Swiftiana in Finnegans Wake

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Swiftiana in Finnegans Wake

Author(s): Mackie L. JarrellSource: ELH, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Jun., 1959), pp. 271-294Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872029 .

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SWIFTIANA IN FINNEGANS WAKEBY MACKIE L. JARRELLThe figure fJonathan wiftpervadesall ofFinnegansWake.Swift forms art ofHCE, of Shem and Shaun and theirmanytwinvariants, nd ofHCE's enemies s well. In the same wayAnna Livia is partlyor sometimes tella,partlyVanessa,with abitofLetitiaPilkingtonnd evenJaneWaring.JoycekeepsSwiftconstantlybeforethe readerby the repetition f his name orallusive equivalents of it, of the names of people and placesassociatedwithhim, nd of thetitles, haracters,nd tags ofhiswork. Yet so manychangesare rungon thesenames,whichareblendedby pun orportmanteauwithothers, hateventheSwiftspecialist s notalwayssureofhisentrancesnd exits. Thispaperattempts o examineboth the extent fJoyce's wiftiana nd theroleofSwift n thenovel. Knowingthat special interest azzlesthe eyes, have triedto be cautious and captious n the identi-fication fSwift, lthoughhe beckonson everyotherpage.He is nameddirectly s either wiftorJonathan.He is oftenin thecompany fanother r a composite.He is mostoftenwithSterneor St. Patrick,occasionallywithGladstone,Vercingetorix,or BishopBerkeley.He sometimes amed as theDrapier;moreoftenhe is the Dean (alternately he Dane), and as suchhe is

generally aggedwitha physicalor temperamentalharacteristicdrawnfrom ither he Swift iography r thepseudo-biographicalfictionwhichmaybe called theSwift egend. He can be identifiedbyhisdeafness, isvertigo, ismoroseness,rhismadness.Fairlyoften e isnameddirectlys Swift.'Punning quivalentsare Swhipt,Schwipps,Schweeps,and possiblyWhisthor somesimilar ackwards pelling.2Occasionallyhe is dolphin(160; 275.n. 6), as an allusionto Swift's ccentric elativewhoalteredthe1 FinnegansWake (New York, 1947), pp. 4, 36, 198, 256, 282, 294, 359, 449, 450,467, 568, 596. The parenthetical age numberswithin he textand otherwise nidenti-fiedpage numbers n notes also refer o FW.2 pp. 303, 146, 556, 292, 333.

Mackie L. Jarrell 271

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deviceon thefamily oat of arms to " a Dolphin (in thosedayscalled a Swift) " Turned into godolphing (300, 555, 563),dolphin lludesalso to SidneyGodolphin, ord Treasurer,whomSwiftsatirized, nd connectsSwift, the godolphing-ladn theHoy's Court,"with" Dolph, dean of idlers (9287), version fShem,and withhis equivalentas " badbratJerryGodolphing,"twinofKevin.When Swift s named as Jonathanhe is generally omposite,withallusions o David and Jonathan, ielding'sJonathanWild,Jonah (leadingto furtherssociationswithdove,St. Columbkill,and Columbus),and,through heCathedral, t. Patrick: " jona-than for a brother . . David " (172); "Jonathans,wild andgreat" (540); " Since Our BrotherJohanthan ignedthePledgeor theMeditations f Two Young Spinsters (307), whichhas anotereferringo Jonah nd alludesas wellto theobsolescent seof" BrotherJonathan as a nickname orNew Englanders; 0Jonathan, ourestomach" (192), whichpunson Estherand hasa variant unonSt. Thomas (" St Tomach's" [53]). Jonathansdistorted lso to " nathandjoe (3), an allusion to Vanessa's ARebus;' " Jaunathaun (454), which becomes "Jaun," "JoeHanny," and "Jaun the Boast," compoundedwith Shaun thePost and playedupon in several otherforms; "cShaunathaun"(4692); johnnythin (463); "Thaunaton " (499); and " Trina-than Partnickdieudonnay (Jonathan,giftof God; cf. " MrQ. P. Dieudonney [478,369]) and " sir Shamus Swiftpatrick"(564).He is frequentlyamed withhiscounterpartterne: " sternelystruxkhis tete in a tub . . . but erehe swiftly (4); " swift omateerrthors,tern o checkself (36); " in thatsiamixed woa-talk used twist tern wift nd jollyroger" (66); " a sternpoisefor a swiftpounce" (282); " swiftshut . . whisth to yousternly" (92992);swifter . . starnly . . sternish" (454) ; "O.sey but swift . . and sign it sternly" (486). The names aregenerally ntithesized;but once "ourdeaned" substitutes forSwift (" Have you ever thoughtof a hitchingyour sternand

' The Prose WorksofJonathan wift, d. Temple Scott (London, 1907), XI, 370.' The Poems ofJonathanSwift, d. Harold Williams (Oxford,1937), II, 715. Thisallusion was pointed out by Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson, ASkeletonKey to " FinnegansWake" (New York,1944), p. 30.5E. g., "Juan," "Juan Jaimeson[JohnJameson],""Jawjon," and "iHaun." Seepp. 454-473.

2792 Swiftiana n 'Finnegans Wake



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beingourdeaned" [291,n. 4]), and twice both names occur inlists of the Irish literary reat,once withSheridan,Goldsmith,Berkeley,Wilde,and Shaw (256), and again withsubstitutions(" This is Steal, this s Bark,this s Starn,this s Swhipt, his sWiles,this is Pshaw, thisis Doubbllinnbayyates [303]).Three observations houldbe made on thepassagescited. First,as words or phrasesout of contextmanyof themare notunam-biguously wiftiana, ut on thepage theyare clearly o becauseof theJoycean echniques f cluster nd of theme,n a musicalsense. Exceptwhere wift s namedunequivocally, ach passagecontains otherwordsor syllablesused as motifor hallmark notherSwiftian assagesand repeateduntiltheycan be recognizedas themes. (Such areester nd ess,whichwillbe discussed ater.)Second is the tone of allusion, n suchpuns as Swhipt. Joycemakes a stockfigure,nd often a laughing-stock,f the Swiftlegend: the view ofSwiftas a sour,peevish,vitriolic,nd madmisanthropewhobetrayed he two womenwho loved him. Thechief lementswhichJoyce electsfrom hebiography rpseudo-biography re his relationswithStella and Vanessa, his irasci-bility, is llness, ndhismadness. Sterne s thusnotonlySwift'ssexual antithesis;he is a descriptive djective forthe Dean'smanner,and he is also twin brother, foundlingfondling]nelliza the second (291). Since essyequals izzy,Swift's twoNessies" (379) are Sterne's woElizas, ElizabethLumleySterneand ElizabethDraper,as wellas thetwoIseults.Sterne will also serveto make another,perhapstoo obvious,point. " Hitchingyour tern ndbeingourdeaned looks ikethefamiliar terne-Swiftntithesis ut is also a pun on Stella (star,stern) and a reference o the storythat she and Swiftweremarried.The playinJoyce'swordgamesmeansbotha slackropeand a bag of tricks, ncludingmystificationnd falsification.Every reader of Joyceknows that he is oblique, deliberatelyobscure nd deceptive, nd that themaindifficultyn annotationis peeling one layer of allusion fromanother. The Swiftianmaterial, ike the rest, s rarelyunmixed nd rarelyundistorted.Swiftsometimes ppears as the Drapier: " a starrand girtonforDraper and Deane" (211), whichpossibly lludes to DeaneSwift's efense fhisrelative s well s to Stellaand TheDrapier'sLetters;"Mr O'Shem the Draper" (421), whichrelateshimtoLemuel Gulliver (cf. " ShemuelTulliver" [464]) and ShemandMackie L. Jarrell 273



