51(U540.1773)

On the roadway which they were approaching 

51st cast. page 540, line 1773. 

 

　On the roadway which they were approaching whilst still speaking beyond the swingchains a horse, dragging a sweeper, paced on the paven ground, brushing a long swathe of mire up so that with the noise Bloom was not perfectly certain whether he had caught aright the allusion to sixtyfive guineas and John Bull. He inquired if it was John Bull the political celebrity of that ilk, as it struck him, the two identical names, as a striking coincidence.

Episode 16. At around 2.00 am. Mr Bloom has just left the cabman’s shelter to Beresford Place to take Stephen to his home. This passage immediately after the 32nd issue of the blog.

John Bull (composer)

File:John Bull (composer).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

They talk about their musical tastes. Stephen is a lover of Elizabethan English music, such as John Bull, and want to buy a lute for 65 guineas. (One guinea is 21 shillings, or approximately one pound. One pound in 1904 was about 80 pounds in today's value, so 65 guineas is 5200 pounds in today's value. )

 

Episode 16 is deliberately written in bad language and is difficult to capture the meaning.

 

 First of all, it is not clear what "swingchains" are.

 

 The later part of this passage states：

 

“Side by side Bloom, profiting by the contretemps, with Stephen passed through the gap of the chains, divided by the upright, and, stepping over a strand of mire, went across towards Gardiner street lower, Stephen singing more boldly, but not loudly, the end of the ballad.” （U543.1880）

 

 I suppose these could be chains stretched across the poles to separate the roadway from the pavement.

 

The two men appear to get out from the pavement side of Beresford Place towards the roadway in order to cross towards Gardiner Street. There is a horse-drawn sweeper on the roadway side, beyond the chain-link fence. (the cabman’s shelter is located around ☆).

 

"swathe" means a line of grass or corn cut by the scythe.I think "a long swathe of mire" means a wide strip after the mud has been brushed away.

 

"Certain" and "aright" are redundant and the repetition of "truck" and "striking" is not smart.

 

John Bull are (i) a national personification of the United Kingdom and (ii) the name of an English Elizabethan keyboard player and composer. Mr Bloom knew the former but not the latter.

John Bull (left figure)

File:Bruin become Mediator or Negotiation for Peace.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

 

There is a reason why Mr Bloom was astonished by the ’coincidence’. Today, he had a lot of coincidences. I will count them up for another time, but here I only mention the coincidences in Episode 16.

 

①Stephen says in conversation with the sailors that 'Shakespeares were as common as Murphies.', and the sailor says that his name iss Murphy. (U509.364) (U510.415)

 

②The sailor says he knows Stephen's father, Simon Dedalus, but it must have been someone else with the same name. (U510.414)

 

③The Greek who tattooed the sailor is called Antonio, the same name as the character in Shakespeare's play. (U520.839)

 

④When Stephen praises the ancient Italians, Dante, Da Vinci and Thomas Aquinas, Mr Bloom also admires the ancient statues in the museum today. (U525.890)

⑤It is a coincidence, Mr Bloom muses, that the unsettled sailors and vagabonds are gathered together in this way, a microcosm of the world. (U528.1222)

 

⑥Mr Bloom muses, it is a coincidence that the unsettled sailors and vagabonds are gathered together in this way, a microcosm of the world. (U528.1222)

 

⑦And finally, the coincidence of this passage.

 

horse-drawn street sweeper

File:Eckert Kehrmaschine.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

 The method of this blog ⇒ Here 

50 (190.446)

—God! he cried. I forgot to tell him that one about the earl of Kildare

50th cast. page 190, line 446. 

　—God! he cried. I forgot to tell him that one about the earl of Kildare after he set fire to Cashel cathedral. You know that one? I’m bloody sorry I did it, says he, but I declare to God I thought the archbishop was inside. He mightn’t like it, though. What? God, I’ll tell him anyhow. That was the great earl, the Fitzgerald Mor. Hot members they were all of them, the Geraldines.

 

Episode 10 is made up of 19 sections, describing different scenes in Dublin. This is its eighth section.

