I
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a
bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow
dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him on the mild
morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:
bm―Introibo ad altare Dei.
Halted, he peered down the dark winding stairs and called out
coarsely:
bm―Come up, Kinch! Come up, you fearful jesuit!
Solemnly he came forward and mounted the round gunrest. He faced about and blessed gravely thrice the tower, the surrounding land and the awaking mountains. Then, catching sight of Stephen Dedalus, he bent towards him and made rapid crosses in the air, gurgling in his throat and shaking his head. Stephen Dedalus, displeased and sleepy, leaned his arms on the top of the staircase and looked coldly at the shaking gurgling face that blessed him, equine in its length, and at the light untonsured hair, grained and hued like pale oak.
Buck Mulligan peeped an instant under the mirror and then covered
the bowl smartly.
bm―Back to barracks! he said sternly.
He added in a preacher's tone:
bm―For this, O dearly beloved, is the genuine christine: body and soul and
blood and ouns. Slow music, please. Shut your eyes, gents. One moment. A
little trouble about those white corpuscles. Silence, all.
He peered sideways up and gave a long slow whistle of call, then
paused awhile in rapt attention, his even white teeth glistening here and
there with gold points. bmChrysostomos. Two strong shrill whistles answered
through the calm.
bm―Thanks, old chap, he cried briskly. bmThat will do nicely. Switch off the
current, will you?
He skipped off the gunrest and looked gravely at his watcher,
gathering about his legs the loose folds of his gown. The plump shadowed
face and sullen oval jowl recalled a prelate, patron of arts in the middle
ages. A pleasant smile broke quietly over his lips.
bm―The mockery of it! he said gaily. bmYour absurd name, an ancient Greek!
He pointed his finger in friendly jest and went over to the parapet, laughing to himself. Stephen Dedalus stepped up, followed him wearily halfway and sat down on the edge of the gunrest, watching him still as he propped his mirror on the parapet, dipped the brush in the bowl and lathered cheeks and neck.
Buck Mulligan's gay voice went on.
bm―My name is absurd too: Malachi Mulligan, two dactyls. But it has a
Hellenic ring, hasn't it? Tripping and sunny like the buck himself. We must
go to Athens. Will you come if I can get the aunt to fork out twenty quid?
He laid the brush aside and, laughing with delight, cried:
bm―Will he come? The jejune jesuit!
Ceasing, he began to shave with care.
sd―Tell me, Mulligan, Stephen said quietly.
bm―Yes, my love?
sd―How long is Haines going to stay in this tower?
Buck Mulligan showed a shaven cheek over his right shoulder.
bm―God, isn't he dreadful? he said frankly. bmA ponderous Saxon. He thinks
you're not a gentleman. God, these bloody English! Bursting with money
and indigestion. Because he comes from Oxford. You know, Dedalus, you
have the real Oxford manner. He can't make you out. O, my name for you
is the best: Kinch, the knifeblade.
He shaved warily over his chin.
sd―He was raving all night about a black panther, Stephen said. sdWhere is his
guncase?
bm―A woful lunatic! Mulligan said. bmWere you in a funk?
sd―I was, Stephen said with energy and growing fear. sdOut here in the dark
with a man I don't know raving and moaning to himself about shooting a
black panther. You saved men from drowning. I'm not a hero, however. If
he stays on here I am off.
Buck Mulligan frowned at the lather on his razorblade. He hopped
down from his perch and began to search his trouser pockets hastily.
bm―Scutter! he cried thickly.
He came over to the gunrest and, thrusting a hand into Stephen's
upper pocket, said:
bm―Lend us a loan of your noserag to wipe my razor.
Stephen suffered him to pull out and hold up on show by its corner a
dirty crumpled handkerchief. Buck Mulligan wiped the razorblade neatly.
Then, gazing over the handkerchief, he said:
bm―The bard's noserag! A new art colour for our Irish poets: snotgreen. You
can almost taste it, can't you?
He mounted to the parapet again and gazed out over Dublin bay, his
fair oakpale hair stirring slightly.
bm―God! he said quietly. bmIsn't the sea what Algy calls it: a great sweet
mother? The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea. Epi oinopa ponton.
Ah, Dedalus, the Greeks! I must teach you. You must read them in the
original. Thalatta! Thalatta! She is our great sweet mother. Come and
look.
Stephen stood up and went over to the parapet. Leaning on it he
looked down on the water and on the mailboat clearing the harbourmouth
of Kingstown.
bm―Our mighty mother! Buck Mulligan said.
He turned abruptly his grey searching eyes from the sea to Stephen's
face.
bm―The aunt thinks you killed your mother, he said. bmThat's why she won't let
me have anything to do with you.
sd―Someone killed her, Stephen said gloomily.
bm―You could have knelt down, damn it, Kinch, when your dying mother
asked you, Buck Mulligan said. bmI'm hyperborean as much as you. But to
think of your mother begging you with her last breath to kneel down and
pray for her. And you refused. There is something sinister in you ....
He broke off and lathered again lightly his farther cheek. A tolerant
smile curled his lips.
bm―But a lovely mummer! he murmured to himself. bmKinch, the loveliest
mummer of them all!
He shaved evenly and with care, in silence, seriously.
Stephen, an elbow rested on the jagged granite, leaned his palm against his brow and gazed at the fraying edge of his shiny black coatsleeve. Pain, that was not yet the pain of love, fretted his heart. Silently, in a dream she had come to him after her death, her wasted body within its loose brown graveclothes giving off an odour of wax and rosewood, her breath, that had bent upon him, mute, reproachful, a faint odour of wetted ashes. Across the threadbare cuffedge he saw the sea hailed as a great sweet mother by the wellfed voice beside him. The ring of bay and skyline held a dull green mass of liquid. A bowl of white china had stood beside her deathbed holding the green sluggish bile which she had torn up from her rotting liver by fits of loud groaning vomiting.
Buck Mulligan wiped again his razorblade.
bm―Ah, poor dogsbody! he said in a kind voice. bmI must give you a shirt and a
few noserags. How are the secondhand breeks?
sd―They fit well enough, Stephen answered.
Buck Mulligan attacked the hollow beneath his underlip.
bm―The mockery of it, he said contentedly. bmSecondleg they should be. God
knows what poxy bowsy left them off. I have a lovely pair with a hair stripe,
grey. You'll look spiffing in them. I'm not joking, Kinch. You look damn
well when you're dressed.
sd―Thanks, Stephen said. sdI can't wear them if they are grey.
bm―He can't wear them, Buck Mulligan told his face in the mirror. bmEtiquette
is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
He folded his razor neatly and with stroking palps of fingers felt the smooth skin.
Stephen turned his gaze from the sea and to the plump face with its
smokeblue mobile eyes.
bm―That fellow I was with in the Ship last night, said Buck Mulligan, bmsays
you have g. p. i. He's up in Dottyville with Connolly Norman. General
paralysis of the insane!
He swept the mirror a half circle in the air to flash the tidings abroad
in sunlight now radiant on the sea. His curling shaven lips laughed and the
edges of his white glittering teeth. Laughter seized all his strong wellknit
trunk.
bm―Look at yourself, he said, bmyou dreadful bard!
Stephen bent forward and peered at the mirror held out to him, cleft
by a crooked crack. sdHair on end. As he and others see me. Who chose this
face for me? This dogsbody to rid of vermin. It asks me too.
bm―I pinched it out of the skivvy's room, Buck Mulligan said. bmIt does her all
right. The aunt always keeps plainlooking servants for Malachi. Lead him
not into temptation. And her name is Ursula.
Laughing again, he brought the mirror away from Stephen's peering
eyes.
bm―The rage of Caliban at not seeing his face in a mirror, he said. bmIf Wilde
were only alive to see you!
Drawing back and pointing, Stephen said with bitterness:
sd―It is a symbol of Irish art. The cracked lookingglass of a servant.
Buck Mulligan suddenly linked his arm in Stephen's and walked with
him round the tower, his razor and mirror clacking in the pocket where he
had thrust them.
bm―It's not fair to tease you like that, Kinch, is it? he said kindly. bmGod knows
you have more spirit than any of them.
sdParried again. He fears the lancet of my art as I fear that of his. The
cold steel pen.
bm―Cracked lookingglass of a servant! Tell that to the oxy chap downstairs
and touch him for a guinea. He's stinking with money and thinks you're
not a gentleman. His old fellow made his tin by selling jalap to Zulus or
some bloody swindle or other. God, Kinch, if you and I could only work
together we might do something for the island. Hellenise it.
Cranly's arm. His arm.
bm―And to think of your having to beg from these swine. I'm the only one
that knows what you are. Why don't you trust me more? What have you up
your nose against me? Is it Haines? If he makes any noise here I'll bring
down Seymour and we'll give him a ragging worse than they gave Clive
Kempthorpe.
Young shouts of moneyed voices in Clive Kempthorpe's rooms. Palefaces: they hold their ribs with laughter, one clasping another. O, I shall expire! Break the news to her gently, Aubrey! I shall die! With slit ribbons of his shirt whipping the air he hops and hobbles round the table, with trousers down at heels, chased by Ades of Magdalen with the tailor's shears. A scared calf's face gilded with marmalade. I don't want to be debagged! Don't you play the giddy ox with me!
Shouts from the open window startling evening in the quadrangle. A deaf gardener, aproned, masked with Matthew Arnold's face, pushes his mower on the sombre lawn watching narrowly the dancing motes of grasshalms.
To ourselves .... new paganism ....
sd―Let him stay, Stephen said. sdThere's nothing wrong with him except at
night.
bm―Then what is it? Buck Mulligan asked impatiently. bmCough it up. I'm quite
frank with you. What have you against me now?
They halted, looking towards the blunt cape of Bray Head that lay on
the water like the snout of a sleeping whale. Stephen freed his arm quietly.
sd―Do you wish me to tell you? he asked.
bm―Yes, what is it? Buck Mulligan answered. bmI don't remember anything.
He looked in Stephen's face as he spoke. A light wind passed his brow, fanning softly his fair uncombed hair and stirring silver points of anxiety in his eyes.
Stephen, depressed by his own voice, said:
sd―Do you remember the first day I went to your house after my mother's
death?
Buck Mulligan frowned quickly and said:
bm―What? Where? I can't remember anything. I remember only ideas and
sensations. Why? What happened in the name of God?
sd―You were making tea, Stephen said, sdand went across the landing to get
more hot water. Your mother and some visitor came out of the
drawingroom. She asked you who was in your room.
bm―Yes? Buck Mulligan said. bmWhat did I say? I forget.
sd―You said, Stephen answered, sdO, it's only Dedalus whose mother is beastly
dead.
A flush which made him seem younger and more engaging rose to
Buck Mulligan's cheek.
bm―Did I say that? he asked. bmWell? What harm is that?
He shook his constraint from him nervously.
bm―And what is death, he asked, bmyour mother's or yours or my own? You
saw only your mother die. I see them pop off every day in the Mater and
Richmond and cut up into tripes in the dissectingroom. It's a beastly thing
and nothing else. It simply doesn't matter. You wouldn't kneel down to
pray for your mother on her deathbed when she asked you. Why? Because
you have the cursed jesuit strain in you, only it's injected the wrong way.
To me it's all a mockery and beastly. Her cerebral lobes are not
functioning. She calls the doctor sir Peter Teazle and picks buttercups off
the quilt. Humour her till it's over. You crossed her last wish in death and
yet you sulk with me because I don't whinge like some hired mute from
Lalouette's. Absurd! I suppose I did say it. I didn't mean to offend the
memory of your mother.
He had spoken himself into boldness. Stephen, shielding the gaping
wounds which the words had left in his heart, said very coldly:
sd―I am not thinking of the offence to my mother.
bm―Of what then? Buck Mulligan asked.
sd―Of the offence to me, Stephen answered.
Buck Mulligan swung round on his heel.
bm―O, an impossible person! he exclaimed.
He walked off quickly round the parapet. Stephen stood at his post, gazing over the calm sea towards the headland. Sea and headland now grew dim. Pulses were beating in his eyes, veiling their sight, and he felt the fever of his cheeks.
A voice within the tower called loudly:
ha―Are you up there, Mulligan?
bm―I'm coming, Buck Mulligan answered.
He turned towards Stephen and said:
bm―Look at the sea. What does it care about offences? Chuck Loyola, Kinch,
and come on down. The Sassenach wants his morning rashers.
His head halted again for a moment at the top of the staircase, level
with the roof:
bm―Don't mope over it all day, he said. bmI'm inconsequent. Give up the moody
brooding.
His head vanished but the drone of his descending voice boomed out of the stairhead:
Woodshadows floated silently by through the morning peace from the stairhead seaward where he gazed. Inshore and farther out the mirror of water whitened, spurned by lightshod hurrying feet. White breast of the dim sea. The twining stresses, two by two. A hand plucking the harpstrings, merging their twining chords. Wavewhite wedded words shimmering on the dim tide.
A cloud began to cover the sun slowly, wholly, shadowing the bay in deeper green. It lay beneath him, a bowl of bitter waters. sdFergus' song: I sang it alone in the house, holding down the long dark chords. Her door was open: she wanted to hear my music. Silent with awe and pity I went to her bedside. She was crying in her wretched bed. For those words, Stephen: love's bitter mystery.
sdWhere now?
Her secrets: old featherfans, tasselled dancecards, powdered with
musk, a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer. A birdcage hung in the
sunny window of her house when she was a girl. She heard old Royce sing
in the pantomime of
sdPhantasmal mirth, folded away: muskperfumed.
Folded away in the memory of nature with her toys. Memories beset his brooding brain. Her glass of water from the kitchen tap when she had approached the sacrament. A cored apple, filled with brown sugar, roasting for her at the hob on a dark autumn evening. Her shapely fingernails reddened by the blood of squashed lice from the children's shirts.
In a dream, silently, she had come to him, her wasted body within its loose graveclothes giving off an odour of wax and rosewood, her breath, bent over him with mute secret words, a faint odour of wetted ashes.
sdHer glazing eyes, staring out of death, to shake and bend my soul. On me alone. The ghostcandle to light her agony. Ghostly light on the tortured face. Her hoarse loud breath rattling in horror, while all prayed on their knees. Her eyes on me to strike me down. Liliata rutilantium te confessorum turma circumdet: iubilantium te virginum chorus excipiat.
sdGhoul! Chewer of corpses!
sdNo, mother! Let me be and let me live.
bm―Kinch ahoy!
Buck Mulligan's voice sang from within the tower. It came nearer up
the staircase, calling again. Stephen, still trembling at his soul's cry, heard
warm running sunlight and in the air behind him friendly words.
bm―Dedalus, come down, like a good mosey. Breakfast is ready. Haines is
apologising for waking us last night. It's all right.
sd―I'm coming, Stephen said, turning.
bm―Do, for Jesus' sake, Buck Mulligan said. bmFor my sake and for all our
sakes.
His head disappeared and reappeared.
bm―I told him your symbol of Irish art. He says it's very clever. Touch him
for a quid, will you? A guinea, I mean.
sd―I get paid this morning, Stephen said.
bm―The school kip? Buck Mulligan said. bmHow much? Four quid? Lend us
one.
sd―If you want it, Stephen said.
bm―Four shining sovereigns, Buck Mulligan cried with delight. bmWe'll have a
glorious drunk to astonish the druidy druids. Four omnipotent sovereigns.
He flung up his hands and tramped down the stone stairs, singing out of tune with a Cockney accent:
Warm sunshine merrying over the sea. The nickel shavingbowl shone, forgotten, on the parapet. sdWhy should I bring it down? Or leave it there all day, forgotten friendship?
He went over to it, held it in his hands awhile, feeling its coolness, smelling the clammy slaver of the lather in which the brush was stuck. sdSo I carried the boat of incense then at Clongowes. I am another now and yet the same. A servant too. A server of a servant.
In the gloomy domed livingroom of the tower Buck Mulligan's
gowned form moved briskly to and fro about the hearth, hiding and
revealing its yellow glow. Two shafts of soft daylight fell across the flagged
floor from the high barbacans: and at the meeting of their rays a cloud of
coalsmoke and fumes of fried grease floated, turning.
bm―We'll be choked, Buck Mulligan said. bmHaines, open that door, will you?
Stephen laid the shavingbowl on the locker. A tall figure rose from the
hammock where it had been sitting, went to the doorway and pulled open
the inner doors.
ha―Have you the key? a voice asked.
bm―Dedalus has it, Buck Mulligan said. bmJaney Mack, I'm choked!
He howled, without looking up from the fire:
bm―Kinch!
sd―It's in the lock, Stephen said, coming forward.
The key scraped round harshly twice and, when the heavy door had
been set ajar, welcome light and bright air entered. Haines stood at the
doorway, looking out. Stephen haled his upended valise to the table and sat
down to wait. Buck Mulligan tossed the fry on to the dish beside him. Then
he carried the dish and a large teapot over to the table, set them down
heavily and sighed with relief.
bm―I'm melting, he said, bmas the candle remarked when .... But, hush! Not a
word more on that subject! Kinch, wake up! Bread, butter, honey. Haines,
come in. The grub is ready. Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts. Where's
the sugar? O, jay, there's no milk.
Stephen fetched the loaf and the pot of honey and the buttercooler
from the locker. Buck Mulligan sat down in a sudden pet.
bm―What sort of a kip is this? he said. bmI told her to come after eight.
sd―We can drink it black, Stephen said thirstily. sdThere's a lemon in the
locker.
bm―O, damn you and your Paris fads! Buck Mulligan said. bmI want Sandycove
milk.
Haines came in from the doorway and said quietly:
ha―That woman is coming up with the milk.
bm―The blessings of God on you! Buck Mulligan cried, jumping up from his
chair. bmSit down. Pour out the tea there. The sugar is in the bag. Here, I
can't go fumbling at the damned eggs.
He hacked through the fry on the dish and slapped it out on three
plates, saying:
bm―In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
Haines sat down to pour out the tea.
ha―I'm giving you two lumps each, he said. haBut, I say, Mulligan, you do
make strong tea, don't you?
Buck Mulligan, hewing thick slices from the loaf, said in an old
woman's wheedling voice:
bm―When I makes tea I makes tea, as old mother Grogan said. And when I
makes water I makes water.
ha―By Jove, it is tea, Haines said.
Buck Mulligan went on hewing and wheedling:
bm―So I do, Mrs Cahill, says she. Begob, ma'am, says Mrs Cahill, God send
you don't make them in the one pot.
He lunged towards his messmates in turn a thick slice of bread,
impaled on his knife.
bm―That's folk, he said very earnestly, bmfor your book, Haines. Five lines of
text and ten pages of notes about the folk and the fishgods of Dundrum.
Printed by the weird sisters in the year of the big wind.
He turned to Stephen and asked in a fine puzzled voice, lifting his
brows:
bm―Can you recall, brother, is mother Grogan's tea and water pot spoken of
in the Mabinogion or is it in the Upanishads?
sd―I doubt it, said Stephen gravely.
bm―Do you now? Buck Mulligan said in the same tone. bmYour reasons, pray?
sd―I fancy, Stephen said as he ate, sdit did not exist in or out of the
Mabinogion. Mother Grogan was, one imagines, a kinswoman of Mary
Ann.
Buck Mulligan's face smiled with delight.
bm―Charming! he said in a finical sweet voice, showing his white teeth and
blinking his eyes pleasantly. bmDo you think she was? Quite charming!
Then, suddenly overclouding all his features, he growled in a hoarsened rasping voice as he hewed again vigorously at the loaf:
He crammed his mouth with fry and munched and droned.
The doorway was darkened by an entering form.
umw―The milk, sir!
bm―Come in, ma'am, Mulligan said. bmKinch, get the jug.
An old woman came forward and stood by Stephen's elbow.
umw―That's a lovely morning, sir, she said. umwGlory be to God.
bm―To whom? Mulligan said, glancing at her. bmAh, to be sure!
Stephen reached back and took the milkjug from the locker.
bm―The islanders, Mulligan said to Haines casually, bmspeak frequently of the
collector of prepuces.
umw―How much, sir? asked the old woman.
sd―A quart, Stephen said.
He watched her pour into the measure and thence into the jug rich
white milk, not hers. sdOld shrunken paps. She poured again a measureful
and a tilly. Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a
messenger. She praised the goodness of the milk, pouring it out. Crouching
by a patient cow at daybreak in the lush field, a witch on her toadstool, her
wrinkled fingers quick at the squirting dugs. They lowed about her whom
they knew, dewsilky cattle. Silk of the kine and poor old woman, names
given her in old times. A wandering crone, lowly form of an immortal
serving her conqueror and her gay betrayer, their common cuckquean, a
messenger from the secret morning. To serve or to upbraid, whether he
could not tell: but scorned to beg her favour.
bm―It is indeed, ma'am, Buck Mulligan said, pouring milk into their cups.
umw―Taste it, sir, she said.
He drank at her bidding.
bm―If we could live on good food like that, he said to her somewhat loudly,
bmwe wouldn't have the country full of rotten teeth and rotten guts. Living in
a bogswamp, eating cheap food and the streets paved with dust, horsedung
and consumptives' spits.
umw―Are you a medical student, sir? the old woman asked.
bm―I am, ma'am, Buck Mulligan answered.
umw―Look at that now, she said.
Stephen listened in scornful silence. sdShe bows her old head to a voice
that speaks to her loudly, her bonesetter, her medicineman: me she slights.
To the voice that will shrive and oil for the grave all there is of her but her
woman's unclean loins, of man's flesh made not in God's likeness, the
serpent's prey. And to the loud voice that now bids her be silent with
wondering unsteady eyes.
sd―Do you understand what he says? Stephen asked her.
umw―Is it French you are talking, sir? the old woman said to Haines.
Haines spoke to her again a longer speech, confidently.
bm―Irish, Buck Mulligan said. bmIs there Gaelic on you?
umw―I thought it was Irish, she said, umwby the sound of it. Are you from the west,
sir?
ha―I am an Englishman, Haines answered.
bm―He's English, Buck Mulligan said, bmand he thinks we ought to speak Irish
in Ireland.
umw―Sure we ought to, the old woman said, umwand I'm ashamed I don't speak the
language myself. I'm told it's a grand language by them that knows.
bm―Grand is no name for it, said Buck Mulligan. bmWonderful entirely. Fill us
out some more tea, Kinch. Would you like a cup, ma'am?
umw―No, thank you, sir, the old woman said, slipping the ring of the milkcan
on her forearm and about to go.
Haines said to her:
ha―Have you your bill? We had better pay her, Mulligan, hadn't we?
