**[Finnegans Wake ‒ A Prescriptive Guide](https://peakd.com/literature/@harlotscurse/finnegans-wake-a-prescriptive-guide-1)** https://i.postimg.cc/3xQKQgrN/It-Was-Hard-By-The-Howe-Goes-There.jpg**The Dogpond (Citadel Pond) in the Phoenix Park** In the first edition of James Joyce’s _Finnegans Wake_, Kate’s account of the assault on HCE comprised a single unbroken paragraph more than four pages long. This is as it should be. Kate is a garrulous old woman, and once she gets going on any topic, it is hard to shut her up. But for some reason, Danis Rose & John O’Hanlon have broken her narration into digestible chunks in _The Restored Finnegans Wake_. As there is quite a lot to digest, we will follow their lead, though in this instance I do not agree with their emendation of the original text. In this article we will analyse the first thirty-four lines of the original (thirty-two lines in the restored edition). # First-Draft Version # As usual, we begin our analysis by examining the first draft of this passage, as recorded by David Hayman―barely three lines of transparent, wide-awake English: >There evidently the attacker, though under medium, with truly native pluck tackled him whom he took to be catching hold of a long bar he had & with which he broke furniture. The struggle went on for a considerable time and in the course of it the masked man said to the other: Let me go, Pat. ―Hayman 75–76 As we saw in the last article, the salient features of this struggle were taken from a newspaper account of a real assault that took place in Belmont, County Galway, on 20 November 1923: >About three o’clock on Tuesday morning [Patrick Byrne] awoke and saw a masked man standing near him. He jumped up and caught hold of the intruder, and both struggled for a considerable time between the room and the kitchen. The burglar said, “Let me out, Pat” ... The burglar then went to the door and Byrne caught hold of a long bar he had and with which he broke in the door ... ―_The Connacht Tribune and Tuam News_, Saturday 24 November 1923, Page 5, Column 7 The first draft was written in November 1923. By 1 July 1927, when an early draft of this chapter was published in Number 4 of Eugene Jolas’s literary journal _transition_, these three or four lines had grown to nineteen or twenty―a little more than half as long as the final, published version. https://i.postimg.cc/66S0dvZM/transition-No4Pages50-51Quote.jpg**_transition_ 4:50–51** >Yes, it was hard by the howe’s there, plainly on this disoluded spot, rupestric then, resurfaced that now is, in the saddle of the Brennan’s pass, versts and versts from true civilisation, where livland yontide meared with the wilde, saltlea with flood, that the attackler though under medium and between colours with truly native pluck, engaged the Adversary whom for plunder sake, he mistook in the heavy rain to be Oglethorpe or somebody else to whom he bore some Michelangiolesque resemblance, making use of sacrilegious languages to the effect that he would cannonise the b⸺y b⸺r’s life out of him and lay him out contritely as soon as the b⸺r had his b⸺y nightprayers said, at the same time catching holst of an oblong bar he had and with which he usually broke furnitures he rose the stick at him. They struggled for some considerable time around the booksafe, fighting like purple top and tipperuhry Swede, and in the course of their tussle the toller man said to the miner who was carrying the worm ; Let me go, Paudheen ! I hardly knew ye. ―Jolas & Paul 50–51 Despite all the added details, the original draft is still recognizable. The published version adds even more allusions, but the gist of the first draft can still be discerned. As Adaline Glasheen once summarized it: >The offensive of the starved and slaved takes place at the howe and is reduced to combat between a black attacker (Irish call black men, “blue men”) and one who may or mayn’t be HCE. (It is not easy to tell if this is another father-son battle or one of the brother-battles which become more important as we move from HCE to his children.) The men fight, make up, exchange kisses; the attacked gives the attacker money for drink and then reports him to the police. The fighting men’s talk has to do with a duty imposed on Irish spirits. ―Glasheen xxxv–xxxvi # Space and Time # The opening lines set the scene: **It was hard by the howe goes there** Rose & O’Hanlon’s emended version of the original’s **howe’s there** gives us the sentinel’s _Who goes there?