Pygmalion and Three Other Plays
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Martyr (272? — 205) during the reign of Roman emperor Diocletian; in Naples, a phial thought to contain his dried blood is said to liquefy each year.
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The writings of Russian biologist Ilya Metchnikoff ( 1845-I 9 16) include Immunity in Infectious Diseases (1905) and The Nature of Man (1903).
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London public-health board established in I867 that operated, among other things, specialist hospitals for infectious diseases and tuberculosis.
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Medicinal syrup derived from the squill plant, a bulbous herb.
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hus Feste gloats over Malvolio’s humiliation in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (act 5,cene I ) .
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Hypothetical substance thought to be released through burning, a theory disproved by French chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743- 1794).
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In Moliere’s play The Imaginary Invalid (1673) a doctor who disdains such new fangled theories as circulation of the blood.
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Sixteenth-century German alchemist and physician.
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Tall mirror that covers the wall space between two windows.
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Transversely corded fabric.
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Chandelier with gas burners.
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Having a projecting breastbone.
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Abbreviated version of the Latin phrase infra dignitatem, which means “beneath one’s dignity.”
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Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
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Term for winning a backgammon game before the opponent removes any pieces from the board, thereby earning double points.
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Nut-shaped mass of tissue.
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Poisonous bacteria that can cause food poisoning.
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Appearing moral, but being immoral (see the Bible, Matthew 23:27, KJV).
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Specialist.
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Quotation from Alexander Pope’s “Essay on Criticism,” this time accurate (see footnote to page 196).
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B.B.’s memory of the laws of Medes and Persians from the Bible (see Daniel 6:8-15) fails, so he improvises.
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Informal marriage certificate.
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Life-size dummy with movable limbs.
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Lamp that burns volatile liquid fuel such as alcohol, sometimes in conjunction with a container, for heating substances.
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Heavy brownish silk fabric.
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Meaning “pay up”; a term derived from a mining practice of payment by gold dust.
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Maid in charge of the room where liqueurs and cakes are stored.
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Does not represent any particular religion.
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Indignation; resentment.
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Scottish novelist and dramatist J.M. Barrie, best known for his character Peter Pan, was a friend of Shaw; Better Dead (1887) is his first novel.
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Proverbial saying that derives from English author Francis Bacon’s essay “On Boldness” (from Essays, 1625).
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No license is required to practice journalism.
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Street in London where professional photographers had their shops.
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Quotation from the Bible, Psalm 73:4-5 (KJV).
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Of the dead [say] nothing but good (Latin).
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Expensive shopping area in London.
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Quotation from “The Latest Decalogue,” by English poet Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861).
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English philologist and mathematician (1814-1890); an advocate of spelling reform.
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Italian singer (1817 — 1895) who taught French in England and advocated a phonetic alphabet.
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Institute founded in 1887 to conduct research into resources and raw materials of the British Empire, and to make the growing Empire understandable to the British people.
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Reference to A Manual of Current Shorthand (1892).
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Named after its inventor, Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897).
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Amalthaea, the Sibyl of Cumae, was a legendary prophetess of ancient Rome who destroyed six of nine prophetic books when the Roman king refused to pay for them.
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Robert Bridges, poet laureate of England (1913-1930) and author of Milton’s Prosody (1893), practiced spelling reform.
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The valet who passes as a nobleman in Victor Hugo’s 1838 verse drama of the same name.
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That is, “Two bunches of violets trod in the mud.”
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Shaw later revised this phrase to “a romantic figure.”
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Sixpence coin (slang).
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Having turned them up due to the rain.
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Detective.
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That is, with soliciting for prostitution.
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Police informant.
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Slang expression equivalent to “damn me”; probably from “blind me.”
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Hanwell County Asylum for the insane.
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That is, worried and chased.
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Working-class district of London; a slum area in the mid to late 1800s.
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Peevish, or ill-natured.
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Relating to the Pharisees, a sect often portrayed in the Bible as hypocritical.
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Lamp chimneys are glass tubes around the wick of an oil lamp that keep the flame steady; flames in the tube that resonate to the human voice are called “singing flames.”
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Used in the earliest phonographs as a medium for recording and replaying sound.
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Portraits engraved on copper or steel; Higgins prefers their austerity to voluptuous color.
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System of phonetic notation devised by English phonetician Henry Sweet (1845-1912).
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Astonished; this Latinate word suits Higgins, who is a Milton aficionado (see note 7 for this play).
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Pejorative word for a woman, ranging in meaning from a pert (saucy, or forward) woman to a prostitute.
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Woman who wears a skirt that is dirty from being dragged over wet ground and who searches the street for usable things.
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Strong scouring soap with a wrapper bearing the image of a monkey looking into a mirror.
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London department store.
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Off his head; crazy.
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Crazy people.
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Garbage man (sanitation worker).
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Old-fashioned term for an immoral scoundrel.
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Quotation from Milton’s “Il Penseroso”: “Sweet Bird that shunn‘st the noise of folly, / Most musicall, most melancholy!” (lines 61-62).
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Manual laborer; ditch-digger.
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Artists’ quarter in London.
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English landscape painter (1851-1882), whose best-known work, “The Minister’s Garden,” was exhibited in 1878 at the Grosvenor Gallery in London.
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After the English poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), who painted medieval religious and fantasy subjects.
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Particular day reserved for casual visits from acquaintances.
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That is, “How do you do?”
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Area of low pressure.
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Objectionable males.
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Offensively dirty and badly behaved.
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Crew’s quarters in a ship’s bow.
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Loose-fitting jacket for wear when relaxing at home.
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Love letter with a crest embossed on it; Pickering is speaking ironically.
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Higgins is repeating a well-known saying by English theologian and logician Richard Whately (1787-1863).
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Allusion to Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein, in which Dr. Frankenstein refers to the monster he creates as the “creature.”
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Fireplace.
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Jargon; insincere speech.
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Resentment; indignation.
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Slang for “ran away.”
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Fellow; rascal.
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Parody of “Rockefeller”; John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) was an American industrialist and philanthropist.
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That is, get money out of me.
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Church where wealthy people married.
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Horse-drawn closed carriage with the driver outside in front.
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Higgins is explicitly identifying himself with Milton (see note 7 for this play).
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