Pygmalion is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1912, named after the Greek mythological figure. It was first presented onstage in German translation, premiering at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October 1913. Its English-language premiere took place at His Majesty's Theatre in the West End of London in April 1914 and starred Herbert Beerbohm Tree as a phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, and Mrs Patrick Campbell as a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle.
Pygmalion became Shaw's most popular play, enduring in popular culture as the heavily adapted and romanticized My Fair Lady (1956 musical and 1964 film).
Inspiration
In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which then came to life. The general idea of that myth was a popular subject for Victorian era British playwrights, including one of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based on the story called Pygmalion and Galatea that was first presented in 1871. Shaw would also have been familiar with the musical Adonis and the burlesque version, Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed.
Eliza Doolittle was inspired by Kitty Wilson, owner of a flower stall at Norfolk Street, Strand, in London. Wilson continued selling flowers at the stall until September 1958. Her daughter, Betty Benton, then took over, but was forced to close down a month later when the local authority decreed that the corner was no longer "designated" for street trading."Drury Lane: Eliza Moves Away", Newsweek, Oct. 13, 1958
Shaw mentioned that the character of Professor Henry Higgins was inspired by several British professors of phonetics: Alexander Melville Bell, Alexander J. Ellis, Tito Pagliardini, but above all the cantankerous Henry Sweet.George Bernard Shaw, Androcles and the Lion: Overruled : Pygmalion (New York City: Brentano's, 1918), page 109. (Note: Alexander M. Bell's first wife was named Eliza.)
The English journalist George Orwell asserted in 1944 that: "The central plot of Shaw's play, Pygmalion, is lifted out of [Tobias Smollett's novel] Peregrine Pickle, and I believe that no one has ever pointed this out in print, which suggests that few people can have read the book." He apparently was referring to chapter 87, which reads:
First productions
Shaw wrote the play in early 1912 and read it to the actress Mrs Patrick Campbell in June. She came on board almost immediately, but her mild nervous breakdown contributed to the delay of a London production. Pygmalion premièred at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October 1913, in a German translation by Shaw's Viennese literary agent and acolyte, Siegfried Trebitsch.Shaw, Bernard, edited by Samuel A. Weiss (1986). Bernard Shaw's Letters to Siegfried Trebitsch. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. , p.164.
Its first New York production opened on 24 March 1914 at the German-language Irving Place Theatre starring Hansi Arnstaedt as Eliza."Herr G.B. Shaw at the Irving Place." The New York Times 25 March 1914. In late 1914 Mrs Campbell took the London company to tour the United States, opening in New York at the Belasco Theatre. It opened in London on 11 April 1914, at Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's His Majesty's Theatre, with Campbell as Eliza and Tree as Higgins, and ran for 118 performances. Shaw directed the actors through tempestuous rehearsals, often punctuated by at least one of the two storming out of the theatre in a rage.Dent, Alan (1961). Mrs. Patrick Campbell. London: Museum Press Limited.
The cast for the West End production was: Henry Higgins – Herbert Tree Colonel Pickering – Philip Merivale Freddy Eynsford-Hill – Algernon Greig Alfred Doolittle – Edmund Gurney A Bystander – Roy Byford Another One – Alexander Sarner Eliza Doolittle – Mrs Patrick Campbell Mrs Eynsford-Hill – Carlotta Addison Miss Eynsford-Hill – Margaret Busse Mrs Higgins – Rosamond Mayne-Young Mrs Pearce – Geraldine Oliffe Parlourmaid – Irene Delisse Carlotta Addison died in June and was replaced as Mrs Eynsford-Hill by Alma Murray."Death of Carlotta Addison", The Era, 17 June 1914, p. 8; and "Chit-Chat", The Stage, 25 June 1914, p. 21
Plot Act One On a rainy summer evening at Covent Garden in London, various pedestrians seek shelter under the portico of St. Paul's Church. Among them are a mother and daughter in evening dress - Mrs Eynsford-Hill and Clara - waiting for Clara's brother Freddy to secure a taxicab. Freddy returns unsuccessful after an extensive search and is dispatched once more by the impatient women. In his haste, he collides with a young flower girl, scattering her violets. Mrs Eynsford-Hill provides the girl with sixpence in compensation.
An elderly gentleman in evening attire then takes shelter. The flower girl attempts to sell him a bloom. A bystander draws attention to a man who has been recording the conversation in a notebook. The flower girl, fearing the note-taker to be a police informant who might compromise her respectability, becomes agitated. The note-taker calms the gathering and proceeds to identify the geographic origins of several individuals solely from their speech patterns, correctly placing the flower girl in Lisson Grove and the elderly gentleman in a sequence of locations including Cheltenham, Harrow, Cambridge, and India.
As the rain ceases, Mrs Eynsford-Hill and Clara depart on foot. The note-taker and the elderly gentleman introduce themselves: the former is Henry Higgins, a specialist in phonetics and author of a universal alphabet; the latter is Colonel Pickering, a student of Indian dialects who has travelled expressly to meet Higgins. The two men arrange to continue their acquaintance. Higgins asserts that, through phonetic training, he could enable the flower girl to pass as a duchess within three months. Before leaving with Pickering, he deposits a quantity of coins in her basket.
