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PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE
VOLUME I

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

_^rt^^

\yHERE THERE IS
NOTHING

BEING VOLUME ONE OF PLAYS FOR
AN IRISH THEATRE

BY

W. B. YEATS

^^

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd.
1903

All rights reserved

THE LibRARY OF
CONGRESS,

Two Copies Received

MAY n 1903

Copyright Entry
CLAS* -^^ XXc. No.

^ w- ^ v

COPY B.

TJf

Copyright, 1903,
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped May, 1903.

Nortooot) ^tCBB

J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co.

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

BY THE SAME WRITER:

THE SECRET ROSE

THE CELTIC TWILIGHT

POEMS

THE WIND AMONG TH^ REEDS

THE SHADOWY WATERS

IDEAS OF GOOD AND EVIL

DEDICATION OF VOLUMES ONE
AND TWO OF PLAYS FOR AN
IRISH THEATRE

My dear Lady Gregory

I dedicate to you two volumes of
plays that are in part your own.

When I was a boy I used to wander
about at Rosses Point and Ballisodare
listening to old songs and stories. I
wrote down what I heard and made
poems out of the stories or put them
into the little chapters of the first
edition of "The Celtic Twilight," and
that is how I began to write in the
Irish way.

7

8 DEDICATION

Then I went to London to make my
living, and though I spent a part of
every year in Ireland and tried to keep
the old life in my memory by reading
every country tale I could find in books
or old newspapers, I began to forget
the true countenance of country life.
The old tales were still alive for me
indeed, but with a new, strange, half
unreal life, as if in a wizard's glass,
until at last, when I had finished "The
Secret Rose," and was half-way through
" The Wind Among the Reeds," a wise
woman in her trance told me that my
inspiration was from the moon, and that
I should always live close to water, for
my work was getting too full of those
little jewelled thoughts that come from
the sun and have no nation. 1 have no

DEDICATION 9

need to turn to my books of astrology
to know that the common people are
under the moon, or to Porphyry to
remember the image-making power of
the waters. Nor did I doubt the entire
truth of what she said to me, for my
head was full of fables that I had no
longer the knowledge and emotion to
write. Then you brought me with you
to see your friends in the cottages, and
to talk to old wise men on Slieve Echtge,
and we gathered together, or you gath-
ered for me, a great number of stories
and traditional beliefs. You taught me
to understand again, and much more
perfectly than before, the true counte-
nance of country life.

One night I had a dream almost as
distinct as a vision, of a cottage where

10 DEDICATION

there was well-being and firelight and
talk of a marriage, and into the midst
of that cottage there came an old woman
in a long cloak. She was Ireland her-
self, that Cathleen ni Hoolihan for whom
so many songs have been sung and about
whom so many stories have been told
and for whose sake so many have gone
to their death. I thought if I could
write this out as a little play I could
make others see my dream as I had
seen it, but I could not get down out
of that high window of dramatic verse,
and in spite of all you had done for
me I had not the country speech. One
has to live among the people, like you,
of whom an old man said in my hearing,
" She has been a serving-maid among
us," before one can think the thoughts

DEDICATION 11

of the people and speak with their
tongue. We turned my dream into the
little play, " Cathleen ni Hoolihan," and
when we gave it to the little theatre in
Dublin and found that the working
people liked it, you helped me to put
my other dramatic fables into speech.
Some of these have already been acted,
but some may not be acted for a long
time, but all seem to me, though they
were but a part of a summer's work, to
have more of that countenance of coun-
try life than anything I have done since
I was a boy.

W. B. YEATS
February, 1903

Paul Ruttledgb, a Country Gentleman
Thomas Ruttledge, his Brother
Mrs. Thomas Ruttledge
Mr. Dow^ler
Mr. Algie

1

_, -. I Magistrates

Colonel Lawlet

Mr. Joyce J

Mr. Green, a Stipendiary Magistrate

Sabina Silver

Molly the Scold

Charlie Ward

Paddy Cockfight

Tommy the Song

Johneen, etc.

Father Jerome

Father Aloysius

Father Colman

Father Bartley J

Other Friars, and a crowd of couNTiiTMES

Tinkers

Friars

12

WHERE THERE IS
NOTHING

ACT I

Scene : A lawn with croquet hoops,
garden chairs and tables. Door into
house at left. Gate through hedge at
hacTc. The hedge is clipped into shapes
of farmyard fowl. Paul Ruttledge
is clipping at the hedge in front. A
table with toys on it.

Thomas Ruttledge [coming out on

steps']. Paul, are you coming in to lunch ?

Paul Ruttledge. No ; you can en-

13

14 WHERE THEBE 18 NOTHING

tertain these people very well. They
are your friends : you understand theni.

Thomas Ruttledge. You might as
well come in. You have been clipping
at that old hedge long enough.

Paul Ruttledge. You need n't worry
about me. I should be bored if I went
in, and I don't want to be bored
more than is necessary.

Thomas Ruttledge. What is that
creature you are clipping at now ? I
can't make it out.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, it is a Cochin
China fowl, an image of some of our
neighbours, like the others.

Thomas Ruttledge. I don't see any
likeness to anyone.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 15

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, yes there is,
if you could see their minds instead of
their bodies. That comb now —

Mrs. Ruttledge [coming out on steps].
Thomas, are you coming in ?

Thomas Ruttledge. Yes, I 'm com-
ing ; but Paul won't come.

[Thomas Ruttledge goes out

Mrs. Ruttledge. Oh ! this is non-
sense, Paul ; you must come. All these
men will think it so strange if you
don't. It is nonsense to think you
will be bored. Mr. Green is talking
in the most interesting way.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! I know
Green's conversation very well.

Mrs. Ruttledge. And Mr. Joyce,

16 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING-

your old guardian. Thomas says he
was always so welcome in your
father's time, he will think it so
queer.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! I know
all their virtues. There 's Dowler, who
puts away thousands a year in Con-
sols, and Algie, who tells everybody
all about it. Have I forgotten any-
body ? Oh, yes ! Colonel Lawley,
who used to lift me up by the ears,
when I was a child, to see Africa.
No, Georgina, I know all their virtues,
but I 'm not coming in.

Mrs. Ruttledge. I can't imagine
why you won't come in and be sociable.

Paul Ruttledge. You see I can't.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 17

I have something to do here. I have
to finish this comb. You see it is a
beautiful comb ; but the wings are very
short. The poor creature can't fly.

Mrs. Ruttledge. But can't you
finish that after lunch ?

Paul Ruttledge. No, I have sworn.

Mrs, Ruttledge. Well, I am sorry.
You are always doing uncomfortable
things. I must go in to the others.
I wish you would have come.

^She goes in

Jerome [who has come to gate as she
disajjfpears]. Paul, you there ! that is
lucky. I was just going to ask , for
you.

Paul Ruttledge [JUnging dipjper

18 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

mvay, and jumping up]. Oh, Father
Jerome, I am delighted to see you.
I haven 't seen you for ever so long.
Come and have a talk ; or will you
have some lunch ?

Jerome. No, thank you ; I w^ill stay
a minute, but I w^on't go in.

Paul Ruttledge. That is just as
well, for you would be bored to death.
There has been a meeting of magis-
trates in the village, and my brother
has brought them all in to lunch.

Jerome. I am collecting for the
monastery, and my donke}^ has gone
lame ; I have had to put it up in the
village. I thought you might be able
to lend me one to go on with.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 19

Paul Ruttledge. Of course, I 'm
delighted to lend you that or anything
else. I '11 go round to the yard with
you and order it. But sit down here
first. What have you been doing all
this time ?

Jerome. Oh, we have been very
busy. You know we are going to put
up new buildings.

Paul Ruttledge [absent-mindedly'].
No, I did n't know that.

Jerome. Yes, our school is increas-
ing so much we are getting a grant for
technical instruction. Some of the
Fathers are learning handicrafts. Fa-
ther Aloysius is going to study indus-
tries in France ; but we are all busy.

20 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

We are changing with the times, we
are beginning to do useful things.

Paul Ruttledge. Useful things, I
wonder what you have begun to call
useful things. Do you see those marks
over there on the grass?

Jerome. What marks?

Paul Ruttledge. Those marks over
there, those little marks of scratching.

Jerome [going over to the place Paul
Ruttledge has pointed out]. I don't
see anything.

Paul Ruttledge. You are getting
blind, Jerome. Can't you see that the
poultry have been scratching there ?

Jerome. No, the grass is perfectly
smooth.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 21

Paul Ruttledge. Well, the marks
are there, whether you see them or not ;
for Mr, Green and Mr. Dowler and Mr.
Algie and the rest of them run out of
their houses when nobody is looking,
in their real shapes, shapes like those
on my hedge. And then they begin to
scratch, they scratch all together, they
don't dig but they scratch, and all the
time their mouths keep going like that.
^Jle holds out his hand and opens and
shuts his Jmgers like a bird's hill.

Jerome. Oh, Paul, you are making
fun of me.

Paul Ruttledge. Of course I am
only talking in parables. I think all
the people I meet are like farmyard

22 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

creatures, they have forgotten their free-
dom, their human bodies are a disguise,
a pretence they keep up to deceive one
another.

Jerome [sittifig down]. What is
wrong with you ?

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, nothing of
course. You see how happy I am. I
have a good house and a good prop-
erty, and my brother and his charming
wife have come to look after me. You
see the toys of their children here and
everywhere. What should be wrong
with me ?

Jerome. I know you too well not
to see that there is something wrong
with you.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 23

Paul Ruttledge. There is nothing
except that I have been thinking a
good deal lately.

Jerome. Perhaps your old dreams
or visions or whatever they were have
come back. They always made you
restless. You ought to see more of
your neighbours.

Paul Ruttledge. There 's nothing
interesting but human nature, and that 's
in the single soul, but these neighbours
of mine they think in flocks and roosts.

Jerome. You are too hard on them.
They are busy men, they have n't much
time for thought, I daresay.

Paul Ruttledge. That 's what I
complain of. When I hear these people

24 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

talking I always hear some organized
or vested interest chirp or quack, as it
does in the newspapers. Algie chirps.
Even you, Jerome, though I have not
found your armorial beast, are getting
a little monastic ; when I have found
it I will put it among the others.
There is a place for it there, but the
worst of it is that it will take so long
getting nice and green.

Jekome. I don't know what creature
you could make for me.

Paul Ruttledge. I am not sure
yet ; I think it might be a pigeon,
something cooing and gentle, and al-
ways coming home to the dovecot ; not
to the wild woods but to the dovecot.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 25

Jerome. I wonder what crea '^re you
yourself are like.

Paul Ruttledge. I daresay I am
like some creature or other, for very
few of us are altogether men; but if I
am, I would like to be one of the wild
sort. You are right about my dreams.
They have been coming back lately.
Do you remember those strange ones I
had at college ?

Jerome. Those visions of pulling
something down ?

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, they have
come back to me lately. Sometimes I
dream I am pulling down my own
house, and sometimes it is the whole
world that I am pulling down. ^Stand-

26 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

ing uj)] I would like to have great iron
claws, and to put them about the pil-
lars, and to pull and pull till every-
thing fell into pieces.

Jerome. I don't see what good that
would do you.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, yes it would.
When everything was pulled down we
would have more room to get drunk in,
to drink contentedly out of the cup of
lifC;, out of the drunken cup of life.

Jerome. That is a terribly wild
thought. I hope you don't believe all
you say.

Paul Ruttledge. Perhaps not. I
only know that I want to upset every-
thing about me. Have you not noticed

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 27

that it is a complaint many of us have
in this country ? and whether it comes
from love or hate I don't know, they
are so mixed together here.

Jerome. I wish you would come and
talk to our Superior. He has a perfect
gift for giving advice.

Paul Ruttledge. Well, we '11 go to
the yard now. ^ffe gets tip

Jerome. I have often thought you
would come to the monastery yourself
in the end. You were so much the
most pious of us all at school. You
would be happy in a monastery. Some-
thing is always happening there.

Paul Ruttledge [as they go up the
garden]. I daresay, I daresay ; but I

28 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

am not even sure that I am a Chris-
tian.

Jerome. Well, anyway, I wish that
you would come and talk to our
Superior. \T^^y 90 out

Charlie Ward and Boy enter hy th»

path beyond the hedge a/nd stand at

gate.

Charlie Ward. No use going up
there, Johneen, it 's too grand a place,
it 's a dog they might let loose on us.
But I '11 tell you what, just slip round
to the back door and ask do they
want any cans mended.

Johneen. Let you take the rabbit
then we 're after taking out of the
snare. I can't bring it round with me.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 29

Charlie Ward, Faith, you can't.
They think as bad of us taking a rab-
bit that was fed and minded by God
as if it was of their own rearing ; give
it here to me. It 's hardly it will go
in my pocket, it 's as big as a hare.
It 's next my skin I '11 have to put it,
or it might be noticed on me.

[Boy ffoes out

[Charlie Ward is struggling to

put rahhit inside his coat when

Paul Ruttledge comes hack.

Paul Ruttledge. Is there anything

I can do for you? Do you want to

come in ?

Charlie Ward. I 'm a tinker by
trade, your honour. I wonder is there

30 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

e'er a tin can the maids in the house
might want mended or any chairs to
be bottomed?

Paul Ruttledge. A tinker ; where
do you live?

Charlie Ward. Faith, I don't"*stop
long in any place. I go about like the
crows ; picking up my way of living
like themselves.

Paul Ruttledge [opening gate].
Come inside here. [Charlie Ward
hesitates] Come in, you are welcome.

\Puts his hand on his shoulder.
Charlie Ward tries to close
his shirt over rabbit.

Paul Ruttledge. Ah, you have a
rabbit there. The keeper told me he

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 31

had come across some snares in my
woods.

Charlie Ward. If he did, sir, it
was no snare of mine he found. This
is M'~ rabbit I bought in the town of
Garreen early this morning. Sixpence
I was made give for it, and to mend
a tin can along with that.

Paul Ruttledge [totiehing rabbit].
It 's warm still, however. But the day
is hot. Never mind ; you are quite
welcome to it. I daresay you will
have a cheery meal of it by the road-
side ; my dinners are often tiresome
enough. I often wish I could change
— look here, will you change clothes
with me?

