The phrase "Found drowned," which appears in several chapters
of Ulysses, was a stock formulation in Victorian and
Edwardian newspapers. Thornton observes that its use derived
"from the fact that 'found drowned' is the official coroner's
jury's verdict when a person is so found and no foul play is
suspected. Such an instance occurs in the Freeman's
Journal for March 29, 1904."
Bloom's thoughts about the dayfather in Aeolus suggest
how common the phrase was in contemporary newspapers: "Queer
lot of stuff he must have put through his hands in his time:
obituary notices, pubs' ads, speeches, divorce suits, found
drowned." In Eumaeus the narrator speculates
about what the old sailor may be reading in the newspaper:
"Thereupon he pawed the journal open and pored upon Lord only
knows what, found drowned or the exploits of King
Willow, Iremonger having made a hundred and something second
wicket not out for Notts." Stephen too calls the phrase to
mind in Proteus when he thinks of the corpse that is
expected to surface soon in Dublin Bay: "Found
drowned. High water at Dublin bar." The latter
phrase too was a commonplace. As Gifford notes, it was used in
the tidetables published in the 1904 issue of Thom's
directory.
It would appear from other literary uses of the expression
that Victorians associated it with people presumed to have
committed suicide. The allegorical painter George Frederic
Watts tried his hand at social realism in several striking oil
paintings that included Found Drowned (ca. 1850), a
response to Thomas Hood's poem The Bridge of Sighs (1844).
The canvas shows a woman who has been pulled from the Thames
after committing suicide to escape sexual disgrace. Charles
Dickens' Bleak House (1853) acknowledges the frequency
of such suicides. When Esther Summerson and Mr. Bucket are
searching for Lady Dedlock, Esther sees the detective talking
with some policemen and sailors against a slimy wall that
holds a bill with the words, "'FOUND DROWNED;' and
this, and an inscription about Drags, possessed me with the
awful suspicion shadowed forth in our visit to that place"
(ch. 57).
