The Two Mice Five Fables


The Two Mice

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At the end of the 15th century, a Scottish notary and teacher called

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Robert Henryson writes a series of animal fables

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based on the old stories of Aesop.

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Esop, myne authour, makis mentioun

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Of twa myis, and thay wer sisteris deir.

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Henryson is little known these days, but experts consider him a master.

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He's the greatest poet, I think, of the 15th century in English or Scots.

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Fast forward over 500 years

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and Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney catches

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a glimpse of an early manuscript of the Fables and is spellbound.

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It had a little rooster on the top right-hand corner of the manuscript.

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But the rooster was crowing. Something so jaunty about it.

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Over several years, Seamus creates a series of modern English

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translations infused with the language of his rural childhood

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in Northern Ireland.

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It's absolutely brilliant. It's a wonderful translation.

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And he persuades Scottish actor

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and comedy legend Billy Connolly to record them.

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This country mouse when winter came, endured cold and hunger...

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I think he's amazing. His reputation swells before him.

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It's kind of scary now with you sitting out here.

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Oh, for God's sake.

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Now five of these fables have been animated for a project that

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Seamus Heaney was working on at the time of his death.

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Bringing a modern dimension to tales that were written

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over half a millennium ago.

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With a specially composed score by international pianist

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and conductor Barry Douglas.

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This is a very major thing for me. It's a new departure.

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I'm very excited.

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In a moment, the full animated story of The Two Mice.

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With an introduction by Seamus Heaney himself.

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And later, some revealing behind-the-scenes footage

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of how these morality tales made it to the screen.

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Five medieval fables are now ready for their second coming.

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The Two Mice is a wonderfully innocent story.

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And it's in a genre that's as old as European civilisation.

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It crops up in Aesop, in Horace, in many of Henryson's sources.

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And it's basically part of the old pastoral tradition of

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the contrast between the simple, frugal countryside

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and the haughty, dangerous town.

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One of the most delightful parts of the story as Henryson tells it

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is the town mouse coming through the country, crying out,

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cheeping to her sister to come out and meet her.

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It all goes well for a little while, then the town mouse gets tired of

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the rough country fare and invites the country mouse to her place.

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Everything's delightful.

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Food's good, the furnishings are lovely.

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Then two sudden dangers threaten all this.

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And the country mouse is just terrified.

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So the virtues of the country are ratified

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and the town is scolded for its dangers.

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It's a delightful story.

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Aesop tells a tale - Aesop, my author -

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Of two mice who were sisters fair and fond

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The elder had a town-house in a borough

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The younger dwelt up country, near at hand

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And by herself

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At times on whinny ground,

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At times in corn crops

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Living hand to mouth

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Beyond the pale and off the land, by stealth

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BIRD CAWS

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This country mouse, when winter came, endured

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Cold and hunger and extreme distress

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The other mouse, in town, sat on a board

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With guild members, an independent burgess

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Exempt from tax, from port and market cess

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Free to go roaming wherever she liked best

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Among the cheese and meal, in bin and chest

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One time, well-fed and lightsome on her feet

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She thought about her sister on the land

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And wondered how she fared, what kind of state

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She lived in, in the greenwood out beyond

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So, barefoot and alone, with staff in hand

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Like a poor pilgrim she set out from the town

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To seek her sister, over dale and down

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Through many wild and lonesome ways she goes

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By moss and moor, by bank and bush and briar

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Calling across the fallow land and furrows

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"Come out to me, my own sweet sister dear! Just give one cheep"

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With that the mouse could hear

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And knew the voice, since it's in our nature

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To recognise our own, and came to meet her

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If you had seen, Lord God, the high excitement

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That overcame those sisters when they met

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The way the sighs passed back and forth between them

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The way they laughed and then for gladness wept!

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They sweetly kissed, they held each other tight

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And kept this up until they both grew calm

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Then went indoors together, arm in arm

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It was, as I have heard, a simple hut

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Made expertly of foggage and of fern

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On stone supports sunk into earth upright

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The jambs set close, the lintel near the ground

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And into it they went and there remained

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No fire burned for them nor candle bright

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For shady rooms best suit the fly-by-night

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When they were lodged and settled, these poor mice

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The younger sister to the pantry hurries

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And brings out nuts and peas instead of spice

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Without being there, who'll say how good it was?