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Shaun; " Misses MirthaandMerry, hetwodreeper's ssistents(529), which recalls the play withHilary and Tristram (alsoTristan-Gladstone)nd is laterelaborated nto" thedraeper, hetwodrawpers ssisters nd the threedroopers ssessors" (608);and " drapier-cut-dean (550).Even moreelaborateplay occurs with theworddean, Irishedas dane, as in the bill submitted or" chase-work orthe Rev.Dane SwiftCoffin." The pun on ordained n " ourdeaned hasalready been cited. Dean is used directlyn a Swiftianpassage(460), ina Swift-Patrickassage (485), and combinedwithdane(562). In Joycean candiknaveryossiblymost ofthereferencesto Dane are also references,ingleor composite, o Swift. Thefirst, Along with the devil and Danes,/ With the deaf anddumbDanes" (47), occurs n " The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly,"which s built around Swift'sepigramon the magazine in thePark: Behold!A proof f rish ense!Here rishwit s seen!Whennothing'seft, hat'sworth efence,Webuild magazine.7

The story hat this was Swift's ast utterance eforehe lapsedinto senility, the dyingwords of his Wit,"8 has been oftenrepeated. Joyce's lines are perhaps also a reminiscence f aproverbial hyme:The Devil andtheDean beginswith letter,When heDevil has theDean, thekirkwillbe thebetter.9

But the best reasonforreadingthemas a Swiftianreferencesthe " deaf and dumb,"whichalongwithMagazine Wall is earlyfixed s an allusion o the Dean: " Tillinga teelof a tum, ellinga toll of a teary turtyTaubling" (7). This nursery-rhyme(" Diddle diddledumpling, My sonJohn ) variation n " deardirtyDublin" is repeatednumerous imes: " dear dutchydeep-linns (76), " Hear Hubty Hublin" (105), " dearby darbydoubled (180), " Dear DirtyDumpling" (215), "deep dartrydullard (305), "dour dortydumpling" (333), " deep dorfy'From thebill forSwift's offin, eproducedn The Legacy ofSwift:A Bi-CentenaryRecord fSt.Patrick's ospital Dublin, 948), p. 60.' Poems,II, 843.8 Ibid.' JohnRay,A CollectionfEnglish roverbsLondon, 1670), p. 259.

274 Swiftiana n 'Finnegans Wake'



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doubtlings (374), andperhaps, ompoundedwithDorothyDix," Dix DearthyDungbin" (370). Taubling,whichpunsonJonah(Jonathan) as well as deaf, soon gives way to sourd. Sourdappears in " sardinish (35), combinedwithFinn's salmon ofwisdom; " a la sourdine (150); "'Sourdanian doofpoostsbyShauvesourishendWohntbedarft (221), which ombines efer-ences to deafnessand madness (Shauvesourmishe,atty); and"sour deans" (368). "Sourdamapplers" (146) and "Sourdan-applous" (254), punning n Sardanapalus, ook morequestion-able,but thefirst ppears n a Swift-Vanessa assage alongwith" Schwipps forSwift. The puns are hardly ess wild than theconjecture hattheycontain n allusion to Swift'sbelief hathis" fits ofgiddiness ndhencehis deafness eganwithhis" eatinga hundredgoldenpippinsat a time" (a letterprintedby SirWilliamWilde uses the wordapples)1o and his lifelong ear ofeatingfruit.Other punningon sourd, as deaf, sword, or south, occursthroughoutinnegansWake. Most of t occurs npassages whichcontain otherSwiftianmaterial,as in " Shemuel Tulliver, megrandsourd, he old cruxader,whenhe offwith his paudeen"(464). Other xamples re" sordomutics (117); " Eer's wax forSur Soord" (238); " psourdonomeheath. Sdratsye,Gus Paud-heen" (332); " sord . . . sourd . . . soord (352-354); " sord"(379); " he murmoanedbasourdly" (430); " My herrings! hesurdity f t.... Absurdbargain .. thesoord (538-539); and" On thesourdsite (597). The word s also used innon-Swiftianpassages, as in " Michmichael's oords (90), but it is used sofrequentlyn connectionwithSwift that it alone becomessuf-ficient o evoke him. The referenceso deafnessalso fuse thefigureof Gladstone,who became deaf, with Swiftthe scold:"'Him thatgronde ldmandto be thathaardofheaering" (882).There are manyotherpuns on Gladstone'sname and nickname,but theonlyother wiftian ortmanteau s " Gloatsdane (438).Joyce thus establishesdeafnessas a major Swiftiantheme.One of the numerous arodiesof" Johnny, HardlyKnew Ye "is also a specific eferenceoBucknill'sdiagnosis fSwift'smaladyas labyrinthine ertigoor a disease of the inner ear: " yourinnereer'dheerdlyheer he " (485). A remarkable ar passage

10 The CorrespondencefJonathan wift, d. F. Elrington all (London, 1910-1914),III, 418; and The Closing Years ofDean Swift'sLife (Dublin, 1849), p. S.




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which eemsto refer o Oscar Wilde'sDe Profundiss insteadaconversation etween hedyingDean, hereHCE and theHill ofHowth,and Martha Whiteway,who cared for Swift n his lastyears. Both Whiteway nd Howth,the Danish name,meaninghead, forBen Edar, areplayedwith n" Whitehed," OldWhite-howth" and " whiteoath (535) . The pictureof the deaf andsenile wift " Ope Eustacetube! Pitypoorwhoteoath!Dear gonemummeries,oby . . . hears hoar,mummery ailend, nowdrifttomyellpow,deff s Adder Edar]") t' combines letter fMrs.Whiteway's " I was the last personwhomhe knew;and whenthatpartof hismemory ailed ), the story hat Swift aid " 0poor old man" whenhe saw his face in a glass, and MonckMason's description,btainedfrom witness, fhis ying n state(" therewas not muchhairon the front r verytop,but it waslong and thickbehind,very white,and was like flax on thepillow"). All threeaccounts are given n The ClosingYears ofDean Swift'sLife,"2whichJoyceacknowledgesby a deceptivereferenceo " poor0. W." If there s oneprimaryourcebook orthe Swiftof FinnegansWake, it is The ClosingYears,Wilde'svaliantattempt o lay thelegendofSwift's nsanity. t containsa surprisinglyargeproportionf theSwiftianawhichJoyceuses,even such minor tems as the attemptsof Swift's friends opersuadehim" to goto Spa or Bath " (" spa mad but innsane")and to be trepanned" ifoldDeanns won'tbe threaspanning) .13Joycecould have found much of Wilde's material in otherwidely cattered ources, ut he could nothave foundelsewherethe account of the post-mortem, hich he rendersas " antemortem (423), andthe exhumationrtheearlymedical nalysisof Swift's ilments; nd it is the descriptionsf Swift'sphysicalconditionwhich eemto fascinateJoyce.Wilde'sfrequent epeti-tion ofSwift's wnwords giddy and " tottering" s reflectedin Joyce's "giddy" or "dizzy," 14 in " totty and " dotty(" Totty go "; "tottydean verbish"; "Almost dotty! I mustdash ") and in 'Fierceendgiddyex" (66) . Puns on Vercinge-

" See P. W. Joyce,The Originand Historyof Irish Names of Places (London,1901-1913), I, 444. 12 See pp. 44, 47, 63-64.13 Wilde,pp. 29, 4; FW, pp. 129, 248. To show how much of Joyce'smaterial s tobe found n Wilde,several ater referencesre to The ClosingYears insteadof primarysources. 14 See pp. 373,471, 550,624.'" Pp. 327,413, 360. Cf. " How a GuyFinks and Fawkes WhenHe is GoingBatty"(177); "Teapotty. Teapotty" (247).




