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Did Joyce ever actually say this? Yes, he did! Sort of. (1/8) https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1351606102056726532
In June 1926, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington attended the 10th Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Paris. She called on Joyce and the two of them discussed, among other things, the high price that the 1901 ‘Two Essays’ was fetching: £7 or about €500 today. (2/8)
Four years later, an unsigned interview with Hanna appeared in the Irish edition of the ‘Daily Express’. She recalled the recent meeting with Joyce: ‘“I’m like that English Queen,” he said, “on whose heart Calais was written. Dublin will be written on mine.”’ (3/8)
In the way of these things, the line knocked around the early Joyce criticism and was tweaked and reworked in the process. The version we encounter most often nowadays derives from ‘May it Please the Court’ (1951) by Eugene Sheehy – Hanna’s brother. Likely his party piece. (4/8)
#PresidentBiden repeats Ulick O’Connor’s belle-lettrist take on the line. It ditches the Queen of England and so silently rewrites Joyce’s nested paraphrase as original utterance. (5/8)
The result is the instagram friendly one-liner coming soon to a picture frame in a café near you. (6/8)
As always with Joyce, there’s an edge to the quotation. The Kingdom of England _lost_ Calais during the Italian War of 1551–1559. Mary Tudor, on her deathbed a few months later, deplored the loss of what had been England’s last Continental foothold. (7/8)
Just one more thing… (∞)
That unsigned interview in 1930?
It was written by Mary Manning, a big Joyce head herself who adapted ‘Finnegans Wake’ for the Poets’ Theatre in Cambridge, MA twenty-five-years later. (8/8)
It was written by Mary Manning, a big Joyce head herself who adapted ‘Finnegans Wake’ for the Poets’ Theatre in Cambridge, MA twenty-five-years later. (8/8)
At the 5:20 mark on this podcast, you can hear a recording of Manning performing ‘Soft Morning, City!’ from FW 619.22 ff. – done in 1980 or so. (tilly) https://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/groups/XCP/XCP_144_Readings_6-17-07.mp3
