2. âSignatures of all things I am here to readâ (3.2)
⢠Jakob Boehme (1575-1624), a German mystic, maintained that everything exists and
is intelligible only through its opposite. Thus, the âmodalityâ of visual experience
stands (as signatures to be read) in necessary opposition to the true substances,
spiritual identities.
3. âLimits of the diaphane. But he adds: in bodiesâ (3.4)
⢠Aristotleâs theory of vision, as developed in De Sensu et Sensibili (Of Sense and the
Sensible) and De Anima (On the Soul).
4. âIf you can put your five fingers through it it is a gate, if not a door.â (3.8-
9)
⢠A parody of Dr. Johnsonâs manner of definition in his Dictionary of the English
Language (1755).
5. âSounds solid: made by the mallet of Los demiurgosâ (3.18)
⢠âLos, the creator,â one of William Blakeâs symbolic figures, is central to âThe Book of
Losâ (1795). Los, for Blake, is related to the Four Zoas, the primal faculties, and is
the embodiment of the creative imagination.
6. âWonât you come to Sandymount, Madeline the mare? (3.21-22)
⢠A play on one of two names: Madeleine Lemaire (1845-1928), a French watercolorist.
Or Philippe-Joseph Henri Lemaire (1798-1880), a French sculptor.
7. âThey came down the steps from Leahyâs terraceâ (3.29)
⢠Runs from Sandymount Road to Beach Road (and the shore of Dublin Bay) between
Sandymount and Irishtown, one-half mile south of the mouth of the Liffey.
8. ââŚthe otherâs gamp poked in the beach.â (3.32-33)
⢠A large, bulky umbrella, after Mrs. Sairey Gamp in Dickenâs Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-
44).
9. âSpouse and helpmate of Adam Kadmonâ (3.41)
⢠In Theosophical lore, man complete (androgynous) and unfallen.
10. âWomb of sin.â (3.44)
⢠Eveâs belly, because through her (and through Adam) sin came into the world.
11. âWhere is poor dear Arias to try conclusions?â (3.50-52)
⢠Arius died of âhemorrhage of the bowelsâ on the eve of what would have been a great
triumph for him and his followers.
12. ââŚwidower of a widowed seeâŚâ (3.53-54)
⢠Arius, presbyter and pastor of a church in Alexandria when the controversy over his
beliefs began, was deposed in 321 by a council of Egyptian and Libyan bishops.
13. ââŚwith upstiffed omophorionâŚâ (3.54)
⢠The distinctive vestment of bishops, an embroidered strip of white silk worn around
the neck so that the ends cross on the left shoulder and fall to the knee.
14. âThe whitemaned seahorses, champing, brightwindbridled, the steeds
of Mananaan.â (3.56-57)
⢠The waves are the white manes of the horses of Mananaan MacLir, the Irish god of
the sea, who had Proteusâs ability for self-transformation.
16. âNor in the stagnant bay of Marshâs libraryâŚâ (3.107-8)
⢠St. Sepulchre Library in the close of St. Patrickâs Cathedral in south-central Dublin.
17. ââŚwhere you read the fading prophecies of Joachim Abbasâ (3.108)
⢠Father Joachim of Floris (c. 1145-c.1202) was an Italian mystic whose visions were
essentially apocalyptic.
18. âA hater of his kind ran from them to the wood of madnessâ (3.109-10)
⢠Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), dean of St. Patrickâs Cathedral from 1713, was widely
regarded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a misanthrope, his
hatred of mankind the product of a diseased mind that gradually disintegrated into
madness.
19. âDringdring!â (3.121)
⢠During the celebration of the Mass a bell (the sacring bell) is rung several times, at
the Sanctus, at the elevation of the host, and at the Communion.
20. âDan Occam thought of that, invincible doctor.â (3.123)
⢠The English Scholastic, philosopher, and theologian William of Occam (c. 1285-
1349), noted for the remorseless logic with which he dissected every question.
21. âOn top of the Howth tramâŚâ (3.133)
⢠The village of Howth is on the north side of the Hill of Howth, the
northeast headland of Dublin Bay, nine miles from Dublin center.
