The Unicorn from the Stars and Other Plays — John Shaqi
The Unicorn from the Stars and Other PlaysYeats, W. B. (William Butler)
General
The Unicorn from the Stars and Other Plays
Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)
Ireland -- Drama; Irish drama
MARTIN. Not just now. I want to think ... to try and remember what I
saw, something that I heard, that I was told to do.
THOMAS. No, but put it out of your mind. There is no man doing business
that can keep two things in his head. A Sunday or a Holyday now you
might go see a good hurling or a thing of the kind, but to be spreading
out your mind on anything outside of the workshop on common days, all
coach building would come to an end.
MARTIN. I don't think it is building I want to do. I don't think that
is what was in the command.
THOMAS. It is too late to be saying that the time you have put the most
of your fortune in the business. Set yourself now to finish your job,
and when it is ended, maybe I won't begrudge you going with the coach
as far as Dublin.
ANDREW. That is it; that will satisfy him. I had a great desire myself,
and I young, to go travelling the roads as far as Dublin. The roads are
the great things; they never come to an end. They are the same as the
serpent having his tail swallowed in his own mouth.
MARTIN. It was not wandering I was called to. What was it? What was it?
THOMAS. What you are called to, and what everyone having no great
estate is called to, is to work. Sure the world itself could not go on
without work.
MARTIN. I wonder if that is the great thing, to make the world go on.
No, I don't think that is the great thing ... what does the Munster
poet call it ... "this crowded slippery coach-loving world." I don't
think I was told to work for that.
ANDREW. I often thought that myself. It is a pity the stock of the
Hearnes to be asked to do any work at all.
THOMAS. Rouse yourself, Martin, and don't be talking the way a fool
talks. You started making that golden coach, and you were set upon it,
and you had me tormented about it. You have yourself wore out working
at it and planning it and thinking of it, and at the end of the race,
when you have the winning post in sight, and horses hired for to bring
it to Dublin Castle, you go falling into sleeps and blathering about
dreams, and we run to a great danger of letting the profit and the sale
go by. Sit down on the bench now, and lay your hands to the work.
MARTIN [_sitting down_]. I will try. I wonder why I ever wanted to
make it; it was no good dream set me doing that. [_He takes up wheel._]
What is there in a wooden wheel to take pleasure in it? Gilding it
outside makes it no different.
THOMAS. That is right now. You had some good plan for making the axle
run smooth.
MARTIN [_letting wheel fall and putting his hands to his head_]. It is
no use. [_Angrily._] Why did you send the priest to awake me? My soul
is my own and my mind is my own. I will send them to where I like. You
have no authority over my thoughts.
THOMAS. That is no way to be speaking to me. I am head of this
business. Nephew or no nephew, I will have no one come cold or
unwilling to the work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account