6 Kandahar - The Sandy Cove Atlas

6 Kandahar

The Marks

Plate 4 Asia has just two crayon marks, both in Afghanistan, under Kandahar and Herat. Whoever made the marks probably wanted to reflect on the Second Afghan War of 1880. The then General ‘Bobsy’ Roberts led 10,000 men across 300 miles of rough terrain from Kabul to Kandahar to defeat the army of Ayub Khan, who had his base in Herat.

General Roberts, already highly distinguished, was showered with honours, including a peerage as Lord Roberts of Kandahar. He was still very much in the public eye in the summer of 1904, when he was leading the ‘Absent-minded Beggar’ campaign to raise money for soldiers injured and families left fatherless by the Boer War.

Starting with the Victoria Cross for gallantry, in 1858, Lord Robert’s chest summarises the high noon of British imperialism.

Lord Roberts bought Englemere House in Ascot, Berkshire in 1903 and lived there until the First World War when he died in France in November 1914.

"Lord Roberts en route for home after his labours in the Transvaal"

The only marks on the map of Asia are in Afghanistan. They pick out Kandahar, where General ‘Bobsy’ Roberts won his greatest victory and Herat which was the base of his main opponent, Ayub Khan.

The Texts

Oxen of the Sun
‘But their children are grouped in her imagination about the bedside, hers and his, Charley, Mary Alice, Frederick Albert (if he had lived), Mamy, Budgy (Victoria Frances), Tom, Violet Constance Louisa, darling little Bobsy (called after our famous hero of the South African war, Lord Bobs of Waterford and Candahar) and now this last pledge of their union, a Purefoy if ever there was one, with the true Purefoy nose.’

Penelope
‘the last concert I sang at where its over a year ago when was it St Teresas hall Clarendon St little chits of missies they have now singing Kathleen Kearney and her like on account of father being in the army and my singing the absentminded beggar and wearing a brooch for Lord Roberts when I had the map of it all’

15th November 1912: A ward at the Rotunda Maternity Hospital in Dublin

Discussion

The link between these two soliloquies, from Bobsy to Lord Roberts, is literary electricity, connecting two women who share a lot despite their very different lives and personalities.

But the most significant words, as far as making the case for Joyce’s use of the Sandycove Atlas is concerned, are the little phrase ‘when I had the map of it all’. Joyce is saying that Leopold Bloom, familiar with maps since childhood (see Section 13 Virtual Atlases), has shown Molly a map to explain how Lord Roberts became so famous.

Is this then the daughter of a real-life memory? ‘Singing the absentminded beggar and wearing a brooch for Lord Roberts’ fits very well with what we know of Nora Barnacle’s patriotic views. Here the Atlas is a mother of memory and Joyce is effectively telling us he made the marks with Nora.