バートランド・ラッセル「バーナード・ショー」 (松下彰良・訳) - George Bernard Shaw, 1953, by Bertrand Russell
私が初めてショーのことについて聞いたのは，1890年に，ケンブリッジ大学の新入生として（新入生の時），彼の『イプセン主義の精髄』を賞讃した（別の）新入生に会ったときのことであった（注：チャールズ・サンガーのことであり，『ラッセル自伝』でその時のことを記述している）。しかし，私は，1896年(注：ラッセル24歳)にショーがロンドンにおける国際社会主義者会議に参加するまで，彼に会ったことがなかった。私はドイツ社会民主主義を研究していたので，非常に多くのドイツ代表者を知っていた。彼らはショーを悪魔の化身と見なしていた。なぜなら、論争になるとショーはいつもその焔を煽り立てる快楽に抵抗できなかったからである。けれども，私は彼についての見方をウエッブ夫妻から引き出しており，英国社会主義をマルクス(主義)から引離して進めようと着手した彼（ショー）のフェビアン主義のエッセイを，私は賞賛した。当時,彼はまだ内気だった。実際，彼のウイットは，多くの有名なユーモア作家のそれと同様に，予期される敵側の嘲笑に対する防御（策）として展開されたものだと思う。この頃,彼はちょうど戯曲を書き始めたばかりであり，少数の友人の集まりでその戯曲の一つを音読するために，私の住んでいるフラット（集合住宅の一部）にやってきた。彼は青白く，神経質のため身震いし，後年のような恐るべき（手強い）人物ではまったくなかった。それからしばらくしてから，彼と私は，ウェッブ夫妻とともに，モンマウスシャ一（州）に滞在したが，その滞在期間中，彼は演劇に関する技術（脚本技術など？）について勉強していた。彼は劇に登場する人物の名前を全て小さな四角い紙きれにいつも書いていた。そうして，劇のある場面（シーン）を描くときには（when he was doing a scene），彼はそのシーンに登場する人物の名前を彼の前にあるチェス盤の上にいつも並べていた。 |
BERNARD SHAW'S long life could be divided into three phases. In the first, which lasted till he was about forty, he was known to a fairly wide circle as a musical critic, and to a much more restricted circle as a Fabian controversialist, an admirable novelist, and a dangerously witty enemy of humbug. Then came his second phase, as a writer of comedies. At first he could not get his plays performed, because they were not exactly like those of Pinero, but at last even theatrical managers realized that they were amusing, and he achieved a very well-deserved success. He had, I believe, cherished throughout his earlier life the hope that, when he had acquired an audience as a joker, he would be able effectively to deliver his serious message. Accordingly, in his third and last phase, he appeared as a prophet demanding equal admiration for St. Joan of Orleans and St. Joseph of Moscow. I knew him in all three phases, and in his first two I thought him both delightful and useful. In his third phase, however, I found that my admiration had limits. I heard of him first in 1890, when I, as a freshman, met another freshman who admired his Quintessence of Ibsenism, but I did not meet him until 1896 when he took part in an International Socialist Congress in London. I knew a great many of the German delegates, as I had been studying German Social Democracy. They regarded Shaw as an incarnation of Satan, because he could not resist the pleasure of fanning the flames whenever there was a dispute. I, however, derived my view of him from the Webbs, and admired his Fabian essay in which he set to work to lead British Socialism away from Marx. He was at this time still shy. Indeed, I think that his wit, like that of many famous humorists, was developed as a defense against expected hostile ridicule. At this time he was just beginning to write plays, and he came to my flat to read one of them to a small gathering of friends. He was white and trembling with nervousness, and not at all the formidable figure that he became later. Shortly afterward, he and I stayed with the Webbs in Monmouthshire while he was learning the technique of the drama. He would write the names of all his characters on little squares of paper, and, when he was doing a scene, he would put on a chess board in front of him the names of the characters who were on the stage in that scene. |
