lated
declamation; the little song of Leagerie when he seizes the "Golden
Helmet" should in its opening words be indistinguishable from the
dialogue itself. Upon the other hand Cathleen's verses by the fire,
and those of the pupils in "The Hour-Glass," and those of the
beggars in "The Unicorn," are sung as the country people understand
song. Modern singing would spoil them for dramatic purposes by
taking the keenness and the salt out of the words. The songs in
"Deirdre," in Miss Fair's and in Miss Allgood's setting, need fine
speakers of verse more than good singers: and in these, and still
more in the song of the Three Women in "Baile's Strand," the
singers must remember the natural speed of words. If the lyric in
"Baile's Strand" is sung slowly it is like church-singing, but if
sung quickly and with the right expression it becomes an
incantation so old that nobody can quite understand it. That it may
give this sense of something half-forgotten, it must be sung with a
certain lack of minute feeling for the meaning of the words, which,
however, must always remain words. The songs in "Deirdre,"
especially the last dirge, which is supposed to be the creation of
the moment, must upon the other hand, at any rate when Miss Farr's
or Miss Allgood's music is used, be sung or spoken with minute
passionate understanding. I have rehearsed the part of the Angel in
"The Hour-Glass" with recorded notes throughout, and believe this
is the right way; but in practice, owing to the difficulty of
finding a player who did not sing too much the moment the notes
were written down, have left it to the player's own unrecorded
inspiration, except at the "exit," where it is well for the player
to go nearer to ordinary song.

At times Irish actresses who have not come to the stage through the
Abbey Company, as has every one of its regular actresses, and every one
of its men save Mr. W.G. Fay, have lent it their assistance, as in the
instance of Mrs. Patrick Campbell referred to above, and as Miss Darragh
did in productions of "The Shadowy Waters" and of "Deirdre" in 1906. It
was four years earlier than this, however, that an Irishwoman, better
known in her country than either Miss Darragh or Mrs. Patrick Campbell,
lent her art to the performance of Cathleen ni Houlihan. "Miss Maud
Gonne played very finely," write