The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats
George Mills Harper and George Bornstein,
General Editors
VOLUME I THE POEMS
ed. Richard J.Finneran
VOLUME II THE PLAYS
ed. David R. Clark and Rosalind E. Clark
VOLUME III AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
ed. William H. O’Donnell and Douglas N. Archibald
VOLUME IV EARLY ESSAYS
ed. George Bornstein and Richard J. Finneran
VOLUME V LATER ESSAYS
ed. William H. O’Donnell
VOLUME VI PREFACES AND INTRODUCTIONS
ed. William H. O’Donnell
VOLUME VII LETTERS TO THE NEW ISLAND
ed. George Bornstein and Hugh Witemeyer
VOLUME VIII THE IRISH DRAMATIC MOVEMENT
ed. Mary FitzGerald and Richard J. Finneran
VOLUME IX EARLY ARTICLES AND REVIEWS
ed. John P. Frayne and Madeleine Marchaterre
VOLUME X LATER ARTICLES AND REVIEWS
ed. Colton Johnson
VOLUME XI MYTHOLOGIES
ed. Jonathan Allison
VOLUME XII JOHN SHERMAN AND DHOYA
ed. Richard J. Finneran
VOLUME XIII A VISION (1925)
ed. Margaret Mills Harper and Catherine Paul
VOLUME XIV A VISION (1937)
ed. Margaret Mills Harper and Catherine Paul
Francesca and Paolo. After the rare engraving by William Blake (Inferno V)
SCRIBNER
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Compilation copyright © 2007 by Michael Yeats
Notes and preparatory material copyright © 2007
by Richard Finneran and George Bornstein
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SCRIBNER
and design are trademarks of Macmillan Library Reference USA, Inc., used under license by
Simon & Schuster, the publisher of this work.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865–1939.
Early essays / W. B. Yeats ;
edited by George Bornstein and Richard J. Finneran.
p. cm.—(The collected works of W. B. Yeats ; v.4)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
I. Bornstein, George. II. Finneran, Richard J. III. Title.
PR 5900.A2 F56 1989 vol. 9
821’.8—dc 22 88-027365
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5687-9
ISBN-10: 1-4165-5687-7
Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://www.SimonSays.com
To the memory of
Richard J. Finneran
and
to our children:
Ben, Rebecca, and Josh Bornstein
Rich and Kate Finneran
Contents
ors’ Preface and Acknowledgments
eviations
rations
ors’ Introduction
Early Essays
Ideas of Good and Evil
1. What Is ‘Popular Poetry’?
2. Speaking to the Psaltery
3. Magic
4. The Happiest of the Poets
5. The Philosophy of Shelley’s Poetry
6. At Stratford-on-Avon
7. William Blake and the Imagination
8. William Blake and His Illustrations to The Divine Comedy
9. Symbolism in Painting
he Symbolism of Poetry
he Theatre
he Celtic Element in Literature
he Autumn of the Body
he Moods
he Body of the Father Christian Rosencrux
he Return of Ulysses
reland and the Arts
he Galway Plains
motion of Multitude
The Cutting of an Agate
Certain Noble Plays of Japan
he Tragic Theatre
oetry and Tradition
Discoveries
23. Prophet, Priest and King
24. Personality and the Intellectual Essences
25. The Musician and the Orator
26. A Guitar Player
27. The Looking-Glass
28. The Tree of Life
29. The Praise of Old Wives’ Tales
30. The Play of Modern Manners
31. Has the Drama of Contemporary Life a Root of its Own?
32. Why the Blind Man in Ancient Times Was Made a Poet
33. Concerning Saints and Artists
34. The Subject Matter of Drama
35. The Two Kinds of Asceticism
36. In the Serpent’s Mouth
37. The Black and the White Arrows
38. His Mistress’s Eyebrows
39. The Tresses of the Hair
40. A Tower on the Apennines
41. The Thinking of the Body
42. Religious Belief Necessary to Religious Art
43. The Holy Places
reface to the First Edition of The Well of the Saints
reface to the First Edition of John M. Synge’s Poems and Translations
M. Synge and the Ireland of His Time
ohn Shawe-Taylor
Art and Ideas
dmund Spenser
Yeats’s Prefaces and Dedication
ce to The Cutting of an Agate (1912)
ce to The Cutting of an Agate (1919, 1924)
cation of Essays (1924)
Appendices
Chronological List of Essays by Date of First Publication
The Pathway” (1900, 1908)
mitted Section from “At Stratford-on-Avon”
ustrations to Dante included in Periodical Version of “William Blake and His Illustrations to The
Divine Comedy”
mitted Passage from “Symbolism in Painting”
mitted Passages from “The Return of Ulysses”
onclusion to “The Tragic Theatre” in Plays for an Irish Theatre (1911)
mitted Passage from “Preface to the First Edition of John M. Synge’s Poems and Translations” (1909)
eface to J. M. Synge and the Ireland of His Time (1911)
Textual Matters and Notes
te on the Text
ual Emendations and Corrections
ground Notes on Frequently Cited Writers
Editors’ Preface
and Acknowledgments
This volume contains the first scholarly edition of Yeats’s two most important volumes of criticism
written during his youth and middle age, Ideas of Good and Evil and The Cutting of an Agate, both
included by him in the 1924 volume Essays and from 1961 until recently available chiefly through the
posthumous Essays and Introductions compilation. The front matter contains lists of abbreviations
and illustrations, followed by the editors’ introduction. The essays themselves then follow, first IGE
and then COA. After that come first Yeats’s own prefaces to COA and his dedication of Essays (1924).
