Riders to the Sea

By J.M. Synge

An island off the W. of Ireland, in a cottage kitchen, Cathleen about 20 years old, finishes kneading cake, and goes over to start spinning yarn at the wheel. Nora peaks her head around the door and asks where someone is. Cathleen informs her “she” is lying down and hopefully is able to sleep. Nora comes in and takes a bundle from beneath her shawl quietly as Cathleen spun the wheel quickly, she asking what she had.

Nora relates a young priest brought a shirt and a single, plain stocking from a drowned man in Donegal. This stops Cathleen working as she leans over to listen. Nora states they were finding out if they belonged to Michael. Cathleen asks how this could be, since it seemed odd he’d go so far north.

Nora states the young priest said he’d known if they were, since he’d stated if they were Michael’s, he’d get a clean burial “by the grace of God“, and if they weren’t his, no one should say a word about them, for “she“ would get her death by crying and passionate sorrow. A gust of wind opens the door just then which Nora had only half shut, which has Cathleen looking out with unease. Cathleen next asks if Nora had asked the young priest if he’d stop Bartley going with the horses to the Galway fair today, Nora replies the young priest had said he wouldn’t stop him but for her to not be scared. Cathleen then asks if the sea was bad near the white rocks, and Nora replies it was partially bad, a roaring heard from the west, and it will get worse when the tide turns to the wind, she walking to the table with the bundle she’d carried in, and asking if Cathleen would like her to open it.

Cathleen worries whether “she“ could wake up and walk in on them before they’d finished looking, and they’d recover slowly for crying. Nora listens for “her“ and notes she can hear her moving around on the bed, and she could come out in a minute. So Cathleen asks for the ladder so she could hide the bundle until after “she“ leaves, Cathleen hiding it in the chimney, and Maurya walking out of the other room. Cathleen throws down more turf as she states to Maurya there’s a cake baking.

Maurya places more turf around the pot-oven for the baking cake and sits nearby the fire. Cathleen and Maurya discuss how she hoped the young priest would advise Bartley to not travel today due to the weather. Nora advises Maurya the young priest wouldn’t do this due to other young men, she naming them off, had said Bartley would be going. She relates how he’d went to see if there was a boat sailing within the week, and it wouldn’t be long until he arrived since the tides turning.

Cathleen announces she hears someone passing the big stones outside, Nora then looking outside and confirming she sees him coming in a hurry to the house. When Bartley comes in, he looks around the room and sadly asks Cathleen where the new rope bought in Connemara was, she coming down the ladder and telling Nora to give it to him, directing her where it hung. Maurya tries to dissuade Bartley from taking it, since they may need it in the next few days or any time during the week in case Michael’s body washes to shore, so they could dig a deep grave for him for the will of God. Bartley works with the rope despite her words, telling her he needed it to ride the mare and must leave fast, since he’s heading for the one boat leaving for the next two weeks and beyond, and the fare was good for the horses currently, he hearing it being said.

Bartley also counters Maurya’s supposition of Michael by stating they’d already looked for 9 days, and it would’ve washed up by now what with the strong wind they’d been experiencing from the west and south. Maurya still resists Bartley’s reasoning as he advises Cathleen on when to sell the pig with the black feet, which Maurya has something to say about, as well, she believing Cathleen wouldn’t be able to get a good price. Bartley continues speaking with Cathleen as Maurya responds to his words with dark tidings of his death at sea and how she and the girls would live in squalor as she looked for her grave. Bartley changes to a newer coat and asks Nora if “she“ was coming to the pier, Nora responding how far the boat was from docking.

Bartley states when he could be expected back at latest being four days if the wind is bad, and two if good. As he mentions the horses he’ll be taking and is leaving, Maurya cries out about how she was losing her last remaining son. Cathleen asks why she wouldn’t give her blessing what with it being sad enough on all of them. Then, Nora states to Cathleen how the turf had been taken from the cake, which reminds Cathleen they hadn’t given Bartley any bread, so takes off a bit for him and wraps it in some cloth and has Maurya go and meet him as he passes and wish him God’s speed to ease his mind from her insensitive words.

