s play,
_The Heather Field_, and his _Maive_, and I knew Mr. Yeats’ _Countess
Cathleen_; “these,” I said, “will do for a start, but what have we got
to follow them?” They answered. “You will write us a play, and somebody
else will write after you. One must not look too far ahead.”
And then began the most disagreeable part of the adventure: excursions
to theatrical clubs in the Strand and in the streets leading from the
Strand; the long drives to ladies who lived in flats in picturesque
neighbourhoods, and arranging for these men and women to come to Dublin.
I took upon myself the greater part of these petty annoyances--Mr.
Martyn taking upon himself, perhaps, the greatest annoyance,
distributing of tickets, and keeping the accounts. I think that this
kind of theatrical management must be very like the endeavour of
kind-hearted ladies to bring some fifty and odd children into the
country for a holiday. In both, there is a great deal of “Has Johnny
lost his cap?” and “Will Jimmy arrive in time?”
During the rehearsal, I often asked myself why I had consented to waste
my time in this fashion; the reason was hidden from me; even now I know,
only through faith, that I acted rightly and that if the collecting of
the actors and the rehearsals of the plays had proved ten times more
troublesome, it would still have been worth the trouble. And this, for
some reason that is still hidden from me, and not altogether because
_The Heather Field_ has been admitted to be the most thoughtful of
modern prose plays written in English, the best constructed, the most
endurable to a thoughtful audience. It was played in a hall, on a
platform amid ludicrous scenery. But, being a prose play, it did not
suffer so much from want of space as _The Countess Cathleen_, and it was
the better acted play, for it is always easier to find actors who can
act plays of modern life than it is to find actors who can speak verse
and embody vast sentiments. For the adequate representation of such a
play, something like a gulf should separate the actors from the
audience, and there should be a large, deep stage full of vague shadows.
Green landscapes are not required in Rembrandt’s portraits, and I have
often wondered why they are used as a background for actors. The more
elaborate the scenery, the worse it is for the purpose of the poet and
the actor; and new scenery, harsh as a newly-painted signboard, like
that amid which _The Countess Cathleen_ was played, is the worst scenery
of all. _The Countess Cathleen_ met with every disadvantage. Here is a
list which must not, however, be considered exhaustive:--First, the
author’s theory that verse should be chanted[1] and not spoken; second,
the low platform insufficiently separated from the audience; third, a
set of actors and actresses unaccustomed to speak verse; fourth, harsh,
ridiculous scenery; fifth, absurd costumes.
The theories of the author regarding the speaking of verse I hold to be
mistaken; I do not think they are capable to realization even by trained
actors and actresses, but the attempt of our “poor mummers of a
time-worn spring,” was, indeed, lamentable. Many times I prayed during
the last act that the curtain might come down at once. Nevertheless, the
performance of _The Countess Cathleen_ was not in vain. The beauty of
the play was so intense that it was seen through the ridiculous
representation as the outline of a Greek statue through the earth it is
being dug out of. _The Countess Cathleen_ awakened in all who saw it a
sense of beauty. I think a sense of beauty once awakened is immortal. I
do not think anyone who ponders over a piece of antique sculpture, shall
we say a broken bas-relief from Pompeii, ever forgets that keen sense of
beauty which arises in his heart, and the imperfect and broken
representations of _The Countess Cathleen_ awakened in me just such a
sense of beauty as I have experienced in dim museums, looking at some
worn and broken bas-relief.
The performances of our plays were so successful that the managers of
the Gaiety Theatre asked us to produce our next plays in their theatre,
and so confident were they of the ultimate success of our enterprise
that they offered us their theatre on the same terms they gave to an
ordinary troop of mummers. It is more difficult for me to speak of the
second performances than of the first, because I undertook to re-write
Mr. Martyn’s play, _A Tale of a Town_, a play which the Irish Literary
Theatre did not think advisable to produce. The public will soon have an
opportunity of judging our judgment, for Mr. Martyn has decided to
publish the original text of his play. So much of the character of his
play was lost in my rewriting that the two plays have very little in
common, except the names of the personages and the number of acts. The
Comedy, entitled, _The Bending of the Bough_, was written in two months,
and two months are really not sufficient time to write a five act comedy
in; and, at Mr. Martyn’s request, my name alone was put on the title
page. Mr. Martyn’s _Maive_ did not gain by representation, it was
inadequately acted, and the idea of the play is clearer in the printed
text than it was on the stage. But all who saw the play will remember
it; it will flash across their minds, and will become more and more
realizable with time.
