Prolegomena to the Study of Yeats's Plays

This book is, in a sense, complementary to the author's Prolegomena to the Study of Yeats's Poems. Based on the reasonably definitive Collected Plays (London, 1952; New York, 1953), it essays for each play a correction of any error in final dating if such error exists; a full publication record (keyed to a complete bibliography), followed by a reference to Wade's Bibliography for every translation there recorded; notations on first production if the play has had production; a statement of what is known about dates of composition and revision, and relevant concerns; resolution—in careful glosses—of conceivable obscurities; reference to really important critical comment; and pertinent suggestion of parallel passages. Appendices present notes on uncollected or unpublished Yeatsian drama and on the many errors of the 1953 American edition of the plays.

This comprehensive study will be valuable to all Yeatsians and students of the Irish Renaissance in general, as well as anyone seriously concerned with modern drama. Like its sister Prolegomena, it will be a particular timesaver to neophytes in Yeatsian scholarship.