Shem is as short for Shemus as Jim is for Jacob. Originally of respectable connections his back life simply won't stand being written about.this vignette indulges in an orgy of self-criticism neatly following the maxim:
Cain - Ham (Shem) - Esau - Jim the Penman
wellknown for violent abuse of self & others.
lives in inkbottlehouse.
boycotted, local publican refuse to supply books, papers, ink, foolscap, makes his own from dried dung sweetened with spittle (ink) writes universal history on his own body (parchment)
hospitality, all drunk & rightly indignant
1 eye halfopen, 1 arm, 42 hairs on his head, 17 on upper lip, 5 on chin, 3 teeth, no feet, 10 thumbs, ½ a buttock, ½ & ½ a testicle, - - when is a man not a man?
A forger, can imitate all styles, some of his own.
1st copies of most original masterpieces slipped from his pen
Sings hymn: lingua mea calamus scribae, veliciter scribentis.
So low was he that he preferred Lazenby's tinned salmon to the plumpest roeheavy lax or frisky troutlet to be gaffed between Leixlip & Island bridge & he said no fresh pineapple ever tasted like the chunks in Heinz's cans.
He was able to write in the gloom of his bottle only because his noseglow as it slid over the paper and while he scribbled & scratched nameless shamelessnesses about others over & over his foul text he used to draw endless portraits of himself up and down the two margins as a strikingly handsome young man with lyrics in his eyes and a lovely pair of Italian moustaches. How unwhisperably low!
None of your nice bloody beefsteaks or juicy legs of melting mutton or fat belly bacon or greasy gristly pigs' feet or slice upon slice of luscious goose bosom with lump upon lump of rich stuffing swamping grand brown gravy for him. Once when in a state of helplessly hopeless inebriation peel of a citron to his nostrils & hiccupped he could live all his days on the smell of it, as the citr, as the cedron, as the cedar on the founts on the mountains, lemon on, of Lebanon. The lowness of him was beyond all that was ever known. No firewater or first shot or gutburning gin or honest red or brown beer. No. O no. But he botched up some kind of a wheywhinging rhubarbarous yallagreen decoction of sour grapes & according to him it his cups it came straight from the noble white fat, the most noble wide her white hide that, from the winevat of the archduchess, Fanny Urinia. Talk about lowness! Low wretched that he was he used to boast that he had been put out of all the best families who had settled in the capital city generally on account of his smell which all cookmaids objected to. In place of tutoring the outlander families plain wholesome handwriting (a thing he never possessed of his own) what do you think he did but copy all their various styles of signature they had so as to utter forged cheques in public for his own profit until, as just related, the Dublin United Scullerymaids kicked him out of the place altogether on account of his stink? It was generally hoped he wd develop hereditary pulmonary T.B. but of course not even there was he true to type: Low! He treasured all unkind words. If ever in the public interest delicate hints were put to him such as: Do is the meaning of that foreign word, we think it is canaille?: or: do you ever in your travels happen to meet a gentleman named Bugger?: he would begin to tell the persons the whole lifelong story of his low existence explaining the meanings of all the other foreign words he used and telling every lie imaginable about all the other people he met except the simple word and person they had asked him about until they were completely undeceived.
Of course he disliked a good sensible row and once when he was called in as umpire in an octagonal argument among [...] the low mean wretch agreed always with the last speaker while he nudged the one who was speaking to fill his glass for him. One night he was alternately kicked from 82 Dublin Square as far as the lefthand corner of Europe Parade by two groups of argumentalists who finally went home disgustedly, reconciled to a friendship, fast & furious, solely on account of his lowness.
He never could be got to play rational national games such a hat in the ring, Shiela & the cow, here's the fat to grease the priest's boots & it's now notoriously known that when bloody Sunday when the grand germogall fight was raging between those fighting men extraordinary he corked himself up in his inkbottle and hid under a bedtick semiparalysed his face & trousers changing colour every time a rifle spoke.
A drug addict, too, his manner was to write strings of honourable, learned, highplaced initials after his name while, if you could only have seen into his den, whenever he made believe to read one of his tattered chapbooks he did nothing but turn over three or 4 pages at a time growling because what with the bad light the dirty print, the torn page, the scum in his eyes, the drink in his stomach, the rats in his garret and the hullabaloo in his ears [...] Was there ever heard of such low down blackguardism?
Nabuchadonosor himself had not such a high & mighty opinion of himself as had this mental defective who bragged in a bar that he was aware of no other person either exactly unlike or precisely the same as what I know or imagine I am myself. After bloody Sunday, though every door in Lucalizod was smeared with generous gore and the cobbleway slippery with the blood of heroes, the low waster never had the pluck to venture out while everyone else waded about their usual avocations for the only once he took a peep through his keyhole found himself looking into the barrel of an irregular revolver at point blank range. Lowness visibly oozed out from this dirty little beetle for the very first instant the Thornton girl saw him walking into a fruiterer & florist, she knew he was of a bad fast man by his walk on the spot.
