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594 J A M E S [ 1926-1929 ]put upon it, of silencing the critics of Finnegans Wake. His libromaccione(Finnegans Wake) suffered obloquy and his libricciatoluccio, as he calledit, fell seemingly into oblivion. Stanislaus sent another fraternal attackfrom Trieste. MacLeish, to whom Joyce had entrusted the proof copy ofDubliners (Maunsel edition) for sale to Rosenbach, reported that he wasunable to dispose of it. Harriet Weaver, in a letter of early August, daredto speak of the new prose book as 'wallowing in its verbiage.' 64Joyce wasdepressed, and berated her as one of the most depressing influences uponhim.* He wrote her on August 14, 1927, to berate everything:My position is a farce. Picasso has not a higher name than I have, I suppose,and he can get 20,000 or 30,000 francs for a few hours work. I amnot worth a penny a line and it seems I cannot even sell such a rare bookas Dubliners (Dublin). Of course I have turned down a number of lecturetours in America and refused interviews.I ought to hold on here till spring, I suppose, to see whether the Germanand French translations [of Ulysses) come out and how they go ifthey do. But it becomes more and more of a strain. I know if I go it willcollapse. ... I am more and more aware of the indignant hostility shownto my experiment in interpreting 'the dark night of the soul.' The personalrancours of disappointed artists who have wasted their talents or perhapseven their genius t while I with poorer gifts and a dreadful lot of physicaland mental hardship have or seem to have done something would notapply in your case. ... I saw AE's review of P.P. [Pomes Penyeach] It isnot unfriendly though I doubt if he can like very much verse which is notabout an idea. I don't think reviews mean much always. Not a singlenotice appeared in the English press yet a London bookseller ordered 850copies a few days ago and Dublin took 250. I saw orders from Naples, The* She had not been won by a table of seven explanations of nine words in FinnegansWake (104) which Joyce sent to her on July 26, 1927. The nine words composed one ofthe titles given to Anna Livia Plurabelle's 'mamafesta' about her husband.L'Arcs en His Cieling Flee Chinx on the Flur.1) God's in his heaven All's Right with the World2) The Rainbow is in the sky (arc-en-ciel) the Chinese (Chinks) live tranquilly onthe Chinese meadowplane (China alone almost of the old continents] has norecord of a Deluge. Flur in this sense is German. It suggests also Flut (flood) andFluss (river) and could even be used poetically for the expanse of a waterflood.Flee = free)3) The ceiling of his (m) house is in ruins for you can see the birds flying and thefloor is full of cracks which you had better avoid4) There is merriment above (larks) why should there not be high jinks below stairs?5) The electric lamps of the gin palace are lit and the boss Roderick Rex is standingfree drinks to all on the 'flure of the house'6) He is a bit gone in the upper storey, poor jink. Let him lie as he is (Shem, Hamand Japhet)7) The birds (doves and ravens) (cf the jinnies is a cooin her hair and the jinniesis a ravin her hair) he saved escape from his waterhouse and leave the zoolesspatriark alone. 65t An allusion to Miss Weaver's letter of February 4, 1927 (p. 590).