Figure of speech. Ned Lambert's reading of Dan's
Dawson's fulsome praises of Irish streams, seas, riverbanks,
sunlight, trees, mountains, plains, pasturelands, and twilight
draws an exasperated protest: "— The moon, professor
MacHugh said. He forgot Hamlet." But Lambert reads on:
"— That mantles the vista far and wide and wait till
the glowing orb of the moon shines forth to
irradiate her silver effulgence..." Rhetorical theory
has a name for this kind of anticipatory mention of something
not yet discussed: prolepsis.
Greek for "preconception" or "anticipation" (pro =
before + lambanein = to take), prolepsis refers to an
orator's 1) raising and answering potential objections to his
argument before opponents have the opportunity to voice them,
2) introducing a descriptive word before mentioning the
circumstance in which it will prove applicable, or 3)
referring to a future event as if it has already occurred.
Some rhetoricians used a similar term, procatalepsis, for the
first function.
Both Gilbert
and Seidman identify Professor MacHugh's reference to
"the moon" as prolepsis, because it anticipates the sentence
of Dawson's speech that comes after. I see no reason to
disagree with them. Although Joyce is not doing exactly what
an orator would––instead of a single speaker introducing a
word with the intention of using it soon after, he has one
character introduce a word that he does not know another
character will soon use––the second of the three kinds of
prolepsis is pretty clearly at work here. And the device
allows Joyce to produce a wonderfully comic effect:
MacHugh: Jaysus, and what
about the moon, then? Couldn't he mention that, while he was
at it?
Lambert: Wait till the
glowing orb of the moon shines forth....
Dedalus: O Christ! Shite and
onions! That'll do, Ned. Life is too short.
