FRIEL: TRANSLATIONS, ACT 1 / 2487
at it until you're twelve at least?no matter how smart you are or how much
you know. DOALTY Who told you that yarn? BRIDGET And every child from every house has to go all day, every day, sum
mer or winter. That's the law. DOALTY I'll tell you something?nobody's going to go near them?they're not going to take on?law or no law. BRIDGET And everything's free in them. You pay for nothing except the books you use; that's what our Seamus says. DOALTY 'Our Seamus'. Sure your Seamus wouldn't pay anyway. She's making
this all up. BRIDGET Isn't that right, Manus? MANUS I think so. BRIDGET And from the very first day you go, you'll not hear one word of Irish
spoken. You'll be taught to speak English and every subject will be taught through English and everyone'll end up as cute as the Buncrana6 people.
[SARAH suddenly grunts and mimes a warning that the master is coming. The atmosphere changes. Sudden business. Heads down. ]
DOALTY He's here, boys. Cripes, he'll make yella meal out of me for those
bloody tables. BRIDGET Have you any extra chalk, Manus? MAIRE And the atlas for me.
[DOALTYgoes to MAIRE who is sitting on a stool at the hack.] DOALTY Swop you seats. MAIRE Why? DOALTY There's an empty one beside the Infant Prodigy. MAIRE I'm fine here. DOALTY Please, Maire. I want to jouk7 in the back here.
[MAIRE rises.] God love you. [Aloud.] Anyone got a bloody table-book? Cripes, I'm wrecked. [SARAH gives him one.]
God, I'm dying about you.
[In his haste to get to the hack seat DOALTY humps into BRIDGET who is kneeling on the floor and writing laboriously on a slate resting on top of a bench-seat.]
BRIDGET Watch where you're going, Doalty! [DOALTY gooses8 BRIDGET. She squeals.
Now the quiet hum of work: JIMMY reading Homer in a low voice; BRIDGET copying her headline; MAIRE studying the atlas; DOALTY, his eyes shut tight, mouthing his tables; SARAH doing sums.
After a few seconds.]?
BRIDGET Is this 'g' right, Manus? How do you put a tail on it?
DOALTY Will you shut up! I can't concentrate! [A few more seconds of work. Then DOALTY opens his eyes and looks around. ]
False alarm, boys. The bugger's9 not coming at all. Sure the bugger's hardly fit to walk.
6. Small coastal town northwest of Derry. 8. Pokes or tickles in an erogenous place. 7. Perch. 9. Vulgar term of abuse.
.
248 8 / NATION AND LANGUAGE
[And immediately HUGH enters. A large man, with residual dignity, shabbily dressed, carrying a stick. He has, as always, a large quantity of drink taken, but he is by no means drunk. He is in his early sixties.]
HUGH Adsum, Doalty, adsum.' Perhaps not in sobrietate perfecta2 but ade
quately sobrius3 to overhear your quip. Vesperal salutations to you all.
[Various responses.] JIMMY Ave,4 Hugh. HUGH James.
[He removes his hat and coat and hands them and his stick to MANUS,
as if to a footman. ]
Apologies for my late arrival: we were celebrating the baptism of Nellie
Ruadh's baby. BRIDGET [Innocently.] What name did she put on it, Master? HUGH Was it Eamon? Yes, it was Eamon. BRIDGET Eamon Donal from Tor! Cripes! HUGH And after the caerimonia nominationis1'?Maire? MAIRE The ritual of naming. HUGH Indeed?we then had a few libations to mark the occasion. Altogether
very pleasant. The derivation of the word 'baptise'??where are my Greek
scholars? Doalty? DOALTY Would it be?ah?ah? HUGH Too slow. James? JIMMY 'Baptizein'?to dip or immerse. HUGH Indeed?our friend Pliny Minor6 speaks of the 'baptisterium'?the cold
bath. DOALTY Master. HUGH Doalty? DOALTY I suppose you could talk then about baptising a sheep at sheep-
dipping, could you?
[Laughter. Comments. ]
HUGH Indeed?the precedent is there?the day you were appropriately
named Doalty?seven nines? DOALTY What's that, Master? HUGH Seven times nine? DOALTY Seven nines?seven nines?seven times nine?seven times nine
are?Cripes, it's on the tip of my tongue, Master?I knew it for sure this
morning?funny that's the only one that foxes7 me? BRIDGET [Prompt.] Sixty-three. DOALTY What's wrong with me: sure seven nines are fifty-three, Master. HUGH Sophocles from Colonus would agree with Doalty Dan Doalty from
