10 (U338.1075)

That youthful illusion of thy strength was taken from thee

Tenth cast. page 338, line 1075.

That youthful illusion of thy strength was taken from thee—and in vain. No son of thy loins is by thee. There is none now to be for Leopold, what Leopold was for Rudolph.

Episode 14 traces the history of English prose style from the past to the present through pastiche. This passage is considered to be in the style of the English essayist Charles Lamb (1775-1834).

The word "loins" is a euphemism for reproductive organs in the Bible..

Mr. Bloom's name was Leopold. His father's name was Rudolph. Mr. Bloom's son was also Rudolph, and he died at 11 days old.

At the end of the first volume of the Japanese translation of Ulysses in the Shueisha paperback edition, there is a commentary by the German literature scholar Osamu Ikeuchi. According to him, "Eastern European Jews liked to name their children after kings and lurers.”  Mr. Blum's father was a Jew from Hungary. Both Rudolph and Leopold are names of Habsburg emperors.

In this passage, Mr. Bloom is remembering the old days.  I think it is close to the nostalgic passages in Lamb’s Essays of Elia (1823).

"Antiquity! thou wondrous charm, what art thou? that, being nothing, art every thing! When thou wert, thou wert not antiquity—then thou wert nothing, but hadst a remoter antiquity, as thou called'st it, to look back to with blind veneration; thou thyself being to thyself flat, jejune, modern!"

“Oxford in the Vacation”

Charles Lamb

 The method of this blog ⇒ Here

9 (U191.507)

At the Dolphin they halted

The ninth cast, page 191, line 507.

At the Dolphin they halted to allow the ambulance car to gallop past them for Jervis street.
　—This way, he said, walking to the right. I want to pop into Lynam’s to see Sceptre’s starting price. What’s the time by your gold watch and chain?

 

Lenehan and M'Coy are walking around Essex street.

 

Today, June 16, 1904, the Gold Cup race is being held at Ascot Racecourse in London, and Lenehan is betting on the favorite, Sceptre. Lynam is the name of the bookkeeper in Temple Bar.

 

Ambulances at that time, were pulled by horses, and the galloping of the horses thematically leads to horse racing. It would be interesting if the ambulance reminded Lenehan of horse racing, but unfortunately, judging from the course they walk, Lenehan's mind is full of horse racing from the beginning.

 

How the prediction of the winning horse is distributed. This is one of the important story lines of Ulysses.

 

Dolphin is the name of the hotel. Looking at the map, Jarvis Street is on the other side of river and quite far away from here. There used to be a big hospital on Jarvis Street. The site of the hospital is now a shopping center.

 

 Dolphin House

 "Streets Of Dublin - Dolphin House" by infomatique is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

The method of this blog ⇒ Here

8 (U18.665)

The void awaits surely all them that weave the wind:

Eighth cast. Page 18, line 665.

 

The void awaits surely all them that weave the wind: a menace, a disarming and a worsting from those embattled angels of the church, Michael’s host, who defend her ever in the hour of conflict with their lances and their shields.

　Hear, hear! Prolonged applause. Zut! Nom de Dieu!

 

Episode 1. Stephen's thoughts in Martello Tower, where he lives. His roommate, Malachi Mulligan, a medical student, and  a visitor Haines, an Englishman, make fun of his faith, so he compares them to heretics and fantasizes about an army of angels eliminating the heretics. The "weave the wind" would be the words of the heretics. He, too, is supposed to have renounced his faith, so he comes back to himself and spits out this fantasy.

 

Nom de Dieu means "name of a god" in French, but for some reason this is a curse. In this novel, the names of gods are mentioned abundantly. Stephen escaped Dublin for a while and went to Paris to study.

 

Episodes 1-3 with Stephen and Episodes 4-6 with Mr. Bloom take place in the same time period, and there is a similarity of motifs between these three episodes. The Archangel Michael is mentioned in episode 5, in a prayer in the church that Mr. Bloom enters. (U68.443)

 

"-Blessed Michael, archangel, defend us in the hour of conflict. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil (may God restrain him, we humbly pray!):"

"Void" and "weave" are key words in Ulysses. In this passage, "void" and "weave" intersect.

 

Let me pick up "void" first.

