sixth and last
son, Bartley. This tragic episode, simply presented, touches the
depths of human sympathy. In old Maurya, Synge created an impressive
figure of what Macbeth calls "rooted sorrow."

_The Playboy of the Western World_, produced first in 1907, is a
three-act play. It is as fantastically humorous as the _Riders to the
Sea_ is tragical. Dread of his father ties this peasant to his stupid
toil. A fearful deed frees the youth and throws him into the company
of the lovely maiden, Pegeen, and admiring friends. The latent poetry
and wild joy of living awake in him, and, under the spur of praise, he
performs great feats. He who had never before dared to face girls,
makes such love to Pegeen that poesy itself seems to be talking. The
Playboy is one of the wildest conceptions of character in modern
drama. His very extravagance compels interest. Pegeen is a fitting
sweetheart for him. Her father is a stalwart figure, possessing a
shrewd philosophy and rare strength of speech, as "fully flavored as
nut or apple." Some critics object to such a boisterous play, but they
should remember that it is intended to be an extravagant peasant
fantasia.

_Deirdre of the Sorrows_, another three-act play, produced first in
1910, tells the story of the beautiful princess Deirdre, of her
isolated young life, and her seven years of perfect union with her
lover Naisi. When her lover is slain, this true and tender queen of
the North loosens the knot of life to accompany him.

Synge belongs in the first rank of modern dramatists. The forty Irish
characters that he has created reveal the basal elements of universal
human nature. His purpose is like Shakespeare's,--to reveal throbbing
life, not to talk in his own person, nor to discuss problems. Synge
has dramatized the primal hope, fear, sorrow, and loneliness of life.
Although his plays are written in prose and have the distinctive
flavor of his lowly characters, yet a recent critic justly says that
Synge "for the first time sets English dramatic prose to a rhythm as
noble as the rhythms of blank verse."

SUMMARY

The twentieth century shows two main lines of development,--the
realistic and the romantic. The two leading essayists of the period,
A.C. Benson and G.K. Chesterton, are both idealists and champions of
religious faith.

Among the novelists, Conrad tells impressive stories of distant seas
and shores; Bennett's strongest fiction gives realistic pictures of
life in English