46 (U596.1942)

Mendicancy: that of the fraudulent bankrupt with negligible assets 

46th cast. page 596, line 1942.

Mendicancy: that of the fraudulent bankrupt with negligible assets paying 1/4d in the £, sandwichman, distributor of throwaways, nocturnal vagrant, insinuating sycophant, maimed sailor, blind stripling, superannuated bailiff’s man, marfeast, lickplate, spoilsport, pickthank, eccentric public laughingstock seated on bench of public park under discarded perforated umbrella.

Episode 17 proceeds in a question and answer style from beginning to end.

Mr Bloom opens the drawer and admits bank book and other assets there. This is a patr of answer to the question of what circumstances Mr Bloom is spared due to those assets.

The answer lists four progressively worse slave-like conditions.

１．Poverty

２．Mendicancy

３．Destitution　

４．Nadir of misery　

This is the second part of these conditions.

Mr Bloom is a ad collector belongs to the lower-middle class, but the even more disadvantaged people in his mind are enumerated.

 

(1)  Fraudulent bankrupt

Fraudulent bankruptcy refers to fraudulently concealing property or incurring debts that are not intended to be paid back, with the intention of harming creditors. Here, the term is probably used to refer to someone who has avoided repaying debts by posing as a bankrupt and is barely getting by.

1/4 d is the British currency designation for a quarter of a penny.

It was so referred to because there was a farthing coin with a value of a quarter penny: a pound is 20 shillings, and 20 shillings is 240 pence, so a quarter penny is 1/ 960 pound.

(2)  Sandwichman

Mr Bloom sees the Sandwich Man in Episode 8 (U127.123).　A group of five men advertising for Wisdom Healey's shop. Silk hats with the letters H, E, L, Y and 'S, respectively. Healey's is a stationery shop where Mr Bloom used to be employed.

(3)  Distributor of throwaways

At the beginning of Episode 8, Mr Bloom received a throwaway from a gloomy YMCA young man (U124.6).　A throwaway for a sermon event by preacher Dr Dawie. Throwaway means leaflet or flyer, but the confusion caused by the name of the winner of today's horse race -Throwaway, is one of the most important events in the novel.

 

(4)  Nocturnal vagrant

Who is the nocturnal vagrant?  It may be Mr John Cawley, whom Stephen and Mr Bloom met at the beginning of Episode16 (U504.129).

 

(5)  Insinuating sycophant

I cannot identify who it is.

 

(6)  Maimed sailor

The one-legged sailor on crutches in Episode 10 (U185.228).

 

(7)  Blind stripling

Blind young man who helped Mr Bloom cross the road at the end of Episode 8 (U148.1075).

 

(8)  Superannuated bailiff’s man

I came across the term when writing my last 45th blog. I believe it refers to Bob　Doran's father-in-law, Mr Mooney.

 

(9)  Marfeast, (10) Lickplate, (11) Spoilsport

The meaning of “marfeast”, and “lickplate” are not clear from my searching.　“spoilsport” is "a person who spoils the pleasure of other people". Perhaps, from the appearance of the words, these three words mean the same thing: "a person who ruins the place".

 

(12) Pickthank

Meaning is same as (5) insinuating sycophant. It is not clear from my reading who (8)―(13) refer to.

 

(13) Eccentric public laughingstock

This would be the person called Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmorris Tisdall Farrell, whom Mr Bloom and Mrs Breen pass over in Episode 8. He is an eccentric with one eyeglass, a small hat, a duster coat, a walking stick and a rain umbrella. (U131.1)

 

Sandwich man and News vendor

Postcard of London posted in 1906.

"London life - Sandwich man and News vendor" by bDom [+ 6.7 Mio views - + 89 K images/photos] is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

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45 (U249.401)

The tear is bloody near your eye.  

45th cast. page 249, line 401

 

The tear is bloody near your eye. Talking through his bloody hat. Fitter for him go home to the little sleepwalking bitch he married, Mooney, the bumbailiff’s daughter, mother kept a kip in Hardwicke street, that used to be stravaging about the landings Bantam Lyons told me that was stopping there at two in the morning without a stitch on her, exposing her person, open to all comers, fair field and no favour.

 

Episode12. Barney Kiernan's pub. Today the funeral of Paddy Dignam was held. Bob Dolan, a customer, is crying over his death. The narrator of this episode is cursing it in his mind.

