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The 'Dublin Diary' that Stanislaus Joyce gave Richard Ellmann-- and that Ellmann relied on uncritically-- is riddled with anachronisms that show it was not compiled on the dates it claims.
My assumption is that Stanislaus recopied the original before giving it to Ellmann, editing out the parts he found embarrassing and probably adding later thoughts that he thought would make him look better. In order to make it a credible forgery, he used the backs of Joycean juvenilia he'd saved (this wasn't an economy forced at the time by poverty-- free paper was available at the National Library, for example).
Since he had 'third thoughts' and removed even some of the recopied pages, more Joycean juvenilia was probably sacrificed this way to Stannie's ego.
The footnotes claim Joyce himself made marginal comments, but I think Stannie must have forged these too. (If Joyce's handwriting is authentic, the forgery must have been pre-Ulysses, and had very different motivations.)
So critical biographers are faced with sorting out the truths within the lies, and to make a start on this I'll identify whatever anachronisms I can below, plus other refinements to the dates given.
Stannie turned 18 on 17Dec 1902, and no notes claim to be earlier than this.
The edition I'm working from is a 1994 paperback from Anna Livia Press, 188pp. [not at Amazon]
The following map tries to show both the published order (top to bottom) and the chronological order (left to right). Clicking on a date will jump you to that section.
---1903
26Sep03
02Feb
29Feb
29Feb
10Jan 29Mar
12Apr
29Mar
10Apr
20Apr
20Apr
23Apr 16Aug
03Apr 13Jul 23Jul
23Jul 01Aug
31Jul 13Aug
--Aug
06Jan 06Aug
26Jul 31Aug
14Sep
29Sep
02Oct
13Oct
--Dec
--Jan05
10Feb 18Jul
p2: addendum repeats comments below p14 as 29Feb 1904
p3: "the devising of dinners"
this phrase is suspiciously similar to the Jan 1904 PoA04 essay "it had been not uncommon to devise dinners" [qv] but the time referred to there was probably 1903, and Stannie may have been party to it
[no anachronisms]
the editor notes this section is not even in the diary, but re-inserted from a letter of Stannie's!
p12, of Eglinton: "He is sub-librarian in Kildare Street"
probably started 1904, so may be provable anachronism
p12: "I suggested the title of the paper 'A Portrait of the Artist'... a title of mine was accepted [for the novel]: 'Stephen Hero,' from Jim's own name in the book..."
The opening sentence of PoA04 makes the first claim implausible [more], and if JAJ hadn't started writing SH it's hard to see how Stannie could have put together the pseudonym and the Turpin Hero theme. If Joyce had read these claims at all, he ought to have made some note.
p12: "Afterwards I parodied many of the names"
These are repeated on p20, in an addendum to a section dated 29March!
[no anachronisms]
[date repeated]
p19, of Poppie: "she is managing by herself to settle her younger sisters in convents"
why is this ongoing (verb tense) in January?
JAJ had probably moved out shortly before this.
p19 "I suggested the title of a paper of Jim's which was commissioned for a new review to be called Dana in February last..."
This whole section repeats inexactly (more briefly, probably earlier?) the p11 "2 Feb" material. The 'commission' if there was one would have had to be 06Jan at the earliest, more likely Dec.
p19: "He has written eleven chapters."
mid-July 1904-- ch11 was the hellfire retreat. [more]
p20, of an earlier diary: "detailed conversations... between him and Irish men of letters, poets, etc., covering often 3 and 4 pages of close-written foolscap"
Yeats? maybe. AE? maybe. Eglinton? maybe. Gogarty? not likely. Colum? not likely.
p21: "I called Mr Kane..."
died July 1904, past tense is dubious here. cf mid-July above?
p22: "JF Byrne's judgments..."
JFB was in Wicklow on 19 Aug 1904 [L2-47]
p22, of Jim's affairs: "His present [is] Mary Sheehy."
Stannie ought to have known of NB by July...? (didn't tell sister until 04Sept though)
p23, of Hanna Sheehy: "was till about 27 a student"
born 27 May 1877 [cite] so hadn't turned 27 yet
p23: "funeral at 8:30"
maybe dateable (Val Dillon died April 1?) [j&c267]
p24 [two leaves lacking]
are they numbered, then?
p24: "Jim says Mary Sheehy... He has written two poems under her inspiration..."
