Yeats began his career by writting a series of plays in his teens, and finished his last play, "The Death of Cuchulain" shortly before his death at the age of 73. Yeats was a man of the theatre just as much as a lyric poet, managing Dublin's famous Abbey Theatre for many years. With an introduction and notes on each play, Professor Jeffares has selected a total of 12 plays which range from the patriotic "Cathleen ni Hoolihan", the mixture of farce and symbolism in "The Player Queen" and the realistic "The Words Upon the Window-Pane" and the wild fantasy "The Herne's Egg".