Dublin in the age of william butler yeats and james joyce

title: author: publisher: isbn10 | asin: print isbn13: ebook isbn13: language: subject publication date: lcc: ddc: subject: Dublin in the Age of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce Centers of Civilization Series ; Kain, Richard Morgan University of Oklahoma Press 0806122633 9780806122632 9780806172224 English Dublin (Ireland) Intellectual life, Dublin (Ireland)-Politics and government, Irish literature History and criticism 1990 DA995.D75K3 1990eb 914.183 Dublin (Ireland) Intellectual life, Dublin (Ireland)-Politics and government, Irish literature History and criticism Page iii Dublin In the Age of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce By Richard M Kain NORMAN AND LONDON UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS Page iv Books by Richard M Kain Fabulous Voyager: James Joyce's Ulysses (Chicago, 1947; New York, 1959) With Marvin Magalaner, Joyce: The Man, the Work, the Reputation (New York, 1956, 1962; Westport, 1975) Dublin in the Age of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce (Norman, 1962; Newton Abbot, 1972) With Robert Scholes, The Workshop of Daedalus: James Joyce and the Raw Materials for A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Evanston, 1965) Susan L Mitchell (Lewisburg, 1972) With James H O'Brien, George Russell (A E.) (Lewis, London, 1976) L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOG C ARD N UMBER : 62-16474 ISBN: 0-8061-2263-3 Dublin in the Age of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce is Volume in The Centers of Civilization Series Copyright © 1962 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Publishing Division of the University Manufactured in the U.S.A All rights reserved First edition, 1962; second printing, 1967 First paperback printing, 1990 Page v For My Irish Friends Page vii Contents Preface to the Paperback Edition ix Preface to the First Edition xv I The Cultural Renaissance II The Irish Revival 28 III Personalities 64 IV Politics 101 V Humor 151 VI The Achievement 172 Chronology, 18851941 185 Selected Bibliography 201 Index 204 Map of Dublin 15 Page ix Preface to the Paperback Edition: Memories of Joyce's Dublin The Dublin of James Joyce was passing from living memory into literary history when this book was being written On my first visit in 1948 and during the next decade it was still possible to see the city that Joyce portrayed and to enjoy recollections of the old days by survivors, some of them characters in Ulysses Their accounts contributed greatly to the spirit of my text Dublin was then eighteenth-century in appearance and atmosphere At College Green a policeman with hand signals directed the light traffic of cycles, a few automobiles, occasional vans, and drays (mostly horsedrawn) There were also those ships of the street, the stately trams, so well described by Joyce: "Right and left clanging ringing a doubledecker and a singledeck moved from their railheads, swerved to the down line, glided parallel." In an obituary tribute to Joyce, his friend Constantine Curran wrote: "If Dublin were destroyed, his words Page x could rebuild the houses." The thought has become a reality Leopold Bloom's house has been razed, the Nelson Pillar dynamited, the original Abbey Theatre rebuilt, and much of the old city demolished to be replaced by characterless rows of housing or impersonal concrete office blocks Gone are the Turkish baths; gone, too, the Grosvenor Hotel and Yeates and Son, where Bloom priced field glasses "Grafton street gay" is a crowded pedestrian mall One-way streets make a Joyce tour difficult A recent guidebook noted that one must now trace the funeral route by foot, since the streets run in the wrong direction Joyce might have been amused Talking to me, Mr Curran mused, "It's strange to think