Stephen filled again the three cups.
umw―Bill, sir? she said, halting. umwWell, it's seven mornings a pint at twopence is
seven twos is a shilling and twopence over and these three mornings a quart
at fourpence is three quarts is a shilling. That's a shilling and one and two is
two and two, sir.
Buck Mulligan sighed and, having filled his mouth with a crust
thickly buttered on both sides, stretched forth his legs and began to search
his trouser pockets.
ha―Pay up and look pleasant, Haines said to him, smiling.
Stephen filled a third cup, a spoonful of tea colouring faintly the thick
rich milk. Buck Mulligan brought up a florin, twisted it round in his fingers
and cried:
bm―A miracle!
He passed it along the table towards the old woman, saying:
Stephen laid the coin in her uneager hand.
sd―We'll owe twopence, he said.
umw―Time enough, sir, she said, taking the coin. umwTime enough. Good morning,
sir.
She curtseyed and went out, followed by Buck Mulligan's tender
chant:
bm―Heart of my heart, were it more,
More would be laid at your feet.
He turned to Stephen and said:
bm―Seriously, Dedalus. I'm stony. Hurry out to your school kip and bring us
back some money. Today the bards must drink and junket. Ireland expects
that every man this day will do his duty.
ha―That reminds me, Haines said, rising, hathat I have to visit your national
library today.
bm―Our swim first, Buck Mulligan said.
He turned to Stephen and asked blandly:
bm―Is this the day for your monthly wash, Kinch?
Then he said to Haines:
bm―The unclean bard makes a point of washing once a month.
sd―All Ireland is washed by the gulfstream, Stephen said as he let honey
trickle over a slice of the loaf.
Haines from the corner where he was knotting easily a scarf about
the loose collar of his tennis shirt spoke:
ha―I intend to make a collection of your sayings if you will let me.
sdSpeaking to me. They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit.
Conscience. Yet here's a spot.
ha―That one about the cracked lookingglass of a servant being the symbol of
Irish art is deuced good.
Buck Mulligan kicked Stephen's foot under the table and said with
warmth of tone:
bm―Wait till you hear him on Hamlet, Haines.
ha―Well, I mean it, Haines said, still speaking to Stephen. haI was just thinking
of it when that poor old creature came in.
sd―Would I make any money by it? Stephen asked.
Haines laughed and, as he took his soft grey hat from the holdfast of
the hammock, said:
ha―I don't know, I'm sure.
He strolled out to the doorway. Buck Mulligan bent across to Stephen
and said with coarse vigour:
bm―You put your hoof in it now. What did you say that for?
sd―Well? Stephen said. sdThe problem is to get money. From whom? From the
milkwoman or from him. It's a toss up, I think.
bm―I blow him out about you, Buck Mulligan said, bmand then you come along
with your lousy leer and your gloomy jesuit jibes.
sd―I see little hope, Stephen said, sdfrom her or from him.
Buck Mulligan sighed tragically and laid his hand on Stephen's arm.
bm―From me, Kinch, he said.
In a suddenly changed tone he added:
bm―To tell you the God's truth I think you're right. Damn all else they are
good for. Why don't you play them as I do? To hell with them all. Let us get
out of the kip.
He stood up, gravely ungirdled and disrobed himself of his gown,
saying resignedly:
bm―Mulligan is stripped of his garments.
He emptied his pockets on to the table.
bm―There's your snotrag, he said.
And putting on his stiff collar and rebellious tie he spoke to them,
chiding them, and to his dangling watchchain. His hands plunged and
rummaged in his trunk while he called for a clean handkerchief. God, we'll
simply have to dress the character. I want puce gloves and green boots.
Contradiction. Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself.
Mercurial Malachi. A limp black missile flew out of his talking hands.
bm―And there's your Latin quarter hat, he said.
Stephen picked it up and put it on. Haines called to them from the
doorway:
ha―Are you coming, you fellows?
bm―I'm ready, Buck Mulligan answered, going towards the door. bmCome out,
Kinch. You have eaten all we left, I suppose.
Resigned he passed out with grave words and gait, saying, wellnigh
with sorrow:
bm―And going forth he met Butterly.
Stephen, taking his ashplant from its leaningplace, followed them out and, as they went down the ladder, pulled to the slow iron door and locked it. He put the huge key in his inner pocket.
At the foot of the ladder Buck Mulligan asked:
bm―Did you bring the key?
sd―I have it, Stephen said, preceding them.
He walked on. Behind him he heard Buck Mulligan club with his
heavy bathtowel the leader shoots of ferns or grasses.
bm―Down, sir! How dare you, sir!
Haines asked:
ha―Do you pay rent for this tower?
bm―Twelve quid, Buck Mulligan said.
sd―To the secretary of state for war, Stephen added over his shoulder.
They halted while Haines surveyed the tower and said at last:
ha―Rather bleak in wintertime, I should say. haMartello you call it?
bm―Billy Pitt had them built, Buck Mulligan said, bmwhen the French were on
the sea. But ours is the omphalos.
ha―What is your idea of Hamlet? Haines asked Stephen.
bm―No, no, Buck Mulligan shouted in pain. bmI'm not equal to Thomas
Aquinas and the fiftyfive reasons he has made out to prop it up. Wait till I
have a few pints in me first.
He turned to Stephen, saying, as he pulled down neatly the peaks of
his primrose waistcoat:
bm―You couldn't manage it under three pints, Kinch, could you?
sd―It has waited so long, Stephen said listlessly, sdit can wait longer.
ha―You pique my curiosity, Haines said amiably. haIs it some paradox?
bm―Pooh! Buck Mulligan said. bmWe have grown out of Wilde and paradoxes.
It's quite simple. He proves by algebra that Hamlet's grandson is
Shakespeare's grandfather and that he himself is the ghost of his own
father.
ha―What? Haines said, beginning to point at Stephen. haHe himself?
Buck Mulligan slung his towel stolewise round his neck and, bending
in loose laughter, said to Stephen's ear:
bm―O, shade of Kinch the elder! Japhet in search of a father!
sd―We're always tired in the morning, Stephen said to Haines. sdAnd it is
rather long to tell.
Buck Mulligan, walking forward again, raised his hands.
bm―The sacred pint alone can unbind the tongue of Dedalus, he said.
ha―I mean to say, Haines explained to Stephen as they followed, hathis tower
and these cliffs here remind me somehow of Elsinore. That beetles o'er his
base into the sea, isn't it?
Buck Mulligan turned suddenly for an instant towards Stephen but
did not speak. In the bright silent instant Stephen saw his own image in
cheap dusty mourning between their gay attires.
ha―It's a wonderful tale, Haines said, bringing them to halt again.
Eyes, pale as the sea the wind had freshened, paler, firm and prudent.
The seas' ruler, he gazed southward over the bay, empty save for the
smokeplume of the mailboat vague on the bright skyline and a sail tacking
by the Muglins.
ha―I read a theological interpretation of it somewhere, he said bemused. haThe
Father and the Son idea. The Son striving to be atoned with the Father.
Buck Mulligan at once put on a blithe broadly smiling face. He
looked at them, his wellshaped mouth open happily, his eyes, from which he
had suddenly withdrawn all shrewd sense, blinking with mad gaiety. He
moved a doll's head to and fro, the brims of his Panama hat quivering, and
began to chant in a quiet happy foolish voice:
bm―I'm the queerest young fellow that ever you heard.
My mother's a jew, my father's a bird.
With Joseph the joiner I cannot agree.
So here's to disciples and Calvary.
He held up a forefinger of warning.
bm―If anyone thinks that I amn't divine
He'll get no free drinks when I'm making the wine
But have to drink water and wish it were plain
That I make when the wine becomes water again.
He tugged swiftly at Stephen's ashplant in farewell and, running
forward to a brow of the cliff, fluttered his hands at his sides like fins or
wings of one about to rise in the air, and chanted:
bm―Goodbye, now, goodbye! Write down all I said
And tell Tom, Dick and Harry I rose from the dead.
What's bred in the bone cannot fail me to fly
And Olivet's breezy – Goodbye, now, goodbye!
He capered before them down towards the fortyfoot hole, fluttering his winglike hands, leaping nimbly, Mercury's hat quivering in the fresh wind that bore back to them his brief birdsweet cries.
Haines, who had been laughing guardedly, walked on beside Stephen
and said:
ha―We oughtn't to laugh, I suppose. He's rather blasphemous. I'm not a
believer myself, that is to say. Still his gaiety takes the harm out of it
somehow, doesn't it? What did he call it? Joseph the Joiner?
sd―The ballad of joking Jesus, Stephen answered.
ha―O, Haines said, hayou have heard it before?
sd―Three times a day, after meals, Stephen said drily.
ha―You're not a believer, are you? Haines asked. haI mean, a believer in the
narrow sense of the word. Creation from nothing and miracles and a
personal God.
sd―There's only one sense of the word, it seems to me, Stephen said.
Haines stopped to take out a smooth silver case in which twinkled a
green stone. He sprang it open with his thumb and offered it.
sd―Thank you, Stephen said, taking a cigarette.
Haines helped himself and snapped the case to. He put it back in his
sidepocket and took from his waistcoatpocket a nickel tinderbox, sprang it
open too, and, having lit his cigarette, held the flaming spunk towards
Stephen in the shell of his hands.
ha―Yes, of course, he said, as they went on again. haEither you believe or you
don't, isn't it? Personally I couldn't stomach that idea of a personal God.
You don't stand for that, I suppose?
sd―You behold in me, Stephen said with grim displeasure, sda horrible example
of free thought.
He walked on, waiting to be spoken to, trailing his ashplant by his
side. Its ferrule followed lightly on the path, squealing at his heels. My
familiar, after me, calling, Steeeeeeeeeeeephen! A wavering line along sdthe
path. They will walk on it tonight, coming here in the dark. He wants that
key. It is mine. I paid the rent. Now I eat his salt bread. Give him the key
too. All. He will ask for it. That was in his eyes.
ha―After all, Haines began ....
Stephen turned and saw that the cold gaze which had measured him
was not all unkind.
ha―After all, I should think you are able to free yourself. You are your own
master, it seems to me.
sd―I am a servant of two masters, Stephen said, sdan English and an Italian.
ha―Italian? Haines said.
sdA crazy queen, old and jealous. Kneel down before me.
sd―And a third, Stephen said, sdthere is who wants me for odd jobs.
ha―Italian? Haines said again. haWhat do you mean?
sd―The imperial British state, Stephen answered, his colour rising, sdand the
holy Roman catholic and apostolic church.
Haines detached from his underlip some fibres of tobacco before he
spoke.
ha―I can quite understand that, he said calmly. haAn Irishman must think like
that, I daresay. We feel in England that we have treated you rather unfairly.
It seems history is to blame.
The proud potent titles clanged over Stephen's memory the triumph
of their brazen bells:
Hear, hear! Prolonged applause.
ha―Of course I'm a Britisher, Haines's voice said, haand I feel as one. I don't
want to see my country fall into the hands of German jews either. That's
our national problem, I'm afraid, just now.
Two men stood at the verge of the cliff, watching: businessman,
boatman.
ubm―She's making for Bullock harbour. It's unclear whether the businessman or the boatman speaks.
The boatman nodded towards the north of the bay with some disdain.
uboat―There's five fathoms out there, he said. uboatIt'll be swept up that way when
the tide comes in about one. It's nine days today.
sdThe man that was drowned. A sail veering about the blank bay waiting for a swollen bundle to bob up, roll over to the sun a puffy face, saltwhite. Here I am.
They followed the winding path down to the creek. Buck Mulligan
stood on a stone, in shirtsleeves, his unclipped tie rippling over his shoulder.
A young man clinging to a spur of rock near him, moved slowly frogwise
his green legs in the deep jelly of the water.
uym―Is the brother with you, Malachi?
bm―Down in Westmeath. With the Bannons.
uym―Still there? I got a card from Bannon. Says he found a sweet young thing
down there. Photo girl he calls her.
bm―Snapshot, eh? Brief exposure.
Buck Mulligan sat down to unlace his boots. An elderly man shot up near the spur of rock a blowing red face. He scrambled up by the stones, water glistening on his pate and on its garland of grey hair, water rilling over his chest and paunch and spilling jets out of his black sagging loincloth.
Buck Mulligan made way for him to scramble past and, glancing at
Haines and Stephen, crossed himself piously with his thumbnail at brow
and lips and breastbone.
uym―Seymour's back in town, the young man said, grasping again his spur of
rock. uymChucked medicine and going in for the army.
bm―Ah, go to God! Buck Mulligan said.
uym―Going over next week to stew. You know that red Carlisle girl, Lily?
bm―Yes.
uym―Spooning with him last night on the pier. The father is rotto with money.
bm―Is she up the pole?
uym―Better ask Seymour that.
bm―Seymour a bleeding officer! Buck Mulligan said.
He nodded to himself as he drew off his trousers and stood up, saying
tritely:
bm―Redheaded women buck like goats.
He broke off in alarm, feeling his side under his flapping shirt.
bm―My twelfth rib is gone, he cried. bmI'm the Übermensch. Toothless Kinch
and I, the supermen.
He struggled out of his shirt and flung it behind him to where his
clothes lay.
uym―Are you going in here, Malachi?
bm―Yes. Make room in the bed.
The young man shoved himself backward through the water and
reached the middle of the creek in two long clean strokes. Haines sat down
on a stone, smoking.
bm―Are you not coming in? Buck Mulligan asked.
ha―Later on, Haines said. haNot on my breakfast.
Stephen turned away.
sd―I'm going, Mulligan, he said.
bm―Give us that key, Kinch, Buck Mulligan said, bmto keep my chemise flat.
Stephen handed him the key. Buck Mulligan laid it across his heaped
clothes.
bm―And twopence, he said, bmfor a pint. Throw it there.
Stephen threw two pennies on the soft heap. Dressing, undressing.
Buck Mulligan erect, with joined hands before him, said solemnly:
bm―He who stealeth from the poor lendeth to the Lord. Thus spake
Zarathustra.
His plump body plunged.
ha―We'll see you again, Haines said, turning as Stephen walked up the path
and smiling at wild Irish.
Horn of a bull, hoof of a horse, smile of a Saxon.
bm―The Ship, Buck Mulligan cried. bmHalf twelve.
sd―Good, Stephen said.
He walked along the upwardcurving path.
sdThe priest's grey nimbus in a niche where he dressed discreetly. I will not sleep here tonight. Home also I cannot go.
A voice, sweettoned and sustained, called to him from the sea. Turning the curve he waved his hand. It called again. A sleek brown head, a seal's, far out on the water, round.
sdUsurper.
sd―You, Cochrane, what city sent for him?
co―Tarentum, sir.
sd―Very good. Well?
co―There was a battle, sir.
sd―Very good. Where?
The boy's blank face asked the blank window.
sdFabled by the daughters of memory. And yet it was in some way if not
as memory fabled it. A phrase, then, of impatience, thud of Blake's wings of
excess. I hear the ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppling masonry,
and time one livid final flame. What's left us then?
co―I forget the place, sir. 279 B. C.
sd―Asculum, Stephen said, glancing at the name and date in the gorescarred
book.
co―Yes, sir. And he said: Another victory like that and we are done for.
sdThat phrase the world had remembered. A dull ease of the mind.
From a hill above a corpsestrewn plain a general speaking to his officers,
leaned upon his spear. Any general to any officers. They lend ear.
sd―You, Armstrong, Stephen said. sdWhat was the end of Pyrrhus?
ar―End of Pyrrhus, sir?
com―I know, sir. Ask me, sir, Comyn said.
sd―Wait. You, Armstrong. Do you know anything about Pyrrhus?
A bag of figrolls lay snugly in Armstrong's satchel. He curled them
between his palms at whiles and swallowed them softly. Crumbs adhered to
the tissue of his lips. sdA sweetened boy's breath. Welloff people, proud that
their eldest son was in the navy. Vico road, Dalkey.
ar―Pyrrhus, sir? Pyrrhus, a pier.
All laughed. Mirthless high malicious laughter. Armstrong looked
round at his classmates, silly glee in profile. sdIn a moment they will laugh
more loudly, aware of my lack of rule and of the fees their papas pay.
sd―Tell me now, Stephen said, poking the boy's shoulder with the book, sdwhat
is a pier.
ar―A pier, sir, Armstrong said. arA thing out in the water. A kind of a bridge.
Kingstown pier, sir.
Some laughed again: mirthless but with meaning. Two in the back
bench whispered. sdYes. They knew: had never learned nor ever been
innocent. All. With envy he watched their faces: Edith, Ethel, Gerty, Lily.
Their likes: their breaths, too, sweetened with tea and jam, their bracelets
tittering in the struggle.
sd―Kingstown pier, Stephen said. sdYes, a disappointed bridge.
The words troubled their gaze.
com―How, sir? Comyn asked. comA bridge is across a river.
sdFor Haines's chapbook. No-one here to hear. Tonight deftly amid wild drink and talk, to pierce the polished mail of his mind. What then? A jester at the court of his master, indulged and disesteemed, winning a clement master's praise. Why had they chosen all that part? Not wholly for the smooth caress. For them too history was a tale like any other too often heard, their land a pawnshop.
sdHad Pyrrhus not fallen by a beldam's hand in Argos or Julius Caesar
not been knifed to death. They are not to be thought away. Time has
branded them and fettered they are lodged in the room of the infinite
possibilities they have ousted. But can those have been possible seeing that
they never were? Or was that only possible which came to pass? Weave,
weaver of the wind.
ustud―Tell us a story, sir.
ustud―O, do, sir. A ghoststory.
sd―Where do you begin in this? Stephen asked, opening another book.
com―Weep no more, Comyn said.
sd―Go on then, Talbot.
ustud―And the story, sir?
sd―After, Stephen said. sdGo on, Talbot.
A swarthy boy opened a book and propped it nimbly under the
breastwork of his satchel. He recited jerks of verse with odd glances at the
text:
ta―Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more
For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead,
Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor ....
sdIt must be a movement then, an actuality of the possible as possible. Aristotle's phrase formed itself within the gabbled verses and floated out into the studious silence of the library of Saint Genevieve where he had read, sheltered from the sin of Paris, night by night. By his elbow a delicate Siamese conned a handbook of strategy. Fed and feeding brains about me: under glowlamps, impaled, with faintly beating feelers: and in my mind's darkness a sloth of the underworld, reluctant, shy of brightness, shifting her dragon scaly folds. Thought is the thought of thought. Tranquil brightness. The soul is in a manner all that is: the soul is the form of forms. Tranquility sudden, vast, candescent: form of forms.
Talbot repeated:
ta―Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves,
Through the dear might .....
sd―Turn over, Stephen said quietly. sdI don't see anything.
ta―What, sir? Talbot asked simply, bending forward.
His hand turned the page over. He leaned back and went on again, having just remembered. sdOf him that walked the waves. Here also over these craven hearts his shadow lies and on the scoffer's heart and lips and on mine. It lies upon their eager faces who offered him a coin of the tribute. To Caesar what is Caesar's, to God what is God's. A long look from dark eyes, a riddling sentence to be woven and woven on the church's looms. Ay.
Talbot slid his closed book into his satchel.
sd―Have I heard all? Stephen asked.
ustud―Yes, sir. Hockey at ten, sir.
ustud―Half day, sir. Thursday.
sd―Who can answer a riddle? Stephen asked.
They bundled their books away, pencils clacking, pages rustling.
Crowding together they strapped and buckled their satchels, all gabbling
gaily:
ustud―A riddle, sir? Ask me, sir.
ustud―O, ask me, sir.
ustud―A hard one, sir.
sd―This is the riddle, Stephen said:
sdWhat is that?
ustud―What, sir?
ustud―Again, sir. We didn't hear.
Their eyes grew bigger as the lines were repeated. After a silence
Cochrane said:
co―What is it, sir? We give it up.
Stephen, his throat itching, answered:
sd―The fox burying his grandmother under a hollybush.
He stood up and gave a shout of nervous laughter to which their cries echoed dismay.
A stick struck the door and a voice in the corridor called:
gd―Hockey!
They broke asunder, sidling out of their benches, leaping them. Quickly they were gone and from the lumberroom came the rattle of sticks and clamour of their boots and tongues.
Sargent who alone had lingered came forward slowly, showing an open copybook. His thick hair and scraggy neck gave witness of unreadiness and through his misty glasses weak eyes looked up pleading. On his cheek, dull and bloodless, a soft stain of ink lay, dateshaped, recent and damp as a snail's bed.
He held out his copybook. The word Sums was written on the
headline. Beneath were sloping figures and at the foot a crooked signature
with blind loops and a blot. Cyril Sargent: his name and seal.
sa―Mr Deasy told me to write them out all again, he said, saand show them to
you, sir.
Stephen touched the edges of the book. Futility.
sd―Do you understand how to do them now? he asked.
sa―Numbers eleven to fifteen, Sargent answered. saMr Deasy said I was to
copy them off the board, sir.
sd―Can you do them yourself? Stephen asked.
sa―No, sir.
sdUgly and futile: lean neck and thick hair and a stain of ink, a snail's bed. Yet someone had loved him, borne him in her arms and in her heart. But for her the race of the world would have trampled him underfoot, a squashed boneless snail. She had loved his weak watery blood drained from her own. Was that then real? The only true thing in life? His mother's prostrate body the fiery Columbanus in holy zeal bestrode. She was no more: the trembling skeleton of a twig burnt in the fire, an odour of rosewood and wetted ashes. She had saved him from being trampled underfoot and had gone, scarcely having been. A poor soul gone to heaven: and on a heath beneath winking stars a fox, red reek of rapine in his fur, with merciless bright eyes scraped in the earth, listened, scraped up the earth, listened, scraped and scraped.
Sitting at his side Stephen solved out the problem. He proves by algebra that Shakespeare's ghost is Hamlet's grandfather. Sargent peered askance through his slanted glasses. Hockeysticks rattled in the lumberroom: the hollow knock of a ball and calls from the field.
Across the page the symbols moved in grave morrice, in the mummery
of their letters, wearing quaint caps of squares and cubes. Give hands,
traverse, bow to partner: so: imps of fancy of the Moors. Gone too from
the world, Averroes and Moses Maimonides, dark men in mien and
movement, flashing in their mocking mirrors the obscure soul of the world,
a darkness shining in brightness which brightness could not comprehend.
sd―Do you understand now? Can you work the second for yourself?
sa―Yes, sir.
In long shaky strokes Sargent copied the data. Waiting always for a
word of help his hand moved faithfully the unsteady symbols, a faint hue of
shame flickering behind his dull skin.
sdLike him was I, these sloping shoulders, this gracelessness. My childhood bends beside me. Too far for me to lay a hand there once or lightly. Mine is far and his secret as our eyes. Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants, willing to be dethroned.
