he "'Y', 'The old order
changeth
and l:uts like the fin " (?
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
.
.
I>ky.
Im~?
?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
London,'In.
?
? C"clic Form
th. ,. . , throne. '! , beyond u. ing them for III they a", worth 'I There . . one vital point of. rructu", d. . tinguishing the Vkon_ ian cycl. . fmm aIm""t all the cyclic pattenu which ob,,,. . . ,d Blavauky, for whe",. . . Vico'. throri. . a", oo. . ,d on a tripartite
formula, with a . hort interconnecting link betwttn eycles, nearly ew:ry Indian oystem \lSOS a primarily four_part cycle, with or without a ,hon additional fifth Age. ' Sin"" in some ''''peets a four_part cycle . uits j nyce', purpose, better than dncs a thr""_part, he extend. Vico', fourth age, on the analogy of the Indian cycles, and g;v", it a g",at deal more detailed attention than ;t receives in the &inoZil NUMJtl. He ,till adheres to the g<'neral V;conian prugH. , Birth, Marriage, Death, and RccoM\ituUon_but the ricm", which in Vico is litde IIl<lre than a transitional fiux, . , given aJ; much prominen"" aJ; the other Ag<'s and is even elevated to the supreme moment of the cycle. The new emphasi; ",f1CClJi both Joy""', temperamelll and hi,
perception of the world in which he lived. In the twentieth century the 'ahnihili$a. tion of the etym' (353. ~2) had become a fact in both semel, and j oyce'. environment, al",ady highly fragmented, waJ; made to appear even more on by joyce him_ >elf. Not content with the insecurity of the crumbled Europe in which he had chosen to dwell, he ma. oochistically added to his
insecurity by constant restless movement; not content with the naturally accderaring flux of the English language . . . he round it, he helped it to crumble yel f. . . ter. But whenjoycc d"'troyed i t Wa J ; a l w a Y ' i n o r d e r t o r e b u i l d , f o r t h e p r o c = o f r e c o n s t i t u t i o n r. . . cinated him. He w3. I remarkably uuinte",. red in achieve_ men! 3--cither h. , own penonal and artistic achievemenu, Or the ooci"'"political achievements of Europe- but the flux of the moment never failed to hold h. . attention. In art a. in life it was proce'" rather than result that appealed to him most- how a thing. ;ames to be, rather than what it;" Physical and spiritual gestation of all1cind. ! . delighted him. Nora'. pregnancies, which to her we'" simple human . ;anditions, became fur him ml'"tical evenU worthy oftile de<:pest $cudy. ? He ! pCnt a tbow. and hom. . . ,
? h l l e Y s , p . o~r.
? Ii<< below. p. ~,.
? EJ. l""'n", pp. [g6,:J<i6.
5'
? Cyeii, Form
aC<;Ording to his own reckoning, trying to reproduce the physical procea linguistically in the 'Oxen ofthe Sun' epi! odeof UIy,,"s,' and e","n contrived to make the whole of another book, A Porl,ail, ",fleet in some detail the stag. . of development of the human foetus. ' Thi. inlo,. . . t in the p"""'"" of c",ation is yet more pronounced in FiMllp1U W4k" in which everything, . . , h", frequently be<:n . aid, . . in a constant ,tate of becoming. Joyce oru:e s. aid rather I. . tily to ru. . brother Stanislaw that style w9. . 1 the<mly thing in which he wa. inte"",ted,' but '. tyle' ;' here to k unden tood in the wid. . t possible lensc. For the mature Joyce 'uyle' denoted more than a wayofwnLing; it had become a way of life, or at lea,t . . way of intupteting IW" which, for a man a ! tempcramcnta. lly pallive a ! Joyce, amoun! . 1 10 virtually the urne thing. In Ulyssts his surrogate, Stephen, mUJCd on tho world-book of signa"'r. . which he W9. . 1 'he,. . , to ",ad' (U 33); many yean lu~r the . \:ill with wruch he had intu:pretcd thae ,igpaturt";S wu put to the t. . t inFimugQIU Wok, to write which joyce nceded a thorough analytical grasp ofthe syntax, gram_ m~r, and pro. rody of the unive. . . , fer he had taken on nO kss . . Wk than Ihat of demomuating cosmic 'style' in aclien. & joyce w'" primarily concerned with the dynamic functioning of the unive"', the hum. ea of germination in the muck-heap
a! ler the nadir ofthe cycle had been reathed necwarily beca= the most important moment of all. Though the fourth Age is
somenm. . described in Fill1ilgaru Wok '" a disintcgration- 'O'c'nle, n'we'stle, tr'c'stle, crumhlingl' (,8. 00)- il" nO I. . . frequently interpreted . . . . a vital reorganiaalion of scattered forces, a r. . UI"1"tttion which i< """,tive rather than potential: 'hatch_u-balch can' (6'4. 33) . Barwicke. my>terioualy rise. from the dead in 1. . . . . deparu, and i. tried in ah$entia; Anna
Livia habhl. . in lively faohion in 1. 8; Tristan and heult emhrace in II. . . ; the new generation;' ca",fully nurtured in the cradl. . oflll+joyce ha. < cxtended the wurth Age in each ca. e
by allowing it not only to prepare for, but to lOme alent also , /411#1, p. '4"
,FJIm>. w>,pp. ~.
