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IRISH PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS
BY
CORNELIUS WEYGANDT
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration]
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY CORNELIUS WEYGANDT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
_Published February 1913_
[Illustration]
PREFACE
There are so many who have helped me with this book that I cannot begin
to thank them one by one. If I name any, however, there are four I would
name together. There is my old friend, long since dead, Lawrence Kelly,
of County Wexford, who first told me Irish folk-stories, adding to the
wonderment of my boyhood with his tales of Finn McCool, Dean Swift, and
"The Red-haired Man." There is Dr. Robert Ellis Thompson, of
Philadelphia, who quickened, by his enthusiasm, over "twenty golden
years ago," my interest in all things Irish. There is Dr. Clarence
Griffin Child, my colleague, who recognized the power of these men I
write of in "Irish Plays and Playwrights" when there were fewer to
recognize their power than there are to-day. There is Mr. John Quinn, of
New York, without whose aid ten years ago the current Irish dramatic
movement would not have progressed as it has. He has lent for
reproduction here the sketches by Mr. J.B. Yeats of Synge, Mr. George
Moore, and Mr. Padraic Colum. All but all of the writers I mention
particularly in these chapters have put me under obligation by cheerful
response to many letters full of questions as to their work. Mr. James
H. Cousins and Mr. S. Lennox Robinson have taken especial trouble in my
behalf, and Lady Gregory, Mr. W.B. Yeats, and Mr. George W. Russell have
put themselves out in many ways that I might learn of Irish Letters.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, December 28, 1912.
CONTENTS
I. THE CELTIC RENAISSANCE 1
II. THE PLAYERS AND THEIR PLAYS,
THEIR AUDIENCE AND THEIR ART 13
III. MR. WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS 37
IV. MR. EDWARD MARTYN AND MR. GEORGE MOORE 72
V. MR. GEORGE W. RUSSELL ("A.E.") 114
VI. LADY GREGORY 138
VII. JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE 160
VIII. THE YOUNGER DRAMATISTS--MR. PADRAIC COLUM;
MR. WILLIAM BOYLE; MR. T.C. MURRAY;
MR. S. LENNOX ROBINSON; MR. RUTHERFORD MAYNE;
"NORREYS CONNELL"; MR. ST. JOHN G. ERVINE;
MR. JOSEPH CAMPBELL 198
IX. WILLIAM SHARP ("FIONA MACLEOD") 251
APPENDIX 297
PLAYS PRODUCED, IN DUBLIN,
BY THE ABBEY THEATRE COMPANY
INDEX 305
ILLUSTRATIONS
W.B. YEATS _Frontispiece_
_From a photograph by Alice Boughton_.
DOUGLAS HYDE 10
_From a photograph by Alice Boughton_.
SARA ALLGOOD 24
_From a photograph by Alice Boughton_.
SCENE FROM "CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN" 50
GEORGE MOORE 72
_Reproduced by courtesy of John Quinn, Esq._
GEORGE W. RUSSELL 114
LADY GREGORY 138
JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE 160
_Reproduced by courtesy of John Quinn, Esq._
PADRAIC COLUM 198
_Reproduced by courtesy of John Quinn, Esq._
T.C. MURRAY 216
LENNOX ROBINSON 222
_From a photograph by Alice Boughton_.
WILLIAM SHARP 250
IRISH PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS
CHAPTER I
THE CELTIC RENAISSANCE
To the general reader the Celtic Renaissance was a surprise, and even to
Irish writers deeply interested in their country the phenomenon or
movement, call it which you will, was not appreciated as of much
significance at its beginning. Writing in 1892, Miss Jane Barlow was not
hopeful for the immediate future of English literature in Ireland;--it
seemed to her "difficult to point out any quarter of the horizon as a
probable source of rising light." Yet Mr. Yeats had published his
"Wanderings of Oisin" three years before; Mr. Russell had already
gathered about him a group of eager young writers; and Dr. Hyde was
organizing the Gaelic League, to give back to Ireland her language and
civilization, and translating from the Gaelic "The Love Songs of
Connacht" (1894) into an English of so new and masterful a rhythm, that
it was to dominate the style of many of the writers of the movement, as
the burden of the verse was to confirm them in the feelings and
attitudes of mind, centuries old and of to-day, that are basic to the
Irish Gael. Even in 1894, when Mrs. Katherine Tynan Hinkson wrote the
article that for the first time brought before America so many of the
younger English poets, all that she said of the Renaissance was, "A very
large proportion of the Bodley Head poets are Celts,--Irish, Welsh,
Cornish." She had scarcely so spoken when there appeared the little
volume, "The Revival of Irish Literature," whose chapters, reprinted
addresses delivered before she had spoken by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy and
Dr. George Sigerson and; Dr. Douglas Hyde, turned the attention of the
younger men to literature, the fall of Parnell and the ensuing decline
of political agitation having given them a chance to think of something
else than politics. In 1895 all the English-speaking world that heeds
letters was talking of the Celtic Renaissance, so quickly did news of it
find its way to men, when it was once more than whispered of abroad. It
was as frequently referred to then as "The Irish Renaissance," because
Ireland contributed most to it and because it was in Ireland that it
acquired its most definite purpose. This purpose was to retell in
English the old Irish legends and the still current Irish folk-songs,
and to catch and preserve the moods of Irish men and women of to-day,
especially those moods which came to them out of their brooding over
Ireland, its history, its landscape, the temper of its people. It would
be absurd, of course, to regard all of the writing of the movement as a
result of a definite literary propaganda, but the very fact that we
instinctively speak of the Celtic Renaissance as a movement rather than
as a phenomenon proves that it was that in part. But even that part of
it that was a result of propaganda came not from an intention to realize
the tenets of the propaganda, but from the kindling of Irish hearts by
thoughts that came of the propaganda, thoughts of the great past of
Ireland, of its romance of yesterday and to-day, of its spirituality.
