George Bernard Shaw, his life and works
CHAPTER XVI
Bernard Shaw looks down upon contemporary life from many windows. The world is caught in the dragnet of his infinite variety: few escape. To each man, Shaw comes in a different capacity. The world at large knows little, astoundingly little, of Shaw the man. That is why, after detailing the various features of his literary and public career, I have put last the study of his personality. From the preceding chapters the reader may have constructed a more or less imaginary portrait. In this chapter is portrayed Shaw, if not as in himself he really is, certainly as one who knows him really sees him.
It may not be devoid of interest to think of Shaw at several stages of his career. During the epidemic of 1881, he caught small-pox which, as he expressed it, “left him unmarked, but an anti-vaccinationist for ever.” The next few years Shaw passed “in desperate want and despair,” as an acquaintance has expressed it. While this statement is somewhat exaggerated, certainly the clothes he wore at this period gave it colour: tawny trousers, extraordinarily, unbelievably baggy; a long, _soi-disant_ black cut-away coat, and a tall silk hat, which had been battered down so often that it had a thousand creases in it from top to crown. “My clothes turned green,” Shaw has confessed, “and I trimmed my cuffs to the quick with a scissors, and wore my tall hat with the back part in front, so that the brim should not bend double when I took it off to an acquaintance.”
Despite the loyal protest of the Secretary of the Fabian Society, who once wrote me vehemently asserting that Shaw always wore perfectly normal and conventional clothes, it must be admitted that Shaw has been associated throughout his life with queer sartorial tastes. The notorious velvet jacket which he wore during the days of his activity as a critic of the drama, furnished the _casus belli_ in Shaw's war with the theatre managers. Shaw refused point-blank to obey the iron-clad regulation that occupants of stalls must wear evening clothes. The irrepressible conflict was precipitated one night, according to a story which Shaw vehemently denies, when Shaw was stopped at the door of the theatre by an attendant.
“What do you object to?” asked Shaw; “the velvet jacket?”
The attendant nodded assent.
“Very well,” exclaimed Shaw, no whit abashed, “I will remove it.” And the next instant he was striding up the aisle in his shirt sleeves.
“Here, that won't do!” shouted the attendant in great alarm, hurrying after Shaw and stopping him with great difficulty.
“Won't do?” cried Shaw, with fine assumption of indignation. “Do you think I am going to take off any more?”
And with that he promptly redonned his velvet jacket and turning on his heel, left the house. Shaw finally won the battle and enjoyed his triumph in face of the objection of managers and the indignation of the fashionable and wealthy theatre-goers.
Shaw's snuff-coloured suit and flannel shirt made him a marked figure in London during the 'nineties. He wore it so long that it finally came to look, as one of his acquaintances said, as if it were made of brown wrapping paper. So much a part of his individuality had it become that, when he finally discarded it, some friends of Shaw's, seeing it depending from a nail, exclaimed--so well had it retained its shape--“Good heavens! he's done it at last!”
Of peculiar, almost unique, interest is the record of Shaw's physical proportions and qualities, taken in the Anthropometric Laboratory arranged by Francis Galton, F.R.S., at the International Health Exhibition on August 16th, 1884. This was just twenty days before Shaw joined the Fabian Society. According to this chart, numbered 3,655, Shaw's anthropometric properties were as follows:
Colour of eyes, blue-grey.
EYESIGHT.
Greatest distance in inches of reading “Diamond” type--Right eye, 23; left eye, 27.
Colour sense (goodness of)--Good.
JUDGMENT OF EYE.
Error per cent. in dividing a line of 15 inches--in three parts, 1-1/2; in two parts, 1/2.
Error in degrees of estimating squareness--1/4.
HEARING.
Keenness can hardly be tested here owing to the noises and echoes.
Highest audible note--Between 30,000 and 40,000 vibrations per second.
BREATHING POWER.
Greatest expiration in cubic inches--298.
STRENGTH.
Of squeeze in lbs. of--right hand, 83; left hand, 80.
Of pull in lbs.--57.
SPAN OF ARMS.
From finger tips of opposite hands--5 feet 11.7 inches.
HEIGHT.
Sitting, measured from seat of chair--3 feet 1.8 inches.
Standing in shoes 6 feet 0.8 inch Less height of heel 0.7 inch ---------------- Height without shoes 6 feet 0.1 inch.
WEIGHT.
In ordinary indoor clothing in lbs.--142.
The social, physical, mental and moral measurements of the man, at different periods of his life, have been taken by a thousand hands. Not the least interesting of these is the record of a chirological expert in the _Palmist and Chirological Review_, July, 1895.[245] Shaw is inclined to believe in palmistry to the extent of regarding the hand to be as good an index of character as the face. He once laughingly remarked to me that the following chirological study possessed a curious interest, because it was such a remarkable _mélange_ of acute character-analysis and hopeless, utter nonsense.
Omitting technical details--the specific _indicia_ of specific traits--the hands of Shaw yielded the following “results.” The author, dramatist, musician and critic is betrayed by the long conical hands--the smallness of which for so tall a man indicates that the subject will be given to jumping to conclusions on insufficient grounds in matters of opinion. The subject is very unconventional and independent, especially in thought, and adaptable to people and circumstances. His will is very strong, and he is obstinate in opinion, very argumentative, dogmatic, and unconvincible. He is not only fond of books and reading, but also has a great love of rule and power over others. His temperament is a curious compound of caution and liberality, very dependent upon moods for their expression. The dramatic power he possesses is that of the dramatist, not of the actor; he is gifted with great power in carrying out ideas and turning circumstances to his advantage, due in no small measure to his remarkable power of words, whether for speaking or writing. While not entirely tactful, he is constantly scheming and planning; but he is usually more successful in handling plots than persons. Great energy, both physical and mental, and cultivated self-control are distinguishing marks of the man; to these traits are superadded much aggressiveness and high moral courage. He is endowed with a great sense of fun, remarkable wit, immense wealth of imagination and extreme eccentricity of ideas. The subject makes his own career in the world, and tries to carry out to some extent his eccentric ideas; but as a rule, his actions are directed by his accurate knowledge of the world. In many respects, the subject is very genuine and sincere; but along with this goes an incurable tendency to pose for effect. His fame will steadily grow with the years; and it is predicted that he will accomplish fine artistic work, if he will leave the practical side of things to others, and stick to art as he should. He can make or mar his own career as he chooses; he possesses the power to turn circumstances to his own advantage. In a large sense, he is the master of his fate.
Did the analysis stop here, Mr. Shaw might almost be justified in believing it impossible to derive such accurate information solely from a superficial knowledge of his public career. Unfortunately, the palmist indulged in certain other characterizations which are doubtless included in Mr. Shaw's category of “utter nonsense.” According to the palmist, Mr. Shaw has a very good opinion of himself, due to vanity, not to self-confidence, in which he is conspicuously lacking. He is very susceptible to criticism, but harsh in his criticism of others; very apprehensive of consequences, changeable and uncertain in his moods. Quiet in temper, he is, nevertheless, very revengeful and vindictive, imbued not only with a great power of hatred, but also with utter mercilessness in carrying it out. His temperament is very hard, and, in a refined manner, cruel. He has an extreme disregard for truth, all notions and opinions being coloured by fancy until facts are completely lost sight of, thus showing the subject to be utterly wanting in practical common sense in his opinions and ideas. He is neither passionate nor benevolent; but he has a laudable tendency to idealize his friends. It is a very unlucky temperament in affairs of the heart; his nature has little if any faculty for attachment. He imagines himself in love, and the more obstacles and impossibilities in the way of his suit, the more he will delight in it; he imagines the object of his attachment perfect, and will endeavour, contrary to all rules and observances, to live in his castles in the air, and when they dissolve he will throw it all away, perfectly heedless of consequences to himself or others, and start on a new ambition, or an entirely different line. “That this has already happened once in his life,” adds the chirologist, “is shown by the bar line, now fading, from the upper Mars across to Head and Heart.” _Il ne manquait que ça!_
Let us now skip another eleven, or rather twelve, years, and take a look at Bernard Shaw as he is to-day. Many people seem to regard Shaw as too funny to be true--as fanciful as Pierrot, as imaginary as Harlequin, as remote as the Man in the Moon. In reality, he is the most unmistakable sort of person. The nervous, almost boyish swing of his gait, the length and lankiness of his figure, the scraggly reddish-brown beard, heavily tinged, or rather edged, with grey, the high and noble brow, the quizzical geniality of his expression, the sensitive mouth and the challenging directness of his grey-blue eyes--all proclaim the original of a Coburn print, or a Max Beerbohm cartoon. The balance between conventionality and _bizarrerie_, between the serious thinker and the sardonic wit, is symbolized in eyebrows and moustaches, one of each cocking humorously upward, the other gravely preserving the level of dignity. This gives him, when he is in a gay mood, the air of a genial Celtic Mephistopheles; and even when his face is in repose this hirsute peculiarity imparts a sort of quaint _diablerie_ to his expression. The delicate texture and excessive pallor of his skin gives the note of distinction to his face; and his eyes, whether turned full upon you with level gaze or dancing with the light of irrepressible humour, are his most distinctive feature. The frame for an artist's sketch of his profile would be a vertically elongated rectangle--a curious cephalic conformation ready made to the hand of the cartoonist.
Mr. Gilbert Chesterton's description, in his book, _The Ball and the Cross_, of the sane professor of psychology whose ideas are wilder than those of the lunatics under his charge, gives a rather startling picture in semi-caricature--with slight variations--of the man Shaw: “The advancing figure walked with a stoop, and yet, somehow, flung his forked and narrow beard forward. That carefully cut and pointed yellow beard was, indeed, the most emphatic thing about him. When he clasped his hands behind him, under the tails of his coat, he would wag his beard at a man like a big forefinger. It performed almost all the gestures; it was more important than the glittering eye-glasses through which he looked, or the beautiful, bleating voice in which he spoke. His face and neck were of a lusty red, but lean and stringy; he always wore his expensive gold-rim eye-glasses slightly askew upon his aquiline nose, and he always showed two gleaming foreteeth under his moustache, in a smile so perpetual as to earn the reputation of a sneer.”
