FDV: What clashes of wills & wits were not here & there abouts! What chance cuddleys, what castles aired & ventilated, what biddymetolives sinduced by what egosetabsolvers tegotetabsolvers, what true feeling for hay hair with false voice of haycup jiccup, what rorycrucians rosycrucians byelected by rival contested of simily emilies! But And O here how has sprawled upon the dust the father of fornications fornicationers fornicationists but O, my shining stars & body, how has finespanned in high heaven the skysign of soft advertisement. Was Wasis? Isot! Ere we were sure? The oaks of old maythey rest rust in peat. Elms leap where ashes lay. Till nevernever may our pharce be phoenished!
gen (gegen) (ger) - against + will against won't.
Ostrogoth - an East Goth; a name given to the division of the Teutonic race of the Goths which towards the end of the 5th c. conquered Italy, and in 493, under Theodoric, established a kingdom which continued till 555.
gag - to strangle, choke + In Egyptian mythology, the Ogdoad were eight deities worshipped in Khmun (Greek: Hermopolis) during what is called the Old Kingdom, the third through sixth dynasties, dated between 2686 to 2134 BC. The eight deities were arranged in four female-male pairs, the females were associated with snakes and the males were associated with frogs: Naunet and Nu, Amaunet and Amun, Kauket and Kuk, Hauhet and Huh. Apart from their gender, there was little to distinguish the female goddess from the male god in a pair; indeed, the names of the females are merely the female forms of the male name and vice versa. Essentially, each pair represents the female and male aspect of one of four concepts, namely the primordial waters (Naunet and Nu), air or invisibility (Amunet and Amun), darkness (Kauket and Kuk), and eternity or infinite space (Hauhet and Huh). Together the four concepts represent the primal, fundamental state of the beginning, they are what always was. In the myth, however, their interaction ultimately proved to be unbalanced, resulting in the arising of a new entity. When the entity opened, it revealed Ra, the fiery sun, inside. After a long interval of rest, Ra, together with the other deities, created all other things.
Visigoth - a West-Goth; A member of that branch of the Gothic race which entered Roman territory towards the end of the fourth century and subsequently established a kingdom in Spain, overthrown by the Moors in 711 + At the battle of Catalaunian Fields, A.D. 451, Attila and the Ostrogoths were beaten by Aetius and the Visigoths.
The God Dionysus, patron of the Drama, is dissatisfied with the condition of the Art of Tragedy at Athens, and resolves to descend to Hades in order to bring back again to earth one of the old tragedians--Euripides, he thinks. Dressing himself up, lion's skin and club complete, as Heracles, who has performed the same perilous journey before, and accompanied by his slave Xanthias (a sort of classical Sancho Panza) with the baggage, he starts on the fearful expedition. Coming to the shores of Acheron, he is ferried over in Charon's boat--Xanthias has to walk round--the First Chorus of Marsh Frogs (from which the play takes its title) greeting him with prolonged croakings. Their chant —Brekekekéx-koáx-koáx (Greek: Βρεκεκεκέξ κοάξ κοάξ)— is constantly repeated, and Dionysus chants with them until he gets bored. A second chorus composed of spirits of Dionysian Mystics soon appear. (synopsis of Aristophanes' The Frogs)
ulalu - a wailing cry, a lamentation (from Irish: uileliúgh)
Badelaire - a type of sword with one back and one edge large and curving towards the tip like the scimitar of the Turks (Sainéan: La Langue de Rabelais) + Baudelaire - French poet.
partisan - supporter, adherent + Partisane or pertuisane, a strong pike with a straight iron head and two edges (Sainéan: La Langue de Rabelais).
math - mathematics + mathê (gr) - learning, education + master - to get the better of, in any contest or struggle; to overcome or defeat + Master McGrath (1866-1871) - a famous greyhound in the sport of hare coursing.
