The Rising of the Moon
Lady Gregory
LADY GREGORY: (1852-1932)
Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory, who was an Irish dramatist and
folklorist, was the cofounder of the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey
Theatre. She was born into a class that identified closely with the
British rule but her sympathies were with the Irish struggle for freedom.She
was greatly inspired by the Irish mythology and folklore and has written
numerous plays and stories. Lady Gregory is mainly remembered for her work
behind the Irish Literary Revival. In 1880 she married Sir William Henry
Gregory, a neighbouring landowner who had previously served as a Member of
Parliament and as governor of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Her literary career
began after his death in 1892. In 1896 she met William Butler Yeats and became
his lifelong friend and patron. She took part in the foundation of the
Irish Literary Theatre (1899) and became a director (1904) of the Abbey
Theatre, which owed much of its success to her skill at smoothing
the disputes among its highly individualistic Irish nationalist founders.
As a playwright, she wrote pleasant comedies based on Irish folkways and
picturesque peasant speech, offsetting the moretragic tones of the dramas of
Yeats and J.M.Synge.
Lady Gregory portrays life as she sees it. She is more interested in
people than in things and abstract ideas. The Rising of the Moon is a
political play, written in the background of the Anglo-Irish War. The Irish War
of Independence was a guerrilla war launched by the Irish Republican Army
(IRA) against the British government and its forces in Ireland. Lady Gregory
presentscharacters that are torn between duty and patriotism. The play is an
exhortation to the people of Ireland to stand united for a unified
Ireland. She believed that mythology, folklore and other cultural devices
are effective tools to bring people together.Lady Gregory wrote or translated
nearly 40 plays. Seven Short Plays (1909) is the first of her dramatic
works and are among her best. The longer comedies, The Image and
Damer’s Gold, were published in 1910 and 1913 and her strange realistic
fantasies, The GoldenApple and The Dragon, in 1916 and 1920. She also arranged
and made continuous narratives out of the various versions of Irish sagas,
translating them into an Anglo-Irish peasant dialect that she labeled
“Kiltartan.” These were published as Cuchulain of Muirthemne (1902) and Gods
and Fighting Men (1904).
ABOUT THE PLAY
Lady Gregory’s The Rising of the Moon is a political play dealing with
the relation between England and Ireland. Here we find Ireland trying to
free itself from the English rule. The English has dominated over Ireland
for a long period of time. In this play we find that the characters
are torn between duty and patriotism and are ultimately united together as
Irishmen through the folklore, myths and songs which they share as a
nation. The thought of being the citizen of a country is considered as
more important over one’s feelings of duty towards a foreign nation.
Patriotism is the force that unites the people of a country.Lady
Gregory’s play written in Irish English presents two characters. One is an
Irish patriot with a prize on his head who is involved in the Irish
struggle for freedom. The other person is a sergeant who is on the
look-out for him. He is posted at the harbour to check whether the
wanted man who has escaped is seen passing by. The sergeant is a poor
family man who is badly in need of money. The patriot comes that way
disguised as a ballad singer. He sings patriotic folk songs and arouses
the sergeant’s nationalistic feelings. Finally he identifies him but does not
arrest him. He lets him go and willingly loses the reward. His patriotism
outweighs his duty.The scene is a harbour somewhere in Ireland. The British are
still the rulers and the Irish patriots are still fighting for their
country’s independence. One such Irish nationalist has been arrested but
he has escaped from jail. The authorities put a prize on his head and the play
begins with a sergeant and two policemen pasting a notice or a placard
with physical details of the escaped prisoner.
The sergeant suggests that they put up the notice on the barrel. There
is a flight of steps that lead to the barrel. This place must be watched
because there is every chance that the friends of the escape might bring a
boat there to help him get away to some safe place. The sergeant reads
the placard and feels sorry that he had not seen before he escaped from
jail. He knows that the wanted man is no ordinary criminal but an
important political figure. He is the person who makes all the plans for
the entire Irish nationalist organization. The sergeant believes that he could
not haveescaped without the support of some of the jailors. Policeman B says
that the hundred pounds reward is not enough but he is sure that any
policeman who captures him will get promotion. The sergeant then says that
he will mind the place himself because he is sure that he will be able
to catch the wanted man himself. However he regrets the fact there is no
one to help him. He, being a family man requires the money. Policeman B
says that if they capture him, the people will abuse them and their own
relations will not be happy. The officers know how popular the escapee is
wit the Irish people. But the sergeant says that they were only doing
their duty. The whole country depends upon the policemen to keep law and
order. If the officers do not carry out their duties,those who are down will be
up and vice versa. He sends the two policemen to put up the placards
in other places and asks them to come back to the harbour because he has
only the moon as his companion. Policeman B says that it is pity that
the government has not brought more policemen into the town. They wish the
sergeant good luck and they go away.As the sergeant thinks of the reward a
ragged man comes up. The sergeant does not know who this ragged man is. He
introduces himself as an Irish ballad singer from the town of Ennis.