32 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Charlie Ward. Faith, I 'd swap
soon enough if you were n't humbug-
ging me. It 's I that would look well
with that suit on me ! The peelers
would all be touching their caps to me.
You 'd see them running out for me to
sign summonses for them.

Paul Ruttledge. But I am not
humbugging. I am in earnest.

Charlie Ward. In earnest ! Then
when I go back I '11 commit Paddy
Cockfight to prison for hitting me yes-
terday.

Paul Ruttledge. You don't be-
lieve me, but I will explain. I 'm
dead sick of this life ; I want to get
away ; I want to escape — as you say,

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 33

to pick up my living like the crows
for a while.

Charlie Ward. To make your es-
cape. Oh ! that 's different. ^Comi/?ig
closer] But what is it you did ? You
don't look like one that would be in
trouble. But sometimes a gentleman
gets a bit wild when he has a drop
taken.

Paul Ruttledge. Well, never mind.
I will explain better while we are
changing. Come over here to the pot-
ting shed. Make haste, those magis-
trates will be coming out.

Charlie Ward. The magistrates !
Are they after you ? Hurry on, then !
Faith, they won't know you with this

34 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

coat. [Looking at his rays] It 's a pity
I did 'nt put on ray old one coming out
this morning.

\They go out tJirough the garden.
Thomas Ruttledge comes down
stejps from house with Colonel
Lawley and Mr. Green.
Mr. Green. Yes, they have made
me President of the County Horticul-
tural Society. My speech was quite a
success ; it was punctuated with ap-
plause. I said I looked upon the
appointment not as a tribute to my
own merits, but to their public spirit
and to the Society, which I assured
them had come to stay.

Colonel Lawley. What has become

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 35

of Paul and Father Jerome ? I
thought I heard their voices out here,
and now they are conspicuous by their
absence.

Thomas Ruttledge. He seems to
have no friend he cares for but that
Father Jerome.

Mr. Green. I wish he would come
more into touch with his fellows.

Colonel Lawley. What a pity he
didn 't go into the army. I wish he
would join the militia. Every man
should try to find some useful sphere
of employment.

Mr. Green. Thomas, your brother
will never come to see me, though I
often ask him. He would find the

86 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

best people — people worth meeting —
at my house. I wonder if he would
join the Horticultural Society ? I
know I voice the sentiments of all the
members in saying this. I spoke to a
number of them at the function the
other day.

Thomas Ruttledge. I wish he would
join something. Joyce wants him to
join the Masonic Lodge. It is not a
right life for him to keep hanging
about the place and doing nothing.

Mr. Green. He won 't even come
and sit on the Bench. It 's not fair to
leave so much of the work to me. I
ought to get all the support possible
from local men.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 3T

[Mrs. Ruttledge comes down steps
with Mr. Dowler, Mr. Algie
and Mr. Joyce. She is walk-
ing in front.
Mrs. Ruttledge \to Thomas Rutt-
ledge]. Oh ! Thomas, is n't it too bad,
Paul has lent the donkey to that friar.
I wanted Mr. Joyce to see the children
in their panniers. Do speak to him
about it.

Thomas Ruttledge. Well, the don-
key belongs to him, and for the matter
of that so does the house and the place.
It would be rather hard on him not
to be able to use things as he likes.

Mr. Algie. What a pleasure it must
be to Paul to have you and the little

38 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

ones living here. He certainly owes
you a debt of gratitude. Man was
not born to live alone.

Mrs. Ruttledge. Well, I think we
have done him good. He hasn't done
anything for years, except mope about
the house and cut the bushes into those
absurd shapes, and now we are try-
ing to make him live more like other
people.

Colonel Lawley. He was always
inclined to be a bit of a faddist.

Mrs. Ruttledge [to Mr. Algie]. Do
let me give you a lesson in croquet.
I have learned all the new rules. [To
Mr. Joyce] Please bring me that bas-
ket of balls. [To Colonel Lawley]

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 39

Will you bring me the mallets ? Yes,
I am afraid he is a faddist. We have
done our best for him, but he ought to
be more with men.

Mr. Algie. Yes, Mr. Dowler was
just saying he ought to try and be
made a director of the new railway.

Colonel Lawley. The militia — the
militia.

Mr. Joyce. It 's a great help to a
man to belong to a Masonic Lodge.

Mr. Green. The Horticultural Society
is in want of new members.

Mrs. Ruttledge. Well, I wish he
would join something.

40 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Enter Paul Ruttledge in tinker's clothes^
ca/rrying a rabhit m his hand. Charlie
Ward follows in Paul's clothes. All
stand aghast.
Mr. Joyce. Good God !

[Drops hasTcet. Colonel Lawley,

who has mallets in his ham^d, at

sight of Paul Ruttledge drops

them, amd stands still.

Mrs. Ruttledge. Paul ! are you out

of your mind ?

Thomas Ruttledge. For goodness'
sake, Paul, don't make such a fool of
yourself.

Mrs. Ruttledge. What on earth has
happened, and who on earth is that
man ?

WHEBE THERE IS NOTHING 41

Paul Ruttledge [opens gate for
tinker. To Charlie Ward]. Wait for
me, my friend, down there by the
cross-road.

[Charlie Ward goes out

Mr. Green. Has he stolen your
clothes ?

Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! it 's all right ;
I have changed clothes with him. I
am going to join the tinkers.

All. To join the tinkers !

Paul Ruttledge. Life is getting
too monotonous ; I would give it a
little variety. [To Mr. Green] As you
would say, it has been running in
grooves.

Mr. Joyce \to Mrs. Ruttledge].

42 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

This is only his humbugging talk ; he
never believes what he says.

[Paul Ruttledge goes towo/rds the
steps.

Mrs. Ruttledge. Surely you are not
going into the house with those clothes ?

Paul Ruttledge. You are quite right.
Thomas will go in for me. [Jb Thomas
Ruttledge] Just go to my study, will
you, and bring me my despatch-box ;
I want something from it before I go.

Thomas Ruttledge. Where are you
going to ? I wish you would tell me
what you are at.

Paul Ruttledge. The despatch-box
is on the top of the bureau.

[Thomas Ruttledge goes out

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 43

Mr. Joyce. What does all this
mean ?

Paul Ruttledgb. I will explain.
l^Sits down on the edge of iron tahle'^
Did you never wish to be a witch, and
to ride through the air on a white
horse ?

Mr. Joyce. I can't say I ever did.

Paul Ruttledge. Never ? Only
think of it — to ride in the darkness
under the stars, to make one's horse
leap from cloud to cloud, to watch the
sea glittering under one's feet and the
mountain tops going by.

Colonel Lawley. But what has
this to do with the tinkers ?

Paul Ruttledge. As I cannot find

44 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

a broomstick that will turn itself into a
white horse, I am going to turn tinker.

Mr. Dowler. I suppose you have
some picturesque idea about these peo-
ple, but I assure you, you are quite
wrong. They are nothing but poachers.

Mr. Algie. They are nothing but
thieves.

Mr. Joyce. They are the worst class
in the country.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, I know that ;
they are quite lawless. That is what
attracts me to them. I am going to
be irresponsible.

Mr. Green. One cannot escape
from responsibility by joining a set of
vagabonds.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 45

Paul Ruttledge. Vagabonds — that
is it. I want to be a vagabond, a wan-
derer. As I can't leap from cloud to
cloud I want to wander from road to
road. That little path there by the
clipped hedge goes up to the highroad.
I want to go up that path and to walk
along tlie highroad, and so on and on
and on, and to know all kinds of peo-
ple. Did you ever think that the roads
are the only things that are endless ;
that one can walk on and on and on,
and never be stopped by a gate or a
wall ? They are the serpent of eternity.
I wonder they have never been wor-
shipped. What are the stars beside
them ? They never meet one another.

46 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

The roads are the only things that are
infinite. They are all endless.

Mrs. Ruttledge. But they must
stop when they come to the sea ?

Paul Ruttledge. Ah ! you are
always so wise.

Mr. Joyce. Stop talking nonsense,
Paul, and throw away those filthy
things.

Paul Ruttledge. That would be
setting cleanliness before godliness. I
have begun the regeneration of my soul.

Mr. Dowler. I don't see what god-
liness has got to do with it.

Mr. Algie. Nor I either,

Paul Ruttledge. There was a saint
who said, " I must rejoice without ceas-

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 47

ing, although the world shudder at my
joy." He did not think he could save
his soul without it. I agree with him,
and as 1 was discontented here, I
thought it time to make a change.
Like that worthy man, I must be con-
tent to shock my friends.

Mk. Dowler. But you had every-
thing here you could want.

Paul Ruttledge. That 's just it.
You who are so wealthy, you of all
people should understand that I want
to get rid of all that responsibility,
answering letters and so on. It is
not worth the trouble of being rich if
one has to answ^er letters. Could
you ever understand, Georgina, that

48 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

one gets tired of many charming
things ? There are family responsi-
bilities, [to Mk. Joyce] but I can see
that you, who were my guardian, sym-
pathize with me in that.

Mr. Joyce. Indeed I do not.

Mrs. Ruttledge. I should think you
could be cheerful without ceasing to be
a gentleman.

Paul Ruttledge. You are thinking
of my clothes. We must feel at ease
with the people we live amongst. I
shall feel at ease with the great multi-
tude in these clothes. I am beginning
to be a man of the world. I am the
beggarman of all the ages — I have a
notion Homer wrote something about me.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 49

Mr. Dowler. He is either making
fun of us or talking great rot. I
can't listen to any more of this non-
sense. I can't see why a man with
property can't let well alone. Algie,
are you coming my way ?

[They both go into the house, and come
out presently with umhrella and
coat.

Mr. Green. Depend upon it, he 's
going to write a book. There was
a man who made quite a name
for himself by sleeping in a casual
ward.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! no, I 'm not
going to write about it ; if one writes
one can do nothing else. I am going

50 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

to express myself in life. [Jb Thomas
RuTTLEDGE who has returned with hox\ I
hope soon to live by the work of my
hands, but every trade has to be learned,
and I must take something to start
with. [To Mrs. Ruttledge] Do you
think you will have any kettles to
mend when I come this way again ?
[He has taken low from Thomas
Ruttledge and unlocked it.

Thomas Ruttledge. I can't make
head or tail of what you are at.

Colonel Lawley. What he is at is
fads.

Mr. Green. I don't think his motive
is far to seek. He has some idea of
going back to the dark ages. Rousseau

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 51

had some idea of the same kind, but it
did n't worli.

Paul Ruttledge. Yes ; I want to
go back to the dark ages.

Mr. Green. Do you want to lose all
the world has gained since then ?

Paul Ruttledge. What has it
gained ? I am among those who think
that sin and death came into the world
the day Newton ate the apple. [To Mrs.
Ruttledge, who is going to speaJcj I know
you are going to tell me he only saw it
fall. Never mind, it is all the same thing.

Mrs. Ruttledge n>eginning to cry~\.
Oh ! he is going mad !

Mr. Joyce. I 'm afraid he is really
leaving us.

52 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge ^who has been look-
ing at jpapers^ tearing one or two^ etc., takes
out a pachet of notes, which he puts in his
hreast^. I daresay this will last me long
enough, Thomas. I am not robbing you
of very much. Well, good-by. ^Pats
him gently on the shoulder^ I must n't
forget the rabbit, it may be my dinner
to-night ; I wonder who will skin it.
Good-by, Colonel, I think I 've aston-
ished you to-day. ^Slaps his shoulder^
That was too hard, was it ? Forgive it,
you know I 'm a common man now.
^Lifts his hat and goes oiit of gate. Closes
it after him, and stands with his hands on
it, and speaks loith the voice of a common
manj Go on, live in your poultry-yard.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 63

Scratch straw and cluck and cackle at
everything that you take for a fox. l^Exit

Mr. Joyce [j/oes to Mrs. Ruttledge,
who has sat down and is wiping her eyes\
I ara very sorry for this, for his father's
sake, but it may be as well in the end.
If it comes to the worst, you and
Thomas will keep up the family name
better than he would have done.

Mr. Dowler. He '11 find the poor
very different from what he thinks
when they pick his pocket.

Colonel Lawley. To think that a
magistrate should have such fads !

Mr. Green. I venture to say you
will see him here in a very different
state of mind in a week.

54 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Mr. Algie [who has heen in a hrown
studif^. He has done for himself in this
world and the next. Why, he won't
be asked to a single shoot if this is
heard of.

Thomas Ruttledge [turning from the
gatej. Here are the children, Georgina.
Don't say anything before the nurse.
Mr. Green. Well, I must be off.

[Goes in for stick
Mr. Joyce. Just bring me out my
coat. Green.

[They all prepare to go. Mrs. Rutt-
ledge has gone to open gate and
children come in, one in a per-
ambulator. All gather round
them admiringly.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 55

Mr. Joyce. Have you a kiss for god-
father to-day ?

Mrs. Ruttledge. The poor darlings !
I hope they will never know what has
happened.

Colonel Lawley. Thank goodness,
they have no nonsense in their heads.
We know where we are with them.

Curtain

ACT II

Scene : By the roadside. A wall of un-
mortared stone in, the haxikground.
Tinkers' encampment. Men, woynen and
children standing round. Paul Rutt-
LEDGE standi/ng hy a jvre.

Paul Ruttledge. What do you mean

by " tinning " the soldering iron ?

Charlie Ward. If the face of it is

not well tinned it won't lift the solder.

Show me here.

\Takes soldering iron from Paul

Ruttledge's hand.

Paul Ruttledge ^sitting dovjn am,d
66

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 57

drawing a tin can to hijnl. Now, let me
see how you mend this hole. It seems
easy. I 'm sure I will be able to learn
it as well as any of you.

[Two tinkers come and stand over him

Chablie Ward [pointing to one of
thenhj. This, sir, is Tommy the Song.
He 's the best singer we have, but the
divil a much good he is only that.
He 's a great warrant to snare hares.

Tommy the Song. Is the gentleman
going to join us ?

Paul Ruttledge. Indeed I am, if
you '11 let me. There 's nothing I 'd
like better.

Tommy the Song. But are you go-
ing to learn the trade ?

58 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, if you '11
teach me. I 'm sure I '11 make a good
tinker. Look at that now, see how
I Ve stopped that hole already.

