Gemini.Finnegans.Wake.44

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But as Hopkins and Hopkins puts it, you were the pale eggynaggy and a kis to tilly up. We calls him the journeyall Buggaloffs since he went Jerusalemfaring in Arssia Manor. You had a gamier cock than Pete, Jake or Martin and your archgoose of geese stubbled for All Angels’ Day. So may the priest of seven worms and scalding tayboil, Papa Vestray, come never anear you as your hair grows whether beside the Liffey that’s in Heaven!

This paragraph concludes the eulogy with an intimate and protective blessing. The mourners affectionately summarize HCE/Finnegan’s difficult character, praise his earthy virility, and cast a powerful charm to protect him in the afterlife.

## An Affectionate Portrait 😚

The mourners offer a final, complex judgment on his personality, citing a fictional authority, “Hopkins and Hopkins,” to make it sound official.

  • “you were the pale eggynaggy and a kis to tilly up.”: This is a wonderfully dense description. “Pale eggynaggy” suggests he was precious, fragile, and perhaps sickly (like eggnog), but also a struggling hero (agonistes) who was a bit of a nag. Despite this difficulty, he was worthy of “a kis to tilly up”—a final kiss as a “tilly” (from the Irish tuilleadh), which is a small, extra measure given for good will, like a baker’s dozen. He was a handful, but they loved him anyway.
  • “the journeyall Buggaloffs since he went Jerusalemfaring in Arssia Manor.”: They give him a mock-heroic Russian-sounding title (“journeyall Buggaloffs,” which also contains “bugger off”). They say he earned this title after his great “pilgrimage” (“Jerusalemfaring”). But this grand journey is comically deflated: it took place in “Arssia Manor,” a pun on Áras an Uachtaráin (the President’s home in Phoenix Park) and “arse,” hinting that his epic adventure was actually just a shameful incident in a local park.

## Earthy Praise 🐓

The eulogy then pivots to praise his raw, physical vitality and sexual prowess, grounding his heroic status in something very earthy.

  • “You had a gamier cock than Pete, Jake or Martin”: This is a straightforward boast that his virility (“cock”) was stronger and more potent (“gamier”) than that of other men, perhaps even the apostles (Peter, James/Jacob).
  • “your archgoose of geese stubbled for All Angels’ Day.”: His chief wife (“archgoose”), ALP, prepared herself (“stubbled,” like a goose being plucked for a feast) for him on a holy day.

## A Fierce Blessing 🙏

The paragraph ends with a powerful blessing that works by warding off a terrifying, negative spiritual force.

  • “So may the priest of seven worms and scalding tayboil, Papa Vestray, come never anear you…”: They cast a protective curse against a horrifying figure. This is not a benevolent priest, but one associated with decay (“seven worms”), petty damnation (“scalding tayboil” or tea-boil), and corruption (“Papa Vestray,” a pun on “Pater Vester”/Our Father and “led astray”). It’s a charm to protect him from a judgmental, punishing version of the afterlife.

## A Heavenly Dublin 🏞️

The final line describes the paradise they wish for him.

  • “…as your hair grows whether beside the Liffey that’s in Heaven!”: They wish that his life continues after death (symbolized by his hair continuing to grow) in a very specific paradise: a heavenly version of Dublin where the River Liffey (the symbol of his wife, ALP) still flows. His ultimate reward is not some abstract heaven, but an eternal, idealized version of the home he loved. As it’s Friday night in Ireland, this feels like the perfect final toast at a wake: wishing the departed an eternity in a perfect pub beside a perfect river.

12/09/2025, P26.08, to be continued.