Furthermore the low creature was a selfvaletter, having got up a kitchenette & fowlhouse for the sake of the eggs in what was meant for a closet.
And hear this more. At the time of his last disappearance in public petty constable Sigurdsen, who had been detailed to save him from lynch law, ran after him just as he was butting in through the door with a hideful saying as usual: Wherefore have they that? All Shem said was: Search me. The peace officer was astounded at the capaciousness of the wineskin & even more so when informed that she was merely bringing home 2 gallons of porter.
But enough of such imperial lowness. We cannot stay here all day discussing Mr. Shem the Penman's thirst
Primum gemens in manum evacuavit
(sh-t in his hand, groaning)
postea stercus proprium, quod apellavit dejectiones meae, exoneratus in poculum posuit, idem melliflue minxit psalmum qui incipit Lingua mea calamus scribae velociter scribentis magna voce cantitans
(did a p-ss, says he was dejected, asks to be exonerated)
demque ex stercore vili mix cum Orionis, jucunditate encaustum sib fecit indelibilem
(O'Ryan, the devil's own ink) [FDV]
VI.A Eolus "what I'm afraid may be said to me I had better say first
myself"
14 occurrences of "low" (2 more added in level two) but these are accusations, not trustworthy descriptions (cf ROC's hitting bottom)
the speaker is a self-righteous hypocrite willing to twist any hint into a slur
it's remarkably specific in being set c1923, after the publication of Ulysses, imagining Dublin's violent shock (but Joyce's wife and children are omitted)
the sequence of draft sentences was largely maintained, with each expanded into a long paragraph
Shem is as short for Shemus as Jim is for Jacob.
(an unusually uncritical, helpful comment!?)
4+2=6 letters; 3+2=5 letters?
Jacob → James → Jim, → Shemus ?→ Shem
the 1911 census has only 3 Shems and 4 Shemuses
'The development Iacobus > Iacomus is likely a result of nasalization of the o and assimilation to the following b (i.e., intermediate *Iacombus) followed by simplification of the cluster mb through loss of the b.' [wiki]
Shem, son of Noah (boring?)
Shemus: man in Yeats' Countess Cathleen who sells his soul to devil
(Irish change J into Sh, e.g. James to Seumas (Pronunciation 'shaymus'))
Low Latin 'Jacobus' = James
FW2: "Shem is as short for Shemus as Jem is joky for Jacob." ("joky" = affectionate or insulting?)
Originally of respectable connections his back life simply won't stand being written about.
sounds like HCE
"respectable connections" common phrase in legal or job-application contexts (cf SimonD bragging about his cousin)
"his back life" rare phrase (hint of 'bare behind'?)
Gogarty and Russell et al would have had lots of anecdotes to share at Joyce's expense, and his father's decline was a pretty public tragedy, but Joyce had written successfully about little else than "his back life", and the most shocking parts of Ulysses were not specific to the Joyce/Dedalus family
FW2: "aboriginally he was of respectable stemming... but... his back life will not stand being written about"
Cain - Ham (Shem) - Esau - Jim the Penman
surely Shem is more Jacob than Esau!
wellknown for violent abuse of self & others.
"wellknown" since Ulysses?
"violent" never?
"violent" to others only in his writings
maybe to himself in his drinking?
FW2: "every day in everyone's way more exceeding in violent abuse of self and others"
lives in inkbottlehouse.
a house in Glasnevin supposedly designed by Swift
 |
| demolished 1901 |
FW2: "The house... known as the Haunted Inkbottle... in which the soulcontracted son of the secret cell groped through life"
boycotted, local publican refuse to supply books, papers, ink, foolscap, makes his own from dried dung sweetened with spittle (ink) writes universal history on his own body (parchment)
boycotted by Dublin publishers
why "publican"?
"papers... foolscap" redundant ("foolscap" a favorite word?)
"sweetened" has various nuances of improving quality
"universal history" cf Aug 1922 "I think I will write a history of the world."
apparently specifically FW
"on his own body" (could FW's vignettes-- like U's episodes-- correspond to bodyparts?)
FW2: "when Robber and Mumsell, the pulpic dictators... boycotted him of all muttonsuet candles and romeruled stationery for any purpose, he... made synthetic ink and sensitive paper for his own end out of his wits' waste." ("candles"?)
hospitality, all drunk & rightly indignant
from later versions this seems to mean he was too hospitable and got them so drunk they were indignant:
VI.B6.03: "offended by his hospitality"
...which certainly makes Shem into ROC:
ROC4: "poor old hospitable King Roderick O'Conor"
but how can anyone call this "rightly indignant"? is Joyce comparing his artistic 'sins' to getting people too drunk?
cf??? VI.A Cyclops "no dowry, no wife beating, hospitality, give in"
FW2: "rightly indignant at the wretch's hospitality when they found to their horror they could not carry another drop" (VI.B10.95: "carry another drop")
1 eye halfopen, 1 arm, 42 hairs on his head, 17 on upper lip, 5 on chin, 3 teeth, no feet, 10 thumbs, ½ a buttock, ½ & ½ a testicle, - - when is a man not a man?
probably ½ eye total, not 1½
why only one arm? (cf Admiral Nelson?) why no feet?
balding, w/goatee?