Charlie Ward ^taking the can from
him and looking at it^. If every can had
a little hole in the middle like that,
I think you would be able to mend
them ; but there 's the straight hole,
and the crooked hole, the round hole,
the square hole, the angle hole, the
bottom hole, the top hole, the side leak,
the open leak, the leak-all-round, but I
won't frighten you with the names of
them all, only this I will say, that,
when you 've learned to mend all the
leakages in a can — and that should

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 69

take you a year — you 're only in the
first day of tlie tinker's week.

Tommy the Song. Don't believe
him. He 's only humbugging you. It 's
not the hardness of the work will
daunt you.

Paul Ruttledge. Thank you. I
was not believing him at all. I 'm
quite sure I '11 be able to mend any
can at the end of a week, but the bot-
toming of them will take longer. I
can see that 's not so easy. When will
you start to teach me that, Charlie ?

Charlie Ward ^as another tinker
comes upj. Paddy, here 's the gentleman
I was telling you about. He 's going
to join us for good and all. \_To Paul

60 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Ruttledge] Wait till we have time
and some quiet place, and he '11 show
you as good a cockfight as ever you
saw. ^A wo7nan comes up^ This is his
wife ; Molly the Scold we call her ;
faith, she is a better fighter than any
cock he ever had in a basket ; he 'd
find it hard to shut the lid on her.

Molly the Scold. The gentleman
seems foolish. Is he all there ?

Paddy Cockfight. Stop your chat,
Molly, or I '11 hit you a welt.

Charlie Ward. Keep your tongue
quiet, Molly. If the gentleman has rea-
sons for keeping out of the way it is n't
for us to be questioning him. [Jb
Paul Ruttledge] Don't mind her,

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 61

she 's cross enough, but maybe your
own ladies would be cross as well if
they saw their young sons dying by
the roadside in a little kennel of straw
under the ass-cart the way she did ;
from first to last.

Paul Ruttledge. I suppose you
have your troubles like others. But
you seem cheerful enough.

Charlie Ward. It is n't anything
to fret about. Some of us go soon,
and some travel the roads for their
lifetime. What does it matter when
we are under the nettles if it was with
a short rope or a long one we w^ere
hanged ?

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, that is the

62 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

way to take life. What does the
length of our rope matter ?

Charlie Ward. We have n't time
to be thinking of troubles like people
that would be shut up in a house.
We have the wide world before us to
make our living out of. The people of
the whole world are begrudging us our
living, and we make it out of them
for all that. When they will spread
currant cakes and feather beds before
us, it will be time for us to sit down
and fret.

Tommy the Song. It 's likely you '11
think the life too hard. Would you
like to be passing by houses in the
night-time, and the fire shining out of

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 63

them, and you hardly given the loan
of a sod to light your pipe, and the
rain falling on you ?

Paul Ruttledge. Why are the
people so much against you ?

Tommy the Song. We are not like
themselves. It 's little we care about
them or they about us. If their saint
did curse us itself —

Charlie Ward. Stop. I won't
have you talking about that story here.
Why would they think so much of
the curse of one saint, and saints so
plenty ?

Paddy Cockfight. Where 's the
good of a gentleman being here ?
He -11 be breaking down on the road.

64 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

It 's on the ass-cart he '11 be wanting to
sit.

Tommy the Song. Indeed, I don't
think he '11 stand the hardship.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, I '11 stand it
well enough.

Tommy the Song. You 're not like
us that were reared to it. You were
not born like us with wandering in
the heart.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, yes, I have
wandering in the heart. I got sick of
these lighted rooms you were talking
of just now.

Charlie Ward. That might be so.
It 's the dark is welcome to a man
sometimes.

WHEEE THERE IS NOTHING 65

Paul Ruttledge. The dark. Yes,
I think that is what I want. [Stands
upj The dark, where there is nothing
that is anything, and nobody that is
anybody ; one can be free there, where
there is nothing. Well, if you let me
stay with you, I don't think you will
hear any complaints from me. Charlie
Ward, Paddy and the rest of you, I
want you to understand that from this
out I am one of yourselves. I '11 live
as you live and do as you do.

[JoHNEEN and other Children come
running in.

JoHNEEN. I was on the top of the
bank and I seen a priest coming down
the cross-road with his ass. It 's col-

G6 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

lecting he is. We 're going to set our-
selves here to beg something from him.

Another Child [breathlessly']. And
he has a whole lot of things on the
ass. A whole lot of things up behind
him.

Another Child. O boys, O boys,
we '11 have our dealing trick out of
them yet. The best way '11 be — [He
suddenly catches sight of Paul Rutt-
ledgeJ Whist, ye divils ye, don't you
see the new gentleman ?

Paul Ruttledge. Speak out, boys ;
don't be afraid of me ; I 'm one of
yourselves now.

Child. Oh ! but we were going to —
But I won't tell you. \To the other Chil-

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 67

dren] Come away here, and we '11 not
tell him what we '11 do.

Paul Ruttledge [to Charlie Ward],
What are they going to do ? They 're
putting their heads together.

Charlie Ward. They 're going to
put a bush across the road, and when
the friar gets down to pull it out of
the way they '11 snap what they can
off the ass, and away with them.

Paul Ruttledge. And why would n't
they tell me that ? Am I not one of
yourselves ?

Charlie Ward. Ah ! it 's likely they '11
never trust you.

Paul Ruttledge. But they will soon
see that I am one of themselves.

68 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Charlie Ward. No ; but that 's the
very thing, you 're not one of ourselves.
You vv^ere not born on the road, reared
on the road, married on the road like us.

Paul Ruttledge. Well, it 's too late
for me to be reared on the road, but I
don't see why I should n't marry on the
road like you. I certainly would do it
if it would make me one of you.

Charlie Ward. It might make you
one of us, there 's no doubt about that.
It 's the only thing that would do it.

Paul Ruttledge. Well, find a wife
for me.

Charlie Ward. Faith, you have n't
far to go to find one. Paddy there
will give you over his wife quick

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 69

enough ; he won't make a hard bargain
over her.

Paul Ruttledge. But I am in
earnest. I want to cut myself off from
my old life.

Charlie Ward. Oh ! I was forget-
ting that.

Sabina Silver [to Molly]. I wonder
what was it he did ? I wonder had he
the misfortune to kill anybody ?

Charlie Ward \_calUng Sabina over'].
Here 's a girl should make a good wife,
Sabina Silver her name is. Her father
is just dead ; he did n't treat her over
well.

Sabina Silver [coming over]. What
is it?

70 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Charlie Ward. This gentleman
wants to speak to you. I think he 's
looking out for a wife.

Sabina Silver \ham,gvng her head^.
Don't be humbugging me.

Paul Ruttledge. Indeed he 's not,
Sabina.

Sabina Silver. You 're only joking
a poor girl. Sure, what would make
you think of me at all ?

Paul Ruttledge. Sabina, have you
been always on the road with Charlie
Ward and the others ?

Sabina Silver. I have, indeed.

Paul Ruttledge. And you 'd make
a good tinker's wife ?

Sabina Silver. You 're joking me.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 71

but I would be a better wife for a
tinker than for anyone else.

Paul Ruttledge. Sabina, will you
marry me ?

Sabina Silver. Oh ! but I 'd be afraid.

Paul Ruttledge. Why, Sabina ?

Sabina Silver. I 'd be afraid you 'd
beat me.

Charlie Ward. You see her father
used to beat her. She 's afraid of the
look of a man now.

Paul Ruttledge. I would not beat
you, Sabina. How can you have got
such an idea?

Sabina Silver. Will you promise
me that you won't beat me ? Will
you swear it to me ?

72 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. Of course I will.

Sabina Silver [to Charlie Ward].
Will you make him swear it ? Have n't
you a little book in your pack ? Bring
it out and make him swear to me on
it, and you '11 be my witness.

Charlie Ward. I think, Sibby, you
need not be afraid.

Sabina Silver. What 's your name,
gentleman ?

Paul Ruttledge. My name is Paul.
Do you like it ?

Sabina Silver. Then I won't
marry you, Mr. Paul, till you swear
to me upon the book that you will
never beat me with any stick that you
could call a stick, and that you will
never strike a kick on me from behind.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 73

Paul Ruttledge. Charlie, go and
bring out that book to satisfy her. Of
course I swear that ; it is absurd.

[Charlie Ward brings the hook out

of his pack.

Paul Ruttledge. I swear, Sabina,

that I will never strike you with any

stick of any kind, and that I will

never kick you. There, will that do ?

\IIe takes hook and kisses it

Sabina Silver. I misdoubt you.

Kiss the book again.

[Paul Ruttledge kisses it

Charlie Ward. That 's all right.

A Child \crying from a distancel.

He 's coming now, the priest 's coming !

Paul Ruttledge. Then the priest

74 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

will marry us. That comes in very
handy.

Charlie Ward ^scorrifullyj. A priest
marry you, indeed he '11 do nothing of
the kind. I hate priests and friars.
It 's unlucky to get talking to them at
all. You never know what trouble
you 're in for.

A Child ^commg up'j. That 's true,
indeed. The last time I spoke to a
priest it 's what he leathered me with a
stick ; may the divil fly away with him.

Paul Ruttledge. But somebody
must marry us.

Charlie Ward. Of course. You '11
lep over the tinker's budget the usual
way. You '11 just marry her by lepping

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 75

over the budget the same as the rest of

us marry.

Paul Ruttledgb. That 's all I want

to know. Please marry me in whatever

is your usual way.

Jerome enters, leading the ass. He carries
a pig's cheek, some groceries, a string of
onions, etc., on ths ass, which still has
its nursery trappings. He goes up to
Charlie Ward thinking he is Paul

RUTTLEDGE.

Jerome. Paul, what are you doing
here ?

Charlie Ward ]turnim,g'^. What do
you want ?

Jerome. Oh ! I 'm mistaken. I
thought —

76 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. I am here, Father
Jerome, but you 're talking to the wrong
man.

Jerome. Good God, Paul, what has
happened ?

Paul Ruttledge. Nothing has hap-
pened that need surprise you. Don't
you remember what we talked of to-
day ? You told me I was too much by
myself. After you went away I thought
I would make a change.

Jerome. But a change like this !

Paul Ruttledge. Why should you
find fault with it ? I am richer now
than I was then. I only lent you that
donkey then, now I give him to you.

Jerome. What has brought you
among such people as these ?

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 77

Paul Ruttledge. I find them on
the whole better company than the peo-
ple I left a little while ago. Let me in-
troduce you to —

Jerome. What can you possibly gain
by coming here ? Are you going to try
and teach them ?

Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! no, I am go-
ing to learn from them.

Jerome. What can you learn from
them?

Paul Ruttledge. To pick up my
living like the crows, and to solder tin
cans. Just give me that one I mended
awhile ago.

\_JIolds it out to Father Jerome

Jerome. That is all nonsense.

78 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. I am happy. Do
not your saints put all opponents to the
rout by saying they alone of all mankind
are happy ?

Jerome. I suppose you will not com-
pare the happiness of these people with
the happiness of saints ?

Paul Ruttledge. There are all sorts
of happiness. Some find their happiness
like Thomas a Kempis, with a little
book and a little cell.

Paddy Cockfight. I would wonder
at anybody that could be happy in a
cell.

Paul Ruttledge. These men fight
in their way as your saints fought, for
their hand is against the world. I want

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 79

the happiness of men who fight, who are
hit and hit back, not the fighting of men
in red coats, that formal, soon-finished
fighting, but the endless battle, the end-
less battle. Tell me. Father Jerome, did
you ever listen in the middle of the
night ?

Jerome. Listen for what ?

Paul Ruttledge. Did you ever,
when the monastery was silent, and the
dogs had stopped barking, listen till you
heard music ?

Jerome. What sort of music do you
mean ?

Paul Ruttledge. Not the music we
hear with these ears ^touching his ears^,
but the music of Paradise.

80 WHEEE THERE IS NOTHING

Jerome. Brother Colman once said he
heard harps in the night.

Paul Ruttledge. Harps ! It was
because he was shut in a cell he heard
harps, maybe it sounds like harps in a
cell. But the music I have heard some-
times is made of the continual clashing
of swords. It comes rejoicing from
Paradise.

Jerome. These are very wild
thoughts.

Tommy the Song. I often heard
music in the forths. There is many of
us hear it wlien we lie with our heads
on the ground at night.

Jerome. That was not the music of
Paradise.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 81

Paul Ruttledge. Why should they
not hear that music, although it may
not set them praying, but dancing.

Jeeome. How can you think you
will ever find happiness amongst their
devils' mirth ?

Paul Ruttledge. I have taken to
the roads because there is a wild beast
I would overtake, and these people are
good snarers of beasts. They can help
me.

Charlie Ward. What kind of a
wild beast is it you want ?

Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! it 's a very
terrible wild beast, with iron teeth and
brazen claws that can root up spires
and towers.

82 WHEEE THERE IS NOTHING

Charlie Ward. It 's best not to
try and overtake a beast like that, but
to cross running water and leave it
after you.

Tommy the Song. I heard one com-
ing after me one night ; very big and
shadowy it was, and I could hear it
breathing. But when it came up with
me I lifted a hazel rod that was in my
hand, and it was gone on the moment.

Paul Ruttledge. My wild beast is
Laughter, the mightiest of the enemies
of God. I will outrun it and make it
friendly.

Jerome. That is your old wild talk.
Do have some sense and go back to
your family.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 83

Paul Ruttledge. I am never going
back to them. I am going to live
among these people. I will marry
among them.

Jerome. That is nonsense ; you will
soon change your mind.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! no, I won't ;
I am taking my vows as you made
yours when you entered religion. I
have chosen my wife ; I am going to
marry before evening.

Jerome. Thank God, you will have
to stop short of that, the Church will
never marry you.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! I am not
going to ask the help of the Church.
But I am to be married by what may

84 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

be as old a ceremony as yours. What
is it I am to do, Charlie ?

Charlie Ward. To lep a budget, sir.

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, that is it,
the budget is there by the wall.

Jerome. I command you, in the
name of the Holy Church and of
the teaching you have received from
the Church, to leave this folly, this
degradation, this sin !

