Ulysses: “Aeolus”James Joyce

“Before Nelson’s pillar trams slowed, shunted, changed trolley…” (7.3)

• The area around the pillar in Sackville (now O’Connell) Street functioned as the central terminal and departure point for most of Dublin’s trams.

“Blackrock, Kingstown and Dalkey” (7.4)

• Suburban communities on Dublin Bay southeast of Dublin five, six, and eight miles, respectively.

“Clonskea, Rathgar and Terenure, Palmerston Park and upper Rathmines” (7.4-5)

• All in the inland area south of central Dublin (two to two and a half miles from Nelson’s Pillar).

“Sandymount Green, Rathmines, Ringsend and Sandymount Tower” (7.5-6)

• Ringsend is on the south bank of the Liffey at its mouth, Sandymount Green is in Sandymount less than a mile to the south, and the tower is one-half mile south-southeast of the green.

“Under the porch of the general post office shoeblacks called and polished” (7.15-16)

• Fronts on Sackville (now O’Connell) Street between Henry Street and Prince’s Street North.

“I’ll take it round to the Telegraph office” (7.26-27)

• The offices of the Evening Telegraph were in the same large rambling building as the offices of the Freeman’s Journal and National Press.

“Davy Stephens, minute in a large capecoat, a small felt hat crowning his ringlets, passed out with a roll of papers under

his cape, a king’s courier” (7.28-30)

• A conspicuous Dublin character who styled himself the “prince of the news vendors”.

• He kept a newsstand at Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire)

“WILLIAM BRAYDEN, ESQUIRE, OF OAKLANDS, SANDYMOUNT” (7.38-39)

• William Henry Brayden (1865-1933), an Irish barrister and editor of the Freeman’s Journal.

“Mario the tenor” (7.53)

• Giovanni Matteo Mario, cavaliere de Candia (1810-83). An Italian tenor.

“Through a lane of clanking drums he made his way towards Nannetti’s reading closet” (7.74-75)

• Joseph Patrick Nannetti (1851-1915), the Irish-Italian master printer and politician. (Pictured on the right.)

“Queen Anne is dead” (7.90)

• Queen Anne (1665-1714; queen of Great Britain and Ireland 1702-14).

“M.A.P.” (7.97)

• M(ainly) A(bout) P(eople), a penny weekly published every Wednesday.

“Two crossed keys here. A circle.” (7.142)

• The emblem of the House of Keys

“He stayed in his walk to watch a typesetter neatly distributing type. Reads it backwards first. Quickly he

does it. Must require practice that.” (7.204-06)

• The Linotype typesetting machine.

“Then the twelve brothers, Jacob’s sons.” (7.210)

• Bloom associates Jacob’s twelve sons with the twelve tribes of Israel.

“Citronlemon? Ah, the soap I put there.” (7.226-27)

• The odor associates the soap with the citron (Ethrog) central in the ritual of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.

“ERIN, GREEN GEM OF THE SILVER SEA” (7.236)

• From Thomas Moore’s (1779-1852) “Let Erin Remember the Days of Old”

“A recently discovered fragment of Cicero” (7.270)

• Roman orator and statesman (106-43 B.C.)

“Their wigs to show the grey matter. Brains on their sleeve like the statue in Glasnevin” (7.305-6)

• Barristers wear wigs as emblems of their intelligence the way the statue Bloom noticed in the cemetery wore a heart as a symbol of devotion.

“Myles Crawford began on the Independent.” (7.308)

• The Irish Daily Independent, a Dublin newspaper founded by Parnell after his fall, though it did not begin to be published (18 December 1891) until over two months after Parnell’s death.

“Daughter engaged to that chap in the inland revenue office with the motor.” (7.341)

• Automobiles were not numerous enough to require registration and license numbers in Ireland before 1903, and in 1904 automobiles were still something of an event in Dublin’s streets.

“And here comes the sham squire himself!” (7.348)

• Francis Higgins (1746-1802), so called because, though he was an attorney’s clerk in Dublin, he married a respectable young woman by palming himself off as a country gentleman.

“O, HARP EOLIAN!” (7.370)

• An aeolian harp is a stringed instrument designed to be played by the winds (of Aeolus) rather than by human fingers.

“We are the boys of Wexford, Who fought with heart and hand.” (7.427-28)

• From an Irish Ballad of 1798, “The Boys of Wexford.”• The Boys of Wexford earned part of their reputation at the expense

of the North Cork Militia.• http://youtu.be/SmBTjeowz4k

“THE CALUMET OF PEACE” (7.464)

• The American Indian peace pipe.

“Our old ancient ancestors, as we read in the first chapter of Guinness’s, were partial to the running

stream.” (7.496-98)

• A common pun in Dublin. Conjoins Genesis with Guinness’s, the famous Dublin brewery.

“Do you know that story about chief baron Palles?” (7.502)

• Christopher Palles (1831-1920), Irish barrister and lord chief baron of the Exchequer, that is, the chief judge in the court of Exchequer, a division of the High Court of Justice in Ireland.

