Finnegans Wake

II.4: Book II Chap. 4

Details of the various draft stages.

Compiled by Danis Rose and John O'Hanlon
Draft Analysis: II.4

2010 edition FW pages 297-310
1939 edition FW pages 383-399

II.4 Sections
  • 1 : — — (“Tristan and Isolde”)
  • 2 : FW 1939 383-398.24 (“MaMaLuJo”)
  • 3 : FW 1939 398.25-399
II.4 is in many ways an episode superfluous to Finnegans Wake. It is an amalgam of two stories from Finn's Hotel. The first, ‘Tristan and Isolde’ or ‘The Big Kiss’, had a brief existence in 1923 before Joyce dropped it, and forgot all about it when he turned from a series of vignettes of Irish history to a history of humankind beginning with his Genesis tale, H.C.E. as Adam taking precedence over H.C.E. as Isolde's father. The second, on the other hand, ‘MaMaLuJo’ was not forgotten. Instead it was polished and published, and gave its temporary name, Work in Progress, to the entire 16-year long project. But it was always considered a ‘sidepiece’. It is a story of old age as told by the four master waves of Ireland.
One has to wonder what was on Joyce's mind when he put these two at the end of Book II. The children's games were over, the lessons learnt, the stories told, the customers gone home, the lights put out. All was now set for the four watches of Shaun (III.1-4). So what is the purpose of this episode? Since it is about the sea he might as well have tacked it on at the end of the book. Is it then a dream within the dream, and if so what is it about? Is it about Isolde leaving, or for that matter Jim and Nora leaving, or is it about the stranger coming, be he Viking or Saxon or old Father Time, like a thief in the night?

1923 drafts

Section 1: ‘Tristan and Isolde’

II.4§1.0
Earliest fair copy (ink); probably July/August 1923.
II.4§1.1
Second fair copy (ink); early August 1923.
II.4§1.2
Third fair copy (ink) (including the “Seaswan's song”; August 1923 (see Letters, BLHW, 12 August, 1923).
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 97r, 97v, 98, 98v
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 12-19
  • Notebooks used: SA (VI.A)°, N1 (VI.B.10)°
II.4§1.3'
First typescript; made by Harriet Shaw Weaver ca. 12/13 August 1923. The middle two pages are missing. Lightly corrected and revised. An unmarked carbon also survives. See also §1.3 below.
  • MS: private, page 1, missing, page 4
    James Joyce Broadsheet: 29 pp 1-4 (June 1989)
  • Notebooks used: N3 (VI.B.3)°

Sections 2-3: FW, 383.01-398 (‘Mamalujo’)

II.4§2.0/3A.0
Heavily revised draft (pencil), a rewritten version of of FH-vi, includes the opening of §3 but lacks the poem; sent to Harriet Shaw Weaver on 5 October 1923.
II.4§2.0+
Redraft of fol. 4r; October 1923.
II.4§2.1
Fair copy (ink); October 1923 (Letters, I, 17 October and 23 October, 1923).
II.4§3B.0
First draft (pencil) of the poem; probably September 1923.
  • MS: Buffalo Vl.B.2, pp. 136, 133
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 59
  • Notebooks used: N5 (VI.B.2)
II.4§3B.1
Second draft (pencil); September 1923.
  • MS: BL 47481, fol. 6r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 60-61
  • Notebooks used: SA (VI.A)°
II.4§3(AB).2
Fair copy (ink); October 1923.
II.4§3.3
Second fair copy (ink); October 1923.
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 26r, 27r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 64-65
II.4§2.2/3.4 (See also II.4§2.2+)
Fair copy (ink); the first two pages are taken over from §2.1: sent for typing on 8 October 1923 (see Letters, I, 9 October 1923).
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. (13r), (14r), 15r, 16r, 17r, 18r, 19r, 20r, 21r, / 22r, 23r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 49-55, 66-67
  • Notebooks used: N5 (VI.B.2), N6 (VI.B.11)
II.4§2.2+
Paragraph at end of fol. 16 redrafted on fol. 17, a late addition contained in a letter from Joyce to Lily Bollach (see Letters, III, 10 October 1923), and some other revisions for which the manuscript is missing.
II.4§2.3/3.5 (See also II.4§2.3+/3.5+)
First typescript, made by Lily Bollach (see Selected Letters, 12 October, and Stanford, 12 October, 1923), first revised late October 1923 (see Letters, III, 2 November 1923.
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 29r, 30r, 31r, 32r, 33r, 34r, 35r, 36r, / 37r, 38r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 71-80
  • Notebooks used: N1 (VI.B.10)°, N3 (VI.B.3)°

