Thursday, October 30, 2014

March 1923: Roderick O'Conor level one

So anyhow to wind up after the whole beanfeast was all over poor old King Roderick O'Conor the last king of all Ireland who was anything you like between fiftyfour and fiftyfive years of age at the time after the socalled last supper he gave or at least he wasn't actually the last king of all Ireland for the time being because he was still such as he was the king of all Ireland after the last king of all Ireland Art MacMurrough Kavanagh who was king of all Ireland before he was anyhow what did he do King Roderick O'Conor the respected king of all Ireland at the time after they were all of them gone when he was all by himself but he just went heeltapping round his own right royal round rollicking table and faith he sucked up sure enough like a Trojan in some particular cases with the assistance of his venerated tongue one after the other in strict order of rotation whatever happened to be left in the different bottoms of the various drinking utensils left there behind them by the departed honourable guests such as it was either Guiness's or Phoenix Brewery Stout or John Jameson and Sons or for that matter O'Connell's Dublin ale as a fallback of several different quantities amounting in all to I should say considerably more than the better part of a gill or naggin of imperial dry and liquid measure. [source] [FDV]



Ellmann: On March 11, 1923, he announced to Miss Weaver, "Yesterday I wrote two pages— the first I have written since the final Yes of Ulysses. Having found a pen, with some difficulty I copied them out in a large handwriting on a double sheet of foolscap so that I could read them. II lupo perde il pelo ma non il vizio, the Italians say. The wolf may lose his skin but not his vice or the leopard cannot change his spots." (the phrasing-- copied them out-- suggests he first 'wrote' them in his head)




So anyhow to wind up after the whole beanfeast was all over

"to wind up" = 'last' paragraph of FW written first? (is this 'death' in the viconian birth-marriage-death cycle?)

wind/fire/flood/earthquake?

U174: "All those women and children excursion beanfeast burned and drowned in New York. Holocaust."

a feast of beans is a feast in name only

there's a longwinded unnamed narrator who presumably echoes ROC's own speakingstyle

FW2: "So anyhow... to wind up... after that... beanfeast was all over"


poor old King Roderick O'Conor the last king of all Ireland who was anything you like between fiftyfour and fiftyfive years of age at the time

"poor old" (just in retrospect, or at the time?)

last High King of Ireland from 1166 to 1198 (1183?), before the Norman invasion [wiki] [Annals of Ulster] [Giraldus Cambrensis] 1198-54=1144

the 1901 census has 15k O'Connors and only 78 O'Conors (FW keeps the latter spelling)

"all Ireland" includes the north

"anything you like" ie birthyear known, birthday not known
the historian's audience can fill in the blanks (cf? U24: "From a hill above a corpsestrewn plain a general speaking to his officers, leaned upon his spear. Any general to any officers. They lend ear.")

Joyce wouldn't turn 55 until 1937, but on Bloomsday 1904 his father was about to turn 55 (4 July 1904). Bloom would have turned 55 in 1921.

FW2: "poor old... King Roderick O'Conor, the... last... king of all Ireland, who was anything you say yourself between fiftyodd and fiftyeven years of age at the time"


after the socalled last supper he gave or at least he wasn't actually the last king of all Ireland for the time being because he was still such as he was the king of all Ireland

"socalled last supper" (ROC = Jesus)
he couldn't know he'd be remembered as the last
(did he know he'd never give another supper?)

