BY THE SAME WRITER.
THE SECRET ROSE.
THE CELTIC TWILIGHT.
POEMS.
THE WIND AMONG THE REEDS.
THE SHADOWY WATERS.
IDEAS OF GOOD AND EVIL.
PLAYS FOR AN IRISH THEATRE
VOLUME I.
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING:
BEING VOLUME ONE OF PLAYS
FOR AN IRISH THEATRE: BY
W. B. YEATS
•NDON : A. H. BULLEN, 47, GREAT
.USSELL STREET, W.C. 1903
4 03
CHISWICK PRESS : CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
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.
Then I went to London to make my liv-
ing, and though I spent a part of every
year in Ireland and tried to keep the old
Eny memory by reading every country
DEDICATION.
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. I
had no need to turn to my books of astro-
logy to know that the common people are
under the moon, or to Porphyry to re-
member 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 know-
ledge 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
viii
DEDICATION.
you gathered for me, a great number of
stories and traditional beliefs. You taught
me to understand again, and much more
perfectly than before, the true countenance
of country life.
One night I had a dream almost as dis-
tinct as a vision, of a cottage where 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 herself, 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 serv-
ing-maid among us," before one can think
IX
DEDICATION.
the thoughts 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 coun-
tenance of country life than anything I have
done since I was a boy.
W. B. YEATS.
Feb. 1903.
Magistrates.
PAUL RUTTLEDGE, a Country Gentleman.
THOMAS RUTTLEDGE, his Brother.
MRS. THOMAS RUTTLEDGE.
MR. DOWLER,
MR. ALGIE,
COLONEL LAWLEY,
MR. JOYCE,
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,
Tinkers.
Friars.
FATHER HARTLEY,
OTHER FRIARS, AND A CROWD OF COUNTRYMEN .
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 back. 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 Rutt ledge. [Coming out on steps^\
Paul, are you coming in to lunch ?
Paul Ruttledge. No; you can entertain
these people very well. They are your
friends : you understand them.
Thomas Ruttledge. You might as well
come in. You have been clipping at that
old hedge long enough.
Paul Ruttledge. You needn't worry
I B
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 like-
ness to anyone.
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 J]
Thomas, are you coming in ?
Thomas Ruttledge. Yes, I'm coming;
but Paul won't come.
[THOMAS RUTTLEDGE goes out.
Mrs. Ruttledge. Oh ! this is nonsense,
Paul ; you must come. All these men will
think it so strange if you don't. It is non-
sense to think you will be bored. Mr. Green
is talking in the most interesting way.
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! I know Green's
conversation very well.
Mrs. Ruttledge. And Mr. Joyce, 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
rirtues. There 's Dowler, who puts away
thousands a year in Consols, and Algie,
who tells everybody all about it. Have I
forgotten anybody ? Oh, yes ! Colonel
Lawley, who used to lift me up by the ears,
when I was a child, to see Africa. No,
reorgina, I know all their virtues, but I'm
lot coming in.
Mrs. Riittledge. I can't imagine why
u won't come in and be sociable.
Paul Ruttledge. You see I can't. I have
unething 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?
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 dis-
appears^ Paul, you there ! that is lucky. I
was just going to ask for you.
Paul Ruttledge. \JFlinging clipper away,
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 will stay a
minute, but I won't go in.
Paul Ruttledge. That is just as well, for
you would be bored to death. There has
been a meeting of magistrates in the village,
and my brother has brought them all in to
lunch.
Jerome. I am collecting for the Monas-
tery, and my donkey 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.
4
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Rutt ledge. Of course, I'm delighted
to lend you that or anything else. I'll go
round to the yard with you and order it.
But sit down here first. What have you
een doing all this time ?
Jerome. Oh, we have been very busy.
You know we are going to put up new
buildings.
Paul Rutt ledge. [Absent-mindedly.'] No,
I didn't know that.
Jerome. Yes, our school is increasing so
uch we are getting a grant for technical
nstruction. Some of the Fathers are learn-
ing handicrafts. Father Aloysius is going
to study industries in France ; but we are
all busy. We are changing with the times,
e are beginning to do useful things.
Paul Ruttledge. Useful things. I won-
der 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.
5
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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.
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 to-
gether, they don't dig but they scratch, and
all the time their mouths keep going like
that.
[He holds out his hand and opens and
shuts his fingers like a birds bill.
Jerome. Oh, Paul, you are making fun of
me.
Paul Ruttledge. Of course I am only talk-
ing in parables. I think all the people I meet
6
i
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
are like farmyard creatures, they have for-1
gotten their freedom, their human bodies \
are a disguise, a pretence they keep up to
deceive one another.
Jerome. [Sitting 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 property, 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.
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 neigh-
bours.
Paul Ruttledge. There 's nothing inter-
7
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
esting but human nature, and that's in the
single soul, but these neighbours of rmne^
they think in flocks and roosts.
Jerome. You are too hard on them. They
are busy men, they hav'n't much time for
thought, I daresay.
Paul Ruttledge. That's what I complain
of. When I hear these people talking I
always hear some organized or vested in-
terest chirp or quack, as it does in the news-
papers. 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.
Jerome. 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 always coming home
to the dovecot ; not to the wild woods but
to the dovecot.
8
\YIIKKK THERE IS NOTHING.
Jerome. I wonder what creature you
rourself are like.
Paul Ruttledge. I daresay I am like some
-eature or other, for very few of us are
[together men ; but if I am, I would like
be one of the wild sort. You are right
tbout my dreams. They have been coming
:k lately. Do you remember those
:range ones I had at college ?
Jerome. Those visions of pulling some-
ting down ?
Paul Ruttledge. Yes, they have come
>ack to me lately. Sometimes I dream I am
>ulling down my own house, and sometimes
is the whole world that I am pulling
lown. [Standing upj\ I would like to have
•eat iron claws, and to put them about
pillars, and to pull and pull till every-
ting fell into pieces.
Jerome. I don't see what good that would
lo you.
Paul Ruttledge. Oh, yes it would. When
everything was pulled down we would have
more room to get drunk in, to drink con-
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
tentedly out of the cup of life, 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 everything about
me. Have you not noticed 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'll go to the
yard now. \He gets up.
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 Mon-
astery. Something is always happening
there.
Paul Ruttledge. [As they go up the gar-
den^ I daresay, I daresay ; but I am not
even sure that I am a Christian.
10
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Jerome. Well, anyway, I wish that you
would come and talk to our Superior.
[They go out.
CHARLIE WARD and Boy enter by the path
beyond the hedge and 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'll 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.
Charlie Ward. Faith, you can't. They
think as bad of us taking a rabbit that was
fed and minded by God as if it was of their
wn 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'll have to put it, or it
might be noticed on me. [Boy goes out.
[CHARLIE WARD is struggling to put
rabbit inside his coat when PAUL
RUTTLEDGE comes back.
'
°:
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Rutt ledge. 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 e'er a tin can
the maids in the house might want mended
or any chairs to be bottomed ?
Paul Rutt ledge. 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 gateJ] 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 had come
across some snares in my woods.
Charlie Ward. If he did, sir, it was no
snare of mine he found. This is a rabbit I
bought in the town of Garreen early this
morning. Sixpence I was made give for
12
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
t, and to mend a tin can along with
hat.
