The countess cathleen
Encyclopedia
The Countess Cathleen is a verse drama by William Butler Yeats
in blank verse
(with some lyrics). It was dedicated to Maud Gonne
, Yeats' lifelong love.
(the spelling was changed to "Cathleen" in all future editions) and underwent many changes until the final version performed in 1911 and published in 1912 ("a complete revision to make it suitable for performance at the Abbey Theatre
" and "all but a new play," acccording to Yeats). The variorum editor, Russell K. Alspach, remarks, "The revision for the second printing, Poems (1895), was so drastic that intelligible collation was virtually impossible." The tendency of Yeats's changes between 1892 and 1911 has been summarized as a move "decidedly away from an almost farcical
realism and tentatively toward the austere, suggestive mode of the dance plays."
's inaugural production, in the Antient Concert Rooms, Dublin.
On February 21, 1911, Yeats attended an "amateurish" performance of the play by the Dramatic Society of the Norwich High School
Old Girls' Association.
The first performance at the Abbey Theatre, in the much-changed final version, took place on December 14, 1911.
in Anna Mather's 1899 performance. Richard Ellmann
reports that Joyce "set the poem to music and praised it as the best lyric in the world." According to Stanislaus Joyce
, James sang the song at his dying brother George's request in 1902, to this chant of his own composition. In the opening episode of Ulysses
, Stephen Dedalus
chants the song and works several variations on it ("parodically," but "not simply...parody").
Joyce also has Stephen Dedalus recall Cathleen's dying words ("Bend down your faces, Oona and Aleel...") in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
.
by a female figure than on any perceived insult to Catholicism
.
The play is also seen as anti-English: "The anti-English tendency underlying the play is evident, the merchant-demons being the English landlords."
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
in blank verse
Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
(with some lyrics). It was dedicated to Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne MacBride was an English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist and actress, best remembered for her turbulent relationship with William Butler Yeats. Of Anglo-Irish stock and birth, she was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of evicted people in the Land Wars...
, Yeats' lifelong love.
Editions and revisions
The play was first published in 1892 in The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and LyricsThe Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics
The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics is the second poetry collection of William Butler Yeats.It includes the play The Countess Kathleen and group of shorter lyrics that Yeats would later collect under the title of The Rose in his Collected Poems.This volume includes several of...
(the spelling was changed to "Cathleen" in all future editions) and underwent many changes until the final version performed in 1911 and published in 1912 ("a complete revision to make it suitable for performance at the Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
" and "all but a new play," acccording to Yeats). The variorum editor, Russell K. Alspach, remarks, "The revision for the second printing, Poems (1895), was so drastic that intelligible collation was virtually impossible." The tendency of Yeats's changes between 1892 and 1911 has been summarized as a move "decidedly away from an almost farcical
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
realism and tentatively toward the austere, suggestive mode of the dance plays."
Synopsis
The play is set ahistorically in Ireland during a famine. The idealistic Countess of the title sells her soul to the devil so that she can save her tenants for starvation and from damnation for having sold their own souls. After her death, she is redeemed as her motives were altruistic and ascends to Heaven.Sources
Yeats based the play on a purported Irish legend, "The Countess Cathleen O'Shea", which had been printed in an Anglo-Irish newspaper in 1867. When he later attempted to trace its origins, the story appeared to nave been adapted into English from a French story, "Les marchands d'âmes", whose protagonist was named "comtesse Ketty O'Connor". This original French version appeared in the anthology, Les matinées de Timothée Trimm, by Léo Lespès without further provenance.Performances
The play was first performed on May 8, 1899, as the Irish Literary TheatreIrish Literary Theatre
The Irish Literary Theatre was a precursor to the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Founded by W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Moore and Edward Martyn in 1899, this theatre presented a number of plays by the founders and other writers, including Padraic Colum....
's inaugural production, in the Antient Concert Rooms, Dublin.
On February 21, 1911, Yeats attended an "amateurish" performance of the play by the Dramatic Society of the Norwich High School
Norwich High School for Girls
Norwich High School for Girls is an independent fee-charging school with selective entry in Norwich, Norfolk, England. It was founded in 1875 and is now one of the twenty-nine schools of the Girls' Day School Trust. The school has one of the best academic records in Norfolk...
Old Girls' Association.
The first performance at the Abbey Theatre, in the much-changed final version, took place on December 14, 1911.
Influence on Joyce
Oona's chanted song from Act II, "Who will go drive with Fergus now?" (removed from the 1911 version) made a deep impression on a seventeen-year-old James JoyceJames Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
in Anna Mather's 1899 performance. Richard Ellmann
Richard Ellmann
Richard David Ellmann was a prominent American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats...
reports that Joyce "set the poem to music and praised it as the best lyric in the world." According to Stanislaus Joyce
Stanislaus Joyce
Stanislaus Joyce was an Irish teacher, scholar, and writer who lived for many years in Italy. He was the brother of James Joyce. Considered a "whetstone" by his more famous brother, who shared his ideas and his books with him, Stanislaus was three years younger than James, and a constant boyhood...
, James sang the song at his dying brother George's request in 1902, to this chant of his own composition. In the opening episode of Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, Stephen Dedalus
Stephen Dedalus
Stephen Dedalus is James Joyce's literary alter ego, appearing as the protagonist and antihero of his first, semi-autobiographical novel of artistic existence A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and an important character in Joyce's Ulysses...
chants the song and works several variations on it ("parodically," but "not simply...parody").
Joyce also has Stephen Dedalus recall Cathleen's dying words ("Bend down your faces, Oona and Aleel...") in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce, first serialised in the magazine The Egoist from 1914 to 1915, and published first in book format in 1916 by B. W. Huebsch, New York. The first English edition was published by the Egoist Press in February 1917...
.
Controversy
The play provoked controversy over the blasphemous attitudes it apparently supported from F. H. O'Donnell and other critics including Maurice Joy. Critic Susan Cannon Harris argued in her book Gender and Modern Irish Drama (2002) that these objections are based more on the depiction of the usurpation of the 'male' space of martyrMartyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
by a female figure than on any perceived insult to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
.
The play is also seen as anti-English: "The anti-English tendency underlying the play is evident, the merchant-demons being the English landlords."