reduction
of the nightmare of history
to a '.
to a '.
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
was a homo- ><:xual Spartan boy, 'Margaritomancy!
' may be read ':\1argaret, a man, I<:e!
', and j oyce I<:em.
to deriv~ pm;i1/C4 from pero;1t(D.
In a channing pr<:lude to the fi"'t parody {[4l, the basic material! of the senten"" ~ preoentcd in a pastoral setting. The polar principk. underlying the ocene ofhattks, death and regmwth, arc to be round 'neath the lIone pine' where the 'paltor lies with hil crook' . ' T he androgynoul lwinl are a pair
of gra7;ng sheep-'pricket' and 'pricket'. sisler'-while the 'herb trinity' Kern Once again to be femak, as on pa~ ~8I : 'amaid' (11. 33), The eternoJ scene haviog been . et- '1"hu. , ton, for donkey'. yean'- the parody of Quinet may follow: 'Since the bont. of Hebeat and Hairyman . . . '
JOYce'. inevitable clabot-atioIll! have allowed the flowers 10 increase their nnmber to . ix: 'ccmfiowen . . . dm kro~e . . . twolipo, ? ,whitethorn . , ? redthom. . . may_', while the garden in whid. they grow i. new located in Ireland. The parody il pregnant with crms--reference, to other themes and
motiu, a. we . hould ~. xpect. Tlu: word 'ria"lts' of the original i. ttndered by 'made-<. >f_ill. . . miles', which recurs in the next parody as 'made-<. >f-ill-houn' (['7'~9), thus 'uggesting both the girl. ' timeless qualities and . heir con,tant sensual willing_ n~; the important figure [QoXJ' appears bere a. 'chiliad'; the
, The cr<>ok ;. Eve, m. d< from Adam', bent rib: d. 'H", ,. . . . nliJi? . ? ip'" IiM"""'"JN~IIIJoJi4m' (7->>).
' s. . (
.
",
? Two Mop Motifs
round of twenty_nine woro. for 'Pea",,' {47? -71)- which form. . a complete cycle in itself; and recurs in lILS as twenty-nine words for 'Dead' (499. 0{)- is heralded in both fornu by the pbrll. $e 'pax,ealing buttonholes', implying that the flowe", both bring pea"" and ! leal up with wax the Letter of life that they help to write, (There is, as J shall show, a constant and dose a~a. tion of the LeUer with Quinet" ",nten"". ) The mqst important of the cross-T~fereIlCe$, however, is the indmion of the old dance to the rhythm of which the llowen a,. . , made to arrive jltSq. ''; MuS: ''luadrilled acl'OS< the centuries'_The dan"" j , C<lntinuallyul<:d inFinntl'JM Wah "" a symbol ofcommunica-
tion and of cyclic progr= _When they chant 'Peace' the leap- year gir\t dance widdenhiOJ around Shaun-Osi. u, as if around II. phallic may_pole and, even more significantly perhaps, they execute a sacred '! rep"'" when they change thu dumt to 'Dead', on the occasion of his spar'W"'" (499)- I have already mentioned Joyce'. repeated assertion that the cyclic scheme of Finntgans Wah 'i, like a rumba round my garden'_' Quinet'. flowers grow ;n the g-~rden of the world as civilisation. dash and
break, SO that;n the 'rumha' of historical progr. . . we may now J"'rhaps hear a . uggcuion of the rumhle of 'toppling malQnry'. Into the commentary which folIoW$ the fint parody Joyce
pours all the superfluity of material that eQuid not be J<[u~Ltd into the parody itself; "",ful idea. o appa,. . ,ntly flowed all too fast. This is one calC where the very richn"" ofJoy""', thinlcing b<<. ame something of an embarrassment to him. He had already hlown the KJIlcnCC up to more than one and half times iU original length ("9 word. against Quinet's 7$) and had left only the vaguest rhythmic similarity. The decoration of the d aMical mooel with a IlUl! S of baroque ornamentation had to stop befo,. . , poor Quinet dilapJ"'ared altog<'lher. BUI, as. usual, Joyce manages to turn difficulty to his own advantage, for
,. . ,petition 'in OUlher waro. ' is, after all, what he u looling fur moot of the time in Finntlans Wah; ifhe has too much material for any given thematic statement he simply repeau hirruelf
,T,,,,,,,(Fr. ) . . d. . . th.
