This volume of the Collected Works of Padraic Pearse contains his
English Versions of Plays and Poems, many of which have not been
previously published. The Author’s final copies of the manuscripts of
THE SINGER and THE MASTER were burnt in the Publisher’s office at
Easter, 1916, but, fortunately, other copies of these manuscripts,
apparently containing the Author’s corrections, were forthcoming. On
page 35 of THE SINGER, there was one page of manuscript missing which
evidently contained dialogue covering the exit of MacDara and the
entrance of Diarmaid, and it seemed better to leave a blank here than to
have the missing speeches written by another hand. Towards the end of
this play there were some pages of manuscript giving a slightly
different version, and it was difficult to say whether this version was
an earlier or later one than the manuscript which has been followed.
This fragment has been printed as an Appendix.
The Translations of the Stories from the Irish were made by Mr. Joseph
Campbell.
In the Author’s Manuscript, the play THE SINGER was dedicated “To My
Mother.”
The Publisher wishes to thank _An Clodhanna Teoranta_ for the permission
accorded to Mrs. Pearse to publish translations of _Iosagan_, _An
Sagart_, _Bairbre_, _Eogainin na nEan_.
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