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The burgess then gets haughty and pretentious

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And asks her sister, "Is this how you eat?"

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"Why," she replies, "is there something wrong with it?"

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"No, by my soul, it's just so ordinary!"

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"Madam," she said, "you are the more to blame

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"When we were born, I heard my mother say

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"The womb we both came out of was the same

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"I'm true to her example and good name

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"And to my father's, to their frugal ways

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"We own no lands or grounds or properties"

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"Please," the reply came, "let me be excused

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"My tastes and this rough diet are at odds

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"I live a lady's life now and am used

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"To tender meat, it's what my system needs

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"These withered peas and nuts and shells and pods

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"Will break my teeth and hurt me in the stomach

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"Now that I know what standards to expect"

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"Well, well, my sister," says the country mouse

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"If you would like, and seeing that you're here

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"You're welcome to the free run of the house

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"And food and drink

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"Stay on for the year!

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"It'll warm my heart to keep you and to share

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"Our friendship matters more than middling food

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"Who sniffs at cooking when the company's good?

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"Delicacies pall, and fancy dishes

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"When they are served up by a scowling face

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"A sweetness in the giver's more delicious

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"Fine sauces don't make up for lack of grace

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"A modicum suffices, we do with less

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"When the carver carves from the goodness of his heart

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"A sour-faced host can blink the best cook's art"

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In spite of all this well-disposed advice

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The burgess was in no mood to be humoured

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She knit her brows above two glowering eyes

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No matter what choice pickings she was offered

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Until, at last, she half-sighed and half-sneered

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"Sister, for a country mouse, this stuff

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"You've laid on makes a spread and is good enough

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"Give over this place, be my visitor

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"Come where I live, and learn when you're my guest

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"How my Good Friday's better than your Easter

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"My dish-lickings more luscious than your feast

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"My quarters are among the very safest

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"Of cat or trap or trip I have no dread"

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"All right," says sister, and they take the road

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Under cover, through clumps of corn and weed

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Keeping themselves hidden, on they creep

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The elder acts as guide and stays ahead

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The younger follows close and minds her step

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By night they make a run, by day they sleep

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Until one morning, when the lark was singing

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They reached the town and thankfully went in

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With none to greet or give them time of day

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The town mouse led on and they made their entry

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To a residence not far along the way

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Next thing they stood inside a well-stocked pantry

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With cheese and butter stacked on shelves, great plenty

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Of red meat and hung game, of fresh fish and salt

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Sacks full of groats, milled corn and meal and malt

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Later, when they felt the urge to dine

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They washed their hands and sat, but said no grace

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There was every course a cook's art could design

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Roast beef and mutton relished slice by slice

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A meal fit for a lord

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But they were mice

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And showed it when they drank not wine but water

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Yet could hardly have enjoyed their banquet better

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Taunting and cajoling all at once

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The elder mouse enquired of her guest

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Whether she thought there was real difference

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Between that chamber and her sorry nest

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"Yes, ma'am," said she, "but how long will this last?"

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"Forever, I expect, and even longer"

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"In that case, it's a safe house," said the younger

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The town mouse, for their pleasure, produced more

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Groats on a plate and meal piled in a pan

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And didn't stay her hand, you can be sure

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When she doled the oatcakes out and served a scone

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Of best white baker's bread instead of brawn

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Then stole a tall white candle from a chest

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As a final touch, to give the meal more taste

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And so they revelled on and raised a cry

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And shouted "Hail, Yule, hail!" And made merry

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Yet often care comes on the heels of joy

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And trouble after great prosperity

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Thus, as they sat in all their jollity

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The steward comes along swinging his keys

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Opens the door and finds them at their ease

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They didn't wait to wash, as I imagine

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But rushed and raced and sped off desperately

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The burgess had a hole and in she went

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Her sister no such place of sanctuary

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To see that mouse in panic was great pity

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In dread, bewildered, cornered and astray

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So that she swooned and nearly passed away

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But God had willed and worked a happy outcome

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The hard-pressed steward could not afford to bide

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He hadn't time to harry or to hunt them

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But hurried on, and left the room-door wide

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The burgess watched him make his way outside

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Then scooted from her hole and cried on high

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"How are you, sister? Where? Just cheep for me!"

