Quite the most complete expression of Mr. Shaw’s “philosophy” is to be found in Man and Superman, the “comedy” of which is a very easy-going affair. Its third act, in Hell, the “home of the unreal,” with Heaven, the “home of the masters of reality,” just round the corner, is the Quintessence of Shavianism; but it has so little to do with the theater that when the play is given there it is found necessary to omit it. Man and Superman, while the most characteristic product of Mr. Shaw’s genius, is thus not one of the best of his plays, because it does not carry its burden. To put the case another way, its comic vision and its philosophic vision are not in alignment. The struggle between the Philosopher and the Playwright has been fearful, but the playwright has not won.
—Fortnightly Review (July 1913)
QUESTIONS
1. Is Shaw relevant today?
2. Does Shaw’s socialism get in the way? Does it interfere with the action? Does it lead Shaw to create scenes and characters whose function is only to make a point?
3. The poet W. B. Yeats felt ambivalent about Shaw’s work. On the one hand, he said that he “stood aghast at its energy” the way he did before certain works of modern art, that such work provoked for him a nightmare of “a sewing machine, that clicked and shone, but ... that smiled, smiled perpetually.” On the other hand, Yeats spoke of Shaw’s “generosity and courage,” which he [Yeats] “could not fathom.” Does Yeats do justice to Shaw?
4. Could a case be made that Shaw’s female characters are more convincing, or at least more interesting, than his male characters?
FOR FURTHER READING
WORKS BY SHAW
Collected Plays with Their Prefaces: Vols. 1—7. Edited by Dan H. Laurence. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1975.
The Collected Screenplays of Bernard Shaw. Edited by Bernard F. Dukore. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980.
Collected Letters. Edited by Dan H. Laurence. Vol. I, 1874—1897, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1965; Vol. 2, 1898-1910,New York: Dodd, Mead, 1972; Vol. 3, 1911-1925 New York: Viking Press, 1985; Vol. 4, 1926-1950, New York: Viking Press, 1988.
The Drama Observed. Edited by Bernard F. Dukore. Vol. 1 : 1880-1895; Vol. 2: 1895-1897; Vol. 3: 1897-1911; Vol. 4: 1911—1950. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993. An invaluable collection of all Shaw’s writings about theater.
Shaw’s Music: The Complete Musical Criticism in Three Volumes. Edited by Dan H. Laurence. Vol. 1: 1876-1890; Vol. 2: 1890-1893; Vol. 3: 1893-1950. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1981.
BIOGRAPHICAL
Ervine, St. John G. Bernard Shaw: His Life, Work, and Friends. New York: William Morrow, 1956. The most sympathetic and fair biography of Shaw.
Henderson, Archibald. George Bernard Shaw: Man of the Century. New York: Appleton- Century- Crofts, 1956.
Holroyd, Michael. Bernard Shaw, Vol. 1, 1856-1898: The Search for Love, New York: Random House 1988. Bernard Shaw, Vol. 2, 1898-1918: The Pursuit of Power, New York: Random House, 1989. Bernard Shaw, Vol.3, 1918-1950: The Lure of Fantasy, New York: Random House, 1991. Bernard Shaw, Vol. 4, 1950-1991: The Last Laugh, New York: Random House, 1992. The most detailed and comprehensive biography. A condensed version is available: Bernard Shaw: The One- Volume Definitive Edition, New York: Random House, 1998.
Shaw, George Bernard. Interviews and Recollections. Edited by A. M. Gibbs. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1990. An indispensable record of first-hand personal views of and by Shaw.
CRITICAL WORKS
Bentley, Eric. Bernard Shaw. New York: New Directions, 1947.
Berst, Charles A. Bernard Shaw and the Art of Drama. Champaign-Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1973.
Crompton, Louis. Shaw the Dramatist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969.
Evans, T. F., ed. Shaw: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge, 1976.
Meisel, Martin. Shaw and the Nineteenth-Century Theater. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963. A brilliant and delightful account of Shaw’s relationship to the theater of his youth.
Morgan, Margery M. The Shavian Playground. London: Methuen, 1972.
Turco, Alfred, Jr. Shaw’s Moral Vision. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1976.
Valency, Maurice. The Cart and the Trumpet. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.
Watson, Barbara Bellow. A Shavian Guide to the Intelligent Woman. New York: W W. Norton, 1972. Still the best case for Shaw as a feminist.
Wisenthal, J. L. The Marriage of Contraries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974.
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF SHAW’ S IDEAS
Bertolini, John A. The Playwrighting Self of Bernard Shaw. Carbondale and Edwardsville: University of Southern Illinois Press, 1991.
