First performed at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, February 25th, 1904.
SCENE.-- An Island off the West of Ireland.(Cottage kitchen, with nets, oil-skins, spinning wheel, some new boards standing by the wall, etc.Cathleen, a girl of about twenty, finishes kneading cake, and puts it down in the pot-oven by the fire; then wipes her hands, and begins to spin at the wheel.NORA, a young girl, puts her head in at the door.)NORA [In a low voice.] Where is she?
CATHLEEN She's lying down, God help her, and may be sleeping, if she's able.
[Nora comes in softly, and takes a bundle from under her shawl.] CATHLEEN [Spinning the wheel rapidly.]
What is it you have?
NORA The young priest is after bringing them.It's a shirt and a plain stocking were got off a drowned man in Donegal.
[Cathleen stops her wheel with a sudden movement, and leans out to listen.]
NORA We're to find out if it's Michael's they are, some time herself will be down looking by the sea.
CATHLEEN How would they be Michael's, Nora.How would he go the length of that way to the far north?
NORA The young priest says he's known the like of it."If it's Michael's they are," says he, "you can tell herself he's got a clean burial by the grace of God, and if they're not his, let no one say a word about them, for she'll be getting her death," says he, "with crying and lamenting."[The door which Nora half closed is blown open by a gust of wind.] CATHLEEN [Looking out anxiously.]
Did you ask him would he stop Bartley going this day with the horses to the Galway fair?
NORA "I won't stop him," says he, "but let you not be afraid.Herself does be saying prayers half through the night, and the Almighty God won't leave her destitute," says he, "with no son living."CATHLEEN Is the sea bad by the white rocks, Nora?
NORA Middling bad, God help us.There's a great roaring in the west, and it's worse it'll be getting when the tide's turned to the wind.
[She goes over to the table with the bundle.] Shall I open it now?
CATHLEEN Maybe she'd wake up on us, and come in before we'd done.
[Coming to the table.]
It's a long time we'll be, and the two of us crying.NORA [Goes to the inner door and listens.]
She's moving about on the bed.She'll be coming in a minute.CATHLEEN Give me the ladder, and I'll put them up in the turf-loft,the way she won't know of them at all, and maybe when the tide turns she'll be going down to see would he be floating from the east.
[They put the ladder against the gable of the chimney; Cathleen goes up a few steps and hides the bundle in the turf-loft.Maurya comes from the inner room.]
MAURYA [Looking up at Cathleen and speaking querulously.] Isn't it turf enough you have for this day and evening?
CATHLEEN There's a cake baking at the fire for a short space.[Throwing down the turf] and Bartley will want it when the tide turns if he goes to Connemara.
[Nora picks up the turf and puts it round the pot-oven.] MAURYA [Sitting down on a stool at the fire.]
He won't go this day with the wind rising from the south and west.He won't go this day, for the young priest will stop him surely.
NORA He'll not stop him, mother, and I heard Eamon Simon and Stephen Pheety and Colum Shawn saying he would go.
MAURYA Where is he itself?
NORA He went down to see would there be another boat sailing in the week, and I'm thinking it won't be long till he's here now, for the tide'sturning at the green head, and the hooker' tacking from the east.
CATHLEEN I hear some one passing the big stones.NORA [Looking out.]
He's coming now, and he in a hurry.
BARTLEY [Comes in and looks round the room.Speaking sadly and quietly.]
Where is the bit of new rope, Cathleen, was bought in Connemara? CATHLEEN [Coming down.]
Give it to him, Nora; it's on a nail by the white boards.I hung it up this morning, for the pig with the black feet was eating it.
NORA [Giving him a rope.] Is that it, Bartley?
MAURYA You'd do right to leave that rope, Bartley, hanging by the boards (Bartley takes the rope]).It will be wanting in this place, I'm telling you, if Michael is washed up to-morrow morning, or the next morning, or any morning in the week, for it's a deep grave we'll make him by the grace of God.
BARTLEY [Beginning to work with the rope.]
I've no halter the way I can ride down on the mare, and I must go now quickly.This is the one boat going for two weeks or beyond it, and the fair will be a good fair for horses I heard them saying below.
MAURYA It's a hard thing they'll be saying below if the body is washed up and there's no man in it to make the coffin, and I after giving a big price for the finest white boards you'd find in Connemara.
[She looks round at the boards.]
BARTLEY How would it be washed up, and we after looking each day for nine days, and a strong wind blowing a while back from the west and south?
MAURYA If it wasn't found itself, that wind is raising the sea, and there was a star up against the moon, and it rising in the night.If it was a hundred horses, or a thousand horses you had itself, what is the price of a thousand horses against a son where there is one son only?
BARTLEY [Working at the halter, to Cathleen.]
Let you go down each day, and see the sheep aren't jumping in on therye, and if the jobber comes you can sell the pig with the black feet if there is a good price going.
MAURYA How would the like of her get a good price for a pig? BARTLEY [To Cathleen]
If the west wind holds with the last bit of the moon let you and Nora get up weed enough for another cock for the kelp.It's hard set we'll be from this day with no one in it but one man to work.
MAURYA It's hard set we'll be surely the day you're drownd'd with the rest.What way will I live and the girls with me, and I an old woman looking for the grave?
[Bartley lays down the halter, takes off his old coat, and puts on a newer one of the same flannel.]
BARTLEY [To Nora.]
Is she coming to the pier?
NORA [Looking out.] She's passing the green head and letting fall her sails.
BARTLEY [Getting his purse and tobacco.]
I'll have half an hour to go down, and you'll see me coming again in two days, or in three days, or maybe in four days if the wind is bad.
