J.M. Synge, W.B. Yeats, and Lady Gregory
J.M. Synge (1871–1909)
Letter to W.B. Yeats, copy and statement with corrections and revisions by Lady Gregory
1909
When The Playboy of the Western World premiered, Synge was already weakening from the Hodgkin’s disease from which he died, aged only 37, in March 1909. Gregory continued to champion Synge and the play despite the severe criticism she received, and she was obliged to take on significantly increased managerial duties at the Abbey. Synge left a letter for Yeats, copied here by Gregory, in which he asked his fellow directors to decide what should be done with his literary papers. Among other work, they completed his unfinished play Deirdre of the Sorrows and oversaw publication of his West Kerry and Wicklow travel essays. Deirdre premiered at the Abbey in January 1910 with Synge’s fiancée, Molly Allgood, in the title role.
: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
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