J M Synge

The Playboy of the Western World J M Synge

It is an autumn evening along the Irish coast in County Mayo. Shawn Keough stops at Michael James Flaherty's country pub to visit Flaherty's daughter, Margaret, called Pegeen Mike by her family and friends. Keough, a fat young fellow devoid of wit or talent, means to marry pretty Pegeen, a spirited colleen of twenty who is minding the tavern in her father's absence. But she entertains no fancy for Shawn. When he pesters her about the "good bargain" she would have in becoming his wife, she tells him to stop tormenting her while she is doing her job.