 Ned Lambert, a grain merchant, giving a tour of the grain storehouse to Rev. Hugh Love, a clergyman. Speech by Lambert addressing J. J. O’Molloy after Rev. Love's exit.

Rev. Love was researching history and came to visit this place to write a book on the FitzGerald family. The remains of the meeting house of St Mary's Abbey were being used for a warehouse, where Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare （1513 - 1537) raised the flag of rebellion against the English king in 1534.

The meeting house of St Mary's Abbey, a 12th century building is one of the oldest remaining buildings in Dublin. At the time of this novel (1904) it was being used as a grain storehouse. The location is just east of the Dublin City Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market (opened in 1892), which was mentioned in the 24th article of this blog, so it makes sense that it was used as a grain storehouse.

 

During the late Middle Ages, Ireland was ruled by a group of aristocrats known as the Anglo-Irish, who had come over from England. In other words, they were neither indigenous Celtic kings nor kings of England.

 

 The most influential of these was Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare (1456 - 1513). He was the grandfather of the previously mentioned Thomas. He was called 'Garret the Great' (Gearóid Mór) or 'The Great Earl'.　“Mor” means “great” in Irish.

 

Earl of Kildare was summoned by King Henry VII of England on the grounds of rebellion and inquired into in London. He was then accused of burning the cathedral of Cashel in 1491. He is said to have replied. 'Had I known that the archbishop was not inside, I would not have burnt it.' (The archbishop of Cashel was probably on the side of the English king. I couldn't get that far in my searches.)

 

Lambert tells of the line by Earl Kildare.

 

"Bloody" is an abusive and emphatic word used by British workers in the early 20th century (the present day of the novel), not a word used by medieval earls.

 

Lambert uses the word "God" many times in blasphemous episodes.

 

The American novelist Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940) is of Irish descent, so he must be a descendant of the Great Earl, distantly or not. I fancy that the title of his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby (1925), may have been inspired by 'Garret the Great'.

Cashel cathedral

"Rock of Cashel" by Bernie Goldbach is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

 

The method of this blog ⇒ Here 

49 (76.176)

A pointsman’s back straightened itself upright suddenly  

49th cast. page 76, line 176. 

　A pointsman’s back straightened itself upright suddenly against a tramway standard by Mr Bloom’s window. Couldn’t they invent something automatic so that the wheel itself much handier? Well but that fellow would lose his job then? Well but then another fellow would get a job making the new invention?

Episode 6. At about 11.00 am. Mr Bloom is travelling by horse-drawn carriage across the city from the Dignam House in the south-east of Dublin to Glasnevin Cemetery on the north-west edge of the city to attend the funeral of his friend Mr Dignam. Ths passage is the thought of Mr Bloom.

 

Great Brunswick Street (1916)

In the carriage are Stephen's father Simon Dedalus, Jack Power, Martin Cunningham and Mr Bloom.

 

The four are seated facing each other. Towards the direction of travel, Simon is thought to be sitting backwards at the front left, Mr Cunningham next to him, Mr Power facing forwards opposite Mr Power, and Mr Bloom next to Mr Power. It revises the ideas expressed in the 35th issue of the blog, the reasons for which will be explained in a later blog.

                                          

The carriage is travelling west on Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street), which runs north of Westland Row Station (now Pearse Station). The carriage is approaching the intersection with Westland Row.

 

The tramway standards are thought to be the ones shown on the postcard above. It stands in the middle of the road, so it would be on the right from a carriage running on the left-hand side. It is somewhat incongruous that it is visible from “Mr Bloom’s window”, who sits behind the carriage on the left.

 

It is likely that at the junction, he looked towards Westland Row, which runs to the left (south), and saw the standards and pointsman on that row.

 

Mr Bloom loves inventing, and he comes up with several inventions in this novel.

 

It is still often said that as artificial intelligence develops, people will lose their jobs, but people to create artificial intelligence will be needed instead. People have been thinking the same way for 100 years.

The method of this blog ⇒ Here