John Millington Synge and the Irish Theatre

LET it be observed at the outset that Synge seldom told his family and friends of his experiences abroad,¹ and that it is only from scattered allusions in his non-dramatic writings -- especially The Aran Islands -- and from personal and private sources that we are able to derive some outline of his peregrinations on the Continent, which are here recorded for the first time.

Being, as we have just seen, a musician of no mean order not only in theory but in practice -- he had attempted original composition -- Synge first intended to train himself for the musical profession, which led to his going to Germany, where he spent thirteen months in all. He first stayed in Darmstadt and Coblentz, where he pursued his violin studies, and then (in the spring of 1894) at Würzburg on the Main.² In the latter city he perfected his technical

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