, S. Joy<><, My H. oI""? 1 /(<4><<, I. _on. '9. s11. p. '3?
5'
? CJclic Form
to rc<. apilulate, in dream-like anticipation, the fint Age of the cycle. ' A.
he "'Y', 'The old order changeth and l:uts like the fin " (? \6. IO). Earwkker's ". . "urr~ction in 1. 4 i. identical with
the m()ment of Finnegan'. rUe in I. , and the suh:. equent birth of the new hero; Anna reappear. in 1. 8 in the . ame AIlmaziful pcl"1<lnification :t. 1 in I. . ';; Tristan and heult repeat "ilh more . ucc<:. . the frUJIlrated love-play of 11. 1; the old couple in ~
in III'4 reoorutitute the tableau of page 403.
A l l t h e d i v e l " 1 C c y c l e s f i n d a C < l m m ( l n ~. ulmination i n I l o o k I V ,
who"" single chapter is one of the most inlereoting and ,ucc<:. . _ ful in FjllJltll~1I. ! Wak? . Vito wa. a far<<clng but ratber hard_ headed Christian historian; altb<mgh h~ w"'" $Qmetimcs bizam. there was little of the mY'tic in him and the impuhc which he poIotulated for the"artofa newcyele waSa Divine A<:t requiring little ru. . :UJtSion. }"or the thcoaophists, how. ver, th~ moment of change from one major cycle to tlu: n. ,,{ w"'" filled with a
mY"tical significance which J oyce ""ern, to hav~ mund attrac_ tive. This brief interpolated Age wa. caIlrd. a "'I. ndhi', a twilight period ofjunction and moment ofgreat calm. Rlavatsky s""" it a. the mmt important moment orall in the re. urrection prn<:C! o'--a period of Mlmee and uneatthline$l cOITcsponding
to the stay of the departed $Qnl in the Heaven-Tree Wore reincarnation. She de. criixs a . ymbolic rcpte$entation of the ",ndhi_period in a wall-pAinting depic. ting Ihe ~yclos of the world' :
'There is a certain distance marked between ~ach of the . pherel, pUfJ'O"eiy marked; for, after the accompli. bment of the citdel through varioUJI trarumigratioru, the ! <lnl is allowrd. " time of temporary nirvana, during which ,pac-: of time the atma loses an remembrance of pa'l ! <lIT<>W? . The intermediate . pace il filled with strange beings. '
Book IV accorn. with thil. It i, immedialdy idcntifird. '" a ',3ndhi' by the triple incantation with which it begin. : 'Sand- hya$! Sandhy. . . ! Sandhya. ]' C'. >93. (1) . ' 'Il,e my>! ic. . l 'Dark
, Su 1><10. . . , Ch. apter 111=.
? 'wu. . . ;t. d. v<>I. 1,1" WI. ? s. . S K. ' 7 7 - 8 .
