Embedded Files
Telemachus Nestor Proteus Calypso Lotus Eaters Hades Aeolus Lestrygonians
Scylla and Charybdis Wandering Rocks Sirens Cyclops Nausicaa Oxen of the Sun
Sirens
11 Ormond: track the movements of Bloom and the other characters around the Ormond Hotel in Joyce's Ormond Hotel
11.64 miss Douce’s head by miss Kennedy’s head: find both ladies at the Bailey Tavern in the Dublin censuses, in the article Miss Douce and Miss Kennedy at a different bar
11.185-6 Nannetti's father: on Giuseppe rather than Giacomo Nannetti see the article J.P. Nannetti and the Lord Mayor's antecedents
11.222: He fingered shreds of hair, her maidenhair: "maidenhair" probably carries a sexual meaning here ("pubic hair"), which can be documented back to at least 1908:
So then she it go: she touched me more gently still, she forced her spittle into me, licked me slowly, with lingering almost imperceptible tongue, or nibbled and sucked at my maidenhair and my skin with such refined and delicate sensual gentleness that only to think of her loving ways as she did that, makes me spend now. Oh what delights intoxicated me then.
"Baron Alcide de M***" (perhaps Alfred de Musset), Gamiani, or, Two Passionate Nights (London, 1908) p. 101
11.323 A duodene of birdnotes: a duodene or set of twelve notes encountered in the article Duodenal harmony
11.333 Did she fall or was she pushed?: Lenehan's quip explained in Miss Kennedy's reading matter
11.460-2 crossblind: read up on this decorative feature in The crossblind crux
11.496-7 left off clothes: for advertisement evidence for the wordplay involved see the article Left-off clothes
11.615 Bright's bright eye: the medical condition traced back into the nineteenth century in the article Bright's bright eye
11.665-9 Braintipped: for the meaning of this irregular expression see His brain tipped over
11.699-700 Jenny Lind soup: for the history of the soup favoured by the Swedish Nightingale see Jenny Lind soup for the professional soprano
11.1050 Shah of Persia liked that best: the story that the Shah of Persia admired western orchestras tuning up described in the article The Shah's nose and ears
11.1090-1 brass in your face: for early allusions to the expression see Brass by gold in your pocket
11.1225 that Wonderworker: advertisements for the Bakelite contraption for rectal troubles in the article That Wonder Worker
Cyclops
12.144-7 Ditto MacAnaspey: see the article Ditto MacAnaspey and the same for me, please to examine whether the McAnaspey family of memorial-makers could be responsible for this expression
12.181 Thomas Conneff: for the life of the real-life Irish athletic champion from Kildare read Wondrous little Thomas Conneff from the short-grass county of Kildare
12.218-9 the Old Woman of Prince's street: the history of the expression explained in An old woman in Prince's street
12.234-7 my brown son: see early uses and history in Brown sons
12.355 volupcy: evidence for the existence of the word before Joyce in the article Volupcy and mystic bliss
12.362 We greet you, friends of earth, who are still in the body: by the late nineteenth century both “friend of earth” and “(still) in the body” were conventional spiritualist and theosophist expressions describing those who had not yet passed over to the spiritual side through death. (HB) Examples:
The first thing out of the ordinary which I came across, is a weakness in the stilted phraseology of Rector… Then Prudens takes a turn at the same thing (p. 312): "Good morrow, friends of earth. We greet thee again". Then Rector turns up again with similar grammar (p. 324): "Good morrow, friends of earth. We hail thee once more."
Henry Holt On the Cosmic Relations (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1914) vol. 2, bk. 2, pt. 4, ch. 37, p. 598, citing Professor James Hyslop’s contribution to the Second Piper-Hodgson Report (1892-5) commissioned by the American Society for Psychical Research
The more frequently it is appealed to by the affection of friends still in the body to avail itself of the opportunities furnished by mediumship for manifesting its existence on the physical plane, the more vehement will be the impulses which draw it back to physical life.
A. P. Sinnett Esoteric Buddhism (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1889) Appendix p. 316 [Appendix first published in 1887 ed.]