It is not so easy to account for the less quickening of the other Celtic
countries by the forces that brought about the Renaissance. Renan, in
his "Poetry of the Celtic Races" (1859), and Arnold, in his "On the
Study of Celtic Literature" (1867), had roused all the Celtic countries
to an interest in their old literature, an interest that extended much
further than discussion of the authenticity of Macpherson's "Ossian" or
of the proper treatment of Arthurian stories, until then the Ultima
Thule of talk on things Celtic. Frenchman and Englishman both had spoken
to Wales and Brittany, the Highlands of Scotland and the Isle of Man, as
well as to Ireland, and it does not altogether explain to say that
Ireland listened best because in Ireland there was a greater sense of
nationality than in these other lands. Ireland did listen, it is true,
and, listening, developed popularizers of the old tales such as Mr.
Standish James O'Grady and Dr. P.W. Joyce, to pass knowledge of them
along to the men of letters. It is hardly true, indeed, to say that
Ireland had a greater sense of nationality than Brittany or Wales.
Brittany, of course, since her tongue other than her native Breton was
French, gave what was given to the movement in other than Breton in
French. Cornwall may hardly be called a Celtic country, but if it may it
is easy to account for its slight interest in the movement by the little
that was preserved of its old literature and by the little it had of
distinctive oral tradition to draw upon. And yet, I think, had Sir
Arthur T. Quiller-Couch been born ten years later Cornwall had not
wanted a shanachie. Wales, too, gave little to English literature as the
result of the Renaissance, because, perhaps, her chiefest literary
energy is in her native language. Wales was proud of George Meredith,
whose Welsh ancestry is more evident in his work than is his Irish
ancestry, but not only is his writing representative of Great Britain
rather than of any one part of Great Britain, but his say had been said
before the movement began. The writing of Mr. Ernest Rhys underwent a
change because of his interest in the Celtic Renaissance, but Wales has
little writing outside of his to point to as a result of the awakening.
In Scotland, William Sharp, whose "Lyra Celtica" (1896) was a prominent
agent in bringing the Renaissance before the world, was transformed into
another writer by it. His work as "Fiona Macleod," both prose and verse,
was very different from his earlier work in prose and verse. Mr. Neil
Munro, too, was affected by the Renaissance, and in the tales of "The
Lost Pibroch" (1896) and in the novels of "John Splendid" (1898) and
"Gillian the Dreamer" (1899) and "The Children of Tempest" (1903) he
reveals an intimacy with Highland life such as informs the writing of no
other novelist of our day. Of recent years Mr. Munro has wandered
farther afield than his native Argyll, and, I feel, to the lessening of
the beauty of his writing. In the Isle of Man, T.E. Brown had been
striving for years to put into his stories in verse the fast-decaying
Celtic life of his country, but even with his example and with all that
has been done since the Renaissance began, in the preservation of Manx
folk-lore and in the recording of vanishing Manx customs, no writer of
Brown's power has been developed, or in fact any writer of powers equal
to those of the best men of the younger generation in the other Celtic
lands. It is with the Celtic Renaissance as it appears in Ireland, then,
that I have to deal chiefly in this book, as it is only in Ireland, of
the countries that retain a Celtic culture, that the movement is the
dominating influence in writing in English; and it is with the drama
only that I have now to deal, though when a playwright is a poet or a
story-teller, too, I have written of his attainment in verse and tale
also. Had I been writing five years ago, I should have said that it was
in poetry that the Celtic Renaissance had attained most nobly, but since
then the drama has had more recruits of power than has poetry, and it is
a question as to which of the two is greater as art. There is no doubt,
however, but that the drama has made a stronger and wider appeal,
whatever its excellence, than has the verse, and it is therefore of
greater significance for its time than is the poetry, whatever the
ultimate appraisement will be. Of the men I have written of here, Mr.
