The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats. Volume 3 of 8. The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars

Waken him now till they’ll see did I tell any lie in my foretelling. I knew well by the signs, he was coming within the best day of his life.

PAUDEEN

And not dead at all! We’ll be marching to attack Dublin itself within a week. The horn will blow for him, and all good men will gather to him. Hurry on, Father, and waken him.

FATHER JOHN

I will not waken him. I will not bring him back from where he is.

JOHNNY

And how long will it be before he will waken of himself?

FATHER JOHN

Maybe to-day, maybe to-morrow, it is hard to be certain.

BIDDY

If it is away he is he might be away seven years. To be lying like a stump of a tree and using no food and the world not able to knock a word out of him, I know the signs of it well.

JOHNNY

We cannot be waiting and watching through seven years. If the business he has started is to be done we have to go on here and now. The time there is any delay, that is the time the Government will get information. Waken him now, Father, and you’ll get the blessing of the generations.

FATHER JOHN

I will not bring him back. God will bring him back in his own good time. For all I know he may be seeing the hidden things of God.

JOHNNY

He might slip away in his dream. It is best to raise him up now.

ANDREW

Waken him, Father John. I thought he was surely dead this time, and what way could I go face Thomas through all that is left of my lifetime, after me standing up to face him the way I did? And if I do take a little drop of an odd night, sure I’d be very lonesome if I did not take it. All the world knows it’s not for love of what I drink, but for love of the people that do be with me! Waken him, Father, or maybe I would waken him myself. [Shakes him.]

FATHER JOHN

Lift your hand from touching him. Leave him to himself and to the power of God.

JOHNNY

If you will not bring him back why wouldn’t we ourselves do it? Go on now, it is best for you to do it yourself.

FATHER JOHN

I woke him yesterday. He was angry with me, he could not get to the heart of the command.

JOHNNY

If he did not, he got a command from myself that satisfied him, and a message.

FATHER JOHN

He did – he took it from you – and how do I know what devil’s message it may have been that brought him into that devil’s work, destruction and drunkenness and burnings! That was not a message from heaven! It was I awoke him, it was I kept him from hearing what was maybe a divine message, a voice of truth, and he heard you speak and he believed the message was brought by you. You have made use of your deceit and his mistaking – you have left him without house or means to support him, you are striving to destroy and to drag him to entire ruin. I will not help you, I would rather see him die in his trance and go into God’s hands than awake him and see him go into hell’s mouth with vagabonds and outcasts like you!

JOHNNY [turning to BIDDY]

You should have knowledge, Biddy Lally, of the means to bring back a man that is away.

BIDDY

The power of the earth will do it through its herbs, and the power of the air will do it kindling fire into flame.

JOHNNY

Rise up and make no delay. Stretch out and gather a handful of an herb that will bring him back from whatever place he is in.

BIDDY

Where is the use of herbs, and his teeth clenched the way he could not use them?

JOHNNY

Take fire so in the devil’s name, and put it to the soles of his feet.

    [Takes a lighted sod from fire.

FATHER JOHN

Let him alone, I say! [Dashes away the sod.

JOHNNY

I will not leave him alone! I will not give in to leave him swooning there and the country waiting for him to awake!

FATHER JOHN

I tell you I awoke him! I sent him into thieves’ company! I will not have him wakened again and evil things it maybe waiting to take hold of him! Back from him, back, I say! Will you dare to lay a hand on me! You cannot do it! You cannot touch him against my will!

BIDDY

Mind yourself, do not be bringing us under the curse of the Church.

    [JOHNNY steps back. MARTIN moves.

FATHER JOHN