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James Joyce's punctuation in Ulysses

Jorn Barger August 2000 (updated Sept2000)

New: Joyce's capitals; Joyce's typists; Joyce's deletions, commas, compounds


Semicolons

I think semicolons are un-Joycean, and that colons usually (but not always) look much better. Earlier works had many semicolons, though.

2.347 "In all the highest places: her finance, her press."

G sees semicolon in ms

3.39 "Aleph, alpha: nought, nought, one."

G sees semicolon in ms

3.154 "Broken hoops on the shore; at the land a maze of dark cunning nets; farther away chalkscrawled backdoors and on the higher beach a dryingline with two crucified shirts."

3.196 "Rich booty you brought back; Le Tutu, five tattered numbers of Pantalon Blanc et Culotte Rouge, a blue French telegram, curiosity to show"

I imposed colon after back

3.239 "Loose tobacco shreds catch fire: a flame and acrid smoke light our corner."

G sees semicolon in ms

3.313 "Pretenders: live their lives."

G sees semicolon in ms

3.450 "Staunch friend, a brother soul: Wilde's love that dare not speak its name."

G sees semicolon in ms

4.341 "It's Greek: from the Greek."

G sees ms semicolon

8.759 "burgundy: take"

G rejects sD's unhappy semicolon altogether

9.38 "rabbi. The"

G reverts to colon-no-cap

10.1033 "stood. John"

I accept G's period, rejecting Budgen's semicolon



Colons

J usually rejects cap after colon. Inconsistently, colons are used instead of periods before dialog, if the sentence refers to the speaker.

J innovated the use of colons in place of semicolons, often to very poetic effect.

2.282 "He voted for it and put on his topboots to ride to Dublin from the Ards of Down to do so."

ms had colon after 'it'

3.133 "On the top of the Howth tram alone crying to the rain: naked women! naked women!"

maybe cap-Ns

3.466 "To no end gathered: vainly then released, forthflowing, wending back: loom of the moon."

comma after back in ms

4.534 "Night hours then black with daggers and eyemasks."

G restores colon after then

4.536 "Day: then the night."

J fixed typo with comma

4.541 "he eyed carefully his black trousers: the ends, the knees, the houghs of the knees"

comma in ms

5.460 "Trams: a car of Prescott's dyeworks: a widow in her weeds."

ms had comma after dyeworks

6.22 "Ah, that soap in my hip pocket."

G restores colon after soap

6.24 "Then wheels were heard from in front, turning: then nearer: then horses' hoofs."

ms had comma after 'turning'

6.54 "Wallace Bros: the bottleworks: Dodder bridge. "

colons lost after ms

6.157 "scanning the deaths: Callan, Coleman, Dignam"

colon lost after ms

6.158 "Peake, what Peake is that? is it the chap was in Crosbie and Alleyne's? no"

no caps after qmarks

6.205 "I would notice that: from remembering."

colon lost post-ms

6.238 "Doing her hair, humming: voglio e non vorrei. No: vorrei e non."

ms has periods-and-caps

6.394 "And then the fifth quarter is lost: all that raw stuff, hide, hair, horns."

ms had comma

6.423 "Red face: grey now."

ms had comma

6.434 "It would be better to bury them in red: a dark red."

ms had comma

6.467 "Gloomy gardens then went by, one by one: gloomy houses."

ms had colon after 'by'

6.490 "The felly harshed against the curbstone: stopped."

ms had period-cap

6.522 "First the stiff: then the friends of the stiff."

ms had comma

6.675 "One fine day it gets bunged up: and there you are."

colon lost post-ms

6.693 "Madam Marion Tweedy that was, is, I mean, the soprano."

ms had colon after 'was'

6.767 "And very neat he keeps it too: trim grass and edgings."

comma post-ms

7.231 "see: before: dressing"

I'd be happy with 1922's no-colons, if I knew where they went

8.130 "no: M'Glade's"

G reverts to comma

8.197 "stays. White."

G reverts to colon-no-cap

8.226 "Just quietly"

G quietly rejects sD's striking of colon after Just

8.582 "Gas, then solid, then world, then cold,"

G rejects sD's commas-for-colons (why in the world would anyone but J himself make such a change???)