A series of appendices presents a chronological list of essays by date of first publication, the omitted
“The Pathway,” and omitted sections from seven other essays, including the illustrations that
originally accompanied “William Blake and His Illustrations to The Divine Comedy.” The final
section, “Textual Matters and Notes,” begins with an explanation of our textual policies and
procedures, followed by lists of textual emendations and corrections. Explanatory notes include first
background notes on fourteen frequently cited writers, followed by headnotes for each essay and
identification of quotations and direct allusions in Yeats’s texts. Finally, an index facilitates finding
writers, works, and other topics referred to in the text.
Completing a project like this requires assistance from a variety of sources. We are pleased to
acknowledge generous help from the following scholars: Morris Eaves, Neil Fraistat, Linda
Gregerson, Margaret Harper, K. P. S. Jochum, Declan Kiely, Kerry Larson, Jerome McGann, James
McGuire, William O’Donnell, James Olney, Jonathan Price, Ann Saddlemyer, and H. Wayne Storey.
We owe a special debt to Jon Alan Lanham, who provided us with a copy of his doctoral dissertation,
“A Critical Edition of Ideas of Good and Evil by W. B. Yeats” (PhD diss., University of Toronto,
1976), which proved helpful throughout our work.
We are also pleased to acknowledge help from librarians and curators at the following
collections: Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Joan Cummins), British Museum (Richard Blurton,
Michael Boggan, Timothy Clark, Christopher Fletcher, Antony Griffiths, Peter Higgs), Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Center at University of Texas at Austin (Elizabeth Garver, Kurt Heinzelman,
Tom Staley), National Library of Ireland (Catherine Fahy, Peter Kenny, Dónal Ó Luanaigh), New
York Public Library (Berg Collection: Isaac Gewirtz), University of London Library (Alun Ford),
University of Michigan Library (Kathryn Beam, Peggy Daub, Franki Hand), University of New York
at Stony Brook Yeats Archive (Kristen J. Nyitray), University of North Carolina Library (Charles
Macnamara).
We have been fortunate to have exceptionally enthusiastic and competent research assistants.
Richard Finneran acknowledges help from Brian Gempp, Jesse Graves, and Lauren Todd Taylor at the
University of Tennessee. George Bornstein acknowledges help from Olivia Bustion, Russell
McDonald, Jamie Olson, and Jenny Sorensen at the University of Michigan. The University of
Michigan also provided timely research support through the Office of the Vice President for Research,
the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Study, the College of Literature Science and Arts, and the
Department of English. The University of Tennessee did so through the John C. Hodges Better English
Fund.
THE EDITORS
After a two-year struggle against cancer, Richard Finneran—co-editor of this volume and of the
Collected Works of W. B. Yeats—passed away while Early Essays was in press. His passing is a great
loss to many both professionally and personally. The dedication of this edition to our children follows
our original plan. I have added his own name to the dedication in tribute to his memory and
friendship.
GEORGE BORNSTEIN
Abbreviations
Illustrations
1. Francesca and Paolo (Inferno V)
2. Cover of Ideas of Good and Evil (1903)
3. T. Sturge Moore’s design for the cover of The Cutting of an Agate (1919)
4. Cover of Essays (1924)
5. Endpaper of Essays (1924)
Illustrations from Blake (Appendix D)
6. The Passing of Dante and Virgil Through the Portico of Hell (Inferno III)
7. Angry Spirits Fighting in the Waters of the Styx (Inferno VII)
8 Antaeus Setting Virgil and Dante upon the Verge of Cocytus (Inferno XXXI)
9. Dante and Uberti (Inferno X)
10. The Circle of the Thieves (Inferno XXV)
11. Dante and Virgil Climbing the Foot of the Mountain of Purgatory (Purgatorio IV)
12. Dante, Virgil, and Statius (Purgatorio XXVII)
13. The Car of Beatrice after Watercolor by Blake (Purgatorio XXX)
14. The Car of Beatrice after the Drawing by Botticelli (Purgatorio XXX)
15. The Car Following the Seven Candlesticks (Purgatorio XXIX)