_Dragon_: But if it's a tame dragon I am from this out, I'm thinking it's best for me to make away before you know it, or it's likely you'll be yoking me to harrow the clods, or to be dragging the water-car from the spring well. So good-bye the whole of ye, and get to your supper. Much good may it do you! I give you my word there is nothing in the universe I despise, only the flesh-eaters of Adam's race!

CURTAIN.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I wrote _The Dragon_ in 1917, that now seems so many long years away, and I have been trying to remember how I came to write it. I think perhaps through some unseen inevitable kick of the swing towards gay-coloured comedy from the shadow of tragedy. It was begun seriously enough, for I see among my sc.r.a.ps of ma.n.u.scripts that the earliest outline of it is ent.i.tled "The Awakening of a Soul,"

the soul of the little Princess who had not gone "far out in the world." And that idea was never quite lost, for even when it had all turned to comedy I see as an alternative name "A Change of Heart." For even the Dragon's heart is changed by force, as happens in the old folk tales and the heart of some innocent creature put in its place by the conqueror's hand; all change more or less except the Queen. She is yet satisfied that she has moved all things well, and so she must remain till some new breaking up or re-birth.

As to the framework, that was once to have been the often-told story of a King's daughter given to whatever man can "knock three laughs out of her." As well as I remember the first was to have been when the eggs were broken, and another when she laughed with the joy of happy love. But the third was the stumbling-block. It was necessary the ears of the Abbey audience should be tickled at the same time as those of the Princess, and old-time jests like those of Sir Dinadin of the Round Table seem but dull to ears of to-day. So I called to my help the Dragon that has given his opportunity to so many a hero from Perseus in the Greek Stories to Shawneen in those of Kiltartan. And he did not sulk or fail me, for after one of the first performances the producer wrote: "I wish you had seen the play last night when a big Northern in the front of the stalls was overcome with helpless laughter, first by Sibby and then by the Dragon. He sat there long after the curtain fell, unable to move and wiping the tears from his eyes; the audiences stopped going out and stood and laughed at him." And even a Dragon may think it a feather in his cap to have made Ulster laugh.

A.G.

Coole, February, 1920.

ORIGINAL CAST

"The Dragon " was first produced at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 21st April, 1919, with the following cast:

The King BARRY FITZGERALD

The Queen MARY SHERIDAN

The Princess Nuala EITHNE MAGEE

The Dall Glic (The Blind Wise Man) PETER NOLAN

The Nurse MAUREEN DELANY

The Prince of the Marshes J. HUGH NAGLE

Ma.n.u.s--King of Sorcha ARTHUR SHIELDS

Fintan--The Astrologer F.J. MACCORMICK

Taig FLORENCE MARKS

The Dragon SEAGHAN BARLOW

The Porter STEPHEN CASEY

The Gatekeeper HUBERT M'GUIRE

Two Aunts of the Prince of the Marshes {ESME WARD {DYMPHNA DALY

ARISTOTLE'S BELLOWS

PERSONS

_The Mother_.

_Celia_ (HER DAUGHTER).

_Conan_ (HER STEPSON).

_Timothy_ (HER SERVING MAN).

_Rock_ (A NEIGHBOUR).

_Flannery_ (HIS HERD).

_Two Cats_.

ACT I

ACT I

_Scene: A Room in an old half-ruined castle_.

_Mother_: Look out the door, Celia, and see is your uncle coming.

_Celia_: (_Who is lying on the ground, a bunch of ribbons in her hand, and playing with a pigeon, looks towards door without getting up_.) I see no sign of him.

_Mother_: What time were you telling me it was a while ago?

_Celia_: It is not five minutes hardly since I was telling you it was ten o'clock by the sun.

_Mother_: So you did, if I could but have kept it in mind. What at all ails him that he does not come in to the breakfast?

_Celia_: He went out last night and the full moon shining. It is likely he pa.s.sed the whole night abroad, drowsing or rummaging, whatever he does be looking for in the rath.

_Mother_: I'm in dread he'll go crazy with digging in it.

_Celia_: He was crazy with crossness before that.

_Mother_: If he is it's on account of his learning.

Them that have too much of it are seven times crosser than them that never saw a book.