29 May 2023

Meer Marchant Taylors' Fablings

 

Uruvilva (Bodh Gaya) (RFW 049.30-050:18)

Continuing our journalistic investigation into the HCE Affair, we ask ourselves now whether the opinions expressed by the wider public during the Street Interview can be trusted. The remaining ten pages of Chapter 3 comprise an episode known as The Battery at the Gate.

Joseph Campbell & Henry Morton Robinson summarized this paragraph thus:

Now what about all these fablings? Can it be that such diversified outrages were planned and carried out against so stanch a covenanter? Many of the notices, we trow, are given us by some who use the truth but sparingly. One fact, however, comes out clearly, namely, that this city, his citadel of refuge, whither (if accounts be true) beyond the gales of Adriatic he had fled, shipalone, a raven of the wave, to forget, in expiating, manslaughter, and to league his lot with a papist shee, this lotus land, Emerald Ilium, in which his days were to be long by the abundant mercy of Him Which Thundereth From On High, this land would rise against him, do him hurt, as were he a curse. Indeed he was to be the victim of Ireland’s first reign of terror. (Campbell & Robinson 71)

HCE is a Protestant, but he marries the Catholic ALP—a papist shee—and settles in the Emerald Isle. But the attacks on him continue unabated. The opening words anticipate Chapter II.3 and How Kersse the Tailor Made a Suit of Clothes for the Norwegian Captain, an Oedipal conflict between a tailor and a sailor (John Gordon 61.28).

 

The Fragments of Chapter 3 (Humphriad II)

In parenthesis we are told that the diversified outrages to which he is subjected are still to come. This is an indication that the order in which Joyce drafted the fragments of this chapter was not the same as the order in which they appeared in the published version. The evolution of this chapter was actually quite involved, as Bill Cadbury, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Oregon, describes:

But each of the remaining sections of chapter 3 that Joyce wrote next, 3§2 [RFW 049.30-054.15] and 3§3 [RFW 054.16-059.28], mobilizes the same material in a slightly different way, each way having strengths and weaknesses of continuity with what has come before. It seems most likely that Joyce drafted the sections as alternatives, only later deciding to use both rather than to choose between them and putting them in the reverse order from that in which he drafted them.

Joyce began with what will become 3§3 … and wrote that “First these outrages” that we have been hearing about may have been “instigated” by the “rushy hollow heroines” … who had just been referred to at the end of the plebiscite, briefly reporting their later sad tales, their taking carbolic and necking in haymows [RFW 054.16 ff] …

But after this first paragraph Joyce continued to write as if the “these” of “these outrages” referred not to the outrages that preceded but to those that he is about to describe, beginning his next paragraph “First there was a gateway” [see RFW 055.28 ff] … He presents an outrage at that gateway, a violent attack on HCE culminating in “threats and abuse” … and the throwing of stones before the attacker leaves …

But after first-drafting what becomes 3§3 [Now to the obverse … camelback excesses], Joyce seems to have tried another version [Be these meer marchant taylors’ fablings …] of the “outrages” that carry so much thematic weight and characterize both what HCE does and what is done to him. The narrator begins this new version by asking, “Can it be that so diversified outrages” were actually “planned and carried out” against HCE? Amazing, and he such a “staunch covenanter” … This opening reminds the reader of HCE’s Protestantism, with which the section also ends as it presents the “scripture reader” Laddy Cummins [RFW 053.40-054.02] …

This second outrage, like the version drafted before it, centers on an attack at the “gateway” … (Crispi & Slote 71-73)

 

Bill Cadbury

I have no idea who Cadbury’s Laddy Cummins is. Long Lally Tobkids … a conscientious scripturereader seems to conceal an equally mysterious Larry Tomkins.

Bill Cadbury defends Joyce’s final reordering of these fragments, despite the chaotic nature of the resulting narrative:

By using the later-drafted “outrages” passage (3§2) before the earlier-drafted one (3§3) Joyce loses the tight connection between references to the girls in the park that close 3§1 and open 3§3. But to use 3§2 first better establishes the sense of HCE’s resurrection from his disappearance into the plebiscite and to the eternal sequence of being attacked and becoming an object of identification for others … HCE being discovered in or emerging from a refuge and being done hurt by society will be the essential sequence of the rest of the narrative of these chapters. (Crispi & Slote 75)

Of course, the character assassination HCE suffers in the Plebiscite and the physical attack on him in the Battery at the Gate are essentially one and the same.

First-Draft Version

The first draft of this paragraph, which dates from November 1923, was only about eight or nine lines long:

Can it be that so diversified outrages were planned and partly carried out against him if it is true that those recorded took place? The city of refuge whither he had fled to forget & expiate manslaughter, the land in which by the commandment of promise his days were to be long, murmured, wd rise against him, do him hurt, as were he more a curse for them, the lay quick, the saints of an unholy nation, the castaway in resurrection of damnation to convince him of their proper sins. Business bred, Humphrey took no chances. Yet he was subject to terror. (Hayman 72)

 

transition 3 (Jolas & Paul 40-41)

The version that was published in transition in June 1927 is only slightly shorter than the published version:

Be these meer marchant taylor’s fablings of a race referend with oddman rex? Can it was, one is fain in this leaden age of letters now to wit, that so diversified outrages (they have still to come!) were planned and partly carried out against so staunch a covenanter if it be true than any of those recorded ever took place for many, we trow, beyessed to and denayed of, are given to us by some who use the truth but sparingly and we, on this side ought to sorrow for their pricking pens on that account. The seventh city, his citadear of refuge, whither (would we believe the laimen and their counts), beyond the outraved gales of Atreeatic, he had fled, shipalone, a raven of the wave, from the ostmen’s dirtby on the old vic, to forget in expiating manslaughter; the wastobe land in which by the fourth commandment with promise his days apostolic were to be long by the abundant mercy of Him Which Thundereth From On High, murmured, would rise against him with all which in them were, franchisables and inhabitands, do him hurt, poor jink, ghostly following bodily, as were he made a curse for them, the corruptible lay quick, all saints of incorruption of an holy nation, the common or ere-in-garden castaway, in red resurrection to condemn so they might convince him, first pharoah, Humpheres Cheops Exarchas, of their proper sins. Business bred to speak with a stiff upper lip to all men and most occasions the Man we wot of took little short of fighting chances but for all that he or his or his care were subjected to the horrors of the premier terror of Errorland. (perorhaps!) (Jolas & Paul 40-41)

 

The Mahabodhi Tree at Uruvilva

Buddha

Among the additions Joyce made to the first draft of this paragraph was a cluster of allusions to the Buddha. These were added after the publication of the third issue of transition. Joyce’s principal source for information on the life of Siddhartha Gautama was André-Ferdinand Hérold’s French biography La Vie du Bouddha, d’après les textes de l’Inde ancienne, which was published in Paris in 1922. An English translation by Paul Charles Blum came out in New York five years later.