1924 drafts

In the Autumn of 1923, the English writer, Ford Madox Ford (neé Hueffer), arranged for the publication of a new literary journal, to be called the Transatlantic Review, and wanted something from Joyce for the first issue (see Letters, I, 9 October 1923). Joyce demurred and kept putting him off (see Letters I, 23 October and 15 December, 1923, and I, 5 February, 1924), but finally relented and gave him MaMaLuJo (see Letters I, 8 February and N.D. February, 1924).
II.4§2.3+/3.5+
Unrevised, innaccurate retype of above typescript, perhaps made by the printer of Transatlantic Review; probably February 1924.
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 40r, 41r, 42r, 43r, 44r, 45r, 46r, 47r, 48r, / (48r), 49r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 81-90
II.4§2.4/3.6
Proofs for Transatlantic Review, 1, first set; February 1924 (see Letters, III, 25 February and I, 29 February, 1924).
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 51r. 52r. 53r, [missing], 56r 57r, 58r, / (58r), 59r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 91-97
  • Notebooks used: N9 (VI.B.1)
II.4§2.5/3.7
Proofs for Transatlantic Review, 1, second set; March 1924 (see Letters, III, 6 March, 14 March, 16 March and 24 March 1924).
  • MS: Cornell (Ford Madox Ford Collection), fols. 1r, 2r, 3r, 4r, 5r, 6r, 7r, 8r, / (8r), 9r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 99-107
  • Notebooks used: N9 (VI.B.1)
Transatlantic Review vol. 1, no. 4, was published April 1924.

1938 drafts

Following its publication, “MaMaLuJo” was laid aside for 14 years. It was not until the Summer of 1938, during a period of intense work when he was finishing his book, that he cast around for unused fragments, the pieces of Finn's Hotel mainly, and wrote them into the last available places in his opus: Book IV and the end of II.3. It was as if he knew he was nearing the end of his career as a writer.
II.4§2.6/3.8 (See also II.4§2.6′/3.8′)
Revised pages of Transatlantic Review, 1; July 1938 (see Letters, NLHW, 20 July 1938).
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 69r, 70r-v, 71r-v, 72r-v, 73r-v, 74r, / (74r)
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 111-121
  • Notebooks used: N53 (VI.B.46)°, VI.C.12, VI.C.13
II.4§2.6'/3.8'
Separately revised pages of Transatlantic Review, 1. These few, mainly Blakean additions, did not enter into the line of descent of the text; possibly July 1938.
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 62r, 63r-v, 64r-v, 65r-v, 66r-v, 67r, / (67r)
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 123-133
  • Notebooks used: VI.C.13
II.4§2.7/3.9
Typescript; July-August 1938.
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 76v, 77r, 77v, 78r, 78v, 79r, 79v, 80r, 80v, 81r, 81v, 82r, 82v, 83r, 83v, 84r, 84v, 85r, 85v, 86r, 86v, missing, missing, 87r, 87v, 88r, 88v, 89r, 89v, 90r, 90v, 91r, / 91v, 92r, missing
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 134-167
  • Notebooks used: N53 (VI.B.46)°, N56 (VI.B.41), VI.C.9°, VI.C.13, VI.C.15
II.4§1.3 (See also II.4§1.3′)
Typescript of the “Tristan and Isolde” piece sent to Joyce by Harriet Weaver in late August 1938 (see Letters, NLHW, 27 July, 17 August and 19 August, 1938) and possibly made by her around the same time from an uncorrected exemplar of §1.3' above (it repeats its transmissional errors but does not incorporate the corrections and revisions therein). No revisions. See §2.8 below.
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 101r, l02r, 103r, 104r, 105r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 20-24
II.4§2.8/3.10
Second typescript, into which Joyce introduced textual elements drawn from the “Tristan and Isolde” passage; August-September 1938.
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 107r, 113v, 114r, 114v, 115r, 115v, 116r, 116v, 117r, 117v, 118r, 118v, 119r, 119v, 120r, 120v, 121r, 121v, 122r, 122v, 123r, 123v, 124r, 124v, 125r, 125v, 126r, 126v, 127r, 127v, 128r, 128v, 129r, 129v, 130v, 131v, 132v, 130r, 131r, 131v, 132r, 132v, / (132r), 133r, 134r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 169-213
  • Notebooks used: (from the 1923 version of Tristan and Isolde): SA (VI.A), N1 (VI.B.10), N3 (VI.B.3), N4 (VI.B.25); (1938 additions) N54 (VI.B.45), N55 (VI.X.5), N56 (VI.B.41)
II.4§2.8χ
Extradraft material, including carbons of the Tristan & Isolde typescript (§1.3); August-September 1938.
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. (107r), 108r, 109r, 110r, 111r; BL 47480, fol. 241v
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 214-218

