IN THE RING: SHAKES VERSUS SHAW

Abstract

The paper is, to some extent, an apology of George Bernard Shaw as a critical dispraiser of the universal validity of Shakespeare. The close reading of G. B. S’s three selected plays which are engaged in an intertextual play with Shakespeare’s dramatic poetry (The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, The Admirable Bashville, Shakes Versus Shav) enables us to specifically identify those elements of Shakespeare’s discourse whose values Shaw disapproved of, as well as those merits which Shaw acknowledged. It is concluded that Shaw’s critique of Shakespeare is a part of his dramatic thesis according to which one should not use the past as a refuge from the present. The majority of Shaw’s critical writings on Shakespeare indicted not Shakespeare himself, but the critics and writers who developed an abusive historical sense by imposing “bardolatry” on everything that is present. Bardolatry hinders both the development of new values and the possibility to use history for life. To the contrary, Shakespeare’s texts, which are documents of an age quite different from Shaw’s and the modern age, exhibit a useful historical sense which should be used pro-life.