Joyce's teeth had all been pulled out in April 1923
'not a foot to stand on'
'all thumbs' = clumsy ("1 arm" but "10 thumbs")
why only half a buttock?
why two half-testicles?
VI.B3.30: "The O'Gorman Mahan. When is a man not a man? (LB)" (CJP Mahon aka 'The O'Gorman Mahon' d1891 suporter of Parnell; LB is Leopold Bloom but CJPM not in Ulysses?) Mahon/Mahan pronounced 'man' ('Mahan' much less common spelling
riddle: 'when is a door not a door? when it is ajar'
an 1847 Boy's Treasury poses the riddle 'When is a man not a man?' and gives the answer 'When he's a shaving' (cf)
FW2 "Shem's bodily getup, it seems, included: ...an eighth of a larkseye, ...one numb arm up a sleeve, fortytwo hairs off his uncrown, eighteen to his mock lip, a trio of barbels from his megageg chin... not a foot to stand on, a handful of thumbs, ...two fifths of two buttocks, one gleetsteen avoirdupoider for him... When is a man not a man?" [more]
A forger, can imitate all styles, some of his own.
U-Oxen demonstrated the former, the rest of Ulysses the latter
Jim the Penman was a forger
although the timing is guesses, Revered2 apparently already had "Alone one cannot know who did it for the hand was fair. We can suppose it that of Shemus the penman, a village soak, who when snugly liquored lived, so" and Mamafesta1 had "that odious & even now insufficiently despised person, Jim the Penman"
VI.B6.65 (Jan?): "forged" Freeman's Journal 10Jan24: '"No Volition of His Own". Novel Defense of Man Charged with Forgery': 'a charge of forging three cheques' (why did this deserve such a late note?)
PoA5: 'to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race'
Shem1 below: "what do you think he did but copy all their various styles of signature they had so as to utter forged cheques in public for his own profit"
1st copies of most original masterpieces slipped from his pen
what does this mean? it seems intentionally ambiguous: his own or others' masterpieces? copies or originals? "slipped" carelessly/ effortlessly?
Aristotle was miscredited with 'Masterpiece'
FW2: "Who can say how many unsigned first copies of original masterworks... slipped... from his pelagiarist pen?"
Sings hymn: lingua mea calamus scribae, veliciter scribentis.
should be 'velociter' (but 'feliciter' = happily, so maybe a rare latin pun)
quoted by Dante
Psalms 44 or 45: My tongue is the pen of a scribe writing swiftly
(JAJ usually wrote veeery slowly)
Shem1 below: "idem melliflue minxit psalmum qui incipit Lingua mea calamus scribae velociter scribentis magna voce cantitans"
So low was he that he preferred Lazenby's tinned salmon to the plumpest roeheavy lax or frisky troutlet to be gaffed between Leixlip & Island bridge & he said no fresh pineapple ever tasted like the chunks in Heinz's cans.
this is such a harmless critique it must have a deeper reading-- maybe raised poor, and nostalgic for childhood flavors? preferring ugly truths to sentimental distortions? or like Bloom, sexually attracted to decay?
Lazenby's info (not especially known for tinned salmon)
VI.B10.69: "speckled lax heavy with roe" Daily Mail 14Dec22: 'Salmon No. 23': 'a female fish of about 8lb., heavy with roe'
lax = salmon
 |
| roeheavy lax (salmon) |
Frisky Shorty (Cad1, Nov23)
gaff: a stick with an iron hook used for landing salmon
Leixlip (name means 'salmon leap')
Island Bridge: bridge over Liffey at start of tides
Islandbridge: district of Dublin, near Phoenix Park
canned-pineapple pr
(Dole and Del Monte, not Heinz?)
FW2: "Shem was a sham and a low sham and his lowness creeped out first via foodstuffs. So low was he that he preferred Gibsen's teatime salmon tinned, as inexpensive as pleasing, to the plumpest roeheavy lax or the friskiest parr or smolt troutlet that ever was gaffed between Leixlip and Island Bridge and many was the time he repeated... that no junglegrown pineapple ever smacked like the whoppers you shook out of Ananias' cans" ("whoppers" = lies?)
He was able to write in the gloom of his bottle only because his noseglow as it slid over the paper and while he scribbled & scratched nameless shamelessnesses about others over & over his foul text he used to draw endless portraits of himself up and down the two margins as a strikingly handsome young man with lyrics in his eyes and a lovely pair of Italian moustaches. How unwhisperably low!
(Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer only dates from 1939)
cf? Kenneth Grahame: The Wind in the Willows (1908), ch. I, 'The River Bank': 'So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged, and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped'
foul/fowl text?
Portrait of the Artist
FW II.2 has doodles in the margins:
cf handsome lyrical T in T&I?
VI.B6.72: "unmentionables inexplicables unwhisperables" Jespersen: The Growth and Structure of the English Language 249: 'trousers... the very absurdity of the taboo, which made people invent no end of comic names (inexpressibles, inexplicables, indescribables, ineffables, unmentionables, unwhisperables... etc.)'
FW2: "but for that light phantastic of his gnose's glow as it slid lucifericiously within an inch of its page... Nibs never would have quilled a seriph to sheepskin. By that rosy lampoon's effluvious burning... he scrabbled and scratched and scriobbled and skrevened nameless shamelessness about everybody ever he met... while all over and up and down the four margins... the evilsmeller... used to stipple endlessly inartistic portraits of himself... a heartbreakingly handsome young paolo with love lyrics for the goyls in his eyols... anna loavely long pair of inky Italian moostarshes... How unwhisperably so!"
None of your nice bloody beefsteaks or juicy legs of melting mutton or fat belly bacon or greasy gristly pigs' feet or slice upon slice of luscious goose bosom with lump upon lump of rich stuffing swamping grand brown gravy for him.
this is so shakespearean... is Joyce bragging he took the harder route, but showing off how easy the other would have been for him?
cf U193 (SD on WS) "His art, more than the art of feudalism as Walt Whitman called it, is the art of surfeit. Hot herringpies, green mugs of sack, honeysauces, sugar of roses, marchpane, gooseberried pigeons, ringocandies."
FW2: "None of your inchthick blueblooded Balaclava fried-at-beliefstakes or juicejelly legs of the Grex's molten mutton or greasily gristly grunters' goupons or slice upon slab of luscious goosebosom with lump after load of plumpudding stuffing all aswim in a swamp of bogoak gravy for that greekenhearted yude!"
Once when in a state of helplessly hopeless inebriation peel of a citron to his nostrils & hiccupped he could live all his days on the smell of it, as the citr, as the cedron, as the cedar on the founts on the mountains, lemon on, of Lebanon.
VI.B10.10: "live on the smell"
Dubliners: 'Ivy Day': 'He'd live on the smell of an oil-rag'
Psalms 92:13: 'The innocent man will flourish as the palm tree flourishes; he will grow to greatness as the cedars grow on Lebanon'
as the citr [zither?]
as the cedron
as the cedar on the founts on the mountains [why founts?]
lemon on
of Lebanon
(reminiscent of Bloom's associations to Citron, a Jewish surname in Dublin-- a peek at one of Joyce's primary literary/poetic tricks?)
FW2: "Once when among those rebels in a state of hopelessly helpless intoxication the piscivore strove to lift a czitround peel to either nostril, hiccupping... that he kukkakould flowrish for ever by the smell, as the czitr, as the kcedron, like a scedar, of the founts, on mountains, with lemon on, of Lebanon."
The lowness of him was beyond all that was ever known. No firewater or first shot or gutburning gin or honest red or brown beer. No. O no. But he botched up some kind of a wheywhinging rhubarbarous yallagreen decoction of sour grapes & according to him it his cups it came straight from the noble white fat, the most noble wide her white hide that, from the winevat of the archduchess, Fanny Urinia.
(so wine can be lower than gin or beer? less "honest"?? maybe rejecting stage-Irish cliches???)
Anglo-Irish/Hiberno-English Slang 'firstshot': weak poteen of first distillation (U12: "The Alaki then drank a lovingcup of firstshot usquebaugh to the toast Black and White from the skull of his immediate predecessor in the dynasty")
Yeats: 'Where rivers are running over With red beer and brown beer'
'botch up' = ruin (is he fermenting his own?)
wheywhinging [roy g biv??]
 |
| whey |
yallagreen decoction of sour grapes
 |
| rhubarb wine is a real thing |
the most noble wide
her white hide that
from the winevat
Joyce liked a Swiss white wine, Fendant de Sion, which he said looked like the urine of an archduchess
Talk about lowness! Low wretched that he was he used to boast that he had been put out of all the best families who had settled in the capital city generally on account of his smell which all cookmaids objected to.
VI.B6.35: "put out of ?town on a/c of smell"
why "put out"? why "settled in"?
Stephen is snubbed by AE in U-Scylla (not invited to party)
"capital city" = Dublin (or Paris/Rome/Zurich?)
why especially the cookmaids?
FW2: "Was there ever heard of such lowdown blackguardism? ...Yet the bumpersprinkler used to boast aloud... how he had been toed out of all the schicker families of the Klondykers... who had settled and stratified in the capital city after its hebdomodary metropoliarchialisation... in most cases on account of his smell which all the cookmaids eminently objected to" (chic-er)
In place of tutoring the outlander families plain wholesome handwriting (a thing he never possessed of his own) what do you think he did but copy all their various styles of signature they had so as to utter forged cheques in public for his own profit until, as just related, the Dublin United Scullerymaids kicked him out of the place altogether on account of his stink?
