NOTES
I found the story of the Countess Cathleen in what professed to be a collection of Irish folk?lore in an Irish newspaper some years ago. I wrote to the compiler, asking about its source, but got no answer, but have since heard that it was translated from Les Matin`ees de Timoth`e Trimm a good many years ago, and has been drifting about the Irish press ever since. L`eo Lesp`es gives it as an Irish story, and though the editor of Folklore has kindly advertised for information, the only Christian variant I know of is a Donegal tale, given by Mr. Larminie in his West Irish Folk Tales and Romances, of a woman who goes to hell for ten years to save her husband, and stays there another ten, having been granted permission to carry away as many souls as could cling to her skirt. L`eo Lesp`es may have added a few details, but I have no doubt of the essential antiquity of what seems to me the most impressive form of one of the supreme parables of the world. The parable came to the Greeks in the sacrifice of Alcestis, but her sacrifice was less overwhelming, less apparently irremediable. L`eo Lesp`es tells the story as follows:??
Ce que je vais vous dire est un r`ecit du car`eme Irlandais. Le boiteux, laveugle, le paralytique des rues de Dublin ou de Limerick, vous le diraient mieux que moi, cher lecteur, si vous alliez le leur demander, un
sixpense dargent `a la main.?Il nest pas une jeune fille catholique `a laquelle on ne Fait appris pendant les
jours de pr`eparation `a la communion sainte, pas un berger des bords de la Blackwater qui ne le puisse redire `a la veill`ee.
Il y a bien longtemps quil apparut tout?`a?coup dans la vielle Irlande deux marchands inconnus dont
personne navait oui parler, et qui parlaient n`eanmoins avec la plus grande perfection la langue du pays. Leurs cheveux `etaient noirs et ferr`es avec de lor et leurs robes dune grande magnificence.
Tous deux semblaient avoir le m`eme age; ils paraissaient `etre des hommes de cinquante ans, car leur barbe grisormait un peu.
Or, `a cette `epoque, comme aujourdhui, lIrlande `etait pauvre, car le soleil avait `et`e rare, et des r`ecoltes presque nulles. Les indigents ne savaient `a quel sainte se vouer, et la mis`ere devenai de plus en plus terrible.
Dans lh`otellerie o`u descendirent les marchands fastueux on chercha `a p`en`etrer leurs desseins: mais cc fut
en vain, ils demeur`erent silencieux et discrets.
Et pendant quils demeur`erent dans lh`otellerie, ils ne
cess`erent de compter et de recompter des sacs de pi`eces dor, dont la vive clart`e sapercevait `a travers les
vitres du logis.
Gentlemen, leur dit lh`otesse un jour, do`u vient que vous `etes si opulents, et que, venus pour secourir la
mis`ere
publique, vous ne fassiez pas de bonnes oeuvres?
?Belle h`otesse, r`epondit lun deux, nous navons pas voulu aller au?devant dinfortunes honorables, dans la
crainte d`etre tromp`es par des mis`eres fictives: que la douleur frappe `a la porte, nous ouvrirons.
Le lendemain, quand on sut quil existait deux opulents
`etrangers pr`ets `a prodiguer lor, la foule assi`egea leur logis; mais les figures des gens qui en sortaient
`etaient bien diverses. Les uns avaient la fiert`e dans le regard, les autres portaient la honte au front. Les deux
trafiquants achetaient des `ames pour le d`emon. L`ame dun vieillard valait vingt pi`eces dor, pas un penny
de plus; car Satan avait eu le temps dy former hypoth`eque. L`ame dune `pouse en valait cinquante quand
elle `etait jolie, ou cent quand elle `etait laide. L`Ame dune jeune fille se payait des prix fous: les fleurs les
plus belles et les plus pures sont les plus ch`eres.
Pendant ce temps, il existait dans la ville un ange de beaut`e, la comtesse Ketty OConnor. Elle `etait lidole du
peuple, et la providence des indigents. D`es quelle eut appris que des
m`ecr`eants profitaient de la mis`ere publique pour d`erober des coeurs `a Dieu, elle fit appeler son
majordome.
Master Patrick, lui dit elle, combien ai?je de pi`eces dor dans mon coffre??
Cent mille.?
Combien de bijoux??
Pour autant dargent.?
