# Irish Plays and Playwrights

IRISH PLAYS
AND PLAYWRIGHTS
BY
CORNELIUS WEYGANDT
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1913
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY CORNELIUS WEYGANDT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published February 1913
From a photograph by Alice Boughton
W. B. YEATS
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 | Appendix | 297 |
| | Plays produced, in Dublin, by the Abbey Theatre Company |
| Index | 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 |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1957, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 66 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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