"tutoring the outlander families" SD in U-Nestor?
why "outlander" not native? (cf "settled in" above)
"utter... cheques"? cf 'utter cheek'?
Joyce's tutoring was mostly in Europe, so did those families really much inform his portraits of Dubliners??
i find 'Dublin United Builders' Labourers', 'Dublin United Football Club', 'Dublin United Tramways', 'Dublin United Trades Council and Labour League'
PoA5: "a church which was the scullerymaid of christendom"
weirdly redundant: VI.B6.35: "put out of ?town on a/c of smell"
FW2: "Instead of chuthoring those model households plain wholesome pothooks (a thing he never possessed of his Nigerian own) what do you think Vulgariano did but study with stolen fruit how cutely to copy all their various styles of signature so as one day to utter an epical forged cheque on the public for his own private profit until, as just related, the Dustbin's United Scullerymaids' and Househelps' Sorority... turned him down and assisted nature by unitedly shoeing the source of annoyance out of the place altogether... making some pointopointing remarks as they done so... aboon the lyow why a stunk, mister."
It was generally hoped he wd develop hereditary pulmonary T.B. but of course not even there was he true to type: Low!
this sounds cruel and stupid
VI.B49c.01: "suspected pulmonory TB"
pulmonary tuberculosis (ie, of the lungs) is the most common
it's not hereditary but many have believed it was (not Aristotle though)
"type" = weak artistic 'consumption'?
FW2: "one generally hoped... that he would... develop hereditary pulmonary T.B... Nay... not even then could such an antinomian be true to type."
He treasured all unkind words.
VI.B6.01: "treasured unkindly words"
he certainly treasured obscure words (so "unkind" to readers?)
Joyce/Bloom's masochism (embracing attacks as artistic strategy?)
FW2: "he kept on treasuring with condign satisfaction each and every crumb of trektalk, covetous of his neighbour's word"
If ever in the public interest delicate hints were put to him such as: Do is the meaning of that foreign word, we think it is canaille?: or: do you ever in your travels happen to meet a gentleman named Bugger?:
"public interest" so he's a public menace?
"delicate hints" very far from delicate
VI.B6.41: "How wd you say canaille?" Crépieux-Jamin: Les Éléments de l'Écriture des Canailles (French canaille: rabble, mob; scoundrel, literally 'pack of dogs') pronunciations
canaille = scoundrel
'bugger' = sodomite (from 'Bulgar')
not-so-delicately challenging his sexuality
FW2: "and if ever... in the nation's interest, delicate tippits were thrown out to him... such as: Pray, what is the meaning, sousy, of that continental expression, if you ever came acrux it, we think it is a word transpiciously like canaille? or: Did you anywhere, kennel, on your gullible's travels... happen to stumble upon a certain gay young nobleman whimpering to the name of Low Swine...?"
he would begin to tell the persons the whole lifelong story of his low existence explaining the meanings of all the other foreign words he used and telling every lie imaginable about all the other people he met except the simple word and person they had asked him about until they were completely undeceived.
where HCE blurted the truth without being asked, Shem avoids answering directly even when he's asked directly (cf Berkeley?)
"every lie imaginable" projection?
(might this hint that Ulysses features a riddle-by-omission? maybe a word that Bloom scrupulously avoids even thinking?)
FW2: "he would... begin to tell all the intelligentsia admitted to that tamileasy samtalaisy conclamazzione... the whole lifelong swrine story of his entire low cornaille existence... explaining... the various meanings of all the different foreign parts of speech he misused and cuttlefishing every lie unshrinkable about all the other people in the story, leaving out, of course, foreconsciously, the simple worf and plague and poison they had cornered him about until there was not a snoozer among them but was utterly undeceived"
Of course he disliked a good sensible row and once when he was called in as umpire in an octagonal argument among [...] the low mean wretch agreed always with the last speaker while he nudged the one who was speaking to fill his glass for him.
"sensible" he preferred abstract/ nonsensical/ nonphysical ones?
"row" rhymes with cow (not 'low')
"umpire" soccer motif?
"octagonal" maybe? U-Oxen includes: Lynch, Madden, Mulligan, Dixon, Crotthers, Costello, Bannon, and Lenehan (plus SD and Bloom)
"mean wretch" cliche
VI.B6.74: "meanly disagreed with last speaker"
VI.B6.48: "cf opinion of the last speaker"
(if the speaker didn't fill his glass, would he agree anyway?)
cf ROC's circular heeltapping?
FW2: "He went without saying that the cull disliked anything anyway approaching a plain straightforward standup or knockdown row and, as often as he was called in to umpire any octagonal argument among slangwhangers, the accomplished washout always used to rub shoulders with the last speaker and... agree to every word as soon as half uttered... and then at once focuss his whole unbalanced attention upon the next octagonist who managed to catch a listener's eye, asking and imploring him out of his piteous onewinker... to overflow his tumbletantaliser for him yet once more."
