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printed journal cover with illustration
The Abbey Row: Not Edited by W.B. Yeats
Book cover of "The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet"

Section 4: Arrested in Philadelphia

Lady Gregory took a firm stand against censorship in 1907 when J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World caused riots at the Abbey, as nationalists deemed the play defamatory to Ireland. Although she personally disliked the play, she and Yeats defiantly insisted that the Theatre would always uphold artistic freedom. Two years later, in promoting Shaw's controversial play The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, she and Yeats would again triumphantly thwart attempted censorship. In four visits to the U.S. between 1911 and 1916, she defied efforts to stop Synge's play being performed. When the cast was arrested in Philadelphia, they were defended by John Quinn, with whom Gregory had a brief love affair. She also discovered a new faculty, undertaking grueling cross-country tours as a paid lecturer. In Our Irish Theatre, she published a history of the emergence of the Irish theater movement, with her own and Yeats's participation highlighted as central.

Items in Section 4: Arrested in Philadelphia

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  • Book cover of "The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet"

    Section 4: Arrested in Philadelphia Introduction

  • printed journal cover with illustration

    The Abbey Row: Not Edited by W.B. Yeats

  • manuscript draft of poem

    "A Friend's Illness"

  • handwritten horoscope

    Horoscope for Lady Gregory

  • handwritten letter by Lady Gregory

    Letter to W.B. Yeats

  • pale pink cover with title, author, and publigher printed with plain black type

    The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet

  • George Bernard Shaw inside a black car in front of the building at Coole Park

    George Bernard Shaw at Coole Park

  • Book cover of "The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet"

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