[Risirag. ] Hallo, Viv!
8. Cf. Ecclesiastes 2.13: 'Then I saw that wisdom and unenlightened middle classes; in his view their excelleth folly.' opposition to the defenders of culture makes them 9. A railway station in the City of London. akin to the biblical tribe that fought against the 1. Matthew Arnold's term for a member of the dull people of Israel, 'the people of light.'
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MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION, ACT 1 / 1783
VIVIE [To PRAED, with deep reproach.] Can you find no better example of your beauty and romance than Brussels to talk to me about? PRAED [Puzzled. ] Of course it's very different from Verona. I dont suggest for a moment that? VIVIE [Bitterly.] Probably the beauty and romance come to much the same in both places. PRAED [Completely sobered and much concerned.] My dear Miss Warren: I ? [Looking inquiringly at FRANK.] Is anything the matter? FRANK She thinks your enthusiasm frivolous, Praddy. She's had ever such a
serious call. VIVIE [Sharply.] Hold your tongue, Frank. Dont be silly. FRANK [Sitting down.] Do you call this good manners, Praed? PRAED [Anxious and considerate.] Shall I take him away, Miss Warren? I feel
sure we have disturbed you at your work.
VTVIE Sit down: I'm not ready to go back to work yet. [PRAED sits.] You both think I have an attack of nerves. Not a bit of it. But there are two subjects I want dropped, if you dont mind. One of them [To FRANK.] is love's young dream in any shape or form: the other [To PRAED.] is the romance and beauty of life, especially Ostend and the gaiety of Brussels. You are welcome to any illusions you may have left on these subjects: I have none. If we three are to remain friends, I must be treated as a woman of business, permanently single [To FRANK.] and permanently unromantic.[To PRAED.]
FRANK I also shall remain permanently single until you change your mind. Praddy: change the subject. Be eloquent about something else.
PRAED [Diffidently.] I'm afraid theres nothing else in the world that I can talk about. The Gospel of Art is the only one I can preach. I know Miss Warren is a great devotee of the Gospel of Getting On; but we cant discuss that without hurting your feelings, Frank, since you are determined not to get on.
FRANK Oh, dont mind my feelings. Give me some improving advice by all means: it does me ever so much good. Have another try to make a successful man of me, Viv. Come; lets have it all: energy, thrift, foresight, self- respect, character. Dont you hate people who have no character, Viv?
VIVIE [Wincing.] Oh, stop, stop: let us have no more of that horrible cant. Mr Praed: if there are really only those two gospels in the world, we had better all kill ourselves; for the same taint is in both, through and through.
FRANK [Looking critically at her.] There is a touch of poetry about you today,
Viv, which has hitherto been lacking. PRAED [Remonstrating.] My dear Frank: arnt you a little unsympathetic? VTVIE [Merciless to herself] No: it's good for me. It keeps me from being
sentimental. FRANK [Bantering her. ] Checks your strong natural propensity that way, dont it?
VIVIE [Almost hysterically.] Oh yes; go on: dont spare me. I was sentimental for one moment in my life?beautifully sentimental?by moonlight; and now?
FRANK [Quickly.] I say, Viv: take care. Dont give yourself away.
VTVIE Oh, do you think Mr Praed does not know all about my mother? [Turning on PRAED.] You had better have told me that morning, Mr Praed. You are very old fashioned in your delicacies, after all.
PRAED Surely it is you who are a little old fashioned in your prejudices, Miss
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1 178 4 / BERNARD SHAW
Warren, I feel bound to tell you, speaking as an artist, and believing that the most intimate human relationships are far beyond and above the scope of the law, that though I know that your mother is an unmarried woman, I do not respect her the less on that account. I respect her more.
FRANK [Airily.] Hear! Hear!
VTVIE [Staring at him.] Is that all you know?
PRAED Certainly that is all.
VIVIE Then you neither of you know anything. Your guesses are innocence
itself compared to the truth. PRAED [Rising, startled and indignant, and preserving his politeness with an
effort.] I hope not. [More emphatically.] I hope not, Miss Warren.
FRANK [Whistles.] Whew!
vrviE You are not making it easy for me to tell you, Mr Praed.
PRAED [His chivalry drooping before their conviction.] If there is anything worse?that is, anything else?are you sure you are right to tell us, Miss Warren?
VIVIE I am sure that if I had the courage I should spend the rest of my life in telling everybody?stamping and branding it into them until they all felt their part in its abomination as I feel mine. There is nothing I despise more than the wicked convention that protects these things by forbidding a woman to mention them. And yet I cant tell you. The two infamous words that describe what my mother is are ringing in my ears and struggling on my tongue; but I cant utter them: the shame of them is too horrible for me. [She buries her face in her hands. The two men, astonished, stare at one another and then at her. She raises her head again desperately and snatches a sheet of paper and a pen.] Here: let me draft you a prospectus. FRANK Oh, she's mad. Do you hear, Viv? mad. Come! pull yourself together.
vrviE You shall see. [She writes.] 'Paid up capital: not less than .40,000 standing in the name of Sir George
