Nehemiah ("comfort of Jehovah") - (1) Jewish leader, empowered by Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem after captivity, (2) book of the Old Testament + no home-iah + song Home, Sweet Home: 'There's no place like home'.
yea - yes, more than this, not only so but
melekh (Hebrew) - king
khan - a title (now of slight import) commonly given to rulers, officials, or men of rank in Central Asia, Afghanistan, etc.
cum sceptris (l) - with sceptres + concepta (l) - conceived + Angelus: 'et concepit de Spiritus Sancto' (l) - 'and she conceived of the Holy Ghost'.
centaur - Mythol. A fabulous creature, with the head, trunk, and arms of a man, joined to the body and legs of a horse; an unnatural hybrid creation; an intimate union of two diverse natures.
Hokmah - Hebrew "divine wisdom"
metheg (Hebrew) - bit (for a horse); a typographical mark (used in the bible)
''Though this be
madness, yet there is method in 't.'' (William
Shakespeare: "Hamlet", Act 2 scene 2) [Lord Polonius: What do you read, my
lord? Hamlet:
Words, words, words. Lord Polonius: What is the matter, my lord? Hamlet: Between
who? Lord Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. Hamlet: Slanders,
sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their
faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that
they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir,
though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have
it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you
could go backward. Lord Polonius: [Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is
method in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
Hamlet: Into my grave.]
heaven + Genesis 3:19: 'unto dust shalt thou return'.
doth - do
heave - to throw, cast, fling, toss, hurl (esp. something heavy, that is lifted and thrown with effort).
fallacy - deceptiveness, aptness to mislead, unreliability
punical - faithless, treacherous
finikin - over-delicately wrought or finished; also, insignificant, paltry, trifling.
Scheherazade and Dunyazad - sisters from 'The Thousand and One Nights' (regaling King Shahryar with their endless night-time story-cycle, thus distracting him from his design to ravish and slay a maiden a night) + scherzi (it) - jokes.
stage - to represent (a character, an incident) on the stage
Sudlow, Bessie - Dublin actress, Mrs Michael Gunn
Mistinguette - French dancer (d. 1956). In silver, Mistinguette descended a gold staircase.
pantaloon - in modern harlequinade or pantomime, a character represented as a foolish and vicious old man, the butt of the clown's jokes, and his abettor in his pranks and tricks.
Pitt, William (1759-1806) - English prime minister during the Napoleonic Wars. His father, William Pitt the Elder, was also prime minister.
patronize - to favour or support with one's expenditure or custom; to frequent as a customer or visitor + pay through the nose - to pay an excessive price (They patronize small and exclusive shops where they cheerfully pay through the nose.)
Galatea - (1) nymph loved by Polyphemus and slain by him because she loved Acis; (2) Pygmalion's statue, animated by Venus.
holograph - a document wholly in the handwriting of the person whom it proceeds + Joyce's note: 'holograph'.
exhume - to dig out or remove (something buried) from beneath the ground
sigla - letters (esp. initials) or other characters used to denote words; abbreviations or marks of abbreviation.
to dine with Duke Humphrey - to go dinnerless + dook - duck.
spalpeen - a common workman or labourer; Used contemptuously: A low or mean fellow, a scamp, a rascal; a youngster, a boy.
Joyce's note: 'Lucalizod' → Lucan - Dublin environ on the Liffey. Two earls of Lucan may have interested Joyce: (1) Patrick Sarsfield, a Wild Goose, who fought under James II, died in 1693, saying, "O that this were for Ireland!"; (2) Lord Lucan, who commanded cavalry at Balaclava and is associated by Joyce with the Light Brigade. In FW, Lucan is often linked with its neighboring environ, Chapelizod, usually as "Lucalizod," which links Issy and the two Isoldes to Lucia Joyce and Alice. (Glasheen, Adaline / Third census of Finnegans wake.)
