MARY
Queen of Angels and kind saints defend us!Some dreadful thing will happen. A while agoShe took away the blessed quicken wood.
FATHER HART
You fear because of her unmeasured prattle;She knows no better. Child, how old are you?
THE CHILD
When winter sleep is abroad my hair grows thin,My feet unsteady. When the leaves awakenMy mother carries me in her golden arms;I'll soon put on my womanhood and marryThe spirits of wood and water, but who can tellWhen I was born for the first time? I thinkI am much older than the eagle cockThat blinks and blinks on Ballygawley Hill,And he is the oldest thing under the moon.
FATHER HART
O she is of the faery people.
THE CHILD
One called,I sent my messengers for milk and fire,She called again and after that I came.
(All except SHAWN and MARY BRUIN gather behind the priest for protection.)
SHAWN (rising)
Though you have made all these obedient,You have not charmed my sight and won from meA wish or gift to make you powerful;I'll turn you from the house.
FATHER HART
No, I will face her.
THE CHILD
Because you took away the crucifixI am so mighty that there's none can pass,Unless I will it, where my feet have dancedOr where I've whirled my finger-tops.
(SHAWN tries to approach her and cannot.)
MAURTEEN
Look, look!There something stops him – look how he moves his handsAs though he rubbed them on a wall of glass!
FATHER HART
I will confront this mighty spirit alone;Be not afraid, the Father is with us,The Holy Martyrs and the Innocents,The adoring Magi in their coats of mail,And He who died and rose on the third day,And all the nine angelic hierarchies.
(The CHILD kneels upon the settle beside Mary and puts her arms about her.)
Cry, daughter, to the Angels and the Saints.
THE CHILD
You shall go with me, newly-married bride,And gaze upon a merrier multitude.White-armed Nuala, Aengus of the Birds,Feacra of the hurtling foam, and himWho is the ruler of the Western Host,Finvarra, and their Land of Heart's Desire,Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood,But joy is wisdom, Time an endless song.I kiss you and the world begins to fade.
SHAWN
Awake out of that trance – and cover upYour eyes and ears.
FATHER HART
She must both look and listen,For only the soul's choice can save her now.Come over to me, daughter; stand beside me;Think of this house and of your duties in it.
THE CHILD
Stay and come with me, newly-married bride,For if you hear him you grow like the rest;Bear children, cook, and bend above the churn,And wrangle over butter, fowl, and eggs,Until at last, grown old and bitter of tongue,You're crouching there and shivering at the grave.
FATHER HART
Daughter, I point you out the way to Heaven.
THE CHILD
But I can lead you, newly-married bride,Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue,And where kind tongues bring no captivity;For we are but obedient to the thoughtsThat drift into the mind at a wink of the eye.
FATHER HART
By the dear Name of the One crucified,I bid you, Mary Bruin, come to me.
THE CHILD
I keep you in the name of your own heart.
FATHER HART
It is because I put away the crucifixThat I am nothing, and my power is nothing.I'll bring it here again.
MAURTEEN (clinging to him)
No.
BRIDGET
Do not leave us.
FATHER HART
O, let me go before it is too late;It is my sin alone that brought it all.
(Singing outside.)
THE CHILD
I hear them sing, "Come, newly-married bride,Come, to the woods and waters and pale lights."
MARY
I will go with you.
FATHER HART
She is lost, alas!
THE CHILD (standing by the door)
But clinging mortal hope must fall from you,For we who ride the winds, run on the waves,And dance upon the mountains are more lightThan dewdrops on the banner of the dawn.
MARY
O, take me with you.
SHAWN
Beloved, I will keep you.I've more than words, I have these arms to hold you,Nor all the faery host, do what they please,Shall ever make me loosen you from these arms.
MARY
Dear face! Dear voice!
THE CHILD
Come, newly-married bride.
MARY
I always loved her world – and yet – and yet —
THE CHILD
White bird, white bird, come with me, little bird.
MARY
She calls me!
THE CHILD
Come with me, little bird.
(Distant dancing figures appear in the wood.)
MARY
I can hear songs and dancing.
SHAWN
Stay with me.
MARY
I think that I would stay – and yet – and yet —
THE CHILD
Come, little bird, with crest of gold.
MARY (very softly)
And yet —
THE CHILD
Come, little bird with silver feet!
(MARY BRUIN dies, and the CHILD goes.)
SHAWN
She is dead!
BRIDGET
Come from that image; body and soul are gone.You have thrown your arms about a drift of leaves,Or bole of an ash-tree changed into her image.
FATHER HART
Thus do the spirits of evil snatch their prey,Almost out of the very hand of God;And day by day their power is more and more,And men and women leave old paths, for prideComes knocking with thin knuckles on the heart.
(Outside there are dancing figures, and it may be a white bird, and many voices singing:)
"The wind blows out of the gates of the day,The wind blows over the lonely of heart,And the lonely of heart is withered away;While the faeries dance in a place apart,Shaking their milk-white feet in a ring,Tossing their milk-white arms in the air;For they hear the wind laugh and murmur and singOf a land where even the old are fair,And even the wise are merry of tongue;But I heard a reed of Coolaney say —'When the wind has laughed and murmured and sung,The lonely of heart is withered away.'"