Joyce's Rabelais list contains malchus (a curved sword similar to a cutlass), migraine (a fire grenade, from Provençal migrano: pomegranate (fruit)), verdun (a long and narrow sword, properly sword of Verdun, a town ever renowned for its manufacturing of steel blades) + The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel by Franqois Rabelais is an esoteric work, a novel in cant. The good cure of Meudon reveals himself in it as a great initiate, as well as a first-class cabalist (Fulcanelli).
micragne (Italian Colloquial) - penuries, poverties + Malachi, Mulligan.
catapelt = catapult - to hurl as from a catapult, to discharge a catapult [Sainéan: La Langue de Rabelais I.91: 'catapulte' (French 'catapult')].
Sainéan: La Langue de Rabelais I.90: 'Camisade... "An attack on the enemy before dawn, or at another time during the night, by armed men dressed in white shirts or similar covering to recognise themselves"' + Sainéan: La Langue de Rabelais I.91: 'Baliste' (French 'Ballista') + cannibalism.
white boy - a favored person, pet; agrarian association formed in 1761. in Ireland (against collection of tithes by landlords) + white boys in hoods (Ku Klux Klan).
hoddie - a hooded gull + Hode (ger) - testicle + Howth Head + REFERENCE
assieger (fr) - to besiege + Sainéan: La Langue de Rabelais I.71: 'Aze gaye, zagaie... nom de lance' (French 'Aze gaye, zagaie... a name of a spear'); referring to the assegai, an African spear.
boomerang + boom (Dutch) = strom (Czech) - tree + Strom (ger) - stream, current.
sod - Ireland; one who practices or commits sodomy
brood - offspring
fear, fir (Irish) - man, men
Saint Lawrence [003.04] + sang (French) - blood.
salve (l) - hail + ave (l) - hail.
appeal - to call one to defend himself (as by wager of battle); to challenge
larm - alarm + Larm (ger) - noise + larme (French) - tear.
appalling - frightful, horrifying
kill (Anglo-Irish) - church + kill.
toll - payment, tax, duty + toll (ger) - mad + at all, at all (Anglo-Irish phrase) - "taken together," "collectively," "altogether" + (bells pealing).
chance - that occurs or is by chance; happening to be such; casual, incidental + chance-medley (Legalese) - manslaughter by misadventure.
cuddle - fondle + cudgel - a short thick stick used as a weapon; a club.
cashel - the ancient circular wall found in Scotland and Ireland enclosing group of ecclesiastical buildings; stone fort or building + kashyel (Russian) - cough.
air - to expose to the open or fresh air, so as to remove foul or damp air; to ventilate + castles in the air (phrase).
ventilate - to shoot (someone or something) with a gun, usu. to kill. Also of a bullet: to make a hole in (something) + (evacuated).
bidimetoloves - from Herrick's poem "Bid me to live, and I will live / Thy Protestant to be; / Or bid me love, and I will give / A loving heart to thee." (quoted Ulysses, 645) The FW sentence is about Protestants sinfully seduced by Catholics, who believe in absolution + bi- (l) = di- (gr) - two- (*IJ*).
FDV (First draft version): egosetabsolvers + ego te absolvo (Latin): "I absolve you" (from the confessional rite of the Catholic Church) hence, Tegogetabsolvers = Catholics (contrasted with bidimetoloves, or Protestants) + three t's (*VYC*).
hair + there's hair! - there's a girl with a lot of hair! (catch-phrase of the early 20th century) + "so sure as thair's a tail on a commet," [177.25-26] → there's hair = commet tail (destruction of Atlantis) + FDV: what true feeling for hay hair with false voice & of haycup jiccup, what rorycrucians rosycrucians byelected by rival contested of simily emilies!
strong + hay, straw.
hiccup + Jacob + Genesis 27:22: 'And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau' (Esau's hairy arms and Jacob's voice).
sprowl = sprawl - recline, lounge + hear, hear how hath Howth prowled.
met (Dutch) - with
dusk + dust.
fornication - sin, adultery + Vignette (blurred by the the): Nut, the goddess of the night sky, and her brother Geb, the god of the earth, were originally thought to be in a constant state of love making. Ra grew angry with his grandchildren, and commanded their father Shu to separate the two lovers. The god of the air took his place, and trampled on the ithyphallic Geb, and lifted Nut high into the air. Nut was found to be pregnant, and was then cursed by Ra - she would never be able to bear her children on any month of the 360 day year. Thoth managed to win a game against Khonsu, god of the moon, and used some of the light of the moon to create five extra days (making the year 365 days). During those days Nut gave birth to her five children - Isis, Osiris, Nephthys, Set and Horus the Elder (not to be confused with Horus, the child of Isis and Osiris).
hath - arhaic present 3d. sing of have
finespun - elaborated to flimsiness, excessively subtle or refined + fane - a flag, banner + span - spread + Isaiah 48:13: 'my right hand hath spanned the heavens'.
skysign - electric display sign on top of a building + Joyce's note: 'Is loves sky signs of buildings in TMH street' (Lucia Joyce in London?).
