Chapter V: Act IV

Scene 1.--_Great door in the middle of the stage under a stone
cross, with flights of steps leading to door. Enter_ CHARLIE WARD,
PADDY COCKFIGHT, TOMMY THE SONG, _and_ SABINA SILVER. _They are
supporting_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE, _who is bent and limping._

_Charlie Ward._ We must leave you here. The monks will take you in. We're very sorry, Paul. It's a heartscald to us to leave you and you know that, but what can we do? [_They lead_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _to steps._

_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! that was a bad stitch! [_Gasps._] Take care now; put me down gently.

_Sabina Silver._ Oh! can't we keep him with us anyway; he'll find no one to care him as well as myself.

_Tommy the Song._ What way can you care him, Sibby? It's no way to have him lying out on the roadside under guano bags, like ourselves, and the rain coming down on him like it did last night. It's in hospital he'll be for the next month.

_Charlie Ward._ We'd never leave you if you could even walk. If we have to give you to the monks itself, we'd keep round the place to encourage you, only for the last business. We'll have to put two counties at least between us and Gortmore after what we're after doing.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Never mind, boys, they'll never insult a tinker again in Gortmore as long as the town's a town.

_Charlie Ward._ Dear knows! it breaks my heart to think of the fine times we had of it since you joined us. Why the months seemed like days. And all the fine sprees we had together! Now you're gone from us we might as well be jailed at once.

_Paddy Cockfight._ And how you took to the cocks! I believe you were a better judge than myself. No one but you would ever have fancied that black-winged cock--and he never met his match.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! well, I'm doubled up now like that old cock of Andy Farrell's.

_Paddy Cockfight._ No, but you were the best warrant to set a snare that ever I came across.

_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Sitting down with difficulty on the steps._] Yes; it was a grand time we had, and I wouldn't take back a day of it; but it's over now, I've hit my ribs against the earth and they're aching.

_Sabina Silver._ Oh! Paul, Paul, is it to leave you we must? And you never once struck a kick or a blow on me all this time, not even and you in pain with the rheumatism. [_A clock strikes inside._

_Charlie Ward._ There's the clock striking. The monks will be getting up. We'd best be off after the others. I hear some noise inside; they'd best not catch us here. I'll stop and pull the bell. Be off with you, boys!

_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Sabina. Don't cry! you'll get another husband.

_Sabina Silver._ I'll never lep the budget with another man; I swear it.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Good-bye, Paddy. Good-bye, Tommy. My mother Earth will have none of me and I will go look for my father that is in heaven.

_Paddy Cockfight._ Come along, Sibby.

[_Takes her hand and hurries off._

_Charlie Ward._ [_Rings bell._] Are they sure to let you in, Paul? Have you got your story ready?

_Paul Ruttledge._ No fear, they won't refuse a sick man. No one knows me but Father Jerome, and he won't tell on me.

_Charlie Ward._ There's a step inside. I'll cut for it.

[_He goes out. Paul is left sitting on steps._

Scene 2.--_The crypt under the Monastery church. A small barred
window high up in the wall, through which the cold dawn is
breaking. Altar in a niche at the back of stage; there are seven
unlighted candles on the altar. A little hanging lamp near the
altar._ PAUL RUTTLEDGE _is lying on the altar steps. Friars are
dancing slowly before him in the dim light_. FATHER ALOYSIUS _is
leaning against a pillar_.

_Some_ Friars _come in carrying lanterns_.

_First Friar._ What are they doing? Dancing?

_Second Friar._ I told you they were dancing, and you would not believe me.

_First Friar._ What on earth are they doing it for?

_Third Friar._ I heard them saying Father Paul told them to do it if they ever found him in a trance again. He told them it was a kind of prayer and would bring joy down out of heaven, and make it easier for him to preach.

_Second Friar._ How still he is lying; you would nearly think him to be dead.

_A Friar._ It is just a twelvemonth to-day since he was in a trance like this.

_Second Friar._ That was the time he gave his great preaching. I can't blame those that went with him, for he all but persuaded me.

_First Friar._ They think he is going to preach again when he awakes, that's why they are dancing. When he wakes one of them will go and call the others.

_Third Friar._ We were all in danger when one so pious was led away. It's five years he has been with us now, and no one ever went so quickly from lay brother to novice, and novice to friar.

