Chapter IV: Act II (2)

CORNELIUS We were in dread of Ellen going to America at one time, and then she went in for the school. Now Matt Cosgar may keep her from the school. Maybe we won't have to go further than this house to see Ellen.

MARTIN DOURAS I'm hoping it'll be like that; but I'm in dread that Murtagh Cosgar will never agree to it. He's a hard man to deal with. Still Murtagh and myself will be on the long road to-night, and we might talk of it. I'm afeard of Ellen going.

CORNELIUS _(at the door)_ It's herself that's coming here, father.

MARTIN DOURAS Maybe she has heard the news and is coming to tell us.

_Ellen comes in. She has a shawl over her head which she lays aside.
She is about twenty-five, slightly built, nervous, emotional_.

ELLEN Is it only ourselves that's here?

MARTIN DOURAS Only ourselves. Did you get any news to bring you over, Ellen?

ELLEN No news. It was the shine of the day that brought me out; and I was thinking, too, of the girls that are going to America in the morning, and that made me restless.

_Martin and Cornelius look significantly at each other_.

MARTIN DOURAS And did you see Matt, Ellen?

ELLEN He was in the field and I coming up; but I did not wait for him, as I don't want people to see us together. _(Restlessly)_ I don't know how I can come into this house, for it's always like Murtagh Cosgar. There's nothing of Matt in it at all. If Matt would come away. There are little labourers' houses by the side of the road. Many's the farmer's son became a labourer for the sake of a woman he cared for!

CORNELIUS And are you not thinking about the school at all, Ellen?

ELLEN I'll hear about it some time, I suppose.

MARTIN DOURAS You're right to take it that way, Ellen. School doesn't mean scholarship now. Many's the time I'm telling Cornelius that a man farming the land, with a few books on his shelf and a few books in his head, has more of the scholar's life about him than the young fellows who do be teaching in schools and teaching in colleges.

CORNELIUS That's all very well, father. School and scholarship isn't the one. But think of the word "Constantinople!" I could leave off herding and digging every time I think on that word!

MARTIN DOURAS Ah, it's a great word. A word like that would make you think for days. And there are many words like that.

ELLEN It's not so much the long words that we've to learn and teach now. When will you be home, father? Will Cornelius be with you?

MARTIN DOURAS Ellen, I have news for you. There is a school in Leitrim that Father Bartley can let you have.

ELLEN In Leitrim! Did you tell Matt about it?

MARTIN DOURAS I did not.

_Sally is heard calling "Cornelius." Cornelius goes to the door._

CORNELIUS Here's Matt now. The benefit of the day to you, Matt.

_He stands aside to let Matt enter. Matt Cosgar is a young peasant of about twenty-eight. He is handsome and well-built. He is dressed in a trousers, shirt, and coat, and has a felt hat on. Cornelius goes out._

MATT _(going to Ellen)_ You're welcome, Ellen. Good morrow, Martin. It's a great day for the purchase, Martin.

MARTIN DOURAS A great day, indeed, thank God.

MATT Ah, it's a great thing to feel the ownership of the land, Martin.

MARTIN DOURAS I don't doubt but it is.

MATT Look at the young apple-trees, Ellen. Walking up this morning, I felt as glad of them as a young man would be glad of the sweetheart he saw coming towards him.

ELLEN Ay, there's great gladness and shine in the day.

MATT It seems to trouble you.

ELLEN It does trouble me.

MATT Why?

ELLEN Everything seems to be saying, "There's something here, there's something going."

MATT Ay, a day like this often makes you feel that way. It's a great day for the purchase though. How many years ought we to offer, Ellen?

_Martin goes out_.

ELLEN Twenty years, I suppose---_(suddenly)_ Matt!

MATT What is it, Ellen?

ELLEN I have got an offer of a school in the County Leitrim.

MATT I wish they'd wait, Ellen. I wish they'd wait till I had something to offer you.

ELLEN I'm a long time waiting here, Matt.

MATT Sure we're both young.

ELLEN This is summer now. There will be autumn in a month or two. The year will have gone by without bringing me anything.

MATT He'll be letting me have my own way soon, my father will.

ELLEN Murtagh Cosgar never let a child of his have their own way.

MATT When the land's bought out, he'll be easier to deal with.

ELLEN When he owns the land, he'll never let a son of his marry a girl without land or fortune.

