The Midnight Court

• Part 3
• The girl objects. She says she would beat the old man up if not for his age, his queerness, and the court:
• "Lucky," says she, "that I've a care / For the fact that you're old and a little queer, / And that Her Worship might object / Or soon I'd teach you some respect.
• The girl now submits her testimony about the man's courtship of his wife:
• And then this chancer happened by, / Fooled her up to the ball of her eye, / Promised her, if she'd be his wife, / Breakfast in bed for the rest of her life, / A separate banking account of her own, / A butler, a car, and a telephone, / And every month a brand-new gown, / With a country seat and a flat in town!
• She only agreed to marry because she did not have any alternative:
• There wasn't a thought in anyone's mind / That it could have been love of the dimmest kind / Would make her consent as long as she'd live / Had she any better alternative.
• You can't blame the girl for cheating on him. How could this old man satisfy anyone? Even if she wanted it, he would not fulfill his marital obligations:
• Who, lure as she might, would never mate her / But lay like a human refrigerator.
• Her best efforts wouldn't work... and she tried everything:
• She did her best to make him play / But there wasn't a move from that lump of clay, / He remained indifferent to all her tricks, / To kisses, caresses, scratches, and kicks.
• Anyone would seek alternatives if they had no hope as she did:
• I have the gravest doubt indeed / Whether a beast of any breed / Would look for food where nothing grows / And shun the meal beneath his nose.
• It would be a different thing if she cheated on someone who could love her, but that wasn't the case:
• Such jealousy would be no fault / In someone who was worth his salt, / A lusty lover, a proved romancer,
• And while we're on the subject, what is going on with the celibate priesthood? Think of the poor women denied:
• While others miss the best in life / Because a priest can't take a wife; / Just think of the massive population / This rule has cost the Irish nation!
• The girl against gives her final plea:
• Before Your Honour now I plead, / O prophetess of royal seed, / O shining glory of the race, / A word from you would solve our case.
• A verdict against men will vastly improve the state of women:
• The most repulsive ones you'd find-- / The hags, the bags, the semi-blind, / If they had the right injections / Overnight they'd change complexion, / And parade in Technicolor!
• Being outnumbered 3 women for each 1 man, she would take any man she could get her hands on:
• Give me a man and hold him down / And then just watch me go to town!"
• Part 4
• Aeval delivers her judgment:
• "My girl," she said, "I must declare / Your treatment has been far from fair. / I cannot but be shocked to know / Our women's plight has sunk so low, / Unwanted, haggard, tired, sore, / Turned away from every door;
• Aeval grants the relief the woman desires. She instructs them to take all the young man and make them wed by force:
• So grab each man who's still unmarried / At twenty-one, and have him carried / And tied unto the nearest tree, / And make quite sure he can't break free; / Strip him of his coat and shirt / And flay him till he's really hurt.
• They deserve this punishment for not doing their duty to women:
• Their penance can be settled by / The girls whom they left high and dry.
• You can decide the method of torture. It's what they deserve:
• Use any methods you desire, / You'll pick the tough ones, I expect, / But go ahead, I'll not object; / Wreak vengeance on such useless men-- / Sudden death's too good for them.
• You can ignore the old men, but give the young men no quarter:
• But from the young take no evasion, / Make them rise to the occasion.
• Men can and should support a family:
• They work and play and love and breed; / And that's the sort of men we need.
• Unmarried men who brag about being with women are the worst:
• Who boast of every victory / As if it merits a V.C.; / They think there's no one else on earth / Who's got inside a woman's skirt.
• Aevil finishes her judgment and departs, with a final warning for the men:
• And now I'll have to leave you here / For I am overdue elsewhere, / But have no doubt I'll make things hum / For bachelors, when next I come."
• The poet is in shock, with the verdict having gone against him:
• And when she stopped I felt quite weak, / My blood grew cold, then hot and fizzy, / And my head was sick and dizzy; / Walls and roofs went in and out / While what she said rang round about.
• The bailiff grabs the poet, and the girl claims her prize:
• "I've waited long to clip your wings, / You thought you left me on the shelf, / But now I have you to myself,
• She taunts him for not being well-endowed, but she's fine with it:
• I know your talent may be small / But did you try it once at all?
• After a thorough inspection by the girls, we learn the poet's name... Merriman (the poet is the poet):
• He's had enough of selfish pleasure, / Now at last we have his measure. / His name is one we must applaud: / 'Merriman,' but it's a fraud;
• The poet is a 30 year old virgin:
• His face provides a full admission: / Thirty years without coition!
• The mob of women tie him up, to deliver his punishment, and the main girl starts to write down the whole story:
• All hands now! Help! Hold down the pup! / Run, Una! Rope him! Tie him up! / Push, Anne! You can do better surely! / Mary, tie his hands securely!
• The final twist: the poet wakes up. It was all a dream. Or more aptly, a nightmare:
• And as she scribbled in a book / And eyed me with a dreadful look, / I took a breath that was long and deep, / And opened my eyes--I had been asleep.
• "A Wonder of Ireland," Alan Titley
• "the poem is a work of art to which we--I do not exclude myself--can assign our own prejudices."
• "It flows like the River Shannon, soars like an eagle, sparkles like an ocean, chuckles inwardly, and laughs out loud--but it never gets out of control. It is, and remains, one of the wonders of Ireland."
• "The Two Enlightenments of Brian Merriman's County Clare," Michael Griffin
• the anti-establishment tones of Merriman and Irish-language artists complemented similar tones internationally (American revolution, etc)
• "Transgressive and seditious sentiments, meanwhile, found their voice in the manuscript and song culture of the Irish-language poets, a culture in which Merriman and O Miochain could write more freely and subversively than in the mainstream enlightenment packaged for the Clare gentry."
• "Courting an Elusive Masterwork," Sarah E. McKibben
• "Where the aisling project the Catholic nation's collective shame, oppression and enfeeblement onto the gender-normative figure of the female Ireland, reciprocally augmenting the heroism of the longed-for Jacobite exiles abroad, Cuirt an Mhean Oiche does the reverse."
• "the distinctly untriumphant ending underscores the text's quickfootedness in escaping from policing of any kind, as it refuses to answer any charges but requires the critical pursuit to continue."
• "Approaching Cuirt an Mehan Oiche/The Midnight Court," Briona Nic Dhiarmada
• "we, as readers and critics, bring to each text our own particular expections, experiences, and prejudices."
• "That is not to say these may not be confounded by our engagement with the text, forcing us to look anew not only at the text but at our whole understanding of the condition humaine."