that a friend of mine became world famous, and so many classmates were prominent here in Ireland." Joyceans tend to accept Joyce's description of University College as only "a day-school of terrorised boys." In fact, as I have written here, Joyce's class included men of legal, political, and literary ability who influenced the emerging nation Curran himself is a case in point In addition to his legal career he was a drama critic, a historian, and an expert on the art and architecture of Dublin's golden age in the eighteenth century Curran carried his learning lightly He was a neighbor and close friend of "A E." (George William Russell), who could put off his prophetic manner and relax into family fun, as did his assistant, the witty Susan Mitchell, both of whom I later depicted in volumes of the Bucknell University Irish Writers series In contrast to their serious work they enjoyed informal visits and impromptu verses at parties that were Page xi fondly remembered by Curran and his wife, Helen, who had been the first to play Maurya in "Riders to the Sea." The Irish have a genius for making enemies Yeats created them, Joyce imagined them By the time I encountered Dubliners, quarrels of the past had been largely forgotten or forgiven, and often converted into entertaining gossip In Dublin, anecdote is art Dubliners did not tell stories, they dramatized them There is the necessary preparation, the preliminary setting of the scene, and descriptive characterization of the principal actors Ulysses has several fine examples There is the tale about Mulcahy's statue in Prospect Cemetery, Glasnevin, told by the caretaker, "thumbs in the loops of his gold watchchain," speaking "in a discreet tone to their vacant smiles." At the office of the Freeman's Journal, Professor Hugh MacHugh recounts the oration of the ailing John F Taylor in behalf of Irish culture A few minutes later Stephen Dedalus is often interrupted in relating his Parable of the Plums about the "Two Dublin vestals'' who climb the Pillar, but he has better success in recreating an afternoon performance of Hamlet, with Shakespeare playing the role of the ghost: "It is this hour of a day in mid June, Stephen said, begging with a swift glance their hearing." Oliver St John Gogarty was among the best tellers of tales One might say first, though, the sequel in the old saying about the thoroughbred Eclipse, "Eclipse first, the rest nowhere," does not apply to Dubliners These stories turn on odd quirks of personality, the kind of tale Joyce must have loved, provided it was not at his expense He found no amusement in Alessandro Page xii Francini-Bruni's description of him at the Berlitz School in Trieste, the first biographical sketch, published when Ulysses appeared It is an entertaining picture of the ridiculous side of that institution, with Joyce something of a buffoon, though a likable one Gogarty, too, resented his portrait as Buck Mulligan in Ulysses, which is to me an amusing caricature Unable to enjoy a joke on himself, he told many at the expense of others In his biography of Gogarty, Ulick O'Connor quotes an observation on the Irish art of storytelling The Times Literary Supplement, in reviewing Gogarty, noted that "With so many vivid personalities to choose from, Irish writers were tempted to abandon imaginary characters, and invent imaginary conversations." They are all gone now, Curran and Padraic Colum dying in January 1972 I shall not forget my last visit to Curran's home, in Rathgar, as it was being disbanded The living room where I had enjoyed so many talks (with drawings and portraits by Jack Yeats and A E on the walls, and a low bookcase filled with inscribed editions, now at University College), was littered with packing materials A small library beyond, from floor to ceiling filled with books on art, history, and literature, had