Concerning the genesis of Harold or Humphrey Coxon's agnomen and discarding finally those theories which would link him either with the Glues & Gravys & Earwickers of Sidleham in the hundred of manhood or proclaim him a descendant of vikings who had settled in Herwick (?) or Erwick (?) the most authentic version has it that it was this way. Like Cincinnatus the G.O.G. (grand old gardener) was one sabbath day following his plough for rootles in the rear garden of his Royal Marine Hotel when royalty was announced by runner to have been pleased to halt on on the highroad along which a dogfox had cast. Forgetful of all but his fealty he stayed not to saddle or yoke but he stumbled hotface out of his forecourts on to the road in his surcingle plus fours & bulldog boots coated with red marl jingling his turnpike keys a sweatdrenched bandana hanging from his coat pocket holding aloft among the fixed pikes of the royal hunting party a long perch atop of which a flowerpot was affixed. On his majesty, who was noticeably longsighted from his early youth, inquiring whether he had been engaged in lobstertrapping honest Humphrey bluntly answered very similarly: 'No, my liege, I was only a cotchin of them bluggy earwigs'. The king who held a draught of obvious water in his hand upon this smiled heartily beneath his walrus moustaches and giving way to that none too genial humour which William the Conk had inherited from his great aunt Sophy, turned towards two gunmen of his retinue, the lord of Offaly and the mayor of Waterford (the second gun being syndic of Drogheda according to a later version cited by the learned Kanavan) remarking 'Holybones, How our brother of Burgundy would fume did he know that he have for trusty vassal a turnpiker who is also an earwicker'. are these the True facts are recorded in as this legend? We shall perhaps see. But it is certain that from that historic date all documents initialled by Humphrey bear the sigla. H.C.E. and whether he was always Coxon for his cronies and good duke Humphrey for the ragged tiny folk of Lucalizod it was certainly a pleasant turn of the populace which gave him as sense of these initials the nickname 'Here Comes Everybody'. An Imposing everybody indeed he looked and worthy of that title as he surveyed the playhouse on gala nights from the royal booth where he sat with all his house with broadstretched kerchief cooling neck & shoulders & wardrobepanelled tuxedo thrown back from a shirt wellnamed a swallowall far outstarching the laundered clawhammers and marbletopped highboys of the pit. A baser meaning has been read into these letters, the literal sense of which decency dare but touch. It has been suggested that he suffered from a vile disease. To such a suggestion the only selfrespecting answer is to affirm that there are certain statements which ought not to be, and one would like to be able to add, ought not to be allowed to be made. There was a case of the kind implicating a man named Lyons who was posted at Mallon's and years afterward dropped dead whilst waiting for a chop in Hawkins street. Nor have his detractors who an imperfectly warmblooded race apparently think him capable of any and every enormity recorded to the discredit of the Juke & Kellikek families mended their case by insinuating that he was at one time under the ludicrous imputation of annoying soldiers in the rushes. To anyone who knew and loved H.C.E. this suggestion is preposterous. Slander, let it do its worst, has never been able to convict that good and great man of any worse impropriety than that of having behaved in an ungentlemanly manner in the presence of a pair of maidservants in the rushy hollow whither nature as they alleged had spontaneously & at the same time sent them both whose testimonies are, if not dubious, at any rate slightly divergent on minor points touching what was certainly an incautious, but at the most, a partial exposure with attenuating circumstances. during an abnormal S Martin's summer. [FDV]
Concerning the genesis of Harold or Humphrey Coxon's agnomen and discarding finally those theories which would link him either with the Glues & Gravys & Earwickers of Sidleham in the hundred of manhood or proclaim him a descendant of vikings who had settled in Herwick (?) or Erwick (?) the most authentic version has it that it was this way.
"Harold"?!
herald?
A Pictorial & Descriptive Guide to Bognor &c. Chichester 54: 'Sidlesham Church is an Early English structure worthy of notice, and an examination of the surrounding tombstones should not be omitted if any interest is felt in deciphering curious names, striking examples being Earwicker, Glue, Gravy, Boniface, Anker, and Northeast... From Chichester to Selsey Hill runs a light railway called the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway' (Sidlesham is in the Hundred of Manhood, the extreme southwestern Hundred (county division) of Sussex; Joyce stayed in Bognor, a few miles from there, in summer 1923)
Herrick (or Erick): the maiden name of Swift's mother [cite]
the 1911 census had an Erwick (no Irish Herwicks)
her wick
the old, correct, pronunciation of the name Earwicker is 'Erricker'
(do we care whether this is Ireland or England?)
