Juno and the Paycock, O'Casey, p.197-246

• A Tragedy in Three Acts
• Period of the play, 1922
• Act 1
  • The living room of a two-room tenancy occupied by the Boyle family in a tenement house in Dublin.
  • She is a well-made girl of twenty-two. Two forces are working in her mind--one, through the circumstances of her life, pulling her back; the other, through the influence of books she has read, pushing her forward. The opposing forces are apparent in her speech and her manners, both of which are degraded by her environment, and improved by her acquaintance--slight though it be--with literature.
  • MRS BOYLE. Oh, he'll come in when he likes; struttin' about the town like a paycock with Joxer, I suppose. I hear all about Mrs Tancred's son in the mornin's paper.
  • MARY. The full details are in it this mornin'; seven wounds he had--one entherin' the neck, with an exit wound beneath the left shoulderblade; another in the left breast penethratin' the heart, an'...
  • MRS BOYLE. Ah, wear whatever ribbon you like, girl, only don't be botherin' me. I don't know what a girl on strike wants to be wearin' a ribbon round her head for, or silk stockin's on her legs either; it's wearin' them things that make the employers think they're givin' yous too much money.
  • MARY. What's the use of belongin' to a Trades Union if you won't stand up for your principles? Why did the sack her? It was a clear case of victimisation. We couldn't let her walk the streets, could we?
  • [JOHNNY appears at the door on left. He can be plainly seen now; he is a thin, delicate fellow, something younger than MARY. He has evidently gone through a rough time.
  • MRS BOYLE. I don't know what's goin' to be done with him. The bullet he got in the hip in Easter Week was bad enough; but the bomb that shattered his arm in the fight in O'Connell Street put the finishin' touches on him. I knew he was makin' a fool of himself. God knows I went down on me bended knees to him not to go agen the Free State.
  • [JERRY DEVINE enters hastily. He is about twenty-five, well-set, active and earnest. He is a type, becoming very common now in the Labour Movement, of a mind knowing enough to make the mass of his associates, who know less, a power, and too little to broaden that power for the benefit of all.
  • MRS BOYLE [piteously]. There now, he'll miss that job, or I know for what! If he gets win' o' the word, he'll not come back till evenin', so that it'll be too late. There'll never be any good out o' him so long as he goes with all that shouldher-shruggin' Joxer. I killin' myself workin', an' he sthruttin' about from mornin' till night like a paycock!
  • BOYLE. Oh, then, it's a sure thing. It's a pity that we didn't go down at breakfast first thing this mornin'--we might ha' been working now; but you didn't know it then.
  • MRS BOYLE [with a burst]. Look here, Mr Jackie Boyle, them yarns won't go down with Juno. I know you an' Joxer Daly of an ol' date, an' if you think you're able to come it over me with them fairy tales, you're in the wrong shop.
  • MRS BOYLE. Shovel! Ah, then, me boyo, you'd do far more work with a knife an' fork than ever you'll do with a shovel! If there was e'er a genuine job goin' you'd be dh'other way about--not able to lift your arms with the pain in your legs! Your poor wife slavin' to keep the bit in your mouth, an' you gallivantin' about all day like a paycock!
  • JERRY. Oh, here you are at last! I've been searchin' for you everywhere. The foreman in Foley's told me you hadn't left the snug with Joxer ten minutes before I went in.
  • JERRY. Oh, you're takin' a wrong view of it, Mr Boyle; I was simply anxious to do you a good turn. I have a message for you from Father Farrell: he says that if you go to the job that's on in Rathmines, an' ask for Foreman Mangan, you'll get a start.
  • MRS BOYLE. Oh, it won't be very long now till it travels into your left wan. It's miraculous that whenever he scents a job in front of him, his legs begin to fail him!
  • JERRY. I didn't always misunderstand it; you were often delighted to have then arms of Jerry around you.
  • MARY. I haven't time to listen to you now--I have to go.
  • JERRY [catching her arm]. You're goin' to meet another fella; you've clicked with someone else, me lady!
  • JERRY. Ah, dhry up, for God's sake! [He follows MARY.]
  • BOYLE. I have to go to a job, Joxer. Just afther you'd gone, Devine kem runnin' in to tell us that Father Farrell said if I went down to the job that's goin' on in Rathmines I'd get a start.
  • BOYLE. ... I never heard him usin' a curse; I don't believe he was ever dhrunk in his life--sure he's not like a Christian at all!
  • BOYLE. ... D'ye know, Joxer, I never like to be beholden to any o' the clergy.
  • BOYLE. Let her hop in; we may as well have it out first as at last. I've made up me mind--I'm not goin' to do only what she damn well likes.
  • MRS BOYLE. D'ye mean to tell me that the pair of yous wasn't collogin' together here when me back was turned?
  • MRS BOYLE. ... Well, it's no job, but the news that'll give you the chance to o' your life.
  • BENTHAM. A week before he died he sent for me to write his will for him. He told me that there were only two that he wished to leave his property to: his second cousin, Michael Finnegan of Santry, and John Boyle, his first cousin, of Dublin.
  • MARY. A fortune, father, a fortune!
  • JOXER [climbing angrily through the window and bounding into the room]. You're done with Joxer, are you? Maybe you thought I'd stop on the roof all night for you! Joxer out on the roof with the win' blowin' through him was nothin' to you an' your friend with the collar an' tie!
  • BOYLE. ... Juno, I'm done with Joxer. ... I'm a new man from this out ... [Clasping MRS BOYLE's hand and singing emotionally.]
