HUGH There I was, appropriately dispositioned to proffer my condolences to
the bereaved mother . . . JIMMY Hugh? HUGH . . . and about to enter the domus lugubris1?Maire Chatach? JIMMY The wake house. HUGH Indeed?when I experience a plucking at my elbow: Mister George
Alexander, Justice of the Peace. 'My tidings are infelicitous,' said he?
Bridget? Too slow. Doalty? JIMMY Infelix?unhappy. HUGH Unhappy indeed. 'Master Bartley Timlin has been appointed to the
new national school.' 'Timlin? Who is Timlin?' 'A schoolmaster from Cork.2 And he will be a major asset to the com
munity: he is also a very skilled bacon-curer'! JIMMY Hugh? HUGH Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! The Cork bacon-curer! Barbarus hie ego sum quia
non intelligor ulli?James? JIMMY Ovid. HUGH Procede.
JIMMY 'I am a barbarian in this place because I am not understood by anyone.'3
1. House of mourning [Latin; Friel's note]. poet was exiled to live by the Black Sea in what is 2. Influential city on Ireland's south coast. Romania today. 3. From Ovid's Tristia, written after the Roman
.
25 10 / NATION AND LANGUAGE
HUGH Indeed?[Shouts.] Manus! Tea! I will compose a satire on Master Bartley Timlin, schoolmaster and bacon- curer. But it will be too easy, won't it? [SJiotits.] Strong tea! Black!
[The only way JIMMY can get HUGH S attention is by standing in front of him and holding his arms.]
JIMMY Will you listen to me, Hugh! HUGH James.
[SfooMts.] And a slice of soda bread. JIMMY I'm going to get married. HUGH Well! JIMMY At Christmas. HUGH Splendid. JIMMY To Athene. HUGH Who? JIMMY Pallas Athene. HUGH Glaukopis Athene? JIMMY Flashing- eyed, Hugh, flashing-eyed! [He attempts the gesture he has
made before: standing to attention, the momentary spasm, the salute, the face raised in pained ecstasy?hut the body does not respond efficiently this time. The gesture is grotesque.]
HUGH The lady has assented? JIMMY She asked me?I assented. HUGH Ah. When was this? JIMMY Last night. HUGH What does her mother say? JIMMY Metis from Hellespont?4 Decent people?good stock. HUGH And her father? JIMMY I'm meeting Zeus tomorrow. Hugh, will you be my best man? HUGH Honoured, James; profoundly honoured. JIMMY YOU know what I'm looking for, Hugh, don't you? I mean to say?you
know?I?I?I joke like the rest of them?you know??[Again he attempts the pathetic routine but abandons it instantly.] You know yourself, Hugh? don't you??You know all that. But what I'm really looking for, Hugh?what I really want?companionship, Hugh?at my time of life, companionship, company, someone to talk to. Away up in Beann na Gaoithe?you've no idea how lonely it is. Companionship?correct, Hugh? Correct?
HUGH Correct. JIMMY And I always liked her, Hugh. Correct? HUGH Correct, James. JIMMY Someone to talk to. HUGH Indeed. JIMMY That's all, Hugh. The whole story. You know it all now, Hugh. You
know it all. [As JIMMY says those last lines he is crying, shaking his head, trying to keep his balance, and holding a finger up to his lips in absurd gestures of secrecy and intimacy. Now he staggers away, tries to sit on a stool,
4. Renowned for her wisdom, Metis was impregnated by and then swallowed by Zeus, whose head began to ache until Athena sprang from his head.
.
FRIEL: TRANSLATIONS, ACT 3 / 25 11
misses it, slides to the floor, his feet in front of him, his hack against the broken cart. Almost at once he is asleep.
HUGH watches all of this. Then he produces his flask and is about to pour a drink when he sees the Name- Book on the floor. He picks it up and leafs through it, pronouncing the strange names as he does. Just as he begins, OWEN emerges and descends with two bowls of tea.]
HUGH Ballybeg. Burnfoot. Kings Head. Whiteplains. Fair Hill. Dunboy. Green Bank.
[OWEN snatches the book from HUGH.] OWEN I'll take that. [In apology.] It's only a catalogue of names. HUGH I know what it is. OWEN A mistake?my mistake?nothing to do with us. I hope that's strong
enough. [Tea.] [He throws the book on the table and crosses over to JIMMY.]
Jimmy. Wake up, Jimmy. Wake up, man. JIMMY What?what-what? OWEN Here. Drink this. Then go on away home. There may be trouble. Do
you hear me, Jimmy? There may be trouble. HUGH [Indicating Name-Book.] W e must learn those new names. OWEN [Searching around.] Did you see a sack lying about? HUGH We must learn where we live. We must learn to make them our own.
We must make them our new home.
[OWEN finds a sack and throws it across his shoidders.] OWEN I know where I live. HUGH James thinks he knows, too. I look at James and three thoughts occur
to me: A?that it is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language. James has ceased to make that discrimination.
OWEN Don't lecture me, Father. HUGH B?w e must never cease renewing those images; because once we do, we fossilise. Is there no soda bread? OWEN And C, Father?one single, unalterable 'fact': if Yolland is not found,
we are all going to be evicted. Lancey has issued the order. HUGH Ah. Edictum imperatoris.5 OWEN You
