The
decoration
of the d aMical mooel with a IlUl!
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
,.
? TWQ MajorMotifs
Calomdla's cool bowers when tho magpyrc'. babble ! Own. ocorching and screeching from the ravenindove, I f thee. liked the s. ", of hi, head and mees at. . the =ps of h. . trauble. . . he'. dancing liggio. to the . pittle lide and ,hoving OUIS Ihe soord, And he'll be buying buys and gulling gell. with his car""" silk and honey while myandlhys playing laneirer luclfug and what'. duff' "" a bettie for u"",,, mak. . cosyn corallin. . ' moues weeter to wee, So till bU! again budly budly [titJ . hoor. thon riling gcrminallct bodJey chew the fan oChi, anger and badley bide the toil of h;" tubh:
(Add. MS 47. j. 80, f. lOS; J. J. Slocum and H. Cahoon, A Bibliography of ]llJNr ]Oft. 1882-1941, London, 1953, p. IOJ, section C. 70. )
The final parody (615) w. u apparently one of lhe I",t paosag. . of FinlltgallS WaM to he compD3e<i, ,ince il wa, not added to Book TV until aft~r the p("()O/i had btcn set up. 'lbe printed 1t:xl ;" almost exactly the oame OJ Ihe MS insenion. ' (The d ecision to include the q uotation in French in II. ~ aha se<:rru ! O have been made quile lale. )
The otiginal quotation and all the finished parodies are closely aMOCiatcd in the tt-. xt with commentaries on them which reheane the h:ci<; situation, or much of it, in fresh tcrnu, and in ""me c. . . . can alm",,[ be ,aid to ",present further min'" variation. on the mOlif. The paragraph foHowing the quotation
in lb dUeus$(! Quinet's ide,," with vivacity and disrespec:tful wit:
'Margaritomancy! Hyacin\hinou. pervinciveness! T-lowers, A cloud. But Bruto and Cau io are ware only of trifid tongues the whispe",dwilfuln. . . . . ('tis demonal! ) and ,hadow:! ohadows multi_
plicating (il fol$Olclto ne! fal$Olctto col fa. wlono dal fu<z o l = ), totienu quotienlJ, they ! adle thcir quarrel. Sidamo<>r s '" woful . . . . ny. Anci~nt'$ acrger. And ~achway bothwise glory sign. . What ihhc lo~e Sieger IC'S though ,he leave Ruhm moan ~ That', how our oxyggent has galien ahold of half Ihcir world. Moving about in the ~ of Ihe air and mixing with Ihe ruck. EnLen eller, eith. . or. '
, Bri,;,,, M"",wn Add. MS 47488, If. '9y-h. '9'
? T W Q Major Motifs
OM can K1l1<: in the OUlbursl ofnclamalion poinlO lh<: relief with which joy"", for all his praise of Quind, turned again to the frcedom of hi> own manner. That the I<:n! en"" in iUl original and parodied fonru is an important touchstone for the whole ofFiltlU! a11. 1 Wake is . uggested by the marginal gl_ t<. > this commentary: ''-QRTF. $ VIRGINIANAE'- for too. . , with eye. to . cc, all our fate. are to be fOund written in the Book of the Virgiru. , woo. . , my1tic invincibility (deriving perhapo from invincible ignoranc<:) Jccms to be implicit in joy",,', tramIation of th~ir name? . These names Once again allude to the masculine, . . . ,ldierly aspect of the /lowers, for Hyacinthu. 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.
? TWQ MajorMotifs
Calomdla's cool bowers when tho magpyrc'. babble ! Own. ocorching and screeching from the ravenindove, I f thee. liked the s. ", of hi, head and mees at. . the =ps of h. . trauble. . . he'. dancing liggio. to the . pittle lide and ,hoving OUIS Ihe soord, And he'll be buying buys and gulling gell. with his car""" silk and honey while myandlhys playing laneirer luclfug and what'. duff' "" a bettie for u"",,, mak. . cosyn corallin. . ' moues weeter to wee, So till bU! again budly budly [titJ . hoor. thon riling gcrminallct bodJey chew the fan oChi, anger and badley bide the toil of h;" tubh:
(Add. MS 47. j. 80, f. lOS; J. J. Slocum and H. Cahoon, A Bibliography of ]llJNr ]Oft. 1882-1941, London, 1953, p. IOJ, section C. 70. )
The final parody (615) w. u apparently one of lhe I",t paosag. . of FinlltgallS WaM to he compD3e<i, ,ince il wa, not added to Book TV until aft~r the p("()O/i had btcn set up. 'lbe printed 1t:xl ;" almost exactly the oame OJ Ihe MS insenion. ' (The d ecision to include the q uotation in French in II. ~ aha se<:rru ! O have been made quile lale. )
The otiginal quotation and all the finished parodies are closely aMOCiatcd in the tt-. xt with commentaries on them which reheane the h:ci<; situation, or much of it, in fresh tcrnu, and in ""me c. . . . can alm",,[ be ,aid to ",present further min'" variation. on the mOlif. The paragraph foHowing the quotation
in lb dUeus$(! Quinet's ide,," with vivacity and disrespec:tful wit:
'Margaritomancy! Hyacin\hinou. pervinciveness! T-lowers, A cloud. But Bruto and Cau io are ware only of trifid tongues the whispe",dwilfuln. . . . . ('tis demonal! ) and ,hadow:! ohadows multi_
plicating (il fol$Olclto ne! fal$Olctto col fa. wlono dal fu<z o l = ), totienu quotienlJ, they ! adle thcir quarrel. Sidamo<>r s '" woful . . . . ny. Anci~nt'$ acrger. And ~achway bothwise glory sign. . What ihhc lo~e Sieger IC'S though ,he leave Ruhm moan ~ That', how our oxyggent has galien ahold of half Ihcir world. Moving about in the ~ of Ihe air and mixing with Ihe ruck. EnLen eller, eith. . or. '
, Bri,;,,, M"",wn Add. MS 47488, If. '9y-h. '9'
? T W Q Major Motifs
OM can K1l1<: in the OUlbursl ofnclamalion poinlO lh<: relief with which joy"", for all his praise of Quind, turned again to the frcedom of hi> own manner. That the I<:n! en"" in iUl original and parodied fonru is an important touchstone for the whole ofFiltlU! a11. 1 Wake is . uggested by the marginal gl_ t<. > this commentary: ''-QRTF. $ VIRGINIANAE'- for too. . , with eye. to . cc, all our fate. are to be fOund written in the Book of the Virgiru. , woo. . , my1tic invincibility (deriving perhapo from invincible ignoranc<:) Jccms to be implicit in joy",,', tramIation of th~ir name? . These names Once again allude to the masculine, . . . ,ldierly aspect of the /lowers, for Hyacinthu. 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.
