THE COLLECTED WORKS OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE HOUR-GLASS. CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN. THE GOLDEN HELMET. THE IRISH DRAMATIC MOVEMENT :: BEING THE FOURTH VOLUME OF THE COLLECTED WORKS IN VERSE & PROSE OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS IMPRINTED AT THE SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS STRATFORD-ON-AVON MCMVIII CONTENTS PAGE THE HOUR-GLASS 1 CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN 31 THE GOLDEN HELMET 55 THE IRISH DRAMATIC MOVEMENT 79 APPENDIX I: ‘THE HOUR-GLASS’ 233 APPENDIX II: ‘CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN’ 240 APPENDIX III: ‘THE GOLDEN HELMET’ 243 APPENDIX IV: DATES AND PLACES OF THE FIRST PERFORMANCE OF NEW PLAYS PRODUCED BY THE NATIONAL THEATRE SOCIETY AND ITS PREDECESSORS 244 THE HOUR-GLASS: A MORALITY _PERSONS IN THE PLAY_ A WISE MAN A FOOL SOME PUPILS AN ANGEL THE WISE MAN’S WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN THE HOUR-GLASS: A MORALITY _A large room with a door at the back and another at the side, or else a curtained place where persons can enter by parting the curtains. A desk and a chair at one side. An hour-glass on a bracket or stand near the door. A creepy stool near it. Some benches. A WISE MAN sitting at his desk._ WISE MAN. [_Turning over the pages of a book._] WHERE is that passage I am to explain to my pupils to-day? Here it is, and the book says that it was written by a beggar on the walls of Babylon: ‘There are two living countries, the one visible and the one invisible; and when it is winter with us it is summer in that country, and when the November winds are up among us it is lambing-time there.’ I wish that my pupils had asked me to explain any other passage. [_The FOOL comes in and stands at the door holding out his hat. He has a pair of shears in the other hand._] It sounds to me like foolishness; and yet that cannot be, for the writer of this book, where I have found so much knowledge, would not have set it by itself on this page, and surrounded it with so many images and so many deep colours and so much fine gilding, if it had been foolishness. FOOL. Give me a penny. WISE MAN [_turns to another page_]. Here he has written: ‘The learned in old times forgot the visible country.’ That I understand, but I have taught my learners better. FOOL. Won’t you give me a penny? WISE MAN. What do you want? The words of the wise Saracen will not teach you much. FOOL. Such a great wise teacher as you are will not refuse a penny to a fool. WISE MAN. What do you know about wisdom? FOOL. Oh, I know! I know what I have seen. WISE MAN. What is it you have seen? FOOL.