Life
1873-1956 [James Henry Sproul Cousins; occas. pseud ‘Mac Oisín’];
b. Belfast, of Methodist family; office boy, clerk, and sec. to the Lord
Mayor; moved to Dublin in the 1890s, and encouraged George Roberts to
do likewise as representative of a Belfast firm; became theosophist, vegetarian,
and playwright; met Fay brothers, 1901; acted in Irish National Theatre
Soc.; plays; The Sleep of The King (1902); The Racing Lug
([Anc. Concert Rooms 1902); The Sword of Dermot (1903); Yeats
quashed [‘squelched’ acc. Finneran] production of his comedy
Sold as ill-written (‘too much Cousins’); asst. master
of English at Harcourt Street School from 1905; m. Margaret Cousins; fnd.
editor of Irish Citizen (1912), handing over to Francis Sheehy-Skeffington
on his departure for Liverpool, 1913, and India, 1915; took name of Jayaram
on conversion to Hinduism; James Joyce stayed in there home at the Bungalow,
Dromard Terrace, Sandymount, before moving into Gogarty’s Martello
Tower; their theosophical publications nevertheless satirised as ‘tablebook
of Cousins’ in Gas from a Burner; playwright and manager for
Irish Lit. Theatre, and associate of AE et al; The Racing Lug is
compared with Riders to the Sea; joint autobiography with Margaret
Cousins, published by Kalashetra (1950). PI DBIV DIB DIL APPL
OCIL
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Works
Poetry, Ben Madighan and Other Poems
(Belfast: Marcus Ward [1894]); The Legend of the Blemished King
(Dublin: Doyle 1897), 93pp.; The Voice of One (London: T. Fisher
Unwin 1900); The Quest (Dublin: Maunsel 1906), 54pp.; The Awakening
and other Sonnets (Dublin: Maunsel [1907]); The Bell-Branch
(Dublin: Maunsel 1908), 47pp.; Etain the Beloved and Other Poems (Dublin:
Maunsel 1912); Straight and Crooked (London: Grant Richards 1915);
The Garland of Life (Madras, Ganesh 1917); Moulted Feathers
(Madras: Ganesh 1919); Sea-change (Madras: Ganesh 1920);
Forest Meditations and Other Poems (Asia (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical
Publishing House 1925); Above the Rainbow and Other Poems (Madras:
Ganesh 1926); The Girdle (Madras Puck/Ganesh 1929); The Wandering
Harp, Selected Poems (NY, Roerich Museum Press 1932); A Bardic
Pilgrimage, Second Selection of the Poetry of James H. Cousins (NY:
Roerich Museum Press 1934); The Oracle and Other Poems (Madras:
Ganesh 1938); Reflections Before Sunset (Adyra, Madras: Kalakshetra
1946).
Drama, The King’s Wife (Madras: Ganesh 1919); The Sword of Dermot (Madras: Shama’s Publishing House 1927); The Hound of Uladh, Two Plays in Verse (Adyar, Madras: Kalakshetra 1942); ‘The Racing Lug’, printed in United Irishman (5 July 1902), rep. in R. Hogan and J. Kilroy, eds., Lost Plays of the Irish Literary Renaissance (Proscenium 1970); The Sleep of the King, one act poetic drama, and The Sword of Dermot; three act tragedy, intro. William A Dumbleton [Irish Drama Ser. vol. 8] (Chic: De Paul UP [1973]).
Prose, The Wisdom of the West [Mythological Series] (London: Theosophical Publishing Society 1912) [quoted in Terence Brown, Northern Voices, 1975, p.65]; The Bases of Theosophy (Madras, Benares & Chicago: Theosophical Publishing House 1913); New Ways in English Literature (Madras: Ganesh [1917]), same, revised (1919); The Renaissance in India [Madras: Ganesh1918]; Footsteps of Freedom (Madras: Ganesh 1919); Modern English Poetry (Madras: Ganesh 1921); The Cultural Unity of Asia (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House 1922); Surya-Gita (Madras: Ganesh 1922); Works and Worship (Madras: Ganesh 1922); The New Japan, Impressions and Reflections (Madras: Ganesh 1923) [on Japanese psychology]; Heathen Essays (Madras: Ganesh 1925); The Philosophy of Beauty (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House 1925); Samasdarsana ... A Study of Indian Psychology (Madras: Ganesh 1925); A Study in Synthesis (Madra: Ganesh 1934); Collected Poems 1894-1940 [Adyar, Madras: Kalakshetra 1940); The Faith of the Artist (Adyar, Madras: Kalakshetra 1941); The Aesthetic Necessity of Life (Kitadistan, Allahabad: Madras University 1944); We Two Together, with Margaret Cousins (Madras: Ganesh [1950]).
