The Admirable Bashville

Bernard Shaw's The Admirable Bashville is a brisk, witty three-act adaptation of Cashel Byron's Profession, written in sparkling blank verse and driven by theatrical irony, romance, and social satire. At its center stands Bashville, a loyal footman whose comic dignity and wounded pride make him far more than a servant, while Shaw's playful preface turns the play into a sharp argument about copyright, artistic ownership, and the absurdities of theatrical law. The story opens in a secluded glade at Wiltstoken Park, where the lonely, highly educated Lydia Carew longs for a more natural life and is abruptly captivated by Cashel Byron, a prizefighter from the working class. Their attraction immediately collides with questions of class, instinct, and desire, and Cashel's public career soon becomes a source of scandal and fascination. Newspaper reports of his boxing matches, read aloud in Lydia's London house, intensify the tension as Lucian—her comic, self-important cousin—reacts with fear and disdain. When Cashel appears, wounded in spirit as well as body, he confesses the shame of his hidden life and defends labor, talent, and masculine honor against respectable hypocrisy. As love, money, and status come into conflict, Bashville's own silent devotion darkens into bitterness. The play builds to a riotous public exhibition before the Zulu king Cetewayo, where boxing, imperial spectacle, and social pretension explode into chaos—until Cashel's courage wins Lydia's rapturous love amid the uproar. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.