ay in his speech at the dinner
given to the supporters of "The Irish Literary Theatre" in February,
1900, in speaking of his collaboration with Mr. Yeats in "Diarmid and
Grania": "It would be difficult to name any poet that Ireland has yet
produced more truly elected by his individual and racial genius to
interpret the old legend than the distinguished poet whose contemporary
and _collaborateur_ I have the honor to be"?

The story, of course, had been retold only less often than the story of
Deirdre by Irish writers, in one form or another, but there had been no
memorable play made out of it. Mr. Yeats had met it in "The Death of
Dermid," which Sir Samuel Ferguson included in "The Lays of the Western
Gael" (1864), as well as in the direct translations of such scholars as
Mr. Standish Hayes O'Grady and in the versions of such popularizers as
Dr. Joyce. One cannot, not having read the play, declare it is not what
Mr. Moore would have it, "that dramatic telling of the story which
Ireland has been waiting for these many years," but it does not seem so
to have impressed those who saw it and heard it at the performances in
the Gaiety Theatre.

Now that Lady Gregory has done her "Grania" (1912), it is hardly likely
that Mr. Yeats will return to the story, and with the waning of Mr.
Moore's interest in old Irish legend it is very unlikely that he will
wish to rewrite the play. It would seem we have lost it, whatever its
value, until the "literary remains" of Mr. Moore are given to the
public.

The quarrel with Mr. Yeats over "Diarmid and Grania," coming as it did
at the end of the three years' venture of "The Irish Literary Theatre,"
explains why Mr. Moore wrote no plays for the Irish National Dramatic
Company and its successors on through the Abbey Theatre Players. He was
still interested, however, in the "cause" as far as it was possible for
one of his temperament and taste, and he was conspicuous on first nights
at the Abbey Theatre down to the time of his departure from Dublin in
1911.

Since "Diarmid and Grania" (1901) Mr. Moore has published the two books
of his that since "A Drama in Muslin" (1886) reveal his deepest
knowledge of Irish life, the volume of stories of varying length to
which he gives that title, so symbolic, "The Untilled Field" (1903),
and "The Lake" (1905), but there are few incidents in either that he is
likely to develop into plays. "The Lake" could not be dramatized, but if
it could be dramatized