12.451 codology: for the history of the word codology in the nineteenth century see the article The kidology of codology
12.510 by the holy farmer: Gifford cites Eric Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1937) for this “low Dublin” corruption of “by the Holy Father” [i.e. the Pope]. Irish use is well documented in the nineteenth century, with an early example in Charles Marsh’s Clubs of London (1828) vol. 2, p. 239:
Micky. – "O, by the holy farmer! Now, I know nothing at all about any service but Mr. Giles’s; and he is the man who will give me a crakter [= character] any day I ax him."
The speaker here is "[Mr.] Giles's hostler, well known in Dublin by the name of Blinker Micky, because blind of one eye". (HB)
12.517 going home footless in a cab: Wright's English Dialect Dictionary (vol. 2, p. 446) defines “footless” as “unsteady on the feet; apt to stumble; also used figuratively”, but other sources from the time show that it could also mean specifically “incapable through drink” (HB):
"Big drunk, three days – all right now." [...] "Just because you were too footless to answer a cable, I’ve come sixteen thousand miles out of my way."
Gouverneur Morris Tom Beauling (1901), ch. 16 p. 168
12.756-7 Could a swim duck?: an old rejoinder is investigated in the article Ducks swim?
12.784-5 Shake hands, brother. You're a rogue and I'm another: for the background to a macabre rhyme alluded to in Ulysses see the article You're a rogue and I'm another
12.829-30 Hairy Iopas, says the citizen, that exploded volcano: for an illustration of MP William Field's volcanic explosion of hair, see the article William Field, the bard with the tumbling hair at Queen Dido's banquet
12.836-7 here's my head and my heels are coming: an expression for stooping forwards unpicked in contemporary sources - see the article Head first and everything else next
12.838 Teach your grandmother how to milk ducks: the history of the expression is explained in Milking ducks grandmother's way
12.1045-7 get his hat on with a shoehorn: is this the behaviour of a lunatic? - see Shoehorning your head into your hat
12.976-8 the milk in the cocoanut: for more information on how the milk got into the coconut in the first place see the article The Milk in the coconut - a hairy puzzle
12.1129 the tribe of Ossian: references to James McPherson's poems and Hugh Blair's Critical Dissertation on Ossian uncovered in Ossian's poems - notesheets
12.1170 Norman W. Tupper: the National Police Gazette provides the story and the illustration - see the article Norman W. Tupper and the policeman's lap
12.1209 Conspuez les anglais! Perfide Albion! for the history of two French phrases in English see the article Perfide Albion - Perfidious Albion
12.1227 talking about bunions: Lenehan's debt to the fictional Lord Dundreary disclosed in Lenehan's bunions
12.1234 only for the other dog: nineteenth-century documentation for the expression in the article Only for the other dog
12.1269 Mrs Poll Ash: early allusions to Poll Ash traced, in the article As ugly as Poll Ash
12.1367 the Times rubbed its hands: two newspaper quotations relating to Irish emigration combine in the article Vengeance and the shores of Manhattan
12.1369 Grand Turk sent us his piasters: for the details of mid-century Middle Eastern generosity see the article Famine relief from the Sultan of Turkey
12.1398 come where the boose is cheaper: the song-writer and lyricist identified in the article Cheaper booze
12.1448 maledictive stones: a quotation from Samuel Ferguson investigated in the article Two poetic snippets: row me o'er the ferry and maledictive stones
12.1559 Show us the entrance out: trace the expression back in To the going-out entrance
12.1589 Crofton: the fiction and reality of a minor character, in the article James Crofton: a tradition of public service
12.1635 He's a perverted jew: the reading "turned away" not "corrupted" proposed in the article Perverted from the truth
12.1649 Expecting every moment will be his next: Robert Dent realised that Lenehan’s expression had a history, but evidence was thin. Dent offers Punch in 1902 (HB). More recent research finds the comical twist in Punch’s Australian counterpart the Melbourne Punch thirty-five years earlier in 1867:
