The sun., 1903-05-17
THE QUlNTESSENCE OF SHAW.
HIS PLAY ABOUT DON JUAN AND
HIS OTHER WORKS.

Many Roles lie Has Appeared ms
He Really sincere or ISL
"A DeiIehtfully Entertaining Writer.
Anyhow The PrOdigal Hun'or anu
Ingenious Fantasy I'm His ria's'
The announcement that George Bernard
Shaw. moralist, Fabianite. vegetarian
plavwriaht, critic, Wagnerte, lbsenite'
lester to the Cosmos and the most serious
man on the planet, has written play on
the subject of Don Juan does not surprise
his admirers. As Nietzsche philosophical
with a hammer, so G. B. 8. hammers popu-
lar myths. II you have read about Cesar
and Cleopatra you will know what mean
This witty, sarcastic piece is the most
daring he has attempted. Some years ago
7 described the Shaw literary pedigree as:
w. s. Gilbert out Of Ibsen. His plays are
full of modern odds and ends. and in form
are anything from the Robertsonian comedy
to the Gilbertian extravaganza. They may
be called psychcal farces, an intellectual
con1sdie rosse--for his people are black
guard crew, lively marionettes all talking
pure Shave Mr.. Shaw has invented
new individual in literature who for want
Of A better name could be called the over
Cod; he Ia Nietzsches Overrnan turned
sbounder sometimes the sex is
female.
We wonder what sort of drama this re-
markable Hibernian would have produced
n he had been flesh eater. If he IL so
brilliant ON bran, what could he not nave
accomplished on blood! One thing is GER
tain--at the oosmical banquet where SHAW
sjts Ia the head of the table-for him.
The new play, II is said, will be the longest
ever written; almost as long, it would SEEM
as the trilogy Of the Ring. Perhaps Shaw
will have 1t played during the course OF
four evenings in theatre specially built.
The fr.t act. play in itself, lasts an hour
and forty minutes; the second and fourth
are OF conventional lengths, but the third
Is longer Shan Iris, including one scene in
hell--of course-whioh ia two hours long.
The dedication is TO Henry Arthur Jones's
friend, A. B. Walkeley, dramatic critic OF
the London Times. This dedication Is
reported to be in the nature Of Shaw
preface, while the appendix, almost verrni-
form, contains an entire book. Then, to
TOP Of this Gargantuan feast. volley OF
maxims and epigrams in the Rochefoucauld
'vein are hurled at the reader-true verbal
bombs of the Shaw brand
When he announced to a gaping world
that he was only natural born mounte-
bank with a cart and trumpet, sigh
of relief exhaled in artistic London So
many had been taking him seriously and
swallowing his teachings, preachings and
pronunc,dment0s, that to hear the merry
man was only shamming came "a species
OF liberation from cruel obsession. With
out paying the customary critical toll
Shaw had slipped, duty free, into England
all manners of damnable doctrines, What
George Moore attempted in serious and
artistic manner George Shaw. fellow
Irishman, succeeded in accomplishing with
out the chordle Of objurgation, groans,
exolamatinus OF horror and blasts OF
puritanical cant. Thus Proudhon. Marx,
Lasselle, Ibsen, Wagner, Nietzsche, and
q Lot Of free thinkers in socialism, religion
philosophy and art. walked unmolested
through the pages of critical reviews while
Mr.. Moore was almost pilloried for ad-
vocating naturalism. and Vizetelly sent
to prison for translating Zola.
After the Shaw criticisms came the novels
then the plays. The prefaces OF the latter
are lite nature, and will be remembered with
Joy when the plays are forgotten. In tn EN-
the author has distilled the quintessence
of Shaw. They will be classics some day.
as the Dryden prefaces are now classics.
Nevertheless, I remember writing. among
other things, that in the plays we find the
old Shaw masquerading, this time behind
the footlig hts He is still the preacher
Fabian debater, socialist, vegetarian
lycanthrope and normally abnormal man Of
l.,. ha htp,oa ~
his abnormal normaity. Finding, l said
that the essay did not reach wide enough
audience the willy Cslt mounts the rostrum
and blarneys his listeners something after
this manner:
Here's my hustings from here will
teach, preach and curse the convention
Of society. Come all ye who are tired o
the property fallacy! There is but ont
Karl Marx, and am his living prophet
Shakespeare must go-Ibsen is to rule
Wagner was Fabianite; the Ring prove
it. Come all ye who are heaven-ladel
with the moralitiesi am the living witnes
for Nietzsche. | will teach children t.
renounoe the love Of parents; parents t
despise their offspring; husbands to hat
their wives; wives to loathe their husbands
and brothers and sisters will raise warrin
A6Illc diuSi my VoiAp AAe'o S''S'ASS '''N'
souls. Whatever Is is wrong-to alte
Pope. The prostitute classes-I do no
balk at the ugly word-clergymen, doctors
Dwyers, statesmen, journalists. are de
~ wing you. They speak in divers an
lying tongues. alone possess the pre-
phylactie against the evils of life. Her
It is: Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant
and Three Plays for Puritans.
Then veal gasped.
But George was only removing anothe
OF his innumerable masks. Beware, say
Nietzsche. OF the autobiographies Of mel
He was thinking Of Richard Wagner.
applies to Bernard Shaw. He is a. gret
comedian and a versatile. He has spoke
through 30 many different masks that IL
real Shaw Is yet to be seen. Perhaps G
his deathbed some stray phrase will illum
nate with it's witty gleam the true soul
G. B. Shaw. In the parlanoe of childhoc
he has played tag with his soul 30 lor
that some Of it has been lost in the gam
Irishman born, he is not genial after Il
Oliver Goldsmith type. He resembles mu'
moro closely Dean Swift, minus the geniu
plus sanctity. When will the last MAJ
be- lkted-and. awful to relate. will
when lifted, reveal the secret told Of
Edgar Poe in his -Masque Of the r.
Deatb2 like Camil,a's mask in Chambers