The sum was done.
sd―It is very simple, Stephen said as he stood up.
sa―Yes, sir. Thanks, Sargent answered.
He dried the page with a sheet of thin blottingpaper and carried his
copybook back to his bench.
sd―You had better get your stick and go out to the others, Stephen said as he
followed towards the door the boy's graceless form.
sa―Yes, sir.
In the corridor his name was heard, called from the playfield.
gd―Sargent!
sd―Run on, Stephen said. sdMr Deasy is calling you.
He stood in the porch and watched the laggard hurry towards the
scrappy field where sharp voices were in strife. They were sorted in teams
and Mr Deasy came away stepping over wisps of grass with gaitered feet.
When he had reached the schoolhouse voices again contending called to
him. He turned his angry white moustache.
gd―What is it now? he cried continually without listening.
sd―Cochrane and Halliday are on the same side, sir, Stephen said.
gd―Will you wait in my study for a moment, Mr Deasy said, gdtill I restore
order here.
And as he stepped fussily back across the field his old man's voice
cried sternly:
gd―What is the matter? What is it now?
Their sharp voices cried about him on all sides: their many forms closed round him, the garish sunshine bleaching the honey of his illdyed head.
Stale smoky air hung in the study with the smell of drab abraded leather of its chairs. sdAs on the first day he bargained with me here. As it was in the beginning, is now. On the sideboard the tray of Stuart coins, base treasure of a bog: and ever shall be. And snug in their spooncase of purple plush, faded, the twelve apostles having preached to all the gentiles: world without end.
A hasty step over the stone porch and in the corridor. Blowing out his
rare moustache Mr Deasy halted at the table.
gd―First, our little financial settlement, he said.
He brought out of his coat a pocketbook bound by a leather thong. It
slapped open and he took from it two notes, one of joined halves, and laid
them carefully on the table.
gd―Two, he said, strapping and stowing his pocketbook away.
And now his strongroom for the gold. Stephen's embarrassed hand moved over the shells heaped in the cold stone mortar: sdwhelks and money cowries and leopard shells: and this, whorled as an emir's turban, and this, the scallop of saint James. An old pilgrim's hoard, dead treasure, hollow shells.
A sovereign fell, bright and new, on the soft pile of the tablecloth.
gd―Three, Mr Deasy said, turning his little savingsbox about in his hand.
gdThese are handy things to have. See. This is for sovereigns. This is for
shillings. Sixpences, halfcrowns. And here crowns. See.
He shot from it two crowns and two shillings.
gd―Three twelve, he said. gdI think you'll find that's right.
sd―Thank you, sir, Stephen said, gathering the money together with shy
haste and putting it all in a pocket of his trousers.
gd―No thanks at all, Mr Deasy said. gdYou have earned it.
Stephen's hand, free again, went back to the hollow shells. sdSymbols
too of beauty and of power. A lump in my pocket: symbols soiled by greed
and misery.
gd―Don't carry it like that, Mr Deasy said. gdYou'll pull it out somewhere and
lose it. You just buy one of these machines. You'll find them very handy.
sdAnswer something.
sd―Mine would be often empty, Stephen said.
sdThe same room and hour, the same wisdom: and I the same. Three
times now. Three nooses round me here. Well? I can break them in this
instant if I will.
gd―Because you don't save, Mr Deasy said, pointing his finger. gdYou don't
know yet what money is. Money is power. When you have lived as long as I
have. I know, I know. If youth but knew. But what does Shakespeare say?
Put but money in thy purse.
sd―Iago, Stephen murmured.
He lifted his gaze from the idle shells to the old man's stare.
gd―He knew what money was, Mr Deasy said. gdHe made money. A poet, yes,
but an Englishman too. Do you know what is the pride of the English? Do
you know what is the proudest word you will ever hear from an
Englishman's mouth?
sdThe seas' ruler. His seacold eyes looked on the empty bay: it seems
history is to blame: on me and on my words, unhating.
sd―That on his empire, Stephen said, sdthe sun never sets.
gd―Ba! Mr Deasy cried. gdThat's not English. A French Celt said that.
He tapped his savingsbox against his thumbnail.
gd―I will tell you, he said solemnly, gdwhat is his proudest boast. I paid my way.
sdGood man, good man.
gd―I paid my way. I never borrowed a shilling in my life. Can you feel that? I
owe nothing. Can you?
sdMulligan, nine pounds, three pairs of socks, one pair brogues, ties.
Curran, ten guineas. McCann, one guinea. Fred Ryan, two shillings.
Temple, two lunches. Russell, one guinea, Cousins, ten shillings, Bob
Reynolds, half a guinea, Koehler, three guineas, Mrs MacKernan, five
weeks' board. The lump I have is useless.
sd―For the moment, no, Stephen answered.
Mr Deasy laughed with rich delight, putting back his savingsbox.
gd―I knew you couldn't, he said joyously. gdBut one day you must feel it. We
are a generous people but we must also be just.
sd―I fear those big words, Stephen said, sdwhich make us so unhappy.
Mr Deasy stared sternly for some moments over the mantelpiece at
the shapely bulk of a man in tartan filibegs: Albert Edward, prince of
Wales.
gd―You think me an old fogey and an old tory, his thoughtful voice said. gdI
saw three generations since O'Connell's time. I remember the famine in '46.
Do you know that the orange lodges agitated for repeal of the union twenty
years before O'Connell did or before the prelates of your communion
denounced him as a demagogue? You fenians forget some things.
sdGlorious, pious and immortal memory. The lodge of Diamond in Armagh the splendid behung with corpses of papishes. Hoarse, masked and armed, the planters' covenant. The black north and true blue bible. Croppies lie down.
Stephen sketched a brief gesture.
gd―I have rebel blood in me too, Mr Deasy said. gdOn the spindle side. But I
am descended from sir John Blackwood who voted for the union. We are all
Irish, all kings' sons.
sd―Alas, Stephen said.
gd―Per vias rectas, Mr Deasy said firmly, gdwas his motto. He voted for it and
put on his topboots to ride to Dublin from the Ards of Down to do so.
sdA gruff squire on horseback with shiny topboots. Soft day, sir John!
Soft day, your honour! .... Day! .... Day! .... Two topboots jog dangling on
to Dublin. Lal the ral the ra. Lal the ral the raddy.
gd―That reminds me, Mr Deasy said. gdYou can do me a favour, Mr Dedalus,
with some of your literary friends. I have a letter here for the press. Sit
down a moment. I have just to copy the end.
He went to the desk near the window, pulled in his chair twice and
read off some words from the sheet on the drum of his typewriter.
gd―Sit down. Excuse me, he said over his shoulder, gdthe dictates of common
sense. Just a moment.
He peered from under his shaggy brows at the manuscript by his elbow and, muttering, began to prod the stiff buttons of the keyboard slowly, sometimes blowing as he screwed up the drum to erase an error.
Stephen seated himself noiselessly before the princely presence.
Framed around the walls images of vanished horses stood in homage, their
meek heads poised in air: lord Hastings' Repulse, the duke of
Westminster's Shotover, the duke of Beaufort's Ceylon,
gd―Full stop, Mr Deasy bade his keys. gdBut prompt ventilation of this
allimportant question ....
sdWhere Cranly led me to get rich quick, hunting his winners among the mudsplashed brakes, amid the bawls of bookies on their pitches and reek of the canteen, over the motley slush. Fair Rebel! Fair Rebel! Even money the favourite: ten to one the field. Dicers and thimbleriggers we hurried by after the hoofs, the vying caps and jackets and past the meatfaced woman, a butcher's dame, nuzzling thirstily her clove of orange.
Shouts rang shrill from the boys' playfield and a whirring whistle.
sdAgain: a goal. I am among them, among their battling bodies in a
medley, the joust of life. You mean that knockkneed mother's darling who
seems to be slightly crawsick? Jousts. Time shocked rebounds, shock by
shock. Jousts, slush and uproar of battles, the frozen deathspew of the slain,
a shout of spearspikes baited with men's bloodied guts.
gd―Now then, Mr Deasy said, rising.
He came to the table, pinning together his sheets. Stephen stood up.
gd―I have put the matter into a nutshell, Mr Deasy said. gdIt's about the foot
and mouth disease. Just look through it. There can be no two opinions on
the matter.
sdMay I trespass on your valuable space. That doctrine of laissez faire
which so often in our history. Our cattle trade. The way of all our old
industries. Liverpool ring which jockeyed the Galway harbour scheme.
European conflagration. Grain supplies through the narrow waters of the
channel. The pluterperfect imperturbability of the department of
agriculture. Pardoned a classical allusion. Cassandra. By a woman who
was no better than she should be. To come to the point at issue.
gd―I don't mince words, do I? Mr Deasy asked as Stephen read on.
sdFoot and mouth disease. Known as Koch's preparation. Serum and
virus. Percentage of salted horses. Rinderpest. Emperor's horses at
Mürzsteg, lower Austria. Veterinary surgeons. Mr Henry Blackwood Price.
Courteous offer a fair trial. Dictates of common sense. Allimportant
question. In every sense of the word take the bull by the horns. Thanking
you for the hospitality of your columns.
gd―I want that to be printed and read, Mr Deasy said. gdYou will see at the next
outbreak they will put an embargo on Irish cattle. And it can be cured. It is
cured. My cousin, Blackwood Price, writes to me it is regularly treated and
cured in Austria by cattledoctors there. They offer to come over here. I am
trying to work up influence with the department. Now I'm going to try
publicity. I am surrounded by difficulties, by .... intrigues by ..... backstairs
influence by .....
He raised his forefinger and beat the air oldly before his voice spoke.
gd―Mark my words, Mr Dedalus, he said. gdEngland is in the hands of the
jews. In all the highest places: her finance, her press. And they are the signs
of a nation's decay. Wherever they gather they eat up the nation's vital
strength. I have seen it coming these years. As sure as we are standing here
the jew merchants are already at their work of destruction. Old England is
dying.
He stepped swiftly off, his eyes coming to blue life as they passed a
broad sunbeam. He faced about and back again.
gd―Dying, he said again, gdif not dead by now.
His eyes open wide in vision stared sternly across the sunbeam in
which he halted.
sd―A merchant, Stephen said, sdis one who buys cheap and sells dear, jew or
gentile, is he not?
gd―They sinned against the light, Mr Deasy said gravely. gdAnd you can see the
darkness in their eyes. And that is why they are wanderers on the earth to
this day.
sdOn the steps of the Paris stock exchange the goldskinned men quoting
prices on their gemmed fingers. Gabble of geese. They swarmed loud,
uncouth, about the temple, their heads thickplotting under maladroit silk
hats. Not theirs: these clothes, this speech, these gestures. Their full slow
eyes belied the words, the gestures eager and unoffending, but knew the
rancours massed about them and knew their zeal was vain. Vain patience to
heap and hoard. Time surely would scatter all. A hoard heaped by the
roadside: plundered and passing on. Their eyes knew their years of
wandering and, patient, knew the dishonours of their flesh.
sd―Who has not? Stephen said.
gd―What do you mean? Mr Deasy asked.
He came forward a pace and stood by the table. His underjaw fell
sideways open uncertainly. sdIs this old wisdom? He waits to hear from me.
sd―History, Stephen said, sdis a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
From the playfield the boys raised a shout. A whirring whistle: goal.
sdWhat if that nightmare gave you a back kick?
gd―The ways of the Creator are not our ways, Mr Deasy said. gdAll human
history moves towards one great goal, the manifestation of God.
Stephen jerked his thumb towards the window, saying:
sd―That is God.
Hooray! Ay! Whrrwhee!
gd―What? Mr Deasy asked.
sd―A shout in the street, Stephen answered, shrugging his shoulders.
Mr Deasy looked down and held for awhile the wings of his nose
tweaked between his fingers. Looking up again he set them free.
gd―I am happier than you are, he said. gdWe have committed many errors and
many sins. A woman brought sin into the world. For a woman who was no
better than she should be, Helen, the runaway wife of Menelaus, ten years
the Greeks made war on Troy. A faithless wife first brought the strangers to
our shore here, MacMurrough's wife and her leman, O'Rourke, prince of
Breffni. A woman too brought Parnell low. Many errors, many failures but
not the one sin. I am a struggler now at the end of my days. But I will fight
for the right till the end.
Stephen raised the sheets in his hand.
sd―Well, sir, he began .....
gd―I foresee, Mr Deasy said, gdthat you will not remain here very long at this
work. You were not born to be a teacher, I think. Perhaps I am wrong.
sd―A learner rather, Stephen said.
sdAnd here what will you learn more?
Mr Deasy shook his head.
gd―Who knows? he said. gdTo learn one must be humble. But life is the great
teacher.
Stephen rustled the sheets again.
sd―As regards these, he began .....
gd―Yes, Mr Deasy said. gdYou have two copies there. If you can have them
published at once.
sdTelegraph. Irish Homestead.
sd―I will try, Stephen said, sdand let you know tomorrow. I know two editors
slightly.
gd―That will do, Mr Deasy said briskly. gdI wrote last night to Mr Field, M. P.
There is a meeting of the cattletraders' association today at the City Arms
hotel. I asked him to lay my letter before the meeting. You see if you can get
it into your two papers. What are they?
sd―The Evening Telegraph .....
gd―That will do, Mr Deasy said. gdThere is no time to lose. Now I have to
answer that letter from my cousin.
sd―Good morning, sir, Stephen said, putting the sheets in his pocket. sdThank
you.
gd―Not at all, Mr Deasy said as he searched the papers on his desk. gdI like to
break a lance with you, old as I am.
sd―Good morning, sir, Stephen said again, bowing to his bent back.
He went out by the open porch and down the gravel path under the
trees, hearing the cries of voices and crack of sticks from the playfield. The
lions couchant on the pillars as he passed out through the gate: sdtoothless
terrors. Still I will help him in his fight. Mulligan will dub me a new name:
the bullockbefriending bard.
gd―Mr Dedalus!
sdRunning after me. No more letters, I hope.
gd―Just one moment.
sd―Yes, sir, Stephen said, turning back at the gate.
Mr Deasy halted, breathing hard and swallowing his breath.
gd―I just wanted to say, he said. gdIreland, they say, has the honour of being
the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you know that? No.
And do you know why?
He frowned sternly on the bright air.
sd―Why, sir? Stephen asked, beginning to smile.
gd―Because she never let them in, Mr Deasy said solemnly.
A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat dragging after it a
rattling chain of phlegm. He turned back quickly, coughing, laughing, his
lifted arms waving to the air.
gd―She never let them in, he cried again through his laughter as he stamped
on gaitered feet over the gravel of the path. gdThat's why.
On his wise shoulders through the checkerwork of leaves the sun flung spangles, dancing coins.
sdIneluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot. Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust: coloured signs. Limits of the diaphane. But he adds: in bodies. Then he was aware of them bodies before of them coloured. How? By knocking his sconce against them, sure. Go easy. Bald he was and a millionaire, maestro di color che sanno. Limit of the diaphane in. Why in? Diaphane, adiaphane. If you can put your five fingers through it it is a gate, if not a door. Shut your eyes and see.
Stephen closed his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and shells. sdYou are walking through it howsomever. I am, a stride at a time. A very short space of time through very short times of space. Five, six: the Nacheinander. Exactly: and that is the ineluctable modality of the audible. Open your eyes. No. Jesus! If I fell over a cliff that beetles o'er his base, fell through the Nebeneinander ineluctably! I am getting on nicely in the dark. My ash sword hangs at my side. Tap with it: they do. My two feet in his boots are at the ends of his legs, nebeneinander. Sounds solid: made by the mallet of Los demiurgos. Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount strand? Crush, crack, crick, crick. Wild sea money. Dominie Deasy kens them a'.
sdRhythm begins, you see. I hear. Acatalectic tetrameter of iambs marching. No, agallop: deline the mare.
sdOpen your eyes now. I will. One moment. Has all vanished since? If I open and am for ever in the black adiaphane. Basta! I will see if I can see.
sdSee now. There all the time without you: and ever shall be, world without end.
They came down the steps from Leahy's terrace prudently,
sdSpouse and helpmate of Adam Kadmon: Heva, naked Eve. She had no navel. Gaze. Belly without blemish, bulging big, a buckler of taut vellum, no, whiteheaped corn, orient and immortal, standing from everlasting to everlasting. Womb of sin.
sdWombed in sin darkness I was too, made not begotten. By them, the man with my voice and my eyes and a ghostwoman with ashes on her breath. They clasped and sundered, did the coupler's will. From before the ages He willed me and now may not will me away or ever. A lex eterna stays about Him. Is that then the divine substance wherein Father and Son are consubstantial? Where is poor dear Arius to try conclusions? Warring his life long upon the contransmagnificandjewbangtantiality. Illstarred heresiarch! In a Greek watercloset he breathed his last: euthanasia. With beaded mitre and with crozier, stalled upon his throne, widower of a widowed see, with upstiffed omophorion, with clotted hinderparts.
Airs romped round him, nipping and eager airs. sdThey are coming, waves. The whitemaned seahorses, champing, brightwindbridled, the steeds of Mananaan.
sdI mustn't forget his letter for the press. And after? The Ship, half twelve. By the way go easy with that money like a good young imbecile. Yes, I must.
His pace slackened. sdHere. Am I going to aunt Sara's or not? My consubstantial father's voice. Did you see anything of your artist brother Stephen lately? No? Sure he's not down in Strasburg terrace with his aunt Sally? Couldn't he fly a bit higher than that, eh? And and and and tell us, Stephen, how is uncle Si? O, weeping God, the things I married into! De boys up in de hayloft. The drunken little costdrawer and his brother, the cornet player. Highly respectable gondoliers! And skeweyed Walter sirring his father, no less! Sir. Yes, sir. No, sir. Jesus wept: and no wonder, by Christ!
sdI pull the wheezy bell of their shuttered cottage: and wait. They take
me for a dun, peer out from a coign of vantage.
wg―It's Stephen, sir.
rg―Let him in. Let Stephen in.
sdA bolt drawn back and Walter welcomes me.
wg―We thought you were someone else.
In his broad bed nuncle Richie, pillowed and blanketed, extends over
the hillock of his knees a sturdy forearm. Cleanchested. He has washed the
upper moiety.
rg―Morrow, nephew. Sit down and take a walk.
He lays aside the lapboard whereon he drafts his bills of costs for the
eyes of master Goff and master Shapland Tandy, filing consents and
common searches and a writ of
wg―Yes, sir?
rg―Malt for Richie and Stephen, tell mother. Where is she?
wg―Bathing Crissie, sir.
sdPapa's little bedpal. Lump of love.
sd―No, uncle Richie ....
rg―Call me Richie. Damn your lithia water. It lowers. Whusky!
sd―Uncle Richie, really ....
rg―Sit down or by the law Harry I'll knock you down.
Walter squints vainly for a chair.
wg―He has nothing to sit down on, sir.
rg―He has nowhere to put it, you mug. Bring in our chippendale chair.
Would you like a bite of something? None of your damned lawdeedaw airs
here. The rich of a rasher fried with a herring? Sure? So much the better.
We have nothing in the house but backache pills.
He drones bars of Ferrando's
His tuneful whistle sounds again, finely shaded, with rushes of the air, his fists bigdrumming on his padded knees.
sdThis wind is sweeter.>
sdHouses of decay, mine, his and all. You told the Clongowes gentry you had an uncle a judge and an uncle a general in the army. Come out of them, Stephen. Beauty is not there. Nor in the stagnant bay of Marsh's library where you read the fading prophecies of Joachim Abbas. For whom? The hundredheaded rabble of the cathedral close. A hater of his kind ran from them to the wood of madness, his mane foaming in the moon, his eyeballs stars. Houyhnhnm, horsenostrilled. The oval equine faces, Temple, Buck Mulligan, Foxy Campbell, Lanternjaws. Abbas father, furious dean, what offence laid fire to their brains? Paff! Descende, calve, ut ne amplius decalveris. A garland of grey hair on his comminated head see him me clambering down to the footpace (descende!), clutching a monstrance, basiliskeyed. Get down, baldpoll! A choir gives back menace and echo, assisting about the altar's horns, the snorted Latin of jackpriests moving burly in their albs, tonsured and oiled and gelded, fat with the fat of kidneys of wheat.
sdAnd at the same instant perhaps a priest round the corner is elevating it. Dringdring! And two streets off another locking it into a pyx. Dringadring! And in a ladychapel another taking housel all to his own cheek. Dringdring! Down, up, forward, back. Dan Occam thought of that, invincible doctor. A misty English morning the imp hypostasis tickled his brain. Bringing his host down and kneeling he heard twine with his second bell the first bell in the transept (he is lifting his) and, rising, heard (now I am lifting) their two bells (he is kneeling) twang in diphthong.
sdCousin Stephen, you will never be a saint. Isle of saints. You were awfully holy, weren't you? You prayed to the Blessed Virgin that you might not have a red nose. You prayed to the devil in Serpentine avenue that the fubsy widow in front might lift her clothes still more from the wet street. O si, certo! Sell your soul for that, do, dyed rags pinned round a squaw. More tell me, more still! On the top of the Howth tram alone crying to the rain: Naked women! Naked women! What about that, eh?
sdWhat about what? What else were they invented for?
sdReading two pages apiece of seven books every night, eh? I was young. You bowed to yourself in the mirror, stepping forward to applause earnestly, striking face. Hurray for the Goddamned idiot! Hray! No-one saw: tell no-one. Books you were going to write with letters for titles. Have you read his F? O yes, but I prefer Q. Yes, but W is wonderful. O yes, W. Remember your epiphanies written on green oval leaves, deeply deep, copies to be sent if you died to all the great libraries of the world, including Alexandria? Someone was to read them there after a few thousand years, a mahamanvantara. Pico della Mirandola like. Ay, very like a whale. When one reads these strange pages of one long gone one feels that one is at one with one who once ......
The grainy sand had gone from under his feet. His boots trod again a damp crackling mast, razorshells, squeaking pebbles, that on the unnumbered pebbles beats, wood sieved by the shipworm, lost Armada. Unwholesome sandflats waited to suck his treading soles, breathing upward sewage breath, a pocket of seaweed smouldered in seafire under a midden of man's ashes. He coasted them, walking warily. A porterbottle stood up, stogged to its waist, in the cakey sand dough. A sentinel: isle of dreadful thirst. Broken hoops on the shore; at the land a maze of dark cunning nets; farther away chalkscrawled backdoors and on the higher beach a dryingline with two crucified shirts. Ringsend: wigwams of brown steersmen and master mariners. Human shells.
