Folklore and W.B. Yeats: The Function of Folklore Elements in Three Early Plays by Birgit Bramsbäck, and: A Reader's Guide to the Plays of W.B. Yeats by Richard Taylor, and: Players and Painted Stage: The Theatre of W.B. Yeats by Karen Dorn (review)

432 Book Reviews introduction to these two major dramatists and to provide a well-thought-out appreciation of their places in the theatrical world. Although he devotes more time to Jarry than to Apollinaire, one has the feeling that he is doing justice to both. A nonspecialist can read the work with great profit, and a specialist with much interest. JOHN H. REILLY, QUEEN'S COLLEGE, THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK BIRGJT BRAMSBACK, Folklore and WH. Yeats: The Function of Folklore Elements in Three Early Plays. Uppsala: Acta Universatis Upsaliensis 1984. Pp. xii, 178. 98.50 Swedish Crowns. RICHARD TAYLOR, A Reader's Guide to the Plays a/W.B. Yeats. New York: St. Martin's Press 1984. pp. x, 198. $25.00. KAREN DORN, Players and Painted Stage: The Theatre of W.B. Yeats. Sussex: The Harvester Press; New Je"ey: Barnes & Noble Books 1984. pp. xiv, 144. $45.00 (CON). Unlike his poems, the best of which have long since passed into the canon of great art, Yeats's plays remain almost entirely outside the accepted mainstream of drama. The reason for this exclusion is not hard to find. Remote, peculiar, ritualistic, peasant· ridden, the plays may well seem to many mere curiosities, footnotes or addenda to the real business of drama in this century. Yet somehow they persist, or at least interest in them continues especially among scholars. Occasional performances of varying quality tantalize: do the plays really work on the stage or merely on the page? Dr. Bramsback in her "Afterword" touches on this central problem: "if Yeats's plays are not produced as often in Dublin as one could wish. and very rarely. if at all. in London ... the reason could hardly be that they provoke political or religious opinion as some of them once did" (p. 149). However. she does not pause to consider what the reason might be. Just before this she remarks, "Yeats's plays are becoming more and more acknowledged by critics as plays for the theatre, not just as literary works" (p. 148). And yet her own well-researched study does treat them precise:ly as literary works. The problem in large part remains. Dr. Brarnsback concentrates on three early plays: The Countess Cathleen, The Land o/Heart's Desire and The Shadowy Waters. All receive systematic treatment in the three main chapters. The first, "Traditional Tales, or Stories," relates the plays to various probable sources and analogues among Irish legends and fairy tales. In the second, "The Function of Popular Belief in the Three Plays," the author treats exhaustively various kinds of "Otherworlds" (e.g. pagan, Christian, Oriental) as well as symbolism associated with birds, hounds and deer. The third chapter deals with the "Impact ofFolk Poetry and Music on the Songs." This is in some ways the most helpful for those concerned with the texts as pieces to be performed, since the strategic placing of songs and dances adds enormously to the effect. To anticipate for a moment my consideration of Professor Taylor's book. In his "Conclusion," Professor Taylor comments: "Yeats's early dramatic fables rely on the authority of antique forms of construction, especially Book Reviews 433 classical Greek tragedy and medieval miracle or morality plays" (p. 182), If Dr. Bramsback had taken into account such dramatic models in her examination of background materials, she could well have produced an outstanding contribution to our understanding afthe plays as plays. As it is, she has accomplished a great deal within her self-imposed limits. Panicularly usefulis her close attention to the extensive revisionsof the flrst and third plays. Her meticulous scholarship clarifies Yeats's themes and structures through literary analysis. Richard Taylor's Guide, on the other hand, emphasises the dramatic qualities of the texts. It consists ofa brief but illuminating "Introduction," which examines the essential characteristics of Yeats's drama. Then follows a discussion of the works in the somewhat curious sequence of The Collected Plays of 1952. Professor Taylor omits consideration of the two Oedipus adaptations because of "their secondary relevance" to the playwright's "creative work" (p. I). Also on p. 1 appears the disclaimer, "Considering the aims of the present volume, its complex...