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torix occur throughout he novel. The first wo are juxtaposedwith other Swiftianallusions: " Farseeingetherich (54) and" Fierceendgiddyex."The others (Valsinggiddyrex," versing-rhetorish," Vociferagitant[?],"Farcing gutterish,"nd " Forcein giddersh ) 16 are probably wiftian nlytothat deal insomniacreader with the ideal photographicmemory nd the ideal tenorear; but vertigo s established s a Swiftian heme.Clearly Wilde's crusade did not move Joyce to reject thetradition fa mad Swift, utthe themeof hismadness s slightlyunderplayed n FinnegansWake, although t is stated unequi-vocally n Ulysses;7 and onewonderswhetherWilde'sconvincingevidence led Joyce to underplay t-to delete,forexample,apassage which he printedas part of Work in Progress anddescribed n a letter s " Twilight fBlindnessMadness DescendsonSwift."8To return o nomenclature, ean is played with throughoutthe novel, as in variants of "paudheen," 9 which puns on Fer-guson's" Pastheen Fion" and perhaps on pa as well. This play,however, s less frequenthan play withdane. Swift s " brotherDane " (86) as well as "brother Jonathan." He is "my oldDane hodderdodderer" (201) in what looks like a reminiscenceof" Mary the Cook-Maid'sLetter :

AndtheDean myMaster s an honester anthanyou and allyourkin,My Master s a parsonableman, nd not a spindle-shankedhoddy oddy.

He appearswithGulliver'sMasterBates (" Gratings,Mr. Dane"[288]) andbecomes Mr O'Duane " (365). He is recalled hroughhis deanery (" denary,danerydonnery, omm [261]), his oncedifficulthapter " the Dane and his chapter f accidents" [452]),and his deanerydinners " Dining with he Danes" [420)]. He is" the mad dane ating his vitals" (385), and in four urious, p-

16 Pp. 281, 346, 355, 518, 617.17 "A hater of his kind ran fromthem to the wood of madness, his mane foamingin the moon,his eyeballs stars. Houyhnhnm, orsenostrilled.. . Abbas father, uriousdean, what offenceaid fire o theirbrains,"Ulysses,Mod. Lib. ed. (New York, 1946),p. 40. See also p. 558.

1 Letters ofJames Joyce, d. Stuart Gilbert (New York, 1957), p. 273.19 "Pautheen (892), "pawsdeen fiun " (95), "Paudheen " (3392, 00), "paudeen(464). Paudeen is, of course, a diminutine f Paddy.




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parently omposite llusionswhich cannotdecipherhe is pos-sibly the " woefulDane ": " Warful doon's bothem" (840)," WoovilDoon Botham" (369), " WofulDane Bottom" (503),and " warful une'sbattam" (594).He mayalso appear as Presto, he nicknamewhich he talian-bornDuchess ofShrewsburyestowed nhim. The word s port-manteauedwithpriestand esther, nd as the latter serves toblendSwiftwithO'Connell,who killedd'Esterre n a duel (52).Yet muchoftheplaywithpresto s dubiously wiftian.Some ofthe most likely allusions are " priestessd" (234), " prest asPrestissima" (256), and "as priestoas puddywhack" (289).The name is also connectedwith prostitute (117, 186) and

" Prestopher alumbus" (484). The bestreasonforreading hepunsonpresto s Swiftian llusions s that est s earlyestablished,through sther, s one ofthe Swiftian heme-syllables.Cadenus, wift's nagramforhimselfnCadenusandVanessa, sused once directly:Hopsolooselykiddingyou are totetherwithyourcadenusand goat alongnose" (413). As " Archicadenus(55) is it uxtaposedwith referenceoElrington all,whoeditedSwift'scorrespondencend made a studyof his verse: " thatonce grandold elrington awl." But cadenus is ordinarily n-orre-anagrammed;tappearsas " dodecanesian aedeker (123),whichcombines pun on the Dodecanese Islands withvoyagereferencesvokingA Tale of a Tub and Gulliver's Travels;"redecant (240); " what the decans" (261); " tell of the tud. . aspiring ike the decan's" (423); and "decadendecads"(601).The " cadenus . . . goat" passage bringsup the problemof amuch-repeatednd puzzling luster nvolving ad-kid-goat.Thiscluster s introducedn thefirst age ofthenoveland continuedthroughoutt. It leads from hesacrifice f Isaac to Isaac Buttto Isaac Bickerstaffnd the Partridgehoax; but it frequentlyincludesVanessa as well: " not yet,thoughvenissoon fter,hada kidscadbuttended bland old Isaac ... vanessy (3). Vanessais repeatedly vokedthroughhevenissoonformula: in vertorvenisonposure (34); " his biografiend . . killshimveryson,fyetnot,after 155), " likeyour truevenusonEsau " (93), andthrough elatedpuns on Venice and vanity 0 ( what Cadman20 Lord Orrey, n Remarks on the Life and Writings f Dr. JonathanSwift,3rd. ed.(London,1752), has a pious peroration n vanityas Vanessa's besetting in (p. 70).




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could but Badman wouldn't, nd GenoamanagainstanyVenis"[113]; " bad cad . . . vanhatybear [178) . The associationswithgoat and kidare notalways cleartome;but it is hard not to feelthatCadenus,shortenedy bothSwift nd Vanessato Cad, formspart of the Cad in the Park and of the Caddy-Primaspair:"Caddy wen to Winehouse nd wroteo piece a farce (14) 21The typicalSwiftpassage containsnot only a name forSwiftbut one forStella or Vanessa as well. They are rivals,old andyoungwoman,wife nd wench (or daughter); but theyare alsotwins. They are oftentogether s the two Hesters: " wowhereare thoseyours ofYestersdays (54); " WhichofyourHester-days Mean Ye to Morra" (104), "Yesthers late Yhesters"(624). Theirnamesare variedby shiftingowels: " austerewaysor wastersways (153), " Asther'smess and Huster'smicture(184), " southerwestern . . grainwaster (203), " lasterhalft... besterwhole (247), " everyfeaster's foster's ther (277)," hesterdie nd istherdie orivor (295), " a good eastering nda goodwestering (315), " Westreeve-Astagob (503), " hastermeets waster (523), " languishedhister . . . you beauty,esster (528), " sophistergen sorefister (551), " Western ndOsthern (604), so that towardsthe end of the novel the twoare evokedmerelyby thewordseast and west or by somesuchvariant s " theyestand the st,thewright ide and thewrongedside.... On the sourd-site" (597).Another ormula s the " twoNessies,"antithesized s ess andiss, as in "issavan essavans" (7), " cissies . . . priestessd . .yimissy . . essies" (234), "Yssia . . . (605), or, with fur-thervowel shifting,s in " Portsymassernd PurtsymessusndPertsymiss nd Partsymasters (186). Equally common s theantithesisbetweenthe pet names Stella and Vanessa, whichbecomeell and ess,and occasionallyll and iss: " persequestellateshisvanessas" (107), " revolted tellasvespertine.. vanessance(177), " call herveniceynames! call her a stell (232), " Essie. . stella's vispirine" (257), "when J'am Enastella and amtakenforEssatessa " (278), " apprencisses . . the estelles,vanNessies" (365), " Killesther's . . vanesshed (427), " stellarattraction . . 0, the vanity of Vanissy" (449), "betweenestellosand venoussas (471), "anti vanillas and . . . stissas"(347), and " Vanilla . . . Pouts Vanisha Creme (460-461).