FW2: "after the socalled last supper he greatly gave... or at least he wasn't actually the then last king of all Ireland for the time being for the jolly good reason that he was still such as he was the eminent king of all Ireland himself"


after the last king of all Ireland Art MacMurrough Kavanagh who was king of all Ireland before he was

Art MacMurrough Kavanagh: 14th century king of Leinster (a descendant of Diarmaid MacMurrough) d1416 (so this is simply/intentionally wrong?)
also handicapped politician d1889

VI.B10.54f (Dec22): "Mac Murrough Kavanagh"

the 1901 census has 8000 Kavanaghs

FW2: "after the last... preeminent king of all Ireland... that went before him in the Taharan dynasty, King Arth Mockmorrow Koughenough..."


anyhow what did he do King Roderick O'Conor the respected king of all Ireland at the time

"respected"

FW2: "anyhow... what did he do, poor old Roderick O'Conor Rex, the auspicious waterproof monarch of all Ireland,"


after they were all of them gone when he was all by himself but he just went heeltapping round his own right royal round rollicking table

(maybe cf Bloom after Stephen leaves, U-17)

a 'heel-tap' was a layer in a shoe-heel, and by analogy apparently the dregs of a drinkingglass (so used by Peacock and Shelley). (as a verb it could mean an audience's restive drumming called "footdrill" in Ulysses, or the Spanish zapateo dance) (those dregs were also the origin of 'here's mud in your eye')

is he circling the drain? (cf?? PoA1: "Once he had washed his hands in the lavatory of the Wicklow Hotel and his father pulled the stopper up by the chain after and the dirty water went down through the hole in the basin. And when it had all gone down slowly the hole in the basin had made a sound like that: suck.")

maybe: "a right-down regular, Regular, regular, Regular Royal Queen!" G&S

"rollicking" = he liked to party

FW2: "when he found himself all alone by himself... after all of them had all gone... but, faix, he just went heeltapping... round his own right royal round rollicking topers' table..."


and faith he sucked up sure enough like a Trojan in some particular cases with the assistance of his venerated tongue one after the other in strict order of rotation whatever happened to be left in the different bottoms of the various drinking utensils left there behind them by the departed honourable guests such as it was

"like a Trojan" only goes back to c1850, split between 'work', 'eat', 'drink' and 'bear [something]' (cf Italian troia = sow?)

"poor old... respected... venerated"

"in strict order of rotation" (why is this specified??)

"departed honourable guests" (not betrayers... yet? cf Brutus was an honorable man)

"such as it was" ("it" = whatever happened to be left)

FW2: "well, what did he go and do... but... suck up, sure enough, like a Trojan, in some particular cases with the assistance of his venerated tongue, whatever surplus rotgut... was left by the lazy lousers in the different bottoms of the various... drinking utensils left there behind them... by that... family of departed honourable homegoers, such as it was,"


either Guiness's or Phoenix Brewery Stout or John Jameson and Sons or for that matter O'Connell's Dublin ale

earliest dates: Guinness 1759, Jameson 1780, O'Connell 1831, Phoenix pre-1831?

FW2: "no matter whether it was... Guinness's or Phoenix brewery stout... or John Jameson and Sons... or, for the matter of that, O'Connell's famous old Dublin ale..."


as a fallback of several different quantities amounting in all to I should say considerably more than the better part of a gill or naggin of imperial dry and liquid measure.

"fallback" (anticipating he'll shortly collapse?)
"considerably more than the better part" (so still less than 4oz?)

a 'shot' is ~1.5oz

gill = noggin = 4 oz fluid measuring cup ('naggin' is Irish for noggin??  'gill' sometimes 8oz)
measurement motif

FW2: "as a fallback, of several different quantities... amounting in all to, I should say, considerably more than the better part of a gill or naggin of imperial dry and liquid measure..."


does this image of a publican drinking up the dregs have any literary or historical precedent? does his circular path, as his "guests" depart centrifugally, carry some deep symbolic weight? is JAJ remembering his father's poverty and alcoholism?

(The fact that the guests leave deals a first deadly blow to the "Finn's Hotel" hypothesis! As do the anachronisms... though there's no particular neologisms/dream-puns yet.)