But he was none other than the Irish nationalist who escaped from jail. He
says he has come to the harbour to sell some ballads to the sailors. He
has gone to the assizes to sell ballads and is now at the harbour, having
come there by the same train as the judges. The man then goes towards
the flight of steps and is prevented by the sergeant. The man however
promises to sit on the steps till some sailor buys a ballad. He knows that
they will be going back to the ship late. He has often seen them in the
neighbouring town of Cork, carried down to the harbour in a hand -cart. He then
gives the sergeant a few ballads. When the officer orders him back, the
man starts singing a ballad, about a rich farmer’s daughter who fell in
love with a Scottish soldier. The sergeant is not pleased and orders him
away. The man looks at the placard and tells the sergeant that he knows the
wanted man. The sergeant now wants him to tell him all about the escapee.
The ragged man then goes on to tell him that he saw the wanted man in
county clare. He warns the sergeant that he is a dangerous man who knows
how to use every weapon and his muscles are hard. With a stone, he once
killed a sergeant from the town of Bally Vaughan. The sergeant says he has
not heard of such an incident. The man explains that the newspapers had
not reported it. In the town of Limerick, there was once an attack on the
police barracks on a moonlit night. The man tells the sergeant that the
nationalist kidnapped a policeman from the barracks and nothing has been
heard of him ever since. The sergeant says that it was terrible. The man
continues his account of the adventurous exploits of the nationalist. It
is difficult for the policeman to capture him because he is such a
guerrilla. He will be upon the sergeant before he knew where he was.
The sergeant says that a whole troop of police ought to be put there. The
man offers to help the sergeant by sitting on the barrel and keeping an
eye on that side of the harbour. The sergeant accepts his offer. The man
does not want to share the reward.
The two sit on the barrel and the conversation continues as they keep an
eye on the water.The man asks for a match to light his pipe and the sergeant
obliges him and lights his own pipe.The sergeant says it is a hard thing to be
a policeman. His is a thankless and dangerous job;Policemen have to face the
criticism of the people and have no choice but to obey their orders.People do
not know how married policemen feel when they are sent on dangerous mission.
The man then sings a famous Irish folklore. The sergeant asks him to stop
singing the song because it is unsuitable to the times. The man says that
he wanted to sing it to keep up his spirit. His heart sinks when he thinks
of the escapee creeping up to get them. The man pretends that something has
hit him and he rubs his heart. The sergeant tells him that he will get his
reward in heaven and the man replies that life is precious. Then he
resumes the singing about the wrongs that the foreigners have done to
mother Ireland. The sergeant tells him that he has missed a line about Mother
Ireland’s blood stained gown. The man is happy that he knows that
patriotic ballad. He reminds the sergeant that as a young man, he must
have sung that ballad with his friends. He must have sung other ballads
too, like Shan Bhean Bhoct and Grean on the Cape. The nationalist also must
have sung those ballads when he was young. The man appeals to the
sergeant’s patriotism. He tells him thatthe wanted man might have been one of
his friends. The sergeant agrees. The man says that in his youth, if his
friends told him a plan to free Ireland from foreign hands then he might have
joined them because he too liked his motherland to be free. The sergeant
agrees that in his youth he had the nationalist spirit. The man says that
it is a strange world because a mother cannot say what herchild will grow up to
be or who will be who in the end. The sergeant agrees with the
man’s argument. If he had not become a policeman for the sake of his
family, who knows what he would have become. He might have become a
nationalist and might have escaped the jail and might have been sitting
like this on the barrel and the wanted man might have become a sergeant and
might have hunted him. He might have broken the law and the wanted man
might be keeping it. He might have tried to kill him with a pistol or a
stone.
The two men hear the sound of boat in the water. The man tells a lie
that he hears nothing.He adds that when the sergeant was young, he was with the
people and not with the law. This remark hurts the sergeant who replies
that he is proud of being an officer. The man says that heshould have been a
nationalist and then he would have been on the side of Ireland. The sergeant
is and tells the man not to talk like that. He has his duties to perform.
As he hears the sound of a boat approaching, the man begins to sing a
patriotic ballad. The song was a signal to the boatman tocome. The sergeant
threatens the man with arrest if he does not stop singing. A whistle from
below answers the song of the wanted man, repeating the tune. The sergeant
tries to stop the man and asks him who he is. He realises at once that he
is the wanted man. As the man takes off his hat and wig, the sergeant
seizes them. He is sorry that he has been deceived well. The man declares that
he will arrest him. As the man tries to take out a pistol from his pocket,
the voice of the two policemen is heard. Then he requests the sergeant not
to betray him.
As the two colleagues come near he hides the wig and hat behind him. He
says he had seen no one and does not require their company. He wants the
place to be quiet. When policeman B offers to leave a lantern with him, he
does not accept it. They tell him that he may need it as the night is dark
and cloudy. Besides they tell him a lantern is a comfort. It provides not only
light but warmth too. It is like the fire at home. The sergeant orders
them to go at once. As they go, the man comes out from behind the barrel.
He tells the sergeant that he wants his hat and wig back before he goes
away. As the man goes towards the steps, he expresses his gratitude to him. He
tells him that he may be able to do as much for him When Ireland becomes
free, when the small will rise and the big will fall down. At the rising
of the Moon they will change places. The Rising of the Moon is a symbol of
Irish independence. As the man disappears the sergeant reads the placard and
then turning to the audience, wonders whether he is a fool to give up the
reward.
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/pdfs/pamphlets/republic/republicUSletDuplex.pdf
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