The Fourth Pig (18 page)

And find himself in the Fairy Hill!

(Enter the Sick Prince with Kate immediately behind him. Kate hides rapidly, but the Prince sweeps into the dance with the Fairies.)

Fairies (singing)
:

For he who hears the luring song

Shall get the gifts the fairies keep,

And first shall know the fairy love

And last shall know the fairy sleep.

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!

(The Prince breaks away from the dancing, and cries out, anxious and disturbed.)

Sick Prince:

Fairies, stop your song,

Aye, stop your stepping and glancing,

Put a check to all the dancing!

Something is happening wrong,

The dancing should be gayer,

Yes, gayer and stranger.

I am becoming a sayer,

A see-er of danger,

Of danger to the Hill …

Fairies, be still, be still,

Listen for danger!

(For a moment they all stay quiet, lifting their heads and listening. Kate stays pressed back into the curtains, mousy still. Then the Fairies grow tired of listening.)

Fairy (petulantly)
:

I hear no danger, none,

Nothing to spoil our dance

Till the foolish day's begun,

Till the rising of the sun!

There comes no evil chance

Within the Fairy Hill.

We have stayed too long still,

Fairies!

On with the dance!

(The Fairies and the Prince dance out on a gust of music, the quicker second half of the tune. It sounds faintly from behind. After a time Kate steps out from behind the curtain, holding up her apron full of nuts with one hand.)

Kate:
They're uneasy now, the fairy folk. Supposing they came back … and looked … and found me. What
would they do, the cruel fairy people? Their eyes are sidelong and they have little stone knives … Oh Prince, I'd bear it for you! Yet it might be you helping them … Ah, they're back!

(She hides quickly as the two Fairy women come in, one carrying the Fairy baby.)

Fairy Woman:
We'll leave my Star-cap here awhile, Gossip, while we are off to the brew-house making of speedwell wine. Where is a toy for him?

(She puts him on the ground.)

Other Fairy:
Why, did he lose the wand, Gossip? Thy Star-cap's a bad bold babe! But we shall find it again in time. Nothing gets far lost in the Hill. See, here's a fine cake for thee, Star-cap, all speckled and spangled like the stars themselves.

(She takes a cake out of the breast of her dress and gives it to the Fairy baby.)

Fairy Woman:
That is a fine cake of thy baking! What virtue has it, Gossip, for I know well it has some?

Other Fairy:
Now, I'll tell thee. Three bites of that cake and the luring would be off the Prince, he would never come again to the Hill, and all the mortals would say he was well and cured! But that can never be.

Fairy Woman:
No, for he is dancing, dancing, he will not see Star-cap nor the cake. The Prince will always come back to us.

Other Fairy:
Come, Gossip, we must be off to the brew-house, and thou, Star-cap, play with my spangly cake!

(The two Fairy women go out, leaving the baby playing with the cake. Kate steps out, glancing around her anxiously, and sits herself down on the floor with the baby.)

Kate:
Oh what a pretty cake! What a spangly, speckly cake! Thou art the one who loves nuts, art not, Star-cap?

(She takes nuts out of her apron and begins to roll them on the floor.)

See, Star-cap, all the nuts in the mortal world! Better than a cake, better than a silly cake. See, Kate will make them roll for thee. There—how they roll and jump! Thou canst have every one, Star-cap, and I shall have thy cake to play my own play with.

(She rolls the nuts for the baby to pick up. He leaves the cake, which Kate seizes. The baby trots out with the nuts. Kate stands up slowly, the cake in her two hands, on the level of her heart.)

It is all so simple.

In this fairy cake

Lies packed the whole of my life:

All the things I shall do or say,

All the things I shall think or make.

In this cake lie: being his wife:

Our children … asleep … at play:

Midnight and dawn and day

For a lovely life-time of years.

In this cake all my hopes and fears.

It is all quite simple.

(She hides the cake in her dress and listens. The lights might go down again here, and the Fairy tune sound a little. She speaks again.)

I will not hear the fairy tune ever again. The fairy dances will go on, but I shall be safe on mortal ground, and he will have forgotten. Oh poor fairies, poor fairies! I am stealing the thing you want most.

(As the tune grows louder, she hides again, and the dancers with the Prince in the middle of them stream in.)

Fairies (singing)
:

The dancing that was ours all night

Must end at last, the song must cease,

There is no danger threatening,

We lay us down, we sleep in peace.

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 begin to stretch and yawn and settle for sleep. The Prince smiles down on them.)

Sick Prince:

Some power pulls you down.

You sleepy fairies,

You cannot laugh or frown,

The dreams begin to muster,

Your eye-lids droop,

Your heads like a ripe cluster

Of brown and golden fruits.

See, I must stoop

To touch you, fairies.

(He stoops down among them, stroking their nodding heads. One Fairy nestles up against him and speaks.)

Fairy:

We must go, we must go, with our dreams' long flight,

Leave touch and hearing and taste and sight,

But you'll come back

On the hazel track,

Come back to us surely to-morrow night!

(The Fairy drops away from him to sleep. He stands above them, speaking slowly and as though he were puzzled.)

Sick Prince:

Green Hill, Green Hill … I think of a long day

When I forget the tune the fairies play,

Forget the piping and forget the dancing,

The quick, small feet about the smooth floor glancing,

The warm, sweet air, the fairy bread and wine,

The things that have been yours and have been mine.

Why should I think of evil days and cold? …

I took the fairy lure, keep and hold,

I will come back, I will come back to-morrow!

What else is there in life but pain and sorrow,

The struggle after honour, love and wealth,

The being well as mortal folk count health!

No, not till good is evil, white is black,

Shall I choose this. Fairies, I will come back!

The world has nothing lovelier to show

Than your sweet dance-tune swinging high and low.

