The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-11-17
MR. YEATS LECTURE
LARGELY ATTENDED LAST
 NIGHT AT ART SCHOOL.

Took as His Subject "The Irish RenaIs-
 sanee"-Hs Told of Wave of Eathusl-
 aam sweeping Over Ireland for the
 Drama and Of the Many New Indus
 tries EnterIng That CounGry-some-
 thing About Yeats and His Achieve
 ments.
 A large audience heard the interest ing lecture delivered last night in the art school by William Butler Yeats, president os the National Irish theater, and famous Irish poet. MT. Yeats was introduced by Professor Theodore R. Lounsbury and took as his subject '"The Irish Renaissance" and made it most pleasing address. He traced the history of Irish literature and spoke of the wave os enthusiasm sweeping over Ireland for the drama. He told of how up to a few years ago the theater was an unknown factor in Ireland, but of late the enthusiasm has been so great that in one instance a clergyman, Fa- ther Peter O'Reilly of County Cork, and seventy years of age has turned play wright and has theater in his parish for which he furnishes the plays.
 Men like, he said, good works by na- ture, but it takes centuries and the big publishing houses to make them like poor works. He spoke of the many new industries entering Ireland, and one in yNa rfiafI1o1s tIa csfo oiY1ad cr1n art I6rhiah is one of the greatest. He gave great credit to the Irish for the part they took in the development of this country, say ing that many who fought American battles were fondled in cradles of Irish wicker rocked by Irish mothers. Mir. Yeats subject was the more thoroughly enjoyed by the audience on account of the revival of the Celtic mythology and legends, and the attempt to reproduce in prose and verse the Gel tic spirit which is one of the most in- teresting movements of the day.
 Concerning MT. Yeats the New York Commercial Advertiser has the follow ing: A tall, lightly built young man, younger looking than he really is, with a pale, clear cut face of classic type, shock of raven black hair falling over a i high forehead, and kindly eyes looking dreamily at you through glasses-such is William Butler Yeats, artist, poet and dramatist now on visit to this tcountry. Dressed in black, the coat of sack make, and with literary" tie knotted in a bow with loose, flowing ends, MT. Yeats has about him an inde- finable atmosphere of the literary and 1 artistic. And he is the artist poet and I dreamer in his every fibre. He comes of literary and artistic stock, for far back along the line his forebears were scholars of Trinity college, in Dublin; his grandfather was 8 learned rector of the Episcopal church, and his father was member of the Royal academy. !, Born in Dublin, he was reared at the rectory at Douncliffe, in the county of I Sligo, amid scenes as picturesque as go's glens and on her hillsides and where the wild sea beats upon the rocks, Yeats learned to love Ireland.
 q am really astonished myself" said MT. Yeats, lat the success of my thea ter movement Of course it is only as- lsisting the great Gaelic movement which has aroused the interest of the I English themselves in the language and literature of Ireland, but we have all ready had a company of Irish actors and actresses present Irish plays in London, where plays and players alike received the highest praise even from I the Times itself The Gaelic movement, it must be understood, is not political, however, it may advance a people to have their own language, their own lit- erature, their own art, to nationhood. Through this movement, which began, I might say, with the Young Ireland so- ciety, of which John O'Leary was pres ident, we have not only saved the lan- guage and the literature of the past
 but created literature of o-day-ar 1 Irish literature If it be in the English language. I use the English language myself, but Dr. Hyde uses both Gaelic and English. And doing so much, said, why not have an Irish theater. We, to be sure, who use the English have more difficult work, for I English has been the language in which the Irish cause has been debated, and 4 we have to struggle with traditional pharses and traditional points of view. We are doing very we'll however, and in one Irish theater in Dublin we had MT. Wyndham, the chief secretary, and the under seclretary, Sir Anthony Me- Donnell, very interested auditors. The play was my own Kathleen Nj Houli- ham," which deals with the days of 179S It was never so much applauded as that night, and I have no doubt Mir. Wynd- ham guessed the reason. The gods fairly went wild over every allusion to the days of the rebellion, and all, of course, for the benefit of Mr. Wynd- ham.
 q started the Irish Theater in 1S99
 At first we had English players, but now we have only Irish-the young men and young women who work in our shops, and they are very enthusiastic and very clever. They played recently in London, and here is what the dra- matic critic of the Times had to say: "The Queens Gate Hall, if not exactly a. barn, can boast none of the glories of the ordinary playhouse, and it was here that only day or two ago little band of Irish men and women, strangers t London and Londoners, gave some of us, who for our sins are constant fre- quenters of the regular playhouses, e f1rx rG I6Js