A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (49 page)

81.7
exhibition
: a scholarship.

81.17
house of commons of the old Irish parliament
: see 81.5 n.

81.19
Hely Hutchinson
: John Hely-Hutchinson (1724–94), Irish statesman and economist and renowned orator; favoured Catholic emancipation (
F
171).

81.19
Flood
: Henry Flood (1732–91), Irish statesman and orator; opposed Catholic relief but supported parliamentary reform (
F
171).

81.19
Henry Grattan
: (1746–1820), Irish statesman and orator; championed Catholic relief, opposed the Union (
F
171).

81.20
Charles Kendal Bushe
: (1767–1843), Irish judge and renowned orator; ally of Grattan, opposed Union.

81.23–4
as I roved out … sweet July
: opening line of anonymous Irish street ballad, ‘The Bonny Labouring Boy’; but see
PWJ
: ‘ “O that’s all
as I roved out
”: to express unbelief in what someone says as quite unworthy of credit. In allusion to songs beginning “As I roved out,” which are generally fictitious’ (113).

81.29
Barnardo’s
: J. M. Barnardo & Son, Grafton Street, Dublin; fashionable furriers.

82.7
Ingomar
:
Ingomar the Barbarian
(1851), adaptation by Maria Anne Lovell of the German
Der Sohn der Wildnis
(1843) of E. F. J. Baron von Münch-Bellinghausen (1806–71), in which Ingomar finally wins the love of the noble lady who had first scorned him (
G
).

82.7
The Lady of Lyons
:
The Lady of Lyons, or Love and Pride
(1838), a romantic comedy by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–73), in which Claude Melnotte, poor boy, falls for Pauline, rich girl, and after various reverses of plot finally wins her.

82.32
mole
: ‘a massive structure, especially of stone, serving as a pier or breakwater, or joining two places separated by water’ (
SOED
).

83.2
mortal sin
: in Catholicism, a grave sin which deprives the soul of divine grace; here, the sin of sexual impurity, or lust.

83.18–19
Mercedes
: see 52.12 n.

83.24
Claude Melnotte
: see 82.7 n.

83.37–84.9
He felt some dark presence … iniquitous abandonment
: cf. Joyce’s ‘epiphany’, no. 31 (
PSW
191).

84.14
quarter of the jews
: Stephen has wandered into Dublin’s ‘red light’ district which at the time was in
east
central Dublin (see
Ulysses
’s ‘Night-town’ in ‘Circe’,
U
408–66). Oddly, as
G
notes, the only Jewish area at that time (such as it was) was in
south
central Dublin.

84.21
slumber of centuries
: compare Joyce’s use of the phrase in ‘Portrait’ and the ‘iniquity’ there with that here (
PSW
216).

CHAPTER III

86.26
widening tail … a peacock’s
: emblematic of the sin of pride; note that earlier, Stephen’s belly has gluttonously advised him to ‘Stuff it into you’ (86.6), gluttony being another of the seven deadly sins; Stephen, being guilty of the particular mortal sin of lust, is in Catholic doctrine guilty of all (see 89.17–18 n.).

86.33–87.1
Shelley’s fragment … pale for weariness
: see 80.30–2 and n.

87.6
balefire
: in Old English, a funeral pyre; in Scots and lately in English, a great fire in the open air (
SOED
).

87.11
his body … maimed by the excess
: Stephen’s physical body bears the signs of his sinning.

87.20–3
sanctifying grace … actual grace
: ‘grace’: the free and unmerited favour of God; it is, according to Catholic doctrine, present in individuals in two forms: ‘sanctifying’ or ‘habitual’ grace inheres in the soul, is marked by a state of habitual holiness, and can be lost only through the commission of mortal sin; ‘actual grace’ is the transient help (or impulse) to act morally.

87.32
surd
: in mathematics, a number or quantity that cannot be expressed in finite terms of ordinary numbers, also known as an ‘irrational’ number (
SOED
).

87.37
morally present
: though standing outside the church, individuals were deemed to be ‘morally present’ if they were so proximate during mass; a not uncommon practice of Irish men.

88.4
prefecture
: the office of prefect, see 6.11 n.

88.4–5
sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary
: ‘sodality’: a confraternity of lay individuals who meet regularly for particular religious exercises (laid down in specific rules); this one is dedicated to the Virgin Mary; to hold such a position was a considerable honour.

88.6
little office
: ‘a collection of psalms and other readings, mainly from the Old Testament, which was compiled about the eighth century for daily recital in honour of the Blessed Virgin’ (
JSA
245), included in
The Sodality Manual … of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(see 124.1–5 n.).

88.8
falsehood of his position
: obviously, Stephen’s position is hypocritical as he is in mortal sin; he adds the sin of sacrilege to that of impurity.

88.11–12
psalms of prophecy
: in the Vulgate Bible they are: Psalms 8,18,23,44,45, 86, 95–7 (and in the King James: 8, 19, 24, 45, 46, 87, 96–8); the most relevant here is Ps. 44: 9–10 (Vulgate; 45: 8–9 KJV).

88.12
glories of Mary
: title of a book by St Alphonsus Liguori (see 128.13–14 n.) and, in part, of two sermons by Newman (‘The Glories of Mary for the Sake of Her Son’ and ‘On the Fitness of the Glories of Mary’, XVII and XVIII,
Discourses to Mixed Congregations
(1849; repr. London: Burns and Oates, 1886); Stephen alludes several times to phrases from the first of these).

88.14
God’s gifts to her soul
: in Catholic doctrine, her great gift from God is that she is preserved from all sin, for though she gives birth, she retains her virginity.

88.15
royal lineage
: she is traditionally said to descend from King David.

88.15–16
her emblems … lateblossoming tree
: symbols of her patience.

