andering artist and came to the official. I had
intended to make plays about the merchant, the landowner, the
political and the intellectual leader and so write a chapter in an
Irish Human Comedy. But while I was thinking of the play that is
third in this volume my connection with the National Theatre Society
was broken off. "Thomas Muskerry" was produced in the Abbey Theatre
after I had ceased to be a member of the group that had founded it.

PADRAIC COLUM
NEW YORK
_August, 1916_

_CONTENTS_

AUTHOR'S NOTE
THE FIDDLER'S HOUSE
THE LAND: AN AGRARIAN COMEDY IN THREE ACTS
THOMAS MUSKERRY

_THE FIDDLER'S HOUSE_

_CHARACTERS_

CONN HOURICAN, a Fiddler.
MAIRE (Mary) [1] HOURICAN, his daughter.
ANNE HOURICAN, a younger daughter.
BRIAN MACCONNELL, a younger farmer.
JAMES MOYNIHAN, a farmer's son.

The action passes in the Houricans' house in the Irish Midlands.

[Footnote 1: The name is pronounced as if written "Maurya."]

ACT I

SCENE: _The interior of a farmer's cottage; the kitchen. The
entrance is at the back right. To the left is the fire-place, an
open hearth, with a fire of peat. There is a room door to the right,
a pace below the entrance; and another room door below the fire-place.
Between the room door and the entrance there is a row of wooden pegs,
on which men's coats hang. Below this door is a dresser containing
pretty delpht. There is a small window at back, a settle bed folded
into a high bench; a small mirror hangs right of the window. A
backed chair and some stools are about the hearth. A table to the
right with cloth and tea things on it. The cottage looks pretty and
comfortable. It is towards the close of an Autumn day_.

_James Moynihan has finished tea; Anne Hourican is at the back,
seated on the settle knitting, and watching James. James Moynihan is
about twenty-eight. He has a good forehead, but his face is
indeterminate. He has been working in the fields, and is dressed in
trousers, shirt, and heavy boots. Anne Hourican is a pretty,
dark-haired girl of about nineteen_.

_James Moynihan rises_.

ANNE
And so you can't stay any longer, James?

JAMES
_(with a certain solemnity)_ No, Anne. I told my father I'd be
back while there was light, and I'm going back. _(He goes to the rack,
takes his coat, and puts it on him)_ Come over to our house to-night,