windows looking out on a small garden Curran was brisk, lively, speaking in clipped sentences His great love was for the era of classic taste in Georgian Dublin, though he hated the word I remember walking with him toward Merrion Square past the pseudo-classic government office at the corner "That's Georgian," he said, "George the Fifth," the scorn in his voice making the word noisome Fortunately, much of Dublin at the turn of the century Page xiii has been recorded in the volumes of reminiscence listed in the "Selected Bibliography" in this book I am happy to add two titles by Curran, published when he was in his eighties, James Joyce Remembered (1968) and Under the Receding Wave (1970) Two memoirs by Gogarty's friends have also appeared: Beatrice, Lady Glenavy, Today We Will Only Gossip (1964) and Sir Shane Leslie, Long Shadows (1966) R M K LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY SEPTEMBER, 1989 Page 211 Mitchell, Susan: 46, 61, 73, 164, 167 , writings of: ''George Moore Comes to Ireland," 46; Aids to Immortality of Certain Persons in Ireland, Charitably Administered, 47, 165 Moore, George: 19, 24f., 28, 31, 45f., 52, 55f., 66, 73, 75f., 78ff., 99, 165, 168, 173, 187ff., 192ff , writings of: Hail and Farewell, 31, 73, 80f., 168, 173, 192f.; Diarmuid and Grania, 45, 188; The Untilled Field, 45f., 189; Sister Teresa, 78; Evelyn Innes, 78, 80, 187f., 192; "Song of O'Ruark," 109; The Bending of the Bough, 188; The Lake, 190; The Brook Kerith, 194; Heloise and Abelard, 196 Moore, Maurice: 144 Moore, Tom: 17, 109, 112, 161 Moore, T Sturge: 71, 178 Moore Hall: 144 Moran, D P.: 49, 188 Morris, William: 99 Mostel, Zero: 170 Mountjoy, Lord: 109 Mountjoy Prison: 135, 196 Mountjoy Square: 14 Mulligan, Buck: 47, 87 Municipal Art Gallery: 20, 62, 67f., 95, 114, 165, 191 Murphy, William: 72 N Nassau Street: 79 Nation, The: 112 National Education Act: 39 Nationality: 132 National Library: 18, 20, 81, 88 National Literary Society: 39-40, 88 National Museum: 66 National Observer: 185 National Portrait Gallery: 18, 65f., 68, 80 National Sinn Fein Convention: 191 Nationist, The: 91, 191 Nevinson, Henry W.: 65, 124 , writings of: Changes and Chances: 65 Newgrange: 80 New Ireland: 194 New Ireland Review, The: 186 New York, N Y.: 7, 97 Nietzsche, Friedrich W.: 96 Nobel Prize: 74, 99, 198 Noon, Rev William T.: 156 North Richmond Street: 180 Northern countries: 22 O O'Brien, Conor Cruise: 89, 103 , writings of: Maria Cross, 89; Parnell and His Party, 89; The Shaping of Modern Ireland, 103 O'Brien, Flann: 200 O'Brien, Kathleen Sheehy: 89 O'Brien, William Smith: 113 O'Byrne, Dermot: 60 O'Casey, Sean (Sean O'Catha saigh): 9, 12, 22, 24, 54, 74, 103, 106, 118, 131, 154, 198, 200 , writings of: The Story of the Irish Citizen Army, 118; Juno and the Paycock, 131, 198; The Shadow of a Gunman, 198; The Plough and the Stars, 198; The Silver Tassie, 198; Mirror in My House, 200 O'Conaire, Padraic: 195 Page 212 O'Connell, Daniel: 111 O'Connell Street: 13, 17 O'Connor, Frank: 22, 82, 103, 111 O'Connor, Rory: 102, 144, 197ff O'Donaghue, D J.: 85 ''O'Donnell, Donat"; see O'Brien, Conor Cruise O'Donnell, Frank Hugh: 50 O'Duffy (Fascist): 106 Odyssey: 182 O'Faolain, Sean: 5, 9, 22, 58, 108, 148, 199 , writings of: Persecution Mania, 5; The Irish, 108; A Nest of Simple Folk, 199 O'Flaherty, Liam: 22, 103, 131, 198f , writings of: The Informer, 131, 198; Famine, 199 O'Grady, Standish James: 30, 116, 188 O'Growney's Irish primers: 40 O'Hagan, John: 117 O'Higgins, Kevin: 100, 102f., 139, 143, 198 O'Kelly, Seumas: 163, 192, 195 , writings of: The Weavers Grave, 163; The Shuiler's Child, 192; The Golden Barque and the Weavers Grave, 195 O'Leary, John: 35, 65, 88, 96, 99f., 104, 113 O'Leary, Rev Peter: 190f , writings of: Seadna, 190; Niamh, 191 Oliver Street: 20 O'Malley, Ernie: 119, 199 O'Molloy, J J.: 82, 87 O'Neaghtan, John: 32 