Abstract
Apart from four haphazard years of schooling in Dublin and Bray, Synge’s education was conducted by a personal tutor at home. That education was comprehensive but, in accordance with the general practice of the time, it did not include the study of Irish. Synge’s first encounter with the effects of Irish as a spoken language probably occurred on a walking tour in his early teens through the valley of Glenasmole. In this spot Irish had been spoken only forty years before and stories were still told of ancient Gaelic heroes. 1 Further south in Co. Wicklow near Arklow town, Irish was spoken as late as 1907, when Synge wrote that ‘some of the comparatively recent immigrants have revived Gaelic in this neighbourhood…’2
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Lady Gregory (ed.), Ideals in Ireland (London, 1901) p. 9.
Edward Stephens, My Uncle John, ed. Andrew Carpenter (Oxford, 1974) p. 65.
J. M. Synge, Letters to Molly, ed. Ann Saddlemyer Harvard, 1971) p. 210.
Donal O’Sullivan, Irish Folk Music, Song and Dance (Cork, 1974) P. 24.
David H. Greene, ‘Synge and the Celtic Revival’, Modern Drama, IV, PP.292–9 .
Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde (Dublin, 1974) p. 189.
Daniel Corkery, The Fortunes of the Irish Language (Cork, 1954) p. 120.
Maurice Bourgeois, John Millington Synge and the Irish Theatre (London, 1913) p. 30.
Douglas Hyde, Mise agus an Conradh (Dublin, 1937) pp. 21–2.
Douglas Hyde, Leabhar Sgéulaigheachta (Dublin, 1889) pp. 222–3.
Stephen Gwynn, Today and Tomorrow in Ireland (Dublin, 1903) p. 71.
William Larminie, West Irish Folk-tales and Romances (Dublin, 1893) p. 232.
Dominic Daly, ‘The Young Douglas Hyde’, Studia Hibernica, No. 10 (Dublin, 1970) p. 116.
George Petrie, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, XX, ( Dublin, 1845 ) p. 283.
L. Marillier, Introduction to La Légende de la Mort en Basse Bretagne (Paris, 1892) pp. xi-xii.
Allan Wade (ed.), Letters of W. B. Yeats (London, 1954) P. 314.
W. B. Yeats, ‘Preface to The Well of the Saints’ (London, 1905) p. vi.
Maud Gonne MacBride, A Servant of the Queen (Dublin, 1950) p. 158.
J. M. Synge, Some Letters of John M. Synge to Lady Gregory and W. B. Yeats, selected by Ann Saddlemyer (Dublin, 1971) p. 3.
A. Norman Jeffares, W. B. Yeats: Man and Poet (London, 1949) p. 107;
also Joseph Hone, W. B. Yeats 1865–1939(London, 1942) p. 126 and pp. 128–9.
David H. Greene, ‘J. M. Synge—A Centenary Appraisal’, J. M. Synge: Centenary Papers (Dublin, 1971,) p. 188.
J. M. Synge, Collected Works: Plays I, ed. Ann Saddlemyer (London, 1968) p. xi.
Jack B. Yeats, Evening Sun (New York) 20 July 1909.
Samuel Synge, Letters to my Daughter (Dublin, 1932) p. 137.
Copyright information
© 1979 Declan Kiberd
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kiberd, D. (1979). Synge’s Knowledge of Irish. In: Synge and the Irish Language. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04570-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04570-9_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-04572-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-04570-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)