John M. Synge: a Few Personal Recollections, with Biographical Notes by Masefield, John, 1878-1967

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John M. Synge A Few Personal Recollections, With Biographical Notes By John Masefield John M. Synge

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Portraits Other Writings A Note

PORTRAITS

Several portraits of Synge exist. Besides a few drawings of him which are still in private hands, there are these, which have been made public.

An oil painting by Mr. J. B. Yeats. R.H.A. (Municipal Gallery, Dublin.)

A Drawing by Mr. J. B. Yeats. R.H.A. (_Samhain_. December, 1904.)

A Drawing by Mr. J. B. Yeats. R.H.A. (Frontispiece to _Playboy_.)

Frontispieces to Vols. I. III. and IV. of the _Works_. (One of these is a drawing by Mr. James Paterson, the others are photographs.)

Two small but characteristic amateur photographs reproduced in M. Bourgeois's book.

Very few people can read a dead man's character from a portrait. Life is our concern; it was very specially synge's concern. Doubtless he would prefer us not to bother about how he looked, but to think of him as one who

"Held Time's fickle glass his fickle hour"

and then was put back into the earth with the kings and tinkers who made such a pageant in his brain. For the rest, he would say, with Shakespeare,

"My spirit is thine, the better part of me."

A LIST OF HIS PLAYS, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER WITH THE DATES OF THEIR FIRST PERFORMANCES

The Shadow of the Glen. Written 1902.3. Performed 8th. October 1903.

Riders to the Sea. Written 1902.3. Performed 25th. February 1904.

The Well of the Saints. Written 1903.4. Performed 4th. February 1905.

The Playboy of the Western World. Written 1905.6. Performed 26th. January 1907.

The Tinker's Wedding. Written 1902-1907. Performed 11th. November 1909.

Deirdre of the Sorrows, (unfinished) 1907.8. Performed 13th. January 1910.

OTHER WRITINGS

The Aran Islands. Written between 1899 and 1907. Published April, 1907.

Poems and Translations. Written between 1891 and 1908; the translations between 1905 and 1908. Published June 5, 1909.

The works of John M. Synge, in 4 volumes, published in 1910, contains all the published plays and books and selections from his papers. Though he disliked writing for newspapers he wrote some contributions to _The Gael_, _The Shanachie_, _The Speaker_, _The Manchester Guardian_ and _L'Europeen_ (in Paris) between the years 1902 and 1908. One or two of the best of these are reprinted in _The Works_. The others may be read in their place by those who care. It is possible that the zeal of biographers will discover a few papers by him in other periodicals.

A NOTE

Information about John M. Synge may be found in Mr. W. B. Yeats's Collected Works, Vol. 8, p. 173. In J. M. Synge and the Ireland of His Time, by W. B. Yeats and Jack B. Yeats. In an article by Mr. Jack B. Yeats in the New York Sun, July, 1909, mainly reprinted in the above.