_ to match his command that closed the previous paragraph: **Halte!** The Howe is also the Thingmote, or hill on which Dublin’s Scandinavian rulers held their parliament. And it is also the kitchen midden or dump behind HCE’s tavern―_hard by the house here_, as Campbell & Robinson interpret it (84). Note how it is immediately contradicted by **plainly**. This paragraph is replete with a plethora of similar pairs of opposites (see FWEET for details): * **hard** ... **disoluded** * **howe** ... **plainly** * **rupestric** ... **resurfaced** * **saddle of Brennan’s ... pass** ... **Beneathere! Beneathere!** * **saltlea** ... **flood** * **Adversary** ... **michelangiolesque** * **more in his eye** ... **less to his leg** * **Parr, apparently** [ie Old Parr and young salmon] * **Nippoluono** ... **Wei-Ling-Taou** * **purple top** ... **tipperuhry Swede** * **the toller man** ... **the miner** * **the stiff** ... **the spirits** https://i.postimg.cc/wjsT7Sz8/960px-No-nb-bldsa-1c028.jpg**Alexander Buchan** **buchan cold spot** A Buchan spell is a period of cold or warm weather that supposedly recurs at the same time every year. They are named for the 19th century Scottish meteorologist [Alexander Buchan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Buchan_(meteorologist)) who first proposed the idea. Buchan defended his hypothesis with a statistical analysis of Scottish weather patterns, but modern meteorologists believe that his spells were simply random events. Adaline Glasheen also detects an allusion to Buckley, HCE’s assassin in II.3. # _Dramatis Personae_ # The scene set, we are now introduced to the persons of the drama: **that Luttrell sold if Lautrill bought** Henry Luttrell (1655–1717) was the Irish Jacobite officer who conspired to betray Limerick City to the Williamite besiegers in 1691. Like HCE, he was lampooned in the streets of Dublin with scurrilous ballads. He was later shot and mortally wounded while riding in a sedan chair in Dublin. During the 1798 Rebellion (or in 1797) his grave was violated and his skull broken with a pickax. Luttrell was also suspected of treachery during the [Battle of Aughrim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aughrim) earlier in the same year, an event that also seems to be alluded to in this passage: https://i.postimg.cc/ht6F7jr9/Henry-Luttrell-Siege-Of-Limerick.jpg**Henry Luttrell & the Siege of Limerick** >Importantly for Joyce’s pessimistic view of Irish history, St Ruth’s defeat at Aughrim was usually put down to treachery, the guilty party in this case being the cowardly and fickle Jacobite cavalry officer, Henry Luttrell, who withdrew the troopers under his command from the left flank of St Ruth’s army at a crucial moment, allowing Williamite troops to pour through the line. The land held by Luttrell has since been known as Luttrell’s pass and is remembered by Joyce in _Finnegans Wake_: ‘Luttrell sold if Lautrill bought, in the saddle of the Brennan’s (now Malpasplace?) pass’ (81.14–15). Joyce’s hard feelings about defeat at Aughrim run, it is clear, from his earliest to his final published work, as is underlined by the _Wake_’s Thomas Moore-inspired lament: ‘Forget not the felled! For the lomondations of Oghrem!’ (340.8–9). ―Frank Shovlin, _Journey Westward: Joyce, Dubliners and the Literary Revival_ 77 It should be noted, though, that the mention of **Brennan’s pass** goes back to 1927, whereas the first appearance of **Luttrell** occurred at a much later late stage. James Atherton also suggested an allusion to the [Luttrell Psalter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luttrell_Psalter), a 14th-century illuminated manuscript of the Book of Psalms, which the British Museum purchased in 1929. This is supported by the fact that Joyce only added the allusion to Luttrell in the late 1930’s ([JJDA](https://jjda.ie/f/flex/d/dd9.htm)). But who is **Lautrill**? Adaline