(if that was U-Oxen, can this next be U-Circe?)
One night he was alternately kicked from 82 Dublin Square as far as the lefthand corner of Europe Parade by two groups of argumentalists who finally went home disgustedly, reconciled to a friendship, fast & furious, solely on account of his lowness.
"One night" likely 20Jun04 (cf U-Circe note "LB memory of only spree")
"alternately" cf T&I3's "alternately rightandlefthandled"
Shem = football???
Bella Cohen's was at 82 Tyrone street
"Dublin Square" Merrion Square, or Rutland Square, or Mountjoy Square
Sydney Parade is in Sandymount (righthand corner?) [others]
(was Mulligan/Gogarty involved?)
VI.B10.59: "alighted disgustedly"
"fast & furious" 1840s cliche
'fast friendship' = strong
FW2: "as very recently as some thousand rains ago he was... soggert all unsuspectingly through the deserted village... from... 81 bis Mabbot's Mall as far as Green Patch beyond the brickfields of Salmon Pool by rival teams of slowspiers counter quicklimers who finally... thought... they had better be streaking for home... with thanks for the pleasant evening, one and all... reconciled... to a friendship, fast and furious, which merely arose out of the noxious pervert's perfect lowness. Again there was a hope that people... after first giving him a roll in the dirt might pity and forgive him... but"
He never could be got to play rational national games such a hat in the ring, Shiela & the cow, here's the fat to grease the priest's boots &
"rational national" song parody?
rejects both rationalism and nationalism?
children's games, as an adult?
VI.B6.47 (Jan24?): "hat in the ring"
'throw one's hat in the ring' = to enter a political race, to issue a challenge
VI.B10.97: "Sheila Harnett" Irish Times 6Jan23: 'a charge of taking part in an attack on National troops... Sheila Harnett... lodged in the county jail'
about 10% of the census Sheilas spell it Shiela
VI.B6.59: "O lay by the fat for to grease the priest's boots" Irish Independent 08Jan24: 'The Shoe-Black Artists': 'city people only used polish. In the country boots were greased, and goose grease being the most fashionable and highly thought of was used by the clergy. An old ballad begins: "Oh! lay by the fat to grease the priest's boots"'
song? The Priest in His Boots [cite] or The Wedding of Baltymore?
FW2: "Darkies never done tug that coon out to play non-excretory, anti-sexuous, misoxenetic, gaasy pure, flesh and blood games... like... Hat in the ring... Sheila Harnett and her cow... Here's the fat to graze the priest's boots"
it's now notoriously known that when bloody Sunday when the grand germogall fight was raging between those fighting men extraordinary he corked himself up in his inkbottle and hid under a bedtick semiparalysed his face & trousers changing colour every time a rifle spoke.
Ellmann says the fighting in Ireland dissuaded Joyce from a last visit with his dying father
VI.B6.59: "bloody Sunday" 21Nov20 when Black and Tans murdered civilians at Croke Park [wiki]
"germogall" Germans and Gauls (WWI)? natives and invaders (galls)?
(there's got to be a pun here somehow: chemical? changeable? 'charme egale'??)
VI.B6.78: "fighting man extraordinary"
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| bedtick? |
"semiparalysed" is well-attested
VI.B25.160: "his trousers changed colour"
Joyce was phobic about loud sounds
FW2: "Now it is notoriously known how on that surprisingly bludgeony Unity Sunday, when the grand germogall allstar bout was harrily the rage between our weltingtoms extraordinary... the scut... kushykorked himself up tight in his inkbattle house... where... he collapsed carefully under a bedtick... hemiparalysed... his cheeks and trousers changing colour every time a gat croaked."
A drug addict, too, his manner was to write strings of honourable, learned, highplaced initials after his name while, if you could only have seen into his den,
VI.B10.36: "drug addict"
"manner" (how is this related to being a drug addict? nonsequitur)
"highplaced" ambiguous: position in space or in social hierarchy
'James Joyce, B.A.'?
"Bloom, Leopold P., M.P., P.C., K.P., L.L.D"
"den" inkbottle house, where he sometimes hides under mattress
FW2: "he had flickered up... into a drug and drunkery addict... This explains the litany of septuncial lettertrumpets, honorific, highpitched, erudite, neoclassical, which he so loved as patricianly to manuscribe after his name."
whenever he made believe to read one of his tattered chapbooks he did nothing but turn over three or 4 pages at a time growling because what with the bad light the dirty print, the torn page, the scum in his eyes, the drink in his stomach, the rats in his garret and the hullabaloo in his ears [...] Was there ever heard of such low down blackguardism?
