The Countess Cathleen

From the opening

First Edition............................ 1892 Second Edition (in "Poems" by W. B. Yeats) 1895 Third Edition ,, ,, 1899 Fourth Edition ,, ,, 1901 Fifth Edition ,, ,, 1904 Sixth Edition ,, ,, 1908 Seventh Edition (revised)................ 1912

"The sorrowful are dumb for thee" Lament of Morion Shehone for Miss Mary Bourke

SHEMUS RUA, A Peasant MARY, His Wife TEIG, His Son ALEEL, A Poet THE COUNTESS CATHLEEN OONA, Her Foster Mother Two Demons disguised as Merchants Peasants, Servants, Angelical Beings, Spirits

SCENE--A room with lighted fire, and a door into the open air, through which one sees, perhaps, the trees of a wood, and these trees should be painted in flat colour upon a gold or diapered sky. The walls are of one colour. The scene should have the effect of missal Painting. MARY, a woman of forty years or so, is grinding a quern.

(TEIG, a boy of fourteen, is coming in with turf, which he lays beside the hearth.)

TEIG. They say that now the land is famine struck The graves are walking.

TEIG. And that is not the worst; at Tubber-vanach A woman met a man with ears spread out, And they moved up and down like a bat's wing.

TEIG. Two nights ago, at Carrick-orus churchyard, A herdsman met a man who had no mouth, Nor eyes, nor ears; his face a wall of flesh; He saw him plainly by the light of the moon.

TEIG. In the bush beyond, There are two birds--if you can call them birds-- I could not see them rightly for the leaves. But they've the shape and colour of horned owls And I'm half certain they've a human face.

TEIG. They're looking at me. What is the good of praying? father says. God and the Mother of God have dropped asleep. What do they care, he says, though the whole land Squeal like a rabbit under a weasel's tooth?

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