Paul Rutt ledge. [ Touching 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
y the roadside ; my dinners are often tire-
me enough. I often wish I could, change
— look here, will you change clothes with
e?
Charlie Ward. Faith, I'd swap soon
enough if you weren't humbugging me. It's
I that would look well with that suit on me !
'he peelers would all be touching their caps
me. You'd see them running out for me
to sign summonses for them.
Paul Ruttledge. But I am not humbug-
ging. I am in earnest.
Charlie Ward. In earnest! Then when
I go back I'll commit Paddy Cockfight to
prison for hitting me yesterday.
Paul Ruttledge. You don't believe me,
but I will explain. I'm dead sick of this
life ; I want to get away ; I want to escape
13
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
—as you say, to pick up my living like the
crows for a while.
Charlie Ward. To make your escape.
Oh! that 's different. \Coming closer.~\ But
what is it you did ? You don't look like
one that would be in trouble. But some-
times a gentleman gets a bit wild when he
has a drop taken.
Paul Rutt ledge. Well, never mind. I
will explain better while we are changing.
Come over here to the potting shed. Make
haste, those magistrates will be coming out.
Charlie Ward. The magistrates ! Are
they after you ? Hurry on, then ! Faith,
they won't know you with this coat. ^Look-
ing at his rags.~\ It's a pity I didn't put on
my old one coming out this morning.
\_They go o^U through the garden.
THOMAS RUTTLEDGE comes down
steps from house with COLONEL
LAWLEY and MR. GREEN.
Mr. Green. Yes, they have made me
President of the County Horticultural
Society. My speech was quite a success ;
14
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
was punctuated with applause. I said
looked upon the appointment not as a
•ibute to my own merits, but to their
iblic spirit and to the Society, which I
jsured them had come to stay.
Colonel Lawley. What has become of
'aul and Father Jerome ? I thought I
iard their voices out here, and now they
•e conspicuous by their absence.
Thomas Rutt ledge. He seems to have no
•iend he cares for but that Father Jerome.
Mr. Green. I wish he would come more
ito touch with his fellows.
Colonel Lawley. What a pity he didn't
into the army. I wish he would join
e militia. Every man should try to find
>me useful sphere of employment.
Mr. Green. Thomas, your brother will
iver come to see me, though I often ask
lim. He would find the 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
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
to a number of them at the function the
other day.
Thomas Rutt ledge. 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.
[MRS. RUTTLEDGE comes down steps
with MR. DOWLER, MR. ALGIE,
and MR. JOYCE. She is walking
in front.
Mrs. Rutt ledge. [To THOMAS RUTT-
LEDGE.] Oh ! Thomas, isn'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 donkey be-
longs to him, and for the matter of that so
does the house and the place. It would be
16
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
ther hard on him not to be able to use
ings as he likes.
Mr. Algie. What a pleasure it must be
Paul to have you and the little ones liv-
g here. He certainly owes you a debt
f gratitude. Man was not born to live
one.
Mrs. Ruttledge. Well, I think we have
ne him good. He hasn't done anything
r years, except mope about the house and
t the bushes into those absurd shapes,
nd now we are trying to make him live
ore like other people.
Colonel Law ley. He was always inclined
be a bit of a faddist.
Mrs. Ruttledge. [To MR. ALGIE.] Do let
e give you a lesson in croquet. I have
arned all the new rules. \To MR. JOYCE.]
lease bring me that basket of balls. \To
OLONEL LAWLEY.] 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
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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.
Enter PAUL RUTTLEDGE in tinkers clothes,
carrying a rabbit in his hand. CHARLIE
WARD follows in PAUL'S, clothes. All
stand aghast.
Mr. Joyce. Good God !
[Drops basket. COLONEL LAWLEY, who
has mallets in his hand, at sight of
PAUL RUTTLEDGE drops them, and
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.
18
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Mrs. Ruttledge. What on earth has hap-
:ned, and who on earth is that man ?
Paul Ruttledge. [Opens gate for tinker.
n<? CHARLIE WARD.] Wait for me, myfriend,
>wn 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
inged clothes with him. I am going to
>in the tinkers.
All. To join the tinkers !
Paul Ruttledge. Life is getting too mono-
>nous ; I would give it a little variety.
To MR. GREEN.] As you would say, it has
:n running in grooves.
Mr. Joyce. \To MRS. RUTTLEDGE.] This
only his humbugging talk ; he never be-
ieves what he says.
[PAUL RUTTLEDGE^^T towards 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. [To THOMAS
RUTTLEDGE.] Just go to my study, will
19
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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.
Mr. Joyce. What does all this mean ?
Paul Ruttledge. I will explain. \Sits
down on the edge of iron table .] 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 Law ley. But what has this to do
with the tinkers ?
Paul Ruttledge. As I cannot find a broom-
stick that will turn itself into a white horse,
I am going to turn tinker.
20
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Mr. Dowler. I suppose you have some
picturesque idea about these people, but I
rsure you, you are quite wrong. They are
thing but poachers.
Mr.Algie. They are nothing but thieves.
Mr. Joyce. They are the worst class in
e country.
Paul Rutt ledge. Oh, I know that ; they
quite lawless. That is what attracts me
o them. I am going to be irresponsible.
Mr. Green. One cannot escape from
esponsibility by joining a set of vaga-
nds.
Paul Ruttledge. Vagabonds — that is it.
want to be a vagabond, a wanderer. As
can't leap from cloud to cloud I want to
ander from road to road. That little path
there by the clipped edge goes up to the
highroad. I want to go up that path and
to walk along the highroad, and so on and
on and on, and to know all kinds of people.
Did you ever think that the roads are the
only things that are endless ; that one can
walk on and on and on, and neverbe stopped
21
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
by a gate or a wall ? They are the serpent
of eternity. I wonder they have never been
worshipped. What are the stars beside
them ? They never meet one another. 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 godliness
has got to do with it.
Mr. Algie. Nor I either.
Paul Ruttledge. There was a saint who
said, " I must rejoice without ceasing, al-
though the world shudder at my joy." He
did not think he could save his soul without
it. I agree with him, and as I was discon-
tented here, I thought it time to make a
22
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
ange. Like that worthy man, I must be
ntent to shock my friends.
Mr. Dowler. But you had everything
ere you could want.
Paul Ruttledge. That 's just it. You who
e so wealthy, you of all people should
understand that I want to get rid of all that
Ksponsibility, answering letters and so on.
is not worth the trouble of being rich if
ie has to answer letters. Could you ever
iderstand, Georgina, that one gets tired
f many charming things ? There are family
ponsibilities \to MR. JOYCE], but I can
e that you, who were my guardian, sym-
thize with me in that.
Mr. Joyce. Indeed I do not.
Mrs. Ruttledge. I should think you could
e cheerful without ceasing to be a gentle-
an.
Paid Ruttledge. You are thinking of my
othes. We must feel at ease with the
people we live amongst. I shall feel at ease
with the great multitude in these clothes.
I am beginning to be a man of the world.
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
I am the beggarman of all the ages — I have
a notion Homer wrote something about me.