  • Urovivla There was a village called Uruvilva near the spot where Siddhartha spent long hours in meditation (Hérold & Blum 89). In the original French text, the name is spelled Ourouvilva. Note that Joyce has metathesized the original -lv- into -vl-. Was this deliberate on Joyce’s part, or did he simply misread the name? In VI.B.46.123w, he recorded the name as Urovilva In Pali, the language of the sacred Buddhist texts, the name is spelled Uruvelā. Today this place is known as Bodh Gaya.

 

Mahabodhi Temple & Gardens in Uruvilva (Bodh Gaya)

  • changing clues with a baggermalster The Buddha changed clothes with a god disguised as a hunter:

But the hero was still wearing his gorgeous robe. He wanted a plain one, one suitable to a hermit. Whereupon a hunter appeared, wearing a coarse garment made of a reddish material. Siddhartha said to him:

“Your peaceful robe is like those worn by hermits; it offers a strange contrast to your savage bow. Give me your clothes and take mine in exchange. They will suit you better.”

“Thanks to these clothes,” said the hunter, “I can deceive the beasts in the forests. They do not fear me, and I can kill them at close range. But if you have need of them, my lord, I shall willingly give them to you and take yours in exchange.”

Siddhartha joyfully donned the coarse, reddish-coloured clothes belonging to the hunter, and the hunter reverently accepted the hero’s robe; then he disappeared into the sky. Siddhartha realized that the Gods themselves had wished to present him with his hermit’s robe, and he rejoiced. (Hérold & Blum 75-76)

baggermalster also includes the German: Bürgermeister, mayor, and Ibsen’s Dano-Norwegian: Bygmester Solness, The Master Builder. Hérold’s divine hunter, however, is now a beggar and a maltster. The implication is that when HCE arrives in Dublin, he disguises himself as a brewer.

 

The Buddha’s Silent Departure

  • silentiousissuemeant under night’s altosonority When the Buddha fled from his father’s palace, his horse Kanthaka (first introduced to us at RFW 019.30 clankatachankata) was careful not to make any noise. Even the gates swung open silently on their own:

Le bon cheval se garda de faire aucun bruit dans la nuit sonore. Nul serviteur ne s’éveilla, nul habitant de Kapilavastou. Des barres de fer, très lourdes, tenaient fermées les portes de la ville ; un éléphant ne les eût soulevées qu’avec peine, mais, pour que le prince passât, les portes s’ouvrirent d’elles-mêmes, silencieusement. (Hérold 58)

The [good] horse was careful to make no noise, for the night was clear. No one in the palace or in Kapilavastu was awakened. Heavy iron bars protected the gates of the city; an elephant could have raised them only with great difficulty, but, to allow the prince to pass, the gates opened silently of their own accord. (Hérold & Blum 71)

 

The Demon Mara and the Earth Goddess Phra Mae Thorani

  • (be mercy, Mara! A he whence Rahoulas!) Mara is an evil demon who tempts the Buddha. His name is derived from the Sanskrit: मार [mā́ra], death. Râhoula (Rahula in Blum’s translation) is the Buddha’s son. What does this parenthesis mean? Coming immediately after an allusion to the wave, it is possible that Mara is also the Irish: muir, mara, sea. At one point, Mara tries to drown the Buddha in a pool (Hérold & Blum 92). The Buddha calls the Earth to witness his triumph. He touches the Earth with his right hand, summoning her to be his witness. The Earth goddess, in the form of the beautiful woman, emerges from the Earth (Hérold & Blum 102). In another version of the tale, the goddess Phra Mae Thorani (or Prithvi twists her long hair and torrents of water flow out, washing away Mara and his army. But I still can’t make any sense of A he whence Rahoulas! Why does Joyce pluralize Rahoula? Glasheen thinks Rahoulas is singular:

Mara—when Buddha fled home to seek enlightenment, he was tempted to remain by love of his baby son, Rahoulas, and he was tempted by Mara (an evil spirit) with the kingdoms of the earth. (Glasheen 185)

 

Rahula

  • (if you are looking for the bilder deep your ear on the movietone!) The Buddha, who had been looking for the builder of the house for years, succeeded when he finally achieved enlightenment. The short chapter in which this is described is worth quoting in full:

By sunset the army of the Evil One had fled. Nothing had disturbed the hero’s meditation, and, in the first watch of the night, he arrived at the knowledge of all that had passed in previous existences. In the second watch, he learned the present state of all beings. In the third, he understood the chain of causes and effects.

He now clearly saw all creatures being continually reborn, and, whether of high or of low caste, in the path of virtue or of evil, he saw them going through the round of existences, at the mercy of their actions. And the hero thought:

“How miserable is this world that is born, grows old and dies, then is reborn only to grow old and die again! And man knows no way out!”

And in profound meditation, he said to himself:

“What is the cause of old age and death ? There is old age and death because there is birth. Old age and death are due to birth. What is the cause of birth? There is birth because there is existence. Birth is due to existence. What is the cause of existence ? There is existence because there are ties. Existence is due to ties. What is the cause of ties? There are ties because there is desire. Ties are due to desire. What is the cause of desire? There is desire because there is sensation. Desire is due to sensation. What is the cause of sensation? There is sensation because there is contact. Sensation is due to contact. What is the cause of contact? There is contact because there are six senses. Contact is due to the six senses. What is the cause of the six senses? There are six senses because there is name and form. The six senses are due to name and form. What is the cause of name and form?There is name and form because there is perception. Name and form are due to perception. What is the cause of perception ? There is perception because there is impression. Perception is due to impression. What is the cause of impression? There is impression because there is ignorance. Impression is due to ignorance.”

 

The Buddha Resists the Army of Mara

And he thought:

“Thus does ignorance lie at the root of death, of old age, of suffering, of despair. To suppress ignorance is to suppress impression. To suppress impression is to suppress perception. To suppress perception is to suppress name and form. To suppress name and form is to suppress the six senses. To suppress the six senses is to suppress contact. To suppress contact is to suppress sensation. To suppress sensation is to suppress desire. To suppress desire is to suppress ties. To suppress ties is to suppress existence. To suppress existence is to suppress birth. To suppress birth is to suppress old age and death. To exist is to suffer. Desire leads from birth to rebirth, from suffering to further suffering. By stifling desire, we prevent birth, we prevent suffering. By leading a life of holiness, desire is stifled, and we cease to endure birth and suffering.”

When dawn appeared, this most noble of men was a Buddha. He exclaimed:

“I have had numerous births. In vain have I sought the builder of the house. Oh, the torment of perpetual rebirth! But I have seen you at last, O builder of the house. You no longer build the house. The rafters are broken; the old walls are down. The ancient mountain crumbles; the mind attains to Nirvana; birth is no more, for desire is no more.”

