Читать книгу The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats. Volume 4 of 8. The Hour-glass. Cathleen ni Houlihan. The Golden Helmet. The Irish Dramatic Movement - Yeats William Butler, William Butler Yeats - Страница 6

A house made of logs. There are two windows at the back and a door which cuts off one of the corners of the room. Through the door one can see rocks, which make the ground outside the door higher than it is within, and the sea. Through the windows one can see nothing but the sea. There are three great chairs at the opposite side to the door, with a table before them. There are cups and a flagon of ale on the table.

At the Abbey Theatre the house is orange red, and the chairs, tables and flagons black, with a slight purple tinge which is not clearly distinguishable from the black. The rocks are black, with a few green touches. The sea is green and luminous, and all the characters, except the RED MAN and the Black Men are dressed in various tints of green, one or two with touches of purple which looks nearly black. The Black Men are in dark purple and the RED MAN is altogether dressed in red. He is very tall and his height is increased by horns on the Golden Helmet. The Helmet has in reality more dark green than gold about it. The Black Men have cats’ heads painted on their black cloth caps. The effect is intentionally violent and startling.

CONAL

Not a sail, not a wave, and if the sea were not purring a little like a cat, not a sound. There is no danger yet. I can see a long way for the moonlight is on the sea.

[A horn sounds.

LEAGERIE

Ah, there is something.

CONAL

It must be from the land, and it is from the sea that danger comes. We need not be afraid of anything that comes from the land. [Looking out of door.] I cannot see anybody, the rocks and the trees hide a great part of the pathway upon that side.

LEAGERIE [sitting at table]

It sounded like Cuchulain’s horn, but that’s not possible.

CONAL

Yes, that’s impossible. He will never come home from Scotland. He has all he wants there. Luck in all he does. Victory and wealth and happiness flowing in on him, while here at home all goes to rack, and a man’s good name drifts away between night and morning.

LEAGERIE

I wish he would come home for all that, and put quiet and respect for those that are more than she is into that young wife of his. Only this very night your wife and my wife had to forbid her to go into the dining-hall before them. She is young, and she is Cuchulain’s wife, and so she must spread her tail like a peacock.

CONAL [at door]

I can see the horn-blower now, a young man wrapped in a cloak.

LEAGERIE

Do not let him come in. Tell him to go elsewhere for shelter. This is no place to seek shelter in.

CONAL

That is right. I will tell him to go away, for nobody must know the disgrace that is to fall upon Ireland this night.

LEAGERIE

Nobody of living men but us two must ever know that.

CONAL [outside door]

Go away, go away!

[A YOUNG MAN covered by a long cloak is standing upon the rocks outside door.

YOUNG MAN

I am a traveller, and I am looking for sleep and food.

CONAL

A law has been made that nobody is to come into this house to-night.

YOUNG MAN

Who made that law?

CONAL

We two made it, and who has so good a right? for we have to guard this house and to keep it from robbery, and from burning and from enchantment.

YOUNG MAN

Then I will unmake the law. Out of my way!

[He struggles with CONAL and shoves past into the house.

CONAL

I thought no living man but Leagerie could have stood against me; and Leagerie himself could not have shoved past me. What is more, no living man could if I were not taken by surprise. How could I expect to find so great a strength?

LEAGERIE

Go out of this: there is another house a little further along the shore; our wives are there with their servants, and they will give you food and drink.

YOUNG MAN

It is in this house I will have food and drink.

LEAGERIE [drawing his sword]

Go out of this, or I will make you.

[The YOUNG MAN seizes LEAGERIE’S arm, and thrusting it up, passes him, and puts his shield over the chair where there is an empty place.

YOUNG MAN [at table]

It is here I will spend the night, but I won’t tell you why till I have drunk. I am thirsty. What, the flagon full and the cups empty and Leagerie and Conal there! Why, what’s in the wind that Leagerie and Conal cannot drink?

LEAGERIE

It is Cuchulain.

CONAL

Better go away to Scotland again, or if you stay here ask no one what has happened or what is going to happen.

CUCHULAIN

What more is there that can happen so strange as that I should come home after years and that you should bid me begone?

CONAL

I tell you that this is no fit house to welcome you, for it is a disgraced house.