Mr. Dowler. He is either making fun
of us or talking great rot. I can't listen to
any more of this nonsense. 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 umbrella 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 Rutt ledge. Oh! no, I'm not going
to write about it ; if one writes one can do
nothing else. I am going to express my-
self in life. [To THOMAS RUTTLEDGE who
has returned with box^\ I hope soon to live
by the work of my hands, but every trade
has to be learned, and I must take some-
thing to start with. [To MRS. RUTTLEDGE.]
Do you think you will have any kettles to
mend when I come this way again ?
24
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
?
{He has taken box from THOMAS RUTT-
LEDGE and unlocked it.
Thomas Ruttledge. I can't make head or
il of what you are at.
Colonel Lawley. What he is at is fads.
Mr. Green. I don't think his motive is
r to seek. He has some idea of going
back to the dark ages. Rousseau had some
ea of the same kind, but it didn't work.
Paul Ruttledge. Yes ; I want to go back
the dark ages.
Mr. Green. Do you want to lose all the
orld has gained since then ?
Paul Ruttledge. What has it gained ? I
m among those who think that sin and
death came into the world the day Newton
t the apple. [To MRS. RUTTLEDGE, who
is going to speakJ] I know you are going to
tell me he only saw it fall. Never mind, it
is all the same thing.
Mrs. Ruttledge, [Beginning to cry.~\ Oh !
e is going mad !
Mr. Joyce. I'm afraid he is really leaving
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Ruttledge. [ Who has been looking at
papers, tearing one or two, etc., takes oiit a
packet of notes, which he puts in his breast.~\
I daresay this will last me long enough,
Thomas. I am not robbing you of very
much. Well, good-bye. [Pats him gently
on the skoulder.~\ I mustn't forget the rabbit,
it may be my dinner to-night ; I wonder
who will skin it. Good-bye, Colonel, I
think I've astonished 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 out of
gate. Closes it after him and stands with his
hands on it, and speaks with the voice of a
common manl\ Go on, live in your poultry-
yard. Scratch straw and cluck and cackle
at everything that you take for a fox.
\_Exit.
Mr. Joyce. [Goes to MRS. RUTTLEDGE,
who has sat down and is wiping her eyes.~]
I am 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
26
k(
:
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
tfi
-
keep up the family name better than he
ould have done.
Mr. Dowler. He'll find the poor very
ifferent from what he thinks when they
pick his pocket.
Colonel Lawley. To think that a magis-
trate should have such fads !
Mr. Green. I venture to say you will
e him here in a very different state of
mind in a week.
Mr. Algie. [Who has been in a brown
-tudyJ] He has done for himself in this world
d the next. Why, he won't be asked to
single shoot if this is heard of.
Thomas Ruttledge. [Turning from the
teJ] Here are the children, Georgina.
on'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,
reen.
\They all prepare to go. MRS. RUTT-
LEDGE has gone to open gate and
children come in, one in a peram-
27
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
bulator. All gather round them
admiringly.
Mr. Joyce. Have you a kiss for god-
father to-day ?
Mrs. Ruttledge. The poor darlings ! I
/ hope they will never know what has hap-
pened.
Colonel Lawley. Thank goodness, they
have no nonsense in their heads. We know
where we are with them.
CURTAIN.
28
ACT II.
SCENE : By the roadside. A wall of un-
mortared stone in the background.
Tinkers encampment. Men, women,
and children standing round. PAUL
RUTTLEDGE standing by a fire.
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 RUTT-
LEDGE'S hand.
Paul Ruttledge. \Sitting down and draw-
ing a tin can to kimJ\ 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.
I '
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Charlie Ward. [Pointing to one of them.']
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 Rutt ledge. Indeed I am, if you'll
let me. There's nothing I'd like better.
Tommy the Song. But are you going to
learn the trade ?
Paul Ruttledge. Yes, if you'll teach me.
I'm sure I'll 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 #.] 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
30
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
all, only this I will say, that, when you've
learned to mend all the leakages in a can
—and that should take you a year — you're
only in the first day of the 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 Rut Hedge. Thank you. I was not
believing him at all. I'm quite sure I'll be
able to mend any can at the end of a week,
but the bottoming 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
up.~\ Paddy, here 's the gentleman I was
telling you about. He's going to join us
for good and all. [To PAUL RUTTLEDGE.]
Wait till we have time and some quiet
place, and he'll show you as good a cock-
fight as ever you saw. [A woman comes
upl\ 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.
31
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Molly the Scold. The gentleman seems
foolish. Is he all there ?
Paddy Cockfight. Stop your chat, Molly,
or I'll hit you a welt.
Charlie Ward. Keep your tongue quiet,
Molly. If the gentleman has reasons for
keeping out of the way it isn't for us to be
questioning him. [To PAUL RUTTLEDGE.]
Don't mind her, 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 isn'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
were hanged ?
Paul Ruttledge. Yes, that is the way to
32
\YIIKKK THERE IS NOTHING.
take life. What does the length of our rope
matter ?
Charlie Ward. We haven'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 be-
grudging 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'll think
the life too hard. Would you like to be
passing by houses in the night-time, and
the fire shining out of 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 them-
selves. 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
33 D
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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'll be breaking
down on the road. It 's on the ass-cart he'll
be wanting to sit.
Tommy the Song. Indeed, I don't think
he'll stand the hardship.
Paul Ruttledge. Oh, I'll 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 wander-
ing 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.
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
l free there, where there is nothing. Well, if
34
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
»u 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'll live as you live and
do as you do.
[JOHNEEN and other children come run-
ning 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 collecting he is. We're
going to set ourselves here to beg some-
thing 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'll
have our dealing trick out of them yet.
The best way'll be \He suddenly catches
sight 0/PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Whist, ye divils
ye, don't you see the new gentleman ?
Paid Ruttledge. Speak out, boys ; don't
be afraid of me ; I'm one of yourselves
now.
35
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Child. Oh ! but we were going to
But I won't tell you. \To the other children.]
Come away here, and we'll not tell him what
we'll 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'll
snap what they can off the ass, and away
with them.
Paul Ruttledge. And why wouldn't they
tell me that ? Am I not one of yourselves ?
Charlie Ward. Ah! It's likely they'll
never trust you.
Paul Ruttledge. But they will soon see
that I am one of themselves.
Charlie Ward. No ; but that 's the very
thing, you're not one of ourselves. You
were 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
36
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
why I shouldn'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 haven't far to
go to find one. Paddy there will give you
over his wife quick 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 forgetting
that.
Sabina Silver. [To Molly. ~\ I wonder what
was it he did ? I wonder had he the mis-
fortune to kill anybody ?
Charlie Ward. {Calling SABINA over.~\
Here's a girl should make a good wife,
Sabina Silver her name is. Her father is
just dead ; he didn't treat her over well.
Sabina Silver. [Coming overJ] What
is it?
37
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Charlie Ward. This gentleman wants to
speak to you. I think he's looking out
for a wife.
Sabina Silver. [Hanging 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, 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.
38
WHERE THKKK IS NOTHING.
Charlie Ward. You see her father used
to beat her. She 's afraid of the look of a
man now.
Paul Rutt ledge. 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?
Paul Ruttledge. Of course I will.
