Lady Hamilton, Nelson's Enchantress, and the Creation of Pygmalion

Abstract

ABSTRACT Could Lady Hamilton, the play Nelson's Enchantress, and Stella Campbell, all connected by Vandeleur Lee and Shaw's mother, have influenced the creation of Pygmalion? Emma Lyon was born in poverty in 1765. As a girl, she was tutored in the arts and social graces by Charles Greville, a man who regarded her as little more than a project. Going on to marry an ambassador, Sir William Hamilton, she became one of the most famous women in Europe. In 1897 Shaw reviewed Risden Home's 1897 play Nelson's Enchantress, starring Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Forbes Robertson. Within months he had written of Robertson that he was planning a play for that “rapscallionly flower girl of his.” It has been long known that his remark referred to Stella Campbell. This essay shows not only that it was referencing a scene in Nelson's Enchantress, but that in Pygmalion we see similarities to Emma Hart's and Charles Greville's personalities, attitudes, and relationship. Shaw was both fascinated and repelled by women like Lady Hamilton. Did his ambivalent attitudes find a resolution in Eliza Doolittle?