_First Friar._ The way he fasted too! The Superior bade me watch him at meal times for fear he should starve himself.

_Third Friar._ He thought a great deal of Brother Paul then, but he isn't so well pleased with him now.

_Second Friar._ What is Father Aloysius doing there? standing so quiet and his eyes shut.

_Third Friar._ He is meditating. Didn't you hear Brother Paul gives meditations of his own.

_First Friar._ Colman was telling me about that. He gives them a joyful thought to fix their minds on. They must not let their minds stray to anything else. They must follow that single thought and put everything else behind them.

_Third Friar._ Colman fainted the other day when he was at his meditation. He says it is a great labour to follow one thought always.

_Second Friar._ What do they do it for?

_First Friar._ To escape what they call the wandering of nature. They say it was in the trance Brother Paul got the knowledge of it. He says that if a man can only keep his mind on the one high thought he gets out of time into eternity, and learns the truth for itself.

_Third Friar._ He calls that getting above law and number, and becoming king and priest in one's own house.

_Second Friar._ A nice state of things it would be if every man was his own priest and his own king.

_First Friar._ I wonder will he wake soon. I thought I saw him stir just now. Father Aloysius, will he wake soon?

_Aloysius._ What did you say?

_First Friar._ Will he wake soon?

_Aloysius._ Yes, yes, he will wake very soon now.

_Second Friar._ What are they going to do now; are they going to dance?

_Third Friar._ He was too patient with him. He would have made short work of any of us if we had gone so far.

_First Dancer._

Nam, et si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis,
Non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es.

_First Friar._ They are singing the twenty-second Psalm. What madness to sing!

_Second Dancer._

Virga tua, et baculus tuus,
Ipsa me consolata sunt.

_First Dancer._

Parasti in conspectu meo mensam
Adversus eos qui tribulant me.

_Second Dancer._

Impinguasti in oleo caput meum; Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.

_Second Friar._ Here is the Superior. There'll be bad work now.

* * * * *

SUPERIOR _comes in_.

_Superior._ [_Holding up his hand._] Silence!

[_They stop singing and dancing._

_First Dancer._ It's the Superior.

_Superior._ Stop this blasphemy! Leave the chapel at once! I will deal with you by-and-by. [_Dancing_ Friars _go out_.

_Jerome._ [_Stooping over_ PAUL.] He has not wakened from the trance yet.

_Aloysius._ [_Who still remains perfectly motionless._] Not yet, but he will soon awake--Paul!

_Superior._ It is hardly worth while being angry with those poor fools whose heads he has turned with his talk. [_Stoops and touches his hand._] It is quite rigid. I will wait till he is alive again, there is no use wasting words on a dead body.

_Jerome._ [_Stooping over him._] His eyes are beginning to quiver. Let me be the first to speak to him. He may say some wild things when he awakes, not knowing who is before him.

_Superior._ He must not preach. I must have his submission at once.

_Jerome._ I will do all I can with him. He is most likely to listen to me. I was once his close friend.

_Superior._ Speak to him if you like, but entire submission is the only thing I will accept. [_To the other_ Monks.] Come with me, we will leave Father Jerome here to speak to him. [SUPERIOR _and_ Friars _go to the door_.] Such desecration, such blasphemy. Remember, Father Jerome, entire submission, and at once. [SUPERIOR _and_ Friars _go out_.

_Jerome._ Where are the rest of his friends, Father Aloysius? Bartley and Colman ought to be with him when he is like this.

_Aloysius._ They are resting, because, when he has given his message, they may never be able to rest again.

_Jerome._ [_Bending over him._] My poor Paul, this will wear him out; see how thin he has grown!

_Aloysius._ He is hard upon his body. He does not care what happens to his body.

_Jerome._ He was like this when he was a boy; some wild thought would come on him, and he would not know day from night, he would forget even to eat. It is a great pity he was so hard to himself; it is a pity he had not always someone to look after him.

_Aloysius._ God is taking care of him; what could men like us do for him? We cannot help him, it is he who helps us.

_Jerome._ [_Going on his knee and taking his hand._] He is awaking. Help me to lift him up. [_They lift him into a chair._

_Aloysius._ I will go and call the others now.

_Jerome._ Do not let them come for a little time, I must speak to him first.

_Aloysius._ I cannot keep them away long. One cannot know when the words may be put in his mouth.

