Chapter II: Preface: To the First Edition of the Well of the Saints 36

DISCOVERIES
Prophet, Priest and King 49
Personality and the Intellectual Essences 56
The Musician and the Orator 61
A Guitar Player 63
The Looking-glass 65
The Tree of Life 67
The Praise of Old Wives' Tales 71
The Play of Modern Manners 73
Has the Drama of Contemporary Life a Root of its Own? 76
Why the Blind Man in Ancient Times was made a Poet 79
Concerning Saints and Artists 85
The Subject Matter of Drama 89
The Two Kinds of Asceticism 94
In the Serpent's Mouth 97
The Black and the White Arrows 99
His Mistress's Eyebrows 100
The Tresses of the Hair 103
A Tower on the Apennines 104
The Thinking of the Body 106
Religious Belief Necessary to Religious Art 109
The Holy Places 113

POETRY AND TRADITION 116

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION OF JOHN M. SYNGE'S POEMS
AND TRANSLATIONS 139

J. M. SYNGE AND THE IRELAND OF HIS TIME 146

THE TRAGIC THEATRE 196

JOHN SHAWE-TAYLOR 208

EDMUND SPENSER 213

THE CUTTING OF AN AGATE

THE CUTTING OF AN AGATE

THOUGHTS ON LADY GREGORY'S TRANSLATIONS