Sean O’Casey: Modern Judgements

269 Pages·1969·25.801 MB·English

by  Ronald Ayling (eds.)

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)
DOI 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 LtdJ ohannesburg
The Macmillan Company ofA ustralia Pty Ltd Melbourne
The Macmillan Company ofC anada 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 oft he 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'C asey'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 ofw hich 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