wif dat white man an' his tricks. De trouble wuz dat dis dream of youahs wuzn't a good dream.

MADISON. Yes, but not all of my dreams is bad

ones.

All I wants is room to dream my good dreams an' make my own music.

CURTAIN

SPREADING THE NEWS1

BY

AUGUSTA GREGORY

1 Copyright, in United States, 1919, by Augusta Gregory. Reprinted by permission of G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London. Acting rights in the hands of Samuel French, New York.

In this play is found Irish idiom that should stand the criticism of George Moore. If, as he says, Lady Gregory has written plays in which the language is merely sprinkled with rural speech, surely "Spreading the News" is not one of them. This play has the living speech which Yeats attributes to this Irish dramatist, and which Moore says is lost to modern English through the decadent educated classes.

The value of the play lies in the intimate study of the characters. They live on the printed page or on the stage. In "Seven Short Plays," from which volume this play is taken, and "New Comedies," the characters show a primitive strength together with what Edward Storer has called the talk of "intoxicated poets." Their speech is racy in expression and quaint in metaphor, abounding in charming images of fun and fancy.

SCENE: The outskirts of a fair. An apple stall, MRS. TARPEY sitting at it. MAGISTRATE and POLICE

MAN enter.

MAGISTRATE. So that is the fair green. Cattle and sheep and mud. No system. What a repulsive sight!

POLICEMAN. That is so, indeed.

MAGISTRATE. I suppose there is a good deal of disorder in this place?

POLICEMAN. There is.

MAGISTRATE. Common assault?

POLICEMAN. It's common enough.

MAGISTRATE. Agrarian crime, no doubt?

POLICEMAN. That is so.

MAGISTRATE. Boycotting? Maiming of cattle? Firing into houses?

POLICEMAN. There was one time, and there might be again.

MAGISTRATE. That is bad. Does it go any farther than that?

POLICEMAN. Far enough, indeed.

MAGISTRATE. Homicide, then! This district has been shamefully neglected! I will change all that. When I was in the Andaman Islands my system never failed. Yes, yes, I will change all that. What has that woman on her stall?

POLICEMAN. Apples mostly — and sweets.

MAGISTRATE. Just see if there are any unlicensed goods underneath - spirits or the like. We had evasions of the salt tax in the Andaman Islands.

POLICEMAN [sniffing cautiously and upsetting a heap of apples]. I see no spirits here — or salt.

MAGISTRATE [to MRS. TARPEY]. Do you know this town well, my good woman?

MRS. TARPEY [holding out some apples]. A penny the half-dozen, your honor?

POLICEMAN [shouting]. The gentleman is asking do you know the town! He's the new magistrate! MRS. TARPEY [rising and ducking]. Do I know the town? I do, to be sure.

MAGISTRATE [shouting]. What is its chief business? MRS. TARPEY. Business, is it? What business would the people here have but to be minding one another's business?

MAGISTRATE. I mean what trade have they?

MRS. TARPEY. Not a trade at all but to be talking.

MAGISTRATE. I shall learn nothing here.

[JAMES RYAN comes in, pipe in mouth. Seeing MAGISTRATE he retreats quickly, taking pipe from mouth.]