Twelve times the earth shook; the world was like a great flower. The Gods sang:

“He has come, he who brings light into the world; he has come, he who protects the world! Long blinded, the eye of the world has opened, and the eye of the world is dazzled by the light. O conqueror, you will give all beings that which they hunger after. Guided by the sublime light of the Law, all creatures will reach the shores of deliverance. You hold the lamp; go now and dispel the darkness!” (Hérold & Blum 103-105)

 

A Buddhist Bhavacakra (Symbolic Representation of Saṃsāra)

The preceding phrase—reberthing in remarriment out of dead seekness to devine previdence— represents the four stages of the Viconian Cycle (birth, marriage, death and divine providence), but may also allude to Saṃsāra, the Buddhist cycle of birth, suffering, death and rebirth. Joyce already drew upon this twelve-link chain in a well-known passage in the opening chapter of Finnegans Wake:

In the ignorance that implies impression that knits knowledge that finds the nameform that whets the wits that convey contacts that sweeten sensation that drives desire that adheres to attachment that dogs death that bitches birth that entails the ensuance of existentiality. (RFW 015.04-07)

  • a lottuce land The lotus is an important symbol of enlightenment and rebirth in Buddhism:

“Endless evil, I know, comes of desire. The trees that grow in the forest of desire have their roots in suffering and strife, and their leaves are poisonous. Desire burns like fire and wounds like a sword. I am not one of those who seek the company of women; it is my lot to live in the silence of the woods. There, through meditation my mind will find peace, and I shall know happiness. But does not the lotus grow and flourish even amid the tangle of swamp-flowers ? Have there not been men with wives and sons who found wisdom? Those who, before me, have sought supreme knowledge spent many years in the company of women. And when the time came to leave them for the delights of meditation, theirs was but a greater joy. I shall follow their example.” (Hérold & Blum 38-39)

 

The Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)

Lettuce leaves are green, so perhaps this lotus-land is Ireland.

These Buddhist elements were added to this paragraph at quite a late stage in the composition—May 1938, when Joyce was working on the second set of galleys (JJDA), which Rose & O’Hanlon refer to as draft level 10 for this chapter.

Analysis of the Church Catechism

Another important source for this paragraph is a religious tract that was published anonymously in 1879: Analysis of the Church Catechism. According to Danis Rose and John O’Hanlon, curators of the James Joyce Digital Archive, this tract was prepared expressly for the Oxford and Cambridge local examinations. The catechism in question is that of the Church of England—appropriate as HCE is a Protestant. The work clearly draws heavily on A Historical and Practical Exposition of the Catechism of the Church of England by the Reverend Thomas Halton, Curate of Liverpool and Chaplain to the Earl of Lonsdale (London 1843). Some of Joyce’s borrowings from the anonymous Analysis can be found in the first draft of this paragraph. (Note that in the online copy of the Analysis on the Internet Archive the pages are out of sequence: pages 17-32 come between pages 48 and 49.)

 

The Covenanters Riot over The Book of Common Prayer

  • covenanter The original Covenanters were members of a religious and political movement in 17th-cenutry Scotland who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. They also objected to the Book of Common Prayer, which is quoted in this paragraph—for mine qvinne I thee giftake and bind my hosenband I thee haltar (FWEET). Their name is derived from covenant, a Biblical term for a bond or agreement between God and man:

The word covenant means a coming together, or an agreement between two persons. The Christian Covenant means the Christian agreement. God on the one side, man on the other. The Christian Covenant, or the Covenant of Grace, is the new covenant God made with man, by which He promised forgiveness of sins through a Saviour. (Anonymous 8)

  • his citadear of refuge, whither … the hejirite had fled … to forget in expiating manslaughter

SIXTH COMMANDMENT.

“THOU SHALT DO NO MURDER.”—This command forbids the taking away another’s life wilfully. The Mosaic law punished the murderer with death; but the manslayer, he who by accident caused the death of another, was permitted to flee to one of the cities of refuge. This command also forbids anger, “hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness.” St. John says: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” The portion of the murderer is in “the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.” (Anonymous 37)

 

Cities of Refuge

  • in which by the fourth commandment with promise his days apostolic were to be long by the abundant mercy of Him Which Thundereth From On High In the Catholic Catechism the Fourth Commandment is the one that commands each of us to honour his father and mother. This is the Fifth Commandment in the Catechism of the Church of England:

FIFTH COMMANDMENT.

“HONOUR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER, THAT THY DAYS MAY BE LONG IN THE LAND WHICH THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE,”

This is called the commandment with promise. The blessings promised to those who observe it are, long life, God’s favour, temporal mercies. (Anonymous 36)

“COMMUNION.”—Fellowship, united in one family, bound together by mutual affections, companionship, and sympathy. Our blessed Lord prays for this union “that they may be one;” this holy bond was strikingly manifested in Apostolic days: they “were of one heart and of one soul.” (Anonymous 25)

Joyce has also quoted here from the possibly fraudulent charter of 964 CE—Oswald’s Law—in which Edgar the Peaceful, King of England, claims possession of Dublin:

 

Edgar the Peaceful

By the abundant mercy of God, who thundereth from on high, and is King of kings, and Lord of lords, I EDGAR, king of the English, and emperor and lord of all the kings of the islands of the ocean, which lie round Britain, and of all the nations included in it, give thanks to the omnipotent God, my King, who hath so greatly extended my empire, and exalted it above the empire of my ancestors, who though they obtained the monarchy of all England, from the reign of Aethelstan, who, first of all the kings of the English, by his arms, subdued all the nations inhabiting Britain, yet none of them ever attempted to stretch its bounds beyond Britain. But divine Providence hath granted to me, together with the empire of the English, all the kingdoms of the islands of the Ocean, with their fierce kings, as far as Norway, and the greatest part of Ireland, with its most noble city of Dublin; all which by the most propitious grace of God, I have subdued under my power. (Warburton et al 46)

What was Joyce’s source for this? Possibly from Volume I of the History of the City of Dublin by John Warburton, James Whitelaw & Robert Walsh, from which the above quotation was taken.

  • all which in them were In VI.B.11.155l Joyce copied the phrase all that in them is from the Analysis:

FOURTH COMMANDMENT. “REMEMBER THAT THOU KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH DAY. SIX DAYS SHALT THOU LABOUR, AND DO ALL THAT THOU HAST TO DO; BUT THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH OF THE LORD THY GOD. IN IT THOU SHALT DO NO MANNER OF WORK, THOU, AND THY SON, AND THY DAUGHTER, THY MANSERVANT, AND THY MAID-SERVANT, THY CATTLE, AND THE STRANGER THAT IS WITHIN THY GATES. FOR IN SIX DAYS THE LORD MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH, THE SEA AND ALL THAT IN THEM IS, AND RESTED THE SEVENTH DAY; WHEREFORE THE LORD BLESSED THE SEVENTH DAY, AND HALLOWED IT.” (Anonymous 35)

 

The Emerald Isle

  • do him hurt In VI.B.11.155j Joyce copied the phrase do you hurt from the Analysis:

THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN IMAGE … “A JEALOUS GOD.”—This injunction was enforced upon the Israelites after they had entered the Promised Land. “He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you hurt, and consume you.” Yet they despised the command and sank into idolatry many times, until for this sin they were carried away in captivity. (Anonymous 34)

  • ghostly following bodily In VI.B.11.157k Joyce copied the phrase dangers, ghostly & bodily from the Analysis:

SUMMARY OF THE LORD’S PRAYER “WHAT DESIREST THOU OF GOD IN THIS PRAYER?”

