BRIDGET

Your father wants you, run to him.

[Children run in.

WISE MAN

Come to me, children. Do not be afraid. I want to know if you believe in Heaven, God or the soul--no, do not tell me yet; You need not be afraid I shall be angry, Say what you please--so that it is your thought-- I wanted you to know before you spoke, That I shall not be angry.

FIRST CHILD

We have not forgotten, Father.

SECOND CHILD

Oh no, Father.

BOTH CHILDREN

(As if repeating a lesson) There is nothing we cannot see, nothing we cannot touch.

FIRST CHILD

Foolish people used to say that there was, but you have taught us better.

WISE MAN

Go to your mother, go--yet do not go. What can she say? If I am dumb you are lost; And yet, because the sands are running out, I have but a moment to show it all in. Children, The sap would die out of the blades of grass Had they a doubt. They understand it all, Being the fingers of God's certainty, Yet can but make their sign into the air; But could they find their tongues they'd show it all; But what am I to say that am but one, When they are millions and they will not speak--

[Children have run out.

But they are gone; what made them run away?

[The Fool comes in with a dandelion.

Look at me, tell me if my face is changed, Is there a notch of the fiend's nail upon it Already? Is it terrible to sight? Because the moment's near.

[Going to glass.

I dare not look, I dare not know the moment when they come. No, no, I dare not. (Covers glass.) Will there be a footfall, Or will there be a sort of rending sound, Or else a cracking, as though an iron claw Had gripped the threshold stone?

[Fool has begun to blow the dandelion.

What are you doing?

FOOL

Wait a minute--four--five--six--

WISE MAN

What are you doing that for?

FOOL

I am blowing the dandelion to find out what hour it is.

WISE MAN

You have heard everything, and that is why You'd find what hour it is--you'd find that out, That you may look upon a fleet of devils Dragging my soul away. You shall not stop, I will have no one here when they come in, I will have no one sitting there--no one-- And yet--and yet--there is something strange about you. I half remember something. What is it? Do you believe in God 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 glass, 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 nobody 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 God 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 God'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 God'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 God has willed On the instant be fulfilled, Though that be my damnation. 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 butterfly! 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 butterfly 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 grass a grow, And all that I know, I know.' But I will not speak, I will run away.

[He goes out.