The King's Threshold; and On Baile's Strand — John Shaqi
The King's Threshold; and On Baile's StrandYeats, W. B. (William Butler)
General
The King's Threshold; and On Baile's Strand
Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)
Ireland -- Drama
_Seanchan._ That’s true; and there’s some trouble here, although
I cannot now remember what it is,
And I would get away from it. Give me your help.
But why are not my pupils here to help me?
Go, call my pupils, for I need their help.
_Fedelm._ Come with me now, and I will send for them,
For I have a great room that’s full of beds
I can make ready, and there is a smooth lawn
Where they can play at hurley and sing poems
Under an apple-tree.
_Seanchan._ I know that place,
An apple tree and a smooth level lawn,
Where the young men can sway their hurley sticks.
_Sings._
The four rivers that run there,
Through well-mown level ground,
Have come out of a blessed well
That is all bound and wound
By the great roots of an apple,
And all fowls of the air
Have gathered in the wide branches
And keep singing there.
[_FEDELM, troubled, has covered her eyes with her hands._
_Fedelm._ No, there are not four rivers, and those rhymes
Praise Adam’s Paradise.
_Seanchan._ I can remember now.
It’s out of a poem I made long ago
About the garden in the east of the world,
And how spirits in the images of birds
Crowd in the branches of old Adam’s crab-tree;
They come before me now and dig in the fruit
With so much gluttony, and are so drunk
With that harsh, wholesome savour that their feathers
Are clinging one to another with the juice.
But you would take me to some friendly place,
And I would go there quickly.
_Fedelm._ Come with me.
[_She helps him to rise. He walks slowly, supported by her till he
comes to the table at R._
_Seanchan._ But why am I so weak? Have I been ill?
Sweetheart, why is it that I am so weak?
[_He sinks on to the seat._
_Fedelm._ I’ll dip this piece of bread into the wine,
For that will make you stronger for the journey.
_Seanchan._ Yes, give me bread and wine, that’s what I want,
For it is hunger that is gnawing me.
[_He takes bread from FEDELM, hesitates, and then thrusts it back
into her hand._
But no, I must not eat it.
_Fedelm._ Eat, Seanchan,
For if you do not eat it you will die.
_Seanchan._ Why did you give me food?
Why did you come?
For had I not enough to fight against
Without your coming?
_Fedelm._ Eat this little crust,
Seanchan, if you have any love for me.
_Seanchan._ I must not eat it: but that’s beyond your wit;
Child, child, I must not eat it though I die.
_Fedelm._ You do not know what love is, for if you loved
You would put every other thought away
But you have never loved me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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