Part 3
I had forgotten that.
[_He looks at the clothes and turns towards the inner room, but stops at the sound of cheering outside._
PETER.
There is the shouting come to our own door. What is it has happened?
[Neighbours_ come crowding in, PATRICK and DELIA with them._
PATRICK.
There are ships in the Bay; the French are landing at Killala!
[_PETER takes his pipe from his mouth and his hat off and stands up. The clothes slip from MICHAEL’S arm._
DELIA.
Michael! [_He takes no notice._] Michael! [_He turns towards her._] Why do you look at me like a stranger?
[_She drops his arm. BRIDGET goes over towards her._
PATRICK.
The boys are all hurrying down the hill-sides to join the French.
DELIA.
Michael won’t be going to join the French.
BRIDGET [_to PETER_].
Tell him not to go, Peter.
PETER.
It’s no use. He doesn’t hear a word we’re saying.
BRIDGET.
Try and coax him over to the fire.
DELIA.
Michael, Michael! You won’t leave me! You won’t join the French, and we going to be married!
[_She puts her arms about him, he turns towards her as if about to yield._
OLD WOMAN’S _voice outside_.
They shall be speaking for ever, The people shall hear them for ever.
[_MICHAEL breaks away from DELIA, stands for a second at the door, then rushes out, following the OLD WOMAN’S voice. BRIDGET takes DELIA, who is crying silently, into her arms._
PETER.
[_To PATRICK, laying a hand on his arm._]
Did you see an old woman going down the path?
PATRICK.
I did not, but I saw a young girl, and she had the walk of a queen.
THE GOLDEN HELMET
_PERSONS IN THE PLAY_
CUCHULAIN LEAGERIE CONAL EMER, _Cuchulain’s wife_ LEAGERIE’S WIFE CONAL’S WIFE LAEG, _Cuchulain’s chariot-driver_ RED MAN HORSEBOYS AND SCULLIONS THREE BLACK MEN
THE GOLDEN HELMET
_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_].
Leagerie of the Battles Has put to the sword The cat-headed men And carried away Their hidden gold.
[_He snatches Helmet at the last word._
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._
My man is the best. What other has fought The cat-headed men That mew in the sea And carried away Their long-hidden gold? They struck with their claws And bit with their teeth, But Leagerie my husband Put all to the sword.
CONAL’S WIFE.
[_Putting her hand over the other’s mouth and getting in front of her._]
My husband has fought With strong men in armour. Had he a quarrel With cats, it is certain He’d war with none But the stout and heavy With good claws on them. What glory in warring With hollow shadows That helplessly mew?
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._
My man is the best. And Conal’s wife And the wife of Leagerie Know that they lie When they praise their own Out of envy of me. My man is the best, First for his own sake, Being the bravest And handsomest man And the most beloved By the women of Ireland That envy me, And then for his wife’s sake Because I’m the youngest And handsomest queen.
[_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.