Play: At the Hawk's Well

Overview
"At the Hawk's Well" is a short, ritualized play from 1917 that inaugurates Yeats's series of dance plays and his Cuchulain cycle. Drawing on Irish myth while adopting techniques from Japanese Noh, it compresses heroic legend into a spare, emblematic drama. The action turns on a single place and a single promise: a mountain well whose waters rarely rise and, when they do, confer wisdom or renewal. Around that promise circle an aged watcher who has staked his life on patience, a young hero determined to seize destiny, and a hawk-like guardian whose dance works enchantment. The play examines how desire, time, and fate intersect, and how the heroic will collides with ritual boundaries it cannot read.

Setting and Characters
The stage suggests a barren mountainside and a dry stone well. Two Musicians or a Chorus frame the action with chant and drum, establishing a heightened, ceremonial world. The Old Man has waited at the well for decades, gnawed by hope and futility. The Young Man is Cuchulain, the incandescent warrior of Irish legend, whose hunger for glory and experience is his compass. The Guardian, part woman, part hawk, keeps the well against intruders, her presence marked by mask, stylized gesture, and an otherworldly dance.

Plot
The Old Man tells of the well’s capricious rising and his many failed attempts to drink. He warns of the place’s taboo and of the Guardian who lures seekers away at the critical moment. Cuchulain arrives, aflame with purpose, unmoved by the Old Man’s counsel. He believes the water’s gift will amplify his strength and set his fate. The Musicians intone an augury of danger and desire as the Guardian appears, her dance shaping the air like a spell.

Cuchulain, who meets threats head-on, cannot grasp the Guardian’s oblique warfare. She conjures visions of pursuit and combat, drawing him from the well at the time of rising. While he rushes after phantoms, the water stirs. The Old Man, trembling between resolve and dread, reaches for the brim but is checked, whether by taboo, fear, or the Guardian’s warding presence. The water subsides. Cuchulain returns, baffled and angry, having missed the instant. Again the Guardian dances; again Cuchulain is goaded toward illusory foes; again the moment passes him by. The Old Man’s lifelong vigil is mocked by the well’s indifference, yet he cannot leave it. Cuchulain, scorning delay, chooses action over waiting and strides down the mountain toward war. The Guardian remains, indifferent and watchful. The promise of the water recedes into silence.

Themes and Meanings
The drama sets two economies of time against each other: the slow, ascetic patience of the watcher and the sudden, consuming hunger of the hero. Neither prevails. The Old Man’s hope ossifies into futility; Cuchulain’s will to mastery founders on a ritual he cannot break or understand. The well signifies a knowledge that comes only to those who can recognize the right instant, a knowledge inseparable from taboo and sacrifice. The hawk suggests a sovereignty or fate that chooses, not a treasure to be seized. Yeats reframes Cuchulain’s brilliance as tragic blindness: the very energy that wins battles cannot wait for the subtle turn of the world.

Staging and Style
Language is incantatory, movement codified, and action stylized. Masks, chant, and percussive accompaniment create distance from realism and draw the audience into a ritual space where gesture carries meaning. The Guardian’s dance is the pivot, a symbolic storm that shifts time and perception. By fusing Irish myth with Noh-inspired form, the play distills legend into emblem, making the missed draught at the well a figure for the costs of desire and the impersonal rule of fate.