Four Dubliners: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett PDF
Preview Four Dubliners: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett
FOUR DUBLINERS * m Jrt Wilde, , Yeats Joyce, and Beckett FOUR DUBLINERS vfrt by RichardEllmann George Braziller New York BRIGHTON Publishedin theUnitedStatesin 198? by GeorgeBraailler,Inc. Copyright © 1982,1984,1985, 1986by Richard Ellmann For information,address thepublisher: GeorgeBraziller,Inc. 60Madison Avenue New York,New York 10010 These essays wereoriginallypresentedinsomewhat different formas lectures at theLibraryofCongressunder the auspices oftheLihrary'sGertrudeClarke Whittall Poetry and LiteratureFundandhavebeenpublished in the jVftt' YorkRttiru ofBooks. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Elllmann,Richard,1918- Four Dubliners:Wilde,Yeats,Joyce,and Beckett. — — 1.Englishliterature Irishauthors History and criticism. 2. Yeats, W.B.(William Butler),1865-1939- 3.Wilde,Oscar, 1854-1900. 4.Joyce,James, 1882-1941. . — 5. Beckett,Samuel,1906- 6, Authors,Irish Ireland—Duhlin(Dublin)—Biography. 7.Dublin(Dublin) —Intellectuallife. 8.Irelandinliterature. I.Title. IPR8892.D8E57 198?] 820’.9'941835 87-13245 ISBN 0-8076-1185-9 Printedin theUnitedStatesofAmerica Firstprinting,August 1987 TomydaughterMaud Contents 9 Pjtface 13 Oscar Wilde at Oxjmd 39 W. B. Yeats’s SecondPuberty 65 JamesJoyceInand Out ofAn 91 SamuelBeckett:Nayman ofNoland 117 Acknowledgments 119 Index * m Preface four Dubliners—Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett—were chary of acknowledging their connections. But theseconnectionsexist.Somebelongtohistory.Yeats,theneigh¬ teen,wenttolistentoWildelecturein1883;Joyce,attwenty,told Yeats when they first met in 1902 that the poet was too old; Beckett, at twenty-two, was introduced to Joyce in 1928 and became as close a friend as Joyce, not given to intimacy, would allow.Oninspection their connectionsthicken.Wilde andYeats reviewed each other’s work with mutual regard, and sometimes exploitedthesamethemes.JoycememorializedWildeasaheroic victim, and repeatedly quoted or referred to him in his later writings.Beckettwassaturatedinalltheirworks,especiallythose ofJoyce,whoseAnnaLinnPlumbellehe anda friend translated intoFrench. Yetbesidesthesepublicadmissionsofliterarykinship,there were affectingpersonalmoments. Wilde invitedYearstoChrist¬ masdinnerin1888asthoughYeatshadnofamilyinLondon,and treated him with great kindness. For his part Yeats circulated a testimonialofsupportforWildeatthetimeoftheprosecutionfor indecent behavior. A few yearslater Yeats rose at dawn to meet Joyce’strainatEusronStationatsixo’clock,andaftergivingthe youngmanbreakfast,tookhimaroundLondoneditorialofficesto findhimwork.AnothersceneisofJoycesittingsilentbutsympa¬ theticbesideBeckett’shospitalbedafterBecketthadbeenstabbed. 9 AndthereisBeckett’ssurpriseandpleasurewhen,onfirstmeeting Yeats, that poet quoted approvingly sonic lines from Beckett’s Whoroscope. Forusthequadrumvirateseemboundtogetherinotherways. They touch successivelymost areasofour consciousness.Wilde proceedsinsouciantly tohisdoom,andonhisway jolliesus for beingsomuchharsherthanheis,somuchlessgraceful,somuch less attractive, and mocks the law for being so witless. Yeats strugglesbyimaginativepassion toovercome theprosaic and to revolutionizereality.Joyce,intransigentyetaffirmative,turnsthe unhcroic and mockhcroic into the heroic, makes commonplace thingslyrical,and undoeschurchand state. Beckett denies with the samepassion that theothersaffirm,but manifestsa senseat times similar to theirs of the comic and incongruous. All four seem,after themannerofmodemwriters,dislodgersandsubver¬ tedofeverythingexcept truth. Thesefour,itmaybegranted,makeastrangeconsortium.Yet resemblancesofwhichthey wereunaware begin toappear.Dis¬ placed,witty,complex,savage,theycompanioneachother.Mag nificcnt,plume-flaunting,sumptuousevenintheirrecognitionof aridities,these Dubliners have, like PythagorasinYeats’s poem, golden thighs.Theyposit andchallenge theirownassumptions, they circle from art to anti-art, from delight to horror, from acceptance to renunciation. That they should all come from the samecitydocsnotexplainthem,bur theysharewiththeirislanda tensestruggleforautonomy,adisdainforoccupationbyoutside authorities,andagooddealofinnerdivision.Thesequalitiesare notexclusivelyIrish,yetIrelandhelpstofocusthem.Andthrough these four of her natives, Dublin—once reluctantly imperial— regains its power to influence the w'orld through another imperium,that ofart. RichardEllmann EmoryUniversity June27,1985 10
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