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
JOHNNY B. Some decent lad, I suppose, with a good way of living and a
mind to send up his name upon the roads.
PAUDEEN. You that have been gaoled this eight months know little of
this countryside.... It isn't a limping stroller like yourself the boys
would let come among them. But I know. I went to the drill a few
nights, and I skinning kids for the mountainy men. In a quarry beyond
the drill is ... they have their plans made.... It's the square house
of the Browns is to be made an attack on and plundered. Do you know now
who is the leader they are waiting for?
JOHNNY B. How would I know that?
PAUDEEN [_singing_].
Oh, Johnny Gibbons, my five hundred healths to you.
It is long you are away from us over the sea!
JOHNNY B. [_standing up excitedly_]. Sure that man could not be John
Gibbons that is outlawed.
PAUDEEN. I asked news of him from the old lad [_points after_ ANDREW],
and I bringing in the drink along with him. "Don't be asking
questions," says he; "take the treat he gives you," says he. "If a lad
that had a high heart has a mind to rouse the neighbours," says he,
"and to stretch out his hand to all that pass the road, it is in France
he learned it," says he, "the place he is but lately come from, and
where the wine does be standing open in tubs. Take your treat when you
get it," says he, "and make no delay, or all might be discovered and
put an end to."
JOHNNY B. He came over the sea from France! It is Johnny Gibbons
surely, but it seems to me they were calling him by some other name.
PAUDEEN. A man on his keeping might go by a hundred names. Would he be
telling it out to us that he never saw before, and we with that clutch
of chattering women along with us? Here he is coming now. Wait till you
see is he the lad I think him to be.
MARTIN [_coming in_]. I will make my banner; I will paint the Unicorn
on it. Give me that bit of canvas; there is paint over here. We will
get no help from the settled men--we will call to the lawbreakers, the
tinkers--the sievemakers--the sheep-stealers. [_He begins to make
banner._]
BIDDY. That sounds to be a queer name of an army. Ribbons I can
understand, Whiteboys, Rightboys, Threshers, and Peep-o'-day, but
Unicorns I never heard of before.
JOHNNY B. It is not a queer name, but a very good name. [_Takes up Lion
and Unicorn._] It is often you saw that before you in the dock. There
is the Unicorn with the one horn, and what is it he is going against?
The Lion of course. When he has the Lion destroyed, the Crown must fall
and be shivered. Can't you see? It is the League of the Unicorns is the
league that will fight and destroy the power of England and King
George.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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