8.1128 "temperature when"

G reverts to plural-with-colon

9.507 "puzzled:"

G substitutes period, citing Dalton

9.512 "him:"

G reverts to ms period

9.568 "down:"

G reverts to ms period

9.774 "rune."

G imposes plausible colon, pleading "e"

9.1008 "Maynooth: an"

G reverts to ms period-cap

10.728 "combustion: most"

G reverts to inferior period-cap

10.1044 "Haines:"

I accept G's colon



Dashes

Dialog dashes are usually reserved for spoken-not-thought dialog.

Early chapter-drafts show some trailing dialog dashes, which was Joyce's consistent manuscript style in earlier works. Gabler on Portrait: [article]

5.203 "Nathan's voice!"

ms had dash

6.355 "And they call me the jewel of Asia,"

ms lacked dash

8.964 "a-- well"

I accept G's reversion from comma (maybe sD?)

8.977 "him, you"

G reverts to unneeded dash

8.1040 "Don"

G overrides sD (?) to handle as dialog not verse (leading dash, not indented, also 8.1053)

9.266 "--Between"

I warily accept G's restoring leading dash (to differentiate it from SD's thoughts)

9.322 "-- Synge"

G overrides p1E errata list and rejects leading dash, as this par is not strictly direct quotation (from a single speaker)



Hyphens

Gabler says Joyce tried to remove many hyphens from Portrait, but that his markup was misread as asking for two words: [article]

3.390 "side-eye"

G reverts to ms erasure of hyphen

7.102 "no one"

G quietly reverts to plausible hyphen (blaming sD?)

7.239 "fireplace"

sD requests hyphenation, thruout

7.262 "vice-chancellor"

G reverts to compound-no-hyphen

7.875 "expectorated demise"

(if you drop the hyphen after 'A' then this should go too)

7.1019 "onehandled"

sD requests hyphen, also at 7.1072 but not 7.1018??

8.493 "No one"

G reverts to less-poetic standard hyphen

8.670 "Spaton"

(I'm sorely tempted to revert to much clearer ms 'Spat-on')

9.577 "Saint-André-des-Arts"

G reverts to ms no-hyphens, overriding "a1" [needs italics?]

9.620 "stayathome"

G reverts to ms hyphens, plausibly blaming typist

9.641 "Cours-la-Reine"

G reverts to ms no-hyphens, overriding "a1" [needs italics?]

9.858 "Monsieur-le-Prince"

G de-hyphens



Ellipses

Joyce used many different numbers of dots, which G tries to reproduce. I go for three, though the rules say four at the end of a sentence.

Sometimes Joyce chose a dash to show interrupted speech (as opposed to trailing-off speech).

2.287 "Soft day, your honour...! Day...! Day...!"

J always placed punct before ellipses

2.342 "I am surrounded by difficulties, by... intrigues, by... backstairs influence, by... "

5.420 "-- O God, our refuge and our strength... "

ms lacks ellipses

6.103 "-- Unless I'm greatly mistaken... What do you think, Martin?"

ellipses lost after ms

7.385 "Twenty eight... No, twenty... Double four... Yes."

G rejects ellipses, reverting to period-period-cap-period-comma-no-cap

7.411 "Yes... ...To where...? ...I see..."

G rejects these ellipses for periods

7.692 "Hello...? Are you there...?"

G rejects ellipses

8.853 "She..."

G reverts to period



Points

3.176 "Paysayenn. P.C.N., you know"

ms lacks point after N

7.793 "John F. Taylor"

G perversely depoints (also 7.823)

8.332 "Geo"

G quietly restores period overriding sD

8.335 "exc ...Resp "

G restores plausible points

8.527 "poet Mr Geo"

G restores unneeded comma and period

8.527 "A.E:"

ms allowed this happier form

9.28 "W.B."

G depoints

10.600 "J."

G de-points

10.1193 "Reuben J. Dodd"

G depoints

10.1238 "E.L.Y'S,"

I hesitantly accepy G's de-pointing of Y and S

10.1239 "Denis J. Maginni"

G depoints



Question marks

J seems often oddly reluctant to use qmarks, maybe especially in Hades ch6.

