The Fourth Pig (17 page)

Kate:

Ann shall have silver and Ann shall have gold,

Dresses and jewels to fondle and hold,

Gold and silver and her heart's desire,

Ann shall sit at her own hearth fire.

Hen-wife's magic shall not endure

When Ann's own sister shall seek a cure.

The sheep's-head curse shall tumble away,

Sister Kate will not let it stay!

For sister Kate as a sister can

Shall be a good sister to sister Ann.

SCENE II

The Fairy Hill. The Fairies are dancing as before, to the same tune, but there should be some variation in the dance itself
.

Fairies (singing)
:

Below the hot, the steady blue

The thick-leaved woods lay calm all day,

But now the hooves tread down the grass,

The hazel boughs divide and sway.

Up and under, in and under,

Down and under, well or ill,

He'll go the way he shouldna' go

And find himself in the Fairy Hill!

Oh gladdening strong his mortal limbs

And steely sweet his mortal glance,

Who comes to find below the hill

His fairy partners in the dance.

Up and under, in and under,

Down and under, well or ill,

He'll go the way he shouldna' go

And find himself in the Fairy Hill!

(Enter the Sick Prince and Kate immediately behind him. But Kate hides so quickly between the folds of the green curtain that the Fairies do not see her.)

Fairy (speaks)
:

Did she come, did she follow,

The mortal maiden,

By hill and hollow

Of the nut groves fair?

Or did you ride on

A horse unladen

Through the midnight air?

Sick Prince (strangely)
:

I do not know,

Fairies.

She is kind and gentle,

With silence shod.

I can hardly hate her.

She is cool as snow,

Strong and supple as hazel,

As a tall hazel rod.

There is no art, no magic,

Her kindness to enhance.

I cannot tell if she came with me, fairies!

Come, let us dance.

Fairy (rapidly)
:

Forget, forget her,

She is kind with a purpose,

A mortal purpose,

Do not let, do not let her

Break the spell,

Break the tune!

All's well

Under stars and moon,

Hear and tell,

Come soon!

Now the dance, the dance, the dance and the dance tune!

(The Fairies begin to dance again, sweeping the Prince in with them.)

Fairies (singing)
:

Asleep the birds, the foxes sleep,

In hazel coverts sleeps the fawn,

Forget, forget the mortal world

Until the breaking of the dawn.

Up and under, in and under,

Down and under, well or ill,

He's come the way he shouldna' come

And found himself in the Fairy Hill!

(The Fairies dance out and away with the Prince. The dance tune sounds faintly. Kate comes out from behind the curtain. She holds up with one hand her apron full of nuts.)

Kate:
He said I was kind … that's sweet, sweet hearing. I would be kind to him for always … kinder than all the fairies under the world. Kinder and merrier. And maybe his brother would be as kind to my Ann … If I could but find a cure for her … What's here?

(She hides again quickly. Two FAIRY WOMEN come in, one carrying a FAIRY BABY. She puts him down on the floor.)

Fairy Woman:
Star-cap, Star-cap, where's thy ball? I plucked him as fine a puff ball as ever lifted its head, grown between sweet dusk and dawn of midsummer
night. But babes are ever the best losers, under turf or under roof!

Other Fairy:
Give him the wand, Gossip. Star-cap, Star-cap, here's a pretty toy for thee!

(She picks up a bright silver and gold wand, pointed with a crescent moon, and gives it to the baby.)

Fairy Woman:
Dost know the power of the wand thou hast given my Star-cap?

Other Fairy:
Tell me, Gossip.

Fairy Woman:
One stroke of that wand, Gossip, would make Kate Crackernuts' sick sister Ann as hale and bonny as ever she was!

Other Fairy:
Then it's well Kate Crackernuts is not here in the Hill, or our wand would be stolen away!

(They go out, leaving the baby playing on the floor with the wand. Kate steps cautiously out from between the folds of the curtain, glances about her, and kneels down on the floor beside the Fairy baby.)

