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THE COLLECTED WORKS OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS




    DISCOVERIES. EDMUND SPENSER.
    POETRY AND TRADITION; & OTHER
    ESSAYS:: BEING THE EIGHTH VOLUME
    OF THE COLLECTED WORKS IN VERSE
    & PROSE OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS :: IMPRINTED
    AT THE SHAKESPEARE
    HEAD PRESS STRATFORD-ON-AVON
    MCMVIII




CONTENTS


                                                           PAGE
    DISCOVERIES:
      PROPHET, PRIEST AND KING                                3
      PERSONALITY AND THE INTELLECTUAL ESSENCES               8
      THE MUSICIAN AND THE ORATOR                            12
      A GUITAR PLAYER                                        13
      THE LOOKING-GLASS                                      14
      THE TREE OF LIFE                                       15
      THE PRAISE OF OLD WIVES’ TALES                         18
      THE PLAY OF MODERN MANNERS                             20
      HAS THE DRAMA OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE A ROOT OF ITS OWN?  22
      WHY THE BLIND MAN IN ANCIENT TIMES WAS MADE A POET     24
      CONCERNING SAINTS AND ARTISTS                          29
      THE SUBJECT MATTER OF DRAMA                            32
      THE TWO KINDS OF ASCETICISM                            36
      IN THE SERPENT’S MOUTH                                 38
      THE BLACK AND THE WHITE ARROWS                         39
      HIS MISTRESS’S EYEBROWS                                39
      THE TRESSES OF THE HAIR                                41
      A TOWER ON THE APENNINE                                42
      THE THINKING OF THE BODY                               43
      RELIGIOUS BELIEF NECESSARY TO SYMBOLIC ART             45
      THE HOLY PLACES                                        48
    EDMUND SPENSER                                           51
    POETRY AND TRADITION                                     91
    MODERN IRISH POETRY                                     113
    LADY GREGORY’S CUCHULAIN OF MUIRTHEMNE                  131
    LADY GREGORY’S GODS AND FIGHTING MEN                    147
    MR. SYNGE AND HIS PLAYS                                 171
    LIONEL JOHNSON                                          183
    THE PATHWAY                                             189

    BIBLIOGRAPHY                                            197




DISCOVERIES




PROPHET, PRIEST AND KING


THE little theatrical company I write my plays for had come to a west
of Ireland town, and was to give a performance in an old ball-room, for
there was no other room big enough. I went there from a neighbouring
country-house, and, arriving a little before the players, tried to open
a window. My hands were black with dirt in a moment, and presently a
pane of glass and a part of the window-frame came out in my hands.
Everything in this room was half in ruins, the rotten boards cracked
under my feet, and our new proscenium and the new boards of the
platform looked out of place, and yet the room was not really old, in
spite of the musicians’ gallery over the stage. It had been built by
some romantic or philanthropic landlord some three or four generations
ago, and was a memory of we knew not what unfinished scheme.

From there I went to look for the players, and called for information
on a young priest, who had invited them and taken upon himself the
finding of an audience. He lived in a high house with other priests,
and as I went in I noticed with a whimsical pleasure a broken pane of
glass in the fanlight over the door, for he had once told me the story
of an old woman who a good many years ago quarrelled with the bishop,
got drunk and hurled a stone through the painted glass. He was a clever
man who read Meredith and Ibsen, but some of his books had been packed
in the fire-grate by his housekeeper, instead of the customary view of
an Italian lake or the  tissue-paper. The players, who had been
giving a performance in a neighbouring town, had not yet come, or were
unpacking their costumes and properties at the hotel he had recommended
them. We should have time, he said, to go through the half-ruined
town and to visit the convent schools and the cathedral, where, owing
to his influence, two of our young Irish sculptors had been set to
car