[Chrisp] [Deppman]



Monday, October 20, 2014

July 1923: Roderick O'Conor level four

So anyhow after that to wind up that long to be chronicled get together day, the anniversary of his first holy communion, after that same barbecue beanfeast was all over poor old hospitable King Roderick O'Conor, the paramount chief polemarch and last preelectric king of all Ireland who was anything you say yourself between fiftyfour and fiftyfive years of age at the time after the socalled last free supper he greatly gave in his umbrageous house of the hundred bottles or at least he wasn't actually the then last king of all Ireland for the time being for the jolly good reason that he was still such as he was the eminent king of all Ireland himself after the last preeminent king of all Ireland, the whilom joky old top that went before him in the dienasty King Art MacMurrough Kavanagh of the leather leggings, now of parts unknown, God guard his generous soul that put a poached fowl in the poor man's pot before he took to his pallyass with the weeping eczema for better and worse until he went and died nevertheless the year the sugar was scarce and himself down to three cows that was meat and drink and dogs and washing to him 'tis good cause we have to remember it anyhow wait till I tell you what did he do poor old Roderick O'Conor Rex the auspicious waterproof monarch of all Ireland when he found himself all alone by himself in his grand old historic pile after all of them had all gone off with themselves as best they could on footback in extended order a tree's length from the longest way out down the switchbackward road, the unimportant Parthalonians with the mouldy Firbolgs and the Tuatha de Danaan googs and all the rest of the notmuchers that he didn't care the royal spit out of his ostensible mouth about well what do you think he did, sir, but faix he just went heeltapping through the winespilth and weevily popcorks that were kneedeep round his own right royal round rollicking topers' table with his old Roderick Random pullon hat at a cant on him, the body, you'd pity him, the way the world is, poor he, the heart of Midleinster and the supereminent lord of them all, overwhelmed as he was with black ruin like a sponge out of water and singing all to himself through his old tears starkened by the most regal belches I've a terrible errible lot todo today todo toderribleday well what did he go and do at all His Most Exuberant Majesty King Roderick O'Conor but arrah bedamnbut he finalised by lowering his woolly throat with the wonderful midnight thirst was on him as keen as mustard and leave it if he didn't suck up sure enough like a Trojan in some particular cases with the assistance of his venerated tongue whatever surplus rotgut sorra much was left by the lazy lousers of maltknights and beerchurls in the different bottoms of the various different replenquished drinking utensils left there behind them on the premises, by the departed honourable homegoers and other slygrogging suburbanites such as it was no matter whether it was chateaubottled Guinness's or Phoenix brewery stout it was or John Jameson and Sons or Roob Coccola or for the matter of that O'Connell's famous old Dublin ale that he wanted like hell as a fallback of several different quantities and qualities amounting in all to I should say considerably more than the better part of a gill or naggin of imperial dry or liquid measure. [cite]





So anyhow after that to wind up that long to be chronicled get together day, the anniversary of his first holy communion, after that same barbecue beanfeast was all over

"after that... after that" (after what?)

VI.B10.59i: "a get-together evg" evening
"first holy communion" around age 8yo (someone suggested this may allude to Napoleon c1779?)
VI.B10.101d: "barbecue — feast whole roasting"

FW2: "So anyhow... after that to wind up that longtobechronicled gettogether... day... the anniversary of his finst homy commulion, after that same barbecue beanfeast was all over"


poor old hospitable King Roderick O'Conor, the paramount chief polemarch and last preelectric king of all Ireland who was anything you say yourself between fiftyfour and fiftyfive years of age at the time

VI.A Cyclops "hospitality"
VI.B3.04c (Apr-May?): 'hospitable'
VI.B10.117a: 'paramount chief'
polemarch: the title of an officer in ancient Greece
"preelectric" usually refers to 19thC streetlights or telegraph

FW2: "poor old hospitable... King Roderick O'Conor, the paramount chief polemarch and last preelectric king of all Ireland, who was anything you say yourself between fiftyodd and fiftyeven years of age at the time"


after the socalled last free supper he greatly gave in his umbrageous house of the hundred bottles