Combien de ch`ateaux, de bois et de terres??
Pour le double de ces sommes.?
Eh bien! Patrick, vendez tout cc qui nest pas or et apportez?men le montant. je ne veux garder `a moi
que ce castel et le champs qui lentoure.
?
Deux jours apr`es, les ordres de la pieuse Ketty `etaient
ex`ecues et le tr`esor `etait distribu`e aux pauvres au fur et `a mesure de leurs besoins.
Ceci ne faisait pas le compte, dit la tradition, des
commisvoyageurs du malin esprit, qui ne trouvaient plus d`ames `a acheter.
Aides par un valet infame, ils p`en`etr`erent dans la retraite de la noble dame et lui d`erob`erent le reste de son
tr`esor. . . en vain lutta?t?elle de toutes ses forces pour sauver le contenu de son coffre, les larrons diaboliques
furent les plus forts. Si Ketty avait eu les moyens de faire un signe de croix, ajoute la l`egende Irlandaise, elle
les eut mis en fuite, mais ses mains `etaient captives?Le larcin fut effectu`e.
Alors les pauvres sollicit`erent
en vain pr`es de Ketty d`epouill`ee, elle ne pouvait plus
secourir leur mis`ere;?elle les abandonnait `a la tentation. Pourtant il ny avait plus que huit jours `a passer
pour que les grains et les fourrages arrivassent en abondance des pays
dOrient. Mais, huit jours, c`etait un si`ecle : huit jours n`ecessitaient une somme immense pour subvenir aux
exigences de la disette, et les pauvres allaient ou expirer dans les angoisses de la faim, ou, reniant les saintes
maximes de lEvangile,
vendre `a vil prix leur `ame, le plus beau pr`esent de la
munificence du Seigneur toutpuissant.
Et Ketty navait plus une obole, car elle avait abandonn`e son ch`ateaux aux malheureux.
Elle passa douze heures dans les larmes et le deuil, arrachant ses cheveux couleur de soleil et meurtrissant son
sein couleur du lis: puis elle se leva r`esolue, anim`ee par un vif sentiment de d`esespoir.
Elle se rendit chez les marchands d`ames.
Que voulez?vous? dirent ils.?
Vous achetez des `ames??
Oui, un peu malgr`e vous, nest ce pas, sainte aux yeux de sapbir??
Aujourdhui je viens vous proposer un march`e, reprit elle.?
Lequel??
Jai une `ame `a vendre; mais elle est ch`ere.?
Quimporte si elle est pr`ecieuse? L`ame, comme le diamant, sappr`ecie `a sa blancheur.?
Cest la mienne, dit Ketty.?
Les deux envoy`es de Satan tressaillirent, Leurs griffes
sallong`erent sous leurs gants de cuir; leurs yeux gris
`etincel`erent:??l`ame, pure, immacul`ee, virginale de Ketty c`etait une acquisition inappr`eciable.
Gentille dame, combien voulez?vouz??
Cent cinquante mille `ecus dor.?
Cest fait, dirent les marchands: et ils tendirent `a Ketty un parchemin cachet`e de noir, quelle signa
en frissonnant.
?
La somme lui fut compt`ee.
Des quelle fut rentr`ee, elle dit au majordome:
Tenez, distribuez ceci. Avec la somme que je vous donne les pauvres attendront la huitaine
n`ecessaire et pas une de leurs `ames ne sera livr`ee au d`emon.
?
Puis elle senferma et recommanda quon ne vint pas la d`eranger.
Trois jours se pass`erent; elle nappela pas; elle ne sortit pas.
Quand on ouvrit sa porte, on la trouva raide et froide: elle `etait morte de douleur.
Mais la vente de cette `ame si adorable dans sa charit`e fut d`eclar`ee nulle par le Seigneur: car elle avait
sauv`e ses concitoyens de la morte `eternelle.
Apr`es la huitaine, des vaisseaux nombreux amen`erent lIrlande affam`ee dimmenses provisions de grains.
La famine n`etait plus possible. Quant aux marchands, ils
disparurent de leur h`otellerie, sans quon s`ut jamais ce quils `etaient devenus.