Copy for Faber and Faber

II.4§2.9/3.11
Third typescript, incomplete; the work of two typists; probably September 1938.
  • MS: missing; BL 47481, fols. 136r, 137r, 137v, 138r, 138v, 139r, 139v, 140r, 140v, 141r, 141v, 142r, 142v, 143r, 143v, 144r, 145r, missing, 146r, 147r, 147v, 148r, 149r, 150r, 151r, 152r, 153r, 154r, / (154r), 155r, 156r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 220-247
  • Notebooks used: N56 (VI.B.41)
II.4§2.9χ
Extradraft material, on verso of 148r and on verso of letter of 11 October 1938 from Monro Saw & Co in Paul Léon's hand (see fol. 150r above).
  • MS: BL 47481, fol. 148v, NLI Léon Collection.
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 248
II.4§2.10/3.12
Typescript (missing), either a third one or a clean copy of above, no revisions, received by Faber and Faber 18 November (see Letters, NLFF, 18 November 1938).

Proofs for Finnegans Wake II.4 (FW, 383-399)

II.4§2.11/3.13 (See also II.4§2.11+)
Galley proofs 19-30 for Finnegans Wake; dated by the printer 2[6] November 1938 and sent to Léon 28 November (see Letters, NLFF, 28 November 1938); revised and sent back (or a copy sent) to Faber and Faber on 14 December (see Letters, NLFF, 15 December 1938).
  • MS: BL 47481, fols. 158r, 158v, 159r, 160r, 160v, 161r, 160v, 161r, 161v, 162r, 162v, 163r, 163v, 164r, 164v, 165r, 165v, 166r, 166v, 167r, 167v, 168r, / 169r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 251-273
  • Notebooks used: N56 (VI.B.41)°, N58 (VI.B.30)
II.4§2.11+
Two revisions, ‘hampty’ to ‘hempty’, ‘empty’ to ‘dempty’, on a missing copy of the galleys or otherwise communicated to Faber and Faber; December 1938.
  • MS:, missing

Page proofs for II.4 (FW, 383-399)

II.4§2.12/3.14
Page proofs (missing) for Finnegans Wake; 7 January 1939; pages 385-416 received by Faber and Faber 12 January (see Letters, NLFF, (see Letters, NLFF, 12 January 1939)
II.4§2.12χ
Extradraft material including a carbon of the typescript of the additions for the page proofs; January 1939.
II.4§2.12'/3.14'
Page proofs for Finnegans Wake; dated 7 January 1939. This Tulsa copy is unmarked.
  • MS: Tulsa, 2A-383, 2A-384, 2B-385, 2B-386, 2B-387, 2B-388, 2B-389, 2B-390, 2B-391, 2B-392, 2B-393, 2B-394, 2B-395, 2B-396, 2B-397, 2B-398, 2B-399

Errata for II.4 (1939 FW 383-399)

II.4§2.13/3.15
Errata for Finnegans Wake, begun in 1939 (see Letters, NLFF, 22 July, NLPL 10 August, 19 August, and NLFF, 30 August, 1939), involving marking up an unbound copy of the first edition (minimal corrections only as the paging could not be redone), and completed in the summer of 1940 at Saint Gerand-le Puy. The corrections were then typed in duplicate (Buffalo VI.H.4.b, c) or triplicate and given to Maria Jolas on 28 August, 1940 for delivery in New York to B.W. Huebsch of the Viking Press. The third copy was presumably sent to Faber and Faber.
  • MS: Buffalo VI.H.4.a, pp. 383-399; Buffalo VI.H.4.b, fols. 22r; Buffalo VI.H.4.c, fol. 22r
  • JJA 56 (Book II, Chapter 4): 279