 

”the church is founded and founded irremovably because founded, like the world, macro and microcosm, upon the void.”（U170.842）

 

”Tom Rochford, winner, in athlete’s singlet and breeches, arrives at the head of the national hurdle handicap and leaps into the void.  ”（U488.4674）

 

”He affirmed his significance as a conscious rational animal proceeding syllogistically from the known to the unknown and a conscious rational reagent between a micro and a macrocosm ineluctably constructed upon the incertitude of the void.”（U572.1015）

 

"That as a competent keyless citizen he had proceeded energetically from the unknown to the known through the incertitude of the void."（U572.1020）

 

"universes of void space constellated with other bodies"（U573.1064）

 

 For this novel, the world seems to be built on a bottomless void.

 

Next, pick up "weave”.

 

”a riddling sentence to be woven and woven on the church’s looms. ”（U22.87）

 

”The harlot’s cry from street to street

Shall weave old England’s windingsheet.”（U28.356）（U487.4642）　

　　　                                 A quote from a poem by William Blake

 

”As we, or mother Dana, weave and unweave our bodies, Stephen said, from day to day, their molecules shuttled to and fro, so does the artist weave and unweave his image. ”（U119.376）

 

”wove music slow”（U231.926）

 

In this novel, the repetition of various motifs is woven into the storyline. The creations by the God and the artists are seen as things to be woven.

 

Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, weaves the loom.

 

Joyce's supporter and the mother of Ulysses is Harriet Shaw Weaver (1876 - 1961) the English feminist and publisher.

Archangel Michael

"Rome - Castel Sant'Angelo, archangel Michael (5)" by ukdamian is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

The method of this blog ⇒ Here

7 (U110.564)

 —The Greek! he said again.

Seventh cast, I got 110 and 564.

 —The Greek! he said again. Kyrios! Shining word! The vowels the Semite and the Saxon know not. Kyrie! The radiance of the　intellect. I ought to profess Greek, the language of the mind. Kyrie eleison!

 

A line of Professor MacHugh, editorial writer of news paper.

Initial rhyme of Semite and Saxon. “Know not” is an old fashioned phrase.

 

He disparages Latin and praises Greek. Ireland against the British Empire is Greece against the Roman Empire. The text of the mass is in Latin, but for some reason "Kyrie Eleison" is in Greek.

 

Ulysses is based on motifs from the Odyssey and the whole story is full of longing for Greekness. The world of the novel progresses within the framework of (1) Greece, (2) Judea, (3) Catholic Rome and (4) Protestant Britain.

 

Another peak of the 20 century art, inspired by the Odyssey is 2001: A Space Odyssey  (1968) by Stanley Kubrick. At first glance, the novel Ulysses and this film bear no resemblance to each other, but there are surprisingly many similarities.

There are many prayers quoted in this novel.

Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra by  Ligeti György  (1923 - 2006) was used in this film.

In this film with extremely little dialogue, the first human words  heard are not the crew's line "Here you are sir. Main level please." but the lyrics of this music, "Kyrie”.

Ligeti is a Hungarian Jew, like Mr. Bloom's roots. Kubrick (1928 - 1999) was also a descendant of Jewish immigrants with roots in Central Europe.

 Monolith as displayed at the École normale supérieure in Paris, France.

 

"File:ENS 2001 Monolith below.jpg" by Amandine Brige is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

6 (U199.840)

Tattered pages.

Sixth cast, 199 and 840.

 

    Tattered pages. The Irish Beekeeper. Life and Miracles of the Curé of Ars. Pocket Guide to Killarney.
    I might find here one of my pawned schoolprizes. Stephano Dedalo, alumno optimo, palmam ferenti.

 Stephen is browsing the stalls of a used book dealer around Bedford lane.

 

According to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man the prequel to Ulysses, he studied at the prestigious Jesuit-run Belvedere College. He was an honors student, with excellent grades in writing and tuition waivers. Schoolprizes are awards that he received at this school. I suppose he received books as prizes.

 

Curé of Ars refers to Jean-Marie Vianney (1786 - 1859), a parish priest in France. There was a short documentary film Ars (1960) directed by Jacques Demy.

Bookstore currently located on Bedford lane

 "Forbidden Planet bookstore" by master phillip is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

5 (U62.199)

Poor papa! 

Fifth cast. I got 62 and 199.

Poor papa! How he used to talk of Kate Bateman in that. Outside the Adelphi in London waited all the afternoon to get in. Year before I was born that was: sixtyfive. And Ristori in Vienna. What is this the right name is? By  Mosenthal it is. Rachel, is it? No.

 

The repeated rhythm of was-was, is-is, it is - is it.

