Augusta Gregory

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Standard Name: Gregory, Augusta
Birth Name: Isabella Augusta Persse
Married Name: Isabella Augusta Gregory
Titled: Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory
Pseudonym: Angus Grey
Pseudonym: An Irish Landlord
Used Form: Lady Augusta Gregory
Augusta Gregory was a highly energetic and creative force in the Irish Literary Revival, which began in the late nineteenth century. Material from her collections and translations of Irish folklore, epics, and oral poetry inspired new literary works by herself and others. At the age of fifty, she began writing plays for the Abbey Theatre , which she co-founded and co-directed. Her skill at rendering idiomatic conversation, honed through years of listening to the stories told to her by country people in county Galway, is evident throughout her writing. In addition to her drama and folklore, Lady Gregory wrote several articles on Irish politics and culture, two memoirs, a history of the Abbey Theatre, diaries, and an autobiography. As a nationalist with an identity grounded in the ruling class, she can be seen as a colonialist reformer.
Black and white photograph of Augusta Gregory, shown in profile from the waist up. She is wearing a dark sweater and her light, wavy hair is pulled back.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Family and Intimate relationships Leonora Carrington
Like her mother, LC took pride in her maternal family history and enjoyed her experiences with relatives, especially her grandmother Mary Monica Moorhead . From her maternal grandmother LC learned about their genealogical connection to...
Family and Intimate relationships Lady Cynthia Asquith
Her husband took great interest in other women and was frequently unfaithful. Having married him somewhat reluctantly, she, too, conducted an emotional life elsewhere: Beauman writes that she became pregnant by the writer Wilfrid Blunt
Family and Intimate relationships Florence Farr
They separated after four years, when Emery left for America. He became a successful actor there, and eventually remarried. Their reasons for separating are not clear, and FF rarely mentioned him after he left. Years...
Friends, Associates Emily Lawless
Lawless made a number of other friends, acquaintances, and admirers through her writing, including Margaret Oliphant , an early friend and critic, Rhoda Broughton , George Meredith , Aubrey de Vere , Mary Augusta Ward
Friends, Associates Martin Ross
MR visited Lady Gregory 's estate of Coole Park in Galway, where she first met W. B. Yeats .
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
128
Friends, Associates Marie Belloc Lowndes
MBL was an early member of Mary Cholmondeley 's Give and Take Club for women writers, and a founding member of another women's luncheon club, the Thirty . This included women from all walks of...
Friends, Associates Edith Somerville
Other friends of Somerville's later years included W. B. Yeats and Augusta, Lady Gregory . In the 1940s Somerville exchanged letters with Maurice Baring .
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
162, 252, 265
Friends, Associates John Millington Synge
JMS 's major supporters in his dramatic career were William Butler Yeats and Augusta, Lady Gregory , who ran the Irish National Theatre . Other famous literary supporters included G. K. Chesterton , John Masefield
Friends, Associates W. B. Yeats
Several women writers and public figures played very important roles in Yeats's life. Lady Gregory (whom he first met in London in 1894 and whose close friend he became in 1896) played a crucial role...
Leisure and Society Martin Ross
She also led a busy social life: she attended the wedding of Augusta, Lady Gregory .
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
22
Literary responses John Millington Synge
The first audiences hated what they perceived as the scandalously negative portrayal of Irish character. Actresses on stage in their shifts or undergarments were felt to be indelicate and damaging to national pride.
Benson, Eugene. J. M. Synge. Macmillan, 1982.
12-13, 113, 115
Literary responses Charlotte Brooke
CB was warmly appreciated in Ireland. She influenced there a parallel effort to preserve traditional music as she had preserved traditional words: that of Edward Bunting , who edited in 1796 the first volume...
Occupation John Millington Synge
In September 1905, JMS , along with Yeats and Lady Gregory , became directors of the company. George Russell and Fred Ryan were also administrators for the Irish National Theatre Society .
Benson, Eugene. J. M. Synge. Macmillan, 1982.
11-12
Saddlemyer, Ann. “Introduction and Chronology”. The Collected Letters of John Millington Synge, Oxford University Press, 1983, p. ix - xxvi.
xxiv
Kiely, David M. John Millington Synge: A Biography. Gill and Macmillan, 1994.
156
Occupation Florence Farr
The lecture proved quite popular, and Clifford's Inn had to turn people away. Over the following years, FF put on many such readings, performing works by Homer , Shelley , Yeats , Lady Gregory ...
Occupation Maud Gonne
MG played the heroine in Augusta Gregory 's and Yeats 's Cathleen ni Houlihan in the Irish National Theatre 's production, opening on 2 April 1902. This role made her a symbol of the nation.
Blain, Virginia, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
McGuire, James, and James Quinn, editors. Dictionary of Irish Biography. http://dib.cambridge.org/, http://dib.cambridge.org/.