CUCHULAIN

What is it you are hinting at? You were sitting there with ale beside you and the door open, and quarrelsome thoughts. You are waiting for something or someone. It is for some messenger who is to bring you to some spoil, or to some adventure that you will keep for yourselves.

LEAGERIE

Better tell him, for he has such luck that it may be his luck will amend ours.

CONAL

Yes, I had better tell him, for even now at this very door we saw what luck he had. He had the slope of the ground to help him. Is the sea quiet?

LEAGERIE [looks out of window]

There is nothing stirring.

CONAL

Cuchulain, a little after you went out of this country we were sitting here drinking. We were merry. It was late, close on to midnight, when a strange-looking man with red hair and a great sword in his hand came in through that door. He asked for ale and we gave it to him, for we were tired of drinking with one another. He became merry, and for every joke we made he made a better, and presently we all three got up and danced, and then we sang, and then he said he would show us a new game. He said he would stoop down and that one of us was to cut off his head, and afterwards one of us, or whoever had a mind for the game, was to stoop down and have his head whipped off. ‘You take off my head,’ said he, ‘and then I take off his head, and that will be a bargain and a debt between us. A head for a head, that is the game,’ said he. We laughed at him and told him he was drunk, for how could he whip off a head when his own had been whipped off? Then he began abusing us and calling us names, so I ran at him and cut his head off, and the head went on laughing where it lay, and presently he caught it up in his hands and ran out and plunged into the sea.

CUCHULAIN [laughs]

I have imagined as good, when I had as much ale, and believed it too.

LEAGERIE [at table]

I tell you, Cuchulain, you never did. You never imagined a story like this.

CONAL

Why must you be always putting yourself up against Leagerie and myself? and what is more, it was no imagination at all. We said to ourselves that all came out of the flagon, and we laughed, and we said we will tell nobody about it. We made an oath to tell nobody. But twelve months after when we were sitting by this table, the flagon between us —

LEAGERIE

But full up to the brim —

CONAL

The thought of that story had put us from our drinking —

LEAGERIE

We were telling it over to one another —

CONAL

Suddenly that man came in with his head on his shoulders again, and the big sword in his hand. He asked for payment of his debt, and because neither I nor Leagerie would let him cut off our heads he began abusing us and making little of us, and saying that we were a disgrace, and that all Ireland was disgraced because of us. We had not a word to say.

LEAGERIE

If you had been here you would have been as silent as we were.

CONAL

At last he said he would come again in twelve months and give us one more chance to keep our word and pay our debt. After that he went down into the sea again. Will he tell the whole world of the disgrace that has come upon us, do you think?

CUCHULAIN

Whether he does or does not, we will stand there in the door with our swords out and drive him down to the sea again.

CONAL

What is the use of fighting with a man whose head laughs when it has been cut off?

LEAGERIE

We might run away, but he would follow us everywhere.

CONAL

He is coming; the sea is beginning to splash and rumble as it did before he came the last time.

CUCHULAIN

Let us shut the door and put our backs against it.

LEAGERIE

It is too late. Look, there he is at the door. He is standing on the threshold.

[A MAN dressed in red, with a great sword and red ragged hair, and having a Golden Helmet on his head, is standing on the threshold.

CUCHULAIN

Go back into the sea, old red head! If you will take off heads, take off the head of the sea turtle of Muirthemne, or of the pig of Connaught that has a moon in his belly, or of that old juggler Manannan, son of the sea, or of the red man of the Boyne, or of the King of the Cats, for they are of your own sort, and it may be they understand your ways. Go, I say, for when a man’s head is off it does not grow again. What are you standing there for? Go down, I say. If I cannot harm you with the sword I will put you down into the sea with my hands. Do you laugh at me, old red head? Go down before I lay my hands upon you.

RED MAN

So you also believe I was in earnest when I asked for a man’s head? It was but a drinker’s joke, an old juggling feat, to pass the time. I am the best of all drinkers and tipsy companions, the kindest there is among the Shape-changers of the world. Look, I have brought this Golden Helmet as a gift. It is for you or for Leagerie or for Conal, for the best man, and the bravest fighting-man amongst you, and you yourselves shall choose the man. Leagerie is brave, and Conal is brave. They risk their lives in battle, but they were not brave enough for my jokes and my juggling. [He lays the Golden Helmet on the ground.] Have I been too grim a joker? Well, I am forgiven now, for there is the Helmet, and let the strongest take it.