21A parody of " Taffy ame to myhouse and stolea pieceof beef."

Mackcie L.Jarrell 279



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At times the two are antithesized s Esther and Vanessa:"Hetty Jene's .. Essie " (27), " estheryear'smarshnarcissus omake him recant his vanitty fair" (212). And Vanessa's lastname s used forpunsonAustria ndHungary:" old Auster ndHungrig (464).WithoutVanessa Stella is indicated n a number fways. Hersyllablesare eitherest or ell. She is also star,etoile,Artsa (astar) 22 and stern, as well as relatedwords like twinkle. Shemergesnto theBiblicalEsther (Hadassah,myrtle), s in " Haveyoueverthought f a hitching our stern .. MesterBootenfly,here'sme andMyrtle s twinklingo know" (291). At timessheseemsto merge nto Goethe's self-sacrificingtella and perhapsintoMeyerbeer's 'Etoile du Nord. She is also indicatedby hernames nthe" little anguage,"MD 23 and ppt (poppet,puppet).Joyce'splaywiththe latter s themajorchorusof thenovel;thevariations retoomanyto summarize.Beginnings " Puppette(14), the word becomes peepette, pepette, pipetta, pipette,popotte, eppt,and pet,goingon to mutationsiketypette.Thefrequent ntrusionof peep and bopeep suggests Swift's " ACantata," which ends with a collectionof " bo peeps." Pipetteleads to medical associationswithStella's sickness, s in " shukthe bottle and tuk the medascene" (413), anotherpun onMagazineWall. Turned ntothe refrainfpip,ppt also connectsStella withthePip and Estella ofGreatExpectations:" tompippeepestrella (178), " peepeestrilling (276), and " pippup andgopeepwhere he sterres e " (624) . Star produces tillanotherStella-Vanessa ntithesisn Star and Garter (stern nd girdle).24The most notable Swift-Stellapassage in the novel (413)combinesSwift's "On the Death of Mrs. Johnson with hisepitaphfor the bestservant n theworld," 5 AlexanderMcGee,whom he called Saunders: " Here lieth the body of AlexanderMcGee, servant o Dr. Swift,Dean ofSt. Patrick's.His gratefulmaster caused thismonument o be erected n memory f hisdiscretion, idelity,nd diligence n thathumblestation." Swiftwas so devotedto Saunders thathe originallywrote his friendand master but was persuadedto changethe inscription.26He

22AdalineGlasheen,in A Census of "Finnegans Wake" (Evanston, 1956), makesthis identification. 23 See pp. 232, 413, 423, 493.24 See pp. 211, 349, 471, 486. 25 Correspondence,II, 127.26Patrick Delany, Observationsupon Lord Orrery'sRemarks on the Life andWritings fDr. Jonathan wift (London, 1754), p. 194.




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mentionshim in two poems," Mary the Cook-Maid's Letter"and " Dr. Swift o Dr. Sheridan."Joyce's Mrs Sanders . . withhershesterMrs. Shunders isnot only a Stella-Sundersbut a Stella-Vanessa compositeaswell,withSwiftnamed as " shift nd shuft." Saunders'epitaphsurvives nlyas " To theVeryHonourable . . theMost Noble,SometimeSweepyardat the Service of the Writer. Salutemdicint ; but some of the phrasesof "On the Death of Mrs.Johnson arecopiedverbatim.ThedescriptionsfStellaas " onlya littletoo fat and as " thetruest,mostvirtuous, nd valuablefriendhat , orperhaps nyother erson, verwas blessedwithbecomeJoyce's" onlytoo fat" and " which , or perhapsanyotherperson." Other lines in the paragraphalso originate nSwift:" this s herentertermentdags"" This is thenight f thefuneral ), " she shuk thebottle and tukthemedascene (" herfrequentfits of sickness"), and "had tastes of the poetics"(" She had a truetaste . . . bothin poetry nd prose ) .2 ButSwift'salmostunbearablymovingmemorial s made, by Joyce,deliberately ross. Here, in short, s the cloacal Swift and themistreated,nslavedStella of the egend. The condemnatoryonecontinuesnthefollowingaragraph " Hopsolooselykiddingyouaretotetherwithyour adenus ndgoatalongnose"), which icksup a wordVanessa repeats n two etters o Swift: " I am surecould have bornetherackbetter hanthosekilling, illingwordsofyours and " Consider hekilling motionswhich feelfromyour neglect ofme." 8 "Simply killing" is repeated n a laterVanessa (Issy) passage whichalso mentions"sester Maggy"(458-459).

The Mrs. Saunderspassage (413) demandsthat stillanotherlayerbe added to theletter nd " thegirlsfromBoston,Mass."Adaline Glasheen has demonstrated hat they are the "splitpersonality of Christine Sally) Beauchampand has identifiedMrs. Sanders as well as the othervariants (Senders,Enders,Anders) as "not a propernamebut a referenceo thesenderofthe letter." 9 They are, at least in part,however, urthertems27ProseWorks, d. T. Scott,XI, 127-132.28 Correspodence, II, 403; II, 445.29 " Finnegans Wake and theGirls fromBoston,Mass.," HudsonReview,VII (1954).89-96; and Census,s. v. Anders. Joycevariesthename as " Senders (369), " Enders"(412), and "Anders" (414).




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ofJoyce'sSwiftiana; nd sesterMaggy" is also connectedwithSwiftand Saundersthrough Mary the Cook-Maid's Letter :And now mustgo,andgetSaunders o direct hisLetter,For write uta sadScrawl, utmy isterMarget hewritesbetter.Joycemay also have had in mindVanessa's sisterMary (MollorMolkin), who died at Celbridge.As a whole he treatmentfVanessa is less elaboratethanthatofStella,whois roughly he equivalentofAnna Livia. Vanessais daughter nd youngrival;herthemesyllable s ess. Variedasiss, it blendsherwith sabel as well as Iseult and Eliza Draper.