This year _Diarmuid and Grania_ will be given, and though it is longer
by two acts than Dr. Hyde’s play, it is not so important, for the three
act play is written in English, and the one act play is written in
Irish. Dr. Hyde’s play will be the first Irish play produced in a Dublin
theatre: I thought till the other day that it would be the first Irish
play produced in Dublin, but now I hear that the organization called
_Inghean na h-Eireann_ has produced at the Antient Concert Rooms (it was
in this room that _The Countess Cathleen_ and _The Heather Field_ were
performed), a play in Irish. In a way it would have pleased our vanity
to have been the first in Dublin with an Irish play, but this would have
been a base vanity, and unworthy a Gaelic Leaguer. There has been no
more disinterested movement than the Gaelic League. It has worked for
the sake of the language without hope of reward or praise; and if I were
asked why I put my faith in the movement I would answer that to believe
that a movement distinguished by so much self sacrifice could fail,
would be like believing in the failure of goodness itself.
Since we began our work plays have been written, some in Irish and some
in English, and we shall be forgiven if we take a little credit for
having helped to awaken intellectual life in Ireland. Many will think I
am guilty of exaggeration when I say that The Irish Literary Theatre has
done more to awaken intellectual life in Ireland than Trinity College.
The Irish Literary Theatre is the centre of a literary movement, and our
three years have shown that an endowed theatre may be of more
intellectual service to a community than a university or a public
library.
GEORGE MOORE.
Footnote 1:
I do not want dramatic blank verse to be chanted, as people understand
that word, but I do not want actors to speak as prose what I have
taken much trouble to write as verse. Lyrical verse is another matter,
and that I hope to hear spoken to musical notes in some theatre some
day.--Editor of SAMHAIN.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Plea for a National Theatre in Ireland.
There are many movements now for the encouragement of Irish manufacture
in all its branches and for preventing the scandalous outpouring of
Irish money into the pockets of Englishmen and other foreigners. Quite
recently a movement has been started to turn the enormous demand for
church art from the workshop of the foreign _tradesman_, and to get it
supplied by the native Irish _artist_. It is impossible to calculate the
sum of money that this will save the country. It will be enormous. Two
such able and practical men as Mr. Horace Plunkett, and Mr. T. P. Gill
are so convinced of this that they have decided to form a school for
teaching the making of stained glass as a branch of the School of Art in
Dublin, and have procured a teacher from probably the greatest master of
the art in modern times. We shall thus have stained glass of the highest
excellence executed by Irishmen in Ireland.
But there is another form of art besides church art in Ireland which
needs reform, and for which there is an equally large demand, supplied,
as usual, by the foreigner, and, as usual, badly supplied, almost
invariably. I refer to the plays supplied to our theatres by strolling
English companies of actors. It would be interesting to know how much
money yearly those companies take out of Ireland as a reward for
Anglicising and corrupting the taste of the Irish people. It must be as
enormous even as the sum we pay the foreign purveyor of church art for
disfiguring our churches. We have grappled with and, I think, solved the
problem of nationalising church art. Is it not time that our dramatic
art also should be placed on a national basis? Are we so degenerate that
we cannot meet this demand also by a supply of national art? The first
requisite is to provide a stock company of native artists because the
foreign strollers are too wedded to the debased art of England to fall
in with the change. This can only be done by instituting a school for
the training of actors and actresses, a most important branch of which
should be devoted to teaching them to act plays in the Irish language.
Now it is quite legal and feasible to obtain a grant from the Department
of Technical Instruction for this purpose which is the same in principle
as the teaching of stained glass manufacture. It is a home industry in
the best sense, and means a vast economic saving to the country, besides
being a most refining educational influence upon the artistic and moral
character of the nation. I think it will not be difficult to make the
enlightened Vice-President and Secretary of the Department understand
this.
