The sun., 1903-05-17


to the letter Nietssche's injunction: Be hardi
And there y something in him Of Ibsens
pttiless attitude toward the majority:
which is always In the wrong; yet w. oil
said and done, the majority. Facts,
reality, truth-no Gradgrind ever demanded
them more mperiously than Heerpoier
Shaw--whose red beard and looks remind
one OF Conrad in Die Meistersinger'
Earth folk do everything to dodge the
facts Of life, to them, cold, harsh and az the
same time fantastic. Every form OF ano-
dyne, ethical, intellectual. esthetical, is
resorted to to deaden the pain OF reality
We work to forget to live; our religions
art, philosophy, patriotism are 80 many
buffers between the soul of man and bitter
truth. Edgar Poe in one Of his "Marglnaha
said that II man attempted to write tne
hideous truths Of existence, paper ana pen
would shrivel under his fingers, consumed
in the blaze. This is heightened way OF
putting the case; It will serve.
Shaw wants the truth at all hazards his
habit of veracity. is like that OF Gregers Is
Werle, is shocking. So he dips his suoJects
into bath Of muriatc acid and seems sur
prised at their wrigglngs and their screams
4But don't want to hear the truth ya's
the victim, who then lmps back to his
comfortable lies. And the one grieVouS
error is that our gallant slayer OF dragons,
our Keltic Sieofried does not believe in the
illusions Of art. Its wells, consoling ana
beautiful, he will not have; and thus II Is
that his dramas are amusing. witty, Drill
liant terrifying. but never poetic, never
beautiful, seldom sound the deeper tones oil
humanity With an artists brain. he STILES
the artists soul in him-as 1bsen never did.
With all his liberalism, he cannot be liberal
to Liberalism. Enfn-a human paradox.
The Perfect WAgnerte and The Quintes-
| sence of Ibsenism, are two quite supernally
clever jeur d'ssprit. As he reads Shaw
and Fabianism into the Ring OF the Nibe-
lungs, 30 his Ibsen is transformed into
magnified image Of Shaw dropping plays
from on high with Olympian Indifference
| He was fighter for Ibsen when In London
! Ibsen was once regarded as perverter OF
morals Bravery is Bernard's trump card,
He never finched yet, whether answering
cat-calls from a first nights gallery or
charging with pen lowered lance-fashion
upon some unfortunate clerical blockhead
who endeavored to prove that he'll Ia too
J good for sinners,
| 1t is easy ia praise Mozart o-day; not 30
easy to demonst rate the genius OF Richard
| Strauss. Wagner in 1888 was still Bogie-
| Man, a horrid hobgobin threatening the
peace OF academic British music. Shaw
took up the fight, just as he fought for
Degas and Manet, when he was an art
critic. I still preserve with reverence his
sweeping answer to Max Nordau. 1t
wiped Nordau on the field OF discussion.
And the plays! Yes, we are coming to
them. They too. are controversial. They
| all prove something, and prove 1t 30 hard
that presently the play is swallowed up In
its thesis-the horse patiently follows the
cart 1t may not be art, but it Is magnifi-
cent Shaw. You can skip the plays, not
the prefaces. 'Widowers' Houses Is the
most unpleasant, ugly, damnably perverse
of the ten. The writer had read 1bsen's
AN Enemy Of the People too closely. 1te
drainpipes, and not its glorifcation Of the
individual, got into his brain. 1t filtered
forth bereft OF its strength and meaning
in this piece, with its nasty people, it's stu
pidities How could Shaw be 80 Philistine,
so much like q vestryrnan interested IN
pauper lodginss7 In the implacable grasp
of Ibsen, this sordid theme would have
been beaten On q red-hot anvil until shaped
to something Of purpose and power. Shaw
was not blacksmith enough to swing the
Ibsen hammer and handle the Ibsen bellows
.The Philanderer,' with it's irresponsible
levity and unexpected oontortions, is
comedy OF the true Shaw order. It's his
wild Duck for in it he pokes fun at an 1b-
sen Club, at the New Woman and the New
Sentiment, at almost everything he up
holds in other plays and ways There is a
dramatic critic stopping over with British
sentiment, and--other things. The women
are absolutely incredible. The first act, like
most of the Shaw first acts, is the BEST best
because, in his efforts to get his people
aloat, the dramatist has little time to ser
monize. He usually gets the chance later
to the detriment Of his structure. The
! first act of 'The Philanderer' would have
made Henri Becque smile. 1t has some
thing Of the Frenchman's mordant irony
and then you never know what ia going Il
happen The behavior Of the two womer
recalls a remark OF Shaw's dpropos o.
Stindberg; Strindberg, who Shows thai
the female Yahoo, measured by romantic
standards, ia viler than her male dupe ant
slave Here the conditions are reversed
! there is no romance; the dupes are women
and also the Yahoos, The exposure o.
Juiio's soul, poor. mean, sentimental, suf
. fering little creature. withal heroic, woul,
please Strindberg himself. The play ha
: an autobiographical ring.
As to Mrs. Warrens Profession"
was PLAYED Jan. 12, 1902, in London by tn,
, Stage Society. Strindberg beat Shav
! hands down in the little one-act sketc
5 referred to in THE SUN several month
i ago. As MIR. Grein says. Mrs. Warren
! Profession the most ancient In the world
:. Rudyard Of the Kipling's calls it's litera
. ture for the study The mother Is Dor
: -wonderfuly done In spots (the spot
3 especially and the daughter a chilly
T waspieh prig. The men are bettel
: Sir George Crofts and the phila nderin
i Young fellow could not he clearer exprcsse
q in terms OF ink. imagine that In q per
. formance they must be extremely vita
r And that weak old roue Of clergyma
t why is Ibsen, why is Shaw, 90 severe o
= clergymen9 Surely there are some goo
+" clergymen in the world and some who ar
o not hypocrites For the rest Mrs. Warren
= Profession" creates an awful impression
e as the author intended 1t should l cor
n III. 4. he l>ig oast apd also hia p,ost in