sowing dragon's teeth (notebook 1924) → Haldane: Daedalus or Science and the Future 79: (men of science) 'are interested primarily in truth as such, but they can hardly be quite uninterested in what will happen when they throw down their dragon's teeth into the world' (i.e. referring to the story of Cadmus sowing dragon's teeth).
secede - to withdraw formally from an alliance, an association, a federal union, a political or religious organization + (notebook 1924): 'death has receded' → Haldane: Daedalus or Science and the Future 54: 'Bad as our urban conditions often are, there is not a slum in the country which has a third of the infantile death-rate of the royal family in the middle ages... Death has receded so far into the background of our normal thoughts that when we came into somewhat close contact with it during the war most of us failed to take it seriously'.
Land league - an association of Irish tenant farmers and others, organized in 1879 by Charles Stewart Parnell under the name of 'The Irish National Land League' (and suppressed by the Government in 1881), having for its object primarily the reduction of rent, and ultimately the carrying out of radical changes in the Irish land-laws, e.g. by the substitution of peasant proprietors for landlords.
liver - resident, one who lives or is alive; one who lives a life of pleasure + (notebook 1930): 'open & notorious naughty livers' → Chart: The Story of Dublin 281: (of Saint Michan's Church, Dublin) 'Close by is a penitential stool... Before the whole congregation the "open and notorious naughty livers" of the past stood on this bad eminence to make their confessions of guilt and promises of repentance'.
roll - a written document; a register, list, or catalogue (of names, deeds, etc.); Sc. Law. A list of cases coming before a judge or court.
champain - Her. A broken or deflected line, sometimes on only one side of an ordinary + champaign - an expanse of level, open country, a plain.
delite - the earlier form of delight
Ptolemy - 2d-century Alexandrian mathematician, astronomer, geographer. In Geographike syntaxis, he gives an inaccurate description of Ireland, calls Dublin "Eblana," and Howth an island.
Eblana (gr) - Dublin + (notebook 1930): 'The seat of the city is of all sides pleasant, comfortable & wholesome. If you would traverse hills, they are not far off. If champaign land, it lieth of all parts. If you be delited with fresh water, the famous river called the Liffey runneth fast by. If you will take the view of the sea, it is at hand' → Chart: The Story of Dublin iv: (epigraph, quoting from Richard Stanihurst's description of Dublin in Holinshed's Chronicles) '"The seat of this citie is of all sides pleasant, comfortable and wholesome. If you would traverse hills, they are not far off. If champaign ground, it lieth of all parts. If you be delited with fresh water, the famous river called the Liffie, named of Ptolome Lybnium, runneth fast by. If you will take the view of the sea, it is at hand.".
labia = labium - a lip or lip-like part + (notebook 1930): 'Libnius Labius'.
at hand - within easy reach, near, close by
Drom Cuill-Choille - Ir, "brow of a hazelwood" or "hazelwood ridge"; anglic. Dromcolliher. According to Harris's History of Dublin (1766), "Drom-Chohl-Coil" was Dublin's original Irish name + (notebook 1930): 'Drumcollogher Hazel'.
visitez! (fr) - visit!
la Belle (fr) - the Beauty + (notebook 1930): 'Do drumcolloher whatever you do. Visitez la belle drumcolloher' + Percy French: 'I suppose you've not been to Drumcollogher? Ye haven't? Well now I declare, You must wait till you've been to Drumcollogher And seen the fine place we have there. There's only one street in Drumcollogher, There's only one sun in Drumcollogher, There's only one house in Drumcollogher, But then it's a glory to see; Ye may talk till you're dumb, but give me ould Drum For Drum is the place for me'.
Besuchen Sie zuerst (ger) - first visit + Besuche und sieh zuerst (ger) - visit and first see.
vide (l) - imp. sing. of videre, to see + Vedi Napoli e poi muori (it) - See Naples and then die.
MOONEY'S - Mooney and Co has operated a chain of pubs in central Dublin since the 19th century + (notebook 1930): 'Be suke and sie so ersed drumcolloher vedi drumcolloher e poi Mooneys.' (the 'i' of 'sie' overwrites an 'e'; the first 'e' of 'ersed' overwrites an 'i'; 'Mooneys' is preceded by a cancelled 'n').
