The Student Vagabond

Across the bay from Ballycastle lies Aran Island. Too barren and sunless to tempt invaders, it went untouched, and almost unknowing, while the rest of Ireland gave up its lands and its memories. But the fishermen on Aran still remembered Cuchulain and the Red Branch, and the language of the Erse; their infrequent English, with its archaic vocabulary sounds like a foreign tongue. For them was reserved a later invasion and a stranger. A young man who had found the music schools of Germany and the cafes of Paris not at all to his liking was rowed out from the mainland one day, and settled down among the islanders.

To the native fishers, who looked on the continent as a distant planet, he was a wonder and delight. By day he would wander along the beach, picking shells and tossing pebbles in the ocean, or telling fairy tales to the children. He never worked. In the fishing boats he was an awkward hand, and let them alone, but in the pub at evening a grand man for a pot of ale and a wild story of the foreign lands. They would sit and talk about his quiet manner and his witty speech, and why, do you think, he should be coming to these islands?--long after he had retired for the night. And they never dreamed that while they talked Mr. J. M. Synge listened from his room through a crack in the ceiling and copied their strange idioms into a little notebook.

Eventually he went back to Paris, where lived William Butler Yeats, who had praised him as a genius. To Yeats Synge read a play called. "The Shadow of the Glen." This time Yeats confined his praise to a single word: "Euripides!" A year later, when "Riders to the Sea" was written the poet still could find only a single word: "Aeschylus!"

A few at least of those who saw "The Playboy of the Western World" as it was produced by the Abbey Players during the past two weeks, do not quarrel with the verdict. Boston will not soon have the pleasure of seeing as great a play as greatly acted. Those who saw it not, or seeing, did not see, are the more to be pitied. Let them hearken to Professor Murray in Harvard 6 today at eleven o'clock and know at least what they missed.

TODAY

9 o'clock

"Heaviside Calculus," Professor Chaffee, Cruft Lecture Room 3.

"Aristotle on Moral Responsibility," Professor Gulick, Sever 26.

10 o'clock

"Naturalism: Stephen Crane and Frank Norris," Professor Matthiessen, Harvard 6.

"Keats," Professor Lowes, Sever 11.

11 o'clock

"The Irish Theatre, J. M. Synge," Professor Murray, Harvard 3.

"German Philosophy of the Nineenth Century," Professor Burkhard, Germanic Lecture Room.

12 o'clock

"The British Empire," Professor Whitney, Emerson 211.

TOMORROW

9 o'clock

"Modern Britian and the British Empire," Professor Webster, New Lecture Hall.

"Renaissance Studies," Professor Rollins, Emerson F.

10 o'clock

"Dutch Painters of the Sixteenth Century," Dr. Kuhn, Fogg Museum.

"Tacftus, Historian and Satirist," Professor Rand, Sever 13.

"The War on the Sea, 1914-1918," Professor Fay, Harvard 1.

"Frank Norris," Professor Murdock, Sever 11.

11 o'clock

"The United States and the World War," Professor Schlesinger, New Lecture Hall.

"Florentine and Umbrian Painting," Professor Edgell, Fogg Large Room.

"American Diplomacy in the World War," Professor Baxter, Harvard 3.