the simplicity and musical vigor of old Greek odes and plays. [Illustration: _Photograph by Bain News Service_ WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS] As dramatist, certain critics will aver, with reason, that Synge was greater than Mr. Yeats; as researcher among the peasantry for folk tales and forgotten poetry, Lady Gregory and Dr. Douglas Hyde may deserve higher rank. In the writings of Mr. Yeats, however--lyrics, ballads, and plays--there are three distinctive qualities: lyrical beauty, mystical strains, blended wistfulness, and merriment. These poetic distinctions are found in many of his ballads, notably in “The Host of the Air,” “The Stolen Child,” and “The Fiddler of Dooney”; they form the literary warp of such plays as _The Land of Heart’s Desire_, _The Hour-Glass_, and _On Baile’s Strand_. In every edition of his plays Mr. Yeats has emphasized his indebtedness to Lady Gregory for assistance as well as inspiration. In his Notes to _Plays in Prose and Verse_ (New York, 1924) he acknowledges the sources of “the greater number of his stories,” as those found in Lady Gregory’s _Gods and Fighting Men_ and _Cuchulain of Muirthemne_. He affirms that these two books have made the legendary tales of Ireland as familiar as are the stories of Sir Arthur and his Knights. Again, he records his gratitude to Lady Gregory for introducing him to firesides where he might get “the true countenance of country life.” A third form of helpfulness was the skill of this friend in her mastery of dialect and her generous work in revising the lines of Mr. Yeats in this detail of form. His own ability to evoke music and poetry from dreams and traditions, and to portray the simple, domestic incidents of peasant life, was coördinated with Lady Gregory’s aspiration and background of folklore.