[e149] dates two poems to April 1904 but [mbk150] places them in the more plausible April 1902
p24: "We-- Jim, Charlie and I..."
JAJ had probably moved out by this date
p24: "Last night... the concert"
JAJ sang on 24 Mar?
p25: "Gogarty is treacherous..."
OG had been in Dublin since 24Mar but may have returned to Oxford by 10Apr.
p25: "The other day Yeats"
WBY was in the USA from Nov 1903 to Feb 1904, maybe longer.
p25-26: "'going in for the Feis Ceoil now... At last we managed to enter him.' Colum had really nothing to do with Jim's entrance. Jim got the money by selling the ticket of some of his own books."
[uoc75] quotes a letter to JAJ from OG wishing him luck in singing (the Feis, surely?) and enclosing ten shillings (dateable as after 1904 Newdigate loss). It reads as if he won't be back shortly, ie April or May, not March?
p26: "hopes to win a literary reputation... jealous"
OG had accomplished 1000 times what JAJ had at this point, and his behavior on losing the Newdigate was exemplary-- he remained close friends with the winner for several years at least [uoc73]
p26: "If Jim thought there would be a chance of his getting it"
Colum isn't listed among the creditors at U2.255. [ofjj53] implies Colum lent JAJ six shillings (or half-sovereign?). Supposedly Colum was being supported by Thomas Kelly from 1903-1906??? [e141]
p27 of Gogarty: "told... Nellie that Jim was going in for the Feis..."
24Mar-?10Apr then???
p27: "Jim is living in lodgings in Shelbourne Rd on money Gogarty lent him, and Byrne and Russell."
If true he moved after 10Apr? Did OG help with piano there?
p28: "I suggested to Jim to call his verses 'Chamber Music'. The incident with the whore is surely an omen."
[e154] ties himself in knots to believe this, arguing Stannie suggested the name pre-10Apr, and JAJ had already accepted it but chose not to tell Gogarty...? The first sure mention I find is the 03Jun letter to OG, who has misunderstood the name. [L1-54/SL20]
p28: "This is not a diary... written to be kept and possibly-- we are vain in secret-- published."
[no anachronisms]
p30: "Jim [has] my rain cloak and this morning wanted my hat..."
comfortably back at McKs, so unlikely. (also SJ says he didn't get up until 1pm!)
p31: "Columb-- the messenger-boy genius"
???
p31: "Jim called Pappie 'that little whore up in Cabra' before Elwood for selling the piano on him."
p32: "Gogarty..."
plausible date
p32: [leaf lacking]
2nd thoughts on 2nd thoughts?
p33: "I will probably not be myself until I am close on thirty"
suspicious
p33: "Jim's friends-- Colum, Byrne, Gogarty, Cousins and those..."
Cosgrave? Elwood? Skeffington?
p34 "fourth at Feis Ceoil"
16 May 1904
p36 "Palmieri.. training... for nothing"
some days after Feis, then?
p38 "Jim considers the music-hall, not Peotry, a criticism of life."
[mbk96] dates this to 1900
p41: "About a week ago... I was to meet Jim [at Aunt Jo's]"
unclear where JAJ was living then
[no anachronisms]
[no anachronisms]
p45: "19th July... Regatta"
confirmable? Tuesday???
contradicted p168n 'July 18'
p45: "Last night, Sunday night"
30 July 1904 was Saturday
p45 "Kane... has been drowned"
10Jul-- why didn't he write about it in 13Jul or 23Jul entries?
p47: "Byrne..."
still in Wicklow!
p48: "The possession of money changes Jim very much for the worse... dissipation"
he got a sovereign for 'Sisters' on the 23rd, actually
p50: "other clerks... my office"
??? unknown?
p51, of JAJ: "He talks much of the syphilitic contagion in Europe, is at present writing a series of studies in it in Dublin, tracing practically everything to it.... he practices exercises for the voice regularly; he works at his novel nearly every day"
p55: [long description of JAJ's ethics that fit Holy Office neatly]
p55: "He walks out at night with Miss Barnacle"
1st mention two months on?
p56: "He has not the command of himself he once had. He has been in the power of his friends lately, and has needed to be rescued by Cosgrave;s instrumentality from them. A year ago he would have rescued himself."
p56: [date formatted differently-- editor's typo?]
