quark - quawk (the cry of a duck or night-heron); any of a group of sub-atomic particles conceived of as having a fractional electric charge and making up in different combinations the hadrons, but not detected in the free state + 'I employed the sound ''quork'' for several weeks in 1963 before noticing ''quark'' in ''Finnegans Wake'', which I had perused from time to time since it appeared in 1939. The allusion to three quarks seemed perfect. I needed an excuse for retaining the pronunciation quork despite the occurrence of ''Mark'', ''bark'', ''mark'', and so forth in Finnegans Wake. I found that excuse by supposing that one ingredient of the line ''Three quarks for Muster Mark'' was a cry of ''Three quarts for Mister...'' heard in H. C. Earwicker's pub.' (M. Gell-Mann, private let. to Ed., 27 June 1978.)
muster - a pattern, specimen, example + mister
King Mark. His ship is taking Tristan and Isolde from Ireland to Cornwall for her marriage to King Mark. Isolde's nurse provided love potion to both instead of poison to the despairing Isolde. Tristan is betraying Mark, with Isolde. The initials of Tristan, Isolde, and Mark spell Tim, Finnegan's name. Three triplets and a quatrain satirically announce the imminent eclipse of immanent old King Mark by his trusted young knight Tristan (Eric Rosenbloom: A word in your ear).
bark - a small ship; in earlier times, a general term for all sailing vessels of small size, e.g. fishing-smacks, xebecs, pinnaces; in modern use, applied poetically or rhetorically to any sailing vessel + (impotence).
beside the mark - not directly related to the main point of a discussion
According to a folktale, the wren became king of the birds by riding on the eagle's back and thus flying higher than all other birds.
lark - a frolicsome adventure, a spree; a small boat + skylark - brown-speckled European lark noted for singing while hovering at a great height + Ulysses.5.12: 'Corny Kelleher... Singing with his eyes shut. Corny. Met her once in the park. In the dark. What a lark' + FDV: But O Wreneagle Almighty wouldn't we un be a sky of a lark
buzzard - name for the genus Buteo of birds of the falcon family; fig. A worthless, stupid, or ignorant person.
whoop - to hoot, as an owl + whoop it up (colloq. (orig. U.S.)) - to create a disturbance + whooping crane - rare North American crane having black-and-white plumage and a trumpeting call + FDV: To see that old buzzard whooping about for his uns shirt in the dark
speckled - covered, dotted, or marked with (numerous) speckles or specks + FDV: And he hunting round for his uns speckled trousers around by Palmerston Park.
Palmerston, Henry John Temple, 3d viscount (1784-1865) - Irish peer, absentee landlord, British secretary for war. Palmerston Park is an environ of Dublin.
moult - to cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers
rum - good, fine, excellent; odd, strange, queer
rooster - a cock; transf. of persons
flop - Of a bird: To flap the wings heavily.
Noah's Ark - the ark in which Noah and his family, with many animals, were saved from the Flood. Birds were sent out from Noah's Ark to find land.
cock of the walk - the chief person of a circle, coterie, etc. + wark = work (obs. and dial.)
tristy - sad, sorrowful; trustful, confident, trustworthy, faithful + Tristan
spry - active, nimble, brisk; full of health and spirits
spark - a young man of an elegant or foppish character; one who affects smartness or display in dress and manners
tread - Of the male bird: To copulate with (the hen).
bed - to lay in bed, put to bed
red - to make red; to blush
wink - to shrink, wince
overhove - to hover or float over or above + overhoved (Danish) - chief, head + Hoved - Danish name of Howth in the 9th century.
shrill - Of voice, sound: Of a sharp high-pitched piercing tone.
wing - to use one's wings, take flight, fly
seahawk - one of various gull-like birds, as one of the skuas, and the frigate-bird
seagull = gull
curlew - a grallatorial bird of the genus Numenius, with a long slender curved bill
plover - the common name of several gregarious grallatorial (limicoline) birds of the family Charadriidæ
kestrel - a species of small hawk (Falco tinnunculus, or Tinnunculus alaudarius), remarkable for its habit of sustaining itself in the same place in the air with its head to the wind.
capercailzie - the Wood-grouse (Tetrao urogallus), the largest of European gallinaceous birds
Who Killed Cock Robin? (nursery rhyme): 'All the birds of the air'
troll - to sing (something) in the manner of a round or catch; to sing in a full, rolling voice; to chant merrily or jovially
ribald - humorously vulgar
smack - to open or separate (the lips) in such a way as to produce a sharp sound; to kiss noisily or loudly (obs.); to perceive by the sense of taste; Also fig., to experience, to suspect.
Kuss (ger) - kiss + kus (Turkish) - bird + because + ("U" instead of "I" = "you" instead of "I").
trust + Tristan and Isolde + FDV: Over them the winged ones screamed shrill glee: seahawk, seagull, curlew and plover, kestrel and capercailzie. All the birds of the sea they trolled out rightbold when they smacked of the big kiss of Tristan Trustan with Isolde Usolde.
whilest - obs. form of whilst + (this is the earliest version of the "Mamalujo" sequence which Joyce combined with the "Tristan and Isolde" piece in 1938).
whitecaps - white-crested waves in a windy weather + Thomas Moore, Irish Melodies: song The Wine-Cup Is Circling.
Joyce's note: 'as slow their
ship' → Moore's Melodies: [Title]: 'As
slow our ship her foamy track' MS 47481-95, TM: ^+As slow their ship+^ [...] The
handsome ^+sunburnt ^+brineburnt+^+^ 6 footer | JJA 56:008 | Aug 1923 |
upborne = upbear - to bear up, support, sustain; fig. To support or sustain; to exalt + (notebook 1923): 'upon the water' → O. Henry: The Four Million 5: 'Tobin's Palm': 'goes on the palmist... "Ye'll make a voyage upon the water very soon, and have a financial loss"' + Genesis 1:2: 'And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters'.
waters + waves + war-horse.
by courtesy - by favour or indulgence; by common good will or allowance, as distinguished from inherent or legal right + (notebook 1923): 'the courtesy of God' → Bédier: The Romance of Tristram and Iseult 135: 'The Ordeal by Red-Hot Iron': 'My lady dreads the day of the ordeal; nevertheless, she trusts to the courtesy of God, who saved her from the hands of the lepers'.
tableau (fr) - picture, painting, scene + "Mr Wallenstein Washington Semperkelly's immergreen tourers" [032.29]
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 + kaemper (Danish) - giant.
listen in - to listen to a broadcast programme (radio sets were once also called 'listening-in sets'); to listen secretly to a telephone conversation
Dorf (ger) - village
dubbel dorp (Dutch) - double hamlet → Doubleham = Dublin.
donker (Dutch) - dark + donkey.
tourney - tournament + Tornio river, Finland + The Encyclopædia Britannica vol. X, 'Finland', 383b: 'At the head-waters of the Torneå, Finland penetrates as a narrow strip into the heart of the highlands of Kjölen (the Keel), where the Halderfjäll (Lappish, Halditjokko) reaches 4115 ft. above the sea, and is surrounded by other fjälls, or flat-topped summits'.
vox (l) - voice + vixens + vuoksi (Finnish) - flood, high tide + The Encyclopædia Britannica vol. X, 'Finland', 383c: 'the Vuoksen, flows into Lake Ladoga, forming the mighty Imatra rapids'.
Kemi river, Finland + coming in + The Encyclopædia Britannica vol. X, 'Finland', 383c: 'Two large rivers, Kemi and Torneå, enter the head of the Gulf of Bothnia'.
Hatta - Anglo-Saxon messenger in Through the Looking-Glass + joki (Finnish) - river.