Irish Plays and Playwrights — Reading Notes

Critical Comparisons and Literary Lineage

Weygandt repeatedly situates Irish playwrights within a broader English and European tradition. In the Synge chapter, he invokes Thomas Hardy, John Donne, George Borrow, and Maurice Hewlett to frame the 'bizarre delight' of Synge's poem 'In Kerry.' He writes that 'one thinks of Mr. Hardy and one thinks of Donne' when reading the lines about 'thigh-bones, jaws and shins.' Yet he insists that the love scene in The Playboy of the Western World stands alone: 'one thinks of no other writer at all.'

This comparative approach extends to the book's structure. The chapter on William Sharp ('Fiona Macleod') suggests Weygandt sees the Celtic Renaissance as part of a wider Celticist literary current. The catalog subjects list 'English drama -- Irish authors' and 'Irish drama' as separate categories; Weygandt's text blurs that boundary by measuring Irish works against English benchmarks.

The Evidence of Correspondence and Personal Ties

The preface reveals a network of personal and scholarly debts: Weygandt thanks Lawrence Kelly for 'tales of Finn McCool, Dean Swift, and 'The Red-haired Man,'' and Dr. Robert Ellis Thompson for quickening his interest 'over 'twenty golden years ago.'' He acknowledges John Quinn for lending sketches by J.B. Yeats, and notes that '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.'

This reliance on correspondence shapes the book's authority. Weygandt presents himself as an insider who has corresponded with Yeats, Lady Gregory, and George Russell. The excerpts do not show him quoting those letters directly, but the preface establishes a tone of firsthand access. Readers should note that the critical judgments may reflect personal relationships as much as literary analysis.

Synge's Language and the Question of 'Irish-English'

Weygandt devotes considerable attention to Synge's dialect. He quotes Christy's speech at length—'we'll be astray in Erris, when Good Friday's by, drinking a sup from a well'—and comments that 'the Irish-English of Dr. [Douglas Hyde]' is a related but distinct register. He does not, in the excerpts, define what he means by 'Irish-English' or analyze its grammatical features; instead, he treats it as a transparent medium for 'the life of the roads.'

The catalog subject 'English drama -- Irish authors' implies a linguistic continuity that Weygandt's text complicates. By foregrounding Synge's non-standard syntax and vocabulary, the book implicitly argues that the Irish dramatic movement created a new literary language. Yet the excerpts offer no systematic linguistic analysis, leaving the reader to infer Weygandt's criteria from the passages he selects.

Weygandt's study is best read as a contemporary document of the Irish revival rather than a definitive history. Its value lies in the specific observations—the comparison of Synge to Donne, the acknowledgment of personal debts, the attention to dialect—that later scholarship might overlook. Readers interested in the reception of Synge's Playboy or the social networks behind the Abbey Theatre will find firsthand testimony here, though they should weigh Weygandt's enthusiasm against his limited critical distance.

I keep thinking about how Weygandt sat with Synge’s lines the way you’d hold a warm stone — not to show anyone, just to feel it longer. There’s a similar patience in that old study of the Elizabethan stage, the way it lingers on spaces where voices once rang. The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 1 — Reading Companion feels like that same quiet company, a room you return to without quite knowing why.