Things are not as they were (notebook 1930) → Rowntree: Poverty: A Study of Town Life 220: (quoting from Rowntree and Sherwell's The Temperance Problem and Social Reform) 'In the commercial world things are not as they were. Other nations have been moving up to our own standards of efficiency'.
survey - to take a broad, general, or comprehensive view of + (notebook 1930): 'Let me briefly describe' → Rowntree: Poverty: A Study of Town Life 198: 'Let me briefly describe the three areas'.
clam (l) - secretly, hidden + (notebook 1930): 'proclamation' → Washington Irving: A History of New York, book IV, ch. II: 'The document... was a proclamation, ordering the Yankees to depart instantly from the territories of their High Mightinesses, under pain of suffering all the forfeitures and punishments in such case made and provided'.
shun - the action of shunning; to avoid and stay away from deliberately
pipit - prob. imitative of the bird's 'short and feeble note' + (notebook 1930): 'pitchpipe' → Washington Irving: A History of New York, book IV, ch. II: 'Caius Gracchus, it is said, when he harangued the Roman populace, modulated his tone by an oratorical flute or pitch pipe. Wilhelmus Kieft, not having such an instrument at hand, availed himself of that musical organ or trump which nature has implanted in the midst of a man's face; in other words, he preluded his address by a sonorous blast of the nose'.
ubi (l) - where
jay - the name of a common European bird, Garrulus glandarius, in structure and noisy chattering resembling the magpie, but in habits arboreal, and having a plumage of striking appearance, in which vivid tints of blue are heightened by bars of jet-black and patches of white.
ibi (l) - there
pop goes the weasel - name of a country dance very popular in the eighteen-fifties, in which these words were sung or exclaimed by the dancers while one of them darted under the arms of the others to his partner; also the name of the tune.
Tyburn - the place of public execution for Middlesex until 1783, situated at the junction of the present Oxford Street, Bayswater Road, and Edgware Road; Hence in allusive use.
throttle - to undergo suffocation; to choke
massed - gathered into a mass
marmor (l) - marble
William Shakespeare: The Tempest V.1.88: (ARIEL) 'Where the bee sucks, there suck I'.
ye - you
yea - yes + you
When the master brewer goes round to his victuallers once a year, in order to examine the stock left on the hands of the alehouse-keeper, the expression used in the profession is, 'that he takes up his restes' + MacMahon (Crimea), asked to leave Malakoff fortification, replied 'J'y suis, j'y reste' ('Here I am, here I stay').
the sleeping giant (notebook 1930) → The Encyclopædia Britannica vol. XXIII, 'Rio de Janeiro', 353d: 'Considerably beyond the limits of the city on its S.W. side... The sky-line... forms the rough outline of a huge reclining figure called "the sleeping giant"'
esto (l) - thou shalt be!; he shall be
estote (l) - you (pl.) shall be!
sunto (l) - they shall be! + esto, esto, estote, sunto (l) - full paradigm of Future Imperative of sum, "I am" (O Hehir, Brendan; Dillon, John M. / A classical lexicon for Finnegans wake).
capt - capped + caput (l) - head.
altitude (notebook 1930) → The Encyclopædia Britannica vol. XX, 'Paris', 804c: 'The altitude of Paris varies between 80 ft.... and 420 ft.' + in altitudine (l) - on high.
mortification - deadening or destruction of vital or active qualities; the feeling of humiliation caused by a disappointment, a rebuff or slight, or an untoward accident + fortification + (notebook 1930): 'to the mortification of his feat' ('his' and 'feat' replaced cancelled 'this' and 'fat', respectively) → The Encyclopædia Britannica vol. VIII, 'Dublin', 622b: 'In 1176 Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, and chief leader of the Anglo-Norman forces, died in Dublin of a mortification in one of his feet'.
ald - old
ist (ger) - is
Matthew 20:16: 'last shall be first' (and elsewhere)
hans - obs. form of Hanse (a company or guild of merchants in former times; the merchant guild of a town) + (notebook 1930): 'Last of the bailiffs shall be the first of the sheriffs' → Thom's Directory of Ireland/Dublin, Dublin Annals section 1548: 'The title of bailiffs of Dublin changed to that of sheriffs. John Ryan and Thomas Finiary, the last bailiffs, being made the first sheriffs'.
high - height, altitude; fig. highest pitch, acme + Aladdin (pantomime): 'New lamps for old!'
BUCHAREST (BUKHAREST) - City, capital of Romania, founded by Radu Negru + negru (Rumanian) - black + The Encyclopædia Britannica vol. IV, 'Bucharest', 718c: 'Like most ancient cities of Rumania, its foundation has also been ascribed to the first Walachian prince, the half-mythical Radu Negru (c. 1290-1314)'.
lintel - a horizontal piece of timber, stone, etc. placed over a door, window, or other opening to discharge the superincumbent weight + Unter den Linden (Berlin main street).
horney (Slang) - policeman
with + mit (ger) - with.
Mansie Wauch (notebook 1930) → The Encyclopædia Britannica vol. VIII, 'Edinburgh', 940c: 'David Macbeth Moir (1798-1851), who under the pen-name of "Delta" wrote Mansie Wauch, a masterpiece of Scots humour and pathos' + Magd (ger) - girl.
peer - a member of one of the degrees of nobility in the United Kingdom; a duke, marquis, earl, viscount, or baron + Gynt, Peer - Norwegian folk hero, subject of play by Ibsen.
gent = gentleman; now only vulgar, exc. as applied derisively to men of the vulgar and pretentious class who are supposed to use the word, and as used in tradesmen's notices.
