Marriage To Maud Gonne
After the war he travelled to Paris where Maud Gonne lived. In 1903, he married her much to the horror and undying hatred of W. B. Yeats, whose muse she was and to whom Yeats had proposed many times. The following year their son Sean MacBride was born. Yeats wrote to Lady Gregory in January 1905, the month MacBride and Maud separated, that he had been told MacBride had molested Iseult, his stepdaughter, who at that time was going on 11 years old. The marriage had already failed but the couple could not agree on custody of their baby. When MacBride would not agree to Maud's terms, she made accusations against him and instituted divorce proceedings in Paris. Yeats was her main advisor. No divorce was given but a separation with Maud having custody to the baby until age 12. The father got visiting rights and one month each summer. However, MacBride did not remain in Paris but returned to Dublin and never saw his son again.
Read more about this topic: John MacBride
Famous quotes containing the words maud gonne, marriage and/or maud:
“Maud Gonne at Howth station waiting a train,
Pallas Athena in that straight back and arrogant head:
All the Olympians; a thing never known again.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Why don’t you go home to your wife? I’ll tell you what. I’ll go home to your wife and outside of the improvements, you’ll never know the difference. Pull over to the side of the road there and let me see your marriage license.”
—S.J. Perelman, U.S. screenwriter, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and Norman Z. McLeod. Groucho Marx, Horsefeathers, a wisecrack made to Huxley College’s outgoing president (1932)
“The Judge looked back as he climbed the hill,
And saw Maud Muller standing still.”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)