Book Report: Pygmalion and Galatea

Whilst rehearsing G.B. Shaw’s Pygmalion, YHB came across W.S. Gilbert’s Pygmalion and Galatea, one of the verse plays from before The Collaboration. Unlike Mr. Shaw’s work, Mr. Gilbert’s play is about the actual mythical figure of Pygmalion, who makes a statue that comes to life. The statue causes a lot of trouble and splits up three couples and then gets them all back together and turns back into marble, the end. There are some good bits, but it’s a missable play.

The best bit, in my opinion, is when the art collector is caught flirting with Galatea. Galatea explains to the collector’s wife that she is a statue only yesterday brought to life; the collector doubts that will work, but determines to stick with the story. Then various people come in and the collector’s wife challenges each of them to identify Galatea. Each, in turn, claims that Galatea is a statue only yesterday brought to life, and the collector slips each of them a little remuneration and murmurs that he is much obliged to them. I believe that there are three of these, or possibly four of them ending with Pygmalion himself, or possibly the fourth is Pygmalion’s wife, who is of course jealous because Galatea is a statue only yesterday brought to life. I don’t remember exactly (and I don’t have the text in front of me) (and can’t be arsed to look it up) but it’s one of those funny things that builds well.

The art collector, actually, is the funniest thing in the play. He knows nothing at all about art, but he loves having the artists bow and scape to him, and he loves shaking up the art market by buying first one thing and then another. In the end, his wife makes him sell off all the statuary in the house, just in case.

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.