Contents
Log
A Key to Pagination
[Page nn-] The page begun at the previous monthly session but not completed.
[Page nn] A full page completed.
[Page nn+] a page with one paragraph completed but the page incomplete.
Sources
- Campbell and Robinson’s A Skeleton Key to Finnegan’s Wake
- Tindall’s A Reader’s Guide to Finnegans Wake
- Combined Lexicon and Occasional Summaries from Glosses of Finnegans Wake (finwake.com) and Roland McHugh’s Annotations to Finnegans Wake
100 Words
[Note: My speculation will always appear in brackets so that you can easily ignore it.]
Log
I got underway at Book I, Chapter 4 at Page 82.10, and continued to 83.03.
Sources
Campbell and Robinson’s A Skeleton Key to Finnegan’s Wake
Page 82.10-83.03
The authors summarize for us: “Then he asked whether a sum of money had once been pickpocketed from the other, and presently, after some further collision and banter for the best part of an hour, he wanted to know his companion might happen to have the change of a ten-pound note on his person, adding that he would like to pay back the sum formerly pickpocketed. To which the other replied, with an obvious stutter, that he had no such thing on his person, but that’s could see his way (83) to advance something like four and sevenpence ” (Campbell and Robinson 86).
[HCE, of course, is the stutterer.]
William York Tindall’s A Reader’s Guide to Finnegans Wake
Pages 82.10-83.03
[There are no notes from Tindall that relate to this short section. Those he records are similar in content to the notes from Campbell and Robinson about the brawl.]
Glosses of Finnegans Wake (finwake.com)
and
Roland McHugh’s Annotations to Finnegans Wake [Entries below introduced by line numbers “l n.nn” and italicized]
Page 82.10
solstitial = of or belonging to, connected with, a solstice or the solstices (21st June or 22nd December).[refleshmeant = resurrection + fattening]
l.10 (festivals at solstices); refreshment
ham – an inexpert performer; (also ham actor, actress) an ineffective or over-emphatic actor, one who rants or overacts. slang (orig. U.S.); An inexpert or over-theatrical performance. slang.
vermicular – resembling a worm + vernacular – the native speech or language of a particular country or district; also, the informal, colloquial, or distinctive speech of a people or a group + Joyce’s note: ‘vermicular’ → Jespersen: The Growth and Structure of the English Language 134 (sec. 131): ‘It is… surprising how many pairs we have of native nouns and foreign adjectives, e.g…. worm: vermicular’
l.12 L vermiculor: be full of worms
oggly/ chew-chin-grin= ugly +chin chin – Used as a drinking toast; as v. intr., to say ‘chin-chin’. [from i cent anno= (may you live) one hundred years]
victolios = Victoria – a sovereign minted in the reign of Queen Victoria
l.12 6 Victoria 15: Act of 1843 against African slave trade
offa = off of + Joyce’s note: ‘Tell he me = Lei’; Caradoc Evan, 53: “[The Way of the Earth] ‘Tell he me, when shall I say to Beca thus: “On such and such a day is the wedding”? Say him a month this day?'” Note: It was a local custom to address one’s betters in the third person. MS 47472-158, TsILS: taken off you, tell us by anyone ^+takee offa you, tell he me, strongfella by pickypocky+^ | JJA 46:034 | 1926-7 |
l.13 Offa in Widsith defeated Saxons singlehanded
‘strongfella = malts’
l.13 ‘strongfella – master’; De Valera ‘the Long Fellow’
collibanter = collaborate – to work in conjunction with another or others, to co-operate; to co-operate traitorously with the enemy + collidabantur (l) – they were brought into collision.
l.15 tries to convert (rugby)
Woden = Odin + wooden + (notebook 1924): ‘Woden’ → Jespersen: The Growth and Structure of the English Language 62 (sec. 60): (quoting from J.R. Green’s A Short History of the English People) ‘England still remained England; the conquerors sank quietly into the mass of those around them; and Woden yielded without a struggle to Christ’.
