Gemini.Finnegans.Wake.33

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O foenix culprit! Ex nickylow malo comes mickelmassed bonum. Hill, rill, ones in company, billeted, less be proud of. Breast high and bestride! Only for that these will not breathe upon Norronesen or Irenean the secrest of their soorcelossness. Quarry silex, Homfrie Noanswa! Undy gentian festyknees, Livia Noanswa? Wolkencap is on him, frowned; audiurient, he would evesdrip, were it mous at hand, were it dinn of bottles in the far ear. Murk, his value are darkling. With lipth she lithpeth to him all to time of thuch on thuch and thow on thow. She he she ho she ha to la. Hairfluke, if he could bad twig her! Impalpabunt, he abhears. The soundwaves are his buffeteers; they trompe him with their trompes; the wave of roary and the wave of hooshed and the wave of hawhawhawrd and the wave of neverheedthemhorseluggarsandlistletomine. Landloughed by his neaghboormistress and perpetrified in his offsprung, sabes and suckers, the moaning pipers could tell him to his faceback, the louthly one whose loab we are devorers of, how butt for his hold halibutt, or her to her pudor puff, the lipalip one whose libe we drink at, how biff for her tiddywink of a windfall, our breed and washer givers, there would not be a holey spier on the town nor a vestal flouting in the duck, nay to make plein avowels nor a yew nor an eye to play cash cash in Novo Nilbud by swamplight nor a’toole o’tall o’toll and noddy hint to the convaynience.

This is a fantastically dense and representative paragraph from the Wake. It immediately plunges us into the book’s central drama: the “crime” or “fall” of the main male figure and its consequences.

Here’s a breakdown from several aspects.

General Summary

This paragraph is an accusation and a meditation on a “culprit,” the central male archetype HCE (Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker). He is portrayed as a fallen hero, gloomy and silent (“frowned,” “Noanswa”), being observed and whispered to by a female presence, ALP (Anna Livia Plurabelle). The passage establishes that his sin, shameful as it is, was a “Fortunate Fall”—a necessary evil that created the world as we know it. The final, long sentence lists all the things (religion, society, Dublin itself) that would not exist without this foundational transgression.

Extended Meanings & Wordplay

Let’s unpack some of the key phrases:

  • “O foenix culprit! Ex nickylow malo comes mickelmassed bonum.”

    • This is the thematic key to the whole book. “Foenix culprit” means “Phoenix-like guilty one.” The Phoenix is a mythological bird that is reborn from its own ashes, symbolising resurrection. The culprit is guilty, he has fallen, but like Finnegan from the ballad, he will rise again.
    • The Latin phrase is a pun on Ex malo bonum (“From evil comes good”). Joyce twists it: “nickylow” suggests both Machiavelli and “Old Nick” (the Devil). “mickelmassed” suggests Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangel Michael who defeated the Devil, and also “Mick” (a common Irish name) and “massed” (a great amount).
    • Extended Meaning: This is the doctrine of the Fortunate Fall (Felix Culpa). The sin of the “devilish” culprit was necessary for a “great good” to emerge. His fall creates history.

  • “Quarry silex, Homfrie Noanswa! Undy gentian festyknees, Livia Noanswa?”

    • This is a kind of interrogation. “Quarry silex” asks “Are you made of hard stone (Latin: silex)?”. “Homfrie Noanswa” is Humphrey (HCE) who gives “No Answer.” He is silent and guilty.
    • “Undy gentian festyknees” is addressed to Anna Livia. “Undy” means wavy, like water (unda in Latin), hinting at her river nature. “Gentian” is a flower, suggesting femininity. The phrase evokes a curtsy or a gentle posture. She also gives “No Answer.” They are both implicated.

  • “Wolkencap is on him, frowned; audiurient, he would evesdrip…”

    • “Wolkencap” is German (Wolken) for “cloud-cap.” His head is in the clouds; he is brooding and depressed.
    • “Audiurient” means “eager to hear.” “Evesdrip” is a pun on “eavesdrop” and the sin of “Eve.” HCE is constantly portrayed as an eavesdropper, trying to hear what people are saying about him.

  • “With lipth she lithpeth to him all to time of thuch on thuch and thow on thow.”

    • This is ALP speaking to HCE in a lisping, soothing, baby-talk voice. The sounds mimic the lapping of her river water and the sound of kissing. It’s both a mother’s consolation and a lover’s whisper.

  • The Final Sentence: “Landloughed by his neaghboormistress…”

    • This is a giant “if not for…” clause. It states that if it weren’t for HCE’s sin (laughed at by neighbours, perpetuated by his children) and ALP’s complicity, then nothing would exist.
    • “the louthly one whose loab we are devorers of”: HCE is a loathly/lowly sacrificial figure, whose “loaf” (body, like Christ’s) we all consume.
    • “the lipalip one whose libe we drink at”: ALP is the river whose “libation” we drink.
    • The result of their combined fall is the creation of everything: “a holey spier on the town” (a church steeple), “a vestal flouting in the duck” (a virgin in the twilight/dusk), and “Novo Nilbud” (Dublin spelled backwards). Even the famous Dublin saint, Laurence O’Toole, is present in the final jumble of sound: “a’toole o’tall o’toll.”

Characters and Themes

  • Characters: We see the two primary archetypes of the book here.

    • HCE: The male principle. A giant, a builder, a father, a publican, but also a sinner. He is the mountain (“Hill”) and the city, defined by his public shame and his fall from grace. He is silent and passive in this paragraph.
    • ALP: The female principle. The river (“rill”), a mother, a wife. She is fluid, ever-changing, consoling, and gossiping. She is both the questioner and the soother.

  • Themes:

    • The Cycle of History: The “phoenix” rising from the ashes is a direct reference to the cyclical theory of history by Giambattista Vico, which underpins the entire structure of the Wake. Fall leads to rebirth.
    • Sin and Creation: The central theme here is that the original sin is not just a destructive act but a creative one. Without the fall, there is no history, no society, no Dublin.
    • Gossip and Language: The world of the Wake is built on rumour, eavesdropping, and misinterpretation. The “soundwaves are his buffeteers,” physically assaulting him. Language is unstable, slippery (like ALP’s lisp), and powerful.

01/09/2025, P24.02, to be continued.