[He goes out.

CONAL [taking Helmet]

It is my right. I am a year older than Leagerie, and I have fought in more battles.

LEAGERIE [strutting about stage, sings]

CONAL

Give it back to me, I say. What was the treasure but withered leaves when you got to your own door?

CUCHULAIN

[Taking the Helmet from LEAGERIE.]

Give it to me, I say.

CONAL

You are too young, Cuchulain. What deeds have you to be set beside our deeds?

CUCHULAIN

I have not taken it for myself. It will belong to us all equally. [He goes to table and begins filling Helmet with ale.] We will pass it round and drink out of it turn about and no one will be able to claim that it belongs to him more than another. I drink to your wife, Conal, and to your wife, Leagerie, and I drink to Emer my own wife. [Shouting and blowing of horns in the distance.] What is that noise?

CONAL

It is the horseboys and the huntboys and the scullions quarrelling. I know the sound, for I have heard it often of late. It is a good thing that you are home, Cuchulain, for it is your own horseboy and chariot-driver, Laeg, that is the worst of all, and now you will keep him quiet. They take down the great hunting-horns when they cannot drown one another’s voices by shouting. There – there – do you hear them now? [Shouting so as to be heard above the noise.] I drink to your good health, Cuchulain, and to your young wife, though it were well if she did not quarrel with my wife.

Many men, among whom is LAEG, chariot-driver of CUCHULAIN, come in with great horns of many fantastic shapes

LAEG

I am Cuchulain’s chariot-driver, and I say that my master is the best.

ANOTHER

He is not, but Leagerie is.

ANOTHER

No, but Conal is.

LAEG

Make them listen to me, Cuchulain.

ANOTHER

No, but listen to me.

LAEG

When I said Cuchulain should have the Helmet, they blew the horns.

ANOTHER

Conal has it. The best man has it.

CUCHULAIN

Silence, all of you. What is all this uproar, Laeg, and who began it?

[The Scullions and the Horseboys point at LAEG and cry, ‘He began it.’ They keep up an all but continual murmur through what follows.

LAEG

A man with a red beard came where we were sitting, and as he passed me he cried out that they were taking a golden helmet or some such thing from you and denying you the championship of Ireland. I stood up on that and I cried out that you were the best of the men of Ireland. But the others cried for Leagerie or Conal, and because I have a big voice they got down the horns to drown my voice, and as neither I nor they would keep silent we have come here to settle it. I demand that the Helmet be taken from Conal and be given to you.

[The Horseboys and the Scullions shout, ‘No, no; give it to Leagerie,’ ‘The best man has it,’ etc.

CUCHULAIN

It has not been given to Conal or to anyone. I have made it into a drinking-cup that it may belong to all. I drank and then Conal drank. Give it to Leagerie, Conal, that he may drink. That will make them see that it belongs to all of us.

A SCULLION OR HORSEBOY

Cuchulain is right.

ANOTHER

Cuchulain is right, and I am tired blowing on the big horn.

LAEG

Cuchulain, you drank first.

ANOTHER

He gives it to Leagerie now, but he has taken the honour of it for himself. Did you hear him say he drank the first? He claimed to be the best by drinking first.

ANOTHER

Did Cuchulain drink the first?

LAEG [triumphantly]

You drank the first, Cuchulain.

CONAL

Did you claim to be better than us by drinking first?

[LEAGERIE and CONAL draw their swords.

CUCHULAIN

Is it that old dried herring, that old red juggler who has made us quarrel for his own comfort? [The Horseboys and the Scullions murmur excitedly.] He gave the Helmet to set us by the ears, and because we would not quarrel over it, he goes to Laeg and tells him that I am wronged. Who knows where he is now, or who he is stirring up to make mischief between us? Go back to your work and do not stir from it whatever noise comes to you or whatever shape shows itself.

A SCULLION

Cuchulain is right. I am tired blowing on the big horn.

CUCHULAIN

Go in silence.

[The Scullions and Horseboys turn towards the door, but stand still on hearing the voice of LEAGERIE’S WIFE outside the door.

LEAGERIE’S WIFE

My man is the best. I will go in the first. I will go in the first.

EMER

My man is the best, and I will go in first.

CONAL’S WIFE

No, for my man is the best, and it is I that should go first.