The real Bernard Shaw is one of the most genial and delightfully entertaining of men. In his London quarters, at Adelphi Terrace, or in the quiet retreat of Ayot St. Lawrence, in Hertfordshire, he is easy, hospitable and unaffectedly natural.[249] In his manner, the combination of light spontaneity with a sort of effusive shyness is peculiarly engaging. There is something strikingly transitory about his presence: one always feels that he has just managed to catch Shaw “on the fly.” While he not infrequently plays up to his reputation for gay self-puffery, in such innocent diversions, for example, as ecstatically admiring the Rodin bust or rhapsodizing over Coburn's prints of him, it is always quite obviously with the humorous consciousness that his listener is sharing in the imposture. The genius of proverbial classification writes like an angel and talks like Poor Poll; Shaw possesses the unique distinction of talking, whether in his own home or upon the public platform, as trenchantly and as brilliantly as he writes. Unlike many celebrated _raconteurs_, whose ability consists almost solely in pouring forth a flood of polished anecdote and personal reminiscence, Shaw talks with apparent ease and equal wit upon any and every subject that comes to hand, from Richard Wagner to Anthony Comstock, from spiritualism to bicycling, from German philosophy to women's clothes. One is amused to discover that his extreme acuteness in analyzing subjects upon which he is an authority is equalled only by his marvellous glibness in talking of things of which he can really know little or nothing. Far from taking his cue from Coleridge or Wilde and monopolizing the conversation for hours at a time, he makes an attentive and appreciative listener, instantaneously responsive to clever characterization or thoughtful analysis. A great tease and joker, he is perpetually telling upon his friends devastatingly comic stories which they vehemently deny _in toto_. When he is not poking fun at your views or drawing your fire by carefully directed sarcasm, he is entertaining you with some humorous episode in his own life--a tilt with Anatole France, perhaps, a bit of repartee with which he turned the tables on Gilbert Chesterton, or an illiterate person's joke on Shaw which for the time being completely floored him.
I remember hearing him say that Anatole France and he, among others, were once dining together in Paris, and with great brilliance France spoke uninterruptedly for a long time about the strange type of men called geniuses. At the conclusion, Shaw said: “Yes, I know all about them, for I myself am a genius.” France, who knew virtually nothing of Shaw, was taken aback for only a moment. “_Mais oui, monsieur_,” he replied, “_et une courtisane se nomme une marchande de plaisir!_”
Simplicity and unostentation are the keynotes of Shaw's home life. The ornate, the gaudy, the useless are banished from his scheme of things. In his wife, a gracious person of great sweetness, he has both a charming companion and an enthusiastic supporter in all his multifarious activities. Mr. Shaw's retirement from the journalistic lists was signalized by his marriage to Miss Charlotte Frances Payne-Townshend, who nursed him back to health and strength--and matrimony--after a serious accident. “I was very ill when I was married,” Mr. Shaw once wrote, “altogether a wreck on crutches and in an old jacket which the crutches had worn to rags. I had asked my friends, Mr. Graham Wallas, of the London School Board, and Mr. Henry Salt, the biographer of Shelley and De Quincey, to act as witnesses, and, of course, in honour of the occasion they were dressed in their best clothes. The registrar never imagined I could possibly be the bridegroom; he took me for the inevitable beggar who completes all wedding processions. Wallas, who is considerably over six feet high, seemed to him to be the hero of the occasion, and he was proceeding to marry him calmly to my betrothed, when Wallas, thinking the formula rather strong for a mere witness, hesitated at the last moment and left the prize to me.”
Shaw is the quintessence of vital energy. He rushes hither and thither, from one task to another, with a feverish, almost frenzied activity. “Bernard Shaw reminds me of a locomotive of the most modern type,” said one of his intimate friends, “perfectly adjusted and running with lightning speed--an engine of tremendous power and efficiency.” One is liable to receive a first impression that Shaw is a delicate and anæmic sort of person--an impression fostered by the mackintosh and gloves he habitually wears and the umbrella he is fond of carrying. Once you have seen the man in action, and realized his abundant vitality and apparently inexhaustible store of nervous energy, you are not surprised to note, in Coburn's nude portrait of Shaw, in the casually affected pose of Rodin's _Le Penseur_, very massive shoulders and strong muscular development in arms and back. “Mr. Bernard Shaw is New York incarnate,” once wrote Miss Florence Farr. “Both of them are feverish devotees at the altar of work. Empty Mr. Shaw and New York of work and hurry, the man has a headache and closes his eyes in pain; he feels no reason for existence; and the city is a desolation. To Mr. Shaw, as to New York,” she pointedly added: “'doing nothing' is hell and damnation.”[250]
As a conversationist, Mr. Shaw is the most witty and delightful person imaginable. “Shaw is just a great big boy,” one of his intimate friends said to me, “who enjoys life and the world and himself to the fullest extent.” His enjoyment of his own anecdotes, witticisms, and strokes of repartee is irresistibly contagious; you howl with merriment, even when the joke is on you--and untrue to boot, as it often is. Brevity is the soul of his wit; and yet his stories pour forth in a perfect flood, and the coming of the “point” is duly heralded. The bubbling, chuckling note in his voice, the hands rubbed together with lightning-like rapidity, his body convulsively rocking back and forth in his chair--then the “point” with a rush, followed by his mirthfully expressive: “Well, you know----!”; he fairly doubles up, his head is thrown back, his body shakes from head to foot, and his eyes dance and glitter like the sea when struck full by the rays of the sun. His habit is to turn his light batteries of genial sarcasm, satire and irony upon those things which he perceives to be the especial objects of your respect, admiration, or veneration; he invariably depreciates and even ridicules those works of his own which you express an especial liking for. In private conversation, as well as on the platform, he is frequently engaged in drawing your fire and “putting you to your trumps”; and he once laughingly remarked to me that nothing delighted him more than to create around him a miniature reign of terror.[251] Less strongly opinionated persons than himself, when challenged in this way, are occasionally frightened into concealing or belying their real views. I once heard one of Shaw's acquaintances say with much harshness: “The astuteness and acumen of Bernard Shaw is little short of miraculous. His power of making people say precisely what he wants to hear, and at the same time what they don't necessarily believe, is truly phenomenal, almost diabolic.” He always keeps his temper and seldom goes beyond sharp, but good-humoured banter; but when attacked upon some fundamental point in which his convictions are profoundly engaged or the meaning of his life fundamentally misinterpreted, he becomes a dangerous dialectic antagonist who unmasks upon his opponent all the batteries of his keen satire, cutting logic and mordant wit.[252]
INDEX
Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 400-1.
_Academy_, 246, 287.
Achurch, Janet, 299, 304, 353-4.
_Actors' Society Monthly Bulletin, The_, 369.
Adams, Maurice, 104.
Addison, Joseph, 199.
Ade, George, 136.
Adelphi Terrace, 20.
_Admirable Bashville, The._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Aldwych Theatre, 401.
Alexander, George, 183, 282.
Allen, Grant, 279.
Allen, Rev. G. W., 102.
Alma-Tadema, Sir L., 287.
_Amateur Photographer_, 226.
Anderton's Hotel, 115, 131.
Angelo, Michael, 31, 46, 90, 153, 218-9, 225, 243, 291, 393.
Archer, William, 20, 75, 84, 90, 91, 142, 251, 297, 306, 315, 327, 333, 369, 413, 417, 443; and _Cashel Byron's Profession_, 61, 76; first sees Shaw, 97; and Shaw's career as a critic, 195; and Shaw's musical criticisms, 232-3; and Shaw's dramatic criticisms, 279 _et sqq._, 286; collaborates with Shaw, 293, 295; and Shaw as a dramatist, 299; and _Mrs. Warren's Profession_, 307-8, 363, 425; and _Arms and the Man_, 316-17; and _You Never Can Tell_, 325; and Shaw's greatest work, 378; and _Major Barbara_, 387; and _The Doctor's Dilemma_, 390 _et sqq._; and stage directions, 419; and _Widowers' Houses_, 445; and Shaw's sentiment, 507.
_Arms and the Man._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Arnold, Matthew, 96.
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 299.
_Art Moderne, L'_, 348.
_Atlantic Monthly, The_, 484.
Augier, E., 294.
_Author, The_, 91.
Aveling, Dr., 114, 160, 164, 261.
Avenue Theatre, 312 _et sqq._, 316.
Bab, Julius, 85, 249, 402.
Bach, 236, 240, 252.
Bahr, Hermann, 198, 353, 358, 410, 414, 424.
Bakunin, Michel, 98, 189, 247.
Balfour, Right Hon. A. J., 372, 404.
Ball Publishing Co., 111.
Barker, Granville, 286, 368, 371-2, 388, 398, 446.
Barnby, Sir Joseph, 237.
Barrie, J. M., 404.
Barry, James, 200.
Bashkirtseff, Marie, 5, 273.
Bax, Belfort, 51, 98, 164, 485-6; his article, _Socialism and Bourgeois Culture_, 159.
Beaumarchais, 23.
Beaumont and Fletcher, 264, 366.
Bebel, F. A., 152, 180, 186.
Beerbohm, Max, 231, 288, 339, 363, 394, 425, 496.
Beethoven, 18, 23-4, 73, 153, 240, 243, 250, 257, 393.
Beeton, 158.
Bell, Chichester, 34-5, 44.
Bellamy, Edward, 152.
Bellini, 18.
Bennett, Sterndale, 237.
Berlioz, 234, 257.
Bernstein, Eduard, 165.
Besant, Mrs. Annie, 52, 92, 109, 113 _et sqq._, 125, 133, 144, 160, 165, 178, 283, 484.
