Win The Hour-Glass, Vol. 2: And Other Plays, Being Of Plays For An Irish Theatre Depicted By W.B. Yeats Represented In Digital Copy

book contains three short one act plays:

The Hour Glass
Cathleen Ni Hoolihan
A Pot of Broth

His Morality play, "The Hour Glass," performed in, served as a sort of transition to Yeats' later poetic plays based on Irish legend.
. . this in spite of the fact that its first production was in prose,

The most intensely dramatic play Yeats has written is the little oneact play titled "Cathleen ni Houlihan, " This was Yeats first prose dramatic work, and strangely enough, it succeeded in pleasing even the critics who has attacked his other plays with so much bitterness.
The immediate inspiration of the play Yeats attributed to a dream, but the central figure is that ageless, legendary Cathleen ni Houlihan that represents Ireland herself.
The play in its finished version breathed a spirit of patriotism intense enough to satisfy the most ardent Irish Nationalist,

"The Pot of Broth", is a "peasant" farce that tells the story of a gullible peasant woman, convinced by a tramp that dropping a magic stone into hot water will make a wonderful soup.
The Hour Glass is a strange morality tale wherein a man who has caused others to have no belief is told by an angel he will die in one hour.


He will eventually enter heaven if he can find a man who does believe before the hour is up, Continuing with my reading of Yeats in preparation for a trip to Ireland, I ordered a copy of these old oneact plays from my state library.
I was thrilled when the book arrived and was an originalprinting, The book was carefully wrapped and marked "Handle with care!" There is something special about handling an old and fragile book,

And these short plays are just delightful, I read all three of them over my lunch hour well, more like my lunch hourandahalf,

"The pot of broth" reminds me of a children's book that I loved as a child: sitelinkStone Soup, In that version, which is supposed to be based on an old French tale, soldiers trick a town into making soup using the stone soup trick.
In Yeats' version, it's a beggar who tricks a younger woman into allowing him to make the soup in her house, then sells her the magical stone in exchange for the food that she was planning to prepare to feed dinner to the priest.
It's a clever story and I enjoyed reading Yeats' version,

"Cathleen ni Hoolihan" is a lovely story directly encouraging young men to fight for their country, The story is set inat the time of the Irish rebellion, but one can't help but imagine that it's effect on its readers inwas perceived as a modern call to arms as well.


Finally, "The Hour Glass" tells a story of a professor visited by an angel and forced to realize that his renunciation of religion was incorrect.
I connected least with this story, but still enjoyed reading it, William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures ofth century literature, A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms.
He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years.
Inhe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.
He was the first Irishman so honored, Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after b William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures ofth century literature.
A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms.
He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years.
Inhe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.
" He was the first Irishman so honored, Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize such works include The Towerand The Winding Stair and Other Poems.
Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo, He studied poetry in his youth, and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult, Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the century, His earliest volume of verse was published in, and those slow paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as to the Pre Raphaelite poets.
From, Yeats' poetry grew physical and realistic, He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
from Wikipedia sitelink,