? Su 1~ "
,
o. . pler F;ve, Ill.
'"
? rWQ MaiM Motifs
untu the material il exhawted. Thi. new /low of rich and ~ocative I y m b o l . g i v e > fu rlh~r v a l u a b l e i n . r i g h t s i n t n I h e primary situatinn. The rhylhmic IUperiorily of Joyce's free . Iyleisatonc~ apparent:
'T he babbelero with Iheir thang", vain have b"en (confuoium hald them') they were and went; thigging thugs were and houhnhymn ""ngloms were and comely nurgeL. were and polly. fool fianlCe>. Menn have thawed, clorh have . m. . . urhummed, tbe blond hal ""ught of the brune: Elsd:in thou may, mean Kerry piggy? : and the dundedame> have countered "ilh the hdlisl, fell""" : Who ails tongue codd. au, a'pace of dumbill_ lilly? And they fell upong one anolher: and themselve. they have faUen. And . . ill nowanights and by nights of yure do all bold floral of the field to their Ihyfaun loven "'y unly: Cull me ~re I wilt to thee! : and, but a little later: Pluek me whilst I blush! Well may they wilt, marry, and profu. . ,dly bluili, be
lroth' t? or that saying i, '" nld '" the howitts. Lave a whale while in a whillbarrow (i,n't it the truath I'm tallin yen 10 bave fin< and flippen that ahimmy and Ihake. Tim Timmycan
limped hir, lampting Tam. F1cppety! flippety! Fleapow! Hop! '
In the second parody, 00 page "7, the brothe. . . pair, who had been incarnated on page Ii, . . cavemen equivalent! ! of Heber and Heremon, take on the form of a mwic-hall song_ and? dance team: 'Since nuzzy Nandtc tripped palmyway. with BighOO Harry . . . ' The three flowen, on the other hand, no longer figure as individuall, bllt al a collective Iyrnbol, Ihe Letter: 'this oldworld cpiatola'. In identifying the flower_girls with their Letter, Joyce is ~ven more literally putting into
practice Tsolde', ,ugg~lIion in her lecund footnote on pag<' 28, . It i, significant that while this is the ,? enion in whicb the Q uinet_ Letter identification iI made m! >>t explicit, it il allO the parody which depar! $ mo. t from Ihe rhythlT1. \ an d general urgam. ation of the original (except rur the Sp<<ial (a5<: (m page 354) ;Joyce i, opting for more 'tum,h' and I"" French. It i. partiClIlarly rich in allu\",,,, 10 olher motifs and Iheir :urociated symbot. , ! . he IIK>$I,alienIofth= beingthecup-of_tea_and_polstill_lifewhich
'"
? Two MajO'f Motifs
c. usuaUy in evidence wmewhue in the middle-gT(lundwhencvu the Letter is under discu$$iQt1. The water fur the wetting of the tea and the comcquent creation of a new world is healed o,'er the fiTe of 'Pat', Purge' (I' 7-'6)- an annrnng rone<:it by meam ofwhichJoycedOilely"""". ialC$ the tea symbolwith theubiqui_ tous Phocnix-Magic-Fire theme. Bridget and Patr;cl< enter with their rorulanl litany of 'Launauf'_'m"he mi' he',' modifict! here to 'wulfsouff' and 'talhtalh', and since Bridget and I'atrid, are a cOIUtantly recurring brothe. . . . and-,ister pair, their solemn ritual ;, evidently to be identified with the theatrical frivolit;C$ of 'NaneUe' and 'Harry'.
