Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses

675 Pages·1992·37.658 MB·English

by  Don Gifford

Ulysses
Annotated
NOTES FOR
Ulysses
JAMES JOYCE'S
From David A. Chart, The Story of Dublin (London, 1907)
Ulysses
Annotated
NOTES FOR
Ulysses
JAMES JOYCE'S
Don Gifford
WITH
J.
ROBERT SEIDMAN
SECOND EDITION,
REVISED AND ENLARGED
BY DON GIFFORD
University of California Press
Berkeley Los Angeles London
This volume is a revised and expanded edition
of Noces for Joyce: An Annotacion of James Joyce's
"Ulysses," by Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman
(NewYork: E. P. Dutton, 1974).
The maps were drawn by Beth Gavrilles.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
(C) 1988 by
The Regents of the University of California
First Paperback Printing 1989
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gifford, Don.
"Ulysses" Annotated.
Rev. ed. of: Notes for Joyce. 197 4.
Includes index.
1. Joyce, James, I 882-1941. Ulysses. I. Seidman,
Robert J. II. Gifford, Don. Notes for Joyce.
III. Title.
PR6019.09U647 1988 823'.912 85-22262
ISBN 0-520-06745-2
Printed in the United States of America
JO 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 II
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements ofANSl/NISO Z39.<18-l 992 (R I 997)
(Pemw11c11ce of Pupa). (§
I've put in so many enigmas and
puzzles that it will keep the professors
busy for centuriesa rguingo ver what
I meant, and that's the only way of
insuringo ne'si mmortality.
JAMES JOYCE
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION ix
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (1974) xiii
THE NOTES AND THEIR USE xv
INTRODUCTION
Ulysses CONTENTS
NOTES FOR JOYCE'S
PART I. The Telemachiad 9
EPISODE I. Telemachus 11
EPISODE 2. Nestor 29
EPISODE 3. Proteus 43
PART II. The Wanderings of Ulysses 67
EPISODE 4. Calypso 69
EPISODE 5. Lotus-Eaters 83
EPISODE 6. Hades 103
EPISODE 7. Aeolus 127
EPISODE 8. Lestrygonians 155
EPISODE 9. Scylla and Charybdis 191
EPISODE IO. The Wandering Rocks 259
EPISODE I I. Sirens 289
EPISODE 12. Cyclops 313
EPISODE 13. Nausicaa 383
EPISODE 14. Oxen of the Sun 407
EPISODE 15. Circe 451
PART III. The Homecoming 531
EPISODE 16. Eumaeus 533
EPISODE 17. Ithaca 565
EPISODE 18. Penelope 609
APPENDIX: Rhetorical Figures in Aeolus 635
INDEX 645
Since publication of the first edi
tion of these annotations in 1974, responses
from colleagues, students, correspondents, and
innumerable critics have made it clear that, even
with the able collaboration of R. J. Seidman
and the assistance of many others, I had as
sembled something less than a definitive work
ing annotation of Ulysses. Hugh Kenner sums
PREFACET O THE
up the first edition succinctly: "By no means
impeccable, but a good place to look first."1 SECONDE DITION
This revised and enlarged second edition is still,
of course, by no means impeccable, but I hope
it is a better place to look first.
Some of the revisions report new discoveries
that add to the excitement of Joyce's text. Oth
ers expand information in the previous edi
tion-providing, for example, plot summaries
of operas, plays, and novels frequently alluded
to in Ulysses.A nd there remains the indigestible
mass of notes identifying inert things, "street
furnishings" that require annotation to ensure
that they remain inert, that they are overlooked
instead of over-exploited. Vico Road, for in
stance, is in Dalkey, where Stephen teaches in
the morning; a single mention of Vico Road as
the place where one of Stephen's students re
sides does not necessarily introduce Giambat
tista Vico and the "rosary of history" to preside
over the whole of Ulysses.
Twenty years ago I began this work of an
notating Joyce spurred by the pedagogical frus
rration described in the Preface to the first edi
tion, reprinted below. Now, as I am about not
to finish, but to "abandon" (as Paul Valery
would say) these revised notes for publication,
there is another sort of frustration: over one
thousand additions and corrections since 1974,
and still they come-as if from the fabled pot
of lentils or, more appropriately, from that inex
haustibly hospitable ancient Irish soup pot, the
caulderon of Manannan Mac Lir, the god of
the sea.
Richard M. Kain, in his review of the first
edition of these notes, quite appropriately
quotes Dr. Johnson's sage words: "Notes are
often necessary, but they are necessary evils."2
The annotator's role in accumulating those evils
reminds me of Swift's Gulliver in Glubbdub
drib. Offered the opportunity to speak with the
1 Hugh Kenner, Ulysses (London: George Allen
and Unwin, 1980) p. 176.
2 James Joyce Quarterly II, no. 4 [1974]: 423.
x Preface to the Second Edition
ghosts of antiquity, Gulliver is so crippled in sation. Correspondence with Vincent Deane,
imagination that he can think only to ask for editor-compiler of A Finnegans Wake Circular,
mob scenes: Alexander the Great at the head of resulted in eighty-plus emendations and addi
his army, "Hannibal passing the Alps," and, as tions.
a sort of afterthought, Homer and Aristotle Other correspondents and commentators de
not to speak to them (heaven forbid), but to see serve my thanks: Professor Bernard Benstock,
them with their commentators; a mob scene University of Miami; Professor Richard Ell
that produces not enlightenment, but a crowd mann, Emory University; Professor Hugh Ken
the palace of Glubbdubdrib cannot contain. ner, The Johns Hopkins University; Tom Mac
lntyre, Irish writer and playwright; Mary T.
Robert J.S eidman, who assisted me to the point Reynolds, Yale University; and Professor Na
of co-authorship in the 1974 edition, had to step than Suskind. R. J. Seidman adds to this list:
toward the wings during preparation of this re Professor Dorothy Bilik, University of Mary
vised and enlarged edition. The demands on his land; Dr. Vivian B. Mann, The Jewish Mu
time would simply have been too great; even so, seum, New York; and Syrl Silberman, Media
he turned up additional notes, reviewed the ac Producer/Consultant.
cumulation of new and revised notes several Williams College is a "small college," and my
