Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Sirens/272
Annotations
[edit | edit source]in nomine Domini ... mea culpa (Latin) in the name of the Lord ... through my fault.[1] Carroll Malone's lyrics for The Croppy Boy include the following stanza, in which the Croppy Boy begins his confession:
The youth has knelt to tell his sins: |
13 |
The Croppy Boy would have begun the Rite of Confession by making the Sign of the Cross while reciting the Trinitarian Formula: In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, Amen (In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen). He would recite the Confiteor, which includes the line, mea culpa, mea culpa (through my fault, through my fault), after confessing his sins.[3] The Croppy Boy, then, would not have spoken the words Nomine Dei, while his mea culpa would have come after the litany of his sins. Furthermore, the Latin expressions Bloom, Goulding and Pat are alleged to hear are not part of the traditional lyrics. It is possible that Ben Dollard is singing a variant text, or simply misremembering the lyrics; Zack Bowen believes that the mistake is Joyce's.[4]
It is curious that the text of Ulysses has the Latin expression in nomine domini (in the name of the Lord) instead of nomine dei (in God's name), while giving the English translation of the latter. Perhaps the translation is Bloom's.
corpusnomine (Latin) A nonsense word Bloom has concocted from corpus (body) and nomine (in the name). He has just heard Ben Dollard sing the latter; this reminds him of the expression Corpus Domini (the Body of Our Lord), which he heard in St Andrew's Church on Westland Row earlier in the day (077.31); he is also reminded of the Latin he heard in the mortuary chapel in Prospect Cemetery during Paddy Dignam's Burial Service, which had prompted another of his Latin concoctions, Dominenamine (100.01).[5] See 246.16 for an earlier variant in this episode. See also 266.18 for a similar instance, and 277.37 for a variation on dominenamine.
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ Gifford (1988) 307.
- ↑ The Croppy Boy
- ↑ Rituale Romanum 62 ff.
- ↑ Bowen, Zack R. (1974). Musical Allusions in the Works of James Joyce: Early Poetry through Ulysses. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 196–197. ISBN 0-87395-248-0.
- ↑ Gifford (1988) 307.
Thornton (1968) 251.