“I DESIRE MY LORD GOD OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, WHO IS THE GIVER OF ALL GOODNESS, TO SEND HIS GRACE UNTO ME, AND TO ALL PEOPLE; THAT WE MAY WORSHIP HIM, SERVE HIM, AND OBEY HIM AS WE OUGHT TO DO. AND I PRAY UNTO GOD, THAT HE WILL SEND US ALL THINGS THAT BE NEEDFUL BOTH FOR OUR SOULS AND BODIES; AND THAT HE WILL BE MERCIFUL UNTO US, AND FORGIVE US OUR SINS; AND THAT IT WILL PLEASE HIM TO SAVE AND DEFEND US IN ALL DANGERS, GHOSTLY AND BODILY; AND THAT HE WILL KEEP US FROM ALL SIN AND WICKEDNESS, AND FROM OUR GHOSTLY ENEMY, AND FROM EVERLASTING DEATH. AND THIS I TRUST HE WILL DO OF HIS MERCY AND GOODNESS, THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. AND THEREFORE I SAY, AMEN, SO BE IT.” (Anonymous 48-49)

 

The Agora and Acropolis in Athens

  • as were he made a curse for them In VI.B.11.155h Joyce copied the phrase made a curse for us from the Analysis:

By reason of indwelling sin man is unable to render the obedience required by God’s law, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The sentence pronounced by the law upon the transgressor is death; but Christ by His obedience to the law has wrought out a deliverance from the curse of the law: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” (Anonymous 33)

  • the corruptible lay quick, all saints of incorruption

ELEVENTH ARTICLE. “THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.”

“RESURRECTION” means rising again, or coming to life again. The bodies of all that are in their graves shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. The Lord Jesus Christ will raise them by His own mighty power; “the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (Anonymous 25-26)

 

Pharaoh Cheops

  • an holy nation

“THE ELECT PEOPLE OF GOD.”—A chosen people. The people of Israel were a chosen people. All true believers are God’s chosen people; chosen for special work for His own glory. “A chosen generation—an holy nation.” (Anonymous 28)

  • resurrection to condemn In VI.B.11.154p Joyce copied the phrase resurrection of / damnation from the Analysis:

THE RESURRECTION BODY will be a glorious body; “we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly.” “We shall be like Him.” The resurrection of the righteous is called by our Lord “the resurrection of life;” the resurrection of the wicked is called “the resurrection of damnation.” (Anonymous 26)

  • might convince him … of their proper sins In VI.B.11.154k Joyce copied the phrase convinces of sin from the Analysis:

The Greek word parakletos, Comforter, is elsewhere rendered Advocate; the Holy Ghost is, like Christ, an Advocate with the Father. He also convinces of sin; He is a teacher, guiding into all truth, and leading in the way of holiness; He restrains from sin, by His indwelling. (Anonymous 24)

 

Terence Killeen

Finally, I might point out that the Joycean scholar Terence Killeen discusses this paragraph at some length in an article that was published in Issue 13 of Genetic Joyce Studies. Killeen’s paper is a critique of the editorial principles followed by Danis Rose & John O’Hanlon in The Restored Finnegans Wake (Killeen 8-12).

I leave the reader to pursue the remaining elements in this pregnant paragraph. Notable among these are:

  • Troy: seventh city … citadear … laimen [Layamon, whose Brut was mentioned in the preceding paragraph: RFW 048.36-37] … Atreeatic [House of Atreus?] … Emeraldillium.

  • The French Revolution: Marie-Antoinette’s words J’ai tout vu, tout entendu et tout oublié [I saw everything, heard everything and forgot everything] refer to the events of 5-6 October 1789, when the Women of Paris Marched on Versailles (Trogan 56). The Reign of Terror (terror) occurred in 1793-1794 and claimed at least 35,000 lives. French: franchissables, passable, surmountable, may also be relevant.

And that’s as good a place as any to beach the bark of our tale.

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10 May 2023

Tap and Pat and Tapatagain

 

Edith Thompson, Percy Thompson & Frederick Bywaters (RFW 047.13-049:29)

Chapter I.3 of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake—the Humphriad II—is a journalistic investigation into the HCE affair. We continue our study of the episode known as the Plebiscite—RFW 046.16-049.29—which documents the people’s response to the affair. Having studied the four introductory paragraphs, we finally come to the Plebiscite proper—also known to Joyceans as the Street Interview (Deane 1995:10). This comprises a single long paragraph—97 lines in The Restored Finnegans Wake and 113 in the first edition—in which members of the public are quizzed on HCE’s alleged Crime in the Park.

The Bywaters Case

In an earlier article—Finnegans Wake and the Bywaters Case—we discussed the influence a celebrated murder trial had on the conception of Finnegans Wake.

On 4 October 1922, just as Joyce was giving thought to his next work, an event occurred that was to have a lasting impact on the writing of Finnegans Wake. Shortly after midnight a man and a woman were walking home from Ilford Station in the northeast of London. Percy Thompson, a shipping clerk, and his wife Edith had been enjoying a night out at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly. They were accosted on Belgrave Road by a youth. An altercation ensued. A knife was drawn. The younger man dealt Percy Thompson a mortal wound and ran off.

A twenty-year-old merchant seaman called Frederick Bywaters was identified by Edith Thompson as the killer and was quickly arrested. When the police searched his room they found among his belongings more than sixty love letters addressed to him by Mrs Thompson. On the foot of this discovery she too was arrested and both lovers were charged with the murder of Percy Thompson.

 

Frederick Bywaters, Edith Thompson, & Percy Thompson

Their joint trial opened at the Old Bailey on 6 December 1922—the same day that the Irish Free State came into existence. Bywaters insisted that he had acted alone, but the love letters were produced in evidence to prove otherwise. In the incriminating correspondence Edith Thompson made it clear that she felt trapped in a loveless marriage and saw her young lover as a way out. She mentioned failed attempts on her part to bring about her husband’s death. She also referenced newspaper articles involving women who had successfully murdered their husbands. On more than one occasion she encouraged Bywaters to take decisive steps and bring matters to a head.