Sabina Silver. \_To CHARLIE WARD.] Will
you make him swear it ? Haven't you a little
book in your pack ? Bring it out and make
him swear to me on it, and you'll be my
witness.
Charlie Ward. I think, Sibby, you need
not be afraid.
Sabina Silver. What 's your name, gentle-
man ?
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
39
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
stick that you could call a stick, and that
you will never strike a kick on me from
behind.
Paul Ruttledge. Charlie, go and bring out
that book to satisfy her. Of course I swear
that ; it is absurd.
[CHARLIE WARD brings the book 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 ? [He takes book 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 distance^ He 's
coming now, the priest 's coming !
Paul Ruttledge. Then the priest will
marry us. That comes in very handy.
Charlie Ward. [Scornfully.~\ A priest
marry you, indeed he'll 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.
40
\\IIERE THERE IS NOTHING.
A Child. \Coming up.~] That 's true, in-
deed. 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'll lep
over the tinker's budget the usual way.
You'll just marry her by lepping over
the budget the same as the rest of us
marry.
Paul Ruttledge. That 's all I want to
know. Please marry me in whatever is
your usual way.
J EROME enters, leading the ass. He carries a
pigs cheek, some groceries, a string of
onions, etc., on the 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 ?
Char lie Ward. \Turning ^\ What do you
want ?
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Jerome. Oh! I'm mistaken. I thought
Paul Ruttledge. I am here, Father
Jerome, but you're talking to the wrong
man.
Jerome. Good God, Paul, what has hap-
pened ?
Paul Ruttledge. Nothing has happened
that need surprise you. Don't you remem-
ber 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 ?
Paul Ruttledge. I find them on the whole
better company than the people I left a
little while ago. Let me introduce you
Jerome. What can you possibly gain by
42
W1IKRK T1IKKK IS NOTHING.
coming here ? Are you going to try and
teach them ?
Paul Ruttledge. Oh ! no, I am going 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 a while ago.
\Holds it out to FATHER JEROME.
Jerome. That is all nonsense.
Pa2tl 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 compare
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 any-
body that could be happy in a cell.
Paul Ruttledge. These men fight in their
43
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING,
way as your saints fought, for their hand is
against the world. I want 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 end-
less battle, the endless 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.
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 sometimes is made of the
continual clashing of swords. It comes re-
joicing from Paradise.
44
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Jerome. These are very wild thoughts.
Tommy the Song. I often heard music in
the forths. There is many of us hear it when
we lie with our heads on the ground at night.
Jerome. That was not the music of
Paradise.
Paul Ruttledge. Why should they not
hear that music, although it may not set
them praying, but dancing.
Jerome. 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 over-
take, 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.
Charlie Ward. It 's best not to try and
overtake a beast like that, but to cross run-
ning water and leave it after you.
Tommy the Song. I heard one coming
45
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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
was in my hand, and it was gone on the
moment.
Paul Ruttledge. My wild beast is Laugh-
ter, 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.
Pa^ll 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
46
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
be married by what may be as old a cere-
mony 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 !
Paid Ruttledge. You forget, Jerome, 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.
Jerome. I will not listen to this profanity.
\To CHARLIE WARD.] It is you who have
put this madness on him as you have stolen
his clothes !
Charlie Ward. Stop your chat, ye petti-
coated preacher.
Paul Ruttledge. I think, Father Jerome,
you had better be getting home. This
47
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
people never gave in to the preaching of
S. Patrick.
Paddy Cockfight. I'll 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 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 the curses of the poor may
be your best music, and you hiding behind
the door. [JEROME ^^ out.
Molly the Scold. And you hiding behind
the door, and squeezed between the hinges
and the wall.
Other tinkers. Squeezed between the
hinges and the wall.
\They follow JEROME.
48
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Rut t ledge. [Crying after them^\
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 didn'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.
Paul Ruttledge. Yes, I remember. I
have seen them coming home there on a
windy evening, tossing and whirling 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, any-
way.
Paul Ruttledge. They tell one another
what they have seen, too. That is why
49 E
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
they make so much noise. Maybe their
news goes round the world. [He comes to-
wards the otkers.~\ I think they have seen
my wild beast, Laughter. They could tell
me if he has a face smoky from the eternal
fires, and wings of brass and claws of
brass — claws of brass. \Holds out his
hands and moves them like claws, ,] 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 begin to return.
Charlie Ward. It might be middling.
Paul Ruttledge. What would you say
to a
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
One of the Boys runs in carrying a pigs
cheek. The rest of the Tinkers return
-with him.
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 Rut t ledge. And he didn'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 ?
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 nonsense.
What we want is porter.
Paul Ruttledge. All right. How many
public-houses are there in the village ?
Tommy the Song. Twenty-four.
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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.
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'll treat the whole neighbourhood
in honour of our wedding. I'll 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. {Taking SABINA SIL-
VER'S kand.~\ Now, Sabina, one, two, three !
CURTAIN.
ACT III.
SCENE : A large shed. Some sheepskins
hanging up . Irons and pots for bra nd-
ing sheep, some pitchforks, etc. Tinkers
playing cards, PAUL RUTTLEDGE sitting
on an upturned basket.
Charlie Ward. Stop that melodeon, now
will ye, and we'll have a taste of the cocks.
Paul didn'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.
Charlie Ward. What are you doing
there, Tommy ?
Tommy the Song. Taking a mouthful of
prayers, I am.
Charlie Ward. Praying ! did anyone
ever hear the like of that ? Pull him out of
the corner.
53
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
[PADDY COCKFIGHT pulls TOMMY THE
SONG out of the corner.
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 look for the
basket. Who was it set him praying, I
wonder ? I am thinking 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 !
54
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Charlie Ward. Well, that is a great sort
of a hymn. I never thought there was a
hymn like that, I never did.
Paddy Cockfight. To think, now, there is
a hymn like that. I mustn'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 search-
ing among the baskets J\ 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.
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
didn't go back every foot of nine miles to
put him in my bag.
55
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING,
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.
Charlie Ward. He gets them cheaper
than another man would, anyhow.
Paddy Cockfight. He's the best cock I
ever saw before or since. Believe me, I
made no mistake when I pitched on him.
Tommy the Song. I don't care what you
think of him. I'll back the 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 !
\Uproarious shouts and yells heard
outside.
56
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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.
\He takes out a cock^\ 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. H e wouldn't know him
to knock him down. They're all blind. I
never saw the like of it.
Paul Rutt ledge. You in here stood it
better than that.
Charlie Ward. When those common men
drink it 's what they fall down. They
haven'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 !
Isn't he the beauty ! \Takes out the cock.
Charlie Ward. Now boys, settle the
57
i
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
place, put over those barrels out of that.
\_They push barrels into a row at back^\
Paul, you sit on the bin the way you'll get
a good view.
\_A loud knock at the door. An authori-
tative voice outside.
Voice. Open this door.
Paddy Cockfight. That 's Green, the Re-
movable ; I know his voice well !
Charlie Ward. Clear away, boys. Back
with those cocks. There, throw that sack
over the baskets. Quick, will ye !
Colonel Law ley. \Outside^\ Open this door
at once.
Mr. Green. \_Outside.~] I insist on this
door being opened.
Molly the Scold. What do they want at
all ? I wish we didn'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.
