The Cornhill Magazine (Volume 93) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1906 Excerpt: ... GRANDEUR ET DECADENCE DE BERNARD SHAW. BY A YOUNG PLAYGOER. Mb. Bernard Shaw has done so much for us. He has added so much to the interest and the gaiety of life. He has been the mainstay, for more than a twelvemonth, of the only theatre in London. He has removed from the English stage, Mr. Pinero and Mr. Carton alone with him, the reproach that we live on borrowed goods or on makeshifts strung miserably together without the life or distinction or certainty of genuine works of art. He has drawn out so much that was latent in the capacities of English acting. The performances of Mr. Granville Barker, of Miss Sarah Brooke, of Miss Fairbrother, of Mr. Barnes, of Mr. Louis Calvert, are memories still fresh, and still delightful. M. Antoine himself would not be ashamed of the care and completeness seen at the Court Theatre, and in this too Mr. Shaw has had his part. Finally, Mr. Shaw has fought for a hearing, fought openly and honourably without other recompense for years than that of scorn and unmeasured abuse, and won it by the strength of his own hand. He has proved in himself the powers of a practical dramatist of the first rank. Therefore we would not seem ungrateful. And yet--and yet... But it is a 'yet' that differs in its essence from the sounds vented by press reporters floundering in the wake of the fashion from conventional horror to second-hand eulogy. The object of this paper is simply to put into words this 'yet, ' not to examine the value of what Mr. Shaw holds valuable. It will not question his ideas, but note what he does with them. There is coming into fashion a new style of criticism, by which it would seem that the matter of Mr. Shaw's plays is so marvellous that the manner of its presentation is without importance. Say that the action in ' Jo...