ABSTRACT
In May 1910, the first phase of Ireland’s national theatre movement at the Abbey Theatre concludes, somewhat oddly, with the demise of the reigning British monarch, King Edward VII. This situation arose because Annie Horniman, the NTS’s wealthy English patron since 1904, decided to cease subsidization upon discovery that the theatre had not cancelled its performances as a token of monarchal respect. What incensed Horniman in particular was that the NTS directorate (W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and Lennox Robinson) had compounded their error by not publishing an apology in the daily newspapers (Frazier 1990: 232-40). And, yet two days after the King’s death, on 13 May 1910, the following notice appeared in the Irish Times:
The directors and manager regret that owing to an accident the theatre remained open on Saturday last. Lady Gregory, who was in the country, had wired immediately on receipt of the news of the King’s death, and of a telegram asking for instructions, desiring it to be closed; but this was late in
the day; the matinée had already been put on, and it was considered too late to stop the evening performance.