Yeats and Mr. Russell are to me poets before they are dramatists, and
Lionel Johnson, whose only direct connection with the dramatic movement
was his beautiful prologue in verse to the first performances of "The
Irish Literary Theatre" in 1899, is to me a poet of a power as great as
theirs.
One wonders, at first thought, that Ireland had never until our day
given to English literature a novelist of first rank. The Irishman is
famous the world over as a story-teller, but neither in romance nor in
the story of character had he reached first power, reached a position
where he might be put alongside of other Europeans as a novelist. No
Irishman from the time of Scott on, until Mr. George Moore wrote "Esther
Waters" (1894), had written a story that might stand the inevitable
comparison with the work of Thackeray and Dickens, Meredith and Mr.
Hardy. Of Mr. George Moore I have written in detail below.
Miss Edgeworth may have taught Scott his manner of delineating peasant
character, but her comparatively little power is revealed when you put
her beside Miss Austen, and so it is all the way down the list to our
own day. There are many contemporary story-tellers who have managed well
the tale, but what Irish novelist of to-day other than Mr. Moore bulks
big, can be compared to even lesser men, like Scotland's Mr. Neil Munro
or Dartmoor's Mr. Phillpotts?
Lady Gilbert (Rosa Mulholland) has written many, pleasant stories of
Irish life, and Mrs. Katherine Tynan Hinkson has followed worthily in
her footsteps. Equally pleasant, but lighter and more superficial, is
the writing of the two ladies who subscribe their names "E.OE.
Somerville and Martin Ross." Their "Some Experiences of an Irish R.M."
(1899) and their "All on the Irish Shore" (1903) are like so much of the
Irish writing of a generation ago,--Irish stories by Irish people for
English people to laugh at.
The Hon. Emily Lawless has written many kinds of stories about the West
Coast, reaching almost to greatness in her "Grania" (1892). In the short
story, Miss Jane Barlow, accused of superficiality by many Irish critics
and as eagerly declared to get the very quality of Connemara peasant
life by others, has sure power and a charm all her own. No one who reads
"Irish Idylls" (1892) will stop at that collection. Mr. Seumas MacManus
is as truly a shanachie as the old story-tellers that yet tell the old
tales about peat fires in Donegal. "Through the Turf Smoke" (1899) and
"In Chimney Corners" (1899) and "Donegal Fairy Stories" (1900) are alike
in having the accent of the spoken story, but when the last word is said
you cannot admit their author to be more than a clever entertainer. The
Rev. Dr. Sheehan, although you will find him writing about the effect of
the Irish Renaissance in remote parishes in the South, has not
subscribed to its ideals, but continues the fashion of story-writing of
an earlier generation. "Luke Delmege" (1900) is, however, an interesting
character study, and "My New Curate" (1899) very illuminative of the
conservatism of the peasantry.
Mr. Shan Bullock, writing of the farmers and farm laborers of the North,
has not unwisely gone to Mr. Hardy to learn his art. "Irish Pastorals"
(1901) is racy of Fermanagh as "Tess" is of Wessex. "The Squireen"
(1903) is a strong and gloomy story. From "By Thrasna River" (1895) to
"Dan the Dollar" (1905), Mr. Bullock did no story without power in it.
Ireland still looks to him as it looked to Mr. William Buckley, ten
years ago, for better work. "Croppies Lie Down" brought Mr. Buckley
before the public in 1903, but his writing since then has fallen far
short of this his best book. Now, however, the young man with a future,
in the estimation of many is Mr. James Stephens. There is more hope in
him, in his twenties, than there is now in "George A. Birmingham" (Rev.
J.O. Hannay), another man who ten years ago was like Mr. Buckley, a
young man of promise. "The Seething Pot" (1904) was a serious study of
conditions in Ireland but since its author conceived of the character of
the Rev. Joseph John Meldon, he has found it more discreet to continue
the adventures of that clergyman than to write seriously out of his own
varied experience of West-Country Irish life.
[Illustration]
It is perhaps because the energy that in many countries goes into the
writing of the essay is absorbed in controversy in Ireland that in the
past Ireland has produced few essayists. In the battles of the dramatic
movement with the patriotic societies and with the official class, Mr.
Yeats and Mr. Moore have dealt good blows, and Mr. Russell and "John
Eglinton" (Mr. W.K. Magee) have led the disputants out of their
confusion. Among these men, "John Eglinton" is the one who has thrown
his greatest energy into the essay, almost all his energy, and in it, in
the chapters of "Two Essays on the Remnant" (1896), "Pebbles from a
Brook" (1901), and "Bards and Saints" (1906), he has written with
subtlety and illumination.
In the collection and clarification and retelling of folk-literature
William Larminie and Lady Gregory and Dr. Hyde stand out as the leading
workers. Mr. Larminie's "West Irish Folk-Tales" (1895) are model work
of their kind as are Lady Gregory's several books, of which I speak in
detail later. The work of Dr. Hyde is the most important work of this
sort, however, and it is not too much to say, as I intimated at the
outset, that, without his translation of "The Love Songs of Connacht"
(1894) and "The Religious Songs of Connacht" (1906), the prose of the
movement would never have attained that distinction of rhythm which
reveals English almost as a new language. I would gladly have written at
length of Dr. Hyde, but he has chosen to write his plays in Irish as
well as most of his verses. Yet so winning are the plays as translated
by Lady Gregory, and so greatly have they influenced the folk-plays in
English of the Abbey Theatre, that there is almost warrant for including
him. I cannot, of course, but I must at least bear testimony to the many
powers of these plays. Dr. Hyde can be trenchant, when satire is his
object, as in "The Bursting of the Bubble" (1903); or alive with
merriment when merriment is his desire, as in "The Poorhouse" (1903); or
full of quiet beauty when he writes of holy things, as in the "Lost
Saint" (1902). There are many other playwrights in Irish than Dr. Hyde,
but as no other plays in Irish than his have reacted to any extent on
the plays in English of the movement, I do not consider them, my object
in this book being to consider the dramatic writing in English of the
Celtic Renaissance, with relation to its value as a contribution to the
art of English letters. That there is a great deal else in the Celtic
Renaissance than its drama, I would, however, emphasize, though it is
true that every man of first literary power in the movement, except
Lionel Johnson and "John Eglinton," has tried his hand on at least one
Irish play. That Johnson would have come to write drama I firmly
believe, for in drama he could have reconciled two of the four loves
that were his life. He could not have put his love of Winchester, his
school, or his love of the classics into plays, but his love of Ireland
and his love of the Catholic Church would have blended, I believe, into
plays, still with the cloistered life of the seventh century, that would
have rivaled "The Hour-Glass," and plays about "Ninety-Eight" that would
have rivaled "Cathleen Houlihan."
There are many other poets, though, of the Celtic Renaissance that are
of powers only short of greatness, Nora Hopper Chesson chief among them.
Only Mr. W.B. Yeats of them all has more "natural falterings" in his
verse than she. Mrs. Hinkson, too, whose name has come inevitably into
these pages from time to time, is a poet with as sure a place in English
literature to-day as has Mrs. Meynell. Beginning, like Mr. Yeats, as an
imitator of the Pre-Raphaelites, Mrs. Hinkson found herself in little
poems on moods of her own and moods of landscape She writes also of her
love of God, of St. Francis, and of Ireland. "Moira O'Neill" (Mrs.
Skrine), too, has a sure place, her verses crying out her homesickness
for Ireland, and redolent, every line of them, of the countryside. "The
Passing of the Gael" is known wherever there are Irish emigrants, but
there are other verses of "Ethna Carberry" (Mrs. Anna Johnstone
MacManus) that are as fine as this. Mrs. Dora Sigerson Shorter is a
balladist of stark power, and Miss Eva Gore-Booth a lyric poet whose
natural lilt no preoccupation with mysticism can for more than a moment
obscure.
Mr. Herbert Trench has of recent years surrendered to theatrical
management, but there is to his credit a substantial accomplishment of
lyrical verse that George Meredith would have approved. Mr. Colum's
verse I have spoken of below, incidentally, in considering his plays. A
distinct talent, too, is Mr. Seumas O'Sullivan's, whose "Twilight
People" (1905) indicates by its title the quality of his verse.
I have mentioned all these writers, some known in America, but others
utterly unknown, not only to indicate the relation of the drama to the
other literary forms of the Renaissance, but to account, perhaps in some
measure, for the literary quality of the plays themselves. They are
written, as plays in English during the past century have too seldom
been written, by writers who have read widely in all forms of literature
and to whom words are, if not "the only good," at least a chief good.
Mr. Russell and Mr. Yeats have sent all the younger men who would write
to the masterpieces of the world, telling them to get what they need of
the technique of the centre, to know the best in the world, but to write
of the ground under their feet. The plays are, as I have said, written,
many of them, by men who are widely read, and by men whose friends are
writers of some other form of literature, by men who wish their work in
drama to be of as high intention as the work of their friends who are
poets or essayists or writers of stories. All the other writing the
Renaissance has, then, contributed to make of the drama what it is, and
one must, if one would see the drama in relation to the Ireland of our
day, know what is the accomplishment of the other sorts of writing of
the Renaissance.