Riders to the Sea
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J. M. Synge >> Riders to the Sea
THE OLD MAN
[Looking at the boards.]
Are there nails with them?
CATHLEEN
There are not, Colum; we didn't think of the nails.
ANOTHER MAN
It's a great wonder she wouldn't think of the nails, and all
the coffins she's seen made already.
CATHLEEN
It's getting old she is, and broken.
[Maurya stands up again very slowly and spreads out the pieces
of Michael's clothes beside the body, sprinkling them with the
last of the Holy Water.]
NORA
[In a whisper to Cathleen.]
She's quiet now and easy; but the day Michael was drowned you
could hear her crying out from this to the spring well. It's
fonder she was of Michael, and would any one have thought that?
CATHLEEN
[Slowly and clearly.]
An old woman will be soon tired with anything she will do, and
isn't it nine days herself is after crying and keening, and
making great sorrow in the house?
MAURYA
[Puts the empty cup mouth downwards on the table, and lays her
hands together on Bartley's feet.]
They're all together this time, and the end is come. May the
Almighty God have mercy on Bartley's soul, and on Michael's
soul, and on the souls of Sheamus and Patch, and Stephen and
Shawn (bending her head]); and may He have mercy on my soul,
Nora, and on the soul of every one is left living in the world.
[She pauses, and the keen rises a little more loudly from the
women, then sinks away.]
MAURYA
[Continuing.]
Michael has a clean burial in the far north, by the grace of
the Almighty God. Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the
white boards, and a deep grave surely. What more can we
want than that? No man at all can be living for ever, and we
must be satisfied.
[She kneels down again and the curtain falls slowly.]