Arrah Na Pogue

Dion Boucicault

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781408146590
• eBook ISBN: 9781408146613
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Written in 1864 and set during the Irish rebellion of1798, Arrah na Pogue isis an entertainingtale of romance and misadventure with rascally rebels, despicable villains andlove struck youths. As night falls on the Wicklow mountains, the popularbut incorrigible rebel Beamish MacCaul is lying in wait. He's out to ambush the cowardly rent-collector Michael Feeny and relieve him of a 'big lump of money.' That done, he's off to marry Fanny Power. Down in the valley, love is in the air for Shaun the Post and our heroine Arrah Meelish too. But Arrah has a secret. And Michael Feeny's found out. As Shaun and Arrah celebrate their wedding, revenge comes a-calling.Love must conquer all - including the hangman's noose.The play is full of Boucicault's trademark comic roguery, farce and melodrama, which has influenced Irish playwrights including Synge, O'Casey, Shaw and McDonagh. This edition features an introduction by leading Boucicault scholar Dr Scott Boltwood.

Act I

Scene One

Glendalough, Moonlight. The Ruins of St. Kevin’s Abbey, the Round Tower, the Ruined Cemetery, the Lake and Mountains beyond; Music.

Beamish Mac Coul discovered.

Enter Oiny.

Oiny All right, sir; the car from Hollywood is in sight.

Beamish How many passengers?

Oiny There’s only one, sir.

Beamish That is our man. Hark ye, boys!

Enter Lanty, Lanigan, Regan, and Morgan.

Beamish Take your stations so that you may give me timely warning of any alarm in the barracks yonder, or the approach of the patrol.

Regan More power, sir.

Oiny We’ll be as ’cute as crows, yer honour.

All Never fear, sir.

Beamish Away with you!

They retire. Lanty, Regan, Morgan, Lanigan, Oiny and two others. Beamish stands behind a part of the ruin.

Enter Feeny.

Feeny When a man thravels wid a big lump of money in his pocket, he is offering a reward for his own murdher. Why am I afeard? Sure this district is proclaimed; so divil a one dare set fut outside his cabin – dur afther nightfall widout a pass. And there below is the barrack, full of soldiers, widin the cast of my voice. (Beamish appears.) I’d like to see the skulkin’ rebel that would show his nose on Derrybawn. (Going as he speaks, finds

Beamish (opposed to him.) Oh, Lord!

Beamish It is a fine night, Mr. Michael Feeny.

Feeny So-o it is, long li-life to it; good night, sir. (Trying to pass.)

Beamish Stop. You have just come from Hollywood, where you have collected the rents of an estate.

Feeny Is it me? I’d be on me oath –

Beamish Silence. The estates of the rebel Beamish Mac Coul were confiscated – your employer collects the rent for the Government, now I collect for the Mac Coul; so, hand over the amount.

Feeny Is this robbery? and widin call of the barracks!

Beamish If you lift your voice over a whisper to alarm the patrol, it will be murder as well as robbery. Not a word!

Feeny (whispering) I wouldn’t wake a weazel.

Beamish Quick, the money!

Feeny Whisht, you’ll rise the soldiers, an’ I’ll be kilt. (Drops on his knees.) There’s the money.

Beamish Right. A bag of gold and a roll of notes. (Receives the money from Feeny.)

Feeny (while Beamish examines it, aside) Oh, wait a bit, me time fellow, you can’t move very far widout a pass; and only let me get safe out of this, and widin half an hour I will set a pack of redcoats on yer scent that will scour these hills and hunt the life out of ye.

Beamish Good! Now your pass. (Approaching Feeny.)

Feeny Me what?

Beamish Your pass out with it – I want it to secure my free passage across the mountains.

Feeny (giving Beamish papers) But how am I to get home widout it?

Beamish There’s your road. (Pointing and putting him across.) At every fifty paces there’s a man stationed behind either a rock or a bush – he will see you straight to your door; and take a friendly advice, don’t turn from the path, nor speak a word till you are safe in bed. Now be off!

Feeny Oh, tare an’ ages! Captain, dear, don’t ax me to go alone. Oh, murdher! Is it pass them file of divils? Are they armed, Colonel?

Beamish Each man has two blunderbusses on full cock, and a bayonet pointed straight at you.

Feeny I’m a corpse! Oh, Captain, Colonel, darlin’, don’t lave me! Two blunderbushes lookin’ at me, and a bagginet on full cock. How will I get home at all? I’ve got a canal running down the middle of my back. I’m as wake as a wet rag this minit.

