Gemini.Finnegans.Wake.51

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Aisy now, you decent man, with your knees and lie quiet and repose your honour’s lordship! Hold him here, Ezekiel Irons, and may God strengthen you! It’s our warm spirits, boys, he’s spooring. Dimitrius O’Flagonan, cork that cure for the Clancartys! You swamped enough since Portobello to float the Pomeroy. Fetch neahere, Pat Koy! And fetch nouyou, Pam Yates! Be nayther angst of Wramawitch! Here’s lumbos. Where misties swaddlum, where misches lodge none, where mystries pour kind on, O sleepy! So be yet!

This paragraph is a dramatic scene of panic at the wake. The corpse of Finnegan/HCE is stirring again, and the mourners scramble to get him to lie back down, shifting from panicked commands to a soothing, magical lullaby.

## Panic at the Wake 😱

The scene erupts as the dead man shows signs of life. The mourners’ reaction is a mix of gentle pleading and urgent commands:

  • They first try to coax him: “Aisy now, you decent man, with your knees and lie quiet…”
  • When that fails, the command is shouted to physically restrain him: “Hold him here, Ezekiel Irons, and may God strengthen you!” The name Ezekiel Irons is significant, combining the prophet of resurrection (Ezekiel) with the means of restraint (irons).

The reason for his stirring is that “It’s our warm spirits, boys, he’s spooring.” He is “spooring” (scenting, like an animal tracking prey) their life force and, more literally, the alcoholic “spirits” they’re drinking at the wake.

## Shutting Down the Party 🍾

The immediate solution is to stop the flow of the very thing that is rousing him: the whiskey.

  • An order is barked at the publican, who has a wonderfully mixed-up name: “Dimitrius O’Flagonan” (a Greek/Russian first name with an Irish surname containing “flagon”).
  • The command is to “cork that cure for the Clancartys!”—“put a cork in that bottle of whiskey!” (a “cure” being a common Irish term for a drink).
  • This is followed by a classic piece of Dublin hyperbole: “You swamped enough since Portobello to float the Pomeroy.” They’ve poured enough liquor since the historic battle (and at the Dublin location of Portobello Bridge) to float a massive ship.

## A Magical Lullaby 😴

After the flurry of panicked orders, the tone shifts abruptly to a gentle, hypnotic incantation designed to lull the giant back to sleep.

  • “Here’s lumbos.”: This means “Here is limbo,” a peaceful, in-between state they want him to enter.
  • The lullaby that follows describes this ideal resting place:
    • “Where misties swaddlum” (Where mists swaddle him)
    • “where misches lodge none” (Where mischief cannot stay)
    • “where mystries pour kind on” (Where mysteries are gentle)
  • The paragraph ends with a final, tender blessing and command: “O sleepy! So be yet!” This is a wish for him to remain in his peaceful, sleepy state—a perfect desire for a Saturday morning after a long, eventful night.

19/09/2025, P27.30 , to be continued.