Douglas Hyde
At Coole Park, Co. Galway, Christmas, 1898…
…poet, playwright and linguist Douglas Hyde, 38, is putting on a 'Punch and Judy' show for kids as part of the local school festival. His hostess, Lady Augusta Gregory, 46, presents the play first in English, and then Hyde does it in Gaelic.
Augusta and he met this past summer when he was traveling around the west of Ireland, collecting stories. He would stop on a country road and pretend that his bike had broken down until a passing farmer would stop to help him. They'd end up back in the farmer's house for a drink. Hyde's proficiency in Gaelic helped him draw out their folk tales in their native language.
Augusta is interested in learning more Gaelic, and having Hyde 'put the Irish on' the plays she and poet William Butler Yeats, 33, are writing for their theatre. The plays will be performed in English, but they need to sound right. So they will write them in English. Hyde can then translate them into Irish, and then back into English.
Hyde is happy to help, and he thinks both Yeats and Lady Gregory can be useful to his organization, The Gaelic League.
And besides, Lady Gregory and he actually like each other.
Pamphlet setting out the aims of the Gaelic League, 1893
This year, we'll be telling stories about these groups of 'such friends,' before, during and after their times together.
Posted in Coole Park, Douglas Hyde, Gaelic League, Galway, Lady Augusta Gregory, William Butler Yeats
Tagged Coole Park, Douglas Hyde, Gaelic League, Galway, Lady Augusta Gregory, William Butler Yeats
In Upper Ely Place, Dublin, May of 1902…
…writer George Moore, 50, is excited about the upcoming production of The Tinker and the Fairy, a play based on Irish folk tales by his new friend, founder of the Gaelic League, Douglas Hyde, 42.
Moore is the one who suggested staging it in his own back garden, as a one-off special event, with Hyde playing the lead role of the Tinker, followed by a posh, invitation-only reception for 300 special guests,
Upper Ely Place, Dublin
As Moore had hoped, this is turning in to THE event of the Dublin social season—and it is all his baby. He and Hyde agreed on a translator to produce an English version of the play, from the original Irish. But it was Moore who edited it, made major changes in the script, and has directed the whole production. Hyde might have gotten tired of his constant letters of instruction, but even he would have to admit that the play is stronger.
Moore's purpose is to bring his native Irish culture into the mainstream by working these folk stories from the people into plays by Hyde and his other friends in the Irish National Theatre Society. And everyone in Ireland will know that it is all because of him, Moore, and his efforts.
George Moore, charcoal drawing
Posted in Douglas Hyde, Dublin, Ely Place, Gaelic League, George Moore, Irish National Theatre Society
Tagged Douglas Hyde, Dublin, Ely Place, Gaelic League, George Moore, Irish National Theatre Society
In Dublin, in the summer of 1904…
…Lady Augusta Gregory, 52, is critically watching the rehearsal of A Pot of Broth, a little comedy she wrote a few years ago with William Butler Yeats, 39, for their theatre.
The actors are doing well. But Yeats is driving them nuts. As one of the theatre's staff related later,
Lady Gregory was the very opposite to…Yeats in sitting quietly and giving direction in quiet, almost apologetic tones"
Augusta is thinking that, after the rehearsal, she'll invite everyone over to her room at the nearby Nassau Hotel to re-hash the performances and make suggestions.
Earlier this evening she'd had dinner with Yeats and John Quinn, 34, the handsome Irish-American lawyer from New York. He's been coming over to Ireland in the summers to uncover his Irish roots, and spending more time with her here in Dublin and at her western Ireland home, Coole Park. Quinn has been talking to one of the other theatre principals, Douglas Hyde, 44, about arranging an American lecture tour to raise funds for Hyde's Gaelic League..
But tomorrow, Quinn will be off to London and Augusta will head back to Coole. She's thinking it would be great to bring the theatre over to New York for a tour sometime soon.
Lady Augusta Gregory, c. 1904
Posted in Abbey Theatre, Coole Park, Douglas Hyde, Dublin, Gaelic League, John Quinn, Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats
Tagged Abbey Theatre, Coole Park, Douglas Hyde, Dublin, Gaelic League, John Quinn, Lady Augusta Gregory, William Butler Yeats
In Craughwell, County Galway, August 31, 1902…
…everyone is enjoying the Raftery feis.
Poet William Butler Yeats, 37, is there with his father and brother, both painters, to support his friend Lady Augusta Gregory, 50, who has been planning this event for the past two years.
