Riders to the Sea
A PLAY IN ONE ACT
by J. M. Synge
Contents
| INTRODUCTION |
| RIDERS TO THE SEA |
INTRODUCTION
It must have been on Synge’s second visit to the Aran Islands that he hadthe experience out of which was wrought what many believe to be his greatestplay. The scene of “Riders to the Sea” is laid in a cottage onInishmaan, the middle and most interesting island of the Aran group. WhileSynge was on Inishmaan, the story came to him of a man whose body had beenwashed up on the far away coast of Donegal, and who, by reason of certainpeculiarities of dress, was suspected to be from the island. In due course, hewas recognised as a native of Inishmaan, in exactly the manner described in theplay, and perhaps one of the most poignantly vivid passages in Synge’sbook on “The Aran Islands” relates the incident of his burial.
The other element in the story which Synge introduces into the play is equallytrue. Many tales of “second sight” are to be heard among Celticraces. In fact, they are so common as to arouse little or no wonder in theminds of the people. It is just such a tale, which there seems no valid reasonfor doubting, that Synge heard, and that gave the title, “Riders to theSea”, to his play.
It is the dramatist’s high distinction that he has simply taken thematerials which lay ready to his hand, and by the power of sympathy woven them,with little modification, into a tragedy which, for dramatic irony and noblepity, has no equal among its contemporaries. Great tragedy, it is frequentlyclaimed with some show of justice, has perforce departed with the advance ofmodern life and its complicated tangle of interests and creature comforts. Ahighly developed civilisation, with its attendant specialisation of culture,tends ever to lose sight of those elemental forces, those primal emotions,naked to wind and sky, which are the stuff from which great drama is wrought bythe artist, but which, as it would seem, are rapidly departing from us. It isonly in the far places, where solitary communion may be had with the elements,that this dynamic life is still to be found continuously, and it is accordinglythither that the dramatist, who would deal with spiritual life disengaged fromthe environment of an intellectual maze, must go for that experience which willbeget in him inspiration for his art. The Aran Islands from which Synge gainedhis inspiration are rapidly losing that sense of isolation and self-dependence,which has hitherto been their rare distinction, and which furnished themotivation for Synge’s masterpiece. Whether or not Synge finds asuccessor, it is none the less true that in English dramatic literature“Riders to the Sea” has an historic value which it would bedifficult to over-estimate in its accomplishment and its possibilities. Awriter in The Manchester Guardian shortly after Synge’s death phrased itrightly when he wrote that it is “the tragic masterpiece of our languagein our time; wherever it has been played in Europe from Galway to Prague, ithas made the word tragedy mean something more profoundly stirring and cleansingto the spirit than it did.”
The secret of the play’s power is its capacity for standing afar off, andmingling, if we may say so, sympathy with relentlessness. There is a wonderfulbeauty of speech in the words of every character, wherei