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Sure she was doomed, and terrified to die

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This country mouse lay on the ground prostrate

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Her heart beat fast, she was like somebody

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Shaken by fever, trembling hand and foot

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And when her sister found her in this state

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For very pity she broke down in tears

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Then spoke these words, sweet honey to her ears

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"Why do you cower like this, dear sister? Rise! Return to table

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"Come, the danger's past"

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The other answered in a stricken voice

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"I cannot eat, I am so sore aghast

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"I'd rather do Lent's 40 days of fast

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"On cabbage water, gnawing peas and beans

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"Than feast with you here in such dread conditions"

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Still, being soothed so sweetly, she got up

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And went to table where again they sat

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But hardly had they time to drink one cup

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When in comes Hunter Gib, our jolly cat

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And bids good day CAT MEOWS

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The burgess ups with that

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And speedy as the spark from flint makes off

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His nibs then takes the other by the scruff

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From foot to foot he chased her to and fro

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Whiles up, whiles down, as quick as any kid

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Whiles letting her go free beneath the straw

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Whiles playing blind man's buff with her, shut-eyed

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And thus he kept that poor mouse in great dread

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Until by lucky chance, at the last call

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She slipped between the hangings and the wall

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Then up in haste behind the tapestry

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She climbed so high that Gilbert couldn't get her

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And hung there by the claws most capably

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Till he was gone

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And when her mood was better

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And she could move with no cat to upset her

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Down she came on the town mouse, shouting out, "Sister, farewell"

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"Your feast I set at nought

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"Your spread is spoiled, your cream in curds from worry

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"Your goose is good, your sauce as sour as gall

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"Your second helpings sure to make you sorry

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"Mishaps still sure to haunt you and befall

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"I thank that curtain and partition-wall

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"For guarding me against yon cruel beast

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"Save me, Almighty God, from such a feast

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"If I were back on home ground, I would stay

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"Never, for weal or woe, come forth again"

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With that she took her leave and went her way

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Now through the corn, now on the open plain

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Glad to be on the loose and given rein

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To gambol and be giddy on the moor

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What then became of her I can't be sure

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Though I have heard she made it to her nest

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That was as warm as wool, if small and strait

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Packed snugly from back wall to chimney breast

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With peas and nuts and beans and rye and wheat

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When she inclined, she had enough to eat

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In peace and quiet there, amidst her store

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But to her sister's house she went no more.

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OK, Billy, let's go.

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Okey-dokey.

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Lots of 'first thing in the morning' energy.

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EXAGGERATED LAUGH

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Big thumbs up from Seamus Heaney there.

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Once we had Seamus Heaney involved in this project and very interested

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in working with us on this series,

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we had then suggested to him to use a couple of different narrators.

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Seamus kind of listened to us and then he said,

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"Well, what about Billy Connolly?"

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Aesop tells a tale - Aesop, my author...

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He's highly intelligent and I saw him in a movie called Mrs Brown

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where he acted John Brown - a servant to Queen Victoria.

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It established him in my mind as somebody with possibilities

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other than the wild man doing the comic act on the stage.

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Which is also deeply attractive.

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-Billy Connolly.

-Billy Connolly.

-Billy Connolly.

-Mr Billy Connolly.

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-Billy Connolly.

-Billy Connolly.

-Billy Connolly.

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APPLAUSE

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I've invented a new form of fishing. It's called nutting the salmon.

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LAUGHTER

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"There's one, John!"

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LAUGHTER

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So I thought that that wiliness and wildness

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from the comic side of his performance,

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and the strength of his performance as an actor,

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that those would be two qualities to combine

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because that's what we have in Henryson also.

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This country mouse when winter came, endured

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Cold and hunger and extreme distress...

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He also had the accent, of course,

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which is not to be disrespected either.

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It's a down-home voice. It's a familiar voice.

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It's a flexible voice that can do the intonations necessary

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to make the poetry live, and it's a voice that has a chortle

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in it and the poems have a chortle in them.

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"Come where I live, and learn when you're my guest

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"How my Good Friday is better than your Easter

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"My dish-lickings more luscious than your feast"

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I genuinely believe he's perfect for this

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because he can bring out the humour and on the other hand

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when things get profound,

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when things get serious or finger-wagging, he can do that too.