Beamish Come, off with you!

Feeny I’m goin’, sir. Where’s my legs at all? Captain, jewel, may I run?

Beamish No, that would alarm the patrols, and seal your fate.

Feeny Oh, murdher, don’t sale my fate, sir, and I’ll creep on my hands and knees; pass the word, Colonel, to kape them quiet. Oh do, sir, give them the office. Oh, blessed day, my inside is all fiddle-strings, and my blood is turnin’ into buttermilk.

Exit.

Beamish Hush!

Re-enter the men as before. They all run, looking after Feeny; then group. When Beamish throws bag of money, it is caught by Oiny.

Beamish There he goes; we need fear no alarm from him. I have turned every stone and every bush on his road into a sentinel, ha, ha! Now, boys, divide this gold among ye. (Throws them the gold.) You need not hesitate to take it, for the money is my own – I leave Ireland tomorrow, and forever. I could not part from you without giving you some token of my gratitude for the fidelity and love you have shown towards me.

Oiny Ah, sir, wouldn’t we pour out our blood, dhrop by dhrop, any day for the Mac Coul?

Beamish I know it. For six weeks past I have found shelter on these hills under the noses of the military, while a reward of £500 offered for the capture of the rebel Beamish Mac Coul has not tempted your starvation to betray me.

All Long life t’ye, sir; bless you always!

Beamish See, the morning is beginning to tip the heights of Mullacor; we must part. In a few hours I shall be on the sea, bound for a foreign land; perhaps never again shall I hear your voices nor see my native hills. Oh, my own land! my own land! Bless every blade of grass upon your green cheeks! The clouds that over ye are the sighs of your exiled children, and your face is always wet with their tears. Eirne meelish, Shlawn loth fare ye well! And you, dear Abbey of St. Kevin, around which the bones of my forefathers are laid.

Oiny Long life to them!

All The Mac Coul! the Mac Coul!

They crowd round him.

Beamish Easy boys, for your own sakes. No noise, no cries – let us part in silence. God bless you all!

Regan Heaven keep you!

All Blessins on you! May heaven be your bed! The good angels follow and surround ye always.

He shakes hands with them.

Regan Hoult! the red-coats are on us.

All Where?

They crowd up.

Regan There! It’s the dragoons, for I hear the horse peltin’ up the boryeen.

Beamish Do not be alarmed; the person who approaches is one who loves me so well that she leaves home, fortune, and friends to accompany the poor exile across the seas. So, whenever you remember Beamish Mac Coul in your prayers, don’t forget to invoke a blessing also on the name of Fanny Power, of Cabinteely.

Exit Beamish.

All Long life to ye both, sir!

Oiny Now, boys, let us kape watch over the young masther while he is to the fore, and until we see him safe off.

Regan I will hould the hill here below, and watch the barracks.

Moran Lanigan and meself will watch the road to Laragh.

Oiny The rest of us will be off to the cabin of Arrah-na-Pogue, where he finds shelther every night – and blessins on the brave girl that does not fear to face the gallows for his sake. Oh, it’s small mercy they would show Arrah Meelish if it was known that she gave aid and protection to the outlaw, although he is her own foster-brother.

Regan Bedad, if he was her own father and mother too, she’d hang for givin’ them a God bless ye, if they wor what Beamish Mac Coul is this day.

Oiny Here comes the masther – hurry now.

Exeunt.

Re-enter Beamish with Fanny.

Beamish Dearest Fanny! is all prepared for our flight?

Fanny Oh, Beamish, what will the world say of me? What will they think of me after I am gone?

Beamish They will say that Beamish Mac Coul returned from his exile in France to claim the hand of the woman he loved; for the fairest woman in Wicklow had remained faithful to him during his four long years of absence.

Fanny Can he say as much? Was he faithful to her during those four long years?

Beamish Do you doubt me?

Fanny I wish I did not! For now you are going to take me goodness knows where. And if you grew weary of me, or fell in love with some foreign beauty with big eyes and a voice like silk velvet, what would become of me? Oh, Beamish, last night I took up a book to read, and there I found between the leaves an old love letter of yours I had placed as a marker there long ago, and I thought – Ah, maybe one day Beamish will leave me as I have left that letter as a mark in the middle of a love story, and shut me up with the tale only half read.

Beamish Oh, very well, I see how it...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Author Biographies
• Introduction
• Characters
• Act I
• Act II
• Act III
• Imprint