143-517: The False One is a late Jacobean stage play by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger , though formerly placed in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon. It was first published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. This classical history tells of the meeting and romance of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra , and the betrayal and death of Pompey the Great at the hands of one of his own officers,
286-462: A London -based form of English, became widespread. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400), author of The Canterbury Tales , was a significant figure developing the legitimacy of vernacular Middle English at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were still French and Latin. The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439 also helped to standardise the language, as did
429-452: A republican , castigated British policy on Ireland in the postwar period. These stances had no lasting effect on his standing or productivity as a dramatist; the inter-war years saw a series of often ambitious plays, which achieved varying degrees of popular success. In 1938 he provided the screenplay for a filmed version of Pygmalion for which he received an Academy Award . His appetite for politics and controversy remained undiminished; by
572-634: A career as a critic. He had been celibate until his twenty-ninth birthday, when his shyness was overcome by Jane (Jenny) Patterson, a widow some years his senior. Their affair continued, not always smoothly, for eight years. Shaw's sex life has caused much speculation and debate among his biographers, but there is a consensus that the relationship with Patterson was one of his few non-platonic romantic liaisons. The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron's Profession written in 1882–83, and An Unsocial Socialist , begun and finished in 1883. The latter
715-537: A career as a playwright: "I had rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the evidence". After using the plot of the aborted 1884 collaboration with Archer to complete Widowers' Houses (it was staged twice in London, in December 1892), Shaw continued writing plays. At first he made slow progress; The Philanderer , written in 1893 but not published until 1898, had to wait until 1905 for
858-549: A comedy about an Englishman in Ireland, attracted leading politicians and was seen by Edward VII , who laughed so much that he broke his chair. The play was withheld from Dublin's Abbey Theatre , for fear of the affront it might provoke, although it was shown at the city's Royal Theatre in November 1907. Shaw later wrote that William Butler Yeats , who had requested the play, "got rather more than he bargained for ... It
1001-478: A contributor, mostly anonymously. He was soon at odds with the magazine's editor, Clifford Sharp , who by 1916 was rejecting his contributions—"the only paper in the world that refuses to print anything by me", according to Shaw. "I see the Junkers and Militarists of England and Germany jumping at the chance they have longed for in vain for many years of smashing one another and establishing their own oligarchy as
1144-456: A different view, and the management of the theatre staged extra matinée performances to meet the demand. The play ran from April to July, toured the provinces and was staged in New York. It earned him £341 in royalties in its first year, a sufficient sum to enable him to give up his salaried post as a music critic. Among the cast of the London production was Florence Farr , with whom Shaw had
1287-565: A drama. The authors' choice in this matter may have been dictated by their desire to comment on contemporaneous political events; in this interpretation, the Pompey of the play represents Sir Walter Raleigh , executed in 1618, while the loathsome reprobate Septimius stands for Raleigh's primary accuser, Sir Lewis Stukeley . Critics have seen the influence of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra in The False One, and have suggested that
1430-481: A dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara , The Doctor's Dilemma , and Caesar and Cleopatra . Shaw's expressed views were often contentious; he promoted eugenics and alphabet reform , and opposed vaccination and organised religion. He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable, and although not
1573-524: A federal arrangement, with national and imperial parliaments. Holroyd records that by this time the separatist party Sinn Féin was in the ascendency, and Shaw's and other moderate schemes were forgotten. In the postwar period, Shaw despaired of the British government's coercive policies towards Ireland, and joined his fellow-writers Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton in publicly condemning these actions. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 led to
SECTION 10
#17327975745251716-406: A fine orator. "The most striking result of our present system of farming out the national Land and capital to private individuals has been the division of society into hostile classes, with large appetites and no dinners at one extreme, and large dinners and no appetites at the other" Shaw, Fabian Tract No. 2: A Manifesto (1884). From 1885 to 1889 Shaw attended the fortnightly meetings of
1859-458: A flamboyant figure well known in Dublin's musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection hurt him deeply. He found solace in the music that abounded in
2002-523: A gap in literary tradition, allowing a seemingly fresh start for all forms of literature after the Restoration. During the Interregnum, the royalist forces attached to the court of Charles I went into exile with the twenty-year-old Charles II . The nobility who travelled with Charles II were therefore lodged for over a decade in the midst of the continent's literary scene. John Milton , one of
2145-558: A generation of European painters, composers, and writers. The English language spread throughout the world with the development of the British Empire between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history . By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the world population at the time, During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these colonies and
2288-474: A house in the country, Shaw, concerned that this might cause scandal, agreed to their marriage. The ceremony took place on 1 June 1898, in the register office in Covent Garden . The bride and bridegroom were both aged forty-one. In the view of the biographer and critic St John Ervine , "their life together was entirely felicitous". There were no children of the marriage, which it is generally believed
2431-526: A metaphor for the challenge faced by the committed Christian [...]". Classical antiquity was not forgotten in Anglo-Saxon England, and several Old English poems are adaptations of late classical philosophical texts. The longest is King Alfred 's (849–899) 9th-century translation of Boethius ' Consolation of Philosophy . After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the written form of
2574-660: A nominated Fabian delegate, he did not attend the London conference at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street in February 1900, that created the Labour Representation Committee —precursor of the modern Labour Party . By 1903, when his term as borough councillor expired, he had lost his earlier enthusiasm, writing: "After six years of Borough Councilling I am convinced that the borough councils should be abolished". Nevertheless, in 1904 he stood in
