George Bernard Shaw: His PlaysJohn W. Luce & Company, 1905 - 107 pages |
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Admirable Bashville Anthony Anderson Arms Arnold Daly Aurora Blanche Bluntschli Brassbound Broadbent Bumpus burlesque Cæsar and Cleopatra Candida Captain Cashel Byron's Profession characters comedy commonplace Crampton critic Crofts Darwin daughter Devil's Disciple Dick's doctrine drama dramatist English essay Eugene Fabian face fact fall farce Frank frankly George Bernard Shaw Harry Harry's hero honor human humor Huneker husband Ibsen ideals ideas Irish James Huneker John Tanner Lady Cicely latter-day London Louka Lydia married Max Beerbohm Morell mother Never Can Tell Nietzsche novel orthodox performance persons Petkoff Philanderer philosophy playwright poet popular preached preface presented Raina Roman Sartorius says Shaw scene Schopenhauer Sergius Shakespeare sham-smashing Shaw plays Shaw wrote Shaw's sion Sir Howard soldier sort stage Superman Theater thing tion to-day Trefusis truth virtuous Vivie Warren Warren's Profession wife William Archer words write written yearning young woman
Popular passages
Page xxi - My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel — it is, before all, to make you see.
Page 73 - TANNER. The will is yours then! The trap was laid from the beginning. ANN [concentrating all her magic] From the beginning — from our childhood — for both of us — by the Life Force. TANNER. I will not marry you. I will not marry you. ANN. Oh, you will, you will. TANNER. I tell you, no, no, no. ANN. I tell you, yes, yes, yes. TANNER. No. ANN [coaxing — imploring — almost exhausted] Yes. Before it is too late for repentance. Yes. TANNER [struck by the echo from the past] When did all this...
Page 71 - Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd Of the Two Worlds so learnedly are thrust Like foolish Prophets forth ; their Words to Scorn Are scatter'd, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.
Page 57 - I have nothing to offer you but my strength for your defence, my honesty of purpose for your surety, my ability and industry for your livelihood, and my authority and position for your dignity.
Page 56 - Is it like this for her here always? A woman, with a great soul, craving for reality, truth, freedom; and being fed on metaphors, sermons, stale perorations, mere rhetoric. Do you think a woman's soul can live on your talent for preaching?
Page 5 - I'll just tell you this before I go. It may interest you, since youre so fond of one another. Allow me, Mister Frank, to introduce you to your half-sister, the eldest daughter of the Reverend Samuel Gardner. Miss Vivie: your half-brother. Good morning.
Page 104 - Shakespear found that the only thing that paid in the theatre was romantic nonsense, and that when he was forced by this to produce one of the most effective samples of romantic nonsense in existence — a feat which he performed easily and well — he publicly disclaimed any responsibility for its pleasant and cheap falsehood by borrowing the story and throwing it in the face of the public with the phrase As You Like It.
Page 56 - It is easy — terribly easy — to shake a man's faith in himself. To take advantage of that to break a man's spirit is devil's work.
Page 105 - It, but that I actually have written much better ones, and in fact, never wrote anything, and never intend to write anything, half so bad in matter. (In manner and art nobody can write better than Shakespear, because, carelessness apart, he did the thing as well as it can be done within the limits of human faculty.) 10.
Page 15 - I had no motive and no interest; all I can tell you is that when it came to the point whether I would take my neck out of the noose and put another man's into it, I could not do it. I don't know why not; I see myself as a fool for my pains; but I could not and I cannot.