Paul Ruttledge. You forget, Je-
rome, that I am on the track of the
wild beast, and hunters in all ages
have been a bad people to preach to.
When I have tamed the beast, perhaps
I will bring him to your religious
house to be baptized.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 85

Jerome. I will not listen to this
profanity. [To Charlie Ward] It
is you who have put this mad-
ness on him as you have stolen his
clothes !

Charlie Ward. Stop your chat, ye
petticoated preacher.

Paul Ruttledge. I think, Father
Jerome, you had better be getting
home. This people never gave in to
the preaching of S. Patrick.

Paddy Cockfight. I '11 send you
riding home with your face to the tail
of the ass !

Tommy the Song. No, stop till we
show you that we can make as good
curses as yourself. That you may

86 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

never be warm in winter or cold in
summer time —

Charlie Ward. That 's the chat !
Bravo ! Let him have it.

Tinkers. Be off ! be off out of this !

Molly the Scold. Now curse him,
Tommy.

Tommy the Song. A wide hoarseness
on you — a high hanging to you on a
windy day ; that shivering fever may
stretch you nine times, and that tlie
curses of the poor may be your best
music, and you hiding behind the door.

[Jerome goes out

Molly the Scold. And you hiding
behind the door, and squeezed between
the hinges and tlie wall.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 87

Other Tinkers. Squeezed between
the hinges and the wall.

\_They follow Jerome

Paul Ruttledge ^crying after thein^.
Don't harm that gentleman ; he is a
friend of mine.

{He goes to the wall, and stands there
silently, looking upward.

Sabina Silver. It was grand
talk, indeed : I did n't understand a
word of it.

Paul Ruttledge. The crows are
beginning to fly home. There is a flock
of them high up under that cloud. I
wonder where their nests are.

Charlie Ward. A long way off,
among those big trees about Tillyra Castle.

88 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, I remember.
I have seen them coming home there
on a windy evening, tossing and whirl-
ing like the sea. They may have seen
what I am looking for, they fly so far.
A sailor told me once that he saw a
crow three hundred miles from land,
but maybe he was a liar.

Charlie Ward. Well, they fly far,
anyway.

Paul Ruttledge. They tell one
another what they have seen, too.
That is why they make so much noise.
Maybe their news goes round the world.
\IIe comes towards the othsrs\. I think
they have seen my wild beast. Laughter.
They could tell me if he has a face

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 89

smoky from the eternal fires, and wings
of brass and claws of brass — claws of
brass. ^Ilolds out his haiids and moves
them like claivsl Sabina, would you like
to see a beast with eyes hard and cold
and blue, like sapphires ? Would you,
Sabina ? Well, it 's time now for the
wedding. So what shall we get for
the wedding party ? What would you
like, Sabina ?

Sabina Silver. I don't know.

Paul Ruttledge. What do you
say, Charlie ? A wedding cake and
champagne. How would you like
champagne? [Tinkers hegin to return

Charlie Ward. It might be mid-
dling.

90 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. What would you
say to a —
One of the Boys runs in carrying a jpig's

cheek. The rest of the Tinkers return

with hhn.

Boy. I knew I could do it. I told
you I 'd have my dealing trick out of
the priest. I took a hold of this, and
Johneen made a snap at the onions.

Paul Ruttledge. And he did n't catch
you?

Boy. He 'd want to be a lot smarter
than he is to do that.

Paul Ruttledge. You are a smart
lad, anyway. What do you say we
should have for our wedding party ?

Boy. Are you rich ?

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 91

Paul Ruttledge. More or less.

Boy. I seen a whole truck full of
cakes and bullseyes in the village below.
Could you buy the whole of them ?

Charlie Ward. Stop talking non-
sense. What we want is porter.

Paul Ruttledge. All right. How
many public-houses are there in the
village ?

Tommy the Song. Twenty-four.

Paul Ruttledge. Is there any place
we can have barrels brought to ?

Charlie Ward. There 's a shed near
seems to be empty. We might go there.

Paul Ruttledge. Then go and order
as many barrels as we can make use
of to be brought there.

92 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paddy Cockfight. We will ; and
we'll stop till we've drunk them out.

Paul Ruttledge ^taking out money^.
I have more money than will pay for
that. Sabina, we '11 treat the whole
neighbourhood in honour of our wed-
ding. I '11 have all the public-houses
thrown open, and free drinks going for
a week !

Tinkers. Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah !

Charlie Ward. Three cheers more,
boys.

All. Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah !

The Boys. Now here 's the budget.

Paul Ruttledge \taMng Sabina Sil-
ver's hojnd'^. Now, Sabina, one, two,

three !

Curtain

ACT III

Scene : A large shed. Some sheepskins
hcmging up. Irons and pots for hram,d-
ing sheep, some pitchforks, etc. Tinkers
playing cards, Paul Ruttledge sitting
on an upturned hasket.

Charlie Ward. Stop that melodeon,
now will ye, and we '11 have a taste of
the cocks. Paul did n't see them yet
what they can do. Where 's Tommy ?
Where in the earthly world is Tommy
the Song ?

Paddy Cockfight. He 's over there

in the corner.

93

94 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Charlie Ward. What are you doing
there, Tommy ?

Tommy the Song. Taking a mouth-
ful of prayers, I am.

Charlie Ward. Praying ! did any-
one ever hear the like of that ? Pull
him out of the corner.

[Paddy Cockfight pulls Tommy
THE Song out of the Gorner.

Charlie Ward. What is it you were
praying for, I would like to know ?

Tommy the Song. I was praying that
we might all soon die.

Paddy Cockfight. Die, is it ?

Charlie Ward. Is it die and all
that porter about ? Well ! you have
done enough praying, go over there and

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 95

look for the basket. Who was it set
him praying, I wonder ? I am think-
ing it is the first prayer he ever said
in his life.

Sabina Silver. It 's likely it was
Paul. He 's after talking to him through
the length of an hour.

Paul Ruttledge. Maybe it was.
Don't mind him. I said just now that
when we were all dead and in heaven
it would be a sort of drunkenness, a
sort of ecstasy. There is a hymn about
it, but it is in Latin. " Et calix meus
inebrians quam. praeclarus est." How
splendid is the cup of my drunkenness !

Charlie Ward. Well, that is a
great sort of a hymn. I never thought

96 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

there was a hymn like that, I never
did.

Paddy Cockfight. To think, now,
there is a hymn like that. I must n't
let it slip out of my mind. How
splendid is the cup of my drunkenness,
that 's it.

Charlie Ward. Have you found
that old bird of mine ?

Tommy the Song [who has been
sea/pching a/tnong the laskets^. Here he
is, in the basket and a lot of things
over it.

Charlie Ward. Get out that new
speckled bird of yours, Paddy, I 've
been wanting to see how could he play
for a week past.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 97

Paul Ruttledge. Where do you
get the cocks ?

Paddy Cockfight. It was a man
below Mullingar owned this one. The
day I first seen him I fastened my
two eyes on him, he preyed on my
mind, and next night, if I did n't go
back every foot of nine miles to put
him in my bag.

Paul Ruttledge. Do you pay much
for a good fighting cock ?

Sabina Silver ^laughs']. Do you
pay much, Paddy ?

Paul Ruttledge. Perhaps you don 't
pay anything.

Sabina Silver. I think Paddy gets
them cheap.

98 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Charlie Ward. He gets them cheaper
than another man would, anyhow.

Paddy Cockfight. He 's the best
cock I ever saw before or since. Be-
lieve me, I made no mistake when I
pitched on him.

Tommy the Song. I don't care
what you think of him. I '11 back th^
red ; it 's he has the lively eye.

Molly the Scold. Andy Farrell had
an old cock, and it bent double like
himself, and all the feathers flittered out
of it, but I hold you he 'd leather both
your red and your speckled cock together.
I tell ye, boys, that was the cock !

[Uprom'ious shouts cmd yells hea/rd
outside.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 99

Charlie Ward. Those free drinks
of yours, Paul, is playing the devil
with them. Do you hear them now
and every roar out of them ? They 're
putting the cocks astray, [//e takes out
a coc¥^ Sure they think it 's thunder.

Molly the Scold. There 's not a
man of them outside there now but
would be ready to knock down his
own brother.

Tommy the Song. He would n't
know him to knock him down.
They 're all blind. I never saw the
like of it.

Paul Ruttledge. You in here
stood it better than that.

Charlie Ward. When those com-

LLofC.

100 WHERE THERE IS NOTHINQ

mon men drink it 's what they fall
down. They have n't the heads.
They 're not like us that have to keep
heads and heels on us.

Paddy Cockfight. It 's well we
kept them out of this, or they 'd be
lying on the floor now, and there 'd
be no place for my poor bird to show
himself off. Look at him now ! Is n't
he the beauty ! ^Takes out the cock

Charlie Ward. Now boys, settle
the place, put over those barrels out of
that. [They push harrels into a row at
haeli\ Paul, you sit on the bin the
way you '11 get a good view.

\A loud knock at the door. An
authoritative voice outside.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 101

Voice. Open this door.

Paddy Cockfight. That's Green,
the Removable ; I know his voice well.

Chaelie Wakd. Clear away, boys.
Back with those cocks. There, throw
tliat sack over the baskets. Quick,
will ye !

Colonel Lawley ^outsidsj. Open
this door at once.

Mr. Green ^outsidej. I insist on
this door being opened.

Molly the Scold. What do they
want at all. I wish we did n't come
into a place with no back door to it.

Paul Ruttledge. There 's nothing
to be afraid of. Open the door,
Charlie. [Charlie Ward opens the door

102 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Enter Me. Green, Colonel Lawley,

Mr. Dowler, Mr. Joyce, Mr. Algie

(md Thomas Ruttledge.

Paddy Cockfight. All J.P.'s ; I
have looked at everyone of them from
the dock !

Mr. Green. Mr. Ruttledge, this is
very sad.

Mr. Joyce. This is a disgraceful
business, Paul ; the vv^hole countryside is
demoralized. There is not a man who
has come to sensible years w^ho is not
drunk.

Mr. Dowler. This is a flagrant vio-
lation of all propriety. Society is
shaken to its roots. My own servants
have been led astray by the free drinks

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 103

that are being given in the village. My
butler, who has been with me for seven
years, has not been seen for the last
two days.

Paul Ruttledge. I am sure you
will echo Mr. Dowler, Algie.

Mr. Algie. Indeed I do. I indorse
his sentiments completely. There has
not been a stroke of work done for the
last week. The hay is lying in ridges
where it has been cut, there is not a
man to be found to water the cattle.
It is impossible to get as much as a
horse shod in the village.

Paul Ruttledge. I think you have
something to say. Colonel Lawley ?

Colonel Lawley. I have undoubt-

104 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

edly. I want to know when law and
order are to be re-established. The
police have been quite unable to cope
with the disorder. Some of them have
themselves got drunk. If my advice
had been taken the military would have
been called in.

Mr. Green. The military are not
indispensable on occasions like the pres-
ent. There are plenty of police coming
now. We have wired to Dublin for
them; they will be here by the four
o'clock train.

Paul Ruttledge [gets down from Ms
hinj. But you have not told me what
you have come here for. Is there
anything I can do for you?

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 105

Thomas Ruttledge. Won't you
come home, Paul ? The children have
been asking for you, and we don't
know what to say.

Mr. Green. We have come to re-
quest you to go to the public-houses,
to stop the free drinks, to send the
people back to their work. As for
those tinkers, the law will deal with
them when the police arrive.

Thomas Ruttledge. Oh, Paul, why
have you upset the place like this ?

Paul Ruttledge. Well, I wanted
to give a little pleasure to my fellow-
creatures.

Mr. Dowler. This seems rather a
low form of pleasure.

106 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. I daresay it seems
to you a little violent. But the poor
have very few hours in which to enjoy
themselves ; they must take their pleas-
ure raw ; they have n't the time to
cook it.

Mr. Algie. But drunkenness!

Paul Ruttledge ^piUting his hand
on the shoulders of two of the magistrates]..
Have we not tried sobriety ? Do you
like it ? I found it very dull. [^
yell from outside\ There is not one of
those people outside but thinks that he
is a king, that he is riding the wind.
There is not one of them that would
not hit the world a slap in the face.
Some poet has written that exuberance

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 107

is beauty, and that the roadway of ex-
cess leads to the palace of wisdom.
But I forgot — you do not read the poets.

Mr. Dowler. What we want to
know is, are you going to send the
people back to their work ?

Paul Ruttledgb. Oh, work is such
a little thing in comparison with ex-
perience. Think what it is to them to
have their imagination like a blazing
tar-barrel for a whole week. Work
could never bring them such blessed-
ness as that.

Mr. Dowler. Everyone knows there
is no more valuable blessing than work.

Mr. Algie. Idleness is the curse of
this country.

108 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. I am prejudiced,
for I have always been an idler.
Doubtless, the poor must work. It
was, no doubt, of them you were speak-
ing. Yet, does n't the Church say,
does n't it describe heaven as a place
where saints and angels only sing and
hold branches and wander about hand
in hand. That must be changed. We
must teach the poor to think work a
thing fit for heaven, a blessed thing.
I '11 tell you what we '11 do, Dowler.
Will you subscribe, and you, and you,
and we'll send lecturers about with
magic lanterns showing heaven as it
should be, the saints with spades and
hammers in their hands and everybody

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 109

working. The poor might learn to
think more of work then. Will you
join in that scheme, Dowler ?

Mr. Dowler. I tliink you 'd better
leave these subjects alone. It is obvi-
ous you have cut yourself off from both
religion and society.

Mr. Green. The world could not
go on without work.

Paul Ruttledge. The world could
not go on without work ! The world
could not go on without work ! I
must think about it. ^Gets up on li?i]
Why should the world go on ? Per-
haps the Christian teacher came to
bring it to an end. Let us send mes-
sengers everywhere to tell the people

110 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

to stop working, and then the world
may come to an end. He spoke of the
world, the flesh and the deviL Per-
haps it would be a good thing to end
these one by one.

Colonel Lawley. Come away out
of this. He has gone mad.

Paul Ruttledge. Ah ! I thought
that would scare them.

Mr. Joyce. I wish, Paul, you
would come back and live like a
Christian.

Paul Ruttledge. Like a Christian ?

Mr. Joyce. Come away, there 's no
use stopping here any longer.