She is also presentwithBerkeley,whomshe made legatee andexecutor f her estateand hence custodianof the Swift-Vanessapapers, nd is identifieds " heiress (538, 600). Err is anotheridentifyingyllableand has associationswith traveller errant,Gulliver)and error.30Joyceuses none of Swift'sotherpet names for her (Skinage,Heskinage, rGovernor uff),although wift's Missessy mayhave contributedo the ess-issantithesis." Sluttery's (181)recallsSwift's irstetters o herand theerroneousnterpretationof" Drinkyourcoffee as sexual intercourse: "I longto drinka dish of coffeen thesluttery."1Herlastname,vanHomrigh r vanHomerigh, roduces urtherby-play n that homerigh s anagrammed s norewhig earwig[21]). Her passionforSwift nd herpursuitofhim ead to suchpuns as " MesthressVanhungrig (406) and " old Auster andHungrig" (464). Her father,Bartholomewvan Homrigh,waslordmayorofDublin, and she may be " lairdiemeiress (550;cf. "heirs and ladymaidesses [11]) (If Joycealludes to hermother,HesterStone,the allusion s lost in a maze of others.)Her father'sname, and possibly her brother's, s given as" homerigh . . baretholobruised (21); " Mr. Vanhomrigh'shouse" (174); " Bartono knowhimmor" (247); " Barthalamouhomereek an hohmryk (314); "boortholomasvadnham-maggs (342); "Bortolo mio" (527); "Barktholed von Huna-rig" (535), punningon Berkeley as well as Bartholomew;" barthelemew (541); " Bartholomew (560); and " Bamtho-

s See, e. g., pp. 272-273.81 Correspondence,, 299,340.




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manew vimvam vomHumgerig" (623). His importance, ow-ever, s greater hanthisnumber f appearanceswouldindicate,sincehe ismergedwithJarlvanHoother (Dan Hoved [Howth])32He is also Shemand,as Bartholomew orter,HCE (560).Three otherwomenassociatedwithSwift,Letitia Pilkington,JaneWaring, nd Rebecca Dingley,figuren FinnegansWake;but only the first s of any importance. She appears withherhusbandMatthew, therubberendMr.Polkingtone (144), whoreappearsas " Pinkingtone (184). She is usually Letty, asDr. Delany addressedher.3 The diminutive, er maidenname,van Lewen,and the scandal of herhusband'sdivorcingher foradultery re combined n "Litty funLetty fanLeven" (184).

Otherreferenceso her are somewhatdubious,but juxtapositionwith otherSwiftianmaterial vokes her in " laetification (160,331), "out rawtheraetich" (174), and "jetties " (511). Thefun-lettyormulauggests n allusion n" funster'satitat" (50);she is apparently usedwithAnna Livia and Pavlova in " An-nushka LutetiavitchPufflovah (207); and she is probablyhintedat in "Letty Lerck's [Lady Luck's] lafing ight" (203)and in 'her Lettyshape (9229). Varina,Swift'sname forJaneWaring, s used in "'Estella Swifteor VarinaFay" (101), andshe is surely the thirdin " two psychic espousals and threedesertions (1929). Rebecca Dingleyplaysno role in FinnegansWake exceptas " Mrs Grumby (413), thestockfigure fmostSwiftianbiography;but her name appears several times inSwiftianpassages: " robecca or worse (203), " makingeveryDinny dingle" (3927),"Dingoldell " (360), and "Bebebekka"(471). Joycealso uses " DD " (413), the sign forStella andDingleytogethern the " little anguage."Other membersof the Dublin circle,Lord Orrery,PatrickDelany, and Thomas Sheridan,appear rarely. As an obviousallusionto themalicein his Remarkson theLife ofWritings fDr. Jonathan wift,Orrerys consistently ornery (109, 144,533) The first eference" dynasdescendance,nlythe son ofanother,n fact,ever ookedsufficientlyongly t a quite every-daylooking tampedaddressedenvelope ) seemsto be based onthe storythat Orrery'smalicewas due to his seeinga letterhe

32 See Joyce'sLetters,p. 247, forhis identificationf Dan Hoved as Howth.23Memoirsof Mrs. Letitia Pilkington,with an Introductionby Iris Barry (NewYork, 1928), p. 373.




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had written wiftstill unopened and endorsed n the Dean'shand, This willkeep cold." 4 It recalls s wellthat theRemarkswere nthe form f etters fadviceto hisson.Dr. Sheridan is mentionedonly once directly,n connectionwithhis " Artof Panning Punning] (184); buthiswordgamesand exchangesof wit with Swiftare mingledwith the city ofWashingtonnd itsplanner, 'Enfant: " in Sheridan'sCirclemywitsrepose . . pesteredLenfant (545).Delany, whose name has been spelled with and withoutaseconde, is mentioned s " Mr. Delaney (Mr. Delacey?) " (43),as "Declaney" (83), and "poor delaney" (84). His countryhouse at Glasnevin s mentioned wice,once withhis name andoncewithoutt (43, 503). The first eference" privately rintedat the rimepress f Delville ") alludes to the legendthat someof themoreinflammatoryf Swift'sbroadsideswereprinted nthe Delville cellar.35The " biografiend (55) is probablyOrrerybut possiblyDelany, who repliedto OrrerywithObservationsuponLord Orrery'sRemarksand whowas unjustly hastisedbyWilde: " Delany, in that mostunworthynd mostunphilosophi-cal attempt o explainthe so-calleddecay inhisunderstanding'whenhe sayshisfriend's ?) reason...." 36SirWilliamTemplehardyappears in FinnegansWake exceptthrough ishomein Surrey,Moor Park, whereSwiftmetStella.Temple's name is used only twice n passages that are unambig-uously Swiftian: once compositedwith Johnson,Stella's lastname,and the jail ofMount Joy (" whistlewhirlingourcrazyelegiesaroundTempletombmountoyntstone [192]), and oncedircetly s 'temple" (288). "Private privysuckatary" 177)alludes to Swift's mploymenty Temple and to the traditionalview of his ill-treatment. Moor Park," like "whim! whim!,"serves s a minor wiftian efrainnd s sometimeswice-repeated:" Moore-parque (359), " morepork!morepork! . . mauveport!mauveport! (407), " Never hate merepork (433), and " moorpark!morepark!" (449).Otherplace nameswhichJoyceuses are Hoey's Court,Swift'sbirthplace 514, 563): his living of Laracor (228): Celbridge(129): St. Patrick'sCathedral ndvariousplacesassociatedwith

8 See HenryCraik, The Life ofJonathanSwift (London, 1894), II, 197.8 See Maurice Craig,Dublin,1660-1860 (London,1952), p. 119.36 Wilde, . 34.

284 Sqviftianan 'Finnegans Wake'



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it,such as St. Patrick'sClose (442, 545), thesite of theDeaneryand Marsh's Library; the Coombe, where the "distress'dWeavers" of Swift's" Epilogue" lived; and the riverPoddle,flowing nderthe Cathedral (16, 106).Like Mrs.Pilkington, oyce pellsHoeyas Hoy:" thegodloph-ing-lad in the Hoy's Court " and " courting . . . hoy's house."He comments n the namein a letter oncerning PatrickHoey:" He is in fact a verygood [Shaun] all themore as his name isthe sameas myown. Joyeux, oyes, oyce Irish SheehyorHoey,the Irish change J into Sh e. g. James Sheumas John Shaunetc.) " Celbrdge (Irish, Cill-droichid, he church of thebridge),whereVanessa livedwhen she followed wift o Ireland,

is mentioned s " Cellbridge and, through he similarity f eelandkill, s " Killesther" (427), which lsopunson theplacenameKillesher,nFermanagh.An allusion s also likely n "Kilbride"(203), since the two are used in similar ontext.The allusions to St. Patrick'sare too manyto count and arealso inextricably angledwith allusions to the Saint. Marsh'sLibraryon St. Patrick'sClose is unnamed;but NarcissusMarsh,its founder nd the Primateof Ireland duringSwift's deanship,is namedin " withherestheryearsmarsh narcissus o makehimrecanthis vanittyfair (212). The Coombe is mentioned nseveralSwiftian assages (255,423,442,529) and in a parodyofthe spiritual WereYou ThereWhenThey Nailed Him to theCross? : " Were you therewhenthey lagged um through hecoombe?" (506).

