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
PAUDEEN. It is he would have got leave for the Gael to be as high as
the Gall. Believe me, he was in the prophecies. Let you not be
comparing yourself with the like of him.
NANNY. Why wouldn't I be comparing myself? Look at all that was against
me in the world; would you be matching me against a man of his sort
that had the people shouting for him and that had nothing to do but to
die and to go to heaven?
JOHNNY B. The day you go to heaven that you may never come back alive
out of it! But it is not yourself will ever hear the saints hammering
at their musics! It is you will be moving through the ages chains upon
you, and you in the form of a dog or a monster! I tell you, that one
will go through purgatory as quick as lightning through a thorn bush.
NANNY. That's the way, that's the way:
Three that are watching my time to run
The worm, the devil, and my son.
To see a loop around their neck
It's that would make my heart to leap!
JOHNNY B. Five white candles. I wouldn't begrudge them to him, indeed.
If he had held out and held up, it is my belief he would have freed
Ireland!
PAUDEEN. Wait till the full light of the day and you'll see the burying
he'll have. It is not in this place we will be waking him. I'll make a
call to the two hundred Ribbons he was to lead on to the attack on the
barracks at Aughanish. They will bring him marching to his grave upon
the hill. He had surely some gift from the other world, I wouldn't say
but he had power from the other side.
ANDREW [_coming in, very shaky_]. Well, it was a great night he gave
to the village, and it is long till it will be forgotten. I tell you
the whole of the neighbours are up against him. There is no one at all
this morning to set the mills going. There was no bread baked in the
night-time; the horses are not fed in the stalls; the cows are not
milked in the sheds. I met no man able to make a curse this night but
he put it on my own head and on the head of the boy that is lying there
before us.... Is there no sign of life in him at all?
JOHNNY B. What way would there be a sign of life and the life gone out
of him this three hours or more?
ANDREW. He was lying in his sleep for a while yesterday, and he wakened
again after another while.
NANNY. He will not waken. I tell you I held his hand in my own and it
getting cold as if you were pouring on it the coldest cold water, and
no running in his blood. He is gone sure enough, and the life is gone
out of him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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