“An Irishman saved his life on the ramparts of Vienna. Don’t you forget! Maximilian Karl O’Donnell, graf von

Tirconnell in Ireland.” (7.540-42)

• Maximilian Karl Lamoral Graf [Earl or Count] O’Donnell von [of] Tirconnell (b.1812), the Austrian-born son of an Irish expatriate.

• On 18 February 1853 he attended the emperor on his daily walk around the bastions that encircled old Vienna. When the emperor was attacked and wounded by a knife-wielding Hungarian tailor, O’Donnell knocked the would-be assassin down and prevented further attack.

“Lord Jesus? Lord Salisbury?” (7.557-58)

• Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne Cecil, third marquess of Salisbury (1830-1903), was leader of the Conservative party in England and hence anti-Gladstone and against any concession to the Irish.

• He was prime minister of England 1885-86, 1886-92, and 1895-1902.

“Pyrrhus, misled by an oracle, made a last attempt to retrieve the fortunes of Greece.” (7.568-69)

• Pyrrhus launched a campaign against Sparta that appeared to have as its goal the capture of all of the Peloponnesus.

• The “oracle” that misled Pyrrhus was a dream that he read as promising him success in his attempt to reduce Lacedaemon (Sparta), the capital of Laconia.

“In mourning for Sallust, Mulligan says.” (7.583)

• Sallust, Gaius Sallustius Crispus (86-34 B.C.), was a Roman historian and active partisan of Caesar.

• His public career, in the course of which he acquired a large fortune, was apparently marked by corruption and a willingness to oppress those under his command and governance.

“Like fellows who had blown up the Bastille” (7.600)

• The Bastille St. Antoine, a fortress-prison in Paris, was stormed and destroyed by a revolutionary mob 14 July 1789. The date is usually regarded as marking the beginning of the French Revolution.

“Or was it you shot the lord lieutenant of Finland between you? You look as though you had done the

deed. General Bobrikoff.” (7.601-2)• Nikolai Ivanovitch Bobrikoff (1857-1904), a Russian general, governor-

general, and commander in chief of the military district of Finland (1898-1904).

• He was given dictatorial powers and he used them ruthlessly to suppress Finland’s constitutional liberties and to carry out the policy of Russianizing Finland.

• He was assassinated on 16 June 1904.

“That was in eightyone, sixth of May, time of the invincibles, murder in the Phoenix park…” (7.632-33)

• Refers to the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish (pictured below), British secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Henry Burke, his undersecretary. Not in 1881, but in 1882.

• They were stabbed to death in Phoenix Park by members of the Irish National Invincibles

“Tim Kelly, or Kavanagh I mean. Joe Brady and the rest of them. Where Skin-the-Goat drove the

car” (7.639-40)• All three were members of the Invincibles. Joe Brady earned the reputation

of having been the chief assassin. “Young Tim” Kelly cut their throats. Kavanagh drove the getaway cab. “Skin-the-Goat” James Fitzharris drove a decoy cab.

“Take page four, advertisement for Bransome’s coffee, let us say.” (7.654)

• A widely advertised coffee distributed by Bransome & Co., Ltd., of London.

“T is viceregal lodge.” (7.661)

• The residence of the lord lieutenant of Ireland, in the northwest quadrant of the park.

“Then Paddy Hooper worked Tay Pay who took him on to the Star.” (7.687)

• Thomas Power O’Connor, the Irish journalist and politician who founded and edited several newspapers and weeklies in London, including the Star and the Sun and the Weekly Sun, M.A.P., and T.P.’s Weekly.

“Now he’s got in with Blumenfeld.” (7.688)

• Ralph D. Blumenfeld (1864-1948), an American-born newspaperman and editor who in 1904 became the expatriate editor of the Daily Express in London.

“That’s talent. Pyatt! He was all their daddies!” (7.688-89)

• Félix Pyat (1810-89), a French social revolutionary and journalist, had a checkered career on the European Revolutionary Committee in Belgium and England; he was involved in the Paris Commune in 1871 before escaping to London. He contributed to several newspapers and edited several revolutionary journals.

“Where have you a man now at the bar like those fellows, like Whiteside, like Isaac Butt, like

silvertongued O’Hagan.” (7.706-07)• James Whiteside (1804-76), an Irish barrister famous for his forensic eloquence and for

his defense of Daniel O’Connell in 1844 and of Smith O’Brien in 1848. (Pictured on the left.)

• Isaac Butt (1813-79), an Irish barrister and politician. Known as the “father of Home Rule,” he was also famous for his participation in the defenses of Smith O’Brien and of the Fenian Conspirators. (Pictured in the middle.)

• Thomas O’Hagan (1812-85), a barrister and a jurist. His reputation in Ireland was mixed because he defended the union of the Irish and English parliaments and because he seemed to benefit from what was regarded as a pro-English stance. (Pictured on the right.)

“Why not bring in Henry Grattan and Flood and Demosthenes and Edmund Burke?” (7.731-32)

• Henry Grattan (1746-1820), Irish statesman and orator, a leader in Ireland’s struggle for increased legislative independence (1782) and a leader of opposition to the Act of Union.

• Henry Flood (1732-91), Irish statesman and orator, played a prominent part in Irish political opposition to English dominion.

