The sun., 1918-07-28

was merely one OF them. And now books
by the dozen and articles by the thousand
were singing his praises. 1t was unjust |!
They had no anecdotes, or had forgotten
them or considered them not worth tell
ing. They all agreed, however, that Synge
was overrated.
Small Souls.
One Of them, | recall, said that it was
absurd TO make so much fuss about man
who wrote only one play-The Playboy.
"Why, the short plays don't count" he
continued, "Deirdre was left unfinished,
and The Vel Of the SAINTS isn't play ut
all!' Some one else, woman this time
who had acted in one of Synge's early
plays, said: "A man of one play. Deirdre
is the only thing he ever did The Play
boy isn't really Irish, and the short plays
are only exercises"
l learned later that Synge's friends and
acquaintance had been put TO much trou-
bic by numerous anecdote hunters and
authors of biographies, and that literary
Ireland was tired of answering questions.
l soon came 10 know also of the average
lrlshmanS dislike of being written about,
unless he can do the writing himself. |
took the hint at once and only preached
the subject of Synge thereafter on rare
occaslons-Just as | rarely ventured to
talk politics. | was spared much embar-
rassment, and was strangely enough re-
warded with many anecdotes, most of
which l am unfortunately unable to tran
scribe
On my way west TO Coole Park, of
which l spoke in my last article, l
CHANGED TO meet a man in the train who
had known Synge slightly. From Synge
he had learned about the visit George
Moore once made him, a visit described
IN Moore's Hail and FdrcrelI. Moore
was at that time writing the stories later
collected under the title of The Untitled
Field. He was fairly well acquainted
with Irish life, but wished TO obtain a
few picturesque profanities and knew no
one better qualified to give them to him
than Synge.
The idea tickled Synge, who would per-
haps otherwise have refused to grant
Moore the interview. 1t is well known
that Synge read little or no contemporary
literature. Yeats somewhere remarks
that he never knew whether his friend had
read any Of his poems, and Moore,
think, says that Synge had not read one
of his novels. George Moore, therefore,
as a literary figure meant nothing to
Synge.
The visit 70 Synge must have been a
curious one. Synge actually waxed cor
dial and gave Moore great many stories,
few of which, if / can believe my friend,
were used. Synge was by no means vile
minded; indeed, the very purity of his
mind is manifest when it is remembered
that he put down in his plays all the
picturesque expressions he had picked up
in the country and on the city streets; he
was actually incapable of distinguishing
the decent from the indecent!
In Lady Gregory's Library.
In the library at Coole, which I de-
scribed in my article about Lady Gregory,
is the magnificent fireplace before which
Synge used TO sit for hours on end. Lady
Gregory told me of many occasions when
she had guests and hoped that Synge
would be sociable Almost always he
would merely SIT, smoking his odoriferous
pipe, his hat pulled down over his thick
shock of hair and never utter word.
But once in a great while and how
much worse than having him sit and say
would stride into the room,
his boots dripping bog water, squat down
by the fire, take off his coat, roll up his
shirt sleeves and tell of his days or
weeks experiences.
He would launch forth with all the
innocence of n young child into the most
stories, emitting no detail
But his anecdotes no matter how indeli