PORTRAITS
Several portraits of Synge exist. Besides a few drawings of him which are still in private hands, there are these, which have been made public.
An oil painting by Mr. J. B. Yeats. R.H.A. (Municipal Gallery, Dublin.)
A Drawing by Mr. J. B. Yeats. R.H.A. (Samhain. December, 1904.)
A Drawing by Mr. J. B. Yeats. R.H.A. (Frontispiece to Playboy.)
Frontispieces to Vols. I. III. and IV. of the Works. (One of these is a drawing by Mr. James Paterson, the others are photographs.)
Two small but characteristic amateur photographs reproduced in M. Bourgeois's book.
Very few people can read a dead man's character from a portrait. Life is our concern; it was very specially synge's concern. Doubtless he would prefer us not to bother about how he looked, but to think of him as one who
"Held Time's fickle glass his fickle hour"
and then was put back into the earth with the kings and tinkers who made such a pageant in his brain. For the rest, he would say, with Shakespeare,
"My spirit is thine, the better part of me."
A LIST OF HIS PLAYS, IN CHRONOLOGICAL
ORDER WITH THE DATES
OF THEIR FIRST PERFORMANCES
The Shadow of the Glen. Written 1902.3. Performed 8th. October 1903.
Riders to the Sea. Written 1902.3. Performed 25th. February 1904.
The Well of the Saints. Written 1903.4. Performed 4th. February 1905.
The Playboy of the Western World. Written 1905.6. Performed 26th. January 1907.
The Tinker's Wedding. Written 1902-1907. Performed 11th. November 1909.
Deirdre of the Sorrows, (unfinished) 1907.8. Performed 13th. January 1910.