and tell them the secret. Tell them what they have to say, that no one
at all in this country ever saw a hay-rope, and put a good skin on the
lie yourself. (_SHEAMUS goes from person to person whispering to them,
and some of them begin laughing. The piper has begun playing. Three or
four couples rise up_).
HANRAHAN (_after looking at them for a couple of minutes_).--Whisht!
Let ye sit down! Do ye call that dragging, dancing? You are tramping the
floor like so many cattle. You are as heavy as bullocks, as awkward as
asses. May my throat be choked if I would not rather be looking at as
many lame ducks hopping on one leg through the house. Leave the floor to
Oona ni Regaun and to me.
ONE OF THE MEN GOING TO DANCE.--And for what would we leave the
floor to you?
HANRAHAN.--The swan of the brink of the waves, the royal phœnix, the
pearl of the white breast, the Venus amongst the women, Oona ni Regaun
is standing up with me, and any place where she rises up the sun and the
moon bow to her, and so shall ye yet. She is too handsome, too sky-like
for any other woman to be near her. But wait awhile! Before I’ll show
you how the fine Connacht boy can dance, I will give you the poem I made
on the star of the province of Munster, on Oona ni Regaun. Get up, O sun
among women, and we will sing the song together, verse about, and then
we’ll show them what right dancing is! (_OONA rises_).
HANRAHAN.
She is white Oona of the yellow hair,
The Coolin that was destroying my heart inside me;
She is my secret love and my lasting affection,
I care not for ever for any woman but her.
OONA.
O bard of the black eye, it is you
Who have found victory in the world and fame;
I call on yourself and I praise your mouth;
You have set my heart in my breast astray.
HANRAHAN.
O fair Oona of the golden hair,
My desire my affection, my love and my store
Herself will go with her bard afar;
She has hurt his heart in his breast greatly.
OONA.
I would not think the night long nor the day,
Listening to your fine discourse;
More melodious is your mouth than the singing of the birds,
From my heart in my breast you have found love.
HANRAHAN.
I walked myself the entire world,
England, Ireland, France and Spain;
I never saw at home or afar
Any girl under the sun like fair Oona.
OONA.
I have heard the melodious harp
On the street of Cork playing to us;
More melodious by far did I think your voice
More melodious by far your mouth than that.
HANRAHAN.
I was myself one time a poor barnacle goose,
The night was not plain to me more than the day
Until I beheld her, she is the love of my heart,
That banished from me my grief and my misery.
OONA.
I was myself on the morning of yesterday
Walking beside the wood at the break of day;
There was a bird there was singing sweetly
How I love love, and is it not beautiful.
(_A shout and a noise, and SHEAMUS O’HERAN rushes in_.)
SHEAMUS.--Ububu! Ohone-y-o, go deo! The big coach is overthrown at
the foot of the hill! The bag in which the letters of the country are is
bursted, and there is neither tie nor cord nor rope nor anything to bind
it up. They are calling out now for a hay sugaun, whatever kind of thing
that is; the letters and the coach will be lost for want of a hay sugaun
to bind them.
HANRAHAN.--Do not be bothering us; we have our poem done and we are
going to dance. The coach does not come this way at all.
SHEAMUS.--The coach does come this way now, but sure you’re a
stranger and you don’t know. Doesn’t the coach come over the hill now,
neighbours?
ALL.--It does, it does, surely.
HANRAHAN.--I don’t care whether it does come or whether it doesn’t.
I would sooner twenty coaches to be overthrown on the road than the
pearl of the white breast to be stopped from dancing to us. Tell the
coachman to twist a rope for himself.
SHEAMUS.--O murder, he can’t. There’s that much vigour and fire and
activity and courage in the horses that my poor coachman must take them
by the heads, it’s on the pinch of his life he’s able to control them,
he’s afraid of his soul they’ll go from him of a rout. They are neighing
like anything, you never saw the like of them for wild horses.
HANRAHAN.--Are there no other people in the coach that will make a
rope, if the coachman has to be at the horses’ heads? Leave that, and
let us dance.
SHEAMUS.--There are three others in it, but as to one of them, he is
one-handed, and another man of them, he’s shaking and trembling with the
fright he got; its not in him now to stand up on his two feet with the
fear that’s on him, and as for the third man, there isn’t a person in
this country would speak to him about a rope at all, for his own father
was hanged with a rope last year for stealing sheep.
