The Shadowy Waters. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1900. First Edition. Pp , 57, untrimmed. Blue ribbed cloth, gilt rose to right corner, title in gilt on spine, top edge gilt. Light pale spotting along beveled margins, contents in nice bright condition.

Five hundred copies of the first edition were printed. 

The Shadowy Waters, a verse play that Yeats conceived and began writing in 1884, is called by Foster his ‘eternal work-in-progress.’ The play proved almost impossible to stage. There was a private performance for Yeats and Stephen Gwynn in London in April of 1904, a production at the Theosophical Society staged by Florence Flarr in 1905 (loathed by Yeats), and further rewrites over subsequent years.

The play first appeared in ‘The North American Review’ on 1st May 1900.

[Wade 30]