Irish Plays and Playwrights   By: Cornelius Weygandt (1871-1957)

BY

CORNELIUS WEYGANDT

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

[Illustration]

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge

COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY CORNELIUS WEYGANDT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published February 1913

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PREFACE

There are so many who have helped me with this book that I cannot begin to thank them one by one. If I name any, however, there are four I would name together. There is my old friend, long since dead, Lawrence Kelly, of County Wexford, who first told me Irish folk stories, adding to the wonderment of my boyhood with his tales of Finn McCool, Dean Swift, and "The Red haired Man." There is Dr. Robert Ellis Thompson, of Philadelphia, who quickened, by his enthusiasm, over "twenty golden years ago," my interest in all things Irish. There is Dr. Clarence Griffin Child, my colleague, who recognized the power of these men I write of in "Irish Plays and Playwrights" when there were fewer to recognize their power than there are to day. There is Mr. John Quinn, of New York, without whose aid ten years ago the current Irish dramatic movement would not have progressed as it has. He has lent for reproduction here the sketches by Mr. J.B. Yeats of Synge, Mr. George Moore, and Mr. Padraic Colum. All but all of the writers I mention particularly in these chapters have put me under obligation by cheerful response to many letters full of questions as to their work. Mr. James H. Cousins and Mr. S. Lennox Robinson have taken especial trouble in my behalf, and Lady Gregory, Mr. W.B. Yeats, and Mr. George W. Russell have put themselves out in many ways that I might learn of Irish Letters.

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, December 28, 1912.

CONTENTS

I. THE CELTIC RENAISSANCE 1

II. THE PLAYERS AND THEIR PLAYS, THEIR AUDIENCE AND THEIR ART 13

III. MR. WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS 37

IV. MR. EDWARD MARTYN AND MR. GEORGE MOORE 72

V. MR. GEORGE W. RUSSELL ("A.E.") 114

VI. LADY GREGORY 138

VII. JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE 160

VIII. THE YOUNGER DRAMATISTS MR. PADRAIC COLUM; MR. WILLIAM BOYLE; MR. T.C. MURRAY; MR. S. LENNOX ROBINSON; MR. RUTHERFORD MAYNE; "NORREYS CONNELL"; MR. ST. JOHN G. ERVINE; MR. JOSEPH CAMPBELL 198

IX. WILLIAM SHARP ("FIONA MACLEOD") 251

APPENDIX 297 PLAYS PRODUCED, IN DUBLIN, BY THE ABBEY THEATRE COMPANY

INDEX 305

ILLUSTRATIONS

W.B. YEATS Frontispiece From a photograph by Alice Boughton .

DOUGLAS HYDE 10 From a photograph by Alice Boughton .

SARA ALLGOOD 24 From a photograph by Alice Boughton .

SCENE FROM "CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN" 50

GEORGE MOORE 72 Reproduced by courtesy of John Quinn, Esq.

GEORGE W. RUSSELL 114

LADY GREGORY 138

JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE 160 Reproduced by courtesy of John Quinn, Esq.

PADRAIC COLUM 198 Reproduced by courtesy of John Quinn, Esq.

T.C. MURRAY 216

LENNOX ROBINSON 222 From a photograph by Alice Boughton .

WILLIAM SHARP 250

IRISH PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS

CHAPTER I

THE CELTIC RENAISSANCE