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Joyce, James - Epiphanies (Lockwood Memorial Library, 1956)
Joyce, James - Epiphanies (Lockwood Memorial Library, 1956)
Epiphanies
INTRODUCTI ON AND NOTES
0. A. S ILVERMAN
I 9 5 6
UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
COPYRIGHT 1956 UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
EPIPHANIES
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TH IS book was designed by William
INTRO DUCTI ON lX
EPIPHANIES 1
APPENDIX 23
NOTE 31
\11
IN T RODU C T ION
IX
published fragment, Stephen Hero, in 1944,
little more than inspired guesswork associated
the passage from Ulysses with the esthetic the
ory expounded by Stephen in A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man. The central part bf the
passage reads: " The radiance .. . is the scho
lastic quidditas, the whatness of a thing. This
supreme quality is felt by the artist when the
esthetic image is first conceived in his imagina
tion. The mind in that mysterious instant Shel
ley likened beautifully to a fading coal. The
instant wherein that supreme quality of beauty,
the clear radiance of the esthetic image, is ap
prehended luminously by the mind which has
been arrested by its wholeness and fascinated
by its harmony is the luminous, silent stasis of
esthetic pleasure, a spiritual state very like to
that cardiac condition which the Italian phys
iologist Luigi Galvani, using a phrase almost
as beautiful as Shelley's, called the enchant
ment of the heart. "
In the writing of his critical work, Mr. Le
vin had the advantage of using the manuscript
x
of Stephen Hero, which had been acquired by
the Harvard College Library and was then
awaiting publication. (Spencer had, however,
already described it in the Summer 1941 issue
of The Southern Review.) Mr. Levin gave an
excellent account of the technique of the
epiphany: "the single word that tells the whole
story ...the simple gesture that reveals a com
plex set of relationships. "
Stephen Hero was published in 1 944; and
readers had available Joyce's or Stephen's own
words. He had heard, passing through Eccles'
street one evening "the following fragment of
colloquy out of which he received an impres
sion keen enough to afflict his sensitiveness
very severely.
The Young Lady-{drawling discreetly) . . .
0, yes . . . Iwas ...at the ...cha . ..pel . . .
The Young Gentleman-(inaudibly) . . .I.. .
(again inaudibly) ...I...
The Young Lady-{softly) . . . 0 . . . but
you're ...ve ...ry ...wick ... ed . . .
Xl
"This triviality made him think of collec·
ting many such moments together in a book of
epiphanies.By an epiphany he meant a sudden
spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgar
ity of speech or of gesture or in a memorable
phase of the mind itself.He believed that it
was for the man of letters to record these
epiphanieswith extreme care, seeing that they
themselves are the most delicate and evanes
cent of moments."
Thence he continues, with Cranly, to de
velop his esthetic theory(which is later refined
in A Portrait): ...the third quality. This is
"
Xll
is so adjusted, seems to us radiant. The ob
ject achieves its epiphany."
But the word epiphany, recalled fleetingly,
by Stephen, in Ulysses and now made explicit
to us in Stephen Hero, does not appear in A
Portrait unless by implication in the passage
quoted above.
Is the 'theory of epiphany'-if it may be
so called-to be taken seriously? Or is it
youthful self-consciousness playing with
words? The latter view gains some substan
tiation if the reader examines the position it
holds in Stephen Hero. Stephen is speaking to
a hostile and stolid Cranly, dramatically and
silently a critic of the deliberate transfer by
his companion of religious terminology to
esthetic. In addition, the passage early in
Ulysses is clearly self-depreciatory. The con
cluding sentence in that passage from which
I have already quoted suggests the stern judg
ment of the mature Joyce: 'When one reads
these strange pages of one long gone one feels
that one is at one with one who once .. .'
Xlll
Yet both Miss Irene Hendry in her ex
tended essay, "Joyce's Epiphanies, " and Mr.
Levin make, each in his own way, penetrating
comments suggesting that the theory of the
epiphany may explain much of Joyce's major
work.
Mr. Levin is the more connotative; Miss
Hendry is the more strict and limiting. She
discriminates four techniques of epiphany:
"the moment of revelation without its nar
rative base; " the effect of the moment of
revelation on the beholder-"Stephen or
ourselves through Stephen; " the modification
of the image "with its radiance attached to
itself rather than to a perceiving conscious
ness;" and the revelation of "an individual
essence by means of a detail or an object to
which it has only a fortuitous relation. " Val
uable as her definitions are, she does, I think,
demand more precision than the subject
allows.Mr.Hugh Kenner in his provocative
essay, "The Portrait in Perspective, " seems
to me continually to shift the meaning of
XIV
epiphany, suggestively, to be sure: often he
makes the term carry too much weight. Yet
he states succinctly a central point: the
"treatment of particular manifestations as a
signature of metaphysical reality is the com
mon mode of Joyce's writing."