2717-608: A personal friend of Chaucer, Gower is remembered primarily for three major works: the Mirroir de l'Omme , Vox Clamantis , and Confessio Amantis , three long poems written in Anglo-Norman , Latin and Middle English respectively, which are united by common moral and political themes. Significant religious works were also created in the 14th century, including those of Julian of Norwich (c. 1342 – c. 1416) and Richard Rolle . Julian's Revelations of Divine Love (about 1393)
2860-490: A political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and the Man in 1894. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen , he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. By the early twentieth century his reputation as
3003-494: A rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Besant was violently broken up by the authorities on 13 November 1887 ( "Bloody Sunday" ), Shaw became convinced of the folly of attempting to challenge police power. Thereafter he largely accepted the principle of "permeation" as advocated by Webb: the notion whereby socialism could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties. Throughout
SECTION 20
#17327975745253146-550: A range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory , Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature . Born in Dublin, in 1876 Shaw moved to London, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following
3289-450: A revision of an earlier tract in which Charlotte Wilson had defined socialism in anarchistic terms. In Shaw's new version, readers were assured that "socialism can be brought about in a perfectly constitutional manner by democratic institutions". The mid-1880s marked a turning point in Shaw's life, both personally and professionally: he lost his virginity, had two novels published, and began
3432-481: A romantic relationship between 1890 and 1894, much resented by Jenny Patterson. The success of Arms and the Man was not immediately replicated. Candida , which presented a young woman making a conventional romantic choice for unconventional reasons, received a single performance in South Shields in 1895; in 1897 a playlet about Napoleon called The Man of Destiny had a single staging at Croydon . In
3575-447: A schoolboy left him disillusioned with formal education: "Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." In October 1871 he left school to become a junior clerk in a Dublin firm of land agents , where he worked hard, and quickly rose to become head cashier. During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped
3718-519: A secular view of the world and a general sense of progress and perfectibility. Led by the philosophers who were inspired by the discoveries of the previous century by people like Isaac Newton and the writings of Descartes , John Locke and Francis Bacon . They sought to discover and to act upon universally valid principles governing humanity, nature, and society. They variously attacked spiritual and scientific authority, dogmatism, intolerance, censorship, and economic and social restraints. They considered
3861-424: A sensitive boy, found the less salubrious parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee's students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read avidly; thus, as well as gaining a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works, he became familiar with a wide spectrum of literature. Between 1865 and 1871 Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His experiences as
4004-494: A shift towards a more secular base for European theatre. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life over one of evil. The plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Somonyng of Everyman ( The Summoning of Everyman ) (c. 1509–1519), usually referred to simply as Everyman ,
4147-518: A stage production. Similarly, Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) was written five years before publication and nine years before reaching the stage. Shaw's first play to bring him financial success was Arms and the Man (1894), a mock- Ruritanian comedy satirising conventions of love, military honour and class. The press found the play overlong, and accused Shaw of mediocrity, sneering at heroism and patriotism, heartless cleverness, and copying W. S. Gilbert 's style. The public took
4290-410: A teenage ambition to become a painter, and had not yet thought of writing for a living, but Lee found a little work for him, ghost-writing a musical column printed under Lee's name in a satirical weekly, The Hornet . Lee's relations with Bessie deteriorated after their move to London. Shaw maintained contact with Lee, who found him work as a rehearsal pianist and occasional singer. Eventually Shaw
4433-530: A tract, Why Are The Many Poor? , issued by the recently formed Fabian Society , Shaw went to the society's next advertised meeting, on 16 May 1884. He became a member in September, and before the year's end had provided the society with its first manifesto, published as Fabian Tract No. 2. He joined the society's executive committee in January 1885, and later that year recruited Webb and also Annie Besant ,
The False One - Misplaced Pages Continue
4576-405: A tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others surmise, George's motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her family's money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of "shabby-genteel poverty". By the time of Shaw's birth his mother had become close to George John Lee,
4719-600: A variety of genres, including histories (such as Richard III and Henry IV ), tragedies (such as Hamlet , Othello , and Macbeth ) comedies (such as Midsummer Night's Dream , As You Like It , and Twelfth Night ) and the late romances , or tragicomedies. Shakespeare's career continues in the Jacobean period. Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre include Christopher Marlowe , and Ben Jonson , Thomas Dekker , John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont . In
4862-616: A venture was contrary to the specified purpose of the legacy. He was eventually persuaded to support the proposal, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) opened in the summer of 1895. By the later 1890s Shaw's political activities lessened as he concentrated on making his name as a dramatist. In 1897 he was persuaded to fill an uncontested vacancy for a "vestryman" ( parish councillor ) in London's St Pancras district. At least initially, Shaw took to his municipal responsibilities seriously; when London government
5005-505: Is a late 15th-century English morality play. Like John Bunyan 's allegory Pilgrim's Progress (1678), Everyman examines the question of Christian salvation through the use of allegorical characters. The English Renaissance as a part of the Northern Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th to the 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that
5148-541: Is also one of the earliest recorded examples of sustained poetry in a Germanic language . The poem, The Dream of the Rood , was inscribed upon the Ruthwell Cross . Two Old English poems from the late 10th century are The Wanderer and The Seafarer . Both have a religious theme, and Marsden describes The Seafarer as "an exhortatory and didactic poem, in which the miseries of winter seafaring are used as
5291-410: Is among history's most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and freedom of the press . The largest and most important poetic form of the era was satire. In general, publication of satire was done anonymously, as there were great dangers in being associated with a satire. John Dryden (1631–1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated
5434-457: Is believed to be the first published book written by a woman in the English language. A major work from the 15th century is Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory , which was printed by Caxton in 1485. This is a compilation of some French and English Arthurian romances, and was among the earliest books printed in England. It was popular and influential in the later revival of interest in
