Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk

John Millington Synge Playwright

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: Ireland
  • Born: Apr 16, 1871
  • Died: Mar 24, 1909

Edmund John Millington Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, travel writer and collector of folklore. He was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival and was one of the co-founders of the Abbey Theatre. He is best known for his play The Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots in Dublin during its opening run at the Abbey Theatre.

Although he came from an Anglo-Irish background, Synge's writings are mainly concerned with the world of the Roman Catholic peasants of rural Ireland and with what he saw as the essential paganism of their world view.

Synge suffered from Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer that was untreatable at the time. He died weeks short of his 38th birthday as he was trying to complete his last play, Deirdre of the Sorrows.

There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting. St. Patrick's Day

The general knowledge of time on the island depends, curiously enough, on the direction of the wind. knowledge

It is the timber of poetry that wears most surely, and there is no timber that has not strong roots among the clay and worms. poetry