He was drunk. Mr. B-–d-n is laid up with a severe attack of "surprise", brought on by the audacity of the Council. He is not expected to recover. The doctor says he expects every moment will be his next. (22 August p. 58)
The same expression occurs earlier in an entry for 12 August 1862 in Josie Underwood’s Civil War Diary (2009), though we should perhaps be cautious of claiming it as a first use in case this section was written up slightly later:
Morgan hasn't come this time and we quiet down to wait in anxious expectation for the next excitement as George Todd used to say "expecting every moment to be our next". (ch. 5, p. 195)
The thought survived into 1904, as the Otago Witness of 22 June shows:
Lying there, tossing and turning, I expected every moment to be my next. (p.73)
12.1901 The jarvey saved his life by furious driving as sure as God made Moses: (HB) correcting the page proofs for the episode Joyce introduced the change from “as sure as God made me” to “as sure as God made Moses”, to emphasise a specific anti-Semitic element in the episode’s narrator that begins with his comments on Moses Herzog ("Jesus, I had to laugh at the little jewy getting his shirt out": U 12.30-1) and continues with the following passage:
There was an ancient Hebrew Zaretsky or something weeping in the witnessbox with his hat on him, swearing by the holy Moses he was stuck for two quid. (U 12.1091-3)
“As sure as God made Moses” turns up frequently (but not exclusively) in contemporary Irish sources:
If any rascal come into our Court, the Police must have him, as sure as God made Moses. (Head Constable stoutly nods assent.)
Thomas Sheahan, "Articles" of Irish manufacture; or, Portions of Cork history (1833), p. 13
'Na bock-lish, for that,' answered the woman; 'if you never opened your mouth I would deal kindly with such a strapping boy as this; for as sure as God made Moses, the same chap will smell powder before he is twelve months older.'
"Gleanings in the Green Isle" in Dolman's Magazine (1847), p. 20
"Furious driving" was a legal commonplace at the time, and cases of furious driving were often reported in the newspapers. The New Sporting Magazine for March 1834 gives us a description:
The question now is — what is generally meant by "furious driving"? [...] What I term furious driving is, racing against another coach; going fast in improper places, such as in streets, around corners, down hills, or in short over any ground but that on which the experience of a coachman instructs him he may do so with safety. (p. 315)
Nausicaa
13.87 that tired feeling: Hood's Sarsaparilla advertisements demonstrated as the source - see the article A tonic for that tired feeling
13.111 eyebrowleine: examples of the eye-catching advert documented in Bewitching eyes beneath a well-drawn eyebrow line
13.119 Thursday for wealth: the rhyme behind Gerty's folk wisdom, in the article A good day for trimming your nails
13.125-6 joyous little laugh (and other references): for references taken from Beatrice Harraden's Guiding Thread see Beatrice Harraden guiding the thread and Clarence E. Mulford shanghaied: Nausicaa notesheets 4 and 8
13.253 to pay a visit to the miss white: (not in Gifford) to pay a visit to the chamberpot:
OED Online: "Miss White n. Irish English colloq. (now rare) a chamberpot (also personified)."
Gerry O'Flaherty provided the vital clue in Austin Clarke's Twice Round the Black Church (p. 25: "I saw Miss White peeping at me from under the bed".) (HB)
13.613: Puddeny pie: as the commentators say, this phrase echoes the nursery rhyme “George Porgie, pudding and pie”. With reference to Joyce’s use of “puddeny pie” [probably = "puddingy pie”] we should be aware that this was a well-attested nursery form, and may even represent an attempt to make sense of the unusual “pudding and pie”. It occurs in R. D. Blackmore’s Maid of Sker (originally published in Blackwood’s Magazine, October 1871, p. 528/1):
"And my dear papa say "'Hot a good gal!' and mama come and tiss 'a all over a'most, and then 'e all have some more puddeny-pie."
and by 1884 the expression is used in a parody of the nursery rhyme by Grace Stebbing in What a Man Soweth (1884, ch. 26 p. 176):
"And does he ever sing anything but 'Come into the garden, Maud?'"
