Night Mail/Not Pygmalian likely

 

Night Mail

This highly acclaimed documentary film was made in 1936. Made for the postal service ( the GPO then ) it follows the progress of the mail train going north from London to Scotland overnight. It is available on the internet and well worth watching. The first part is a straight documentary of the sort we are now used to seeing although the style was brand new at the time. The second part is given over to a famous poem by W H Auden which was written specially for the documentary.

The viewer is shown the mobile sorters working in the special carriage. As the train speeds through the night it picks up mail at the trackside by a catching device without stopping.

The start of the poem begins as the train crosses the border to Scotland; spoken by John Grierson to a score by Benjamin Brittan, and over the pictures of the steam train speeding through the night.

This is the night mail crossing the border

Bringing the cheque and the postal order

Letters for the rich; letters for the poor

For the corner shop and the girl next door

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb

The gradients against her but she’s on time

The fireman is busy piling on coal while the driver keeps a careful watch. Across the Cumbrian wastes the train shovels steam over her shoulder as it races onwards.

Then the Auden poem switches to a steady beat following the rhythm of the train.

Letters of thanks: letters from banks

Letters of joy from girl and boy

Receipted bills and invitations

And applications for situations

And timid lover’s declarations

And gossip, gossip from all the nations

This always reminds me of my introduction to the poem at school. I don’t remember the precise occasion but I imagine a late autumn afternoon in Room 8. Tall windows on one side looked out on to the Ashby Road and opposite the central quadrangle surrounded by a covered walk way. The teacher was “Flash” Ferriman. I never understood why he had the nickname “Flash” as he was anything but. He was a wise and humane teacher whose natural authority meant no discipline problems. His humour was to include in his examples of English usage the names of his pupils thus “Hall gazes abstractly out of the window”. My attention would snap back. He was sometimes driven to throwing chalk or even the blackboard rubber.

Very occasionally he would wear his battledress jacket with his navigator wings. Just occasionally he would impart life lessons as in the psychology of volunteering. “ All those who don’t volunteer take a step back”

Auden’s poem slows as the Night Mail pulls into Glasgow and muses on the recipients

But who shall wake soon and hope for letters

And none will hear the postman’s knock

Without a quickening of the heart

For who can bear to feel themselves forgot

Not Pygmalion likely

In mid 1914 the play Pygmalion premiered. Written by George Bernard Shaw it features a phonetics expert Henry Higgins taking a flower girl, Eliza Doolittle and teaching her to speak so that she can be passed off as a Duchess. The play highlights Shaw’s belief that manner of speech was important in class distinctions. A fervent socialist he was keen to show how superficial speech is. Nowadays the original play is mainly known for the musical adaption “ My Fair Lady”.

At the time Pygmalion was notorious because Eliza has the line “Not bloody likely”. Swearing on stage was unknown then and although bloody is considered mild today it aroused much comment at the time. Because it was thought to be contraction of a religious oath such as “God’s blood” it was held to by some be sacrilegious. Many more were scandalised by swearing on stage.

Gentle folk who wanted to swear indirectly would say “not Pygmalion likely” ; a phrase I remember in use even as late as 50’s.

Shaw has a good point that the English class system partly depends on how you speak. Partly a matter of vocabulary and partly a matter of accent. Nancy Mitford had a deal of fun mocking speech as U or non U. For example it is upper class to say lavatory, lower class to say toilet. When she wrote in the 50’s this may be so but toilet is now widely used and accepted. However the fact remains that speech is still a main class identifier today.

Regional accents are now well accepted and the standard southern English accent is no longer the necessity it once was. There is a hierarchy of accents with Scottish considered pleasant and to show integrity. My own faint “Brummie” is not viewed favourably.