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Without Yeats Esson would quite likely have done little - there would have beenno plays from him, no Pioneer Players, and he would not now be referred to asa pioneer dramatist. And yet with the overwhelming influence of Yeats and the AbbeyTheatre Esson was drawn away from work in which he could, perhaps, haveexpressed himself more fully. There were, as it turned out not surprisingly, no Folk,no Celtic mists, no ancient heroes. There were modernist writers, and a newly postcolonialsociety which was facing very real issues of nationalism and internationalismand the tension between these. Very late in life Esson began work on a play whichhe never finished and never titled, but which exists today in manuscript in thecollection of his plays in Arrnidale.20 In it he began falteringly to explore in a moremodern style the problems of the modern cosmopolitan facing the great weight ofold western culture bearing down. It is not a successful play. It was too little toolate. At about the same time he wrote a final nostalgic article about his personalstruggle, poignantly entitled "Irish Memories and Australian Hopes". For Esson,by this time, there were too many memories and too few hopes.NOTESL 'Memories and Impressions', in Louis Esson, The Southern Cross and other plays, Melbourne: Robertson and Mullens, J946, p.218.2. The same, p.220.3. In another account Esson says that it was Yeats, whom he met in Lady Gregory's drawing room in London, who invited him toDublin. See Hugh Anderson (ed.), Ballades of Old Bohemia, Melbourne: Red Rooster Press, 1900, p.I90.4. 'J.M. Synge: A Personal Note', in Anderson, p.175.5. The same, p.l84.6. See, for example Vance Palmer, Louis Esson and the Australian Theatre, Melbourne: Georgian House, 1948, p.25 and Andersonp.l87.7. 'Irish Memories and Australian Hopes', Australian Quarterly. June 1939, p.56.8. 'Nationality in Art', in Anderson, pp. 310-11. Quoted in David Walker, Dream and Disillusions, Canberra: A.N.V.P., 1976, p.14.9. Letter to A.G. Stephens, quoted in Walker, p.28.10. 5 November 1914, in Anderson, p.219.II. The same p.226.12. Walker, p.30.13. Palmer, p.7.14. In Anderson, p.189.15. The same, p.l95.16. Palmer, p.28.17. Anderson, p.l95.18. The same.19. The same, p.l%.20. The Campbell Howard Collection, in the Dixon Library at the University of New England.40 WESTERLY, No.2, JUNE, 1989