Easter supper - the passover; the 'Last Supper' (the last meal that Jesus ate before he died)
mistletoe - a parasitic plant of Europe, Viscum album, growing on various trees (in Britain, frequently on the apple-tree, rarely on the oak) and bearing a glutinous fruit, from which a birdlime is prepared. This plant was held in veneration by the Druids, esp. when found growing on the oak. It is still used in England in Christmas decorations, a bunch of it being commonly hung from the ceiling of a room or hall.
bygone - that has gone by, past + MMLJ: the dear annual they all four memembored [how] they used to be cuddling and kissing under the mistlethrush and listening in the good old bygone days Dion Boucicault of in Arrah na Pogue
Dion Boucicault - (b. 1820, Dublin - d. 1890, New York), Irish-American playwright and actor, a major influence on the form and content of American drama. Boucicault and his actress wife joined Laura Keene's theatre in 1860 and began a series of his popular Irish plays--The Colleen Bawn (1860), Arrah-na-Pogue (1864), The O'Dowd (1873), and The Shaughraun (1874). Returning to London in 1862, he provided Joseph Jefferson with a successful adaptation of Rip Van Winkle (1865).
Arrah, in the play, saves her foster brother from execution for his role in the political uprising, by a kiss, during which she effects an exchange from her mouth to his of a small scroll containing the plans for his escape.
otherworld - the spirit-land of many non-Christian peoples
O'Clery - surname of three of the Four Masters
collegian - a member or inmate of a college + On his return to England, Dion Boucicault produced at the Adelphi Theatre a dramatic adaptation of Gerald Griffin's novel, The Collegians, entitled The Colleen Bawn. The Collegians (1829), is Gerald Griffin's best-known novel. Based on a notorious murder committed in Co. Limerick, it tells the story of Eily O'Connor, a beautiful but untutored country girl who is murdered at the instigation of her gentleman lover, Hardress Cregan, by his servant Danny Mann. Hardress and his friend Kyrle Daly are the ‘collegians’ of the title, both being students at TCD. Rejected by the heiress Anne Chute, Hardress marries Eily but soon regrets this misalliance.
on the nod - on credit; with a merely formal assent, by abstention from voting + MMLJ: when they knew the man on the door in one of those centuries when they were all four collegians in the queen's colleges
neer = near (obs.) + neer (Dutch) - down.
nursery - the place or apartment which is given up to infants and young children with their nurse; a plot or piece of ground in which young plants or trees are reared until fit for transplantation + Norsk (Danish) - Norwegian.
whiteboy - Irish Hist. A member of a secret agrarian association formed in 1761.
oakboy - a member of a body of insurgents in Ireland in 1763, who rose against forced labour on the roads and the exaction of tithes; their badge was a sprig of oak worn in the hat.
peeping Tom - a prying person, esp. with connotations of prurience; one who obtains gratification from furtively observing women not fully clothed or the sexual activity of others + Peep of Day Boys - Irish Protestant group, 1784-95.
make hay while the sun shines - to lose no time, to seize or profit by opportunities
slate - a tablet of slate, usually framed in wood, used for writing on
satchel - a bag for carrying schoolbooks, with or without a strap to hang over the shoulders
Florian, Jean de (1755-94) - French poet and fabulist
suction - the action of sucking with the tongue and lips + comic section + conic sections (maths).
vellico (l) - to pluck, twitch, pinch + vellicar (it) - to tickle + veliko (Serbian) - great, big + vulgar fractions - fractions in which the numerator and denominator are represented by numbers placed the one above, the other below, a horizontal line.
maxim - a rule or principle of conduct; attrib., as maxim-maker
QUEEN'S COLLEGES - The Queen's Colleges in Cork, Galway, and Belfast were founded by the British government in 1845.
Ultonian - of or belonging to Ulster (from Latin Ultonia: Ulster) + Joyce's note: 'Ultonian'.
toties quoties - as often as something happens or occasion demands; repeatedly + (the Ass).
pot - the quantity that fills or would fill the vessel, a potful; a large sum of money (colloq.)
tribute - something paid or contributed as by a subordinate to a superior + Blut (ger) - blood.
buttle - to pour out (drink); to do a butler's work (jocular.)
