The Herne's Egg

Edited with an introduction and notes by Andrew Parkin This play has long been attacked as repugnant in subject, containing as it does a brutal gang rape, and confused in tone. Professor Parkin draws on the clash of values - between Christian and Pagan - and maintains that this central theme justifies the violence, sacrilege, sensuality and ferocious energy. Yeats imbues the play with farcical and ironic humour and his action is never tasteless or merely sensational. The Herne's Egg is an exuberant and crucial landmark in Yeatsian drama. This, the first critical edition, will be of very real interest to the modern reader or actor.

Irish Dramatic Texts 6

0-86140-343-6 £17.50

25/01/2008