Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Page 10 (1.255-288) "Her secrets... sakes."


editions: [1922] [html] [arch] [$2] [$4]
notes: [Th] [G&S] [Dent] [wbks] [rw] [images] [hyper]
Delaney: [23] [24] [25] [26] Useen: [27] [28] [29] [map] [*]
Delaney: [22]

<
Her secrets: old featherfans, tasselled dancecards powdered with musk, a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer. A birdcage hung in the sunny window of her house when she was a girl.



Delaney: [23]

She heard old Royce sing in the pantomime of Turko the Terrible and laughed with others when he sang:

I am the boy
That can enjoy
Invisibility.

dancecard

EW Royce (1841-1926)
 probably 1873

♬ music!

Royce might have been anywhere from 31 to 50yo, and Joyce's mother might have been 11, or 30 (with 10yo JAJ). [cite]

Phantasmal mirth, folded away: muskperfumed.

And no more turn aside and brood.

Folded away in the memory of nature with her toys. Memories beset his brooding brain. Her glass of water from the kitchen tap when she had approached the sacrament. A cored apple, filled with brown sugar, roasting for her at the hob on a dark autumn evening. Her shapely fingernails reddened by the blood of squashed lice from the children's shirts.


"squashed lice... prepuces... puce"

Delaney: [24]

In a dream, silently, she had come to him, her wasted body within its loose graveclothes giving off an odour of wax and rosewood, her breath bent over him with mute secret words, a faint odour of wetted ashes.
Her glazing eyes, staring out of death, to shake and bend my soul. On me alone. The ghostcandle to light her agony. Ghostly light on the tortured face. Her hoarse loud breath rattling in horror, while all prayed on their knees. Her eyes on me to strike me down.


SD is paring away words and phrases:

Silently, in a dream            In a dream, silently,
she had come to him             she had come to him,
after her death
her wasted body within          her wasted body within
its loose brown graveclothes    its loose graveclothes
giving off an odour             giving off an odour
of wax and rosewood,            of wax and rosewood,
her breath, that had bent upon  her breath bent over him
him, mute, reproachful,         with mute secret words,
a faint odour of wetted ashes.  a faint odour of wetted ashes.

cf Hamlet I.iv ''To you alone."
"ghostcandle" would normally imply the room already held a corpse

Delaney: [25]

Liliata rutilantium te confessorum turma circumdet: iubilantium te virginum chorus excipiat.
Ghoul! Chewer of corpses!
No, mother! Let me be and let me live.


the translation of this Latin (from the Last Rites) is joyfully upbeat:

Liliata rutilantium = bright as lilies (the confessors)
te = you
confessorum turma  = company of confessors
circumdet: = may they (the lilybright confessors) encompass (you)
iubilantium = jubilant (the virgins)
te = you
virginum chorus  = chorus of (jubilant) virgins
excipiat = may (the virgins) accept (you)

...so is SD trying to fend off his own horror?
cf Hamlet I.ii

Delaney: [26]

— Kinch ahoy!
Buck Mulligan's voice sang from within the tower. It came nearer up the staircase, calling again. Stephen, still trembling at his soul's cry, heard warm running sunlight and in the air behind him friendly words.
— Dedalus, come down, like a good mosey. Breakfast is ready. Haines is apologising for waking us last night. It's all right.
— I'm coming, Stephen said, turning.
— Do, for Jesus' sake, Buck Mulligan said. For my sake and for all our sakes.


"warm running sunlight" is brilliant, like hot running water, or a happy child

>



mysteries: [why is her laugh worth mentioning?]

[DD 03:16-04:02]
[DD 00:00-02:31]


[IM 20:10-23:21]

[LV1 22:41-25:12]

[LV2 16:04-18:09]


telemachus: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23


No comments:

Post a Comment