MATT Ellen, Ellen, I'd lose house and land for you. Sure you know that, Ellen. My brothers and sisters took their freedom. They went from this house and away to the ends of the world. Maybe I don't differ from them so much. But I've put my work into the land, and I'm beginning to know the land. I won't lose it, Ellen. Neither will I lose you.

ELLEN O Matt, what's the land after all? Do you ever think of America? The streets, the shops, the throngs?

MATT The land is better than that when you come to know it, Ellen.

ELLEN May be it is.

MATT I've set my heart on a new house. Ay and he'll build one for us when he knows my mind.

ELLEN Do you think he'd build a new house for us, Matt? I could settle down if we were by ourselves. Maybe it's true that there are things stirring and we could begin a new life, even here.

MATT We can, Ellen, we can. Hush! father's without.

_Martin Douras and Murtagh Cosgar are heard exchanging greetings.
Then Murtagh comes in, Martin behind him. Murtagh Cosgar is about
sixty. He is a hard, strong man, seldom-spoken, but with a flow of
words and some satirical power. He is still powerful, mentally and
physically. He is clean shaven, and wears a sleeved waistcoat, heavy
boots, fell hat. He goes towards Ellen._

MURTAGH Good morrow to you. _(Turning to Matt)_ When I get speaking to that Sally again, she'll remember what I say. Giving cabbage to the pigs, and all the bad potatoes in the house. And I had to get up in the clouds of the night to turn the cows out of the young meadow. No thought, no care about me. Let you take the harness outside and put a thong where there's a strain in it.

_Murtagh goes to the fire. Matt goes to the harness-rack. Martin
Douras and Ellen are at the door._

MARTIN DOURAS Ellen, I'll have news for you when I see you again. I've made up my mind to that.

ELLEN Are you going to the fair, father?

MARTIN DOURAS Ay, with Murtagh.

ELLEN God be with you, father. _(She goes out)_

MARTIN DOURAS What purchase are you thinking of offering, Murtagh?

MURTAGH COSGAR Twenty years.

MARTIN DOURAS It's fair enough. Oh, it's a great day for the country, no matter what our own troubles may be.

_Matt has taken down the harness. He takes some of it up and goes
out to yard._

MURTAGH COSGAR _(with some contempt)_ It's a pity you haven't a share in the day after all.

MARTIN DOURAS Ay, it's a pity indeed.

_Murtagh goes to the door._

MURTAGH COSGAR _(with suppressed enthusiasm)_ From this day out we're planted in the soil.

MARTIN DOURAS Ay, we're planted in the soil.

MURTAGH COSGAR God, it's a great day.

_Cornelius comes back._

CORNELIUS This is a memorial occasion, Murtagh Cosgar, and I wish you the felicitations of it. I met the delegates and I coming in, and I put myself at the head of them. It's the day of the redemption, Murtagh Cosgar.

_Murtagh, without speaking, goes up to the room._

CORNELIUS He's gone up to get the papers. Father, we must give the men understanding for this business. They must demand the mineral rights. Here they are. Men of Ballykillduff, I greet your entrance.

_Six men enter discussing._

FIRST MAN We'll leave it to Murtagh Cosgar. Murtagh Cosgar isn't a grazier or a shopkeeper.

SECOND MAN It's the graziers and shopkeepers that are putting a business head on this.

THIRD MAN If we're all on the one offer, we can settle it at the lawyer's.

FOURTH MAN Sure it's settled for twenty years on the first-term rents.

FIFTH MAN There are some here that would let it go as high as twenty-three.

SIXTH MAN What does Murtagh Cosgar say?

SOME OF THE MEN Well take the word from him.

MARTIN DOURAS He mentioned twenty years.

SECOND MAN Not as a limit, surely?

OTHER MEN We're not for any higher offer.

SECOND MAN Well, men, this is all I have to say. If you can get it for twenty, take it, and my blessing with it. But I want to be dealing with the Government, and not with landlords and agents. To have a straight bargain between myself and the Government, I'd put it up to twenty-three, ay, up to twenty-five years' purchase.

THIRD MAN More power to you, Councillor. There's some sense in that.

SIXTH MAN I'm with the Councillor.

FIRST MAN It's all very well for graziers and shopkeepers to talk, but what about the small farmer?

FOURTH MAN The small farmer. That's the man that goes under.

FIFTH MAN _(knocking at the table)_ Murtagh Cosgar! Murtagh Cosgar!

