A century ago this coming Thursday, an 18-year-old Dublin student rose to address his peers, professors and fellow members of the Literary and Historical Society at UCD on a subject close to his heart, if not theirs - the relationship between art and life. It was the 20th hour of the 20th day of the 20th century, a synchronicity of time that - had he noticed it then or later - would have appealed to his sense of his own, and the occasion's, importance.
His confidence was not misplaced. His paper, entitled "Drama and Life", now rests in the Rare and Manuscript Collection of Cornell University Library in New York state. Written in a neat, legible, as yet unformed hand, it is signed with a flourish, "Jas. A. Joyce" and dated "10th Jan. 1900".
Momentous evening
There is no doubt that the evening in question was a momentous one for Joyce. He was worried that his paper would not go down well with the other members of the L & H, whose good opinion, despite himself, he valued.
He was by no means a giant among pygmies. The Literary and Historical Society, founded in 1855 by Cardinal Newman, had lapsed for some years in the early 1890s, but had been revived in 1897 when Frank Skeffington became auditor. The following year saw Tom Kettle in the auditorial chair, and in the session ending the old century and beginning the new one Arthur Clery held office.
The L & H was the intellectual heart of the small university. There the intertwined and opposing strands of Irish history, politics, art and culture formed a battleground where these formidable young men could exhibit their skill as orators and engage in gladiatorial contests without sacrificing their fundamental comradeship.
James Joyce was at the centre of this talented circle. He first attended the society in Kettle's year; in the next session he joined Clery's committee and promptly ran for the office of treasurer, being narrowly defeated by Louis Walsh (known as the Boy Orator). At the end of Clery's year he ran for the auditorship against Hugh Kennedy (later to be first Chief Justice of this State) and was defeated by 15 votes to nine. In this contest, Kettle had proposed Kennedy, and Skeffington backed Joyce.
Despite this setback he served on Kennedy's committee until the end of that session in 1901. The records of the committee meetings of the turn of the century L & H years are now well preserved in the society's archives. I found to my astonishment that Joyce attended every committee meeting without fail and, despite his reputation, was late only once! He spoke regularly in debates that interested him. On January 28th, 1899, for instance both he and the Kettle spoke against the motion "that in the last decade of the 19th century English literature has reached a very low ebb".
It was in this context that he delivered "Drama and Life" to the L & H on January 20th, 1900. The paper was of a standard not usually heard in the overcrowded setting of the Physics Theatre, home of the society, at 85 St Stephen's Green, where the university then resided. It was uncompromising in the density of its arguments, not to mention its length. The line of thought, couched in somewhat flowery language, moved from defining the aesthetic principles of art itself, through the relative and different merits of literature and drama as art forms, to a trenchant and provocative rejection of Greek and Shakespearean drama as passe and a ringing endorsement of the genius of Ibsen.
College president
Anxious, with some reason, that it might be incomprehensible to mere mortals, he had read it (by his own account in Stephen Hero) to his mother, while she did the ironing at home, and was gratified by her interest. A more serious critic was the college president, Fr William Delany SJ, who threatened to ban the paper on account of its indifference to ethical content in drama and its uncritical praise of Ibsen, thought by many to be an amoral "foreign" writer.
How Joyce averted a presidential ban is documented - from his own perspective, doubtless - in Stephen Hero, but the effect of Delany's opposition was to generate huge anticipation for his oration.
The tiers of seats that rose in front of the three gothic windows in the bay, almost obscuring their pointed tips, were crammed.
In the chair was Prof William Magennis, who knew Joyce of old, having awarded him first prize in English composition in the intermediate board examinations some years previously.
Joyce's brother Stanislaus, there with their father, wrote afterwards that Joyce "read the paper without emphasis". Joyce himself prefers to embellish the description: "He read it quietly and distinctly, involving every hardihood of thought or expression in an envelope of low, innocuous melody."
He delivered the final sentence "in a tone of metallic clearness" and sat down to silence. Then the fireworks started. Several students objected vigorously to his argument and the chairman also disagreed with it in his summing up.
Joyce's friend and contemporary Eugene (later Judge) Sheehy recalled the scene years later: "Joyce rose to reply at about ten o'clock, when the bell was ringing on the landing outside to signal that it was time to wind up the proceedings. He spoke without a note for at least 30 minutes and dealt with each of his critics in turn. It was a masterly performance and delivered to the accompaniment of rounds of applause from the back benches."
"Raving mad!"
After the debate, one student, Seamus Clandillon, clapped Joyce on the back and exclaimed : "Joyce, that was magnificent, but you're raving mad!"
For further information contact Sarah Ryan; phone (01) 7061826; fax (01) 7061167; email: jjkelly@ucd.ie