The notes called Epiphanies in the Wickser
collection in the Lockwood Memorial Li
brary of the University of Buffalo may be
used to verify any point of view: from the
simplicity that the epiphany was a youthful
esthetic pose soon given up, to the com
plexity that the epiphany is central to an
understanding even of Finnegans Wake.
There are twenty-two of them, neatly and
carefully written on separate sheets of ruled
paper measuring 24 x 18 centimetres (except
for number 12 which is only 20� centimetres
long). A comparison of the handwriting with
that of Stephen Hero and an acceptance of
the reasoning of Spencer establish the date
between 1904 and 1906. And since they are
recorded with more than usual care, and pre-
xv
served separately from the mass of other
manuscript material in the Wickser collection,
one is tempted to see them not only as youthful
exercises but also as early statements of many
of Joyce's important themes.
Every reader will, of course, make his
own comparisons with the body of Joyce's
work. I have, in an appendix, noted only a
few of the more obvious; but even so cur
sory a list indicates a close relationship be
tween these Epiphanies and Stephen Hero.
Resemblances to many other passages will
await serious consideration from literary
scholars; and undoubtedly other materials in
the Wickser collection will clarify and ex
pand theories of Joyce's methods of work.
Even with the evidence at hand, one may
confidently say that, like another Irishman,
Oliver Goldsmith, Joyce wasted very few of
his early artistic impressions.
XVI
EPIPHANIES
(( I ))
Dublin:
[ at Sheehy's, Belvedere Place]
Joyce-I knew you meant him. But you're
wrong about his age.
Maggie Sheehy-(/eans forward to speak se
riously) Why, how old is he?
Joyce-Seventy-two.
Maggie Sheehy-Is he?
1
(( II ))
2
(( III ) )
3
(( IV ))
4
(( v ))
5
(( VI ))
Apologise,
Pull out his eyes,
Pull out his eyes,
Apologise.
6
(( VII ))
7
(( VIII ))
[
Dublin: at the corner of Connaught St,
Phibsborough]
The Little Male Chi ld-(at the garden gate)
. Na ..o.
.
8
(( IX ))
9
(( x ))
language.
-Are you Rina?-
1 knew she was.
But here he is himself in a coat with tails and
an old-fashioned high hat. He ignores them:
he walks along with tiny steps, jutting out the
tails of his coat ....My goodness! how small
he is! He must be very old and vain . . . . .
Maybe he isn't what I ...It's funny that those
two big women fell out over this little man
. . . . But then he's the greatest man in the
world ....
10
(( XI ))
[
Dublin: at Sheehy's, Belvedere Place]
Hanna Sheehy-0, there are sure to be great
crowds.
Skeffington-In fact it'll be, as our friend Jo
cax would say, the day of the rabblement.
Maggie Sheehy-(declaims)-Even now the
rabblement may be standing by the door!
11
(( XII ))
12
(( XIII ))
[
Dublin: in the Stag's Head,Dame Lane ]
O'Mahony-Haven't you that little priest
that writes poetry over there-Fr Russell?
Joyce-0, yes ...I hear he has written verses.
O'Mahony--{sm;/ing adroitly) . Verses, yes
. .
13
({ XIV ))
14
(( xv ))
15
(( XVI ))
16
(( XVII ) )
Dublin:
[ in the house in Glengariff
Parade: evening]
Mrs. Joyce-(crimson, trembling, appears at
the par/ow door) ...Jim!
Joyce-(at the piano) . .Yes?
.
17
(( XVIII ))
nomenon
18
(( XIX ))
19
(( xx ))
20
(( XXI ))
[
Dublin: at Sheehy's, Belvedere Place]
O'Reilly-(with developing seriousness) . . . .
(a pause)
Hanna Sheehy-....... German?
O'Reilly -. ... Yes. . .
(a hush)
Hanna Sheehy-.. I think .....Goethe .....
21
(( XXII ))
22
A P P E ND X
I
23
I
-I knew you meant him.But you're wrong about
his age.
Others had heard this: but she was impressed by a
possible vastness of the unknown, complimented to
confer with one who conferred directly with the excep
tional. She leaned forward to speak with soft serious
ness.
-Why, how old is he?
-Over seventy.
-ls he?