In 1886, the British Home Secretary was named HCE Childers, nicknamed 'Here Comes Everybody' because of his girth + FDV: and whether he was always Coxon for his cronies and good duke Humphrey for the ragged tiny folk of Lucalizod
crony - an intimate friend or associate, a 'chum'
populace - the common people
normative - establishing or setting up a norm or standard
imposing - that impresses by appearance or manner
FDV: An Imposing enough everybody indeed he looked and worthy of that title as he sat surveyed the playhouse on gala nights in from the royal booth where he sat with all his house with broadstretched kerchief cooling neck & shoulders & wardrobepanelled coat clawhammer tuxedo thrown back from a shirt wellnamed a swallowall far outstarching the laundered lordies clawhammers and marbletopped highboys of the pit. A baser meaning has been read into these letters, the literal sense of which decency can dare but touch. It has been suggested that he suffered from a vile disease. To such a suggestion the only selfrespecting answer is to affirm that there are certain statements which ought not to be, and one would like to be able to add, ought not to be allowed to be made. There was a case of the kind implicating a man named Lyons [who was posted at Mallon's and] who years afterward dropped dead whilst waiting for a chop in Hawkins street. Nor have his detractors who [an imperfectly warmblooded race] apparently think him capable of any or every enormity [recorded to the discredit of the Juke & Kellikek families] mended their case by insinuating that he was at one time under the ludicrous imputation of annoying soldiers in the park rushes. To anyone who knew and loved H. C. E. this suggestion is preposterous. Slander, let it do its worst, has never been able to convict that good and great man of any greater worse misdemeanour impropriety than that of an incautious exposure and partial at that having behaved in an ungentlemanly manner in the presence of certain two a pair of nursemaids maidservants in the rushy hollow whither nature as they alleged had spontaneously & at the same time sent them both [but each of] whose testimony testimonies is are, if not dubious, at any rate slightly divergent in on minor points [touching what was certainly an incautious, but at the most, a partial exposure [with attenuating circumstances. [during an exceptional abnormal S Martin's summer.]]]
Joyce's note: 'magnificently well'
survey - to look at from, or as from, a height or commanding position
vociferate - to utter with a loud voice
White Head, White Hat - Finn MacCool is often said to mean "white head" on "white hat"; "head" identifies him with "Howth", which is Danish "head" + Moore and Burgess Minstrels used the catch-phrase 'take off that white hat!' (Ulysses.8.605).
relieve - to make less tiring, tedious, monotonous, or disagreeable, by the introduction of variety or of something striking or pleasing.
grog - a drink consisting of spirits (originally rum) and water, to drink grog.
log - any record in which facts about the progress or performance of something are entered in the order in which they become known; log-book.
loot - money
bassa voce (it) - low voice + voco (l) - call, shout + basvoco (Ido - an artificial language) - bass.
treating house - a house of entertainment or refreshment, an eating-house + The Gaiety Theatre on Dublin's King Street.
satin - resembling satin in texture or surface
lustre - sheen, gloss, luminosity
floats = footlights - a row of lights on a stage floor, the stage as a profession.
veldt (Afrikaans) - open bushy country in South Africa
oxgang - an old english unit of land area, varying from ten to eighteen acres
unanimously - with unanimity; with agreement in aim, opinion, or action.
semper (l) - always + Kelly, W. W. - manager of the Evergreen Touring Company of Liverpool, which toured the British Isles before 1914 with Wills's A Royal Divorce. Mr Atherton says a real white horse was brought on stage.
evergreen - always fresh, never-failing + immer (ger) - always, ever.
tourer - one who tours or goes on tour
command performance - a theatrical, musical, etc. performance given by royal command.
courteous - gracious, gentle
millenary - a continuous period of one thousand years + century
ambitious - thirsting after honour or advancement; rising, swelling, towering.
bo - fellow + BOHEMIA - Province, West Czech, subject of Balfe's opera, "The Bohemian Girl." Arlene, heroine of the opera is a high-born girl, stolen by gypsies, who dreams she dwells in marble halls and is restored to high place and faithful lover.
Lily of Killarney - Benedict's opera, based on The Colleen Bawn or "Fair Girl."
command night - the night on which a theatrical performance, etc. is given by (royal) command.
viceregal - of or pertaining to, associated with, a viceroy
booth - a temporary structure covered with canvas, or the like, a tent.
ceilinged - having a ceiling