The . urvival of the Letter-posy ovu the 'billiousne,-,' of infirm 'mixed racings' is devdoped in a very direct ,tatement of the Viconian cyclic principle:
'th'" oldworld epistola of their weathering, and their rnarryings and their burying. and their natural selecti",,", h'" <mnhlcd
tumbled down to lIS fench and made-at? all_hou. . . liL: an ould cup on tay. '
The ,C<:ne of the rise and faU ofmalCuline glory h", meanwhile bttn shifled. from Ireland (IS) had to Europe-'Pieter'. in Nieuw Amotddam and Paoli', where th~ poulC! > go'---<)r ptt- hapo even farther afield- 'he dined off sooth american'_ bul wherever the comedy may be play<:d out Ihe slow progr(:! . ! of history is . een to be like nothing SO much'" the gigantic drink_ ing party of Fin""g<l1U Wake: 'two hoots or three jeen for the grapc vine and brew'. The whole of this parody i. in /a(l a further . tage in J oyce'.
reduction of the nightmare of history
to a '. hout in the "reet'.
The puts dts haMill", which in the fInt parody were meta_
morphosed into an Iri,h bloodbath Qn the 'eve of Killallwho', are now no more than a . t<>rm in 'an ould cup on tay'. 'Joyc<: c. identifying the fighting in the flCld with the suual battl~ wruch a$$UI"C. 'l the rontinued. ~. xislCnc<: of tbe race of flowers, and in so doing h~ i. {>O'tulating th~ ultimate interdependence
'. so. A~;x A. ? . so. F. M. BoId<rclf,~F~I""Wok. ,N"",Y""k,'959. pp. ,8. If.
! O< . . - . i n , , = < t i o g " " " " " , n u O I l t h e f u n c ! ; ' " o f , o a . . y m b o l i s r n ; n F ; . " q . . u W~.
t9~
? Two Major Motifs
of Quinel'l oppos<d principles of . . . . . and peace. morulity and continuity_ This is yelanolMr ex. ample oftlw: lu. uaching waY' in which /nllMl,os work for J oy<<, for withoul lhe . tructural ~ 'Pm W MlAjllts-ouid cup on lay', which the
motif eau. blishes, Jvyce'. point would be 1,. _
In the brilliantly (:(Incise ,. . ,~ of1M se"tence on page ~s6
the two Roman histori. . . . . ha~e been tramformed into the tnditionalfoundcnoCtbeirciry-'~andRehmoooc' - a ralher less pacific ample. Afler havi"ll quadrill<<l. aClOSS Ihe centuries which separale 1. 1 and 1l. 1 , lile Howen have been
refined away until nothing remai. . . . of them but 1M <:SSence of theirdar_ dlepa~. . . . . ,wal~reds,andri~hile the _ lie of their . . :ducth. . , Iiolia . . . . onot ~ been shifted back 10 I. . . land. "IN: alternalions of Irish and overseu back- groundl 10 Ihe parodies ('4-15, Ireland; '17, Europe ""d South Amo:ri. ca; 236, Ircland. ; 3S1o &len; 6'5, 'our mutter nation') para1Id me many other oscillations or locality in FiMt61l111 Wdh Trilt&n'. loves in Briltany and Ireland, Sbem'. lrip:! to A",tralia, Shaun'llo the Unil<<l. Slatea. Later on in the lenience, after il b " moVNI i:orwacd in lime, the older ohnca mentioDcd above are seen 10 have developed inlO the crazy modem gaiety of the Parisian Canan ('can. canz. anies'), which ltimulatea Ihe frustrated Earwicker 10 the poinl of hi,~1 ('bcgayment').