• Demosthenes (384-322 B.C.), reputed to have been the greatest of the Greek orators.• Edmund Burke (1729-97), an Irish-born English parliamentarian, orator, and essayist. He

advocated policies of conciliation toward both Ireland and prerevolutionary America.

“Ignatius Gallaher we all know and his Chapelizod boss, Harmsworth of the farthing press…” (7.732-33)

• Alfred C. Harmsworth, Baron Northcliffe (1865-1922), and English editor and publisher, was born at Chapelizod, just west of Dublin.

• He started the weekly journal, Answers. Gained control of the London Evening News, founded the London Daily Mail, and published Harmsworth’s Magazine.

“…and his American cousin of the Bowery guttersheet …” (7.733-34)

• Harmsworth’s personal friend, the American publisher Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911).

“…Pue’s Occurrences and our watchful friend The Skibbereen Eagle.” (7.734-35)

• Pue’s Occurrences the first daily newspaper in Dublin, founded in 1700 and published for half a century.

• The Skibbereen Eagle a general weekly newspaper, published in Skibbereen, County Cork.

“Dr. Lucas. Who have you now like John Philpot Curran?” (7.739-40)

• Charles Lucas (1713-71), an Irish physician and a patriot. He was a frequent contributor to the Freeman’s Journal. (Pictured on the left.)

• John Philpot Curran (1750-1817), an Irish barrister, patriot and orator who had a reputation for animating every debate he was involved in.

“And he cited the Moses of Michelangelo in the Vatican.” (7.756-57)

• Michelangelo (1475-1564) carved the Moses as part of a mausoleum for Pope Julius II.

“That Blavatsky woman started it.” (7.784)

• Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-91) was a Russian traveler and Theosophist who expanded her interest in spiritualism and the occult with rather impressionistic studies of the esoteric doctrines of India, the Middle East, and the medieval cabalas, both Christian and Jewish.

“Mr. Justice Fitzgibbon, the present lord justice of appeal, had spoken and the paper under debate was an essay (new for

those days), advocating the revival of the Irish tongue.” (7.794-96)

• Gerald Fitzgibbon (1837-1909), Irish, but a devoted Freemason and a staunch Conservative (hence anti-Home Rule). He was made lord justice of appeal in 1878; and as commissioner of national education, he was regarded as one of those who were attempting to Anglicize Ireland.

“He is sitting with Tim Healy.” (7.800)

• Timothy Michael Healy (1855-1931) was an Irish politician and patriot who first distinguished himself as Parnell’s “lieutenant” and later, when he became one of the leaders of the move to oust Parnell from leadership of the Irish Nationalist party, as Parnell’s “betrayer.”

“Hosts at Mullaghmast and Tara of the kings. Miles of ears of porches. The tribune’s words, howled and scattered to the four winds. A people sheltered within his voice.” (7.880-82)

• The “tribune” in this passage is Daniel O’ Connell, who so styled himself, identifying with “the People of Ireland … in their wishes and wants, speaking their sentiments and [seeking] to procure them relief.”

• The meeting at the Hill of Tara was held Sunday, 13 August 1843; patriotic Irish estimates the crowd at seven hundred fifty thousand to one million people.

• Next to the Tara meeting, the most impressive was held at the Rath of Mullaghmast, 1 October 1843.

“Two Dublin vestals” (7.923)

• The vestal virgins were priestesses of Vesta, the Roman goddess of hearth and home whose temple was the hearth of Rome, the oldest temple in the city.

“They want to see the views of Dublin from the top of Nelson’s pillar.” (7.931)

• In the middle of Sackville (now O’Connell) Street, a column 121 feet tall, surmounted by a thirteen-foot statue of Admiral Lord Nelson.

• Spiral stairs led to a platform 120 feet in the air.

“Rathmines’ blue dome, Adam and Eve’s, saint Laurence O’Toole’s.” (7.1011-12)

• Our Lady of Refuge, Rathmines (1850), two miles south of Nelson’s Pillar. (Pictured on the left.)

• Adam and Eve’s was a Franciscan church five-eighths of a mile west-southwest of the pillar. (Pictured in the middle.)

• Saint Laurence O’Toole’s was a Roman Catholic church in Seville Place.

“You remind me of Antisthenes, the professor said, a disciple of Gorgias, the sophist.” (7.1035-36)

• Antisthenes (444-370 B.C.), a Greek philosopher and a pupil of Gorgias.• Gorgias (427-399 B.C.), a Greek Sophist and rhetorician known as “the

Nihilist” for his three propositions: (1) nothing exists; (2) if anything existed, it could not be known; (3) if anything did exist, and could be known, it could not be communicated. (Pictured on the right.)

“Poor Penelope. Penelope Rich.” (7.1040)

• Penelope Rich Née Devereux (1562-1607), Sir Philip Sidney’s love; the object of his devoted attentions, literary and otherwise.

“He halted on sir John Gray’s pavement island and peered aloft at Nelson through the meshes of his wry

smile.” (7.1067-68)• A statue on a pedestal in the middle of Sackville Street.• Sir John Gray was a Protestant Irish patriot, owner and editor of the

Freeman’s Journal.