Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Scylla and Charybdis/179
Annotations
editil se promène, lisant au livre de lui-même (French) he strolls about, reading in the book of himself.[1] Mr Best is misquoting from a prose poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, Hamlet et Fortinbras, which first appeared as a letter in La Revue blanche on 15 July 1896:[2]
Un impresario, dans une province mêlée à mon adolescence, épigraphiait HAMLET, qu’il représenta, du sous-titre ou le DISTRAIT : cet homme d’un goût français joliment, entendait, je suppose, préparer, par là, le public à la singularité qu’Hamlet seul compte et qu’à l’approcher, quiconque s’efface, succombe, disparaît. La pièce, un point culminant du Théâtre, est, dans l’œuvre de Shakespeare, transitoire entre la vieille action multiple et le Monologue ou drame avec Soi, futur. Le héros ; tous comparses : il se promène, pas plus, lisant au livre de lui-même, haut et vivant signe ; nie du regard les autres. |
An impresario in a province inextricably linked to my adolescence added as an epigraph to HAMLET, which he was staging, the subtitle “or THE ABSENT-MINDED MAN”. This man of French taste amusingly meant, I suppose, to prepare the public thereby for the peculiarity which is unique to Hamlet and to which one who effaces himself succumbs and disappears. The play, a pinnacle in the history of drama, is, in Shakespeare’s output, transitional between the old many-handed action and the monologue or drama of Self, which was yet to come. The hero; all the extras: he walks about, no more, reading in the book of himself a high and living sign; he denies others his regard [scorns to look at others]. |
Hamlet ou Le Distrait Pièce de Shakespeare (French) Hamlet or the Absent-Minded Man A Play by Shakespeare. Mr Best's quotation from Mallarmé's prose poem is not perfect. See above for the full text.
Sumptuous and stagnant exaggeration of murder Stephen recalls a phrase from Mallarmé's prose poem. See above for the full text.
References
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