Androcles and the Lion "Youth is wasted on the young" eBook George Bernard Shaw
Download As PDF : Androcles and the Lion "Youth is wasted on the young" eBook George Bernard Shaw 
George Bernard Shaw was born on July 26th, 1856 in Synge Street, Dublin. His career began modestly initially working for some years in an Estate office but a thirst for reading and knowledge moved his career to writing several novels, none of which were published for several years. He wrote as a critic for several years, mainly on the theatre where his campaigning helped moved Victorian theatre towards a more realistic form. Shaw also took up his fervent socialist views at this point, a cause he would be indelibly linked with throughout his long and productive life. An initial foray into writing a play in 1885 only came to fruition in 1892 and with it his path as one of the leading playwrights of the 20th century was set. Shaw was also a fervent Fabian and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Saint Joan in 1923 gained Shaw yet another international success. This led in 1925 to his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his contributions to literature. The citation praised his work as "... marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty". In 1938 he added an Academy Award for his work on Pygmalion. Shaw remains the only person ever to win a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. He refused all other awards, even a knighthood. George Bernard Shaw died on November 2nd, 1950 at the age of 94, of renal failure precipitated by injuries incurred by a fall whilst pruning a tree.
Androcles and the Lion "Youth is wasted on the young" eBook George Bernard Shaw
Although staging issues make the play among George Bernard Shaw’s less frequently performed works, the 1912 ANDROCLES AND THE LION is among the author’s best known titles. Short by Shavian standards, it is an odd little play that mixes genteel comedy, broad farce, and sharp satire to make a series of comments about religious belief.The play is written in a prologue and two acts. In the prologue, Greek tailor Androcles and his shrewish wife are fleeing religious persecution when they encounter a lion. His wife runs screaming away, but Androcles, who has a way with animals, discovers the lion is troubled by a thorn stuck in its paw. He sweet talks the lion, pulls out the thorn, and the two are on friendly terms.
When the play proper begins, Roman soldiers bring Christian prisoners to the Coliseum, where some will be forced into combat with gladiators and others will be thrown to the lions. The Christians include Lavinia, an upper class woman of considerable beauty who clings to her faith even as it deserts her; Ferrovius, a warrior who declines, with uneven results, to use his strength and skill now that he has converted; and Spintho, a dissolute man who hopes to die a martyr’s death in atonement for his sins, but who finds himself terrified of death—and, of course, Androcles, who is as mild now as he was before.
Lavinia has acquired a suitor in the form of The Captain of the Guards, and he begs her to recant Christianity. All she needs to do is burn a pinch of incense on the altar. She refuses, and the reasons both she and the others give become the focus of the play. When they reach the Coliseum, each must make a final decision: to recant and live, or to remain steadfast and die. Nothing, of course, turns out as anyone expects.
The play is funny almost in the same way that a Monty Python sketch is funny. The Christians are serious in their rationales, but the authorities are comic in theirs, and the last few minutes of the play (which finds the Emperor inadvertently confronting the lion, are broad farce. The upshot is an ending in which the Emperor and his minions seem more like a hypocritical Christian church hierarchy and the Christians seem more akin to free-thinkers whose decisions change in unexpected ways. It is a quick read, very witty, and it easy to see why it has been popular on the page for more than a hundred years.
ANDROCLES AND THE LION is often published with a preface and a sort of epilog in which Shaw posits his own opinions of religion in general and Christianity in particular. (The prologue is actually longer than the play itself.) I find it difficult to include ANDROCLES AND THE LION in the same list with such Shaw masterpieces as PYGMALION, CANDIDA, ARMS AND THE MAN, etc.—but if you’re into Shaw, it’s definitely worth reading.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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Androcles and the Lion "Youth is wasted on the young" eBook George Bernard Shaw Reviews
Although staging issues make the play among George Bernard Shaw’s less frequently performed works, the 1912 ANDROCLES AND THE LION is among the author’s best known titles. Short by Shavian standards, it is an odd little play that mixes genteel comedy, broad farce, and sharp satire to make a series of comments about religious belief.
The play is written in a prologue and two acts. In the prologue, Greek tailor Androcles and his shrewish wife are fleeing religious persecution when they encounter a lion. His wife runs screaming away, but Androcles, who has a way with animals, discovers the lion is troubled by a thorn stuck in its paw. He sweet talks the lion, pulls out the thorn, and the two are on friendly terms.
When the play proper begins, Roman soldiers bring Christian prisoners to the Coliseum, where some will be forced into combat with gladiators and others will be thrown to the lions. The Christians include Lavinia, an upper class woman of considerable beauty who clings to her faith even as it deserts her; Ferrovius, a warrior who declines, with uneven results, to use his strength and skill now that he has converted; and Spintho, a dissolute man who hopes to die a martyr’s death in atonement for his sins, but who finds himself terrified of death—and, of course, Androcles, who is as mild now as he was before.
Lavinia has acquired a suitor in the form of The Captain of the Guards, and he begs her to recant Christianity. All she needs to do is burn a pinch of incense on the altar. She refuses, and the reasons both she and the others give become the focus of the play. When they reach the Coliseum, each must make a final decision to recant and live, or to remain steadfast and die. Nothing, of course, turns out as anyone expects.
The play is funny almost in the same way that a Monty Python sketch is funny. The Christians are serious in their rationales, but the authorities are comic in theirs, and the last few minutes of the play (which finds the Emperor inadvertently confronting the lion, are broad farce. The upshot is an ending in which the Emperor and his minions seem more like a hypocritical Christian church hierarchy and the Christians seem more akin to free-thinkers whose decisions change in unexpected ways. It is a quick read, very witty, and it easy to see why it has been popular on the page for more than a hundred years.
ANDROCLES AND THE LION is often published with a preface and a sort of epilog in which Shaw posits his own opinions of religion in general and Christianity in particular. (The prologue is actually longer than the play itself.) I find it difficult to include ANDROCLES AND THE LION in the same list with such Shaw masterpieces as PYGMALION, CANDIDA, ARMS AND THE MAN, etc.—but if you’re into Shaw, it’s definitely worth reading.
GFT, Reviewer
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