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

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

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

(He goes out through the curtains, and Kate follows quickly behind him.)

Kate:

And his lady him behind!

(She follows him out and away from the Hill and the sleeping Fairies.)

SCENE II

 

The room of the Sick Prince. He is lying asleep on the bed, facing the audience. Kate sits beside him on a stool, watching him. The curtain is drawn across the window and it is dusk in the room
.

Kate:

He has slept here all the morning, sleeping so still, so still,

Since we came back through the hazels from the dawn-grey Fairy Hill.

Oh heart, be good, be quiet, you must wait, you must wait, you must wait,

You belong to Kate the watcher, you belong to the Prince's Kate.

Will he hate you still when he wakens? Maybe, my heart, maybe.

His eyes are held by the fairies, and life he cannot see.

I am life. I am his life. Prince, will you turn, will you turn?

I am the flame that kindles, the flame that will not burn,

I am the one you are wanting, oh love, I am she indeed,

If you could but turn from the fairies, back to the thing you need!

(The Prince stirs in his sleep.)

Oh hush, oh hush, oh hush, my dear whom the fairies blind,

I cannot bear you cruel, and when you sleep you seem kind!

Oh hush, oh hush, oh hush, and leave the fairies behind.

(The Prince wakes and speaks in a dreamy voice, not looking towards Kate.)

Sick Prince:

I dreamt of you, I dreamt of you,

On owl-soft wings I swept, I flew,

The fairy hill was with me still,

The fairy luring drew and drew …

(He leans up on one elbow, looks round and sees her. He speaks fiercely.)

Kate!

So you are here still, you with me, Kate that I hate!

Why have the Green Hill people not taken, not bound you,

Put green, thin cords round your neck, a thorn trail all round you?

Why have they left you with me, to my strong sorrow and pain?

Did you come with me last night? Were you in the Hill again?

Kate:
Why, I was there, Prince. I am only a watcher. It was my part. I did not hurt. And the fairies did not hurt me. You have woken early, Prince. Sleep again. As for me, I'm hungry with my watching, Beggar girls have hungry stomachs. But I've food here.

(She takes the Fairy cake out of her dress and begins to nibble it, watching him stealthily.)

Sick Prince:

Greedy and grasping, mortal thing!

Greedy you go to the Hill and hide there!

You cannot see the beauties that bide there

Nor hear the tune that the fairies sing!

Kate:
Maybe, Prince, maybe. I heard some strange music. But I am hungry now.

(She plays with the cake. He watches her.)

Still, this is good food. Sleep again, Prince.

Sick Prince (suddenly)
:

Beer to brew and flour to bake,

Oh if I had but one bite of that cake!

Kate:
Why, surely, Prince, I can well spare you a bit of my cake.

(She gives it to him; he takes it and eats it, and half sits up.)

It is good then?

Sick Prince:

Beer to brew and flour to bake,

Oh if I had but two bites of that cake!

Kate:
There's half of my cake gone, but never mind.

(She gives it to him; he eats it and sits right up.)

Beggar girls are used to going hungry.

Sick Prince:

Beer to brew and flour to bake,

Oh if I had but three bites of that cake!

Kate:
Well, there's the third bite and an end of my cake.

(She gives it to him.)

I shall have all the crumbs for myself.

(As the Sick Prince eats the last mouthful of the fairy cake, he stands up, flinging away the green cover from the bed. Kate sits very quiet, watching intently. He passes his hand across his eyes and speaks low and thickly.)

Sick Prince:
What is it? … There was a bad dream I had … a binding, twisting dream … Is it over?

Kate (softly)
: It is over, Prince.

(He goes over to the window and suddenly pulls the curtains wide apart, flooding the room with sunlight.)

Sick Prince:

It is over, over at last, oh truly, it is over.

I can smell sun on earth, the earth-born fields of clover!

Oh sweet, oh kindly earth, oh laughing, oh childbearing,

Earth that I lost for so long, oh true and beautiful thing!

(He turns from the window towards Kate.)

Oh Kate, oh Kate my darling, my dear, my earthborn Kate,

Beggar girl of my heart, why did I sleep and wait?

I will have you with me for good, who were with me for so much ill,

I will have you here with me, who saved me alive from the Hill!

Kate (standing on her feet)
: I will have you, Prince … I am not a beggar girl … that's no matter. I won you from the fairies with my own hands and heart and head!

(The Prince kneels in front of her, and takes her hand in his.)

Sick Prince:

Hand, oh hand of my Kate, fingers and palm that I love,

Strong little, brown little hand, without a ring or a glove!

(He lifts his hand and lays it over her heart.)

Heart, oh heart of my Kate, brave heart that beats for me,

You shall have my heart for your twin so long as our lives shall be!

(He stands beside her, holding her head between his hands.)

Head, oh head of my Kate, forehead and lips and eyes,

Be wise for me now as you have been, be calm and merry and wise!

(Enter the Well Prince and Ann, hand in hand.)

Ann:
Oh look … oh look … she has healed your brother too. We are all healed!

Well Prince:
He is healed. Oh Kate, Kate, Kate, we are all healed!

Sick Prince:
We are all healed …

(They all take hands.)

Kate:

The lost thing has been found, and the broken thing mended,

On plain and mortal ground, the tale has well ended.

The fairy lure is broken, the fairy singing is done,

And the kind word is spoken at the rising of the sun!

CURTAIN

ADVENTURE IN THE DEBATEABLE LAND

“Where am I going?” “To the Debateable Land.” But who said it? What was I doing in this taxi with all these odd pieces of luggage, and what, anyhow, was the Debateable Land? I looked into the clock face to see how much it had ticked up and judge by that how far I had come—what station was it? But all I saw on the clock face was a notice in black and red which ticked over from line to line saying: