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The Text from Manuscript to Print
In its authoritative textual witnesses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man presents an almost classic case of linear and uncontaminated textual transmission. The faircopy holograph manuscript (D) is the only primary authoritative text of the novel. From it, five texts of secondary authority descend in linear succession: the typescript (T), the first printed version in the Egoist serialisation (E), and the first (H), the second (B) and the third (J) book editions. None of these secondary stages of transmission of the text relates back to any earlier stage than the one immediately preceding it, nor is the text of D ever conflated or 'contamined' with any of the secondary stages of authoritative transmission.[42] In establishing a critical text it should therefore be possible in principle to apply W. W. Greg's editorial rule which postulates that a critical text reproduce the earliest accessible authoritative text in spellings, punctuation and all other accidentals as well as in the body of its substantive readings, and that variants from the texts of secondary authority be admitted only when they are
The external facts with which to fill this hiatus in the textual transmission are these.[45] The faircopy manuscript—bearing the date 'M.S. 1913' on its holograph title-page—was (it is assumed) written out by Joyce between December, 1913, and late October/early November, 1914.[46] Chapters I-III were merely copied over from papers (now
The internal evidence of the D-E variants should confirm or modify the assumed external facts. In the transmission of the text from D to E, the issues most critically at stake are the nature of the typescript, the evidence (if any) of authorial correction and revision before the typescript left Trieste, and the nature and degree of printinghouse interference with the text as it appears in print. Collation reveals most immediately the variation in accidentals. Close to 600 commas have been added in E and superimposed upon a system of commas, colons, semicolons and periods (with only the occasional exclamation or question mark) which, except in its commas, has been left largely intact. As the workmen of three printinghouses in succession set the text for A Portrait, it can be asserted that, on the whole, the additional commas were put in by them. The three printers did very nearly equal thirds of the novel: of the total of 123.5 printed Egoist columns, Johnson & Co. set 41.5, Partridge & Cooper 41.5, and Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. 40.5 columns (approximately). But the distribution of added commas is such that Johnson & Co. in ten installments added no more than 60, or about three commas in each two columns of print, while Partridge & Cooper in 8 installments added 277 (7 per column), and Ballantyne & Hanson in 7 installments 229 commas (less than 6 per column).[47] There is, moreover, a considerable fluctuation in numbers from one installment to the next—Partridge & Cooper added 66 commas on July 1, 1914, their first installment, and only 8 a fortnight later—and even from page to page and column to column. This quite clearly reflects the punctuation habits of different workmen. Moreover, the scarcity of added commas in the Johnson & Co. section of the text—itself undoubtedly the work of more than one compositor—reinforces the conclusion that the later inundation of the Egoist text with commas
The Egoist departure from the manuscript in other accidentals, such as capitalization, and hyphenation or two-word division of compounds, is far more restrained.[48] There is throughout the sections of the three printers a fairly even sprinkling of added hyphenations or compound divisions, and of added capitals. A distinction of typescript and printinghouse characteristics does not clearly manifest itself. On the contrary, it seems likely that a good number of compounds were hyphenated in E because they happened to be divided from one line to the next in T, as a good number of others are evidently hyphenated in print because they were demonstrably so divided in D and thus, by inference, entered the text of T with hyphens. Other hyphenations, such as 'good-bye', or the inevitable printed forms 'to-day', 'to-morrow', etc., were undoubtedly made according to stylesheet by the printinghouse compositors, and sometimes possibly by a typist before them. Typist's and compositors' habits likewise would seem to be the cause of added capitalization, such as the almost invariable spellings Protestant, Jesuit, Jews, Church, Mass, etc. for Joyce's protestant, jesuit, jews, church, mass. But it is very important to note that the added hyphenations and capitalizations, while of course unauthoritative in the Egoist text, are yet not inconsistent with the over-all manuscript styling. A large majority of the hyphenated and capitalized nouns and adjectives which occur in the Egoist text preserve faithfully the manuscript readings. Hyphenations and two-word divisions of compounds as well as capitalizations were largely eliminated by Joyce himself when he corrected the text for H and B. But his new directions then amount to no less than a systematic restyling of the text in print with respect to these accidentals.