"Yes, occasionally, Sometimes 'Willie, we have missed you,' and 'Frankie, Rankie, Puddeny-pie'. [Willie and Frankie are characters in the novel]
A popular song of 1910 (Once One Girl at a Time, written and composed by Herbert Rule and James McGhee, and sung by George D'Albert) opens with the line “Georgie, Georgie Puddeny Pie”. (JS)
13.617-8 catch it while it was flying: for early references to the expression, especially from American newspaper ads, see Caught it while it was flying
13.690 a light broke in upon her (and other references): for references taken from one of Clarence E. Mulford's Hopalong Cassidy stories see Beatrice Harraden guiding the thread and Clarence E. Mulford shanghaied: Nausicaa notesheets 4 and 8
13.725 pettiwidth: petticoat widths of material cited from advertisements in the article Pettiwidths: thrills and spills with Gerty McDowell
13.792 Catch em alive, O: the fly-trap vendor's street cry investigated in the article Caught alive - oh!
13.1007-8 far away on the pillow: the poem that provided the expression shown in the article A pillow on the billow
13.1062 Corns on his kismet: the fateful riddle exploded in Corny kismet
Oxen of the Sun
14 passim Holles Street Hospital: for new information on the layout of the Hospital see A floor plan for the Holles Street Hospital
14.39 loose boyconnel flux: buide connaill: informal Irish for the 'yellow plague'. (HB)
Patrick Weston Joyce, A smaller social history of ancient Ireland: treating of the government, military system, and law: religion, learning, and art; trades, industries, and commerce; manners, customs, and domestic life, of the ancient Irish people, vol. 1 (1920) (the 1908 edition is shorter and does not include the legend of St. Mochua.): Within historic times, the most remarkable and destructive of all the ancient plagues was the Blefed, or Buide-Connaill [boy-connell] or yellow plague, which swept through Ireland twice, in the sixth and seventh centuries, and which we know from outer sources desolated all Europe about the same time. The Irish records abound in notices of its ravages. There is a curious legend in the Life of St. Mochua, that when the Sil-Murray were suffering from this pestilence, the saint cured them, and transferred the yellow colour of their skin to his crosier, which was thence called the Bachal-bhuidhe, the 'yellow crosier'. (p. 610)
14.71-106 Some man that wayfaring was [...] sorrowing one with other: references traced to a life of St Cuthbert in Saintsbury's History of English Prose Rhythm - see the article Cuthbert the Wanderer. Commentary includes identification of numerous allusions in Joyce's notesheets
14.143 Shrieks of silence: for more on the history of Lenehan's expression see Shrieks of silence!
14.167-86 This meanwhile this good sister [...] Woman's woe with wonder pondering: references to Malory uncovered in the article Malory and Sir Leopold, King. Commentary includes identification of numerous allusions in Joyce's notesheets
14.232-4 Malachi's praise of that beast the unicorn: an allusion to Gogarty's verse in The unicorn's song
14.501-2 to crush a cup of wine: a quotation from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. (HB 03/12)
Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, I. ii. 80: "My master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine."
14.729-30 or was due as with the noted physician, Mr Austin Meldon, to a wolf in the stomach: Constantine Curran provides the background to this allusion: (HB 11/12)
Dr Meldon was famously obese [...] we all knew Dublin's joke about Dr Meldon getting out from a fly - a greater miracle than Jonah's emergence from the belly of the whale.
Under the Receding Wave, p. 18
14.888 old Glory Allelujurum: follow the history of the expression in religious praise songs in the article Praise Be! Here comes Old "Glory Hallelujurum" Purefoy
14.972-3: That distressing manner of delivery called by the Brandenburghers Sturzgeburt: Joyce obviously refers to an 18th century publication by the Brandenburg court midwife Justina Siegmund, who published a book on midwifery called Die Chur-brandenburgische Hoff-Wehe-Mutter, das ist höchst nöthiger Unterricht von schweren und unrecht stehenden Geburten, in einem Gespräche vorgestellet in 1688 (an 1874 reprint is accessible on Google Books). However, the word "Sturzgeburt" (“precipitate delivery”) is not in the book, simply because it did not come into use before the early 19th century. Siegmund has a chapter on "Stürzung", which warns of the application of two hair-raising methods of bringing about a delivery by turning the mother upside down or pushing her from a table. Several English 19th-century medical publications mention Justina/e Siegmund, but never in connection with the word Sturzgeburt. For details see Udo Benzenhöfer, "What the Brandenburghers called Sturzgeburt" in James Joyce Broadsheet, 22 February 1987, p. 3.