Beyle, Henri, 20, 412, 463.
Birmingham, George A., 401.
Bispham, David, 238.
Bizet, 24, 61.
Blake, William, 447, 454 _et sqq._, 466, 469, 473.
Bland, Hubert, 67, 99, 102, 114 _et sqq._, 128-9, 169, 175, 178.
Bland, Mrs. Hubert, 128-9.
Blavatsky, Madame, 127.
Blum, M. Jean, 337.
Booth, General, 387.
Borchardt, Miss, 484.
Borsa, Mario, 270.
_Boston Transcript_, 287.
Bouguereau, W. A., 222.
Bourget, Paul, 416, 464.
Bradlaugh, Charles, 137-8, 144, 160, 176.
Braekstad, Hans L., 272.
Brahms, 241, 243.
Brandes, Dr. Georg, 306, 307, 311, 313, 347, 359-60, 418, 464.
Brentanos, 54-5.
Brieux, Eugène, 432, 439.
Brooke, Stopford, 15, 93, 208.
Brown, Ford Madox, 212, 219-20.
Browning, Robert, 31-2, 40, 219, 412, 415, 466.
Browning Society, 135.
Bruneau, 245.
Brunetière, Ferdinand, 307, 309.
Bryant, D. Sophia, 37-8.
Bülow, Hans Von, 241.
Bunyan, John, 268, 447, 473.
Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, 206, 212, 221, 225.
Burne-Jones, Lady, 206.
Burns, Right Hon. John, 112 _et sqq._, 127, 142, 166, 174.
Burrows, 113.
Butler, Samuel, 480, 483.
Byron, Lord, 143, 215, 364.
_Cæsar and Cleopatra._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Cairnes, J. E., 155.
Calderon, 432.
Calvé, Mme., 245.
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry, 372.
Campbell, Lady Colin, 212.
Campbell, Mrs. Patrick, 228, 392.
_Candida._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
_Candid Friend, The_, 42, 60, 98, 147, 202, 476.
_Captain Brassbound's Conversion._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Carlyle, Thomas, 253, 271, 336, 434, 457, 474.
Carnegie, Andrew, 383, 385.
Carpaccio, 227.
Carpenter, Captain Alfred, 99.
Carpenter, Edward, 50, 99, 114.
Carroll, Rev. William George, 15.
_Cashel Byron's Profession._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
_Caxton Magazine_, 211.
Cellier, Alfred, 233.
_Century Magazine_, 505.
Chamberlain, Right Hon. Joseph, 404.
Chamfort, Nicholas, 456.
Champion, Henry Hyde, 48, 51, 52-3, 102, 112 _et sqq._, 125, 155.
_Chap-Book, The_, 29, 57, 149.
Chapman and Hall, 47.
Chapman, George, 264.
Charrington, Charles, 354.
Charrington, Mrs. _See_ ACHURCH.
Chaucer, 221.
Chesterton, Gilbert K., 9, 190, 202, 354, 413, 415, 435, 436, 453, 472, 489, 496, 503, 508-9.
Chopin, 23, 25.
_Christian Socialist, The_, 47.
Chubb, Percival, 102.
Civic and Dramatic Guild, 402.
_Clarion, The_, 385, 390, 422.
Clarke, M.A., William, 100 _et sqq._; his _The Fabian Society_, 111, 129, 136.
_Clerk, The_, 22.
Cobden, Richard, 168.
Coburn, Alvin L., 224 _et sqq._, 496, 501 _et sqq._
Collier and Son, P. F., 498-9.
Colvin, Sidney, 53.
Comedy Theatre, 295.
_Common Sense of Municipal Trading, The._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Common, Thomas, 485.
Comte, Auguste, 102, 168.
Constable and Co., Archibald, 55, 183, 399.
_Contemporary Review_, 183, 385.
Corbett, James J., 72.
Corbin, John, 319, 321, 344, 373.
Correggio, 221.
Courtney, W. L., 63, 80, 81, 177, 286.
Court Theatre, 277, 285, 286, 324, 345, 368-9, 371-2, 388, 402.
Cowen, Sir Fred, 237.
Crane, Walter, his _An Artist's Reminiscences_, 112.
Crawford, Rev. William, 16.
Criterion Theatre, 295.
Cunningham, Edward, 158.
Cunningham, W., 159.
_Daily Chronicle, The_, 100, 164, 212, 248, 305, 312, 331.
_Daily News, The_, 75, 91, 419.
Daly, Arnold, 315, 326, 346.
D'Annunzio, Gabriel, 416, 419.
_Dark Lady of the Sonnets, The._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Darwin, Charles, 92, 94, 96, 102, 123, 153, 261, 476, 483; his _Descent of Man_, 97.
Davidson, Thomas, 102-4, 173.
Davis, 114.
Day, Holland, 228.
Delaroche, Paul, 200, 224.
Delia Robbia, 221.
Demachy, 228.
De Quincey, Thomas, 51, 153, 161, 359, 503.
De Reszke, Édouard, 238, 445.
De Reszke, Jean, 238, 245, 445.
_Devil's Disciple, The._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Dialectical Society, 92-3, 271.
Dickens, Charles, 41, 253, 361, 416, 443, 473.
_Die Zeit_, 165.
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield, 98, 124, 144, 205, 262.
_Doctor's Dilemma, The._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Dolmetsch, Arnold, 237.
Donald, 114.
Donatello, 221.
_Don Giovanni_, 18, 23.
Donisthorpe, Wordsworth, 114, 125.
Donizetti, 18, 23.
_Don Juan in Hell._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
_Dramatic Opinions and Essays._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Dryden, John, 476.
Drysdale, Dr., 93.
Dublin, Shaw born at, 3; Shaw's early life in, 3 _et sqq._
Dumas, Alexandre, 61, 67.
Dumas, Alexandre _fils_, 413.
Düsel, Friedrich, 337.
Dvorak, 241.
_Echo, The_, 231.
Economic Club, The, 158.
_Economic Journal, The_, 158.
Edgeworth, F. Y., 158-9.
Edison, Thomas A., 44.
Edward VII., 311, 372.
Edwards, Clement, 142.
Edwards, Osmon, 270.
Eliot, George, 92, 94, 96, 305.
Ellis, Alexander, 91.
Ellis, Ashton, 393.
Ellis, Havelock, 102.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 3, 439.
Engel, Louis, 235.
Engels, Friedrich, 106, 163, 167, 181.
_English Illustrated Magazine_, 244.
English Land Restoration League, The, 47, 99.
Fabian Essays in Socialism. _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Fabian Society, The, 39, 47, 52, 56, 89 _et sqq._, 173 _et sqq._, 231, 280.
Faguet, Émile, 84, 250.
Farr, Florence, 329, 504.
_Faust_, 18.
_Fellowship of the New Life, The._ _See_ THE FABIAN SOCIETY.
_Figaro, Le_, 348.
Filon, Augustin, 300, 336, 344-5, 367, 445, 449.
Fitzgerald, C. L., 111.
Fontenelle, 416.
Foote, G. W., 114, 131, 138 _et sqq._, 482.
Ford, Rev. F. W., 125.
_Fortnightly Review, The_, 24, 60, 187.
Foxwell, 158-9.
France, Anatole, 144, 449, 502-3.
_Freethinker, The_, 482.
Freiligrath, Ferdinand, 51.
Frost, Percy, 155-6.
Funk and Wagnalls Co., 268.
Furniss, Harry, 327.
Furnival, Dr. F. J., 135.
Gaiety Theatre, Manchester, 402.
Galsworthy, John, 372.
Galton, Sir Francis, F.R.S., 492.
Garcke, Emil, 91.
Garland, Hamlin, 152.
Garrick, David, 196.
Garrick Theatre, 295.
George, Henry, 47-8, 50, 56, 90, 117, 153 _et sqq._, 176, 178; his _Progress and Poverty_, 94, 96, 102, 152, 154-5, 178.
George, Henry, Jr., 95, 152.
George, Right Hon. Lloyd, 175.
Gerster, 239.
_Gestalten und Gedanken_, 313.
_Getting Married._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Gibson, Dr. Burns, 102, 104.
Gilbert, Sir W. S., 237, 303, 316 _et sqq._, 433, 456 _et sqq._; his _Palace of Truth_, 318 _et sqq._
Gissing, George, 415.
Godard, J. G., 91.
Goethe, 23, 306, 364, 412, 434.
Goncourt, Edmond de, 440.
Gonner, E. C. K., 135.
Gordon, General, 312.
Gorki, Maxim, 432.
Gounod, 18, 24.
Graham, Cunninghame, 113, 306, 314, 328.
Grant, Corrie, 125.
_Great Thoughts_, 480.
Greene, Robert, 264.
Greenwood, Frederick, 200.
Gregory, Lady, 400.
Grein, J. T., 293, 295, 309, 321, 358.
Greuze, 228.
Greville, Eden, 293.
Grove, Sir George, 236.
_Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre_, 161.
Grundy, Sydney, 282, 284.
Guèsde, 152, 166, 180.
Guilbert, Yvette, 345.
Gurly, Lucinda Elizabeth. _See_ MRS. G. C. SHAW.
Gurly, Walter Bagenal, 7.
Hadden, Caroline, 104.
Hagemann, Herr Carl, 410.
Haldane, Right Hon. R. B., 132 _et sqq._
Hale, Professor, 426.
Hall, Andrew, 113.
Hals, Franz, 227.
Hamon, Auguste, 165, 309-10, 353, 439.
Hampstead Historic Club, 128 _et sqq._, 157.
Handel, 18, 23, 233, 257.
Hankin, St. John, 372.
Hapgood, Norman, 325, 411.
Hardie, Keir, 187.
Hardy, Thomas, 55, 368.
Hare, Sir John, 282.
Harper and Brothers, 54-5.
_Harper's Bazaar_, 85.