Paul Ruttledge ^ste?mli/'j. Wait, I
have something to say to that. [To

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 111

Charlie Ward] Do not let anyone
leave this place.

[Tinkers close together at the door

Mr. Green [to Tinkers]. This is
nonsense. Let me through.

[Tinker spreads out his arms he-
fore him.

Paul Ruttledge. You have come
into a different kingdom now ; the old
kingdom of the people of the roads,
the houseless people. We call ourselves
tinkers, and you are going to put us
on our trial if you can. You call
yourselves Christians, and w^e will put
you on your trial first. I will put the
world on its trial, and myself of yes-
terday. [To a Bo}^] Run out, Johneen,

112 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

keep a watch, and tell us when the
train is coming. Sabina, that rope ;
we will set these gentlemen on those
barrels. [Tinkers take hold of them

Colonel Lawley, Keep your hands
off me, you drunken scoundrel !

^Strikes at Charlie Ward, hut
Tinkers seize his arms behind

Paul Ruttledge. Tie all their
hands behind them.

Mr. Dowler. We 'd better give in,
there 's no saying how many more of
them there are.

Mr. Algie. I '11 be quiet, the odds
are* too great against us.

Mr. Green. The police will soon be
here ; we may as well stay quietly.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 113

Paddy Cockfight. Here, give it to
me, I '11 put a good twist in it. Don't
be afraid, sir, it 's not about your neck
I 'm putting it — There now, sit
quiet and easy, and you won't feel it
at all.

Paul Ruttledge. Are all their hands
tied ? Now then, heave them up on to
the barrels.

^Slight scuffle, during which all a/re
put on the harrels in a semicircle

Paul Ruttledge, Ah ! yes, you are
on my barrels now ; last time I saw
you you were on your own dunghill.
Let me see, is there anyone here who
can write ?

Charlie Ward. Nobody.

114 WHEUE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. Never mind, you
can keep count on your fingers. The
rest must sit down and behave them-
selves as befits a court. They say they
are living like Christians. Let us see.

Thomas Ruttledge. Oh, Paul, don't
make such a fool of yourself.

Paul Ruttledge. The point is not
wisdom or folly, but the Christian life.

Mr. Dowler. Don't answer him,
Thomas. Let us preserve our dignity.

Mr. Algie. Yes, let us keep a dig-
nified attitude — we won't answer these
ruffians at all.

. Paul Ruttledge. Respect the court !
^Turns to Colonel Lawley] You have
served your Queen and country in the

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 115

iield, and now you are a colonel of
militia.

Colonel Lawley. Well, what is
there to be ashamed of in that ? An-
swer me that, now.

Paul Ruttledge. Yet there is an
old saying about turning the other
cheek, an old saying, a saying so impos-
sible that the world has never been
able to get it out of its mind. You
have helped to enlist men for the
army, I think ? Some of them have
fought in the late war, and you have
even sent some of your own militia
there.

Colonel Lawley. If I did I 'm
proud of it.

116 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. Did they think it
was a just war ?

Colonel Lawley. That was not
their business. They had taken the
Queen's pay. They would have dis-
graced themselves if they had not gone.

Paul Ruttledge. Is it not the doc-
trine of your Christian Church, of your
Catholic Church, that he who fights in
an unjust war, knowing it to be unjust,
loses his own soul ?

Colonel Lawley. I should like to
know what would happen to the coun-
try if there were n't soldiers to pro-
tect it.

Paul Ruttledge. We are not dis-
cussing the country, we are discussing

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 117

the Christian life. Has this gentleman
lived the Christian life ?

All the Tinkers. He has not !

Paddy Cockfight. His sergeant tried
to enlist me, giving me a shilling, and
I drunk.

Tommy the Song [singing^

She bid me take love easy, as the
leaves grow on the tree,

But I, being young and foolish, with
her would not agree.

Charlie Ward. Stop your mouth,
Tommy. This is not your show. [To
Paul Ruttledge] Are you going to
put a fine on the Colonel ? If so I 'd
like his cloak.

118 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. Now we '11 try
Mr. Dowler, the rich man. ^Holds up
his jmgers in a ring~^ Mr. Dowler, could
you go through this ?

Mr. Algie. Don't answer him,
Dowler ; he 's going beyond all bounds.

Paul Ruttledge. I was a rich man
and I could not, and yet I am some-
thing smaller than a camel, and this is
something larger than a needle's eye.

Mr. Joyce. Don't answer this pro-
fanity.

Charlie Ward. But what about
the cloak ?

Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! go and take it.
[Charlie Ward goes and takes cloak
off the Colonel.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 119

Colonel Lawley. You drunken ras-
cal, I '11 see you in the dock for
this.

Mr. Joyce. You 're encouraging rob-
bery now.

Paul Ruttledge. Remember the
commandment, " Give to him that ask-
eth thee " ; and the hard commandment
goes even farther, " Him that taketh thy
cloak forbid not to take thy coat also."
^Holding out his ragsl Have I not
shown you what Mr. Green would call
a shining example. Charlie, ask them
all for their coats.

Charlie Ward. I will, and their
boots, too.

All the Tinkers ^uproariousl(/l.

120 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Give me your coat ; I '11 have your
boots, etc.

Mr. Green. Wait till the police
come. I '11 turn the tables on you ;
you may all expect hard labour for
this.

Paul Ruttledge [to the Tinkers].
Stand back, the trial is not over. Mr.
Green, these friends of yours have been
convicted of breaking the doctrine they
boast of. They do not love their ene-
mies ; they do not give to every man
that asks of them. Some of them, Mr.
Dowler, for instance, lay up treasures
upon earth ; they ask their goods again
of those who have taken them away.
But you, Mr. Green, are the worst of

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 121

all. They break the Law of Christ for
their own pleasure, but you take pay
for breaking it. When their goods are
taken away you condemn the taker ;
when they are smitten on one cheek
you punish the smiter. You encourage
them in their breaking of the Law of
Christ.

Tommy the Song. He does, indeed.
He gave me two months for snaring
rabbits.

Paddy Cockfight. He tried to put
a fine on me for a cock I had, and
he took five shillings off Molly for
hitting a man.

Paul Ruttledge. Your evidence is
not wanted. His own words are

122 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

enough. [Stretching out his arms^ Have
any of these gentlemen been living the
Christian life ?

All. They have not.

JoHNEEN ^commg inj. Ye 'd best
clear off now. I see the train coming
in to the station.

Paddy Cockfight. The police will
find plenty to do in the village before
they come to us ; that 's one good job.

Paul Ruttledge. One moment. I
have done trying the world I have
left. You have accused me of up-
setting order by my free drinks, and I
have showed you that there is a more
dreadful fermentation in the Sermon on
the Mount than in my beer-barrels.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 123

Christ thought it in the irresponsibility
of His omnipotence. \_Gettmg from his
binj Charlie, give me that cloak.

VHe flings it hack
Charlie Ward. Are n't you going
to punish them anyway ?

Paul Ruttledge. No, no, from this

out I would punish nobody but myself.

\8ome of the Tinkers have gone out

Charlie Ward. We 'd best be off

while we can. Come along, Paul,

Sibby 's gone.

\As they go out Tommy the Song
is singing^

Down by the sally garden my love
and I did stand,

124 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

And on my leaning shoulder she laid

her milk-white hand ;
She bade me take love easy, as the

leaves grow on the tree,
But I, being young and foolish, with

her would not agree.

[^AU go out except Paul Ruttledge
Paul Ruttledge. Well, good-by,
Thomas ; I don't suppose I '11 see you
again. Use all I have ; spend it on
your children ; I '11 never want it. \To
the others^ Will you come and join us ?
We will find rags for you all. Per-
haps you will give up that dream
that is fading from you, and come
among the blind, homeless people ;

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 125

put off the threadbare clothes of the
Apostles and run naked for a while.

[/« going out

Thomas Ruttledge. You have noth-
ing against me, have you, Paul ?

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, yes, I have ;
a little that I have said against all
these, and a worse thing than all,
though it is not in the book.

Thomas Ruttledge. What is it ?

Paul Ruttledge [lookmg hack from
the threshold^. You have begotten fools.

Curtain

ACT IV

Scene 1 : Oreat door m the middle of
the stage under a stone cross, with
flights of steps leading to door. Miter
Charlie Ward, Paddy Cockfight,
Tommy the Song, and Sabina Sil-
ver. They are sujpporting Paul
RuTTLEDGE, who is lent and limping.

Charlie Ward. We must leave you
here. The monks will take you in.
We 're very sorry, Paul. It 's a heart-
scald to us to leave you and you know
that, but what can we do ?

[They lead Paul Ruttledge to steps

126

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 127

Paul Ruttledge. Ah ! that was a
bad stitch ! [(r««^s] Take care now ;
put me down gently.

Sabina Silver. Oh ! can't we keep
him with us anyway ; he '11 find no one
to care him as well as myself.

Tommy the Song. What way can
you care him, Sibby ? It 's no way to
have him lying out on the roadside
under guano bags, like ourselves, and
the rain coming down on him like it
did last night. It 's in hospital he '11
be for the next month.

Charlie Ward. We 'd never leave
you if you could even walk. If we
have to give you to the monks itself,
we 'd keep round the place to encour-

128 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

age you, only for the last business.
We '11 have to put two counties at
least between us and Gortmore after
what we 're after doing.

Paul Ruttledge. Never mind, boys,
they '11 never insult a tinker again in
Gortmore as long as the town 's a
town.

Chablie Ward. Dear knows ! it
breaks my heart to think of the fine
times we had of it since you joined
us. Why the months seemed like days.
And all the fine sprees we had to-
gether ! Now you 're gone from us we
might as well be jailed at once.

Paddy Cockfight. And how you
took to the cocks ! I believe you were

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 129

a better judge than myself. No one
but you would ever have fancied that
black-winged cock — and he never met
his match.

Paul Ruttledge. Ah ! well, I 'm
doubled up now^ like that old cock of
Andy FarrelPs.

Paddy Cockfight. No, but you
w^ere the best warrant to set a snare
that ever I came across.

Paul Ruttledge [sitting down with
difficulty on the steps^. Yes ; it was a
grand time we had, and I would n't
take back a day of it ; but it 's over
now ; I 've hit my ribs against the earth
and they 're aching.

Sabina Silver. Oh ! Paul, Paul, is

130 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

it to leave you we must ? And you
never once struck a kick or a blow on
me all this time, not even and you in
pain with the rheumatism.

[A clock strikes inside

Charlie Ward. There 's the clock
striking. The monks will be getting
up. We 'd best be off after the others.
I hear some noise inside ; they 'd best
not catch us here. I '11 stop and pull
the bell. Be off with you, boys !

Paul Ruttledge. Good-by, Sabina.
Don't cry ! you '11 get another husband.

Sabina Silver. I '11 never lep the
budget with another man ; I swear it.

Paul Ruttledge. Good-by, Paddy.
Good-by, Tommy. My mother Earth

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 131

will have none of me and I will go
look for my father that is in heaven.

Paddy Cockfight. Come along,
Sibby. rTakes her limid and hurries off

Charlie Ward \rings heir\. Are they
sure to let you in, Paul ? Have you
got your story ready ?

Paul Ruttledge. No fear, they
won't refuse a sick man. No one
knows me but Father Jerome, and he
won't tell on me.

Charlie Ward. There 's a step in-
side. I '11 cut for it.

\He goes out. Paul is left sitting on
steps.

132 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Scene 2 : The cryjpt under the monastery
church. A small larred window high
up in the wall, through which the cold
daaon is breaking. Altar in a niche at
the hack of stage / there are seven un-
lighted candles on the altar. A little
ha/nging lamp near the altar. Paul
RuTTLEDGE is Vying on the altar steps.
Friars are dancing slowly before hhn
in the dim light. Father Aloysius
is leaning agai/nst a pillar.
Some Friars come in carrying lanterns.

First Friar. What are they doing?
Dancing ?

Second Friar. I told you they
were dancing, and you would not be-
lieve me.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 133

First Friar. What on earth are
they doing it for?

Third Friar. I heard them saying
Father Paul told them to do it if they
ever found him in a trance again. He
told them it was a kind of prayer
and would bring joy down out of
heaven, and make it easier for him to
preach.

Second Friar. How still he is
lying ; you would nearly think him to
be dead.

A Friar. It is just a twelvemonth
to-day since he was in a trance like
this.

Second Friar. That was the time
he gave his great preaching. I can't

134 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

blame those that went with him, for
he all but persuaded me.

First Friab. They think he is
going to preach again when he awakes,
that 's why they are dancing. When
he wakes one of them will go and
call the others.

Third Friar. We were all in
danger when one so pious was led
away. It 's five years he has been
with us now, and no one ever went
so quickly from lay brother to novice,
and novice to friar.

First Friar. The way he fasted
too ! The Superior bade me watch
him at meal times for fear he should
starve himself.

WHEBE THERE IS NOTHING 185

Third Fkiar. He thought a great
deal of Brother Paul then, but he isn't
so well pleased with him now.

Second Friar. What is Father
Aloysius doing there ? standing so quiet
and his eyes shut.

Third Friar. He is meditating.
Did n't you hear Brother Paul give
meditations of his own ?

First Friar. Colman was telling
me about that. He gives them a joy-
ful thought to fix their minds on.
They must not let their minds stray to
anything else. They must follow that
single thought and put everything else
behind them.

Third Friar. Colman fainted the

136 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

other day when he was at his medita-
tion. He says it is a great labour to
follow one thought always.

Second Friar. What do they do it
for?

First Friar. To escape what they
call the wandering of nature. They say
it was in the trance Brother Paul got
the knowledge of it. He says that if a
man can only keep his mind on the
one high thought, he gets out of time
into eternity, and learns the truth for
itself.

Third Friar. He calls that getting
above law and number, and becoming
king and priest in one's own house.

Second Friar. A nice state of things

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 137

it would be if every man was his own
priest and his own king.

First Friar. I wonder will he wake
soon. I thought I saw him stir just now.
Father Aloysius, will he wake soon ?

Aloysius. What did you say ?

First Friar. Will he wake soon ?

Aloysius. Yes, yes, he will wake very
soon now.

Second Friar. What are they going
to do now ; are they going to dance ?

Third Friar. He was too patient
with him. He would have made short
work of any of us if we had gone so far.