[no anachronisms]
p59: "A few days ago Jim, as is his custom, read these notes"
first time since mid-July, at least
p66 [lent 1st part of diary to Aunt Jo]
p71: [clerking]
p72: "left Jim at Sandymount at twelve"
Cousins, midnight!?
p73: "pride of the flesh"
repeats p11, 26Sept 1903
p74: "Jim has written a nocturne in prose beginning 'She comes at night when the City is still,' and a matutine in verse beginning 'From dewy dreams my soul arise.'"
the first was supposedly in Paris before May fell ill.
p75: "Jim's style is becoming a little sententious and congested... he does nothing now. His lyrics are becoming much of a piece. His last contains a contradiction..."
CM xxvii
p75: "Jim has become very weak lately... I met him the other day after a few days..."
p76, of JAJ: "He and Cosgrave have lately said flattering things about me..."
see also p60, '6Aug'
p76: "I never saw Jim manage any affair so badly as he has managed his affair with Miss Barnacle."
implying that his emotions interfered with his dispassionate distance, more than any time previously-- but what particular choices does Stannie base this on?
p79: "Jim's style in prose writing..."
implying that he recently read more SH? 'Sisters' had been published on 13Aug, but the description sounds like SH much more than the early version [qv] of Sisters.
p80: "One day in the Apothecary Hall"
[footnote] "8th Jan. '04" implies this was rewritten from an earlier note
p85: "Jim has left Shelbourne... since the 31st August... first two nights at a Mr. Cousins' on invitation, then a few nights at Murrays, and, being locked out there, one night with a medical student, O'Callaghan. At present he is staying on sufferance with Gogarty in the Tower at Sandycove... Jim is scarcely any expense to Gogarty... a few shillings a week"
p89: "Jesus was a far more intellectual type than Buddha or Mohammed or St. Francis, though not so [adjectives]... no eunuch priest"
cf ?Apr 1904 notes on Christ for SH: "A more imperfect type than Buddha or S. Francis... Not a eunuch priest. A more intellectual type than Buddha or Francis"
JAJ used these notes in SH Ch20 p141, written April 1905, so he must have kept the notebook with him at least for a year. It's unclear when Stannie first saw it, though.
p91: "Renan"
Joyce on 28Feb 1905 [SL55] offers to translate a portion of this for Stannie, so this is certainly a serious anachronism.
p91: "Jim was getting into the regular drunkard's habit of paying himself with words."
???
p98: "the piano downstairs"
JSJ sold it in March!??
p101: "I hate to see Jim limp and pale... sitting on the edge of the table... He likes the novelty of his role as a dissipated genius... running after every chit with a petticoat on it and making foolish jokes to them in a high weak voice... Now... he gets drunk... by lounging from one public house to another..."
March makes much more sense here than Sept
p104: "about two years ago"
supposedly it was Apr 1903, just before May was diagnosed. you'd think he'd date it that way...?
p107: "the smell... Irish"
how would he know this when he's never lived anywhere else?
p117: "Jim can retaliate"
no hint of imminent departure, but date not finalised until 04Oct
p119-133: "I have been reading lately some novels by Henry James and some by James Meredith..."
cf? 03Dec 1904 JAJ to SJ [SL45]: "What of H J have you read?" and 07Feb 1905 [SL54] "I find your letters dull only when you write about Nora or Henry James..."
[no anachronisms]
p140: "not having written anything about himself and Nora in them"
he should have seen a couple of things...?
p148n: "documents dealing with UC from your diary &c"
if the old diary had been burnt in 1903, why would there be UC materials still accessible??
p153: "when Uncle Willie told you that he hated Jack Joyce"
cdd31, before 03Apr 1904
p153: "Bourbons"
(applied to JAJ earlier?)
[no anachronisms]
p167: [6pp missing but no break in text!]
p168n from 1924: "This is in my diary, under the date of... 18th July"
p176: "Book of Days"
not burnt??? (1902 must be wrong, for May is gone, so 1904)
[cpc75] long-coated, buttoned up, with collar upturned, a silent, devoted companion, imitating his brother's manner but standing apart when J met an acquaintance
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