The Trembling of the Veil, Book IV. The Tragic Generation, Summary and Analysis

After Yeats' return to Bedford Park, an Ibsen play was presented for the first time in an English theatre. It was not received well and even Yeats did not like it. Other Irish plays were put on in the same theatre over the next couple of months, including one of Yeats' own. These too were received badly. When Bernard Shaw had a play produced in this theatre, he blamed the actors for the poor reception by the audience, an idea that made Shaw a hero in Yeats' eyes.

Yeats was convinced that Shaw and Wilde would have both been the most successful of the Irish writers in England if it had not been for Wilde's arrest. Everyone in the literary community...