Harris, Frank, 261, 266.
Harris, Sir Augustus, 216, 245, 278, 287.
Hart, Sir Robert, 16.
Hauptmann, Gerhart, 413, 464.
Hausemann, William A., 340, 456, 486.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 25.
Hay, John, 189.
Haydn, 36.
Haymarket Theatre, 321.
Headlam, Rev. Stewart, 48, 114.
Hebbel Theater, 301.
Heine, Heinrich, 3, 47, 201, 413, 457.
Helmholtz, Hermann Von, 44.
Henderson, Archibald, 484.
Henley, W. E., 53, 212, 214 _et sqq._, 282.
Henry and Co., 205, 298.
Hensley, Lewis, his _The Scholar's Algebra_, 158.
Herwegh, Georg, 51.
_Hibbert Journal_, 471.
Hichens, Robert, 261.
Hinton, Horsley, 228.
Hinton, Mrs., 104.
Hodgskin, 155.
Hodgson, R., 127.
Hogarth, William, 227-8, 422, 473.
Holbein, 227.
Hollman, 239.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, his _Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_, 89.
Hooghe, Peter de, 224.
Hope, Laurence, 392.
Hoppner, John, 228.
Horniman, Miss, 401.
_How He Lied to Her Husband._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Hudson Theatre, 365.
Hughes, 114.
Hugo, Victor, 23, 59, 250, 432, 434, 443.
Humanitarian League, The, 49.
_Humanitarian, The_, 435.
Huneker, James G., 84-5, 246, 275, 350, 366, 375, 418.
Huxley, Thomas, 92, 94, 96-7, 443, 476-7.
Hyndman, H. M., 98, 110, 112-3, 127, 138, 152, 156-7, 159, 160, 164-5, 167 _et sqq._, 173-4, 200, 206, 302, 368; his _Economics of Socialism_, 162; his _Marx's Theory of Value_, 164-5.
Ibsen, Henrik, 14, 25, 39, 59, 90, 143, 198, 237, 247, 299 _et sqq._, 415, 432, 447, 455, 460, 471, 480; Shaw compared to, 61-2, 304, 316, 420 _et sqq._, 458; his _Love's Comedy_, 78, 347; his _Little Eyolf_, 81; his _The Master Builder_, 81; the controversy on, 248-9; Shaw's championship of, 263, 272 _et sqq._, 305, 389-90; his mission, 269; Shaw's admiration for, 270; his _A Doll's House_, 271, 274, 299, 314, 338, 433, 439; his _Peer Gynt_, 273; his _Emperor and Galilean_, 273, 460; his _The Pillars of Society_, 271, 274; his _An Enemy of the People_, 274, 297, 439, 456-7; his _Ghosts_, 274, 296, 305, 307; his _The Wild Duck_, 274; his _Rosmersholm_, 274; his _The Lady from the Sea_, 274, 347; his _Hedda Gabler_, 274; criticized by Shaw, 303; his death, 389; and stage directions, 417-18.
_Immaturity._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Independent Theatre Society, 293, 295, 309, 321.
Ingersoll, Robert G., 92.
Ingres, Jean, 219.
_Interlude at the Playhouse, The._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Ireland, its irreligion, 8-9; National Gallery of, 19, 31; land agency in, 21; described in _John Bull's Other Island_, 372 _et sqq._
Irish National Theatre Society, 401.
_Irish Times, The_, 400.
_Irrational Knot, The._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Irving, Sir Henry, 216, 287 _et sqq._
Irwin, Will, 270.
Jackson, Holbrook, 11, 175, 447.
James, Henry, 64, 284, 394, 416, 454.
James, S. T., 259.
Jaurès, Jean, 144, 152, 166, 180, 186, 486.
Jefferies, Richard, 51.
Jevons, Stanley, 155-6, 159 _et sqq._; his _Letters and Journal_, 160; his _Theory of Political Economy_, 161.
Joachim, Joseph, 240-1.
_John Bull's Other Island._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Johnson, Dr., 479.
Jones, Benjamin, 132.
Jones, Henry Arthur, 210, 257, 263, 282 _et sqq._
Jonson, Ben, 264, 266.
_Journal des Débats_, 350.
Jowett, Benjamin, 262.
Joynes, James Leigh, 48, 50-1, 90, 94, 155.
Jupp, W. I., 104.
_Justice_, 164-5.
Kaulbach, Wilhelm von, 200, 224.
Keats, John, 40, 215.
Kerr, Alfred, 340, 438.
Kingsway Theatre, The, 402, 403.
Knight, William, his _Memorials of Thomas Davidson_, 104.
Knowles, Sheridan, 415.
Kropotkin, Prince, 98, 108, 152, 170, 173.
Lamarck, Jean, 480, 483-4, 488.
Lamb, Charles, 6, 266, 447.
_Land Nationalization Society_, 95.
Land Reform Union. _See_ ENGLISH LAND RESTORATION LEAGUE.
Lane, John, 270.
Lane, Joseph, 114.
Lassalle, Ferdinand, 98, 127, 152, 165, 168, 173, 176, 178, 271, 457.
“Law and Liberty League,” 113.
Lecky, James, 90 _et sqq._, 122, 235.
Leeds Art Club, 175.
Lee, George J. V., 17-8, 22, 37.
Le Gallienne, Richard, 232.
Leighton, Sir Frederick, 219.
Leschetizky, 239.
_Le Temps_, 277.
Levy, 131.
Lewes, George H., 201, 233.
_Liberty_, 189, 246.
Liebknecht, Wilhelm, 98, 152, 166, 172-3, 180-1.
Lind, Letty, 254.
Linnell, John, 228.
Lippi, Fra Filippo, 221.
Liszt, Abbé, 23, 257.
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 385.
_Lohengrin_, 35.
London Stage Society, 380.
Longfellow, Henry W., 24.
Loraine, Robert, 43, 302, 315, 368.
_Love Among the Artists._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
_Lucrezia Borgia_, 18.
Luther, Martin, 469-70.
Lyceum Theatre, 282, 343.
Lytton, Hon. Neville S., 501.
Lytton, Lord, 297.
Macaulay, Thomas B., 199.
MacCarthy, Desmond, 324, 339.
_McClure's Magazine_, 329.
Macdonald, J., 111.
McEvoy, Charles, 380.
McKail, J. W., 212.
McKee, Rev. T. A., 16.
Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, 236.
Macmillan Co., The, 340, 456.
McNulty, Edward, 34; his _Misther O'Ryan_, _The Son of a Peasant_ and _Maureen_, 33.
Maeterlinck, Maurice, 134, 224, 368, 415, 463-4.
_Mainly About People_, 1.
Mallock, W. H., 59, 60, 186-7.
Malthus, Thomas R., 92-3, 168.
_Man and Superman._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Mann, Tom, 113.
_Man of Destiny, The._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Mansfield, Richard, 54, 315, 342-3, 355, 358.
Mantegna, 46, 225, 227.
Marbot, his _Memoirs_, 312.
Maris, James, 222.
Marlowe, Christopher, 264.
Marshall, Alfred, 158.
Marston, John, 264.
Marx, Eleanor, 261, 272.
Marx, Karl, 50, 79, 90, 128, 151-2, 159, 173, 176, 178, 181, 261, 271, 457; his _Das Kapital_, 96 _et sqq._, 106, 155 _et sqq._, 160 _et sqq._, 293.
Masefield, John, 372.
Massenet, Jules, 245.
Massingham, H. W., 231.
Mathews, Charles, 317.
Matthews, Brander, 416.
Maude, Aylmer, his _Life of Tolstoy_, 399.
Maude, Cyril, 321, 328.
Maupassant, Guy de, 304-5, 316.
Melba, Mme., 24.
Mendelssohn, Felix, 18, 24, 233, 243.
Menger, Anton, 161.
Meredith, George, 46-47, 77, 201, 278, 461, 471, 509; his _Essay on Comedy_, 278.
Merimée, Prosper, 24.
Methuen and Co., 112.
_Metropolitan Magazine_, 227, 351.
Meyerbeer, 24, 243.
Meyerfeld, Dr. Max, 43, 426.
Millerand, 166.
Mill, John Stuart, 91-2, 94, 96, 102, 123, 153, 157, 466.
Milton, John, 139.
Mirabeau, 339.
_Misalliance._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Modern Press, The, 155.
Moffat, Yard and Co., 343.
Molière, 23, 130, 270, 278, 306, 320, 361, 364, 370, 378, 394, 439, 443, 449.
Mommsen, Theodor, 335.
Monet, Claude, 222.
Moody and Sankey, 10-11, 27, 33.
Moore, George, 202.
Moore, Samuel, 160.
Moore, Thomas, 243.
_Morning Leader_, 91.
Morris, May, 261.
Morris, William, 90, 98, 152, 173, 261, 271, 434, 457, 473; makes Shaw's acquaintance, 52; and _Cashel Byron's Profession_, 74; on parents and children, 92; his influence on Shaw, 99, 205; and the Fabian Society, 114-5; and the Socialist League, 137; and the value theory, 164; Shaw's ignorance of, 206; his Socialist views, 207; Shaw's obituary notice of, 209, 212; his artistic integrity, 210-11; his mastery of English, 221; and Shaw's article on Nordau, 246.
Mozart, 18, 24, 32, 36, 90, 214, 218, 240, 243-4, 248-9, 257, 364, 393.
_Munsey's Magazine_, 293.
Muret, M. Maurice, 349-50.
Nansen, Fridtjof, 504.
Napier, Dr. T. B., 125.
Napoleon, 342 _et sqq._, 508.
Napoleon III., 93.
_Nation_, 250, 287, 401.
_National Observer_, 214.
_National Reformer_, 160, 164.
National Secular Society, 114, 160.
National Service League, 405.
Nesbit, E. _See_ MRS. H. BLAND.
_Neue Freie Presse_, 287, 343.
_New Age, The_, 175, 246, 396.