CORNELIUS I tell you, men, that Murtagh Cosgar is in agreement with myself. Twenty years, I say, first term, no more. Let my father speak.

MARTIN DOURAS There's a great deal to be said on both sides, men.

FIRST MAN Here's Murtagh now.

MURTAGH COSGAR Twenty years first term, that's what I agreed to.

SECOND MAN And if they don't rise to that, Murtagh?

MURTAGH COSGAR Let them wait. We can wait. I won't be going with you, men. I had a few words with the agent about the turbary this morning, and maybe you're better without me.

FIRST MAN All right, Murtagh. We can wait.

FOURTH MAN We know our own power now.

FIFTH MAN Come on, men.

MURTAGH COSGAR If they don't rise to it, bide a while. We can make a new offer.

SECOND MAN We want to be settled by the Fall.

THIRD MAN The Councillor is right. We must be settled by the Fall.

SIXTH MAN A man who's a farmer only has little sense for a business like this.

SECOND MAN We'll make the offer, Murtagh Cosgar, and bide a while. But we must be settled this side of the Fall. We'll offer twenty years first term.

MURTAGH COSGAR Do, and God speed you.

CORNELIUS _(to the men going out)_ I told you Murtagh Cosgar and myself are on the one offer. And Murtagh is right again when he says that you can bide your time. But make sure of the mineral rights, men; make sure of the mineral rights.

_The men go out; Cornelius follows them._

MURTAGH COSGAR _(with irony)_ Musha, but that's a well-discoursed lad. It must be great to hear the two of you at it.

MARTIN DOURAS God be good to Cornelius. There's little of the world's harm in the boy.

MURTAGH COSGAR He and my Sally would make a great match of it. She's a bright one, too.

MARTIN DOURAS Murtagh Cosgar, have you no feeling for your own flesh and blood?

MURTAGH COSGAR Too much feeling, maybe. _(He stands at the door in silence. With sudden enthusiasm)_ Ah, but that's the sight to fill one's heart. Lands ploughed and spread. And all our own; all our own.

MARTIN DOURAS All our own, ay. But we made a hard fight for them.

MURTAGH COSGAR Ay.

MARTIN DOURAS Them that come after us will never see them as we're seeing them now.

MURTAGH COSGAR _(turning round)_ Them that come after us. Isn't that a great thought, Martin Douras? and isn't it a great thing that we're able to pass this land on to them, and it redeemed for ever? Ay, and their manhood spared the shame that our manhood knew. Standing in the rain with our hats off to let a landlord--ay, or a landlord's dog-boy--pass the way!

MARTIN DOURAS _(mournfully)_ May it be our own generation that will be in it. Ay, but the young are going fast; the young are going fast.

MURTAGH COSGAR _(sternly)_ Some of them are no loss.

MARTIN DOURAS Ten of your own children went, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR I never think of them. When they went from my control, they went from me altogether. There's the more for Matt.

MARTIN DOURAS _(moistening his mouth, and beginning very nervously)_ Ay, Matt. Matt's a good lad.

MURTAGH COSGAR There's little fear of him leaving now.

MARTIN DOURAS _(nervously)_ Maybe, maybe. But, mind you, Murtagh Cosgar, there are things--little things, mind you. Least, ways, what we call little things. And, after all, who are we to judge whether a thing--

MURTAGH COSGAR Is there anything on your mind, Martin Douras?

MARTIN DOURAS _(hurriedly)_ No; oh, no. I was thinking--I was thinking, maybe you'd give me a lift towards Arvach, if you'd be going that way this night.

MURTAGH COSGAR Ay, why not?

MARTIN DOURAS And we could talk about the land, and about Matt, too. Wouldn't it be a heart-break if any of our children went--because of a thing we might--

MURTAGH COSGAR _(fiercely)_ What have you to say about Matt?

MARTIN DOURAS _(stammering)_ Nothing except in a--in what you might call a general way. There's many a young man left house and land for the sake of some woman, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR There's many a fool did it.

MARTIN DOURAS _(going to door)_ Ay, maybe; maybe. I'll be going now, Murtagh.

MURTAGH COSGAR Stop! _(clutching him)_ You know about Matt. What woman is he thinking of?

MARTIN DOURAS _(frightened)_ We'll talk about it again, Murtagh. I said I'd be back.

MURTAGH COSGAR We'll talk about it now. Who is she? What name has she?

MARTIN DOURAS _(breaking from him and speaking with sudden dignity)_ It's a good name, Murtagh Cosgar; it's my own name.