First Dancer. Nam, et si ambula-
vero in medio umbrae mortis,
Non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es.

138 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

First Friar. They are singing the
twenty-second Psalm. What madness
to sing !

Second Dancer. Virga tua, et bacu-
lus tuus.
Ipsa me consolata sunt.

First Dancer. Parasti in conspectu
meo mensam
Adversus eos qui tribulant me.

Second Dancer. Inpinguasti in oleo
caput meum ;
Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus
est.
Second Friar. Here is the Superior.
There '11 be bad work now.
Superior comes in.
Superior \ holding up his ha/nd~^. Si-
lence ! {They stop singing and dancing

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 139

First Dancer. It 's the Superior.

Superior. Stop this blasphemy ! Leave
the chapel at once ! I will deal with you
by and by. ^Do/ncing Friars go out

Jerome ^stooping over Paul]. He has
not wakened from the trance yet.

Aloysius \who still remains perfectly
motionless^. Not yet, but he will soon
awake — Paul !

Superior. It is hardly worth while
being angry with those poor fools whose
heads he has turned with his talk.
\ Stoops and touches his handl It is quite
rigid. I will wait till he is alive again,
there is no use wasting words on a dead
body.

Jerome ^stooping over himy His eyes

140 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

are beginning to quiver. Let me be the
first to speak to him. He may say
some wild things when he awakes, not
knowing who is before him.

SuPERiOK. He must not preach. I
must have his submission at once.

Jerome. I will do all I can with
him. He is most likely to listen to me.
I was once his close friend.

Superior. Speak to him if you like,
but entire submission is the only thing
I will accept. [Tb the other Monks]
Come with me, we will leave Father
Jerome here to speak to him. [Superior
and Friars go to the doorj Such dese-
cration, such blasphemy. Remember,
Father Jerome, entire submission, and at
once. [Superior and Friars go out

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 141

Jerome. Where are the rest of his
friends, Father Aloysius ? Bartley and
Colman ought to be with him when he
is like this.

Aloysius. They are resting, because,
when he has given his message, they
may never be able to rest again.

Jerome [be7idi7ig over hiTnl. My poor
Paul, this will wear him out ; see how
thin he has grown !

Aloysius. He is hard upon his body.
He does not care what happens to his
body.

Jerome. He was like this when he
was a boy ; some wild thought would
come on him, and he would not know
day from night, he would forget even

142 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

to eat. It is a great pity he was so
hard to himself ; it is a pity he had
not always someone to look after him.

Aloysius. God is taking care of him ;
what could men like us do for him ?
We cannot help him, it is he who
helps us.

Jerome [going on Ms knee mid taking
his ha?id~\. He is awaking. Help me to
lift him up. [They lift him into a chair

Aloysius. I will go and call the
others now.

Jerome. Do not let them come for a
little time, I must speak to him first.

Aloysius. I cannot keep them away
long. One cannot know when the words
may be put in his mouth.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 143

[Aloysius goes out. Jerome stands
hy Paul Ruttledge, holdvng
his hand.

Paul Ruttledge Raising his head~\.
Ah, you are there, Jerome. I am glad
you are there. I could not get up to
drive away the mouse that was eating
the' wax that dropped from the candles.
Have you driven it away ?

Jerome. It is not evening now. It
is almost morning. You were on your
knees praying for a great many hours,
and then I think you fainted.

Paul Ruttledge. I don't think I
was praying. I was among people, a
great many people, and it was very
bright — I will remember presently.

144 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Jerome. Do not try to remember.
You are tired, you must be weak, you
must come and have food and rest.

Paul Ruttledge. I do not think
I can rest. I think there is something
else I have to do, I forget what it is.

Jerome. I am afraid you are think-
ing of preaching again. You must not
preach. The Superior says you must
not. He is very angry ; I have never
seen him so angry. He will not allow
you to preach again.

Paul Ruttledge. Did I ever preach ?

Jerome. Yes. It was in the garden
you got the trance last time. We found
you like this, and we lifted you to the
bench under the yew tree, and then

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 145

you began to speak. You spoke about
getting out of the body while still
alive, about getting away from law and
number. All the friars came to listen to
you. We had never heard such preach-
ing before, but it was very like heresy.
Paul Ruttledge [getting up']. Je-
rome, Jerome, I remember now where
I was. I was in a great round place,
and a great crowd of things came round
me. I could n't see them very clearly
for a time, but some of them struck
me with their feet, hard feet like hoofs,
and soft cat-like feet ; and some pecked
me, and some bit me, and some clawed
me. There were all sorts of beasts
and birds as far as I could see.

146 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Jerome. Were they devils, Paul, were
they the deadly sins ?

Paul Ruttledge. I don't know, but
I thought, and I don't know how the
thought came to me, that they were the
part of mankind that is not human ; the
part that builds up the things that keep
the soul from God.

Jerome. That was a terrible vision.

Paul Ruttledge. I struggled and I
struggled with them, and they heaped
themselves over me till I was unable to
move hand or foot : and that went on
for a long, long time.

Jerome [crossing himself ^ God have
mercy on us.

Paul Ruttledge. Then suddenly

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 147

there came a bright light, and all in a
minute the beasts were gone, and I saw
a great many angels riding upon uni-
corns, white angels on white unicorns.
They stood all round me, and they cried
out, " Brother Paul, go and preach ; get
up and preach. Brother Paul." And
then they laughed aloud, and the uni-
corns trampled the ground as though the
world were already falling in pieces.

Jerome. It was only a dream.
Come with me. You will forget it
when you have had food and rest.

Paul Ruttledge ^looking at his arm^.
It was there one of them clawed me ;
one that looked at me with great heavy
eyes.

148 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Jerome. The Superior has been here ;
try and listen to me. He says you must
not preach.

Paul Ruttledge. Great heavy eyes
and hard sharp claws.

Jerome [putti7ig his hands on his
shoulders^. You must awake from this.
You must remember where you are.
You are under rules. You must not
break the rules you are under. The
brothers will be coming in to hear you,
you must not speak to them. The
Superior has forbidden it.

Paul Ruttledge ^touching Jerome's
hcmd'\. I have always been a great
trouble to you.

Jerome. You must go and submit to

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 149

the Superior. Go and make your sub-
mission now, for my sake. Think of
what I have done for your sake. Re-
member how I brought you in, and an-
swered for you when you came here. I
did not tell about that wild business.
I have done penance for that deceit.

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, you have al-
ways been good to me, but do not ask
me this. I have had other orders.

Jerome. Last time you preached the
whole monastery was upset. The Friars
began to laugh suddenly in the middle
of the night.

Paul Ruttledge. If I have been given
certain truths to tell, I must tell them
at once before they slip away from me.

150 WHERE THESE IS NOTHING

Jerome. I cannot understand your
ideas ; you tell them impossible things.
Things that are against the order of
nature.

Paul Ruttledge. I have learned
that one needs a religion so wholly
supernatural, that is so opposed to the
order of nature that the world can never
capture it.

[So7ne Friars cotne in. They carry
green hranches in their hands.

Paul Ruttledge. They are coming.
Will you stay and listen ?

Jerome. I must not stay. I must
not listen.

Paul Ruttledge. Help me over to
the candles. I am weak, my knees are

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 151

weak. I shall be strong when the
words come. I shall be able to teach.
[He lights a taper at the hanging lamp and
tries to light the candles with a shaking
hand. Jerome takes the taper from him
and lights the candles^ Why are you
crying, Jerome ?

Jerome. Because we that were
friends are separated now. We shall
never be together again.

Paul Ruttledge. Never again ?
The love of God is a very terrible
thing.

Jerome. I have done with meddling.
I must leave you to authority now. I
must tell the Superior you will not
obey. [jSe goes out

152 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

First Friar. Father Jerome had a
very dark look going out.

Second Friar. He was shut up
with the Superior this morning. I
wonder what they were talking about.

First" Friar. I wonder if the Supe-
rior will mind our taking the branches.
They are only cut on Palm Sunday
other years. What will he tell us, I
wonder? It seems as if he was going
to tell us how to do some great thing.
Do you think he will teach us to do
cures like the friars used at Esker?

Second Friar. Those were great
cures they did there, and they were not
strange men, but just the same as our-
selves. I heard of a man went to

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 153

them dying on a cart, and he walked
twenty miles home to Burren holding
the horse's head.

First Friar. Maybe we '11 be able
to see visions the same as were seen at
Knock. It 's a great wonder all that
was seen and all that was done there.

Third Friar. I was there one time,
and the whole place was full of
crutches that had been thrown away
by people that were cured. There was
a silver crutch there some rich man
from America had sent as an offering
after getting his cure. Speak to him,
Brother Colman. He seems to be in
some sort of a dream. Ask if he is
going to speak to us now.

154 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

CoLMAN. We are all here, Brother
Paul.

Paul Ruttlbdge. Have you all been
through your meditations ?

[They all gather round him

Bartley. We have all tried ; we
have done our best ; but it is hard to
keep our mind on the one thing for
long.

Paul Ruttledge. " He ascended
into heaven." Have you meditated
upon that ? Did you reject all earthly
images that came into your mind till
the light began to gather?

Third Friar. I could not fix my
mind well. When I put out one
thought others came rushing in.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 155

CoLMAN. When I was meditating,
the inside of my head suddenly became
all on fire.

Aloysius. While I was meditating,
I felt a spout of fire going up between
my shoulders.

Paul Ruttledge. That is the way
it begins. You are ready now to hear
the truth. Now I can give you the
message that has come to me. Stand
here at either side of the altar.
Brother Colman, come beside me here.
Lay down your palm branches before
this altar ; you have brought them as
a sign that the walls are beginning to
be broken up, that we are going back
to the joy of the green earth. \_Goe8

156 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Up to the candles and s]peaks\ Et calix
meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.
For a long time after their making
men and women wandered here and
there, half blind from the drunkenness
of Eternity ; they had not yet forgot-
ten that the green Earth was the Love
of God, and that all Life was the Will
of God, and so they wept and laughed
and hated according to the impulse of
their hearts. ^He takes up the green
houghs and presses them to his hreast~^
They gathered the green Earth to their
breasts and their lips, as I gather these
boughs to mine, in what they believed
would be an eternal kiss.

\IIe remains a little while silent

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 157

Second Friar. I see a light about
his head.

Third Friar. I wonder if he has
seen God.

Paul Ruttledge. It was then that
the temptation began. Not only the
Serpent who goes upon his belly, but
all the animal spirits that have loved
things better than life, came out of
their holes and began to whisper. The
men and women listened to them, and
because v/hen they had lived according
to the joyful Will of God in mother
wit and natural kindness, they some-
times did one another an injury, they
thought that it would be better to be
safe than . to be blessed, they made the

158 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Laws. The Laws were the first sin.
They were the first mouthful of the
apple, the moment man had made them
he began to die ; we must put out the
Laws as I put out this candle.

^Jle puts out the candle with an extin-
guisher^ still holding the houghs
with his left hand. Two Ortho-
dox Friars ha^e come in.
First Orthodox Friar. You had
better go for the Superior.

Second Orthodox Friar. I must
stop and listen.

\The First Orthodox Friar listens
for a ini7iute or two a/»id then
goes out.
Paul Ruttlbdgb. And when they

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 159

had lived amidst the green Earth that
is the Love of God, they were some-
times whetted by the rain, and some-
times cold and hungry, and sometimes
alone from one another; they thought
it would be better to be comfortable
than to be blessed. They began to
build big houses and big towns. They
grew wealth}^ and they sat chattering
at their doors ; and the embrace that
was to have been eternal ended, lips
and hands were parted. ^He lets the
houghs slip out of his a/rms^ We must
put out the towns as I put out this
candle. \Puts out another candle

A Friapw. Yes, yes, we must uproot
the towns.

160 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Paul Ruttledge. But that is not
all, for man created a worse thing, yes,
a worse defiance against God. ^The
Friars groanj God put holiness into
everything that lives, for everything
that desires is full of His Will, and
everything that is beautiful is full of
His Love ; but man grew timid because
it had been hard to find his way
amongst so much holiness, and though
God had made all time holy, man said
that only the day on which God rested
from life was holy, and though God
had made all places holy, man said,
" no place but this place that I put
pillars and walls about is holy, this
place where I rest from life";.. and in

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 161

this and like ways he built up the
Church. We must destroy the Church,
we must put it out as I put out this
candle. l^Puts out another cmidle

Friars ^clasping oiie another'' s hands\.
He is right, he is right. The Church
must be destroyed.

\The Superior comes in

First Friar. Here is the Superior.

A Friar. He has been saying —

Superior. Hush ! I will hear him
to the end.

Paul Ruttledge. That is not all.
These things may be accomplished and
yet nothing be accomplished. The
Christian's business is not reformation
but revelation, and the only labours he

162 WHERE TUEliE IS NOTHING

can put his hand to can never be ac-
complished in Time. He must so live
that all things shall pass away. ^He
sto/tids silent for a raoment and then cries^
lifting his hand above his headl Give
me wine out of thy pitchers ; oh, God,
how splendid is my cup of drunken-
ness ! We must become blind, and
deaf, and dizzy. We must get rid of
everything that is not measureless eter-
nal life. We must put out hope as I
put out this candle. ^Puts out a can-
dle'j And memory as I put out this
candle. [As before^ And thought, the
waster of Life, as I put out this can-
dle. [As beforel^ And at last we must
put out the light of the Sun and of

WHEBE THERE IS NOTHING 163

the Moon, and all the light of the
World and the World itself. [ZTe now
puts out the last candle, the chapel is very
dark. The only light is the faint light,
of morning coming through the window\
We must destroy the World ; we must
destroy everything that has Law and
Number, for where there is nothing,
there is God.

[7%6 Superior comes forward. One

of Paul's Friars mahes as if

.to speak to him. The Superior

strikes at him with the hack of

his hcmd.

Superior \to Paul Ruttledge]. Get

out of this, rebel, blasphemous rebel !

Paul Ruttledge, Do as you like

164 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

to me, but you cannot silence my
thoughts. I learned them from Jesus
Christ, who made a terrible joy, and
sent it to overturn governments, and
all settled order.

[Paul's Friars rush to scwe him
from the Superior.

