Short Plays

oath? Mary Don’t you know his like do live in terror of the wrath of God? Putting her mouth to the Priest’s ear in the sacking. Would you swear an oath, holy father, to leave us in our freedom, and not talk at all? Priest nods in sacking. Didn’t I tell you? Look at the poor fellow nodding his head off in the bias of the sacks. Strip them off from him, and he’ll be easy now. Michael As if speaking to a horse. Hold up, holy father. He pulls the sacking off, and shows the priest with his hair on end. They free his mouth. Mary Hold him till he swears. Priest In a faint voice. I swear surely. If you let me go in peace, I’ll not inform against you or say a thing at all, and may God forgive me for giving heed unto your like today. Sarah Puts the ring on his finger. There’s the ring, holy father, to keep you minding of your oath until the end of time; for my heart’s scalded with your fooling; and it’ll be a long day till I go making talk of marriage or the like of that. Mary Complacently, standing up slowly. She’s vexed now, your reverence; and let you not mind her at all, for she’s right surely, and it’s little need we ever had of the like of you to get us our bit to eat, and our bit to drink, and our time of love when we were young men and women, and were fine to look at. Michael Hurry on now. He’s a great man to have kept us from fooling our gold; and we’ll have a great time drinking that bit with the trampers on the green of Clash. They gather up their things. The Priest stands up. Priest Lifting up his hand. I’ve sworn not to call the hand of man upon your crimes today; but I haven’t sworn I wouldn’t call the fire of heaven from the hand of the Almighty God. He begins saying a Latin malediction in a loud ecclesiastical voice. Mary There’s an old villain. All Together. Run, run. Run for your lives. They rush out, leaving the Priest master of the situation. Curtain.

Colophon

Short Plays
was compiled from plays published between 1905 and 1907 by
J. M. Synge.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Christopher Hapka,
and is based on transcriptions produced in 1998 and 2008 by
Judith Boss and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans from the
HathiTrust Digital Library.

The cover page is adapted from
John Millington Synge,
a painting completed c. 1905⁠–⁠7 by
John Butler Yeats.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
September 22, 2023, 7:07 p.m.
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