Gallagher - Lord Mayor of Dublin + Henrik Ibsen: Caesar and Galilean.
letters + fresh lettuce + French letter - a contraceptive and disease-preventing sheath = condom + Henrik Ibsen: The Lady from the Sea.
heady - headlong, impetuous, violent; passionate; headstrong + gabbler - one that gabbles + Gabler, Hedda - title, heroine of Ibsen's play.
gain - Of persons: Ready, well-disposed, kindly + ganger - one who goes or travels on foot + Henrik Ibsen: Gengangere (Ghosts).
dudder - to shudder, shiver (obs.)
wagoner - jocular. The driver of a vehicle + Naar vi døde vaagner (1899; When We Dead Awaken) - play by Ibsen.
Henrik Ibsen: Pillars of Society
Rosmer, Johannes - protagonist of Ibsen's Rosmersholm + Rothermere - Lord Rothermere was a newspaper magnate, Lady Rothermere backed Criterion.
ton + ''Obedientia civium urbis felicitas'': The municipal motto of Dublin (Citizens' Obedience is City's Happiness).
bourse - an exchange, or place of meeting for merchants; the money-market (of a foreign town)
in safe (OF. en sauf) - in a safe place, in safety
Sheppard, Jack (1702-24) - English robber, rival of Jonathan Wild (both hanged at Tyburn) + Jock - a by-form of the name John.
sort - to associate or consort with another or others
Jonathan - a generic name for the people of the United States, and also for a representative United States citizen + Henry Fielding: The Life of Jonathan Wild the Great (short satirical novel based on the life of the notorious 18th century English thief-taker and thief).
bin so frei (ger) - permit me, I take the liberty + The hero of Henry James's The Lesson of the Master [539.08] exclaims "She has been so free!" after learning that 'The Master' has stolen the girl he loves while he has been following the Master's advice by giving all his attention to his writing.
bester - one who gets the better of others by fraudulent means + Danke bestens! (ger) - Many thanks!
Hottentot - transf. A person of inferior intellect or culture; one degraded in the scale of civilization, or ignorant of the usages of civilized society. (This derogatory sense, which was based on a failure to understand an alien culture, appears now to be very rare.) + Attentat (ger) - assassination attempt.
minder - a child who is 'minded' or taken care of at a 'minding school' + minder (ger) - lessen.
blue blazes (Slang) - liquor + (notebook 1930): 'Blue-Blaze-Devil-Bob Hair-trigger-Nick' → Hardiman: The History of the Town and County of the Town of Galway 314n: (quoting from Edgeworth on Professional Education) 'The county of Galway was formerly famous for such fighting gentlemen as Blue-Blaze-Devil-Bob, Nineteen-Duel-Dick, Hair-Trigger-Pat, and Feather-Spring-Ned; but these honorable agnomens... are sinking fast into oblivion'.
mode - a prevailing fashion or conventional custom, practice or style; esp. one characteristic of a particular place or period
hairtrigger - a trigger that has been adjusted so that the slightest pressure will actuate its firing mechanism + Martin, Richard or "Hair-Trigger Nick" - 18th-century Dublin dueler.
thuggery - the system of robbery and murder practised by the Thugs (one of an association of professional robbers and murderers in India, who strangled their victims)
reere - noise, shouting; a shout + rare
glovar - obs. form of glover (one who makes or sells gloves) + lovers + glovar (Russian) - leader + (notebook 1930): 'Glover's Matins' → Thom's Directory of Ireland/Dublin, Dublin Annals section 1876: 'Jan. 7. -... a grand musical performance took place of Professor Glover's Cantata, "Erin's Matin Song"'.
lack - to be wanting or missing; to be deficient in quantity or degree
better half - a wife (or husband)
Esculapian - Of or belonging to Æsculapius (the god of medicine), or to the healing art; medicinal.
Mahlzeit! (ger) - good appetite! + Mittagsmahlzeit (ger) - midday meal + The Mall, London.
my lady discover herself
lud ein (ger) - invited + King Ludd - founder of London.
Hyde Park + hide and seek.
minuit (fr) - midnight + mignonette (fr) - a fine type of lace + midinette (fr) - young dressmaker or milliner.
Wald (ger) - forest + Genesis 1:31: 'Et erant valde bona': 'and, behold, it was very good'.
bonum (l) - wealth + valde bonum (l) - exceedingly good.
BUENOS AIRES - City, capital of Argentina + (notebook 1930): 'bluenosed aeres'.
luft = lift (obs.) + Luft (ger) - air.
firebug - an incendiary, arsonist + Firbolgs - early legendary Irish colonisers + 'Bögg' set on fire at Sechseläuten, Zurich festival.
lubber - esp. A sailor's term for: A clumsy seaman, an unseamanlike fellow.
keep one's powder dry - With allusion to the advice said to have been given by Oliver Cromwell to his troops: to adopt a practical or realistic policy; to act prudentially or cautiously, be on the alert.
seaman - one whose occupation or business is on the sea; a sailor as opposed to a landsman
segn- (ger) - bless
skiv - a sovereign + skivvy (Slang) - maidservant.