? C. ldit F(Jfm
hawk. ' of the He&vcp-Trr:e (215. 36) return as the 'bird' 0{ 593. Gf. while the . . . cc. . . . ,. "ing pap an: indeed 'folled with. suange beinga':
'homed ? . . Cur . . . beast . . ? Dane the C",at snout . . . byelego . . . chudal . . . cur . . . no~e
Callus . . . ducbcun . . . g""dle . . . '
and 10 On (S9-l-S); animal imagery abound. throughout. (At 22,. Joitlu:: landhi ;. dubbed 'the paWICI'. ) The characten oCBook
IV pr. utle odd languagcs, wear exotic dr. . . , and perform cu""u. rimaliotic acts which l tand out even against tlu:: ~cnl Ml"m'" o{the ral ofFi-gas Wd:4. But, above all, th6 is lhe chapterIhatb~foTgctfum. :. . ;Anna,asshep. . . . . . nullOher enid, mad father, is kwing all r=oembnntc of h. ". pall joy> and IOrrowt. Joyee, 10 Mr. Budgen . . . um 1m, pri:wJ memory
above all other human faculli. . . , and Ih. inevitable <fuaolution of memory into the forml. . . . . n ia much the moot bitt. ". part of Anna'i 'biuer ending' (627. 35), for iffhe could be: brought had 10 meet her lover among the rhododendrons nf Howt"- Castle and Environs with her memoriet< inlaCl, she might avoid the FaUand JO -. ape from the elemal circle in which ohe is COIl? demncd10run. ,. . thinpuand,h~,shemustevenlually n:ven 10 the same old _ 1 of life, like the girl in the roperb liltle ltory 'Eveline', the closing Kcnc: of wh. ich ia dOll:ly
paralleled by the last pageo ofFiMt,,,,,, W. . . t? .
(A! this imporu. nl parallel wilh 'Eveline' does not ~m to
have been noticed bc:fure, I shall digre. . for a morru:nt to dis<:uu il briefly. Eveline is "aruling at the 'North Wall'- that is, on a wharfat the mouth nfthe Liffey- prcparing to leave for Bucnoa Airt:to with ber sailor friend. She ICCI the 'bI;u:lr; mUll' of the
boa! , bt-aring the same diabolical overton. . . . those 'thenble prongs' which tile from the Ie:>. W on: the helpless Aona. In iu penonifiution . . the sailor, the Ita calb w Eveline, but w hokb bo.
? C"clic Form
th. ,. . , throne. '! , beyond u. ing them for III they a", worth 'I There . . one vital point of. rructu", d. . tinguishing the Vkon_ ian cycl. . fmm aIm""t all the cyclic pattenu which ob,,,. . . ,d Blavauky, for whe",. . . Vico'. throri. . a", oo. . ,d on a tripartite
formula, with a . hort interconnecting link betwttn eycles, nearly ew:ry Indian oystem \lSOS a primarily four_part cycle, with or without a ,hon additional fifth Age. ' Sin"" in some ''''peets a four_part cycle . uits j nyce', purpose, better than dncs a thr""_part, he extend. Vico', fourth age, on the analogy of the Indian cycles, and g;v", it a g",at deal more detailed attention than ;t receives in the &inoZil NUMJtl. He ,till adheres to the g<'neral V;conian prugH. , Birth, Marriage, Death, and RccoM\ituUon_but the ricm", which in Vico is litde IIl<lre than a transitional fiux, . , given aJ; much prominen"" aJ; the other Ag<'s and is even elevated to the supreme moment of the cycle. The new emphasi; ",f1CClJi both Joy""', temperamelll and hi,
perception of the world in which he lived. In the twentieth century the 'ahnihili$a. tion of the etym' (353. ~2) had become a fact in both semel, and j oyce'. environment, al",ady highly fragmented, waJ; made to appear even more on by joyce him_ >elf. Not content with the insecurity of the crumbled Europe in which he had chosen to dwell, he ma. oochistically added to his
insecurity by constant restless movement; not content with the naturally accderaring flux of the English language . . . he round it, he helped it to crumble yel f. . . ter. But whenjoycc d"'troyed i t Wa J ; a l w a Y ' i n o r d e r t o r e b u i l d , f o r t h e p r o c = o f r e c o n s t i t u t i o n r. . . cinated him. He w3. I remarkably uuinte",. red in achieve_ men! 3--cither h. , own penonal and artistic achievemenu, Or the ooci"'"political achievements of Europe- but the flux of the moment never failed to hold h. . attention. In art a. in life it was proce'" rather than result that appealed to him most- how a thing. ;ames to be, rather than what it;" Physical and spiritual gestation of all1cind. ! . delighted him. Nora'. pregnancies, which to her we'" simple human . ;anditions, became fur him ml'"tical evenU worthy oftile de<:pest $cudy. ? He ! pCnt a tbow. and hom. . . ,
? h l l e Y s , p . o~r.