Mr. Bloom recalled his father, seeing a poster for a performance of Leah, the Forsaken on a street. Deborah by Salomon Hermann von Mosenthal (1821-1877), a dramatist of German-Jewish descent, has been translated into several languages. Leah is the English version, adopted by Augustin Daly. The main character of the play is a Jewish girl.

 

Mr. Bloom thought “Poor papa!”, for his father had committed suicide by taking poison.

 

Mr. Bloom's father, Rudolph, was of Jewish descent and lived in Hungary until at least 1852 (U594.1876),  then itinerated through Vienna, Milan, Florence, London, and settled in Dublin. (U558.535) (U595.1908)

 

Rudolph may have seen Lear at the Adelphi while living in London. It was a hit role for the American actress Kate Bateman. And when he was in Vienna, he may have seen the original version of Deborah, played by the Italian actress Adelaide Ristori.

 

Mr. Bloom said that the year before his birth was 1865, so we know here that he was born in 1866.

 

Mr. Bloom made the mistake, trying to remember the original title of Leah. It is Deborah, not Rachel. Of the sisters who became the wives of Jacob, in the book of Genesis, the older is Leah and the younger is Rachel, so he must have mistakenly thought it was Rachel.

 

I happened to find this passage in the beginning of chapter 9 of Joyce's Finnegans Wake, page 221.

 

"KATE (Miss Rachel Lea Varian, she tells forkings for baschfel-lors, under the purdah of card palmer teaput tosspot Madam d'Elta,causing the pawses), ..."　

 

In Joyce's mind, Rachel and Leah seemed to be connected.

One more thing. In Search of Lost Time by Proust, there appears a Jewish actress called Rachel, a former prostitute. She is an important character who appears from the beginning to the end of this long story.

Kate Bateman

 

"Kate Bateman" by Mathew Brady Studio, active 1844 - 1894 is marked with CC0 1.0

4 (168.753)

The lost armada is his jeer in Love’s Labour Lost.

Fourth cast. I got 168 and 754.

The lost armada is his jeer in Love’s Labour Lost. His pageants, the histories, sail fullbellied on a tide of Mafeking enthusiasm. Warwickshire jesuits are tried and we have a porter’s theory of equivocation.

The thoughts of Stephen Dedalus, the other main character in Ulysses. His poetic language. Pretentious and esoteric. The paragraph containing this passage is particularly dense and I think one of the best part of Episode 9. Here, the link between Shakespeare's creation and current events is described.

 

The defeat of Spain's invincible Armada (1588) is ridiculed by the strange Spanish name Don Adriano de Armado in Love's Labor's Lost

 

Shakespeare's historical plays are associated with Mafeking fervor. Mafeking is a battleground of the Boer War (1899-1902), a war between the British and the Dutch settlers in South Africa. This war was a current event in the time of the novel (1904). The Boer War is one of the important motifs of this novel.

 

Henry Garnet, a Jesuit who was a suspect in the Gunpowder Plot (1605), an assassination attempt on King James I, came under public criticism, using sophistry in his trial called equivocation, He was made fun of in the speech of the gatekeeper in Act 2, Scene 3 of Macbeth.

 

“PORTER.   [Knocking.] Knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ th’ other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator.”

William Shakespeare, Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 3)

 

 File:Robert Baden-Powell and staff at Mafeking.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Sir Robert Baden-Powell, a  hero of Mafeking, and his colleagues. He founded the Boy Scouts inspired by this battle.

 

These photos remind me of the mysterious atmosphere of Thomas Pynchon's novel.

3 (U139.700)

 He backed towards the door.

Third cast. I got 139 and 700.

 

He backed towards the door. Get a light snack in Davy Byrne’s. Stopgap. Keep me going. Had a good breakfast.

　—Roast and mashed here.

　—Pint of stout.

Mr. Bloom entered the Burton to find a place for lunch. He didn't like the dirty way the diners ate and decided not to eat here.

 

The two lines are from Burton's guests.

 

The Burton no longer exist, but Davy Byrne’s, which became famous with this novel, still enjoys great prosperity.

 

Ulysses is based on motifs from Homer's Odyssey. The avoidance of the Barton corresponds to Odysseus' escape from the land of the man-eating giants, the Lestrygonians. The phrase "keep me going" alludes of Odysseus ' voyage.

