THE SINGER was written in the late Autumn of 1915. Joseph Plunkett was
profoundly impressed when he read it. “If Pearse were dead,” he said,
“this would cause a sensation.” Mr. Pearse rather deprecated his view
that the play was entirely a personal revelation. No Irish MS. is
extant. The two poems THE REBEL and THE FOOL also belong to the same
period, and are in no sense translations. The same may be said of ON THE
STRAND OF HOWTH and THE MOTHER. With the exceptions of SONG FOR MARY
MAGDALENE, RANN OF THE LITTLE PLAYMATE (both taken from THE MASTER),
CHRIST’S COMING, CHRISTMAS 1915, DORD FEINNE, and the WAYFARER (written
in Kilmainham Jail, May, 1916), the remaining Poems are translations of
_Suantraide agus Goltraide_ (1914). These twelve poems, DORD FEINNE, and
CHRIST’S COMING, are the only poems in this volume originally written in
Irish.
THE KING was first produced as an open air play upon the banks of the
river which runs through the Hermitage, Rathfarnham, by the students of
St. Enda’s College. In reference to its subsequent production at the
Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 17th May, 1913, Mr. Pearse wrote in _An Macaomh_,
Vol. II, No. 2, 1913: “The play we decided to produce along with THE
POST OFFICE, was my morality _An Rí_. We had enacted it during the
previous summer with much pageantry of horses and marchings, at a place
in our grounds where an old castellated bridge, not unlike an entrance
to a monastery, is thrown across a stream. Since that performance I had
added some speeches with the object of slightly deepening the
characterization.” William Pearse played the Abbot’s part.
THE MASTER was produced Whitsuntide, 1915, at the Irish Theatre,
Hardwicke Street, Dublin, with William Pearse as Ciaran. No Irish MS. is
extant. _Iosagán_, the dramatization of the author’s story of the same
name, was first acted in Cullenswood House, Rathmines, Dublin, in
February, 1910, by St. Enda students. Mr. Pearse writes in _An Macaomh_,
Vol. I., No. 2, 1909: “In _Iosagán_ I have religiously followed the
phraseology of the children and old men in _Iar-Connacht_ from whom I
have learned the Irish I speak. I have put no word, no speech into the
mouths of my little boys which the real little boys of the parish I have
in mind--boys whom I know as well as I know my pupils in _Sgoil
Eanna_--would not use in the same circumstances. I have given their
daily conversation, anglicism, vulgarisms and all; if I gave anything
else my picture would be a false one. _Iosagán_ is not a play for
ordinary theatres or for ordinary players. It requires a certain
atmosphere and a certain attitude of mind on the part of the actors. It
has in fact been written for performance in a particular place and by
particular players. I know that in that place and by those players it
will be treated with the reverence due to a prayer.”
The first six stories here given are translations of _An Mátair_ (1916).
The last four stories are translations of _Iosagán agus Sgéalta eile_,
some of which were published in _An Claideam Soluis_ in 1905-6,
re-published a few years later in book-form.