 

"Talk through one's hat", means to tell a big lie. Etymology unknown.

 

Bob Doran is also a character in Dubliners, 'The Lodger'. He worked for a wine merchant and was a resident of Mrs Mooney's boarding house, but he had an affair with her daughter, Polly, and they married under pressure from Mrs Mooney.

 

 His movements today;

Already before 10 am, he had drinks with Bantam Lyons and C.P. McCoy at Conway (now Kennedy's). In the early afternoon he was stopped by Boylan in front of La Maison Claire in Grafton Road. He then made his way to the Liberties. The Liberties was then (1904) a poor district on the south bank of Liffey. There might have been cheap drinking places. And by 5 pm he was here in Barney Kiernan.

 

There are several references to Dolan, "he's on one of his periodical bends" (U60.107) "On his annual bend" (U137.595). “Bend” is slang for “drink and float”. He seems to be under pressure from his wife or mother-in-law, usually taking a pledge to abstain from drinking and staying sober and has an annual day of release from drinking. Today was that day, and he was drunk from the morning.

 

“Sleepwalking” – “night wandering” is one of the key words of Ulysses, as mentioned in the 17th entry of the blog.

 

“bumbailiff” is “bound bailiff”.

 

Sheriff was a government official who carried out duties such as court orders and law enforcement; Bailiff was subordinate to Sheriff and was actually responsible for evictions, mortgages and the collection of unpaid taxes. In short, they were the officials at the end of the line. Dolan's wife Polly's father, Mr Mooney, a former butcher's master, had fallen out of favour and become a bailiff.

 

Sheriff appears frequently in the novel. Long John Fanning is sub-sheriff. Alf Bergan, who is just in this pub, may be a bailiff, as he is a subordinate of Fanning.

 

The translator of Ulysses into Japanese, Naoki Yanase, says that the narrator of this chapter is a dog. If we read the book without relying on this theory, the narrator refers to himself as a 'collector of bad and doubtful debts'.

 

As a collector is a job that competes with or is secondary to that of a government bailiff, the narrator may be familiar with Mr Mooney, who was a bailiff, and may have ill-feeling towards him. This may be why he speaks ill of Doran and the Mooney family.

 

“landing” is a staircase landing which are important setting of the short story 'The Lodger'.

 

Hardwick Road (ca. 1912), where Mrs Mooney's boarding house is set to have been located. At the end of the road in front of the church, to the left, is the house of Mr Bloom.

File:Hardwicke Street with St. George's Church at end, Dublin.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

 

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44 (U555.439)

fourthly, distraction resultant from compassion for Nelly Bouverist’s non-intellectual, non-political, non-topical expression

44th cast. page 555, line 439.

fourthly, distraction resultant from compassion for Nelly Bouverist’s non-intellectual, non-political, non-topical expression of countenance and concupiscence caused by Nelly Bouverist’s revelations of white articles of non-intellectual, non-political, non-topical underclothing while she (Nelly Bouverist) was in the articles:

 

Episode17 proceeds in a pedantic question-and-answer style from beginning to end.

 

Here is a part of the answer to the question as to why Mr. Bloom could not write the lyrics to the song Sinbad the Sailor . There are six reasons, and this is the fourth. The insert song was supposed to include a topical theme.

 

In general, pantomime means a performance in which a wall or door that does not actually exist is shown with gestures as if it were there, but in the UK, pantomime is a comedy with popular songs, dances and jokes. They are performed mainly during the Christmas season. A girl dressed as a man and a man dressed as a woman play the leading roles.

 

Mr Bloom stopped writing lyrics because even if he struggled to come up with topical lyrics, the audience would be too distracted by Nelly's appearance and underwear to listen to them.

Compassion and concupiscence, 

expressions and revelations,　　

are couplet.

 

Nelly Bouverist, non-intellectual, non-political and non-topical  are repeated.

 

The word "articles" is used twice. The first is a numerical noun for clothing (it is plural, so it means that you can see underwear many times), but the latter's meaning is not clear. It doesn't seem to be 'wearing underwear'. Nor would it be 'in the act of performing'.

"articles" has the meaning of 'annual contract'. I think this is the meaning here. She was “under contract”

 

Then I realised that this could be a gag by Joyce, using the two meanings of articles, that Nellie is being made to act in such a way that her underwear is shown in accordance with the terms of the contract.

