Why do I am alook alike a poss of porter pease?

• to look as like as two peas in a pod: (phrase) to appear identical → the two peas could be used to represent the twins Shem and Shaun

• porter Pees: in William Langland's Piers Ploughman (incidentally which also contains references to Robin Hood and his men, → Mulk mountynotty man) B.xx.296: Peace ("Pees") is set up as porter to bolt the gates of church Unity to all idle gossipers and men with evil intent: "In Unitee holy chirche / Conscience held hym, / And made Pees porter / To pynne the yates, / Of alle tale-telleris / And titeleris in ydel". .. Peace later interrogates Sir Creeps-into-houses ("Sire Penetrans-domos") who attempts to gain entrance. Peace attempts to keep him out, but Courteous Speech ("Hende-speche") convinces Peace to open up the door for him, with disastrous results → handworded

• peascod → cf. the custom of placing a peascod with nine peas in it on the door-lintel to attract a husband

• Alike: (Greek) Alice → Alice Pleasance Liddell, the girl who inspired Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass; → Alice and her image in the looking glass, or mirror, look alike → ALP

• poss: to wash (clothes) in a poss-tub

• poss: (Dialect) waterfall

• poss: (Latin) can (that is, 'able to', but a play on words as in 'can of porter')

• Possen: (German) prank, trick

• a pot of porter: porter is the type of alcoholic drink of which Guinness is the best known example

• porter: a door-keeper

• porter: (French) carry (the Prankquean, in her petty perusienne, is about to carry Tristopher away)

• Piesporter: wine from Piesport in Germany

• P's

• pees: HCE's crime often involves urination

• please

• pease: (nursery rhyme) Pease porridge hot, Pease porridge cold, Pease porridge in the pot Nine days old. Spell me that without a P, And a clever scholar you will be → the answer, of course, is THAT

Commentary

This is the first of the Prankquean's 3 riddles. Here are the riddles in order:

1. Mark the wans, why do I am alook alike a poss of porterpease?
2. Mark the Twy, why do I am alook alike two poss of porterpease?
3. Mark the Tris, why do I am alook alike three poss of porter pease?

The threefold form of the riddles (wans, twy, tris) is a charm motif that is used elsewhere in FW (e.g. in the tales How Kerrse Made A Suit of Clothes for the Norwegian Captain and How Buckley Shot the Russian General). It is used in "the fairytale pattern of three tries and a magic opening" (Margeret C. Solomon, Eternal Geomater).

The Prankquean (ALP) seems to Jarl van Hoother (HCE) a riddle; at the same time she asks him for a drink, just as Grace O'Malley sought hospitality from the Lord of Howth in the original story.

The riddle sounds like: Why do I and a poss of porter look as alike as two peas in a pod?

Taking different elements of the phrasing of the riddle, we can extract various questions relevant to the situation such as:

• 1) Why am I like a pot of pease porridge? The answer being that she is both hot (angry for being left outside) and cold.
• 2) How do I get past the porter, please? (The Manservant as doorkeeper/porter not letting her in → keep of his inn)
• 3) Who do you take me for? I'd like a poss (that is 'wash') of porter (the drink), please?