Newman, Ernest, 249.
Newman, Professor F. W., 95.
_New Review, The_, 313, 462.
New Shakespeare Society, 135, 263.
_New York Herald_, 54.
_New York Sun_, 373.
_New York Times_, 342, 361, 393.
_New York Tribune_, 317.
Nicol, Commissioner, 387.
Nietzsche, 20, 39, 81, 90, 151, 247, 261, 273, 339, 413, 455 _et sqq._, 464, 468, 471 _et sqq._, 480, 484 _et sqq._; his _Genealogy of Morals_, 340, 364, 456, 486.
_Nineteenth Century_, 246, 439.
Nordau, Max, 35, 346, 436.
_North American Review_, 286-7.
O'Connor, Fergus, 173.
O'Connor, T. P., 231, 232, 235-6.
Offenbach, 233, 243, 340.
Olivier, Sir Sydney, 48, 99, 107, 128-9, 174; his play, _Mrs. Maxwell's Marriage_, 100; his career, 100.
_One and All_, 43.
Orage, A. R., 175.
Ouida, 392.
_Our Corner_, 52, 109, 195.
Owen, Miss Dale, 104.
Owen, Robert, 178, 209.
Paderewski, I. J., 237-8, 254.
_Pall Mall Budget_, 244.
_Pall Mall Gazette_, 48, 50-1, 98, 127, 135, 160, 164-5, 195-6, 200, 215, 483.
_Palmist and Chirological Review_, 493.
Pankhurst, Dr., 114.
Pardon, Sidney, 261.
Parker, Dr. H. R., 16.
Parnell, Charles Stewart, 101.
Parry, Sir Charles H. H., 236-7.
_Passion, Poison and Petrifaction._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Pater, Walter, 433, 438.
Patmore, Coventry, 445.
Patti, Adelina, 237, 239, 254.
Pease, Edward R., 102, 104, 127, 139.
Pepys, Samuel, 45.
Phelps, William L., 366.
_Philanderer, The._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
_Photography_, 222.
Pinero, Arthur Wing, 3, 279 _et sqq._, 364, 447.
Plançon, P., 24.
_Play, The_, 335, 338.
_Playhouse, The_, 327.
_Plays for Puritans._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
_Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Podmore, Frank, 102, 104, 114, 127, 177.
Poe, Edgar Allan, 5, 24, 130.
Pope, Alexander, 59, 243.
Porter, General Horace, 312.
Praxiteles, 32.
Proudhon, P. J., 128, 186.
Psychical Research Society, The, 127.
_Public Opinion_, 11, 33.
_Putnam's Monthly_, 501.
Queensberry, Marquess of, 387.
_Quintessence of Ibsenism._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Rabelais, 201, 509.
_Radical, The_, 132.
Raphael, 208, 221, 224.
Reade, Charles, 432-3.
Reclus, Elisée, 486.
Reinhardt, Max, 345.
Rembrandt, 227, 393.
Renan, Ernest, 449.
Repertory Theatre, 285.
_Review of Reviews_ (London), 386.
_Revue des Deux Mondes_, 300, 445.
Rhodes, Cecil, 385.
Ricardo, David, 155, 159, 161.
Richards, Grant, 55, 309, 319, 321.
Robertson, Forbes, 282, 335, 338, 402, 417.
Robertson, John Mackinnon, 45, 114.
Robins, Elizabeth, 372.
Rockefeller, John D., 384.
Rodin, Auguste, 226, 500-1, 504.
Roeckel, August, 247.
Rogers, Professor A. K., 471.
Rook, Clarence, 141, 198, 335.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 384, 484.
Rossetti, D. G., 219, 446.
Rossini, 18.
Rossiter, 115.
Rostand, Edmond, 432.
Rousseau, J. J., 5.
Runciman, James, 214.
Runciman, J. F., 214.
Ruskin, John, 7, 168, 210-11, 253, 271, 434, 451, 457.
Sainte Beuve, Charles A., 251, 297, 474.
Saint Saëns, Camille, 241, 243.
St. Simon, Claude H., Comte de, 178.
Salt, Henry, 48 _et sqq._, 90, 503.
Sanders, W., 184.
Sargent, J. S., 227, 449.
_Saturday Review, The_, 53, 181, 199, 208-9, 212, 220-1, 231, 245, 261 _et sqq._, 266, 269, 272, 275, 279, 288, 364, 421, 427-9, 455.
_Savoy Magazine, The_, 14.
Savoy Theatre, 285, 337, 388.
Scheffer, Ary, 24.
Schiller, Friedrich, 23, 432, 454.
Schiller Theater, 355.
Schopenhauer, 81, 271, 364, 366, 435, 457, 459, 473-4, 476, 480, 483 _et sqq._
Schumann, 23, 240, 243, 252.
Scott and Co., Walter, 53, 179.
Scott, Clement, 279, 299, 302.
Scott, Sir Walter, 61, 67.
Scribner's Sons, Charles, 343.
Sedgwick, Anne D., her _Confounding of Camellia_, 367.
Shakespeare, William, 26, 55, 74, 81, 135, 196, 341, 391, 417, 447, 473, 476; his plays criticized by Shaw, 262 _et sqq._, 288, 321; Shaw's preface on, 336.
Shaw, Agnes, 22, 25.
Shaw, Frederick, 10.
Shaw, George Bernard, his birth, 3; his complex characteristics, 4; on autobiographies, 5-6; his parentage and ancestry, 6 _et sqq._; his early life, 8 _et sqq._, 39; on church going, 8-9, 11-12 _et sqq._; enters his uncle's office, 10; on Moody and Sankey, 10-11, 27, 33; his dislike of snobbery, 14-5, 21, 35, 41; his education, 15 _et sqq._; his great love of music, 18-9, 22 _et sqq._, 36-7, 216; his early love of art, 19; enters Mr. Townshend's office, 20; his original musical technique, 23, 218; goes to London, 25; his religious training, 26; his asceticism, 26-7; choosing a profession, 31 _et sqq._; his friendship with Edward McNulty, 33-4; and Chichester Bell, 34-35, 44; first introduction to Wagner's music, 35, 234; his resemblance to his mother, 38-9; his struggles in London, 39 _et sqq._; his dress, 40-1, 491-2; on poverty, 41-2, 46; on the artistic temperament, 43; first literary earnings, 43, 47; his egotism, 44-5; his _Immaturity_, 46-7; and land nationalization, 47-8; makes new friends, 47 _et sqq._; his vegetarianism, 49, 471; and the Salts, 48 _et sqq._; on Shelley and Wagner's principles, 49-50; and the death of J. L. Joynes, 50-51; publication of his novels, 51 _et sqq._; becomes acquainted with William Morris, 52; on _Cashel Byron's Profession_, 52; his _Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant_, published, 54; his plays, _Arms and the Man_ and _The Devil's Disciple_, produced, 54; on American publishing, 54 _et sqq._; on novel-writing, 59, 60; Stevenson on, 61; and Ibsen, 61-2, 297 _et sqq._, 316, 420 _et sqq._; his _The Irrational Knot_, 62 _et sqq._; his _Love Among the Artists_, 65 _et sqq._; his _Cashel Byron's Profession_, 69, 71 _et sqq._; on the education of children, 70-1; his _The Admirable Bashville_, 74 _et sqq._; his _An Unsocial Socialist_, 77 _et sqq._; his attitude towards women, 80 _et sqq._; as a novelist, 83 _et sqq._; his versatility, 89, 409, 424; various influences on, 90, 99, 100; his friendship with Lecky, 90 _et sqq._; studies phonetics, 91; joins the Zetetical Society, 92-3; joins the Dialectical Society, 93; on Sidney Webb, 93; practices public speaking, 94; his admiration for Henry George, 96; studies Marx, 97-8; and the Darwinian School, 97; an enthusiastic Socialist, 98 _et sqq._, 385; and William Clarke, 100-1; and the Fabian Society, 102 _et sqq._, 173 _et sqq._, 279-80, 385; Sidney Webb's great influence on, 106-7, 125-7; his powers of oratory, 121 _et sqq._, 412, 505-6; his early training for public speaking, 121 _et sqq._; and the Hampstead Historic Club, 128 _et sqq._; his love of debating, 130-1, 135; and Mr. Haldane, 133-4; and literary societies, 135; his strenuous work, 136-7; and Bradlaugh, 138; debates with G. W. Foote, 138 _et sqq._; his independent attitude, 140-1; his appearance, 145, 338; his Socialistic philosophy, 151 _et sqq._, 188 _et sqq._; his letter to Hamlin Garland, 152; influence of Henry George on, 153 _et sqq._; studies economics, 155 _et sqq._; and Wicksteed, Jevons and Marx, 155 _et sqq._; attends International Socialist Congress at Zurich, 171; as a Vestryman and Borough Councillor, 181 _et sqq._; on municipal trading, 182-3; invited to stand for Battersea, 184-5; his career as an art critic, 193 _et sqq._; his criticism of the _Taming of the Shrew_, 196-7; and the New Journalism, 199; compared to Heine and Meredith, 201; his affected levity, 201 _et sqq._; compared with Whistler, 204; his opinion of criticism, 205; William Morris's influence on, 205, 208, 211; Morris's appreciation of, 208; his obituary of Morris, 209 _et sqq._; his integrity as an art critic, 212-13; becomes a musical critic, 212; and Henley, 214 _et sqq._; his admiration for Michelangelo, 218-9; and Madox Brown, 219-20; and the Impressionists, 221; and the Dutch school, 222; and photography, 222 _et sqq._; photographed by A. L. Coburn, 225 _et sqq._; as a music critic, 231 _et sqq._; on the staff of the _Star_, 231 _et sqq._; his _nom-de-plume_ of Corno di Bassetto, 232 _et sqq._; on Offenbach, 233, 243; his admiration for Wagner, 235; on some modern composers, 236 _et sqq._; on Paderewski, 238; on Patti and Bispham, 238-9; on Hollman, Essipoff, Joachim and Ysaye, 239, 240; on Mozart, 240; on Saint Saëns and Meyerbeer, 243; on Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms, 243; his championship of Wagner, 243 _et sqq._; his Bayreuth criticisms, 244; on Covent Garden Opera, 244-5; on Strauss' _Elektra_, 249-50; his attitude as a critic, 251 _et sqq._; dramatic critic on the _Saturday Review_, 261 _et sqq._; his aim as dramatic critic, 262, 427; on Shakespeare, 263 _et sqq._; on modern problems, 271; champions Ibsen, 272 _et sqq._; on Church and Stage, 276-7; on comedy, 278 _et sqq._; leading critics on, 279 _et sqq._; on Pinero, 282 _et sqq._; on some modern playwrights, 283; on Irving and Ellen Terry, 287-8; his income from journalism, 288; as a playwright, 293 _et sqq._; his first play produced, 293 _et sqq._; Archer's article on, 293 _et sqq._; and the writing of _Mrs. Warren's Profession_, 305-6; his new phase as a dramatist, 309 _et sqq._; and W. S. Gilbert, 316 _et sqq._; and Cyril Maude, 321-2, 327-8; and Arnold Daly, 326-7; and Ellen Terry, 328 _et sqq._, 343; and Richard Mansfield, 342-3; Sir Charles Wyndham on, 346; Dr. Brandes on, 347; and William Terriss, 354; William Archer's admiration for, 363, 378; and the modern drama, 363 _et sqq._, 413 _et sqq._; his _magnum opus_, 370 _et sqq._; Walkley's criticism on, 374, 460-1; and politics at the theatre, 388; and the plot of the _Doctor's Dilemma_, 391 _et sqq._; his letter to Tolstoy, 399; as a technician, 409 _et sqq._; his world-wide reputation, 409-10; his prefaces, 413; his descriptive powers, 414; and stage directions, 417 _et sqq._; his defects, 424-5; a _résumé_ of his plays, 425-6, 448-9; as a dramatist, 431 _et sqq._; and the problem play, 433 _et sqq._; G. K. Chesterton on, 436; on illusions, 436 _et sqq._; philosophy of his plays, 439 _et sqq._, 481; as artist and philosopher, 453 _et sqq._; on Schopenhauer, 459; his optimism, 459 _et sqq._; on self-knowledge, 467 _et sqq._; and science, 477; on vivisection, 478-9; on progress, 480; his atheism, 482; his religion, 484; alleged influences on, 484 _et sqq._; Sir Francis Galton's anthropometric chart, 492-3; his characteristics, 494-5, 501 _et sqq._; as he is to-day, 495; his prize story, 498-9; foreign critics on, 500-1; his marriage, 503; his energy, 503; as a conversationist, 504; his Puritanism, 508-9; his kindness of heart, 509-10; on marriage, 511-12.