? Ii<< below. p. ~,.
? EJ. l""'n", pp. [g6,:J<i6.
5'
? Cyeii, Form
aC<;Ording to his own reckoning, trying to reproduce the physical procea linguistically in the 'Oxen ofthe Sun' epi! odeof UIy,,"s,' and e","n contrived to make the whole of another book, A Porl,ail, ",fleet in some detail the stag. . of development of the human foetus. ' Thi. inlo,. . . t in the p"""'"" of c",ation is yet more pronounced in FiMllp1U W4k" in which everything, . . , h", frequently be<:n . aid, . . in a constant ,tate of becoming. Joyce oru:e s. aid rather I. . tily to ru. . brother Stanislaw that style w9. . 1 the<mly thing in which he wa. inte"",ted,' but '. tyle' ;' here to k unden tood in the wid. . t possible lensc. For the mature Joyce 'uyle' denoted more than a wayofwnLing; it had become a way of life, or at lea,t . . way of intupteting IW" which, for a man a ! tempcramcnta. lly pallive a ! Joyce, amoun! . 1 10 virtually the urne thing. In Ulyssts his surrogate, Stephen, mUJCd on tho world-book of signa"'r. . which he W9. . 1 'he,. . , to ",ad' (U 33); many yean lu~r the . \:ill with wruch he had intu:pretcd thae ,igpaturt";S wu put to the t. . t inFimugQIU Wok, to write which joyce nceded a thorough analytical grasp ofthe syntax, gram_ m~r, and pro. rody of the unive. . . , fer he had taken on nO kss . . Wk than Ihat of demomuating cosmic 'style' in aclien. & joyce w'" primarily concerned with the dynamic functioning of the unive"', the hum. ea of germination in the muck-heap
a! ler the nadir ofthe cycle had been reathed necwarily beca= the most important moment of all. Though the fourth Age is
somenm. . described in Fill1ilgaru Wok '" a disintcgration- 'O'c'nle, n'we'stle, tr'c'stle, crumhlingl' (,8. 00)- il" nO I. . . frequently interpreted . . . . a vital reorganiaalion of scattered forces, a r. . UI"1"tttion which i< """,tive rather than potential: 'hatch_u-balch can' (6'4. 33) . Barwicke. my>terioualy rise. from the dead in 1. . . . . deparu, and i. tried in ah$entia; Anna
Livia habhl. . in lively faohion in 1. 8; Tristan and heult emhrace in II. . . ; the new generation;' ca",fully nurtured in the cradl. . oflll+joyce ha. < cxtended the wurth Age in each ca. e
by allowing it not only to prepare for, but to lOme alent also , /411#1, p. '4"
,FJIm>. w>,pp. ~.
, S. Joy<><, My H. oI""? 1 /(<4><<, I. _on. '9. s11. p. '3?
5'
? CJclic Form
to rc<. apilulate, in dream-like anticipation, the fint Age of the cycle. ' A.
he "'Y', 'The old order changeth and l:uts like the fin " (? \6. IO). Earwkker's ". . "urr~ction in 1. 4 i. identical with
the m()ment of Finnegan'. rUe in I. , and the suh:. equent birth of the new hero; Anna reappear. in 1. 8 in the . ame AIlmaziful pcl"1<lnification :t. 1 in I. . ';; Tristan and heult repeat "ilh more . ucc<:. . the frUJIlrated love-play of 11. 1; the old couple in ~
in III'4 reoorutitute the tableau of page 403.
