Queries

Vincent Deane, Daniel Ferrer and Geert Lernout, editors of James Joyce's The "Finnegans Wake" Notebooks at Buffalo, are keenly aware of the fact that such an immense project can only be effective if it is cooperative from the very beginning. The finding of sources for Joyce's notebook entries is one of the tasks for which we would like to have your help. In this location you will find specific queries about notebook entries. We will give you a transcription of the relevant page(s) and a list of the books and articles we have tried already. All help is welcome and, needless to say, will be acknowledged in both the printed and the electronic edition.


VI.B.28

Note: The following notes derive from an unknown source - book or article - on St Helena. These books have already been checked unsuccessfully:

Joseph Lockwood. A Guide to St Helena, Descriptive & Historical with a Visit to Longwood and Napoleons Tomb (St. Helena: Geo. Gibb, 1851)

A Geographical & Historical Acct of the Island of St Helena [] to which is subjoined A Brief Memoir of Napoleon Bonaparte (London: Gale & Fenner, nd).

E. Masselin. Sainte-Hélène (Paris: Henri Plon, 1862).

Edwige Santin. Chagrins Domestiques de NB lisle Sainte-H (Paris: Germain Mathiot, 1821).

Grille & Musset Pathay Suite au Mmorial de SH (Paris Raynal & Roret, 1824).

J. Chautard. Noel Santini. De SH aux Invalides (Paris: Ledoyen, 1854)

Julian Park. Napoleon in Captivity (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1928).

Norwood Young. Napoleon in Exile: St Helena London 1915

John C Melliss. St Helena 1875 Nat Lib 9197m2

E.L. Jackson. St Helena 1903 Nat Lib 9197 j1

John Barnes. Tour Through the Island of St Helena 1817

Anon. Longwood Old House

AL Guerard. Reflections on the Napoleonic Legend NY 1924

M.A. Aldonov. St Helena, Little Island NY 1924

VI.B.28.011

(a) multitude

VI.C.9.240(a)

(b) ascension phosphate / & guano Co / S. [Helena]

Note: The Ascension Phosphate and Guano Company. An enterprise founded by Charles Gleditz on Ascension Island (a protectorate of St Helena) in the 1920s, for the export of guano, a natural manure consisting of the excrement of sea-birds.

VI.C.9.240(b)

(c) bronze & emerald

VI.C.9.240(c)

(d) S. Patrick = Ireland

VI.C.9.240(d)

(e) arum & moon / flower

Note: Arum. Common name for a family comprising nearly 3,000 species of mostly herbaceous shrubby or climbing flowering plants, and for its representative genus. It is generally distributed in temperate and tropical regions, but especially developed in warm countries.

Moon-flower. A name used in Africa for Datura arborea or D. suaveolens, shrubs native to Central America and belonging to the family Solanace, bearing fragrant, white, trumpet-shaped flowers; also called moon-lily or angels trumpet (OED).

VI.C.9.240(e)

(f) plumbago

Note: Plumbago. A genus of herbaceous plants, inhabiting Southern Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, having spikes of subsessile flowers, with a tubular five-parted calyx; leadwort: so called from the colour of the flowers (OED).

VI.C.9.240(f)

VI.B.28.012

(a) bougainvillia / climb over railings

VI.C.9.240(g)

(b) longwood

Note: Longwood. An estate on St Helena, c. 3 miles southeast of Jamestown. See EB11 St Helena 8d: In 1815 the British government selected St Helena as the place of detention of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was brought to the island in October of that year and lodged at Longwood, where he died in May 1821.

VI.C.9.240(h)

(c) stonetop

Note: Stone Top. Great and Little Stone Top are two high conical hills on the south-eastern corner of St Helena, overlooking Stone Top Bay.

VI.C.9.240(i)

(d) volcanic rocks

Note: See Mellis, 47: The geological structure of this remarkable land has often been curtly described in the few words, "it is volcanic," and the explanation as often considered sufficient, inasmuch as the truth of such an assertion cannot be doubted, even by the most casual observer.

.VI.C.9.240(j)

(e) old house

Note: The Old House. This was the name of the house at Longwood, St Helena, occupied by Napoleon. See note to 013(a).

VI.C.9.241(a)

(f) agapanthus

Note: Agapanthus umbellatus, known as the African Lily. It belongs to the natural order Liliaceae, and is a native of the Cape of Good Hope.

VI.C.9.241(b)

VI.B.28.013

(a) New house

Note: New House. See Mellis, 25: From The Briars Napoleon removed to Longwood, and there occupied what is now known as the Old House. In 1819, the British Government commenced the erection of a large and commodious residence for his reception, at an enormous cost; but this pile of buildings, now known as Longwood New House, was scarcely finished before the Emperor's death. It is said that Napoleon used to watch the erection of these buildings, and was known to say that he would never occupy them.

VI.C.9.241(d)

(b) whores [Pasture]

Note: Horse Pasture. On the coast of St Helena.

VI.C.9.241(e)

(c) Great Wood

Note: Great Wood. Forested area of St. Helena, occupying Longwood and Deadwood.

VI.C.9.241(f)

(d) in 10 yrs fit / for firing

VI.C.9.241(g)

(e) Plantation Valley

Note: Plantation Valley. See Mellis, 43: The finest property in the Island is the Governor's official residence, called Plantation House, a well-built, moderate sized mansion, containing forty rooms, standing in the midst of 176 acres of picturesque park land,

VI.C.9.241(h)

(f) gumwod

Note: See EB11 St Helena 7c: Commidendron robustum (gumwood), a tree about 20 ft. high, once the most abundant in the island, was represented in 1868 by about 1300 or 1400 examples.

