Introductory Note

These notes were written by Joyce during his first months of permanent residence on the Continent in late 1904. At this time he was still working on Stephen Hero, the second version of A Portrait. The fragments which follow the paragraphs on esthetic theory are related to those noies for Stephen Hero which were attached to the first version (I, 3 above). As in the case of the Paris notebook, the original MS [manuscript] o£ these notes is lost and the text here follows Gorman 133-38. Since tie arrangement of the fragmentary notes for SH—the actual layout on the page—has no manuscript authority (as opposed to the notes for SH attached to the first version), the editor has in this case added whatever commentary seemed appropriate in brackets after each note, preserving Gorman's order. Some items lack commentary because they seem not to need it, others because of the editor's inability to provide it.

Gorman called these fragmentary notes a "selection" from the notebook—how complete we cannot tell. But the notes he printed were separated into five groups, perhaps representing five pages of manuscript. The first group includes a number of phrases Joyce associated with Yeats and his circle. The second seems mainly made up of reminders of actual incidents and bits of local color, many copied from Stanislaus Joyce's Dublin diary (partially printed as DD). The third, on J.F. Byrne, is made op almost exclusively of materials from the Dublin diary. The fourth, labeled "Dublinera" bui hard to trace in the stories, is a mixture of quotations, figurative speech, and idiomatic expressions, some of which were used in Ulysses. The fifth group is composed of three witty and outrageous sayings destined for S, D. (Stephen) who is twitted about one of them by John Eglinton in Ulysses.

Pola Notebook

Sensible objects, however, are said conventionally to be beautiful oe not for neither of the foregoing reasons but rather by reason of the nature, degree and duration of the satisfaction resulting from the apprehension of them and it is in accordance with these latter merely that the words "beautiful" and "ugly" are used in practical aesthetic philosophy. It remains then to be said that these words indicate only a greater or less measure of resultant satisfaction and that any sensible object, to which the word "ugly" is practically applied, an object, that is, the apprehension of which results in a small measure of aesthetic satisfaction is, in so far as its apprehension results in any measure of satisfaction whatsoever, said to be for the third time beautiful...

J.A.J. Pola, 15 XI 04.

J.A.J. Pola, 16 XI 04.

Fragmentary Notes:

Group 1.

Greek culture (Iliad) Barbarian (Bible)

Ireland—an afterthought of Europe
[SH 53.]

Beauty is so difficult
[Like the following phrase, this is Yeats quoting Beardsley. Joyce may have heard it directly fiom Yeats. Both phrases appeared in 1922, in that section of The Trembling of the Veil called "The Tragic Generation."]

I once sawa bleeding Christ—(W. Yeats] quoting Beardsley

Old Murray and Dante
[This phrase probably refers to an anecdote involving Joyce's maternal grandfather and his annt, Mrs. Conway (Dante, or Mrs. Riordan in P).]

"Miss Esposito, I never see a rose but I think of you."
[A remark made by Padraic Colum to Vera Esposito, one of two genteel sisters who acted at the Abbey Theatre.]

"I got the highest marls in mathematics of any man that ever went in."
[An overheard remark which seems to be the basis for SH 208.]

"Ah, Paris? What's Paris? The theatres, the cafés, les petites femmes des boulevards."
[Probably another overheard remark, this one has a touch of George Moore in it]

Ladies' bonnets. High ma.ss at the Pro-Cathedral.
[A reminder of a scene in one of Dublin's Catholic churches, the Pro-Cathedral, Mailborough Street]

Signs of Zodiac. Earth a living being.
[This cryptic, animistic phrase may have been set down because of its contrast with the combination of Catholicism and clothing above.]

"The English have their music-hall songs but we have the melodies."
[A bit of Irish musical patriotism, perhaps a reference to Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies.]

Moments of spiritual life
[On his way to Paris in 1903, Joyce was introduced by Yeats to C. Lewis Hind, editor of the Academy. Joyce wanted to review books lor money. Hind asked him for some "moments of his spiritual lite." Neither got what he wanted.]

'That queer thing—genius."
[In Ulysses A, E..applies this phrase to Padraic Colum (190/192). No doubt he did in life also, annoying Joyce, who referred to Colum (who worked for the Post Office) as "The Messenger-boy genius.']

"Synge's play is Greek," said Yeats, etc.
[Yeats gave Joyce this opinion of 'Riders to the Sea when he was engaged in trying to find work for both young men in London, while Joyce was on his way to Paris in 1903. Joyce resented this praise, and when he saw Synge and his manuscript in Paris attacked the play as un-Aristotelian, concealing that grudging admiration which led him to translate it into Italian some years later.]

"With all his eccentricities he remains a dear fellow."
[The sort of remark George Moore often made of his friend Edward Martyn. Joyce may have had it from Yeats.]

Byrne

Features of the Middle Age: a pale, square, large-boned face, an aquiline nose with wide nostrils rather low in his face, a tighbshat lifeless mouth, full of prejudice, brown eyes set wide apart under short thick eyebrows and a long narrow forehead with short coarse black hair brushed up off it resting on his temples lite an iron crown.

The Grand Byrne

Wicklow

Brutal "bloody" "flamin"

Thomas Squaretoes

Talking like a pint

Deprecate eke so

Did that bloody boat the Seaqueen ever start?

Immortal plebeian

His Intensity the Sea-green Incorruptible

to make me drink
[A reference to Stanislaus Joyce's notion that Joyce's friends were deliberately trying to injure him by getting him drunk.]

Stannie takes off his hat

For "Dubliners"

S.D.

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