This meanwhile

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At the end of the Morte d'Arthur (Death of Arthur), posthumously published by English printer William Caxton in 1485, the author identifies himself as "Syr Thomas Maleore knyght." He says that he completed the work in the ninth year of the reign of Edward IV (that reign began on 4 March 1461) and he prays to be released from prison. In blunt, un-ornate English prose he re-tells stories from the many Arthurian romances that had circulated for centuries, mostly in verse and mostly in French. Many of these romances had focused on courtly love, but Malory's interest lies in the male camaraderie that unites the knights of the Round Table until the adultery of Launcelot and Guenever unleashes conflicts that destroy it.

The choice of Malory allows Joyce to continue presenting the men in the common-room as knights, but the tone now changes from mirthful wonder to somber deliberation, and the focus narrows from the roomful of young men to just three characters: Bloom, Lenehan, and a nurse (unnamed, but she is probably Miss Callan). Presented as if she is an emissary from a convent ("this good sister"), she steps into the room to ask that the young men keep their voices down, "for there was above one quick with child, a gentle dame, whose time hied fast." Bloom hastens to honor her request and looks for help to "a franklin that hight Lenehan," because he "was older than any of the tother." No help at all, Lenehan responds flippantly and downs another drink. The narrative praises Bloom as a man who is good, meek, kind, true, and dedicated to the service of ladies, albeit (repeating a slur heard in Cyclops) one that has been known to lay "husbandly hand under hen." At the end of the paragraph, stressing Bloom's compassion for Mrs. Purefoy's suffering, there is a brief return to Anglo-Saxon alliteration, as predicted in Joyce's letter to Frank Budgen: "Woman's woe with wonder pondering."

"Meanwhile" is a favorite locution of Malory's: he says "the meanwhile" 36 times, and "this meanwhile" another six. Sam Slote and his collaborators document many such words and phrases in this not very long paragraph: "This meanwhile" ("This meanwhile came a messenger"), "our alther liege Lord" ("our alther liege lord," "alther" meaning "of all"), "leave their wassailing" ("Leave thys mornynge and wepyng," carousing replacing grieving), "whose time hied fast" ("my tyme hyeth fast," Mrs. Purefoy's birth replacing Arthur's death), "Sir Leopold heard on the upfloor cry on high" ("Sir Galahad heard in the leaves cry on high"), "I marvel, said he, that it be not come or now" ("I merveylle, sayd Arthur, that the knight would not speke"), "a franklin that hight Lenehan" ("a knight that hight Naram," "hight" meaning "was called"), "But, said he, or it be long too she will bring forth" ("but, or it be long too, he shall do me homage"), "that stood tofore him" ("a knight that stood afore him" and "tofore the incarnation of our Lord"), "quaffed as far as he might" ("he threw the sword as far into the water as he might"), "to their both's health" ("to our both's destruction"), "a passing good man" ("a passing good man of his body"), "the goodliest guest...the meekest man and the kindest that ever...the very truest knight of the world one that ever did minion service to lady gentle" ("and thou were the truest lover of a synful man that ever loved woman; and thou were the kyndest man that ever strake with swerde; and thou were the godelyest persone that ever cam emonge prees of knyghtes; and thou was the mekest man and the gentyllest that ever ete in halle emonge ladies"; "very truest knight of the world one" ("the worthiest knight of the world one"). There are three more echoes of Malory's prose, Slote observes, in the third paragraph: "gramercy" ("Gramercy, said Sir Launcelot"), "so jeopard her person" ("they marveilled that he would jeoparde his persone so alone"); "That is truth" ("That is truth, said king Arthur").

Impressive as this list is, it does not encompass all the individual words that Joyce took from Malory: "reverence" of someone is a term used in the Morte d'Arthur ("making to him reverence"), as is "ware" (there are countless examples, all meaning "aware"). Saying "by cause" instead of "because" ("him thought it should be his brother Balin by cause of his two swords, but by cause he knew not his shield he deemed it was not he") is another Maloryism in the first paragraph. And in the fourth paragraph, when the chapter briefly returns to Bloom after moving to different styles and subject matters, there is a final intense burst of Malory-like vocabulary: "But sir Leopold was passing grave maugre his word by cause he still had pity of the terrorcausing shrieking of shrill women in their labour." The word "shrieking" is used once in the Morte d'Arthur, "by cause" four times, "maugre" nine times, and "passing" (an adverb meaning "very" or "extremely") an extraordinary 141 times. No doubt other echoes of Malory remain to be found. Rather than simply skimming passages in Peacock's anthology or Saintsbury's critical study, Joyce must have immersed himself in the Morte d'Arthur.

