Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 10, 1963, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press saturday August 10, 1963 at the feet erf understanding the Elizabeth ans George Bernard Shaw Al though he filled the world with ideas and turned the English speaking theatre inside out never really succeeded in becoming the father of a movement. In years he was too far ahead of those who might have been his disciples. In later life he advised those who wished to sit at his feet to look elsewhere for encourage ment and inspiration. I am he said a Back number. I m certain of course that the old Man did t believe it and in spite of All his protests he did continue to preach until death Fin ally pressed its hand across his Mouth. The nature of Shaw s teaching Al most ruled out the possibility of any really ardent disciples. Every thing that Shaw did came out larger than life. When he was Wise he was a kind of god. When he was silly _ and he was often silly his Folly took on Gargantuan pro portions. The Man who sets out to become a disciple of Shaw finds his Way blocked at almost every turn. There seem to be so Many contradictions in the great Man that there Are moments when it seems impossible to regard him As any thing More than a scrap if mis guided giant. But for All his flaws Shaw s place in the Calendar of greatness is assured. His pen was Active in Many Fields and if he was t always right he had his great moments of truth. He was probably the greatest eng Lish music critic although his con temporaries thought his music criticism a his drama criticism has yet to be matched As a politic Al thinker he was ahead of his time and his theatrical writing while he opened no new Fields As far As technique was concerned brought the English theatre to life after generations of living death. In spite of All however it re Mains difficult to embrace Shaw and his work As a Model for the Young writer and thinker. For one thing one keeps hearing All sorts of unpleasant things about the great Man. His Lack of Ordinary human feel ing is Well known. Bertrand Russell tells the Story of an English socialist lady who fell in love with and married a russian gentleman of communist leanings. During Stal books received the Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel spark 143 pp., Toronto Longmans Canada Ltd. Penguin the bachelors by Muriel spark 215 pp., Toronto Longmans Canada limited Penguin the comforters by Muriel spark 204 pp., Canada limited Penguin the go away Bird and other stories by Muriel spark 189 pp., Toronto Longmans Penguin the boy in the Bush by d. H. Lawrence and m. A. Skinner 391 pp., Toronto Longmans Penguin the integrity of the personality by Anthony Storr 186 pp., Toronto Longmans Pelican the Good Soldier schweik by Jaroslav hasek 429 pp., Toronto the new american Library of Ca Nada limited. Folktales of Japan edited by Keigo Seki 221 pp., Toronto University of Toronto press. The watercress girl and other stories by h. E. Bates 207 pp., Toronto Longmans Penguin Meg by Theodora Keogh 128 pp., Toronto the new american Library of Canada limited. Oblo mov by Ivan Goncharova 558 pp., Toronto the new american Library of Canada limited the nineteenth Century world by Guy s. Metraux and Francois Crouzet 519 pp., Toronto the new american Library of Canada limited. By Christopher a foe in s purge the russian was packed off to Siberia. The wife in a Pickle appealed for Aid to Shaw who was on Good terms with Stalin Shaw dropped her a note in which he told her that As far As he knew the prisons in Siberia were most pleasant. At least he said your husband will be free from your nagging Tongue. The things that move most men to tears often left Shaw laughing. Funerals made him chuckle death made him crack jokes. Frank Harris in his biography of Shaw tells of a luncheon he once had at the cafe Royal with Shaw and another journalist. Shaw ate Macaroni Harris and the journalist ate beef Steak. All through the meal Shaw lectured the Carni Vors reminding them that they were poisoning themselves. Out of sheer bravado and to get Shaw s Goat Harris and the journalist devoured three steaks apiece. Shaw warned them of dire punishment. The journalist in fact suffered a heart attack the following Day and expired. Shaw was delighted. A Point had been made. No Man Ever blew a More sprightly tune on his own Horn than Bernard Shaw. Always protesting that he wanted to be left alone he always managed to trip nimbly into the limelight. He was one of the first to discover the possibilities in films and radio for self publicity and he made full use of both mediums going so far As to do impersonations of Hitler and Mussolini for the newsreels. Some explanation of this mad desire for acceptance May be found in the following quotation from Shaw s Book sixteen self sketches. I was not conscious of my own talents. I was disabled for Many years by imagining that everybody knew As much As i knew and could do everything rather better. My Bane has always been diffidence. I was Wise enough to be Over by Harold Nicolson elizabethan taste by Jorin Toronto was the principle by which the rational order of. The world was rep that they were fantastic whereas in fact they were conventional and rather Prim. I have derived immense instruction from or. John Buxton s elizabethan taste. It is written with great scholarship and a Happy sense convinced that to and Tajii Cuaig up of the age is contained Iff that remark. 0. Jun a Happy sense to of humor. It provides one with a Buxton m discussing the Check on the conventional View of que Alliv of elizabethan paintings is ll__t-11" .1 we. Raw Nelll i 11 the elizabethans. Or. Buxton is a very Learned Man he is Able correctly to estimate Philip Sidney whom we Are Apt to dismiss As too priggish to be Brave he admits that the Arcadia was i. Sci Licu me arca Oja was whelmed by my ignorance and in not As Good As its contemporaries nop Pter omit Ali to _ ii a. I it a Nocent enough to imagine that i was the Only ignoramus in the world. I was a Coward until Marx made a communist of me and gave me a Faith. When it turned out later on that i was a born shakespearean Genius i flattered myself that nature alias provi Dence alias the life Force had Given me in my boyhood an excessive regard for self preservation lest i should throw away my Gen ius in some pugnacious adventure. Anyhow when i was a boy i was a Coward and bitterly ashamed of in Shaw s world everyone was a disciple. Imagined but he contends that until the Day when the novel came into Reading. The Conception of the gentleman As an All round artist was essentially careful to Point out that they did not take the scholarly View of the Art of portraiture As much As they desired to accumulate a collection of portraits of their own contemporaries. Wootton was perhaps the Only collector of elizabethan portraiture in the modern sense of the term or. Buxton rightly attributes to exquisite miniatures an with the italian word which implies a certain lilo dam. The immense optimism of the age a conviction that they had Dis covered the secret of life and could impart that secret to others gave them a self Confidence which appears a miraculous. No generation of regarded he certainly managed to catch the courtly elegance the facial expression which its Sitters regarded As so will of Jav earned the Choice of sculpture and it ;