88.20–4
Quasi cedrus … suavitatem odoris
: Latin: Ecclus. 24: 17–20 (Vulgate): ‘I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus and as a cypress tree on mount Sion. I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose plant in Jericho. As a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane tree by the water in the streets, was I exalted. I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aromatical balm: I yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh’ (Douay). (The Latin is wrong four times: ‘Libanon’ should read ‘Libano’; ‘Gades’ should read ‘Cades’; ‘uliva’ should read ‘oliva’; there should be no ‘et’ before ‘quasi myrrha’ (Sullivan, 138 n. 37). All are mistakes in the MS (
JJA
10: 493).

88.26
refuge of sinners
: from ‘The Litany of Our Lady’ (see 29.25 n.).

88.32–3
emblem … infusing peace
: she is called ‘the morning star’ (in ‘The Litany of Our Lady’), her appearance signalling the day of Redemption. The line comes from Newman, ‘The Glories of Mary’ (
Mixed Congregations
, 359) (see 88.12 n.).

88.38
sums and cuts
: Joyce to his translator: ‘Schoolboy’s abbreviation for problems set by a master to his class on the model of some theorum [
sic
] or problem in whatever book of Euclid’s Geometry they are reading’ (
LIII
129).

89.3
My excellent friend Bombados
: Joyce to Michael Healy (Nora Joyce’s uncle), 2 November 1915: ‘I forget whether I thanked you for having verified the quotation about our excellent friend Bombados. If I did not I shall do so now. I shall correct it on the proof—if I ever see one’ (
LI
86). The
Egoist
(pub. 1 Aug. 1914) had ‘
Pompados
’; the first edition ‘
Bombados
’. (The MS has
Pompados
and an extra line: ‘
My dearest and best Patake
’ (
JJA
10: 495).) All of this seems to indicate that the line comes from a real pantomime, but it remains elusive.

89.7
game ball
: final, deciding ball; so, it’s all over.

89.7
scut
: see 33.27 n.

89.14–16
following up … obscure silences
: Stephen’s interest in the mysteries of obscure doctrine would be seen to be as likely to lead him from the Church as would sin (see
G
); but in one sense his interest has itself been cultivated by the scholastic practice of the Jesuits (see 131.18 n.), it’s just that, as Buck Mulligan tells him in
Ulysses
, ‘you have the cursed jesuit strain in you, only it’s injected the wrong way’ (
U
8).

89.17–18
saint James … guilty of all
: James 2: 10: ‘For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.’

89.20–1
deadly sins
: all seven are accounted for here: lust, pride, covetousness, envy, gluttony, anger, sloth.

89.29
curious questions
: most of these have answers in the Catechism even if Stephen is (especially on the second and third) perilously close to being guilty of over scrupulousness: to the first, the money and all that it has produced; to the second, it is the intention that matters; to the third, in such a ‘case of necessity’ yes; to the fifth, because it is not only a Sacrament but an emblem of the Sacrifice; to the sixth, in entirety in each part; to the
seventh, no. The fourth draws attention to a seeming contradiction. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land’ (Matt. 5: 3–4 (Douay)). Why give one heaven and the other earth, especially since elsewhere Jesus is said to have remarked, ‘My kingdom is not of this world’ (John 18: 36)?

90.16
retreat
: a period of seclusion for prayer and religious meditation.

90.17
saint Francis … feast day
: for ‘saint Francis’, see 46.36 n.; his feast day is 3 December which, since it falls here on a Saturday, makes this 1898.

90.19
beads
: see 64.8 n.

90.31
story of the life of saint Francis
: the account that follows is faithful in most respects (he did not go to the Indians ‘at his own desire’ but was asked by Loyola to replace his first choice who had fallen ill). See
G
for full details.

91.6
Sancian
: island off the coast of China.

91.10
faith … moves mountains
: 1 Cor. 13: 2: ‘Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.’

91.12
ad majorem Dei gloriam
: see 46.35–6 n.

91.13
power to intercede for us
: in Catholic doctrine, the saint could supplicate for God’s favour on behalf of the one who prays in his name.

91.16
fisher of souls
: after Jesus’s call to Peter and Andrew: ‘Come ye after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men’ (Matt. 4: 19 (Douay)).

91.22
simoom
: ‘a hot dry dust-laden wind blowing at intervals especially in the Arabian desert’ (
OERD
).

91.23–5
Remember only … Ecclesiastes … fortieth verse
: actually Ecclesiasticus, the book included by Protestants in the Apocrypha, not Ecclesiastes, the book in the Old Testament ‘proper’; Ecclus. 7: 40: ‘In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin’ (Douay). Father Arnall bases his sermons on precedent Jesuit texts. As
T
has exhaustively demonstrated, the main source (especially pp. 98 ff.) is Giovanni Pietro Pinamonti, SJ (1632–1703),
Hell Opened to Christians, to Caution them from Entering into It
(1688; in an 1868 English translation published in Dublin and excerpted in
T
; this text will be cited below as ‘
Hell
in T’). William T. Noon remarks that ‘the purely negative and harrowing sermon of the
Portrait
is neither Catholic nor Ignatian’ but rather takes a very conservatively dogmatic line (‘Joyce and Catholicism’,
James Joyce Review
, 1/4 (Dec. 1957), 13), but
T
convincingly shows that Arnall’s sermon flows from a rich vein of Jesuit sermonizing. More broadly, as
G
argues, in its narrative form the chapter follows the outline of the programme for meditation proposed by Loyola in his
Spiritual Exercises
(1548): sin and its consequences, Jesus’s life on earth, his passion, his risen life.

92.28
four last things
: in Catholic doctrine, the four last things are (as Father Arnall says) death, judgement, heaven, and hell.