Responsibilities Part 16

Do you believe in G.o.d and in the soul?

FOOL

So you ask me now. I thought when you were asking your pupils, 'Will he ask Teigue the Fool? Yes, he will, he will; no, he will not--yes, he will.' But Teigue will say nothing. Teigue will say nothing.

WISE MAN

Tell me quickly.

FOOL

I said, 'Teigue knows everything, not even the green-eyed cats and the hares that milk the cows have Teigue's wisdom'; but Teigue will not speak, he says nothing.

WISE MAN

Speak, speak, for underneath the cover there The sand is running from the upper gla.s.s, And when the last grain's through, I shall be lost.

FOOL

I will not speak. I will not tell you what is in my mind. I will not tell you what is in my bag. You might steal away my thoughts. I met a bodach on the road yesterday, and he said, 'Teigue, tell me how many pennies are in your bag; I will wager three pennies that there are not twenty pennies in your bag; let me put in my hand and count them.'

But I gripped the bag the tighter, and when I go to sleep at night I hide the bag where n.o.body knows.

WISE MAN

There's but one pinch of sand, and I am lost If you are not he I seek.

FOOL

O, what a lot the Fool knows, but he says nothing.

WISE MAN

Yes, I remember now. You spoke of angels.

You said but now that you had seen an angel.

You are the one I seek, and I am saved.

FOOL

Oh no. How could poor Teigue see angels? Oh, Teigue tells one tale here, another there, and everybody gives him pennies. If Teigue had not his tales he would starve.

[_He breaks away and goes out._

WISE MAN

The last hope is gone, And now that it's too late I see it all, We perish into G.o.d and sink away Into reality--the rest's a dream.

[_The Fool comes back._

FOOL

There was one there--there by the threshold stone, waiting there; and he said, 'Go in, Teigue, and tell him everything that he asks you. He will give you a penny if you tell him.'

WISE MAN

I know enough, that know G.o.d's will prevails.

FOOL

Waiting till the moment had come--That is what the one out there was saying, but I might tell you what you asked. That is what he was saying.

WISE MAN

Be silent. May G.o.d's will prevail on the instant, Although His will be my eternal pain.

I have no question: It is enough, I know what fixed the station Of star and cloud.

And knowing all, I cry That what so G.o.d has willed On the instant be fulfilled, Though that be my d.a.m.nation.

The stream of the world has changed its course, And with the stream my thoughts have run Into some cloudy thunderous spring That is its mountain source-- Aye, to some frenzy of the mind, For all that we have done's undone, Our speculation but as the wind.

[_He dies._

FOOL

Wise man--Wise man, wake up and I will tell you everything for a penny.

It is I, poor Teigue the Fool. Why don't you wake up, and say, 'There is a penny for you, Teigue'? No, no, you will say nothing. You and I, we are the two fools, we know everything, but we will not speak.

[_Angel enters holding a casket._

O, look what has come from his mouth! O, look what has come from his mouth--the white b.u.t.terfly! He is dead, and I have taken his soul in my hands; but I know why you open the lid of that golden box. I must give it to you. There then, (_he puts b.u.t.terfly in casket_) he has gone through his pains, and you will open the lid in the Garden of Paradise.

(_He closes curtain and remains outside it._) He is gone, he is gone, he is gone, but come in, everybody in the world, and look at me.

'I hear the wind a blow I hear the gra.s.s a grow, And all that I know, I know.'

But I will not speak, I will run away.

[_He goes out._

NOTES

PREFATORY POEM

'Free of the ten and four' is an error I cannot now correct, without more rewriting than I have a mind for. Some merchant in Villon, I forget the reference, was 'free of the ten and four.' Irish merchants exempted from certain duties by the Irish Parliament were, unless memory deceives me again for I am writing away from books, 'free of the eight and six.'