He halted. sdI have passed the way to aunt Sara's. Am I not going
there? Seems not. No-one about. He turned northeast and crossed the
firmer sand towards the Pigeonhouse.
jo―Qui vous a mis dans cette fichue position?
ma―C'est le pigeon, Joseph.
sdPatrice, home on furlough, lapped warm milk with me in the bar
MacMahon. Son of the wild goose, Kevin Egan of Paris. My father's a bird,
he lapped the sweet lait chaud with pink young tongue, plump bunny's face.
Lap, lapin. He hopes to win in the gros lots. About the nature of women he
read in Michelet. But he must send me La Vie de Jésus by M. Léo Taxil.
Lent it to his friend.
pe―C'est tordant, vous savez. Moi, je suis socialiste. Je ne crois pas en
l'existence de Dieu. Faut pas le dire à mon père.
sd―Il croit?
pe―Mon père, oui.
sdSchluss. He laps.
sdMy Latin quarter hat. God, we simply must dress the character. I want puce gloves. You were a student, weren't you? Of what in the other devil's name? Paysayenn. P. C. N., you know: physiques, chimiques et naturelles. Aha. Eating your groatsworth of mou en civet, fleshpots of Egypt, elbowed by belching cabmen. Just say in the most natural tone: when I was in Paris, boul'Mich', I used to. Yes, used to carry punched tickets to prove an alibi if they arrested you for murder somewhere. Justice. On the night of the seventeenth of February 1904 the prisoner was seen by two witnesses. Other fellow did it: other me. Hat, tie, overcoat, nose. Lui, c'est moi. You seem to have enjoyed yourself.
sdProudly walking. Whom were you trying to walk like? Forget: a dispossessed. With mother's money order, eight shillings, the banging door of the post office slammed in your face by the usher. Hunger toothache. Encore deux minutes. Look clock. Must get. Fermé. Hired dog! Shoot him to bloody bits with a bang shotgun, bits man spattered walls all brass buttons. Bits all khrrrrklak in place clack back. Not hurt? O, that's all right. Shake hands. See what I meant, see? O, that's all right. Shake a shake. O, that's all only all right.
sdYou were going to do wonders, what? Missionary to Europe after
fiery Columbanus. Fiacre and Scotus on their creepystools in heaven spilt
from their pintpots, loudlatinlaughing: Euge! Euge! Pretending to speak
broken English as you dragged your valise, porter threepence, across the
slimy pier at Newhaven. Comment? Rich booty you brought back; Le
Tutu, five tattered numbers of Pantalon Blanc et Culotte Rouge; a blue
French telegram, curiosity to show:
sid―Nother dying come home father.
sdThe aunt thinks you killed your mother. That's why she won't.
sdThen here's a health to Mulligan's aunt And I'll tell you the reason why. She always kept things decent in The Hannigan famileye.His feet marched in sudden proud rhythm over the sand furrows, along by the boulders of the south wall. He stared at them proudly, piled stone mammoth skulls. sdGold light on sea, on sand, on boulders. The sun is there, the slender trees, the lemon houses.
sdParis rawly waking, crude sunlight on her lemon streets. Moist pith of farls of bread, the froggreen wormwood, her matin incense, court the air. Belluomo rises from the bed of his wife's lover's wife, the kerchiefed housewife is astir, a saucer of acetic acid in her hand. In Rodot's Yvonne and Madeleine newmake their tumbled beauties, shattering with gold teeth chaussons of pastry, their mouths yellowed with the pus of flan breton. Faces of Paris men go by, their wellpleased pleasers, curled conquistadores.
sdNoon slumbers. Kevin Egan rolls gunpowder cigarettes through fingers smeared with printer's ink, sipping his green fairy as Patrice his white. About us gobblers fork spiced beans down their gullets. Un demi setier! A jet of coffee steam from the burnished caldron. She serves me at his beck. Il est irlandais. Hollandais? Non fromage. Deux irlandais, nous, Irlande, vous savez? Ah, oui! She thought you wanted a cheese hollandais. Your postprandial, do you know that word? Postprandial. There was a fellow I knew once in Barcelona, queer fellow, used to call it his postprandial. Well: slainte! Around the slabbed tables the tangle of wined breaths and grumbling gorges. His breath hangs over our saucestained plates, the green fairy's fang thrusting between his lips. Of Ireland, the Dalcassians, of hopes, conspiracies, of Arthur Griffith now, AE, pimander, good shepherd of men. To yoke me as his yokefellow, our crimes our common cause. You're your father's son. I know the voice. His fustian shirt, sanguineflowered, trembles its Spanish tassels at his secrets. M. Drumont, famous journalist, Drumont, know what he called queen Victoria? Old hag with the yellow teeth. Vieille ogresse with the dents jaunes. Maud Gonne, beautiful woman, la Patrie, M. Millevoye, Félix Faure, know how he died? Licentious men. The froeken, bonne à tout faire, who rubs male nakedness in the bath at Upsala. Moi faire, she said, tous les messieurs. Not this monsieur, I said. Most licentious custom. Bath a most private thing. I wouldn't let my brother, not even my own brother, most lascivious thing. Green eyes, I see you. Fang, I feel. Lascivious people.
sdThe blue fuse burns deadly between hands and burns clear. Loose tobaccoshreds catch fire: a flame and acrid smoke light our corner. Raw facebones under his peep of day boy's hat. How the head centre got away, authentic version. Got up as a young bride, man, veil, orangeblossoms, drove out the road to Malahide. Did, faith. Of lost leaders, the betrayed, wild escapes. Disguises, clutched at, gone, not here.
sdSpurned lover. I was a strapping young gossoon at that time, I tell you. I'll show you my likeness one day. I was, faith. Lover, for her love he prowled with colonel Richard Burke, tanist of his sept, under the walls of Clerkenwell and, crouching, saw a flame of vengeance hurl them upward in the fog. Shattered glass and toppling masonry. In gay Paree he hides, Egan of Paris, unsought by any save by me. Making his day's stations, the dingy printingcase, his three taverns, the Montmartre lair he sleeps short night in, rue de la Goutte-d'Or, damascened with flyblown faces of the gone. Loveless, landless, wifeless. She is quite nicey comfy without her outcast man, madame in rue Gît-le-Cœur, canary and two buck lodgers. Peachy cheeks, a zebra skirt, frisky as a young thing's. Spurned and undespairing. Tell Pat you saw me, won't you? I wanted to get poor Pat a job one time. Mon fils, soldier of France. I taught him to sing The boys of Kilkenny are stout roaring blades. Know that old lay? I taught Patrice that. Old Kilkenny: saint Canice, Strongbow's castle on the Nore. Goes like this. O, O. He takes me, Napper Tandy, by the hand.
sdWeak wasting hand on mine. They have forgotten Kevin Egan, not he them. Remembering thee, O Sion.
He had come nearer the edge of the sea and wet sand slapped his boots. The new air greeted him, harping in wild nerves, wind of wild air of seeds of brightness. sdHere, I am not walking out to the Kish lightship, am I? He stood suddenly, his feet beginning to sink slowly in the quaking soil. sdTurn back.
Turning, he scanned the shore south, his feet sinking again slowly in new sockets. sdThe cold domed room of the tower waits. Through the barbacans the shafts of light are moving ever, slowly ever as my feet are sinking, creeping duskward over the dial floor. Blue dusk, nightfall, deep blue night. In the darkness of the dome they wait, their pushedback chairs, my obelisk valise, around a board of abandoned platters. Who to clear it? He has the key. I will not sleep there when this night comes. A shut door of a silent tower, entombing their blind bodies, the panthersahib and his pointer. Call: no answer. He lifted his feet up from the suck and turned back by the mole of boulders. sdTake all, keep all. My soul walks with me, form of forms. So in the moon's midwatches I pace the path above the rocks, in sable silvered, hearing Elsinore's tempting flood.
sdThe flood is following me. I can watch it flow past from here. Get back then by the Poolbeg road to the strand there. He climbed over the sedge and eely oarweeds and sat on a stool of rock, resting his ashplant in a grike.
A bloated carcass of a dog lay lolled on bladderwrack. Before him the gunwale of a boat, sunk in sand. sdUn coche ensablé Louis Veuillot called Gautier's prose. These heavy sands are language tide and wind have silted here. And these, the stoneheaps of dead builders, a warren of weasel rats. Hide gold there. Try it. You have some. Sands and stones. Heavy of the past. Sir Lout's toys. Mind you don't get one bang on the ear. I'm the bloody well gigant rolls all them bloody well boulders, bones for my steppingstones. Feefawfum. I zmellz de bloodz odz an Iridzman.
A point, live dog, grew into sight running across the sweep of sand. sdLord, is he going to attack me? Respect his liberty. You will not be master of others or their slave. I have my stick. Sit tight. From farther away, walking shoreward across from the crested tide, figures, two. The two maries. They have tucked it safe mong the bulrushes. Peekaboo. I see you. No, the dog. He is running back to them. Who?
sdGalleys of the Lochlanns ran here to beach, in quest of prey, their bloodbeaked prows riding low on a molten pewter surf. Dane vikings, torcs of tomahawks aglitter on their breasts when Malachi wore the collar of gold. A school of turlehide whales stranded in hot noon, spouting, hobbling in the shallows. Then from the starving cagework city a horde of jerkined dwarfs, my people, with flayers' knives, running, scaling, hacking in green blubbery whalemeat. Famine, plague and slaughters. Their blood is in me, their lusts my waves. I moved among them on the frozen Liffey, that I, a changeling, among the spluttering resin fires. I spoke to no-one: none to me.
The dog's bark ran towards him, stopped, ran back. sdDog of my enemy. I just simply stood pale, silent, bayed about. Terribilia meditans. A primrose doublet, fortune's knave, smiled on my fear. For that are you pining, the bark of their applause? Pretenders: live their lives. The Bruce's brother, Thomas Fitzgerald, silken knight, Perkin Warbeck, York's false scion, in breeches of silk of whiterose ivory, wonder of a day, and Lambert Simnel, with a tail of nans and sutlers, a scullion crowned. All kings' sons. Paradise of pretenders then and now. He saved men from drowning and you shake at a cur's yelping. But the courtiers who mocked Guido in Or san Michele were in their own house. House of ... We don't want any of your medieval abstrusiosities. Would you do what he did? A boat would be near, a lifebuoy. Natürlich, put there for you. Would you or would you not? The man that was drowned nine days ago off Maiden's rock. They are waiting for him now. The truth, spit it out. I would want to. I would try. I am not a strong swimmer. Water cold soft. When I put my face into it in the basin at Clongowes. Can't see! Who's behind me? Out quickly, quickly! Do you see the tide flowing quickly in on all sides, sheeting the lows of sand quickly, shellcocoacoloured? If I had land under my feet. I want his life still to be his, mine to be mine. A drowning man. His human eyes scream to me out of horror of his death. I ... With him together down .... I could not save her. Waters: bitter death: lost.
A woman and a man. sdI see her skirties. Pinned up, I bet.
Their dog ambled about a bank of dwindling sand, trotting, sniffing on all sides. Looking for something lost in a past life. Suddenly he made off like a bounding hare, ears flung back, chasing the shadow of a lowskimming gull. The man's shrieked whistle struck his limp ears. He turned, bounded back, came nearer, trotted on twinkling shanks. sdOn a field tenney a buck, trippant, proper, unattired. At the lacefringe of the tide he halted with stiff forehoofs, seawardpointed ears. His snout lifted barked at the wavenoise, herds of seamorse. They serpented towards his feet, curling, unfurling many crests, every ninth, breaking, plashing, from far, from farther out, waves and waves.
sdCocklepickers. They waded a little way in the water and, stooping,
soused their bags and, lifting them again, waded out. The dog yelped
running to them, reared up and pawed them, dropping on all fours, again
reared up at them with mute bearish fawning. Unheeded he kept by them as
they came towards the drier sand, a rag of wolf's tongue redpanting from
his jaws. His speckled body ambled ahead of them and then loped off at a
calf's gallop. The carcass lay on his path. He stopped, sniffed, stalked
round it, brother, nosing closer, went round it, sniffling rapidly like a dog
all over the dead dog's bedraggled fell. sdDogskull, dogsniff, eyes on the
ground, moves to one great goal. Ah, poor dogsbody! Here lies poor
dogsbody's body.
uc―Tatters! Outofthat, you mongrel!
The cry brought him skulking back to his master and a blunt bootless kick sent him unscathed across a spit of sand, crouched in flight. He slunk back in a curve. sdDoesn't see me. Along by the edge of the mole he lolloped, dawdled, smelt a rock and from under a cocked hindleg pissed against it. He trotted forward and, lifting again his hindleg, pissed quick short at an unsmelt rock. sdThe simple pleasures of the poor. His hindpaws then scattered the sand: then his forepaws dabbled and delved. sdSomething he buried there, his grandmother. He rooted in the sand, dabbling, delving and stopped to listen to the air, scraped up the sand again with a fury of his claws, soon ceasing, a pard, a panther, got in spousebreach, vulturing the dead.
sdAfter he woke me last night same dream or was it? Wait. Open hallway. Street of harlots. Remember. Haroun al Raschid. I am almosting it. That man led me, spoke. I was not afraid. The melon he had he held against my face. Smiled: creamfruit smell. That was the rule, said. In. Come. Red carpet spread. You will see who.
sdShouldering their bags they trudged, the red Egyptians. His blued feet out of turnedup trousers slapped the clammy sand, a dull brick muffler strangling his unshaven neck. With woman steps she followed: the ruffian and his strolling mort. Spoils slung at her back. Loose sand and shellgrit crusted her bare feet. About her windraw face hair trailed. Behind her lord, his helpmate, bing awast to Romeville. When night hides her body's flaws calling under her brown shawl from an archway where dogs have mired. Her fancyman is treating two Royal Dublins in O'Loughlin's of Blackpitts. Buss her, wap in rogues' rum lingo, for, O, my dimber wapping dell! A shefiend's whiteness under her rancid rags. Fumbally's lane that night: the tanyard smells.
sdMorose delectation Aquinas tunbelly calls this, frate porcospino. Unfallen Adam rode and not rutted. Call away let him: thy quarrons dainty is. Language no whit worse than his. Monkwords, marybeads jabber on their girdles: roguewords, tough nuggets patter in their pockets.
sdPassing now.
sdA side eye at my Hamlet hat. If I were suddenly naked here as I sit? I am not. Across the sands of all the world, followed by the sun's flaming sword, to the west, trekking to evening lands. She trudges, schlepps, trains, drags, trascines her load. A tide westering, moondrawn, in her wake. Tides, myriadislanded, within her, blood not mine, oinopa ponton, a winedark sea. Behold the handmaid of the moon. In sleep the wet sign calls her hour, bids her rise. Bridebed, childbed, bed of death, ghostcandled. Omnis caro ad te veniet. He comes, pale vampire, through storm his eyes, his bat sails bloodying the sea, mouth to her mouth's kiss.
sdHere. Put a pin in that chap, will you? My tablets. Mouth to her kiss. No. Must be two of em. Glue em well. Mouth to her mouth's kiss.
sdHis lips lipped and mouthed fleshless lips of air: mouth to her moomb. Oomb, allwombing tomb. His mouth moulded issuing breath, unspeeched: ooeeehah: roar of cataractic planets, globed, blazing, roaring wayawayawayawayaway. Paper. The banknotes, blast them. Old Deasy's letter. Here. Thanking you for the hospitality tear the blank end off. Turning his back to the sun he bent over far to a table of rock and scribbled words. That's twice I forgot to take slips from the library counter.
His shadow lay over the rocks as he bent, ending. sdWhy not endless till the farthest star? Darkly they are there behind this light, darkness shining in the brightness, delta of Cassiopeia, worlds. Me sits there with his augur's rod of ash, in borrowed sandals, by day beside a livid sea, unbeheld, in violet night walking beneath a reign of uncouth stars. I throw this ended shadow from me, manshape ineluctable, call it back. Endless, would it be mine, form of my form? Who watches me here? Who ever anywhere will read these written words? Signs on a white field. Somewhere to someone in your flutiest voice. The good bishop of Cloyne took the veil of the temple out of his shovel hat: veil of space with coloured emblems hatched on its field. Hold hard. Coloured on a flat: yes, that's right. Flat I see, then think distance, near, far, flat I see, east, back. Ah, see now! Falls back suddenly, frozen in stereoscope. Click does the trick. You find my words dark. Darkness is in our souls do you not think? Flutier. Our souls, shamewounded by our sins, cling to us yet more, a woman to her lover clinging, the more the more.
sdShe trusts me, her hand gentle, the longlashed eyes. Now where the blue hell am I bringing her beyond the veil? Into the ineluctable modality of the ineluctable visuality. She, she, she. What she? The virgin at Hodges Figgis' window on Monday looking in for one of the alphabet books you were going to write. Keen glance you gave her. Wrist through the braided jesse of her sunshade. She lives in Leeson park with a grief and kickshaws, a lady of letters. Talk that to someone else, Stevie: a pickmeup. Bet she wears those curse of God stays suspenders and yellow stockings, darned with lumpy wool. Talk about apple dumplings, piuttosto. Where are your wits?
sdTouch me. Soft eyes. Soft soft soft hand. I am lonely here. O, touch me soon, now. What is that word known to all men? I am quiet here alone. Sad too. Touch, touch me.
He lay back at full stretch over the sharp rocks, cramming the scribbled note and pencil into a pocket, his hat tilted down on his eyes. sdThat is Kevin Egan's movement I made, nodding for his nap, sabbath sleep. Et vidit Deus. Et erant valde bona. Hlo! Bonjour. Welcome as the flowers in May. Under its leaf he watched through peacocktwittering lashes the southing sun. I am caught in this burning scene. Pan's hour, the faunal noon. Among gumheavy serpentplants, milkoozing fruits, where on the tawny waters leaves lie wide. Pain is far.
His gaze brooded on his broadtoed boots, a buck's castoffs,
In long lassoes from the Cock lake the water flowed full, covering greengoldenly lagoons of sand, rising, flowing. sdMy ashplant will float away. I shall wait. No, they will pass on, passing, chafing against the low rocks, swirling, passing. Better get this job over quick. Listen: a fourworded wavespeech: seesoo, hrss, rsseeiss, ooos. Vehement breath of waters amid seasnakes, rearing horses, rocks. In cups of rocks it slops: flop, slop, slap: bounded in barrels. And, spent, its speech ceases. It flows purling, widely flowing, floating foampool, flower unfurling.
Under the upswelling tide he saw the writhing weeds lift languidly and sway reluctant arms, hising up their petticoats, in whispering water swaying and upturning coy silver fronds. sdDay by day: night by night: lifted, flooded and let fall. Lord, they are weary; and, whispered to, they sigh. Saint Ambrose heard it, sigh of leaves and waves, waiting, awaiting the fullness of their times, diebus ac noctibus iniurias patiens ingemiscit. To no end gathered; vainly then released, forthflowing, wending back: loom of the moon. Weary too in sight of lovers, lascivious men, a naked woman shining in her courts, she draws a toil of waters.
sdFive fathoms out there. Full fathom five thy father lies. At one, he said. Found drowned. High water at Dublin bar. Driving before it a loose drift of rubble, fanshoals of fishes, silly shells. A corpse rising saltwhite from the undertow, bobbing a pace a pace a porpoise landward. There he is. Hook it quick. Pull. Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. We have him. Easy now.
sdBag of corpsegas sopping in foul brine. A quiver of minnows, fat of a spongy titbit, flash through the slits of his buttoned trouserfly. God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle goose becomes featherbed mountain. Dead breaths I living breathe, tread dead dust, devour a urinous offal from all dead. Hauled stark over the gunwale he breathes upward the stench of his green grave, his leprous nosehole snoring to the sun.
sdA seachange this, brown eyes saltblue. Seadeath, mildest of all deaths known to man. Old Father Ocean. Prix de Paris: beware of imitations. Just you give it a fair trial. We enjoyed ourselves immensely.
sdCome. I thirst. Clouding over. No black clouds anywhere, are there? Thunderstorm. Allbright he falls, proud lightning of the intellect, Lucifer, dico, qui nescit occasum. No. My cockle hat and staff and hismy sandal shoon. Where? To evening lands. Evening will find itself.
He took the hilt of his ashplant, lunging with it softly, dallying still. sdYes, evening will find itself in me, without me. All days make their end. By the way next when is it Tuesday will be the longest day. Of all the glad new year, mother, the rum tum tiddledy tum. Lawn Tennyson, gentleman poet. Già. For the old hag with the yellow teeth. And Monsieur Drumont, gentleman journalist. Già. My teeth are very bad. Why, I wonder. Feel. That one is going too. Shells. Ought I go to a dentist, I wonder, with that money? That one. This. Toothless Kinch, the superman. Why is that, I wonder, or does it mean something perhaps?
sdMy handkerchief. He threw it. I remember. Did I not take it up?
His hand groped vainly in his pockets. sdNo, I didn't. Better buy one.
He laid the dry snot picked from his nostril on a ledge of rock, carefully. sdFor the rest let look who will.
sdBehind. Perhaps there is someone.
He turned his face over a shoulder, rere regardant. Moving through the air high spars of a threemaster, her sails brailed up on the crosstrees, homing, upstream, silently moving, a silent ship.
Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.
Kidneys were in his mind as he moved about the kitchen softly, righting her breakfast things on the humpy tray. Gelid light and air were in the kitchen but out of doors gentle summer morning everywhere. Made him feel a bit peckish.
The coals were reddening.
Another slice of bread and butter: lbthree, four: right. She didn't like her plate full. lbRight. He turned from the tray, lifted the kettle off the hob and set it sideways on the fire. It sat there, dull and squat, its spout stuck out. lbCup of tea soon. Good. Mouth dry.
The cat walked stiffly round a leg of the table with tail on high.
cat―Mkgnao!
lb―O, there you are, Mr Bloom said, turning from the fire.
The cat mewed in answer and stalked again stiffly round a leg of the table, mewing. lbJust how she stalks over my writingtable. Prr. Scratch my head. Prr.
Mr Bloom watched curiously, kindly the lithe black form. Clean to
see: the gloss of her sleek hide, the white button under the butt of her tail,
the green flashing eyes. He bent down to her, his hands on his knees.
lb―Milk for the pussens, he said.
cat―Mrkgnao! the cat cried.
lbThey call them stupid. They understand what we say better than we
understand them. She understands all she wants to. Vindictive too. Cruel.
Her nature. Curious mice never squeal. Seem to like it. Wonder what I look
like to her. Height of a tower? No, she can jump me.
lb―Afraid of the chickens she is, he said mockingly. lbAfraid of the
chookchooks. I never saw such a stupid pussens as the pussens.
cat―Mrkrgnao! the cat said loudly.
