The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two plays for dancers, by William Butler Yeats

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Title: Two plays for dancers

Author: William Butler Yeats

Release Date: August 2, 2010 [EBook #33321]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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TWO PLAYS FOR DANCERS

BY W. B. YEATS

THE CUALA PRESS
MCMXIX

TWO PLAYS FOR DANCERS

PREFACE

In a note at the end of my last book 'The Wild Swans at Coole' (Cuala
Press.) I explained why I preferred this kind of drama, and where I had
found my models, and where and how my first play after this kind was
performed, and when and how I would have it performed in the future.
I can but refer the reader to the note or to the long introduction to
'Certain Noble Plays of Japan' (Cuala Press.)

W. B. Yeats. October 11th. 1918

P. S. That I might write 'The Dreaming of the Bones,' Mr. W. A.
Henderson with great kindness wrote out for me all historical
allusions to Dervorgilla.

THE DREAMING OF THE BONES

The stage is any bare place in a room close to the wall. A screen with
a pattern of mountain and sky can stand against the wall, or a curtain
with a like pattern hang upon it, but the pattern must only symbolize
or suggest. One musician enters and then two others, the first stands
singing while the others take their places. Then all three sit down
against the wall by their instruments, which are already there--a drum,
a zither, and a flute. Or they unfold a cloth as in 'The Hawk's Well,'
while the instruments are carried in.

FIRST MUSICIAN

(or all three musicians, singing)
Why does my heart beat so?
Did not a shadow pass?
It passed but a moment ago.
Who can hav