Bernard Shaw's Preface to Androcles and the Lion

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George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin in 1856. Before becoming a playwright he wrote music and literary criticism. Shaw used his writing to attack social problems such as education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege. Shaw was particularly conscious of the exploitation of the working class. The Prefaces written by Shaw tend to be more about Shaw's opinions on the issues addressed by the play than about the plays themselves. Often his prefaces are longer than the plays they introduce. When the Romans intend to throw Androcles and the other Christians to the lions, it turns out that the lion who is supposed to eat the Christians is a personal friend of Androcles. An excerpt from the preface reads I must still insist that if Jesus could have worked out the practical problems of a Communist constitution, an admitted obligation to deal with crime without revenge or punishment, and a full assumption by humanity of divine responsibilities, he would have conferred an incalculable benefit on mankind, because these distinctive demands of his are now turning out to be good sense and sound economics.