Lady Augusta Gregory ( 1859-1932 )

Lady Augusta Gregory's work belongs to the Irish literary movement and the abbey theatre. Her forte is the writing of pure joyous comedy of a kind alien to the temperaments of the other members of the group. She is most successful in her treatment of the one-act farce-comedy, and of the many she wrote perhaps the most memorable are Spreading the News, Hyacinth Halvey and The workhouse Ward. She has a genuine flair for devising fresh comic situations, but she is most gifted in the creation of comic dialogue.

She delights in the interweaving of fantasy and real life. Her characters  are drawn from actuality, but her plots turn on improbable and impossibe theme. She is fond of exaggeration and uses exaggeration to fine effects. Like Synge she shows how much of worth lies in the primitive emotions of a comparatively uncivilised community, and in showing this worth she has given, like Synge, an inestimable gift to English literature.