My Fair Lady - Quinson, Henry

My Fair Lady
Pre-listening
1. Classez les mots suivants dans le tableau selon le son des voyelles (un mot par case):
this, girl, rain, come, poor, time, Georges, joy, put, teeth, out, where, stop, hand, let, those, the, blasted,
you, really.
2. Voici la transcription phonétique de plusieurs mots tires des extraits vidéo. Rétablissez leur
orthographe.
3. Ecoutez les mots suivants et placez les dans le tableau selon leur schéma accentuel.
oO
Oo
ooO
Ooo
oOoo
Demosthenes
Oooo

My Fair Lady
- 2 -
Part 1
A phonetics scholar, Professor Higgins, bets that he can take a flower girl and make
her presentable in high society. But Elisa Doolittle is still struggling to get rid of her
cockney1 accent.
Professor Higgins: Again, Elisa: How kind of you to let me come!
Elisa Doolittle: How kind of you to let me come.
Professor Higgins: No! Kind of you! Kind of you! Kind – How kind of you to let me come!
Elisa Doolittle: How kind of you to let me come.
Professor Higgins: No! No! No! Kind of you! Kind of you! Like: cup of tea! Kind of you!
Cup of tea! Say: cup of tea!
5
10
15
20
25
Elisa Doolittle: Cap o’ tea.
Professor Higgins: No! Oh! No! A cup of tea! – It’s an awful good cake! I wonder where
Mrs Pierce gets it.
Colonel Pickering: Yum! First rate! And this strawberry tart is delicious! Did you try the
plain cake [with a cockney accent]?
Professor Higgins [surprised]: Try it again!
Colonel Pickering: Did you try the –
Professor Higgins [angrily]: Pickering! Again, Elisa!
Elisa Doolittle: Cap o’ tea.
Professor Higgins: Oh! No! Can’t you hear the difference? Look! Put your tongue forward
until it squeezes on the top of your lower teeth, and then say: cup.
Elisa Doolittle: Cup.
Professor Higgins: Then, say: of.
Elisa Doolittle: Of.
Professor Higgins: Then say: cup, cup, cup, of, of, of!
Elisa Doolittle: Cup, cup, cup, of, of, of! Cup, cup, cup, of, of –
Colonel Pickering: By Jove2, Higgins, that was a glorious tea. Why don’t you finish that
last strawberry tart? I couldn’t eat another thing.
Professor Higgins: Ah! I couldn’t touch it!
Colonel Pickering: Shame to waste it!
Professor Higgins: It won’t be wasted! I know someone who is immensely fond of
strawberry tarts. [He gives the tart to his bird] Cheep! Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!
Elisa Doolittle [hungry and deeply upset]: Oh!
My Fair Lady, 1964, directed by George Cukor
1. Can you repeat the two short phrases Higgins wants Eliza to say?
2. Why is it so hard for Higgins to teach Eliza?
1 cockney accent: accent of the East End of London, considered vulgar by the upper classes.
2 By Jove : expression of pleasure.

My Fair Lady
- 3 -
PART 2
Professor Higgins is now putting marbles into Elisa’s mouth in another attempt to
improve her pronunciation.
Professor Higgins: – four, five, six marbles. Now I want you to read this and I want you to
enunciate every word just as if the marbles were not in your mouth: With blackest moss, the
flower pots were thickly crusted one and all. Each word clear as a bell!
Elisa Doolittle: With blacketh moth, the flower poth – I can’t! I can’t!
Colonel Pickering: I say, Higgins, are those pebbles really necessary?
5
10
15
Professor Higgins: If they were necessary for Demosthenes, they are necessary for Elisa
Doolittle. Come on, Eliza!
Elisa Doolittle: With blacketh moth, the flower poth were thick – cruth – and –
Professor Higgins: I can’t understand a word! Not a word!
Elisa Doolittle: With blacketh moth, the flower poth were thilly cruthed one and all!
Colonel Pickering: Higgins, perhaps that’s too difficult for the girl! Why don’t you try
something simpler like the owl and the pussy cat – oh, yes! That’s a charming one!
Elisa Doolittle: With blacketh moth –
Professor Higgins: Pickering, I can’t hear a word the girl’s saying!
Elisa Doolittle [she swallows a marble]: Oh!
Professor Higgins: What’s the matter?
Elisa Doolittle: I swallowed one!
Professor Higgins: Oh! It doesn’t matter! I’ve got many more. Open your mouth! One,
two –
My Fair Lady, 1964, directed by George Cukor
1. Can you repeat the new tongue-twister Higgins wants Eliza to say?
2. What part does Pickering play?
pART 3 a
Professor Higgins is limply sitting in his armchair, exhausted and discouraged.
Professor Higgins: The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
Elisa Doolittle: I can’t! I’m so tired! I’m so tired!
Colonel Pickering: For God’s sake, Higgins, it must be four a clock in the morning! Do be
reasonable!
Professor Higgins: I am always reasonable! Elisa, if I can go on with a blistering
headache, you can!
5
10
Elisa Doolittle: I got an ‘eadache too!
Professor Higgins: Oh! Here! I know your head aches, I know you’re tired, I know your
nerves are as raw as meat in a butcher’s window, but think what you are trying to
accomplish!
My Fair Lady, 1964, directed by George Cukor

My Fair Lady
- 4 -
1. How does Eliza react to Higgins’ teaching?
2. Do you sympathize with her? Why, or why not?
PART 3 b
Professor Higgins and Elisa have reached rock bottom.
Professor Higgins: Now, try it again!
Elisa Doolittle [slowly, with a perfect accent]: The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
Professor Higgins: What was that?
Elisa Doolittle [perfectly again]: The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
Professor Higgins: Again!
5
10
Elisa Doolittle: The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
Professor Higgins: I thinks she’s got it! I thinks she’s got it!
Elisa Doolittle: The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
Professor Higgins: By George, she’s got it! By George, she’s got it! Now once again!
Where does it rain?
Elisa Doolittle: On the plain! On the plain!
Professor Higgins: And where’s that soggy3 plain?
Elisa Doolittle: In Spain! In Spain!
Elisa Doolittle, Professor Higgins, Colonel Pickering: The rain in Spain stays mainly in
the plain. Bravo! The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
Professor Higgins: In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire –
Elisa Doolittle: – hurricanes hardly happen. How kind of you to let me come!
Professor Higgins: Now once again: where does it rain?
Elisa Doolittle: On the plain! On the plain!
Professor Higgins: And where’s that blasted4 plain?
Elisa Doolittle: In Spain! In Spain!
Elisa Doolittle, Professor Higgins, Colonel Pickering: The rain in Spain stays mainly in
the plain. Haha! The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
My Fair Lady, 1964, directed by George Cukor
1. Can you repeat the two new tongue-twisters Higgins wants Eliza to say?
2. Were Professor Higgins’ efforts rewarded in the end?
Used TO + bv
1. Compare the two clips and study Eliza’s progress.
¾ Then ….. Now …..
¾ whereas / unlike / contrary to / instead of
2. Reformulate your sentences with USED TO + BV.
¾ Forme: USED TO + BV
¾ Valeur: Opposition présent / passé (la chose passée n’existe plus aujourd’hui.)
3 soggy: saturated with water.
4 blasted plain : maudite plaine