Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Circe/456

Annotations
'Gaudium magnum annuntio vobis. Habemus carnificem'   (Latin) ''A great joy I announce to you. We have an executioner. This is a corruption of the opening lines of the traditional formula known as Habemus Papam which is uttered by the Senior Cardinal Deacon to announce the election of a new Pope: Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam! (I announce to you a great joy: We have a Pope!''). Gifford cites Habemus pontificem (We have a Pontiff) as the correct form, which is closer to Joyce's Habemus carnificem. This form is supported by a contemporary account of the election of Pope Pius X in 1903.

Copula Felix   (Latin) Fertile Coupling. Thornton sees this as an allusion to felix culpa (happy fall) in the Exultet, from which Stephen quoted earlier in the day; see 050.04-05.