 

According to Gifford's notes, Nelly Bouverist is a composite of the two lead actresses Kate Neverist and Nellie Bouverie. 

 

I searched for Kate Neverist but could not find her; Nellie Bouverie was found.She played the role of Whinbad the Whaler in Sinbad the Sailor in Dublin at Christmas 1892.

 

Whinbad the Whaler appears at the end of Episode 17.

 

”Sinbad the Sailor and Tinbad the Tailor and Jinbad the Jailer and Whinbad the Whaler and Ninbad the Nailer and Finbad the Failer and Binbad the Bailer and Pinbad the Pailer and Minbad the Mailer and Hinbad the Hailer and Rinbad the Railer and Dinbad the Kailer and Vinbad the Quailer and Linbad the Yailer and Xinbad the Phthaile.”

（U607.1-）

 

Cover of the brochure for the pantomime Sinbad the Sailor, performed at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, on Christmas Day 1892.

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43 (U230.907)

 Too poetical that about the sad.

43rd cast. page 230, line 907.

 

　Too poetical that about the sad. Music did that. Music hath charms. Shakespeare said. Quotations every day in the year. To be or not to be. Wisdom while you wait. 

　In Gerard’s rosery of Fetter lane he walks, greyedauburn. One life is all. One body. Do. But do.

 

 Here is a very interesting passage.

 

Episode 11. Around 4:00 PM. While dining at the Ormond Hotel, Mr. Bloom has just finished writing a letter to Martha, his secret correspondent.

 

He wrote in the P.P.S. of Martha's letter, "I feel so sad today."

 

P. P. S. La la la ree. I feel so sad today. La ree. So lonely. Dee.

（U230.894）

 

In the hotel lounge, Simon sang "Mappari" from Floteau's opera Maltha, and perhaps Mr. Cowley improvised on the piano in a minor key.

 

Mr. Bloom is sad because he knows that lover of his wife Molly, Boylan, is now on her way to Bloom's house.

 

“Music hath charms”, according to Gifford's notes, is not from Shakespeare, but from the tragedy The Mourning Bride (1697), Act 1, Scene 1, by English playwright William Congreve (1670 - 1729).

 

Music has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,

To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.

 

This is one of the famous phrases that the world often mistakes for Shakespeare's.
It is also often mistaken for "Music hath Charms to sooth a savage Beast."

But what was on Mr. Bloom's mind may have been a line from Shakespeare.
From Act IV, Scene 1 of Measure for Measure (1603-1604).

Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm

To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.”

 

 "Quotations every day in the year" is a diary with quotations.

 

Shakespeare birthday book (1883) or books like this. Mr. Bloom is familiar with Shakespeare's dialogues through such books.

 

“To be or not to be” is, of course, the most famous line from Hamlet. Mr. Bloom compared himself to the anguished Hamlet.

 

"Wisdom while you wait". I searched and found a book with that title (published in 1902). Not sure if this is the book, but Mr. Bloom thinks of a book with trivia and quotes.

“While you wait”, as the title of the book, means "immediately," but I think it also overlaps with Hamlet's "waiting" for an opportunity to avenge his father's murder, despite his madness, and Mr. Bloom's sitting and "waiting" for Boylan to go visit Molly.

Incidentally, Mr. Bloom is the kind of person who reads Shakespeare in search of solutions to life's problems. (U554.385)

 

The second paragraph is astonishing, as it is almost identical to Stephen's thoughts in Episode 9, in the library.

 

Do and do. Thing done. In a rosery of Fetter lane of Gerard, herbalist, he walks, greyedauburn. An azured harebell like her veins. Lids of Juno’s eyes, violets. He walks. One life is all. One body. Do. But do. Afar, in a reek of lust and squalor, hands are laid on whiteness.

（U166.651-）

 

 A passage in which Stephen fantasizes about Shakespeare walking through the rose garden of John Gerard (1545-1612) in Fetter Alley, London. Gerard was a botanist who had a large herb garden in London.

 

How can this be understood?

 

There are two possibilities.

 

One interpretation is that Stephen's thoughts are interjected here.

 

Episode 10 and 11 use the technique of abruptly interrupting the main story with scenes from other places, like insert cuts in a movie.

 

Stephen also mentions in Episode16 that John Dowland (1563 - 1626), a composer of Shakespeare's time, lived in Gerard's neighborhood on Fetter Alley.