She blinked up out of her avid shameclosing eyes, mewing plaintively
and long, showing him her milkwhite teeth. He watched the dark eyeslits
narrowing with greed till her eyes were green stones. Then he went to the
dresser, took the jug Hanlon's milkman had just filled for him, poured
warmbubbled milk on a saucer and set it slowly on the floor.
cat―Gurrhr! she cried, running to lap.
He watched the bristles shining wirily in the weak light as she tipped three times and licked lightly. lbWonder is it true if you clip them they can't mouse after. Why? They shine in the dark, perhaps, the tips. Or kind of feelers in the dark, perhaps.
He listened to her licking lap. lbHam and eggs, no. No good eggs with this drouth. Want pure fresh water. Thursday: not a good day either for a mutton kidney at Buckley's. Fried with butter, a shake of pepper. Better a pork kidney at Dlugacz's. While the kettle is boiling. She lapped slower, then licking the saucer clean. lbWhy are their tongues so rough? To lap better, all porous holes. Nothing she can eat? He glanced round him. lbNo.
On quietly creaky boots he went up the staircase to the hall, paused by the bedroom door. lbShe might like something tasty. Thin bread and butter she likes in the morning. Still perhaps: once in a way.
He said softly in the bare hall:
lb―I'm going round the corner. Be back in a minute.
And when he had heard his voice say it he added:
lb―You don't want anything for breakfast?
A sleepy soft grunt answered:
mb―Mn.
No. She didn't want anything. He heard then a warm heavy sigh, softer, as she turned over and the loose brass quoits of the bedstead jingled. lbMust get those settled really. Pity. All the way from Gibraltar. Forgotten any little Spanish she knew. Wonder what her father gave for it. Old style. Ah yes! of course. Bought it at the governor's auction. Got a short knock. Hard as nails at a bargain, old Tweedy. Yes, sir. At Plevna that was. I rose from the ranks, sir, and I'm proud of it. Still he had brains enough to make that corner in stamps. Now that was farseeing.
His hand took his hat from the peg over his initialled heavy overcoat and his lost property office secondhand waterproof. lbStamps: stickyback pictures. Daresay lots of officers are in the swim too. Course they do. The sweated legend in the crown of his hat told him mutely: Plasto's high grade ha. He peeped quickly inside the leather headband. lbWhite slip of paper. Quite safe.
On the doorstep he felt in his hip pocket for the latchkey. lbNot there. In the trousers I left off. Must get it. Potato I have. Creaky wardrobe. No use disturbing her. She turned over sleepily that time. He pulled the halldoor to after him very quietly, more, till the footleaf dropped gently over the threshold, a limp lid. lbLooked shut. All right till I come back anyhow.
He crossed to the bright side, avoiding the loose cellarflap of number seventyfive. The sun was nearing the steeple of George's church. lbBe a warm day I fancy. Specially in these black clothes feel it more. Black conducts, reflects, (refracts is it?), the heat. But I couldn't go in that light suit. Make a picnic of it. His eyelids sank quietly often as he walked in happy warmth. lbBoland's breadvan delivering with trays our daily but she prefers yesterday's loaves turnovers crisp crowns hot. Makes you feel young. Somewhere in the east: early morning: set off at dawn. Travel round in front of the sun, steal a day's march on him. Keep it up for ever never grow a day older technically. Walk along a strand, strange land, come to a city gate, sentry there, old ranker too, old Tweedy's big moustaches, leaning on a long kind of a spear. Wander through awned streets. Turbaned faces going by. Dark caves of carpet shops, big man, Turko the terrible, seated crosslegged, smoking a coiled pipe. Cries of sellers in the streets. Drink water scented with fennel, sherbet. Dander along all day. Might meet a robber or two. Well, meet him. Getting on to sundown. The shadows of the mosques among the pillars: priest with a scroll rolled up. A shiver of the trees, signal, the evening wind. I pass on. Fading gold sky. A mother watches me from her doorway. She calls her children home in their dark language. High wall: beyond strings twanged. Night sky, moon, violet, colour of Molly's new garters. Strings. Listen. A girl playing one of those instruments what do you call them: dulcimers. I pass.
lbProbably not a bit like it really. Kind of stuff you read: in the track of the sun. Sunburst on the titlepage. He smiled, pleasing himself. lbWhat Arthur Griffith said about the headpiece over the Freeman leader: a homerule sun rising up in the northwest from the laneway behind the bank of Ireland. He prolonged his pleased smile. lbIkey touch that: homerule sun rising up in the northwest.
He approached Larry O'Rourke's. From the cellar grating floated up the flabby gush of porter. Through the open doorway the bar squirted out whiffs of ginger, teadust, biscuitmush. lbGood house, however: just the end of the city traffic. For instance M'Auley's down there: n. g. as position. Of course if they ran a tramline along the North Circular from the cattlemarket to the quays value would go up like a shot.
lbBaldhead over the blind. Cute old codger. No use canvassing him for an ad. Still he knows his own business best. There he is, sure enough, my bold Larry, leaning against the sugarbin in his shirtsleeves watching the aproned curate swab up with mop and bucket. Simon Dedalus takes him off to a tee with his eyes screwed up. Do you know what I'm going to tell you? What's that, Mr O'Rourke? Do you know what? The Russians, they'd only be an eight o'clock breakfast for the Japanese.
lbStop and say a word: about the funeral perhaps. Sad thing about poor Dignam, Mr O'Rourke.
Turning into Dorset street he said freshly in greeting through the
doorway:
lb―Good day, Mr O'Rourke.
lor―Good day to you.
lb―Lovely weather, sir.
lor―'Tis all that.
lbWhere do they get the money? Coming up redheaded curates from the county Leitrim, rinsing empties and old man in the cellar. Then, lo and behold, they blossom out as Adam Findlaters or Dan Tallons. Then think of the competition. General thirst. Good puzzle would be cross Dublin without passing a pub. Save it they can't. Off the drunks perhaps. Put down three and carry five. What is that, a bob here and there, dribs and drabs. On the wholesale orders perhaps. Doing a double shuffle with the town travellers. Square it you with the boss and we'll split the job, see?
lbHow much would that tot to off the porter in the month? Say ten barrels of stuff. Say he got ten per cent off. O more. Fifteen. He passed Saint Joseph's National school. Brats' clamour. Windows open. Fresh air helps memory. Or a lilt. Ahbeesee defeegee kelomen opeecue rustyouvee doubleyou. Boys are they? Yes. Inishturk. Inishark. Inishboffin. At their joggerfry. Mine. Slieve Bloom.
He halted before Dlugacz's window, staring at the hanks of sausages, polonies, black and white. lbFifteen multiplied by. The figures whitened in his mind, unsolved: displeased, he let them fade. The shiny links, packed with forcemeat, fed his gaze and he breathed in tranquilly the lukewarm breath of cooked spicy pigs' blood.
A kidney oozed bloodgouts on the willowpatterned dish: lbthe last. He stood by the nextdoor girl at the counter. lbWould she buy it too, calling the items from a slip in her hand? Chapped: washingsoda. And a pound and a half of Denny's sausages. His eyes rested on her vigorous hips. lbWoods his name is. Wonder what he does. Wife is oldish. New blood. No followers allowed. Strong pair of arms. Whacking a carpet on the clothesline. She does whack it, by George. The way her crooked skirt swings at each whack.
The ferreteyed porkbutcher folded the sausages he had snipped off with blotchy fingers, sausagepink. lbSound meat there: like a stallfed heifer.
He took a page up from the pile of cut sheets: lbthe model farm at Kinnereth on the lakeshore of Tiberias. Can become ideal winter sanatorium. Moses Montefiore. I thought he was. Farmhouse, wall round it, blurred cattle cropping. He held the page from him: lbinteresting: read it nearer, the title, the blurred cropping cattle, the page rustling. A young white heifer. Those mornings in the cattlemarket, the beasts lowing in their pens, branded sheep, flop and fall of dung, the breeders in hobnailed boots trudging through the litter, slapping a palm on a ripemeated hindquarter, there's a prime one, unpeeled switches in their hands. He held the page aslant patiently, bending his senses and his will, his soft subject gaze at rest. The crooked skirt swinging, whack by whack by whack.
The porkbutcher snapped two sheets from the pile, wrapped up her
prime sausages and made a red grimace.
md―Now, my miss, he said.
She tendered a coin, smiling boldly, holding her thick wrist out.
md―Thank you, my miss. And one shilling threepence change. For you,
please?
Mr Bloom pointed quickly. lbTo catch up and walk behind her if she
went slowly, behind her moving hams. Pleasant to see first thing in the
morning. Hurry up, damn it. Make hay while the sun shines. She stood
outside the shop in sunlight and sauntered lazily to the right. He sighed
down his nose: lbthey never understand. Sodachapped hands. Crusted
toenails too. Brown scapulars in tatters, defending her both ways. The sting
of disregard glowed to weak pleasure within his breast. For another: lba
constable off duty cuddling her in Eccles lane. They like them sizeable.
Prime sausage. O please, Mr Policeman, I'm lost in the wood.
md―Threepence, please.
His hand accepted the moist tender gland and slid it into a sidepocket.
Then it fetched up three coins from his trousers' pocket and laid them on
the rubber prickles. They lay, were read quickly and quickly slid, disc by
disc, into the till.
md―Thank you, sir. Another time.
A speck of eager fire from foxeyes thanked him. He withdrew his
gaze after an instant. lbNo: better not: another time.
lb―Good morning, he said, moving away.
md―Good morning, sir.
lbNo sign. Gone. What matter?
He walked back along Dorset street, reading gravely. lbAgendath Netaim: planters' company. To purchase waste sandy tracts from Turkish government and plant with eucalyptus trees. Excellent for shade, fuel and construction. Orangegroves and immense melonfields north of Jaffa. You pay eighty marks and they plant a dunam of land for you with olives, oranges, almonds or citrons. Olives cheaper: oranges need artificial irrigation. Every year you get a sending of the crop. Your name entered for life as owner in the book of the union. Can pay ten down and the balance in yearly instalments. Bleibtreustrasse 34, Berlin, W. 15.
lbNothing doing. Still an idea behind it.
He looked at the cattle, blurred in silver heat. lbSilverpowdered olivetrees. Quiet long days: pruning, ripening. Olives are packed in jars, eh? I have a few left from Andrews. Molly spitting them out. Knows the taste of them now. Oranges in tissue paper packed in crates. Citrons too. Wonder is poor Citron still in Saint Kevin's parade. And Mastiansky with the old cither. Pleasant evenings we had then. Molly in Citron's basketchair. Nice to hold, cool waxen fruit, hold in the hand, lift it to the nostrils and smell the perfume. Like that, heavy, sweet, wild perfume. Always the same, year after year. They fetched high prices too, Moisel told me. Arbutus place: Pleasants street: pleasant old times. Must be without a flaw, he said. Coming all that way: Spain, Gibraltar, Mediterranean, the Levant. Crates lined up on the quayside at Jaffa, chap ticking them off in a book, navvies handling them barefoot in soiled dungarees. There's whatdoyoucallhim out of. How do you? Doesn't see. Chap you know just to salute bit of a bore. His back is like that Norwegian captain's. Wonder if I'll meet him today. Watering cart. To provoke the rain. On earth as it is in heaven.
A cloud began to cover the sun slowly, wholly. lbGrey. Far.
lbNo, not like that. A barren land, bare waste. Vulcanic lake, the dead sea: no fish, weedless, sunk deep in the earth. No wind could lift those waves, grey metal, poisonous foggy waters. Brimstone they called it raining down: the cities of the plain: Sodom, Gomorrah, Edom. All dead names. A dead sea in a dead land, grey and old. Old now. It bore the oldest, the first race. A bent hag crossed from Cassidy's, clutching a naggin bottle by the neck. The oldest people. Wandered far away over all the earth, captivity to captivity, multiplying, dying, being born everywhere. It lay there now. Now it could bear no more. Dead: an old woman's: the grey sunken cunt of the world.
lbDesolation.
Grey horror seared his flesh. Folding the page into his pocket he turned into Eccles street, hurrying homeward. Cold oils slid along his veins, chilling his blood: age crusting him with a salt cloak. lbWell, I am here now. Yes, I am here now. Morning mouth bad images. Got up wrong side of the bed. Must begin again those Sandow's exercises. On the hands down. Blotchy brown brick houses. Number eighty still unlet. Why is that? Valuation is only twentyeight. Towers, Battersby, North, MacArthur: parlour windows plastered with bills. Plasters on a sore eye. To smell the gentle smoke of tea, fume of the pan, sizzling butter. Be near her ample bedwarmed flesh. Yes, yes.
Quick warm sunlight came running from Berkeley road, swiftly, in slim sandals, along the brightening footpath. lbRuns, she runs to meet me, a girl with gold hair on the wind.
Two letters and a card lay on the hallfloor. He stooped and gathered
them. lbMrs Marion Bloom. His quickened heart slowed at once. lbBold hand.
Mrs Marion.
mb―Poldy!
Entering the bedroom he halfclosed his eyes and walked through
warm yellow twilight towards her tousled head.
mb―Who are the letters for?
He looked at them. lbMullingar. Milly.
lb―A letter for me from Milly, he said carefully, lband a card to you. And a
letter for you.
He laid her card and letter on the twill bedspread near the curve of
her knees.
lb―Do you want the blind up?
Letting the blind up by gentle tugs halfway his backward eye saw her
glance at the letter and tuck it under her pillow.
lb―That do? he asked, turning.
She was reading the card, propped on her elbow.
mb―She got the things, she said.
He waited till she had laid the card aside and curled herself back
slowly with a snug sigh.
mb―Hurry up with that tea, she said. mbI'm parched.
lb―The kettle is boiling, he said.
But he delayed to clear the chair: her striped petticoat, tossed soiled linen: and lifted all in an armful on to the foot of the bed.
As he went down the kitchen stairs she called:
mb―Poldy!
lb―What?
mb―Scald the teapot.
lbOn the boil sure enough: a plume of steam from the spout. He scalded and rinsed out the teapot and put in four full spoons of tea, tilting the kettle then to let the water flow in. Having set it to draw he took off the kettle, crushed the pan flat on the live coals and watched the lump of butter slide and melt. While he unwrapped the kidney the cat mewed hungrily against him. lbGive her too much meat she won't mouse. Say they won't eat pork. Kosher. Here. He let the bloodsmeared paper fall to her and dropped the kidney amid the sizzling butter sauce. lbPepper. He sprinkled it through his fingers ringwise from the chipped eggcup.
Then he slit open his letter, glancing down the page and over. lbThanks: new tam: Mr Coghlan: lough Owel picnic: young student: Blazes Boylan's seaside girls.
The tea was drawn. He filled his own moustachecup, sham crown Derby, smiling. lbSilly Milly's birthday gift. Only five she was then. No, wait: four. I gave her the amberoid necklace she broke. Putting pieces of folded brown paper in the letterbox for her.He smiled, pouring.
lbPoor old professor Goodwin. Dreadful old case. Still he was a courteous old chap. Oldfashioned way he used to bow Molly off the platform. And the little mirror in his silk hat. The night Milly brought it into the parlour. O, look what I found in professor Goodwin's hat! All we laughed. Sex breaking out even then. Pert little piece she was.
He prodded a fork into the kidney and slapped it over: then fitted the teapot on the tray. Its hump bumped as he took it up. lbEverything on it? Bread and butter, four, sugar, spoon, her cream. Yes. He carried it upstairs, his thumb hooked in the teapot handle.
Nudging the door open with his knee he carried the tray in and set it
on the chair by the bedhead.
mb―What a time you were! she said.
She set the brasses jingling as she raised herself briskly, an elbow on the pillow. He looked calmly down on her bulk and between her large soft bubs, sloping within her nightdress like a shegoat's udder. The warmth of her couched body rose on the air, mingling with the fragrance of the tea she poured.
A strip of torn envelope peeped from under the dimpled pillow. In the
act of going he stayed to straighten the bedspread.
lb―Who was the letter from? he asked.
lbBold hand. Marion.
mb―O, Boylan, she said. mbHe's bringing the programme.
lb―What are you singing?
mb―Là ci darem with J. C. Doyle, she said, mband Love's Old Sweet Song.
Her full lips, drinking, smiled. lbRather stale smell that incense leaves
next day. Like foul flowerwater.
lb―Would you like the window open a little?
She doubled a slice of bread into her mouth, asking:
mb―What time is the funeral?
lb―Eleven, I think, he answered. lbI didn't see the paper.
Following the pointing of her finger he took up a leg of her soiled
drawers from the bed. lbNo? Then, a twisted grey garter looped round a
stocking: lbrumpled, shiny sole.
mb―No: that book.
lbOther stocking. Her petticoat.
mb―It must have fell down, she said.
He felt here and there. lbVoglio e non vorrei. Wonder if she pronounces
that right: voglio. Not in the bed. Must have slid down. He stooped and
lifted the valance. The book, fallen, sprawled against the bulge of the
orangekeyed chamberpot.
mb―Show here, she said. mbI put a mark in it. There's a word I wanted to ask
you.
She swallowed a draught of tea from her cup held by nothandle and,
having wiped her fingertips smartly on the blanket, began to search the text
with the hairpin till she reached the word.
lb―Met him what? he asked.
mb―Here, she said. mbWhat does that mean?
He leaned downward and read near her polished thumbnail.
lb―Metempsychosis?
mb―Yes. Who's he when he's at home?
lb―Metempsychosis, he said, frowning. lbIt's Greek: from the Greek. That
means the transmigration of souls.
mb―O, rocks! she said. mbTell us in plain words.
He smiled, glancing askance at her mocking eyes. lbThe same young
eyes. The first night after the charades. Dolphin's Barn. He turned over the
smudged pages. lbRuby: the Pride of the Ring. Hello. Illustration. Fierce
Italian with carriagewhip. Must be Ruby pride of the on the floor naked.
Sheet kindly lent. The monster Maffei desisted and flung his victim from him
with an oath. Cruelty behind it all. Doped animals. Trapeze at Hengler's.
Had to look the other way. Mob gaping. Break your neck and we'll break
our sides. Families of them. Bone them young so they metamspychosis.
That we live after death. Our souls. That a man's soul after he dies,
Dignam's soul ....
lb―Did you finish it? he asked.
mb―Yes, she said. mbThere's nothing smutty in it. Is she in love with the first
fellow all the time?
lb―Never read it. Do you want another?
mb―Yes. Get another of Paul de Kock's. Nice name he has.
She poured more tea into her cup, watching it flow sideways.
lbMust get that Capel street library book renewed or they'll write to
Kearney, my guarantor. Reincarnation: that's the word.
lb―Some people believe, he said, lbthat we go on living in another body after
death, that we lived before. They call it reincarnation. That we all lived
before on the earth thousands of years ago or some other planet. They say
we have forgotten it. Some say they remember their past lives.
The sluggish cream wound curdling spirals through her tea. lbBetter remind her of the word: metempsychosis. An example would be better. An example?
lbThe Bath of the Nymph over the bed. Given away with the Easter number of Photo Bits: splendid masterpiece in art colours. Tea before you put milk in. Not unlike her with her hair down: slimmer. Three and six I gave for the frame. She said it would look nice over the bed. Naked nymphs: Greece: and for instance all the people that lived then.
He turned the pages back.
lb―Metempsychosis, he said, lbis what the ancient Greeks called it. They used
to believe you could be changed into an animal or a tree, for instance. What
they called nymphs, for example.
Her spoon ceased to stir up the sugar. She gazed straight before her,
inhaling through her arched nostrils.
mb―There's a smell of burn, she said. mbDid you leave anything on the fire?
lb―The kidney! he cried suddenly.
He fitted the book roughly into his inner pocket and, stubbing his toes against the broken commode, hurried out towards the smell, stepping hastily down the stairs with a flurried stork's legs. Pungent smoke shot up in an angry jet from a side of the pan. By prodding a prong of the fork under the kidney he detached it and turned it turtle on its back. Only a little burnt. He tossed it off the pan on to a plate and let the scanty brown gravy trickle over it.
lbCup of tea now. He sat down, cut and buttered a slice of the loaf. He shore away the burnt flesh and flung it to the cat. Then he put a forkful into his mouth, chewing with discernment the toothsome pliant meat. lbDone to a turn. A mouthful of tea. Then he cut away dies of bread, sopped one in the gravy and put it in his mouth. lbWhat was that about some young student and a picnic? He creased out the letter at his side, reading it slowly as he chewed, sopping another die of bread in the gravy and raising it to his mouth.
Dearest Papli
Thanks ever so much for the lovely birthday present. It suits me splendid. Everyone says I am quite the belle in my new tam. I got mummy's lovely box of creams and am writing. They are lovely. I am getting on swimming in the photo business now. Mr Coghlan took one of me and Mrs. Will send when developed. We did great biz yesterday. Fair day and all the beef to the heels were in. We are going to lough Owel on Monday with a few friends to make a scrap picnic. Give my love to mummy and to yourself a big kiss and thanks. I hear them at the piano downstairs. There is to be a concert in the Greville Arms on Saturday. There is a young student comes here some evenings named Bannon his cousins or something are big swells and he sings Boylan's (I was on the pop of writing Blazes Boylan's) song about those seaside girls. Tell him silly Milly sends my best respects. I must now close with fondest love Your fond daughter Milly P. S. Excuse bad writing am in hurry. Byby. M.
lbFifteen yesterday. Curious, fifteenth of the month too. Her first birthday away from home. Separation. Remember the summer morning she was born, running to knock up Mrs Thornton in Denzille street. Jolly old woman. Lot of babies she must have helped into the world. She knew from the first poor little Rudy wouldn't live. Well, God is good, sir. She knew at once. He would be eleven now if he had lived.
His vacant face stared pityingly at the postscript. lbExcuse bad writing. Hurry. Piano downstairs. Coming out of her shell. Row with her in the XL Café about the bracelet. Wouldn't eat her cakes or speak or look. Saucebox. He sopped other dies of bread in the gravy and ate piece after piece of kidney. lbTwelve and six a week. Not much. Still, she might do worse. Musichall stage. Young student. He drank a draught of cooler tea to wash down his meal. Then he read the letter again: twice.
lbO, well: she knows how to mind herself. But if not? No, nothing has happened. Of course it might. Wait in any case till it does. A wild piece of goods. Her slim legs running up the staircase. Destiny. Ripening now. Vain: very.
He smiled with troubled affection at the kitchen window. lbDay I caught her in the street pinching her cheeks to make them red. Anemic a little. Was given milk too long. On the Erin's King that day round the Kish. Damned old tub pitching about. Not a bit funky. Her pale blue scarf loose in the wind with her hair.
lbSeaside girls. Torn envelope. Hands stuck in his trousers' pockets, jarvey off for the day, singing. Friend of the family. Swurls, he says. Pier with lamps, summer evening, band.
lbMilly too. Young kisses: the first. Far away now past. Mrs Marion. Reading, lying back now, counting the strands of her hair, smiling, braiding.
