"They were the big four, the four maaster waves of Erin"

(383.1-385.18)  Today I begin the fourth (and final) chapter of Book II of Finnegans Wake.  This chapter is a short one (a mere 17 pages -- compare that with the 74 pages of the previous chapter and the 49 pages of the chapter before that), but perhaps that's to be expected, since it's the fourth stage in the Viconian cycle of this Book, a stage of chaos that returns us to the primitive, natural order of things.  

Judging by the first two pages of text in the chapter, it also looks like it will be a comparatively "easy" chapter to read through, but still a typically rewarding one.  The chapter begins with a poem, the first line of which reads, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!"  (Tindall notes in his Reader's Guide that this line provided at least part of the inspiration for the naming of the subatomic particle, quark.)  The rest of the poem, which is heavy on references to various types of birds (indicating that those three quarks are three cheers, three quarts (probably of beer), and three bird's squawks), tells the tale of the legendary King Mark of the Tristan and Iseult story, references to which have appeared throughout the Wake.  Mark -- like HCE -- has been made a fool of ("wouldn't un be a sky of a lark / To see that old buzzard whooping around for uns shirt in the dark / And he hunting round for uns speckled trousers around by Palmerstown Park?"), as his nephew, Tristan, is in the process of seducing Mark's intended bride.

The first paragraph following the opening poem indicates that the poem was a song sung by "seaswans" that witnessed Tristan and Iseult kissing.  Seeing as we left off with the "stout ship Nansy Hans" sailing away at the end of the last chapter, this indicates that the scene we're beginning to see unfold is the sea voyage of Tristan and Iseult, who are departing Ireland (in the passed-out HCE's dream).

In addition to the sea birds, the four old men also witness this sea voyage.  These men -- "the big four, the four maaster waves of Erin, all listening, four" -- are Matt Gregory, Marcus Lyons, Luke Tarpey, and Johny MacDougall, or Irish versions of the four authors of the Gospels.  The four spy on Tristan and Iseult, "with their palms in their hands" as they are "spraining their ears, luistening and listening to the oceans of kissening, with their eyes glistening."  In a reversal of the prominent event underlying the Wake, the four old men are guilty of the sin of peeping, which HCE so infamously committed in Phoenix Park.  They watch Tristan and Iseult as the couple sits "on the fifteen inch loveseat, behind the chieftaness stewardesses cubin."  Tristan is "the hero, of Gaelic champion, the onliest one of her choice."  He's not altogether gentle, as he's "palpably wrong and bulbubly improper, and cuddling her and kissing her" as the two become one:  "Trisolanisans."

Watching the two lovers, the four old men grow nostalgic.  They remember their younger days, when they themselves "used to be at that time in the vulgar ear cuddling and kiddling her, after an oyster supper in Cullen's barn, from under her mistlethrush kissing and listening."  They were four collegians then, "peep of tim boys and piping tom boys, raising hell while the sin was shining."

As seen in the quoted excerpts here, there's already a lot of repetition in this chapter's language, indicating the even more dream-like nature of the text that will unfold over the next week or so.  Tomorrow, we'll return to the four old men as they watch and reminisce.