Footnotes

1. mess around - to handle roughly or too familiarly
2. fickling - flattering + Joyce's note: 'fickle' → Irish Rivers, The Tolka 399/1: 'Glasnevin... is now a declining village, and, like its neighbour Finglass, mourns over the fickleness of fashion' + ficken (ger) - to fuck.
3. Ivor Novello: The Dancing Years
4. cocottch (Dialect) - catch + cocotte (French) - whore.
5. sidro (Serbian) - anchor + sederò (it) - I will sit down + before (one) can say knife - very quickly or suddenly.
6. malediction - the utterance of a curse; the condition of being under a ban or curse
7. Lucifer
8. nettlerash - an exanthematous eruption on the skin, appearing in patches like those produced by the sting of a nettle
9. moonshine - moonlight
10. fostermother - a woman who nurses and brings up another's child
11. nancy - [orig. Miss Nancy, f. pet-form of the female name Ann.] an effeminate man or boy; a homosexual + fancyfree.
12. run off - to abscond or elope (with a person or thing)
13. troubadour
14. mangle - fig. Now chiefly: To render (words) almost unrecognizable by mispronunciation; to spoil by gross blundering or falsification (a quotation, the text of an author).
15. Thomas Moore - was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of "The Minstrel Boy" and "The Last Rose of Summer".
16. upturn - to overthrow, subvert, or cause to fall + turned his head (phrase).
17. Swift: A Tale of a Tub
18. stardust - fig. That which is illusory or insubstantial + daft - silly, foolish, stupid + Swift: Journal to Stella (Italian stella: star).
19. finisher - one who or that which finishes (in the different senses of the vb.) + Atum, finisher of the world: Atum's name is thought to be derived from the word 'tem' which means to complete or finish. Thus he has been interpreted as being the 'complete one' and also the finisher of the world, which he returns to watery chaos at the end of the creative cycle + prime minister (Gladstone).
20. firtree - fir - the name given to a number of coniferous trees, of different genera.
21. cooper - a craftsman who makes and repairs wooden vessels formed of staves and hoops, as casks, buckets, tubs + James Fenimore Cooper - American novelist.
22. plane - to make (a surface) plain, even, or smooth
23. flat - the flat surface or portion (of anything)
24. Ulysses.15.3865: 'Remember Pasiphae for whose lust my grandoldgrossfather made the first confessionbox'.
25. unwisdom - lack or absence of wisdom; ignorance, folly, stupidity + Litany of Blessed Virgin Mary: 'Seat of wisdom, Cause of our joy'.
26. tante - an aunt; also, an older woman who stands in a close relationship
27. petted - treated as a pet or favourite, made a pet of, made much of; indulged, spoiled by petting or indulgence
28. amene - pleasant, agreeable + mene (gr) - moon + amen
29. poof - a sound imitating a short sharp puff of the breath as in blowing something from the mouth, or blowing out a candle; hence an expression of contemptuous rejection.
30. begorra - Anglo-Irish alteration of the expletive 'by God'
31. planxty - an Irish harp melody + plenty
32. abound - overflowing; plentiful; abundant + All around My Hat I Wear a Tricoloured Ribbon (song).
33. glor - glory (obs.)
34. galore - in abundance or plenty + glor go leor (glor gulor) (gael) - great noise, plenty of noise.
35. glory be! - Used as a devout ejaculation (short for Glory be to God) in the worship of various religious sects; Hence vulgarly as a mere exclamation expressive of delight.
36. "it's as broad as it's long" - it comes to the same thing either way, it makes no difference
37. voice + Vox, Valentine, the Ventriloquist - title, hero of a novel (1840) by Henry Cockton. Mr Atherton says, Vox makes a voice come from an Egyptian sarcophagus and bystanders think the dead has come to life + vaux (fr) - valleys (i.e. low notes).
38. Vousden, Val - Dublin music-hall entertainer at the turn of the century, wrote the song "The Irish Jaunting Car."
39. brass - a wind instrument that consists of a brass tube (usually of variable length) blown by means of a cup-shaped or funnel-shaped mouthpiece; fig. To cover with effrontery + pass away - to die, expire.
40. dewdrop - one of the rounded 'drops' or globules in which dew collects on surfaces on which it is deposited
41. top note - the highest note in a singer's compass + topnotch - a highest point possible or attainable.
42. invoice - a list of the particular items of goods shipped or sent to a factor, consignee, or purchaser, with their value or prices, and charges + (notebook 1924): VI.C.1.072e-f (?): 'postmaster invoice' === VI.B.16.144g ( ): 'postmortem invoice' → Crawford: Thinking Black 135: (of an African husband having to pay the relatives of his wife after her death) 'all the details of that woman's wedded life must now be paid for. Of course, she cooked his food, so now for paying the total cookery bill. She fetched firewood, milled the meal and drew water, now's the time to pay up, ay, pay for every drink of water and every faggot of fire. Mark you, pay up for every item to every kinsman, all at once and once for all... And so on and on, the post-mortem invoice runs'.
43. theos (gr) - god + The O'Donough - chieftain of Killarney, hero of legends, living under Lake of Killarney.