The de&truction or Ihe oq:>tIIdabie male " pocu of the woOd is equat<<l. with thc prq>aratiOl1 of fool ~yme, that chef of ! CasonC", baa made his ulual lIlewlc use of endadjwtables'
(2:;6. i1) -which is one of the l"avonrite putimes of l"at-beI\iod Sh:>un to "'bom the 'climb duanbdlCl' (2:J6. 08) pander at every tUTn. (Tho: dumb-bell- the mathtmatical sign ror infinity,
C:O---;I, of coune, an eapeciaIly luitable symbol for J oyce'. im_ mortal but empty-headed and. vulgar fIowcr-girh. )"IN: IelIQO_ ing or history's stew is just one more . aped of the 'Eating the God' theme whlch J oytt lOOk over from Fruer, and. , afkr aU, SAysJoy<<, 00 matter how often tlu: Holl may go a P' Dg'C>S through the guts of a oommunicant, the true God rem"'''' whole, inviolate. However (\almetive and degenoerale Shaun's
. "
? Troo Major Motift
gourmandiling may seem, nothing is really destroyed in the I'itIiXW; the Ia_ of~rvation alwa)'l bold, 10 ! hal 'whatnot wiU~ ilnor'. History, liU the hleido. cope ofFiaNgau W. . u, limply rearnnga a "umberof'endadjU$. . . b1. ,. ',and the: wring OUt of the God among the congrq;ation, though il . ymbolista the continuity of Iik, is no rna", than a juggling wilh the dis- tribution of Ihe l>JIIe panicle. of lIdng. Through past eons (236. 30) and past epoch. (236. 31) the flower-dance. . . have continued to 'UM"" thejooul tIu HI,iil. . which are nO longer "'{uatcd, as On page '17, with the lively and 'flUin' (S08) cup of tea, oot with the: suuggltlll of the ogeing Anna to ",main ~. BookIIistheBookoftheChildun;Annab. ubttl! rcpIa<<d, and "'" watch the pitif. . . . spectacle of the al",ady mummified woman playing iIlt the 1lI01~rhood of which . . . . i. no Longer capahle (236. 31 ). The cu p of tta that wat once her lII0I1 important fertility-. ymbol ",appean in this parody, hut onlyinlWOciati(1nwiththedeaf,purblind,ando~old man ora past age, who hat heeD luppLantedjust '" his wife hat: 'the bcdeafdom of po'. taeorm, tbe olxo:city of pa'. teapucs'. Funhenno"" . . Joyne lut;OI ba. clt-alang for the cup ('teapUCI') "'" may fairly assume WI il is upsidedown and hence, like Omar'. glasa, empty. The word 'teapucs' may aka oontain the ''P'''''' """ ory 10 combat pa'. approaching bli"d",,",; there seemll 10 be at 1(lIIt one ph)"io;ai dd'ecl that F. arwicku shartlll with hil myopic ""condhtot lI0II, Shem.
In the preceding p=agraph Anna Uvia'. buW dqo~ ('billy . . . tOo') is idenliftetl with Ihe Miual . . . . d at the oommunion, hUI when an office from it io . ung--'and . ing a . ru. allOO'- this iI dilCOVCl'fll, rather IUl]>I'isingly, to be no more than the btel! veniun ofQuil>eI. Joyu could hardly ha,. . , nw:\e greater claim. for his motif. :
The fourth parody is by f,. . . the mOlt diffoeult of Ih~ leI, and at the lame tirDe on~ of the lII0I1 signi6canL The supreme importat>Ce ofQuiodl""ntence in Pi_,IUS W. ut i. o emphuivd. by tlte . . . . 10 whichJ oyu pull thil vtnion- namdy 10 conclude tlte central 'Butt and Taff' convenation III the two . peak in unioon for the fint and only time. The passage is 110 den. . , with
'97
? Tl/iQ Mo}oT Motifs
meaning that it will be as well to quoe. the final polilhed t. xt in full:
'When old the wormd W a ) a gadden and Anthea first unfolled her limbi! wand. rloo, W a ) the way the wood wagged where
opter and aptcr we~ samnraited twirnhs. They had their mutthering ivies and their murdhcring idies and their mouldher_ ing iries in that musht grove but there'll be bright pHnny_ flowe. . . in Calomella'. cool bowers when the magpyre'. habbk towers scorching and $<;r~hing from the ravenindow. If th~ lobed the . . " of hit head and me. . ates the ,eep of hi, traublen he'. dancing figgiel to the spittk sid. and ,hoving out, the soord. And hell be buying buys and go gulling gcll< with hit flo""im and j<:ssim of carm, silk and honey while myandtbJl' playing Janeifor lneifug and what', duff as a bettIe for usses makes coy O>$yn eorollane,' moue, ""e<:tcr to Wee. So till but_ again budly shoots thon rising germinal let bodky chow the fau of hi> an!