This scandal and the ensuing criminal proceedings captured the public imagination. The case was closely followed by both sections of the British press. The country’s leading broadsheet, The Times, limited itself for the most part to the legal niceties of the case and the subsequent appeals. It was critical, however, of the sensational coverage which the tabloids gave the case, describing the excitement fomented by them as unhealthy and calling their publicity campaign a grave discredit to British journalism (Rowbotham et al 134). The tabloids meanwhile debated the ins and outs of the case and took sides in what had become a cause célèbre. The Daily Mirror and the Daily Sketch took the view that Bywaters was an innocent youth who had been led astray by an older, more experienced femme fatale. The Daily Express and The News of the World, on the other hand, portrayed Thompson as a bored young housewife with a vivid imagination and an obsession with romantic fiction, an unhappily married woman who fantasized about killing her dull husband and running off to sea with her youthful lover but who never had any real intention of acting out these fantasies.

 

Frederick Bywaters & Edith Thompson at the Old Bailey

Edith Thompson was advised by her attorney not to take the stand, but she disregarded his advice. It was a fatal miscalculation. Her testimony was at times contradictory. She was more than once caught in a lie, and her histrionic demeanour in court did not help her cause. Her claims that the accounts of poisoning her husband or of mixing broken glass into his food were fictions intended to impress her paramour did not convince the jury. On several occasions, when asked to account for an incriminating passage in one of the letters, she could only reply: I have no idea.

On 11 December 1922, after a trial which had lasted only six days, Frederick Bywaters and Edith Thompson were found guilty of the murder of Percy Thompson. They were both sentenced to death by hanging. The Court of Criminal Appeal heard and dismissed their appeals on the twenty-first. Bywaters was hanged at Pentonville Prison on the morning of 9 January 1923. Thompson was hanged at Holloway Prison at the same time.

The attitude of both press and public shifted dramatically in the wake of the guilty verdicts and death sentences. Almost one million people signed petitions for the reprieve of Bywaters organized by the Daily Sketch and The Daily News, while The News of the World and The Daily Express petitioned for the reprieve of Thompson. Bywaters was widely praised for the philosophical demeanour he showed in the face of death and for his repeated attempts to exonerate his lover. His last words were: They are hanging an innocent woman. Thompson attracted sympathy from the general abhorrence the public felt at the idea of a woman being hanged, whether she was guilty of murder or not. She was carried to the scaffold in a state of collapse.

 

Bantry Bay (Arthur Power)

From his vantage point in Paris, James Joyce too had been closely following the Bywaters case. The scandal fascinated him. He filled several pages of one of his notebooks with newspaper quotes—the Daily Sketch was his principal source of information—and discussed the case with his friend the artist Arthur Power (Power & Hart 61-65). When an account of the trial was published in 1923, he procured a copy and proceeded to mine it for more quotes. He came down clearly on the same side of the debate as The News of the World and The Daily Express: Edith Thompson was a woman of imagination but not of action : if her love letters were enough to convict her of murder in a court of law, then no writer of fiction was safe from the scaffold. One might as easily convict Vladimir Nabokov of paedophilia, or Daniel Defoe of piracy.

The Street Interview was inspired by one particular newspaper article on the Bywaters Case—as the indefatigable Joycean sleuth Vincent Deane first pointed out in 1994. The article in question—PETITION FOR REPRIEVE OF BYWATERS IS READY TO-DAY—appeared in the Daily Sketch on 14 December 1922. A reproduction of the article can be found in Volume 9, Number 1 of the James Joyce Literary Supplement. The article takes up almost the whole page 3 of the newspaper, but the section that interests us only comprises about two columns and has the title WHAT THEY THINK:

Opinions were collected by the Daily Sketch yesterday from people chosen at random in the City and suburbs, the region of the clubs and the poorer neighbourhoods of the East. Three out of four of those spoken to declared themselves at once heartily in sympathy with the petition. (Daily Sketch, Thursday, 14 December 1922, Page 3)

 

Vincent Deane

Several members of the public were interviewed for this article, nine of whom were depicted by small portrait photographs (indicated in bold below):

  • A Waitress
  • An Omnibus Driver
  • A Woman Shop Assistant
  • A Mannequin [Fashion Model]
  • A Railway Porter
  • A Dustman [Binman], Mr Churches
  • An Actress, Sheila Courtenay
  • A City Policeman
  • Three Soldiers (one Soldier is photographed and quoted)
  • A Sailor
  • A Barmaid
  • A Taxicab Driver
  • A Typist
  • A Chef
  • A Postman
  • A Shop Assistant
  • A Commercial Traveller [Travelling Salesman]
  • An Hotel Manager
  • A Civil Servant
  • A Commissionaire [Uniformed Doorman] at a Well-Known Store (A Shop Girl is photographed)
  • A Solicitor
  • An Artist
  • A Bus Driver (photographed but not quoted, unless he is the Omnibus Driver quoted above)

 

Daily Sketch 14 December 1922, Page 3

A waitress: Bywaters had more love for Mrs. Thompson than sense; she instigated him to the crime, she is older than he and ought to have a greater sense of responsibility.

An omnibus driver: I heartily support the petition; Bywaters ought not to die.

A woman shop assistant: All the wrong was on Mrs. Thompson’s side. I would like to see Bywaters reprieved because he was not a murderer in the strict sense of the word.

A mannequin in one of the large stores: I would like to see Bywaters reprieved because I feel so sorry for him.

A railway porter: Bywaters has been under this woman’s influence ever since he was a boy.

A dustman named Churches in the employ of the City Corporation, said:—“We have been discussing the case at our wharf, and most of the fellows will sign the petition; in fact, I believe we shall all sign it. Bywaters is only a young fellow, and ought to be let off the death sentence. The woman dominated him and led him astray.”

Miss Sheila Courtenay, who is appearing in “The Cat and the Canary” at the Shaftesbury Theatre, put the same view: “I sincerely hope,” she said, “that Bywaters will not be hanged. He is very young, and was egged on by a woman older than himself to do what he did. And then he has been so wonderful in his behaviour at the Old Bailey.”

 

The Cat and the Canary

Other opinions can be compressed into lines. Here are a few only:—

A City policeman: If anyone is entitled to sympathy it is Bywaters; he was drawn into it.

Three soldiers were walking together in Fleet street; one gave an opinion in which all concurred. It was the woman who was to blame. Bywaters played a bad part in the crime, but he was coerced. He proved himself a man afterwards.

A sailor, on the Embankment, was encouraged to speak by his fiancée, and said: I think the woman was more to blame than Bywaters, but I think there was someone else in it.

A barmaid in the West End: It would be a shame if Bywaters died.

A taxicab driver: Bywaters is a silly young fellow, but he ought not to pay the full penalty.

A Typist: There were extenuating circumstances in the case of Bywaters. The woman drew him into the trouble.

A Chef: I do not believe in the capital sentence, and I certainly do not think that this boy deserves it. He seemed to be entirely under the influence of the woman.

