Pygmalion1.0168_BernardShaw

Pygmalion, a comic play by George Bernard Shaw, 1912. First performed in S. Trebitsch's German translation at Vienna's Hofburg Theater, 16 Oct. 1913; first performed in English 11 Apr 1914 at His Majesty's Theatre, London.

Prof. Henry Higgins is a professor of phonology who creates a lady of Eliza Doolittle. Bernard Shaw's epilogue is the only place, other than the title page, where "Pygmalion" is mentioned overtly: "...Eliza's instinct had good grounds for warning her not to marry her Pygmalion." (Dover Thrift, p. 74) Is Bernard Shaw there touching on the same nerve that Ovid perceived? The narratives in Met. 10 are all about unnatural infatuation and the uncomfortable offspring of forbidden love.

Many versions of the story exist; many seem ignorant of their classical forebear. Bernard Shaw's classic stage-play builds most creatively upon the myth, and it forms the basis of F. Loewe's popular musical My Fair Lady.