Kate:
Can I see thy toy, Star-cap? Show it me then, show it to Kate. Oh, the pretty wand!

(She tries to take it, but the baby will not let it go.)

Look, then, Star-cap—see what Kate has for thee!

(She takes nuts out of her apron and begins to roll them about the floor. The Fairy baby is interested.)

Nuts. Hazel nuts from up above the Hill in the blue air. Nuts that Kate Crackernuts plucked down for thee from the brushing branches.

(The baby begins to play with the nuts, dropping the wand and leaving it.)

Shall Kate have thy pretty toy, then? And thou have the nuts, Star-cap? Look, shalt have them every one.

(The baby picks up most of the nuts and trots out with them, leaving Kate with the wand. Kate stands up, holding it in both hands, triumphantly.)

I have it, I have it, I have stolen the wand!

I have set my will to the fairies' and my will has won.

I will get my sister Ann free of her sore, sore bond,

Out of the cruel web that the Hen-wife's magic spun.

Oh bonny the hazel groves and the good pastures beyond,

I will be out and away at the rising of the sun!

(She hides the wand in the breast of her dress and listens. Perhaps the lights should go down again now to indicate the passing of time and a few notes of the fairy tune heard. She speaks, slowly.)

The Fairy tune again … but I am steel against it. There's no power left in it. I would not dance if I could. Oh Ann, Ann, Ann, if you but knew how soon you would be your own bonny self again!

(She darts behind the curtain as the dancers come in again, the Sick Prince in their midst.)

Fairies (singing)
:

Our dancing feet at dusk leapt up

And oh, we would be dancing more,

But sleep at dawn like mist is laid

All white about the dancing floor.

Up and under, in and under,

Down and under, well or ill,

You'll go the way you shouldna' go

And find yourself in the Fairy Hill!

(The Fairies settle to sleep all about the Prince, one only remaining half upright at his side.)

Fairy (sleepily)
:

Dawn again the dance has found,

You must leave the fairy ground

And the dancers dreaming

Of a dancing, streaming,

Ribbon of dancing all unbound.

(Then she, too, sinks to the ground in sleep. The Sick Prince looks down at them gently.)

Sick Prince:

Fairies, sleep well, sleep well, my partners dear

In your green cave below the changing year.

The hazels drop their leaves, thin falls the snow:

But winter's nothing to you here below.

Bare twigs and catkins next; and in July

The thick green leaves that prop the thick blue sky.

And now the nuts are ripe, the autumn dew

Drenches the moss-bright turf. But over you

The sweet year passes as an eagle passes,

One high, faint fleck above the moorland grasses.

Sleep well, dear partners, in a gentle flow

Of easy dreaming dancing to and fro.

Dawn … I must speak the words that bid me go.

(He steps clear of the Fairies and lifts his hand commandingly towards the green wall.)

Open, open, Green Hill, and let the Prince go through!

(He steps through the curtains and out. Kate follows quickly from her hiding place.)

Kate:
And his lady him behind!

(She follows him out of the Hill, leaving the fairies asleep
.

SCENE III

A room in the castle, empty. Kate comes in, excited, her hands clasped over the breast of her dress, and the wand
.

Kate:
Ann?
(She looks all round.)
Ann! Oh, Ann! She doesn't know yet. But I know.

(Ann runs in and up to her, bleating.)

Ann, my sweet, I'm back again. They couldn't stop me, they couldn't stop Kate Crackernuts. And see what I have here, Ann, see what I have here!
(She pulls out wand.)
This tiny, shiny, fairy thing. Ann, let me unwind the veil from your head.

(Ann shakes her head in refusal, bleating.)

No, but let me, Ann! Your Prince shall not see you with the sheep's-head. It is only your sister Kate.

(She unwinds the veil from the sheep's-head and looks at it.)

