“But observe the final irony of the situation. The English Censorship being too stupid to see the real blasphemy, makes a fool of itself. But you, being clever enough to put your finger on it at once, immediately proceed to delete what Redford’s blunders spared.
“To me, of course, the whole purpose of the play lies in the problem, ‘What about the croup?’ When Lady ——, in her most superior manner, told me, ‘He is the God of Love,’ I said, ‘He is also the God of Cancer and Epilepsy.’ That does not present any difficulty to me. All this problem of the origin of evil, the mystery of pain, and so forth, does not puzzle me. My doctrine is that God proceeds by the method of ‘Trial and error,’ just like a workman perfecting an aeroplane; he has to make hands for himself and brains for himself in order that his will may be done. He has tried lots of machines—the diphtheria bacillus, the tiger, the cockroach; and he cannot extirpate them, except by making something that can shoot them, or walk on them, or, cleverer still, devise vaccines and anti-toxins to prey on them. To me the sole hope of human salvation lies in teaching Man to regard himself as an experiment in the realisation of God, to regard his hands as God’s hands, his brain as God’s brain, his purpose as God’s purpose. He must regard God as a helpless longing, which longed him into existence by its desperate need for an executive organ. You will find it all in Man and Super Man, as you will find it all behind Blanco Posnet. Take it out of my play, and the play becomes nothing but the old cry of despair—Shakespeare’s, ‘As flies to wanton boys, so we are to the Gods; they kill us for their sport’—the most frightful blasphemy ever uttered.” Mr. Shaw enclosed with this the passage rewritten, as it now appears in the published play.
We put on Blanco on the date announced, the 25th of August. We were anxious to the last, for counsel were of the opinion that if we were stopped, it would be on the Clause in the Patent against “Any representation which should be deemed or construed immoral,” and that if Archbishop Walsh or Archbishop Peacocke or especially the Head of the Lord Lieutenant’s own Church, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Assembly, should say anything which might be “deemed and construed” to condemn the play, the threats made would be carried out. There were fears of a riot also, for newspapers and their posters had kept up the excitement, and there was an immense audience. It is a pity we had not thought in time of putting up our prices. Guineas were offered even for standing room in the wings.
The play began, and till near the end it was received in perfect silence. Perhaps the audience were waiting for the wicked bits to begin. Then, at the end, there was a tremendous burst of cheering, and we knew we had won. Some stranger outside asked what was going on in the Theatre. “They are defying the Lord Lieutenant” was the answer; and when the crowd heard the cheering, they took it up and it went far out through the streets.
There were no protests made on any side. And the play, though still forbidden in England, is still played by us, and always with success. And even if the protests hoped for had been made and we had suffered, does not Nietzsche say “A good battle justifies every cause”?
CHAPTER VII
“THE PLAYBOY” IN AMERICA
On September 7, 1911, I received a letter from Mr. Yeats: “I am trying possible substitutes for Miss O’Neill and some will not do. As a last resource I have told Miss Magee to understudy the part of ‘Pegeen Mike.’ She was entirely natural and delightful in that small part in The Mineral Workers the day before yesterday. I said to some one that she had the sweet of the apple, and would be a Pegeen Mike if she could get the sour of the apple too. Now the serious difficulty of the moment is that there is nobody in the theatre capable of teaching a folk part to an inexperienced person. If there was, I would at once put Miss Magee into Pegeen Mike; by the time she had played it through the States she could come back Miss O’Neill’s successor. Now I am going to ask you if you feel well enough for a desperate measure. Can you, if it seem necessary to-morrow, take my place in the steamboat on Tuesday evening? Allowing eight days for the passage—for the boat is slow—you would arrive in Boston on the 20th. The Playboy cannot come till about the 28th; you would be able to train Miss Magee for the part, or, of course, another if you prefer her.... I can wire to-morrow and get the necessary papers made out (you have to swear you are not an Anarchist). If they want me I can follow next boat and possibly arrive before you. I will go steerage if necessary; that will be quite an amusing adventure, and I shall escape all interviewers. One thing I am entirely sure of, that there is no one but you with enough knowledge of folk to work a miracle.”
I could not set out on the same day as the Company. I was needed at home. But I promised to follow in the Cymric, sailing from Queenstown a week later.
I think from the very first day Mr. Yeats and I had talked at Duras of an Irish Theatre, and certainly ever since there had been a company of Irish players, we had hoped and perhaps determined to go to An t-Oilean ur “the New Island,” the greater Ireland beyond the Atlantic. But though, as some Connacht girls said to me at Buffalo, “Since ever we were the height of the table, America it was always our dream,” and though we had planned that if for any cause our Theatre should seem to be nearing its end we would take our reserve fund and spend it mainly on that voyage and that venture, we did not ourselves make the opportunity at the last. After we had played in the summer of 1911 at the Court Theatre, as ever for a longer period and to a larger audience, we were made an offer by the theatrical managers, Liebler & Co., to play for three or four months in the United States, and the offer had been accepted. They had mentioned certain plays as essential, among them The Playboy of the Western World. Miss O’Neill, who had played its heroine, had married and left us; that is how the difficulty had arisen.