Freddy reappears with a taxicab, only to discover that his mother and sister have already gone. The flower girl engages the vehicle and directs it first, for effect, toward Buckingham Palace before instructing the driver to convey her to her modest lodging in Angel Court, Drury Lane. Upon arrival, she counts her unexpected gains and retires to bed.
Act Two
The next morning, in Higgins's laboratory at his residence in Wimpole Street, Higgins and Pickering examine phonetic apparatus and discuss the science of speech. Mrs Pearce, the housekeeper, announces the arrival of a young woman, the flower girl they encountered the previous evening. Identifying herself as Eliza Doolittle, she requests instruction in refined speech so that she may secure employment in a flower shop rather than sell flowers on the street, offering one shilling per lesson. Higgins initially dismisses her as of no further phonetic interest, but Pickering proposes a wager: he will cover all expenses of the experiment if Higgins succeeds in training Eliza to pass as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party within six months. Intrigued by the challenge and by Eliza's pronounced Cockney dialect, Higgins accepts. He instructs Mrs Pearce to bathe and reclothe the girl at once, treating the undertaking as a scientific project.
Mrs Pearce expresses practical and moral reservations concerning Eliza's welfare, family circumstances, and future prospects once the experiment concludes. Higgins remains largely indifferent to these considerations, regarding Eliza primarily as material for linguistic study. After some resistance, Eliza is compelled to bathe and is provided with clean attire. During this interval, Pickering seeks assurance that Higgins will behave honorably toward their pupil; Higgins affirms that pupils are regarded as sacred. Mrs Pearce further admonishes Higgins regarding his habitual language and personal manners, which she deems unsuitable for the girl's presence.
Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father and a dustman, then arrives. He first appears to demand his daughter's return, but soon reveals that he seeks financial compensation for relinquishing her. He describes himself as one of the "undeserving poor" and argues that middle-class morality systematically disadvantages men of his sort. After a rhetorical exchange, Higgins presents him with five pounds, which Doolittle accepts with the declaration that the sum will be spent promptly rather than saved. Eliza reappears, thoroughly cleansed and dressed in a Japanese kimono. Her transformation astonishes both her father and the two gentlemen. After Doolittle departs, Eliza shows growing awareness of her altered appearance and circumstances, and Higgins and Pickering acknowledge the formidable task they have undertaken.
Act Three At the residence of Higgins's mother on Chelsea Embankment, Higgins arrives uninvited during her regular afternoon reception and informs her of his progress with Eliza. He has arranged for Eliza to attend the gathering as a preliminary test of her ability to pass in polite society, restricting her conversation to the weather and matters of health. The visitors are the Eynsford-Hills, followed by Pickering. Eliza is elegantly attired and speaks with precise and refined pronunciation. She conducts herself with outward composure and makes a favourable first impression. When the conversation turns to health, however, her recounting of an aunt's death, which contains references to possible foul play and alcoholism, reveals both her original social background and residual habits of speech. Her utterance of the phrase "not bloody likely" upon her departure causes marked consternation among the company; Clara subsequently adopts the expression as fashionable. After the guests depart, Mrs Higgins confronts her son and Pickering with the experiment's complications, particularly the question of Eliza's future once her linguistic training is complete. The two men remain absorbed in the technical success of their undertaking and dismiss her concerns.
Later, Eliza appears in full evening dress with Higgins and Pickering at a formal reception at a London embassy. A former pupil of Higgins named Nepommuck, acting as an interpreter, examines her speech and concludes that she is a Hungarian of royal blood, precisely because her English is too perfect to be that of a native; the hostess and other guests accept this assessment. Eliza thus succeeds in passing as a person of high rank, thereby fulfilling the terms of the wager between Higgins and Pickering.
Act Four One midnight in Higgins's laboratory, Higgins and Pickering return from a series of engagements that included a garden party, a dinner, and the opera. They are relieved that the wager has been won and that the lengthy effort is finished, regarding the social obligations as tedious and artificial. Eliza, still in full evening attire, remains silent and largely disregarded while the two men discuss the day's events and prepare to retire. Eliza retrieves Higgins's slippers and places them before him without comment. After Pickering withdraws, she loses her composure and hurls the slippers at Higgins. She accuses him of indifference to her fate now that the experiment has succeeded and demands to know what is to become of her. Higgins, surprised by her outburst, treats the matter lightly. He suggests that she might marry or that Pickering could establish her in a florist's shop, and he fails to recognize the depth of her distress. Eliza then inquires whether the clothes and accessories she wears belong to her or to Pickering, noting that her original garments were destroyed. She removes and returns the hired jewels and a ring that Higgins had purchased for her. Higgins, chucking the ring into the fireplace, is offended at what he regards as her ingratitude and angrily departs. Left alone, Eliza feels a brief sense of triumph before retrieving the ring.
Act Five