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

A YOUNG MAN

Did your friends the angels give you that bag? Why don’t they fill your bag for you?

FOOL

Give me pennies! Give me some pennies!

A YOUNG MAN

What do you want pennies for? that great bag at your waist is heavy.

FOOL

I want to buy bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time when the sun is weak, and snares to catch rabbits and the squirrels that steal the nuts, and hares, and a great pot to cook them in.

A YOUNG MAN

Why don’t your friends tell you where buried treasures are? Why don’t they make you dream about treasures? If one dreams three times there is always treasure.

FOOL [holding out his hat]

Give me pennies! Give me pennies!

[They throw pennies into his hat. He is standing close to the door, that he may hold out his hat to each newcomer.

A YOUNG MAN

Master, will you have Teig the Fool for a scholar?

ANOTHER YOUNG MAN

Teig, will you give us your pennies if we teach you lessons? No, he goes to school for nothing on the mountains. Tell us what you learn on the mountains, Teig?

WISE MAN

Be silent all! [He has been standing silent, looking away.] Stand still in your places, for there is something I would have you tell me.

[A moment’s pause. They all stand round in their places. TEIG still stands at the door.

WISE MAN

Is there any one amongst you who believes in God? In Heaven? Or in Purgatory? Or in Hell?

ALL THE YOUNG MEN

No one, Master! No one!

WISE MAN

I knew you would all say that; but do not be afraid. I will not be angry. Tell me the truth. Do you not believe?

A YOUNG MAN

We once did, but you have taught us to know better.

WISE MAN

Oh! teaching, teaching does not go very deep! The heart remains unchanged under it all. You have the faith that you always had, and you are afraid to tell me.

A YOUNG MAN

No, no, Master!

WISE MAN

If you tell me that you have not changed I shall be glad and not angry.

A YOUNG MAN [to his Neighbour]

He wants somebody to dispute with.

HIS NEIGHBOUR

I knew that from the beginning.

A YOUNG MAN

That is not the subject for to-day; you were going to talk about the words the beggar wrote upon the walls of Babylon.

WISE MAN

If there is one amongst you that believes, he will be my best friend. Surely there is one amongst you. [They are all silent.] Surely what you learned at your mother’s knees has not been so soon forgotten.

A YOUNG MAN

Master, till you came, no teacher in this land was able to get rid of foolishness and ignorance. But every one has listened to you, every one has learned the truth. You have had your last disputation.

ANOTHER

What a fool you made of that monk in the market-place! He had not a word to say.

WISE MAN

[Comes from his desk and stands among them in the middle of the room.]

Pupils, dear friends, I have deceived you all this time. It was I myself who was ignorant. There is a God. There is a Heaven. There is fire that passes, and there is fire that lasts for ever.

[TEIG, through all this, is sitting on a stool by the door, reckoning on his fingers what he will buy with his money.