Contents
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.]
Sources
Pages 96.02 [Beginning of Sentence] -97.02 [End of Sentence]
Campbell and Robinson’s A Skeleton Key to Finnegan’s Wake
“…Gun dogs of all breeds were (97)hot on his scent. From his lair he darted across Humphries Chase from Mullinsshob and Peacockstown, then bearing right upon Tankardstown, then through Raystown and Horlockstown and, looping the loup, to Tankardstown again. He was lost upon Ye Hill of Rut in full winter coat with tickered pads, pointing for his rooming house. He was hidden, then, close in covert, miraculously raven fed and sustained by his cud. Hence hounds hide home. Vainly violence, virulence, and vituperation sought to goad him fouth.
But his hesitEncy [sic] will give him away. 26
Assemblymen murmured, “Reynard is slow!”
There was heard from his hideout an obscure noise. One feared for his days and tried to name what had happened. Was that a yawn? ’Twas his stomach. Did he eruct? Blame his liver. Was it a gush from his visuals. Pung? Deliver him, O Lord! In Fugger’s Newsletter, it was declared that he had laid violent hands on himself. His sons were exhibited in the Forum, and a daughter was born to him, amidst general acclaim (98)” (Campbell and Robinson 92-93).
26 As noted by Herbert Gorman, (James Joyce, Farrar, and Reinhart, 1939, P. 35), Richard Pigott, who had forged letters, implicating Parnell, betrayed himself in the witness box by misspelling the word hesitancy. Finnegans week is shot through with recollections of the fate of Parnell, but perhaps nowhere more richly than in these episodes of the scandal, trial, death, and resurrection. Parnell and Pigott are amalgamated in the figure of HCE.
William York Tindall’s A Reader’s Guide to Finnegans Wake
“By a sudden metamorphosis, not surprising in a dream, Earwicker becomes a fox, pursued by the hunt, “keen for the worry.” Allusions to the beast epic of Reynard the Fox (Mikkelraved.” 97.17 is its title in Danish) make his story traditional, while hints of Mr. Fox (one of the names, Parnell assumed when he hid himself – not, however, among maidens) and of James Joyce, hounded into exile, make his story immediate. Parnell is brought in by Pigotts, “hesitancy” and Joyce, an “underlined overlord” (97.24-25), by many autobiographical details (Tindall 92).
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]
97.02
holt = a place of refuge or abode, an animal’s lair or den esp. that of an otter.
outratted = rat – to desert one’s party, side, or cause, esp. in politics; to go over as a deserter + lit. ausrotten (ger) – exterminate. + [expose] + [dogs like Jack Russell Terriers are called ratters. They follow prey like foxes down tunnels into their dens]
Juletide’s = yuletide – the season of Yule, Christmas-tide
corsslands = crossland – land belonging to the church (Irish.)
MULLINAHOB = House, 2 miles South-East of Ratoath, County Meath.
l.4 Townlands in vicinity of Ratoath, Co. Meath: Peacocktown, Tankardstown, Raystown, Harlockstown, Cheeverstown, Loughlinstown, Nuttstown, Boolies (area hunted by Ward Union Staghounds)
PEACOCKSTOWN = Townland, parish and barony of Ratoath, County Meath.
bearing – to mov[ing] with effort, with persistence, or with a distinct bias in some direction.
TANKARDSTOWN = Townland, parish and barony of Ratoath, County Meath
l.5 Nolan; ‘Fitz Urze’ means ‘son of bear’; Reginald Fitz Urse: chief murderer of Thomas à Becket; lion’s tail (G Lowe:lion)
outlier = one that sleeps outdoors; animal outside enclosure +[an atypical person]
noelan = Noël (fr) – Christmas
Loewensteil = Lowenanteil (ger) – lion’s share
Fitz = one whose surname begins with fitz i.e. an Irishman of Anglo Norman extraction.
Urse = a bear + Fitz Urse, Mr Loewensteil – according to Mrs Christiani, a scramble of German, Norman French, Latin, meaning “Mr Lion’s-share Bear-son.”
basset = a short-legged dog used in unearthing foxes and badgers.
l.6 Du bruin: brown, Bruno; swart: black
beater = a man employed in rousing and driving game [ahead of a hunter]
misbadgered = misbrand – to brand falsely + badger – a plantigrade quadruped (Meles vulgaris), intermediate between the weasels and the bears, found in Europe and Middle Asia.
bruin = brown bear; the name of the bear in Reynard the Fox + bruin (Dutch) – brown.
swart = a dark color + sort
RAYSTOWN -= Townland in barony of Ratoath, County Meath
l.8 F loup; ECH [ear canny hare]
louping the loup = to loop the loop – to perform the feat of circling in a vertical loop, orig. on a specially prepared track, later in an aeroplane + loup – leap, flee + loup (fr) – wolf.
canny – skilful, clever, ‘cunning’
hare – to run or move with great speed; a rodent quadruped of the genus Lepus, having long ears and hind legs, a short tail, and a divided upper lip.
Loughlinstown = townland, county Meath
Nuttstown = townland, county Meath
wind = to move so as to encircle; to perceive (an animal) by the scent conveyed by the wind + [ out of breath]
Boolies = booly – a temporary enclosure for the shelter of cattle or their keepers + BOOLIES – Townland, parish of Kilbride, barony of Ratoath, County Meath. (Other townlands of this common name, which means “milking places,” are excluded [?] by the context.)
check = a stop in the progress of the hounds through the failure of the scent
l.12 Rutland Square, D (sloping); thicker
Rut = [a hill might be the inverse of a small hill] + [animal copulation]
ticker = something that ticks; heart, guts
pointing = [indicating like a dog might]
rooming house – lodging house + (notebook 1922-23): ‘pointing for his kennel’ + Quarterly Review Oct 1922, 274: ‘Reynard the Fox’: ‘a beautiful dog-fox… Full fed, and therefore at peace with all things, he was pointing for his own kennel, somewhere in one of the breaks’.
l.13 hessians: boots with tassels at the top in front
nordest = [northernmost]
top royal = lofty, grand, fine
hessian = high boot
fuchers = Fuchs Reinhard – German poem (Reynard the Fox) + fuchs (ger) – fox + (notebook 1922-23): ‘old deaf fox’ + Quarterly Review Oct 1922, 275: ‘Reynard the Fox’: ”He was deaf,’ said my friend laconically. ‘Old foxes often lose their hearings as old dogs do”.
l.14 Elijah was fed by ravens
volponism = volpone – a cunning schemer or miser + volpone (it) – fox + Volpone or The Fox – play by Ben Jonson, 1606, in which the fox “dies” and “comes to life” again.
l.15 Parts of the cow’s stomach: rumen, retinaculum, omasum, & abomasum
l.16 Abraham
sherriness = sherry – Originally, the still white wine made near Xeres (now Jerez de la Frontera, a town in Andalusia, near Cadiz); in modern use, extended to a class of Spanish fortified white wines of similar character.
l.17 Da Mikkelraev: Reynard the Fox; Syllabub: drink made of wine & creamwhipped together; Mick/Nick
syllabub = a drink or dish made of milk (freq. as drawn from the cow) or cream, curdled by the admixture of wine, cider, or other acid, and often sweetened and flavoured + (notebook 1922-23): ‘Syllabub: warm milk milked into 2 pints of Port & sherry, clotted cream, cinnamon comfits’ → Daily Mail 29 Nov 1922, 8/5: ‘Grandfather’s Syllabub’: ‘”When I was a girl… we would have no… thought of omitting syllabub for the Christmas festivities… a pint from the sherry… fetch up a bottle of port and pour out a pint of that also. Both lots of wine went into a big old china bowl and were sweetened with sugar… Father would pet one of the quietest of the cows and feed it with apples while I milked her into the bowl… After waiting about 20 minutes… pile up the bowl with clotted cream… put in a little powdered cinnamon. On the top we grated nutmeg and stuck in some sweetmeats… nonpareil comfits”‘.
Mikkelraev = according to Mrs Christiani, Danish ‘Reynard the Fox’.
l.18 (fasting)
preservative = tending to preserve, protective + FDV: Preserving perseverance in the reeducation of his intestines was the his the best rebuttal whereby he got the big bulge on all the crowd of spasoakers in that one street town.
perservance = persistance, steadfastness + (notebook 1922-23): ‘preserving perseveres’.
reeducation = reeducate – to train the physically disabled in the use of muscules in new functions or of prosthetic appliances in old functions.
rebuttal – = refutation, contradiction [Joyce’s note: ‘rebuttal’]
whilk = which
spasoakers = spa – a medicinal or mineral spring or well + soaker – one who soaks (to drink, imbibe, esp. to excess) something.
protown = lit. Vorort (ger) – suburb + (notebook 1922-23): ‘1 street town’ + Leader 11 Nov 1922, 320/1: ‘Current Topics’: ‘We would not insult the thriving and historic town of Ardee by referring to it as a village, but of all the towns we ever saw in Ireland, it is a one-street town’.
virulence = extreme acrimony or bitterness of temper or speech; violent malignity or rancour + FDV: Vainly virulence, violence, & vituperation sought wellnigh utterly to end the reign of the great shipping mogul and linen lord; it was one more dearer than all who was to make him a the nine days’ jeer for the lounge lizards of the pumproom.
l.22 attack
vituperation = blame, censure, reproof, or (esp. in later use) the expression of this, in abusive or violent language.
wellnigh = very nearly, almost wholly or entirely
attax = attach – to arrest, lay hold of, seize, ‘nail’; indict, accuse, charge.
l.23 pons: bridge; enrage
depontify = pontify – to play the pontiff; to speak or behave ‘pontifically’, or with assumption of authority or infallibility + pons (l) – bridge → depontifacio (l) – to unbuild the bridge.
inroad = to invade
ongoad = goad – to irritate; to instigate or impel by some form of mental pain or annoyance.
l.24 mogul: autocrat
unhume = humus (l) – the earth
mogul = the Great Mogul – the common designation among Europeans of the emperor of Delhi, whose empire at one time included most of Hindustan; the last nominal emperor was dethroned in 1857.
uderlinen = underwear usu. of lightweight material
End of Paragraph
hesitant – hesitating; irresolute, undecided; stammering
hesitancy – Richard Pigott’s misspelling of that word before an investigating commission revealed him as a forger of letters supposedly written by Parnel (in those letters Parnel condones the Phoenix Park murders of May 1882.)
atake – to overtake, catch + atake … ashe = anagrams of Kate, Shea
ashe = ash
tittery = Of laughter, remarks, etc.: having a nervous, tittering quality
taw = to treat (a person) abusively or with contumely; to vex, torment; to harass, afflict; to abuse (obs.)
tattery = ragged, tattered
humponadimply = nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty
wincey = fabric used for warm shirts, skirts and pyjamas
End of Paragraph
l.28 Reynard: the fox in Roman de Renart
assembly man = a member of an assembly
End of Paragraph
l.30 liver; O Lord
eruct = to belch
deliver + lieber (ger) = dear + libber (Anglo-Irish) – a flipper, an untidy person + Vico believed that the fear of divinity arises in all nations from Jove’s discipline of Prometheus, who, chained to Mount Caucasus, is visited daily by a vulture who devours his liver, only for it to grow back the next day, continuing the cycle until the day Hercules unbinds him.
gush (Slang) – smell
visuals = a picture images of a motion picture film; Of organs: Endowed with the power of sight + victuals – articles of food.
pung (Danish Slang) = cod
orelode = a vein of metal ore + øre (Danish) – ear.
