In 1905, a hostile group of reporters confronted him to say that his new play was “a superabundance of foulness.”

Shaw tried to explain that his characters, “behave like human beings, instead of conforming to the romantic logic of the stage,” but the reporters were determined to brand him as deviant and immoral.

Shaw responded, “Here I must for the present break off my arduous work of educating the Press. We shall resume our studies later on; but just now I am tired of playing the preceptor; and the eager thirst of my pupils for improvement does not console me for the slowness of their progress.”