[ALOYSIUS _goes out._ JEROME _stands by_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE, _holding his
hand_.

_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Raising his head._] Ah, you are there, Jerome. I am glad you are there. I could not get up to drive away the mouse that was eating the wax that dropped from the candles. Have you driven it away?

_Jerome._ It is not evening now. It is almost morning. You were on your knees praying for a great many hours, and then I think you fainted.

_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't think I was praying. I was among people, a great many people, and it was very bright--I will remember presently.

_Jerome._ Do not try to remember. You are tired, you must be weak, you must come and have food and rest.

_Paul Ruttledge._ I do not think I can rest. I think there is something else I have to do, I forget what it is.

_Jerome._ I am afraid you are thinking of preaching again. You must not preach. The Superior says you must not. He is very angry; I have never seen him so angry. He will not allow you to preach again.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Did I ever preach?

_Jerome._ Yes. It was in the garden you got the trance last time. We found you like this, and we lifted you to the bench under the yew tree, and then you began to speak. You spoke about getting out of the body while still alive, about getting away from law and number. All the friars came to listen to you. We had never heard such preaching before, but it was very like heresy.

_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Getting up._] Jerome, Jerome, I remember now where I was. I was in a great round place, and a great crowd of things came round me. I couldn't see them very clearly for a time, but some of them struck me with their feet, hard feet like hoofs, and soft cat-like feet; and some pecked me, and some bit me, and some clawed me. There were all sorts of beasts and birds as far as I could see.

_Jerome._ Were they devils, Paul, were they the deadly sins?

_Paul Ruttledge._ I don't know, but I thought, and I don't know how the thought came to me, that they were the part of mankind that is not human; the part that builds up the things that keep the soul from God.

_Jerome._ That was a terrible vision.

_Paul Ruttledge._ I struggled and I struggled with them, and they heaped themselves over me till I was unable to move hand or foot; and that went on for a long, long time.

_Jerome._ [_Crossing himself._] God have mercy on us.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Then suddenly there came a bright light, and all in a minute the beasts were gone, and I saw a great many angels riding upon unicorns, white angels on white unicorns. They stood all round me, and they cried out, "Brother Paul, go and preach; get up and preach, Brother Paul." And then they laughed aloud, and the unicorns trampled the ground as though the world were already falling in pieces.

_Jerome._ It was only a dream. Come with me. You will forget it when you have had food and rest.

_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Looking at his arm._] It was there one of them clawed me; one that looked at me with great heavy eyes.

_Jerome._ The Superior has been here; try and listen to me. He says you must not preach.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Great heavy eyes and hard sharp claws.

_Jerome._ [_Putting his hands on his shoulders._] You must awake from this. You must remember where you are. You are under rules. You must not break the rules you are under. The brothers will be coming in to hear you, you must not speak to them. The Superior has forbidden it.

_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Touching_ JEROME'S _hand_.] I have always been a great trouble to you.

_Jerome._ You must go and submit to the Superior. Go and make your submission now, for my sake. Think of what I have done for your sake. Remember how I brought you in, and answered for you when you came here. I did not tell about that wild business. I have done penance for that deceit.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Yes, you have always been good to me, but do not ask me this. I have had other orders.

_Jerome._ Last time you preached the whole monastery was upset. The Friars began to laugh suddenly in the middle of the night.

_Paul Ruttledge._ If I have been given certain truths to tell, I must tell them at once before they slip away from me.

_Jerome._ I cannot understand your ideas; you tell them impossible things. Things that are against the order of nature.

_Paul Ruttledge._ I have learned that one needs a religion so wholly supernatural, that is so opposed to the order of nature that the world can never capture it.

[_Some_ Friars _come in. They carry green branches in their hands_.

_Paul Ruttledge._ They are coming. Will you stay and listen?

_Jerome._ I must not stay. I must not listen.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Help me over to the candles. I am weak, my knees are weak. I shall be strong when the words come. I shall be able to teach. [_He lights a taper at the hanging lamp and tries to light the candles with a shaking hand. JEROME takes the taper from him and lights the candles._] Why are you crying, Jerome?

_Jerome._ Because we that were friends are separated now. We shall never be together again.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Never again? The love of God is a very terrible thing.

_Jerome._ I have done with meddling. I must leave you to authority now. I must tell the Superior you will not obey. [_He goes out._

_First Friar._ Father Jerome had a very dark look going out.