A soft qualm, regret, flowed down his backbone, increasing. lbWill happen, yes. Prevent. Useless: can't move. Girl's sweet light lips. Will happen too. He felt the flowing qualm spread over him. lbUseless to move now. Lips kissed, kissing, kissed. Full gluey woman's lips.
lbBetter where she is down there: away. Occupy her. Wanted a dog to pass the time. Might take a trip down there. August bank holiday, only two and six return. Six weeks off, however. Might work a press pass. Or through M'Coy.
The cat, having cleaned all her fur, returned to the meatstained paper, nosed at it and stalked to the door. She looked back at him, mewing. lbWants to go out. Wait before a door sometime it will open. Let her wait. Has the fidgets. Electric. Thunder in the air. Was washing at her ear with her back to the fire too.
He felt heavy, full: then a gentle loosening of his bowels. He stood up,
undoing the waistband of his trousers. The cat mewed to him.
lb―Miaow! he said in answer. lbWait till I'm ready.
lbHeaviness: hot day coming. Too much trouble to fag up the stairs to the landing.
lbA paper. He liked to read at stool. lbHope no ape comes knocking just as I'm.
In the tabledrawer he found an old number of
Listening, he heard her voice:
mb―Come, come, pussy. Come.
He went out through the backdoor into the garden: stood to listen towards the next garden. lbNo sound. Perhaps hanging clothes out to dry. The maid was in the garden. Fine morning.
He bent down to regard a lean file of spearmint growing by the wall. lbMake a summerhouse here. Scarlet runners. Virginia creepers. Want to manure the whole place over, scabby soil. A coat of liver of sulphur. All soil like that without dung. Household slops. Loam, what is this that is? The hens in the next garden: their droppings are very good top dressing. Best of all though are the cattle, especially when they are fed on those oilcakes. Mulch of dung. Best thing to clean ladies' kid gloves. Dirty cleans. Ashes too. Reclaim the whole place. Grow peas in that corner there. Lettuce. Always have fresh greens then. Still gardens have their drawbacks. That bee or bluebottle here Whitmonday.
He walked on. lbWhere is my hat, by the way? Must have put it back on the peg. Or hanging up on the floor. Funny I don't remember that. Hallstand too full. Four umbrellas, her raincloak. Picking up the letters. Drago's shopbell ringing. Queer I was just thinking that moment. Brown brillantined hair over his collar. Just had a wash and brushup. Wonder have I time for a bath this morning. Tara street. Chap in the paybox there got away James Stephens, they say. O'Brien.
lbDeep voice that fellow Dlugacz has. Agendath what is it? Now, my miss. Enthusiast.
He kicked open the crazy door of the jakes. lbBetter be careful not to get these trousers dirty for the funeral. He went in, bowing his head under the low lintel. Leaving the door ajar, amid the stench of mouldy limewash and stale cobwebs he undid his braces. Before sitting down he peered through a chink up at the nextdoor windows. lbThe king was in his countinghouse. Nobody.
Asquat on the cuckstool he folded out his paper, turning its pages over on his bared knees. lbSomething new and easy. No great hurry. Keep it a bit. Our prize titbit: Matcham's Masterstroke. Written by Mr Philip Beaufoy, Playgoers' Club, London. Payment at the rate of one guinea a column has been made to the writer. Three and a half. Three pounds three. Three pounds, thirteen and six.
Quietly he read, restraining himself, the first column and, yielding but resisting, began the second. Midway, his last resistance yielding, he allowed his bowels to ease themselves quietly as he read, reading still patiently that slight constipation of yesterday quite gone. lbHope it's not too big bring on piles again. No, just right. So. Ah! Costive. One tabloid of cascara sagrada. Life might be so. It did not move or touch him but it was something quick and neat. lbPrint anything now. Silly season. He read on, seated calm above his own rising smell. lbNeat certainly. Matcham often thinks of the masterstroke by which he won the laughing witch who now. Begins and ends morally. Hand in hand. Smart. He glanced back through what he had read and, while feeling his water flow quietly, he envied kindly Mr Beaufoy who had written it and received payment of three pounds, thirteen and six.
lbMight manage a sketch. By Mr and Mrs L. M. Bloom. Invent a story for some proverb. Which? Time I used to try jotting down on my cuff what she said dressing. Dislike dressing together. Nicked myself shaving. Biting her nether lip, hooking the placket of her skirt. Timing her. 9.15. Did Roberts pay you yet? 9.20. What had Gretta Conroy on? 9.23. What possessed me to buy this comb? 9.24. I'm swelled after that cabbage. A speck of dust on the patent leather of her boot: rubbing smartly in turn each welt against her stockinged calf. Morning after the bazaar dance when May's band played Ponchielli's dance of the hours. Explain that: morning hours, noon, then evening coming on, then night hours. Washing her teeth. That was the first night. Her head dancing. Her fansticks clicking. Is that Boylan well off? He has money. Why? I noticed he had a good rich smell off his breath dancing. No use humming then. Allude to it. Strange kind of music that last night. The mirror was in shadow. She rubbed her handglass briskly on her woollen vest against her full wagging bub. Peering into it. Lines in her eyes. It wouldn't pan out somehow.
lbEvening hours, girls in grey gauze. Night hours then: black with daggers and eyemasks. Poetical idea: pink, then golden, then grey, then black. Still, true to life also. Day: then the night.
He tore away half the prize story sharply and wiped himself with it. Then he girded up his trousers, braced and buttoned himself. He pulled back the jerky shaky door of the jakes and came forth from the gloom into the air.
In the bright light, lightened and cooled in limb, he eyed carefully his black trousers: the ends, the knees, the houghs of the knees. lbWhat time is the funeral? Better find out in the paper.
A creak and a dark whirr in the air high up. The bells of George's church. They tolled the hour: loud dark iron.
igcsHeigho! Heigho! Heigho! Heigho! Heigho! Heigho!lbQuarter to. There again: the overtone following through the air. A third.
lbPoor Dignam!
By lorries along sir John Rogerson's quay Mr Bloom walked soberly, past Windmill lane, Leask's the linseed crusher, the postal telegraph office. lbCould have given that address too. And past the sailors' home. He turned from the morning noises of the quayside and walked through Lime street. By Brady's cottages a boy for the skins lolled, his bucket of offal linked, smoking a chewed fagbutt. A smaller girl with scars of eczema on her forehead eyed him, listlessly holding her battered caskhoop. lbTell him if he smokes he won't grow. O let him! His life isn't such a bed of roses. Waiting outside pubs to bring da home. Come home to ma, da. Slack hour: won't be many there. He crossed Townsend street, passed the frowning face of Bethel. lbEl, yes: house of: Aleph, Beth. And past Nichols' the undertaker. lbAt eleven it is. Time enough. Daresay Corny Kelleher bagged the job for O'Neill's. Singing with his eyes shut. Corny. Met her once in the park. In the dark. What a lark. Police tout. Her name and address she then told with my tooraloom tooraloom tay. O, surely he bagged it. Bury him cheap in a whatyoumaycall. With my tooraloom, tooraloom, tooraloom, tooraloom.
In Westland row he halted before the window of the Belfast and Oriental Tea Company and read the legends of leadpapered packets: choice blend, finest quality, family tea. lbRather warm. Tea. Must get some from Tom Kernan. Couldn't ask him at a funeral, though. While his eyes still read blandly he took off his hat quietly inhaling his hairoil and sent his right hand with slow grace over his brow and hair. lbVery warm morning. Under their dropped lids his eyes found the tiny bow of the leather headband inside his high grade lbha. Just there. His right hand came down into the bowl of his hat. His fingers found quickly a card behind the headband and transferred it to his waistcoat pocket.
lbSo warm. His right hand once more more slowly went over his brow and hair. Then he put on his hat again, relieved: and read again: choice blend, made of the finest Ceylon brands. lbThe far east. Lovely spot it must be: the garden of the world, big lazy leaves to float about on, cactuses, flowery meads, snaky lianas they call them. Wonder is it like that. Those Cinghalese lobbing about in the sun in dolce far niente, not doing a hand's turn all day. Sleep six months out of twelve. Too hot to quarrel. Influence of the climate. Lethargy. Flowers of idleness. The air feeds most. Azotes. Hothouse in Botanic gardens. Sensitive plants. Waterlilies. Petals too tired to. Sleeping sickness in the air. Walk on roseleaves. Imagine trying to eat tripe and cowheel. Where was the chap I saw in that picture somewhere? Ah yes, in the dead sea floating on his back, reading a book with a parasol open. Couldn't sink if you tried: so thick with salt. Because the weight of the water, no, the weight of the body in the water is equal to the weight of the what? Or is it the volume is equal to the weight? It's a law something like that. Vance in High school cracking his fingerjoints, teaching. The college curriculum. Cracking curriculum. What is weight really when you say the weight? Thirtytwo feet per second per second. Law of falling bodies: per second per second. They all fall to the ground. The earth. It's the force of gravity of the earth is the weight.
He turned away and sauntered across the road. lbHow did she walk
with her sausages? Like that something. As he walked he took the folded
He handed the card through the brass grill.
lb―Are there any letters for me? he asked.
While the postmistress searched a pigeonhole he gazed at the recruiting poster with soldiers of all arms on parade: and held the tip of his baton against his nostrils, smelling freshprinted rag paper. lbNo answer probably. Went too far last time.
The postmistress handed him back through the grill his card with a letter. He thanked her and glanced rapidly at the typed envelope.
Henry Flower Esq,
c/ₒ P. O. Westland Row,
City.
reviewing again the soldiers on parade. lbWhere's old Tweedy's regiment? Castoff soldier. There: bearskin cap and hackle plume. No, he's a grenadier. Pointed cuffs. There he is: royal Dublin fusiliers. Redcoats. Too showy. That must be why the women go after them. Uniform. Easier to enlist and drill. Maud Gonne's letter about taking them off O'Connell street at night: disgrace to our Irish capital. Griffith's paper is on the same tack now: an army rotten with venereal disease: overseas or halfseasover empire. Half baked they look: hypnotised like. Eyes front. Mark time. Table: able. Bed: ed. The King's own. Never see him dressed up as a fireman or a bobby. A mason, yes.
He strolled out of the postoffice and turned to the right. lbTalk: as if that would mend matters. His hand went into his pocket and a forefinger felt its way under the flap of the envelope, ripping it open in jerks. lbWomen will pay a lot of heed, I don't think. His fingers drew forth the letter the letter and crumpled the envelope in his pocket. lbSomething pinned on: photo perhaps. Hair? No.
lbM'Coy. Get rid of him quickly. Take me out of my way. Hate
company when you.
cpm―Hello, Bloom. Where are you off to?
lb―Hello, M'Coy. Nowhere in particular.
cpm―How's the body?
lb―Fine. How are you?
cpm―Just keeping alive, M'Coy said.
His eyes on the black tie and clothes he asked with low respect:
cpm―Is there any ... no trouble I hope? I see you're ...
lb―O, no, Mr Bloom said. lbPoor Dignam, you know. The funeral is today.
cpm―To be sure, poor fellow. So it is. What time?
lbA photo it isn't. A badge maybe.
lb―Eeleven, Mr Bloom answered.
cpm―I must try to get out there, M'Coy said. cpmEleven, is it? I only heard it last
night. Who was telling me? Holohan. You know Hoppy?
lb―I know.
Mr Bloom gazed across the road at the outsider drawn up before the
door of the Grosvenor. The porter hoisted the valise up on the well. She
stood still, waiting, while the man, husband, brother, like her, searched his
pockets for change. lbStylish kind of coat with that roll collar, warm for a
day like this, looks like blanketcloth. Careless stand of her with her hands
in those patch pockets. Like that haughty creature at the polo match.
Women all for caste till you touch the spot. Handsome is and handsome
does. Reserved about to yield. The honourable Mrs and Brutus is an
honourable man. Possess her once take the starch out of her.
cpm―I was with Bob Doran, he's on one of his periodical bends, and what do
you call him Bantam Lyons. Just down there in Conway's we were.
lbDoran Lyons in Conway's. She raised a gloved hand to her hair. lbIn
came Hoppy. Having a wet. Drawing back his head and gazing far from
beneath his vailed eyelids he saw the bright fawn skin shine in the glare, the
braided drums. lbClearly I can see today. Moisture about gives long sight
perhaps. Talking of one thing or another. Lady's hand. Which side will she
get up?
cpm―And he said: Sad thing about our poor friend Paddy! What Paddy? I said.
Poor little Paddy Dignam, he said.
lbOff to the country: Broadstone probably. High brown boots with
laces dangling. Wellturned foot. What is he foostering over that change for?
Sees me looking. Eye out for other fellow always. Good fallback. Two
strings to her bow.
cpm―Why? I said. What's wrong with him? I said.
lbProud: rich: silk stockings.
lb―Yes, Mr Bloom said.
He moved a little to the side of M'Coy's talking head. lbGetting up in a
minute.
cpm―What's wrong with him? he said. He's dead, he said. And, faith, he filled
up. Is it Paddy Dignam? I said. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. I was
with him no later than Friday last or Thursday was it in the Arch. Yes, he
said. He's gone. He died on Monday, poor fellow.
lbWatch! Watch! Silk flash rich stockings white. Watch!
A heavy tramcar honking its gong slewed between.
lbLost it. Curse your noisy pugnose. Feels locked out of it. Paradise and
the peri. Always happening like that. The very moment. Girl in Eustace
street hallway Monday was it settling her garter. Her friend covering the
display of. Esprit de corps. Well, what are you gaping at?
lb―Yes, yes, Mr Bloom said after a dull sigh. lbAnother gone.
cpm―One of the best, M'Coy said.
The tram passed. They drove off towards the Loop Line bridge, her
rich gloved hand on the steel grip. lbFlicker, flicker: the laceflare of her hat in
the sun: flicker, flick.
cpm―Wife well, I suppose? M'Coy's changed voice said.
lb―O, yes, Mr Bloom said. lbTiptop, thanks.
He unrolled the newspaper baton idly and read idly:
cpm―My missus has just got an engagement. At least it's not settled yet.
lbValise tack again. By the way no harm. I'm off that, thanks.
Mr Bloom turned his largelidded eyes with unhasty friendliness.
lb―My wife too, he said. lbShe's going to sing at a swagger affair in the Ulster
Hall, Belfast, on the twentyfifth.
cpm―That so? M'Coy said. cpmGlad to hear that, old man. Who's getting it up?
lbMrs Marion Bloom. Not up yet. Queen was in her bedroom eating bread and. No book. Blackened court cards laid along her thigh by sevens. Dark lady and fair man. Letter. Cat furry black ball. Torn strip of envelope.
lb―It's a kind of a tour, don't you see, Mr Bloom said thoughtfully. lbSweeeet
song. lbThere's a committee formed. Part shares and part profits.
M'Coy nodded, picking at his moustache stubble.
cpm―O, well, he said. cpmThat's good news.
He moved to go.
cpm―Well, glad to see you looking fit, he said. cpmMeet you knocking around.
lb―Yes, Mr Bloom said.
cpm―Tell you what, M'Coy said. cpmYou might put down my name at the funeral,
will you? I'd like to go but I mightn't be able, you see. There's a drowning
case at Sandycove may turn up and then the coroner and myself would
have to go down if the body is found. You just shove in my name if I'm not
there, will you?
lb―I'll do that, Mr Bloom said, moving to get off. lbThat'll be all right.
cpm―Right, M'Coy said brightly. cpmThanks, old man. I'd go if I possibly could.
Well. Tolloll. Just C. P. M'Coy will do.
lb―That will be done, Mr Bloom answered firmly.
lbDidn't catch me napping that wheeze. The quick touch. Soft mark. I'd like my job. Valise I have a particular fancy for. Leather. Capped corners, rivetted edges, double action lever lock. Bob Cowley lent him his for the Wicklow regatta concert last year and never heard tidings of it from that good day to this.
Mr Bloom, strolling towards Brunswick street, smiled. lbMy missus has just got an. Reedy freckled soprano. Cheeseparing nose. Nice enough in its way: for a little ballad. No guts in it. You and me, don't you know: in the same boat. Softsoaping. Give you the needle that would. Can't he hear the difference? Think he's that way inclined a bit. Against my grain somehow. Thought that Belfast would fetch him. I hope that smallpox up there doesn't get worse. Suppose she wouldn't let herself be vaccinated again. Your wife and my wife.
lbWonder is he pimping after me?
Mr Bloom stood at the corner, his eyes wandering over the multicoloured hoardings. lbCantrell and Cochrane's Ginger Ale (Aromatic). Clery's Summer Sale. No, he's going on straight. Hello. Leah tonight. Mrs Bandmann Palmer. Like to see her again in that. Hamlet she played last night. Male impersonator. Perhaps he was a woman. Why Ophelia committed suicide. Poor papa! How he used to talk of Kate Bateman in that. Outside the Adelphi in London waited all the afternoon to get in. Year before I was born that was: sixtyfive. And Ristori in Vienna. What is this the right name is? By Mosenthal it is. Rachel, is it? No. The scene he was always talking about where the old blind Abraham recognises the voice and puts his fingers on his face.
lbNathan's voice! His son's voice! I hear the voice of Nathan who left his father to die of grief and misery in my arms, who left the house of his father and left the God of his father.
lbEvery word is so deep, Leopold.
lbPoor papa! Poor man! I'm glad I didn't go into the room to look at his face. That day! O, dear! O, dear! Ffoo! Well, perhaps it was best for him.
Mr Bloom went round the corner and passed the drooping nags of the hazard. lbNo use thinking of it any more. Nosebag time. Wish I hadn't met that M'Coy fellow.
He came nearer and heard a crunching of gilded oats, the gently champing teeth. Their full buck eyes regarded him as he went by, amid the sweet oaten reek of horsepiss. lbTheir Eldorado. Poor jugginses! Damn all they know or care about anything with their long noses stuck in nosebags. Too full for words. Still they get their feed all right and their doss. Gelded too: a stump of black guttapercha wagging limp between their haunches. Might be happy all the same that way. Good poor brutes they look. Still their neigh can be very irritating.
He drew the letter from his pocket and folded it into the newspaper he carried. lbMight just walk into her here. The lane is safer.
He passed the cabman's shelter. lbCurious the life of drifting cabbies. All weathers, all places, time or setdown, no will of their own. Voglio e non. Like to give them an odd cigarette. Sociable. Shout a few flying syllables as they pass. He hummed:
lbLà ci darem la mano La la lala la la.He turned into Cumberland street and, going on some paces, halted in the lee of the station wall. lbNo-one. Meade's timberyard. Piled balks. Ruins and tenements. With careful tread he passed over a hopscotch court with its forgotten pickeystone. Not a sinner. Near the timberyard a squatted child at marbles, alone, shooting the taw with a cunnythumb. A wise tabby, a blinking sphinx, watched from her warm sill. lbPity to disturb them. Mohammed cut a piece out of his mantle not to wake her. Open it. And once I played marbles when I went to that old dame's school. She liked mignonette. Mrs Ellis's. And Mr? He opened the letter within the newspaper.
lbA flower. I think it's a. A yellow flower with flattened petals. Not annoyed then? What does she say?
Dear Henry
I got your last letter to me and thank you very much for it. I am sorry you did not like my last letter. Why did you enclose the stamps? I am awfully angry with you. I do wish I could punish you for that. I called you naughty boy because I do not like that other world. Please tell me what is the real meaning of that word? Are you not happy in your home you poor little naughty boy? I do wish I could do something for you. Please tell me what you think of poor me. I often think of the beautiful name you have. Dear Henry, when will we meet? I think of you so often you have no idea. I have never felt myself so much drawn to a man as you. I feel so bad about. Please write me a long letter and tell me more. Remember if you do not I will punish you. So now you know what I will do to you, you naughty boy, if you do not wrote. O how I long to meet you. Henry dear, do not deny my request before my patience are exhausted. Then I will tell you all. Goodbye now, naughty darling, I have such a bad headache. today. and write by return to your longing
Martha
P. S. Do tell me what kind of perfume does your wife use. I want to know.
x x x x
He tore the flower gravely from its pinhold smelt its almost no smell and placed it in his heart pocket. lbLanguage of flowers. They like it because no-one can hear. Or a poison bouquet to strike him down. Then walking slowly forward he read the letter again, murmuring here and there a word. lbAngry tulips with you darling manflower punish your cactus if you don't please poor forgetmenot how I long violets to dear roses when we soon anemone meet all naughty nightstalk wife Martha's perfume. Having read it all he took it from the newspaper and put it back in his sidepocket.
Weak joy opened his lips. lbChanged since the first letter. Wonder did she wrote it herself. Doing the indignant: a girl of good family like me, respectable character. Could meet one Sunday after the rosary. Thank you: not having any. Usual love scrimmage. Then running round corners. Bad as a row with Molly. Cigar has a cooling effect. Narcotic. Go further next time. Naughty boy: punish: afraid of words, of course. Brutal, why not? Try it anyhow. A bit at a time.
Fingering still the letter in his pocket he drew the pin out of it. lbCommon pin, eh? He threw it on the road. lbOut of her clothes somewhere: pinned together. Queer the number of pins they always have. No roses without thorns.
Flat Dublin voices bawled in his head. lbThose two sluts that night in the Coombe, linked together in the rain.
lbIt? Them. Such a bad headache. Has her roses probably. Or sitting all day typing. Eyefocus bad for stomach nerves. What perfume does your wife use. Now could you make out a thing like that?
lbMartha, Mary. I saw that picture somewhere I forget now old master or faked for money. He is sitting in their house, talking. Mysterious. Also the two sluts in the Coombe would listen.
lbNice kind of evening feeling. No more wandering about. Just loll there: quiet dusk: let everything rip. Forget. Tell about places you have been, strange customs. The other one, jar on her head, was getting the supper: fruit, olives, lovely cool water out of a well, stonecold like the hole in the wall at Ashtown. Must carry a paper goblet next time I go to the trottingmatches. She listens with big dark soft eyes. Tell her: more and more: all. Then a sigh: silence. Long long long rest.