"umbrageous" can mean 'shady' or 'inclined to take umbrage'

raw umber

VI.A Eolus "house of the hundred bottles"
VI.A Sisters "the story of the house of the 100 bottles" (any guesses what story? the '99 bottles' song was much later)
Conn of the Hundred Battles: Irish high king
cf FW028: " there's already a big rody ram lad at random on the premises of his haunt of the hungred bordles" (nb Roderick Random, too)

FW2: "after the socalled last supper he greatly gave... in his umbrageous house of the hundred bottles"


or at least he wasn't actually the then last king of all Ireland for the time being for the jolly good reason that he was still such as he was the eminent king of all Ireland himself after the last preeminent king of all Ireland, the whilom joky old top that went before him in the dienasty

"for the jolly good reason" (1904/1911 formula)
"whilom" = formerly (joky)
VI.B10.76l: "jokey old man" (cf? 'Cicero describes Quintus Mucius the augur as ioculator senex, 'a jokey old man')
VI.B.10.16k: "Old Top"
VI.A Oxen "old top" 1920s slang
"dienasty" clumsy early wakese, rejected

FW2: "...or at least he wasn't actually the then last king of all Ireland for the time being for the jolly good reason that he was still such as he was the eminent king of all Ireland himself after the last preeminent king of all Ireland, the whilom joky old top that went before him in the Taharan dynasty,"


King Art MacMurrough Kavanagh of the leather leggings, now of parts unknown, God guard his generous soul that put a poached fowl in the poor man's pot before he took to his pallyass

VI.B10.53i: "Muircearteach of the Leather Coats"
Muircheartach (or Murtagh) of the leather cloaks: 10th century Irish high king who fought against the Danes (so named for furnishing his soldiers with loose leather mantles to protect them against the weather during a winter expedition)
coats → "leggings" (FW's preoccupation with pants and pantslessness?)
"now of parts unknown" (legal formula?)
VI.B10.29i: "God guard his generous soul" (source article referred to Michael Collins)
"poached" = cooked or stolen
VI.B10.90f: "Fr[ench]. King to put a fowl in every man's pot"
"the poor man's pot" (ie "poor old" ROC?)


palliasse = straw mattress ("pallyass" is attested spelling)


with the weeping eczema for better and worse until he went and died nevertheless the year the sugar was scarce and himself down to three cows that was meat and drink and dogs and washing to him 'tis good cause we have to remember it

"weeping eczema" infected by scratching [yuk]
wedding ceremony: 'for better and for worse' 
VI.B10.30g: "She died the year the sugar was scarce"
VI.B10.29p: "& I down to 3 pigs"
VI.B10.40e: "'dorgs' — meat drink & washing" (Sterne is referring to Frenchwomen's love of maypoles!?) (("dorgs" = 'dogs' in dialect? maybe dogs could wash plates by licking??))
VI.B10.30i: "'tis why I remember it"

several of these notes, and several more used in other passages, came from a single newspaper column, 'Our Ladies' Letter' in the Leader for 11 Nov 1922: 'They'll be running all right for trains when I'll have my hands full again, I'll bet you... What harm, but I down to three pigs and them same near fat!... even father... except that he stays in bed a day now and then, you wouldn't notice he was giving... Like that, only the way the trains are, I'd be tempted to go up to ye... "What year was it the sugar was scarce?" says Kitty, "because that was the year she died. 'Tis why I remember it. She had a half-stone of it ahide in the clock."... for fear people would think we had money; the way the world is, aweenoch, you wouldn't be safe... Mrs Joe was out last Sunday, and if you heard her about the military weddings! The officers "with their surcingles!" that kill her... You heard — or did you — Mary Rose of the bog was married. He's a general or something... How did they manage it, says you... Like that, I suppose 'tis short now till we'll have women labourers in the Government... Did you get anything for the winter? 'Twould perish the Danes here for the past week... I'm ashamed of the little bit of butter, but the post wouldn't take any more and there's no use sending it by train'

