



Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Turgut Dincer and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. Music
transcribed by Brian Foley using LilyPond.









   _By Lady Gregory_


   Irish Folk-History Plays

     First Series: The Tragedies
       Grania. Kincora. Dervorgilla

     Second Series: The Tragic Comedies
       The Canavans. The White Cockade. The Deliverer

   New Comedies
     The Bogie Men. The Full Moon. Coats. Damer's
     Gold. McDonough's Wife

   Our Irish Theatre
     A Chapter of Autobiography

   Seven Short Plays
     Spreading the News. Hyacinth Halvey. The Rising
     of the Moon. The Jackdaw. The Workhouse Ward.
     The Travelling Man. The Gaol Gate

   The Golden Apple
     A Kiltartan Play for Children




   Seven Short Plays

   By

   Lady Gregory


   G. P. Putnam's Sons
   New York and London
   The Knickerbocker Press
   1916


   COPYRIGHT, 1903, by LADY AUGUSTA GREGORY

   COPYRIGHT, 1904, by LADY GREGORY

   COPYRIGHT, 1905, by LADY GREGORY

   COPYRIGHT, 1906, by LADY GREGORY

   COPYRIGHT, 1909, by LADY GREGORY


These plays have been copyrighted and published simultaneously in the
United States and Great Britain.

All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign
languages.

All acting rights, both professional and amateur, are reserved in the
United States, Great Britain, and all countries of the Copyright
Union, by the author. Performances forbidden and right of presentation
reserved.

Application for the right of performing these plays or reading them in
public should be made to Samuel French, 28 West 38th St., New York
City, or 26 South Hampton St., Strand, London.


Second Impression

The Knickerbocker Press, New York




DEDICATION


_To you, W. B. YEATS, good praiser, wholesome dispraiser, heavy-handed
judge, open-handed helper of us all, I offer a play of my plays for
every night of the week, because you like them, and because you have
taught me my trade._

   AUGUSTA GREGORY

   _Abbey Theatre,
     May 1, 1909._




CONTENTS

                                                PAGE

   SPREADING THE NEWS                              1

   HYACINTH HALVEY                                29

   THE RISING OF THE MOON                         75

   THE JACKDAW                                    93

   THE WORKHOUSE WARD                            137

   THE TRAVELLING MAN                            155

   THE GAOL GATE                                 173

   MUSIC FOR THE SONGS IN THE PLAYS              189

   NOTES, &C.                                    196




SPREADING THE NEWS

PERSONS

   _Bartley Fallon._
   _Mrs. Fallon._
   _Jack Smith._
   _Shawn Early._
   _Tim Casey._
   _James Ryan._
   _Mrs. Tarpey._
   _Mrs. Tully._
   _A Policeman_ (JO MULDOON).
   _A Removable Magistrate._

SPREADING THE NEWS

   _Scene: The outskirts of a Fair. An Apple Stall, Mrs. Tarpey
   sitting at it. Magistrate and Policeman enter._


_Magistrate_: So that is the Fair Green. Cattle and sheep and mud. No
system. What a repulsive sight!

_Policeman_: That is so, indeed.

_Magistrate_: I suppose there is a good deal of disorder in this
place?

_Policeman_: There is.

_Magistrate_: Common assault?

_Policeman_: It's common enough.

_Magistrate_: Agrarian crime, no doubt?

_Policeman_: That is so.

_Magistrate_: Boycotting? Maiming of cattle? Firing into houses?

_Policeman_: There was one time, and there might be again.

_Magistrate_: That is bad. Does it go any farther than that?

_Policeman_: Far enough, indeed.

_Magistrate:_ Homicide, then! This district has been shamefully
neglected! I will change all that. When I was in the Andaman Islands,
my system never failed. Yes, yes, I will change all that. What has
that woman on her stall?

_Policeman:_ Apples mostly--and sweets.

_Magistrate:_ Just see if there are any unlicensed goods
underneath--spirits or the like. We had evasions of the salt tax in the
Andaman Islands.

_Policeman:_ (_Sniffing cautiously and upsetting a heap of apples._) I
see no spirits