Modern Judgements SEAN O'CASEY MODERN JUDGEMENTS General Editor: P. N. FURBANK Dickens A. E. Dyson Henry James Tony Tanner Milton Alan Rudrum Sean O'Casey Ronald Ayling Pasternak Donald David and Angela Livingstone Walter Scott D. D. Devlin Shelley R. B. Woodings Swift A. NormanJeffares IN PREPARATION Matthew Arnold P. A. W. Collins Ford Madox Ford Richard A. Cassell Freud F. Cioffi Marvell M. Wilding Pope Graham Martin Racine R. C. Knight Sean 0' Casey MODERN JUDGEMENTS edited by RONALD AYLING Macmillan Education Selection and editorial material© Ronald Ayling 1969 Softcover reprint of the hardcover rst edition 1969 978-0-333-03330-2 ISBN 978-o-333-07049-9 ISBN 978-1-349-15301-5 (eBook) DO I 10.1007I 978-1-349-15301-5 First published 1969 MACMILLAN AND CO LTD Little Essex Street London WC2 and also at Bombay Calcutta and Madras Macmillan South Africa (Publishers) Pty LtdJohannesburg The Macmillan Company ofAustralia Pty Ltd Melbourne The Macmillan Company ofCanada Ltd Toronto For Elsie and Charles Osborn to whom I owe so much Contents Acknowledgements 7 General Editor's Preface 9 Introduction II Chronology 42 Drama HERBERT COSTON Prelude to Playwriting 47 P. s. o'HEGARTY A Dramatist ofNew-born Ireland 6o A. E. MALONE O'Casey's Photographic Realism 68 JAMES AGATE Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars 76 DENIS JOHNSTON Sean O'Casey: An Appreciation 82 w. B. YEATS TheSilverTassie:ALetter 86 CHARLES MORGAN The Silver Tassie 88 GEORGE BERNARD SHAW LettertotheProducerofThe Silver Tassie 91 BONAMY DOBREE SeanO'CaseyandthelrishDrama 92 UNA ELLIS-FERMOR PoetryinRevolt 106 JOHN GASSNER TheProdigalityofSeanO'Casey IIO JACQUES BARZUN O'Casey at Your Bedside 120 A. G. sTocK The Heroiclmage: Red Roses for Me 126 WILLIAM A. ARMSTRONG Sean O'Casey, W. B. Yeats and the Dance ofLife 13 I 6 Contents JOHN JORDAN Illusion and Actuality in the Later O'Casey 143 ROBERT HOGAN InSeanO'Casey'sGoldenDays r62 G. WILSON KNIGHT Ever a Fighter: The Drums of Father Ned 177 KATHARINE WORTH O'Casey's Dramatic Symbolism 183 JACK LINDSAY SeanO'CaseyasaSocialistArtist 192 Autobiographies HUBERT NICHOLSON O'Casey'sHornofPlenty 207 PADRAIC COLUM Sean O'Casey's Narratives 220 MARVIN MAGALANER O'Casey'sAutobiography 228 The Letters and a Toast DAVID KRAUSE ASelf-PortraitoftheArtistasaMan 235 HUGH MACDIARMID Slainte Churamach, Sean 252 Select Bibliography 26! Notes on Contributors 270 Index 273 Acknowledgements Professor Herbert H. Coston and the Tulane Drama Review for 'Sean O'Casey: Prelude to Playwriting' from the Tulane Drama Review, v no. I (Sept 1960); Mr Sean S.6 hEigeartaigh for 'A Dramatist of New-born Ireland', by P. S. O'Hegarty, from the North American Review, CCXXIV (1927); Curtis Brown Ltd for 'O'Casey's Photographic Realism' from The Irish Drama, by A. E. Malone; the Sunday Times for James Agate's reviews of Juno and the Paycock, 16 Nov 1925, and The Plough and the Stars, 16 May 1926; the Daily Telegraph for 'Sean O'Casey: An Appreciation', by Denis Johnston, from the issue of 11 March 1926; Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd for 'The Silver Tassie: A Letter' from The Letters of W. B. Yeats, ed. Allan Wade (pp. 74o-2); The Times for Charles Morgan's review of The Silver Tassie from the issue of 12 Oct 1929; the Public Trustee and the Society of Authors for George Bernard Shaw's 'Letter to the Producer of The Silver Tassie', which originally appeared in The Times, 26 Nov 1929; Professor Bonamy Dobree for 'Sean O'Casey and the Irish Drama'; Methuen & Co. Ltd for 'Poetry in Revolt' from The Irish Dramatic Movement, by Una Ellis-Fermor; the late Professor John Gassner for 'The Prodigality of Sean O'Casey' from The Theatre in Our Times: A Survey ofthe Men, Materials and Movements in the Modern Theatre; Mr Jacques Barzun for 'O'Casey at Your Bedside' from the Tulane Drama Review, rr no. 2 (Feb 1958); Professor A. G. Stock for 'The Heroic Image: Red Roses for Me'; Professor W. A. Armstrong for 'Sean O'Casey, W. B. Yeats and the Dance ofLife'; Professor John Jordan for 'Illusion and Actuality in the Later O'Casey'; Professor Robert Hogan for 'In Sean O'Casey's Golden Days' from Dublin Magazine, v nos. 3-4 (Autumn/Winter, 1966); Methuen & Co. Ltd and W. W. Norton & Co. Inc. for 'Ever a Fighter: The Drums of Father Ned' from The Christian Renaissance, by G. Wilson Knight, © 1962 by G. Wilson Knight; Mrs Katharine 8 Acknowledgements J. Worth for 'O'Casey's Dramatic Symbolism' from Modern Drama, IV no. 3 (Kansas, 1961); Mr Jack Lindsay for 'Sean O'Casey as a Socialist Artist'; William Heinemann Ltd for '0' Casey's Horn of Plenty' from A Voyage to Wonderland and Other Essays, by Hubert Nicholson; Mr Padraic Colum for 'Sean O'Casey's Narratives'; Pro­ fessor Marvin Magalaner for 'O'Casey's Autobiography'; Professor