In a channing pr<:lude to the fi"'t parody {[4l, the basic material! of the senten"" ~ preoentcd in a pastoral setting. The polar principk. underlying the ocene ofhattks, death and regmwth, arc to be round 'neath the lIone pine' where the 'paltor lies with hil crook' . ' T he androgynoul lwinl are a pair
of gra7;ng sheep-'pricket' and 'pricket'. sisler'-while the 'herb trinity' Kern Once again to be femak, as on pa~ ~8I : 'amaid' (11. 33), The eternoJ scene haviog been . et- '1"hu. , ton, for donkey'. yean'- the parody of Quinet may follow: 'Since the bont. of Hebeat and Hairyman . . . '
JOYce'. inevitable clabot-atioIll! have allowed the flowers 10 increase their nnmber to . ix: 'ccmfiowen . . . dm kro~e . . . twolipo, ? ,whitethorn . , ? redthom. . . may_', while the garden in whid. they grow i. new located in Ireland. The parody il pregnant with crms--reference, to other themes and
motiu, a. we . hould ~. xpect. Tlu: word 'ria"lts' of the original i. ttndered by 'made-<. >f_ill. . . miles', which recurs in the next parody as 'made-<. >f-ill-houn' (['7'~9), thus 'uggesting both the girl. ' timeless qualities and . heir con,tant sensual willing_ n~; the important figure [QoXJ' appears bere a. 'chiliad'; the
, The cr<>ok ;. Eve, m. d< from Adam', bent rib: d. 'H", ,. . . . nliJi? . ? ip'" IiM"""'"JN~IIIJoJi4m' (7->>).
' s. . (
.
",
? Two Mop Motifs
round of twenty_nine woro. for 'Pea",,' {47? -71)- which form. . a complete cycle in itself; and recurs in lILS as twenty-nine words for 'Dead' (499. 0{)- is heralded in both fornu by the pbrll. $e 'pax,ealing buttonholes', implying that the flowe", both bring pea"" and ! leal up with wax the Letter of life that they help to write, (There is, as J shall show, a constant and dose a~a. tion of the LeUer with Quinet" ",nten"". ) The mqst important of the cross-T~fereIlCe$, however, is the indmion of the old dance to the rhythm of which the llowen a,. . , made to arrive jltSq. ''; MuS: ''luadrilled acl'OS< the centuries'_The dan"" j , C<lntinuallyul<:d inFinntl'JM Wah "" a symbol ofcommunica-
tion and of cyclic progr= _When they chant 'Peace' the leap- year gir\t dance widdenhiOJ around Shaun-Osi. u, as if around II. phallic may_pole and, even more significantly perhaps, they execute a sacred '! rep"'" when they change thu dumt to 'Dead', on the occasion of his spar'W"'" (499)- I have already mentioned Joyce'. repeated assertion that the cyclic scheme of Finntgans Wah 'i, like a rumba round my garden'_' Quinet'. flowers grow ;n the g-~rden of the world as civilisation. dash and
break, SO that;n the 'rumha' of historical progr. . . we may now J"'rhaps hear a . uggcuion of the rumhle of 'toppling malQnry'. Into the commentary which folIoW$ the fint parody Joyce
pours all the superfluity of material that eQuid not be J<[u~Ltd into the parody itself; "",ful idea. o appa,. . ,ntly flowed all too fast. This is one calC where the very richn"" ofJoy""', thinlcing b<<. ame something of an embarrassment to him. He had already hlown the KJIlcnCC up to more than one and half times iU original length ("9 word. against Quinet's 7$) and had left only the vaguest rhythmic similarity. The decoration of the d aMical mooel with a IlUl! S of baroque ornamentation had to stop befo,. . , poor Quinet dilapJ"'ared altog<'lher. BUI, as. usual, Joyce manages to turn difficulty to his own advantage, for
,. . ,petition 'in OUlher waro. ' is, after all, what he u looling fur moot of the time in Finntlans Wah; ifhe has too much material for any given thematic statement he simply repeau hirruelf
,T,,,,,,,(Fr. ) . . d. . . th.