Going under the railway arch he took out the envelope, tore it swiftly in shreds and scattered them towards the road. The shreds fluttered away, sank in the dank air: a white flutter, then all sank.
lbHenry Flower. You could tear up a cheque for a hundred pounds in the same way. Simple bit of paper. Lord Iveagh once cashed a sevenfigure cheque for a million in the bank of Ireland. Shows you the money to be made out of porter. Still the other brother lord Ardilaun has to change his shirt four times a day, they say. Skin breeds lice or vermin. A million pounds, wait a moment. Twopence a pint, fourpence a quart, eightpence a gallon of porter, no, one and fourpence a gallon of porter. One and four into twenty: fifteen about. Yes, exactly. Fifteen millions of barrels of porter.
lbWhat am I saying barrels? Gallons. About a million barrels all the same.
An incoming train clanked heavily above his head, coach after coach. Barrels bumped in his head: dull porter slopped and churned inside. The bungholes sprang open and a huge dull flood leaked out, flowing together, winding through mudflats all over the level land, a lazy pooling swirl of liquor bearing along wideleaved flowers of its froth.
He had reached the open backdoor of All Hallows. Stepping into the porch he doffed his hat, took the card from his pocket and tucked it again behind the leather headband. lbDamn it. I might have tried to work M'Coy for a pass to Mullingar.
lbSame notice on the door. Sermon by the very reverend John Conmee S. J. on saint Peter Claver S. J. and the African Mission. Prayers for the conversion of Gladstone they had too when he was almost unconscious. The protestants are the same. Convert Dr William J. Walsh D. D. to the true religion. Save China's millions. Wonder how they explain it to the heathen Chinee. Prefer an ounce of opium. Celestials. Rank heresy for them. Buddha their god lying on his side in the museum. Taking it easy with hand under his cheek. Josssticks burning. Not like Ecce Homo. Crown of thorns and cross. Clever idea Saint Patrick the shamrock. Chopsticks? Conmee: Martin Cunningham knows him: distinguishedlooking. Sorry I didn't work him about getting Molly into the choir instead of that Father Farley who looked a fool but wasn't. They're taught that. He's not going out in bluey specs with the sweat rolling off him to baptise blacks, is he? The glasses would take their fancy, flashing. Like to see them sitting round in a ring with blub lips, entranced, listening. Still life. Lap it up like milk, I suppose.
The cold smell of sacred stone called him. He trod the worn steps, pushed the swingdoor and entered softly by the rere.
lbSomething going on: some sodality. Pity so empty. Nice discreet place to be next some girl. Who is my neighbour? Jammed by the hour to slow music. That woman at midnight mass. Seventh heaven. Women knelt in the benches with crimson halters round their necks, heads bowed. A batch knelt at the altarrails. The priest went along by them, murmuring, holding the thing in his hands. He stopped at each, took out a communion, shook a drop or two lb(are they in water?) off it and put it neatly into her mouth. Her hat and head sank. Then the next one. Her hat sank at once. Then the next one: a small old woman. The priest bent down to put it into her mouth, murmuring all the time. lbLatin. The next one. lbShut your eyes and open your mouth. What? Corpus: body. Corpse. Good idea the Latin. Stupefies them first. Hospice for the dying. They don't seem to chew it: only swallow it down. Rum idea: eating bits of a corpse. Why the cannibals cotton to it.
He stood aside watching their blind masks pass down the aisle, one by one, and seek their places. He approached a bench and seated himself in its corner, nursing his hat and newspaper. lbThese pots we have to wear. We ought to have hats modelled on our heads. They were about him here and there, with heads still bowed in their crimson halters, waiting for it to melt in their stomachs. Something like those mazzoth: it's that sort of bread: unleavened shewbread. Look at them. Now I bet it makes them feel happy. Lollipop. It does. Yes, bread of angels it's called. There's a big idea behind it, kind of kingdom of God is within you feel. First communicants. Hokypoky penny a lump. Then feel all like one family party, same in the theatre, all in the same swim. They do. I'm sure of that. Not so lonely. In our confraternity. Then come out a bit spreeish. Let off steam. Thing is if you really believe in it. Lourdes cure, waters of oblivion, and the Knock apparition, statues bleeding. Old fellow asleep near that confessionbox. Hence those snores. Blind faith. Safe in the arms of kingdom come. Lulls all pain. Wake this time next year.
He saw the priest stow the communion cup away, well in, and kneel an instant before it, showing a large grey bootsole from under the lace affair he had on. lbSuppose he lost the pin of his. He wouldn't know what to do to. Bald spot behind. Letters on his back: I. N. R. I? No: I. H. S. Molly told me one time I asked her. I have sinned: or no: I have suffered, it is. And the other one? Iron nails ran in.
lbMeet one Sunday after the rosary. Do not deny my request. Turn up with a veil and black bag. Dusk and the light behind her. She might be here with a ribbon round her neck and do the other thing all the same on the sly. Their character. That fellow that turned queen's evidence on the invincibles he used to receive the, Carey was his name, the communion every morning. This very church. Peter Carey, yes. No, Peter Claver I am thinking of. Denis Carey. And just imagine that. Wife and six children at home. And plotting that murder all the time. Those crawthumpers, now that's a good name for them, there's always something shiftylooking about them. They're not straight men of business either. O, no, she's not here: the flower: no, no. By the way, did I tear up that envelope? Yes: under the bridge.
The priest was rinsing out the chalice: then he tossed off the dregs smartly. lbWine. Makes it more aristocratic than for example if he drank what they are used to Guinness's porter or some temperance beverage Wheatley's Dublin hop bitters or Cantrell and Cochrane's ginger ale (aromatic). Doesn't give them any of it: shew wine: only the other. Cold comfort. Pious fraud but quite right: otherwise they'd have one old booser worse than another coming along, cadging for a drink. Queer the whole atmosphere of the. Quite right. Perfectly right that is.
Mr Bloom looked back towards the choir. lbNot going to be any music. Pity. Who has the organ here I wonder? Old Glynn he knew how to make that instrument talk, the vibrato: fifty pounds a year they say he had in Gardiner street. Molly was in fine voice that day, the Stabat Mater of Rossini. Father Bernard Vaughan's sermon first. Christ or Pilate? Christ, but don't keep us all night over it. Music they wanted. Footdrill stopped. Could hear a pin drop. I told her to pitch her voice against that corner. I could feel the thrill in the air, the full, the people looking up:
lbSome of that old sacred music splendid. Mercadante: seven last words. Mozart's twelfth mass: Gloria in that. Those old popes keen on music, on art and statues and pictures of all kinds. Palestrina for example too. They had a gay old time while it lasted. Healthy too, chanting, regular hours, then brew liqueurs. Benedictine. Green Chartreuse. Still, having eunuchs in their choir that was coming it a bit thick. What kind of voice is it? Must be curious to hear after their own strong basses. Connoisseurs. Suppose they wouldn't feel anything after. Kind of a placid. No worry. Fall into flesh, don't they? Gluttons, tall, long legs. Who knows? Eunuch. One way out of it.
He saw the priest bend down and kiss the altar and then face about
and bless all the people. All crossed themselves and stood up. Mr Bloom
glanced about him and then stood up, looking over the risen hats. lbStand up
at the gospel of course. Then all settled down on their knees again and he
sat back quietly in his bench. The priest came down from the altar, holding
the thing out from him, and he and the massboy answered each other in
Latin. Then the priest knelt down and began to read off a card:
up―O God, our refuge and our strength .....
Mr Bloom put his face forward to catch the words. lbEnglish. Throw them the bone. I remember slightly. How long since your last mass? Glorious and immaculate virgin. Joseph, her spouse. Peter and Paul. More interesting if you understood what it was all about. Wonderful organisation certainly, goes like clockwork. Confession. Everyone wants to. Then I will tell you all. Penance. Punish me, please. Great weapon in their hands. More than doctor or solicitor. Woman dying to. And I schschschschschsch. And did you chachachachacha? And why did you? Look down at her ring to find an excuse. Whispering gallery walls have ears. Husband learn to his surprise. God's little joke. Then out she comes. Repentance skindeep. Lovely shame. Pray at an altar. Hail Mary and Holy Mary. Flowers, incense, candles melting. Hide her blushes. Salvation army blatant imitation. Reformed prostitute will address the meeting. How I found the Lord. Squareheaded chaps those must be in Rome: they work the whole show. And don't they rake in the money too? Bequests also: to the P. P. for the time being in his absolute discretion. Masses for the repose of my soul to be said publicly with open doors. Monasteries and convents. The priest in that Fermanagh will case in the witnessbox. No browbeating him. He had his answer pat for everything. Liberty and exaltation of our holy mother the church. The doctors of the church: they mapped out the whole theology of it.
The priest prayed:
up―Blessed Michael, archangel, defend us in the hour of conflict. Be our
safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil (may God restrain
him, we humbly pray!): and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the
power of God thrust Satan down to hell and with him those other wicked
spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls.
The priest and the massboy stood up and walked off. lbAll over. The women remained behind: lbthanksgiving.
lbBetter be shoving along. Brother Buzz. Come around with the plate perhaps. Pay your Easter duty.
He stood up. lbHello. Were those two buttons of my waistcoat open all the time? Women enjoy it. Never tell you. But we. Excuse, miss, there's a (whh!) just a (whh!) fluff. Or their skirt behind, placket unhooked. Glimpses of the moon. Annoyed if you don't. Why didn't you tell me before. Still like you better untidy. Good job it wasn't farther south. He passed, discreetly buttoning, down the aisle and out through the main door into the light. He stood a moment unseeing by the cold black marble bowl while before him and behind two worshippers dipped furtive hands in the low tide of holy water. Trams: a car of Prescott's dyeworks: a widow in her weeds. lbNotice because I'm in mourning myself. He covered himself. lbHow goes the time? Quarter past. Time enough yet. Better get that lotion made up. Where is this? Ah yes, the last time. Sweny's in Lincoln place. Chemists rarely move. Their green and gold beaconjars too heavy to stir. Hamilton Long's, founded in the year of the flood. Huguenot churchyard near there. Visit some day.
He walked southward along Westland row. lbBut the recipe is in the other trousers. O, and I forgot that latchkey too. Bore this funeral affair. O well, poor fellow, it's not his fault. When was it I got it made up last? Wait. I changed a sovereign I remember. First of the month it must have been or the second. O, he can look it up in the prescriptions book.
The chemist turned back page after page. lbSandy shrivelled smell he
seems to have. Shrunken skull. And old. Quest for the philosopher's stone.
The alchemists. Drugs age you after mental excitement. Lethargy then.
Why? Reaction. A lifetime in a night. Gradually changes your character.
Living all the day among herbs, ointments, disinfectants. All his alabaster
lilypots. Mortar and pestle. Aq. Dist. Fol. Laur. Te Virid. Smell almost cure
you like the dentist's doorbell. Doctor Whack. He ought to physic himself a
bit. Electuary or emulsion. The first fellow that picked an herb to cure
himself had a bit of pluck. Simples. Want to be careful. Enough stuff here to
chloroform you. Test: turns blue litmus paper red. Chloroform. Overdose
of laudanum. Sleeping draughts. Lovephiltres. Paragoric poppysyrup bad
for cough. Clogs the pores or the phlegm. Poisons the only cures. Remedy
where you least expect it. Clever of nature.
fwsy―About a fortnight ago, sir?
lb―Yes, Mr Bloom said.
He waited by the counter, inhaling slowly the keen reek of drugs, the
dusty dry smell of sponges and loofahs. lbLot of time taken up telling your
aches and pains.
lb―Sweet almond oil and tincture of benzoin, Mr Bloom said, lband then
orangeflower water ....
lbIt certainly did make her skin so delicate white like wax.
lb―And white wax also, he said.
lbBrings out the darkness of her eyes. Looking at me, the sheet up to
her eyes, Spanish, smelling herself, when I was fixing the links in my cuffs.
Those homely recipes are often the best: strawberries for the teeth: nettles
and rainwater: oatmeal they say steeped in buttermilk. Skinfood. One of
the old queen's sons, duke of Albany was it? had only one skin. Leopold,
yes. Three we have. Warts, bunions and pimples to make it worse. But you
want a perfume too. What perfume does your? Peau d'Espagne. That
orangeflower water is so fresh. Nice smell these soaps have. Pure curd soap.
Time to get a bath round the corner. Hammam. Turkish. Massage. Dirt
gets rolled up in your navel. Nicer if a nice girl did it. Also I think I. Yes I.
Do it in the bath. Curious longing I. Water to water. Combine business with
pleasure. Pity no time for massage. Feel fresh then all the day. Funeral be
rather glum.
fwsy―Yes, sir, the chemist said. fwsyThat was two and nine. Have you brought a
bottle?
lb―No, Mr Bloom said. lbMake it up, please. I'll call later in the day and I'll
take one of these soaps. How much are they?
fwsy―Fourpence, sir.
Mr Bloom raised a cake to his nostrils. lbSweet lemony wax.
lb―I'll take this one, he said. lbThat makes three and a penny.
fwsy―Yes, sir, the chemist said. fwsyYou can pay all together, sir, when you come
back.
lb―Good, Mr Bloom said.
He strolled out of the shop, the newspaper baton under his armpit, the coolwrappered soap in his left hand.
At his armpit Bantam Lyons' voice and hand said:
bl―Hello, Bloom. What's the best news? Is that today's? Show us a minute.
lbShaved off his moustache again, by Jove! Long cold upper lip. To look younger. He does look balmy. Younger than I am.
Bantam Lyons's yellow blacknailed fingers unrolled the baton. lbWants
a wash too. Take off the rough dirt. Good morning, have you used Pears'
soap? Dandruff on his shoulders. Scalp wants oiling.
bl―I want to see about that French horse that's running today, Bantam
Lyons said. blWhere the bugger is it?
He rustled the pleated pages, jerking his chin on his high collar.
lbBarber's itch. Tight collar he'll lose his hair. Better leave him the paper and
get shut of him.
lb―You can keep it, Mr Bloom said.
bl―Ascot. Gold cup. Wait, Bantam Lyons muttered. blHalf a mo. Maximum
the second.
lb―I was just going to throw it away, Mr Bloom said.
Bantam Lyons raised his eyes suddenly and leered weakly.
bl―What's that? his sharp voice said.
lb―I say you can keep it, Mr Bloom answered. lbI was going to throw it away
that moment.
Bantam Lyons doubted an instant, leering: then thrust the outspread
sheets back on Mr Bloom's arms.
bl―I'll risk it, he said. blHere, thanks.
He sped off towards Conway's corner. lbGod speed scut.
Mr Bloom folded the sheets again to a neat square and lodged the soap in it, smiling. lbSilly lips of that chap. Betting. Regular hotbed of it lately. Messenger boys stealing to put on sixpence. Raffle for large tender turkey. Your Christmas dinner for threepence. Jack Fleming embezzling to gamble then smuggled off to America. Keeps a hotel now. They never come back. Fleshpots of Egypt.
He walked cheerfully towards the mosque of the baths. lbRemind you of a mosque, redbaked bricks, the minarets. College sports today I see. He eyed the horseshoe poster over the gate of college park: lbcyclist doubled up like a cod in a pot. Damn bad ad. Now if they had made it round like a wheel. Then the spokes: sports, sports, sports: and the hub big: college. Something to catch the eye.
lbThere's Hornblower standing at the porter's lodge. Keep him on hands: might take a turn in there on the nod. How do you do, Mr Hornblower? How do you do, sir?
lbHeavenly weather really. If life was always like that. Cricket weather. Sit around under sunshades. Over after over. Out. They can't play it here. Duck for six wickets. Still Captain Culler broke a window in the Kildare street club with a slog to square leg. Donnybrook fair more in their line. And the skulls we were acracking when M'Carthy took the floor. Heatwave. Won't last. Always passing, the stream of life, which in the stream of life we trace is dearer thaaan them all.
lbEnjoy a bath now: clean trough of water, cool enamel, the gentle tepid stream. This is my body.
He foresaw his pale body reclined in it at full, naked, in a womb of warmth, oiled by scented melting soap, softly laved. He saw his trunk and limbs riprippled over and sustained, buoyed lightly upward, lemonyellow: his navel, bud of flesh: and saw the dark tangled curls of his bush floating, floating hair of the stream around the limp father of thousands, a languid floating flower.
Martin Cunningham, first, poked his silkhatted head into the creaking
carriage and, entering deftly, seated himself. Mr Power stepped in after him,
curving his height with care.
mc―Come on, Simon.It's unclear whether Cunningham or Power speaks.
lb―After you, Mr Bloom said.
Mr Dedalus covered himself quickly and got in, saying:
sid―Yes, yes.
mc―Are we all here now? Martin Cunningham asked. mcCome along, Bloom.
Mr Bloom entered and sat in the vacant place. He pulled the door to after him and slammed it twice till it shut tight. He passed an arm through the armstrap and looked seriously from the open carriagewindow at the lowered blinds of the avenue. One dragged aside: lban old woman peeping. Nose whiteflattened against the pane. Thanking her stars she was passed over. Extraordinary the interest they take in a corpse. Glad to see us go we give them such trouble coming. Job seems to suit them. Huggermugger in corners. Slop about in slipperslappers for fear he'd wake. Then getting it ready. Laying it out. Molly and Mrs Fleming making the bed. Pull it more to your side. Our windingsheet. Never know who will touch you dead. Wash and shampoo. I believe they clip the nails and the hair. Keep a bit in an envelope. Grows all the same after. Unclean job.
All waited. Nothing was said. lbStowing in the wreaths probably. I am sitting on something hard. Ah, that soap: in my hip pocket. Better shift it out of that. Wait for an opportunity.
All waited. Then wheels were heard from in front, turning: then nearer: then horses' hoofs. lbA jolt. Their carriage began to move, creaking and swaying. Other hoofs and creaking wheels started behind. The blinds of the avenue passed and number nine with its craped knocker, door ajar. lbAt walking pace.
They waited still, their knees jogging, till they had turned and were
passing along the tramtracks. lbTritonville road. Quicker. The wheels rattled
rolling over the cobbled causeway and the crazy glasses shook rattling in
the doorframes.
jp―What way is he taking us? Mr Power asked through both windows.
mc―Irishtown, Martin Cunningham said. mcRingsend. Brunswick street.
Mr Dedalus nodded, looking out.
sid―That's a fine old custom, he said. sidI am glad to see it has not died out.
All watched awhile through their windows caps and hats lifted by
passers. Respect. The carriage swerved from the tramtrack to the smoother
road past Watery lane. Mr Bloom at gaze saw a lithe young man, clad in
mourning, a wide hat.
lb―There's a friend of yours gone by, Dedalus, he said.
sid―Who is that?
lb―Your son and heir.
sid―Where is he? Mr Dedalus said, stretching over across.
The carriage, passing the open drains and mounds of rippedup
roadway before the tenement houses, lurched round the corner and,
swerving back to the tramtrack, rolled on noisily with chattering wheels.
Mr Dedalus fell back, saying:
sid―Was that Mulligan cad with him? His fidus Achates!
lb―No, Mr Bloom said. lbHe was alone.
sid―Down with his aunt Sally, I suppose, Mr Dedalus said, sidthe Goulding
faction, the drunken little costdrawer and Crissie, papa's little lump of
dung, the wise child that knows her own father.
Mr Bloom smiled joylessly on Ringsend road. lbWallace Bros: the bottleworks: Dodder bridge.
lbRichie Goulding and the legal bag. Goulding, Collis and Ward he
calls the firm. His jokes are getting a bit damp. Great card he was. Waltzing
in Stamer street with Ignatius Gallaher on a Sunday morning, the
landlady's two hats pinned on his head. Out on the rampage all night.
Beginning to tell on him now: that backache of his, I fear. Wife ironing his
back. Thinks he'll cure it with pills. All breadcrumbs they are. About six
hundred per cent profit.
sid―He's in with a lowdown crowd, Mr Dedalus snarled. sidThat Mulligan is a
contaminated bloody doubledyed ruffian by all accounts. His name stinks
all over Dublin. But with the help of God and His blessed mother I'll make
it my business to write a letter one of those days to his mother or his aunt or
whatever she is that will open her eye as wide as a gate. I'll tickle his
catastrophe, believe you me.
He cried above the clatter of the wheels:
sid―I won't have her bastard of a nephew ruin my son. A counterjumper's
son. Selling tapes in my cousin, Peter Paul M'Swiney's. Not likely.
He ceased. Mr Bloom glanced from his angry moustache to Mr Power's mild face and Martin Cunningham's eyes and beard, gravely shaking. lbNoisy selfwilled man. Full of his son. He is right. Something to hand on. If little Rudy had lived. See him grow up. Hear his voice in the house. Walking beside Molly in an Eton suit. My son. Me in his eyes. Strange feeling it would be. From me. Just a chance. Must have been that morning in Raymond terrace she was at the window watching the two dogs at it by the wall of the cease to do evil. And the sergeant grinning up. She had that cream gown on with the rip she never stitched. Give us a touch, Poldy. God, I'm dying for it. How life begins.
lbGot big then. Had to refuse the Greystones concert. My son inside
her. I could have helped him on in life. I could. Make him independent.
Learn German too.
jp―Are we late? Mr Power asked.
mc―Ten minutes, Martin Cunningham said, looking at his watch.
lbMolly. Milly. Same thing watered down. Her tomboy oaths. O jumping Jupiter! Ye gods and little fishes! Still, she's a dear girl. Soon be a woman. Mullingar. Dearest Papli. Young student. Yes, yes: a woman too. Life, life.
The carriage heeled over and back, their four trunks swaying.
jp―Corny might have given us a more commodious yoke, Mr Power said.
sid―He might, Mr Dedalus said, sidif he hadn't that squint troubling him. Do
you follow me?
He closed his left eye. Martin Cunningham began to brush away
crustcrumbs from under his thighs.
mc―What is this, he said, mcin the name of God? Crumbs?
jp―Someone seems to have been making a picnic party here lately, Mr Power
said.
All raised their thighs and eyed with disfavour the mildewed
buttonless leather of the seats. Mr Dedalus, twisting his nose, frowned
downward and said:
sid―Unless I'm greatly mistaken ... What do you think, Martin?
mc―It struck me too, Martin Cunningham said.
Mr Bloom set his thigh down. lbGlad I took that bath. Feel my feet quite clean. But I wish Mrs Fleming had darned these socks better.
Mr Dedalus sighed resignedly.
sid―After all, he said, sidit's the most natural thing in the world.
mc―Did Tom Kernan turn up? Martin Cunningham asked, twirling the peak
of his beard gently.
lb―Yes, Mr Bloom answered. lbHe's behind with Ned Lambert and Hynes.
jp―And Corny Kelleher himself? Mr Power asked.
mc―At the cemetery, Martin Cunningham said.
lb―I met M'Coy this morning, Mr Bloom said. lbHe said he'd try to come.
The carriage halted short.
unclear―What's wrong?
unclear―We're stopped.
unclear―Where are we?
