SOURCE: Gregory, Lady Augusta. “The Fight With the Castle.” In Our Irish Theatre: A Chapter of Autobiography, pp. 140-68. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1913.

In the following essay, Lady Gregory describes the contributions that playwright George Bernard Shaw made to the Abbey Theatre, along with the resulting battle over censorship.

In the summer of 1909 I went one day from London to Ayot St. Lawrence, a Hertfordshire village, to consult Mr. Bernard Shaw on some matters connected with our Theatre. When I was leaving, he gave me a little book, The Shewing up of Blanco Posnet, which had just been printed, although not published. It had, however, been already rejected by the Censor, as all readers of the newspapers know; and from that quiet cottage the fiery challenge-giving answers had been sent out. I read the play as I went back in the train, and when at St...