Webley – the proprietary name of various types of revolver and other small arms, etc., originally made by the firm of P. Webley and Son.
l.16 Woden = Wotan
illortemporate = illtempered – having a bad temper; ill-conditioned; morose, cross, peevish + in illo tempore (l) – ‘at that time’; Latin formula used in the Mass to introduce Gospel = [hard-drinking]
intruse = intrude + intruder – one who intrudes into an estate or benefice or usurps on the rights or privileges of another.
christchurch = Christchurch Cathedral – The catholic church of the Protestant archdiocese of Dublin and Glendalough; at one time a glass case with the mummified bodies of a cat and a rat which were discovered behind the organ-case.
l.19 In crypt of Christ Church Cathedral, D, are skeletons of cat, & mouse it chased into an organ tube; both were trapped and died
l.20Moore: s Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms
flout = to mock, jeer, insult; to express contempt for, either in word or action + float.
knobkerrie – a short thick stick with a knobbed head, used as a weapon or missile by South African peoples.
change = exchange
strongbox – a chest or case for money made very strongly, a small safe + (notebook 1924): ‘invention of fender’.
corrobberating = corroborate – to strengthen (an opinion, statement, argument, etc.) by concurrent or agreeing statements or evidence; to make more sure or certain; to support; to confirm (a law, legal act, etc.) + [robbery]
tenitorial = territorial + tenitore (it) – holder, keeper.
loots = lots – much + loot – money (slang.); goods taken from an enemy
l.25 loose
change = money of a lower denomination given in exchange for a larger coin; hence generally, coins of low denomination; also coins of one currency given in exchange for those of another.
crickler = crickle – to make a sharp, thin sound
addling = addle – to muddle, to confuse (the brain)
hap – to have the fortune, luck, happen, chance + Joyce’s note: ‘hap = if’ Caradoc Evan, 53: “[The Way of the Earth] ‘Hap Madlen Tybach need coal?'” note: Welsh “hap”: luck, chance, fortune. The meaning here is “Go and ask if Madlen Tybach need coal”. MS 47472-158, TsOS: happened to have the loose ^+loots+^change of a ten pound note ^+crickler+^ about him at the moment as ^+addling that,+^ if ^+hap+^ so, he would pay the six pounds ^+vics+^ odd back | JJA 46:034 | 1926-7 |
vic = Victoria – a sovereign minted in the reign of Queen Victoria.
odd – a surplus of lower denomination of money; used in numeration to denote a remainder or numerical surplus over and above a ’round number’ (as of units over tens, dozens, or scores); and thus becoming virtually an indefinite cardinal number of lower denomination than the round number named.
Yuni; Yuli = juni (Dutch) – june + juli (Dutch) – july
Boule = boule – legislative coucil of ancient Greece; bowl + boule (fr) – ball.
l29. Billy-in-the- Bowl: legerless beggar in old D; strangled bypassers
mummed = mum – to make an inarticulate sound with closed lips, indicating inability to speak
mauled = maul – to beat and bruise (a person)
l.31 HC…E [hesitency carried to excelcism]
excelcism = excel – to be superior or preëminent in the possession of some quality, or in the performance of some action, usually in a good sense + [ His Excellency, the bishop]
least chance = loose change (orig. U.S.) – a quantity of coins kept or left in one’s pocket, etc., for casual use.
tinpanned = tinpan – noisy, harsh; a pan made of tin; tympan + ten pound + [Tin Pan Alley the street and industry engaged in creating popular music]
see my way = see one’s way – to see how one will be able (to do something esp.to pay money)
Yuddanfest = Judenfest (ger) – Jewish holiday [Hanukkah]
END Page 82
Page 83
hatter = a maker of or dealer in hats + Mad Hatter and March Hare – characters in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll.
mon = man
baches = bach (Welsh) – little +[Johann Sebastian Bach and Sons]
l.3 G Bach: brook
J. J. and S = Jameson – the proprietary name of a brand of Irish whiskey. Also, a drink of this whiskey + [John Jameson and Son]
END Page 83.3
100 Words: A few words about the personal exploration of this month’s text
[These entries are somewhat random, thoughts that arise from reading the text and my brief research about the page. These are hardly intended to be academic criticism.]
[Open the brown-edged pages of the James Joyce Quarterly issued Winter 1968 edition. You’ll discover Jacques Aubert’s journal article “Notes on the French Element in Finnegans Wake.” Without French (I blush), I needed to be guided through the French language puns that came to Joyce after spending twenty years in the country, Aubert drew examples from just a few pages of FW, but the examples were revealing and could be applied to the page I write about today. We have seen Joyce’s use of ” Peninsolate War.” It passed me escaping particular notice until Aubert corrected my deficiency. Among his examples of French puns is…
peninsulate war = The Peninsular War, Le Guerre L’Espagne, Napolean’s first meeting with Wellington
Puns ensue….
passencore = pas encore + passe encore (well and good…)+ passer. See also A Wake Newslitter, Vol I, No. 3, pp. 2-3 for sexual meaning of une passe.
James Joyce Quarterly
Vol. 5, No. 2 (Winter, 1968), pp. 110-124 (15 pages)
Published by: University of Tulsa passe.]
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