If the sometimes excessively liberal addition of commas in the Egoist text is regarded as a special case—and good reason for doing so lies in the fact that Joyce's original punctuation is both unorthodox and extremely light—the general treatment of accidentals in the printed text suggests, even more so than before,[49] that the workmen engaged on E were careful and competent. This creates a certain "climate of opinion" for the consideration of the substantive variants. There is, for example, an astonishing number of omissions of single
Implied by such reasoning is the truth of the assumption that the typescript was only superficially read by the author before being dispatched to London. To infer thereupon from the variants themselves, i.e., from the accumulation of omissions in the extant text of E, that Joyce indeed missed a hundred or more such errors in the typescript would be an argument self-defeating in its circularity unless support for it be found outside the circle. This problem in its turn is secondary to the basic question—which yet remains to be tested—as to whether the author gave any attention at all to the text of the novel after completing the faircopy manuscript (and before correcting E for H). The editorial difficulties presented by the missing typescript would of course be considerably diminished if it could be positively demonstrated that he did not. Answers to the open questions must be sought by scrutinizing those groups of D-E variance which have not previously been analysed, and by relating the omissions to them.
The substantive variants in E—317 in all by my count—are omissions, additions, and substituted readings. The additions are invariably confined to single words. They are few in number and make up a large part of what must be considered corrections of the manuscript text, of which there are 29 in all throughout the novel. These corrections, even if they involve an additional word, are mostly obvious enough, as when "shuffling along . . . in old pair of blue canvas shoes" becomes ". . . in an old pair . . ." (61.19),[51] and they can often easily be accounted for as the unaided work of the typist. That the typist was held to correct without specific directions by the author—or that a compositor far from Trieste did so by force of circumstance, should an incomplete or erroneous reading, real or fancied, have survived into his copy—is rendered likely when a miscorrection occurs, or a pedantic observance of grammatical congruence in tense or number sounds conspicuous. Except when miscorrection or style-sheet rectification of grammar are obvious, an edited text will of course accept the complete rather than the incomplete readings, regardless of whether or not the authority of each single addition can be ascertained. In Chapter V at least, if not before, such editorial policy can be justified by observing three individual one-word additions, two of them corrections of incomplete manuscript readings and one a genuine textual revision, which cannot reasonably be explained as anything but authorial in origin. No typist or compositor would have known how to complete the sentences: "What was their languid but the softness of chambering?" (:languid grace; 233.9), or ". . . a stasis called forth, prolonged and at last by what I call the rhythm of beauty." (:dissolved by; 206.23. 'ended' would perhaps have been an unguided guess), nor can anyone but the author be thought to have changed Cranly's toothpick at 229.33 into a 'rude toothpick', thus weaving once more into the fabric of the text the main characterizing adjective for Cranly. On the strength of these variants alone, authorial attention to the text between D and E must be admitted and taken into account as a real possibility. Automatically, it becomes a major concern of the editorial hypothesis to define its nature and extent.
Thus, the readings substituted in E for good manuscript readings become the focus of attention: they become suspect of being authorized changes. The total number of altered readings is large, but many of them are immediately recognizable as errors (as for example the numerous
John Lawton
Anthony MacSwiney
Simon Mangan (70.25)
These few variants taken together confirm that Chapters I to III received authorial attention at the typescript stage of transmission. Apart from 'chestnuts'>'limes' (24.10) and 'Father' > 'Mr' (30.1), however, there is in Chapter I only one more variant—'in the square' > 'there' (43.24)—for which under the guidelines of the hypothesis here developed authority can be claimed with some confidence. The remainder of the substituted readings in this chapter are either obviously erroneous, or misreadings of Joyce's handwriting, or else too indifferent in character to be made out as authorial in origin. The situation in Chapter II is similar. To Greets > Kickham, Mangan > Moonan, and 'chestnuts' > 'limes' (93.11), it would again seem safe to add only one or perhaps two more variants: 'turning back in irresoluteness' > 'turning in irresolution' (83.31); and 'watching her as he undid her gown' > 'watching her as she undid her gown' (100.35).[52] There is admittedly a group of three further variants which, occurring within a few pages of each other, might suggest an intermittently closer authorial attention to the typescript: 'arching their arms above their heads' > 'circling their arms above their heads' (74.6), 'the old restless moodiness had again filled his heart' > '. . . had again filled his breast' (77.20), and 'the patchwork of the footpath' > 'the patchwork of the pathway' (79.1). However, careful scrutiny of the original readings as they look in Joyce's handwriting makes it virtually certain that "circling' and 'breast' are really misreadings of 'arching' and 'heart'. The apparent cluster is thus reduced to a single variant. By noting further that 'footpath' in several other instances throughout the novel is Joyce's unvaried term for "pavement", one is led to reject 'pathway' as a typist's or compositor's unauthorized substitution.
Thus, where variants in E are substituted for good manuscript readings, Chapter I appears to contain but three, and Chapter II a maximum of five authorial corrections. Of this total of eight, six (or five) show concern with factual accuracy ('Mr' Barrett, and 'limes' [twice]) or internal consistency of the text (Kickham, Moonan, 'limes' again, and 'he' > 'she', if this was an authorial correction). The two others seem concerned with a greater appropriateness ('there' as substituted for 'in the square') or fluency ('turning in irresolution') of
Thus, in the field of substitute readings, where initially all variants were suspect of being authorial in origin, the number of authoritative changes in the Egoist text has been narrowed down to a total of 18. All other variant readings substituted in E for good manuscript readings, that is something like half of the 317 D-E substantive variants, must consequently be classed as unauthoritative. This large group of variants,
Was that then he or an inhuman thing moved by a lower [soul than his] soul? His soul sickened at the thought. . . . (140.1-2).
Confess! He had to confess every sin. How could he utter in words to the priest what he had done? Must, must. Or how could he explain without dying of shame? Or how could he have done such things without shame? A [madman, a loathsome] madman! Confess! O he would indeed to be free and sinless again! Perhaps the priest would know. O dear God! (140.14-20).
He could still escape from the shame. [O what shame! His face was burning with shame.] Had it been any terrible crime but that one sin! Had it been murder! Little fiery flakes fell and touched him at all points, shameful thoughts, shameful words, shameful acts. Shame covered him wholly like fine glowing ashes falling continually. (142.24-30).
As it happens, it is in close vicinity to these passages that a later intentional deletion is recorded. The first of the errata on EC-W, fol. 2, is "delete 'of herrings'" and refers to "Frowsy girls sat along the curbstones before their baskets [of herrings]" (140.26). This may be pure coincidence, and it proves no more than that Joyce was in fact capable of making a cut in A Portrait—an attitude of authorial self-criticism not readily evident otherwise in this text. This deletion has no intrinsic similarity to the four examples of omission in E here considered, and it can hardly be taken to reinforce an assumption that they be of authorial origin. If of course it were true that they all are genuine cuts, then this would indicate that the latter half of Chapter III, portraying
On the whole, then, the variant readings in E caused by the omission of words, phrases and sentences from the manuscript text can now confidently be declared unauthoritative, as can the large majority of those variants in E which are substitutes for good manuscript readings. Conversely: on the basis of the preceding analysis, we consider, out of a total of 317 substantive variants between D and E, only 18 substitute readings, most of 29 corrections of incomplete or obviously erroneous manuscript readings, and possibly six omissions (occurring in four passages in the second half of Chapter III) as authorized. With respect to the body of D-E variance, provisional rules for establishing a critical text of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man may be set out as follows:
Of the variants in E,
- 1. Admit all corrections of incomplete and erroneous D readings that are not obviously either miscorrections or stylesheet rectifications of grammar and syntax;
- 2. admit 18 authorial corrections and revisions;
- 3. do not admit other substitutes for good D readings, whether or not they seem individually possible as variants;
- 4. do not admit readings in E which are the result of omission of single words, phrases, or sentences of the D text (with the possible exception of 6 such variants in the second half of Chapter III);
- 5. do not admit the E variation in accidentals.[55]
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