VI.C.9.241(i)

VI.B.28.014

(a) mail buried under / stones with / name of ship / & master

Note: See Meliss 3: the Island was for awhile deserted, though still used by the captains and crews of ships as a South Atlantic Post Office. It was customary to place letters under huge boulders of stone, marked in a conspicuous manner, so that the crews of ships returning from India might obtain news from home.

VI.C.9.241(j)

(b) Pike = h

Note: Pike. Governor of St Helena at the beginning of the 18C. See Meliss 13: Governor Pike's speciality appears to have been agricultural improvement. He also constructed the first safe roadway from the town to the country by way of Ladder Hill. His administration was, however, characterized by much severity (the stNote: ory is told that that some soldiers, whom he had unjustly punished, sailed from the Island in an open boat and endured a voyage of almost 4500 miles in order to escape from him).

VI.C.9.242(a)

(c) Jamestown

Note: Jamestown. Capital of St Helena.

VI.C.9.242(b)

(d) longboat

VI.C.9.242(c)

(e) leave to / water

VI.C.9.242(d)

VI.B.28.015

(a) musk & civet

VI.C.9.242(e)

(b) cornelian

VI.C.9.242(f)

(c) mouth of our / guns

VI.C.9.242(g)

(d) peace broker

VI.C.9.242(h)

(e) island born / slave

Note: Slaves were among the earliest inhabitants of St Helena and slavery continued there until it was finally abolished by the East India Company in 1832. In 1840 the British Government established a Court and Liberated African Depot on the island. Those found to be engaging in the slave trade were put on trial, and many ships were seized and broken up. The Liberated African Depot brought much prosperity to St Helena, but it also resulted in one of the greatest disasters in the islands history when wood taken from one of the slave ships turned out to be infested with termites.

VI.C.9.242(i)

(f) ss came into / the road

VI.C.9.242(j)

VI.B.28.016

(a) impregnant

Note: Impregnant. Impregnating. Also a substance used in the impregnation of something else, to render wood, for example, water-resistant.

VI.C.9.242(k)

(b) nigh

Note: See (e). It looks as if Joyce began to write nightingale here and broke off.

VI.C.9.243(a)

(c) my shored / front studded / with pearly / villas

Note: My shirt front studded with pearls.

VI.C.9.243(b)

(d) nighingale I.

Note: Nightingale Island. An island in the Tristan da Cunha group. See 022(c).

VI.C.9.243(c)

(e) in settlement

VI.C.9.243(d)

(f) waring ship

VI.C.9.243(e)

VI.B.28.017

(a) whale boats / stood off / roaring 40s

Note: Roaring forties. The part of the Atlantic Ocean between 40 and 50 south latitude, noted for strong westerly winds and exceptionally rough seas.

VI.C.9.243(f)

(b) within hail

VI.C.9.243(g)

(c) community of / widows & / orphans

VI.C.9.243(h)

VI.B.28.018

(a) unwritten pages / of history

VI.C.9.244(a)

(b) threw in his lot

VI.C.9.244(b)

(c) whaleman

VI.C.9.244(c)

(d) 34 souls

VI.C.9.244(d)

(e) brig owar

VI.C.9.244(e)

(f) creole

VI.C.9.244(f)

VI.B.28.019

(a) in sounding the / waves

VI.C.9.244(g)

(b) curious that!

VI.C.9.244(h)

(c) sat under the / red - X

VI.C.9.244(i)

(d) Emergency law

VI.C.9.244(j)

(e) wolverine

Note: Wolverine. A northern North American carnivorous mammal (Gulo luscus) of the family Mustelidae. Its fur is used to make clothing.

VI.C.9.244(k)

VI.B.28.020

(a) inbreeding

VI.C.9.244(l)

(b) touched at

VI.C.9.245(a)

(c) buckthorn

VI.C.9.245(a)

(d) spirit

VI.C.9.245(b)

(e) corporal

VI.C.9.245(c)

(f) quantitative / nom

Note: The last word may have been intended as non (i.e. non-quantitative).

VI.C.9.245(d)

VI.B.28.021

(a) ariel body

VI.C.9.245(e)

(b) scale of being

Note: Scale of Being. The notion of a hierarchical order of perfection from God through the created universe is basic to scholastic philosophy. In the present context the reference may be to Summa Theologiae: PRIMA PARS QUAESTIO LVII, in which it is asked whether the angels know material things, which are inferior to them: Respondeo dicendum quod talis est ordo in rebus, quod superiora in entibus sunt perfectiora inferioribus: et quod in inferioribus continetur deficienter et partialiter et multipliciter, in superioribus continetur eminenter et per quandam totalitatem et simplicitatem. [I answer that, the established order of things is for higher beings to be more perfect than lower; and for whaterver is contained deficiently, partially, and in manifold manner in the lower beings, to be contained in the higher eminently, and in a certain degree of fulness and simplicity.]

VI.C.9.245(f)

(c) quod est in / quo est

Summa Theologiae: PRIMA PARS QUAESTIO LVII De angelorum cognitione respectu rerum materialium: Omne autem quod est in aliquo, est in eo per modum eius in quo est. [Concerning the knowledge of angels about material things: Now whatever exists in any subject is contained in it after the manner of such subject.]

VI.C.9.245(g)

(d) whalefields

VI.C.9.245(h)

(e) clippers

VI.C.9.245(i)

(f) bore towards

VI.C.9.245(j)

VI.B.28.022

(a) visit once in / 12 years

VI.C.9.245(k)

(b) [porpoises]

VI.C.9.246(a)

(c) Tristan

Note: Tristan da Cunha. Group of small volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, administered as part of the British dependency of St Helena. The islands lie at about latitude 376' south and longitude 121' west.

VI.C.9.246(b)