HANRAHAN.--Then let one of yourselves twist a rope so, and leave the
floor to us. [_To OONA_] Now, O star of women, show me how Juno goes
among the gods, or Helen for whom Troy was destroyed. By my word, since
Deirdre died, for whom Naoise, son of Usnech, was put to death, her heir
is not in Ireland to-day but yourself. Let us begin.
SHEAMUS.--Do not begin until we have a rope, we are not able to
twist a rope, there’s nobody here can twist a rope.
HANRAHAN.--There’s nobody here is able to twist a rope?
ALL.--Nobody at all.
SHEELA.--And that’s true; nobody in this place ever made a hay
sugaun. I don’t believe there’s a person in this house who ever saw one
itself but me. It’s well I remember when I was a little girsha that I
saw one of them on a goat that my grandfather brought with him out of
Connacht. All the people used to be saying: Aurah, what sort of thing is
that at all? And he said that it was a sugaun that was in it, and that
people used to make the like of that down in Connacht. He said that one
man would go holding the hay, and another man twisting it. I’ll hold the
hay now, and you’ll go twisting it.
SHEAMUS.--I’ll bring in a lock of hay. [_He goes out._]
HANRAHAN.
I will make a dispraising of the province of Munster:
They do not leave the floor to us,
It isn’t in them to twist even a sugaun;
The province of Munster without nicety, without prosperity!
Disgust for ever on the province of Munster,
That they do not leave us the floor;
The province of Munster of the foul clumsy people.
They cannot even twist a sugaun!
SHEAMUS [_coming back_].--Here’s the hay now.
HANRAHAN.--Give it here to me; I’ll show ye what the well-learned
handy, honest, clever, sensible Connachtman will do, who has activity
and full deftness in his hands, and sense in his head, and courage in
his heart, but that the misfortune and the great trouble of the world
directed him among the _lebidins_ of the province of Munster, without
honour, without nobility, without knowledge of the swan beyond the duck,
or of the gold beyond the brass, or of the lily beyond the thistle, or
of the star of young women and the pearl of the white breast beyond
their own share of sluts and slatterns. Give me a kippeen (_a man hands
him a stick, he puts a wisp of hay round it, and begins twisting it, and
SHEELA giving him out the hay_).
HANRAHAN.
There is a pearl of a woman giving light to us;
She is my love; she is my desire;
She is fair Oona, the gentle queen-woman.
And the Munstermen do not understand half her courtesy.
These Munster men are blinded by God;
They do not recognise the swan beyond the grey duck,
But she will come with me, my fine Helen,
Where her person and her beauty shall be praised for ever.
Arrah, wisha, wisha, wisha, isn’t this the fine village, isn’t this the
exceeding village! The village where there be that many rogues hanged
that the people have no want of ropes with all the ropes that they steal
from the hangman!
The sensible Connachtman makes
A rope for himself;
But the Munsterman steals it
From the hangman;
That I may see a fine rope,
A rope of hemp yet
A stretching on the throats
Of every person here!
On account of one woman only the Greeks departed, and they never
stopped, and they never greatly stayed, till they destroyed Troy; and on
account of one woman only this village shall be damned; go deo, ma neoir
and to the womb of judgment, by God of the graces, eternally and
everlastingly, because they did not understand that Oona ni Regaun is
the second Helen, who was born in their midst, and that she overcame in
beauty Deirdre and Venus, and all that came before or that will come
after her!
But she will come with me, my pearl of a woman,
To the province of Connacht of the fine people,
She will receive feast, wine and meat,
High dances, sport and music!
O, wisha, wisha, that the sun may never rise upon this village, and that
the stars may never shine on it, and that----. (_He is by this time
outside the door. All the men make a rush at the door, and shut it. OONA
runs towards the door, but the women seize her. SHEAMUS goes over to
her._)
OONA.--Oh, oh, oh, do not put him out, let him back, that is Tumaus
Hanrahan; he is a poet, he is a bard, he is a wonderful man. O, let him
back, do not do that to him!
