Details
SHAW, George Bernard (1856-1950). Autograph statement on drama critics, in reply to a printed questionnaire from the Old Playgoers Club, to which Shaw has penned brief answers and appended a long statement, [N.p. n.d.], 2 pages, 4to, statement penned on verso of the typed form. Provenance: Property from the Spiro Family.
A typically Shavian broadside against drama critics. In response to a questionnaire, Shaw retorts that the questions are 'not to the point. You might as well ask me whether Mr Rudyard Kipling's stories are of any use to the Indian Government, the Army, or the Zoological gardens. A dramatic criticism is a work of literary art, useful only to the people who enjoy reading dramatic criticisms, and generally more or less hurtful to everybody else concerned. A criticism may be incidentally useful by acting as an advertisement, just as an epidemic may be incidentally useful by promoting sanitation; but that is not its purpose and cannot be its justificiation'.
A typically Shavian broadside against drama critics. In response to a questionnaire, Shaw retorts that the questions are 'not to the point. You might as well ask me whether Mr Rudyard Kipling's stories are of any use to the Indian Government, the Army, or the Zoological gardens. A dramatic criticism is a work of literary art, useful only to the people who enjoy reading dramatic criticisms, and generally more or less hurtful to everybody else concerned. A criticism may be incidentally useful by acting as an advertisement, just as an epidemic may be incidentally useful by promoting sanitation; but that is not its purpose and cannot be its justificiation'.
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