FW2: "concerning the genesis of Harold or Humphrey Chimpden's occupational agnomen... and discarding once for all those theories... which would link him back with... the Glues, the Gravys, the Northeasts, the Ankers and the Earwickers of Sidlesham in the Hundred of Manhood or proclaim him offsprout of vikings who had... seddled hem in Herrick or Eric, the best authenticated version... has it that it was this way."
Like Cincinnatus the G.O.G. (grand old gardener) was one sabbath day following his plough for rootles in the rear garden of his Royal Marine Hotel when royalty was announced by runner to have been pleased to halt on on the highroad along which a dogfox had cast.
Tennyson 1842, 'Lady Clara Vere de Vere': 'The grand old gardener and his wife Smile at the claims of long descent' (the first verse was changed to 'The gardener Adam and his wife' because of frequent letters to Tennyson from friends asking for an explanation) [etext]
Hamlet V.1.27-35: 'CLOWN:... There is no ancient gentlemen but gard'ners, ditchers, and grave-makers. They hold up Adam's profession... 'A was the first that ever bore arms... The Scripture says Adam digg'd. Could he dig without arms?'
U-17: "What would be his civic functions and social status among the county families and landed gentry? Arranged successively in ascending powers of hierarchical order, that of gardener, groundsman, cultivator, breeder..." (so, starting here at the very bottom)
Grand Old Man: Gladstone's nickname
cf ROC4 (July) "googs"
"sabbath" working on Sunday
"following" plow pulled by horse
VI.B10.23k: "rootles" is always a verb?!
gathering root vegetables like potatoes or turnips that the plow turns up;?
Royal Marine Hotel, Dunleary [site] (on coast, so lobstertrapping?)
his hotel (cf Finn's Hotel hypothesis)
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| Royal Marine Hotel |
VI.B10.58e: "by runner to Luxor (mail)" Irish Times 30Nov 1922: 'Egyptian Treasure': 'The Cairo Correspondent of The Times yesterday telegraphed a long message, dated from the Valley of the Kings (by runner to Luxor)'
(what caught JAJ's interest here? surely the rare medium of communication?)
a servant runs ahead of the royal party to prepare the way
now it's made clear they're foxhunting
VI.B10.05i: "dogfox" Quarterly Review: 'It is hard to understand why dog-foxes are so often seen about earths which contain cubs'
VI.B10.05c: "casts along shore (fox)" Quarterly Review: 'The fox had vanished... Exhaustive casts along the shore failed to recover the line'
FW2: "like cabbaging Cincinnatus, the grand old gardener was... one sultry sabbath afternoon... following his plough for rootles in the rere garden of... ye olde marine hotel, when royalty was announced by runner to have been pleased to have halted itself on the highroad along which a leisureloving dogfox had cast"
Forgetful of all but his fealty he stayed not to saddle or yoke but he stumbled hotface out of his forecourts on to the road in his surcingle plus fours & bulldog boots coated with red marl jingling his turnpike keys a sweatdrenched bandana hanging from his coat pocket holding aloft among the fixed pikes of the royal hunting party a long perch atop of which a flowerpot was affixed.
"forecourts" = any open area in front of a building (UK)
he wouldn't be plowing the forecourts, would he? but he might have gone there to meet the runner
VI.B10.30j: "surcingles" Leader 11 Nov 1922, 327/1: 'Our Ladies' Letter': 'Mrs Joe was out last Sunday, and if you heard her about the military weddings! The officers "with their surcingles!" that kill her'
surcingle = girdle or belt confining a cassock?
sir-single
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| surcingles?? |
 |
| plus-fours |
"bulldog boots" were something, usually worn by women? maybe sturdy Jamaican 'rope-soled slippers' later made with waste car-tire rubber and called 'power shoes' [pdf-p114]
 |
| marl describes the chemistry not the consistency |
"turnpike keys" nobody but Joyce ever used the plural; the singular was the title of a history of turnpikes
(did turnpikes need keys in those days? the custodian was supposed to collect a toll for road maintenance, but not of course from the king)
 |
| pikes |
FW2: "Forgetful of all save his vassal's plain fealty... Humphrey or Harold stayed not to yoke or saddle but stumbled out hotface as he was (his sweatful bandanna loose from his pocketcoat), hasting to the forecourts of his public in topee, surcingle, solascarf and plaid, plus fours, puttees and bulldog boots ruddled cinnabar with flagrant marl, jingling his turnpike keys and bearing aloft amid the fixed pikes of the hunting party a high perch atop of which a flowerpot was fixed"
On his majesty, who was noticeably longsighted from his early youth, inquiring whether he had been engaged in lobstertrapping honest Humphrey bluntly answered very similarly: 'No, my liege, I was only a cotchin of them bluggy earwigs'.
