The Rising of the Moon

Lady Gregory (Isabella Augusta Persee) was born in County Galway, Ireland. One of the moving spirits behind the establishment of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, she was a playwright of great technical skill. At the instance of her friend and sponsor, William Butler Yeats, who encouragod her to study the old history and folklore of Ireland, Lady Gregory has specially mastered the one act form. Of her thirty one act plays,

‘Spreading the News,’ and ‘The Rising of the Moon’ are the best known.

The Rising of the Moon reveals both great charm and skill of dramatic imagination and a closely observed Irish character. The play’s charm mainly rests on the sustaining passions of Irish nationalism. The title, which is taken from the ballad on Shawn O’Farrell, is a symbol of the Irish uprising against the British. Lady Gregory’s careful study of the Irish character, her skilful delineation of the individual characters and her perfect handling of the situation, are responsible for this one act play’s great charm and popularity.

Scene

: Side of a quay in a seaport town. Some posts and chains. A large barrel. Enter three policemen. Moonlight.

(Sergeant, who is older than the others, crosses the stage to right and looks down steps. The others put down a pastepot and unroll a bundle of placards.)

Policeman B : I think this would be a good place to put up a notice. (He points

to barrel.)

Policeman X : Better ask him. (Calls to Sergeant) Will this be a good place for

a placard?

(No answer.)

Policeman B: Will we put up a notice here on the barrel? (No answer.)

Sergeant

: There’s a flight of steps here that leads to the water. This is a place that should be minded well. If he got down here, his friends might have a boat to meet him; they might send it in here from outside.

Policeman B : Would the barrel be a good place to put a notice up?

Sergeant

: It might; you can put it there.

(They paste the notice up.)

Sergeant

: (Reading it.) Dark hair dark eyes, smooth face, height five feet five there’s not much to take hold of in that-It’s a pity I had no chance of seeing him before he broke out of gaol. They say he’s a wonder, that it’s he makes all the plans for the whole organization. There isn’t another man in Ireland would have broken gaol the way he did. He must have some friends among the gaolers.

Policeman B : A hundred pounds is little enough for the Government to offer

for him. You may be sure any man in the force that takes him will get promotion.

Sergeant

: I’ll mind this place myself. I wouldn’t wonder at all if he came this way. He might come slipping along there (points to side of quay), and his friends might be waiting for him there (points down steps), and once he got away it’s little chance we’d have of finding him; it’s maybe under a load of kelp he’d be in a fishing boat, and not one to help a married man that wants it to the reward.

Policeman X : And if we get him itself, nothing but abuse on our heads for it from the people, and maybe from our own relations.

Sergeant

: Well, we have to do our duty in the force. Haven’t we the whole country depending on us to keep law and order? It’s those that are down would be up and those that are up would be down, if it wasn’t for us. Well, hurry on, you have plenty of other places to placard yet, and come back here then to me. You can take the lantern. Don’t be too long now. It’s very lonesome here with nothing but the moon.

	Policeman B: It’s a pity we can’t stop with you. The Government should have brought more police into the town, with him in gaol, and at assize time too. Well, good luck to your watch. (They go out.)
Sergeant	: (Walks up and down once or twice and looks at placard.) A hundred pounds and promotion sure. There must be a great deal of spending in a hundred pounds. It’s a pity some honest man not to be the better of that. (A ragged man appears at left and tries to slip past. Sergeant suddenly turns.)
Sergeant	: Where are you going?
Man	: I’m a poor ballad-singer, your honour. I thought to sell some of these (holds out bundle of ballads) to the sailors. (He goes on.)
Sergeant	: Stop! Didn’t I tell you to stop? You can’t go on there.
Man	: Oh, very well. It’s a hard thing to be poor. All the world’s against the poor!
Sergeant	: Who are you?
Man	: You’d be as wise as myself if I told you, but I don’t mind. I’m one Jimmy Walsh, a ballad-singer.
Sergeant	: Jimmy Walsh? I don’t know that name.
Man	: Ah, sure, they know it well enough in Ennis. Were you ever in Ennis, Sergeant?
Sergeant	: What brought you here?
Man	: Sure, it’s to the assizes I came, thinking I might make a few shillings here or there. It’s in the one train with the judges I came.
Sergeant	: Well, if you came so far, you may as well go farther, for you’ll walk out of this.
Man	: 1 will, I will; I’ll just go on where I was going. (Goes towards steps.)
Sergeant	: Come back from those steps; no one has leave to pass down them to-night.

Man

Sergeant

Man

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: I’ll just sit on the top of the steps till I see will some sailor buy a ballad off me that would give me my supper. They do be late going back to the ship. It’s often I saw them in Cork carried down the quay in a hand-cart.

: Move on, I tell you. I won’t have any one lingering about the quay to-night.

: Well, I’ll go. It’s the poor have the hard life! Maybe yourself might like one, Sergeant. Here’s a good sheet now. (Turns one over.) “Content and a pipe”-that’s not much. “The Peeler and the goat” —you wouldn’t like that. “Johnny Hart”that’s a lovely song.

: Move on.

: Ah, wait till you hear it. (Sings:)

There was a rich farmer’s daughter lived near the town of Ross;

She courted a Highland soldier, his name was Johnny Hart;

Says the mother to her daughter, “I’ll go distracted mad If you marry that Highland soldier dressed up in Highland plaid.” : Stop that noise.

(Man wraps up his ballads and shuffles towards the steps)

: Where are you going?

: Sure you told me to be going, and I am going.

: Don’t be a fool. I didn’t tell you to go that way; I told you to go back to the town.

: Back to the town, is it?

: (Taking him by the shoulder and shoving him before him.) Here, I’ll show you the way. Be off with you. What are you stopping for?

: (Who has been keeping his eye on the notice, points to it.) I think I know what you’re waiting for, Sergeant.

: What’s that to you?

: And I know well the man you’re waiting for—I know him well-I’ll be going. (He shuffles on.)

Sergeant

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: You know him? Come back here. What sort is he?

: Come back is it, Sergeant? Do you want to have me killed?

: Why do you say that?

: Never mind. I’m going. I wouldn’t be in your shoes if the reward was ten times as much. (Goes on off stage to left). Not if it was ten times as much.

: (Rushing after him.) Come back here, come back. (Drags him back.) What sort is he? Where did you see him?

: I saw him in my own place, in the County Clare. I tell you you wouldn’t like to be looking at him. You’d be afraid to be in the one place with him. There isn’t a weapon he doesn’t know the use of, and as to strength, his muscles are as hard as that board (slaps barrel).

: Is he as bad as that?

: He is then.

: Do you tell me so?

: There was a poor man in our place, a Sergeant from Ballyvaughan.-It was with a lump of stone he did it.

: I never heard of that.

: And you wouldn’t, Sergeant. It’s not everything that happens gets into the papers. And there was a policeman in plain clothes, too…. It is in Limerick he was…. It was after the time of the attack on the police barrack at Kilmallock… Moonlight … just like this … waterside…. Nothing was known for certain.

: Do you say so? It’s a terrible county to belong to.

: That’s so, indeed! You might be standing there, looking out that way, thinking you saw him coming up this side of the quay (points), and he might be coming up this other side (points), and he’d be on you before you knew where you were.

: It’s a whole troop of police they ought to put here to stop a man like that.

: But if you’d like me to stop with you, I could be looking down this side. I could be sitting up here on this barrel.