The Countess Cathleen

by W. B. Yeats

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Pages: 38

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About this book

The play is set in Ireland in old times, with peasants, servants, spirits, angelical beings, and demons disguised as merchants among its characters. The dialogue lists mouldy bread, flour for another loaf, and a hen as remaining food, while Teig remarks that the last penny has gone. The second merchant urges haste and voices a fear of recognition, prayers and holy water.

The staging notes suggest the room at Shemus Rua's house through a great grey curtain and describe arches permitting the use of gauze. The performance notes give a playing time of a little over an hour without an interval.

About the author

W. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats (1865 to 1939) was an Irish poet and dramatist, a driving force of the Irish Literary Revival and a co-founder of the Abbey Theatre. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 and is counted among the foremost figures of twentieth-century poetry.