Social Victorians/People/Maud Gonne

Also Known As

• Edith Maud Gonne
• Maud Gonne MacBride
• Golden Dawn motto: Per Ignem Ad Lucem (Howe 51) — "Through fire to the light" (Greer 1996; Küntz 191)
• Maud Nic Ghoinn Bean Mac Giolla Bhríghde

Demographics

• Nationality: Anglo-Irish (father Irish, mother English)

Family

• Captain Thomas Gonne (1835–1886)
• Edith Frith Gonne, born Cook (1844–1871)

1. Edith Maud Gonne, eldest daughter (21 December 1866 – 27 April 1953)
2. more children

• Maud Gonne (21 December 1866 – 27 April 1953)
• Lucien Millevoye (1 August 1850 – 25 March 1918) [not married to each other]

1. Georges Silvère (1890–1891)
2. Iseult Lucille Germaine Gonne (1894–1954)

• John MacBride (7 May 1868 – 5 May 1916)

1. Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988)

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Friends

• Lucien Millevoye, romantic and sexual relationship, circa 1887–1899
• William Butler Yeats

Organizations

• The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
• Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland), founded Easter 1900
• Roman Catholic Church, converted in 1902

Timeline

1889, Gonne met W. B. Yeats.

1891, Georges Silvère died of meningitis.

1891 November, Gonne initiated into the Golden Dawn (Howe 51).

1894 December, Gonne "demits" from the Golden Dawn (Gilbert 86 147). According to Harper, she attained the 4=7 degree, the highest in the Outer Order (Harper 74 165, n. 20), but Gilbert says she attained only 3=8 (86 147).

1897, Gonne organized protests against Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations with W. B. Yeats and Arthur Griffith.

1898 April 14, April 25, and May 9?, Yeats was in Paris; "extended passages" in his Autobiography (335-42) records "several vivid experiences" during this trip (Harper 74 163, n. 15). Maud Gonne was there.

1898 April 25, Yeats wrote to Lady Gregory from Paris" (Harper 74 18). Gonne was also in Paris.

1898 December 10 (to be exact: "a few days before" 13 December), Yeats and Gonne, who was out of the Golden Dawn in December 1894, performed occult "experiments."

1899 February, Yeats went to Paris to see Gonne. "Although, as he wrote to Lady Gregory, 'she made it easy for me to see her', he was depressed. Maud had told him 'the story of her life' and discouraged any further pursuit on his part" (Harper 74 20). Yeats probably saw MacGregor and Moina Mathers there.

1900, summer, Gonne left Millevoye and, taking Iseult, returned to Ireland.

1902 April, Gonne played Cathleen in Yeats's Cathleen Ni Houlihan.

1903 February 21, Maud Gonne and John MacBride married.

Questions and Notes

1. Gonne said John Brodie-Innes's "witch stories were exciting" (Howe 142).

Bibliography

• Gilbert 1986
• Greer
• Harper 1974
• Howe
• "John MacBride." Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_MacBride (accessed July 2020).
• Küntz
• "Lucien Millevoye." Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Millevoye (accessed July 2020).
• "Maud Gonne." Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Gonne (accessed July 2020).

1. "Seán MacBride." Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seán_MacBride (accessed July 2020).

Written by Maud Gonne

• Gonne, Maud. A Servant of the Queen. 1938.