Mr. Boyle has used the struggles of an Irish-American engineer who is trying to smelt ore in Ireland, as a symbol to represent the difficulties of any enthusiast who attempts, in a country demoralized by failure, to change anything or establish anything that would mean a break with settled habits and interests. He knows the country well—or rather the country-side where he was born and bred, and no man knows more of the world than that, if the knowledge one means† is that instinctive kind that goes to making plays of character. His people are individuals, but they are also types, and there is something of the national tragedy in the play. Every man is ready, in Mr. O’Grady’s phrase, to break ranks and go hunting hares, because no man believes that the marching is going to bring him to anything better than a night’s sleep.1 But if you have no mind for meanings, you can take the play, and I hope any play we produce, as a story, and be content.