FW2: "King Arth Mockmorrow Koughenough of the leathered leggions, now of parts unknown (God guard his generous... soul!), that put a poached fowl in the poor man's pot before he took to his pallyass with the weeping eczema for better and worse until he went under the grass quilt on us nevertheless the year the sugar was scarce... and himself down to three cows that was meat and drink and dogs and washing to him, 'tis good cause we have to remember it,"


anyhow wait till I tell you what did he do poor old Roderick O'Conor Rex the auspicious waterproof monarch of all Ireland when he found himself all alone by himself in his grand old historic pile

"auspicious" (alluding to Vico?)
"waterproof" (HCE will wear a rubberised inverness; Jarl van Hoother's kids will fight/play on an oilcloth flure/tearsheet/watercloth)
cf 'lips that touch water will never touch mine'?
"when he found himself all alone by himself" interesting redundancy
"grand old [man]" came to refer mainly to Gladstone
pile = a large impressive building (formal or humorous)

FW2: "...anyhow wait till I tell you what did he do, poor old Roderick O'Conor Rex, the auspicious waterproof monarch of all Ireland, when he found himself all alone by himself in his grand old handwedown pile"


after all of them had all gone off with themselves as best they could on footback in extended order a tree's length from the longest way out down the switchbackward road,

"by himself... with themselves"
"as best they could" too drunk to walk straight?
"footback" (real word) cf horseback
"extended order" opposite of 'close order' in military drills [manual]

(measurement motif)

"the longest way out" why not the shortest? dreading home/wives? (cf Supertramp's Take the Long Way Home)

normally implying steep hillside

cf Hill of Tara (way too small)

FW2: "after all of them had all gone off with themselves... as best they cud, on footback... in extended order, a tree's length from the longest way out, down the switchbackward... route..."


the unimportant Parthalonians with the mouldy Firbolgs and the Tuatha de Danaan googs and all the rest of the notmuchers that he didn't care the royal spit out of his ostensible mouth about

Parthalonians, Firbolgs, Tuatha de Danaan = earliest Irish invaders (spelled correctly!?) but why no-one later? these are supposedly his friends/allies but he's contemptuous of them (for abandoning him?)

"mouldy" Irish slang for drunk
"googs" probably from Irish guag (capricious person)

"auspicious... ostensible"
how can a mouth be ostensible? is there another hidden mouth? or is it a fancy way of saying 'wide'???

FW2: "the unimportant Parthalonians with the mouldy Firbolgs and the Tuatha de Danaan googs... and all the rest of the notmuchers... that he didn't care the royal spit out of his ostensible mouth about"


well what do you think he did, sir, but faix he just went heeltapping through the winespilth and weevily popcorks that were kneedeep round his own right royal round rollicking topers' table with his old Roderick Random pullon hat at a cant on him,

faex = dregs (Latin)
VI.B10.45a: "weevily winecorks"

Roderick Random (1748): 'my hat very much resembled a barber's basin, in the shallowness of the crown and narrowness of the brim' [ebook]
VI.A Words (Dec?) "pull on hat"

Quixote (1605) wore an actual barber's basin as a helmet
FW2: "well, what do you think he did, sir, but, faix, he just went heeltapping through the winespilth and weevily popcorks that were kneedeep round his own right royal round rollicking topers' table, with his old Roderick Random pullon hat at a... cant on him"


the body, you'd pity him, the way the world is, poor he, the heart of Midleinster and the supereminent lord of them all, overwhelmed as he was with black ruin

VI.B10.75p: 'the mother, you'd pity her"
VI.B10.30k: "the way the world is"
'The Heart of Midlothian' Walter Scott [wiki]
"Midleinster" is a real term for the Meath/Tara region
"supereminent" (replaced historically by pre-eminent)

a gin shop that sells 'Blue Ruin'


like a sponge out of water and singing all to himself through his old tears starkened by the most regal belches I've a terrible errible lot todo today todo toderribleday

