roes. Dr. Douglas Hyde's translations of _The Five Songs of
Connacht_ (1894) and _The Religious Songs of Connacht_ (1906) are
valuable works and have greatly influenced the Irish writers.

Lady Augusta Gregory.--Lady Gregory, born in 1852, in Roxborough,
County Galway, has made some of the best of these translations in her
works, _Cuchulain of Muirthemma_, and _Gods and Fighting Men_. "These
two books have come to many as a first revelation of the treasures
buried in Gaelic literature, and they are destined to do much for the
floating of old Irish story upon the world. They aim to do for the
great cycles of Irish romance what Malory did for the Arthurian
stories."[16]

[Illustration: LADY GREGORY.]

Lady Gregory wrote also for the Irish Theater plays that have been
acted successfully not only in Ireland but in England and in America.
Among her best serious plays are _The Gaol Gate_ (1906), a present-day
play, the hero of which dies to save a neighbor, _The Rising of the
Moon_ (1907), and _Grania_ (1912). _McDonough's Wife_ (1913) is an
excellent brief piece with an almost heroic note at the close. The
great vagabond piper, McDonough, master of wonderful music, returns
from wandering, to find his wife dead, and, because of his
thriftlessness, about to be denied honorable burial. McDonough steps
to the door, pipes his marvelous tunes, and immediately the village
flocks to do homage to his wife.

Lady Gregory's farces have primarily made her fame. _Spreading the
News_ (1904), _Hyacinth Halvey_ (1906), _The Image_ (1910), and _The
Bogie Men_ (1913) are representative of her vigorous and
well-constructed farces. They are varied in subject, the incidents are
well developed, the characters are genuine Irish peasants and
villagers, and the humor is infectious. It is interesting to note that
Lady Gregory has continued to write farces because of the demand for
them in the Irish National Theater, in order to offset the large
number of tragedies by other authors.

William Butler Yeats.--In addition to delightful poetic fancy, Yeats
possesses considerable dramatic ability and stagecraft. In _The
Countess Cathleen_ (rewritten in 1912), the poor peasants are driven
by a famine to the verge of starvation. Many die; but some are fed by
the Countess Cathleen, while others sell their souls for the price of
food to demons disguised as merchants. When these demons steal
Countess Cathleen's stores in order to stop her charities, with