5577-431: Is one of the better-known Arthurian stories of an established type known as the "beheading game". Developing from Welsh, Irish and English tradition, Sir Gawain highlights the importance of honour and chivalry. Preserved in the same manuscript with Sir Gawayne were three other poems, now generally accepted as the work of the same author, including an intricate elegiac poem, Pearl . The English dialect of these poems from
5720-575: Is remembered chiefly for his famous translation in 1616 of Homer 's Iliad and Odyssey into English verse. This was the first ever complete translations of either poem into the English language. The translation had a profound influence on English literature and inspired John Keats 's famous sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (1816). Shakespeare popularized the English sonnet , which made significant changes to Petrarch 's model. A collection of 154 by sonnets , dealing with themes such as
5863-706: Is the York cycle of 48 pageants. They were performed in the city of York , from the middle of the 14th century until 1569. Besides the Middle English drama, there are three surviving plays in Cornish known as the Ordinalia . Having grown out of the religiously based mystery plays of the Middle Ages, the morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment, which represented
The False One - Misplaced Pages Continue
6006-539: Is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century. Like most of northern Europe, England saw little of these developments until more than a century later – Renaissance style and ideas were slow in penetrating England. Many scholars see the beginnings of the English Renaissance during the reign of Henry VIII and the Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as
6149-578: The King James Bible (1611), and the Great Vowel Shift . Poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616) is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and one of the world's greatest dramatists. His plays have been translated into every primary living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. In the nineteenth century, Sir Walter Scott's historical romances inspired
6292-507: The Anglo-Saxon language became less common. Under the influence of the new aristocracy, French became the standard language of courts, parliament, and polite society. As the invaders integrated, their language and literature mingled with that of the natives, and the Norman dialects of the ruling classes became Anglo-Norman . From then until the 12th century, Anglo-Saxon underwent a gradual transition into Middle English . Political power
6435-551: The British Economic Association ; it was, Holroyd observes, "the closest Shaw had ever come to university education". This experience changed his political ideas; he moved away from Marxism and became an apostle of gradualism . When in 1886–87 the Fabians debated whether to embrace anarchism , as advocated by Charlotte Wilson , Besant and others, Shaw joined the majority in rejecting this approach. After
6578-602: The English-speaking world . The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the fifth century, are called Old English . Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English. Despite being set in Scandinavia , it has achieved national epic status in England. However, following
6721-663: The Irish Literary Revival , including George Russell and James Joyce , and was a close friend of Seán O'Casey , who was inspired to become a playwright after reading John Bull's Other Island . Man and Superman , completed in 1902, was a success both at the Royal Court in 1905 and in Robert Loraine 's New York production in the same year. Among the other Shaw works presented by Vedrenne and Granville-Barker were Major Barbara (1905), depicting
6864-532: The London County Council elections. After an eccentric campaign, which Holroyd characterises as "[making] absolutely certain of not getting in", he was duly defeated. It was Shaw's final foray into electoral politics. Nationally, the 1906 general election produced a huge Liberal majority and an intake of 29 Labour members. Shaw viewed this outcome with scepticism; he had a low opinion of the new prime minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman , and saw
7007-663: The Midlands is markedly different from that of the London -based Chaucer and, though influenced by French in the scenes at court in Sir Gawain , there are in the poems also many dialect words, often of Scandinavian origin, that belonged to northwest England. Middle English lasted until the 1470s, when the Chancery Standard , a London-based form of English, became widespread and the printing press started to standardise
7150-456: The Norman conquest of England in 1066, the written form of the Anglo-Saxon language became less common. Under the influence of the new aristocracy, French became the standard language of courts, parliament, and polite society. The English spoken after the Normans came is known as Middle English . This form of English lasted until the 1470s, when the Chancery Standard (late Middle English),
7293-613: The Social Democratic Federation (SDF), where he discovered the writings of Karl Marx , and thereafter spent much of 1883 reading Das Kapital . He was not impressed by the SDF's founder, H. M. Hyndman , whom he found autocratic, ill-tempered and lacking leadership qualities. Shaw doubted the ability of the SDF to harness the working classes into an effective radical movement and did not join it—he preferred, he said, to work with his intellectual equals. After reading
SECTION 50
#17327975745257436-479: The Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I . Another major figure, Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586), was an English poet, whose works include Astrophel and Stella , The Defence of Poetry , and The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia . Poems intended to be set to music as songs, such as those by Thomas Campion (1567–1620), became popular as printed literature was disseminated more widely in households. John Donne (1572–1631)
7579-751: The US started to produce their significant literary traditions in English. Cumulatively, from 1907 to the present, numerous writers from Great Britain , both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland , the US, and former British colonies have received the Nobel Prize for works in English more than in any language. Old English literature , or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses the surviving literature written in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England , in
7722-606: The partition of Ireland between north and south, a provision that dismayed Shaw. In 1922 civil war broke out in the south between its pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions, the former of whom had established the Irish Free State . Shaw visited Dublin in August, and met Michael Collins , then head of the Free State's Provisional Government . Shaw was much impressed by Collins, and was saddened when, three days later,
7865-458: The regicide of Charles I were partially suppressed. Consequently, violent writings were forced underground, and many of those who had served in the Interregnum attenuated their positions in the Restoration. John Bunyan stands out beyond other religious authors of the period. Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of personal salvation and a guide to the Christian life. During
8008-400: The "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw". In June 1873 Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed him; the two girls joined her. Shaw's explanation of why his mother followed Lee was that without the latter's financial contribution the joint household had to be broken up. Left in Dublin with his father, Shaw compensated for the absence of music in