14.1055-8 Jacob's pipe: for more on the continental tradition of the Jacob pipe see the article The longstemmed Jacob pipe
14.1122-3 leave his mother an orphan: an old Irish quip documented in the article Don't leave your mother an orphan!
14.1221 the inspired pencil of Lafayette: James Stack Lauder (1853-1923), Dublin photographer, assumed the professional name “James Lafayette” when he founded his photography studio in 1880. In 1887 he was invited to Windsor to photograph Queen Victoria and was granted a Royal Warrant as “Her Majesty's Photographer in Dublin”. The “inspired pencil” (already a cliché with reference to artists such as Raphael) is not a poetic reference to photography (e.g. “the pencil of nature”) but to the pencil of a photographic retoucher. Molly has been touched up in Bloom's photograph. (Ronan Crowley, 03/13)
14.1344-78 the wellremembered grove of lilacs at Roundtown: references from Marius the Epicurean explored in the article Pater: Leopold the Epicurean
14.1391 Burke's! outflings my lord Stephen: for a summary of information on John Burke read Burke's!
14.1440 armstrong halloring (etc.): references from the work of Edward FitzGerald in the article Edward FitzGerald at sea: Oxen notesheet 17
14.1440-591 All off for a buster [...] Just you try it on: untangle the speaking roles in this section with the help of Oxen of the Sun - allocating text in the closing paragraphs
14.1453 Ma mère m’a mariée: the old French bawdy song uncovered in My mother has married me...
14.1466 bet to the ropes: "Bet" is here a dialect form of "beaten". The phrase is "Beat s.o. to the ropes". (Vincent Deane 08/12)
Pierce Egan, Boxiana; or Sketches of Antient and Modern Pugilism (1823), vol. 1, p. 329: "Sam beat his opponent to the ropes with considerable ease."
Jack London, "A Piece of Steak" from The Chinago and other stories (1911), p. 283: "No longer could he do a fast twenty rounds, hammer and tongs, fight, fight, fight, from gong to gong, with fierce rally on top of fierce rally, beaten to the ropes and in turn beating his opponent to the ropes …"
14.1479-80: Your starving eyes and allbeplastered neck you stole my heart, O gluepot: Joyce's inspiration from 1829 uncovered in the article Glue-pot steals heart
14.1482 Lapland: for the mother's lap as a baby's comfort see Lapland closer home
14.1486 Cribbed out of Meredith: George Moore as an intermediary in identifying George Meredith as the author of Stephen's quotation in From Meredith to Mulligan via Moore
14.1498 smutty Moll for a mattress jig: The collocation "smutty moll" existed independently of "Moll Peatley's Jig", which was originally a dance tune of the 17th century, before it became a synonymous expression for "a rogering bout" (Grose, 1796). "mattress jig" itself was slang for copulation. (HB 02/12)
George Atkins Brine, The king of the beggars: the life and adventures of George Atkins Brine (1883), p. 44: And where've you left your smutty moll?
"MATTRESS-JIG subs. phr. (venery). - copulation."
Farmer/Henley, Slang and its analogues past and present (1896)
14.1509-72 Sign on long o' me: quotations traced to Joseph Lincoln's Cap'n Eri in the article Lincoln, but not Abraham
14.1513 blurry: bloody (Not in Gifford) (HB 03/12): see PLURRY adj. on OED Online, where the variant form is illustrated (JS). Also:
Chambers Haldane C. Macfall, The wooings of Jezebel Pettyfer (1898), p. 174: He sighed: "No one got a blurry lantern." He dug his hands further into his pockets. "Then how the blue thunder can I find my blurry ship?"