VI.B10.84i: "answered very similarly"
similar to what/whom??
FW2: "On his majesty, who was... noticeably longsighted from green youth... asking... whether paternoster and silver doctors were not now more fancied bait for lobstertrapping, honest blunt Haromphreyld answered... very similarly...: Naw, yer maggers, aw war jist a cotchin on thon bluggy earwuggers."
The king who held a draught of obvious water in his hand upon this smiled heartily beneath his walrus moustaches and giving way to that none too genial humour which William the Conk had inherited from his great aunt Sophy, turned towards two gunmen of his retinue, the lord of Offaly and the mayor of Waterford (the second gun being syndic of Drogheda according to a later version cited by the learned Kanavan) remarking 'Holybones, How our brother of Burgundy would fume did he know that he have for trusty vassal a turnpiker who is also an earwicker'.
VI.B10.11c: "a draught of obvious water"
maybe cf the waters of oblivion??
why "obvious"? is he a notorious teetotaler? is the vessel clear?
VI.B10.01q: "walrus"
VI.B10.21n: "William the Conk" Sunday Pictorial 29 Oct 1922, 9/1: 'Review of "The Nine O'Clock Revue" at the Little': 'Who can resist Beatrice Lillie? I can't. Hear her sing her ancestry in "William the Conk!" with moustache and bowler hat'
"William the Conk" was a comic song about ancestry sung by Beatrice Lillie in drag in 1922 (she may also have contributed to the walrus moustaches and Sophy's humour).
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| Beatrice Lillie singing about Wm the Conk |
VI.B10.06i: "2 guns (2 men)" Quarterly Review: 'rabbiting in one of his own woods with a couple of companions — quite an informal party, just the two guns and a dog'
the 1911 census has six Kanavans (and 1200 Canavans)
MJ Canavan was a US historian
VI.B10.101i: "holy bones!" not usually an exclamation (cf 'Holy smoke!' etc)
FW2: "Our sailor king, who was draining a gugglet of obvious adamale... upon this, ceasing to swallow, smiled most heartily beneath his walrus moustaches and, indulging that none too genial humour which William the Conk... had inherited... from his greataunt Sophy, turned towards two of his retinue of gallowglasses, Michael, etheling lord of Leix and Offaly, and the jubilee mayor of Drogheda, Elcock, the two scatterguns being Michael M. Manning, protosyndic of Waterford, and an Italian excellency named Giubilei according to a later version cited by the learned scholarch Canavan... and remarked dilsydulsily: Holybones of Saint Hubert, how our red brother of Pouringrainia would audibly fume did he know that we have for surtrusty bailiwick a turnpiker who is by turns a pikebailer no seldomer than an earwigger!"
are these the True facts are recorded in as this legend? We shall perhaps see. But it is certain that from that historic date all documents initialled by Humphrey bear the sigla. H.C.E. and whether he was always Coxon for his cronies and good duke Humphrey for the ragged tiny folk of Lucalizod it was certainly a pleasant turn of the populace which gave him as sense of these initials the nickname 'Here Comes Everybody'.
VI.B10.39g: "Are they? We shall see" (maybe? Balfour: The Foundations of Belief 217: 'are these results rational... or are they, like a schoolboy's tears over a proposition of Euclid, consequences of reasoning, but not conclusions from it? In order to answer this question it may be worth while to consider it in the light of an example')
FW2: "are these the facts of his nominigentilisation as recorded and accolated in both or either of the collateral andrewpaulmurphyc narratives? ...We shall perhaps not so soon see... The great fact emerges that after that historic date all holographs so far exhumed initialled by Haromphrey bear the sigla H.C.E. and while he was only and long and always good Dook Umphrey for the hungerlean spalpeens of Lucalizod and Chimbers to his cronies it was equally certainly a pleasant turn of the populace which gave him as sense of those normative letters the nickname Here Comes Everybody."
An Imposing everybody indeed he looked and worthy of that title as he surveyed the playhouse on gala nights from the royal booth where he sat with all his house with broadstretched kerchief cooling neck & shoulders & wardrobepanelled tuxedo thrown back from a shirt wellnamed a swallowall far outstarching the laundered clawhammers and marbletopped highboys of the pit.
