Page:John M. Synge - Masefield - Dublin 1915.djvu/42

 in talk some years before. The reader must however believe that the words quoted, if not the very words used by Synge, are as near to the very words as my memory can make them.

I have been asked to add to these memories a few notes, and the chief dates in Synge’s life, as far as we know them. His life, like that of any other artist, was dated not by events but by sensations. I know no more of his significant days than the rest of the world, but the known biographical facts are these.

He was born on 16th. April, 1871, at Newtown Little, near Dublin. He was the youngest son and eighth child of John Hatch Synge, barrister, and of Kathleen, his wife, (born Traill.) His father died in 1872. His mother in 1908. He went to private schools in Dublin and in Bray, but being seldom well, left school when about fourteen and then studied with a tutor; was fond of wandering alone in the country, noticing birds and wild life, and later took up