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His bonnet round, in the old-fashioned style

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Beard white, eyes wide and grey, a head of hair

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That curled and lay in locks upon each shoulder.

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I thought, "My God, it's Billy Connolly!"

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LAUGHTER

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While we expected Billy to be messing around in the studio,

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and of course there was a bit of that...

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The firmament... Star-stippled shearing clear!

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But basically he was incredibly professional.

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He got his head down and got on with it.

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Billy had an affinity with poetry.

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He was very knowledgeable about it, he knew his Burns,

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he was in awe of Seamus Heaney.

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The funniest thing is I hated it at school.

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I just learnt it by rote like everybody else

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but when I left school I got a job in John Smith's bookshop

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in St Vincent Street, the dispatch department, a messenger boy.

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But I also had to sweep the floor in the morning,

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and I remember lifting a wee book and having a look at it

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when nobody was looking and it was a tartan book, a tourist

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version of a book of Robert Burns's poems.

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And then I found McGonagall.

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Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!

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Alas! I am very sorry to say

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That 90 lives have been taken away

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On the last Sabbath day of 1879

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Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

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After that I went seeking poetry and liking it for its own sake

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and it's never kind of left me.

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He obviously had a sudden predisposition to work on this

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kind of material.

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That's a subject matter quite close to his heart.

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To live on earth and know the greatest joy,

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content yourself with just a few possessions...

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He got on brilliantly with Seamus, the two of them

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had an instant rapport.

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The two of them were quite in awe of each other.

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-SEAMUS:

-We're very lucky.

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And I said to him, did you find this difficult? And he said no!

0:22:110:22:15

Pacing is the whole thing, isn't it, I mean... And er...

0:22:150:22:22

reading verse, keeping the line ending and the sense of shape and the movement.

0:22:220:22:28

Well, I had a wee go in bed last night, so... I wasn't speaking out

0:22:280:22:32

though, I was just reading it, speaking it into myself.

0:22:320:22:37

Cos the verse can be quite concealed.

0:22:370:22:40

There can be a dodgy way to get there and if you get it, it's lovely.

0:22:400:22:43

You get a lift.

0:22:430:22:45

I like the way you kept the metre and respected the shape on the page.

0:22:450:22:49

There's a definite metre there and rhyme.

0:22:490:22:52

-The comma is a mighty beast!

-Yeah.

0:22:520:22:56

'Oh, I love him. He's great.'

0:22:560:22:57

He's...

0:22:570:22:59

How can I put it? He's a lot gentler than I expected him to be.

0:23:000:23:04

For some reason, I thought he'd be more aggressive. I don't know why,

0:23:040:23:07

never having met him before. But he's a big gentle dumpling, it's lovely.

0:23:070:23:12

We're getting very fastidious here.

0:23:120:23:15

I think he's amazing. Yeah.

0:23:150:23:17

Cos his reputation swells before him.

0:23:170:23:20

-It's kind of scary having you sitting out here.

-Oh, for God's sake. Not at all!

0:23:200:23:25

Well, I admired Billy Connolly when he was doing the commentary,

0:23:250:23:29

reading the verse. He is, after all, a world star and so on.

0:23:290:23:34

But he took instruction, and he was as ready to get the thing

0:23:350:23:40

right for himself and for the director.

0:23:400:23:43

-It felt as though you were rushing that a wee bit at the beginning.

-OK.

0:23:430:23:47

I am glad I didn't make the mistake there. I want to do it again.

0:23:470:23:51

I thought that there was total professionalism,

0:23:510:23:54

and that was something that made it a pleasure to work with him.

0:23:540:23:58

-Can I go?

-All yours, sir.

0:23:590:24:02

The carter howls, "A gutting I'll give you, a herring treat

0:24:020:24:06

"A second helping that you'll not forget"

0:24:060:24:09

It was quite an interesting recording session,

0:24:090:24:12

because as I recall Seamus Heaney was editing his own work

0:24:120:24:16

during the recording session.

