Just over 80 years ago, on March 7, 1931, the Irish playwright, author, critic and wit George Bernard Shaw visited Malta’s National Library shortly after his ship, the passenger liner Theophile Gautier, arrived in Grand Harbour.
It was because of his wife that Shaw joined the cruise, as the cold weather in England had tried her severely. He looked very fit and well despite his 70 years (he was to die on November 2, 1950, aged 94).
Born in Dublin in 1856, he was a prominent member of the Fabian Society and was well known for his intensely individual views on life in general. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.
There is a strong connection between Shaw and Malta’s turbulent political situation at the time.
His association with the Fabian Society meant his books and other works were not easily available at Malta’s National Library because of his Socialist views. In fact, they were kept under lock and key and given to researchers only by special permission from the librarian.
They were not available on the shelves, and it is rumoured that when Shaw asked to see all his books they were rushed to him from the librarian’s office.
Two years after Shaw’s visit, the Home Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici (Il-Gross), moved an Anti-Sedition Law in Parliament, which was approved, and on May 18, 1933, sent police to the residences of prominent Labour Party supporters to look in all rooms for any seditious literature.
Six Labour diehards were arraigned in court. They were Karmenu Carabott, Wiġi Azzopardi, Johnny Valvo, Salvu Pulis, Ġużè Orlando and Joseph Storace. Their trial lasted 35 sittings.
Books by Shaw and fellow Fabians Lord and Lady Passfield (Sidney and Beatrice Webb) were considered seditious because of their Socialist views.
All six Labour Party supporters who were found in possession of this literature were imprisoned and fined. Three of them lost their employment at the Naval Dockyard.
They were eventually pardoned, but only six years later, in 1939. Azzopardi , one of the six, started publishing Il-Quddiem (Forward), which was just a political pamphlet, and together with other Labour activists organised meetings on Sundays.
Nestu Laiviera and Salvu Cacciattolo, two other prominent Labour activists of the time published Il-Ħelsien (Freedom).
The Sedition Law of 1933 did not destroy the Malta Labour Party as the Nationalist government of Sir Ugo Mifsud had hoped.
It was, ironically, the government which came to a premature end a few months later, when it was dismissed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies on November 2, 1933. The Constitution was suspended and later withdrawn.
Shaw’s fame rests chiefly on his plays, which have been performed worldwide. His Pygmalion was adapted for the musical theatre by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe and later for the screen as My Fair Lady (1964), starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison, winning eight Oscars; the film was directed by George Cukor.
Another of his plays, Mrs Warren’s Profession (which MADC is presenting at the Manoel Theatre in Valletta from April 8 to10 and 15 to17), was banned for years by the censors, presumably because it dealt with prostitution. Other well-known Shaw plays are Saint Joan, Man and Superman, Back to Methuselah and The Apple Cart.
During his visit to the National Library Shaw, who was accompanied by Mrs Shaw, showed a lively interest in the Maltese press. “How many newspapers have you in Malta?” he inquired. The question was unexpected.
One newspaper representative hazarded 16 daily and weekly publications as a likely figure, but explained that many of them were of a “here today and gone tomorrow” variety, which might at times bring the total up to 20.
It was not by chance that Shaw had expressed a wish to inspect the library.
He stayed there for nearly an hour, deeply absorbed in all he saw, and left, to quote his own words “out of breath among so many treasures”.
He took the utmost interest in everything he saw, and was particularly interested in the library’s beautiful collection of Flemish, French and Italian illuminated manuscripts of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, especially in the superb manuscript containing the life of St Anthony the Hermit, which is considered one of the finest existing illuminated manuscripts of the early 15th century French school of illumination.
Shaw also showed great interest in the collection of incunabula (rare books printed before 1500) and in the splendid and very rich collection of artistic bindings, now rarely found, and of which the library has a remarkable collection, one old Bible, quarto size, being a unique specimen.
Finally, Shaw greatly admired the extensive collection of records of the Knights of St John, including the famous Charters or Diplomas of Henry VIII and of Philip and Mary of England, also the original letters of sovereigns to the Grand Masters, including several written by Henry VIII, George II and Catherine of Russia.
The book Assertio Septem Sacramentorum contra M. Lutheram (In Defence of the Seven Sacraments) for which Henry VIII was given the title of Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith) by Pope Leo X, captured the great writer’s attention.
Before leaving the National Library Shaw signed the librarian’s autograph book and assured him he would like to return to Malta and spend every day of a whole month in the Bibliotheca.
Before inspecting the library Shaw visited the Palace, and on leaving Malta’s treasure house of rare books, made his way to the archives.