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

MICHAEL

I will go with you.

BRIDGET

It is not her friends you have to go and welcome, Michael; it is the girl coming into the house you have to welcome. You have plenty to do, it is food and drink you have to bring to the house. The woman that is coming home is not coming with empty hands; you would not have an empty house before her. [To the OLD WOMAN.] Maybe you don’t know, ma’am, that my son is going to be married to-morrow.

OLD WOMAN

It is not a man going to his marriage that I look to for help.

PETER [to BRIDGET]

Who is she, do you think, at all?

BRIDGET

You did not tell us your name yet, ma’am.

OLD WOMAN

Some call me the Poor Old Woman, and there are some that call me Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.

PETER

I think I knew someone of that name once. Who was it, I wonder? It must have been someone I knew when I was a boy. No, no; I remember, I heard it in a song.

OLD WOMAN

[Who is standing in the doorway.]

They are wondering that there were songs made for me; there have been many songs made for me. I heard one on the wind this morning.

[Sings.] Do not make a great keening
When the graves have been dug to-morrow.
Do not call the white-scarfed riders
To the burying that shall be to-morrow.
Do not spread food to call strangers
To the wakes that shall be to-morrow;
Do not give money for prayers
For the dead that shall die to-morrow.

they will have no need of prayers, they will have no need of prayers.

MICHAEL

I do not know what that song means, but tell me something I can do for you.

PETER

Come over to me, Michael.

MICHAEL

Hush, father, listen to her.

OLD WOMAN

It is a hard service they take that help me. Many that are red-cheeked now will be pale-cheeked; many that have been free to walk the hills and the bogs and the rushes, will be sent to walk hard streets in far countries; many a good plan will be broken; many that have gathered money will not stay to spend it; many a child will be born and there will be no father at its christening to give it a name. They that had red cheeks will have pale cheeks for my sake; and for all that, they will think they are well paid.

    [She goes out; her voice is heard outside singing.

They shall be remembered for ever,
They shall be alive for ever,
They shall be speaking for ever,
The people shall hear them for ever.

BRIDGET [to PETER]

Look at him, Peter; he has the look of a man that has got the touch. [Raising her voice.] Look here, Michael, at the wedding clothes. Such grand clothes as these are! You have a right to fit them on now, it would be a pity to-morrow if they did not fit. The boys would be laughing at you. Take them, Michael, and go into the room and fit them on.

    [She puts them on his arm.

MICHAEL

What wedding are you talking of? What clothes will I be wearing to-morrow?

BRIDGET

These are the clothes you are going to wear when you marry Delia Cahel to-morrow.

MICHAEL

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.