WHKR1-; TIIKki: IS NOTHING.
Enter MR. GREEN, COLONEL LAWLEY, MR.
DOWLER, MR. JOYCE, MR. ALGIE and
THOMAS RUTTLEDGE.
Paddy Cockfight. AHJ.P.'s; I have looked
at every one of them from the dock !
Mr. Green. Mr. Ruttledge, this is very
sad.
Mr. Joyce. This is a disgraceful business,
Paul; the whole countryside is demoralized.
There is not a man who has come to sensible
years who is not drunk.
Mr. Dowler. This is a flagrant violation
of all propriety. Society is shaken to its
roots. My own servants have been led
astray by the free drinks 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 Rutt Ledge. I am sure you will echo
Mr. Dowler, Algie.
Mr. Algie. Indeed I do. I endorse his
sentiments completely. There has not
been a stroke of work done for the last
59
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 some-
thing to say, Colonel Lawley ?
Colonel Lawley. I have undoubtedly. 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 indis-
pensable on occasions like the present.
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 his bin.~\
But you have not told me what you have
come here for ? Is there anything I can
do for you ?
Thomas Ruttledge. Won't you come
home, Paul ? The children have been ask-
60
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
ing for you, and we don't know what to
say.
Mr. Green. We have come to request
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.
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 pleasure raw ; they haven't
the time to cook it.
Mr. Algie. But drunkenness !
Paul Ruttledge. \Putting his hand on the
shoulders of two of the magistrates^ Have
we not tried sobriety ? Do you like it ? I
found it very dull ? \A yell from outside -.]
There is not one of those people outside but
61
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 is beauty,
and that the roadway of excess 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 ?
* Pa^tl Rutt ledge. Oh, work is such a
Jittle thing in comparison with experience.
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 blessedness as that.
Mr. Dowler. Everyone knows there is
no more valuable blessing than work.
Mr. Algie. Idleness is the curse of this
country.
Paul Rutt ledge. I am prejudiced, for I
have always been an idler. Doubtless, the
poor must work. It was, no doubt, of them
you were speaking. Yet, doesn't the Church
62
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
iy, doesn't it describe heaven as a place
rhere saints and angels only sing and hold
>ranches and wander about hand in hand,
'hat must be changed. We must teach the
poor to think work a thing fit for heaven, a
blessed thing. I'll tell you what we'll 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 ham-
mers in their hands and everybody work-
ing. The poor might learn to think more
of work then. Will you join in that scheme,
Dowler ?
Mr. Dowler. I think you'd better leave
these subjects alone. It is obvious 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 bin.~\ Why should the world
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
go on ? Perhaps the Christian teacher came
to bring it to an end. Let us send mes-
sengers everywhere to tell the people to
stop working, and then the world may come
to an end. He spoke of the world, the flesh,
and the devil. Perhaps 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. [Sternly. ~\ Wait, I have
something to say to that. [To CHARLIE
WARD.] Do not let anyone leave this place.
[Tinkers close together at the door.
Mr. Green. [To Tinkers.] This is non-
sense. Let me through.
[Tinker spreads out his arms before him.
Paul Ruttledge. You have come into a
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 we will
put you on your trial first. I will put the
world on its trial, and myself of yesterday.
\To a Boy.] Run out, Johneen, keep a
watch, and tell us when the train is coming.
Sabina, that rope ; we will set these gentle-
men on those barrels.
[Tinkers take hold of them.
Colonel Law ley. Keep your hands off
me, you drunken scoundrel !
[Strikes at CHARLIE WARD, but Tinkers
seize his arms behind.
Paul Ruttledge. Tie all their hands be-
hind them.
Mr. Dowler. We'd better give in, there's
no saying how many more of them there are.
Mr. Algie. I'll be quiet, the odds are
too great against us.
Mr. Green. The police will soon be here ;
we may as well stay quietly.
65 F
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paddy Cockfight. Here, give it to me, I'll
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.
\_Slightscuffle, during which all are put
on the barrels 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.
Paul Ruttledge. Never mind, you can
keep count on your fingers. The rest must
sit down and behave themselves 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.
Paid Ruttledge. The point is not wisdom
or folly, but the Christian life.
66
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Mr. Dowler. Don't answer him, Thomas.
,et us preserve our dignity.
Mr. Algie. Yes, let us keep a dignified at-
;itude — we won't answer these ruffians at all.
Paul Ruttledge. Respect the court ! [ Turns
to Colonel Lawley I\ You have served your
|ueen and country in the field, and now
you are a colonel of militia.
Colonel Lawley. Well, what is there to
be ashamed of in that ? Answer me that,
now.
Paul Ruttledge. Yet there is an old say-
ing about turning the other cheek, an old
saying, a saying so impossible 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.
Paul Ruttledge. Did they think it was a
just war ?
Colonel Lawley. That was not their busi-
ness. They had taken the Queen's pay.
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
They would have disgraced themselves if
they had not gone.
Paul Rutt ledge. Is it not the doctrine 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 country if there
weren't soldiers to protect it.
Paid Rutt ledge. We are not discussing the
country, we are discussing 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 RUTT-
LEDGE.] Are you going to put a fine on the
Colonel ? If so I'd like his cloak.
68
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Rutt ledge. Now we'll try Mr.Dowler,
the rich man. [Holds up his fingers 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 something smaller
than a camel, and this is something larger
than a needle's eye.
Mr. Joyce. Don't answer this profanity.
Charlie Ward. But what about the cloak ?
Paul Rutt ledge. Oh ! go and take it.
[CHARLIE WARD goes and takes cloak
off the COLONEL.
Colonel Law ley. You drunken rascal, I'll
see you in the dock for this.
Mr. Joyce. You're encouraging robbery
now.
Paul Rtittledge. Remember the com-
mandment, "Give to him that asketh thee";
and the hard commandment goes even
farther, "Him that taketh thy cloak forbid
not to take thy coat also." [Holding out
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
his rags.~] 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. [ Uproariously^ Give
me your coat ; I'll have your boots, etc.
Mr. Green. Wait till the police come.
I'll turn the tables on you ; you may all
expect hard labour for this.
Paul Rutt ledge. [ 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 enemies; 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 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 con-
demn the taker ; when they are smitten on
one cheek you punish the smiter. You
70
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 enough.
\Stretchingout his arms.~\ Have any of these
gentlemen been living the Christian life?
AIL They have not.
Johneen. [Coming 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 upsetting 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-
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
barrels. Christ thought it in the irresponsi-
bility of His omnipotence. [Getting from
his bin^\ Charlie, give me that cloak.
\Heflings it back.
Charlie Ward. Aren't you going to punish
them anyway ?
Paul Rut Hedge. No, no, from this out
I would punish nobody but myself.
[Some 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,
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.
\_All go out except PAUL RUTTLEDGE.
Paul Ruttledge. Well, good-bye, Thomas;
72
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
I don't suppose I'll see you again. Use all
I have ; spend it on your children ; I'll
never want it. [To the others. ~] Will you
come and join us ? We will find rags for
you all. Perhaps you will give up that
dream that is fading from you, and come
among the blind, homeless people ; put off
the threadbare clothes of the Apostles and
run naked for awhile. \Is going out.