Glasheen did not know, and neither do I. Helmut Bonheim noted that _laut_ is German for _loud_, but I do not see how this helps us. **Brennan’s ... pass** The Brenner Pass is a mountain pass in the Alps between Italy and Austria. Joyce’s source was [Thomas George Bonney’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_George_Bonney) geomorphological book _The Work of Rain and Rivers_ (1912). Willie Brennan was an 18th-century Irish highwayman, the subject of the ballad _Brennan on the Moor_. As a highwayman, he did have a **saddle**, which is also a perfectly good word for a col or mountain pass. https://i.postimg.cc/bJ75S9FF/8f0ca4ea-da98-4866-a26e-a927a04bd515.jpg**Brenner Pass** **Malpasplace** John Mapas (often referred to incorrectly as Malpas) erected the obelisk on Killiney Hill, with the inscription: _LAST year being hard with the POOR the Walls about these HILLS and THIS etc. erected by JOHN MAPAS Esq. June 1742_. He may be paired with Oglethorpe below, another philanthropist who tried to assist the poor. **attackler** HCE’s attacker and tackler. In II.4 Tristan (the Oedipal Figure who supplants HCE) is depicted as a rugby player. **All-In rules** suggests that the assault is a wrestling match. **wilde** Oscar Wilde, whose rise and fall are commonly compared to those of HCE. The following phrase **under medium** (meaning _below medium height_) also reminds us that one of the more bizarre sources Joyce used when writing _Finnegans Wake_ was Hester Travers Smith’s _Psychic Messages from Oscar Wilde_. [Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hester_Dowden) was an Irish spiritualist and psychic medium, who claimed to have communed with the spirits of several dead writers, among whom were Shakespeare and Wilde. John Gordon also suggests an allusion to Henry Fielding’s highwayman _Jonathan Wild_. As he notes, there are several references to highway robbery in this paragraph. **cropatkin** [Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin), the Russian anarchist and revolutionary. A _verst_ is a Russian unit of length slightly more than 1 kilometre. Joyce took the word from [Otto Jespersen’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Jespersen) _Growth and Structure of the English Language_ (1905). Fred Atkins was a young sex worker who was acquainted with Oscar Wilde. He was compelled to testify in Wilde’s first criminal trial in 1895. There is also an allusion to Croagh Patrick, Ireland’s sacred mountain in County Mayo. St Patrick is said to have fasted for forty days on its summit. Unlike Jesus he was not tempted by the Adversary, but he was tormented by a flock of demonic birds or a demonic female serpent―depending on which legend you follow. **the Adversary** The uppercase A identifies HCE’s adversary as the Devil, _Satan_ being the Hebrew for _adversary_. McHugh’s _Annotations_ cite I Peter 5:8: _your adversary the devil_. But Wim van Mierlo identified the source as Margaret Maitland’s _Life and Legends of St. Martin of Tours (316–397)_: >The devil, in human form, accosted him in a street one day and asked him where he was going. “I go where God calls me”, said Martin. “Know then”, said the Adversary, “that go where you may, do what you will, I will constantly oppose you”. ―Maitland 22 : Wim van Mierlo, _A Finnegans Wake Circular_ 7:29–44 St Martin was allegedly related to St Patrick’s mother, which insured that he was well respected in the Emerald Isle. Also, he was a native of Szombathely, Hungary, Leopold Bloom’s ancestral home. **Oglethorpe** Most sources identify this as [James Edward Oglethorpe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Oglethorpe), the English philanthropist who founded the Province of Georgia for the settlement of Britain’s _worthy poor_. Dublin, **by the stream Oconee**, is in Georgia. Perhaps this do-gooder is introduced here as the opposite of the wicked characters. **some other ginkus** The Williamite commander at Limerick was [Godert de Ginkel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godert_de_Ginkel,_1st_Earl_of_Athlone). Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire is also relevant. McHugh: _gink_ is slang for _fellow_. FWEET also suggests _genius_. Also, [_dingus_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dingus) was around in Joyce’s day and has the merit of being of Dutch origin. **Parr aparrently** HCE was first identified with the incontinent centenarian Old Parr on the opening page of _Finnegans Wake_. **michelangiolesque** Renaissance artist Michelangelo. But the principal allusion appears to be to the archangel St Michael, in opposition to the Adversary, or fallen angel Lucifer. Italian: _angiolo_ = _angel_. There is a picture of St Michael Slaying the Dragon above the mantle in the Porters’ bedroom in III.4. https://i.postimg.cc/k541GpfJ/960px-Houghton-Typ-Inc-2121A-Durer-Apocalypse-37.jpg**_St Michael Slaying the Dragon_** **Nippoluono engaging Wei-Ling-Taon** Kate was our guide through the Museyroom, which commemorated the engagement between Napoleon and Wellington at Waterloo. There are also clear hints here of a conflict between Japan (Nippon) and China. FWEET mentions the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, as well as escalating skirmishes during the 1930s, when Joyce added these names. In his notebooks, Joyce simply recorded _Nipponean / Wei-Ling-Tung_ so it may be pointless to try and translate the Chinese words. Among its many possible significations, _wēi_ ([倭](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%80%AD#Chinese)) can mean _Japan_ (derogatory) and _dwarf_ or _pygmy_. FWEET gives **wei** = _awe_, **ling** = _honourable_, _ta-ou_ = _Great Europe_, and _tau_ = _way_ or _path_ (but note that Rose & O’Hanlon emended **Taou** to **Taon**). Dozens of other meanings are also possible, but I don’t think any of them are relevant. Joyce was just trying to concoct a Chinese version of _Wellington_. **de Razzkias ... the general Boukeleff** [Jean de Reszke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_Reszke) was a Polish dramatic tenor and operatic performer. [General Nikolay Bobrikov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Bobrikov) was the Russian Governor-General of Finland. He was assassinated on 16 June 1904, the original Bloomsday―the event is mentioned in _Ulysses_. The allusion is obviously to the mock-epic tale _How Buckley Shot the Russian General_, which will be recounted in II.3. The presence of de Reszke may be due to his Polish nationality. In 1904, Poland was partitioned among three empires: Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. In 1905, the [Russian Partition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_in_the_Kingdom_of_Poland_(1905%E2%80%931907)) played a significant role in the Russian Revolution of that year. A _razzia_ is a _raid_ or _military incursion_. The word was originally Arabic but entered English from the French, which perhaps explains why we have the Old French _reconnoistre_ = _to recognize_ in place of _reconnoitre_ (ie _to perform a reconnaissance_). **the taller man** [James Toller](https://www.stneotsmuseum.org.uk/collections/james-toller-eynesbury-giant/) (1798–1818), the Eynesbury giant. His height has been variously recorded between 7-foot-six and 8-foot-six. The 1939 edition actually reads **the toller man**, but Rose & O’Hanlon have restored the original version. **who had opened his bully bowl to beg** Billy in the Bowl, a legless beggar and strangler in 18th-century Dublin. His real name was William Davis. Having no legs, he used a bowl for locomotion. Johnny (see below) also had a bowl for begging. **Pautheen** Patrick Byrne was the name of the assaulted man in the newspaper story Joyce drew on for this section. The Irish for Patrick is _Pádraig_. _Páidín_ is a diminutive form, corresponding to the English _Paddy_. There is also an allusion to potheen or _poitín_, illicitly distilled spirits―though Hester Travers Smith was interested in another type of spirit. https://i.postimg.cc/FRskWmLq/Howth-Tram-1280x825.jpg**Hill of Howth Tram** # Trams Again # In the previous two paragraphs there were a number of allusions to Dublin’s trams and other forms of public transport: >**Hatchettsbury Road! ... the pennyfares ... Issy-la-Chapelle! Any lucans, please! ... there are milestones ... faultering along the tramestrack ... omnibus ... boher to O’Connell ... Fiacre. Halte!