The Well of the Saints opens with the arrival of a wandering holy man and his can of water from a remote holy well to a small Irish village, promising to restore the sight of the blind beggars who live by the crossroads there. Synge uses this simple story to expose and ridicule the pretensions and hypocrisies of every character in the story—the holy, the lowly, and the respectable alike. His ruthless and irreverent comedy—and especially his treatment of the holy man, and by implication, the Catholic Church—enraged contemporary critics. This same satirical style is what would later lead to riots in Dublin and New York on the premiere of his next play, The Playboy of the Western World. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

This antiquarian volume contains J. M. Synge's 1910 play, "The Well of the Saints". It is a play in three acts that was first performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1905, four years before its author's death. It centres on Martin and Mary Doul, two blind beggars who have been convinced by their fellow townsfolk that they are attractive, when in actuality they are hideously ugly. After being cured of their blindness by a saint, they realise their mistakes and become disgusted by the sight of each other. Edmund John Millington Synge (1871 - 1909) was an Irish poet, prose writer, and playwright. He was an influential figure in the Irish Literary Revival and co-founded the Abbey Theatre. Many vintage texts such as this are increasingly hard to come by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

Set near a holy well known for its cures of blindness and epilepsy and centres on the figure of Martin Doul, who is blind and has two illusions - the first, that he and his wife Mary are a handsome couple and the second, that the visible world is full of wonder and delight.

Reproduction of the original.

"The Well of the Saints" from John Millington Synge. Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, travel writer and collector of folklore (1871-1909).