 

Stephen, in reply to a politely put query, said he didn’t sing it but launched out into praises of Shakespeare’s songs, at least of in or about that period, the lutenist Dowland who lived in Fetter lane near Gerard the herbalist,・・・

(U540.1763)

 

It is very natural to assume that this is Stephen's thinking.

 

The second interpretation is that this is still Mr. Bloom's thinking here.

 

Immediately after this passage, Mr. Bloom mumbles, "Done anyhow”. This is connected to the immediately preceding "Do. But do“.

 

Mr. Bloom now thought the same thing as Stephen.This seems odd at first glance, but I suppose it is possible.The night before this day, Stephen and Mr. Bloom had the same dream.

 

Stephen's dream. Somewhere in a Middle Eastern brothel town, a man offers Steven a melon.

 

After he woke me last night same dream or was it? Wait. Open hallway. Street of harlots. Remember. Haroun al Raschid. I am almosting it. That man led me, spoke. I was not afraid. The melon he had he held against my face. Smiled: creamfruit smell. That was the rule, said. In. Come. Red carpet spread. You will see who.

（U39.363-）

 

Mr. Bloom's dream. Molly is wearing Turkish trousers and slippers.

 

Dreamt last night? Wait. Something confused. She had red slippers on. Turkish. Wore the breeches. Suppose she does? Would I like her in pyjamas? Damned hard to answer.

 (U311.1240-)

 

Mr. Bloom and Stephen are consubstantial father and son in the world created by Joyce. Their consciousnesses communicate in the depths.

To me, the latter interpretation is more interesting.

Barnard's Inn

Gerard's Rose Garden was said to have been located near Barnard's Inn Barnard's Inn between Chancery Lane and Fetter Lane. Barnard's Inn is a  Inn of Chancery dating back to the 13th century.

"Barnard's Inn - Gresham College - High Holborn, City of London" by ell brown is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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42 (U142.827)

 —I wouldn’t do anything at all in that line,

42nd cast. page 142, line 827.

 

　—I wouldn’t do anything at all in that line, Davy Byrne said. It ruined many a man, the same horses.

　Vintners’ sweepstake. Licensed for the sale of beer, wine and spirits for consumption on the premises. Heads I win tails you lose.

  

Episode 8. Late in the afternoon, Mr. Bloom entered Davy Byrne's for a light meal. Mr. Flynn, a guest, is talking with Mr. Byrne.

 

This pub was mentioned in the third issue of this blog. That day the Gold Cup race was held at Ascot Racecourse, so Mr. Flynn asked the owner, Davy Byrne for information on the winner. The first line was the owner's answer.

 

The second sentence is from Mr. Bloom's mind.

 

"A sweep stake" is a type of prize money in horse racing. Owners of horses in a race place stakes on each other and distribute the collected money to the winner. The term "sweep stakes," which means that the winner sweeps all the prize money, has been shortened to "stakes" later.

 

In "Heads I win tails you lose," heads refers to the face of the coin and tails is the back. If the tails come up, you should win, so it's a trick. It is an English idiom meaning that you win anyway.

Upon entering the pub, Mr. Bloom recalls that Davy Byrne is a cheapskate. I think Mr. Bloom is teasing him that he makes a lot of money by giving people drinks and not taking part in horse racing.

 

Davy Byrne

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41 (U102.253)

 ’neath the shadows cast o’er its pensive bosom

41st cast. page 102, line 253.

’neath the shadows cast o’er its pensive bosom by the overarching leafage of the giants of the forest. What about that, Simon? he asked over the fringe of his newspaper. How’s that for high?

 　—Changing his drink, Mr Dedalus said.

 　Ned Lambert, laughing, struck the newspaper on his knees, repeating:

 　—The pensive bosom and the overarsing leafage. O boys! O boys!

　—And Xenophon looked upon Marathon, Mr Dedalus said, looking again on the fireplace and to the window, and Marathon looked on the sea.

 

Episode 7.In the editorial office of the newspaper. Conversation among Stephen's father, Simon Dedalus, Net Lambert, and McHugh.

 

Today's Freeman Journal has a rhetoric-filled patriotic speech given by Dan Dawson last night. (U75.151) Lambert is reading the passage.