Was ("power, dominion") - symbol of power or dominion, and associated with the gods (such as Set or Anubis) as well as with the pharaoh. They appear as long, straight staffs, with a stylized animal head on top and a forked end + was ist? (ger) - what's the matter? + First words sung by Tristan in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde: 'Was ist? Isolde?' (German 'What's wrong? Isolde?').
where are + FDV: Ere we were sure?
sewer - a waste pipe that carries away sewage or surface water; someone who sews + sever (Serbian) - North.
ald - old
peat - partially carbonized vegetable matter saturated with water, used as a fuel when dried + lie in peace.
ashes - remains of what is burned + Ask and Embla (Ashe and Elm) - Adam and Eve of Norse myth. Ask is (Norwegian) "ashes", Embla is (Norwegian) "elm".
fall + phallus + In Theban Coptic, Re, the Sun God, is referred to as PH.
farce - a dramatic work (usually short) which has for its sole object to excite laughter, something as ridiculous as a theatrical farce; meat stuffing (obs.) + phare (French) - lighthouse (in Alexandria, Egypt).
nunce = nonce + for the nonce - for the particular purpose; for the time being + In Ancient Egyptian Heliopolitan theology, "Nun" is the dark & inert stuff dominating what exists before creation. This founding concept of Egyptian thought, is conceived as an endlessly vast expanse of water, an unlimited ocean. Porter in FW.
set down - described in books, recognized + Set (swtH, stH, stsh) - "he of the South", brother and murderer of Osiris.
secular - worldly, temporal, profane
Phoenix - a mythical bird, of gorgeous plumage, fabled to be the only one of its kind, and to live five or six hundred years in the Arabian desert, after which it burnt itself to ashes on a funeral pile of aromatic twigs ignited by the sun and fanned by its own wings, but only to emerge from its ashes with renewed youth, to live through another cycle of years + finish
Bygmester Solness [1892; The Master Builder (Solness)] - drama by Henrik Ibsen, in which Halvard Solness rises from "death" by climbing (at the bidding of a girl) a tower he has erected. He falls from the tower, blasted by the god he has rivaled and defied. The girl hears harps in the air.
stuttering - that stutters + (masturbation).
freeman - one not a slave or vassal + Freimaurer (ger) - freemason (used secret sign language).
Maurer (ger) - mason, freemason + FDV: Bygmister Finnegan of the Stuttering Hand, builder, lived on in the broadest way imaginable imaginoble imarginable in his [rushlit] toofarback for messuages and during mighty odd years this man of Hod Cement & ____ made piled buildung upon super buildung on pon the banks of for the livers by the Soandso Soangso.
broadway - a wide open road or highway, as opposed to a narrow lane or byway. From the former practice of treating it as a compound, it has often come to be the proper name of a street, as the Broadway in New York + Finnegan's Wake (song): "Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street''.
imaginable - capable of being imagined; conceivable + FDV: lived on in the broadest way imaginable imaginoble imarginable
rushlight - a candle made of the pith of various rushes dipped in grease + rushlight (Slang) - liquor.
farback (Dublin Slang) - house with two back rooms
messuage - a dwelling-house with its outbuildings and curtilage and the adjacent land assigned to its use + messages
Joshua - old testament patriarch + Joshua, Judges, Numbers, Leviticus, Deutoronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Pentateuch + James Joyce.
Helvetic - Helvetian (pertaining to the ancient Helvetii), Swiss + helveticus (l) - Swiss + Among Egyptian pesedjets, the most important was the Great Pesedjet, also called the Ennead of Heliopolis, after its centre of worship. Heliopolis (Egyptian: Aunu, "place of pillars") was dedicated to the worship of the god Atum and thrived from the Old Kingdom until its decline unter the Ptolemaic rulers + Leviticus - third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah (or Pentateuch).