8151-621: The "false one" of the title. Scholars date the play to the 1619–20 period, partly because of parallels with the political situation in Jacobean era England at the time. It was originally staged by the King's Men ; the cast list provided in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679 names John Lowin , Joseph Taylor , John Underwood , Nicholas Tooley , Robert Benfield , John Rice , Richard Sharpe , and George Birch . The presence of Taylor, who replaced Richard Burbage after Burbage's death in
8294-487: The 17th century a second generation of metaphysical poets were writing, including Richard Crashaw (1613–1649), Andrew Marvell (1621–1678), Thomas Traherne (1636 or 1637–1674) and Henry Vaughan (1622–1695). The Cavalier poets were another important group of 17th-century poets, who came from the classes that supported King Charles I during the English Civil War (1642–1651). (King Charles reigned from 1625 and
8437-609: The 1880s the Fabian Society remained small, its message of moderation frequently unheard among more strident voices. Its profile was raised in 1889 with the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism , edited by Shaw who also provided two of the essays. The second of these, "Transition", details the case for gradualism and permeation, asserting that "the necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone". In 1890 Shaw produced Tract No. 13, What Socialism Is ,
8580-612: The 1890s Shaw's plays were better known in print than on the West End stage; his biggest success of the decade was in New York in 1897, when Richard Mansfield 's production of the historical melodrama The Devil's Disciple earned the author more than £2,000 in royalties. In January 1893, as a Fabian delegate, Shaw attended the Bradford conference which led to the foundation of the Independent Labour Party . He
8723-427: The 18th century were equally influenced by both Dryden and Pope. Prose in the Restoration period is dominated by Christian religious writing, but the Restoration also saw the beginnings of two genres that would dominate later periods, fiction and journalism. Religious writing often strayed into political and economic writing, just as political and economic writing implied or directly addressed religion. The Restoration
SECTION 60
#17327975745258866-641: The 9th century, that chronicles the history of the Anglo-Saxons . The poem Battle of Maldon also deals with history. This is a work of uncertain date, celebrating the Battle of Maldon of 991, at which the Anglo-Saxons failed to prevent a Viking invasion. Oral tradition was very strong in early English culture and most literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems were very popular, and some, including Beowulf , have survived to
9009-622: The Arthurian legends. In the Middle Ages , drama in the vernacular languages of Europe may have emerged from enactments of the liturgy . Mystery plays were presented in the porches of cathedrals or by strolling players on feast days . Miracle and mystery plays, along with morality plays (or "interludes"), later evolved into more elaborate forms of drama, such as was seen on the Elizabethan stages. Another form of medieval theatre
9152-562: The Artists (1881), but neither found a publisher; each was serialised a few years later in the socialist magazine Our Corner . In 1880 Shaw began attending meetings of the Zetetical Society, whose objective was to "search for truth in all matters affecting the interests of the human race". Here he met Sidney Webb , a junior civil servant who, like Shaw, was busy educating himself. Despite difference of style and temperament,
9295-616: The Bourbons nowhere." Total independence, he asserted, was impractical; alliance with a bigger power (preferably England) was essential. The Dublin Easter Rising later that month took him by surprise. After its suppression by British forces, he expressed horror at the summary execution of the rebel leaders, but continued to believe in some form of Anglo-Irish union. In How to Settle the Irish Question (1917), he envisaged
9438-520: The Egyptian crown. The play's Prologue specifically states that the work shows a virginal "Young Cleopatra...and her great Mind / Express'd to the height...." Some of the famous aspects of the story are reproduced in the play: Cleopatra has herself delivered to Caesar in Act III, though enclosed in a "packet" rather than rolled up in a rug. The playwrights chose to concentrate much of their attention on
9581-406: The Great , and Cynewulf . Cædmon is the earliest English poet whose name is known, and his only known surviving work Cædmon's Hymn probably dates from the late 7th century. The poem is one of the earliest attested examples of Old English and is, with the runic Ruthwell Cross and Franks Casket inscriptions, one of three candidates for the earliest attested example of Old English poetry. It
9724-430: The Irish leader was ambushed and killed by anti-treaty forces. In a letter to Collins's sister, Shaw wrote: "I met Michael for the first and last time on Saturday last, and am very glad I did. I rejoice in his memory, and will not be so disloyal to it as to snivel over his valiant death". Shaw remained a British subject all his life, but took dual British-Irish nationality in 1934. Shaw's first major work to appear after
9867-437: The Labour members as inconsequential: "I apologise to the Universe for my connection with such a body". In the years after the 1906 election, Shaw felt that the Fabians needed fresh leadership, and saw this in the form of his fellow-writer H. G. Wells , who had joined the society in February 1903. Wells's ideas for reform—particularly his proposals for closer cooperation with the Independent Labour Party—placed him at odds with
10010-479: The London premiere it had ended. The play attracted capacity audiences until July, when Tree insisted on going on holiday, and the production closed. His co-star then toured with the piece in the US. In 1899, when the Boer War began, Shaw wished the Fabians to take a neutral stance on what he deemed, like Home Rule , to be a "non-Socialist" issue. Others, including the future Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald , wanted unequivocal opposition, and resigned from
10153-446: The Old Gang should have given way to Wells some years earlier: "God only knows whether the Society had not better have done it". Although less active—he blamed his advancing years—Shaw remained a Fabian. In 1912 Shaw invested £1,000 for a one-fifth share in the Webbs' new publishing venture, a socialist weekly magazine called The New Statesman , which appeared in April 1913. He became a founding director, publicist, and in due course
10296-534: The Restoration period, the most common manner of getting news would have been a broadsheet publication. A single, large sheet of paper might have a written, usually partisan, account of an event. It is impossible to satisfactorily date the beginning of the novel in English. However, long fiction and fictional biographies began to distinguish themselves from other forms in England during the Restoration period. An existing tradition of Romance fiction in France and Spain
10439-612: The Round Table . It was also the first historiography written in English since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Middle English Bible translations , notably Wycliffe's Bible , helped to establish English as a literary language. Wycliffe's Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of, or at the instigation of, John Wycliffe . They appeared between about 1382 and 1395. These Bible translations were