Yeats in 1903
In her research into Irish folklore, Augusta had discovered Raftery, the legendary 18th century blind Gaelic poet. Upset to learn that his grave here in Craughwell was unmarked, she organized a ceremony a few years ago to set up a stone cross. Now that she's bought a real headstone, a whole festival is being held to celebrate it.
There's quite a crowd. Have they come to honor Raftery or for the singing, dancing, flute playing and prizes? Yeats has come so as not to disappoint Augusta.
Ever the hostess, Lady Gregory is inviting some of the festival goers over to hers, nearby Coole Park, for some play-reading. Mostly those involved in their Irish theatre project, such as Yeats and Gaelic League president Douglas Hyde, 42. And an American tourist she's been chatting up, lawyer John Quinn, 32, who is on his first trip to Ireland, searching for his roots.
Raftery's grave
Ninety years later, in August of 1992, I visited Ireland and went to Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in Dublin for Irish music and dancing. Met my husband, Tony Dixon. To all Irish-Americans seeking your roots in Ireland, beware…
Posted in Abbey Theatre, Coole Park, Craughwell, Douglas Hyde, Gaelic League, Jack Yeats, John Butler Yeats, John Quinn, Lady Augusta Gregory, Raftery, William Butler Yeats
Tagged Abbey Theatre, Coole Park, Craughwell, Douglas Hyde, Gaelic League, Jack Yeats, John Butler Yeats, John Quinn, Lady Augusta Gregory, Raftery, William Butler Yeats
In November of 1889…
…in Dublin, Irish scholar Douglas Hyde, 29, has found an excuse to stop by the home of Maud Gonne, 22, for the second time that day. He's been feeling quite smitten by the six foot tall Englishwoman who has taken up his cause of preserving Irish culture.
Hyde has been giving her Irish lessons and she's been coming to meetings of the Pan-Celtic Society with him, joining in the singing of 'All for Ireland' a few months ago.
However, his friend William Butler Yeats, 24, has written a play for Gonne. He and Yeats have known each other since Hyde was at Trinity; they've worked on books of poetry together, sitting up all night in his rooms drinking whiskey and criticising each other's work. But lately, Willie seems to be spending more time with Gonne than Hyde.
Well, Hyde will see her again tonight at the Society meeting in Marlborough Street, just off Abbey Street, in city centre.
The Dublin Streets A Vendor of Books 1889 by Walter Osborne
Posted in Douglas Hyde, Dublin, Irish Literary Renaissance, Maud Gonne, The Irish Literary Renaissance, Yeats
What was happening 100 years ago, January 1914…
…In Ireland?
Finally. After seven months of the Dublin Lock Out, it's over.
Although the bitter lockout of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union by the United Tramways Co. marked the first time that Irish workers were organized, the unions lost. Even their leader, Jim Larkin, about to turn 38, admitted, "We are beaten. We make no bones about it."
Douglas Hyde, just turned 54, one of the founders of the Gaelic League as well as the Abbey Theatre, initially supported the political groups that grew out of the early months of the strike. But now he is thinking that he may have to resign from his League again, as he did last year. The League he founded 17 years before to preserve the Irish language is becoming too political for his taste, and his best option may be to leave.
This month, 100 years later in 2014, the Abbey Theatre, founded by Hyde and his "Such Friends," is staging James Plunkett's The Risen People, set in the time of the Lockout: http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/whats_on/event/the-risen-people/
The Abbey Theatre's current production of The Risen People
…In England?
Hyde's friend and fellow Abbey founder, poet William Butler Yeats, 48, is spending another winter in Stone Cottage in the East Sussex countryside, with his new secretary/assistant, American student Ezra Pound, 28, delighted to be working closely with one of his literary heroes.
In the middle of the month, Yeats takes time out to attend a party in West Sussex for Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, 73. The two poets shared a friendship with Abbey founder and director, Lady Augusta Gregory, 61, with whom Blunt—but not Yeats—had an affair.
Farther west in the English countryside, at the Lacket in Wiltshire, Lytton Strachey, 34, is also writing and visiting London regularly. One of his Bloomsbury friends, Virginia Woolf, about to turn 32, married for one year to Lytton's Cambridge buddy Leonard, 34, has volunteered to do his typing for him. For Virginia, working on her first novel, the typing is a welcome break to help her recuperate from one of her recurring bouts of mental illness.
Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf
…In France?
Virginia's sister, painter Vanessa Bell, 34, along with her husband, Clive, 32, and her former lover, Roger Fry, 47, are visiting Paris to find out what is going on in art. They have struck up a friendship with the city's foremost ex-patriate art collectors, the Stein family from San Francisco. Vanessa, Clive and Roger have seen the Stein collection in the home of Michael, 48, and his wife Sarah, 43, on the Left Bank. Michael's sister Gertrude, 39, who lives nearby at 27 rue de Fleurus, introduces the Brits to one of her favourite artists, Henri Matisse, just turned 44.
