Twelve and a Tilly

[Geoff]

Twelve and a Tilly: Essays on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of Finnegans Wake, edited by Jack P. Dalton and Clive Heart. 1966 Faber and Faber.

From the sleeve:

"James Joyce would have been pleased by the anniversaries of 1964- the 60th of Bloomsday, the 50th of Portrait, the 25th of Finnegans Wake. He himself, born in 1882, would have been 82. Twelve and a Tilly, written on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Finnegans Wake, is a contribution to this cabalistic conjunction, for it is the work of twelve, the number who made up Our Exagmination in 1929. One of the original exagminators, Frank Budgen, joins the new group with his felicitous essay 'Resurrection', and Padriac Colum, Joyce's faithful friend from youth, adds as tilly his elegy written on the news of Joyce's death in 1941. The other contributors are Frederick J. Hoffmann, Vivian Mercier, Fritz Senn, Robert F. Glickner, James S. Atherton, J. Mitchell Morse, Nathan Halpar, Richard M. Kain, A. Walton Litz, David Hayman, and Jack P. Dalton. They discuss such Wake matters as Joyce's changing attitudes towards flux and the family unit, the macaronic tradition, the association of insects and incest, Byron allusions, sports and games, introducing the book to undergraduates, possible dating of the action, uses of the manuscripts, evidences of a crisis in the book's composition, and the corrupt state of the text.

The essays were specially prepared for this volume and all appear here for the first time."

[Nathan "N.R."]

We'll have to get this into the gr db. I'm resisting buying more Wake books until I finish. Give me another month? Two? Just can't stop Wake'ing.

[Geoff]

Padriac Colum's elegy that opens the book:

In Memory of James Joyce

The long flight and asylum barely reached-
Asylum, but no refuge from affliction
That bore on you and left you helpless there-
That was the word was brought me: loneliness
That was small portion of the loneliness
That days and nights was with you, came to me.

Dedalus! Has your flight ended so?

I looked back to the days of our young manhood,
And saw you with the commons of the town,
Crossing the bridge, and you
In odds of wearables wittily worn,
A yachtsman's cap to veer you to the seagulls,
Our commons also, but your trafficking-
For sum your books would get along the Quay.

And then, with shillings flushed,
To Barney Kiernan's for the frothy pints
And talk that went with porter-drinkers there.
But you
Are also Schoolman, and these casual men
Are seen, are held by you in curcumstance
Of history; their looks, their words
By you affirmed, will be looked back on,
Will be rehearsed. Nor they, nor I,
Nor any other will discern in you
That enterprise that you in secrecy
Had framed- to soar, to be the man with wings.

We did not know
The searching eyes beneath the peak of cap
Beheld
The Seventh City of Christendom
Re-famed. We did not know
Below your saying here was incantation
To give the river back to twilit field,
River of discourse,
Anna Livia,
River of fable,
Plurabelle.

-Padriac Colum

[Geoff]

(sniff. wipes teardrop) I hope somebody eulogizes me in such a way when I go!

[Nathan "N.R."]

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "We'll have to get this into the gr db."

Still not here? I have a copy being USPS'd myward. I'll db the volume once it physically arrives in my spiritual abode.

[Nathan "N.R."]

btw, a 'tilly' is the 13th in a baker's dozen.

And speaking of 12 + 1 ; I don't recall any use of the names of the 12 Jesus=disciples in FW. Am I missing something?

[Geoff]

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "I don't recall any use of the names of the 12 Jesus=disciples in FW."

! Me too, but they have to be in there, no? Well, they are, but really not with emphasis. Strange:

-Simon/Peter
-Andrew, his brother
-James
-John
-Philip
-Bartholomew
-Thomas
-Matthew or Levi
-James (son of Alpheus)
-Judas (son of James)
-Simon the Zealot
-Judas Iscariot

keep your eyes open, Wake reeders

[Nathan "N.R."]

Geoff wrote: "! Me too, but they have to be in there, no? Well, they are, but really not with emphasis. Strange:"

There's also the twelve tribes of Israel + יהוה.

[Nathan "N.R."]

Press Release

"Baker Tilly names twelve new partners"

http://www.bakertilly.com/Baker-Tilly...

[Nathan "N.R."]

So far we're talking Really Old-School Kind of Stuff (1966) ; still almost as Old-School as the Exagmination except though without Beckett making it worth the price of admission.

but, Wow! What a privilege it is to read The Wake with McHugh!