 

Charles Dan Dawson (1842-1917), proprietor of the Dublin Bread Company, was mayor of Dublin in 1882 and 1883, and in 1904, the year of the novel, was Collector of Rates for the city of Dublin.

Dawson is a baker and Lambert is a grain merchant. Joyce's father, John Stanislaus (a model for Simon) had taken a job in a tax collection office after his downfall. There might be some background to their teasing of Dawson.

 

What does "changing his drink" mean?

 

Gifford's annotation interprets this as "drinking in chunks gets you drunk faster". In other words, Simon says, Dawson got drunk and wrote a poetic sentence. It doesn't seem to fit. I searched the net and came across an article by John Simpson on a site called James Joyce Online Notes.

Dawson usually writes secular and realistic articles, but yesterday's speech was exaggerated and poetic in a different tone. The expression "changing his drink" was a common expression used in Joyce's time in speeches and in the press, meaning "changing to a more pungent and stronger tone". This fits well.

  

Lambert plays on a ward “overarching" in Dawson's speech,” overarsing”. This replaces ”arch” in the word with ”arse”. The reason why it is called  ”arse” is because it is a pun on "bosom".

　　　Xenophon looked upon Marathon

　　　Marathon looked on the sea.　

 

This is an adaptation of the following passage from The Greek Islands in the third song of Byron's Don Juan (1819 - 1824).

 

　　　The mountains look on Marathon—

  　　 And Marathon looks on the sea;

　　　And musing there an hour alone,

 　　  I dream'd that Greece might still be free;

　　　For standing on the Persians' grave,

　　   I could not deem myself a slave.

 

Xenophon (ca. 430 BC - 354 BC) was an ancient Greek soldier and historian who, in 401 BC, at the request of King Cyrus of the Persian Empire, became a mercenary and fought in the civil strife within the Persian Empire. King Cyrus was killed in battle and the Greek mercenary force was in danger. Xenophon led his mercenaries out of Asia Minor.

 

Marathon is a village northeast of Athens. It was the location of the Battle of Marathon (490 BC). The Battle of Marathon was fought during the Second Persian War (490 BC).The expeditionary force sent by Darius I of the Persian Empire that landed at Marathon was intercepted and defeated by the allied Greek polis forces mainly from Athens.

Xenophon and Marathon are not related. I think Simon knew that Byron's poem was about Greece and Persia, and he made up the passage by connecting Xenophon and Marathon, which are related to Greece and Persia.

Portrait of Lord Byron

File:Byron 1813 by Phillips.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

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40 (U18.691)

Buck Mulligan sat down to unlace his boots.

40th cast. page 18, line 691.

Buck Mulligan sat down to unlace his boots. An elderly man shot up near the spur of rock a blowing red face. He scrambled up by the stones, water glistening on his pate and on its garland of grey hair, water rilling over his chest and paunch and spilling jets out of his black sagging loincloth.

 

Episode 1. Stevin, Mulligan and Haines, living in Martello Tower, came to a beach near the tower called Forty Foot.

The text of the first episode looks ordinary at first glance, but is really elaborate.

 

So many L's in so little text.

Mulligan

unlace　

elderly　

blowing

scrambled　

glistening

garland

rilling

spilling

black

loincloth

 

ALP's L in Finnegans Wake. For Joyce, L is associated with the flow of water.

 

Head rhymes are consciously used.

shot ― spur　　

rock ―　red

scrambled ―　stones

garland ―　grey

spilling　―　sagging

 

Forty Foot is a cape at the southern end of Dublin Bay and a historic bathing beach. There are many versions of the origins of the name. Some say that the water is 40 feet deep, some say that the road was 40 feet wide, and some say that it was the garrison of the 40th Infantry Regiment.

 

Who is swimming?

 

There is this passage at the end of Episode1.

 

"The priest’s grey nimbus in a niche where he dressed discreetly."

（U19.739）

 

This man was a Catholic priest. His head was shaved.

 

The bathing in Episode 1 corresponds with Mr. Bloom's bathing at the end of Episode 5.

"He foresaw his pale body reclined in it at full, naked, in a womb of warmth, oiled by scented melting soap, softly laved. He saw his trunk and limbs riprippled over and sustained, buoyed lightly upward, lemonyellow: his navel, bud of flesh: and saw the dark tangled curls of his bush floating, floating hair of the stream around the limp father of thousands, a languid floating flower."

（U69.567）

 

Fortyfoot Bathing Place

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