A l l t h e d i v e l " 1 C c y c l e s f i n d a C < l m m ( l n ~. ulmination i n I l o o k I V ,
who"" single chapter is one of the most inlereoting and ,ucc<:. . _ ful in FjllJltll~1I. ! Wak? . Vito wa. a far<<clng but ratber hard_ headed Christian historian; altb<mgh h~ w"'" $Qmetimcs bizam. there was little of the mY'tic in him and the impuhc which he poIotulated for the"artofa newcyele waSa Divine A<:t requiring little ru. . :UJtSion. }"or the thcoaophists, how. ver, th~ moment of change from one major cycle to tlu: n. ,,{ w"'" filled with a
mY"tical significance which J oyce ""ern, to hav~ mund attrac_ tive. This brief interpolated Age wa. caIlrd. a "'I. ndhi', a twilight period ofjunction and moment ofgreat calm. Rlavatsky s""" it a. the mmt important moment orall in the re. urrection prn<:C! o'--a period of Mlmee and uneatthline$l cOITcsponding
to the stay of the departed $Qnl in the Heaven-Tree Wore reincarnation. She de. criixs a . ymbolic rcpte$entation of the ",ndhi_period in a wall-pAinting depic. ting Ihe ~yclos of the world' :
'There is a certain distance marked between ~ach of the . pherel, pUfJ'O"eiy marked; for, after the accompli. bment of the citdel through varioUJI trarumigratioru, the ! <lnl is allowrd. " time of temporary nirvana, during which ,pac-: of time the atma loses an remembrance of pa'l ! <lIT<>W? . The intermediate . pace il filled with strange beings. '
Book IV accorn. with thil. It i, immedialdy idcntifird. '" a ',3ndhi' by the triple incantation with which it begin. : 'Sand- hya$! Sandhy. . . ! Sandhya. ]' C'. >93. (1) . ' 'Il,e my>! ic. . l 'Dark
, Su 1><10. . . , Ch. apter 111=.
? 'wu. . . ;t. d. v<>I. 1,1" WI. ? s. . S K. ' 7 7 - 8 .
? C. ldit F(Jfm
hawk. ' of the He&vcp-Trr:e (215. 36) return as the 'bird' 0{ 593. Gf. while the . . . cc. . . . ,. "ing pap an: indeed 'folled with. suange beinga':
'homed ? . . Cur . . . beast . . ? Dane the C",at snout . . . byelego . . . chudal . . . cur . . . no~e
Callus . . . ducbcun . . . g""dle . . . '
and 10 On (S9-l-S); animal imagery abound. throughout. (At 22,. Joitlu:: landhi ;. dubbed 'the paWICI'. ) The characten oCBook
IV pr. utle odd languagcs, wear exotic dr. . . , and perform cu""u. rimaliotic acts which l tand out even against tlu:: ~cnl Ml"m'" o{the ral ofFi-gas Wd:4. But, above all, th6 is lhe chapterIhatb~foTgctfum. :. . ;Anna,asshep. . . . . . nullOher enid, mad father, is kwing all r=oembnntc of h. ". pall joy> and IOrrowt. Joyee, 10 Mr. Budgen . . . um 1m, pri:wJ memory
above all other human faculli. . . , and Ih. inevitable <fuaolution of memory into the forml. . . . . n ia much the moot bitt. ". part of Anna'i 'biuer ending' (627. 35), for iffhe could be: brought had 10 meet her lover among the rhododendrons nf Howt"- Castle and Environs with her memoriet< inlaCl, she might avoid the FaUand JO -. ape from the elemal circle in which ohe is COIl? demncd10run. ,. . thinpuand,h~,shemustevenlually n:ven 10 the same old _ 1 of life, like the girl in the roperb liltle ltory 'Eveline', the closing Kcnc: of wh. ich ia dOll:ly
paralleled by the last pageo ofFiMt,,,,,, W. . . t? .
(A! this imporu. nl parallel wilh 'Eveline' does not ~m to
have been noticed bc:fure, I shall digre. . for a morru:nt to dis<:uu il briefly. Eveline is "aruling at the 'North Wall'- that is, on a wharfat the mouth nfthe Liffey- prcparing to leave for Bucnoa Airt:to with ber sailor friend. She ICCI the 'bI;u:lr; mUll' of the
boa! , bt-aring the same diabolical overton. . . . those 'thenble prongs' which tile from the Ie:>. W on: the helpless Aona. In iu penonifiution . . the sailor, the Ita calb w Eveline, but w hokb bo.
