Three Plays: The Fiddler's House, The Land, Thomas Muskerry Part 28

MURTAGH COSGAR He went out as you came in.

MARTIN DOURAS I'll go in when the house is quiet. I'll have a few prayers to be saying this night.

MURTAGH COSGAR I'm going to the fair.

MARTIN DOURAS I won't be going to the fair.

MURTAGH COSGAR Why won't you be going to the fair? Didn't you ask me for a lift? You'll be going with me.

MARTIN DOURAS I won't be going, and don't be overbearing me now, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR You will be going to the fair, if it was only to be showing that, seemly face of yours. _(Going to the door, he calls)_ "Sally!" _(He turns to Martin Douras)_ I've a daughter still, Martin Douras.

MARTIN DOURAS You have, and I have a son.

MURTAGH COSGAR What would you say to a match between them, Martin Douras?

MARTIN DOURAS I have nothing to say again it.

MURTAGH COSGAR Then a match it will be.

_Sally comes in from yard_.

SALLY If you fed that baste on honey, she'd turn on you. Cabbage I gave her and got into trouble for it, and now she's gone and trampled the bad potatoes till they're hardly worth the boiling.

I'll put the bush in the gap when I'm going out again, father.

MURTAGH COSGAR Ay. Is that Cornelius Douras that's coming up the path?

SALLY O faith it is. I'll get him to give me a hand with the trough.

_Cornelius comes in_.

CORNELIUS Well, Murtagh Cosgar, a great and memorial day is ended.

May you live long to enjoy the fruits of it. Twenty years on the first term, and the land is ours and our children's. I met the men.

MURTAGH COSGAR Ours and our children's, ay. We've been making a match between yourself and Sally.

CORNELIUS Between me and Sally?

SALLY Between Cornelius and myself?

MURTAGH COSGAR Ay, shake hands on it now.

CORNELIUS And tell me one thing, Murtagh Cosgar. Is it true that Matt's going to America, and that Ellen will wait for him for a year at the school? I met them together, and they told me that.

MURTAGH COSGAR What they say is true, I'm sure. The land is yours and your children's.

SALLY _(wiping her hands in her ap.r.o.n)_ O Cornelius.

CORNELIUS Aren't they foolish to be going away like that, father, and we at the mouth of the good times? The men will be coming in soon, and you might say a few words. _(Martin shakes his head)_ Indeed you might, father; they'll expect it of you. _(Martin shakes his head.

Murtagh and Sally try to restrain him)_ "Men of Ballykillduff," you might say, "stay on the land, and you'll be saved body and soul; you'll be saved in the man and in the nation. The nation, men of Ballykillduff, do you ever think of it at all? Do you ever think of the Irish nation that is waiting all this time to be born?"

_He becomes more excited; he is seen to be struggling with words_.

END OF PLAY

THE LAND was first produced at the Abbey Theater, Dublin, in June, 1905, by The Irish National Theater Society, under the direction of W.G. Fay, with the following cast:--

MURTAGH COSGAR W. G. Fay MATT Proinsias MacSiubhlaigh SALLY Sara Allgood MARTIN DOURAS F.J. Fay CORNELIUS Arthur Sinclair ELLEN Maire Ni Gharbhaigh.

_THOMAS MUSKERRY_

CHARACTERS

THOMAS MUSKERRY The Master of Garrisowen Workhouse MRS. CRILLY His Daughter CROFTON CRILLY His Son-in-law ALBERT CRILLY His Grandson ANNA CRILLY His Granddaughter JAMES SCOLLARD Thomas Muskerry's Successor FELIX TOURNOUR The Porter at Workhouse Lodge MYLES GORMAN A Blind Piper CHRISTY CLARKE A Boy reared in the Workhouse SHANLEY MICKIE CRIPES Paupers in Workhouse AN OLD MAN

SCENE: _Garrisowen, a town in the Irish Midlands_.

ACT FIRST

_The Master's office in Garrisowen Workhouse. It is partly an office, partly a living room. To the right is a door opening on corridor, and in the back, left, a door leading to the Master's apartments. There is an iron stove down from back and towards right, and a big grandfather's clock back towards door of apartments. A basket arm chair down from stove, and a wooden chair beside it.

There is a desk against wall, left, and an office stool before it.

Down from this desk a table on which is a closed desk. On table are books, papers, and files. On a wooden chair beside the arm chair is a heap of newspapers and periodicals. There is a rack beside corridor door, and on rack a shawl, an old coat, a hat, and a bunch of big keys. In the corner, right, is a little cabinet, and on it a small mirror. Above door of apartments a picture of Daniel O'Connell.

The grandfather's clock is ticking audibly. It is 8.45 p.m. The gas over desk is lighted_.

_Christy Clarke, a youth of about seventeen, is seated in the armchair reading a periodical. His clothes are threadbare, but brushed and clean. He looks studious, and has intellectual possibilities. The clock ticks on, the boy reads, but with little attention. At the corridor door there is a knocking. Christy Clarke turns slightly. The door opens, and a tall man in the ugly dress of a pauper is seen. The man is Felix Tournour. He carries in a bucket of coal. He performs this action like one who has acquired the habit of work under an overseer. He is an ugly figure in his pauper dress.

His scanty beard is coal black. He has a wide mouth and discoloured teeth. His forehead is narrow and bony. He is about forty-five._

TOURNOUR _(in a harsh voice, after looking around)_ Is he not back yet?

CHRISTY _(without stirring)_ Is who not back yet?

TOURNOUR The master I'm talking about. I don't know where he does be going those evenings.

_He shovels coal into the stove_.

CHRISTY And what is it to you where he does be going?

TOURNOUR Don't talk to me like that, young fellow. You're poorhouse rearing, even though you are a pet. Will he be sitting up here to-night, do you know?

CHRISTY What's that to you whether he will or not?