SOURCE: "The Character of the Vita Nuova," in Essays on the "Vita Nuova," 1929. Reprinted by Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1965, pp. 163-228.

In this essay, Shaw, repudiating the generally accepted view that the Vita Nuova is an allegory, proposes an interpretation based on a literal reading of the historical events recounted in the narrative.

That a boy of nine should fall ecstatically in love will always seem impossible to those who cannot imagine it, and with them argument is superfluous, nor will they be persuaded even by the citation of historically authentic examples. Those, however, whose imagination presents the matter as not impossible may be asked to consider that a love of the particular kind in question is more likely to have its beginnings before the age of fourteen than after. A little boy who, like Dante, may have passed his first years without any intimate acquaintance with girls, and...