Tuesday 27 June 2017

Monday, 26 June 2017, Pages 390-391

Note: There will be no reading of Finnegans Wake on Monday, the 3rd of July. 

We stopped at "... on stamped bronnanoleum, ..." (391.20)

We started today's reading with Marcus, and went on to read about the reminiscences of Lucas. Marcus starts with a nice sentence: "The good go and the wicked is left over." He also mentions in this connection (?) the holymaid of Kunut and the haryman of Koombe

Deciphering these turned out to be quite interesting, mainly thanks to the website www.finwake.org and the Wikipedia. The holymaid of Kunut was the 16th Century nun, Elizabeth Barton, who was also known among other things as The Holy Maid of Kent. She was popular for her prophecies, and had met Henry VIII (our haryman of Koombe). According to the above link, 'However, when the King began the process of obtaining an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and seizing control of the Church in England from Rome, she turned against him. Barton strongly opposed the English Reformation and, in around 1532, began prophesying that if Henry remarried, he would die within a few months. She said that she had even seen the place in Hell to which he would go (Henry actually lived for a further 15 years).' She was executed finally because of this prophecy. 

Lucas, whose turn is next is concerned at first about a woman, Dowager Justice, who in or around about 1132 or 1169 or 1768, dressed as a man (in wig and beard) when she appeared at the (Auctioneer's) court.  He refers to the year(s) as the year of buy in disgrace. My search in the internet led me to the following explanation of 1132, the year of buy in disgrace: Saint Malachy (1094 - 1148) was an Irish saint, who was made the Archbishop of Armagh in 1132. 'Owing to intrigues, he was unable to take possession of his see for two years; even then he had to purchase the Bachal Isu (Staff of Jesus) from Niall, the usurping lay-primate.'

Note that we meet again in two weeks, on 10th July. 

Tuesday 20 June 2017

Monday, 19 June 2017, Pages 389-390

The reading stopped with "That old fellow knows milk though he's not used to it latterly." (390.28)

Ah, dearo, dear, are these pages dense! There was mention of the Trinity college (catholic) and four others (protestant). The number 1132 appeared again, this time along with 1169.  Anthony Burgess has a good explanation of the significance of the number 1132 here. (Even Fritz Senn says that nobody else has come up till now with a better explanation!). The number 1169 could refer to the year of the Norman invasion of Ireland.

The four old men - divorced, widowed (??) -, are still around, still narrating their recollection of Tristam and Isolde. 

Wednesday 14 June 2017

Monday, 12 June 2017, Pages 387-389

We stopped at "... round their twelve tables, ...." (389.3)

After Johnny's monologue that we read partly last week, it is the turn of Marcus. (These two belong to that group of four old men. Monologues by the other two will follow later.) Each one is supposedly talking about what he observed about Tristan and Isolde, when they escape/elope.  That these monologues have to do with the story of King Mark, Tristan and Isolde is not always easy to identify but when one does identify the characters, it is fun. One such fun place starts with the sentence, "Eseunc throw a darras Kram of Llawnroc, ye gink guy, kirked into yord" (388.1). It is interesting to decode this sentence and the two that follow. Tip: Read the words - not all of them, of course - backwards!

The above part is also fun because of two other reasons. First of all, we meet here again Martin Cunningham from Ulysses, in his new incarnation as Merkin Cornynghwham. Ulysses does not mention that Martin Cunningham is no more but here in Finnegans Wake we read that his widow is busy (widdy is giddy) by writing her memoirs (wreathing her murmoirs) for the Grocery Trader's Monthly, rather Manthly (387.33).

The second thing that is amusing is Joyce's mention of Mind mand gunfree (387.35). This refers to the book, My Man Godfrey by Eric Hatch, published in 1935, and made into a movie in 1936. (Finnegans Wake was published in 1939.) After decoding Mind mand gunfree, I could not help seeing parts of the movie in the sentences that followed!