grace of the
Almighty God. Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the white boards,
and a deep grave surely. What more can we want than that? No man at
all can be living for ever, and we must be satisfied." The pity and
the terror of it all have brought a great peace, the peace that passeth
understanding, and it is because the play holds this timeless peace
after the storm which has bowed down every character, that "Riders to
the Sea" may rightly take its place as the greatest modern tragedy in
the English tongue.

EDWARD J. O'BRIEN.

February 23, 1911.

RIDERS TO THE SEA

A PLAY IN ONE ACT

First performed at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, February 25th, 1904.

PERSONS

MAURYA (an old woman)...... Honor Lavelle

BARTLEY (her son).......... W. G. Fay

CATHLEEN (her daughter).... Sarah Allgood

NORA (a younger daughter).. Emma Vernon

MEN AND WOMEN

SCENE.

--An Island off the West of Ireland. (Cottage kitchen, with nets,
oil-skins, spinning wheel, some new boards standing by the wall, etc.
Cathleen, a girl of about twenty, finishes kneading cake, and puts it
down in the pot-oven by the fire; then wipes her hands, and begins to
spin at the wheel. NORA, a young girl, puts her head in at the door.)

NORA [In a low voice.]

Where is she?

CATHLEEN She's lying down, God help her, and may be sleeping, if she's
able.

[Nora comes in softly, and takes a bundle from under her shawl.]

CATHLEEN [Spinning the wheel rapidly.]

What is it you have?

NORA The young priest is after bringing them. It's a shirt and a plain
stocking were got off a drowned man in Donegal.

[Cathleen stops her wheel with a sudden movement, and leans out to
listen.]

NORA We're to find out if it's Michael's they are, some time herself
will be down looking by the sea.

CATHLEEN How would they be Michael's, Nora. How would he go the length
of that way to the far north?

NORA The young priest says he's known the like of it. "If it's Michael's
they are," says he, "you can tell herself he's got a clean burial by the
grace of God, and if they're not his, let no one say a word about them,
for she'll be getting her death," says he, "with crying and lamenting."

[The door which Nora half closed is blown open by a gust of wind.]

CATHLEEN [Looking out anxiously.]

Did you ask him would he stop Bartley going this day with the horses to
the Galway fair?

NORA "I won't stop him," s