It is no coincidence that Synge uses a well to explore his personal definition of well-being. In The Well of the Saints (1905), he employs “well” as a homonym to mean both the literal well and to describe good eyesight. Timmy says that “[t]here’s a green ferny well, I’m told, behind of that place, and if you put a drop of the water out of it, on the eyes of a blind man, you’ll make him see as well as any person is walking the world” (CW 3: 79; act 1; emphases added). Here, Synge distinguishes between “a miraculous spring of water” with “medicinal properties” and “well-being” and “welfare” (“Well”; OED). For Synge, the physical body of the well is a microcosm for the wider metaphysical concept of wellness.