By a commodius vicus of recirculation

• brings us by: 1. part of major "bring us by a commodious vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. (Joyce noticed commodius as print error) 2. german: inf. bei-bringen = to teach so. sth. or to figure sth.out

• by: (Old Norse) town.

• commedia: (Italian) comedy → Dante's Commedia (the "Divine Comedy")

• comme odieux: (French) as odious; like odious -

• commode: an armchair containing a concealed chamber pot under the seat → the 6th of 7 elements in a circuit of HCE's bedroom
  • commode: a close-stool or cucking-stool; a toilet;
  • Ulysses 063.14-15: "stubbing his [Bloom's] toes against the broken commode"
  • commode: chamber-pot → jordan (British dialect) → Giordano Bruno

• commodious: conveniently spacious; adapted to wants. (The new Rose and O'Hanlon edition aka 'FW2' replaces 'commodius' with 'commodious'.) Joyce noticed the print error.

• Commodious Vicus → spacious village → Dublin

• Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus: originally Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus (161–192 A.D.) (Shem), the son of Marcus Aurelius (HCE), was a Roman Emperor who ruled from 180 to 192 A.D. He is often considered to have been one of the worst Roman Emperors, and his reign brought to a close the era of the "five good emperors". He had a twin brother, Antoninus (Shaun), who died when he was about four years old, and a sister Lucilla (Issy) who was implicated in plots to overthrow him
  • FW 157.26-27: "were conclaved with Heliogobbleus and Commodus and Enobarbarus"
  • Third Census of Finnegans Wake
  • Wikipedia

• commodus: (Latin) pleasant.

• κωμη (kōmē): (Greek) village → vicus

• κωμωδια (kōmōdia): (Greek) comedy

• recirculation: Joyce begins FW in veritas at the End of Story: Finn, again! = Finnegan = Vico/vicus (both falling from a ladder and breaking their skulls). "End here. Us then. Finn, again! Take. Bussoftlhee, mememormee! Till thousandsthee. Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the / riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs." (628.13 to 3.3) [1]

• recirculation back: allusion to J.S.Bach's Ricercars from The Musical Offering Joyce was acquainted with fugue and adopted it (to some extent) for Sirens chapter of Ulysses

• vicis: (Latin) fortune; change of fortune or conditions; vicissitude; duty, function, place

• Vico Road: a shore road from Dalkey [2] to Killiney [3], along Dublin Bay [4]
  • A Finnegans Wake Gazetteer
  • Ulysses 024.25: "Vico Road, Dalkey"
  • Google Maps

• vicus: (Latin) village; street; quarter (of a city); neighborhood
  • Song of Solomon 3:2: "surgam et circuibo civitatem per vicos et plateas quaeram quem diligit anima mea quaesivi illum et non inveni - I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not."[5]

• vicus: → Giambattista Vico → Viconian Cycle → Vico's ricorso storico, or "historical return", which links one Viconian cycle with the next
  • Third Census of Finnegans Wake

• vicus: the first sentence of Saint Patrick’s Confessio says that his father’s father lived at “uico [vico] bannauem taburniae.” “Vico” is the dative of “vicus.” Its exact meaning for Patrick – area of a city, street, town, estate, country seat (English “vicus” according to the OED, favors the first) - has been much discussed and disputed. The word derives from the Greek οίκος, which, whether as family, family descent, family property, or family house, was the basic unit of Greek society.

• vicus of recirculation → ricorso, Giambattista Vico's concept of circular history

• vicus of recirculation → vicious cycle

• vicus of recirculation → hydrological cycle: the water of Dublin Bay is evaporated, becomes a cloud over Howth, which is blown inland; rain falls in the Dublin Mountains; the water is collected by the Liffey, which flows through the city, cleansing it (Giambattista means "John the Baptist") and carrying off its filth; the river discharges its contents into the Bay, and the cycle continues.