"three or 4 pages at a time" restless
"growling" angry??
the bad light [lighting]
the dirty print, [ill cared-for book]
the torn page, [ill cared-for book]
the scum in his eyes, [bad health? or just normal morning 'scum'?]
the drink in his stomach,
the rats in his garret and [literal, or crazy]
the hullabaloo in his ears [external sounds]
"garret" = attic
'rats in the garret' can be meant literally, or sarcastically like 'bats in the/his belfry' (eccentric, mad)
VI.B6.85: "gubann no rats in his garret" (Anglo-Irish/Hiberno-English gubann or gobán: master builder)
VI.B10.46: "low blackguardism" U10.681: 'Wait awhile, Mr Dedalus said threateningly. You're like the rest of them, are you? An insolent pack of little bitches since your poor mother died... You'll all get a short shrift and a long day from me. Low blackguardism!'
FW2: "the shuddersome spectacle of this semidemented zany amid the inspissated grime of his glaucous den making believe to read his usylessly unreadable Blue Book of Eccles... turning over three sheets at a wind, telling himself... what with the murky light, the botchy print, the tattered cover, the jigjagged page... the scum on his tongue, the drop in his eye... the drink in his pottle... the rats in his garret... the hullabaloo and the dust in his ears... he was hardset to mumorise more than a word a week... Was there ever heard of such lowdown blackguardism?"
Nabuchadonosor himself had not such a high & mighty opinion of himself as had this mental defective who bragged in a bar that he was aware of no other person either exactly unlike or precisely the same as what I know or imagine I am myself.
'Nabuchodonosor' was a common spelling for Nebuchadnezzar II (c634-562 BC) "...I magnificently adorned them with luxurious splendour for all mankind to behold in awe"
VI.B25.165: "mental defective"
"in a bar" when drinking or drunk (maybe cf 'set a high bar'?)
VI.B6.91: "exactly unlike or precisely the same as what I know or imagine myself to be" Jespersen: The Growth and Structure of the English Language 139: (quoting Dickens) 'they are exactly unlike. They are utterly dissimilar in all respects' 136: 'words of exactly the same meaning... a more limited, special or precise sense'
"that he... I know... I am myself" switch to first person is very unusual (rejected in published version)
FW2: "Neither... Nero or Nobookishonester himself, ever nursed such a spoiled opinion of his monstrous marvellosity as did this mental and moral defective... who was known to grognt... that he was awoopf (parn me!) aware of no other shaggyspick, other Shakhisbeard, either prexactly unlike his polar andthisishis or procisely the seems as woops (parn!) as what he fancied or guessed the sames as he was himself"
After bloody Sunday, though every door in Lucalizod was smeared with generous gore and the cobbleway slippery with the blood of heroes, the low waster never had the pluck to venture out while everyone else waded about their usual avocations for the only once he took a peep through his keyhole found himself looking into the barrel of an irregular revolver at point blank range.
why does he revert back, here, to the topic four sentences earlier?
Joyce never visited Ireland after 1912
6th vignette with "Lucalizod"
Exodus 12:7: 'and they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses' (Passover)
VI.B49c.02 (when?): "stepping stones slippery with blood of heroes"
Archer's translation of 'Peer Gynt' uses the word "waster" (among many others)
"waded about" went about
VI.B10.57: "found himself looking into barrel of revolver"
"irregular revolver" not a phrase, though Darwin used 'revolve irregularly'
FW2: "After... that bloody Swithun's day, though every doorpost in muchtried Lucalizod was smeared with generous erstborn gore and every free for all cobbleway slippery with the bloods of heroes... our low waster never had the common baalamb's pluck to stir out and about the compound while everyone else... waaded and baaded around... on their bonafide avocations... for the only once... he did take a tompip peepestrella through... his westernmost keyhole... he found himself... at pointblank range blinking down the barrel of an irregular revolver of the bulldog with a purpose pattern"
Lowness visibly oozed out from this dirty little beetle for the very first instant the Thornton girl saw him walking into a fruiterer & florist, she knew he was of a bad fast man by his walk on the spot.
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| dung beetle w.dung |
James Thornton, fruiterer and florist to His Majesty the King and to His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, etc., 63 Grafton Street
VI.B25.21: "florist"
Boylan buys peaches, pears and a bottle of something for Molly at Thornton's U10
FW2: "lowness... visibly oozed out thickly from this dirty little blacking beetle, for the very fourth snap the Tulloch-Turnbull girl with her coldblood kodak shotted the as yet unremuneranded national apostate... taking what he fondly thought was a short cut... into Patatapapaveri's, fruiterers and musical florists... she knew the vice out of bridewell was a bad fast man by his walk on the spot."
Furthermore the low creature was a selfvaletter, having got up a kitchenette & fowlhouse for the sake of the eggs in what was meant for a closet.
'valeter' = French 'to cringe'?
'valeted' is like 'buttled'
'valet' [fweet-9]
cf Bloom's plans ("A rabbitry and fowlrun") and the neighbors' Eccles garden ("The hens in the next garden")
"for the sake of the eggs" phrasing hints compassion?
