The Irish theater. The most striking manifestation of the Irish literary revival has been on its dramatic side. The first aspect of the movement was centered in the foundation and development of the Irish Literary Theater in Dublin. Yeats, Edward Martyn, George Moore, Lady Gregory, and other writers constituted the group back of this enterprise, which was aimed primarily at achieving conditions under which dramatic work of high merit might be fostered without subservience to the commercial element. The program was inaugurated in 1899. The most notable playwright of the group, aside from Yeats, was Edward Martyn. "The Heather Field," "Maeve," and "The Enchanted Sea" are among his best plays. His work consists chiefly of social and psychological studies of contemporary life in Ireland outside the peasantry. And it was on the assumption that a more truly national drama could be evolved by placing the emphasis on legendary, folk, and peasant themes that Yeats and Lady Gregory withdrew to devote their energies to establishing the Irish National Theater. In 1902 the first performances of the new organization were given, and since 1904 its playhouse, the Abbey Theater, has stood for what must be regarded as one of the most remarkable and hopeful dramatic developments of recent years. In some respects more important than the work of Yeats himself, especially in its bearing on the development of a people's drama, is that of John Millington Synge1 (1871-1909). During the six years between 1903 and his death he produced a series of plays which are unique in dramatic history. Of these the most important are “In the Shadow of the Glen," "Riders to the Sea," "The Playboy of the Western World," and "The Well of the Saints." Synge has employed a style based upon the actual speech of the peasantry of Wicklow and of the Aran Islands, but has transformed it into a medium of rare poetic quality, though all his plays are, technically speaking, in prose. Synge has sometimes been called a realist in his treatment of Irish peasant life, but he is rather one of those rare writers who are interested in reality rather than realism. He has no 1 Sing. message in the ordinary didactic sense of the term. He presents universally human reactions to the typical experiences of lifefutile protest at the coming of death, as in "Riders to the Sea"; inveterate clinging to romance, as in "The Playboy"; insistence upon dream and illusion as being more beautiful than reality, as in "The Well of the Saints." So far as actual realism in the treatment of peasant life in Ireland is concerned, we find it rather in the plays of Padraic Colum than in those of Synge. With a keen eye, a sure touch, a careful balance of structure, and a very deep sympathy with his subject, Colum has given us in "The Land," "The Fiddler's House," and "Thomas Muskerry" striking pictures of peasant Ireland and the forces that are at work in it. Colum is no more desirous than Synge of producing problem plays: certainly there are problems at the root of his plays, but he seeks primarily to bring out the drama of country life in Ireland as a revelation of human experience. Colum's poems, especially the volume entitled "Wild Earth" (1909), are strong with the strength of the soil-intense, intimate, vivid, expressing the struggle of man with the deep and vital forces of nature and the joy and pain of his round of common experience. We quote "A Cradle Song," one of the most appealing of his peasant poems: "O men from the fields ! O men coming in! "Mavourneen is going From me and from you; "From reek of the smoke "O men from the fields ! Her mantle of blue."1 With the names mentioned-Yeats, Synge, Colum-we have covered the really notable figures in the Irish theater movement. Lady Gregory has done some excellent work in the field of drama, especially comedy. She is at her best in one-act plays designed to bring out some peculiarly Irish trait of character; such, for example, as "Spreading the News," "The Jackdaw," and "The Workhouse Ward." The plays of William Boyle, especially "The Building Fund,” deserve to be mentioned. St. John Ervine, in his several plays and novels, has done much to reveal the essential tragedy underlying the common turns of circumstance in everyday Irish life. Creditable work in the drama has been done also by Seumas O'Kelly and George Fitzmaurice. The Ulster Theater in Belfast, corresponding in its aims and methods to the Dublin enterprise, is represented by at least one figure of