Dukore, Bernard. Shaw’s Theatre. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000.
Gibbs, A. M. The Art and Mind of Shaw. New York: Macmillan, 1983.
Gordon, David J. Bernard Shaw and the Comic Sublime. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
Holroyd, Michael, ed. The Genius of Shaw. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979.
Shaw: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies: Vols. 1—22 successive. General editors: Stanley Weintraub, Fred D. Crawford, Gale K. Lar son. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1981-2003.
a Richard Whately (1787-1863), Anglican archbishop of Dublin.
b Laurence Irving (1871-1914) was a biographer and the son of famous actor-manager Henry Irving.
c Elected member of a local city council; Shaw represented St. Pancras, London, from 1897 to 1903.
d Brandon Thomas’s perennially popular farce involving female impersonation.
e “The Prodigious Child” (French); a scenario for music by Michel Carré, co-librettist of several nineteenth-century operas by Charles Gounod.
f Sartorius is a slum landlord in Shaw’s first play, Widowers’ Houses (written in 1892).
g Charteris is the title character in Shaw’s second play, The Philanderer (written in 1893).
h For emphasis Shaw used spaced letters rather than italics, which he reserved for stage directions.
i College for women at Cambridge University.
j Special final examination at Cambridge; the three highest-ranking students were called “wranglers.”
k A stern father with life and death authority over his children; here used ironically.
l Words written to a former mistress who tried to blackmail Arthur Wellesley, duke of Wellington (1769—1852).
m Commonly assumed name for a procuress.
n From “My Dear and Only Love,” by seventeenth-century poet James Graham, marquis of Montrose.
o Site in London notorious for prostitutes’ suicidal jumps (as in Robert Sherwood’s Waterloo Bridge of 1930).
p An immoral person.
q Unstylish, untidy.
r Old spelling for Budapest; reflects the fact that the modern city was once two separate cities.
s Whitewashed.
t Green, felt-like fabric that covers billiard tables.
u When asked to identify the words, Shaw complied with “prostitute” and “pro curess.”
v Unanticipated problem.
w Because Frank now knows that she is not a lady.
x Mrs. Warren’s semi-formal form of address here takes note of Frank’s changed manners.
y In later editions identified as Miss A. E. F. Horniman, a patroness of the New Theatre.
z Those who disagree.
aa Reflecting surface; mirror.
ab Shaw is joking about the alleged fondness for alcohol of the people of Aberdeen.
ac Famous violinist Joseph Joachim (1831—1907); Brahms’s only violin concerto was written for him.
ad Workers having a picnic in the country.
ae Identified in later editions as Moy Thomas; he reviewed Shaw’s early plays favorably.
af The book Progress and Poverty (1879) was written by Henry George, an American and a leading socialist.
ag The book A Dream of John Ba
ll (1888) was written by William Morris; John Ball was a fourteenth-century priest and reformer.
ah Settlements were organizations of university graduates designed to improve social conditions and help educate residents of poor sections of London.
ai Christian.
aj Bid, cost-estimate.
ak Poor people who hail cabs for others in hope of a small tip.
al Financial note that can be cashed in seven days.
am An allusion to the Bible, Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace” (King James Version).
an Nephew.
ao Head.
ap Eugene describes the Pre-Raphaelite painting The Blessed Damozel, by Dante Rossetti.
aq A reference to the Bible, 2 Samuel 6:16: “Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord” (KJV).
ar Every two weeks.
as To frequent prostitutes (as used in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, act 2, scene 1).
at Strafford and Colombe’s Birthday are verse dramas by Robert Browning (1812-1889).
au Verse drama by Percy Shelley (1792—1822).
av Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), Belgian symbolist playwright, author of Pelléas et Mélisande (1892).
aw Shaw compares theater managers of his time to medieval arrangers of crude holiday entertainments.
ax Character in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part Two.
ay Good material (Italian); slang phrase for “prostitute.”
az An 1896 play by Henry Arthur Jones that Shaw reviewed.
ba Victorian playwright Tom Robertson (1829-1871)attempted to deal with social themes.
bb Harem concubine.
bc Minor legal official in the Middle East.
bd Misprint; should be “insistence.”
be Should be The War of the Worlds (1898); corrected by Shaw in later editions.
bf Edward Bellamy, author of Looking Backward (1888).
bg Shaw borrows Oscar Wilde’s paradoxical aesthetic pronouncement that nature imitates art.
bh A near-quotation from Sonnet 55, lines i and 2.
bi An allusion to Sonnet 110, whose first four lines are: “Alas, ‘tis true I have gone here and there / And made myself a motley to the view, / Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear, / Made old offences of affections new.”