22. ââŚto all the great libraries of the world, including Alexandria? (3.143)
⢠The greatest and most famous library of the ancient world. Severely damaged by fire
when Julius Caesar was besieged in Alexandria in 47 B.C., it was destroyed by
another fire during the Arab conquest of Egypt in A.D. 641.
23. âPico della Mirandola like.â (3.144)
⢠(1463-94) An Italian humanist, philosopher, and scholar with a Renaissance mastery
of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic, plus an interest in alchemy and the cabala.
24. ââŚlost Armada.â (3.149)
⢠The Spanish Armada, after its defeat in 1588 in the English
Channel, sailed north in an attempt to circle the British Isles and
escape back to Spain.
25. â⌠a pocket of seaweed smouldered in seafire under a midden of
manâs ashes.â (3.151)
⢠Phosphorescence at sea.
26. âRingsend: wigwams of brown steersmen and master mariners.â
(3.156-57)
⢠Wigwams are temporary dwellings.
27. âHe turned northeast and crossed the firmer sand towards the
Pigeonhouse.â (3.160)
⢠Formerly a hexagonal fort, now the Dublin electricity and power station, located on a
breakwater that projects out into Dublin Bay as a continuation of the south bank of
the Liffey.
28. ââŚlapped warm milk with me in the bar MacMahon.â(3.164)
⢠Named for one of the outstanding descendants of the Wild Geese, Marie Edme
Patrice Maurice de MacMahon, duke of Magenta (1808-93), marshal of France, and
second president of the Third Republic.
29. âAbout the nature of women he read in Michelet.â (3.167)
⢠Jules Michelet (1798-1874), a French historian âof the romantic school.â Michelet is
noted not for his objectivity but for picturesque, impressionistic, and emotional history.
30. âColumbanus. Fiacre and ScotusâŚâ (3.193)
⢠Three of the most famous Irish missionaries to the Continent.
31. ââŚalong by the boulders of the south wall.â (3.206)
⢠The seawall that extends the south bank of the Liffey out into Dublin Bay.
32. ââŚsipping his green fairy as Patrice his white.â (3.217-18)
⢠âGreen fairyâs fangâ is slang for absinthe, considerably more intoxicating than ordinary
liquors and containing wormwood, a substance that causes deterioration of the
nervous system.
33. ââŚof Arthur Griffith nowâŚâ (3.227)
⢠(1872-1922), an Irish patriot instrumental in the final achievement of Irelandâs
independence in 1921-22 and, briefly, first president of the newly formed Irish Free
State (1922).
34. âM. Drumont, famous journalist, DrumontâŚâ (3.230-31)
⢠Edourad Adolphe Drumont (1844-1917), a French editor and journalist whose
newspaper, La Libre Parole (Free Speech), was distinguished chiefly for the
bitterness of its anti-Semitism.
35. âMaud Gonne, beautiful womanâŚâ (3.233)
⢠(1866-1953), a famous Irish beauty who became a minor Irish revolutionary leader
before seeking refuge in Paris.
36. âFelix Faure, know how he died?â (3.233-34)
⢠Faure (1841-99), president of the French Republic (1895-99), died suddenly of a
cerebral hemorrhage at the Elysee, the presidential residence.
37. âHow the head centre got away, authentic version.â (3.241-42)
⢠James Stephens (1824-1901), an Irish agitator, was Chief Organizer and
subsequently Head Centre of the Fenian Society (Irish Republican Brotherhood).
38. âOf lost leaders, the betrayed, wild escapes.â (3.243-44)
⢠Reference is to Robert Browningâs (1812-89) âThe Lost Leaderâ (1845). The poem
expresses regret (and some irritation) at the defection of Wordsworth from the ranks
of the revolutionaries to those of the Establishment.
39. ââŚfor her love he prowled with colonel Richard BurkeâŚâ (3.247)
⢠Richard OâSullivan Burke, a colonel in the United States Army during the Civil War
and an Irish-American member of the Fenian Society.
40. ââŚunder the walls of Clerkenwell and, crouching, saw a flame of
vengeanceâŚâ (3.247-48)
⢠The plot to blast the wall of the prison yard and rescue Burke and Casey hinged on
their scheduled exercise time.
41. âsaint Caniceâ (3.259)
⢠(d.c. 599), Irish, he preached in Ireland and Scotland and accompanied St. Columba
on a mission to convert Brude, king of the Picts.