Thomas Ruttledge. You have nothing
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. [Looking back from the
threshold^ You have begotten fools.
CURTAIN.
73
ACT IV.
SCENE i. — Great door in the middle of the
stage under a stone cross, with flights of
steps leading to door. Enter CHARLIE
WARD, PADDY COCKFIGHT, TOMMY THE
SONG, and SABINA SILVER. They are
supporting PAUL RUTTLEDGE, who is
bent and limping.
Charlie Ward. We must leave you here.
The monks will take you in. We're very
sorry, Paul. It 's a heartscald to us to leave
you and you know that, but what can we
do ? \They lead PAUL RUTTLEDGE to steps.
Paul Ruttledge. Ah ! that was a bad
stitch! [Gasps.~\ Take care now; put me
down gently.
Sabina Silver. Oh ! can't we keep him
with us anyway ; he'll find no one to care
him as well as myself.
74
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 hos-
pital he'll 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 encourage you, only for the last
business. We'll have to put two counties at
least between us and Gortmore after what
we're after doing.
Paul Rut t ledge. Never mind, boys, they'll
never insult a tinker again in Gortmore as
long as the town's a town.
Charlie 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 together ! 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 a better
75
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 Farrell's.
Paddy Cockfight. No, but you were the
best warrant to set a snare that ever I came
across.
Paul Ruttledge. \Sitting down with diffi-
culty on the steps. ~] Yes ; it was a grand time
we had, and I wouldn'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 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 rheum-
atism. [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'll
stop and pull the bell. Be off with you,
boys !
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Ruttledge. Good-bye, Sabina.
Don't cry ! you'll get another husband.
Sabina Silver. I'll never lep the budget
with another man ; I swear it.
Paul Ruttledge. Good-bye, Paddy. Good-
bye, Tommy. My mother Earth will have
none of me and I will go look for my father
that is in heaven.
Paddy Cockfight. Come along, Sibby.
[ Takes her hand and hurries off.
Charlie Ward. [Rings dell.'] Are they
sure to let you in, Paul ? Have you got your
story ready ?
Paul Ruttledge. No fear, they won't re-
fuse a sick man. No one knows me but
Father Jerome, and he won't tell on me.
Charlie Ward. There 's a step inside. I'll
cut for it.
\He goes out. Paul is left sitting on
steps.
77
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
SCENE 2. — The crypt under the Monastery
church. A small barred window high
up in the wall, through which the cold
dawn is breaking. Altar in a niche at
the back of stage ; there are seven un-
lighted candles on the altar. A little
hanging lamp near the altar. PAUL
RUTTLEDGE is lying on the altar steps.
Friars are dancing slowly before him
in the dim light. FATHER ALOYSIUS is
leaning against 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 believe me.
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.
78
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 blame those
that went with him, for he all but persuaded
me.
First Friar. 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.
Third Friar. 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
79
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
doing there? standing so quiet and his eyes
shut.
Third Friar. He is meditating. Didn't
you hear Brother Paul gives meditations
of his own.
First Friar. Colman was telling me about
that. He gives them a joyful thought to
fix their minds on. They must not let their
minds stray to anything else. They must
follow that single thought and put every-
thing else behind them.
Third Friar. Colman fainted the other
day when he was at his meditation. 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 know-
ledge 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
80
\\IIERE THERE IS NOTHING.
law and number, and becoming king and
priest in one's own house.
Second Friar. A nice state of things 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 ambulavero in
medio umbrae mortis,
Non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es.
First Friar. They are singing the twenty-
second Psalm. What madness to sing !
Second Dancer. Virga tua, et baculustuus,
Ipsa me consolata sunt.
81 G
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
First Dancer. Parasti in conspectu meo
mensam
Adversus eos qui tribulant me.
Second Dancer. Impinguasti in oleo caput
meum ;
Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.
Second Friar. Here is the Superior.
There'll be bad work now.
SUPERIOR comes in.
Superior. \Holding up h is hand. ] Silence!
[ They stop singing and dancing.
First Dancer. It 's the Superior.
Superior. Stop this blasphemy ! Leave
the chapel at once ! I will deal with you
by-and-by. \_Dancing 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
82
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
his /iand.'\ 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 him.~\ His eyes
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.
Superior. 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 en-
tire submission is the only thing I will accept.
[To the other Monks.] Come with me, we
will leave Father Jerome here to speak to
him. [SUPERIOR and Friars^ to the door.~\
Such desecration, such blasphemy. Remem-
ber, Father Jerome, entire submission, and
at once. [SUPERIOR and Friars go out.
Jerome. Where are the rest of his friends,
Father Aloysius ? Hartley and Colman
ought to be with him when he is like this.
83
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Aloysius. They are resting, because,
when he has given his message, they may
never be able to rest again.
Jerome. \Bending over kzm.~\ 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 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 his knee and taking his
kand.~\ 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.
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
One cannot know when the words may be
put in his mouth.
[ALOYSIUS goes out. JEROME stands by
PAUL RUTTLEDGE, holding 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 pray-
ing. I was among people, a great many
people, and it was very bright — I will re-
member presently.
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.
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WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Jerome. I am afraid you are thinking 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 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 preaching before, but it was
very like heresy.
Paul Ruttledge. [Getting upJ\ Jerome,
Jerome, I remember now where I was. I
was in a great round place, and a great
crowd of things came round me. I couldn'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
86
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
pecked me, and some bit me, and some
clawed me. There were all sorts of beasts
and birds as far as I could see.
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 strug-
gled with them, and they heaped them-
selves 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 there
came a bright light, and all in a minute the
beasts were gone, and I saw a great many
angels riding upon unicorns, white angels
on white unicorns. They stood all round
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
me, and they cried out, " Brother Paul, go
and preach ; get up and preach, Brother
Paul." And then they laughed aloud, and
the unicorns 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 Rutt ledge. [Looking at kis arm. ~\ It
was there one of them clawed me ; one that
looked at me with great heavy eyes.
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. {Putting 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 for-
bidden it.
88
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Ruttledge. [Touching JEROME'S
hand.] I have always been a great trouble
to you.
Jerome. You must go and submit to the
Superior. Go and make your submission
now, for my sake. Think of what I have
done for your sake. Remember how I
brought you in, and answered for you when
you came here. I did not tell about that
wild business. I have done penance for
that deceit.
Paul Riittledge. Yes, you have always
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.
Jerome. I cannot understand your ideas ;
you tell them impossible things. Things
that are against the order of nature.
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Rutt ledge. 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.
[Some Friars come in. They carry green
branches in their hands.
Paul Rutt ledge. They are coming. Will
you stay and listen ?
Jerome. I must not stay. I must not
listen.
Paul Rutt ledge. Help me over to the
candles. I am weak, my knees are 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 Rutt ledge. Never again ? The
love of God is a very terrible thing.
Jerome. I have done with meddling. I
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WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
must leave you to authority now. I must
tell the Superior you will not obey.
[He goes out.
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 Superior
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 ourselves. I
heard of a man went to them dying on a
cart, and he walked twenty miles home to
Burren holding the horse's head.
First Friar. Maybe we'll be able to see
visions the same as were seen at Knock.
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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.
Colman. We are all here, Brother Paul.