Shaw, G. B., his works:-- _Cashel Byron's Profession_, 32, 51 _et sqq._, 61, 71 _et sqq._, 205, 304, 381, 451, 478. _Common Sense of Municipal Trading, The_, 183. _Dramatic Opinions and Essays_, 208, 276, 285. _Fabian Essays in Socialism_, 178. _Immaturity_ (Unpublished), 46-7. _Irrational Knot, The_, 45, 52, 55, 62 _et sqq._ _Love Among the Artists_, 52, 54, 67 _et sqq._, 85, 235. _Perfect Wagnerite, The_, 247. _Quintessence of Ibsenism_, 138, 272-3, 299, 413, 480, 484. _Unsocial Socialist, An_, 51, 54, 77, 81-2, 206, 222.
Shaw, G. B., Pamphlets, Articles, etc.:-- _Aërial Football_ (_Collier's Weekly_), 498. _Author to the Dramatic Critics_ (_Widowers' Houses_), 205. _Author's View, The_ (_Caxton Magazine_), 211. _Authors of the Court Theatre, The_, 446. _Blaming the Bard_ (_Saturday Review_), 269. _Bluffing the Value Theory_, 164-5. _Censorship of Plays_ (_The Nation_), 287. _Censorship of the Stage in England_ (_North American Review_), 286-7. _Class War, The_ (_Clarion_), 167-8. _Coburn the Camerist_ (_Metropolitan Magazine_), 227. _Conflict Between Science and Common Sense_, 51, 477. _Darwin Denounced_ (_Pall Mall Gazette_), 483. _Das Kapital_ (_National Reformer_), 160. _Degenerate's View of Nordau, A_, 465, 471. _De Mortuis_ (_Saturday Review_), 245. _Diabolonian Ethics, On_ (_Three Plays for Puritans_), 119, 355. _Does Modern Education Ennoble?_ (_Great Thoughts_), 481. _Dramatic Realist to His Critics_ (_New Review_), 313, 462. _Elektra of Strauss and Hoffmansthal_ (_Nation_), 250. _Ellen Terry_ (_Neue Freie Presse_), 343. _Exhibitions, The_ (_Amateur Photographer_), 226, 228. _Fabian Essays_, 109, 116, 136. _Fabian Society Tracts, The_, 87, 105 _et sqq._, 110, 111, 115, 131, 171, 174, 177, 183, 207-8, 385. _Failures of Inept Vegetarians_ (_Pall Mall Gazette_), 50. _Fitzthunder, My Friend_ (_To-Day_), 169. _Fitzthunder on Himself_ (_To-Day_), 169. _Giving the Devil His Due_ (_Saturday Review_), 455. _Haymarket Theatre, The_ (Chap. XIV.), 321. _Ibsen_ (_The Clarion_), 390, 422. _Illusions of Socialism, The_, 165, 188. _Impossibilities of Anarchism, The_, 171. _In the Days of Our Youth_ (_Star_), 234. _King Arthur_ (_Saturday Review_), 221. _Life of Madame Blavatsky, A_ (_Pall Mall Gazette_), 127, 195. _Madox Brown, Watts and Ibsen_ (_Saturday Review_), 220. _Marx and Modern Socialism_ (_Pall Mall Gazette_), 165. _Meredith on Comedy_ (_Saturday Review_), 278-9, 429. _Morris as Actor and Dramatist_ (_Saturday Review_), 208. _Music_ (_The World_), 239, 257. _Notes on the Clarendon Press Rules for Compositors and Readers_ (_The Author_), 91. _On Going to Church_ (_Savoy Magazine_), 14. _On Mr. Mallock's Proposed Trumpet Performance_ (_Fortnightly Review_), 60, 187. _Our Saturday Talk_ (_Westminster Gazette_), 442. _Phonetic Spelling; a Reply to Some Criticisms_ (_Morning Leader_), 91. _Plea for Speech Nationalization, A_ (_Morning Leader_), 91. Prefaces:-- _Author's Apology_ (_Dramatic Opinions and Essays_), 276. _Author's Apology_ (_Mrs. Warren's Profession_), 286, 309, 435. _Better than Shakespeare?_ (_Three Plays for Puritans_), 336, 364. _First Aid to Critics_ (_Major Barbara_), 486. _Mainly About Myself_ (_Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant_), 309, 411, 438. _Problem Play_ (_Humanitarian_), 435. _Religion of the Pianoforte, The_ (_Fortnightly Review_), 24, 50. _Sanity of Art, The, An Exposure of the Current Nonsense About Artists Being Degenerate_, 246, 396. _Scotland Yard for Spectres, A_ (_Pall Mall Gazette_), 127. _Shakespeare's Merry Gentlemen_ (_Saturday Review_), 266. _Shaw, Bernard_, 489. _Shaw Abashed, Bernard_ (_Daily News_), 75. _Shaw, George Bernard: A Conversation_ (_The Tatler_), 374. _Shaw and the Heroic Actor, Bernard_ (_The Play_), 335, 338. _Shaw as a Clerk, Bernard_ (_The Clerk_), 22. _Shaw, Letter from Mr. G. Bernard_ (_Tolstoy on Shakespeare_), 268. _Shaw's Method and Secret, Mr._ (_Daily Chronicle_), 305. _Shaw's Works of Fiction, Mr. Bernard_ (_Novel Review_), 80. _Socialism and Republicanism_ (_Saturday Review_), 181. _Socialism at the International Congress_, 190. _Socialism for Millionaires_ (_Contemporary Review_), 183, 385. _Socialists at Home_ (_Pall Mall Gazette_), 165. _Solution of the Censorship Problem_ (_Academy_), 287. _Spelling Reform v. Phonetic Spelling_ (_Daily News_), 91. _Stanley Jevons: His Letters and Journal_ (_Pall Mall Gazette_), 160, 195. _Sunday on the Surrey Hills_ (_Pall Mall Gazette_), 48. _Theatrical World_ (_Archer's_), 315. _Transition to Social Democracy_, 208. _Valedictory_ (_Saturday Review_), 288. _Who I Am, and What I Think_ (_Candid Friend_), 42, 60, 98, 147, 202. _A Word About Stepniak_ (_To-Morrow_), 313. _A Word More About Verdi_ (_Anglo-Saxon Review_), 241.