times, and was prompt with support through colleagues there coped admirably with my
out. preoccupations, nagging questions, and prog
This new edition obviously had to be keyed ress reports. Many of them I thanked in the
to the text of the Critical and Synoptic Edition Preface to the first edition; many I must add,
of Ulysses (New York, Garland, 1984). The gen and many I must thank again. The first edition
eral editor of the Critical Edition, Professor was only a few weeks old when Clara and David
Hans Walter Gabler of the Institute for English Park (Department of English and Physics De
Philology at the University of Munich, has been partment, respectively) presented me with a
a model of generosity and cooperation during pack of fifty-odd 3 x 5 cards (pink slips, they
the past four years. He supplied me with the were) to launch me toward this second install
new reading text as it became available, includ ment. And so many others in the interim: from
ing a collation with the 1961 Random House Classics, Professors Maureen Meaney Dietze,
text to help me spot changes. With admirable Charles Fuqua, and Meredith Hoppin; from
patience and skill, his editorial associate, Claus German, Professor Edson Chick; from Russian
Melchior, renumbered my lemmata and cross (with asides in Italian), Professor Nicholas Fer
references in accordance with the new edition sen; from Philosophy, Professors Nathaniel
of Ulysses. Lawrence and Laszlo Versenyi (who helped
Since publication of the first edition of these with the Hungarian as well as with Plato); from
notes, I have received invaluable corrections English, Professors Robert Bell, Peter Berek,
and suggestions from colleagues, friends, and Arthur Carr, Stephen Fix, Lawrence Graver,
correspondents. The desire to list them fills me Sherron Knopp, and John Reichert; from the
with trepidation that I might fail to thank all Sawyer Library, the former librarian Lawrence
who have offered help or to give to each credit Wikander and the present librarian Phyllis Cut
due. Particularly gratifying was help I received ler as well as that splendidly cooperative re
from correspondents who volunteered infor search staff, Lee Dalzell, Faith Fleming, Nancy
mation out of the blue: Edward Stewart of Hanssen, Sarah McFarland, Barbara Prentice,
Auckland, New Zealand, who helped consid and the assistant librarian Elizabeth Scherr. I
erably with the matter of Dublin from a Dub must also include Robert Volz, custodian of the
liner's perspective; and Joan Glasser Keenan of Chapin (rare book) Library; Carl Johnson, As
Wellesley, Massachusetts, whose meticulous sociate Curator of the Paul Whiteman Collec
and voluminous correspondence was an enor tion; and Paula McCarthy Panczenko, who
mous help, as acknowledgments in the notes made field trips to Dublin.
will attest. I wish to thank my Joyce classes-all those
Roland McHugh interrupted the project of generations of Williams College students who
revising his monumental Annotations to Finne have used the notes and helped me to develop
gans Wake (London, 1980) to forward over one them. Particular thanks go to Theoharis C.
hundred suggested emendations to this volume. Theoharis, Williams College 1977, who, in the
I can only hope that my far less searching com years since his experience of that course, has
mentary on his project has been some compen- come to function as a regular contributor to this
Preface to the Second Edition x1
rev1S1on.D uring the final months of prepara grateful to Anne Geissman Canright for her
tion, Susan Reifer (1985) and William Galloway skillful editing.
(1984) helped by reviewing the manuscript; Throughout the project Williams College
Robin Lorsch (1986) and Thomas Lydon (1986) has been most generous with research funding
checked the references to The Odyssey.I am also assistance.
Work on the present volume be
gan in 1962-63 as a continuation of the projects
that resulted in the annotations of Dublinersa nd
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, pub
lished as Notesf or Joyce (New York: E. P. Dut
ton, 1967).1 As with those earlier projects, the
PREFACEA ND
decision to annotate Ulyssesw as a function of
the somewhat frustrating and unrewarding ex
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
perience of trying to teach the book. I felt that
far too much classroom time was given to a pa (1974)
rade of erudition, far too little to the actual pro
cess of teaching-the discussion that comes to
grips with the forms and textures of the book
itself. I was in effect encouraging my students
to be overdependent on my information and
therefore on my readings. As I launched the an
notations with a mimeographed and fragmen
tary set of notes for the first three episodes of
Ulysses in 1962-63, two things became clear:
my students were able to undertake indepen
dent readings of those episodes; and my own
grasp of the book was spotty-very spotty in
deed-because I had relied on a fairly thorough
reading of isolated passages to suggest what
might be (but clearly was not) a thorough read
ing of the book as a whole.
In 1966 Robert J. Seidman, a former stu
dent, joined me in the enterprise. We declared
a moratorium on writing and undertook to com
plete the factual research. This approach en
abled us to develop the basis for the annotations
and to identify that wide variety of things we
knew we did not know. The actual writing be
gan early in 1967, and in the academic year
1967-68 we photocopied a draft of the notes to
the first eight episodes for use with classes at
Williams College. That exposure of the notes
gave us valuable information; students made
helpful contributions to the notes themselves
and also helped us clarify what a thorough and
essentially pedagogical annotation might ulti
mately be. The students made it quite clear, for
example, that the context from which a literary
allusion or a historical moment is taken should
not just be cited, but should be briefly described
1 A second edition, revised and enlarged, was
published as Joyce Annotated: Notes for "Dubliners"
and "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press,
1982).