My mother has married me ...
U 14.1452-4: Keep a watch on the clock. Chuckingout time. Mullee! What’s on you? Ma mère m’a mariée. British Beatitudes! Retamplan digidi boumboum.
Ma Mère m’a Mariée is a traditional French chanson grivoise (bawdy or ribald song), recorded in a number of versions from at least the early eighteenth century. Sometimes it is the mother who marries off her daughter, sometimes the father. The bridegroom varies too – a young man, an old man, a lawyer, etc. – and for each the rigmarole story takes its own path.1
It is likely that the version to which Joyce alludes is a café-concert version with lyrics by Raphael May and music by Henri Neuzillet. This was recorded by the singer ‘Charlus’ (Louis-Napoléon Defer) in 1898-9 on the Pathé label, and was published (and the music sheet sold) by A. Rouart, of 18 Boulevard Strasbourg in the 18th arrondissement, Paris.
The 18th is the area of Paris where Montmartre is located. It is famous for its cafés-concerts and cabarets, including Le Ciel - and L’Enfer, which Stephen most certainly visited and which he mentions in Circe (U 15.3889). When in Paris, Stephen also visited the expatriate Kevin Egan, who lived in the Rue de la Goutte d’Or, also in the 18th arrondissement (U 3.245). Joyce added the reference to his Oxen notesheets while he was still in Trieste in 1920 (Herring 186, l. 45). Stephen is the most likely protagonist in Oxen to sing the song, which chimes in with the episode’s themes of sexuality and reproduction.
The following is my translation:
My mother has married me
Hun hun hun la ri ra, bon, bon
[Annotation: in a nasal tone, mouth closed]
My mother has married me
To the son of a lawyer
A oua, oua, oua
To the son of a lawyer
The first night of our wedding
Hun hun hun la ri ra, bon, bon
The first night of our wedding
With him I bedded
A oua, oua, oua
With him I bedded
He pulls the cover
Hun hun hun la ri ra, bon, bon
He pulls the cover
Me I pulled the sheet
A oua, oua, oua
Me I pulled the sheet
I called the maid
Hun hun hun la ri ra, bon, bon
I called the maid
“Marguerite are you here?”
A oua, oua, oua
“Marguerite are you here?”
Go tell my mother
Hun hun hun la ri ra, bon, bon
Go tell my mother
That I am about to die
A oua, oua, oua
That I am about to die
My mother who’s quite sharp
Hun hun hun la ri ra, bon, bon
My mother who’s quite sharp
Was coming up with small steps
A oua, oua, oua
Was coming up with small steps
Don’t worry my daughter
Hun hun hun la ri ra, bon, bon
Don’t worry my daughter
You won’t die of it
A oua, oua, oua
You won’t die of it
For if I’d died of it
Hun hun hun la ri ra, bon, bon
For if I’d died of it
You wouldn’t be here
A oua, oua, oua
You wouldn’t be here
You also have a li’l brother
Hun hun hun la ri ra, bon, bon
You also have a li’l brother
That you father doesn’t know
A oua, oua, oua
That your father didn’t make.
Footnotes
1 See, for example, E. Rolland (ed.), Receuil de chansons populaire (1883), vol. 1, pp. 63-87 and especially p. 84, which cites an early version of the song from Christophe Ballard’s Les Rondes, Chansons à Danser (1724), vol. 1 (see pages 52, 62, and 72). The tune Ma Mère m’a Mariée is referred to in Antoine de Pils and Pierre Barré’s Etrennes de Mercure; ou le bonnet magique, opera-comique (1782), p. 46. [Click on the three links above for the texts.]
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