John Millington Synge Biography

Born in Dublin in 1871 and died in 1909. He received his degree from Trinity College, Dublin, then went to Germany to study music and later to Paris, where he lived for several years working at literary criticism. Here, he met a fellow Irishman, William Butler Yeats, who persuaded Synge to live for a while in the Aran Islands and then return to Dublin and devote himself to creative work. "The Aran Islands" (1907) is Synge’s journal of his retreat among these primitive people.

The plays of Irish peasant life of which he is famous for were written in the last six years of his life. The first two one-act plays, "In the Shadow of the Glen", (1903), a comedy, and "Riders to the Sea" (1904), considered one of the finest tragedies ever written, were produced by the Irish National Theatre Society. This group, with Synge, Yeats and Lady Gregory as co-directors, founded in 1904 the famous Abbey Theatre. Two comedies, "The Well of the Saints" (1905) and The "Playboy of the Western World" (1907), were performed by the Abbey players. The latter play created an uproar among Irish patriots stung by Synge's bitter humor.

Synge's last works included "The Tinker's Wedding", published in 1908 but not performed for fear of further riots, and "Deirdre of the Sorrows", a tragedy unfinished at the time of his death but performed by the Abbey players in 1910.

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Quotes

"There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting."

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