42. âStrongbowâs castle on the Noreâ (3.259)
⢠Richard de Clare or Richard FitzGilbert, earl of Pembroke, called âStrongbowâ (d.
1176). He was a Norman adventurer and one of the key leaders of the Anglo-
Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169.
43. âHere, I am not walking out to the Kish lightship, am I?â (3.267)
⢠A lightship moored at the northern end of Kish Bank, two miles east of Kingstown
(now Dun Laoghaire). The bank forms a dangerous obstacle at the southern entrance
to Dublin Bay.
44. âA bloated carcass of a dog lay lolled on bladderwrack.â (3.286)
⢠A species of seaweed with air bladders in its fronds.
45. ââŚLouis Veuillot called Gautierâs proseâ (3.287-88)
⢠(1813-83), a French journalist and leader of the Ultramontane party, which opposed
nineteenth-century political efforts to curtail the secular powers of the Church of
Rome in France. (Pictured left)
⢠Theophile Gautier (1811-72), a French poet, critic, and novelist famous for a
âflamboyantâ romanticism with overtones of frank hedonism and a âpaganâ contempt
for traditional morality. (Pictured right)
46. âDane vikings, torcs of tomahawks aglitter on their breastsâŚâ (3.301-2)
⢠A âtorcâ is a collar of twisted metal worn by ancient Gauls, Britons, and Irish.
47. âI moved among them on the frozen LiffeyâŚâ (3.307-8)
⢠In 1338 there was âa severe frost from the beginning of December to the beginning of
February, in which the Liffey was frozen so hard that the citizens played at foot-ball,
and lit fires on the iceâ.
48. âThe Bruceâs brotherâ (3.313-14)
⢠Edward Bruce (d.1318), younger brother of Robert the Bruce (1274-1329). Robert
was king of Scotland (1306-29), and as king he won Scotlandâs independence from
England.
49. âThomas Fitzgerald, silken knightâ (3.314)
⢠(1513-37), Lord Offaly, tenth earl of Kildare, called âSilken Thomasâ because his
retainers wore tokens of silk. He was left in charge as vice-deputy of Ireland when
his father, who was lord deputy, went to England.
50. âPerkin Warbeckâ (3.314)
⢠(c. 1474-99), a Yorkist pretender to the throne of Henry VII of England (by
fraudulently claiming that he was Richard, duke of York, second son of Edward IV).
51. ââŚand Lambert SimnelâŚâ (3.315-16)
⢠The Simnel conspiracy (1486), also Yorkist. Richard Simons, a priest of Oxford,
palmed off his ward, Lambert Simnel, aged eleven and the son of an Oxford joiner, as
Edward, earl of Warwick, son of George, duke of Clarence, and thus heir to the
throne of England.
52. âHaroun al Raschidâ (3.366)
⢠(763-809), caliph of Baghdad, enlightened monarch and Oriental despot whose reign
was for the most part successful, his empire prosperous. He was a lover of luxury
and pleasure and a patron of learning and the arts.
53. âMonkwords, marybeads jabber on their girdlesâ (3.387)
⢠The beads of their rosaries, since the rosary includes a cycle of fifteen Hail Marys
among its prayers.
54. âMe sits there with his augurâs rod of ashâ (3.410-11)
⢠The Roman augurâs rod, the lituus, was a staff without knots, curved at the top.
55. âWelcome as the flowers in May.â (3.440-41)
⢠From the song âYouâre as Welcome as the Flowers in May,â words and music by Dan
J. Sullivan.
⢠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naH7kiDjrd0
56. âWildeâs love that dare not speak its name.â (3.451)
⢠After a poem by Oscar Wildeâs friend Lord Alfred Douglas, âTwo Loves,â published in
The Chameleon, a little magazine at Oxford.
57. âSaint Ambrose heard itâ (3.465)
⢠(c. 340-97), bishop of Milan and one of the most famous of the church fathers,
particularly noted as a hymnologist and composer of church music.
58. âLawn Tennyson, gentleman poet.â (3.492)
⢠Lawn tennis was a genteel version of the modern game â in contrast to court tennis,
which was then regarded as a rigorous, demanding, and masculine game.
⢠Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-92), the official âgreat poetâ of the Victorian age,
succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate.