Brian Friel Plays 2 (40 page)

Harry
You suspect everybody and –

O’Neill
And because that pride is gone, what I suspect is that some perverse element in your nature isn’t at all displeased to see Hugh O’Neill humiliated by this anonymous back-street wine-vendor.

Harry
Hugh –

O’Neill
But it does distress me to see you so soured that it actually pleases you to have the bailiffs fling O’Neill out on the street. What’s gnawing at you, Harry? Some bitterness? Some deep disappointment? Some corroding sense of betrayal?

Harry
Soured? You talk to me about being soured, about betrayal? (
He
controls
himself
.)
Leave the door open for the Countess.

O’Neill
What was it I called you once, Harry? Was it borage? No, that was O’Donnell, may he rest in peace; loyal, faithful Hugh. No, you were … dill! The man with the comforting and soothing effect! And the interesting thing is that I chose Harry Hoveden to be my private secretary precisely because he wasn’t a Gael. You see, I thought a Gael might be vulnerable to small, tribal pressures – to little domestic loyalties – an almost attractive human weakness when you come to think of it. So instead I chose one of the Old English because he would be above that kind of petty venality. So I chose Harry Hoveden because he claimed to admire Hugh O’Neill and everything Hugh O’Neill was attempting to do for his people and because when he left the Old English and joined us he protested such fealty and faithfulness not only to Hugh O’Neill but to the whole Gaelic nation.

Harry
If you weren’t so drunk, Hugh –

He
breaks
off
because
Lombard
enters.

O’Neill
The fault, of course, is mine. I suppose that easy rejection of his old loyalties and the almost excessive display of loyalty to us ought to have alerted me. Certainly Mabel was never taken in by it.

Harry
I’m sorry for you, Hugh. You have become a pitiable, bitter bastard.

O’Neill
Don’t you believe in loyalty any more, Harry? In keeping faith? In fealty?

Lombard
assesses
the
situation
instantly
and
accurately
and
in
response
he
assumes
a
breezy,
energetic
manner
which
he
sustains
right
through
the
scene.
As
he
enters
he
holds
up
a
bottle.
O’Neill
immediately
regrets
his
outburst
but
is
unable
to
apologize
and
slumps
sulkily
in
a
chair.

Lombard
I’ve come at a bad moment, have I? No? Good. And look what I have here. You’d never guess what this is, Harry.

Harry
A bottle.

Lombard
Brilliant. D’you see, Hugh?

O’Neill
Yes.

Lombard
Arrived this very day. From home. But it’s a very special bottle, Harry. Poitin. Waterford poitin. I was never much help to their spiritual welfare but they certainly don’t neglect the state of my spirit! (
He
laughs
.) Have you some glasses there? (
to
O’Neill
)
Catriona says she’ll be late, not to wait up for her. Something about a tailor and a dress fitting, (
to
Harry
)
Good man. This, I assure you, is ambrosia.

Harry
Not for me, Peter. But he needs some very badly.

As
Harry
leaves
Lombard
calls
after
him.

Lombard
I’ll leave this aside for you and if you feel like joining us later … And for the Earl himself, just a drop. It’s pure nectar, Hugh. (
He
takes
a
sip
and
relishes
it
.)
Tell me this: are the very special delights of this world foretastes of eternity or just lures to perdition? It’s from my own parish; a very remote place called Affane, about ten miles from Dungarvan. And it has been made there for decades by an old man who claims he’s one of Ormond’s bastards. If he is, God bless bastards – God forgive me. (
He
takes
another
sip.
)
Exquisite, isn’t it? Affane must be an annex of heaven – or Hades.

O’Neill
puts
his
untouched
drink
to
the
side.

O’Neill
I’ll try it later, Peter.

Lombard
Of course. Now. (
going to his
desk
) You’re not too tired to help me check a few details, are you? Splendid. (
He sees the book has been closed
.) You know, Hugh, you were very naughty today.

O’Neill
Was I?

Lombard
You and I were to have spent the afternoon on this.

O’Neill
What’s that?

Lombard
My history. (
He laughs
.) ‘My history’! You would think I was Thucydides, wouldn’t you? And if the truth were told, I’m so disorganized I’m barely able to get all this stuff into chronological order, not to talk of making sense of it. But if I’m to write about the life and times of Hugh O’Neill, the co-operation of the man himself would be a help, wouldn’t it?

O’Neill
Sorry, Peter.

Lombard
No harm done. Here we are – let me tell you the broad outline.

O’Neill
I had a bad day.

Lombard
I know. Pension day. That’s understandable.

O’Neill
A stupid, drunken day with Plunkett and O Domhnaill.

Lombard
I saw them this morning. A sorry sight. They were two great men once.

O’Neill
And I was cruel to Harry just now.

Lombard
I sensed something was amiss.

O’Neill
I told him Mabel didn’t trust him. That was a damned lie. Mabel loved Harry.

