In "The Countess Cathleen," famine devastates Ireland, and a pair of mysterious merchants begin buying souls from starving peasants in exchange for food and gold. When Countess Cathleen discovers the growing spiritual crisis among her people, she tries to offer aid—but quickly realizes her wealth alone isn’t enough to stop their grief. In a final, deliberate act, she sells her own soul to the merchants, hoping to ransom the villagers’ salvation with her sacrifice. Drawing from Irish legend to explore moral choice, quiet heroism, and the uneasy space between good intentions and divine judgment, this debut play of W.B. Yeats would set him apart from other contemporary writers of his time and solidify the foundation for his works to come.

Follow me on other platforms:

https://bemuse.bandcamp.com

https://www.instagram.com/talentunlimited1/?hl=en

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0wiNjFbd6rluEHZF4Qffcv

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070481824821&locale=hi_IN

https://www.patreon.com/bemuse

Website: https://bemusearts.com

*This Season's Album Art by Illuvisual*

William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist and writer, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with John Millington Synge and Lady Gregory, he founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, and later served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State.

His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced, modernist and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900 his poetry grew more physical, realistic and politicised. He moved away from the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with some elements including cyclical theories of life. He had become the chief playwright for the Irish Literary Theatre in 1897, and early on promoted younger poets such as Ezra Pound. His major works include The Land of Heart's Desire (1894), Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), Deirdre (1907), The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), The Tower (1928) and Last Poems and Plays (1940).

*Any views/ideas expressed in these plays are not my own, and I do not believe in the censoring of anything controversial or problematic that the playwright/poet/author has written which will impact the way in which the story is told. The integrity of these works is much more important to me than any triggering content, and therefore I would ask that you have the same maturity and mental framework to listen to these pieces and appreciate them in their proper historical context.*

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/brendan-moirs-playwright-corner/donations