"this is nat language at any sinse of the world"

(81.12-83.24)  Today I'm coming to you live and direct from Sacramento, California, where I'm visiting for a few days.  After two days off, the Wake must go on.  The reading picks up with the beginning of a long paragraph that starts on page 81 and doesn't end until page 84, so unfortunately this is one of those days where I have to cut off the reading in the middle of a paragraph.  Not ideal, but that's life.

On one level, this passage presents yet another version of the encounter between HCE and the Cad.  It ostensibly takes place after HCE's death (the narrator says that "[t]he boarder incident prerepeated itself").  As is typical with the Wake, the identities of the persons involved here tends to be slippery, with the encounter variously seeming to take place between HCE and the Cad, or between HCE and one of his sons, or between HCE's two sons, or between one of HCE's sons and the Cad.  I feel like it's (obviously) important to keep these shifting identities in mind here, but for ease of discussion I'm going to focus in on the HCE vs. the Cad angle today.

In this version, the "attackler," who I'm assuming is the Cad, engaged "the Adversary," HCE, who the Cad mistook for Oglethorpe (founder of Georgia) or Parr (Old Parr, an Englishman legendary for his long life and licentiousness).  This bit seems like a minor detail, but it's a rich one, with the Cad mistaking HCE either for a figure of great importance or a borderline sexual deviant, reflecting HCE's dueling natures of All-Father and Fallen Sinner.  I also like how the reference to Oglethorpe both recalls the Wake's opening paragraph (see the reference on page 3 to "Laurens County's gorgios," or Laurens County, Georgia) and reminds me of my young days when my family lived in Savannah, Georgia, and made frequent trips to Oglethorpe Mall.  

Anyway, the pair, who could be Napoleon and Wellington, or Buckley and the Russian general (who we will read about in depth later), "struggled apairently for some considerable time."  They take a break from their fighting to "pause for refleshmeant," then set to blows again.  Eventually, the fighting ceases, and the Cad asks HCE to loan him some money.  The stuttering HCE replies that he's broke for the moment, but, it being "Yuletide or Yuddanfest," he would be able to lend the Cad some money soon enough so that he could "buy J. J. and S. with" (aka, John Jameson & Son whiskey).  The Cad's pleased with this news ("seemingly much more highly pleased than tongue could tell at this opening of a lifetime") and begins to dream of indulging in oysters and champagne at pubs across Dublin, including "Adam and Eve's in Quantity Street," which also recalls us to the "Eve and Adam's" of the books opening line.

There'll be more to follow on HCE and the Cad in the next post (and probably many more times thereafter).  For now, though, I'll wrap up by noting how, once again, this passage had me totally perplexed on the first read through.  As always, though, it was rewarding to see how, after spending some time unraveling these two pages, depths of meaning and understanding slowly began to materialize in my head.