Shaw, G. B., his plays:-- _Admirable Bashville, The, or Constancy Unrewarded_, 74 _et sqq._ _Arms and the Man_, 54, 142, 311, 313 _et sqq._, 320, 359, 404, 422, 425, 458. _Cæsar and Cleopatra_, 335 _et sqq._, 340. _Candida_, 54, 85, 326, 341, 346 _et sqq._, 409-10, 418. _Captain Brassbound's Conversion_, 91, 288, 320, 328 _et sqq._ _Dark Lady of the Sonnets_, 398. _Devil's Disciple, The_, 54, 288, 328, 341, 354 et seq., 401, 419, 422-3, 425, 438, 458. _Doctor's Dilemma, The_, 389 _et sqq._, 422-3, 425. _Don Juan in Hell_ (_Man and Superman_), 369 _et sqq._ _Getting Married_, 398. _How He Lied to Her Husband_, 320, 326. _Interlude at the Playhouse, The_, 327. _John Bull's Other Island_, 15-16, 34, 370 _et sqq._, 388, 425. _Major Barbara_, 297, 337, 380, 381, 382, 384 _et sqq._, 401, 425, 486. _Man and Superman_, 27, 81-2, 152, 363 _et sqq._, 368, 378, 388, 414, 444, 458, 471, 481, 489, 509. _Man of Destiny, The_, 341 _et sqq._, 374. _Misalliance_, 398. _Passion, Poison and Petrifaction; or the Fatal Gazogene_, 327. _Philanderer, The_, 51, 299 _et sqq._, 422, 425, 478. _Plays for Puritans_, 27, 119, 193, 328, 333, 336, 364, 407. _Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant_, 49, 54, 288, 291, 309, 411. _Press Cuttings_, 402, 404. _Showing-up of Blanco Posnet_, 27, 398 _et sqq._ _Warren's Profession, Mrs._, 220, 286, 304 _et sqq._, 341, 363, 380 _et sqq._, 398, 425, 458, 509. _Widowers' Houses_, 22, 205, 220, 270, 293 _et sqq._, 420, 425, 445. _You Never Can Tell_, 320, 321 _et sqq._, 404, 414, 425.
Shaw, G. B., Books and Articles on:-- Archer, William, _Shaw's Phonetic World-English_, 91; _About the Theatre_, 390; _Shaw on Stage Directions_, 419; Article in _The World_, 295. Bab, Julius, _Bernard Shaw_, 249. Bahr, Hermann, _Bernard Shaw_, 424. Brandes, Georg, _Der Dramatiker Bernard Shaw_, 313. Chesterton, G. K., _The Meaning of Mr. Bernard Shaw_, 436. Corbin, John, _Bernard Shaw and His Mannikins_, 373. Filon, Augustin, _M. Bernard Shaw et son Théâtre_, 300, 445. Greville, Eden, _Bernard Shaw and His Plays_, 293. Hale, E. E., Jr., _Dramatists of To-Day_ (_Bernard Shaw_), 426. Hamon, Auguste, _Un Nouveau Molière_, 439. Henderson, Archibald, _The Philosophy of Bernard Shaw_, 484. Huneker, James, _Bernard Shaw and Woman_, 84-5; _The Truth About Candida_, 351. Irwin, Will, _Crankidoxology, Being a Mental Attitude from Bernard Pshaw_, 270. Jackson, Holbrook, _Bernard Shaw_, 183. Play, The, _Bernard Shaw and the Heroic Actor_, 335, 338. Rogers, Professor A. K., _Mr. Bernard Shaw's Philosophy_, 471. Rook, Clarence, _Mr. Shaw's Future_, 335. Stead, W. T., _Impressions of the Theatre_ (_Major Barbara_), 386. Terry, Ellen, _From Lewis Carroll to Bernard Shaw_, 329. Walkley, A. B., _Mr. Bernard Shaw's Plays_, 319.
Shaw, Mrs. G. B., 388-9, 401, 495.
Shaw, George Carr (G. B. Shaw's father), 6 _et sqq._, 20, 22.
Shaw, Mrs. George Carr (G. B. Shaw's mother), 7, 8, 17; her musical talent, 17 _et sqq._, 22, 36 _et sqq._
Shaw, Lucy Carr, 22, 26.
Shaw, Sir Robert, 33.
Shelley, P. B., 32, 40, 48 _et sqq._, 90, 92, 152-3, 215, 234, 271, 273, 346, 412, 434, 457, 473, 480, 482, 503.
_Shelley Society_, 135.
Sheridan, Richard B., 3, 40, 433.
Shields, Frederick, 220.
Shorter, Clement K., 232.
_Showing-up of Blanco Posnet._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Sims, George R., 43.
Smith, Adam, 155.
Smith, Armitage, 158.
Social Democratic Federation, 96, 102, 108, 110 _et sqq._, 138, 173, 206.
Socialist League, 137-8, 207, 261.
Socialist Society, Hammersmith, 207.
_Sozialistische Monatshefte_, 165.
_Speaker, The_, 107.
_Spectator, The_, 401, 486.
Spencer, Herbert, 92, 94, 96-7, 102, 168, 443, 467; his _The Coming Slavery_, 189.
_Standard Elocutionist, The_, 34.
_Standard, The_, 393.
Standring, G., 132, 139.
Stanford, Sir Charles V., 237.
Stange, Stanislaus, 72, 315.
Stapleton, 114.
_Star, The_, 113, 171, 231 _et sqq._, 237, 295, 387.
Stead, W. T., 112-3, 215, 386-7.
Steichen, Éduard J., 225.
Stephens, Yorke, 312.
Stevenson, R. L., 85, 241; letters of, 53, 61, 73, 215-16, 282, 297.
Stirner, Max, his _The Ego and His Own_, 468, 472, 484 _et sqq._
Stone and Co., H. S., 54, 309.
Straus, Oscar, 314, 315.
Strauss, Richard, his _Elektra_, 250.
Strindberg, August, 316, 366, 484 _et sqq._
Stuart-Glennie, J. S., 114, 431, 485-6.
Stümcke, Herr Heinrich, 340, 438.
Sullivan, Sir Arthur, 237.
Sweet, Henry, 91, 331.
Swift, Jonathan, 3, 60, 476.
Swinburne, Algernon C., 266, 447, 455.
Symes, Rev. --, 48.
Symons, Arthur, 237, 240, 473.
Taine, Hippolyte, 266.
_Taming of the Shrew, The_, 196-7.
Tarpey, W. K., 346.
_Tatler, The_, 377.
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 8, 24; his _Charge of the Light Brigade_, 312.
Terriss, William, 354.
Terry, Ellen, 287-8, 328 _et sqq._, 342-3.
Théâtre des Arts, 348-9.
Théâtre Royal du Parc, 353.
Thomas, Agnes, 405.
Thomas, Goring, his _Golden Web_, 237.
Thomson, James, 51.
Thoreau, 50.
Thorpe, Courtenay, 354.
Thorwaldsen, Bertel, 221.
_Times, The_, 94, 187, 232, 287, 400, 486.
Titian, 200.
Tochatti, 114.
_To-Day_, 51 _et sqq._, 114, 155-6, 158, 165, 206.
Tolstoy, Leo, 145, 168, 173, 268, 398-9, 401, 413, 464, 473.
Tourneur, Cyril, 264.
Townshend, Uniacke, 10, 20, 33-4.
Traill, H. D., 199.
Trebitsch, Herr Siegfried, 420.
Tree, Sir H. Beerbohm, 282, 288, 398.
Treherne and Co., A., 327.
_Tribune, The_, 390, 391.
Trollope, Anthony, 39, 41.
_Trovatore, Il_, 18, 24.
_Truth_, 195.
Tucker, Benjamin R., 189, 245-6, 396, 468.
Turner, J. M. W., 210-11, 473.
Twain, Mark, 10, 38, 413, 440, 456, 508.
Tyndall, Professor, 35, 44, 94, 96, 153.
_Unsocial Socialist, The._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Unwin, T. Fisher, 104.
Vandervelde, Émile, 186, 486.
Van Uhde, 222.
Vasa-Theater, 326.
_Vaudeville Magazine_, 11.
Vedrenne, J. E., 371-2, 398, 446.
Velásquez, 200, 224, 227, 393.
Verdi, 18, 23, 241, 245.
Victoria, Queen, 312.
Vieuxtemps, Henri, 254.
Vizetelly, Henry, 202.
Voltaire, 144, 183-4, 449, 459, 477.
Vorst, Mrs. John van, 501.
Wagner, Richard, 24, 69, 73, 81, 90, 198, 214, 241, 257, 271, 447, 457, 473, 481, 502; his _Tannhäuser_, 23, 234, 245; Shaw's first acquaintance with music of, 35, 234; his ascetic temperament, 49; his _Tristan und Isolde_, 97, 244, 293; Shaw's admiration for, 218, 243; Shaw studies music of, 235; Shaw's defence of, 237; Shaw's criticisms on, 244 _et sqq._, 252-3; his _Die Meistersinger_, 244; his _Die Walküre_, 245; his _Das Rheingold_, 245, 250; his _Ring of the Niblungs_, 247, 460; his _Lohengrin_, 248; his _Parsifal_, 250; his _Götterdämmerung_, 377; his story, _An End in Paris_, 393; his philosophy, 434.
Walkley, Arthur Bingham, 20, 121, 203, 232, 279, 324, 333, 363, 364, 374, 387, 412, 444, 460, 489; his _Frames of Mind_, 319.
Wallace, Alfred Russel, 94; his work on _Land Nationalization_, 95.
Wallace, Vincent, 24.
Wallas, Graham, 99, 100, 113, 128-9, 158, 174, 178, 503; his _Life of Francis Place_, 100; his _An Economic Eirenicon_, 164-5.
_Warren's Profession, Mrs._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Washington, George, 477.
Webb, Sidney, 90-1, 93, 99, 102, 105 _et sqq._, 114, 116-7, 125 _et sqq._, 133, 152, 157, 174-5, 178, 225, 314.
Weber, his _Der Freischütz_, 234.
Webster, John, 264.
Wedmore, Frederick, 299.
Wesley College, Dublin, 15-6, 34.
_Wesley College Quarterly_, 16.
_Westermann's Monatshefte_, 337.
Whibley, Charles, 215.
Whistler, J. McNeill, 204, 222-3, 413-4.
Whitcroft, Ellen, 7.
Whitman, Walt, 50, 243, 268.
Whitney, F. C., 315.
Wicksteed, Philip H., 155 _et sqq._, 160 _et sqq._; his _Alphabet of Economics_, 158.