[LEAGERIE’S WIFE and CONAL’S WIFE struggle in the doorway.

LEAGERIE’S WIFE sings

CONAL’S WIFE

[Putting her hand over the other’s mouth and getting in front of her.]

EMER

[Thrusting herself between them and forcing both of them back with her hands.]

I am Emer, wife of Cuchulain, and no one shall go in front of me, or sing in front of me, or praise any that I have not a mind to hear praised.

[CUCHULAIN puts his spear across the door.

CUCHULAIN

All of our three wives shall come in together, and by three doors equal in height and in breadth and in honour. Break down the bottoms of the windows.

[While CONAL and LEAGERIE are breaking down the bottoms of the windows each of their wives goes to the window where her husband is.

While the windows are being broken down EMER sings

[When the windows have been made into doors, CUCHULAIN takes his spear from the door where EMER is, and all three come in at the same moment.

EMER

I am come to praise you and to put courage into you, Cuchulain, as a wife should, that they may not take the championship of the men of Ireland from you.

LEAGERIE’S WIFE

You lie, Emer, for it is Cuchulain and Conal who are taking the championship from my husband.

CONAL’S WIFE

Cuchulain has taken it.

CUCHULAIN

Townland against townland, barony against barony, kingdom against kingdom, province against province, and if there be but two door-posts to a door the one fighting against the other. [He takes up the Helmet which LEAGERIE had laid down upon the table when he went to break out the bottom of the window.] This Helmet will bring no more wars into Ireland. [He throws it into the sea.]

LEAGERIE’S WIFE

You have done that to rob my husband.

CONAL’S WIFE

You could not keep it for yourself, and so you threw it away that nobody else might have it.

CONAL

You should not have done that, Cuchulain.

LEAGERIE

You have done us a great wrong.

EMER

Who is for Cuchulain?

CUCHULAIN

Let no one stir.

EMER

Who is for Cuchulain, I say?

[She draws her dagger from her belt and sings the same words as before, flourishing it about. While she has been singing, CONAL’S WIFE and LEAGERIE’S WIFE have drawn their daggers and run at her to kill her, but CUCHULAIN has forced them back. CONAL and LEAGERIE have drawn their swords to strike CUCHULAIN.

CONAL’S WIFE

[While EMER is still singing.]

Silence her voice, silence her voice, blow the horns, make a noise!

[The Scullions and Horseboys blow their horns or fight among themselves. There is a deafening noise and a confused fight. Suddenly three black hands holding extinguishers come through the window and extinguish the torches. It is now pitch dark but for a very faint light outside the house which merely shows that there are moving forms, but not who or what they are, and in the darkness one can hear low terrified voices.

FIRST VOICE

Did you see them putting out the torches?

ANOTHER VOICE

They came up out of the sea, three black men.

ANOTHER VOICE

They have heads of cats upon them.

ANOTHER VOICE

They came up mewing out of the sea.

ANOTHER VOICE

How dark it is! one of them has put his hand over the moon.

[A light gradually comes into the windows as if shining from the sea. The RED MAN is seen standing in the midst of the house.

RED MAN

I demand the debt that is owing. I demand that some man shall stoop down that I may cut his head off as my head was cut off. If my debt is not paid, no peace shall come to Ireland, and Ireland shall lie weak before her enemies. But if my debt is paid there shall be peace.

CUCHULAIN

The quarrels of Ireland shall end. What is one man’s life? I will pay the debt with my own head. [EMER wails.] Do not cry out, Emer, for if I were not myself, if I were not Cuchulain, one of those that God has made reckless, the women of Ireland had not loved me, and you had not held your head so high. [He stoops, bending his head. Three Black Men come to the door. Two hold torches, and one stooping between them holds up the Golden Helmet. The RED MAN gives one of the Black Men his sword and takes the Helmet.] What do you wait for, old man? Come, raise up your sword!

RED MAN

I will not harm you, Cuchulain. I am the guardian of this land, and age after age I come up out of the sea to try the men of Ireland. I give you the championship because you are without fear, and you shall win many battles with laughing lips and endure wounding and betrayal without bitterness of heart; and when men gaze upon you, their hearts shall grow greater and their minds clear; until the day come when I darken your mind, that there may be an end to the story, and a song on the harp-string.