YEATS'S HEROIC FIGURES YEATS'S HEROIC FIGURES Wilde, Parnell, Swift, Casement Michael Steinman M Palgrave Macmillan © Michael Steinman 1983 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1983 978-0-333-34382-1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1983 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-06557-8 ISBN 978-1-349-06555-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-06555-4 To My Mother and Father If one remembers the men who have dominated Ireland for the last hundred and fifty years, one understands that it is strength of personality, the individualising quality in a man, that stirs Irish imagination most deeply in the end. There is scarcely a man who has led the Irish people, at any time, who may not give some day to a great writer precisely that symbol he may require for the expression of himself. W.B. YEATS, 1904 You have given us the most important part of history, its lies. Nature notes a fact and gets rid of it as quickly as possible, that is how she lures us. I don't believe that events have been shaped so much by the facts as by the lies that people believed about them. W. B . YEATS to Lady Gregory, after she had read him the chapter of her autobiography on the Easter Rising History seems to me a human drama ... the drama has its plot, and this plot ordains character and passions and exists for their sake. W.B. YEATS, 1930 Contents Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Wilde:" ... Oscar ruled the table" 3 Yeats and Wilde's Art 4 Parnell: "A proud man's a lovely man" 5 Swift: "The tomb of Swift wears it away" 6 Swift's Poetry Appendix: Roger Casement: "They ... blackened his good name" List ofAbbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Vll Acknowledgements This book grew out of a doctoral dissertation done at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and I am grateful to Thomas Flanagan and Jack Ludwig, who read the manuscript and offered Vlli advice and encouragement. Special thanks are due Paul Dolan, a 1 perceptive reader, teacher, and friend. I am also grateful to Narayan Hegde and the staff of the William Butler Yeats Archives at Stony Brook for making unpublished material available which contributed greatly to my understanding of Yeats. For permission to quote from 28 that unpublished material, I thank Michael and Anne Yeats. Many Yeats scholars gave generously of their time, energy, and 54 ideas. David R. Clark was always a model for original approaches to Yeats; Donald T. Torchiana patiently corresponded and made 103 invaluable letters available to me. I thank Richard Ellmann, Edward Engelberg, Augustine Martin, and William Martin Murphy for 144 their kind answers to my questions. I am also indebted to the Reference Department of the Hofstra University Library, who eagerly found the unavailable, and to Nora J. Quinlan, of the 152 Kenneth Spencer Research Library of the University of Kansas. My friends and colleagues at Stony Brook and Hofstra who 164 offered encouragement and tangible help are many, but I must thank Barbara and Dennis Bengels, Joann Krieg, Carol Levenstein, 166 Hyman Lichtenstein, Jennifer Randisi, and Bob, Laurie, and Charles Rozakis. I am most indebted to Maureen Murphy, of l84 Hofstra and the American Committee for Irish Studies, who first taught me Yeats and read the manuscript in innumerable versions. 191 Her wise guidance and friendship never faltered, and, without her, this book would never have existed. My greatest debt outside the circle offriends and scholars is, of course, noted in my dedication. The author and publisher wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material: A.P. Watt, Ltd., Michael Yeats, Anne Yeats, and the Macmillan Vill Acknowledgements lX Publishing Co., for the extracts from William Butler Yeats, Mythologies (©Mrs W. B. Yeats, 1959), Essays and Introductions (©Mrs W. B. Yeats, 1961), The Variorum Edition of the Poems ofW B. Yeats, ed Peter AlIt and Russell K. Alspach (©the Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1957), The VariorumEditionofthePlaysofW B. Yeats, ed. Russell K. Alspach (©Russell K. Alspach and Bertha Georgie Yeats, 1966, ©Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1965), The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats (© 1916, 1936 by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., © 1944, 1964 by Bertha Georgie Yeats), The Letters of W B. Yeats, ed. Allan Wade (© 1953, 1954 by Anne Butler Yeats), Explorations (©Mrs W. B. Yeats, 1962), A Vision (©1937 by W. B. Yeats, renewed 1965 by Bertha Georgie Yeats and Anne Butler Yeats), Collected Plays (©1934, 1952 by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.) and Collected Poems (©1912, 1916, 1918, 1919, 1924, 1928, 1933, 1934 by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., renewed 1940,1944, 1946, 1947,1952,1956, 1961,1962byBerthaGeorgie Yeats, © 1940 by Georgie Yeats, renewed 1968 by Bertha Georgie Yeats, Michael Butler Yeats and Anne Yeats); CorneH University Press, for the extracts from William Martin Murphy, Prodigal Father: the Life of John Butler Yeats (1839-1922), (©Cornell University Press, 1978); Littlefield, Adams, and Company, and the Macmillan Press, Ltd., for E. H. Mikhail, ed., W B. Yeats: Interviews and Recollections, (©E. H. Mikhail, 1977); Oxford University Press, for the extracts from William Butler Yeats, The Oxford Book Of Modern Verse, 1892 -1935, (©Oxford University Press, 1935); Random House, Inc., for the extracts from Oscar Wilde, The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde, ed. Richard EHmann, (©Richard EHmann, 1968, 1969); A. P. Watt, Ltd., for the extracts from William Butler Yeats, Memoirs, ed. Denis Donoghue (©Denis Donoghue, M. B. Yeats, and Anne Yeats, 1972); and Columbia University Press, for the extracts from Uncollected Prose by W B. Yeats, vol. I, ed. John P. Frayne (©John P. Frayne and Michael Yeats, 1970) and Uncollected Prose by W B. Yeats, vol. II, ed. John P. Frayne and Colton Johnson (©John P. Frayne, Colton Johnson, and Michael Yeats, 1975, 1976). .