the flowers almost formally at his chest.]
MAIRE Well now, isn't that a pretty sight. There's your milk. How's Sarah? [SARAH grunts a reply.] MANUS I saw you out at the hay.
[MAIRE ignores this and goes to JIMMY.] MAIRE And how's Jimmy Jack Cassie? JIMMY Sit down beside me, Maire. MAIRE Would I be safe? JIMMY No safer ma n in Donegal.
[MAIRE flops on a stool heside JIMMY.] MAIRE Ooooh. Th e best harvest in living memory, they say; but I don't want
to see another like it. [Showing JIMMY her hands.] Look at the blisters. JIMMY Esne fatigata ? MAIRE Sum fatigatissima. JIMMY Bene! OptimeJ6 MAIRE That's the height of my Latin. Fit me better if I had even that muc h
English. JIMMY English? I thought you had some English? MAIRE Three words. Wait?there was a spake7 I used to have off by heart.
What's this it was?
[Her accent is strange because she is speaking a foreign language and because she does not understand what she is saying.]
'In Norfolk8 we besport ourselves around the maypoll.' Wha t about that! MANUS Maypole.9 [Again MAIRE ignores MANUS.] MAIRE God have mercy on my Aunt Mary?she taught me that when I was
about four, whatever it means. Do you know what it means, Jimmy? JIMMY Sure you know I have only Irish like yourself. MAIRE An d Latin. An d Greek. JIMMY I'm telling you a lie: I know one English word. MAIRE What? JIMMY Bo?som. MAIRE What's a bo?som? JIMMY YOU know? [H e illustrates with his hands.] ?bo?som?bo?som?you
know-?Diana, the huntress,1 she has two powerful bosom. MAIRE YOU may be sure that's the one English word you would know. [Rises.] Is there a drop of water about?
[MANUS gives MAIRE his bowl of milk.] MANUS I'm sorry I couldn't get up last night. MAIRE Doesn't matter. MANUS Biddy Hanna sent for me to write a letter to her sister in Nova Scotia.
All the gossip of the parish. 'I brought the cow to the bull three times last
week but no good. There's nothing for it now but Big Ned Frank.'
MAIRE [Drinking.] That's better.
6. Are you tired? / I am very tired. / Good! Excel-9. Tall decorated pole around which traditional lent! [Friel's note]. English dances were conducted in springtime. 7. Speech. 1. Roman goddess, comparable to the Greek Arte8. County of eastern England. mis.
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248 2 / NATION AND LANGUAGE
MANUS And she got so engrossed in it that she forgot who she was dictating to: 'The aul drunken schoolmaster and that lame son of his are still footering about in the hedge-school, wasting people's good time and money.'
[MAIRE has to laugh at this.] MAIRE She did not! MANUS An d me taking it all down. 'Thank Go d one of them new national
schools2 is being built above at Poll na gCaorach.' It was after midnight by the time I got back. MAIRE Great to be a busy man. [MAIRE moves away, MANUS follows. MANUS I could hear music on my way past but I thought it was too late to call. MAIRE [To SARAH.] Wasn't your father in great voice last night? [SARAH nods and smiles.] MAIRE It must have been near three o'clock by the time you got home?
[SARAH holds up four fingers.] MAIRE Wa s it four? No wonder we're in pieces. MANUS I can give you a hand at the hay tomorrow. MAIRE That's the name of a hornpipe,3 isn't it??'The Scholar In The Hay
field'?or is it a reel?4 MANUS If the day's good. MAIRE Suit yourself. The English soldiers below in the tents, them sapper5
fellas, they're coming up to give us a hand. I don't know a word they're saying, nor they me; but sure that doesn't matter, does it? MANUS Wha t the hell are you so crabbed6 about?! [DOALTY and BRIDGET enter noisily. Both are in their twenties. DOALTY is brandishing a surveyor's pole. He is an open-minded, openhearted, generous and slightly thick young man. BRIDGET is a plump, fresh young girl, ready to laugh, vain, and with a countrywoman's instinctive cunning.
DOALTY enters doing his imitation of the master. ] DOALTY Vesperal7 salutations to you all. BRIDGET He's coming down past Carraig na Ri and he's as full as a pig! DOALTY Ignari, stulti, rustici8?pot-boys and peasant whelps9?semi-literates
and illegitimates. BRIDGET He's been on the batter1 since this morning; he sent the wee ones home at eleven o'clock. DOALTY Three questions. Question A?-Am I drunk? Question B?A m I
sober? [Into MAIRE'S face.] Responde?responde!2 BRIDGET Question C, Master?When were you last sober? MAIRE What's the weapon, Doalty? BRIDGET I warned him. He'll be arrested one of these days. DOALTY Up in the bog with Bridget and her aul fella, and the Red Coats were
2. In 1831, two years earlier, a new system of 6. Annoyed. English-speaking schools had been introduced; 7. Evening. these would eventually supplant the hedge schools. 8. Ignoramuses, fools, peasants [Latin; Friel's 3. Vigorous dance performed by a sole person to note], a wind instrument. 9. Young wild animals. 'Pot-boys': assistants who 4. Lively dance performed by couples facing each serve beer in a pub. other. 1. On the bottle. 5. Soldier who works in saps, i.e., fortifications,or 2. Answer?answer! [Latin; Friel's note]. does field work.
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FRIEL: TRANSLATIONS, ACT 1 / 248 3
just across at the foot of Cnoc na Mona, dragging them aul chains and peeping through that big machine they lug about everywhere with them? you know the name of it, Manus?