_Second Friar._ He was shut up with the Superior this morning. I wonder what they were talking about.

_First Friar._ I wonder if the Superior will mind our taking the branches. They are only cut on Palm Sunday other years. What will he tell us, I wonder? It seems as if he was going to tell us how to do some great thing. Do you think he will teach us to do cures like the friars used at Esker?

_Second Friar._ Those were great cures they did there, and they were not strange men, but just the same as ourselves. I heard of a man went to them dying on a cart, and he walked twenty miles home to Burren holding the horses head.

_First Friar._ Maybe we'll be able to see visions the same as were seen at Knock. It's a great wonder all that was seen and all that was done there.

_Third Friar._ I was there one time, and the whole place was full of crutches that had been thrown away by people that were cured. There was a silver crutch there some rich man from America had sent as an offering after getting his cure. Speak to him, Brother Colman. He seems to be in some sort of a dream. Ask if he is going to speak to us now.

_Colman._ We are all here, Brother Paul.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Have you all been through your meditations? [_They all gather round him._

_Bartley._ We have all tried; we have done our best; but it is hard to keep our mind on the one thing for long.

_Paul Ruttledge._ "He ascended into heaven." Have you meditated upon that? Did you reject all earthly images that came into your mind till the light began to gather?

_Third Friar._ I could not fix my mind well. When I put out one thought others came rushing in.

_Colman._ When I was meditating, the inside of my head suddenly became all on fire.

_Aloysius._ While I was meditating I felt a spout of fire going up between my shoulders.

_Paul Ruttledge._ That is the way it begins. You are ready now to hear the truth. Now I can give you the message that has come to me. Stand here at either side of the altar. Brother Colman, come beside me here. Lay down your palm branches before this altar; you have brought them as a sign that the walls are beginning to be broken up, that we are going back to the joy of the green earth. [_Goes up to the candles and speaks._] Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est. For a long time after their making men and women wandered here and there, half blind from the drunkenness of Eternity; they had not yet forgotten that the green Earth was the Love of God, and that all Life was the Will of God, and so they wept and laughed and hated according to the impulse of their hearts. [_He takes up the green boughs and presses them to his breast._] They gathered the green Earth to their breasts and their lips, as I gather these boughs to mine, in what they believed would be an eternal kiss. [_He remains a little while silent._

_Second Friar._ I see a light about his head.

_Third Friar._ I wonder if he has seen God.

_Paul Ruttledge._ It was then that the temptation began. Not only the Serpent who goes upon his belly, but all the animal spirits that have loved things better than life, came out of their holes and began to whisper. The men and women listened to them, and because when they had lived according to the joyful Will of God in mother wit and natural kindness, they sometimes did one another an injury, they thought that it would be better to be safe than to be blessed, they made the Laws. The Laws were the first sin. They were the first mouthful of the apple, the moment man had made them he began to die; we must put out the Laws as I put out this candle.

[_He puts out the candle with an extinguisher, still holding the
boughs with his left hand. Two orthodox Friars have come in._

_First Orthodox Friar._ You had better go for the Superior.

_Second Orthodox Friar._ I must stop and listen.

[_The First Orthodox Friar listens for a minute or two and then
goes out._

_Paul Ruttledge._ And when they had lived amidst the green Earth that is the Love of God, they were sometimes wetted by the rain, and sometimes cold and hungry, and sometimes alone from one another; they thought it would be better to be comfortable than to be blessed. They began to build big houses and big towns. They grew wealthy and they sat chattering at their doors; and the embrace that was to have been eternal ended, lips and hands were parted. [_He lets the boughs slip out of his arms._] We must put out the towns as I put out this candle. [_Puts out another candle._

_A Friar._ Yes, yes, we must uproot the towns.

_Paul Ruttledge._ But that is not all, for man created a worse thing, yes, a worse defiance against God. [_The_ Friars _groan_.] God put holiness into everything that lives, for everything that desires is full of His Will, and everything that is beautiful is full of His Love; but man grew timid because it had been hard to find his way amongst so much holiness, and though God had made all time holy, man said that only the day on which God rested from life was holy, and though God had made all places holy, man said, "no place but this place that I put pillars and walls about is holy, this place where I rest from life"; and in this and like ways he built up the Church. We must destroy the Church, we must put it out as I put out this candle. [_Puts out another candle._

_Friars._ [_Clasping one another's hands._] He is right, he is right. The Church must be destroyed. [_The_ SUPERIOR _comes in_.

_First Friar._ Here is the Superior.

_A Friar._ He has been saying----

_Superior._ Hush! I will hear him to the end.

_Paul Ruttledge._ That is not all. These things may be accomplished and yet nothing be accomplished. The Christian's business is not reformation but revelation, and the only labours he can put his hand to can never be accomplished in Time. He must so live that all things shall pass away. [_He stands silent for a moment and then cries, lifting his hand above his head._] Give me wine out of thy pitchers; oh, God, how splendid is my cup of drunkenness. We must become blind, and deaf, and dizzy. We must get rid of everything that is not measureless eternal life. We must put out hope as I put out this candle. [_Puts out a candle._] And memory as I put out this candle. [_As before._] And thought, the waster of Life, as I put out this candle. [_As before._] And at last we must put out the light of the Sun and of the Moon, and all the light of the World and the World itself. [_He now puts out the last candle, the chapel is very dark. The only light is the faint light of morning coming through the window._] We must destroy the World; we must destroy everything that has Law and Number, for where there is nothing, there is God.

[_The_ SUPERIOR _comes forward. One of_ PAUL'S Friars _makes as if to
speak to him. The_ SUPERIOR _strikes at him with the back of his
hand_.

_Superior._ [_To_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Get out of this, rebel, blasphemous rebel!

_Paul Ruttledge._ Do as you like to me, but you cannot silence my thoughts. I learned them from Jesus Christ, who made a terrible joy, and sent it to overturn governments, and all settled order.

[PAUL'S Friars _rush to save him from the_ SUPERIOR.

_Paul Ruttledge._ There is no need for violence. I am ready to go.

_Colman._ [_Taking his hand._] I will go with you.

_Aloysius._ I will go with you too.

_Several other Friars._ And I, and I, and I.

_Superior._ Whoever goes with this heretic goes straight into the pit.

_Bartley._ Do not leave us behind you. Let us go with you.

_Colman._ Teach us! teach us! we will help you to teach others.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Let me go alone, the one more, the one nearer falsehood.

_Bartley._ We will go with you! We will go with you! We must go where we can hear your voice.

_A Friar._ [_Who stands behind the_ SUPERIOR.] God is making him speak against himself.

_Paul Ruttledge._ No, the time has not come for you. You would be thinking of your food at midday and listening for the bells at prayer time. You have not yet heard the voices and seen the faces.

_Superior._ A miracle! God is making the heretic speak against himself. Listen to him!

_Aloysius._ We will not stay behind, we will go with you.

_Bartley._ We cannot live without hearing you!

_Paul Ruttledge._ I am led by hands that are colder than ice and harder than diamonds. They will lead me where there will be hard thoughts of me in the hearts of all that love me, and there will be a fire in my heart that will make it as bare as the wilderness.

_Aloysius._ We will go with you. We too will take those hands that are colder than ice and harder than diamonds.

_Several Monks._ We too! we too!

_Patrick._ Bring us to the hands that are colder than ice and harder than diamonds.

_Other Monks._ Pull them away! pull them away from him!

[_They are about to seize the Monks who are with_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.

_Superior._ [_Going between them._] Back! back! I will have no scuffling here. Let the devil take his children if he has a mind to. God will call His own.

[_The_ Monks _fall back_. SUPERIOR _goes up to altar, takes the cross
from it and turns, standing on the steps_.

_Superior._ Father Aloysius, come to me here. [ALOYSIUS _takes_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S _hand_.] Father Bartley, Father Colman. [_They go nearer to_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Father Patrick! [_A_ Friar _comes towards him_.] Kneel down! [FATHER PATRICK _kneels_.] Father Clement, Father Nestor, Father James ... leave the heretic--you are on the very edge of the pit. Your shoes are growing red hot.

_A Friar._ I am afraid, I am afraid. [_He kneels._

_Superior._ Kneel down; return to your God. [_Several_ Monks _kneel_.

_Colman._ They have deserted us.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Many will forsake the truth before the world is pulled down. [_Stretching out his arms over his head._] I pulled down my own house, now I go out to pull down the world.

_Superior._ Strip off those holy habits.

_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Taking off his habit._] One by one I am plucking off the rags and tatters of the world.