** This theme is briefly taken up again in the present paragraph: >**not where his dreams top their traums halt (Beneathere! Beneathere!)** The parenthetical words are spoken by the conductor, announcing that the tram has reached Howth―_Benn Étair_ in Middle Irish. Between 1901 and 1959 the Sutton & Howth Electric Tramway ran to the summit of the Hill of Howth **traums halt** Not just a tram stop, but also the German: _Trauminhalt_ = _dream content_. This is a technical term much used by Freud in _Die Traumdeutung_ (_The Interpretation of Dreams_)―at least 91 times in the original edition. Whatever misgivings Joyce may have had concerning the validity of psychoanalysis, it cannot be denied that Freud’s work was crucial to _Finnegans Wake_ (Atherton 37 ff). # Loose Ends # **the headandheelless chickenestegg ... I hardly knew ye** An allusion to the popular song _Johnny, I Hardly knew Ye_, about an Irishman who ran off and became a soldier, but was so disfigured by the wars he fought for the British that his lover scarcely recognized him when he returned home. It includes the lyrics: >_Ye haven’t an arm, ye haven’t a leg, hurroo, hurroo_ >_Ye haven’t an arm, ye haven’t a leg, hurroo, hurroo_ >_Ye haven’t an arm, ye haven’t a leg_ >_Ye’re an armless, boneless, chickenless egg_ >_Ye’ll have to put with a bowl out to beg_ >_Oh Johnny I hardly knew you._ The song is often regarded as an Irish traditional song, but it was actually written in 1867 by [Joseph Bryan Geoghegan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Geoghegan), an Englishman whose father came from Dublin. It is usually sung to the same melody as the American Civil War Song _When Johnny Comes Marching Home_. The lyrics of that song were written by the Irish bandmaster Patrick Gilmore, but the origin of the music is still keenly debated. **three patrecknocksters and a couplet of hellmuirries ... three vats, two jars** The familiar 3+2 motif, which represents HCE and ALP’s children: the three are Shem, Shaun, & the Oedipal Figure who embodies them both : the two are the twin personalities of Issy. Adaline Glasheen believed that all three children were implicated in the oedipal assaults on their father (Glasheen liv). **oblong bar** Latin: _oblongus_ = _rather long_, _longish_. As usual, the phallic overtones are too obvious for further comment. https://i.postimg.cc/MGJh6Ltf/1280px-The-cat-and-the-rat-Christ-Church-Cathedral-in-Dublin-02.jpg**The Mummified Carcasses of the Christ-Church Cat and Rat** **as stuck as that cat to that mouse in that tube of that christchurch organ (did the imirage of Girl Cloud Pensive float above them, light young charm, in ribbons and pigtail?),** In the original edition these lines occurred later in this passage. In the crypt of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, are the mummified skeletons of a cat and the rat it chased behind the organ pipes. Both got stuck in the tubes and died of thirst. But why do the pair struggle round **the booksafe** (a large fire-proof and thief-proof safe for holding books and documents (especially a business’s account books)? FWEET points to the **strongbox** below. And that’s as good a place as any to beach the bark of our tale. --- ## References ## * [James S Atherton](https://archive.org/details/booksatwake0000unse/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater) _The Books at the Wake: A Study of the Literary Allusions in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake_, The Viking Press, New York (1960) * [Helmut Bonheim](https://archive.org/details/lexiconofgermani0000helm/page/n5/mode/2up), _A Lexicon of the German in Finnegans Wake_, University of California Press, Berkeley, California (1967) * [Thomas George Bonney](https://archive.org/details/bwb_KU-342-717/page/n5/mode/2up), _The Work of Rain and Rivers_, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1912) * [Joseph Campbell, Henry Morton Robinson](https://archive.org/details/sleletonkeytofin0000unse/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater), _A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake_, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York (1944) * [Adaline Glasheen](https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AXDQ4VQC3DV5T28D), _Third Census of Finnegans Wake_, University of California Press, Berkeley, California (1977) * [David Hayman](https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AE474LZYOPEOXL8S), _A First-Draft Version of Finnegans Wake_, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas (1963) * [Otto Jespersen](https://archive.org/details/growthstructureo00jesprich/page/152/mode/2up?q=verst), _Growth and Structure of the English Language_, B G Teubner, Leipzig (1905) * [Eugene Jolas & Elliot Paul (editors)](https://archive.org/details/transition-4/page/n45/mode/2up), _transition_, Number 4, Shakespeare & Co, Paris (1927) * [James Joyce](https://archive.org/details/finneganswake00joycuoft/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater), _Finnegans Wake_, The Viking Press, New York (1958, 1966) * [James Joyce](https://b-ok.global/book/4489727/a853b3), _James Joyce: The Complete Works_, Pynch (editor), Online (2013) * Margaret Maitland, _Life and Legends of Saint Martin of Tours (316–397)_, Catholic Truth Society, London (1908) * [Roland McHugh](https://archive.org/details/annotationstofin0000mchu/page/n3/mode/2up?view=theater), _Annotations to Finnegans Wake_, Third Edition, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland (2006) * [Danis Rose, John O’Hanlon](https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/176988/the-restored-finnegans-wake/), _The Restored Finnegans Wake_, Penguin Classics, London (2012) ## Image Credits ## * [Andrew Buchan](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:No-nb_bldsa_1c028.jpg): Anonymous Photograph, National Library of Norway, Public Domain * [Henry Luttrell](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colonel_Henry_Luttrell.jpg): _The Irish Magazine, and Monthly Asylum for Neglected Biography_, Wolter Cox, Dublin (1807–1815), Public Domain * [The Siege of Limerick](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Siege_of_Limerick_1691.jpg): John Ferrar, _The History of Limerick, Ecclesiastical, Civil and Military_, A Watson & Company, Limerick (1787) * [Brenner Pass](https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Figure-by-a-Road-to-a-Mountain-Village--/2F8ED27215699F76): Alpine School, Private Collection, Public Domain * [_St Michael Slaying the Dragon_](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Houghton_Typ_Inc_2121A_-_D%C3%BCrer,_Apocalypse,_37.jpg): Albrecht Dürer (artist), Typ Inc 2121A, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Public Domain * [Hill of Howth Tram](https://dublincityppn.ie/stories/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-first-dublin-tram-network-addendum-lucan-howth-and-blessington-lines/): Valentine & Sons, Postcard, No JV 57146, Dundee, Scotland (1907), Public Domain * [The Mummified Carcasses of the Christ-Church Cat and Rat](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_cat_and_the_rat_Christ_Church_Cathedral_in_Dublin_02.JPG): © Adrian Grycuk (photographer), Creative Commons License ## Useful Resources ## * [FWEET](http://www.fweet.org/cgi-bin/fw_grep.cgi?srch=%5E08%281..%3F%2812%7C13%7C14%7C15%7C16%7C17%7C18%7C19%7C20%7C21%7C22%7C23%7C24%7C25%7C26%7C27%7C28%7C29%7C30%7C31%7C32%7C33%7C34%7C35%7C36%7C37%29%7C2..%3F%2801%7C02%7C03%7C04%7C05%7C06%7C07%7C08%7C09%29%29&cake=&icase=1&accent=1®ex=1&beauty=1&hilight=1&showtxt=1&escope=1&rscope=1&dist=4&ndist=4&fontsz=100&shorth=1) * [Jorn Barger: Robotwisdom](http://web.archive.org/web/20120623001809/http://www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/index.html) * [Joyce Tools](http://www.riverrun.org.uk/joycetools.html) (includes _A Finnegans Wake Circular_) * [The James Joyce Scholars’ Collection](http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/JoyceColl/Browse.html) * [James Joyce Digital Archive](https://jjda.ie/f/flex/d/lexd.htm) * [John Gordon’s _Finnegans Wake_ Blog](https://johngordonfinnegan.weebly.com/book-i/chapter-1-section-4) * [Joyce Genetic Studies](https://www.geneticjoycestudies.org/) https://i.postimg.cc/fyYKGCqJ/Kopimi-Logo.png

Uncommonly no it