ords, before I write of Shaw I will write of
the three great influences upon Shaw. They were all three there before
he was born, yet each one of them is himself and a very vivid portrait
of him from one point of view. I have called these three traditions:
"The Irishman," "The Puritan," and "The Progressive." I do not see how
this prefatory theorising is to be avoided; for if I simply said, for
instance, that Bernard Shaw was an Irishman, the impression produced on
the reader might be remote from my thought and, what is more important,
from Shaw's. People might think, for instance, that I meant that he was
"irresponsible." That would throw out the whole plan of these pages, for
if there is one thing that Shaw is not, it is irresponsible. The
responsibility in him rings like steel. Or, again, if I simply called
him a Puritan, it might mean something about nude statues or "prudes on
the prowl." Or if I called him a Progressive, it might be supposed to
mean that he votes for Progressives at the County Council election,
which I very much doubt. I have no other course but this: of briefly
explaining such matters as Shaw himself might explain them. Some
fastidious persons may object to my thus putting the moral in front of
the fable. Some may imagine in their innocence that they already
understand the word Puritan or the yet more mysterious word Irishman.
The only person, indeed, of whose approval I feel fairly certain is Mr.
Bernard Shaw himself, the man of many introductions.

_CONTENTS_

_Page_
INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION 5

THE PROBLEM OF A PREFACE 7

THE IRISHMAN 17

THE PURITAN 34

THE PROGRESSIVE 53

THE CRITIC 87

THE DRAMATIST 114

THE PHILOSOPHER 165

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

_The Irishman_

The English public has commonly professed, with a kind of pride, that it
cannot understand Mr. Bernard Shaw. There are many reasons for it which
ought to be adequately considered in such a book as this. But the first
and most obvious reason is the mere statement that George Bernard Shaw
was born in Dublin in 1856. At least one reason why Englishmen cannot
understand Mr. Shaw is that Englishmen have never taken the trouble to
understand Irishmen. They will sometimes be generous to Ir