Paul Ruttledge. There is no need
for violence. I am ready to go.

CoLMAN faking his hand^. I w^ill go
with you.

Aloysius. I will go with you too.

Several other Friars. And I, and
I, and I.

Superior. Whoever goes with this
heretic goes straight into the pit.

Bartley. Do not leave us behind
you. Let us go with you.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 165

CoLMAN. Teach us I teach us ! we
will help you to teach others.

Paul Ruttledge. Let me go alone,
the one more, the one nearer falsehood.

Bartley. We will go with you !
We will go with you ! We must go
where we can hear your voice.

A Friar ^who stands behind the
Superior]. God is making him speak
against himself.

Paul Ruttledge. No, the time has
not come for you. You would be
thinking of your food at midday and
listening for the bells at prayer time.
You have not yet heard the voices and
seen the faces.

Superior. A miracle ! God is mak-

166 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

ing the heretic speak against himself.
Listen to him !

Aloysius. We will not stay behind,
we will go with you.

Bartley. We cannot live without
hearing you !

Paul Ruttledge. I am led by
hands that are colder than ice and
harder than diamonds. They will lead
me where there will be hard thoughts
of me in the hearts of all that love
me, and there will be a fire in my
heart that will make it as bare as the
wilderness.

Aloysius. We will go with you. We
too will take those hands that are colder
than ice and harder than diamonds.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 167

Several Monks. We too ! we too !
Patrick. Bring us to the hands
that are colder than ice and harder
than diamonds.

Other Monks. Pull them away !
pull them away from him !

\They a/re about to seize the Monks

who are with Paul Ruttledge

Superior ^going hetween thein\. Back !

back ! I will have no scuffling here.

Let the devil take his children if he

has a mind to. God will call His own.

\The Monks fall hack. Superior

goes up to altar, takes the cross

from it a/nd turns, standing on

the steps.

Superior. Father Aloysius, come to

168 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

me here. [Aloysius takes Paul Rutt-
ledge's hand^ Father Bartley, Father
Cohnan. [They go nearer to Paul
Ruttledge] Father Patrick ! [J. Friar
comes towaixis him~^ Kneel down ! [Fa-
ther Patrick kneels~\ Father Clement,
Father Nestor, Father James . . , leave
the heretic — you are on the very edge
of the pit. Your shoes are growing
red hot.

A Friar. I am afraid, I am afraid.

[ He kneels

Superior. Kneel down ; return to
your God. ^Several Monks kneel

CoLMAN. They have deserted us.

Paul Ruttledge. Many will forsake
the truth before the world is pulled

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 169

down. rStretching out his arms over his
head'\ I pulled down my own house,
now I go out to pull down the world.

Superior. Strip off those holy
habits.

Paul Ruttledge ^taking off his hahit].
One by one I am plucking off the rags
and tatters of the world.

Curtain

ACT V

Scene : Smooth level grass near the Shan-
non. Ecclesiastical ruins, a part of
which have been roofed in. Rocky
plain in the distance, with a river.
Father Colman sorting some bundles
of osiers.
Aloysius enters with an empty bag.

Colman. You are the first to come
back, Aloysius. Where is Brother Bartley ?

Aloysius. He parted from me at the
cross roads and went on to preach at
Shanaglish. He should soon be back now.
170

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 171

CoLMAN. Have you anything in the
bag?

Aloysius. Nothing. \_Throws the hag
dowTij It does n't seem as if our luck
was growing. We have but food
enough to last till to-morrow. We
have hardly that. The rats from the
river got at the few potatoes I gathered
from the farmers at Lisheen last week,
in the corner where they were.

CoLMAN. This is the first day you
got nothing at all. Maybe you did n't
ask the right way.

Aloysius. I asked for alms for the
sake of the love of God. But the first
place where I asked it, the man of
the house was giving me a handful

172 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

of meal, and the woman came and
called out that we were serving the
devil in the name of God, and she
drove me from the door,

CoLMAN. It is since the priests
preached against us they say that.
Did you go on to Lisheen ? They used
always to treat us well there.

Aloysius. I did, but I got on no
better there.

CoLMAN. That is a wonder, after
the woman that had the jaundice being
cured with prayers by Brother Paul.

Aloysius. That 's just it. If he did
cure her, they say the two best of her
husband's bullocks died of the black-
water the next day, and he was no
way thankful to us after that.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 173

CoLMAN. Did you try the houses
along the bog road ?

Aloysius. I did, and the children
coming back from school called out
after me and asked who was it
did away with the widow Cloran's
cow.

CoLMAN. The widow Cloran's cow ?

Aloysius. That was the cow that
died after grazing in the ruins here.

CoLMAN. If it did, it was because
of an old boot it picked up and ate,
and that never belonged to us.

Aloysius. I wish we had something
ourselves to eat. They should be sit-
ting down to their dinner in the mon-
astery now. They will be having a

174 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

good dinner to-day to carry them over
the fast to-morrow.

CoLMAN. I am thinking sometimes,
Brother Paul should give more thought
to us than he does. It is all very
well for him, he is so taken up with
his thoughts and his visions he does n't
know if he is full or fasting.

Aloysius. He has such holy thoughts
and visions no one would like to
trouble him. He ought not to be in the
world at all, or to do the world's work.

CoLMAN. So long as he is in the
world, he must give some thought to
it. There must be something wrong in
the way he is doing things now. I
thought he would have had half Ireland

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 175

with him by this time with his great
preaching, but someway when he
preaches to the people, they don't seem
to mind him much.

Aloysius. He is too far above them ;
they have not education to understand
him.

CoLMAN. They understand me well
enough when I give my mind to it.
But it is harder to preach now than it
was in the monastery. We had some-
thing to offer then ; absolution here,
and heaven after.

Aloysius. Is n't it enough for them
to hear that the kingdom of heaven is
within them, and that if they do the
right meditations —

176 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

CoLMAN. What can poor people that

have their own troubles on them get

from a few words like that they hear

at a cross road or a market, and the

wind maybe blowing them away ? If

we could gather them together now.

. . . Look, Aloysius, at these sally rods ;

I have a plan in my mind about them.

rZTe has sttick some of the rods in

the ground, and begins weaving

others through them.

Aloysius. Are you going to make
baskets like you did in the monastery
schools ?

CoLMAN. We must make something if
we are to live. But it is more than that
I was thinking of ; we might coax some

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 177

of the youngsters to come and learn the
basket making ; it would make them
take to us better if we could put them
in the way of earning a few pence.

Aloysius [taking up some of the osiers
and beginning to twist them~^. That might
be a good way to come at them ; they
could work through the day, and at
evening we could tell them how to re-
peat the words till the light comes
inside their heads. But would Paul
think well of it? He is more for pull-
ing down than building up.

CoLMAN. When I explain it to him
I am sure he will think well of it ; he
can't go on for ever without anyone to
listen to him.

178 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Aloysius. I suppose not, and with
no way of living. But I don't know,
I 'm afraid he won't like it.

CoLMAN. Hush ! Here he is coming.

Aloysius. If one had a plan now
for doing some destruction —

CoLMAN. Hush ! don't you see there
is somebody with him ?

Paul Ruttledge comes m with Charlie
Ward.

Paul Ruttledge. This is Charlie
Ward, my old friend.

Aloysius. The Charlie Ward you
lived on the roads with ?

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, when I went
looking for the favour of my hard

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 179

mother, Earth, he helped me. He is
her good child and she loves him.

CoLMAN, He is welcome. How did
he find you out ?

Paul Ruttledge, I don't know.
How did you find me out, Charlie ?

Charlie Ward. Oh, I did n't lose
sight of you so much as you thought. I
had to stop away from Gortmore a good
while after we left you at the gate, but
I sent Paddy Cockfight one time to get
news, and he mended cans for the
laundry of the monastery, and they told
him you were well again, and a monk
as good as the rest. But awhile ago I
got word there was a monk had gone
near to break up the whole monastery

180 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

with his talk and his piety, and I said
to myself, " That 's Paul ! " And then
I heard there was a monk had been
driven out for not keeping the rules, and
I said to myself, " That 's Paul ! " And
the other day when what 's left of us
came to Athlone, I heard talk of some
disfrocked monks that were upsetting
the whole neighbourhood, and I said,
" That 's Paul." To Sabina Silver I said
that. "That merry chap Paul," I said.

Paul Ruttledge. I 'm afraid you
have a very bad opinion of me, Charlie.
Well, maybe I earned it.

Aloysius. You cannot know much of
him if you have a bad opinion of him.
He will be made a saint some day.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 181

Charlie Ward. He will, if there 's
such a thing as a saint of mischief.

Paul Ruttlbdge. A saint of mis-
chief ? Well, why not that as well as
another ? He would upset all the bee-
hives, he would throw them into the
market-place. Sit down now, Charlie,
and eat a bit with us.

Colmak. You are welcome, indeed,
to all we can give you, but we have not
a bit of food that is worth offering you.
Aloysius got nothing at all in the villages
to-day. Brother Paul. The people are
getting cross.

Paul Ruttledge. Well, sit down,
anyway. The country people liked me
well enough once, there was no man

182 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

they liked so much as myself when I
gave them drink for nothing. Did n't
they, Charlie ?

Charlie Ward. Oh, that was a
great time. They were lying thick
about the roads. I '11 be thinking of it
to my dying day.

Paul Ruttlbdge. I have given them
another kind of drink now.

Charlie Ward. What sort of a
drink is that?

Paul Ruttledge. We have rolled a
great barrel out of a cellar that is under
the earth. We have rolled it right into
the midst of them. \^Ile moves Ms hand
ahout as if he were moving a harreV^ It 's
heavy, and when they have drunk what

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 183

is in it, I would like to see the man that
would be their master.

Charlie Ward. That would be a
great drink, but I would n't be sure that
you 're in earnest.

Paul Ruttledge. Colman and Aloy-
sius will tell you all about it. It was
made in a good still, the barley was
grown in a field that 's down under the
earth.

Charlie Ward. That 's likely
enough. I often heard of places like
that.

Paul Ruttledge. And when they
have drunk from my barrel, they will
break open the door, they will put law
and number under their two feet ; and

184 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

they will have a hot palm and a cold
palm, for they will put down the moon
and the sun with their two hands.

Charlie Ward. There 's no mistake
but you 're the same Paul still ; nice and
plain and simple, only for your hard
talk. And what about the rheumatism ?
It 's hardly got through that fit you had,
and you don't look as if much hardship
would agree with you now.

Aloysius. He does not, indeed, and
if he does n't kill himself one way he
will another. Wait now till I tell you
the way he is living. I don't think he
tasted bit or sup to-day, and all he had
last night was a couple of dry potatoes.

Charlie Ward. Is that so ? \_Tahes

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 185

Paul Ruttledge's anrij You have n't
much more flesh on you than a crane
in moonlight. They don't seem to have
much notion of minding you here, you
that v^ere reared soft. It would be bet-
ter for you to come back to us ; bad as
our lodging is, there 'd be a bit in the
pot for you and Sabina to care you.
It 's she would give you a good welcome.
CoLMAN ^starting up^. We can mind
him well enough here. I have a plan.
We have n't been getting on the way
we ought with the people. It 's no
way to be getting on with people to
be asking things of them always, they
have no opinion at all of us seeing us
the way we are. They have no notion

186 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

of the respect they should show to
Brother Paul, and the way all the
Brothers used to be listening to his
preaching, and the townspeople as well.
And I, myself, the time I preached in
Dublin —

Aloysius. Yes, indeed, Paul, think of
the great crowds used to come when
you preached in the Abbey church,
and all the money that was gathered
that time of the Mission.

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, I used to like
once to see all the faces looking up at
me. But now all that is gone from me.
Now I think it is enough to be a wit-
ness for the truth, and to think the
thoughts I like. God will bring the

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 187

people to me. He will make of my
silence a great wind that will shatter
the ships of the world.

CoLMAN. That is all very well, but
the people are not coming.

Aloysius. And more than that, they
are driving us away from their doors
now, Paul.

Charlie Ward, The way they do
to us. But Paul was not born on the
roads. ^Lights his pipe

CoLMAN. It 's no use stopping wait-
ing for a wind ; if we have anything to
say that 's worth the people listening
to, we must bring them to hear it one
way or another. Now, it is what I was
saying to Aloysius, we must begin teach-

188 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

ing them to make things ; they never
had the chance of any instruction of
the sort here.

Paul Ruttledge. To make things?
This sort of things ?

[Takes the half -made basket froni
Colma/n.

CoLMAN. Those and other things ; we
got a good training in the old days.
And we '11 get a grant from the Tech-
nical Board. The Board pays up to
four hundred pounds to some of its
instructors.

Paul Ruttledge. And then?

Aloysius. Oh, then we '11 sell all
the things we make. I 'm sure we '11
get a market for them.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 189

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, I understand ;
you will sell them. And what about
the dividing of the money ? You will
need to make laws about that.

CoLMAN. Of course ; we will have
to make rules, and to pay according to
work.

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, we will grow
quite rich in time. What are we to
do then ? we can't go on living in this
ruin ?

CoLMAN. Of course not. We '11
build workshops and houses for those
who come to work from a distance,
good houses, slated, not thatched.

Paul Ruttledge [turning to Aloy-
sius a7id Charlie Ward]. Yes, you

190 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

see his plan. To gather the people to-
gether, to build houses for them ; to
make them rich too, and to keep their
money safe. And the Kingdom of God
too? What about that?

CoLMAN. Oh, I 'm just coming to
that. They will think so much more
of our teaching when we have got them
under our influence by other things.
Of course we will teach them their
meditations, and give them a regular
religious life. We must settle out some
little place for them to pray in — there 's
a high gable over there where we could
hang a bell —

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, yes, I under-
stand. You would weave them to-

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 191

gether like this ^wea/ves the osiers in and
out], you would add one thing to
another, laws and money and church
and bells, till you had got everything
back again that you have escaped from.
But it is my business to tear things
asunder like this }^tears pieces from the
hasket'j, and this, and this —

Aloysius. I told him you 'd never
agree to it. He ought to have known
that himself.

CoLMAN. We must have something to
offer the people.