10582-561: The World (1700), and John Vanbrugh 's The Relapse (1696) and The Provoked Wife (1697) were "softer" and more middle-class in ethos, very different from the aristocratic extravaganza twenty years earlier, and aimed at a wider audience. During the 18th century literature reflected the worldview of the Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason): a rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues that promoted
10725-530: The beginning of the story of Caesar and Cleopatra in their play; they concentrate on the events of 48 BC. The play is set in Egypt ; at its start, the Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII has sequestered his sister/wife/queen Cleopatra and has assumed sole rule of the kingdom, and the Battle of Pharsalia has not yet occurred. By the play's end, Caesar has deposed Ptolemy and placed Cleopatra in sole possession of
10868-569: The beginnings of the Industrial Revolution . George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw , was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923). With
11011-727: The chief inspiration and cause of the Lollard movement, a pre- Reformation movement that rejected many of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church . Another literary genre, that of Romances , appears in English from the 13th century, with King Horn and Havelock the Dane , based on Anglo-Norman originals such as the Romance of Horn (c. 1170), but it was in the 14th century that major writers in English first appeared. These were William Langland , Geoffrey Chaucer and
11154-521: The contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired were William Morris and John Ruskin , and he sought to follow their precepts in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected the idea of art for art's sake , and insisted that all great art must be didactic . Of Shaw's various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music critic that he was best known. After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in February 1889, writing under
11297-729: The contrasting morality of arms manufacturers and the Salvation Army ; The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a mostly serious piece about professional ethics; and Caesar and Cleopatra , Shaw's counterblast to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra , seen in New York in 1906 and in London the following year. Now prosperous and established, Shaw experimented with unorthodox theatrical forms described by his biographer Stanley Weintraub as "discussion drama" and "serious farce ". These plays included Getting Married (premiered 1908), The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet (1909), Misalliance (1910), and Fanny's First Play (1911). Blanco Posnet
11440-429: The direction which would be followed by later playwrights. The Spanish Tragedy is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592, which was popular and influential in its time, and established a new genre in English literature theatre, the revenge play . William Shakespeare (1564–1616) stands out in this period as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare wrote plays in
11583-415: The dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland; George Carr Shaw, an ineffectual alcoholic, was among the family's less successful members. His relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly; in the view of Shaw's biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape
11726-542: The dominant military power of the world." Shaw: Common Sense About the War (1914). After the First World War began in August 1914, Shaw produced his tract Common Sense About the War , which argued that the warring nations were equally culpable. Such a view was anathema in an atmosphere of fervent patriotism, and offended many of Shaw's friends; Ervine records that "[h]is appearance at any public function caused
11869-439: The early 17th century Shakespeare wrote the so-called " problem plays ", as well as a number of his best known tragedies , including Macbeth and King Lear . In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays, including The Tempest . Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and
12012-627: The early 17th century was the King James Bible . This, one of the most massive translation projects in the history of English up to this time, was started in 1604 and completed in 1611. This represents the culmination of a tradition of Bible translation into English that began with the work of William Tyndale , and it became the standard Bible of the Church of England . The Metaphysical poets John Donne (1572–1631) and George Herbert (1593–1633) were still alive after 1625, and later in
12155-449: The early Restoration period are the unsentimental or "hard" comedies of John Dryden , William Wycherley , and George Etherege , which reflect the atmosphere at Court, and celebrate an aristocratic macho lifestyle of unremitting sexual intrigue and conquest. After a sharp drop in both quality and quantity in the 1680s, the mid-1690s saw a brief second flowering of the drama, especially comedy. Comedies like William Congreve 's The Way of
12298-585: The figure of Lucius Septimius , the Roman officer who betrayed, murdered, and decapitated Pompey the Great when Pompey landed in Egypt after his Pharsalia defeat (events depicted in Act II). Septimius is the "false one" of the title, and his prominence comes close to turning the work into a "villain play." Yet Septimius is portrayed as lacking any redeeming or sympathetic quality, making him a weak prop on which to mount
12441-491: The forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. After Shakespeare's death, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson (1572–1637) was the leading literary figure of the Jacobean era . Jonson's aesthetics hark back to the Middle Ages and his characters embody the theory of humours , which was based on contemporary medical theory. Jonson's comedies include Volpone (1605 or 1606) and Bartholomew Fair (1614). Others who followed Jonson's style include Beaumont and Fletcher , who wrote
12584-448: The government for ignoring social issues and concentrating solely on Irish Home Rule , a matter Shaw declared of no relevance to socialism. In 1894 the Fabian Society received a substantial bequest from a sympathiser, Henry Hunt Hutchinson—Holroyd mentions £10,000. Webb, who chaired the board of trustees appointed to supervise the legacy, proposed to use most of it to found a school of economics and politics. Shaw demurred; he thought such
12727-819: The government's attitude to Irish recruits, was banned in the UK and was presented at a Royal Flying Corps base in Belgium in 1917. Augustus Does His Bit , a genial farce, was granted a licence; it opened at the Royal Court in January 1917. Shaw had long supported the principle of Irish Home Rule within the British Empire (which he thought should become the British Commonwealth). In April 1916 he wrote scathingly in The New York Times about militant Irish nationalism: "In point of learning nothing and forgetting nothing these fellow-patriots of mine leave
12870-407: The greatest English poets, wrote at this time of religious flux and political upheaval. Milton is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). Milton's poetry and prose reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. His celebrated Areopagitica , written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship,
13013-498: The height of the English Renaissance. The influence of the Italian Renaissance can also be found in the poetry of Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542), one of the earliest English Renaissance poets. He was responsible for many innovations in English poetry, and alongside Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/1517–1547) introduced the sonnet from Italy into England in the early 16th century. After William Caxton introduced
