±«Óătv

I've been asked today about the term 'Shavian', and why this curious adjective is used to describe Shaw-like char- acteri- stics (or, in its noun form, admirers of Shaw). The term is a of 'Shaw' (from Shavius), and is pronounced 'Shave Ian'. But that merely explains its origins. Why prefer this term to the more obvious 'Shawian'? Indeed, given Shaw's disparagement of the Roman-English alphabet and its logical and phonetic inconsistencies, wouldn't Shawian be more Shavian?

In any case, and continuing the Latin theme, I can't resist reproducing one of my favourite portraits of Shaw -- Augustus John's , which is titled 'When ±«Óătvr Nods: Portrait of George Bernard Shaw, 1915'.

The literary reference here is, of course, to the Latin poet Horace (65-8 B.C.), who famously wrote: “Sometimes even the noble ±«Óătvr nods” (Ars Poetica I.359), meaning that even the author of the Illiad and the Odyssey was capable of a literary or factual slip here and there. Legend has it that ±«Óătvr was blind, and critics are quick to point out how often Shaw was capable of a slip himself: he lauded regime, and made comments about policies that are extremely naive if not downright anti-semitic. Fair enough, but Shaw's greatest biographer, , is just as quick to point out that even these typically provocative interventions by Shaw need to be read with an eye to irony and context.