Toutefois, les p`echeurs de la Blackwater pr`etendent quils sont enchain`es dans une prison souterraine par
ordre de Lucifer jusquau moment o`u ils pourront livrer l`ame de Ketty qui leur a `echapp`e. je vous dis la
l`egende telle que je la sais.
?Mais les pauvres lont racont`e d`age en `age et les enfants de Cork et de Dublin chantent encore la ballade
dont voici les derniers couplets:?
Pour sauver les pauvres quelle aime
Ketty donna
Son esprit, sa croyance m`eme
Satan paya
Cette `ame au d`evoument sublime,
En `ecus dor,
Disons pour racheter son crime,
Confiteor.
Mais lange qui se fit coupable
Par charit`e
Au s`ejour damour ineffable
Est remont`e.
Satan vaincu neut pas de prise
Sur ce coeur dor;
Chantons sous la nef de l`eglise,
Confiteor.
Nest ce pas que ce r`ecit, n`e de limagination des po`etes catholiques de la verte Erin, est une V`eritable r`ecit
de car`eme?
The Countess Cathleen was acted in Dublin in 1899, with Mr. Marcus St. John and Mr. Trevor Lowe as the
First and Second Demon, Mr. Valentine Grace as Shemus Rua, Master Charles Sefton as Teig, Madame San
Carola as Mary, Miss Florence Farr as Aleel, Miss Anna Mather as Oona, Mr. Charles Holmes as the
Herdsman, Mr. Jack Wilcox as the Gardener, Mr. Walford as a Peasant, Miss Dorothy Paget as a Spirit, Miss
M. Kelly as a Peasant Woman, Mr. T. E. Wilkinson as a Servant, and Miss May Whitty as The Countess
Kathleen. They had to face a very vehement opposition stirred up by a politician and a newspaper, the one
accusing me in a
pamphlet, the other in long articles day after day, of blasphemy because of the language of the demons or of
Shemus Rua, and because I made a woman sell her soul and yet escape damnation, and of a lack of patriotism
because I made Irish men and women, who, it seems, never did such a thing, sell theirs. The
politician or the newspaper persuaded some forty Catholic
students to sign a protest against the play, and a Cardinal, who avowed that he had not read it, to make
another, and both
politician and newspaper made such obvious appeals to the
audience to break the peace, that a score or so of police were sent to the theatre to see that they did not. I had,
however, no reason to regret the result, for the stalls, containing almost all that was distinguished in Dublin,
and a gallery of artisans alike insisted on the freedom of literature.
After the performance in 1899 I added the love scene between Aleel and the Countess, and in this new form
the play was revived in New York by Miss Wycherley as well as being played a good deal in England and
America by amateurs. Now at last I have made a complete revision to make it suitable for performance at the
Abbey Theatre. The first two scenes are almost wholly new, and throughout the play I have added or left out
such passages as a stage experience of some years showed me encumbered the action; the play in its first form
having been written before I knew anything of the theatre. I have left the old end, however, in the version
printed in the body of this book, because the change for dramatic purposes has been made for no better reason
than that audiences??even at the Abbey Theatre??are almost ignorant of Irish mythology or because a
shallow stage made the elaborate vision of armed angels upon a mountain?side impossible. The new end is
particularly suited to the Abbey stage, where the stage platform can be brought out in front of the prosceniurn
and have a flight of steps at one side up which the Angel comes, crossing towards the back of the stage at the
opposite side. The principal lighting is from two arc lights in the balcony which throw their lights into the
faces of the players, making footlights
unnecessary. The room at Shemus Ruas house is suggested by a great grey curtain?a colour which becomes
full of rich tints under the stream of light from the arcs. The two or more arches in the third scene permit the
use of a gauze. The short front scene before the last is just long enough when played with
incidental music to allow the scene set behind it to be changed. The play when played without interval in this
way lasts a little over an hour.
The play was performed at the Abbey Theatre for the first time on December 14, 1911, Miss Maire ONeill
taking the part
of the Countess, and the last scene from the going out of the Merchants was as follows:?
(MERCHANTS rush out. ALEEL crawls into the middle of the room; the twilight has fallen and gradually
darkens as the scene goes on.)
ALEEL. Theyre rising up?theyre rising through the earth,
Fat Asmodel and giddy Belial,
And all the fiends. Now they leap in the air.