44. dowd - a person, usually a woman, whose dress and appearance are devoid of smartness and brightness + O'Dowd, Daddy - title, character in a play by Boucicault + O'Dubhda (o'dude) (gael) - descendant of Dubhda ("black").
45. whoo - an exclamation of surprise, grief, or other emotion + who
46. medium - Spiritualism, etc. A person who is supposed to be the organ of communications from departed spirits.
47. witchery - the use or practice of witchcraft + lechery.
48. itching
49. sledgehammer - a large heavy hammer used by blacksmiths + sludge - mud, mire, or ooze, covering the surface of the ground or forming a deposit at the bottom of rivers, etc. + Browning: Mr Sludge the Medium.
50. operatic - pertaining to, or of the nature of, opera + erotic.
51. register - the compass of a voice or instrument; the particular range of tones which can be produced by certain voices + rogo (l) - to question, interrogate + roger (Slang) - to fuck.
52. leave - permission asked for or granted to do something + love.
53. brokerly - of the nature of, or like a broker + brotherly
54. We, *V* first of name (notebook 1924) → Rothschild: Histoire de la Poste aux Lettres 100: (quoting a letters patent of Charles VIII) 'Nous, Charles, huitième de nom, roy de France' (French 'We, Charles, eighth of name, king of France')
55. receptacle - that which receives and holds a thing; something into which another thing may be put; a containing vessel, place, or space
56. Issy
57. tingle - to cause to tingle; to affect with a thrilling, smarting, or stinging sensation (physical or mental); to sting, excite, stimulate
58. either say yes or say no (notebook 1924)
59. cheek to cheek - Applied to dancing with the cheek of one partner touching that of the other.
60. chipper - lively, brisk, cheerful; 'chirpy'
61. mash (Slang) - sweetheart + massboy.
62. padre - a title applied in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Spanish America, to the regular clergy + padre (it) - father, priest.
63. enumerate - to mention (a number of things or persons) separately, as if for the purpose of counting; to specify as in a list or catalogue
64. nostrum - hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases (once sought by the alchemists) + nostrum (l) - ours.
65. vacillant - hesitating, wavering, uncertain in purpose or action
66. vigilant - one who is wakeful or watchful, on the lookout for possible danger
67. belave - to lave about, wash all over + belave (Irish Pronunciation) - believe.
68. close in - to shut in, hem in, enclose
69. psychical - of or pertaining to the soul or the mind
70. high jinks - lively or boisterous sport; romping games or fun; free or unrestrained merry-making
71. fight shy - to keep aloof, avoid intercourse with a person, evade an undertaking, etc.
72. mughunter - pothunter - one who takes part in any contest or competition merely for the sake of winning a prize + mugpunter (Slang) - uninformed backer of horses.
73. Alexandrian + all and sundry - everybody, one and all + sundry - various, miscellaneous, divers (sundry items of clothing).
74. bonfire + The Royal Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was once the largest library in the world. It is generally thought to have been founded at the beginning of the 3rd century BC, during the reign of Ptolemy II of Egypt. The Library was likely created after his father had built what would become the first part of the Library complex, the temple of the Muses — the Museion. The Greek Μουσείον was the home of music or poetry, a philosophical school and library such as Plato's school of philosophy, also a gallery of sacred texts. The modern English word museum is derived from this. It has been reasonably established that the Library or parts of the collection were destroyed by fire on a number of occasions (library fires were common and replacement of handwritten manuscripts was extremely difficult, expensive and time-consuming). To this day the details of the destruction (or destructions) remain a lively source of controversy.
75. suffragate - to delegate, appoint; to vote for + suffocate.
76. Tom Playfair, or Making a Start - book by Father Finn
77. Savonarola, Girolamo (1452-98) - Italian monk, hell-fire preacher, himself burned by order of the pope + zolfanello (it) - match.
78. peruse + Larousse.
79. instate - to put (a person) into a certain state or condition; to place in a certain position + instead.
80. THE STANDARD - Weekly journal publised in Dublin, "An Irish Organ of Catholic Opinion" + stand (Slang) - an erection of penis.
81. verus (l) = veri (it) - true + virile - potent; Of a male: capable of copulation.
82. Father Finn: 'Ethelred Preston, or the Adventure of a Newcomer + Ethelred the Unready - English king.

Personal Notes

• I was inspired to memorize this after my friend Soren showed me a twitter conversation between Rian Johnson and Joseph Gordon Levitt. If I recall, Johnson was lamenting the stupifying nature of Joyce's prose, and put out an internet challenge: to do an interpretive reading of page 439. Well, Levitt replied with such a reading. I believe it was audio-only at the time, but now the only record of it I can find is this vimeo.