 

The Thames Embankment

A Postman: Bywaters certainly ought to be reprieved. After all, he was led into wrong-doing by a will stronger than his own.

A shop assistant: My heart goes out to the young fellow who has proved himself such a man in standing by his sweetheart at all costs.

A commercial traveller: I have discussed the case with many people, and in every instance the view has been expressed that Bywaters should escape the gallows. Should Mrs. Thompson be reprieved, Bywaters should most certainly be similarly treated.

An hotel manager: When I read the Daily Sketch this morning I was struck with its humanitarian attitude. Personally I believe in the abolition of capital punishment. I hope that both Bywaters and Mrs. Thompson will be reprieved, although it is obvious to everyone that the youth was drawn into the crime by the irresistible influence of his lover.

A prominent Civil Servant: Every member of my staff has intimated his or her desire to sign the petition for the reprieve of Bywaters, who, at an impressionable period of his life, they consider was the unfortunate dupe of an unscrupulous woman.

A commissionaire at a well-known store: I can assure you that among the hundreds of girls employed here, sympathy is strongly felt for Bywaters, and every one will be glad to sign the Daily Sketch petition.

A solicitor: The policy of the Daily Sketch in this tragic case is in accord with public sentiment. But time is short, and your readers should make a point of signing the petition at once.

An artist: I have no doubt whatever that public opinion will save Bywaters’ life. It is inconceivable that a woman so much his senior should be reprieved and that he should lose his life.

Daily Sketch, Thursday, 14 December 1922, Page 3

 

Montgomery Street (Foley Street), Dublin

First Draft

Joyce’s first draft of the Street Interview illustrates the extent to which he relied upon the Daily Sketch. While reading this draft, one should remember that Joyce had not yet conceived of the character of HCE or written the vignette known as Here Comes Everybody, which would eventually blossom into the Humphriad (Deane 1995:11). There was as yet no Crime in the Park. His initial interest in the Bywaters case was piqued by its similarity to the plot of the Tristan and Iseult myth, a love triangle with Oedipal overtones, which was the proximate inspiration for Finnegans Wake.

Three soldiers of the Coldstream Guards were walking in Montgomery street. One gave an opinion in which all concurred. It was the women, they said, he showed himself a man afterwards. A leading actress was interviewed in a beauty parlour and said she hoped he would be acquitted and: Then he has been so truly wonderful, she added. A dustman named Churches in the employ of Bullwinkle and McHanger was asked and replied: We have just been discussing this case. All the fellows say he is a game one. A taxi driver said: He is a damned scoundrel in private life but he has parliamentary privilege. A barmaid: it would be a shame to jail him on account of his health. A sailor, seated on the granite setts of the fish market, was encouraged to speak by his fiancee & said: [I think] he was to blame about the two slaveys, but I think there was someone else behind it about the 3 drummers. (Hayman 71-72 : James Joyce Digital Archive)

These six interviewees have been lifted straight from the Daily Sketch:

  • Three soldiers of the Coldstream Guards No doubt Joyce was struck by the similarity to the three soldiers set to spy on Tristan in Joseph Bédier’s retelling of the Tristan and Isolde myth. In Finnegans Wake they became, in time, Shem, Shaun and the Oedipal Figure. London’s Fleet Street has been replaced by Montgomery Street, the centre of Dublin’s red-light district. This draws the two soldiers in the Circe Episode of Ulysses into the mix. In the final version the soldier who speaks is called Pat Marchison.

 

Defence of the Château d’Hougoumont by the Flank Company, Coldstream Guards, 1815

  • A leading actress Sheila Courtenay became, first, the 18th-century actress Mrs Siddons, and then the celebrated murder victim Fanny Adams. The man executed for Adams’ murder, Frederick Baker, had a similar name to Frederick Bywaters. In 1922 The Cat and the Canary was a new play by John Willard, an American playwright, screenwriter and actor. Note that beauty parlour is slang for brothel.

  • A dustman named Churches In the published version he has become a dustman nocknamed Sevenchurches, which adds an Apocalyptic element. There are, however, a number of places in Ireland with this name: Clonmacnoise, the Aran Islands, and Glendalough. Glintalook narrows our search for the relevant one.

  • A taxi driver A taxicab driver in the Daily Sketch.

  • A barmaid She no longer works in London’s West End. In the final version she is employed by a railway company.

  • A sailor The sailor is no longer on London’s Thames Embankment. A sett is a squared piece of quarried stone used for paving. Joyce borrowed the granite setts from D H Lawrence’s novel Aaron’s Rod, which was published in 1922. The fish market must refer to Dublin’s Fish Hall, a fishmarket which first opened its doors in 1892 on the corner of Mary’s Lane and St Michan’s Street. The reference to two slaveys suggests that Joyce had conceived of schizophrenic Issy by this time. In the Tristan and Isolde myth there are two Iseults: Iseult the Fair, with whom Tristan has his adulterous affair, and Iseult of the White Hand, whom he weds. Joyce’s daughter Lucia would be diagnosed as schizophrenic in the 1930s, but in 1922 she was still a perfectly healthy teenager. The two slaveys are the only indication in this draft that Joyce had already conceived of the Crime in the Park, which involves two young women. But it appears that the true origin of the Crime is a note in VI.B.3, a notebook Joyce compiled in March-July 1923 (James Joyce Digital Archive).

 

Dublin’s Fish Hall

The version of the Street Interview which appeared in the third issue of Eugene Jolas & Elliot Paul’s literary journal transition on 1 June 1927 is already very close to the final version.

Sources

In expanding the first draft, Joyce drew upon articles unrelated to the Bywaters case that he came across in a variety of newspapers:

  • Evening Standard 9 January 1923

  • Daily Mail 25 January 1923, 27 January 1923, 27 May 1924

  • Sunday Pictorial 29 October 1922, 17 December 1922. The James Joyce Digital Archive identifies this as the Sunday Express, but it was the Pictorial, which was later renamed the Sunday Mirror.

  • Daily Sketch 14 December 1922, 21 December 1922

 

transition (Jolas & Paul 38-40)

Other sources include

  • Ada Peter, Dublin Fragments: Social and Historic (1925)

  • Joseph B Holloway, Souvenir of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Opening of the Gaiety Theatre: 27th November 1871 (1896)

  • Édouard Trogan, Les Mots Historiques du Pays de France (1916)

  • Mrs Patrick Campbell, My Life and Some Letters (1922)

  • Léopold-François Sauvé, Proverbes et Dictons de la Basse-Bretagne (1878)

  • Thomas Moore, Irish Melodies (1882)

  • Oscar Wilde, De Profundis (1905, 1962). In 1895 Wilde was tried for gross indecency under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885.