O'Neill, Moira: 67 On the Boiler: 146 O'Rahilly, Egan: 110 O'Rahilly, The: 102f O'Riordan, Conal: 93 Orpen, Sir William: 62, 67f Osborne, Walter Frederick: 62 O'Shea, Kitty: 115 O'Suilleabain, Padraig: 189 O'Sullivan, John Marcus: 90 O'Sullivan, Maurice: 199 O'Sullivan, Seumas: 60, 118, 198 P Pakenham, Frank: 137, 199 Palmer, Samuel: 178 Paris, France: 180 Paris Peace Conference of 1919: 130 Parliament of Southern Ireland: 196 Parliamentary party: 129 Parnell, Charles Stewart, 21f., 25, 114-117, 125, 146, 164, 173, 185 Peace Patrol: 93 Pearse, Padraic: 51, 108, 119, 121-23, 128, 188, 191ff , writings of: Suantraidhe agus Goltraidhe ("Lullaby and Lament"): 193 Pearse, Mrs Padraic: 126 Pearson, Hesketh: 152 Penhaligon, Tom: 154 Phoenix Park: 16 Plunkett, George: 66 Plunkett, Sir Horace: 89, 119, 144 Plunkett, Joseph Mary: 123, 192f Poblacht na h-Eireann (Republic of Ireland"): 197 Pollexfen, Susan: 9-10 Pound, Ezra: 192f Poussin, Nicolas: 67 Power, Arthur: 47 Powers, Baron: 77 Prout, Father: 161 Page 213 Provisional government: 142, 197f Purser, Sarah: 69, 83 Q Queen Maeve: 30 Quinn, John: R Rathgar Avenue: 74 Reading Jail: 152 Redmond, John: 129 Reid, Forrest: 194 Renan, Ernest: 43 Republic, The: 196 Republican Army: 197 Republican party: 106, 126, 138, 141, 143, 197 Rhymers' Club, London: 186 Rising of 1798: 109 River Liffey: 13, 16, 169, 171 Robertson, Olivia: 71 Robinson, Lennox: 9, 24, 56, 163, 194 , writings of: The Whiteheaded Boy, 163, 194 Roche, Sir Boyle: Rolleston, T W.: 81, 188 Rooney, William: 112 Rossa, Jeremiah O'Donovan: 122, 194 Royal Irish Constabulary: 119, 195 Royal University: 50, 52, 54, 81, 86, 180, 188; see also University College, Dublin Russell, Diarmuid: 164 Russell, George William: see Ỉ Russell, Lord John: 112 Rutland Square: 14 Ryan, Frederick: 52, 82, 190 Ryan, W P.: 122, 186 S Sackville Street: 123 St Enda's: 192 St Patrick's Cathedral: 13, 17 St Stephen's: 52, 86, 91, 189 St Stephen's Green: 14, 61, 80, 94, 123, 180 Samhain ("All-Hallow Tide"): 189 Saturday Review: 51 Schmitz, Ettore: 182 Scissors and Paste: 132 Shakespear, Mrs.: 175 Shanachie, The: 191 Sharp, William: 187 Shaw, George Bernard: 4, 6ff., 23, 25, 38-39, 51, 83, 91, 93, 124, 151, 173, 192 , writings of: Candida, 83; The Showing Up of Blanco Posnet, 192 Shawe-Taylor, Capt John: 68, 100, 165, 190 Sheehy, David: 89 Sheehy, Judge Eugene: 89f Sheehy, Hannah, 89 Sheehy, Kathleen: 89 Sheehy, Margaret: 89 Sheehy, Mary: 89 Sheehy-Skeffington, Francis: 93-94; see also Skeffington, Francis Shelley, Percy Bysshe: 96 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley: 6, 159, 163 Shiublaigh, Maire Ni: 67 Sigerson, Dr George: 32, 65, 186f , writings of: Bards of the Gael and Gall, 32, 187 Sinclair, Arthur: 67 Sinn Fein: 49, 117, 191 131, 133, 148, 165, 194ff Sinn Fein: 49, 1l7, 180 Skeat, Walter W.: 180 Skeffington, Francis: 89ff., 188 Page 214 , writings of: Two Essays, 91, 188 Smith, F E.: 124 Spectator: 145 Spenser, Edmund: 110 Spring-Rice, Mary: 120 Statute of Westminster: 141 Stephens, James: 19, 59, 69, 78, 118, 121, 124, 127, 168, 192 , writings of: The Charwoman's Daughter, 78, 192; The Crock of Gold, 78, 168, 192; The Insurrection in Dublin, 124 Strozzi, Bernardo: 67 Stukeley, William: 41-42 Swift, Dean: 13 Swift, Jonathan: 6, 9, 25, 39, 93, 110f., 157-60 Swinburne, Algernon Charles: 41 Synge, John Millington: 4, 24ff., 30f., 39, 55f., 59, 67, 74, 79, 95f., 98, 100, 107, 112, 117, 154, 164-67, 172, 175, 187, 190ff , writings of: Riders to the Sea, 26, 190; The Playboy of the Western World, 39, 55, 165f., 175, 191; "Beg-Innish," 59; The Aran Islands, 164, 191; In the Shadow of the Glen, 189 T Tara: 80 Taylor, John F.: 88 Theatre of Ireland: 191ff Thomas, Dylan: 155 Todhunter, John: 174 Tolstoy, Aleksei: 53 Tories: 16 Transport strike of 1913: 72 Treaty of 1921: 102, 108, 136-41, 143, 197 Trieste: 175, 180f