The Complete Works. William Butler Yeats
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[Seizing CONCHUBAR.]
You shall not stir, High King. I’ll hold you there.
CONCHUBAR.
Witchcraft has maddened you.
THE KINGS [shouting].
Yes, witchcraft! witchcraft!
FIRST OLD KING.
Some witch has worked upon your mind, Cuchulain.
The head of that young man seemed like a woman’s
You’d had a fancy for. Then of a sudden
You laid your hands on the High King himself!
CUCHULAIN.
And laid my hands on the High King himself?
CONCHUBAR.
Some witch is floating in the air above us.
CUCHULAIN.
Yes, witchcraft, witchcraft! Witches of the air! [To YOUNG MAN.
Why did you? Who was it set you to this work?
Out, out! I say, for now it’s sword on sword!
YOUNG MAN.
But … but I did not.
CUCHULAIN.
Out, I say, out, out!
[YOUNG MAN goes out followed by CUCHULAIN. The KINGS follow them out with confused cries, and words one can hardly hear because of the noise. Some cry, ‘Quicker, quicker!’ ‘Why are you so long at the door?’ ‘We’ll be too late!’ ‘Have they begun to fight?’ and so on; and one, it may be, ‘I saw him fight with Ferdia!’ Their voices drown each other. The three women are left alone.
FIRST WOMAN.
I have seen, I have seen!
SECOND WOMAN.
What do you cry aloud?
FIRST WOMAN.
The ever-living have shown me what’s to come.
THIRD WOMAN.
How? Where?
FIRST WOMAN.
In the ashes of the bowl.
SECOND WOMAN.
While you were holding it between your hands?
THIRD WOMAN.
Speak quickly!
FIRST WOMAN.
I have seen Cuchulain’s roof-tree
Leap into fire, and the walls split and blacken.
SECOND WOMAN.
Cuchulain has gone out to die.
THIRD WOMAN.
O! O!
SECOND WOMAN.
Who could have thought that one so great as he
Should meet his end at this unnoted sword!
FIRST WOMAN.
Life drifts between a fool and a blind man
To the end, and nobody can know his end.
SECOND WOMAN.
Come, look upon the quenching of this greatness.
[The other two go to the door, but they stop for a moment upon the threshold and wail.
FIRST WOMAN.
No crying out, for there’ll be need of cries
And knocking at the breast when it’s all finished.
[The WOMEN go out. There is a sound of clashing swords from time to time during what follows.
[Enter the FOOL dragging the BLIND MAN.
FOOL.
You have eaten it, you have eaten it! You have left me nothing but the bones.
[He throws BLIND MAN down by big chair.
BLIND MAN.
O, that I should have to endure such a plague! O, I ache all over! O, I am pulled to pieces! This is the way you pay me all the good I have done you!
FOOL.
You have eaten it! You have told me lies. I might have known you had eaten it when I saw your slow, sleepy walk. Lie there till the kings come. O, I will tell Conchubar and Cuchulain and all the kings about you!
BLIND MAN.
What would have happened to you but for me, and you without your wits? If I did not take care of you, what would you do for food and warmth?
FOOL.
You take care of me! You stay safe, and send me into every kind of danger. You sent me down the cliff for gulls’ eggs while you warmed your blind eyes in the sun; and then you ate all that were good for food. You left me the eggs that were neither egg nor bird. [BLIND MAN tries to rise; FOOL makes him lie down again.] Keep quiet now, till I shut the door. There is some noise outside—a high vexing noise, so that I can’t be listening to myself. [Shuts the big door.] Why can’t they be quiet! why can’t they be quiet! [BLIND MAN tries to get away.] Ah! you would get away, would you! [Follows BLIND MAN and brings him back.] Lie there! lie there! No, you won’t get away! Lie there till the kings come. I’ll tell them all about you. I will tell it all. How you sit warming yourself, when you have made me light a fire of sticks, while I sit blowing it with my mouth. Do you not always make me take the windy side of the bush when it blows, and the rainy side when it rains?
BLIND MAN.
Oh, good Fool! listen to me. Think of the care I have taken of you. I have brought you to many a warm hearth, where there was a good welcome for you, but you would not stay there; you were always wandering about.
FOOL.
The last time you brought me in it was not I who wandered away, but you that got put out because you took the crubeen out of the pot when nobody was looking. Keep quiet, now!
CUCHULAIN [rushing in].
Witchcraft! There is no witchcraft on the earth, or among the witches of the air, that these hands cannot break.
FOOL.
Listen to me, Cuchulain. I left him turning the fowl at the fire. He ate it all, though I had stolen it. He left me nothing but the feathers.
CUCHULAIN.
Fill me a horn of ale!
BLIND MAN.
I gave him what he likes best. You do not know how vain this fool is. He likes nothing so well as a feather.
FOOL.
He left me nothing but the bones and feathers. Nothing but the feathers, though I had stolen it.
CUCHULAIN.
Give me that horn! Quarrels here, too! [Drinks.] What is there between you two that is worth a quarrel? Out with it!
BLIND MAN.
Where would he be but for me? I must be always thinking—thinking to get food for the two of us, and when we’ve got it, if the moon is at the full or the tide on the turn, he’ll leave the rabbit in the snare till it is full of maggots, or let the trout slip back through his hands into the stream.
[The FOOL has begun singing while the BLIND MAN is speaking.
FOOL [singing].
When you were an acorn on the tree-top,
Then was I an eagle cock;
Now that you are a withered old block,
Still