14.1515-17 Tell a cram: for evidence for the expression since the mid-nineteenth-century see the article Telling crams
14.1531-2 Landlord, landlord, have you good wine, staboo?: Gogarty's bawdy poem "Staboo, Stabella", sung by a soldier, and beginning with these lines: "Landlord, landlord, have you good wine?/Staboo, staboo!" was not accessible before its publication by Jeffares. See also 14.314 (HB 03/12)
For the full text of Gogarty's poem see: The Poems & Plays of Oliver St. John Gogarty, ed. Norman A. Jeffares (London 2001), p. 828-30.
14.1532-3 cut and come again: Hotten's Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words of 1859 defines this as “plenty, if one cut does not suffice, plenty remains to "come again". This seems to be a plausible answer to the question "Landlord, landlord have you good wine [...]?"
14.1536 Bonsoir la compagnie: follow the history of the French song in the article Bonsoir la compagnie
14.1543 prandy palls: Just as "God's blood" becomes "Cot's plood" in line 1542, this is brandy balls; perhaps in imitation of a German accent. (HB 02/12)
E. Carter, The frugal cook (1851), p. 61: BRANDY BALLS. Boil your sugar as for rock [...] when sufficiently done use brandy instead of the essence of lemon, and form your balls to the proper size.
The Academy (1900), vol. 59 p. 118: [...] 'brandy balls,' great shiny golden marbles that you must pop into your mouth whole.
Mayne Reid, The headless horseman (1866), ch. xix. p. 111: 'Prandy und pitters — prandy und pitters,' repeated the German Boniface, as he hastened to place the decanter before his ill-mannered guest.
14.1546 Dusty Rhodes: see the familiar cartoon character tracked down in the article Dusty Rhodes the Popular Tramp
14.1542 Tarnally dog gone my shins if this beent the bestest puttiest longbreak: see article the bestest puttiest longbreak
Circe
See Ronan's Crowley's Some Further Additions from Wrankmore's translation of Moritz Busch's Guide for more Circe notesheet discoveries.
For further information about the performances of the English Players and Henry Carr in Zurich, see Exit Carr.
15.40 tatts: Gifford is correct in interpreting “tats” as “tangles” (see OED tat | tatt n.6: “a tangle, matted tuft or lock of wool or hair”, citing Joyce and other sources from 1887). Joyce originally wrote “natts” (a regional variant of “knots”) (MS Buffalo V.A.19, correctly transcribed in Phillip F. Herring Joyce’s Notes and Early Drafts for Ulysses (1977), p. 211). (HB)
15.94 stag: The OED regards this as STAG n.1, sense 6 (1684-1922, citing both Joyce and Lawrence), rather than sense 7. (JS)
OED STAG n.1, sense 6: 'a big, romping girl; a bold woman'.
OED STAG n.1, sense 7: 'an informer'.
15.210 that tired feeling: Hood's Sarsaparilla advertisements as the source for the saying - see the article A tonic for that tired feeling
15.338-41 THE SOAP We're a capital couple are Bloom and I. / He brightens the earth. I polish the sky: this couplet comes from an advertisement for Brooke's soap (Monkey Brand) that shows a monkey playing guitar on the moon [HB: published in James Joyce Broadsheet No. 85, February 2010 (title page)]
We're a capital couple the Moon and I.
I polish the Earth, she brightens the sky:
And we both declare, as half the world knows,
Though a capital couple, we "WONT WASH CLOTHES"
15.442-5 Irving Bishop game: for Bishop's thought-reading entertainment in Dublin see the article Fred's Brilliant Career with Sport and the Invincibles
15.639 Once is a dose: a medical instruction since the seventeenth century traced in the article A dose of quackery
15.732-4 watching and besetting: the background to the legal phrase is explained in Unlawfully watching and/or besetting
15.760 light of love: Gifford and Slote are wrong in linking this phrase with the Elizabethan dance and an inconstant woman. The context shows that it is a Masonic term, as illustrated by these examples (HB 08/13):
... but what is that which binds together all families, all faiths, all parties, and all nations? Only Freemasonry. And why? Because all of its sons have been "brought to light" and learned the true principles of brotherhood. The light of love and of obligation, at the flat of the Worshipful Master, has flashed upon their minds and moulded them to order.