13156-648: The house by teaching himself to play the piano. Early in 1876 Shaw learned from his mother that Agnes was dying of tuberculosis . He resigned from the land agents, and in March travelled to England to join his mother and Lucy at Agnes's funeral. He never again lived in Ireland, and did not visit it for twenty-nine years. Initially, Shaw refused to seek clerical employment in London. His mother allowed him to live free of charge in her house in South Kensington , but he nevertheless needed an income. He had abandoned
13299-493: The house. Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lee's unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws' house was often filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players. In 1862 Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house, No. 1 Hatch Street, in an affluent part of Dublin, and a country cottage on Dalkey Hill , overlooking Killiney Bay . Shaw,
13442-479: The instant departure of many of those present." Despite his errant reputation, Shaw's propagandist skills were recognised by the British authorities, and early in 1917 he was invited by Field Marshal Haig to visit the Western Front battlefields. Shaw's 10,000-word report, which emphasised the human aspects of the soldier's life, was well received, and he became less of a lone voice. In April 1917 he joined
13585-464: The language as encapsulating Shaw's ideas and his means of expressing them. Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello , a lower-middle-class part of Dublin . He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw ( née Gurly). His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances and Elinor Agnes. The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to
13728-414: The language. Chaucer is best known today for The Canterbury Tales . This is a collection of stories written in Middle English (mostly in verse although some are in prose ), that are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from Southwark to the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral . Chaucer is a significant figure in the development of
13871-457: The last great poet of the English Renaissance" and published a number of works before 1660, including L'Allegro (1631), Il Penseroso (1634), the masque Comus (1638) and Lycidas (1638). However, his major epic works, including Paradise Lost (1667) were published in the Restoration period. Restoration literature includes both Paradise Lost and the Earl of Rochester 's Sodom ,
14014-476: The last, one of Dryden's great successes. Similarly, Katherine Philips 's translation of Pierre Corneille 's La Mort de Pompée (1643) was a stage hit in London in 1663. As late as 1910, John Masefield treated Pompey and Septimius in his The Tragedy of Pompey the Great. Literature in English#Jacobean literature English literature is literature written in the English language from
14157-770: The late 1920s, he had largely renounced Fabian Society gradualism, and often wrote and spoke favourably of dictatorships of the right and left—he expressed admiration for both Mussolini and Stalin . In the final decade of his life, he made fewer public statements but continued to write prolifically until shortly before his death, aged ninety-four, having refused all state honours, including the Order of Merit in 1946. Since Shaw's death scholarly and critical opinion about his works has varied, but he has regularly been rated among British dramatists as second only to Shakespeare ; analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of English-language playwrights. The word Shavian has entered
14300-439: The legitimacy of the vernacular , Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were still French and Latin. At this time, literature in England was being written in various languages, including Latin, Norman-French, and English: the multilingual nature of the audience for literature in the 14th century is illustrated by the example of John Gower (c. 1330–1408). A contemporary of William Langland and
14443-422: The literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the "Age of Dryden". He established the heroic couplet as a standard form of English poetry. Dryden's greatest achievements were in satiric verse in works like the mock-heroic MacFlecknoe (1682). Alexander Pope (1688–1744) was heavily influenced by Dryden, and often borrowed from him; other writers in
14586-525: The national consensus in welcoming America's entry into the war: "a first class moral asset to the common cause against junkerism ". Three short plays by Shaw were premiered during the war. The Inca of Perusalem , written in 1915, encountered problems with the censor for burlesquing not only the enemy but the British military command; it was performed in 1916 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre . O'Flaherty V.C. , satirising
14729-411: The next four years Shaw made a negligible income from writing, and was subsidised by his mother. In 1881, for the sake of economy, and increasingly as a matter of principle, he became a vegetarian . In the same year he suffered an attack of smallpox ; eventually he grew a beard to hide the resultant facial scar. In rapid succession he wrote two more novels: The Irrational Knot (1880) and Love Among
14872-460: The part of the managers of Vienna and Berlin that I should have my plays performed by them first." The British production opened in April 1914, starring Sir Herbert Tree and Mrs Patrick Campbell as, respectively, a professor of phonetics and a cockney flower-girl. There had earlier been a romantic liaison between Shaw and Campbell that caused Charlotte Shaw considerable concern, but by the time of
15015-532: The passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, were first published in a 1609 quarto. Besides Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, the major poets of the early 17th century included the Metaphysical poets : John Donne (1572–1631), George Herbert (1593–1633), Henry Vaughan , Andrew Marvell , and Richard Crashaw . Their style was characterized by wit and metaphysical conceits, that is far-fetched or unusual similes or metaphors. The most important prose work of
15158-506: The pen-name Corno di Bassetto. In May 1890 he moved back to The World , where he wrote a weekly column as "G.B.S." for more than four years. In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Robert Anderson writes, "Shaw's collected writings on music stand alone in their mastery of English and compulsive readability." Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published occasional articles on
15301-627: The period after the settlement of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England ( Jutes and the Angles ) c. 450, after the withdrawal of the Romans , and "ending soon after the Norman Conquest" in 1066. These works include genres such as epic poetry , hagiography , sermons , Bible translations, legal works, chronicles and riddles. In all there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from
15444-708: The period. Widsith , which appears in the Exeter Book of the late 10th century, gives a list of kings of tribes ordered according to their popularity and impact on history, with Attila King of the Huns coming first, followed by Eormanric of the Ostrogoths . It may also be the oldest extant work that tells the Battle of the Goths and Huns , which is also told in such later Scandinavian works as Hervarar's saga and Gesta Danorum . Lotte Hedeager argues that
15587-512: The play – primarily Caesar and Cleopatra, but also Pompey and even Septimius – have attracted the attention of various dramatists. Apart from the famous works of Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw , other instances can be noted. George Chapman 's Caesar and Pompey , perhaps his most obscure play, may date from c. 1613. It was followed by Thomas May 's The Tragedy of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (1626), Sir Charles Sedley 's Antony and Cleopatra (1677), and John Dryden 's All for Love (1678) –