  • Alfred Tennyson, The May Queen (1870)

  • Richard Michael Levey & J O’Rorke, Annals of the Theatre Royal, Dublin (1880)

  • Marjory Kennedy-Fraser & Kenneth Macleod, Songs of the Hebrides (1917)

  • D H Lawrence, Aaron’s Rod (1922)

  • Bernard Gilbert, Old England: A God’s-Eye View of a Village (1921)

  • Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing (1600)

  • The Book of Common Prayer (1892)

  • The Bible

 

Tirez les Premiers, Messieurs les Anglais! (Trogan 48-49)

Dramatis Persona

In the final version, the number of Street Interviewees exceeds two dozen:

  • Three Soldiers of the Coldstream Guards The French expressions are taken from Thomas Ravenscroft’s song We Be Soldiers Three, which is set in the early 17th century during the Dutch Revolt, or Eighty Years’ War. Finner Camp is a military establishment in County Donegal. The puzzling Anglo-Saxon expression Wroth mod eldfar, ruth redd stillstand, wrath wrackt wroth might be translated to angry with old father (the Oedipal Event? Bywaters attacking Thompson?), red ruth stood its ground (Edith Thompson?), anger waxed angry (?). See Campbell & Robinson below on the Ancient Greek: μῆνις [mēnis] wrath—the opening word of Homer’s Iliad.

  • A Vauxhall Actress

  • An Entychologist

  • A Dustman

  • A Cardriver

  • A French Chef (Auguste Escoffier?)

 

Auguste Escoffier

  • A Perspiring Tennis Player Perhaps anticipating an allusion to Tennyson’s The May Queen.

  • A Railway Barmaid

  • A Board of Trade Official

  • The Daughters Benkletter Danish: underbenklæder, drawers, underpants.

  • Brian Lynskey

  • A Wouldbe Martyr

  • Ida Wombwell, a Young Revivalist. Wombwell was a real person, as Peter Chrisp discovered.

  • A Bookmaker (Mr Danl Magrath, or “Caligula”). He may be based on a real person known to Joyce as Magrath: Daniel McGrath, grocer, wine merchant and publican, 4-5 Charlotte Street, Dublin (McHugh 128).

  • El Caplan Buycoat, a Chaplain. The allusion to Captain Charles Boycott is obvious.

 

Captain Charles Boycott

  • Dan Meiklejohn, a Church Precentor

  • Lord Doran (“Sniffpox”) and Lady Morgan (“Flatterfun”)

  • The Dainty Drabs

  • Sylvia Silence, the Girl Detective. Peter Chrisp has traced her origins. We will be meeting this girl with a lisp—in Finnegans Wake hesitency of speech is always an admission of guilt—on two further occasions. Joyce first came across her in the Sunday Pictorial (29 October 1922, Page 17).

  • Jarley Jilke Like Parnell, the politician Charles Dilke was involved in a sex scandal. Unlike Parnell, however, he survived it.

  • Walter Meagher, a Naval Rating (enlisted naval man). Adaline Glasheen comments: _seems to have inherited a pair of family trousers in bad condition and to have been involved in some kind of “troth.” (Glasheen 190)

 

Laurence O’Toole

Laurence O’Toole & Thomas à Becket

HCE & ALP’s twin sons Shem & Shaun appear in Finnegans Wake under many guises. One of the first of these occurred on the second page of the novel:

he would caligulate by multiplicables the alltitude and malltitude until he seesaw by neatlight of the liquor wheretwin ’twas born his roundhead staple of other days to rise in undress maisonry upstanded (joygrantit!), a waalworth of a skyerscape of most eyeful hoyth entowerly, erigenating from next to nothing and celescalating the himals and all, hierarchitectitiptitoploftical, with a burning bush abob off its baubletop and with larrons o’toolers clittering up and tombles a’buckets clottering down. (RFW 004.21-28)

The allusion to the Archbishop and Patron Saint of Dublin Laurence O’Toole and the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas à Becket is obvious. Note also the allusion to Caligula, which is repeated in the Street Interview (RFW 048.37). But I have always suspected that there was more going on here than meets the eye.

In the Street Interview, we find the following curious passage:

Mrs F— A— saidaside, half in stage of whisper to her confidante glass, while recoopering her cartwheel chapot (ahat! we now know what thimbles a’baquets on lallance o’talls mean) … (RFW 047.27-30)

  • cartwheel hat a hat with a very wide circular or saucer-shaped brim.

 

A Cartwheel Hat

  • French: chapeau, hat.

  • chamberpot

  • French: capote anglaise, condom.

Putting two and two together, John Gordon arrived at the following result (he is describing the master bedroom, upstairs in HCE’s tavern in Chapelizod):

The most prominent feature of the bed is the bedposts, each aligned with one cardinal point of the compass … Three other items in the room, a chamber-pot, a hat, and a bell-pull or buzzer … The hat—generally described as a bucket-shaped affair—is whisked before our eyes in one of the book’s teases when an actress is described as speaking ‘while recoopering her cartwheel chapot (ahat!—and we now know what thimbles a baquets on lallance a talls mean)’ (59.06-7) [RFW 047.28-30]. If this means anything it means that ‘tombles a’buckets’ of 5.03 [RFW 004.28], ‘clottering down’ the bauble-topped tower there is the same thing as the thimble-shaped baquet [French, tub] on the tall lance there—that is, a hat. As such it is perhaps the primary source of the pot-on-pole insignia already mentioned, and the readiest way of accounting for it is to conclude that HCE, like many men, has hung his hat on the handiest vertical, one of his knob-topped bedposts, as one of Issy’s notes puts it, ‛the nightcap’s on nigh’ [234.FN4], on high … The hat is probably atop the bedpost above the sleeper’s head, the chamberpot at the bed’s foot. (Gordon 18-20)

 

Four-Poster Bed with Top Hat

In his online blog on Finnegans Wake, Gordon adds the following remark:

59.6-7: “ahat! — and we now know what thimbles a baquets on lallance a talls mean:” refers back to “with larrons o’toolers clittering up and tombles a’buckets clottering down” (5.3-4). Like this authorial-intrusion interlude in “Sirens:” “Upholding the lid he (who?) gazed in the coffin (coffin?) at the oblique triple (piano!) wires,” where we are parenthetically informed, by degrees, that someone is looking inside the workings of a piano. Problem, at least for me, is that I still can’t see how what was first being referred to was a hat, or how it illuminates the rest of the cited passage. Not the only place in FW that teases its readers.

5.3-4: “larrons o’toolers clittering up and tombles a’buckets clottering down:” Laurence O’Toole and Thomas à Becket were both assaulted before the main altar of Canterbury Cathedral; O’Toole got back up and survived; Becket was mortally wounded and remained fallen. (Much of the language describing the structure here seems apt for a cathedral.)

There is also the sexual connotation, in which Issy’s nightcap refers to a condom. The image depicted is of an erect penis wearing a condom and penetrating a vagina:

  • French (slang): baquet, cunt, female genitalia.

  • English (slang): lance, penis.

  • French: capote anglaise, condom.