Now, ugly thing, that has sat thyself on my Ann's bonny shoulders, I'll deal with thee!
(She strikes at it with her wand.)
Off! Off!
(It does not budge.)
What, what, have the fairies cheated me? No, I'll not have it!

(She catches the sheep's-head by the ears and pulls. It comes off and there is Ann herself under it.)

Oh, Ann, is that you again, is that you …!

Ann:
Oh, Kate …

(She gives a little, quick sob, feeling about with her hands. Kate throws the sheep's-head down on to the ground.)

Kate:

I went to the Fairy Hill

To heal and steal and be wise.

I looked in the fairy eyes

And I set my human will

Not to dance, not to play, not to sing,

Not to join in the fairy thing.

And I stooped like a hawk on the wing

To snatch at the prey I needed!

And oh I have cheated the fairies

And stolen the fairy thing!

Ann:
Oh Kate … I can speak with my own voice …

Kate:
My dear.

Ann:

Kate!

It is off, it's away,

The thing I hate!

Oh joy, oh bright day,

Sweet sun, clear air!

I was so long in there,

So long inside,

So long, as if I had died

And been buried under earth.

Now I can laugh and say

Oh gay, oh mirth!

Good-bye, thing I hate,

Gone for ever away,

And thanks, and thanks to Kate,

My darling Kate, my dear

Sister without blame or fear,

My sister Kate!

(They kiss one another. Enter the Well Prince.)

Kate:

The spell is off my sister Ann

And here she stands so bonny.

Come and kiss her if you can,

Sweet as bread and honey!

Well Prince:

If I have dreamt, the dream's come true,

Girl of roses and honey dew!

Ann, oh Ann, may I be your husband,

I the watcher and lover of you?

Ann:

Prince, oh Prince, it was my dream too!

Though I was dumb, yet I was true,

I will be wife if you'll be husband,

I the watcher and lover of you.

(They take hands and kiss. Enter the Porter.)

Porter:
Why, here's our beggar maid back again, and—lawkamercyme, what's come to the little dumb thing?

Well Prince:
She has come back to herself.

Porter:
Well, well, well, as sure as my name's Peter, such a thing has never happened since I was a little boy-porter! I have the peck of gold measured out and ready for you, Mistress Clever.

Kate:
If I am to watch a third night, to watch another night against the fairies, I must have a better reward yet at the end of it.

Porter:
Now, what might that be?

Kate:
I must have the Sick Prince to marry me.

Porter:
There's askings indeed!

Kate:
Yet that's what I must have.

Ann:
Sister Kate, what will the Sick Prince say to that?

Kate:
I do not know. Yes, I do know.

(She hides her face in her hands.)

Well Prince:

Kate, oh Kate, you shall have your will,

If you will stay and watch him still.

You shall have my brother for your own lover

If you bring him safe from the Fairy Hill.

(The Prince and Ann go out one way, the Porter another, shaking his head dubiously.)

Kate:

I will go back,

Back to the angry fairies,

Down the long hazel track

Under the quivering moon.

Oh hands, come help me again,

Cling to the horse's back,

Cling fast through wind and rain,

Ears, be deaf to the tune!

Oh eyes, be quick to see,

Heart, head, to dare,

If the fairies find it is me,

Kate, the stealer!

Yet Kate will never care

Though the fairies should blind the healer,

Magic the double dealer,

Kill Kate the stealer—

If only the Prince will care …

ACT IV

SCENE I

The Fairy Hill as before. The Fairies dancing

Fairies (singing)
:

The stars hang pale above the wood,

They wheel and dip and lo, are gone,

The morning comes to swallow them,

But we dance on, but we dance on.

Up and under, in and under,

Down and under, well or ill,

He'll go the way he shouldna' go

And find himself in the Fairy Hill!

Beyond the Hill, above the turf,

In moonlit airs we hang our lure,

And he who once has come to it

Away from us shall find no cure.

Up and under, in and under,

Down and under, well or ill,

He'll go the way he shouldna' go