David Krause for' A Self-Portrait of the Artist as a Man: Sean 0'Casey's Letters' (a fuller version of this essay is published by the Dolmen Press Ltd as no. 6 in The New Dolmen Chapbooks); Mr Hugh MacDiarmid for 'Slainte Churamach, Sean'. The contributions by W. A. Armstrong, Padraic Colum, C. M. Grieve ('Hugh MacDiarmid'), David Krause, Jack Lindsay, and A. G. Stock were specially written for this volume. The lectures by Bonamy Dobree and John Jordan are here published for the first time. All articles, including those reprinted from books or periodicals, are published without alteration or revision, with the exception of the contributions by David Krause and John Jordan, where excessive length made cuts necessary. In Professor Krause's article the cuts were primarily letters to O'Casey and not the playwright's letters; in Professor Jordan's essay the main omission is a detailed analysis of Red Roses for Me, which was deleted because two other articles in the anthology are specifically devoted to this play. Because there is still much doubtful and conflicting information in print about O'Casey's life, a fuller chronological account than is usually provided in the Modern Judgements series is given in the present volume. Similarly, the checklist of O'Casey criticism (though it excludes unimportant reviews and journalism) is more comprehensive than usual. I am especially grateful to Mrs Eileen O'Casey for her friendly encouragement and advice, and for the kind understanding of Professor Vivian de Sola Pinto and Professor D. S. R. Weiland when I most needed it. I am also pleased to acknowledge information and help generously given by G. W. Brandt, David Cheshire, and Miss Hannah D. French, and the co-operation of Rivers Carew, Editor of the Dublin Magazine. The expert assistance of Mr P. Henchy, Director of the National Library of Ireland, and his staff, and the facilities provided by the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the library of the University of Bristol are also most gratefully recorded. R.A. General Editor's Preface LITERARY criticism has only recently come of age as an academic discipline, and the intellectual activity that, a hundred years ago, went into theological discussion, now fmds its most natural outlet in the critical essay. Amid a good deal that is dull or silly or pretentious, every year now produces a crop of critical essays that are brilliant and profound, not only as contributions to the understanding ofa particular author, but as statements of an original way oflooking at literature and the world. Hence, it often seems that the most useful undertaking for an academic publisher might be, not so much to commission new books of literary criticism or scholarship, as to make the best of what exists easily available. This at least is the purpose of the present series of anthologies, each ofwhich is devoted to a single major writer. The guiding principle of selection is to assemble the best modern criticism - broadly speaking, that of the last twenty or thirty years - and to include historic and classic essays, however famous, only when they are still influential and represent the best statements of their particular point of view. It will, however, be one of the functions of the editor's Introduction to sketch in the earlier history of criticism in regard to the author concerned. Each volume will attempt to strike a balance between general essays and ones on specialised aspects, or particular works, of the writer in question. And though in many instances the bulk of the articles will come from British and American sources, certain of the volumes will draw heavily on material in other European languages - most of it being translated for the first time. P. N. FURBANK Introduction I A GREAT deal has been written about Sean O'Casey's life and work, but only a fraction of it has any real critical substance, and there are, indeed, considerable difficulties in getting to grips with the subject. Confusion is as common as controversy, and both have been intensified by the myths and malice circulated by the writer's enemies. Reviewing O'Casey criticism up to the present, one is immediately struck by the irrelevance of much of it and by the number of false or misleading approaches to be encountered. At the same time, many important aspects of his writings remain unexplored or only partially explored - notably, practical consideration of stagecraft in his drama and objective literary evaluation of the autobiographies. Critical contradictions obscure certain significant issues. It is amazing how many reputable critics argue that the dramatist in his early Dublin plays had no didactic purpose whatsoever, while others contend that these same plays are, for good or ill, full of propaganda.