Tuesday 27 June 2017

Monday, 26 June 2017, Pages 390-391

Note: There will be no reading of Finnegans Wake on Monday, the 3rd of July. 

We stopped at "... on stamped bronnanoleum, ..." (391.20)

We started today's reading with Marcus, and went on to read about the reminiscences of Lucas. Marcus starts with a nice sentence: "The good go and the wicked is left over." He also mentions in this connection (?) the holymaid of Kunut and the haryman of Koombe

Deciphering these turned out to be quite interesting, mainly thanks to the website www.finwake.org and the Wikipedia. The holymaid of Kunut was the 16th Century nun, Elizabeth Barton, who was also known among other things as The Holy Maid of Kent. She was popular for her prophecies, and had met Henry VIII (our haryman of Koombe). According to the above link, 'However, when the King began the process of obtaining an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and seizing control of the Church in England from Rome, she turned against him. Barton strongly opposed the English Reformation and, in around 1532, began prophesying that if Henry remarried, he would die within a few months. She said that she had even seen the place in Hell to which he would go (Henry actually lived for a further 15 years).' She was executed finally because of this prophecy. 

Lucas, whose turn is next is concerned at first about a woman, Dowager Justice, who in or around about 1132 or 1169 or 1768, dressed as a man (in wig and beard) when she appeared at the (Auctioneer's) court.  He refers to the year(s) as the year of buy in disgrace. My search in the internet led me to the following explanation of 1132, the year of buy in disgrace: Saint Malachy (1094 - 1148) was an Irish saint, who was made the Archbishop of Armagh in 1132. 'Owing to intrigues, he was unable to take possession of his see for two years; even then he had to purchase the Bachal Isu (Staff of Jesus) from Niall, the usurping lay-primate.'

Note that we meet again in two weeks, on 10th July. 

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