Under the influence of the lyrical drama of Medieval Japan called ÒNoh (N_gaku)Ó, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) wrote ten short plays to be performed for small elite audiences. These plays constitute his Ònoble theatreÓ. They fall into two generations. Six plays belong to the first generation: At the HawkÕs Well (1917), The only Jealousy of Emer (1919), The Dreaming of the Bones (1919), Calvary (1920), The Cat and the Moon (1926), a farce, and Resurrection (1931). The second generation comprises four plays: A Full Moon in March (1935), The King of the Great Clock Tower (1935), Purgatory (1939), and The Death of Cuchulain (1939).