s to whether upon the
author's showing Hamlet is something more than a man or something less.
_Henry IV_ and _Henry V_ are really problem plays; in this sense, that
the reader or spectator is really doubtful whether the high but harsh
efficiency, valour, and ambition of Henry V are an improvement on his
old blackguard camaraderie; and whether he was not a better man when he
was a thief. This hearty and healthy doubt is very common in
Shakespeare; I mean a doubt that exists in the writer as well as in the
reader. But Bernard Shaw is far too much of a Puritan to tolerate such
doubts about points which he counts essential. There is no sort of doubt
that the young lady in _Arms and the Man_ is improved by losing her
ideals. There is no sort of doubt that Captain Brassbound is improved by
giving up the object of his life. But a better case can be found in
something that both dramatists have been concerned with; Shaw wrote
_Caesar and Cleopatra_; Shakespeare wrote _Antony and Cleopatra_ and also
_Julius Caesar_. And exactly what annoys Bernard Shaw about Shakespeare's
version is this: that Shakespeare has an open mind or, in other words,
that Shakespeare has really written a problem play. Shakespeare sees
quite as clearly as Shaw that Brutus is unpractical and ineffectual; but
he also sees, what is quite as plain and practical a fact, that these
ineffectual men do capture the hearts and influence the policies of
mankind. Shaw would have nothing said in favour of Brutus; because
Brutus is on the wrong side in politics. Of the actual problem of public
and private morality, as it was presented to Brutus, he takes actually
no notice at all. He can write the most energetic and outspoken of
propaganda plays; but he cannot rise to a problem play. He cannot really
divide his mind and let the two parts speak independently to each other.
He has never, so to speak, actually split his head in two; though I
daresay there are many other people who are willing to do it for him.

Sometimes, especially in his later plays, he allows his clear conviction
to spoil even his admirable dialogue, making one side entirely weak, as
in an Evangelical tract. I do not know whether in _Major Barbara_ the
young Greek professor was supposed to be a fool. As popular tradition
(which I trust more than anything else) declared that he is drawn from a
real Professor of my acquaintance, who is anything but a fool, I should
imagine not. But in that case I am all th