Freemason's Monthly (1877), vol. 8 p. 53
Masonry at all times carried the torch of liberty and of thought; carried always the light of love and universal tolerance to all Mankind.
Freemason (1892), vol. 29 p. 67
15.767 Bective rugger fullback: Rugby in Dublin and the Griffin family - see the article Fullback for the Bective Rangers
15.795 absentminded war: from the title of a book published in 1900 - see Absent-minded warriors
15.887 twict: Mary Driscoll accuses Bloom: "And he interfered twict with my clothing". Twict is a dialect variant of twice that betrays that, like most servant girls, she comes from a rural area. It is frequently used as "onct or twict".
... as the grandees passed up the bank, wild cheerful laughter onct or twict broke on their ear.
Anna Maria Hall, Sketches of Irish Character (1831), 2nd Ser. p. 134
She does not exaggerate her phonetic reproduction of the peculiar pronunciation of the peasantry; but is "twict" the best way to indicate that they add a t to twice?
Irish Monthly (1908), vol. 36 p. 292
Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary enters the spelling twict under TWICET, and (in 1905) notes instances of Joyce’s spelling from northern Ireland and America. (Harald Beck 11/13)
15.1104 Give him ginger: Gifford explains the practice somewhat gingerly and does not offer written evidence:
Feague, to feague a horse, to put ginger up a horse's fundament, to make him lively and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse dealer’s servant who shall show a horse without first feagueing him, used figuratively for encouraging or spiriting one up.
Francis Grose Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785), at Feague
Joyce owned a copy of Grose (1785): see Thomas J. Connolly Personal Library of James Joyce (1955: University of Buffalo), p. 18. (HB 08/13)
15.1241-2 Jacobs. Vobiscuits: Gifford calls this "Bloom-Latin for Dominus vobiscum (the Lord be with you)". It seems more convincing to assume that this pun on Jacob's biscuits was inspired by “Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac, et Deus Jacob vobiscum sit” (Liber Tobiae, VII, 15), which Bloom - who distorts Father Coffey's words - might have heard at a wedding. (HB)
15.1285 Mrs Mack’s: read about the story of Mrs Mack, businesswoman and brothel-owner, in the article The Madams of Nighttown; or, a Dublin lupanarology
15.1287 Mrs Cohen’s: follow Mrs Cohen's career in the trade in prostitution in the article The Madams of Nighttown; or, a Dublin lupanarology
15.1395 grassing their royal mountain stags: this sense of "grass" represents OED's GRASS v. 4d ("to bring down (birds, game) by a shot", and not sense 2 ("to feed (cattle) on grass", "to supply (cattle) with grass").
15.1396 shooting peasants and phartridges: the humorous substituion of "peasant" for "pheasant" may be found earlier in Hogg's Weekly Instructor of 7 June 1845:
Lord had capital sport on the moors yesterday, having in the course of two hours bagged five brace of peasants.
15.1695 Free fox in a free henroost: for the German original see Free fox, free hen-roost
15.1630 solution of doubles: for a puzzle solved by a puzzle see the article Solving the doubles
15.1757 bronzed with infamy: a phrase from Blacow's sermon in Ulysses discussed in the article The irreverent Richard Blacow in Ulysses
15.1769 guiltless as the unsunned snow: another phrase from Blacow - see The irreverent Richard Blacow in Ulysses
15.1889-91 You hig, you hog, you dirty dog!: follow the surprising journey of this rhyme in Orphans in the Underworld
15.2047-8 In the grate is spread a screen of peacock feathers: the peacock screen was not unusual in the earlier twentieth century as an elegant ornament gracing a hearth (Eamonn Finn 9/13: photo credit). Octave Thanet describes one in Stories that end well (1911, p. 65):
There was a rug with a very bright and fierce-looking tiger on it before the fireplace (Mr. Marsh would have a fireplace), and Mr. Marsh's grandmother's andirons glittered behind the big peacock fan in summer time.