FW2: "Of course our low hero was a selfvaleter by choice of need so up he got up whatever is meant by a Stourbridge clay kitchenette and lithargogalenu fowlhouse for the sake of akes... in what was meant for a closet."
And hear this more. At the time of his last disappearance in public petty constable Sigurdsen, who had been detailed to save him from lynch law, ran after him just as he was butting in through the door with a hideful saying as usual: Wherefore have they that? All Shem said was: Search me.
VI.B6.88: "petty constable — treason" Jespersen: The Growth and Structure of the English Language 86 (sec. 84): 'most of the terms pertaining to the law are of French origin... Petty (Fr. petit) was, I suspect, introduced by the jurists in such combinations as... petty constable... petty treason'
cf Revered2 (Dec23?) "policesergeant Laracy"
U185 cites Dr Sigerson
VI.B10.65: "bailiff specially detailed'"
Danish 'Hvorledes har De det i dag?': How are you today?
VI.B10.16: "search me" Leader 04Nov22: 'As Others See Us': 'What they're striking about — well, search me, but I expect it don't matter a row of pills'
FW2: "Petty constable Sistersen... who had been detailed from pollute stoties to save him... from the ligatureliablous effects of foul clay in little clots and mobmauling on looks, that wrongcountered the tenderfoot... just as he was butting in rand the coyner of bad times under a hideful between the rival doors... greeting for grazious oras as usual: Where ladies have they that a dog meansort herring? Sergo, search me, the incapable reparteed"
The peace officer was astounded at the capaciousness of the wineskin & even more so when informed that she was merely bringing home 2 gallons of porter.
(cf above "from the noble white fat, the most noble wide her white hide that, from the winevat of the archduchess, Fanny Urinia")
FW2: "The allwhite poors guardiant... was literally astundished... at the caledosian capacity for Lieutuvisky of the caftan's wineskin and even more so during... it was said him... how that... he was namely coon at bringher at home two gallonts, as per royal, full poultry"
But enough of such imperial lowness. We cannot stay here all day discussing Mr. Shem the Penman's thirst
'imperial gallon' defined 1824
FW2: "But... enough of such porterblack lowness, too base for printink! ...We cannot... stay here for the residence of our existings discussing Tamstar Ham of Tenman's thirst."
Primum gemens in manum evacuavit (sh-t in his hand, groaning)
first, groaning, into his hand he shat
"gemens" = groaning
postea stercus proprium, quod apellavit dejectiones meae, exoneratus in poculum posuit, idem melliflue minxit psalmum qui incipit Lingua mea calamus scribae velociter scribentis magna voce cantitans (did a p-ss, says he was dejected, asks to be exonerated)
next the shit of his own, which he called my purgings, unburdened in a cup placing, the same mellifluously he pissed the psalm that begins My tongue is the pen of a scribe writing swiftly in a loud voice he sang
"postea" = next
"stercus" = shit
"poculum" = cup
"posuit" = placing
"dejectiones" = purgings
"exoneratus" = unburdened
"idem" = the same
"minxit" = pissed
demque ex stercore vili mix cum Orionis, jucunditate encaustum sib fecit indelibilem (O'Ryan, the devil's own ink)
'Orion'/O'Ryan puns on 'urine'
"jucunditate" = pleasurably?
Latin encausticus = burned-in
'sibi' = himself
'indelebilis' = indestructible (pun on devil/'diabolo'?)
U12.280 mentions "Terence O'Ryan" [others-1901]
Finally, from the foul dung mixed, as I have said, with the "sweetness of Orion", and baked and then exposed to the cold, he made himself an indelible ink
Latin translation 'First the artist, the eminent writer, without any shame or apology, pulled up his rain coat and undid his trousers and then drew himself close to the life-giving and all-powerful earth, with his buttocks bare as they were born. Weeping and groaning he relieved himself into his own hands. Then, unburdened of the black beast, and sounding a trumpet, he put his own dung, which he called his "downcastings", into an urn once used as an honoured mark of mourning. With an invocation to the twin brethren Medard and Godard he then passed water into it happily and mellifluously, while chanting in a loud voice the psalm which begins: "My tongue is the pen of a scribe writing swiftly". Finally, from the foul dung mixed, as I have said, with the "sweetness of Orion", and baked and then exposed to the cold, he made himself an indelible ink'
FW2: "Primum... flens et gemens, in manum suam evacuavit (...crap in his hand, sorry!), postea... exoneratus... stercus proprium, quod appellavit deiectiones suas, in vas olim honorabile tristitiae posuit, eodem... lente ac melliflue minxit, psalmum qui incipit: Lingua mea calamus scribae velociter scribentis: magna voce cantitans (did a piss, says he was dejected, asks to be exonerated), demum ex stercore turpi cum divi Orionis iucunditate... encaustum sibi fecit indelibile (faked O'Ryan's, the indelible ink)."
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