THE BOYHOOD AND YOUNG MANHOOD OF G. B. SHAW.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7047, 8 February 1910, Page 3

THE BOYHOOD AND YOUNG MANHOOD OF G. B. SHAW.

Gcorgo Bernard Shaw- was born in Dublin on July 26,' 1856. He v>\ie one of a largo family, the head of -which was a man in by no means prosperous circumstances, ilia father Gcorgo Carr Shaw', an ex*Civil servant, capitalised his pension, embarked on flour-milling, a business of which ho know nothing, and promptly lost all his fortune. In t’es petition, he turned to drink; this was the salvation of the family. His wife, an emancipated woman, without iho knowledge of what emancipation meant, was clever, practical, and utterly regardless of appearances. "Without heslluting a moment, she threw herself into the midst of the most arduous ana unremitting labour, made a position for herself in musical circles in Dublin, maintained that position in spite of all competition, and, as a result, kept the wolf from th© door and made herself one of the happiest women in Ireland. SCHOOL DAYS.

In the meantime, though his people wore not Methodists, young Shaw had been sent to tho locUi Wesleyan Oonnexional School, whore he learned nothing. His master was not. particularly unintelligent, but the lad had his way of doing things, and, fully convinced that his own way was infinitely bettor than that of anybody else, he refused to learn lists of meaningless names. “I never learqt ‘anything at school/' ho wrote &?me years ago. “It was a place whero they put 'Caesar* and ‘Horace* into the bands of small boys and expected tho result to be an elegant taste and knowledge of tho world. I took refugo in total idleness*/ This confession of total idleness is only partly true. Ho had ulready begun to write, and had a great ambition to draw, Michael Angelo being his boyish ideal. His first literary effort was a story about a fight between two men in the Glens of tho Douns. On© had a gun; the other was unarmed; the issue can b© imagined. His first appearance in print flabbergasted the whole family in - general, and his “numerous uncles" in particular. It was a letter printed in “Public Opinion" as a kind of mild protest against the visit to Dublin of Messrs Moody and Sonkey, tho evan gelists. Young Shaw was completely unimpressed by their emotion'll diatribes and sentimental persuasiveness, and he wrote to tho above-named paper in order to “inform the public that I was, on the whole, an atheist." | AN ATTORNEY'S CLERK, . I

At the age of fourteen), however, he left school and ivont to '‘business." He was engaged by a firm of attorneys, but ha hated his work, for it bored him. ! What he hud to do he did well, because ■ his work was mere routine; but what his columns of figures represented ho had. not the ghost of an idea. A time came, however, when, at the ago of sixteen or seventeen, he was appointed to a higher position in the office. He was now compelled to undertake responsibility for which he was by no means prepared. He grappled with his difficulties and found them to be no difficulties at Ull. Finally, he resigned his position and obtained Un appointment elsewhere. And so the years passed. They wore not wasted years, although they might have boeni spent to better purpose. His office work naturally exhausted the greater part of the day; but his evenings were his own, and be rtbd everything that came in his way. wrote fugitive essays, thought a great deal, helped his mother with her work, dabbled in music, and kept his eyes open for all things w-orth seeing. His attention had not yot been powerfully attracted by anything; he had no grtut and absorbing interest in any of tbe problems that were agitating men's minds. He was simply an intelligent, •T*; is? 01 "! 1 ? I *, young man with impossible theories about everything. A FBBE-LANCEI IN LONDON. In the year 1876, his mother went to London, acd he followed her very soon after. Ho was by this time twenty ytfars of ago. They took rooms., and lived together. Now this settling down in London was’ a very risky undertaking. Mrs Shaw had for some time recognised that Dublin did not afford sufficient scope for her talent and energy, and her son was naturally anxious to gauge bis powers by competing with other writers in the literary mbelatrom of London. They had a little money, but were absolutely friendless. Mrs • Shaw however, seen found channels in which to work and earn money, hut George could obtain no recognition, whatever. As a literary free-lance he was an undisguised failure. His MSS. invariably came back "declined with thanks." And this was not to be wondered at. He was too clever, too brilliant. There was no market for his wares. He did not suit his writings to the tone of tho various papers to which he wished to contribute. He refused to sacrifice even the most trivial of his principles. He was honest to such a degree as to be almost dishonest. He had his own way of spelling words, his own manner of punctuating, his own way of expressing himself: rightly or wrongly, it was his way, and, being his, ho refused to change anything for all the wealth in Christendom. CLOSED CAEEEES. His days were spent chiefly in rending in the British Museum. He did occasional work in the City, but soon wearied of this and threw it up in despair He obtained an appointment as a musical critic on a weekly,paper, but liis criticisms were bo terrific in. their onslaughts on composers, vocalists, and lEetrumcntalistß that the circulation of the paper began to decrease, and the editor informed him that he could easily dispense with his services. Occasional articles were accepted by other papers, but the result, in pounds, shillings. and pence was not very encouraging. It chanced that in the same building Us that in which young Shaw and hia mother lodged there lived an artist who was employed by a firm of publishers to draw illustrations, which were issued in book form, with a few lines of verse under each drawing. Now, Shaw was not a poet in those days, but tho young artist, hearing that his fellowlodger scribbled, asked him to write some verses for one of his drawings. Th i rewUrd offered was five > shillings. In great glee, the coming Socialist and scoffer at sentiment consented, and produced some mock-heroic lines on the premature death of a child ■with golden, hair. It was an excellent skit on, say, Mrs Hemans at her worst. Tho Urtist read it, approved, Und paid the five shillings. He said it was real poetry; it had quite touched him, ©tc., Would Mr Shaw-do him a dozen like this for three pounds? Utterly scandalised that Uny sano man should have taken his verses seriously, and fearful lest his career should bo ruined by his becoming known as a minor poet, young Shaw sat down, determined that this time at least ho would write something worth reading. The first picture he had to writ© for represented a knight leaving his castle for the wars. Here whs a splendid subject I Shaw felt quit© an affection for that lusty warrior. He asked him, in solicitous terms, if h© felt very frightened, and wouldn't ho give Selina another kiss before starting? The artist was furious. Not only was ' the five shillings refused, but Shaw wUs told “to keep his bloomin' doggerel to himself/' Th© would-be poet grinned, and told himself that two-careers—that of musical critic and that of poet laureate—--w-ere for ever closed to him. SEEKING A PUBLISHER.

History began to interest him, and so did music. He pored over the scores of Wagner in the British Museum, and before he vAis thirty knew them almost by heart. But study did not occupy

him all the time; he began to write novels. In 1870 ho his first work in fiction. “Perpetrate" is Mr Shaw's own word. Fortunately for Mr Shaw this work was never published. Between 1879 and 1883 Mr Shaw wrote five novels: “Immaturity," “The InUticnal Knot." “Love Among Tho Artists." “CVishel Byron’s Profession," and “An Unsocial Socialist." Speaking of these, Mr Shaw says: “I recall these five remote products of my nonage as five heavy brown-paper parcels which were always coming back to me from some publisher, and raising th© very serious financial question of the sixpence to bo paid to Messrs Carter, Paterson, and Co., the carriers, for pacing them on to the next publisher." In 1884 and tho following year, however, they were published, in inverse order of composition, in two Socialist magazines, one of which was edited by Mrs Annie Besant. They succeeded in attracting the attention of William Morris, William Archer. W, E. Henley, and R. L. Stevenson. And yet no publisher would look at them! But, at last, success did come, and Mr Shaw was enabled to use his always increasing fortune for the furtherance of his gospel of Socialism,—Gerald Cumberland in “T.P.'s Weekly/*