"Usqueadbaugham!"

(22.17-24.15)  Today's passage picks up with the story of the Prankquean, who after turning Hilary into a "tristian," returns to Howth Castle.  Upon making her request a third time (now for "three poss of porter"), Jarl van Hoother finally comes out of the castle.  Van Hoother gives the order to "shut up shop," and in response "the duppy shot the shutter clup."  That last phrase can be (probably properly) interpreted in any number of ways on any number of levels, but to me the key clue comes in the text immediately following the phrase:  the second 100-letter (yes, I counted) thunderword.  The thunderwords indicate a fall.  In this passage's context, the thunderword indicates van Hoother's fall, so I read (at least on the literal level) "the duppy shot the shutter clup" as van Hoother's dummy (the "the duppy") shooting up van Hoother ("the shutter" -- he just ordered the door shut) or, in other words, the dummy shooting and killing van Hoother.

The narrator wraps up the story by noting that "they all drank free."  With van Hoother/HCE dead, they rest of the characters are able to close the castle/pub and drink freely.  The narrator calls this story "the first peace of illiterative porthery in all the flamend floody flatuous world" -- a fundamental and universal story.  In wrapping up the story, the narrator says that the prankquean adopts the dummy, the twins keep the peace, and van Hoother serves "to git the wind up" -- as a corporeally absent god, he gets the wind up, or frightens the general populace.

The next paragraph on page 23 further establishes HCE and ALP as Adam and Eve types from which the human race and civilization spring.  The first full paragraph of page 24 again discusses HCE as Adam, "our ancestor most worshipful," and it also emphasizes that HCE is a figure who would, could, and will rise from the dead to live again.

I'll wrap up for the day by unpacking/marveling at the word that I've used as the post's title, "Usqueadbaugham."  It concludes the paragraph I just discussed and appears after it has been made clear that we are back at Finnegan's wake.  As highlighted in McHugh's Annotations, this word's foundation is the Anglo-Irish word "usquebaugh," which means "whiskey."  McHugh further notes that the introduction of the letters "ad" also indicate the Latin "usque ad necem," which means "even unto death."  Finally, McHugh smartly points out that Joyce's "usquebaugh" contains two more additional letters beyond the "ad."  It ends with "am."  Put those four letters together, and you've got "adam."  So, in one single combo-word, Joyce tells us that whiskey turns this corpse into Adam, the first man.  This once again links the old Irish song -- in which Tim Finnegan is awoken during his wake when he's splashed with whiskey -- with Joyce's fundamental theme of the father-figure's rebirth.  If you can pronounce "usqueadbaugham," I'd suggest using it as a toast when you next enjoy a shot of Irish whiskey.