Three Plays: The Fiddler's House, The Land, Thomas Muskerry Part 20

_The men go out; Cornelius follows them._

MURTAGH COSGAR _(with irony)_ Musha, but that's a well-discoursed lad. It must be great to hear the two of you at it.

MARTIN DOURAS G.o.d be good to Cornelius. There's little of the world's harm in the boy.

MURTAGH COSGAR He and my Sally would make a great match of it. She's a bright one, too.

MARTIN DOURAS Murtagh Cosgar, have you no feeling for your own flesh and blood?

MURTAGH COSGAR Too much feeling, maybe. _(He stands at the door in silence. With sudden enthusiasm)_ Ah, but that's the sight to fill one's heart.

Lands ploughed and spread. And all our own; all our own.

MARTIN DOURAS All our own, ay. But we made a hard fight for them.

MURTAGH COSGAR Ay.

MARTIN DOURAS Them that come after us will never see them as we're seeing them now.

MURTAGH COSGAR _(turning round)_ Them that come after us. Isn't that a great thought, Martin Douras? and isn't it a great thing that we're able to pa.s.s this land on to them, and it redeemed for ever? Ay, and their manhood spared the shame that our manhood knew. Standing in the rain with our hats off to let a landlord--ay, or a landlord's dog-boy--pa.s.s the way!

MARTIN DOURAS _(mournfully)_ May it be our own generation that will be in it. Ay, but the young are going fast; the young are going fast.

MURTAGH COSGAR _(sternly)_ Some of them are no loss.

MARTIN DOURAS Ten of your own children went, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR I never think of them. When they went from my control, they went from me altogether. There's the more for Matt.

MARTIN DOURAS _(moistening his mouth, and beginning very nervously)_ Ay, Matt.

Matt's a good lad.

MURTAGH COSGAR There's little fear of him leaving now.

MARTIN DOURAS _(nervously)_ Maybe, maybe. But, mind you, Murtagh Cosgar, there are things--little things, mind you. Least, ways, what we call little things. And, after all, who are we to judge whether a thing--

MURTAGH COSGAR Is there anything on your mind, Martin Douras?

MARTIN DOURAS _(hurriedly)_ No; oh, no. I was thinking--I was thinking, maybe you'd give me a lift towards Arvach, if you'd be going that way this night.

MURTAGH COSGAR Ay, why not?

MARTIN DOURAS And we could talk about the land, and about Matt, too. Wouldn't it be a heart-break if any of our children went--because of a thing we might--

MURTAGH COSGAR _(fiercely)_ What have you to say about Matt?

MARTIN DOURAS _(stammering)_ Nothing except in a--in what you might call a general way. There's many a young man left house and land for the sake of some woman, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR There's many a fool did it.

MARTIN DOURAS _(going to door)_ Ay, maybe; maybe. I'll be going now, Murtagh.

MURTAGH COSGAR Stop! _(clutching him)_ You know about Matt. What woman is he thinking of?

MARTIN DOURAS _(frightened)_ We'll talk about it again, Murtagh. I said I'd be back.

MURTAGH COSGAR We'll talk about it now. Who is she? What name has she?

MARTIN DOURAS _(breaking from him and speaking with sudden dignity)_ It's a good name, Murtagh Cosgar; it's my own name.

MURTAGH COSGAR Your daughter! Ellen! You're--

MARTIN DOURAS Ay, a good name, and a good girl.

MURTAGH COSGAR And do you think a son of mine would marry a daughter of yours?

MARTIN DOURAS What great difference is between us, after all?

MURTAGH COSGAR _(fiercely)_ The daughter of a man who'd be sitting over his fire reading his paper, and the clouds above his potatoes, and the cows trampling his oats. _(Martin is beaten down)_ Do you know me at all, Martin Douras? I came out of a little house by the roadway and built my house on a hill. I had many children. Coming home in the long evenings, or kneeling still when the prayers would be over, I'd have my dreams. A son in Aughnalee, a son in Ballybrian, a son in Dunmore, a son of mine with a shop, a son of mine saying Ma.s.s in Killnalee.

And I have a living name--a name in flesh and blood.

MARTIN DOURAS G.o.d help you, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR But I've a son still. It's not your daughter he'll be marrying.

_(He strides to the door and calls Matt)_

MARTIN DOURAS _(going to him)_ Murtagh Cosgar--for G.o.d's sake--we're both old men, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR You've read many stories, Martin Douras, and you know many endings.

You'll see an ending now, and it will be a strong ending, and a sudden ending.

_Matt comes in_.

MURTAGH COSGAR You're wanted here.

MATT I heard you call. _(He sits on table)_ So they're sticking to the twenty years.

MARTIN DOURAS _(eagerly)_ Twenty years, Matt, and they'll get it for twenty. O, it's a great day for you both! Father and son, you come into a single inheritance. What the father wins the son wields.

MURTAGH COSGAR What the father wins, the son wastes.

MATT What's the talk of father and son?

MARTIN DOURAS They're the one flesh and blood. There's no more strife between them than between the right hand and the left hand.

MURTAGH COSGAR _(to Matt)_ We were talking about you. We were fixing a match for you.

MATT _(startled, looking at Martin Douras)_ Fixing a match for me?

_(He rises)_