It is
brilliantly clever, with a close, detective cleverness, all made up of
merciless logic and unanswerable common sense. The principal characters
are well drawn, the scenes are constructed with a great deal of
theatrical skill, the dialogue is telling, the interest is held
throughout. To say that the characters, without exception, are ugly in
their vice and ugly in their virtue; that they all have, men and women,
something of the cad in them; that their language is the language of
vulgar persons, is, perhaps, only to say that Mr. Shaw has chosen, for
artistic reasons, to represent such people just as they are. But there
is something more to be said. "Mrs. Warren's Profession" is not a
representation of life; it is a discussion about life. Now, discussion
on the stage may be interesting. Why not? Discussion is the most
interesting thing in the world, off the stage; it is the only thing that
makes an hour pass vividly in society; but when discussion ends art has
not begun. It is interesting to see a sculptor handling bits of clay,
sticking them on here, scraping them off there; but that is only the
interest of a process. When he has finished I will consider whether his
figure is well or ill done; until he has finished I can have no opinion
about it.
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