Timeline

8 June 1847
The Irish Poor Law Extension Act was passed.
May 1915
Irish art collector Hugh Lane , nephew of Augusta Gregory , died suddenly by drowning, leaving his international art collection to the National Gallery of England, the Dublin National Gallery having earlier refused to...

Texts

Gregory, Augusta. A Book of Saints and Wonders. Dun Emer Press, 1906.
Gregory, Augusta. Coole. Cuala Press, 1931.
Gregory, Augusta. Cuchulain of Muirthemne. John Murray, 1902.
Malins, Edward, and Augusta Gregory. “Foreword”. Coole, edited by Colin Smythe, Dolmen Press, 1971, pp. 7-14.
Saddlemyer, Ann, and Augusta Gregory. “Foreword and History of First Productions”. The Comedies of Lady Gregory, Colin Smythe, 1970, p. v - xv.
Saddlemyer, Ann, and Augusta Gregory. “Foreword and History of First Productions”. The Tragedies and Tragic Comedies of Lady Gregory, Colin Smythe, 1970, p. v - xiii.
Gregory, Augusta. Gods and Fighting Men. John Murray, 1904.
Gregory, Augusta. Hyacinth Halvey. Maunsel, 1906.
Gregory, Augusta, editor. Ideals in Ireland. At the Unicorn, 1901.
McDiarmid, Lucy, Maureen Waters, and Augusta Gregory. “Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography”. Selected Writings, Penguin, 1995, pp. xi - xliv, 525.
Gregory, Augusta. Irish Folk-History Plays. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1912.
Gregory, Augusta. Kincora. Maunsel, 1905.
Gregory, Augusta. Lady Gregory’s Journals, 1916-1930. Editor Robinson, Lennox, Putnam, 1946.
Gregory, William. Mr. Gregory’s Letter-Box, 1813-1830. Editor Gregory, Augusta, Smith, Elder, 1898.
Gregory, Augusta. My First Play. Elkin Mathews and Marrot, 1930.
Gregory, Augusta. New Comedies. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1913.
Gregory, Augusta. Our Irish Theatre. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1913.
Gregory, Augusta, and Douglas Hyde. Poets and Dreamers. Hodges, Figgis, 1903.
Gregory, Augusta. Poets and Dreamers. Cambridge University Press, 2010. http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CLOR, http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CLOR.
Gregory, Augusta. Selected Writings. Editors McDiarmid, Lucy and Maureen Waters, Penguin, 1995.
Gregory, Augusta. Seven Short Plays. Maunsel, 1909.
Gregory, Augusta. Seventy Years. Editor Smythe, Colin, Colin Smythe, 1974.
Gregory, Sir William Henry. Sir William Gregory. Editor Gregory, Augusta, John Murray, 1894.
Gregory, Augusta, and Douglas Hyde. Spreading the News; The Rising of the Moon; The Poorhouse. Maunsel, 1906.
Gregory, Augusta. The Dragon. Talbot Press, 1920.