The Countess Cathleen

W. B. Yeats

The Countess Cathleen

Carbon typescript, 1912, 65 pages, with notes by W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory.

After its first printing in 1892, W. B. Yeats continually revised his verse drama, culminating in this version for the Abbey Theatre in 1911. It was, he wrote, "all but a new play.” With letters by both himself and Lady Gregory, Yeats sent this typescript copy to Czech theater producer Karel Musek, who had earlier staged J. M. Synge’s work in Prague. Musek’s visit to Coole, he writes here, “was the first important sign that our movement [the Revival] was recognized on the Continent.”