George Bernard Shaw - Pygmalion and Three Other Plays

Nikolai Bobrikov (1839-1904), Vyacheslav Plehve (1846-1904), and Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) were Russian officials assassinated by revolutionaries.

Reference to Jose Nakens, editor of the revolutionary newspaper E1 Motin, who provided temporary refuge for Morral (see note on page 37).

Reference to George William Foote (1850-1915), a passionate opponent of orthodox Christianity.

Laborers who perform the dangerous work of coupling and uncoupling railway cars.

Tory and Whig are the names of political parties that are, respectively, conservative and liberal.

Joking name, in typical British humor, for a large cannon of the Royal Arsenal Woolwich in London.

That is, King’s College of Cambridge University.

Ruler of Turkey.

Saint Andrew Undershaft is a church in London.

That is, a member of a Christian sect other than the Church of England.

Particular religion supported financially by the state.

Benches.

Snobby is named after a well-known Chartist, James Bronterre O‘Brien (1805-1864); Chartists were nineteenth-century English political reformers who advocated for the working classes.

Snobby quotes the Bible (see Joshua 9:21, King James Version) to disdain mere manual laborers.

Diluted milk.

That is, heart.

Nervous, discarded, and rejected as incurable by the hospital.

That is, “all understanding”; Price is quoting from the Bible, Philippians 4:7: “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (KJV).

“Mog” is a diminutive of Margaret; in subsequent editions, Shaw spelled Walker’s pronunciation more phonetically: “Ebbijem.”

“Go on!”

Slaughterers of worn-out domestic animals, such as horses.

Atheist.

Something the cat would drink.

One with the lowly job of scrubbing pots.

That is, half.

That is, how.

LIndershaft means that Barbara might find Methodism, a religion of the common people, appealing.

Saint Simeon (c.390-459), called “Stylites” (pillar-dweller), spent the last thirty years of his life on a pillar (where, presumably, he could not wash easily).

Seller of shoddy goods.

That is, “I hadn’t just no show with him at all.”

The Lord Mayor of London’s collection of donations in times of national need.

Pubs owned by the breweries or distilleries that supply them.

An explosive.

Improvise a bass-line accompaniment.

Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), based on Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor (1819).

Barbara repeats Christ’s words of doubt just before He dies on the Cross (see the Bible, Matthew 27:46).

The 1905 equivalent of a fast-food restaurant.

British physician and philanthropist Thomas Barnardo (1845-1905) founded homes for orphaned and destitute children, which were known as Doctor Barnardo’s Homes.

In the House of Commons (Parliament’s lower house), the Treasury bench is the first row of seats on the right of the Speaker, where cabinet members sit.

Caucuses are small councils within a political party that determine party positions; leading articles are the leading editorials in newspapers.

Primitive Methodists belong to a branch of the church that adheres more strictly to original Methodist doctrine.

Group that looks to reason instead of to a supernatural being as the basis for moral behavior.

pins, like bowling pins, used in the game of skittles.

Quotation from Sonnet 16, “Cromwell, our chief of men” (lines 10-11), by English poet John Milton (1608-1674.).

Wealthier members of a congregation could pay to have a regular seat.

Conservative organization founded in 1883; named for the presumed favorite flower of Benjamin Disraeli (see endnote 15.)

Material waterproofed on one side.

That is, the House of Commons.

Farmer; peasant.

Allusion to book 5 of Plato’s Republic (fifth century B.C.), which asserts that an ideal society cannot be realized until philosophers become kings or kings become philosophers — that is, until “political greatness and wisdom meet in one.”

Made from list, a strong material that borders a weaker cloth.

Robert Schumann (1810 — 1856), German Romantic composer renowned for his piano compositions.

Pendant fleshy lobe at the back of the mouth.

Christian sect (founded 1838) that rejected medical treatment on biblical grounds.

Disease-causing.

Dangerous drugs, legally obtained only with a doctor’s prescription.

lntestinal disease.

Physician who died in 1890.

Low-cost doctor’s office.

Prominent doctors.

Big business corporations; also, the Stock Exchange.

Extremist members of the left wing.

Une variously attributed to French philosopher Denis Diderot (1713 — 1784.) and eighteenth-century revolutionary Jean Messelier.

Spiritualists who conduct seances to contact the dead.

John Abernathy (1764 — 1831), English surgeon renowned for his popular lectures.

Hypochondriac (French).

Incompetent person.

Religion, founded in 1866 by Mary Baker Eddy, that eschews doctors in favor of spiritual healing.

Solution containing formaldehyde, used as a disinfectant.

Thomas Sydenham (1624 — 1689) English physician and pioneer in treating diseases.

Noted immunologist and a friend of Shaw (1861 — 1947); partial model for Doctor Ridgeon in the play.