Stephen's label for the statue of Horatio Nelson, "the
onehandled adulterer," refers to two details of the great
British admiral's biography: Nelson lost his right arm in
battle, and he conducted a very public affair with a married
woman. The adultery contributes to Stephen's curiously
sexualized story of two old maids gazing up at the statue, and
the "hand" may play a part as well.
Nelson's aggressive leadership and personal courage caused
him several severe injuries, including a fatal one at
Trafalgar in 1805. The damage to his arm happened in 1797 at
the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, an unsuccessful
amphibious assault in the Canary Islands. After the landing
party's retreat, a surgeon amputated most of the arm. Slote,
Mamigonian, and Turner offer an explanation for Stephen's
strange word "onehandled": "The statue of Nelson atop
the pillar depicted him with his armless right sleeve tucked
into the breast of his tunic, thus forming a 'handle'."
This seems plausible, though Nelson was of course also onehanded
(the statue showed his left hand extended, grasping a sword),
so perhaps, given the noun that follows, Joyce meant for the
word to additionally suggest the crippled admiral handling
things in a sexual sense. The final headline in Aeolus
begins, "DIMINISHED DIGITS PROVE TOO TITILLATING
FOR
FRISKY FRUMPS." In the section that follows, Professor
MacHugh says that the phrase onehandled adulterer "tickles
me," and Myles Crawford responds, "Tickled the old ones too."
Clearly a reader is asked to imagine the two women imagining
what Nelson's remaining hand might be able to do for them.
The word "adulterer" refers to a scandal at the turn
of the 19th century. In 1793 Nelson met the British ambassador
to the King of Naples, William Hamilton, and his new wife
Emma, who had previously been the mistress of Hamilton's
nephew. In 1798 the admiral and Mrs. Hamilton began a sexual
relationship, and by 1800 they were living together openly.
Their daughter Horatia was born in 1801. The affair became
widely known, and Emma, who was devastated by Nelson's death
at Trafalgar, was barred from attending his state funeral.
England's rulers too were devastated: King George III is
reported to have said of Nelson's great victory, "We have lost
more than we have gained."
The reactions of Irish people were no doubt more mixed, and
in 1966 Nelson was finally blown off his pillar by an IRA
bomb. Stephen's phrase gives the idol feet of clay in two
senses: by calling attention to the missing arm, which Nelson
regarded with shame as a symbol of his failure at Tenerife,
and by reducing the hero to a philanderer, the Royal Navy's
counterpart of Blazes Boylan. He also shows the two aged
spinsters of his story "peering up" at the adulterer in a
state of some undress, while eating plums in a very suggestive
way. The way in which "they pull up their skirts" to the
conquering hero does not necessarily suggest erotic interest
in him. It may instead be construed as a spell
warding off evil.