_Widowers' Houses._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Wilde, Oscar, 3, 227, 282, 284, 366, 394, 412, 426, 442, 460, 502.
Williams, 112.
Willis's Rooms, 131.
Wilshire, Gaylord, 186.
_Wilshire's Magazine_, 159.
Wilson, Mrs., 108, 114-5.
Winter, William, 343.
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 419, 469.
Wolseley, Lord, 312.
_World, The_, 98, 135-6, 195, 231, 237, 239, 244-5, 255, 257, 261, 295.
Wright, Charles, 158.
Wyndham, Sir Charles, 342, 345-6, 442.
Yates, Edmund, 195, 212, 261.
Yeats, W. B., 371, 378, 400.
_You Never Can Tell._ _See_ G. B. SHAW.
Ysaye, Eugen, 240.
_Zeit, Die_, 431.
Zetetical Society, The, 91 _et sqq._, 122, 144, 271.
Zola, Émile, 40, 59, 84, 146, 202, 297, 432, 440, 457; his _La Débâcle_, 312.
REVIEWS, from Foreign Journals of Opinion, of “George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works”
By ARCHIBALD HENDERSON, M.A., Ph.D., of The University of North Carolina
“The book is a most remarkable achievement.”--George Bernard Shaw, in the _Morning Post_ (London), May 3, 1911.
“Mr. Shaw is explored from every point of view.... Newspaper files have been ransacked, forgotten controversies between dramatic critics or different kinds of Socialists have been unearthed, profound researches made into contemporary literature suggesting parallels and illustrations, stray thoughts gathered up and traced in their development from childhood to middle age....
“We cannot praise Mr. Henderson too highly. We know of nothing in the literature of biography that is so exhaustively complete.”--_Westminster Gazette_ (London), April 22, 1911.
“Its comprehensiveness gives it the importance of an historical document.... It is something more than a chronicle of the life of Mr. Bernard Shaw, it is a remarkable chronicle of English revolutionary movements during the last twenty-five years.... In the sixteen chapters of his book, Dr. Henderson tells the history of the idea movements of the last quarter of a century _apropos_ of Bernard Shaw.... The reader who cannot find instruction and entertainment within its covers lacks the art of reading.”--Holbrook Jackson, in the _Bookman_ (London), May, 1911.
“Dr. Henderson's authorized and critical biography ... is indispensable.... The fullest, the best informed, and the most carefully studied account of Bernard Shaw that has yet been published.... The book will rank immediately after Mr. Shaw's own works as material for students of the advanced tendencies of which in this country the author of John Bull's Other Island is the most conspicuous representative....”--_The Scotsman_ (Edinburgh), April 13, 1911.
“A biography that could scarcely be bettered.... It is full, minute, and exact. Biographer and autobiographer have joined forces, and the result is a masterly study of the most complicated personality of our time.... The author has spared no pains in verifying his references and arranging his materials. Here you have Shaw in his quiddity.... Dr. Henderson out-Boswells Boswell in his enormous pertinacity, his prodigious fidelity. He has not left a crumb for other biographers.”--James Douglas, in the _Star_ (London), April 15, 1911.
“It would be hard to find anyone perfectly equipped for the task (of writing Shaw's biography). Mr. Granville Barker ... would have shown a more intelligent sympathy in Mr. Shaw's ideals. But we should have had as much Barker as Shaw. Our lily would have been painted. Mr. Archer might have seized the opportunity to set up that guillotine for which he once sighed. Mr. Webb would have been unreliable once inside the theatre. We might have had a score of articles from various writers, each qualified to speak on one aspect of Mr. Shaw, but we should then have been like children with the pieces of a puzzle, unable to fit them together. No, Professor Henderson is not easily dethroned....
“The book is almost a history of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and ... it has not a dull moment.”--_Evening Standard and St. James's Gazette_ (London), April 11, 1911.
“At length comes the really big thing, ... and following precedent, it comes from the home of big things, America. Dr. Henderson ... is not only elaborate in his interpretation of our leading dramatist and controversialist, but comprehensive as well. His book is ... a mine in which all future students of George Bernard Shaw will be forced to dig and delve.... Nothing is impossible to this amazingly energetic American professor.... Professor Henderson is an interpreter of modern ideas. He feels that we are in the midst of a remarkable intellectual awakening, and he is impelled ... to give his complex and multiplex period a coherent voice....
“Professor Archibald Henderson is the modern counterpart of the old chronicler; they saw the romance and significance of events, he sees the romance and significance of ideas; he is a Hakluyt of ideas, of personalities.... His interests and his enthusiasms embrace the hemispheres.”--_Black and White_ (London), April 22, 1911.
“Ce livre n'est pas seulement une étude magistrale sur la personnalité la plus compliquée de notre temps, il est aussi un exposé fort complet des divers mouvements d'idées qui ont agité l'Angleterre en ces derniers vingt-cinq ans.... Mr. Henderson mérite qu'on lui sache gré des six ans de labeur qu'il a consacrés à ce livre, qui restera un document des plus précieux.”--Henry D. Davray, in the _Mercure de France_ (Paris), June 16, 1911.
“The reader's astonishment when the book is laid down is not at its length but at its brevity.... Here things regain their true proportions, and much of our astonishment and admiration for the book, its author, and its hero are due to this.... Nowhere does Dr. Henderson's critical faculty show to greater advantage than in his deductions as to the general aim of the plays.... Dr. Henderson is a critic before he is a biographer. There is nothing of the attitude of a Boswell in his work.... There remains the possibility that others may gauge the results of Shaw's secret with more acumen than he himself. There is no probability, however, that this will ever be done with more discretion, discernment, and distinction than by Mr. Henderson.”--_Manchester Courier_ (England), April 11, 1911.
“An elaborate and detailed history of Bernard Shaw and his effects as a dramatist, Socialist, and general revolutionary.... George Bernard Shaw is looked at, sounded, discussed, examined, and appraised from every point of view.... It is a well into which all future students of Bernard Shaw will have to dip their buckets.... The biographical chapters are brimming over with lively anecdote.... In the three chapters devoted to Shaw as a dramatist, Mr. Henderson gives a critical analysis of the plays of G. B. S. which is as penetrating as it is painstaking, and will easily give him a front seat among Bernard Shaw's commentators.... Shaw's ... biographer has succeeded, and it is no small praise to say that throughout the whole of his book you feel that you are in the presence of a living personality....”--_T. P.'s Weekly_ (London), April 21, 1911.
“This notable book ... is a long one, but we have noticed very few faults either in fact or of taste in reading it.... Nothing in it is so salutary as the final impression it leaves of the power to which a man can attain through the old-fashioned virtues of energy, industry, and determination.... As critic, political thinker, and dramatist, Mr. Shaw has managed to do a great deal of splendid work ...; and Dr. Henderson gives us a capital picture of it all.”--_Pall Mall Gazette_ (London), April 11, 1911.
“A record which, in completeness, is unique among the _Men of Our Time_. What would we not give to know as much of some of the mighty intellects of the past!”--_Daily Graphic_ (London), April 11, 1911.
“Acknowledgment should be made of Dr. Henderson's critical sanity.... A most interesting and weighty book. It is the nearest thing to that ideal autobiography which Mr. Shaw will never write, and is a worthy tribute to a man of whom this country ought to be proud.”--George Sampson, in the _Daily Chronicle_ (London), April 11, 1911.
“The large and exceedingly handsome volume ... deals with its distinguished subject in every variety of aspect, while managing to remain itself both interesting and entertaining.”--_Punch_ (London), May 10, 1911.
“Mr. Henderson's book is full of good things.... He analyses and explains, watches and reports, exploits the whys and retails the wherefores.... He is a searchlight....”--_Sketch_ (London), May 3, 1911.
“Mr. Henderson's criticism of the plays of George Bernard Shaw is, indeed, acute and painstaking to an extraordinary degree.”--_Lloyd's Weekly_ (Liverpool), April 30, 1911.
“Mr. Henderson's illuminating Life.... His task has been carried out with remarkable thoroughness.”--_Globe_ (London), April 12, 1911.
“Dr. Henderson has done his work with the Boswellian thoroughness and assiduity. He has tracked Mr. Shaw down through the files of remote and forgotten newspapers; he has ransacked libraries; he has unearthed and pumped Mr. Shaw's friends and critics in all countries; he has zealously studied the social movements in which his hero was involved, and got the atmosphere of the London intellectual cliques as if he had lived his life among them instead of being a Professor in an American University. Finally, he has compelled Mr. Shaw himself to take an interest in the work, to contribute to it, criticise it, and thoroughly overhaul it, so much so indeed as to lead to the suggestion that it should be called a biography and autobiography.... If he (Dr. Henderson) has not given us the verdict which history will pronounce on his subject ..., he has pronounced the verdict of the clever people of to-day.”--R. A. Scott-James, in the _Daily News_ (London), April 11, 1911.
“A document of value. Immense pains have been taken by the author and by Mr. Shaw to bring together within its covers as many of the facts about Mr. Shaw's life and character and opinion as Mr. Shaw wishes to be generally known.... Best of all the chapters is that called 'The Cart and Trumpet,' the record of the days when his personal force was in full flood.”--_Outlook_ (London), April 22, 1911.
“The chapters which tell of the rise of the Socialistic spirit in London, dating as it does from about 1880, of the genesis of the Fabian Society, and of various controversies upon economic matters, are capital reading and form valuable contributions to the history of the period.... Another excellent feature is the portion of the book dealing with the brilliant Vedrenne-Barker seasons at the Court Theatre--seasons which made theatrical history rapidly and forced both the critics and the public to sit up and look around.”--_Wilfred L. Randall_, in the _Academy_ (London), April 29, 1911.
“We are agreeably surprised to find a critic who can consider the Shavian drama without going to extremes of laudation or disapproval. Mr. Henderson has found the golden mean.”--_Irish Times_ (Dublin), May 12, 1911.