VI.A Eumeus "smiling all through"
"old tears" phrase used by Byron and Fiona Macleod/William Sharp
VI.A Words "starkened"
VI.B25.162d: "decorated by most regal of belches"
"most regal of" (versatile phrase)

"I've a Terrible Lot to Do Today" was some kind of tagline or song for the fellow on the left on stage

FW2: "...the body you'd pity him, the way the world is, poor he, the heart of Midleinster and the supereminent lord of them all, overwhelmed as he was with black ruin like a sponge out of water... and thrumming through all to himself... through his old tears... starkened by the most regal of belches... I've a terrible errible lot todue todie todue tootorribleday,"


well what did he go and do at all His Most Exuberant Majesty King Roderick O'Conor but arrah bedamnbut he finalised by lowering his woolly throat with the wonderful midnight thirst was on him as keen as mustard and leave it if he didn't suck up sure enough like a Trojan in some particular cases with the assistance of his venerated tongue

the phrase "go and do" is most commonly attributed to Jesus
Blake: 'Exuberance is beauty.'
'bedamn but' is good Irish English
cf T&I: "by medical advice of Dr Codd he had been lowering daily draughts of extract of willow bark to keep off the Hibernian flu"
woolly outside = bearded; woolly inside = thirsty?
"wonderful... thirst"
"midnight thirst" is not a phrase (can we take this time-of-day literally?)
"as keen as mustard" goes back to 1672

FW2: "well, what did he go and do at all His Most Exuberant Majesty King Roderick O'Conor but, arrah bedamnbut, he finalised by lowering his woolly throat with the wonderful midnight thirst was on him, as keen as mustard... and, wishawishawish, leave it... if he didn't... suck up, sure enough, like a Trojan, in some particular cases with the assistance of his venerated tongue,"


whatever surplus rotgut sorra much was left by the lazy lousers of maltknights and beerchurls in the different bottoms of the various different replenquished drinking utensils left there behind them on the premises, by the departed honourable homegoers and other slygrogging suburbanites such as it was

"sorra much" Irish phrase incl in Lover's Rory O'More
louser = Dublin slang, one who louses things up
Knights of Malta = Hospitallers (cf "hospitable" above)
knight/churl = highclass/lowclass; malt/beer ditto?
"replenquished" one of the earliest instances of wakese
"slygrogging" = bootlegging
why "suburbanites"?

FW2: "whatever surplus rotgut, sorra much, was left by the lazy lousers in the different bottoms of the various different replenquished drinking utensils left there behind them on the premises by that whole... family of departed honourable homegoers, such as it was,"

relocated: "after the socalled last supper he greatly gave those maltknights and beerchurls in his umbrageous house of the hundred bottles... the unimportant Parthalonians with the mouldy Firbolgs and the Tuatha de Danaan googs... and all the rest of the notmuchers and other slygrogging suburbanites that he didn't care the royal spit out of his ostensible mouth about"


no matter whether it was chateaubottled Guinness's or Phoenix brewery stout it was or John Jameson and Sons or Roob Coccola or for the matter of that O'Connell's famous old Dublin ale that he wanted like hell as a fallback of several different quantities and qualities amounting in all to I should say considerably more than the better part of a gill or naggin of imperial dry or liquid measure.

VI.B10.45c: "chateau-bottled"
FW2 restores the 2nd 'n' in "Guinness's"
VI.A-Painful "Roob-Coccola" drunken slurring of rootbeer and coca-cola?
"that he wanted like hell"

FW2: "...no matter whether it was chateaubottled Guinness's or Phoenix brewery stout it was or John Jameson and Sons or Roob Coccola or, for the matter of that, O'Connell's famous old Dublin ale that he wanted like hell... as a fallback, of several different quantities and qualities amounting in all to, I should say, considerably more than the better part of a gill or naggin of imperial dry and liquid measure"