note, "Rutherford Mayne" (Samuel Waddell), who has produced some dramatic studies of Protestant Ireland that deserve very high praise, for example, "The Turn of the Road" and "The Drone." Fiction writers. Fiction has been, relatively speaking, a neglected form of literary art in Ireland. Among recent writers Emily Lawless and Jane Barlow show in their work a somewhat condescending quality in dealing with the humble side of life. Seumas MacManus and Shan Bullock have helped to bring Irish fiction somewhat into line with Irish poetry and drama in importance. George Moore, who can be claimed only in part by the Irish movement, has contributed to it a very superior volume of short stories -"The Untilled Field"-and an analytical and dreamlike novel, entitled "The Lake." The novels of Canon Sheehan, though imperfect in structure and somewhat diffuse in style, show him to be a keen and skillful interpreter of various types of Irish life, especially of the Irish priesthood at its best. Among the best of his novels, all 1 This selection, from Colum's "Wild Earth and Other Poems," is used by permission of The Macmillan Company. of which have a strongly Catholic coloring, are "My New Curate" and "Luke Delmege." Lord Dunsany has produced a series of wonder tales, including "The Gods of Pegana," "Time and the Gods," and "A Dreamer's Tales," inventing his own strange mythology for the purpose-weird, vast, impressive. Some of his work is cast in dramatic form; such, for example, as "The Gods of the Mountain" and "The Laughter of the Gods." The delightful fantasies of James Stephens-for instance, "The Crock of Gold" and "The DemiGods"-play with characteristic Celtic nimbleness on the border line between heaven and earth. His whimsical little poems, sometimes only half a dozen lines in length, are a charming revelation of the buoyancy, the light-heartedness, the assertive and unabashed good fellowship, of a fundamentally Irish nature. Within the past few years there has been in Ireland a rather significant return from romance to realism, especially in fiction. The common round of life, unrelieved by poetic glamor or the excitement of rare adventure, the harsh and often unlovely environment of the poor in village and city, the pathos of hope deferred and effort without avail, are attracting a number of capable writers. Conspicuous among the recent writers of fiction who have entered this field are James Joyce, Daniel Corkery, Darrell Figgis, and Forrest Reid, much of whose work is of real value and distinction. Reference List JOYCE. A Social History of Ireland (2 vols.). Longmans, Green & Co. GREEN. The Old Irish World. The Macmillan Company. BARKER. Ireland in the Last Fifty Years, 1866-1918. Oxford University Press. HYDE. A Literary History of Ireland. Charles Scribner's Sons. HYDE. The Story of Early Gaelic Literature. P. J. Kenedy, New York. MACHAN. The Literature of the Celts (2 vols). Blackie and Son, London. KUNO MEYER. Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry. Constable & Company, London. HULL. Poem Book of the Gael. Chatto and Windus, London. HULL. The Cuchulain Saga in Irish Literature. David Nutt, London. ROLLESTON. Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race. Thomas Y. Crowell Company. ROLLESTON. The High Deeds of Finn. George C. Harrap & Company, London. LEAHY. Ancient Heroic Romances of Ireland (2 vols.). David Nutt, LADY GREGORY. Gods and Fighting Men. John Murray, London. Irish Texts Society (22 vols.) contains Irish texts and translations. David Irish Literature (10 vols.). John D. Morris and Company, Philadelphia. READ. Cabinet of Irish Literature (4 vols.). Gresham Publishing Company, London. Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry. Geddes, Edinburgh. BROOKE and ROLLESTON. A Treasury of Irish Poetry. The Macmillan Company. YEATS. A Treasury of Irish Poetry. Methuen and Company, London. PADRAIC GREGORY. Modern Anglo-Irish Verse. David Nutt, London. COOKE. Dublin Book of Irish Verse. Oxford University Press. COLUM. Modern Book of Irish Verse. Boni & Liveright. Suggested Topics Legendary Ireland. The Irish missionaries to England and the Continent. The Irish language. Irish fairy lore. Cuchulain and Odysseus as epic heroes. English rule in Ireland. Early nineteenth-century fiction in Ireland. Impulse and motive of the Celtic revival. William B. Yeats-his life and works. The Irish theater. The plays of John M. Synge. Lady Gregory and her work. Recent Irish fiction. Lord Dunsany. Contemporary Irish poetry. |