Deuteronomy (literally "things" or "words") - fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fifth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch
yeasty - cons. of yeast; turbulent, ebullient, full of vitality + yesterday
sternly - with sternness of temper, aspect, utterance, etc.; severely, harshly + Sterne (ger) - stars + Swift/Sterne [.23]
tete (fr) - head + Swift: A Tale of a Tub.
Watsche (ger) - slap in the face + watch + wash the features of his face.
stook - to arrange in shocks + took
Moses - Jewish lawgiver, prophet, leader from bondage. He supposedly wrote Pentateuch (first five books of Old Testament).
evaporate - to convert or turn into vapour + Moses split the waters of the Red Sea.
Jews + Genesis - the first in order of the books of the Old Testament, containing the account of the creation of the world + Guinness.
exodus - a mass departure
Pentateuchos - Five Volumes (first 5 books of bible) + Punch and Judy - traditional English puppet show + Sainéan: La Langue de Rabelais II.300: 'Proper names (to refer to the male member): Jean Chouart... Jean Jeudi'.
"a gentleman Irish mighty odd" (song Finnegan's Wake)
hod - an open receptacle for carrying mortar, and sometimes bricks or stones, to supply builders at work; also the quantity carried in it, a hodful + Deutoronomy 33:1: 'man of God' (Moses).
edifice - building
toper - one who topes or drinks a great deal; a hard drinker
thorp - vilage, hamlet + tower's top [.18]
pile - to heap up
building + Bildung (ger) - education.
supra (l) - above, beyond + FDV: and during mighty odd years this man of Hod Cement & ____ made piled buildung upon super buildung
pon - upon + FDV: on pon the banks of for the livers by the Soandso Soangso.
liver - one that lives, resident, a well to do person + rivers.
so and so - an unnamed person, an indefinite phrase (= such a thing, person, number,' etc.) used in place of a more lengthy statement, or as a substitute for an expression or name not exactly remembered or not requiring to be explicitly stated + Hwang-ho river, China (a.k.a. the Yellow river).
addle - to muddle, confound, spoil; to become rotten, as an egg (addling is causing fertilised eggs to lose viability, by killing the developing embryo within through shaking, piercing, freezing or oiling, without breaking the shell) + and
liddle = little + Alice P. Liddell - friend of Lewis Carroll and model for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland + FDV: He addle iddle wife wyfie and he annie Annie hugged the liddle crathur wither Wither tear tare in hares hayre in honds tuck up your pardner part-in-her.
wifie - little wife: used as a term of endearment for a wife
anny (Anglo-Irish) = eanaigh (Irish) - fenny, marshy
ugged - horrid, loathsome + hugged little creature (i.e. penis).
craythur - creature + Finnegan's Wake (song): "Now Tim [Finnegan] had a sort o' the tipplin' way, / With the love of the liquor he was born, / An' to help him on with his work each day, / He'd a drop of the craythur every morn.
wither - to lose freshness, vigor, or vitality + with her hair in hands.
hond - hand (obs.) + hond (Dutch) - dog + Isolde of the Fair Hair and Isolde of the White Hands.
tuck up - the action or an act of tucking someone up in bed + In the Heliopolitan creation myth, the solar god Atum masturbates to produce Tefnut and Shu. "Atem is he who masturbated in Iunu (On, Heliopolis). He took his phallus in his grasp that he might create orgasm by means of it, and so were born the twins Shu and Tefnut" (Pyramid Text 1248-49). In some versions of this myth, Atum also swallows his semen, and spits it out to form the twins, or else the spitting of his saliva forms the act of procreation. Both of these versions contain a play on words, the tef sound which forms the first syllable of the name Tefnut also constitutes a word meaning 'to spit' or 'to expectorate'. The Coffin Texts contain references to Shu being sneezed out by Atum from his nose, and Tefnut being spat out like saliva. The Bremner-Rind Papyrus and the Memphite Theology describe Atum masturbating into his mouth, before spitting out his semen to form the twins.
