THE COURAGE OF A LION TAMER

One of our friends wanted to know the source of the following Shaw quotation: 

"I have never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from other men."

Well, although I think this quotation may be attested in other sources, Archibald Henderson's George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works (A Critical Biography) is the oldest written record I could find (1911). On page 204 we can read the above excerpt and some more contextual material, also relevant to the quotation: 

"for man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid. I have never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from other men. There is not much harm in a lion. He has no ideals, no religion, no politics, no chivalry, no gentility; in short, no reason for destroying anything that he does not want to eat."