The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 3 (of 8): The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the StarsYeats, W. B. (William Butler)
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The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 3 (of 8): The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars
Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)
English literature -- Irish authors
It is with that banner we will march and the lads in the quarry with
us, it is they will have the welcome before him! It won’t be long till
we’ll be attacking the Square House! Arms there are in it, riches that
would smother the world, rooms full of guineas we will put wax on our
shoes walking them; the horses themselves shod with no less than silver!
MARTIN [_holding up banner_].
There it is ready! We are very few now, but the army of the Unicorns
will be a great army! [_To JOHNNY._] Why have you brought me the
message? Can you remember any more? Has anything more come to you? You
have been drinking, the clouds upon your mind have been destroyed....
Can you see anything or hear anything that is beyond the world?
JOHNNY.
I can not. I don’t know what do you want me to tell you at all?
MARTIN.
I want to begin the destruction, but I don’t know where to begin ...
you do not hear any other voice?
JOHNNY.
I do not. I have nothing at all to do with Freemasons or witchcraft.
PAUDEEN.
It is Biddy Lally has to do with witchcraft. It is often she threw the
cups and gave out prophecies the same as Columcille.
MARTIN.
You are one of the knowledgeable women. You can tell me where it is
best to begin, and what will happen in the end.
BIDDY.
I will foretell nothing at all. I rose out of it this good while, with
the stiffness and the swelling it brought upon my joints.
MARTIN.
If you have foreknowledge you have no right to keep silent. If you
do not help me I may go to work in the wrong way. I know I have to
destroy, but when I ask myself what I am to begin with, I am full of
uncertainty.
PAUDEEN.
Here now are the cups handy and the leavings in them.
BIDDY.
[_Taking cups and pouring one from another._]
Throw a bit of white money into the four corners of the house.
MARTIN.
There! [_Throwing it._]
BIDDY.
There can be nothing told without silver. It is not myself will have
the profit of it. Along with that I will be forced to throw out gold.
MARTIN.
There is a guinea for you. Tell me what comes before your eyes.
BIDDY.
What is it you are wanting to have news of?
MARTIN.
Of what I have to go out against at the beginning ... there is so much
... the whole world it may be.
BIDDY.
[_Throwing from one cup to another and looking._]
You have no care for yourself. You have been across the sea, you are
not long back. You are coming within the best day of your life.
MARTIN.
What is it? What is it I have to do?
BIDDY.
I see a great smoke, I see burning ... there is a great smoke overhead.
MARTIN.
That means we have to burn away a great deal that men have piled up
upon the earth. We must bring men once more to the wildness of the
clean green earth.
BIDDY.
Herbs for my healing, the big herb and the little herb, it is true
enough they get their great strength out of the earth.
JOHNNY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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