part - Theatr. a rôle + (penis) + FDV: wither Wither tear tare in hares hayre in honds tuck up your pardner part-in-her.
in her + inhere (obs) - to stick in + Finnegan's Wake (song): "Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake / Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake".
ofttime - frequently, often + FDV: Though oftwhile balbulous [He would see by the light of the liquor his roundup tower to rise on itself [(joy grant it joygrantit!)], with a skierscape of an eyeful hoyth entirely and larrons of toolers o' toolers clittering up on it & tumblers a' buckets clottering down.]
bibulous - addicted to drinking or tippling + bulbous - having the shape of or resembling a bulb, bloated + balbulus (l) - somewhat stuttering + Balbus - a Roman said to have built a wall, probably in some Latin primer (James Joyce: A Portrait I: 'Balbus was building a wall').
mithra - a persian god of light + mitre - a sacerdotal head-dress.
goodly - large, considerable
trowel - a tool consisting of a flat (or, less commonly, rounded) plate of metal or wood, of various shapes, attached to a short handle; used by masons, bricklayers, plasterers, and others for spreading, moulding, or smoothing mortar, cement, and the like + (penis).
grasp - a gripping or fast hold; the grip of the hand
overalls - trousers of strong material + (condom).
particularly + habitually + habitaculum (l) - dwelling place + habits (Archaic) - clothes, attire.
fond - to entertain a fond or foolish affection for + fancied.
Harun al-Rashid - Caliph of Baghdad in 'The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night'.
Egbert (d.837) - West Saxon king
calculate + (notebook 1924): 'Caligula gathers shell on shore' → Fleming: Boulogne-sur-Mer 43: 'Caligula... determined at length, as Suetonius humorously observes, "to make war in earnest; he drew up his army on the shore of the ocean... and... commanded them to gather up sea shells... calling them 'the spoils of the ocean'."
multiplicable - capable of being multiplied
altitude - height above the ground, or, strictly, above the level of the sea; height in the air + in one's altitudes (Slang) - drunk.
multitude - a great quantity of something (obs.), (pl.) great numbers, 'crowds'
seesaw - to move up and down, alternate
nightlight - the faint light which is perceptible during the night, a light which burns or shines during the night
liquor - alcohol
wherein - in what, where + "With the love of the liquor he was born," (song Finnegans Wake).
roundhead - round-headed (of things which assume a rounded form towards the top or end)
staple = steeple (obs. rare.) - a tall tower; a building of great altitude in proportion to its length and breadth (obs.) + Round Table.
undress - to strip of ornamentation + (notebook 1923): 'undressed masonry' → Flood: Ireland, Its Saints and Scholars 116: 'The earliest buildings were made without cement, and with undressed masonry'.
upstand - to rise to a standing position + (erection) + Thomas Moore: Let Erin Remember the Days of Old (song): 'On Lough Neagh's bank, as the fisherman strays, / When the clear cold eve's declining / He sees the round towers of other days / In the wave beneath him shining'.
gigantic + FDV: [(joy grant it joygrantit!)]
wallwort - any of several plants that grow on or in walls + waal = well + wellworthy - worthy in a high degree + WOOLWORTH BUILDING - In Lower Manhattan; one of the first skyscrapers and for many years the world's tallest building.
skyscraper - a high building of many stories
eyeful - visually attractive + awful + Anita Loos: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, chapter 4: 'when a girl looks at the Eyefull Tower she really knows she is looking at something' → James Joyce: Letters I.246: letter 08/11/26 to Harriet Shaw Weaver: (of Weaver's "order" for the contents of chapter I.1) 'I set to work at once on your esteemed order... and so hard indeed that I almost stupefied myself and stopped, reclining on a sofa and reading Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for three whole days'.
height - the quality of being high + hoys (gr) - earth + Howth + FDV: a skierscape of an eyeful hoyth entirely
originate - to take its origin or rise, to spring + erigo (l) - to erect + The Encyclopædia Britannica vol. IX, 'Erigena, Johannes Scotus', 744a: 'The infinite essence of God, which may indeed be described as nihilum (nothing) is that from which all is created, from which all proceeds or emanates'.