The Countess Cathleen

By W B Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born near Dublin in 1865, and was encouraged from a young age to pursue a life in the arts. He attended art school for a short while, but soon found that his talents and interest lay in poetry rather than painting. He came to prominence during a tumultuous period in Irish history, when he struggled with the idea of an independent Irish identity. Yeats dealt constantly with the contradictions he felt in his nature and in life, and spent much of his life seeking out a philosophical system to resolve this conflict. The first edition of "The Countess Cathleen" appeared in 1892, but underwent several revisions over the next thirty years as Yeats' vision of poetry and theatre evolved. The protagonist, Cathleen O'Shea, must choose between acting for the good of others or in her own personal interests, while weighing the suggestions of various allegorical characters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781420921687

W B Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born in 1865 in County Dublin. With his much-loved early poems such as 'The Stolen Child', and 'He Remembers Forgotten Beauty', he defined the Celtic Twilight mood of the late-Victorian period and led the Irish Literary Renaissance. Yet his style evolved constantly, and he is acknowledged as a major figure in literary modernism and twentieth-century European letters. T. S. Eliot described him as 'one of those few whose history is the history of their own time, who are part of the consciousness of an age which cannot be understood without them'. W. B. Yeats died in 1939.

Book preview

THE COUNTESS CATHLEEN

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

A Digireads.com Book

Digireads.com Publishing

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4161-6

Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-2168-7

This edition copyright © 2011

Please visit www.digireads.com

To MAUD GONNE

The sorrowful are dumb for thee

Lament of Morion Shehone

for Miss Mary Bourke

CONTENTS

PERSONS IN THE PLAY

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

PERSONS IN THE PLAY

Shemus Rua, a Peasant

Mary, his wife

Teigue, his son

Aleel, a Poet

The Countess Cathleen

Oona, her foster mother

Two Demons disguised as Merchants

Peasants, Servants, Angelical Beings, Spirits

The Scene is laid in Ireland and in old times.

SCENE I

[A room with lighted fire, and a door into the open air, through which one sees, perhaps, the trees of a wood, and these trees should be painted in flat color upon a gold or diapered sky. The walls are of one color. The scene should have the effect of missal Painting. Mary, a woman of forty years or so, is grinding a quern.]

MARY. What can have made the grey hen flutter so?

[Teigue, a boy of fourteen, is coming in with turf, which he lays beside the hearth.]

TEIGUE. They say that now the land is famine struck

The graves are walking.

MARY. There is something that the hen hears.

TEIGUE. And that is not the worst; at Tubber-vanach

A woman met a man with ears spread out,

And they moved up and down like a bat's wing.

MARY. What can have kept your father all this while?

TEIGUE. Two nights ago, at Carrick-orus churchyard,

A herdsman met a man who had no mouth,

Nor eyes, nor ears; his face a wall of flesh;

He saw him plainly by the light of the moon.

MARY. Look out, and tell me if your father's coming.

[Teigue goes to door.]

TEIGUE. Mother!

MARY. What is it?

TEIGUE. In the bush beyond,

There are two birds—if you can call them birds—

I could not see them rightly for the leaves.

But they've the shape and color of horned owls

And I'm half certain they've a human face.

MARY. Mother of God, defend us!

TEIGUE. They're looking at me.

What is the good of praying? father says.

God and the Mother of God have dropped asleep.

What do they care, he says, though the whole land

Squeal like a rabbit under a weasel's tooth?

MARY. You'll bring misfortune with your blasphemies

Upon your father, or yourself, or me.

I would to God he were home—ah, there he is.

[Shemus comes in.]

What was it kept you in the wood? You know

I cannot get all sorts of accidents

Out of my mind till you are home again.

SHEMUS. I'm in no mood to listen to your clatter.

Although I tramped the woods for half a day,

I've taken nothing, for the very rats,

Badgers, and hedgehogs seem to have died of drought,

And there was scarce a wind in the parched leaves.

TEIGUE. Then you have brought no dinner.

SHEMUS. After that

I sat

Reviews for The Countess Cathleen

[danielstj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a great play. Simple, straight-forward, and full of Yeats' poetic prowess. The plot is mixed with mysticism, spirits, hell, heaven, and the beyond. Yeats is strong here, despite this being such an early work. The lines are fused with great passages and the last scene, particularly, stands out as a crowning achievement. This is a great play and I recommend it to all interested in theatre.4 stars!