Paul Ruttledge. 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 Riittledge. " 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
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WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
well. When I put out one thought others
came rushing in.
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 be-
gins. 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. [Goes up to the
candles and speaks^\ Et calix meus ineb-
rians 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 forgotten that the green Earth was the
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WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 boughs and
presses them to his breastJ] 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. \_He remains a little while silent.
Second Friar. I see a light about his
head.
Third Friar. I wonder if he has seen
God.
Paul Rutt ledge. 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 when they had lived ac-
cording to the joyful Will of God in mother
wit and natural kindness, they sometimes
did one another an injury, they thought
that it would be better to be safe than to
94
I
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
be blessed, they made the Laws. The Laws
,rere the first sin. They were the first
touthful 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.
[He puts out the candle with an extin-
guisher, still holding the boughs
with his left hand. Two orthodox
Friars have come in.
First Orthodox Friar. You had better
go for the Superior.
Second Orthodox Friar. I must stop and
listen.
[Tke First Orthodox Friar listens for
a minute or two and then goes out.
Paul Ruttledge. And when they had lived
amidst the green Earth that is the Love of
God, they were sometimes wetted by the
rain, and sometimes cold and hungry, and
sometimes alone from one another ; they
thought it would be better to be comfort-
able than to be blessed. They began to
build big houses and big towns. They
grew wealthy and they sat chattering at
95
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
their doors ; and the embrace that was to
have been eternal ended, lips and hands
were parted. [He lets the boughs slip out of
his arms.~\ We must put out the towns as
I put out this candle.
\JPuts out another candle.
A Friar. Yes, yes, we must uproot the
towns.
Paul Ruttledge. But that is not all, for
man created a worse thing, yes, a worse
defiance against God. \_Tke Friars groan^\
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 be-
cause 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 this
and like ways he built up the Church. We
I
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
must destroy the Church, we must put it
out as I put out this candle.
[Puts out another candle.
Friars. \Clasping one 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 no-
thing be accomplished. The Christian's
business is not reformation but revelation,
and the only labours he can put his hand
to can never be accomplished in Time. He
must so live that all things shall pass away.
[He stands silent for a moment and then
cries, lifting his hand above his head.~\ Give
me wine out of thy pitchers ; oh, God, how
splendid is my cup of drunkenness. We
must become blind, and deaf, and dizzy.
We must get rid of everything that is not
97 H
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
measureless eternal life. We must put out
hope as I put out this candle. \Puts out
a candleJ] And memory as I put out this
candle. \As before.~\ And thought, the
waster of Life, as I put out this candle.
{As before.~\ And at last we must put out
the light of the Sun and of the Moon, and
all the light of the World and the World
itself. [He 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.
\The SUPERIOR comes forward. One
of PAUL'S Friars makes as if to
speak to him. The SUPERIOR strikes
at him with the back of his hand.
Siiperior. \_To PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Get
out of this, rebel, blasphemous rebel !
Paul Ruttledge. Do as you like to me,
but you cannot silence my thoughts. I
learned them from Jesus Christ, who made
98
\VIIKRK THERE IS NOTHING.
a terrible joy, and sent it to overturn govern-
ments, and all settled order.
[PAUL'S Friars rush to save him from
the SUPERIOR.
Paul Rut t ledge. There is no need for
violence. I am ready to go.
Colman. \Taking his hand ^ I will go with
you.
Aloysius. I will go with you too.
Several other Friars. And I, and I, and I.
Sitperior. Whoever goes with this heretic
goes straight into the pit.
Bartley. Do not leave us behind you.
Let us go with you.
Colman. Teach us ! 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 SU-
PERIOR.] God is making him speak against
himself.
99
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 making 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 dia-
monds. 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.
Several Monks. We too ! we too !
Patrick. Bring us to the hands that
100
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
are colder than ice and harder than dia-
monds.
Other Monks. Pull them away! pull them
away from him !
\Thcy are about to seize the Monks
who are with PAUL RUTTLEDGE.
Superior. [Going between tkem.~] 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 back. SUPERIOR goes
up to altar, takes the cross from
it and turns, standing on the
steps.
Superior. Father Aloysius, come to me
here. [ALOYSIUS takes PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S
hand.~\ Father Bartley, Father Colman.
\They go nearer to PAUL RUTTLEDGE. J
Father Patrick! [A Friar comes towards him.]
Kneel down ! [FATHER 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.
101
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 Rutt ledge. Many will forsake the
truth before the world is pulled down.
\Stretching out his arms over his kead.~\ 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 habit '.]
One by one I am plucking off the rags and
tatters of the world.
102
ACT V.
SCENE : Smooth level grass near the
Shannon. Ecclesiastical ruins, apart 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,
Colman. Have you anything in the bag ?
Aloysius. Nothing. \_Throws the bag
down.] It doesn'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
103
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 didn'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 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 blackwater the next
104
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
day, and he was no way thankful to us after
that.
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 our-
selves to eat. They should be sitting down
to their dinner in the monastery now. They
will be having a good dinner to-day to carry
them over the fast to-morrow.
Colman. I am thinking sometimes, Bro-
ther 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 doesn't know if he is full or fasting.
105
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 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 something to offer
then ; absolution here, and heaven after.
Aloysius. Isn't it enough for them to
hear that the kingdom of heaven is within
them, and that if they do the right medita-
tions
1 06
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Colman. What can poor people that have
icir own troubles on them get from a few
rords like that they hear at a cross road
>r a market, and the wind maybe blowing
them away ? If we could gather them to-
gether now. . . . Look, Aloysius, at these
sally rods ; I have a plan in my mind about
them.
[He has stuck 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 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
107
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
could tell them how to repeat the words till
the light comes inside their heads. But
would Paul think well of it ? He is more
for pulling 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.
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 in 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 look-
ing for the favour of my hard mother,
1 08
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 didn'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 a while ago I got word there was a
monk had gone near to break up the whole
monastery 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,
109
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
and I said, " That 's Paul." To Sabina
Silver I said that. " That merry chap
Paul," I said.
Paul Rutt ledge. 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.
Charlie Ward. He will, if there 's such a
thing as a saint of mischief.
Paul Ruttledge. A saint of mischief?
Well, why not that as well as another ?
He would upset all the beehives, he would
throw them into the market-place. Sit
down now, Charlie, and eat a bit with us.
Colman. 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
no
I
WIIKRK THERE IS NOTHING.
once, there was no man they liked so much
as myself when I gave them drink for no-
thing. Didn'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.
Paid Ruttledge. I have given them an-
other 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. \He moves his hand about as if he
were moving a barrel.~\ It's heavy, and when
they have drunk what 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 wouldn't be sure that you're in
earnest.
Paul Ruttledge. Colman and Aloysius
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,
in
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 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
you 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
doesn'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 ? \_Takes PAUL
You haven't much more
112
\VIIKKK THERE IS NOTHING.
flesh on you than a crane in moonlight.
They don't seem to have much notion of
minding you here, you that were reared soft.
It would be better 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
haven'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 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.
113 i
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Ruttledge. Yes, I used to like once
to see all the faces looking up at me. But
no wall that is gone from me. Now I think
it is enough to be a witness for the truth,
and to think the thoughts I like. God will
bring the 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 waiting 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 teaching them to make
things, they never had the chance of any
instruction of the sort here.