Lombard
I know she did. And Harry understands. We all understand. It’s been a difficult time for you, Hugh. That’s why this history is important – is vitally important. These last years have been especially frustrating. But what we must remember – what I must record and celebrate – is the
whole
life, from the very beginning right through those glorious years when aspiration and achievement came together and O’Neill was a household name right across Europe. Because they were glorious, Hugh. And they are a cause for celebration not only by us but by the generations that follow us. Now. (
He finds his outline
.) I think this is it – is it? Yes, it is.

O’Neill
Mabel will be in the history, Peter?

Lombard
Mabel? What sort of a question is that? Of course Mabel will be in the history.

O’Neill
Central to it, Peter.

Lombard
And so will your first wife, Brian MacFelim’s daughter. And so will your second, the wonderful Siobhan. And so will Mabel. And so will our beautiful Catriona – she says not to wait up for her. They’ll all be mentioned. What a strange question! (
confidentially
) But I’ve got to confess a secret unease, Hugh. The fact that the great Hugh O’Neill had four wives – and there were rumours of a fifth years and years ago, weren’t there? – long before you and I first met – but the fact that O’Neill had four, shall we say acknowledged, wives, do you think that may strike future readers as perhaps … a surfeit? I’m sure not. I’m sure I’m being too sensitive. Anyhow we can’t deliberately suppress what we know did happen, can we? So. Back to my overall framework.

O’Neill
This is my last battle, Peter.

Lombard
Battle? What battle?

O’Neill
That (
book
).

Lombard
What are you talking about?

O’Neill
That thing there.

Lombard
Your history?

O’Neill
Your
history. I’m an old man. I have no position, no power, no money. No, I’m not whingeing – I’m not pleading. But I’m telling you that I’m going to fight you on that and I’m going to win.

Lombard
Fight –? What in the name of God is the man talking about?

O’Neill
I don’t trust you. I don’t trust you to tell the truth.

Lombard
To tell the truth in –? Do you really think I would –?

O’Neill
I think you are not trustworthy. And that (
book
) is all that is left to me.

Lombard
You
are
serious! Hugh, for heaven’s sake –! (
He
bursts
out
laughing
.)

O’Neill
Go ahead. Laugh. But I’m going to win this battle, Peter.

Lombard
Hold on now – wait – wait – wait – wait. Just tell me one thing. Is this book some sort of a malign scheme? Am I doing something reprehensible?

O’Neill
You are going to embalm me in – in – in a florid lie.

Lombard
Will I lie, Hugh?

O’Neill
I need the truth, Peter. That’s all that’s left. The schemer, the leader, the liar, the statesman, the lecher, the
patriot, the drunk, the soured, bitter émigré – put it
all
in, Peter. Record the
whole
life – that’s what you said yourself.

Lombard
Listen to me, Hugh –

O’Neill
I’m asking you, man. Yes, damn it, I am pleading. Don’t embalm me in pieties.

Lombard
Let me tell you what I’m doing.

O’Neill
You said Mabel will have her place. That place is central to me.

Lombard
Will you listen to me?

O’Neill
Can I trust you to make Mabel central?

Lombard
Let me explain what my outline is. May I? Please? And if you object to it – or to any detail in it – I’ll rewrite the whole thing in any way you want. That is a solemn promise. Can I be fairer than that? Now. I start with your birth and your noble genealogy and I look briefly at those formative years when you were fostered with the O’Quinns and the O’Hagans and received your early education from the bards and the poets. I then move –

O’Neill
England.

Lombard
What’s that?

O’Neill
I spent nine years in England with Leicester and Sidney.

Lombard
You did indeed. I have all that material here. We then look at the years when you consolidated your position as the pre-eminent Gaelic ruler in the country, and that leads on to these early intimations you must have had of an emerging nation state. And now we come to the first of the key events: that September when all the people
of Ulster came together at the crowning stone at Tullyhogue outside Dungannon, and the golden slipper is thrown over your head and fastened to your foot, and the white staff is placed in your right hand, and the True Bell of St Patrick peals out across the land, and you are proclaimed … The O’Neill.

O’Neill
That was a political ploy.

Lombard
It may have been that, too.

O’Neill
The very next month I begged Elizabeth for pardon.

Lombard
But an occasion of enormous symbolic importance for your people – six hundred and thirty continuous years of O’Neill hegemony. Right, I then move on to that special relationship between yourself and Hugh O’Donnell; the patient forging of the links with Spain and Rome; the uniting of the whole of Ulster into one great dynasty that finally inspired all the Gaelic chieftains to come together under your leadership. And suddenly the nation state was becoming a reality. And talking of Hugh O’Donnell – (
He searches through a pile of papers
.) This will interest you. Yes, maybe this will put your mind at ease. Ludhaidh O’Cleary has written a life of Hugh and this is how he describes him. Listen to this. ‘He was a dove in meekness and gentleness and a lion in strength and force. He was a sweet-sounding trumpet –’

O’Neill
‘Sweet-sounding’!

Lombard
Listen! ‘– with power of speech and eloquence, sense and counsel, with a look of amiability in his face which struck everyone at first sight.’

O’Neill
laughs.

O’Neill
‘A dove in meekness’!

Lombard
But you’ll have to admit it has a ring about it. Maybe you and I remember a different Hugh. But maybe that’s not the point.