Six Talks on "The Life and Work of Bernard Shaw"

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 17, 6 November 1931, Page 5

Six Talks on "The Life and Work of Bernard Shaw"

By the

Rev.

William A.

Constable

M.A.

Synopsis No. 5.-His Later Philosophy. ( To be broadcast from 1Y A, Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 7.30 p.m.) GQHAW develops and applies the philosophy, which he first expressed in "Man and Superman" in several of his later plays. The main theme is carried on in "Back to Methuselah," a sequence of five plays on creative evolution, starting with a very original but beautiful scene in "the Garden of Eden" and ending in the year 31920-"as far as human thought can reach." In the play of the present day it is discovered that for the further evolution of man and society it is necessary that man’s life shall be extended to at least 300 years. This happens, and in the con‘cluding play we see a number of "ancients" who have completely outgrown physical passion and live a life of pure thought. Shaw is thus rather scornful of those who make mere happiness their ideal. But in a passage in "Fanny’s First Play" he shows the difference between external pleasure and a deep inner joy. His philosophy also finds expression in the dialogue between the Roman captain and Lavinia, the Christian convert in "Ardrocles and the Lion." Captain: "What is God?" Lavinia: "When we know that, captain, we shall be gods ourselves," and again-"Religion is such a great thing that when I meet really religious people we are friends at once, no matter what name we give to the Divine Will that made us and moves us." Shaw’s somewhat unconventional religious faith is found in a crude form in that melodrama of the American backblocks, "The Showing Up of Blanco Posuet." The hero gives up his chance of escape by giving the horse (which he has stolen) to save the life of a child. He is captured and brought to a rough trial. But he finds that in obeying this urge of God, he is "playing the great game." He has lost the feeling of the "rottenness of life" and now he’s "for the great game every time." In his crude way he realises that he has a part to play in co-operating with the Divine Purpose. "He didn’t make us for nothing; for He wouldn’t have made us at all if He could have done His work without us... He made me because He had a job for me. He let me run loose till the job was ready. and then I had to come and do it, hanging or no hanging. And I tell you it didn’t feel rotten: it felt bully, just bully. Anyhow, I got the rotten feel off me for a minute of my life, and I’ll go through fire to get it off me again." Thus Bernard Shaw is no mere cynical pessimist. Behind all his impish humour and his love of "pulling people’s legs" there is a fundamental seriousness of purpose, which he has finely expressed in his own words. "I am of opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long -as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatsoever I can. I want to be thoroughly worn out when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch, which I have got a hold of for a moment; and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." Point for discussion by groups: How far is the preaching of a message a fault in art? Examples may be taken not only from Shaw, but also from Isaiah, John Bunyan and Robert Browning.