bj Not the Romantic poet, but the popular Victorian playwright Henry James Byron (1834-1884).
bk One who is aggressively loyal to a religious sect, after the Scots who signed the Covenant in 1638 to remain loyal Protestants.
bl The earliest English translation of the term “Übermensch,” coined by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Shaw would later use “Superman.”
bm In the Bible, Mark 1:7, John the Baptist says of himself in relation to Christ: “There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose” (KJV).
bn Plain-style country cake.
bo In cricket, the guard who stops balls from passing the wicket.
bp Worn (from covering the corners of the table).
bq Coarse rug.
br Highly polished, colorful shells.
bs English architect (1831-1915 ) who worked with the socialist William Morris (1834-1896).
bt [Christ‘s] blood and wounds; an indecorous oath for a minister.
bu That is, the jail; a generic term derived from the name of a notorious London prison.
bv Devil-may-care.
bw Georgius Rex (Latin for “George the King”).
bx One of Shaw’s best epigrams.
by That is, from the Church of England; here used metaphorically to mean a rebel.
bz Solemn music from the oratorio Saul (1739), by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759).
ca Head.
cb Shaw fondly portrayed his fellow critic as Mr. Trotter in Fanny’s First Play (1911).
cc He who acts through an agent acts for himself (Latin).
cd One thousand and three (Italian); in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1787), the Don’s servant Leporello claims for his master this number of amorous conquests in Spain.
ce Fray Gabriel Téllez (Tirso de Molina), a dramatist who lived in the early seventeenth (not sixteenth) century.
cf The Trickster (Deceiver, Gamester) of Seville.
cg Don Juan (1824), a comic-epic poem.
ch Don Juan’s servant in works by Molière (Don Juan, 1665) and Mozart (Don Giovanni, 1787), respectively.
ci Of eighteenth-century Russia; reputedly most amorous, she was the subject of Shaw’s Great Catherine (1913).
cj François Guizot was a nineteenth-century Protestant historian.
ck The Stony Dinner-Party (French).
cl Let a just heaven protect (Italian); sung by Anna and Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
cm EdwardAlexander Westermarck (1862—1939), Finnish anthropologist of marriage.
cn Hypocritical character in Charles Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).
co The libertine punished (Italian); subtitle of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1787).
cp In Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (1848), a type of the faithful, devoted suitor.
cq Bunsby and Mrs. MacStinger are characters in Dickens’s Dombey and Son (1848).
cr Amandine Dupin, Baronne Dudevant (1804-1876) published novels under this name.
cs In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (c. 1790).
ct Saucepan.
cu Bread and games (Latin); from one of Juvenal’s Satires.
cv Shaw appended Tanner’s Revolutionist’s Handbook to Man and Superman.
cw Shaw’s Mendoza derives from Doyle’s El Cuchillo in The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896).
cx Shaw is referring to J. M. Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton (1902). ‡On her peace (Italian).
cy Simon Tappertit, in Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge (1841), schemes to marry above his station.
cz Sir Leicester Dedlock and Mr. Tite Barnicle are characters in Dickens’s Bleak House (1853) and Little Dorrit (1857), respectively.
da French theatrical term for the young male lead.
db In The Jungle Book (1894), Rudyard Kipling’s brave mongoose, which kills a cobra to save a baby.
dc A chorus from Handel’s Messiah (1742).
dd Lighthearted youngsters.
de Analogous to a U.S. public school.
df Religious (but not Church of England) universities.
dg The Life of the Bee (1901).
dh In this reference to the Bible, Tanner adapts Proverbs 6:6: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise” (KJV).
di That is, undermine my reputation as a chaste woman.
dj A book (1858) of essays by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
dk In a later edition, Shaw changed this to “mawdest,” to indicate Hector’s American accent.
dl Unpleasant-sounding laughter.
dm Pierre de Beaumarchais was an eighteenth-century playwright whose Marriage of Figaro (1784) criticized aristocratic privilege.
dn I demand to speak. It is completely false. It’s false! false!! false!!! Mur-r-r-r-derer! (French).
do Phony (French).
dp Pigs! ... We have to shoot, right? (French).
dq Fall on them, for God’s sake (French).
dr Calm down (French).
ds My brother (French).
dt Never in my life! Rotten liar (French).
du Atheist.
dv Cold feet.
dw Quotation from Hamlet (act 5, scene I), with “Louisa” substituted for “Ophelia.”
dx White Sunday (Pentecost) week, a solemn period in the Christian calendar.
dy A paraphrase of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Peter Bell the Third (1819; part 3, stanza I), which has “London” in place of “Seville.”
Man and Superman and Three Other Plays Page 56