Cluain Tarbh (klun torev) (gael) - Bull Meadow; N.E. Dublin district, site of Brian Boru's (known as 'Brian of the Tributes') defeat of Danes, 1014; anglic. Clontarf.
loove - relict, widow + loafs + livre (fr) - pound (money).
turnover - a kind of tart in which the fruit is laid on one half of the rolled out paste, and the other half turned over it; a child's sweetmeat resembling this + turnover (Irish) - a bread loaf shaped somewhat like a boot.
crown - a coin (when last minted, silver) of Great Britain of the value of five shillings
Dane - a native or subject of Denmark; in older usage including all the Northmen who invaded England from the 9th to the 11th c.
vitals - those parts or organs of the body, esp. the human body, essential to life, or upon which life depends + eating his victuals.
wulf = wolf (obs.)
throw (its) tongue - properly of a hound: to give forth its voice when on the scent or in sight of the quarry. Also transf. of persons.
snakepit - among primitive peoples, a large pit containing poisonous snakes into which victims are thrown for execution or as a test of endurance + Ragnar Lodbrok, Viking, cast into snakepit, saved by thickness of his pants + snakepit (U.S. Slang) - madhouse.
cold back again (Joyce's note)
of yore - of old, in time long past, anciently, formerly
(Is) love of nature (notebook 1923) → Mordell: The Erotic Motive in Literature 164: 'Critics have refused to see the exact meaning of the expression "love of nature." The poets themselves have told us that they saw in nature lessons of moral improvement and inspirations for humanitarianism'.
moods and tenses (grammar)
mandible - a jaw or jaw-bone; esp. the lower jaw
murmurously - spoken softly and gently, filled with murmurs + FSD: REFERENCE
six of one to half a dozen of the other (phrase)
lyrical blooms (notebook 1923) → Schuré: Woman the Inspirer 22: (of Wagner's possible reaction to a poem by Mathilda Wesendonck) 'A strange, intoxicating kind of frenzy must have come over the composer at the sight of these delightful, lyrical blooms'.
Lucan + love illicit + Chapelizod + in Boucicault's Arrah-na-Pogue, Arrah commands her newly-wed husband, Sean, to sing after the wedding (he sings, by public demand, 'The Wearing of the Green').
draught - a drink, the quantity of drink swallowed at one 'pull'
serene - a condition of fine quiet weather; a light fall of moisture or fine rain after sunset in hot countries + Thomas Gray: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: 'Full many a gem of purest ray serene... flower is born to bloom unseen'.
revel - to enjoy oneself greatly, to take intense pleasure or delight, in something + (notebook 1923): 'reveled in the beauty of'.
the great outdoors - the world outside the house, the open air; large tracts of open country
spoon - to make love, esp. in a sentimental or silly fashion (colloq.), to court or pay addresses to (a person), esp. in a sentimental manner + 'By the light Of the silvery moon, We loved to spoon, To my honey I'll croon love's tune, Honeymoon' (song).
FDV: She murmurously asked for some but not too much of the best poetry quotations reflecting on the situation smthng a stroke above its a fine night and the moon shines bright and all to that her reason being for the plain fact of the matter was that by the light of the moon of the silvery moon she loved to spoon before her honeymoomoon honeyoldmoon at the same time drinking deep draughts of purest air [serene].
plaint - a statement or representation of wrong, injury, or injustice suffered; a complaint
on the whole - when everything is considered
mariner + foreigner.
crusted - having or covered with a crust, encrusted
hoed (Dutch) - hat + Mrs Felicia Dorothea Hemans: 'Bernado del Carpo' 1: 'The warrior bowed his crested head and tamed his heart of fire' (appears in Bell's Elocutionist).
tilly - in Ireland and places of Irish settlement, an additional article or amount unpaid for by the purchaser, as a gift from the vendor + "Tilly the Toiler" - an American comic strip.
dagbog (Danish) - diary (literally 'day book')
foremast - the forward lower-mast in all vessels + foremast man, seaman - a sailor below the rank of a petty officer + fourmaster (ship).
the Rolls - the former buildings in Chancery Lane in which the records in the custody of the Master of the Rolls were preserved (now represented by the Public Record Office) + Master of the Rolls - one of the four ex-officio judges of the Court of Appeal and a member of the Judicial Committee, who has charge of the rolls, patents, and grants that pass the great seal, and of all records of the Court of Chancery.
Lord Byron: Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage IV.clxxix: 'Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean - roll!' + Roland, Charlemagne's paladin, hero of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso + FDV: Her role was to roll on the darkblue ocean roll that rolled on round the round roll Robert Roly rolled round.
deepen - to make deep or deeper (in various senses)
Ossian - 3d. century A.D. legendary Irish warrior and bard (son of Finn Mac Cool) + James Macpherson: The Poems of Ossian: Temora VII: 'Ossian, amidst his dark-brown years'.
roll - to utter, give forth (words, etc.), with a full, rolling sound or tone; a rich sonorous or rhythmical flow of words in verse or prose + FDV: He promptly then elocutioned to her a favourite lyrical bloom in decasyllabic iambic hexameter: Roll on, thou deep and darkblue ocean, roll!
expense - spending, laying out (of money); expenditure (of substance, strength, labour, time, etc.)