? Su 1~ "
,
o. . pler F;ve, Ill.
'"
? rWQ MaiM Motifs
untu the material il exhawted. Thi. new /low of rich and ~ocative I y m b o l . g i v e > fu rlh~r v a l u a b l e i n . r i g h t s i n t n I h e primary situatinn. The rhylhmic IUperiorily of Joyce's free . Iyleisatonc~ apparent:
'T he babbelero with Iheir thang", vain have b"en (confuoium hald them') they were and went; thigging thugs were and houhnhymn ""ngloms were and comely nurgeL. were and polly. fool fianlCe>. Menn have thawed, clorh have . m. . . urhummed, tbe blond hal ""ught of the brune: Elsd:in thou may, mean Kerry piggy? : and the dundedame> have countered "ilh the hdlisl, fell""" : Who ails tongue codd. au, a'pace of dumbill_ lilly? And they fell upong one anolher: and themselve. they have faUen. And . . ill nowanights and by nights of yure do all bold floral of the field to their Ihyfaun loven "'y unly: Cull me ~re I wilt to thee! : and, but a little later: Pluek me whilst I blush! Well may they wilt, marry, and profu. . ,dly bluili, be
lroth' t? or that saying i, '" nld '" the howitts. Lave a whale while in a whillbarrow (i,n't it the truath I'm tallin yen 10 bave fin< and flippen that ahimmy and Ihake. Tim Timmycan
limped hir, lampting Tam. F1cppety! flippety! Fleapow! Hop! '
In the second parody, 00 page "7, the brothe. . . pair, who had been incarnated on page Ii, . . cavemen equivalent! ! of Heber and Heremon, take on the form of a mwic-hall song_ and? dance team: 'Since nuzzy Nandtc tripped palmyway. with BighOO Harry . . . ' The three flowen, on the other hand, no longer figure as individuall, bllt al a collective Iyrnbol, Ihe Letter: 'this oldworld cpiatola'. In identifying the flower_girls with their Letter, Joyce is ~ven more literally putting into
practice Tsolde', ,ugg~lIion in her lecund footnote on pag<' 28, . It i, significant that while this is the ,? enion in whicb the Q uinet_ Letter identification iI made m! >>t explicit, it il allO the parody which depar! $ mo. t from Ihe rhythlT1. \ an d general urgam. ation of the original (except rur the Sp<<ial (a5<: (m page 354) ;Joyce i, opting for more 'tum,h' and I"" French. It i. partiClIlarly rich in allu\",,,, 10 olher motifs and Iheir :urociated symbot. , ! . he IIK>$I,alienIofth= beingthecup-of_tea_and_polstill_lifewhich
'"
? Two MajO'f Motifs
c. usuaUy in evidence wmewhue in the middle-gT(lundwhencvu the Letter is under discu$$iQt1. The water fur the wetting of the tea and the comcquent creation of a new world is healed o,'er the fiTe of 'Pat', Purge' (I' 7-'6)- an annrnng rone<:it by meam ofwhichJoycedOilely"""". ialC$ the tea symbolwith theubiqui_ tous Phocnix-Magic-Fire theme. Bridget and Patr;cl< enter with their rorulanl litany of 'Launauf'_'m"he mi' he',' modifict! here to 'wulfsouff' and 'talhtalh', and since Bridget and I'atrid, are a cOIUtantly recurring brothe. . . . and-,ister pair, their solemn ritual ;, evidently to be identified with the theatrical frivolit;C$ of 'NaneUe' and 'Harry'.