Gertrude is taking them to meet Pablo Picasso, 32, in his studio. Picasso has been championed by Gertrude and her brother, Leo, 41, who recently decided to live permanently in Italy. This leaves Gertrude and her partner, Alice B. Toklas, 36, also from San Francisco, on their own to continue the popular Saturday evening salons showcasing the art they are buying.
The Stein family
In the south of France, Lytton's cousin, painter Duncan Grant, about to turn 29, is meeting up with their Bloomsbury friend, economist John Maynard Keynes, 30, who has come along with his mother, 52, to try his luck at the casinos of Monte Carlo.
…In America?
Finally, George S Kaufman, 24, is getting by-lines for the features he is contributing to the New York Tribune. When his family moved to New York City from Pittsburgh a few years before, he had been thrilled to get a few squibs into the most read column in the city, "Good Humor," compiled by the already legendary FPA [Franklin Pierce Adams, 32] in the Evening Mail. FPA had taken a liking to Kaufman and even secured him a full-time writing job with the Times in Washington, DC, publicly congratulating him in the Mail.
However, after Kaufman spent a year in DC, mostly playing stud poker at the National Press Club, the anti-Semitic owner of the Times had spotted him and loudly asked, "What's that Jew doing in my city room?" Kaufman returned to Manhattan.
In addition to the free-lance pieces he is selling, in the evenings Kaufman is working on some plays with friends, and thinking it would be a good year to visit Europe for the first time.
George S Kaufman
Posted in 1913, Abbey Theatre, Algonquin Round Table, Alice B. Toklas, Americans in Paris, Bloomsbury group, Douglas Hyde, George S Kaufman, Gertrude Stein, Irish Literary Renaissance, John Maynard Keynes, Lady Gregory, Lytton Strachey, Paris Left Bank, The Algonquin Round Table, The Americans in Paris, The Bloomsbury Group, The Irish Literary Renaissance, Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf, Yeats
'Such Friends' events in the UK and on the Atlantic Ocean
'Such Friends' has some upcoming events you are all welcome to find out about and join us.
Here in Birmingham, UK, on Wednesday, 6th February, I will be presenting 'W B Yeats and the Founding of the Abbey Theatre' to the Birmingham Irish Heritage Society, at The Irish Club, in the Digbeth part of town. It's 7 pm for a 7:15 start, and free to anyone interested. We'll have some books, pictures and reading lists, and a few clips from the National Library of Ireland's excellent DVD about Yeats and the theatre. If you're interested in coming, e-mail me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com for details.
The weekend after, 9th and 10th February, London's Southbank center is putting on 'Paris 1910-1930' as part of their 'The Rest Is Noise' series. I've got my weekend pass! If anyone cares to join me, the schedule and ticket information are at http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/sites/default/files/documents/paris_full_weekend_listings_1.pdf.
Also in London, the play, Fiesta, based on Ernest Hemingway's first novel, The Sun Also Rises, is at the Trafalgar Studio. Let me know if you're game…
The Yeats presentation is a warm up for the three-lecture series I will be doing this May on board the second leg of the Semester at Sea's Enrichment Voyage through northern Europe. In addition to Yeats, we will also explore 'Britain Before the War—the Irish Literary Renaissance and the Bloomsbury Group,' and 'Happy Bloomsday! James Joyce in Dublin and Paris.'
Semester at Sea [www.semesteratsea.org] is one of my favourite ways to teach—on board the beautiful MV Explorer, sailing from LeHavre, to Antwerp, to Amsterdam, to Edinburgh, to Belfast, to Dublin to Dover. If you or someone you know is interested in joining us, check out the details at http://enrichmentvoyages.org.
As discussed in the last blog posting [see post below and the article to the right], 2013 is the centenary of the Armory Show, a seminal event which links all four of my groups of writers and artists. I have been posting what was happening 100 years ago on my 'Such Friends' Facebook page and @SuchFriends.
And in May the new film of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby will appear. Let's hope it's a great year for all of our 'Such Friends'!
Posted in Abbey Theatre, Bloomsbury group, Charleston farmhouse, Coole Park, Douglas Hyde, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Irish Literary Renaissance, John Maynard Keynes, John Millington Synge, Lady Gregory, Lytton Strachey, Monk's House, The Bloomsbury Group, The Irish Literary Renaissance, Virginia Woolf, Yeats