The Well of the Saints

Martin and Mary Doul are a pair of blind beggars in a lonely Irish glen who have spent years believing, on the word of teasing neighbors, that they are a handsome couple. When a wandering saint restores their sight with water from a holy well, the illusion shatters, and they see plainly how old and worn they and everyone around them really are. Synge shapes this three-act comedy into a strange meditation on whether truth is worth more than a kind lie, and the beggars’ final choice is not what a pious audience might expect. Written in his rich Anglo-Irish idiom, it stands among his most unsettling works. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available to download.