Joyceans from all over the world are currently attending the annual James Joyce Summer School in Dublin. But despite their industrious activities, there are still real-life people mentioned in Ulysses whose details have not yet been satisfactorily researched.
One example is the Miss Dubedat recalled by Leopold Bloom as he sits in Davy Byrne's pub: "Wouldn't mind being a waiter in a swell hotel. Tips, evening dress, half-naked ladies. May I tempt you to a little more filleted lemon sole, miss Dubedat? Yes, do bedad. And she did bedad. Huguenot name I expect that. A miss Dubedat lived in Killiney, I remember. Du de la, French."
Dublin concerts
A recently published book, The DuBedat Story, by Maria Wootton, deals with a prominent 19th-century Dublin business family named DuBedat or Dubedat, who were indeed of Huguenot origin. The book contains a photograph of a stage singer named Mattie (real name believed to be Marie) Dubedat, but the author was unable to discover anyone who knew anything further of this lady. Some documentary evidence has survived of her performing at Dublin concerts in the 1880s and 1890s. According to a concert programme of 1886 in the National Theatre Archive, Miss Dubedat sang a romanza for the soprano voice from an opera by Meyerbeer at one of the series of Dublin Popular Concerts held in the Antient Concert Rooms. Reports in the Freeman's Journal and the Musical Times also have her singing in the Queen's Royal Theatre and the Leinster Hall in 1894.
The records of the Royal Irish Academy of Music indicate that a Miss Dubedat of Ballsbridge was a member of the senior vocal class at the Academy in 1867. A Miss Dubedat also obtained the Academy's Certificate of Proficiency (as a teacher of singing) in 1903. The reticence of the time about giving a lady's first name makes research more difficult here,, but it may be that these are the same person and that the singer qualified as a teacher after her own singing career had ended.
John Stanislaus Joyce, father of the writer, was of course a fine amateur tenor who also appeared on the Dublin stage in these years. A programme has survived from an 1881 concert in the Antient Concert Rooms at which he was one of the performers, singing Gounod's Fairer Than The Morning. More than likely, Joyce remembered his father speaking of Miss Dubedat. Years later, in exile, he looked up Thom's Directory for 1904 and saw that it listed the Misses Dubedat as residing in Killiney. Maria Wootton's researches have revealed, however, that these were then two young ladies in their 20s, neither of whom could have been the singer.
Rhododendrons
Bloom, sipping his glass of Burgundy wine, continues musing: "Crushing in the winepress grapes of Burgundy. Sun's heat it is. Seems to a secret touch telling me memory." From there he goes on to recall the day in 1888 when he proposed to Molly among the rhododendrons on Howth Head.
Interestingly, The DuBedat Story states that: "At one time during the 19th century the DuBedats were also involved in the business of importing `Fine French Wines', possibly from the Bordeaux region which was close to their original homeland." It seems as though Miss Dubedat and her family are associated in Bloom's mind both with wine and with his courtship of Molly. It is easy to see why a Dublin soprano of the late 1800s might even have been to some extent the inspiration for Molly, who is herself a soprano and a professional singer.
It is possible that Joyce may also have fictionalised Miss Dubedat elsewhere in his work. A character in the Dubliners story "Counterparts" is named Miss Delacour ("Du de la French"). She is described as follows: "Miss Delacour was a middle-aged woman of Jewish appearance. Mr Alleyne was said to be sweet on her or on her money. She came to the office often and stayed a long time when she came. She was sitting beside his desk now in an aroma of perfumes, smoothing the handle of her umbrella and nodding the great black feather in her hat." She is also said to be "a stout amiable person" with a broad smile. Not quite like the young lady in the photograph perhaps, but the Miss Dubedat of 1903 who became a teacher of singing may perhaps be described here.
Singing lessons
James Joyce himself took singing lessons at around this time. The portrait of Miss Delacour suggests a somewhat older version of Molly Bloom. The elusive Miss Dubedat might well prove to be one of the more important sources of Ulysses if only we could discover more about her.
Given that it is now a century since she sang in public, only memories handed down by a previous generation of Dubliners could help us here. If any reader is fortunate enough to have heard a reminiscence of Miss Dubedat the singer, or to have any other knowledge of her, he or she is cordially requested to contact the writer of this article c/o The James Joyce Centre, 35 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1.