Samhain, Issue 1, October 1901 by Yeats, Hyde, Martyn, Moore, and Gregory
"Samhain, Issue 1, October 1901" by Yeats, Hyde, Martyn, Moore, and Gregory is a literary periodical written in the early 20th century. It champions the Irish dramatic revival through manifestos, theatrical criticism, a retold Fenian legend, and a one‑act play in Irish with an English translation. The issue’s likely focus is building a national theatre culture grounded in the Irish language and tradition while learning from world drama, with vivid dramatic material
featuring the wandering poet Hanrahan, Oona, and their community. The opening of this periodical presents an editorial surveying the birth of an Irish theatre, celebrating the surge of new Gaelic plays and amateur companies, and weighing two paths forward: a municipally backed stock troupe with outside training versus a freer, grassroots route anchored in local players. It presses dramatists to study European masters, criticises slack construction in recent Irish work, and announces a season pairing an Irish‑language comedy with a prose drama drawn from heroic lore. A subsequent reminiscence recalls rough early productions, the beauty that shone through flawed staging, and the belief that a subsidised stage can quicken national thought. A further plea urges training native actors (including in Irish) through technical education so Ireland can stage both its own texts and the world’s masterpieces. This opening section then turns to content for the stage: a brisk prose legend of Diarmuid and Grania (from elopement to the boar‑hunt and its aftermath) and the start of a lively one‑act set at a Munster dance, where a smooth‑talking poet charms a young woman until the neighbours trick him into twisting a hay‑rope and lock him out. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Editor | Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939 |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Hyde, Douglas, 1860-1949 |
| Contributor | Martyn, Edward, 1859-1923 |
| Contributor | Moore, George, 1852-1933 |
| Translator | Gregory, Lady, 1852-1932 |
| Title | Samhain, Issue 1, October 1901 |
| Original Publication | London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1901, pubdate 1908, reprint 1970. |
| Credits | Chris Hapka and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections |
| Subject | Theater -- Ireland -- Periodicals |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78522 |
| Release Date | Apr 22, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 1402 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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