114
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Ruttledge. To make things ?
This sort of things ?
[Takes the half -made basket from
COLMAN.
Colman. Those and other things, we got
a good training in the old days. And we'll
get a grant from the Technical Board. The
Board pays up to four hundred pounds to
some of its instructors.
Paul Ruttledge. And then ?
Aloysius. Oh, then we'll sell all the things
we make. I'm sure we'll get a market for
them.
Paul Ruttledge. Oh, I understand ; you
will sell them. And what about the divid-
ing 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'll build
workshops and houses for those who come
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
towork from a distance, good houses, slated,
not thatched.
Paul Ruttledge. \Turning to ALOYSIUS
and CHARLIE WARD.] Yes, you see his plan.
To gather the people together, 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 teach-
ing when we have got them under our in-
fluence 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 understand.
You would weave them together like this
\weaves the osiers in and out], you would
add one thing to another, laws and money
and church and bells, till you had got every-
thing back again that you have escaped
from. But it is my business to tear things
116
\YIIKKK THERE IS NOTHING.
asunder like this [tears pieces from the
basket\, and this, and this
Aloysius. I told him you'd never agree
to it. He ought to have known that him-
self.
Colman. We must have something to
offer the people.
Paul Ruttledge. You say that because
you got nothing to-day. Aloysius has got
nothing in his sack. [ Taking sack and turn-
ing it upside downJ] It is quite empty.
Every religious teacher before me has
offered something to his followers, but I
offer them nothing. [Plunging his arm down
into the sack.~\ My sack is quite empty. I
will never dip my hand into nature's full
sack of illusions ; I am tired of that old
conjuring 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'll be a tinker always ; he has got the
wandering into his blood. Will you come
117
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
back to the roads, Paul, to your old friends
and to Sabina ?
Paul Rutt ledge. \_Sitting down beside
kim.~\ 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'll 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 beginning to
pray. Did he ever get an answer ?
Charlie Ward. Well, I don't know about
an answer, but I believe he heard some-
thing one night beside an old thorn tree,
some sort of a voice it was.
Paul Ruttledge. A voice ? What did it
118
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
say to him ? Did he see anything ? 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 Galway
gaol he 's praying, with or without a thorn
tree.
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 Ruttledge. I will go with you and
see them. {Gets up.
Colman. \To ALOYSIUS, with whom he has
been whisperingl\ Take care, but if he goes
back to his old friends, he'll 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 ;
119
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
but bring all the rest to see me, I want to
ask them about that vision.
Charlie Ward. I'll bring one of them,
anyway. {Exit.
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 with-
out 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
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, indi-
vidual life. We would have banners, we
would each have a banner, banners with
angels upon them — we will march upon the
world with banners
120
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
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 persuade them all, Brother
Paul, you 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 organize them, to give them
orders—
Paul Ruttledge. \_Standing upJ\ To or-
ganize ? That is to bring in law and num-
ber ? Organize — organize — that is how all
the mischief has been done. I was for-
getting, we cannot destroy the world with
armies, it is inside our minds that it must
be destroyed, it must be consumed in a
121
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
moment inside our minds. God will ac-
complish 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 sunset; see how the
crows are flying home.
Paul Ruttledge. \JLooking up ^\ The crows
are my darlings ! I like their harsh merri-
ment 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'll go look at the lines,
anyhow. Put turf on the fire, Aloysius ;
Bartley should soon be home from Shan-
aglish.
Aloysius. I wonder why he isn't home
by this. I'm uneasy till I see him, after
122
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
the way the people treated me to-day.
\Shades his eyes to look out.~\ Here he is!
He 's running !
Colman. \Coming over to him^\ He is run-
ning hard ! He must be in some danger
Enter BARTLEY out of breath.
Bartley. 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 ! Come to the boat, it 's in the
rushes ; they won't see us, we'll get to the
island. Hurry, hurry ! [He runs out.
123
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Aloysius. Come, Brother Paul, hurry,
hurry !
Paul Ruttledge. I am going to stay.
Bartley. They will kill us if we stay !
Brother Colman 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.
Aloysius. He wants the crown !
Paul Ruttledge. Where is Bartley ?
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 no-
thing to do ; I am going to stay.
Aloysius. I will stay with you.
[Takes his hand.
Paul Ruttledge. Death is the last adven-
ture, the first perfect joy, for at death the
124
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
soul comes into possession of itself, and re-
turns to the joy that made it.
\_A great shout outside.
Colman. [Seizing &LOVSIVS.~\ Come, come,
Aloysius ! come, Paul ! We haven't a mo-
ment, here they are.
\JDrags ALOYSIUS away.
Paid Ruttledge. Good-bye, Aloysius,
good-bye, 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 martyred for all kinds of
reasons, and my reason that is not worth a
rush will do as well as any other. [Looks
round.~\ Ah! they are gone. A little reason,
a little reason. I have entered into the
second freedom — the irresponsibility of the
saints.
125
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Sings.
Parasti in conspectu meo mensam
Adversus eos qui tribulant me.
Impinguasti in oleo caput meum,
Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus
est.
[People rush in with sticks uplifted.
One of the Mob. Where are the heretics?
Another. We'll make an end of their
witchcraft !
Another. Here is the worst of them !
Another. Give me back my cattle you
put the sickness on !
Another. We'll 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 him. His hands are seen
swaying about above the crowd.
126
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Paul Ruttledge. I go to the invisible
heart of flame !
One of the Crowd. Throw him there now!
Where are the others ?
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 couldn't run
in the rocks ; they're running down the
road.
Several Voices. They're on the road ;
they're on the road.
\_They all rush out, leaving PAUL RUTT-
LEDGE lying on the ground. It
grows darker. FATHERS COLMAN
and ALOYSIUS creep up.
Colman. Paul, Paul, come ; we have still
time to get to the boat.
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
127
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
be coming back ! Come to the boat, maybe
we can bury him to-morrow !
\They go out. PAUL RUTTLEDGE half
rises and sinks back.
Enter CHARLIE WARD and 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'll
come round yet.
Charlie Ward. \Openshisshirtandputs
in his hand on his heart. .] 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 with 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 claws.
But no — no — I will not go out beyond
128
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Saturn into the dark. Take me down-
down to that field under the earth, under
the roots of the grave.
Sabina Silver. I don't know what he is
saying. I never could understand 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 himself on
his elbow and is looking at SABINA
SILVER.
Sabina Silver. He knows me. I was
sure he would know me.
Paul Ruttledge. Colman, Colman, remem-
ber always where there is nothing there is
God. [He sinks down again.
One of the Crowd. [Coming back with two
or three others. ~\ I knew they must be in the
rocks.
129 K
WHERE THERE IS NOTHING.
Charlie Ward. Well, he's gone! There'll
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 !
\_Begins to keen very low, swaying her-
self to and fro.
One of the Crowd. \To CHARLIE WARD.]
Was he a friend of yours ?
Charlie Ward. He was, indeed. I must
do what I can for him now.
One of the Crowd. That 's natural, 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 keen louder.
The Strangers and CHARLIE WARD
take off their hats.
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TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
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