15 (U264.1075)

 —And moreover, says J. J., a postcard is publication.

15th cast. page 264, line 1075.

 

—And moreover, says J. J., a postcard is publication. It was held to be sufficient evidence of malice in the testcase Sadgrove v. Hole. In my opinion an action might lie. 

　Six and eightpence, please. Who wants your opinion? Let us drink our pints in peace. Gob, we won’t be let even do that much itself.

 

Episode 12. The Citizen, Joe Hynes and others are drinking in Barney Kiernan's. J.J.O'Molloy, a solicitor and Ned Lambert have just come in. Mr. Breen, who received an anonymous prank postcard this morning, is hanging around the front of the bar, trying to sue for libel.

 

The first is a line from O'Molloy. He argues whether a postcard addressed to Breen could be libel. What kind of case is Sadgrove v. Hole?

 

I did a search. It says that libel requires publication, and that a postcard addressed to a third party, by which no stranger unacquainted with the circumstances would have known to whom it referred, does not constitute publication and is not libel. As the postcard was addressed to Mr. Breen himself, it is difficult to see how this case could be taken in his favour.　Publication and Defamation (ezinearticles.com)

The message on the postcard is visible to the postman, so it might be libel.

 

The second is the narrator's thoughts in this episode.

 

The narrator of episode 12 has no name and it is not stated who he is..

 

Japanese translator, Naoki Yanase argued that this narrator is a "dog". (Solving the Mystery of James Joyce, 1996) This was a tremendously interesting book. I'm still not sure if it's a dog or not so far.

 

Whether the narrator is a man or a dog, it is also doubtful whether he is drinking in a bar. It is a thrill to decipher it. This passage also seems to suggest that he is drinking, but we can't be sure.

 

 What is six shillings and eight pence? I did a search for this too.

 

In the Middle Ages, there was gold coin called” noble” in England, and one noble was the fee for lawyer. It was worth 1/3 pound. Counting money in England is difficult because it is not based on the decimal system: a pound is 20 shillings, a shilling is 12 pence, and 1/3 pound is 80 pence, or six shillings and eight pence. So it has been customary to say that a lawyer's fee is six shillings and eight pence.

 

Why is a lawyer's fee six and eight pence?

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-e512-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

This is one of the cigarette cards, which were included in cigarette packages as freebies at the beginning of the 20th century. It looks like a series of trivia.

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14 (U120.955)

A bevy of scampering newsboys rushed down the steps

14th cast. page 120, line 955.

 

A bevy of scampering newsboys rushed down the steps, scattering in all directions, yelling, their white papers fluttering. Hard after them Myles Crawford appeared on the steps, his hat aureoling his scarlet face, talking with J. J. O’Molloy.

 

Episode 7 again. Stephen and Prof. MacHugh left the newspaper office and went left on Abbey Street. They were followed by, Crawford, the editor of the Freeman's Journal, just came out with O’Molloy, the solicitor.

 

In English onomatopoeia, sounds are incorporated into verbs like "jingle".

 

In this passage, such verbs (scampering, scattering, yelling, fluttering) are frequently used.

 

Crawford's face is red because he's been drinking since daytime.

 

In Ulysses, the scenes where someone appears on the stairs are used impressively. The novel begins with Mulligan appearing at the top of the stairs (U 3.1). This morning, Bloom‘s cat was on the stairs (U 309.1134) (U 629.937).

Newsboys

"LC-DIG-nclc-03469 Newsboys Mixed Race" by Children's Bureau Centennial is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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13 (U163.510)

 Buck Mulligan thought, puzzled:

13th cast. Page 163, line 510.

 

　Buck Mulligan thought, puzzled:

　—Shakespeare? he said. I seem to know the name.

　A flying sunny smile rayed in his loose features.

　—To be sure, he said, remembering brightly. The chap that writes like Synge.

 

 Episode 9. At the National Library, Director Lister, Stephen, Best, and Eglinton are discussing Shakespeare. Stephen's roommate, Mulligan, has just walked in.

 

Mulligan who can not be ignorant of Shakespeare, was playing dumb.

 

Mulligan had promised to meet Stephen at the Ship tavern, but Stephen telegraphed to the Ship and told Mulligan that he would not be there. 

I am not sure why Mulligan came to the library.

 

John Millington Synge (1871-1909) was an Irish playwright, poet and novelist. He is best known for his travelogue, The Aran Islands. I'm not clear on how it's interesting to compare Shakespeare to Synge; Is it an alliteration of S?

John Millington Synge

John_Millington_Synge_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_19028.jpg 

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12 (U290.264)

But Edy got as cross as two sticks

Twelfth cast. Page 290, line 264.

 

But Edy got as cross as two sticks about him getting his own way like that from everyone always petting him.

　—I’d like to give him something, she said, so I would, where I won’t say.

　—On the beeoteetom, laughed Cissy merrily.

Episode13. The beach at Sandymount. Three little girls are babysitting a child.

Edy Boardman has her baby in a carriage. Cissy Caffrey brings her twin brothers, Tommy and Jacky. Edy is angry because Tommy wants the baby's ball.

 

The word "but" is appropriate for the style of popular novel.

 

The phrase "as cross as two sticks" is a play on the two senses of cross, ‘bad-tempered’ and ‘intersecting’.

 

Cissy avoided saying “bottom” and rephrase it as B-O-T-Tom.

 

Joyce explained that the four words (1) because, (2) bottom, (3) woman, and (4) yes represent the four cardinal points of womanhood, and he used them a lot in Episode 18. (Letter to Frank Budgen, 16 August, 1921)  Many "because" are used also in Episode 13.

Sandymount

"TODAY I FOUND THE END OF THE RAINBOW [BUT I WAS DISAPPOINTED THAT THERE WAS NO CROCK OF GOLD]-149172" by infomatique is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

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11 (U551.299)

What lay under exposure on the lower, middle and upper shelves of the kitchen dresser

Eleventh cast. Page 551, line 299.

 

　What lay under exposure on the lower, middle and upper shelves of the kitchen dresser, opened by Bloom?

 　On the lower shelf five vertical breakfast plates, six horizontal breakfast saucers on which rested inverted breakfast cups, a moustachecup, uninverted, and saucer of Crown Derby, four white goldrimmed eggcups, an open shammy purse displaying coins, mostly copper, and a phial of aromatic (violet) comfits.

 

 In Episode 17, from beginning to end, a pedantic question-and-answer style is used.

 

A moustachecup is a tea cup with a guard to keep the moustache dry. This was a gift from his daughter, Millie, to Mr. Bloom for his birthday. Crown Derby is an English brand of fine china, but this was a fake. (U51.283)

 

Mr. Bloom opened the shelves of the kitchen dresser, to make some cocoa for Stephen, who he had brought home with him.

 moustache cup

"The Ringling Brothers with their moustache cups" by CharmaineZoe's Marvelous Melange is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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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

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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

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