With a company of artists such as I have described we might put before
the people of Ireland native works, also translations of the dramatic
masterworks of all lands, for it is only by accustoming a public to the
highest art that it can be led to appreciate art, and that dramatists
may be inspired to work in the great art tradition.
EDWARD MARTYN.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Legend of Diarmuid and Grania.
At the time that Finn MacCumhail was getting to be old, and Oisin his
son was a strong grown man, it came into his mind to find another wife,
for it was a long time since his wife that was daughter of Maighneis Mac
Moirne had died from him. And the one he set his mind on was Grania,
daughter of Cormac, King of Tara, the most beautiful of the women of
Ireland. Her father was willing to give her, for Finn had a great name
in Ireland, and all was settled, and a feast was made ready.
But when Finn, and the chief men of the Fianna, came for the wedding,
and Grania saw him, and that he looked to be older than her father,
Cormac, with the hardships and the fighting he had gone through, she had
no mind to marry him, but she looked around at the men that were with
him, and she set her mind there and then upon Diarmuid, grand-son of
Duibhne, that was young and comely, and that was called the best lover
of woman to be found in the whole world.
So she called for a vessel of ale, and she put an enchantment of sleep
in the ale, and then she gave a drink of it to Finn, and to the most of
the men that were there, and they had no sooner tasted it than a deep
sleep came upon them.
But she gave none of the ale to Diarmuid, but she bade him to bring her
away out of the house before Finn and her father would awake. And he was
not willing at first to meddle with a woman that was promised to Finn
MacCumhail, but in the end he brought her away, and all in the house
lying in their sleep, but only Oisin and Caoilte and Oscar.
When Finn awoke from his sleep there was great anger on him, and he sent
his men to follow the tracks of Diarmuid and Grania, and it is what he
told them, that if they did not come up with them at the first ford, he
would hang them from each side of it. And this was the beginning of the
hunting of Diarmuid and Grania by Finn all through Ireland, that lasted
seven years. And all through that time they had many hardships and many
escapes, and it is a wonder how they went through all they did, but
there were some that helped them.
One time they were at Doire dha Bhoth, and Finn came very near them and
was pressing on; but Oisin sent a warning to them through Finn’s own
hound, Bran, that had as great a love for Diarmuid as he had for his own
master. And the hound found them in their sleep in an enclosed place
they had made, with seven doors to it, and he thrust his head into
Diarmuid’s bosom and awaked him. But it would have gone hard with them
even then, but Angus Og, son of the Dagda, that knew of their danger,
came and brought Grania away with him to Dos da Shoileach under the
cover of his cloak. And as for Diarmuid, he took his sword, and stood up
like a straight pillar in the enclosed place. And Finn put a man at
every one of the seven doors to guard it, and Diarmuid would not go out
by any door but the one Finn himself was guarding, for the other men of
the Fianna were some of them his dear friends, and he would not bring
Finn’s anger on them by escaping through the door they had in their
charge. But he took the shaft of his spear in his hand, and gave a very
high light leap over the door where Finn was, and slipped away beyond
him and his people, and then he looked back and called out to them that
he had passed them, and he slung his shield upon his back, and followed
Grania westwards.
And then they two went on by themselves, and it was the advice Angus
gave them, not to go into a cave that had but one opening, or into an
island that had but one harbour, and wherever they would cook their
food, not to eat it there, and wherever they would eat, not to sleep in
that place, for all the time Finn would be following after them.
