"THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD."

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14844, 9 December 1913, Page 5

"THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD."

TO THB EDITOR OF "THB ITUSS9."

Sir,—To judge from tho rather onwelcome publicity extended to mc in your Saturday correspondence columns, I seem to have inadvertently annoyed somo of your readers by the letter headed "The Playboy, of the Western World," which you wero kind enough to publish on Wednesday last. The said letter, be it noted, dealt with tho ] alleged subject-matter of the play, and took the form of an inference and an application to a not unimportant political question of the day. It made- no pretence to be a criticism of tho wit of Mr Syngo. Indeed I expressly guarded it from such a quaint misconstruction by frankly saying that 1 had not read "The Playboy of the West," which I quite agree with your correspondent, ;, Pan Optcs" (sic) "it would bo highly admissible to do before attempting a criticism upon that play. Tho point which I endeavoured to make, and which apiiears to have altogether escaped tho notice of your correspondents, was practical, not critical. It was to the effect that tho "bias towards romance," which, if Mr Syngo is to be believed, induced tho Mayo peasants to make a hero of a morbid hoy who claimed to have murdered his father, and to round sharply upon him when they found out that his own "bias towards romance" had mado him tell a repulsive kind of lie, suggests an ethical standard among Mayo peasants which goes far to account for the reluctance of Ulster-men to accept Homo Rule. It was the alleged psychology (if I must use the word "psychology," which always sounds to mc remarkably liko "abracadabra") of the Mayo peasant, that I ventured to deprecate, not the psychological insight into that psychology displayed by Mr Synge. The distinction is, I think, sufficiently marked.

May I congratulate "Cyrano" on his analogy from '"Macbeth." It is distinctly good. But analogies are hardmouthed brutes at best, and it is not alwaj-s easy to pull them uy at the right point. Does "Cyrano" wish to imply that in the- play of "Macboth" the homicidal eccentricities of the hero call out the universal admiration of his neighbours? If not, I am afraid the cases of the two plays are not on allfours.

As for "Pan Optes," I should gently suggest that if lie has a strongly developed taste for autobiography, it is a taste not necessarily shared by all who have had the privilego of being his school masters. Before writing again, he would do well to ponder the lines of the greatest English dramatist before Mr Synge "Amuse youreelf with your particular fancy, but leave mo out of it." If ho will be at pains to re-read my former letter and pause to '.'inwardly digest it," lie will not, I think, find any warrant in it for his assumption that I am an Ulsterman (surely, sir, a matter of no particular interest to your readers!), or even for his rather rash conclusion that I have read none of the writings of the late Mr Synge. Personalities are not in the best of taste in the correspondence column of newspapers.

As for the parenthetic phrase, "The late Mr Synge, whom it is tho fashion of the hour to exalt" —the teterrima causa belli, I euepoct—l frankly withdraw it, and with your permission, Mr Editor, desire to substitute, "one of the .numerous literary idols of the decade." This will, I think, allow an approximately fair time limit.—-Yours, etc.

W. T>. ANDREWS December 6th, 1913.