 

“While they were thus killing my men within the harbour I drew my sword, cut the cable of my own ship, and told my men to row with all their might if they too would not fare like the rest; so they laid out for their lives, and we were thankful enough when we got into open water out of reach of the rocks they hurled at us. ”

Homer, The Odyssey (book X), translated by Samuel Butler

Roast and mashed

"My Dinner Plate (Round 1)" by BrownGuacamole is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

2 (U603.2179)

Abnegation?

Second cast. I got 603 and 2179.

Abnegation?
 In virtue of a) acquaintance initiated in September 1903 in the establishment of George Mesias, merchant tailor and outfitter, 5 Eden Quay, b) hospitality extended and received in kind, reciprocated and reappropriated in person, c) comparative youth subject to impulses of ambition and magnanimity, colleagual altruism and amorous egoism, d) extraracial attraction, intraracial inhibition, supraracial prerogative, e) an imminent provincial musical tour, common current expenses, net proceeds divided.

Episode 17, written in the form of questions and answers. A pedantic style of writing is used.

 

In his bed, Mr. Bloom is thinking about his wife Molly’s lover, Boylan.

 

His thoughts are a mixture of ①envy, ②jealousy, ③abnegation and ④equanimity. Here is the question and answer to the third one. It seems that a legal style is used.

 

In episode 17, couplets are dominant.

 

in kind ― in person,

reciprocated ― reappropriated,

collegial altruism ― amorous egoism, 　are  couplets

extraracial attraction ― intraracial inhibition ― supraracial prerogative,  is a triplet.

 

George Mesias is mentioned in (U90.831), (U229.881),(U388.1302) and (U4061908), which show that he is the common tailor of Boylan and Mr. Bloom.

 

His model was real, and Joyce must have been amused by the fact that Mesias (Messiah) lived in Eden.

 

We are told for the first time, near the end of the novel that Mr. Bloom and Boylan had met in 1903, before Molly and Boylan met.

Eden Quay

"Eden Quay c1900" by s_bonner2 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

1 (U123.1075)

 Onehandled adulterer, he said smiling grimly. 

First cast. I got 123 and then 1075.

 —Onehandled adulterer, he said smiling grimly. That tickles me, I must say.

—Tickled the old ones too, Myles Crawford said, if the God Almighty’s truth was known.

The very end of episode 7.

 A group of people, including Professor MacHugh, editorial writer, and Mr.Crawford, editor of the Evening Telegraph leave the newspaper office and turn onto O'Connell Street.

 

The first line is Mr. MacHugh's line.

Smiling, grimly, me, must, ― a series of m's.

Tickles, trickled, ―　connecting the two lines.

 

“Onehandled adulterer” refers to the British hero Admiral Nelson. At the time of the novel Ulysses in 1904, Dublin was a British city and here, on the main street, O'Connell Street, stood a tall tower with a statue of Nelson on it.

 

Nelson had lost one eye and one arm in battle. He was also famous for his affair with a married woman, Emma, Lady Hamilton, and her husband Sir William tolerated his wife's infidelity. This corresponds to the relationship between Boylan and the central characters of this novel, Mr. and Mrs. Bloom.

 

“onehandled” is also connected to the one-handled commode (chamber pot) in Bloom's bedroom. (U446.3296)

 

“Nelson” is one of the major motifs in this novel.

 

The upper portion of Nelson's Pillar was destroyed by someone in March 1966 and pillar was later removed. In its place now stands the "Spire of Dublin".

 

When I visited the city in 1995, I saw the head of the statue, the remnant of Nelson's statue, at the Dublin Civic Museum, which is now on display at the Dublin City Library.

Nelson's Pillar

"File:DV405 no.199 Nelson's Pillar, Sackville Street, Dublin.png" by Alphonse Dousseau is marked with CC0 1.0

 

The method of this blog

Let's read Ulysses by James Joyce

It is not fun to read in order from the beginning, so I want to read it randomly.

Just like casting dice and following the rolls. I came up with the following method.

 

1. First, select a page. I use the Gabler edition. The text of the novel ranges from 3 to 644 pages. I use Random.org, a site that generates random numbers, to select one of the pages from 3 to 644.  If 562 is given, it means page 562.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Once the page is selected, generate another random number on the same site and select a line. For example, on page 562, there are lines 667 to 702, so choose one from 667 to 702. If number 697 comes out, it means line 697.
   
   
   
3. Page and line are fixed. If 562 and 697 are selected, it means page 562, line 697. This is described as (U562.697). I select a few lines including that line and read through.

 

The quotation for this blog comes from the Project Gutenberg text.

Let us go then, you and I.

Image by sergei.gussev is licensed under CC BY 2.0