My title is a quote from the Keats poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci.” I was thinking of this haunting ballad — which depicts a female figure ensnaring a knight — around the same time that I was first seriously contemplating the speech of Issy in I.6, the quiz chapter. Like the Belle Dame, Issy is a sort of temptress figure.

This post looks at some highlights of Issy’s speech and thinks about Issy as a character in Finnegans Wake.