• Act 2
• BOYLE. Come on, come on; that doesn't matther; I'm masther now, an' I'm going to remain masther.
  [JOXER comes in.]
• BOYLE. ... There's the five bob for yourself--go on, take it, man; it'll not be the last you get from the Captain. Now an' agen we have our differ, but we're together all the time.
• BOYLE. 'Mr Nugent,' says I, 'Father Farrell is a man o' the people, an', as far as I know the History o' me country, the priests was always in the van of the fight for Ireland's freedom.'
• MRS BOYLE. I'm afraid we're runnin' into too much debt; first the furniture, an' now this.
• BOYLE [solemnly]. I seen be the paper this mornin' that Consols was down half per cent. That's serious, min' you, an' shows the whole counthry's in a state o' chassis.
• BENTHAM. It's hard to explain in a few words. Theosophy's founded on the Vedas, the religious books of the East. It's central theme is the existence of an all-pervading Spirit--the Life-Breath.
• BENTHAM. It is said by these Yogi that if we practise certain mental exercises we would have powers denied to others--for instance, the faculty of seeing things that happen miles and miles away.
• MRS BOYLE. There, there, child, you've imagined it all.
• [... She is a woman who, in manner at least, can mourn with them that mourn, and rejoice with them that do rejoice. ...]
• BOYLE. An' now I'll introdhuce the pair o' yous to Mary's intended: Mr Bentham, this is Mrs Madigan, an oul' back-parlour neighbor, that, if she could help it at all, ud never see a body shuk!
• MRS TANCRED. Ah, what good is that to me now? Whether they're up or down--it won't bring me darling boy from the grave.
• MRS BOYLE [explanatorily to MR BENTHAM]. That was Mrs Tancred of the two-pair back; her son was found e'er yestherday, lyin' out beyant Finglas riddled with bullets. A Diehard he was, be all accounts.
• BOYLE. ... When I was a sailor, I was always resigned to meet a wathery grave; an' if they want to be soldiers, well, there's no use o' them squealin' when they meet a soldier's fate.
• NUGENT [loudly, above the noise of the gramophone]. Are yous goin' to have that things bawlin' an' the funeral of Mrs Tancred's son passin' the house? Have none of yous any respect for the Irish people's National regard for the dead?
• MRS BOYLE. Maybe, Needle Nugent, it's nearly time we had a little less respect for the dead, an' a little more regard for the livin'.
• YOUNG MAN. I'm glad I've found you; you were stoppin' at your aunts'; I called there but you'd gone. I've to give you an ordher to attend a Battalion Staff meetin' the night afther tomorrow.
• JOHNNY [passionately]. I won't go! Haven't I done enough for Ireland! I lost me arm, an' me hips desthroyed so that I'll never be able to walk right agen! Good God, haven't I done enough for Ireland?
• YOUNG MAN. Boyle, no man can do enough for Ireland. [He goes.]
• Act 3
• MRS BOYLE. An' has Bentham never even written to you since--not one line for the past month?
• MARY. Mother, the best man for a woman is the one for whom she has the most love, and Charlie had it all.
• MARY. I imagine... he thought... we weren't... good enough for him.
• MRS BOYLE. It's nearly two months since we heard of the Will, an' the money seems as far off as ever... I suppose you know we owe twenty pounds to 'oul Murphy.
• JOXER. ... An' you really think there's no money comin' to him afther all?
• JOXER. ... Ah, him that goes borrowin' goes a sorrowin'!
• NUGENT. You'll owe me no thirteen pounds. Maybe you think you're betther able to owe it than pay it!
• BOYLE. He must have afther lifted the bottle o' stout that Juno left on the table!
• BOYLE. This is a very sudden demand, Mrs Madigan, an' can't be met; but I'm willing to give you a receipt in full, in full.
• [She snatches up the gramophone.]
• JOXER. She must ha' heard some rumour or other that you weren't goin' to get th' money.
• MRS BOYLE. Because Mary's goin' to have a baby in a short time.
• MRS BOYLE. Are you blind, man, that you can't see that it was Bentham that has done this wrong to her?
• MRS BOYLE. If Mary goes, I'll go with her.
• BOYLE. There's no money comin' from oul' Ellison, or any one else. Since you've heard of wan trouble, you might as well hear of another. There's no money comin' to us at all--the Will's a wash-out!
• JOHNNY [to BOYLE]. An' you let us run into debt, an' you borreyed money from everybody to fill yourself with beer! An' now you tell us the whole thing's a washout! Oh, if it's thrue, I'm done with you, for you're worse than me sisther Mary!
• BOYLE. I'm going down to Foley's--are you comin'?
• JERRY [passionately]. Scorn? I love you, love you, Mary!
• JERRY [poignantly]. Surely to God, Mary, you don't mean that... that... that...
• FIRST MAN. We can't wait any longer for t'oul' fella--sorry, Miss, but we have to live as well as th' nex' man. [They carry out some things.]
• IRREGULAR. Get over to the other end of the room an' turn your faces to the wall--quick!
• [They drag out JOHNNY BOYLE, and the curtain falls. When it rises again the most of the furniture is gone. ...]
• MRS MADIGAN. Two polismen below wantin' you.
• MRS MADIGAN. The polis want you to go with them to the hospital to see the poor body--they're waitin' below.
• MRS BOYLE. We'll go, Mary, we'll go; you to see your poor dead brother, an' me to see me poor dead son!
• BOYLE. I'm telling you... Joxer... th' whole worl's... in a terr... ible state o'... chassis!