The Hour Glass

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

A WISE MAN
A FOOL
SOME PUPILS
AN ANGEL
THE WISE MAN'S WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN

SCENE: A large room with a door at the back and another at the side
opening to an inner room. A desk and a chair in the middle. An
hour-glass on a bracket near the door. A creepy stool near it. Some
benches. The WISE MAN sitting at his desk.

WISE MAN [turning over the pages of a book]. Where is that passage
I am to explain to my pupils to-day? Here it is, and the book says
that it was written by a beggar on the walls of Babylon: "There are
two living countries, the one visible and the one invisible; and
when it is winter with us it is summer in that country; and when
the November winds are up among us it is lambing-time there." I
wish that my pupils had asked me to explain any other passage, for
this is a hard passage. [The FOOL comes in and stands at the door,
holding out his hat. He has a pair of shears in the other hand.] It
sounds to me like foolishness; and yet that cannot be, for the
writer of this book, where I have found so much knowledge,
would not have set it by itself on this page, and surrounded it
with so many images and so many deep colors and so much fine
gilding, if it had been foolishness.

FOOL. Give me a penny.

WISE MAN. [Turns to another page.] Here he has written: "The
learned in old times forgot the visible country." That I
understand, but I have taught my learners better.

FOOL. Won't you give me a penny?

WISE MAN. What do you want? The words of the wise Saracen will not
teach you much.

FOOL. Such a great wise teacher as you are will not refuse a penny
to a Fool.

WISE MAN. What do you know about wisdom?

FOOL. Oh, I know! I know what I have seen.

WISE MAN. What is it you have seen?

FOOL. When I went by Kilcluan where the bells used to be ringing at
the break of every day, I could hear nothing but the people snoring
in their houses. When I went by Tubbervanach where the young men
used to be climbing the hill to the blessed well, they were sitting
at the crossroads playing cards. When I went by Carrigoras where
the friars used to be fasting and serving the poor, I saw them
drinking wine and obeying their wives. And when I asked what
misfortune had brought all these changes, they said it was no
misfortune, but it was the wisdom they had learned from your
teaching.

WISE MAN. Run round to the kitchen, and my wife will give you
something to eat.

FOOL. That is foolish advice for a wise man to give.

WISE MAN. Why, Fool?

FOOL. What is eaten is gone. I want pennies for my bag. I must buy
bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong