King Edward

King Edward

In Brief

The monarch on the British throne in 1904 was King Edward VII, known before Queen Victoria's death in 1901 as Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. Predictably, he comes in for less than reverential treatment in Ulysses. A picture of the Prince on Mr. Deasy's wall in Nestor suggests that the unionist schoolmaster does revere him, but in Cyclops the men in the bar loudly mock the reputation for dissolute ways that Albert acquired in those days. Lotus Eaters rather neutrally associates the King with certain units of the British army, but in Circe that association turns malevolent as a hallucinated Edward steps in to oversee the fight between a helpless Stephen and two drunken soldiers.

Read More

Mr. Deasy's mantelpiece in Nestor boasts a picture of "the shapely bulk of a man in tartan filibegs: Albert Edward, prince of Wales." The portrait is recent enough that Dirty Bertie, as he was sometimes called, has assumed his distinctive "bulk." Over time, the man's waistline came to match his gargantuan appetites for food, drink, smoking, gambling, and sex. Edward was also a fancier of thoroughbred horses and an habitué of the racetrack, a fact which may well explain Deasy's having coupled "the princely presence" with portraits of "vanished horses."

In Cyclops, J. J. O'Molloy observes that "we have Edward the peacemaker now," referring to the king's efforts to establish peaceful relations with some of his European neighbors. Gifford notes that this is "What the French called Edward VII in the first blush of optimism about the entente cordiale. It was also a title that he coveted." In reply, the Citizen blusteringly alludes to the prince's notorious sexual exploits: "Tell that to a fool.... There's a bloody sight more pox than pax about that boyo." Joe Hynes sneers at "the priests and bishops of Ireland doing up his room in Maynooth in His Satanic Majesty's racing colours and sticking up pictures of all the horses his jockeys rode," to which Alf Bergan replies, "They ought to have stuck up all the women he rode himself." J. J. wryly assures him that "Considerations of space influenced their lordships' decision."

The Citizen also takes aim at Edward's German origins, calling him "Edward Guelph-Wettin." Guelph, Gifford notes, was the family name of the House of Hanover, and "Wettin is the Prussian version of the Swedish Wetter, Prince Albert's family name. Queen Victoria dropped the name Guelph when she married Prince Albert." In 1849, at the tender age of 8, their son Albert Edward was created "earl of Dublin" during his mother's state visit to Dublin—a fact which likewise draws the Citizen's scorn.

Looking at recruiting posters for the British army in Lotus Eaters, Bloom thinks, "The King's own." Gifford notes that this phrase "could be applied to a regiment if the king...had presented it with its colors or if the regiment had inducted him into honorary membership. The phrase could also be applied to the Grenadier Guards because, as the first of the 'household regiments', they would be attached to the person of the king." This association takes highly concrete form in Circe when the looming presence of two aggressive British soldiers makes King Edward materialize, to peacefully supervise the impending violence.

The apparition is conjured by the words that Stephen speaks to the threatening Private Carr and Private Compton: "(With elaborate gestures, breathing deeply and slowly.) You are my guests. Uninvited. By virtue of the fifth of George and seventh of Edward. History to blame." (George V is strangely anachronistic. Edward's successor, he was crowned King after his father's death in 1910.) "Uninvited" is no doubt too subtle a dig for the drunken soldiers to notice, but Stephen excites their wrath when he voices his desire to be free of imperial and papal masters: "(He taps his brow.) But in here it is I must kill the priest and the king." This second mention makes the king spring to life: "Edward the Seventh appears in an archway." He has come to oversee the unfair fight: "Peace, perfect peace. For identification, bucket in my hand. Cheerio, boys. (He turns to his subjects.) We have come here to witness a clean straight fight and we heartily wish both men the best of good luck."

JH 2016
Photograph of King Edward VII in regal crown and ermine cape, date unknown but probably near his 1902 coronation. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
King Edward VII at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, photographed by his wife Queen Alexandra, published in 1908. Source: Wikimedia Commons.