15730-614: The popular comedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle (probably 1607–1608), a satire of the rising middle class. Another popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was the revenge play , which was popularized in the Elizabethan era by Thomas Kyd (1558–1594), and then further developed later by John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632), The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1613). Other revenge tragedies include The Changeling written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley . George Chapman (c. 1559 – c. 1634)
15873-514: The portrayal of Septimius was partially modelled on Shakespeare's Enobarbus. The False One is heavily dominated by political material, rather than dramatic realisations of its characters; for some critics, the split in the play's focus among Cleopatra, Caesar, and Septimius prevents the play from cohering into an effective dramatic whole. The collaborators' primary source for their play was the Pharsalia of Lucan . The historical characters of
16016-732: The present day. Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English, and has achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia. The only surviving manuscript is the Nowell Codex , the precise date of which is debated, but most estimates place it close to the year 1000. Beowulf is the conventional title, and its composition is dated between the 8th and the early 11th century. Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous: twelve are known by name from medieval sources, but only four of those are known by their vernacular works with any certainty: Cædmon , Bede , Alfred
16159-482: The printing press in England in 1476, vernacular literature flourished. The Reformation inspired the production of vernacular liturgy which led to the Book of Common Prayer (1549), a lasting influence on literary language. Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–1599) was one of the most important poets of the Elizabethan period, author of The Faerie Queene (1590 and 1596), an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating
16302-420: The representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song. They developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching the height of their popularity in the 15th century before being rendered obsolete by the rise of professional theatre. There are four complete or nearly complete extant English biblical collections of plays from the late medieval period. The most complete
16445-655: The rest of their lives. They retained a London flat in the Adelphi and later at Whitehall Court . During the first decade of the twentieth century, Shaw secured a firm reputation as a playwright. In 1904 J. E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker established a company at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square , Chelsea to present modern drama. Over the next five years they staged fourteen of Shaw's plays. The first, John Bull's Other Island ,
16588-553: The same year the critic William Archer suggested a collaboration, with a plot by Archer and dialogue by Shaw. The project foundered, but Shaw returned to the draft as the basis of Widowers' Houses in 1892, and the connection with Archer proved of immense value to Shaw's career. On 5 September 1882 Shaw attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon , addressed by the political economist Henry George . Shaw then read George's book Progress and Poverty , which awakened his interest in economics. He began attending meetings of
16731-565: The sexual comedy of The Country Wife and the moral wisdom of Pilgrim's Progress . It saw Locke's Two Treatises on Government , the founding of the Royal Society , the experiments and the holy meditations of Robert Boyle , the hysterical attacks on theatres from Jeremy Collier , the pioneering of literary criticism from Dryden, and the first newspapers. The official break in literary culture caused by censorship and radically moralist standards under Cromwell's Puritan regime created
16874-477: The so-called Pearl Poet , whose most famous work is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Langland's Piers Plowman (written c. 1360–87) or Visio Willelmi de Petro Plowman ( William's Vision of Piers Plowman ) is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem , written in unrhymed alliterative verse . Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance . It
17017-531: The society when it followed Shaw. In the Fabians' war manifesto, Fabianism and the Empire (1900), Shaw declared that "until the Federation of the World becomes an accomplished fact we must accept the most responsible Imperial federations available as a substitute for it". As the new century began, Shaw became increasingly disillusioned by the limited impact of the Fabians on national politics. Thus, although
17160-468: The society's "Old Gang", led by Shaw. According to Cole, Wells "had minimal capacity for putting [his ideas] across in public meetings against Shaw's trained and practised virtuosity". In Shaw's view, "the Old Gang did not extinguish Mr Wells, he annihilated himself". Wells resigned from the society in September 1908; Shaw remained a member, but left the executive in April 1911. He later wondered whether
17303-545: The spring of 1619, indicates a date after that time. Given Fletcher's highly distinctive pattern of stylistic and textual preferences, scholars have found it fairly easy to distinguish the shares of the two authors in the play. Commentators from E. H. C. Oliphant to Cyrus Hoy have agreed that Massinger wrote Act I and Act V, while Fletcher wrote Acts II, III, and IV – the same division of labour as in The Elder Brother . The dramatists chose to portray only
17446-460: The state the proper and rational instrument of progress. The extreme rationalism and skepticism of the age led naturally to deism and also played a part in bringing the later reaction of romanticism . The Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot epitomized the spirit of the age. The term Augustan literature derives from authors of the 1720s and 1730s themselves, who responded to a term that George I of Great Britain preferred for himself. While George I meant
17589-463: The subject throughout his career, his last in 1950. From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review , edited by his friend Frank Harris . As at The World , he used the by-line "G.B.S." He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters. By this time he had embarked in earnest on
17732-433: The title to reflect his might, they instead saw in it a reflection of Ancient Rome 's transition from rough and ready literature to highly political and highly polished literature. It is an age of exuberance and scandal, of enormous energy and inventiveness and outrage, that reflected an era when English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish people found themselves in the midst of an expanding economy, lowering barriers to education, and
17875-460: The two quickly recognised qualities in each other and developed a lifelong friendship. Shaw later reflected: "You knew everything that I didn't know and I knew everything you didn't know ... We had everything to learn from one another and brains enough to do it". Shaw's next attempt at drama was a one-act playlet in French, Un Petit Drame , written in 1884 but not published in his lifetime. In
18018-698: The war was Heartbreak House , written in 1916–17 and performed in 1920. It was produced on Broadway in November, and was coolly received; according to The Times : "Mr Shaw on this occasion has more than usual to say and takes twice as long as usual to say it". After the London premiere in October 1921 The Times concurred with the American critics: "As usual with Mr Shaw, the play is about an hour too long", although containing "much entertainment and some profitable reflection". Ervine in The Observer thought
18161-401: The work is far older, however, and that it likely dates back to the late 6th or early 7th century, citing the author's knowledge of historical details and accuracy as proof of its authenticity. She does note, however, that some authors, such as John Niles , have argued the work was invented in the 10th century. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English , from
18304-572: The writing of Ormulum ( c. 1150 – c. 1180 ), the blending of both Old English and Anglo-Norman elements in English are highlighted for the first time, marking the beginning of the Middle English period. Afterwards, Layamon in Brut adapted the Norman-French of Wace to produce the first English-language work to present the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of
18447-538: Was also the time when John Locke wrote many of his philosophical works. His two Treatises on Government, which later inspired the thinkers in the American Revolution . The Restoration moderated most of the more strident sectarian writing, but radicalism persisted after the Restoration. Puritan authors such as John Milton were forced to retire from public life or adapt, and those authors who had preached against monarchy and who had participated directly in
18590-431: Was another important figure in Elizabethan poetry (see Jacobean poetry below). Among the earliest Elizabethan plays are Gorboduc (1561) by Sackville and Norton , and Thomas Kyd 's (1558–1594) The Spanish Tragedy (1592). Gorboduc is notable especially as the first verse drama in English to employ blank verse , and for the way it developed elements, from the earlier morality plays and Senecan tragedy , in
18733-704: Was banned on religious grounds by the Lord Chamberlain (the official theatre censor in England), and was produced instead in Dublin; it filled the Abbey Theatre to capacity. Fanny's First Play , a comedy about suffragettes , had the longest initial run of any Shaw play—622 performances. Androcles and the Lion (1912), a less heretical study of true and false religious attitudes than Blanco Posnet , ran for eight weeks in September and October 1913. It
18876-569: Was driven to applying for office jobs. In the interim he secured a reader's pass for the British Museum Reading Room (the forerunner of the British Library ) and spent most weekdays there, reading and writing. His first attempt at drama, begun in 1878, was a blank-verse satirical piece on a religious theme. It was abandoned unfinished, as was his first try at a novel. His first completed novel, Immaturity (1879),
19019-642: Was executed in 1649). The best known of the Cavalier poets are Robert Herrick , Richard Lovelace , Thomas Carew and Sir John Suckling . They "were not a formal group, but all were influenced by" Ben Jonson. Most of the Cavalier poets were courtiers, with notable exceptions. For example, Robert Herrick was not a courtier, but his style marks him as a Cavalier poet. Cavalier works make use of allegory and classical allusions, and are influenced by Roman authors Horace, Cicero and Ovid . John Milton (1608–1674) "was
19162-507: Was followed by one of Shaw's most successful plays, Pygmalion , written in 1912 and staged in Vienna the following year, and in Berlin shortly afterwards. Shaw commented, "It is the custom of the English press when a play of mine is produced, to inform the world that it is not a play—that it is dull, blasphemous, unpopular, and financially unsuccessful. ... Hence arose an urgent demand on
19305-499: Was never consummated; whether this was wholly at Charlotte's wish, as Shaw liked to suggest, is less widely credited. In the early weeks of the marriage Shaw was much occupied writing his Marxist analysis of Wagner 's Ring cycle , published as The Perfect Wagnerite late in 1898. In 1906 the Shaws found a country home in Ayot St Lawrence , Hertfordshire; they renamed the house " Shaw's Corner ", and lived there for
19448-534: Was no longer in English hands, so that the West Saxon literary language had no more influence than any other dialect and Middle English literature was written in many dialects that corresponded to the region, history, culture, and background of individual writers. In this period religious literature continued to enjoy popularity and Hagiographies were written, adapted and translated: for example, The Life of Saint Audrey , Eadmer 's (c. 1060 – c. 1126). During
19591-461: Was popular in England. One of the most significant figures in the rise of the novel in the Restoration period is Aphra Behn , author of Oroonoko (1688), who was not only the first professional female novelist, but she may be among the first professional novelists of either sex in England. As soon as the previous Puritan regime's ban on public stage representations was lifted, drama recreated itself quickly and abundantly. The most famous plays of
19734-459: Was published as a serial in To-Day magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until 1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886. In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write book and music criticism for London papers. When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886, he secured the succession for Shaw. The two figures in
19877-623: Was reformed in 1899 and the St Pancras vestry became the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras , he was elected to the newly formed borough council. In 1898, as a result of overwork, Shaw's health broke down. He was nursed by Charlotte Payne-Townshend , a rich Anglo-Irish woman whom he had met through the Webbs. The previous year she had proposed that she and Shaw should marry. He had declined, but when she insisted on nursing him in
20020-487: Was sceptical about the new party, and scorned the likelihood that it could switch the allegiance of the working class from sport to politics. He persuaded the conference to adopt resolutions abolishing indirect taxation , and taxing unearned income "to extinction". Back in London, Shaw produced what Margaret Cole , in her Fabian history, terms a "grand philippic" against the minority Liberal administration that had taken power in 1892. To Your Tents, O Israel! excoriated
20163-639: Was the mummers' plays , a form of early street theatre associated with the Morris dance , concentrating on themes such as Saint George and the Dragon and Robin Hood . These were folk tales re-telling old stories, and the actors travelled from town to town performing these for their audiences in return for money and hospitality. Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe . Medieval mystery plays focused on
20306-451: Was too grim to appeal to publishers and did not appear until the 1930s. He was employed briefly by the newly formed Edison Telephone Company in 1879–80 and, as in Dublin, achieved rapid promotion. Nonetheless, when the Edison firm merged with the rival Bell Telephone Company, Shaw chose not to seek a place in the new organisation. Thereafter he pursued a full-time career as an author. For
20449-443: Was uncongenial to the whole spirit of the neo-Gaelic movement, which is bent on creating a new Ireland after its own ideal, whereas my play is a very uncompromising presentment of the real old Ireland." Nonetheless, Shaw and Yeats were close friends; Yeats and Lady Gregory tried unsuccessfully to persuade Shaw to take up the vacant co-directorship of the Abbey Theatre after J. M. Synge 's death in 1909. Shaw admired other figures in
#524475