IIThe SwiftianworkswhichJoyce lludesto mostfrequentlyreA Tale ofa Tub,theepigram n themagazine n the Park, andGulliver's ravels.The first s one ofthe manyshiftinghorusesrepeated n each chapter; hetreatmentt receives s comparableto that ofesther.t ispunnedwith ndportmanteaued,tsvowelsare shifted,t is reducedto one of its parts,and it is eventuallycompositedwith the symbolsof the elm tree and the stone(Tristan) It beginson the secondpage as " tetein a tub" andends as "Astale of astoun" (624). Its progress s sporadic:" tete in a tub" (4), " Tillinga teel of a tum,telling toll of a

S7 Letters,p. 244.

Mackie L. Jarrell



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teary urty aubling" (7), " Tal thetemofthe tumulum (56)," Try our Taal on a Taub " (105), and " the tale of a Treestone(113). This first lending s associatedwithSwiftbecause it isimmediately ollowed by " Cadman . . . Venis." Succeedingreferencesre of both varieties: " She tole the tail or her toon"(117), " every-tale-a-treat-in-itself(123), " tells he tailor ohistout;" (129), "a tale of a tub" (212), "every tellinghas ataling" (213), "I feel s old as yonder lm. A tale toldofShaunor Shem? (215), " Telmetale of stem or stone (216), " taal... tales ... Elmstreeto Stene" (9247), toll but a till" (266)," tales all tolled (275), "tubtail " (333), " tail of a tublin(335), "toil of his tubb" (354), "tale . . . mucktub (358)," tellofthe tud" (423), "the alum that winters n histopis thestale of the staun that will soar whenhe stambles illthat hag ofthecoombe rapes the pad offhis lock" (423). The last alludesto Lia Fail, the coronation tone that roaredwhena true Dedan-nan kingstepped on it; but it also refers o madnessby recallinganother favorite tem of Swiftiana,his remarkwhen he was" gazing ntently t thetop of a lofty lm,whose head had beenblasted that " ' I shall be like that tree; shall die first t thetop.' 38 The allusion s repeated n " wind-blasted ree (194)and "that bloastedtree (340) .The next allusionto the Tale, Shaun's claim that he is thePenman,that Shem stolehisworkfromhim (" The last word nstolentelling.... He store the tale of me shur" [424-425]) recallsas well Swift'sannoyancewhen "that littleparson cousin ofmine,"Thomas Swift,was creditedwith the authorship f theTale.39Later variations re " robbing eaves out ofmytaletoldbook " (453) and " twist the penman's tale posterwise ... gist ofShaum ... hand of Sameas [Thomas ?]" (483). The final allu-sions are all in Swiftian ontext:" talkingtreend sinningstone(564), "ellme, elmmeelskmestoon (572), " a stale as a stub"(598), and " Astale ofastoun" (624).The threebrothers fthe Tale, Peter, Martin, nd Jack, erveas another minor Swiftian theme: " paterjackmartins" (7)," Pete,Jake orMartin (26), " padderiagmartin (86), " Paudthe roosky . .. jollyjacques . . . Mr Mathurin " (335), " when Istabmarooned jack and marturin ... sankt piotersbarq" (549).

"8 Wilde,p. 28.80 Correspondence,, 184.




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They arehardly eparablefrom hemorefrequentlyamedTom,Dick, and Harry or any otherversionof the Three Soldiers. Itis temptingtoo to read "brothers Coathes, ye have swallenblooders'oathes ... god ofclothildies" (3925)as an allusiontothe Tale and its clothesphilosophy, ince the lines occur in agospfather aragraph n Swiftian nd nauticalcontext.Gulliver'sTravels is used less frequently han the Tale. Thetitle or hero s variedas " gullible's roubles (453), " GorotskyGollovar'sTroubles" (294), "Bollivar's trubles (453), "She-muel Tulliver" (464), and "travel. Galliver and Gellover(620). Lilliput,Brobdingnag,nd Glubbdubdribrecombinedn

-Braudribnob's n thebummel?-And lillypet'sn the ea (491);and again, in the copulationscene, in a manner which recallsSwift'setymological lay withLaputa: " Bigrobdignagging islylyputtana (583). Lilliput s suggested ooby"'lilipath (292)and " Lalipat " (284). Most ofthepunning n theother ags ofGulliver s fairly bvious,as in yahoo-yogurtnd MasterBates-masturbates.Yahoo is "unskimmedsooit and yahoort (9205)," theLigueof Yahooth" (310), " Yah hoo howhow" (348), and" yaghoodurt.. horsepowers" 387). It is also combinedwithhouyhnhn.mnd other eferenceso horses:" thisyohouand thathoumonymh" 490) and "yahoomen ... arabinstreeds" 553) .Gulliver'sMaster Bates is firstevoked in "Mastabatoom,mastabadtomm (6), in a pun on mastaba. He is named in"Wit-upon-Crutcheso Master Bates " (9209),whichrefers o"Wit upon Crutches,or, the Biter Bitten," a poem formerlyattributed o Swiftbut recently ejected from he canon. Theformulaof the "biter bit," however, s one whichSwiftusesrepeatedly; nd Joyce'suse of it, as in " bitterbite" (1892) and" biter'sbitters (434) is another wiftian cho. The final llu-sion to Master Bates is " bottes (Master!)" (288).The Struldbrugsppearonly nce, s " strulldeburghhers!nmnhnmn! (623); buthouyhnhnmnpairedsyllables, s in the lastexample, s anotherrunninghorus hroughoutinnegansWake.It occurs,forexample,as " Wimwimwimwim" (101), "Mum-mum (259), " Bimbimbimbim . . Himhimhimhim" (314),"whimwhimwhimwhim (331), " Shinshin.Shinshin" (336),"Himhim. Himhim (371), " Hummum (416), " DumnlimnMackie L. Jarrell 287



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wimnhumn (443), " In sum, omehum? (514), " rimrim!im-rim!" (553), and "Himkim kimkim" (598). As furtherndi-cationthat these are Swiftian eferences,heyare characteristi-callycombinedwith a pun on magazine wall. Houyhnhnm lsoappears n other orms: houhnhymn (15), "Mr. Hllumhum..Mr. Himmyshimmy (173), " whinshumming (261), " humlikehymn (447), " womn n hishym to the hum" (465), " Itwham. But whim I can't whumember" (493), and " whin-ninaird" (541).The motifwhich connectsSwiftmost specificallywith thetheme of the novel, the fall (of Finnegan,Humpty Dumpty,HCE, Adam,and man), is that of the Magazine Wall. A full-lengthparodyof Swift'sepigramoccurs in the first ewpages(12-13), but the phrase is introduced ven earlier ("magazinewall,whereour maggyseen all" [7]). And Joyce s tireless nvariations: "By the mausolimewall. Fimfimfimfim" (13)."makeussinwall (sinsin!sinsin!)" (116), "By his magmasinefall (294), " And the maidies screamall. Himhimhimhim"(314), " in imageascene ll: whimwhim himwhim (331), " Onthe mizzatint wall . . . crimm crimms" (884), "magazine hall,by the magazinewall" (497), " magicsencewall (rimrim! im-rim!)" (553), and "margarseenoil. Thinthin hinthin" (615).Relatedpunsare" mortarscene" 314) and"medascene" (413).Joyce'susual formula f referenceo The Drapier's Letters sWood's halfpence:"woodpiles of haypennies" (11), "woodenhalf-pence (413-414), and " wood's haypence (586), with anoccasionalreferenceo copper (228), and a distortionfthe titleto " The CrazierLetters (104; cf. "dean's crozier [180]). Asentence romThe Drapier'sLetters, But in Fact, Eleven Menwell armedwill certainly ubdue one singleMan in his Shirt,"was first sed, n garbledform,n Ulysses; 0 it is furtherarbledin FinnegansWake to " For one man in his armourwas a fatmatchalwaysforany girlsundershurts (23) and is echoed, fremotely, n " man, in shirt ... la gonna [petticoat, punning ondonna] ermobile (292), " How a mans in his armorwe nursesknow" (361), and "man ofArmor" (446). (The repetition fthisformulamaybe due to an associationwiththemeat-packinghouses ofArmour nd Swift.)A comparable uotationfromA Proposalfor heUniversalUse