2.98 "A riddle, sir?"

period in draft

2.441 "-- Why, sir? Stephen asked, beginning to smile. "

comma in draft

3.113 "what offence laid fire to their brains?"

period in ms

3.491 "when is it?"

G reverts to ms no-q-mark

5.121 "What's wrong with him?"

ms had comma

5.246 "word. Are"

G reverts to (less poetic) qmark

5.402 "homo?"

G reverts to period

6.456 "Left him weeping I suppose."

ms had qmark

6.506 "Where is that child's funeral disappeared to?"

ms had period

6.548 "Yet who knows after."

qmark added post-ms

6.558 "How are all in Cork's own town?"

qmark added post-ms

6.606 "What swells him up that way?"

qmark added post-ms

6.700 "Wasn't he in the stationery line?"

ms lacked qmark

7.219 "Number? Yes."

G restores 'Yes.'

8.19 "crucifix?"

G devotes a note to explaining why he's suspicious of qmarks in Bloom's interior stream, but there are tons of examples

8.102 "If he...?"

I'll warily accept G's qmark

8.119 "wit?"

G rejects qmark

8.192 "gust?"

G rejects qmark

8.213 "black, I see. You have no...?"

I accept G's comma and qmark as typist oversights (!?)

8.864 "oysters?"

G quietly reverts to plausible period

8.1035 "his."

G overrides "a1" to restore qmark

8.1071 "Rome. Birds' Nest women"

way messy: sD (???) changed to bizarre qmark, underlined and cap-N'd Bird's Nest, and period-capped 'Nest. Women'

8.1074 "Why we left the church of Rome?"

G restores italic and rejects qmark

8.1110 "removed?"

G reverts to period

9.2 "Meister?"

G reverts to period

9.526 "Wills."

G restores very unhappy ms qmark

9.599 "please...?"

G reverts to ms no-qmark



Exclamation marks

J used tons of these, but many didn't survive. (Typist Claud Sykes certainly failed to copy any of them, apparently from unfamiliarity with the typewriter.)

3.67 "And skeweyed Walter sirring his father, no less."

ms had exclam

4.302 "-- What a time you were! she said."

J fixed typo (qmark) with comma

5.445 "(may God restrain him, we humbly pray)"

G has exclam

8.393 "after!"

G rejects exclam

9.847 "you!"

G reverts to ms period

9.968 "O! Father"

G reverts to less-happy ms comma



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Ulysses:
chapters: summary : anchors : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12a 12b 13 14a 14b 15a 15b 15c 15d 16a 16b 17a 17b 18a 18b
notes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
reference: Bloom : clocktime : prices : schemata : Tower : riddles : errors : Homeric parallels : [B-L Odyssey] : Eolus tropes : parable : Oxen : Circe : 1904 : Thom's : Gold Cup : Seaside Girls : M'appari : acatalectic : search
riddles: overview : Rudy : condom : Gerty : Hades : Strand : murder : Eccles
maps: Ulysses : WRocks : Strand : VR tour : aerial tour : Dublin : Leinster : Ireland : Europe
editing: etexts : lapses : Gabler : capitals : commas : compounds : deletes : punct : typists
drafts: prequel : Proteus : Cyclops : Circe
closereadings: notes : Oxen : Circe

Joyce: main : fast portal : portal
major: FW : Pomes : U : PoA : Ex : Dub : SH : CM : CM05 : CM04
minor: Burner : [Defoe] : [Office] : PoA04 : Epiph : Mang : Rab
bio: timeline : 1898-1904 : [Trieste] : eyesight : schools : Augusta
vocation: reading : tastes : publishers : craft : symmetry
people: 1898-1904 gossip : 1881 gossip : Nora : Lucia : Gogarty : Byrne : friends : siblings : Stannie
maps: Dublin : Leinster : Ireland : Europe : Paris : Ulysses
images: directory : [Ruch]
motifs: ontology : waves : lies : wanking : MonaLisa : murder
Irish lit: timeline : 100poems : Ireland : newspapers : gossip : Yeats : MaudG : AE : the Household : Theosophy : Eglinton : Ideals
classics: Shakespeare : Dante : Pre-Raphaelites : Homer : Patrick
industry: Bloomsday : [movies] : Ellmann : Rose : genetics : NewGame
website: account : theory : early : old links : slow-portal fast-portal

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