Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Hades/106

Annotations

Last act of Lucia. Shall I nevermore behold thee? Bam! expires     Lucia di Lammermoor (1835) is an opera in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti after Walter Scott's novel The Bride of Lammermoor (1819). The plot, similar to that of Romeo and Juliet, concerns the tragic love of Lucia Ashton and Edgardo di Ravenswood, whose families are engaged in a deadly feud. In the final scene, when Edgardo has learned that Lucia is dying and has called for him, he sings:

Lucia di Lammermoor

Rivederla ancor vogli' io, Revederla e poscia....

I want to see her again, See her again and then....

But just as Edgardo is about to rush to Lucia's side, he is detained by the Calvinist chaplain Raimondo Bidebent, who informs him that Lucia is dead.

As is often the case, Bloom's memory has let him down. Edgardo does not expire after this line — his lamentations go one for several more minutes before he stabs himself and dies. What is more, Bloom's translation of the foregoing line is inaccurate. He seems to be confusing the aria with the refrain from Stephen Foster's song Gentle Annie (1856): Shall we never more behold thee.