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

[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.