"all that has been done has yet to be done and done again"

(192.5-195.6)  Today brings the conclusion of the Wake's seventh chapter, which has detailed one of HCE's sons, Shem.  The passage begins with the final two paragraphs of Justius/Shaun's address to Shem.  He discusses the gifts Shem has squandered (such as "all the hamilkcars of cooked vegetables, the hatfuls of stewed fruit, the suitcases of coddled ales") and the indulgences granted him (such as "to give you your pound of platinum and a thousand thongs a year" and "to let you have your Sarday spree and holinight sleep").  As Shem continues to recount his "hornmade ivory dreams," the people will "wallow for a clutch of the famished hand."  Addressing what seems to be one of his bigger complaints, Justius asks, "Where is that little alimony nestegg against our predictable rainy day?"  It seems that Shem, like the prodigal son, has squandered this nest egg.  Justius concludes the paragraph by ordering Shem to take his medicine.

But medicine for what?  In the next paragraph -- which begins, "Let me finish!" -- Justius asks Shem to lean in so that he can tell him a secret, or "tell you a wig in your ear" (recalling HC Earwicker, the earwig).  This secret, which been passed down to Justius through a number of sources (enumerated here, much like the chain of people who spread the rumors about HCE) comes out with Justius's final words:  "Sh!  Shem, you are.  Sh!  You are mad!"  With Justius's part of the dialogue finished, "He points the deathbone and the quick are still."  Following this action, there is an invocation:  "Insomnia, somnia somniorum."  McHugh translates this Latin as, "sleeplessness, dreams of dreams," which is a great summary of the Wake itself.

Now we get Shem's response, delivered in his persona of Mercius (the Mercy to Shaun's Justice).  Mercius begins with a more apologetic tone:  "My fault, his fault, a kingship through a fault!"  He admits his kinship to Justius and his abandonment of his home:  "I who oathily forswore the womb that bore you and the paps I sometimes sucked."  This conciliatory tone feels appropriate, for Mercius states that the brothers are at their final hour:  "now ere the compline hour of being alone athands itself and a puff or so before we yield our spiritus to the wind . . . ."  Although they may be facing their respective ends, Mercius realizes that this is all part of an unending cycle.  History has not happened yet, nor has it yet inevitably repeated itself:  "all that has been done has yet to be done and done again, when's day's woe, and lo, you're doomed, joyday dawns and, la, you dominate."

The stalemate between these brothers, which has been detailed in both the previous chapter and this one, cannot continue.  Mercius realizes this, and he notes that something is drawing toward both of them:  "our turfbrown mummy is acoming, alpilla, beltilla, ciltilla, deltilla running with her tidings, old the news of the great big world, sonnies had a scrap, woewoewoe!"  Their mother, ALP, is coming in response to her sons' dispute, which is old news that's been repeated since the beginning of time.  In an exhilarating passage, Mercius traces ALP's journey in her incarnation as the River Liffey, "little wonderful mummy, ducking under bridges, bellhopping the weirs, dodging by a bit of bog, rapidly shooting round the bends," and so on.  She is "as happy as the day is wet, babbling, bubbling, chattering to herself, deloothering the fields on their elbows leaning with the sloothering slide of her, giddygaddy, grannyma, gossipaceous Anna Livia."

At the conclusion of Mercius's reply, "He lifts the lifewand and the dumb speak."  So, whereas Shaun brings wields death and causes the quick to be still, Shem wields life and causes the dumb to speak.  And what do they say?  "Quoiquoiquoiquoiquoiquoiquoiq!"  "Quoi" is French for "what," so this would indicate that the formerly speechless are now repeating "what."  As the previous chapter ended on the subject of Shem, it looks like the next chapter's "what" will be the final subject of this chapter, ALP.