SYNGE AND THE IRELAND OF HIS TIME

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

WITH A NOTE CONCERNING A WALK THROUGH CONNEMARA WITH HIM
BY JACK BUTLER YEATS







CHURCHTOWN
DUNDRUM
MCMXI



PREFACE


At times during Synge's last illness, Lady Gregory and I would speak of
his work and always find some pleasure in the thought that unlike
ourselves, who had made our experiments in public, he would leave to the
world nothing to be wished away--nothing that was not beautiful or
powerful in itself, or necessary as an expression of his life and
thought. When he died we were in much anxiety, for a letter written
before his last illness, and printed in the selection of his poems
published at the Cuala Press, had shown that he was anxious about the