Having the obsession of the “unspoken” gives me slightly more wiggle room in choosing a topic than others, so today I focused on the odd italic lines in Episode 9 that are detached from the text both in physical form and in meaning. I struggled to find a unifying element in all these fragments (I did not find anything on the internet or in Ulysses Annotated), but according to Gifford’s Annotated, many of these fragments are the first line of a poetic stanza. But other than the poetic fragments being from first stanzas, most of the allusions seemed entirely unrelated; many are from unpublished poetic works, others are nursery rhymes or bawdy songs, and the episode closes with an allusion to Shakespeare’s Cymbeline.
Realizing these fragments seem unrelated in content and form, in addition to usually being unrelated to the text of Joyce that they follow, I wondered if they were meant to be completely random elements of literature that surround and fly through this complex, theoretical conversation that Stephen is having in the library. If that is their purpose, then they seem to undermine the conversation that occurs. John Eglinton, A.E., Lyster, and Stephen discuss canonical philosophers, poets, and playwrights in an incredibly complex way, yet that conversation is subverted by fragments of bawdy songs, poems from unpublished and unpopular poets, and common nursery rhymes. From this conclusion, it seems that while Joyce is clearly showing off his own classical knowledge and ability, he seems to be mocking that very decision by destabilizing these canonical authors with low class or literature for the masses.
Below I have included all the examples I looked at and a few short notes on each one.
“First he tickled her Then he patted her Then he passed the female catheter. For he was a medical Jolly old medi …”(9. 22-26)
-Bawdy fragment of unpublished poem
“Orchestral Satan, weeping many a rood Tears such as angels weep. Ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta” (9. 32-34)
-Lines not from but echoing Paradise Lost: Satan laying on the lake of fire and about to speak angels
“Bound thee forth, my booklet, quick To greet the callous public. Writ, I ween, ‘twas not my wish In lean unlovely English” (9. 96-99)
-First stanza of an irish poem meant to be used as guide for ancient poetry but a form lost
“Whelps and dams of murderous foes whom none
But we had spared …” (9. 137-138)
-From a controversial poem by Mr. Swinburne
“Flow over them with your waves and with your waters, Mananaan, Mananaan MacLir …” (9. 190-191)
-From a chant/druid curse that calls down a flood, brings end of days
“In quintessential triviality For years in this fleshcase a shesoul dwelt” (9. 287-288)
-Poem about the death of a child
“How many miles to Dublin? Three score and ten, sir. Will we be there by candlelight?” (9. 415-417)
-Old nursery rhyme
“What of all the will to do? It has vanished long ago …” (9. 798-799)
-Opening lines of first stanza of a poem written in 1926
“Laud we the gods And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils From our bless’d altars” (9. 1223-1225)
-End of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline
