The Hour–Glass in Prose (1903–1937; incorporating Yeats's revisions)

Summary

(Base text used: NOAP)

NAR North American Review (September 1903). [NAR]

HG 1903 The Hour-Glass. London: Wm. Heinemann, 1903.

HGOP The Hour-Glass and Other Plays. New York and London: Macmillan, 1904.

HGCHPB The Hour-Glass, Cathleen Ni Houlihan, The Pot of Broth. London: A. H. Bullen, 1904; Dublin: Maunsel, 1905.

HG 1907 The Hour-Glass. London: A. H. Bullen, 1907.

USOP The Unicorn from the Stars and Other Plays. New York: Macmillan, 1908.

CW 1908 The Collected Works. Vol. IV. Stratford-on Avon: Shakespeare Head Press, 1908.

PIT Plays for an Irish Theatre. London and Stratford-on-Avon: A. H. Bullen, 1911.

PPV Plays in Prose and Verse. London: Macmillan, 1922; and New York, 1924.

NOAP Nine One-Act Plays. London: Macmillan, 1937.

THE HOUR-GLASS

A Morality

(Prose Version)

1903

Persons in the Play

A Wise Man

A Fool

Some Pupils

Angel

The Wise Man's Wife and Two Children

A large room with a door at the back and another at the side opening to an inner room. A desk and a chair in the middle. An hour-glass on a bracket near the door. A creepy stool near it. Some benches. An astronomical globe perhaps. Perhaps a large ancient map of the world on the wall or some musical instruments. Floor may be strewed with rushes. A Wise Man sitting at his desk.

1. 1. Wise Man [turning over the pages of a book]. Where is that

2. 2. passage I am to explain to my pupils to-day? Here it

3. 3. is, and the book says that it was written by a beggar

4. 4. on the walls of Babylon: ‘There are two living coun-

5. 5. tries, the one visible and the one invisible; and when

6. 6. it is winter with us it is summer in that country, and

7. 7. when the November winds are among us it is

8. 8. lambing-time there.’ I wish that my pupils had asked

9. 9. me to explain any other passage. [The Fool come in and

10. stands at the door holding out his hat. He has a pair of shears

11. 10. in the other hand.]