And after that they went along the Siona to the marshy bog of Finnliath,
and there they met with a young man, and he said his name was Muadhan,
and that he would serve them by day and watch for them by night. And
that evening he made a bed of soft rushes and birch tops for them in a
cave, and then he broke off a straight rod from a quicken tree, and he
put a hair on it and a fork, and a berry on the fork, and went and stood
by a stream, and with the three berries he dropped in the stream, he
brought up three fishes. And he cooked the three fishes on a spit, and
he gave the biggest to Diarmuid and the second biggest to Grania, and
the one that was smallest he kept for himself. And after a while Muadhan
left them, and they travelled on to Slieve Echtge, and Grania began to
be tired out, but Diarmuid made a hut in the very heart of the wood, and
killed a deer, and he and Grania eat and drank their fill of meat and of
pure water. And Diarmuid went to the Searbhan Lochlannach, the surly one
of Lochlinn, that kept the wood, and got leave from him to hunt and kill
deer, so long as he would not meddle with the berries, that grew on the
quicken-tree of Dubhros. That was a tree that had grown from a berry
that was dropped by the Tuatha De Danaan one time when they were playing
a game of hurling with the Fianna, and whoever eat these berries was
free from all sickness after, and felt like as if he had been drinking
wine. But the Tuatha De Danaan had sent the Searbhan Lochlannach to
guard over the tree, and he slept in its top by night and stopped at its
foot by day, and no one dared come near it. But when Grania heard of
these berries a great desire and longing came on her, and she said she
would never lie down on a bed again, but would lose her life, if she
could not get some of them, to taste them.
So Diarmuid went to the fierce giant, the Searbhan, that had made a
desert of the place about him, and asked some of the berries, but he
would not give them. And Diarmuid would not do treachery on him, but he
attacked him then and there, and they fought fair, and the Searbhan gave
him great strokes with his club, but Diarmuid killed him in the end.
Then Grania came to the tree, and he plucked berries from the branches
and he gave them to her. And then they went up into the top of the tree
where the Searbhan had made his bed, and the berries below were but
bitter berries beside those that were above in the tree.
And Finn was following close after them, and he came to the foot of the
tree, and he and his men eat their fill of the berries, and they sat
down to rest through the heat of the day. And Finn asked for a
chessboard, and himself and Oisin sat down to play. And after they had
played awhile, Finn had come near to win, and there was only one move
for Oisin to make, and he did not see it. Then Diarmuid, from the top of
the tree, took aim with a berry at the man that should be moved, and hit
it; and Oisin moved that man and turned the game against Finn. And the
same thing happened a second and a third time, and then Diarmuid struck
the third berry on the man that would win the game, and Oisin moved it,
and all the Fianna let out a great shout. Then Diarmuid stood up in the
top of the tree, and caught Grania to him and gave her three kisses, and
the seven battalions of the Fianna standing around. And great anger and
jealousy and a great weakness came on Finn when he saw that, and he
called out to Diarmuid that he would lose his life for those three
kisses.
And he would have made an end of him then and there, but Angus came to
their help again, and he took Diarmuid’s shape and appearance on him,
and came to the foot of the tree, so that Finn’s men attacked him, and
Diarmuid gave a light leap from the tree and went away from them. And
then Angus took Grania under his druid mantle, and brought her away to
the Brugh na Buinne, and Diarmuid followed them there. And while they
were there, Finn sent an old hag that was his foster-mother, and that
had knowledge of witchcraft, to try could she make an end of Diarmuid.
And he chanced to be out by himself, hunting. And the hag took a drowned
leaf, and rose on it in a blast of cold wind, and came near Diarmuid,
and began to strike at him from above, so that he was never in such
great danger before, but at the last he made a cast of his spear that
reached to the hag through the leaf, so that she fell dead on the spot.
But after that, Angus made a peace between Diarmuid and Grania on the
one side, and Finn on the other side. And the place they settled in was
Rath Grania in Ben Bulben, and the people used to be saying there was no
man in Ireland richer in sheep and cattle and gold and silver than
Diarmuid was at that time.
But after a while Grania said it was a shame that the two best men in
Ireland, her father Cormac and Finn Mac Cumhail, had never come to her
house. And she made a great feast and brought them there.
Now it had been foretold that it was by a wild boar Diarmuid would get
his death, and he was put under bonds never to join in the hunting of
one. But one day he was hunting with Finn, and they came on the track of
a boar, and Diarmuid left Finn and followed after the boar by himself,
and it stopped and faced him. And Diarmuid made a cast of his spear at
it, but it did not so much as give it a wound or a scratch. But at the
last he killed it with the hilt of his sword, for the sword itself was
broken, but before he did that, the boar had given him a deadly wound.