The . urvival of the Letter-posy ovu the 'billiousne,-,' of infirm 'mixed racings' is devdoped in a very direct ,tatement of the Viconian cyclic principle:
'th'" oldworld epistola of their weathering, and their rnarryings and their burying. and their natural selecti",,", h'" <mnhlcd
tumbled down to lIS fench and made-at? all_hou. . . liL: an ould cup on tay. '
The ,C<:ne of the rise and faU ofmalCuline glory h", meanwhile bttn shifled. from Ireland (IS) had to Europe-'Pieter'. in Nieuw Amotddam and Paoli', where th~ poulC! > go'---<)r ptt- hapo even farther afield- 'he dined off sooth american'_ bul wherever the comedy may be play<:d out Ihe slow progr(:! . ! of history is . een to be like nothing SO much'" the gigantic drink_ ing party of Fin""g<l1U Wake: 'two hoots or three jeen for the grapc vine and brew'. The whole of this parody i. in /a(l a further . tage in J oyce'.
reduction of the nightmare of history
to a '. hout in the "reet'.
The puts dts haMill", which in the fInt parody were meta_
morphosed into an Iri,h bloodbath Qn the 'eve of Killallwho', are now no more than a . t<>rm in 'an ould cup on tay'. 'Joyc<: c. identifying the fighting in the flCld with the suual battl~ wruch a$$UI"C. 'l the rontinued. ~. xislCnc<: of tbe race of flowers, and in so doing h~ i. {>O'tulating th~ ultimate interdependence
'. so. A~;x A. ? . so. F. M. BoId<rclf,~F~I""Wok. ,N"",Y""k,'959. pp. ,8. If.
! O< . . - . i n , , = < t i o g " " " " " , n u O I l t h e f u n c ! ; ' " o f , o a . . y m b o l i s r n ; n F ; . " q . . u W~.
t9~
? Two Major Motifs
of Quinel'l oppos<d principles of . . . . . and peace. morulity and continuity_ This is yelanolMr ex. ample oftlw: lu. uaching waY' in which /nllMl,os work for J oy<<, for withoul lhe . tructural ~ 'Pm W MlAjllts-ouid cup on lay', which the
motif eau. blishes, Jvyce'. point would be 1,. _
In the brilliantly (:(Incise ,. . ,~ of1M se"tence on page ~s6
the two Roman histori. . . . . ha~e been tramformed into the tnditionalfoundcnoCtbeirciry-'~andRehmoooc' - a ralher less pacific ample. Afler havi"ll quadrill<<l. aClOSS Ihe centuries which separale 1. 1 and 1l. 1 , lile Howen have been
refined away until nothing remai. . . . of them but 1M <:SSence of theirdar_ dlepa~. . . . . ,wal~reds,andri~hile the _ lie of their . . :ducth. . , Iiolia . . . . onot ~ been shifted back 10 I. . . land. "IN: alternalions of Irish and overseu back- groundl 10 Ihe parodies ('4-15, Ireland; '17, Europe ""d South Amo:ri. ca; 236, Ircland. ; 3S1o &len; 6'5, 'our mutter nation') para1Id me many other oscillations or locality in FiMt61l111 Wdh Trilt&n'. loves in Briltany and Ireland, Sbem'. lrip:! to A",tralia, Shaun'llo the Unil<<l. Slatea. Later on in the lenience, after il b " moVNI i:orwacd in lime, the older ohnca mentioDcd above are seen 10 have developed inlO the crazy modem gaiety of the Parisian Canan ('can. canz. anies'), which ltimulatea Ihe frustrated Earwicker 10 the poinl of hi,~1 ('bcgayment').
