Past Eve and Adam's
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Jump to navigationJump to search- Adam and Eve: characters in the Old Testament; according to Judaeo-Christian legend, Adam and Eve are the original parents of human civilization, with whom human history begins; HCE and ALP can be also thought of as the prototypical parents in FW; Eve and Adam were also, in that order, the committers of original sin
- Eve: from the Hebrew, Hawah, meaning "living one" → life → Life = Liffey (in Irish) → Livia → ALP
- Church of St Francis of Assisi: a Franciscan church popularly known as Adam and Eve's Church; it is situated beside the River Liffey, on the Merchants Quay, Dublin, on or near the site of the tavern of the same name. A chapel on the site was destroyed in 1619 and later rebuilt. The Franciscans secretly said Mass in the Adam and Eve Tavern, where the popular name of the present church comes from. In 1759 a newer church was built, which was later replaced by the current church. It was originally dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, but in 1889 it was rededicated to the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady.
- The dead "Old as they were, her aunts also did their share. Julia, though she was quite grey, was still the leading soprano in Adam and Eve's, and Kate, being too feeble to go about much, gave music lessons to beginners on the old square piano in the back room." ["Miss Kate and Miss Julia are based on Joyce's own great-aunts: The Misses Flynn who, as their great-nephew put it, 'trilled and warbled in a Dublin church up to the age of seventy'. This was the ancient Franciscan church on the south quays popularly known as Adam and Eve's." (Peter Costello: A Biography)]
- A Finnegans Wake Gazetteer
- Google Maps
- Adam and Eve’s: as above, a tavern in Rosemary Lane, Dublin; in 1618, in the time of the Penal Laws [1], the Franciscans established a secret church in the lane in which Mass was secretly performed; since the tavern had its shingle at the end of the lane, worshippers could enter the lane without arousing suspicion
- Ulysses 641.17: "and masshouse (Adam and Eve's tavern)" [one of the points of contact linking Irishman and Jew]
- Eve and Adam's: the Garden of Eden → Eden Quay, Dublin, one of the quays on the River Liffey; it is downstream from Adam & Eve's Church and on the other side of the Liffey
- Eve and Adam's: the rivers Lethe ("Oblivion") and Eunoë ("Good Remembrance"), which flow around Adam and Eve's Earthly Paradise in Dante's Purgatorio → riverrun (Erinnerung = memory)
- past Eve: after evening → this may indicate that FW begins (on the narrative level) at night as the innkeeper falls asleep (see John Bishop, Joyce's Book of the Dark)
- pa: Giambattista Vico, The New Science ¶ 448: "It seems likely that, when the first lightning bolts had awakened the wonder of humankind, Jupiter's exclamations called forth the first human exclamation, the syllable pa."
- Eve and Adam's: note the reverse order: we are moving back in time and space by a a commodius vicus, i.e. Viconian ricorso
- riverrun, past Eve: "liv amhrán, pa! son of Stephen". Illiad: "Achilles sing, O Goddess! Peleus' son" (Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληιάδεω Ἀχιλῆος)
- Eve & Adams: "even atoms"; atoms are the primordial particles from which the universe and all life in it comes in Epicurean philosophy; hence: riverrun past Eve and Adams = "they will arrive (Italian) beyond even (i.e. straight) atoms" → FW 003.17 Wallstrait
- past Eve and → "pa stEvean, i.e. the death of Joyce's "pa" (John Stanislaus Joyce, died 29 December 1931) and the birth of his grandson "stEvean" (Stephen Joyce, born 15 February 1932), as joined together in Joyce's poem "Ecce Puer": "A child is sleeping: An old man gone"; so in a more general sense, the cycle of dying and being born again. (Observation made by Hugh Kenner and related by Brenda Maddox.)
- past Eve and Adam → Pa (Leopold Bloom), Stephen (Stephen Dedalus) and a dam (Molly Bloom)
- évier: (French) sink, basin → is there one in the corner of HCE's bedroom? → FW 559.14-15: "tumbler, quantity of water" → the 2nd of 7 elements in a circuit of the bedroom
- ewer: a large water-jug → is there one in the corner of HCE's bedroom? → FW 559.14-15: "tumbler, quantity of water" → the 2nd of 7 elements in a circuit of the bedroom
- Robert Adam: Scottish architect and designer; the fireplace in HCE's bedroom is of his design → FW 559.02-03: "Adam's mantel" → the 3rd of 7 elements in a circuit of the bedroom