It was at this time Finn came up with him, and looked at him, and it is
what he said, that he was glad to see his beauty turned to ugliness, and
that he would like all the women of Ireland to be looking at him now.
And Diarmuid asked him for a drink from the palms of his hands, that
might cure him. And Finn was bringing him the water, but when the
thought of Grania came upon him, he let it spill through his fingers,
and the life went out from Diarmuid. When Grania heard of that, she made
a great mourning and a great keening. And she gave it out that she was
making all ready to bring a great vengeance on Finn, and to get
satisfaction for Diarmuid’s death.
But after a while, Finn went secretly to the place where she was and got
to see her, in spite of all her high words. And whatever she said to him
or he said to her, when he came back to the seven battalions of the
Fianna that were waiting for him, there was Grania coming with him, like
any new wife with her husband. And when the Fianna saw that, they gave
three great shouts of laughter and mockery. And some said the change had
come on her because the mind of every woman changes like the water in a
running stream; but some said it was Finn that had put enchantment on
her.
A. G.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CASADH an tSUGÁIN.
DRAMA AON-GHNÍMH.
NA DAOINE:--
TOMÁS O h-ANNRACHÁIN, _file Connachtach atá ar seachrán_.
MÁIRE NÍ RÍOGÁIN, _bean an tighe_.
ÚNA, _inghean Mháire_.
SÉAMUS O h-IARAINN, _atá luaidhte le Úna_.
SÍGHLE, _cómharsa do Mháire_.
_Píobaire, cómharsanna agus daoine eile._
ÁIT:--
_Teach feilméir i gCúige Múmhan céad bliadhan ó shoin. Tá fir agus
mná ag dul tríd a chéile in san tigh, no ’na seasamh cois na
mballa, amhail agus dá mbeith damhsa críochnuighthe aca. Tá Tomás
O h-Annracháin ag caint le Úna i bhfíor-thosach na stáide. Tá an
píobaire ag fásgadh a phíobaidh air, le tosughadh ar sheinm arís,
acht do bheir Séamas O h-Iarainn deoch chuige, agus stadann sé.
Tagann fear óg go h-Úna le n-a tabhairt amach ar an urlár chum
damhsa, acht diúltann sí dhó._
ÚNA--Ná bí m’bhodhrughadh anois. Nach bhfeiceann tú go bhfuil mé ag
éisteacht le n-a bhfuil seisean d’á rádh liom. [_Leis an
h-Annrachánach_]: Lean leat, cad é sin do bhí tú ’rádh ar ball?
TOMÁS O h-ANNRACHÁIN--Cad é do bhí an bodach sin d’á iarraidh ort?
ÚNA--Ag iarraidh damhsa orm, do bhí sé, acht ní thiúbhrainn dó é.
MAC UI h-ANN.--Is cinnte nach dtiubhrá. Is dóigh, ní mheasann tú go
leigfinn-se do dhuine ar bith damhsa leat, chomh fhad agus tá mise ann
so. A! a Úna, ní raibh sólás ná sócamhail agam le fada go dtáinig mé ann
so anocht agus go bhfacaidh mé thusa!
ÚNA--Cad é an sólás duit mise?
MAC UI h-ANN.--Nuair a bhfuil maide leath-dhóighte in san teine,
nach bhfághann sé sólás nuair dóirtear uisge air?
ÚNA--Is dóigh, ní’l tusa leath-dhóighte.
MAC UI h-ANN.--Tá mé, agus tá trí ceathramhna de mo chroidhe,
dóighte agus loisgthe agus caithte, ag troid leis an saoghal, agus an
saoghal ag troid liom-sa.
ÚNA--Ní fhéachann tú chomh dona sin!
MAC UI h-ANN.--Uch! a Úna ní Ríogáin, ní’l aon eólas agad-sa ar
bheatha an bháird bhoicht, atágan teach gan téagar gan tíoghbhas, acht é
ag imtheacht agus ag síor-imtheacht le fán ar fud an tsaoghail mhóir,
gan duine ar bith leis acht é féin. Ní’l maidin in san tseachtmhain
nuair éirighim suas nach n-abraim liom féin go mb’fheárr dham an uaigh
’ná an seachrán. Ní’l aon rud ag seasamh dh’am acht an bronntanus do
fuair mé ó Dhia--mo chuid abhrán. Nuair thosaighim orra sin, imthigheann
mo bhrón agus mo bhuaidhreadh dhíom, agus ní chuimhnighim níos mó ar mo
ghéar-chrádh agus ar mo mhí-ádh. Agus anois, ó chonnaic mé thusa, a Úna,
chím go bhfuil rud eile ann, níos binne ’ná na h-abhráin féin!
ÚNA--Is iongantach an bronntanus ó Dhia an bhárduigheacht. Chomh
fada agus tá sin agad nach bhfuil tú níos saidhbhre na lucht stuic agus
stóir, lucht bó agus eallaigh.
MAC UI h-ANN.--A! a Úna, is mór an bheannacht acht is mór an
mhallacht, leis, do dhuine é do bheith ’na bhárd. Feuch mise! bhfuil
caraid agam ar an saoghal so? Bhfuil fear beó ar mhaith leis mé? Bhfuil
grádh ag duine ar bith orm? Bím ag imtheacht, mo chadhan bocht
aonránach, ar fud an tsaoghail, mar Oisín andiaigh na Féinne. Bíonn
fuath ag h-uile dhuine orm, ní’l fuath agad-sa orm, a Úna?
ÚNA--Ná h-abair rud mar sin, ní féidir go bhfuil fuath ag duine ar
bith ort-sa.
MAC UI h-ANN.--Tar liom agus suidhfimid i gcúinne an tighe le chéile
agus déarfaidh mé dhuit an t-abhrán do rinne mé dhuit. Is ort-sa rinneas
é.
[_Imthigheann siad go dtí an coirneull is faide ón stáid, agus
suidheann siad anaice le chéile_].
[_Tig Síghle asteach_].
SÍGHLE--Tháinig mé chugad chomh luath agus d’fheud mé.
MÁIRE--Céad fáilte rómhad.
SÍGHLE--Cad tá ar siúbhal agad anois?
MÁIRE--Ag tosughadh atámuid. Bhí aon phort amháin againn, agus anois
tá an píobaire ag ól dighe. Tosóchaidh an damhsa arís nuair bhéidheas an
píobaire réidh.
SÍGHLE--Tá na daoine ag bailiughadh asteach go maith, béidh damhsa
breágh againn.
MÁIRE--Béidh a Shíghle, acht tá fear aca ann agus b’fhearr liom
amuigh ná astigh é! Feuch é.
SÍGHLE--Is ar an bhfear fada donn atá tú ag caint, nach eadh? An
fear sin atá ag cómhrádh chomh dlúth sin le Úna in san gcoirneull anois.
Cá’r b’as é, no cia h-é féin?
MÁIRE--Sin é an sgraiste is mó tháinig i n-Éirinn ariamh. Tomás O
h-Annracháin thugann siad air, acht Tomás Rógaire budh chóir do
bhaisteadh air, i gceart. Óra! nach raibh an mí-ádh orm, é do theacht
asteach chugainn, chor ar bith, anocht!
SÍGHLE--Cia ’n sórt duine é? Nach fear déanta abhrán as
Chonnachtaibh é? Chualaidh mé caint air, cheana, agus deir siad nach
bhfuil damhsóir eile i n-Éirinn chomh maith leis: budh mhaith liom a
fheicsint ag damhsa.
MÁIRE--Gráin go deó ar an mbitheamhnach! Tá’s agam-sa go ró mhaith
cia ’n cineál atá ann, mar bhí sórt carthanais idir é féin agus an
chéad-fhear do bhí agam-sa, agus is minic chualaidh mé ó Dhiarmuid bocht
(go ndéanaidh Dia trócaire air!) cia ’n sórt duine bhí ann. Bhí sé ’na
mháighistir sgoile, shíos i gConnachtaibh, acht bhíodh h-uile chleas
aige budh mheasa ná a chéile. Ag síor-dheanamh abhrán do bhíodh sé, agus
ag ól uisge beatha, agus ag cur imris ar bonn ameasg na gcómharsan le
n-a chuid cainte. Deir siad nach bhfuil bean in sna cúig cúigibh nach
meallfadh sé. Is measa é ná Dómhnall na Gréine fad ó. Acht budh é
deireadh an sgéil gur ruaig an sagart amach as an bparráiste é ar fad.