"a sweatdrenched bandana hanging from his coat pocket... with broadstretched kerchief cooling neck & shoulders"
VI.B10.117g: "tuxedos"
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| clawhammer coat |
FW2:"An imposing everybody he always indeed looked... and magnificently well worthy of any and all such universalisation, every time he continually surveyed... the truly catholic assemblage gathered together in that king's treat house... to clapplaud... a command performance... on all horserie show command nights from his viceregal booth... where... this folksforefather all of the time sat, having the entirety of his house about him, with the invariable broadstretched kerchief cooling his whole neck, nape and shoulderblades and in a wardrobepanelled tuxedo completely thrown back from a shirt well entitled a swallowall, on every point far outstarching the laundered clawhammers and marbletopped highboys of the pit"
A baser meaning has been read into these letters, the literal sense of which decency dare but touch. It has been suggested that he suffered from a vile disease. To such a suggestion the only selfrespecting answer is to affirm that there are certain statements which ought not to be, and one would like to be able to add, ought not to be allowed to be made.
FW2: "A baser meaning has been read into these characters the literal sense of which decency can safely scarcely hint. It has been blurtingly bruited... that he suffered from a vile disease... To such a suggestion the one selfrespecting answer is to affirm that there are certain statements which ought not to be and, one should like to hope to be able to add, ought not to be allowed to be made."
There was a case of the kind implicating a man named Lyons who was posted at Mallon's and years afterward dropped dead whilst waiting for a chop in Hawkins street.
cf Bantam Lyons in Ulysses
"posted" can mean either 'assigned a job posting' or 'reported missing, on a poster'
VI.B10.102h: "posted at Lloyd's as missing" Irish Times 9 Jan 1923, 4/5: 'Toll of the Sea': 'In the year 1922 twenty-one ships have been posted at Lloyds as "missing" and a ship "missing" at Lloyds seldom reappers'
John Mallon: superintendent of Dublin police at time of the Phoenix Park murders
VI.B10.66c: "whilst waiting for chop he dropped dead"
"a chop" meat at butcher or restaurant?
[map] Theatre Royal, Hawkins St
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| Hawkins St, 1962 |
FW2: "there is said to have been... some case of the kind implicating... a quidam... abhout that time stambuling haround Dumbaling... who has remained topantically anonymos but... was, it is stated, posted at Mallon's... and years afterwards... tropped head... waiting his first of the month froods turn for thatt chopp... on the old house for the chargehard, Roche Haddocks off Hawkins Street."
Nor have his detractors who an imperfectly warmblooded race apparently think him capable of any and every enormity recorded to the discredit of the Juke & Kellikek families mended their case by insinuating that he was at one time under the ludicrous imputation of annoying soldiers in the rushes.
VI.B10.31j: "imperfectly warmblooded"
Daily Mail 15 Nov 1922, 8/4: 'The Wild Things in Winter': 'hedgehog, dormouse and bat are examples of creatures which have only... reached an imperfectly warm-blooded state... So at... cold weather they... lapse into a state of unconsciousness'
VI.B10.108a: "Juke & Kellikek family — bred 250 criminals"
Juke and Kallikak: American families of supposedly-hereditary degenerates, the subject of Goddard's 'The Kallikak Family' (1912) and Dugdale's 'The Jukes' (1877)
FW2: "Nor have his detractors, who, an imperfectly warmblooded race, apparently conceive him as... capable of any and every enormity... recorded to the discredit of the Juke and Kellikek families, mended their case by insinuating that, alternatively, he lay at one time under the ludicrous imputation of annoying Welsh fusiliers in the people's park."
To anyone who knew and loved H.C.E. this suggestion is preposterous. Slander, let it do its worst, has never been able to convict that good and great man of any worse impropriety than that of having behaved in an ungentlemanly manner in the presence of a pair of maidservants in the rushy hollow whither nature as they alleged had spontaneously & at the same time sent them both
VI.B10.91e: "behaved in a gentlemanly manner"
VI.B10.79r: "the rushy hollow"
VI.B10.77h: "Nature sends me to do so (piss) W"
FW2: "To anyone who knew and loved... H. C. Earwicker... the mere suggestion... rings particularly preposterous."
FW2: "Slander, let it lie its flattest, has never been able to convict our good and great and no ordinary Southron Earwicker, that homogenius man... of any graver impropriety than that... of having behaved with an ongentilmensky immodus opposite a pair of dainty maidservants in the swoolth of the rushy hollow whither... Dame Nature... had spontaneously and about the same hour of the eventide sent them both"
whose testimonies are, if not dubious, at any rate slightly divergent on minor points touching what was certainly an incautious, but at the most, a partial exposure with attenuating circumstances. during an abnormal S Martin's summer.
extenuating
St Martin's day = November 11
cf Indian summer
FW2: "but whose... testimonies are, where not dubiously pure, visibly divergent... on minor points touching the intimate nature of this... which was admittedly an incautious but, at its wildest, a partial exposure with such attenuating circumstances... as an abnormal Saint Swithin's summer"
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