 

Joseph Campbell & Henry Morton Robinson

An Entychologist

One of the Street Interviewees is identified as an entychologist:

Prehistoric, obitered to his dictaphone an entychologist, his propenomen is a properismenon. (RFW 047.36-37)

Joseph Campbell & Henry Morton Robinson’s commentary on this line in their pioneering study A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake is worth quoting:

This sentence is typical of Joyce’s tremendous condensation of meaning. “Entychologist” and “properismenon” do not occur in any dictionary, but contain roots and overtones which yield a rich harvest of significance. “Entychologist” suggests the Latin ens, entis,meaning “being.” The Greek entychia means “conversation,” and entychon, “one met by chance.” The word may be read to mean “a conversationalist met by chance and skilled in the science of being.”

But the word resembles “entomologist,” “one skilled in the science of insects.” This resemblance adds an amusing overtone, for is not that earwig, Mr. Earwicker, the ens, entis, of all? But what is the entychologist actually saying about Earwicker? “He is of prehistoric origin and his name is a properismenon.” This latter word suggests the Greek properispomenon, i.e., “a word having a circumflex accent on the penult[imate syllable].” Such a word is Iris; such a word, too, is Menis; these may be concealed in the syllables “eris-menon.” Iris was the Greek rainbow goddess; Menis means “wrath of the gods.” Cf. Rainbow-Thunder. But Menis suggests “Menes,” the first Pharaoh. Add the facts that the syllable “ris” means a cereal (rice), that the Egyptian Pharaoh is the incarnation of the god of grain, and the connection with HCE is reinforced. The fusion in one word of a goddess and a king suggest the Hermaphrodite theme: the emergence of the temptress Eve from the very body of her lord. Finally, Greek smenos means “beehive,” “swarm”; peri means “around,” and pro means “before.” Perhaps we may read: “his proper name, a properispomenon, precedes and surrounds [i.e., is the root of and represents] a swarm.” (Campbell & Robinson 70-71 fn)

 

The Duke of Wellington at Waterloo

In the Museyroom

In Finnegans Wake Joyce tells the same stories over and over again. There are a few elements in the Street Interview that link it with an earlier and better known episode: In the Museyroom. You may recall that the narrative of that episode—a sort of retelling of the Battle of Waterloo—was punctuated by four isolated interjections in parenthesis:

… (Bullsfoot! Fine!) … (Bullsear! Play!) … (Bullsrag! Foul!) … (Bullseye! Game!) (RFW 007.06-008.39)

The Street Interview is also interrupted by four brief interjections in parenthesis:

… (Terse!) … (Tart!) … (Tosh!) … (Trite!)

Each of these seems to conceal the meaning Third! But why?

The Duke of Wellington—Arthur Wellesley—who played a prominent rôle in the Museyroom Episode, is also mentioned in the Street Interview:

… that fatal wellesday …

At Waterloo the Coldstream Guards defended the Château d’Hougoumont.

And that’s as good a place as any to beach the bark of our tale.

References

  • Joseph Bédier, Le Roman de Tristan et Iseut, H Piazza et Compagnie, Paris (1902)
  • Mrs Patrick Campbell (Beatrice Stella Cornwallis-West), My Life and Some Letters, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York (1922)
  • Joseph Campbell, Henry Morton Robinson, A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York (1944)
  • Thomas Cranmer et al, The Book of Common Prayer, Eyre & Spottiswoode, London (1892)
  • Vincent Deane, Bywaters and the Original Crime, European Joyce Studies, Volume 4, Finnegans Wake: Teems of Times, Pages 165-204, Rodopi, Amsterdam (1994)
  • Vincent Deane, NOTED SCRIBE IN MURDER TRIAL APPEAL BID CHARGE SHOCK!, James Joyce Literary Supplement, Volume 9, Number 1, Pages 10-11, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida (1995)
  • Bernard Gilbert, Old England: A God’s-Eye View of a Village, W Collins Sons & Co Ltd, London (1921)
  • Adaline Glasheen, Third Census of Finnegans Wake, University of California Press, Berkeley, California (1977)
  • John Gordon, Finnegans Wake: A Plot Summary, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York (1986)
  • David Hayman, A First-Draft Version of Finnegans Wake, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas (1963)
  • Joseph B Holloway et al, Souvenir of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Opening of the Gaiety Theatre: 27th November 1871, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin (1896)
  • Eugene Jolas & Elliot Paul (editors), transition, Number 2, Shakespeare & Co, Paris (1927)
  • James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, The Viking Press, New York (1958, 1966)
  • James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Works, Pynch (editor), Online (2013)
  • Marjory Kennedy-Fraser & Kenneth Macleod, Songs of the Hebrides, Volumes 1-3, Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited, London (1917)
  • D H Lawrence, Aaron’s Rod, Martin Secker, London (1922)
  • Richard Michael Levey, J O’Rorke, Annals of the Theatre Royal, Dublin, Joseph Dollard, Dublin (1880)
  • Roland McHugh, The Sigla of Finnegans Wake, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas (1976)
  • Thomas Moore (lyricist), John Stevenson & Henry Bishop (arrangers), Moore’s Irish Melodies with Symphonies and Accompaniments by Sir John Stevenson, Mus Doc, and Sir Henry Bishop, New Edition, M H Gill & Son, Dublin (1882)
  • Ada Peter, Dublin Fragments: Social and Historic, Hodges Figgis & Co, Dublin (1925)
  • Arthur Power & Clive Hart, Conversations with James Joyce, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1974)
  • Thomas Ravenscroft, Pammelia, Deutromelia, Melismata, Edited by MacEdward Leach, Reprint of the First Editions (1609, 1611), The American Folklore Society, Inc, Philadelphia (1961)
  • Danis Rose, John O’Hanlon, The Restored Finnegans Wake, Penguin Classics, London (2012)
  • Judith Rowbotham, Kim Stevenson, Samantha Pegg, Crime News in Modern Britain: Press Reporting and Responsibility, 1820-2010, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (2013)
  • Léopold-François Sauvé, Proverbes et Dictons de la Basse-Bretagne, H Champion, Paris (1878)
  • William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, The Yale Shakespeare, Yale university Press, New Haven, Connecticut (1917)
  • Florence Simmonds (translator), The Romance of Tristram and Iseult, Translated from the French of Joseph Bédier, William Heinemann, London (1910)
  • Alfred Tennyson, The May Queen, Frederick Warne and Co, London (1870)
  • Édouard Trogan, Les Mots Historiques du Pays de France, Eighth Edition, Maison Alfred Mame et Fils, Tours (1916)
  • Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, Abridged Version, G P Putnam’s Sons, New York (1905)
  • Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, Complete Version, Rupert Hart-Davis (editor), The Letters of Oscar Wilde,Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc, New York (1962)
  • Filson Young, The Trial of Frederick Bywaters and Edith Thompson, Notable British Trials Series, William Hodge & Co, Ltd, Edinburgh (1923)

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