0:24:160:24:17

Billy would narrate an entire stanza -

0:24:170:24:20

of course, he narrated with great gusto and drama

0:24:200:24:23

and so forth - but sometimes he got stuck at certain words

0:24:230:24:27

and Seamus was sitting there with the book in hand and he would

0:24:270:24:30

then suggest an alternative word which would flow better.

0:24:300:24:34

Then Wolf said, "I will risk it. We must fetch that Lent-feed here."

0:24:340:24:39

Great. I want a wee chat with Tim.

0:24:390:24:42

If you couldn't see the text,

0:24:420:24:43

you might find that a little confusing if it's all run together.

0:24:430:24:47

I wonder whether - "We must fetch that...LENT-FEED here," maybe.

0:24:470:24:53

Maybe we could do something untoward and change it to "Lent food".

0:24:530:24:59

Oh, yeah, you could. "We must fetch the Lent food."

0:24:590:25:05

Billy, could you go back a page to, "We must fetch that Lent-feed."

0:25:050:25:09

-Can we change it to "that Lent food"?

-Lent food.

0:25:090:25:13

I was thinking of a feed in the northern sense.

0:25:130:25:16

Then Wolf said, "I will risk it. We must fetch that Lent-food here."

0:25:170:25:23

He was asking us, "Is this the right word?

0:25:230:25:25

"Is it a slang word, do you want to change it to this or that?"

0:25:250:25:28

So we had a lot of little suggestions.

0:25:280:25:30

Some of Seamus's language was a little bit colourful, and

0:25:300:25:33

we had to be mindful of the family audience we were pitching this at.

0:25:330:25:37

"And if I begged and went down on my knees on all fours here

0:25:370:25:41

"before him in the gutter, yon idiot wouldn't hand one

0:25:410:25:45

"herring over. But still, no matter, wait a while and see.

0:25:450:25:49

"I'll put one over on him presently."

0:25:490:25:52

For the second recording in Belfast Seamus couldn't make it

0:25:520:25:55

up to the recording but he was desperate to be across it,

0:25:550:25:58

so we installed Skype in his house in Dublin. And we were sitting there

0:25:580:26:03

with a computer screen with Seamus all the way through the session.

0:26:030:26:07

By this stage, Seamus was in his element, and he had his red

0:26:080:26:12

biro out and was making changes left, right and centre.

0:26:120:26:15

There was quite a lot of changes in the second session.

0:26:150:26:18

-Including one or two mistakes.

-Is it "who WRITE those fables"?

0:26:180:26:21

I've just seen it. I think it should be maybe "who wrote", definitely.

0:26:210:26:26

You can get away with "who write" but "who wrote" is more natural.

0:26:260:26:29

Let's change it to "wrote", says Seamus.

0:26:290:26:32

I'm sure it was a mistake first time round.

0:26:320:26:34

Seamus is confessing to a mistake here!

0:26:340:26:36

Seamus was having a lot of fun with this.

0:26:380:26:40

He was making some changes, letting a few other imperfections go.

0:26:400:26:44

It was all to do with Billy's delivery really.

0:26:440:26:47

"But one good turn deserves another so do we free him?"

0:26:470:26:51

"Sister," they said, "We do!"

0:26:510:26:55

That's terrific.

0:26:560:26:58

I just wonder if it would help to put Aesop

0:26:580:27:01

into the vocative there somewhere.

0:27:010:27:03

-"Master, I asked Aesop."

-Rewrite from the writer!

0:27:030:27:07

"Master, I asked Aesop" I think, to run better.

0:27:070:27:10

"Maser," I asked Aesop, "does a morality attach to this fable?"

0:27:100:27:15

"Master," I asked Aesop, "does a morality attach to this fable?"

0:27:150:27:19

"Yes," he said. "A good one." "Please," I said then,

0:27:190:27:24

"share it in conclusion."

0:27:240:27:26

Very good. Yeah.

0:27:260:27:30

Blessed be simple life lived free of dread

0:27:310:27:34

And blessed be a frugal decency

0:27:340:27:37

Whoever has enough is not in need

0:27:370:27:40

No matter how reduced his portion be

0:27:400:27:43

Abundance, comfort, blind prosperity

0:27:430:27:47

Often prove the last and worst illusion:

0:27:470:27:51

So to be safe, not sorry in this country

0:27:510:27:54

Content yourself with just a few possessions.

0:27:540:27:58

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