The Quintessence of Ibsenism: Now Completed to the Death of Ibsen, 1913

Abstract

Templeton’s close reading of the second edition of the Quintessence demonstrates that on the whole, Shaw’s revisions create a less iconoclastic, more humanist Ibsen whose plays constitute a contemporary guide to the Scripture, a kind of modernist Bible. Templeton appraises Shaw’s three new chapters, beginning with “The Last Four Plays,” which she presents as Shaw’s celebratory analysis of the poetic and moral force of Ibsen at the end of his career. She argues that “What is the New Element in the Norwegian School?” is a neglected modernist manifesto and a tour de force of comparative analysis. She examines “The Technical Novelty in Ibsen’s Plays” as Shaw’s major contribution to dramatic theory. Finally, she elucidates Shaw’s postscript advocating an Ibsen theatre and his moving, post-war preface to the final edition of 1922.