to lay violent hands on oneself – to commit suicide + FDV: He had laid violent hands on himself, lain down, fagged out, with equally melancholy death. He had left the country by via subterranean tunnel lined shored with bedboards. [An infamous private ailment (variovenereal) (variolovenereal) had claimed him.] [He had walked into a pond while intoxicated up to that point where braces meet buttons braced shirts meet knickerbockers.] Ten The helping hands of five had rescued him from seven feet of semifresh water. Aerials reported buzzed of a finding of a bloody [antichill cloak] with a tailor’s tab reading V. P. H. & all shivered to think what beast had devoured him The black hand had done him in On his postern had been nailed the title: Move up, Dumpty. Make room for Humpty! and this time no mistake the boys had done him in. Indeed several wellwishers bought went so far as to buy copies of the evening editions just to make sure whether he was genuinely quite dead. But on the morrow morn of the suicide suicidal murder [unrescued] & expatriated half past eight ¼ to 9 o’clock saw the unfailing spike of smoke plume punctual from his chimneypipe 7th gable and ten thirsty p.m., the lamps of maintenance lighted for the long night a suffusion of the leadlight panes. Therefore let it be neither said nor thought that the inhabitant of that sacred edifice was a parable merely nor [more strictly] H.C.E. a nonens. Not one of his many contemporaries seriously doubted or for long of his real legitimate existence.
l.32 Fugger’s Newsletter: collection of letters sent by agency to Count Edward Fugger
Fugger’s News Letter = 36,000 pages of manuscript (the first known examples of newsletters) sent by agents to Count Edward Fugger from 1568 to 1605, written in Italian, German, Latin, dog-Latin.
lain = p. of lie
all in = completely tired, exhausted
fag out = to exhaust by toil or heavy activity
l.33 triduum (R.C. church): 3 days of prayer before a feast; Roman Saturnalia (in December) lasted several days
triduum = a period of three days
Saturnalia = Roman Antiq. The festival of Saturn, held in the middle of December, observed as a time of general unrestrained merrymaking, extending even to the slaves; a period of unrestrained licence and revelry.
l.34 G Zwilling; twin
willingsons = wellington – a high boot
forum = Rom. Ant. The public place or market-place of a city. In ancient Rome the place of assembly for judicial and other public business; The Forum Romanum (in Rome), with its wealth of temples, arches, and stats, occupied low ground between the Capitoline and Palatine Hills. It contained a temple of Saturn, built against the Capitoline Hill.
jenny = the female name
infanted =infant – to give birth to, to bring forth (a child)
the Yard = short for ‘Scotland Yard’, the chief London police office.
l.36 mistletoe (used to kill Balder)
houx (fr) = holly
epheus = Efeu (ger) – ivy
measure = to judge or estimate the greatness or value of (a person, a quality, etc.) by a certain standard or rule.
missile = missilia, res missiles, largesse (consisting of sweets, perfumes, etc.) thrown by the Roman emperors to the people.
END Page 97
l.1 The Hundred of Manhood (030.08)
wimmering = wimmern (ger) – to lament, moan
Weibes = Weib (ger) – woman, wife
END
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 brief research about the page. These are hardly intended to be academic criticism.]
[Joyce loved the literary device of the suspicious letter. In Ulysses, he introduced the literary stylings of Blazes Hugh Boylan and the pseudonymous Martha Clifford. On Page 97 of FW, Joyce offers a forged note implicating Charles Stewart Parnell with prior knowledge of the Phoenix Park Murders. That correspondence is mere history, but it inspired the chicken-scratched dump jotting implicating HCE in all vileness from Human Concupiescience Everywhere. The Pigott of Page 97 is Richard, newspaper publisher, drinker, gambler, debtor, forger, and fatally flawed speller. In an attempt to clear his debts, in 1887, he invented a note ostensibly written by Parnellite Pat Egan and signed by Charles Stewart himself. It “proved” that Parnell knew of the Phoenix Park assassinations in 1882. Pigott’s forgery was discovered on cross-examination by attorney Charles Russell. Richard had a known Pigo-dillo for misspelling a word featured therein— “hesitEncy” Russell, with soothing manner and misdirection, focused his questioning on the lowercase “h.” He asked Pigott to write a series of words including hesitancy, suggesting to the satisfaction of the court and the public that the note was forged. The publisher privately confessed the forgery and fled to Spain where he committed suicide.
{Joyce’s fascination with the Park murders is suspicious. At the time of the murders, Joyce was more than three months old, detractors insisted the author was involved in the assassinations. In his defense, Sunny Jim produced a note proving that, as the murders were occurring, he was taking a piano lesson}]
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