University of Tulsa

Beckett in the "Wake" Author(s): Hugh B. Staples Source: James Joyce Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 4, Beckett Issue (Summer, 1971), pp. 421-424 Published by: University of Tulsa Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25486933 . Accessed: 08/10/2013 18:49
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Hugh

B. Staples

Beckett
Halper Beckett

in the Wake

In an article

some time back in AWN,1 Nathan published a from for Ellmann heard knuckles raps my quoting story The ancedote authorial method. appears concerning Joyce's biography thus:

in the Ellmann Once

or twice he dictated a bit of Finnegans to Wake not work well for dictation did Beckett, him; in very though of some such session there was a knock at the door the middle which Beckett didn't hear. Joyce said, 'Come in,' and Beckett wrote it down. Afterwards he read back what he had written and Joyce said, 'What's that "Come in"? 'Yes, you said that,' then said, 'Let it said Beckett. Joyce thought for a moment, as his col to accept coincidence stand.' He was quite willing was fascinated and thwarted laborator. Beckett by Joyce's singular method.2 'Come in' does that the phrase points out, quite Halper rightly, seems relevant not seem to appear in FW in a way that would in or to be found in the context (the phrase should be imperative), amanuensis. for which Beckett would have been a possible passages most of Mick have been 'The Mime likely sequence would to Nick and the Maggies' both Hay according (FW II, i), which, man and Ellmann, occupied a good deal of Joyce's energies between about 1930 and 1934. Halper is right in saying that the phrase 'Come for the in' does not appear in this section, but I think that evidence The validity graph of the anecdote of the 'Mime.' nonetheless It is (FW lies embedded 222.32-36; in an early para 223.1-11):

in their Aminxt that nombre of evelings, but how pierceful sojestiveness were those first girly stirs, with zitterings of flight in rondel after, with of twitchbells and twinglings released rather naightily all the that made shimmershake waverings hims from shebehind duskcended airs and shylit beaconings all the back. Sammy, call on. Mirrylamb, she was shuffering

421

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422 Hugh

B. Staples

of the unherd of. Mary Louisan If diseasinesses Shousapinas! Arck could no more of willy salve his agnols from the wiles wooly wolf! If all the airish signics of her dipandump helpabit from an Father Hogam could not that till the Mutther Masons to catch her by the calour of her brideness! Not Rose, Glugg not Esmeralde, Pervinca nor Indra; not Sevilla nor Citronelle; Viola even nor all of them four themes over. But, the monthage stick in the melmelode all thees thing. jawr, I am (twintomine) on in drim and the down the loose, front, Up tighty again on her back and a pop from her whistle. What is drumming O Isot that, givin yoe?3 holytroopers? to Beckett, is that as Joyce was dictating there was My conjecture a noise in the background, someone knocking at the door ? possibly more some other loud noise of the kind to which Joyce was likely or not sensitive. remarked have been The sound may may especially on in event who would have been any concentrating by Beckett, have been ipsissima verba, and thus would catching The Master's to record Joyce's inadvertent carried along by his own momentum in Hayman's A First-Draft verbal reaction. Here the evidence is, I MS in his transcription of think, instructive. The relevant passage 47477, 6 is: But up tightly in the front, down on her back and a pop drumming O holytroopers?4 Note how the phrase arated from the preceding 'what's again in the loose, drim and from her whistle what's that.

that' appears completely unsep is the line as a whole line, though divided into syntactical units by commas. Note also that it is not followed by a question mark, as the sense demands. I suggest that was the dictation noise explained. stopped abruptly; the mysterious it seems it was not a knock on the door, and if it were, (Probably a visitor to interrupt his that Joyce would have permitted unlikely work in the middle and so did not say 'Come in'). of dictation, When work as Ell I further speculate, resumed, Joyce, wishing, mann to saw into Beckett's mistake the text, suggests, incorporate a way out by a in into the first draft the ending simply turning answer a one to to familiar of which is the readers riddle, pretty FW: the heliotrope. (O holytroopers').5

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Beckett in TheWake 423

I find additional reference support for the notion to Beckett to dictation in the passage to I take what by 'Sammy, call on.' Fur to forms of references that dictate:

to the laureate in the phrase contains ther, the context of the paragraph such as a careful person would punctuation,

question be an allusion

has

Fools stop (Full stop)

Punct. Sammy, (Period -Punkt~G) call on. (semi-colon)

222.23
222.26 222.36-223.1 223.23 A space

No doubt

there are others

that I have missed.

The final phrase, which does not appear in Hayman's transcrip tion of the text of the first draft?'Isot givin yoe?' presents difficulty, in elements and points towards the possibility of autobiographical as to the of Mick Nick and the Maggies, the Mime particularly seems to me to be of Chuff and Glugg. This paragraph in in situation domestic grounded (let us say) the year Joyce's a in a chapter that also in covered Ellmann's 1932, year biography Lucia was In her early twenties, anecdote. the Beckett includes later would that from disorders personality suffering already identity harden she was A lonely, tormented schizophenia. girl ('Mirrylamb of the unherd of!), she was all the diseasiness shuffering with young men to form personal unable relationships apparently to her age and culture; neither could she escape the appropriate ... is that of sexual maturation. demands ('The trouble with me to have told William I'm sex-starved' she is reported Bird).6 At into dancing came to nothing. tempts to channel her energies Joyce to himself to pretend that she was a normal girl, tried frantically but he must have realized to some extent the gravity of her condi are re tion. I think some his conflicting emotions about Lucia flected in the opening sentence of the passage: into

in their Aminxt that nombre of evelings, but how pierceful sojestiveness were those first girly stirs, with zitterings of flight in rondel after, with and twingling of twitchbells released shimmershake rather naightily all the that made waverings airs and shylit beaconings from shehind hims back. duskcended One solution was had to encourage to visit: young men 'Sammy, called on the Joyces, but his purpose from

call on.' "Sammy"

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424 Hugh

B. Staples

to develop with the first was apparently his acquaintance Joyce. We are told that Beckett took Lucia out on dates, but as soon as to repel her her passion for him became obvious, he felt compelled and told her that he was really interested in her father.7 advances, of Cincinnati

University

NOTES
III #3, Newslitter, 1966), (June, 2. Ellmann, 662. James Joyce, 3. Text is from the Faber edition (1964). A First-Draft 4. Hayman, of Finnegans Wake, 5. Anthony this Burgess 'explains' that I do not find altogether convincing 6. Ellmann, 662. 7. Ellmann, 662. version in Here 1. A Wake 54-56.

130. in of the riddle Comes Everybody, a p. fashion 221.

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