Paul Ruttledge. You say that be-
cause you got nothing to-day. Aloysius
has got nothing in his sack. [^Taki7ig
sack and tur^iing it upside down^ It is

192 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

quite empty. Every religious teacher
before me has offered something to his
followers, but I offer them nothing.
\Plunging his arm, down into the saclc]^
My sack is quite empty. I will never
dip my hand into nature's full sack of
illusions ; I am tired of that old con-
juring bag.

\He walks up and down muttering
Charlie Ward \to Colman]. You
may as well give up trying to settle
him down to anything. He was a
tinker once, and he '11 be a tinker
always ; he has got the wandering into
his blood. Will you come back to the
roads, Paul, to your old friends and to
Sabina ?

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 193

Paul Ruttledge ^sitting down beside
him\. Ah, my old friends, they were
very kind to me ; but these friends too
are very kind to me.

Charlie Ward. Well, come and see
them anyway ; they '11 be glad to see
you, those that are left of us.

Paul Ruttledge. Those that are left
of you ? Where are the others ?

Charlie Ward. Some are dead, and
some are jailed, and some are on the
roads here and there. Sabina is with
us always, and Johneen is a great hand
with the tools now, but Tommy the
Song —

Paul Ruttledge. Oh, Tommy the
Song, does he pray still ? He was be-

194 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

ginning to pray. Did he ever get an
answer ?

Charlie Ward. Well, I don't know
about an answer, but I believe lie
heard something one night beside an
old thorn tree, some sort of a voice
it was.

Paul Ruttledge. A voice ? What
did it say to him ? Did he see any-
thing ? We have learned too much, our
minds are like troubled water — we get
nothing but broken images. He who
knew nothing may have seen all. Is
he praying still ?

Charlie Ward. If he is, it 's in Gal-
way gaol he 's praying, with or without
a thorn tree.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 195

Paul Ruttledge. Did he tell no one
what the voice said to him ?

Charlie Ward. He did not, unless
he might have told Johneen or some
other one.

Paul R.uttledge. I will go with you
and see them. ^Gets np

Colman [to Aloysius, with whom he
has been whispering^. Take care, but if
he goes back to his old friends, he '11
stop with them and leave us.

Aloysius [putting his hand on Paul
Ruttledge's arm'^. Don't go. Brother
Paul, till I talk to you awhile.

Paul Ruttledge. Do you want
me ? Well, Charlie, I will stay here,
I won't go ; but bring all the rest to

196 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

see me, I want to ask them about that
vision.

Charlie Ward. I '11 bring one of
them, anyway. ^&it

Aloysius. Brother Paul, it is what
I am thinking ; now the tinkers have
come back to you, you could begin to
gather a sort of an army ; you can't
fight your battle without an army.
They could call to the other tinkers,
and the tramps and the beggars, and
the sieve-makers and all the wandering
people. It would be a great army.

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, that would be
a great army, a great wandering army.

Aloysius. The people would be afraid
to refuse us then ; we would march on —

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 197

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, we could march
on. We could march on the towns, and
we could break up all settled order ;
we could bring back the old joyful,
dangerous, individual life. We would
have banners, we would each have a
banner, banners with angels upon them
— we will march upon the world with
banners —

CoLMAN. We would not be in want
of food then, we could take all we
wanted.

Aloysius. We could take all we
wanted, we would be too many to put
in gaol ; all the people would join us
in the end ; you would be able to per-
suade them all. Brother Paul, you

198 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

would be their leader ; we would make
great stores of food —

Paul Ruttledge. We will have one
great banner that will go in front, it
will take two men to carry it, and on
it we will have Laughter, with his
iron claws and his wings of brass and
his eyes like sapphires —

Aloysius. That will be the banner
for the front, we will have different
troops, we will have captains to organ-
ize them, to give them orders —

Paul Ruttledge ^standing uj}J. To
organize ? That is to bring in law
and number ? Organize — organize —
that is how all the mischief has been
done. I was forgetting, we cannot

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 199

destroy the world with armies, it is
inside our minds that it must be de-
stroyed, it must be consumed in a
moment inside our minds. God will
accomplish his last judgment, first in
one man's mind and then in another.
He is always planning last judgments.
And yet it takes a long time, and that
is why he laments in the wind and in
the reeds and in the cries of the curlews.

CoLMAN. I think we had better go
down to the river and see are there any
eels on the lines we set. We must find
something for supper. It is near sun-
set ; see how the crows are flying home.

Paul Ruttledge [looking up^. The
crows are my darlings ! I like their

200 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

harsh merriment better than those sad
cries of the wind and the rushes.
Look at them, they are tossing about
like witches, tossing about on the
wind, drunk with the wind.

CoLMAN. Well, I '11 go look at the
lines, anyhow. Put turf on the fire,
Aloysius ; Bartley should soon be home
from Shanaglish.

Aloysius. I wonder why he is n't
home by this. I 'm uneasy till I see
him, after the way the people treated
me to-day. ^Shades his eyes to look out^
Here he is ! He 's running !

CoLMAN [coming over to TiimA^. He is
running hard ! He must be in some
danger —

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 201

Enter Bartley out of breath.

Baktley. Run, run, come away,
there 's not a minute to lose.

CoLMAN. What is the matter? what
has happened ?

Bartley. The people are coming up
the road ! They attacked me in the
market ! They followed me, they are
on the road. I slipped away across the
fields. Run, run !

CoLMAN. What is it? What are
they going to do to us ?

Bartley. You would know that if
you saw them ! They have stones and
sticks. Raging they are, and calling
for our lives. They say we brought
witchcraft and ill-luck on the place !

202 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Come to the boat, it 's in the rushes ;
they won't see us, we '11 get to the
island. Hurry, hurry ! ^Jle runs out

Aloysius. Come, Brother Paul, hurry,
hurry !

Paul Ruttledge. I am going to stay.

CoLMAN, They will kill us if we
stay ! Brother Bartley said they have
stones and sticks ; I think I hear
them !

Paul Ruttledge, You are afraid
because you have been shut up so long.
I am not afraid because I have lived
upon the roads, where one is ready for
anything that may happen. One has
to learn that, like any other thing. I
will stay.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 203

Aloysius. He wants the crown !

Paul Ruttledge. Where is Hartley ?

CoLMAN. He is gone. Come, you
must go too, we can't leave you here.
You have too much to do to throw
your life away, we have all too much
to do.

Paul Ruttledge. No, no. There is
nothing to do ; I am going to stay.

Aloysius. I will stay with you.

^Takes his hand

Paul Ruttledge. Death is the last
adventure, the first perfect joy, for at
death the soul comes into possession of
itself, and returns to the joy that
made it. ^A great shout outside

Colman ^seizing Aloysius]. Come,

204 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

come, Aloysius ! come, Paul ! We
have n't a moment, here they are.

[Drags Aloysius away

Paul Ruttledge. Good-by, Aloy-
sius, good-by, Colman. Keep a pick
going at the foundations of the world.
[Colman and Aloysius run on

One of the Mob outside. They are
here in the ruins !

Another Voice. This way ! This
way !

Paul Ruttledge. I will not go. I
have a little reason for staying, but no
reason is too little to be the foundation
of martyrdom. People have been mar-
tyred for all kinds of reasons, and my
reason that is not worth a rush will

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 205

do as well as any other. \_ZooIcs round'j
Ah ! they are gone. A little reason, a
little reason. I have entered into the
second freedom — the irresponsibility of
the saints.

Sings
Parasti in conspectu meo mensam
Adversus eos qui tribulant me.
Impinguasti in oleo caput meum,
Et calix mens inebrians quam prae-
clarus est.
[People rush in with sticks uplifted

One of the Mob. Where are the
heretics ?

Another. We '11 make an end of
their witchcraft !

Another. Here is the worst of them !

206 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Another. Give me back my cattle
you put the sickness on !

Another. We '11 have no witchcraft
here ! Drive away the unfrocked priest !

Another. Make an end of him when
we have the chance !

Paul Ruttledge. Yes, make an end
of me. I have tried hard to live a
good life ; give me a good death now.

One of the Crowd. Quick, don't
give him time to put the evil eye on us !
^They rush at hhn. His hands are seen
swaying about above the crowd.

Paul Ruttledge. I go to the in-
visible heart of flame !

One op the Crowd. Throw him
there now ! Where are the others ?

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 207

Another. They must be among the
rocks.

Another. They are not ; they are
gone down the road !

Another. I tell you it 's in the rocks

they are ! It 's in the rocks they 're hiding.

Another. They are not ; they

could n't run in the rocks ; they 're

running down the road.

Several Voices. They 're on the
road ; they 're on the road.

rT/iei/ all rush out, leaving Paul
RuTTLEDGE It/i'fig on the ground.
It grows darher. Father Col-
man a7id Aloysius creep up.
CoLMAN. Paul, Paul, come ; we have
still time to get to the boat.

208 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Aloysius. Oh ! they have killed
him ; there is a wound in his neck !
Oh ! he has been the first of us to get
the crown !

CoLMAN. There are voices ! They
must be coming back ! Come to the
boat, maybe we can bury him to-
morrow !

l^They go out. Paul Ruttledge half
rises and sinks hack.
Enter Charlie Ward a/nd Sabina
Silver.

Charlie Ward. They have done for
him. I thought they would.

Sabina Silver. Oh, Paul, I never
thought to find you like this ! He 's
not dead ; he '11 come round yet.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 209

Charlie Ward ^opens Ms shwt and
puts in his hand on his hearty. Paul !

Paul Ruttledge. Ah ! Charlie, give
me the soldering iron — no, bring me the
lap anvil — I 'm as good a tinker as
any of you.

Charlie Ward. He thinks he 's back
on the roads w^ith us ! He is done for.

Sabina Silver. I knew he 'd have
to come back to me to die after all ;
it 's a lonesome thing to die among
strangers.

Paul Ruttledge. That is right, that
is right, take me up in your brazen
clav^s. But no — no — I w^ill not go
out beyond Saturn into the dark.
Take me down - — down to that field

210 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

under the earth, under the roots of
the grave.

Sabina Silver. I don't know what
he is saying. I never could under-
stand his talk.

Paul Ruttledge. O plunge me into
the wine-barrel, into the wine-barrel
of God.

Sabina Silver. Won't you speak
to me, Paul ? Don't you know me ?
I am Sibby ; don't you remember me,
Sibby, your wife ?

Charlie Ward. He sees you now ;
I think he knows you.

[Paul Ruttledge has raised him-
self on his elbow and is loohing
at Sabina Silver.

WHERE THERE IS NOTHING 211

Sabina Silver. He knows me. I
was sure he would know me.

Paul Ruttledge. Colman, Colman,
remember always where there is noth-
ing there is God. fHe sinks down again

One of the Crowd ^co7ning hack
with two or three others^. I knew they
must be in the rocks.

Charlie Ward. Well, he 's gone !
There '11 soon be none of us left at all.
And I never knew what it was he
did that brought him to us.

Sabina Silver. Oh, Paul, Paul !
\JBegins to keen 'very low, swaying
herself to and fro.

One of the Crowd ^to Charlie
Ward]. Was he a friend of yours ?

212 WHERE THERE IS NOTHING

Charlie Ward. He was, indeed. I
must do what I can for him now.

One of the Crowd. That 's nat-
ural, that 's natural. It 's a pity they
did it. They 'd best have left him
alone. We 'd best be going back to
the town.

[Sabina Silver raises the Tceen
louder. The Strangers and Char-
lie Ward take off their hats.

THE END

ULYSSES

cA "DRAMA IN A TROLOGUE AND THREE ACTS

By STEPHEN PHILLIPS

Author of " Paola and Francesca^'' " Herod,'''' etc., etc.

Cloth. i2nio. $1.25 net

" Mr. Phillips' work stands well under analysis. There are
many lines of rare beauty of conception and expression. . . . The
heroic and impassioned speeches are deep-sounding and stirring,
while in his tenderer moods the poet is idyllic in imagery, with-
out descending to affectation." — Denver Republicaii.

" He has the constnictive faculty and the power of creating
characters which Tennyson lacked ; so that his plays can be
acted as well as read. There is no man in England of greater
promise." — Post Express.

"That a young man should in so short a time have sent us all
back to read our Dante, our Josephus, and our Homer, is no
small achievement. And that after reading them, we have pro-
nounced the young man's work not unworthy of mention in the
same breath with the masters, is high enough praise."

— Boston Budget.

" Its dramatic strength, its lyric beauty, and the broad sweep
of imagination in some of the scenes, combine to make the poem
a real addition to literature." — Denver Republican.

" We recognize, throughout, a lofty beauty, a poetic air, a divine
ardor. Moreover, the play is faultless in construction, its scenic
effects are superbly varied, and its longer passages are of raptur-
ing loveliness and power." — Louisville Evening Post.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

BETHLEHEM

A NATIVITY "PLAY

By LAURENCE HOUSMAN

Performed with music by Joseph Moorat, under the stage
direction of Edward Gordon Craig, December, igoz

Cloth. i2mo. $1.25 net

" It is well worth reading for its poetic as well as simple
religious spirit, and deserves preservation on the bookshelf where
rest the collections of the Mystery plays of four or five years
ago." — Plain Dealer.

" A beautiful and graceful representation of the events which
the name suggests." — Worcester Spy.

" Mr. Housman has made an admirable presentation."

— Boston Budget.

" It is direct and effective in its selections of incidents, devout
in treatment, and well adapted for presentation by guilds and
Sunday Schools." — Living Church.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

i56

THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS
H Comedy

By PERCY MacKAYE

Qoth t2Tno $t,25, net

Mr. Percy MacKaye has conceived in his delightful
new comedy an idea of extreme audacity, justifiable only by
the very rare degree of success and originality with which
he has boldly carried it out.

It is full of the genuine freshness " of love and April,"
of the new wine of life found in the Canterbury Tales, —

" such a vintage as
Not all the saps that mount to nature's sun
Can match in April magic."

Through it all the tone is of lightest comedy, the frank
merrymaking of the band of travellers through the bright
spring weather, but it is comedy of unusual interest, vivid,
vital, free of movement, into which Chaucer brings an un-
mistakable strain of poetry, lines —

" with blood in them,
Laughter and love and tang of life in them."

The book makes a strong appeal to any lover of good
poetry, but is wholly fascinating, half tantalizing to the
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announced by Mr. E. H. Sothern.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
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