My Fair Lady, Act I: "Why Can't the English?" (Henry Higgins & Colonel Pickering) - Фредерик Лоу

Henry Higgins: Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter,

Condemned by every syllable she utters

By right she should be taken out and hung,

For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.

Eliza Doolittle: Aaoooww!

Henry (imitating her): Aaoooww!

Heavens!

What a sound!

This is what the British population,

Calls an elementary education.

Pickering: Oh Come sir, I think you picked a poor example.

Henry: Did I?

Hear them down in Soho Square,

Dropping «h's» everywhere.

Speaking English anyway they like.

You sir, did you go to school?

Man: Wadaya tike me for, a fool?

Henry: No one taught him 'take' instead of 'tike!

Hear a Yorkshireman, or worse,

hear a Cornishman converse.

I’d rather hear a choir singing flat.

Chickens, cackling in a barn, just like this one (pointing to Eliza)

Eliza: Gaaarn

Henry (writing, imitating Eliza): Gaaarn.

I ask you Sir, what sort of word is that?

(to Pickering)

It’s «aoow» and «gaarn» that keep her in her place

Not her wretched clothes and dirty face

Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?

This verbal class distinction, by now,

Should be antique.

If you spoke as she does, sir,

Instead of the way you do,

Why, you might be selling flowers, too!

Pickering: I beg your pardon!

Henry: An Englishman’s way of speaking absolutely classifies him,

The moment he talks he makes some other

Englishman despise him.

One common language I’m afraid we’ll never get.

Oh, why can’t the English learn to

set a good example to people whose

English is painful to your ears?

The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears.

There even are places where English completely

disappears.

Well, in America, they haven’t used it for years!

Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?

Norwegians learn Norwegian;

the Greeks have taught their Greek.

In France every Frenchman knows

his language from «A» to «Zed»

The French never care what they do, actually,

as long as they pronounce it properly.

Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning.

And Hebrews learn it backwards,

which is absolutely frightening.

Use proper English you’re regarded as a freak.

Why can’t the English,

Why can’t the English learn to speak?