The de&truction or Ihe oq:>tIIdabie male " pocu of the woOd is equat<<l. with thc prq>aratiOl1 of fool ~yme, that chef of ! CasonC", baa made his ulual lIlewlc use of endadjwtables'
(2:;6. i1) -which is one of the l"avonrite putimes of l"at-beI\iod Sh:>un to "'bom the 'climb duanbdlCl' (2:J6. 08) pander at every tUTn. (Tho: dumb-bell- the mathtmatical sign ror infinity,
C:O---;I, of coune, an eapeciaIly luitable symbol for J oyce'. im_ mortal but empty-headed and. vulgar fIowcr-girh. )"IN: IelIQO_ ing or history's stew is just one more . aped of the 'Eating the God' theme whlch J oytt lOOk over from Fruer, and. , afkr aU, SAysJoy<<, 00 matter how often tlu: Holl may go a P' Dg'C>S through the guts of a oommunicant, the true God rem"'''' whole, inviolate. However (\almetive and degenoerale Shaun's
. "
? Troo Major Motift
gourmandiling may seem, nothing is really destroyed in the I'itIiXW; the Ia_ of~rvation alwa)'l bold, 10 ! hal 'whatnot wiU~ ilnor'. History, liU the hleido. cope ofFiaNgau W. . u, limply rearnnga a "umberof'endadjU$. . . b1. ,. ',and the: wring OUt of the God among the congrq;ation, though il . ymbolista the continuity of Iik, is no rna", than a juggling wilh the dis- tribution of Ihe l>JIIe panicle. of lIdng. Through past eons (236. 30) and past epoch. (236. 31) the flower-dance. . . have continued to 'UM"" thejooul tIu HI,iil. . which are nO longer "'{uatcd, as On page '17, with the lively and 'flUin' (S08) cup of tea, oot with the: suuggltlll of the ogeing Anna to ",main ~. BookIIistheBookoftheChildun;Annab. ubttl! rcpIa<<d, and "'" watch the pitif. . . . spectacle of the al",ady mummified woman playing iIlt the 1lI01~rhood of which . . . . i. no Longer capahle (236. 31 ). The cu p of tta that wat once her lII0I1 important fertility-. ymbol ",appean in this parody, hut onlyinlWOciati(1nwiththedeaf,purblind,ando~old man ora past age, who hat heeD luppLantedjust '" his wife hat: 'the bcdeafdom of po'. taeorm, tbe olxo:city of pa'. teapucs'. Funhenno"" . . Joyne lut;OI ba. clt-alang for the cup ('teapUCI') "'" may fairly assume WI il is upsidedown and hence, like Omar'. glasa, empty. The word 'teapucs' may aka oontain the ''P'''''' """ ory 10 combat pa'. approaching bli"d",,",; there seemll 10 be at 1(lIIt one ph)"io;ai dd'ecl that F. arwicku shartlll with hil myopic ""condhtot lI0II, Shem.
In the preceding p=agraph Anna Uvia'. buW dqo~ ('billy . . . tOo') is idenliftetl with Ihe Miual . . . . d at the oommunion, hUI when an office from it io . ung--'and . ing a . ru. allOO'- this iI dilCOVCl'fll, rather IUl]>I'isingly, to be no more than the btel! veniun ofQuil>eI. Joyu could hardly ha,. . , nw:\e greater claim. for his motif. :
The fourth parody is by f,. . . the mOlt diffoeult of Ih~ leI, and at the lame tirDe on~ of the lII0I1 signi6canL The supreme importat>Ce ofQuiodl""ntence in Pi_,IUS W. ut i. o emphuivd. by tlte . . . . 10 whichJ oyu pull thil vtnion- namdy 10 conclude tlte central 'Butt and Taff' convenation III the two . peak in unioon for the fint and only time. The passage is 110 den. . , with
'97
? Tl/iQ Mo}oT Motifs
meaning that it will be as well to quoe. the final polilhed t. xt in full:
'When old the wormd W a ) a gadden and Anthea first unfolled her limbi! wand. rloo, W a ) the way the wood wagged where
opter and aptcr we~ samnraited twirnhs. They had their mutthering ivies and their murdhcring idies and their mouldher_ ing iries in that musht grove but there'll be bright pHnny_ flowe. . . in Calomella'. cool bowers when the magpyre'. habbk towers scorching and $<;r~hing from the ravenindow. If th~ lobed the . . " of hit head and me. . ates the ,eep of hi, traublen he'. dancing figgiel to the spittk sid. and ,hoving out, the soord. And hell be buying buys and go gulling gcll< with hit flo""im and j<:ssim of carm, silk and honey while myandtbJl' playing Janeifor lneifug and what', duff as a bettIe for usses makes coy O>$yn eorollane,' moue, ""e<:tcr to Wee. So till but_ again budly shoots thon rising germinal let bodky chow the fau of hi> an!