Trinity College: 17, 31, 36, 44, 51, 64, 75, 81, 162 Tristan: 13 Tone, Theobald Wolfe: 109, 187 Twiss, Richard: Tynan, Katherine: see Katherine Tynan Hinkson Tyrrell, Professor Robert Yelverton: 76, 155, 162 U Ulster: 106, 119, 139, 192 Ulster Volunteers: 124, 192 Unionists: 106 United Irish League: 91 United Irishman, The: 49f., 53, 56, 112f., 117, 187 United Nations: 89 United States of America: 24 University College, Dublin: 54, 90, 94, 122, 188; see also Royal University V Victoria, Queen: 187f W War News: 197 Weekes, Charles: 34 Wellesley, Dorothy: 74, 146 West Country: 12 Westminster: 45, 92, 128 Weygandt, Cornelius: 4, 82ff., 173, 189, 193 , writings of: Irish Plays and Playwrights, 82, 173, 193 Whigs: 16 White, Elizabeth: 37 Wilde, Oscar: 4, 6ff., 10, 23, 42, 68, 76, 99, 151-52, 173 Wilde, Sir William: 76 William III: 16-18 Wilson, Field Marshal Sir Henry: 142, 197 Wilson, President Woodrow: 130 Page 215 Wogan, Charles: 39 Wordsworth, William: 53 Workers' Republic, The: 118, 123 World War I: 93, 128-30 Wyndham Land Purchase Act: 190 Y Yale Review: 190 Yeats, Jack Butler: 30, 62, 115, 163, 187, 191 Yeats, John Butler: 9f., 67, 96f , writings of: Essays, Irish and American, 96; Early Memories, 97 Yeats, William Butler: 3f., 19, 21, 23ff., 29f., 32ff., 37, 39, 45, 47, 49ff., 57ff., 61f., 65ff., 71ff., 77ff., 83ff., 88, 94f., 97, 98-100, 103ff., 110, 112, 114f., 117f., 121f., 127f., 141, 145-46, 169, 173-79, 180, 183ff., 191ff , writings of: "Among School Children," 19; "Cuchulain Comforted," 30; "Cuchulain's Fight with the Sea," 30; "The Death of Cuchullin," 30; At the Hawk's Well, 31, 179, 194; The Death of Cuchulain, 31; Fighting the Waves, 31; The Green Helmet, 31; The Golden Helmet, 31; On Baile's Strand, 31, 190; The Only Jealousy of Emer, 31; "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," 37, 174, 185; "At the Abbey Theatre," 40; Diarmuid and Grania, 45, 188; The Countess Cathleen, 50-52, 80, 187; Ideas of Good and Evil, 55, 189; Where There Is Nothing, 55; "An Appointment," 66; The Celtic Twilight, 78, 186; The Wind among the Reeds, 78, 187; The Tables of the Law, 84; Autobiographies, 85, 98; "The Municipal Gallery Revisited," 95; "Under Ben Bulben," 95, 183-84; The Death of Synge, 98; Discoveries, 98; Estrangement, 98; The Thinking of the Body, 98; The Trembling of the Veil, 98; Reveries over Childhood and Youth, 99; "Death," 103; "The Curse of Cromwell," 111; "September, 1913," 114; "The Rose Tree," 128; "Sixteen Dead Men," 128; "The Second Coming," 141; "Three Monuments," 145; "Byzantium," 176; "Rosa Alchemica," 176; "Sailing to Byzantium," 176; "The Tables of the Law," 176; Anima Mundi, 177; The Secret Rose, 177, 187; A Vision, 179, 198; The Wanderings of Oisin, 183, 185; Poems and Ballads of Young Ireland, 185; A Book of Irish Verse, 186; The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics, 186; The Land of Hearts' Desire, 186; Poems, 186; The Tables of the Law and The Adoration of the Magi, 187; Cathleen ni Houlihan, 189; In the Seven Woods, 189; Collected Works, 191; The Green Helmet and Other Poems, 192; Responsibilities, 193; Reveries, 193; The Wild Swans at Coole, 194; The Tower, 198; Dramatis Personae, 199; Purgatory, 199; ...Page iii Dublin In the Age of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce By Richard M Kain NORMAN AND LONDON UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS Page iv Books by Richard M Kain Fabulous Voyager: James Joyce' s... forgiven, and often converted into entertaining gossip In Dublin, anecdote is art Dubliners did not tell stories, they dramatized them There is the necessary preparation, the preliminary setting of the. .. "George the Fifth," the scorn in his voice making the word noisome Fortunately, much of Dublin at the turn of the century Page xiii has been recorded in the volumes of reminiscence listed in the