15.2192 Rush your order: for an expression from the world of mail order see the article Advertising patter
15.2192 slick ace: cheating playing cards explained in the article Slippery gamblers
15.2193 eternity junction: a sad story of suicide reported in the newspapers - see the article Next stop Paradise!
15.2193-4 a god or a doggone clod: follow the historical and literary contrast between gods and clods at Gods and clods
15.2205 harmonial philosophy: Joyce's brush with "Harmonial philosophy" described in the article The Great Harmonia and the music of the spheres
15.2207 sunphone: discover Thomas Shelton and his vibrations in the article Silly Sunphonies: does Jesus want me for a sunbeam?
15.2207 Bumboosers, save your stamps: an injunction that time-wasters need not apply, in the article Philately is for bumboosers
15.2304 basilicogrammate: the story of the word in Greek, French, and English in the article basilicogrammate: the Egyptian royal secretary
15.2426-7 Chase me, Charley!: find the lyrics of the song at Chase me Charlie, chase me Charlie, chase me Charlie do
15.2480-2 Jacob's pipe: for more on the continental tradition of the Jacob pipe see the article The longstemmed Jacob pipe
15.2702 Thank your mother for the rabbits: find evidence for a forgotten colloquial expression in the article The rabbits that caused all the trouble
15.2708 Fingers was made before forks: Weldon Thornton (Allusions in Ulysses: 1973, p. 401) correctly alludes to Swift’s use of this traditional proverb in his Polite Conversation (1738): “Fingers were made before Forks, and Hands before Knives”. Joyce (or at least Zoe) prefers “was” for the more grammatically correct “were” (JS). This less formal variant was well established before Joyce’s time. It occurs, for example, in an article by “J. Cypress, Jr.” (William Post Hawes) in the American Monthly Magazine of 1835 (vol. 5, p. 465):
Forcibly was I reminded of that ancient and sententious maxim, "fingers was made before forks"; and of that other pleasant household phrase, "make a long arm and help yourself".
15.2817-18 cobweb hose: the thinnest material called cobweb reported in Fashionable cobwebs
15.2897-8 Stock Exchange cigar: for information on and advertisements promoting the Stock Exchange cigar see the article A good cigar is a smoke
15.3256 Neverrip brand: advertisements for the Neverrip brand revealed in Reliable rubber goods - perish the thought
15.3257 He cures fits!: for documentation on Henry Root's advertising slogan see the article He cures fits!
15.3259 Mrs Gus Rublin: the story of the Irish girl Sarah Mulrooney and her American boxer husband Gus Ruhlin disclosed in the article Mrs Gus Ruhlin: boxing and women's suffrage
15.3274-5 that English invention: for more on the wonder-working cure for haemorrhoids see the article That English invention: The Wonder Worker in nighttown
15.3514-18 Give a thing and take it back: see Give and take is not fair play for a history of Joyce's verse
15.3655 thy father's gimlet: on the historical wordplay of Hamlet and gimlet see Gimlet sounded like poetry with Hamlet
15.4024 Anybody here for there?: railway humour explained in "Is there anybody here for there?", as the railway porter asked the passengers
15.4170 the afflicted mother: documentary evidence from Gogarty's mother to Thomas Kettle, in The afflicted mother - two letters
15.4435 human philirenists: the history of "Philirene" traced, in Philirenists: peace-loving monarchs
15.4525-30 May the God above: sources for the Citizen's bitter invective uncovered in the article A heaven-sent dove with razor-sharp teeth
15.4585-6 the king of Spain's daughter: follow the allusion, beyond the nursery rhyme, in The King of Spain's daughter
15.4612-6 Major Tweedy: for the biography of Major Powell, on whom Tweedy was based, see ‘One of Britain’s fighting men’: Major Malachi Powell and Ulysses
15.4631-4 The brave and the fair: for the development of the expression after Dryden see the article And do the brave deserve the fair?
15.4717-18 Kick the Pope: Orange anthems investigated in the article Kicking the Pope before us
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