-Stephen Hero, page 46
III
-Mr. Speaker, I must ask . . •
-Order! Order!
-You know it's a lie!
-You must withdraw, Sir.
-As I was saying before the honourable gentleman
interrupted we must ...
-I won't withdraw.
-I must ask honourable members to preserve or-
der in the House.
-I won't withdraw.
-Order! Order!
-Stephen Hero, page 45
24
IV
-I was sorry to hear of the death of your sister . . .
sorry we didn't know in time ...to have been at the
funeral.
Stephen released his hand gradually and said:
-0, she was very young ... a girl.
Mccann released his hand at the same rate of re
lease, and said:
-Still ...it hurts.
-Stephen Hero, page 169
VII
He doubled backwards into the past of humanity
and caught glimpses of emergent art as one might have
a vision of the pleisiosauros emerging from his ocean
of slime.
-Stephen Hero, page 33
25
collar of gold. A school of turlehide whales stranded
in hot noon, spouting, hobbling in the shallows. Then
from the starving cagcwork city a horde of jerkined
dwarfs, my people, with flayers' knives, running, scal
ir.g, hacking in green blubbery whalemeat. Famine,
rlague ar.d slaughter. Their blood is in me, their lusts
my waves. I moved among them on the frozen Liffey,
that I, a changeling, among the spluttering resin fires.
I spoke to no-one: none to me.
The dog's bark ran towards him, stopped, ran
back. Dog of my enemy. I just simply stood pale, si
lent, bayed about. Terribilia meditans.
- Ulysses, page 46
VIII
-Tell us who is your sweetheart, spoke Edy
Boardman. Is Cissy your sweetheart?
-Nao, tearful Tommy said.
-Is Edy Boardman your sweetheart? Cissy que-
ried.
-Nao, Tommy said.
-I know, Edy Boardman said none too amiably
with an arch glance from her shortsighted eyes.I know
26
who is Tommy's sweetheart, Gerty is Tommy's sweet·
heart.
-Nao, Tommy said on the verge of tears.
-Ulysses, page 341
XIII
XIV
27
eyed; the woman's face was square and pinched, the
face of a bargainer. The girl, her mouth distorted,
looked up at the woman to see if it was time to cry:•
the woman, settling a flat bonnet, hurried on towards
the mortuary chapel.
-Stephen Hero, page 167
xv
His sin, which had covered him from the sight of
God, had led him nearer to the refuge of sinners. Her
eyes seemed to regard him with mild pity; her holiness,
a strange light glowing faintly upon her frail flesh, did
not humiliate the sinner who approached her. If ever
he was impelled to cast sin from him and to repent,
the impulse that moved him was the wish to be her
knight. If ever his soul, re-entering her dwelling shyly
after the frenzy of his body's lust had spent itself, was
turned towards her whose emblem is the morning star,
"bright and musical, telling of heaven and infusing
peace," it was when her names were murmured softly
28
by lips whereon there still lingered foul and shameful
words, the savour itself of a lewd kiss.
-A Portrait of the Artist
in The Portable James Joyce, page 356
THE MOTHER
Who saved you the night you jumped into the train
at Dalkey with Paddy Lee? Who had pity for you when
you were sad among the strangers? Prayer is all power
ful. Prayer for the suffering souls in the Ursuline man
ual, and forty days' indulgence. Repent, Stephen.
STEPHEN
The ghoul! Hyena!
29
THE MOTHER
I pray for you in my other world. Get Dilly to make
you that boiled rice every night after your brain work.
Years and years I loved you, 0 my son, my firstborn,
when you lay in my womb.
-Ulysses, page 566
XVIII
Eugene Jolas, in his essay, "My Friend James
Joyce,'' reprinted in Givens' James Joyce: Two Decades
of Criticism tells of a sketch of Joyce he had commis
sioned by the Spanish artist, Cesar Abin, for transi
tion. "For more than two weeks (Joyce) kept <'.dding
new suggestions, until he was finally satisfied with it
. • . He asked that a star be put on the tip of his nose,
in memory of a criticaster's description of him as a
'blue-nosed comedian'."
-pages 8-9
30
NOTE
31
through the kindness l't. the owner, Mrs. Marcel
Duchamp.
I have received valuable assistance from Profes
sors Harry Levin and John Vincent Kelleher of Har
vard Colkge, and especially from Mr. Charles D. Ab
bott, Professor of English and Director of the Lock
wood Memorial Library of the University of Buffalo.
Final checking of the manuscripts and printed
books has been done by Miss Anna Russell to whom
I offer my thanks. Any errors in transcribing are,
however, my own responsibility.
32