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John Millington Synge
(1871 - 1909)

picture of John Millington Synge

"I seemed to traverse whole epochs of desolation and bliss.
All secrets were open before me...."

John Millington Synge
Under ether. Personal experiences during an operation.
Interstate Med J 23:45-49, 1916

"Synge has just had an operation on his throat and has come through it all right...When he woke out of the ether sleep, his first words, to the great delight of the doctor, who knows his plays, were: 'May God damn the English, they can't even swear without vulgarity.' This tale delights the Company, who shudder at the bad language they have to speak in his plays."
William Butler Yeats, letter to John Quinn, 4 October 1907

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