40 The Drapier'sLetters, d. HerbertDavis (Oxford, 935), p. 79; Ulysses,p. 573.




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of Irish Manufacture (" I heard the late Archbishop f Tuammentiona pleasant Observationof some Body's; that Irelandwould neverbe happy till a law weremade forburning veryThing that came fromEngland,except theirPeople and theirCoals "1) 1 is distorted o " Burnonlywhat's rish, ccepting heircoals" (447).Anotherpassage is a parody-portmanteauf the decipheringsectionof Gulliver (" For Instance,theycan decypher Close-stool to signify Privy-Council;. . a Broom,a Revolution )and ofSwift's ttack onMarlboroughn The Examiner,wherehecomputes hedifferenceetween a billofRomangratitude anda "bill of British ngratitude: "that Father Michael aboutthis red time of the white terror quals the old regimeandMargaret is the social revolutionwhile cakes mean the partyfunds nd dearthankyou signifies ationalgratitude."2Allusions o the Bickerstaffapers are more ntricatelynter-woven with otherallusionsthan are most of the othertitles.Swift'spseudonym f Isaac Bickerstaffs mixedwiththe storyof Sarah's laughterwhenthebirthof Isaac was predicted,withthe Irish Isaac Bickerstaff, ith saac Butt, and possiblywithJosephBigger,a Parnell aide. JohnPartridge, wift'sbutt, ismixed withSt. Patrick. One ofthemoregothiccombinations sJoyce'sassociation of Swift'skillingoffPartridge, hrough hepredictionof his death, with the holy mountain of CroaghPatrick: " howhyenesmeal e was layinghim ong on his laugh-side lyingsack [Isaac] to croakpartridge (301) and "croak inhiscry.... Your partridge'sast!" (344). Partridges probablypresenttoo in " I am perdrix nd upon my pet ridge (447)and " 0 mis padredges (478). Bickerstaffs "bickerrstaff(178), " bitterstiffork rbattonstafflay" (366), and " Bigger-stiff!" (413). The context fall these s clearlySwiftian xceptforthelast twopunson Partridge.The Journal o Stella is constantly efore hereaderbecauseofthe" little anguage," hat" siamixed woatalk of" thestardaftjournalwriter" (439). RepeatedlyJoyceuses not only Swift'sMD and Ppt but hispdfr " rpdrpd, llaudingto himby all the

41 Irish Tracts and Sermons, d. HerbertDavis, withan Introduction y Louis Landa(Oxford, 948), p. 17.42 Gulliver'sTravels,ed. HerbertDavis (Oxford, 941), p. 175; The Prose WorksofJonathanSwift, d. Davis (Oxford, 939-), III, 23; FW, p. 116.




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licknames n the litany" [234]) and his puzzling ele, generallyread as there: " Leally and tululy" (89), " Lully ... loll Lolly....Well, all right,Lelly " (96), " Lel lols " (250), " lil lolly " (331),and " lelly . . . lilly" (396) . Joyce makes frequent use of Swift'snauti for naughty and sawci for saucy: " saucicissters" (96)," NotylytlDantsigirls (105), " naughtingels (359), " neatsung gels" (361), and " naughtingerls (450); andhe also adopts,with variations,Swift's systemof consonant substitutionsnwords like " Good marrams" (315, 316). Examples are toonumerous o list.Swift's therworks ppear mainly hroughheirnames. Direc-tions to Servants s " directions o henservants (432), presum-ably because of Biddy (Brigit) and as a backwards pun onmanservant. Swift's The WonderfulWonderof Wonders andThe Wonder f All the Wonders hat Ever theWorld WonderedAt are alludedto in " Ireland'sEighthWonderfulWonder (71)," wonderfullyunder ll of it with a whole number" (84), and" the winnerful onders ff,hewinnerful onnerful anders ff(265). And, as Mrs. Glasheenpoints out, Joyce's" Mad Mul-lans" (279) probablyrefers o " Mad Mullinixand Timothy,"one ofSwift'smanyattacksonRichardTighe,theTimothy fthepoem. Since Mullinix s Tom (cf. Swift's" Tom Mullinex andDick"), one mightexpectto findSwiftianreferencen Joyce'spuzzlingTighe and Madges Tighe [majesty] (369, 408) and inthe Tom-Timpair throughout he novel. Yet I can findnoSwiftian onnection ere, lthough he Auden n the" Mad Mul-lans" note is probablythe SurgeonJohnAudouin of "MadMullinix ndTimothy."43Three other itemsof Swiftiana, itherhis words or sayingsattributed o him, appear in FinnegansWake. " What a bag-ateller t is" (415) recalls Swift'smaxim, Vive la bagatelle! ;"dearly beloved Roggers" (413) refers o the story that atLaracor,wherehis congregation as distressinglymall,he oncebegan the servicewith " Dearly beloved Roger, the scripturemovethyou and me in sundry laces." RogerCox, Swift's lerk,was somethingf a wit and a versifier,nd he is alluded to also in" sternswift nd jolly roger . . Cox's " (66) 4 ccI yam as 1

4 Poems,III, 781n.44 The story of " dearly beloved Roger" was first old by Orrery (p. 2O) and hasbeen repeated n mostbiographies fSwift. See RobertWyse Jackson,Jonathan wift,Dean and Pastor (London, 1939), for an account of Cox.