But why does Hells gate creak so? Round and round,
Hither and hither, to and fro theyre running.
He moves about as though the air was full of spirits.
OONA enters.)
Crouch down, old heron, out of the blind storm.
OONA. Where is the Countess Cathleen? All this day
Her eyes were full of tears, and when for a moment
Her hand was laid upon my hand, it trembled.
And now I do not know where she is gone.
ALEEL. Cathleen has chosen other friends than us,
And they are rising through the hollow world.
Demons are out, old heron.
OONA. God guard her soul.
ALEEL. Shes bartered it away this very hour,
As though we two were never in the world.
(He kneels beside her, but does not seem to hear her words. The PEASANTS return. They carry the
COUNTESS CATHLEEN and lay her upon the ground before OONA and ALEEL. She lies there as if dead.)
OONA. O, that so many pitchers of rough clay
Should prosper and the porcelain break in two!
(She kisses the hands Of CATHLEEN.)
A PEASANT. We were under the tree where the path turns
When she grew pale as death and fainted away.
CATHLEEN. O! hold me, and hold me tightly, for the storm
is dragging me away.
(OONA takes her in her arms. A WOMAN begins to wail.)
PEASANTS. Hush!
PEASANTS Hush!
PEASANT WOMEN. Hush!
OTHER PEASANT WOMEN. Hush!
CATHLEEN. (half rising) Lay all the bags of money in a heap, And when I am gone, old Oona, share them
out
To every man and woman: judge, and give
According to their needs.
A PEASANT WOMAN. And will she give
Enough to keep my children through the dearth?
ANOTHER PEASANT WOMAN.
O, Queen of Heaven, and all you blessed saints,
Let us and ours be lost, so she be shriven.
CATHLEEN. Bend down your faces, Oona and Aleel;
I gaze upon them as the swallow gazes
Upon the nest under the eave, before
She wander the loud waters. Do not weep
Too great a while, for there is many a candle
On the High Altar though one fall. Aleel,
Who sang about the dancers of the woods,
That know not the hard burden of the world,
Having but breath in their kind bodies, farewell
And farewell, Oona, you who played with me
And bore me in your arms about the house
When I was but a child?and therefore happy,
Therefore happy even like those that dance.
The storm is in my hair and I must go.
(She dies.)
OONA. Bring me the looking?glass.
(A WOMAN brings it to her out of inner room. OONA holds glass over the lips of CATHLEEN. All is Silent
for a moment, then she speaks in a half?scream.)
O, she is dead!
A PEASANT. She was the great white lily of the world.
A PEASANT. She was more beautiful than the pale stars.
AN OLD PEASANT WOMAN. The little plant I loved is broken in two.
(ALEEL takes looking?glass from OONA and flings it upon fkoor, so that it is broken in manypieces.)
ALEEL. I shatter you in fragments, for the face
That brimmed you up with beauty is no more;
And die, dull heart, for you that were a mirror
Are but a ball of passionate dust again!
And level earth and plumy sea, rise up!
And haughty sky, fall down!
A PEASANT WOMAN. Pull him upon his knees,
His curses will pluck lightning on our heads.
ALEEL. Angels and devils clash in the middle air,
And brazen swords clang upon brazen helms.
Look, look, a spear has gone through Belials eye!
(A winged ANGEL, carrying a torch and a sword, enters from the R. with eyes fixed upon some distant thing.
The ANGEL is about to pass out to the L. when ALEEL speaks. The ANGEL Stops
a moment and turns.)
Look no more on the half?closed gates of Hell,
But speak to me whose mind is smitten of God,
That it may be no more with mortal things:
And tell of her who lies there.
(The ANGEL turns again and is about to go, but is seized by ALEEL.)
Till you speak
You shall not drift into eternity.
ANGEL. The light beats down; the gates of pearl are wide.
And she is passing to the floor of peace,
And Mary of the seven times wounded heart
Has kissed her lips, and the long blessed hair
Has fallen on her face; the Light of Lights
Looks always on the motive, not the deed,
The Shadow of Shadows on the deed alone.
(ALEEL releases the ANGEL and kneels.)
OONA. Tell them who walk upon the floor of peace,
That I would die and go to her I love,
The years like great black oxen tread the world,
And God the herdsman goads them on behind,
And I am broken by their passing feet.