Four Plays for Dancers

W. B. Yeats

11 chapters · about 72 min

Get it in Sphinx

Coming soon to iPhone and Android. Join the waitlist to hear when Sphinx opens.

Join the waitlist
Your phone

We'll only email you about Sphinx; you can ask us to remove you any time.

The opening

AT THE HAWK'S WELL

PERSONS OF THE PLAY /^

THREE MUSICIANS (their faces made up to resemble masks]. THE GUARDIAN OF THE WELL (with face made up to resemble a mask). AN OLD MAN (wearing a mask). A YOUNG MAN (wearing a mask). The Time — the Irish Heroic Age.

The stage is any bare space before a wall against which stands a patterned screen. A drum and a gong and a zither have been laid close to the screen before the play begins. If necessary, they can be carried in, after the audience is seated, by the First Musician, who also can attend to the lights if there is any special lighting. We had two lanterns upon posts — designed by Mr. Dulac — at the outer corners of the stage, but they did not give enough light, and we found it better to play by the light of a large chandelier. Indeed I think, so far as my present experience goes, that the most effective lighting is the lighting we are most accustomed to in our rooms. These masked players seem stranger when there is no mechanical means of separating them from us. The First Musician carries with him a folded black cloth and goes to the centre of the stage towards the front and stands motionless, the folded cloth hanging from between his hands. The two musicians enter and, after standing a moment at either side of the stage, go towards him and slowly unfold the cloth, singing as they do so:

The whole book is in the Sphinx app.

About this edition

The words
The author's text, copied word for word.
Left out
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 93 places
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 6 places
  • The library's bookplate (“bequest … Philips Stewart, B.A., Ob. A.D. 1892”), with specks (5 blocks)
  • Pictures and their captions, in 7 places
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1
  • The copyright line and the library's shelf mark (“PR 5904 …”) (5 blocks)
  • The printed table of contents (the app makes its own)
  • Other material that isn't the author's, in 16 places
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“-”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“,”) (2 blocks)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“(y^”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“a.”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“^^”) (2 blocks)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“; 0”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“/ f Jl”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“**^ J^ - -s”)
  • The source website's menus, layout and notices, in 12 places
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“to”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“y”) (2 blocks)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“^”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“.”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“V”) (2 blocks)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“****4f*”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“^ L& £ 6 t-ft^f ^ '”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“& — '”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“•”) (2 blocks)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“j jf”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“'”) (2 blocks)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“^'•^'”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“*”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“x”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“c”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“£. / *,^”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“-h”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“f”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“fc y '**r”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR as a line (a line of a block that also holds the text)
  • Notes about a stage production, in 2 places
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“J”) (2 blocks)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“^ « f”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“v^^”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“V'V-^ ,”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“I • U&~ ^ j^L^”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“JL/1 S .. ' j”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“^ / / i^-" / 'i ^”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“«*-”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“^k V, . (t”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“fr**”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“V1^”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“^- • — ' — • - * ' - J • / /”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“.vO”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“sUy”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“V A J ' JL ( I 1 u it v f”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“/fa”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“r”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“"'”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“I”)
  • Specks or pencil marks read by the OCR (“f • •*”)
  • A speck (“o”)
  • The printer's signature (“K 2”) (“K 2”)
  • Closing line “THE END”
  • The printer's imprint (“Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh.”)