h
Painters" are illustrations of the value of the advice he gives in
connection with his varied themes. Those of the generations since his
time who have profited by his teaching know best how valuable would have
been his views in connection with the Irish Drama.

Knowing as we do how _thorough_ Davis was in everything he took up, the
reason he did not deal with it was, probably, that he had not had the
same opportunities of getting information on this as upon the other
wonderfully varied subjects in his Essays.

I have in my mind at this moment one Irish dramatist, Edmond O'Rourke,
who would have appreciated anything Davis would have written on the
subject, and would certainly have profited by it.

O'Rourke, better known by his stage name of Falconer, was an actor as
well as a dramatist. He was "leading man" when I first saw him in the
stock company of the Adelphi Theatre, Liverpool, and used to play the
whole round of Shakespearean characters, his favourite parts being the
popular ones of Macbeth, Hamlet, and Richard the Third. He was a
dark-complexioned man of average height, somewhat spare in form and
features. Though his performances were intellectual creations, we boys
used to make somewhat unfavourable comparisons between him and Barry
Sullivan, another of our fellow-countrymen. Barry was by no means
superior to Falconer in his conception of the various parts, but he
greatly surpassed him in voice, physique, and general bearing on the
stage, in which respects I think he had no equal in our times.

After Falconer went to London he became manager of the Lyceum Theatre,
where several of his pieces were performed, including the well-known
Irish drama, "Peep o' Day," which had an enormously successful run. With
this he also produced a magnificent panorama of Killarney, to illustrate
which he wrote the well-known song of "Killarney" which, with the music
of Balfe, our Irish composer, at once became very popular, as it ever
since has been. Madame Anna Whitty, the distinguished vocalist, who
first sang "Killarney," was a daughter of Michael James Whitty, of whom
I have spoken elsewhere. In going through my papers I have just come
across a letter from O'Rourke, dated from the Princess's Theatre,
Manchester, August 19th, 1872, in which he tells me of the great success
in Manchester of another play of his, "Eileen Oge." This also he
produced at the Lyceum Theatre, London, where it had a long and
successful run. Edmund O'