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yam" (604) is an echo of the storytold by Deane SwiftofSwift's enility: upon thehousekeeper's emoving knifefromhimas he wasgoing o catch at it, he shrugged isshoulders.nd,rockinghimself, e said, I am what am, I am what I am,' 45OtherbitsofSwiftian iographyeem to me to be included nFinnegansWake. The Prankquean'skidnaping f theJiminiesslargelybased on GraceO'Malley and the Earl ofHowth,but thekidnaping fthe nfant wift yhis toofondnurse s also alludedto. Swift ecorded ewdetailsofthe ncident xceptthat she tookhimto Whitehaven, ept himthreeyears,and instructed im sowell that at three" he could read any chapter n the Bible." 6Both thePrankquean'sreligiousnstruction" and he became a

tristian [22]) andJoyce's ssociation fHowthwithwhite, s in"Whitehowth (535) link the passage to this strange ventofSwift's hildhood. The incident nFinnegansWake is, ofcourse,considerablywider n scope than Swiftianbiography. t alludesalso to the kidnaping of Patrick and is, it seems to me, asynopsis f reland'sreligious istory; ut it is also an expositionof thethree oles ofJonathan wift: witand satirist, arson, ndpatriot. It contains surprisinglyargenumber fother wiftianreferences,uch as the identificationf the Earl ofHowthwithvan Homrighand the garbled quotation fromThe Drapier'sLetters.Referencesto "first fruits" in Swiftian context (" frutingforfirstlingsnd takingher tithe [12], "his first f themonthfroods [34], and " firstbornnd firstfruitfwoe" [194]) recallthatSwiftwas sent to England to lobbyfor heremission ftheFirst Fruits to the Irishchurch.It is hard to knowwhere o stopthecatalogue. Remaining rea scoreofminoror dubious tems,manyofwhichwouldrequiremore demonstration han their mportancewarrants, nd a fewotherthemeswhichbecome associatedwithSwiftthroughun-wearyingrepetition."Princess promises" (183), forexample,suggests, long with"In Princesneverput thyTrust,"Swift'sannoyancethat the Princess of Wales, later Queen Caroline,promised imsomemedalswhichhe neverreceived:

I promis'd im, own;butwhen?I onlywasthePrincesshen.474 Wilde,p. 47. '" Prose Works, d. T. Scott, XI, 376.4 Verseson theDeath ofDr. Swift, n Poems, I, 566, 559.




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A one-quatrainburlesque of Cadenus and Vanessa introduces" Tame Schwipps (146). " Pilgarlick," sed inboththe Journalto Stella and Polite Conversation, s used in Swiftian ontext.48" Andhoney s the holiest hing verwas,hive, omb, nd earwax,the food forglory" (25) at least calls to mind Aesop's words nTheBattle of theBooks: " we have rather hose to fill ur Hiveswith HONEY and WAX, thus furnishing ankind with the twoNoblest ofThings,which re SWEETNESS and LIGHT."49Amongthe major Swiftian hemes s the chorusof laughter,sometimesmerry, ometimesmad, throughout he novel. It isusually given as some form f" ah ho," which s Swift'sformulain the Journal o Stella. It is early stablished s a Swiftianmotifand is repeated in at least twentyseparate passages, with orwithout therSwiftiana.50A fairexampleof a dubiousmotif sthe buttonhole f LemuelGulliver, onnectedwiththebutt-goat-kid-cadcluster. " The buttinghole f Shemuel Tulliver" (464)invites the speculation that "budinholder" (320), "bottle-holders (366), " buntingpall" (549), and "bottle in a hole"(556) are ikewise obe readas Swiftian,lthough he readerwhodoes so mustfeel hatthehaystack urns ut to be embarrassinglyfullofneedles.Yet annotation y separation nd classificationf temscannotdo full usticeto Joyce'suse of Swiftianmaterial. For example,thesecondparagraph n p. 545,which s HCE's self-defense,asfewof the familiar wiftian yllablesor themesbut is rich inSwiftiana. It combines in a few lines Swift's obsessionwithwalking orhishealth (" Struggling orlongs have livramentoed,milles nmilles ), the"seralgio" ofbeggar- nd market-womenforwhichOrrery eproached nd Delany defendedhim (" seral-cellars ) "1 the Dubin gossip about Vanessa and the many" libels heprovoked cf.Swift's I everfeared hetattleofthisnastytown and Joyce's" have tattledtall tales of me in theland i) ,52 his projectforbadgingstreet-beggarsnd his carefulpatrolof the Close and the Coombe (" in streetwauks that aredarkest debelledemuperb; deemedthedrugtailsnmy petty-

'8Journal o Stella, ed. Harold Williams (Oxford,1948), p. 388; Prose Works, ed.T. Scott, XI, 256; FW, p. 413.49Prose Works, d. Davis, I, 151.

5 See, e. g., pp. 7, 96, 117; and 161, 180, 184, 212, 215, 259, 314, et passim."' Orrery, . 83; Delany, pp. 128-133.52 Correvondence, II, 443 (letterto Vanessa).




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courts nd domstered ustyfeetsnmyhusinclose"), andhisroleas Irishpatriot (" I revolucanized y my eructions), togetherwitha referenceo theexchanges f witwithDr. Sheridan,wordswhich ecallStella (" pestered," estoiled," flister"),and a punon " saltire."There are also, of course,numerouspassages which,withoutSwiftianmotifs,mmediatelyvoke him for the Swiftian.Suchis an especiallyengaging ection of " Anna Livia Plurabelle":" ruful ontinence . . holdingdoomsdag .. dreeinghis weird,withhisdanderup .. . was Parish worth hettemess" (198-199).These passages may trouble the annotatorbut not the reader;theyare, n fact,theraisond'etreand the signaltriumph f theJoyceanmethod. Swift annotbe distinguishedromQuixoteofthe Rueful Countenanceor Christor HenryIV. The Dean ofSt. Patrick's cannotbe untangled rom heSaint; the irascibilityand longsenility fVico cannotbe separatedfrom heirascibilityand senilityof Swift;the houyhnhnmsannot be set offfrom" Hengegst nd Horsesauce withtheirheads in the " tale tub"(272) or from he Dublin Horse Show. For FinnegansWake isthe greatcomicEverymanas well as the Paradise Lost of ourtime.

IIIThis survey hows hatJoyce's wiftianas bothmore xtensiveand more central to the novel than one mightsuppose. Theamountofminutiae, uch as theuse made ofSaunders or oftheattack on Marlboroughn The Examiner (and I have undoubt-edlymissedmanycomparabledetails) reveals a thorough,lose,and knowledgeable eadingof Swift. Yet the omissions re alsosurprisingnd recall Dr. Johnson'sdecisionthat the best partof literatures biography.For the SwiftofFinnegansWake isa tragicomic redaction of the Swift legend. In spite of theminutiae,Joycemakes ittleuse ofSwift'sworks;he uses insteadthenamesand tags found n anybriefbiography.It is easy to see whyJoycefoundthe legendto his taste. Itis ambiguous, mbivalent, aradoxical, usceptible o all thecon-trollingdeas ofourcentury-a prizepacketofrelativism,ulturalanthropologicalmyth,Freud,Krafft-Ebing,ationalism nd theglobal " troubles,"and the quest forreligiousdogma. Swift shero-scapegoat-scapegrace;nvader-gall-patriot;riest," prosta-Mackie L. Jarrell 293



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tute,"and Presto. He is dol-Finn.Trying o disentangle oyce'sown view of Swiftfrom he legend s as unrewardings tryingto cut off he Saint from he Cathedral. Joyce s uncommitted;the egend ay inhisway andhe found t. At times heprotrudingtongue-in-cheekecomeswearying, nd at times it seemsmis-placed on Olympus;but Joyce, ike Swift, s fonderof Momusthan Jove. The Swiftscholar too can share in the ambiguousgrace ofFinnegan,Wake, for he egendwhichhas plaguedSwiftcriticism ortwo centuries as a centralpart in one of themostvexing nd themostdiverting ooksof our time.53

ConnecticutCollege

" SwiftwrotePope (Correspondence,II, 276) that his end in writingGulliverwas" to vex the worldrather han divert t."


Documents

Swiftiana in Finnegans Wake