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Inspiration

In the preface to the play, Shaw claims that Higgins is based on Henry Sweet. He writes at length about Henry Sweet and notes that Higgins is not a portrait, but has several Sweet touches, and says of Sweet that "with Higgins's physique and temperament [he] might have set the Thames on fire." This view is generally accepted by literary scholars. Although Shaw did know Daniel Jones, the leading phonetician of the time, and some of the material in the play is based on the work of Jones, the character is not based on him in any way.^[2]