Fuair sé áit eile ann sin, acht lean sé do na cleasannaibh céadna, gur
ruaigeadh amach arís é, agus arís eile, leis. Agus anois ní’l áit ná
teach ná dadaidh aige acht é bheith ag gabhail na tíre, ag déanamh
abhrán agus ag fághail lóistín na h-oidhche ó na daoinibh. Ní
dhiúltóchaidh duine ar bith é, mar tá faitcheas orra roimhe. Is mór an
file é, agus b’éidir go ndéanfadh sé rann ort do ghreamóchadh go deó
dhuit, dá gcuirfeá fearg air.
SÍGHLE--Go bhfóiridh Dia orrainn. Acht créad do thug asteach anocht
é?
MÁIRE--Bhí sé ag taisteal na tíre, agus chualaidh sé go raibh damhsa
le bheith ann so, agus tháinig sé asteach, mar bhí eólas aige
orrainn,--bhí sé mór go leór le mo chéad-fhear. Is iongantach mar tá sé
ag déanamh amach a shlighe-bheatha, chor ar bith, agus gan aige acht a
chuid abhrán. Deir siad nach bhfuil áit a rachaidh sé nach dtugann na
mná grádh, agus nach dtugann na fir fuath dhó.
SÍGHLE [_ag breith ar ghualainn Mháire_]--Iompuigh do cheann, a
Mháire, feuch é anois; é féin agus d’ inghean-sa, agus a gcinn le
chéile. Tá sé tar éis abhráin do dhéanamh dí, agus tá sé dh’á mhúnadh
dhí ag cogarnuigh in a cluais. Óra, an bitheamhnach! béidh sé ag cur a
chuid pistreóg ar Úna anois.
MÁIRE--Och ón! go deó! Nach mí-ádhamhail tháinig sé! Tá sé ag caint
le Úna h-uile mhóimid ó tháinig sé asteach, trí uaire ó shoin. Rinne mé
mo dhithchioll le n-a sgaradh ó chéile, acht theip sé orm. Tá Úna bhocht
tugtha do h-uile shórt sean-abhrán agus sean-ráiméis de sgéaltaibh, agus
is binn leis an gcréatúir bheith ag éisteacht leis, mar tá béal aige sin
do bhréagfadh an smólach de’n chraoibh. Tá’s agad go bhfuil an pósadh
réidhte socruighthe idir Úna agus Séamas O h-Iarainn ann sin, ráithe ó’n
lá indiú. Feuch Séamus bocht ag an dorus agus é ag faire orra. Tá brón
agus ceannfaoi air. Is furus a fheicsint go mbudh mhaith le Séamus an
sgraisde sin do thachtadh an móimid seo. Tá faitchios mór orm go mbéidh
an ceann iompuighthe ar Úna le n-a chuid bhladaireacht. Chomh cinnte a’s
tá mé beó, tiucfaidh olc as an oidhche seo.
SÍGHLE--Agus nach bhféadfá a chur amach?
MÁIRE--D’fhéadfainn; ní’l duine ann so do chuideóchadh leis, muna
mbeith bean no dó. Acht is file mór é, agus tá mallacht aige do
sgoiltfeadh na crainn agus do réabfadh na clocha. Deir siad go lobhthann
an síol in san talamh, agus go n-imthigheann a gcuid bhainne ó na bath
nuair thugann file mar é sin a mhallacht dóibh, má ruaigeann duine as an
teach é. Acht dá mbeith sé amuigh, mise mo bhannuidhe nach leigfinn
asteach arís é.
SÍGHLE.--Dá rachadh sé féin amach go toileamhail, ní bheith aon
bhrigh in a chuid mhallacht ann sin?