The Complete Works. William Butler Yeats

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СКАЧАТЬ WHO INVENTED FOR THIS PLAY BEAUTIFUL COSTUMES

       AND A BEAUTIFUL SCENE

PERSONS IN THE PLAY

       Table of Contents

       Musicians

       Fergus, an old man

       Naisi, a young king

       Deirdre, his queen

       A dark-faced Messenger

       Conchubar, the old King of Uladh, who is still strong and vigorous

       Dark-faced Executioner

      [128]

       [129]

DEIRDRE

       Table of Contents

      A Guest-house in a wood. It is a rough house of timber; through the doors and some of the windows one can see the great spaces of the wood, the sky dimming, night closing in. But a window to the left shows the thick leaves of a coppice; the landscape suggests silence and loneliness. There is a door to right and left, and through the side windows one can see anybody who approaches either door, a moment before he enters. In the centre, a part of the house is curtained off; the curtains are drawn. There are unlighted torches in brackets on the walls. There is, at one side, a small table with a chessboard and chessmen upon it, and a wine flagon and loaf of bread. At the other side of the room there is a brazier with a fire; two women, with musical instruments beside them, crouch about the brazier: they are comely women of about forty. Another woman, who carries a stringed instrument, enters hurriedly; she speaks, at first standing in the doorway.

      FIRST MUSICIAN.

      I have a story right, my wanderers,

      That has so mixed with fable in our songs,

      That all seemed fabulous. We are come, by chance,

      Into King Conchubar’s country, and this house

      Is an old guest-house built for travellers

      From the seashore to Conchubar’s royal house,

      And there are certain hills among these woods,

      And there Queen Deirdre grew.

      SECOND MUSICIAN.

      That famous queen

      Who has been wandering with her lover, Naisi,

      And none to friend but lovers and wild hearts?

      FIRST MUSICIAN.

       [Going nearer to the brazier.]

      Some dozen years ago, King Conchubar found

      A house upon a hillside in this wood,

      And there a comely child with an old witch

      To nurse her, and there’s nobody can say

      If she were human, or of those begot

      By an invisible king of the air in a storm

      On a king’s daughter, or anything at all

      Of who she was or why she was hidden there

      But that she’d too much beauty for good luck.

      He went up thither daily, till at last

      She put on womanhood, and he lost peace,

      And Deirdre’s tale began. The King was old.

      A month or so before the marriage day,

      A young man, in the laughing scorn of his youth,

      Naisi, the son of Usnach, climbed up there,

      And having wooed, or, as some say, been wooed,

      Carried her off.

      SECOND MUSICIAN.

      The tale were well enough

      Had it a finish.

      FIRST MUSICIAN.

      Hush! I have more to tell;

      But gather close that I may whisper it:

      I speak of terrible, mysterious ends—

      The secrets of a king.

      SECOND MUSICIAN.

      There’s none to hear!

      FIRST MUSICIAN.

      I have been to Conchubar’s house, and followed up

      A crowd of servants going out and in

      With loads upon their heads: embroideries

      To hang upon the walls, or new-mown rushes

      To strew upon the floors, and came at length

      To a great room.

      SECOND MUSICIAN.

      Be silent; there are steps!

      [Enter FERGUS, an old man, who moves about from door to window excitedly through what follows.

      FERGUS.

      You are musicians by these instruments,

      And if as seems—for you are comely women—

      You can praise love, you’ll have the best of luck,

      For there’ll be two, before the night is in,

      That bargained for their love, and paid for it

      All that men value. You have but the time

      To weigh a happy music with the sad;

      To find what is most pleasing to a lover,

      Before the son of Usnach and his queen

      Have passed this threshold.

      FIRST MUSICIAN.

      Deirdre and her man!

      FERGUS.

      I СКАЧАТЬ