Why apply this style to this material? One answer may be that the first paragraph represents the disharmonious interaction of two men. In Sources and Structures, Robert Janusko observes that "the struggle of two male antagonists" is a recurrent theme in the Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur is "set up in opposition to the evil King Rience, who is, ironically, the King of Ireland, and Balin against Balan, brothers who kill each other by mistake as a result of enchantment" (62). There are many other examples (Arthur and Launcelot, Mark and Tristram, Tristram and Launcelot, Bors and Lionel, Pinel and Gawaine, Launcelot and Meliagrance, Agravaine and Launcelot, Gawaine and Launcelot), culminating in the disastrous opposition of Arthur and Mordred. In addition to these conflicts, another analogue can be found in the moral example that Arthur sets for his knights. In Joyce's scene, where rowdy young men gathered around a table perform a poor imitation of the Round Table, Bloom tries to act as a calming example of mature masculinity. When he fails to enlist Lenehan in his cause his noble intentions come to naught, as Arthur's do at the end of Malory's work.

Both Gifford and Slote see this paragraph as stylistically continuous with the following ones: Gifford says that all four suggest the style of Malory, while Slote says that they combine "Malory, Berners, More, Elyot, Wyclif." But most of the demonstrable borrowings from Malory occur in the first paragraph, and nearly all of those from 16th century writers occur in the second, third, and fourth, so it seems possible that Joyce intended multiple sections rather than a single long one. One piece of evidence argues otherwise: in a March 1920 letter to Frank Budgen about the composition of Oxen, Joyce wrote that after Mandeville he was imitating "Malory's Morte d'Arthur ('but that franklin Lenehan was prompt ever to pour them so that at the least way mirth should not lack')." The sentence that he quotes comes from the third paragraph, suggesting that Malory continues to be the dominant model. But this indication of authorial design need not be regarded as definitive. As Janusko notes, Joyce wrote the letter while he was still working on Oxen, so it is possible that he "altered his intention by the time his writing was complete or that he never intended the letter to be a complete and detailed listing" (62).

Janusko comments on the distinct break between the first paragraph and the following ones: "Between the end of the Mandeville parody ('Thanked be Almighty God') and the beginning of the 'Elizabethan chronicle' parody there are at least twenty-five phrases that Joyce copied from Malory. But there are also borrowings in these pages from, among others, Wyclif, Fisher, Holinshed, North, Elyot, More, and especially John Bourchier, Lord Berners. It is, in fact, Lord Berners who seems to be a primary source from 'Now let us speak of that fellowship' [the beginning of the second paragraph], a typical Berners introduction, to the end of the section designated by Joyce as a Malory parody, including the passage in which appear the lines cited by Joyce in his letter as a sample of Malory.... The Malory phrases are concentrated in the passage beginning 'This meanwhile this good sister'  and ending 'Woman's woe with wonder pondering' [the first paragraph]" (61-62).

To some degree the question of how to divide Oxen into sections is academic, since Joyce regularly sprinkled quotations into sections of text before or after those where they best fit. But such critical division is necessary, given the succession of strikingly different prose styles that he clearly intended for this chapter and the way he applies them to a succession of shifting subject matters. In this instance the first paragraph is rendered distinct from the second and third not only because echoes of Malory dominate the one and are nearly absent in the others, but also because the prose works in the two later paragraphs are drawn from multiple authors writing in the next century, and because the subject matters in these paragraphs are radically different.

The paragraph beginning "Now meanwhile this good sister" describes Bloom's futile effort to quiet the disturbing uproar. The one beginning "Now let us speak of that fellowship that was there" turns to the other members of the party, identifying each in turn. The one beginning "For they were right witty scholars" presents their conversation, ballooning with wild comical talk. These later paragraphs feel very distant, both tonally and materially, from the sober pondering of decent behavior in the first. But then the fourth paragraph, beginning "But sir Leopold was passing grave," returns to Bloom's compassionate thoughts. The return of Malory-like vocabulary in this last paragraph signals a kind of ABBA structure across the four paragraphs.