BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
WITH A NOTE CONCERNING A WALK THROUGH CONNEMARA
WITH HIM BY JACK BUTLER YEATS
CHURCHTOWN DUNDRUM MCMXI
At times during Synge's last illness, Lady Gregory and I would speak ofhis work and always find some pleasure in the thought that unlikeourselves, who had made our experiments in public, he would leave tothe world nothing to be wished away--nothing that was not beautiful orpowerful in itself, or necessary as an expression of his life andthought. When he died we were in much anxiety, for a letter writtenbefore his last illness, and printed in the selection of his poemspublished at the Cuala Press, had shown that he was anxious about thefate of his manuscripts and scattered writings. On the evening of thenight he died he had asked that I might come to him the next day; andmy diary of the days following his death shows how great was ouranxiety. Presently however, all seemed to have come right, for theExecutors sent me the following letter that had been found among hispapers, and promised to carry out his wishes.
'May 4th, 1908
'Dear Yeats,
'This is only to go to you if anything should go wrong with me underthe operation or after it. I am a little bothered about my 'papers.' Ihave a certain amount of verse that I think would be worth preserving,possibly also the 1st and 3rd acts of 'Deirdre,' and then I have a lotof Kerry and Wicklow articles that would go together into a book. Theother early stuff I wrote I have kept as a sort of curiosity, but I amanxious that it should not get into print. I wonder could you getsomeone--say ... who is now in Dublin to go through them for you and dowhatever you and Lady Gregory think desirable. It is rather a hardthing to ask you but I do not want my good things destroyed or my badthings printed rashly--especially a morbid thing about a mad fiddler inParis which I hate. Do what you can--Good luck.
'J.M. Synge'
In the summer of 1909, the Executors sent me a large bundle of papers,cuttings from newspapers and magazines, manuscript and typewrittenprose and verse, put together and annotated by Synge himself before hislast illness. I spent a portion of each day for weeks reading andre-reading early dramatic writing, poems, essays, and so forth, andwith the exception of ninety pages which have been published without myconsent, made consulting Lady Gregory from time to time the Selectionof his work published by Messrs. Maunsel. It is because of these ninetypages, that neither Lady Gregory's name nor mine appears in any of thebooks, and that the Introduction which I now publish, was withdrawn byme after it had been advertised by the publishers. Before thepublication of the books the Executors discovered a scrap of paper witha sentence by J.M. Synge saying that Selections might be taken from hisEssays on the Congested Districts. I do not know if this was writtenbefore his letter to me, which made no mention of them, or containedhis final directions. The matter is unimportant, for the publishersdecided to ignore my offer to select as well as my original decision toreject, and for this act of theirs they have given me no reasons exceptreasons of convenience, which neither Lady Gregory nor I could accept.
W.B. Yeats.
* * * * *
On Saturday, January 26th, 1907, I was lecturing in Aberdeen, and whenmy lecture was over I was given a telegram which said, 'Play great