Maurya takes the bread and has Nora give her the walking stick so she doesn’t slip on the big stones outside. When she exits, Nora and Cathleen move the bundle from the chimney before she returns. They discuss the young priest soon confirming whether the bundle belonged to Michael, Cathleen asking how they were discovered. Nora relates how she’d been told 2 men had been rowing and knocked in to the body near the black cliffs.

Cathleen needs a knife to cut open the bundle due to the rope fusing the bag shut. When they get it open, they try comparing the shirt with another they knew was Michael’s but couldn’t be certain they were a match. When Cathleen counts the stitches on the stocking though, she starts to become convinced, since she’d been the one to make them, recognizing the number of stitches. Cathleen hears steps on the path, and Nora confirms Maurya is on her way back.

They hide it near the chimney corner and Nora is advised to stand a certain way so it didn’t look like she’d been crying. When Maurya enters, Cathleen has returned to spinning and notices the bit of bread still in her hands, asking if she’d seen Bartley. Instead of answering she starts to bawl loudly, Cathleen getting impatient, since she then sees Bartley passing on the mare, Maurya then saying what she’d seen was Michael outside. Cathleen says it isn’t possible, since they were still locating his body on the sea.

Maurya replies with what she’d seen was Michael riding on the pony being pulled by Bartley, he wearing fine clothes as they rode off. As Maurya mentions how many sons she’d lost in total being 6 and all gone now, Nora hears something outside the half open door, Cathleen confirming it sounded like someone crying at the seashore. Maurya continues speaking without having heard them about her sons deaths. She then asks Cathleen who it was she’d seen as she was daydreaming of this sad memory, Cathleen saying Michael was still being found.

Maurya states how difficult it would be to tell whoever they pull out could be identified as Michael after 9 days in the water. Cathleen takes out the bundle and says it was Michael’s clothes. Nora looks out the window and sees people carrying something from the water dripping and leaving a track near the big stones. Cathleen asks some women who came in whether it was Bartley, and they confirmed it was, God rest him.

Cathleen asks them how he’d drowned, and one of the women says, the pony had knocked him into the sea and he’d been washed out where there was a great surf on the white rocks. The women wailing with grief and Cathleen and Nora kneel nearby the table they’d placed Bartley’s body on. Maurya looks up and speaks like she doesn’t see people around her. She states how everyone’s gone now, and the sea could do no more to her, she speaking on until asking Nora to get the leftover holy water, she not needing it anymore after this.

Maurya drops Michael’s clothes over Bartley’s feet and sprinkles the holy water over him. She says to his body how it wasn’t like she hadn’t prayed for him, but now she’d be able to have a great rest now, even with only maybe a fish or wet flour to eat. She kneels down and says prayers under her breath, Cathleen speaking to an old man about making a coffin when morning came with some white boards Maurya had bought specifically for a coffin for Michael, and they have a cake he can eat while he worked. He looks at the boards and asks if they had nails with them, Cathleen replying Maurya hadn’t thought of the nails, another man saying, seeing how many coffins she’s seen already he couldn’t wonder she wouldn’t have thought of the nails.

Cathleen attests it to old age and being broken, as Maurya spreads out Michael’s clothes on Bartley’s body, spreading the last of the holy water. Nora states to Cathleen in a whisper how Maurya had favored Michael due to how she’d mourned him. Cathleen mentions in normal tone how she had been mourning for 9 days already, so it was natural to be tired. Maurya prays for her sons and herself and everyone left living in the world. She last states how Michael will have a clean burial in the far north and Bartley will have the white boarded coffin with surely a deep grave, since no man can live forever, and everyone must be satisfied with this, she kneeling again.

Short and melancholically sweet. Very well written play.