BL. W. B. Yeats

130. Parkinson, Thomas. ‘The Later Plays of W. B. Yeats’. In Modern Drama: Essays in Criticism, edited by Travis Bogard and William Oliver. New York: Oxford UP, 1965.

Argues that the influence of the nô on Yeats’s drama ‘can easily be exaggerated’, because ‘the Japanese forms sanctioned and strengthened motives already existent in Yeats’s dramaturgy’. Suggests but makes little effort to prove that Yeats had a greater hand in Pound’s versions of the nô (see BK24) than previously had been acknowledged, a point made more compellingly by Chiba (BK175, and see also BK154). Focuses on Deirdre (5), The Only Jealousy of Emer (14b), and The Resurrection (28), and includes passing reference to other plays.