MURTAGH COSGAR Your daughter! Ellen! You're--

MARTIN DOURAS Ay, a good name, and a good girl.

MURTAGH COSGAR And do you think a son of mine would marry a daughter of yours?

MARTIN DOURAS What great difference is between us, after all?

MURTAGH COSGAR _(fiercely)_ The daughter of a man who'd be sitting over his fire reading his paper, and the clouds above his potatoes, and the cows trampling his oats. _(Martin is beaten down)_ Do you know me at all, Martin Douras? I came out of a little house by the roadway and built my house on a hill. I had many children. Coming home in the long evenings, or kneeling still when the prayers would be over, I'd have my dreams. A son in Aughnalee, a son in Ballybrian, a son in Dunmore, a son of mine with a shop, a son of mine saying Mass in Killnalee. And I have a living name--a name in flesh and blood.

MARTIN DOURAS God help you, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR But I've a son still. It's not your daughter he'll be marrying. _(He strides to the door and calls Matt)_

MARTIN DOURAS _(going to him)_ Murtagh Cosgar--for God's sake--we're both old men, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR You've read many stories, Martin Douras, and you know many endings. You'll see an ending now, and it will be a strong ending, and a sudden ending.

_Matt comes in_.

MURTAGH COSGAR You're wanted here.

MATT I heard you call. _(He sits on table)_ So they're sticking to the twenty years.

MARTIN DOURAS _(eagerly)_ Twenty years, Matt, and they'll get it for twenty. O, it's a great day for you both! Father and son, you come into a single inheritance. What the father wins the son wields.

MURTAGH COSGAR What the father wins, the son wastes.

MATT What's the talk of father and son?

MARTIN DOURAS They're the one flesh and blood. There's no more strife between them than between the right hand and the left hand.

MURTAGH COSGAR _(to Matt)_ We were talking about you. We were fixing a match for you.

MATT _(startled, looking at Martin Douras)_ Fixing a match for me? _(He rises)_

MURTAGH COSGAR Ay, Matt. Don't you think it's time to be making a match for you?

MATT _(sullenly, going to the door)_ Maybe it is. When you have chosen the woman, call. I'll be without.

MURTAGH COSGAR _(going to him)_ We haven't chosen yet. But it won't be Martin Douras' daughter, anyhow.

MATT Stop. You drove all your living children away, except Sally and myself. You think Sally and myself are the one sort.

MURTAGH COSGAR _(tauntingly)_ Martin's daughter, Corney's sister. That's the girl for you!

MATT We're not the one sort, I tell you. Martin Douras, isn't he a foolish old man that would drive all his children from him? What would his twenty years' purchase be to him then?

MURTAGH COSGAR It wasn't for my children I worked. No, no; thank God; it wasn't for my children I worked. Go, if you will. I can be alone.

MARTIN DOURAS O Murtagh, Murtagh, sure you know you can't be alone. We're two old men, Murtagh.

MURTAGH COSGAR He daren't go.

MATT Because I'm the last of them he thinks he can dare me like that.

MURTAGH COSGAR There was more of my blood in the others.

MATT Do you say that?

MARTIN DOURAS Don't say it again. For God's sake, don't say it again, Murtagh.

MURTAGH COSGAR I do say it again. Them who dared to go had more of my blood in them!

MATT Ah, you have put me to it now, and I'm glad, glad. A little house, a bit of land. Do you think they could keep me here?

MURTAGH COSGAR _(to Martin Douras)_ It's his own way he wants. I never had my own way. _(To Matt)_ You're my last son. You're too young to know the hardship there was in rearing you.

MATT _(exultantly)_ Your last son; that won't keep me here. I'm the last of my name, but that won't keep me here. I leave you your lands, your twenty years' purchase. Murtagh Cosgar, Murtagh Cosgar! isn't that a great name, Martin Douras--a name that's well planted, a name for generations? Isn't he a lucky man that has a name for generations? _(He goes out)_

MURTAGH COSGAR He can't go. How could he go and he the last of the name. Close the door, I say.

MARTIN DOURAS He'll go to Ellen, surely. We'll lose both of them. Murtagh Cosgar, God comfort you and me.

MURTAGH COSGAR Ellen; who's Ellen? Ay, that daughter of yours. Close the door, I say.

_He sits down at fireplace. Martin Douras closes door and goes to
him_.

CURTAIN