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 anyone 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 everyone
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_).

THE LAND OF HEART'S DESIRE[1]

William Butler Yeats

[Footnote 1: Reprinted by arrangement with Mr. Yeats and the
Macmillan Company, New York, publishers of Mr. Yeats's Collected
Works (1912).]

CHARACTERS

MAURTEEN BRUIN
BRIDGET BRUIN, his wife
SHAWN BRUIN, their son
MAIRE BRUIN, wife of Shawn
FATHER HART
A FAERY CHILD

SCENE: _In the Barony of Kilmacowan, in the county of Sligo, at a
remote time._

SETTING: _a room with a hearth on the floor in the middle of a
deep alcove on the right. There are benches in the alcove, and a
table; a crucifix on the wall. The alcove is full of a glow of
light from the fire. There is an open door facing the audience,
to the left, and to the left of this a bench. Through the door
one can see th