Alan Denson, James Cousins and Margaret E. Cousins, a bibliography (Kendal: Denson 1967). and Do. [rep. edn.] (De Paul) with short intro. by the William H. Dumbleton (ed.).
NOTE Seek information about important India influence from Ganesh Devi. NOTE, Margaret Cousins, wife of, and sometimes co-author with, above.
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Criticism
John Hewitt, ‘James H. Cousins’, Irish Press (21 Jul.
1973), p.10.
Terence Brown, Northern Voices, Poets from Ulster (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1975), p.64-68.
Alan Denson, James H. Cousins and Margaret E. Cousin: A Bibliographical Survey (Kendal: Denson 1967).
William Dumbleton, James Cousins (Twayne 1980).
David Burleigh, ‘We Together, James & Margaert Cousins & India, Causeway (Autumn 1995), pp.33-35.
Purnima Bose, ‘The Colonial and Post-colonial Encounters’ (Diss.; Texas, 1993).
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Notes
Brian Cleeve & Anne Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers
(Dublin: Lilliput 1985); died in India having gone as English teacher
in 1913, after teaching at Harcourt Street High. Autobiog with Margaret
E. Cousins, We Two Together (1950); also Collected Poems
1894-1940 (Madras 1950). Dublin Book of Irish Verse, ‘The
Coming of Niamh’; ‘The Bell-branch’; ‘Behind the Pough’;
‘The Awakening’.
D. J. O’Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary, (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912); Ben Madigan and Other Poems, (Belfast 1894); The Legend of the Blemished King (Dublin 1897), The Voice of One (London 1900); The Quest (Dublin 1907), poems, The Bell Branch, poems (1908), and The Awakening and Other Sonnets (Dublin 1908). NOTE, [Cathach Bks. 12, lists The Quest (Dublin 1906).]
Seamus Deane, ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry 1991), has variant: TWilliam J. Feeney, ed., he Sleep of the King, and The Sword of Dermot, ed. , Vol. 3 [Irish Drama Series] (Chicago 1973) [cchk.]
Brian M Walker, et al., eds, Faces of Ireland (Belfast: Appletree Press 1992), pp.36-37, contains short passage from The Racing Lug, from Robert Hogan and James Kilroy, eds., Lost Plays of the Irish Renaissance (Calif.: Dixon 1970, pp.42-43). Note ref. to Collected Poems, 1950 [sic.]
Belfast Public Library holds poetry collections, Above the Rainbow; The Awakening; The Bell-branch; Ben Madighan; Etain the Beloved; The Hound of Uladh, play; The King’s Wife, play; Legend of the Blemished King; The Quest; Straight and Crooked; Tibetan Banner; The Voice of One; A Wandering Harp, selected poems (1932); Wisdom of the West (1912).
A. N. Jeffares, W. B. Yeats, A New Biography (London: Hutchinson
1988), Yeats blocked two plays by James Cousins, Solf, and The Sword of
Dermot, regarding them as having no originality; in June a reading committee
was formed, but split when Cousins offered Sold again. (Jeffares, 1988,
p.138).
Cf. Noyes?: Characterised by Terence Brown as ‘an Irish Alfred Noyes, whose occasional attraction is a pleasing painterly exoticism, mediated in rhythms of mellifluous banality.’ (Northern Voices, 1975, p.67). Bibl. includes Denson, and the first edns., Etain the Beloved and Other Poems (Dublin: Maunsel & Co. 1912); The Quest (Dublin: Maunsel & Co. 1906); The Bell Branch (Dublin: Maunsel & Co. 1908).
James Joyce: Richard Ellmann writes, ‘He [Joyce] accepted the invitation of Gretta Cousins, the wife of the Theosophical poetaster James Cousins, to come and use her piano in the mornings but preferred to hire one’ (James Joyce [1959], 1965 Edn., pp.157, 249, ftn.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)