SHEAMUS.--Oh, Oona bawn, acushla deelish, let him be, he is gone
now, and his share of spells with him. He will be gone out of your head
to-morrow, and you will be gone out of his head. Don’t you know that I
like you better than a hundred thousand Deirdres, and that you are my
one pearl of a woman in the world.
HANRAHAN (_outside, beating on the door_).--Open, open, open, let me
in! Oh, my seven hundred thousand curses on you, the curse of the weak
and of the strong, the curse of the poets and of the bards upon you! The
curse of the priests on you and the friars! The curse of the bishops
upon you and the Pope! The curse of the widows on you and the children!
Open! (_He beats at the door again and again._)
SHEAMUS.--I am thankful to ye, neighbours, and Oona will be thankful
to ye to-morrow. Beat away you vagabond! Do your dancing out there with
yourself now! Isn’t it a fine thing for a man to be listening to the
storm outside, and himself quiet and easy beside the fire. Beat away,
beat away! Where’s Connacht now?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcriber’s Notes
The play _Casadh an tSugáin_ was originally printed in Cló Gaelach
(Irish script), with lenition indicated by a dot over the affected
consonant. This edition replaces the lenition dots with the letter “h,”
as is standard in modern written Irish. The Irish text uses the Tironian
et (⁊) rather than the Roman ampersand (&) to indicate “agus.”
As both plays are now set in Roman type, the formatting of each has been
standardised, with, for example, stage directions in the Irish play set
in italics and the formatting of the songs changed in the English
version to match the Irish formatting.
This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. Flourishes and
decorations in advertising copy have not been included in this plain
text version.
The following changes and corrections have been made:
• p. 6: Added period after “Mr.” in phrase “Mr. MacGinlay’s _Elis agus
an bhean deirce_ has not this defect.”
• p. 9: Removed after “separated” in phrase “it is difficult to write
well in a language which has been long separated from the
‘folk-speech’.”
• p. 11: Replaced “enthusiams” with “enthusiasms” in phrase “to create
a sort of rallying point for the many literary enthusiasms and
aspirations.”
• p. 12: Replaced “Rembrandts” with “Rembrandt’s” in phrase “Green
landscapes are not required in Rembrandt’s portraits.”
• p. 13: Added period after phrase “this would have been a base vanity,
and unworthy a Gaelic Leaguer.”
• p. 20: Added period after phrase “file Connachtach atá ar seachrán.”
• p. 20: Replaced “d’a” with “d’á” in phrase “mé ag éisteacht le n-a
bhfuil seisean d’á rádh liom.”
• p. 20: Replaced “nocht” with “anocht” in phrase “go dtáinig mé ann so
anocht.”
• p. 21: Replaced “anoish” with “anois” in phrase “sin le Úna in san
gcoirneull anois.”
• p. 22: Replaced “Eirinn” with “Éirinn” in phrase “deir siad nach
bhfuil damhsóir eile i n-Éirinn chomh maith leis.”
• p. 23: Replaced “Una” with “Úna” in phrase “A Úna----.”
• p. 23: Replaced “SÉAMAS” with “SÉAMUS” before phrase “Is cuma liom má
tá mallacht aige do leagfadh na spéartha.”
• p. 27: Replaced “Seó” with “Seo” in phrase “Seo an féar anois.”
• p. 29: Replaced “mllacht” with “mallacht” in phrase “O mo sheacht
gcéad míle mallacht orraibh.”
• p. 30: Added period after phrase “Engaged to OONA.”
• p. 31: Replaced “its” with “it’s” in phrase “it’s Hanrahan the rogue
he ought to have been christened by right.”
• p. 32: Replaced “myself” with “himself” in phrase “there was a kind
of friendship between himself and the first husband I had.”
• p. 32: Replaced “its” with “it’s” in phrase “and it’s often I heard
from poor Diarmuid.”
• p. 36: Replaced “dont” with “don’t” in phrase “I don’t believe
there’s a person in this house who ever saw one.”
• p. 36: Added exclamation mark after phrase “The province of Munster
without nicety, without prosperity!”
• p. 38: Replaced “aud” with “and” in phrase “All the men make a rush
at the door, and shut it.”
In addition, in several places in the English version of The Twisting of
the Rope, “Shemus” has been replaced with “Sheamus” and “Mauyra” with
“Maurya”; periods have silently been added after character names; and
character names in stage directions have had small caps markup added.