Mr Bloom put his head out of the window.
lb―The grand canal, he said.
lbGasworks. Whooping cough they say it cures. Good job Milly never got it. Poor children! Doubles them up black and blue in convulsions. Shame really. Got off lightly with illnesses compared. Only measles. Flaxseed tea. Scarlatina, influenza epidemics. Canvassing for death. Don't miss this chance. Dogs' home over there. Poor old Athos! Be good to Athos, Leopold, is my last wish. Thy will be done. We obey them in the grave. A dying scrawl. He took it to heart, pined away. Quiet brute. Old men's dogs usually are.
A raindrop spat on his hat. He drew back and saw an instant of
shower spray dots over the grey flags. lbApart. Curious. Like through a
colander. I thought it would. My boots were creaking I remember now.
lb―The weather is changing, he said quietly.
mc―A pity it did not keep up fine, Martin Cunningham said.
jp―Wanted for the country, Mr Power said. jpThere's the sun again coming
out.
Mr Dedalus, peering through his glasses towards the veiled sun,
hurled a mute curse at the sky.
sid―It's as uncertain as a child's bottom, he said.
unclear―We're off again.
The carriage turned again its stiff wheels and their trunks swayed
gently. Martin Cunningham twirled more quickly the peak of his beard.
mc―Tom Kernan was immense last night, he said. mcAnd Paddy Leonard taking
him off to his face.
jp―O, draw him out, Martin, Mr Power said eagerly. jpWait till you hear him,
Simon, on Ben Dollard's singing of The Croppy Boy.
mc―Immense, Martin Cunningham said pompously. mcHis singing of that simple
ballad, Martin, is the most trenchant rendering I ever heard in the whole
course of my experience.
jp―Trenchant, Mr Power said laughing. jpHe's dead nuts on that. And the
retrospective arrangement.
mc―Did you read Dan Dawson's speech? Martin Cunningham asked.
sid―I did not then, Mr Dedalus said. sidWhere is it?
mc―In the paper this morning.
Mr Bloom took the paper from his inside pocket. lbThat book I must
change for her.
sid―No, no, Mr Dedalus said quickly. sidLater on please.
Mr Bloom's glance travelled down the edge of the paper, scanning the deaths: lbCallan, Coleman, Dignam, Fawcett, Lowry, Naumann, Peake, what Peake is that? is it the chap was in Crosbie and Alleyne's? no, Sexton, Urbright. Inked characters fast fading on the frayed breaking paper. Thanks to the Little Flower. Sadly missed. To the inexpressible grief of his. Aged 88 after a long and tedious illness. Month's mind: Quinlan. On whose soul Sweet Jesus have mercy.
lbI tore up the envelope? Yes. Where did I put her letter after I read it in the bath? He patted his waistcoatpocket. There all right. Dear Henry fled. Before my patience are exhausted.
lbNational school. Meade's yard. The hazard. Only two there now. Nodding. Full as a tick. Too much bone in their skulls. The other trotting round with a fare. An hour ago I was passing there. The jarvies raised their hats.
A pointsman's back straightened itself upright suddenly against a tramway standard by Mr Bloom's window. lbCouldn't they invent something automatic so that the wheel itself much handier? Well but that fellow would lose his job then? Well but then another fellow would get a job making the new invention?
lbAntient concert rooms. Nothing on there. A man in a buff suit with a crape armlet. Not much grief there. Quarter mourning. People in law perhaps.
They went past the bleak pulpit of saint Mark's, under the railway bridge, past the Queen's theatre: lbin silence. Hoardings: Eugene Stratton, Mrs Bandmann Palmer. Could I go to see Leah tonight, I wonder. I said I. Or the Lily of Killarney? Elster Grimes Opera Company. Big powerful change. Wet bright bills for next week. Fun on the Bristol. Martin Cunningham could work a pass for the Gaiety. Have to stand a drink or two. As broad as it's long.
lbHe's coming in the afternoon. Her songs.
lbPlasto's. Sir Philip Crampton's memorial fountain bust. Who was he?
mc―How do you do? Martin Cunningham said, raising his palm to his brow
in salute.
jp―He doesn't see us, Mr Power said. jpYes, he does. How do you do?
sid―Who? Mr Dedalus asked.
jp―Blazes Boylan, Mr Power said. jpThere he is airing his quiff.
lbJust that moment I was thinking.
Mr Dedalus bent across to salute. From the door of the Red Bank the white disc of a straw hat flashed reply: lbspruce figure: passed.
Mr Bloom reviewed the nails of his left hand, then those of his right hand. lbThe nails, yes. Is there anything more in him that they she sees? Fascination. Worst man in Dublin. That keeps him alive. They sometimes feel what a person is. Instinct. But a type like that. My nails. I am just looking at them: well pared. And after: thinking alone. Body getting a bit softy. I would notice that: from remembering. What causes that? I suppose the skin can't contract quickly enough when the flesh falls off. But the shape is there. The shape is there still. Shoulders. Hips. Plump. Night of the dance dressing. Shift stuck between the cheeks behind.
He clasped his hands between his knees and, satisfied, sent his vacant glance over their faces.
Mr Power asked:
jp―How is the concert tour getting on, Bloom?
lb―O, very well, Mr Bloom said. lbI hear great accounts of it. It's a good idea,
you see ...
unclear―Are you going yourself?
lb―Well no, Mr Bloom said. lbIn point of fact I have to go down to the county
Clare on some private business. You see the idea is to tour the chief towns.
What you lose on one you can make up on the other.
mc―Quite so, Martin Cunningham said. mcMary Anderson is up there now.
Have you good artists?
lb―Louis Werner is touring her, Mr Bloom said. lbO yes, we'll have all
topnobbers. J. C. Doyle and John MacCormack I hope and. The best, in
fact.
jp―And madame, Mr Power said smiling. jpLast but not least.
Mr Bloom unclasped his hands in a gesture of soft politeness and clasped them. lbSmith O'Brien. Someone has laid a bunch of flowers there. Woman. Must be his deathday. For many happy returns. The carriage wheeling by Farrell's statue united noiselessly their unresisting knees.
lbOot: a dullgarbed old man from the curbstone tendered his wares, his
mouth opening: lboot.
uom―Four bootlaces for a penny.
lbWonder why he was struck off the rolls. Had his office in Hume street. Same house as Molly's namesake, Tweedy, crown solicitor for Waterford. Has that silk hat ever since. Relics of old decency. Mourning too. Terrible comedown, poor wretch! Kicked about like snuff at a wake. O'Callaghan on his last legs.
lbAnd madame. Twenty past eleven. Up. Mrs Fleming is in to clean. Doing her hair, humming. Voglio e non vorrei. No. Vorrei e non. Looking at the tips of her hairs to see if they are split. Mi trema un poco il. Beautiful on that tre her voice is: weeping tone. A thrush. A throstle. There is a word throstle that expresses that.
His eyes passed lightly over Mr Power's goodlooking face. lbGreyish over the ears. Madame: smiling. I smiled back. A smile goes a long way. Only politeness perhaps. Nice fellow. Who knows is that true about the woman he keeps? Not pleasant for the wife. Yet they say, who was it told me, there is no carnal. You would imagine that would get played out pretty quick. Yes, it was Crofton met him one evening bringing her a pound of rumpsteak. What is this she was? Barmaid in Jury's. Or the Moira, was it?
They passed under the hugecloaked Liberator's form.
Martin Cunningham nudged Mr Power.
mc―Of the tribe of Reuben, he said.
A tall blackbearded figure, bent on a stick, stumping round the corner
of Elvery's Elephant house, showed them a curved hand open on his spine.
jp―In all his pristine beauty, Mr Power said.
Mr Dedalus looked after the stumping figure and said mildly:
sid―The devil break the hasp of your back!
Mr Power, collapsing in laughter, shaded his face from the window as
the carriage passed Gray's statue.
mc―We have all been there, Martin Cunningham said broadly.
His eyes met Mr Bloom's eyes. He caressed his beard, adding:
mc―Well, nearly all of us.
Mr Bloom began to speak with sudden eagerness to his companions'
faces.
lb―That's an awfully good one that's going the rounds about Reuben J and
the son.
jp―About the boatman? Mr Power asked.
lb―Yes. Isn't it awfully good?
sid―What is that? Mr Dedalus asked. sidI didn't hear it.
lb―There was a girl in the case, Mr Bloom began, lband he determined to send
him to the Isle of Man out of harm's way but when they were both ...
sid―What? Mr Dedalus asked. sidThat confirmed bloody hobbledehoy is it?
lb―Yes, Mr Bloom said. lbThey were both on the way to the boat and he tried
to drown .....
sid―Drown Barabbas! Mr Dedalus cried. sidI wish to Christ he did!
Mr Power sent a long laugh down his shaded nostrils.
lb―No, Mr Bloom said, lbthe son himself ....
Martin Cunningham thwarted his speech rudely:
mc―Reuben J and the son were piking it down the quay next the river on their
way to the Isle of Man boat and the young chiseller suddenly got loose and
over the wall with him into the Liffey.
sid―For God' sake! Mr Dedalus exclaimed in fright. sidIs he dead?
mc―Dead! Martin Cunningham cried. mcNot he! A boatman got a pole and
fished him out by the slack of the breeches and he was landed up to the
father on the quay more dead than alive. Half the town was there.
lb―Yes, Mr Bloom said. lbBut the funny part is ....
mc―And Reuben J, Martin Cunningham said, mcgave the boatman a florin for
saving his son's life.
A stifled sigh came from under Mr Power's hand.
mc―O, he did, Martin Cunningham affirmed. mcLike a hero. A silver florin.
lb―Isn't it awfully good? Mr Bloom said eagerly.
sid―One and eightpence too much, Mr Dedalus said drily.
Mr Power's choked laugh burst quietly in the carriage.
Nelson's pillar.
uplum―Eight plums a penny! Eight for a penny!
mc―We had better look a little serious, Martin Cunningham said.
Mr Dedalus sighed.
sid―Ah then indeed, he said, sidpoor little Paddy wouldn't grudge us a laugh.
Many a good one he told himself.
jp―The Lord forgive me! Mr Power said, wiping his wet eyes with his
fingers. jpPoor Paddy! I little thought a week ago when I saw him last and he
was in his usual health that I'd be driving after him like this. He's gone
from us.
sid―As decent a little man as ever wore a hat, Mr Dedalus said. sidHe went very
suddenly.
mc―Breakdown, Martin Cunningham said. mcHeart.
He tapped his chest sadly.
lbBlazing face: redhot. Too much John Barleycorn. Cure for a red nose. Drink like the devil till it turns adelite. A lot of money he spent colouring it.
Mr Power gazed at the passing houses with rueful apprehension.
jp―He had a sudden death, poor fellow, he said.
lb―The best death, Mr Bloom said.
Their wideopen eyes looked at him.
lb―No suffering, he said. lbA moment and all is over. Like dying in sleep.
No-one spoke.
lbDead side of the street this. Dull business by day, land agents, temperance hotel, Falconer's railway guide, civil service college, Gill's, catholic club, the industrious blind. Why? Some reason. Sun or wind. At night too. Chummies and slaveys. Under the patronage of the late Father Mathew. Foundation stone for Parnell. Breakdown. Heart.
White horses with white frontlet plumes came round the Rotunda
corner, galloping. A tiny coffin flashed by. lbIn a hurry to bury. A mourning
coach. Unmarried. Black for the married. Piebald for bachelors. Dun for a
nun.
mc―Sad, Martin Cunningham said. mcA child.
lbA dwarf's face, mauve and wrinkled like little Rudy's was. Dwarf's
body, weak as putty, in a whitelined deal box. Burial friendly society pays.
Penny a week for a sod of turf. Our. Little. Beggar. Baby. Meant nothing.
Mistake of nature. If it's healthy it's from the mother. If not from the man.
Better luck next time.
sid―Poor little thing, Mr Dedalus said. sidIt's well out of it.
The carriage climbed more slowly the hill of Rutland square. lbRattle
his bones. Over the stones. Only a pauper. Nobody owns.
mc―In the midst of life, Martin Cunningham said.
jp―But the worst of all, Mr Power said, jpis the man who takes his own life.
Martin Cunningham drew out his watch briskly, coughed and put it
back.
jp―The greatest disgrace to have in the family, Mr Power added.
mc―Temporary insanity, of course, Martin Cunningham said decisively. mcWe
must take a charitable view of it.
sid―They say a man who does it is a coward, Mr Dedalus said.
mc―It is not for us to judge, Martin Cunningham said.
Mr Bloom, about to speak, closed his lips again. lbMartin Cunningham's large eyes. Looking away now. Sympathetic human man he is. Intelligent. Like Shakespeare's face. Always a good word to say. They have no mercy on that here or infanticide. Refuse christian burial. They used to drive a stake of wood through his heart in the grave. As if it wasn't broken already. Yet sometimes they repent too late. Found in the riverbed clutching rushes. He looked at me. And that awful drunkard of a wife of his. Setting up house for her time after time and then pawning the furniture on him every Saturday almost. Leading him the life of the damned. Wear the heart out of a stone, that. Monday morning. Start afresh. Shoulder to the wheel. Lord, she must have looked a sight that night Dedalus told me he was in there. Drunk about the place and capering with Martin's umbrella.
lbHe looked away from me. He knows. Rattle his bones.
lbThat afternoon of the inquest. The redlabelled bottle on the table. The room in the hotel with hunting pictures. Stuffy it was. Sunlight through the slats of the Venetian blind. The coroner's sunlit ears, big and hairy. Boots giving evidence. Thought he was asleep first. Then saw like yellow streaks on his face. Had slipped down to the foot of the bed. Verdict: overdose. Death by misadventure. The letter. For my son Leopold.
lbNo more pain. Wake no more. Nobody owns.
The carriage rattled swiftly along Blessington street. Over the stones.
mc―We are going the pace, I think, Martin Cunningham said.
jp―God grant he doesn't upset us on the road, Mr Power said.
mc―I hope not, Martin Cunningham said. mcThat will be a great race tomorrow
in Germany. The Gordon Bennett.
sid―Yes, by Jove, Mr Dedalus said. sidThat will be worth seeing, faith.
As they turned into Berkeley street a streetorgan near the Basin sent over and after them a rollicking rattling song of the halls. lbHas anybody here seen Kelly? Kay ee double ell wy. Dead March from Saul. He's as bad as old Antonio. He left me on my ownio. Pirouette! The Mater Misericordiae. Eccles street. My house down there. Big place. Ward for incurables there. Very encouraging. Our Lady's Hospice for the dying. Deadhouse handy underneath. Where old Mrs Riordan died. They look terrible the women. Her feeding cup and rubbing her mouth with the spoon. Then the screen round her bed for her to die. Nice young student that was dressed that bite the bee gave me. He's gone over to the lying-in hospital they told me. From one extreme to the other.
The carriage galloped round a corner: lbstopped.
unclear―What's wrong now?
A divided drove of branded cattle passed the windows, lowing,
slouching by on padded hoofs, whisking their tails slowly on their clotted
bony croups. Outside them and through them ran raddled sheep bleating
their fear.
jp―Emigrants, Mr Power said.
ud―Huuuh! the drover's voice cried, his switch sounding on their flanks.
udHuuuh! out of that!
lbThursday, of course. Tomorrow is killing day. Springers. Cuffe sold them about twentyseven quid each. For Liverpool probably. Roastbeef for old England. They buy up all the juicy ones. And then the fifth quarter lost: all that raw stuff, hide, hair, horns. Comes to a big thing in a year. Dead meat trade. Byproducts of the slaughterhouses for tanneries, soap, margarine. Wonder if that dodge works now getting dicky meat off the train at Clonsilla.
The carriage moved on through the drove.
lb―I can't make out why the corporation doesn't run a tramline from the
parkgate to the quays, Mr Bloom said. lbAll those animals could be taken in
trucks down to the boats.
mc―Instead of blocking up the thoroughfare, Martin Cunningham said. mcQuite
right. They ought to.
lb―Yes, Mr Bloom said, lband another thing I often thought, is to have
municipal funeral trams like they have in Milan, you know. Run the line out
to the cemetery gates and have special trams, hearse and carriage and all.
Don't you see what I mean?
sid―O, that be damned for a story, Mr Dedalus said. sidPullman car and saloon
diningroom.
jp―A poor lookout for Corny, Mr Power added.
lb―Why? Mr Bloom asked, turning to Mr Dedalus. lbWouldn't it be more
decent than galloping two abreast?
sid―Well, there's something in that, Mr Dedalus granted.
mc―And, Martin Cunningham said, mcwe wouldn't have scenes like that when
the hearse capsized round Dunphy's and upset the coffin on to the road.
jp―That was terrible, Mr Power's shocked face said, jpand the corpse fell
about the road. Terrible!
sid―First round Dunphy's, Mr Dedalus said, nodding. sidGordon Bennett cup.
mc―Praises be to God! Martin Cunningham said piously.
lbBom! Upset. A coffin bumped out on to the road. lbBurst open. Paddy
Dignam shot out and rolling over stiff in the dust in a brown habit too large
for him. lbRed face: grey now. Mouth fallen open. Asking what's up now.
Quite right to close it. Looks horrid open. Then the insides decompose
quickly. Much better to close up all the orifices. Yes, also. With wax. The
sphincter loose. Seal up all.
jp―Dunphy's, Mr Power announced as the carriage turned right.
lbDunphy's corner. Mourning coaches drawn up, drowning their grief. A pause by the wayside. Tiptop position for a pub. Expect we'll pull up here on the way back to drink his health. Pass round the consolation. Elixir of life.
lbBut suppose now it did happen. Would he bleed if a nail say cut him in the knocking about? He would and he wouldn't, I suppose. Depends on where. The circulation stops. Still some might ooze out of an artery. It would be better to bury them in red: a dark red.
In silence they drove along Phibsborough road. An empty hearse trotted by, coming from the cemetery: lblooks relieved.
lbCrossguns bridge: the royal canal.
Water rushed roaring through the sluices. A man stood on his dropping barge, between clamps of turf. On the towpath by the lock a slacktethered horse. lbAboard of the Bugabu.
Their eyes watched him. On the slow weedy waterway he had floated on his raft coastward over Ireland drawn by a haulage rope past beds of reeds, over slime, mudchoked bottles, carrion dogs. lbAthlone, Mullingar, Moyvalley, I could make a walking tour to see Milly by the canal. Or cycle down. Hire some old crock, safety. Wren had one the other day at the auction but a lady's. Developing waterways. James M'Cann's hobby to row me o'er the ferry. Cheaper transit. By easy stages. Houseboats. Camping out. Also hearses. To heaven by water. Perhaps I will without writing. Come as a surprise, Leixlip, Clonsilla. Dropping down lock by lock to Dublin. With turf from the midland bogs. Salute. He lifted his brown straw hat, saluting Paddy Dignam.
They drove on past Brian Boroimhe house. lbNear it now.
jp―I wonder how is our friend Fogarty getting on, Mr Power said.
sid―Better ask Tom Kernan, Mr Dedalus said.
mc―How is that? Martin Cunningham said. mcLeft him weeping, I suppose?
sid―Though lost to sight, Mr Dedalus said, sidto memory dear.
The carriage steered left for Finglas road.
lbThe stonecutter's yard on the right. Last lap. Crowded on the spit of land silent shapes appeared, white, sorrowful, holding out calm hands, knelt in grief, pointing. Fragments of shapes, hewn. In white silence: appealing. The best obtainable. Thos. H. Dennany, monumental builder and sculptor.
lbPassed.
On the curbstone before Jimmy Geary, the sexton's, an old tramp sat, grumbling, emptying the dirt and stones out of his huge dustbrown yawning boot. lbAfter life's journey.
Gloomy gardens then went by: lbone by one: gloomy houses.
Mr Power pointed.
jp―That is where Childs was murdered, he said. jpThe last house.
sid―So it is, Mr Dedalus said. sidA gruesome case. Seymour Bushe got him off.
Murdered his brother. Or so they said.
jp―The crown had no evidence, Mr Power said.
mc―Only circumstantial, Martin Cunningham added. mcThat's the maxim of
the law. Better for ninetynine guilty to escape than for one innocent person
to be wrongfully condemned.
They looked. lbMurderer's ground. It passed darkly. Shuttered, tenantless, unweeded garden. Whole place gone to hell. Wrongfully condemned. Murder. The murderer's image in the eye of the murdered. They love reading about it. Man's head found in a garden. Her clothing consisted of. How she met her death. Recent outrage. The weapon used. Murderer is still at large. Clues. A shoelace. The body to be exhumed. Murder will out.
lbCramped in this carriage. She mightn't like me to come that way without letting her know. Must be careful about women. Catch them once with their pants down. Never forgive you after. Fifteen.
The high railings of Prospect rippled past their gaze. Dark poplars, rare white forms. Forms more frequent, white shapes thronged amid the trees, white forms and fragments streaming by mutely, sustaining vain gestures on the air.
The felly harshed against the curbstone: lbstopped. Martin Cunningham put out his arm and, wrenching back the handle, shoved the door open with his knee. He stepped out. Mr Power and Mr Dedalus followed.
lbChange that soap now. Mr Bloom's hand unbuttoned his hip pocket swiftly and transferred the paperstuck soap to his inner handkerchief pocket. He stepped out of the carriage, replacing the newspaper his other hand still held.
lbPaltry funeral: coach and three carriages. It's all the same. Pallbearers, gold reins, requiem mass, firing a volley. Pomp of death. Beyond the hind carriage a hawker stood by his barrow of cakes and fruit. Simnel cakes those are, stuck together: cakes for the dead. Dogbiscuits. Who ate them? Mourners coming out.
He followed his companions. Mr Kernan and Ned Lambert followed, Hynes walking after them. Corny Kelleher stood by the opened hearse and took out the two wreaths. He handed one to the boy.
lbWhere is that child's funeral disappeared to?
A team of horses passed from Finglas with toiling plodding tread, dragging through the funereal silence a creaking waggon on which lay a granite block. The waggoner marching at their head saluted. lbCoffin now. Got here before us, dead as he is. Horse looking round at it with his plume skeowways. Dull eye: collar tight on his neck, pressing on a bloodvessel or something. Do they know what they cart out here every day? Must be twenty or thirty funerals every day. Then Mount Jerome for the protestants. Funerals all over the world everywhere every minute. Shovelling them under by the cartload doublequick. Thousands every hour. Too many in the world.
Mourners came out through the gates: lbwoman and a girl. Leanjawed harpy, hard woman at a bargain, her bonnet awry. Girl's face stained with dirt and tears, holding the woman's arm, looking up at her for a sign to cry. Fish's face, bloodless and livid.
The mutes shouldered the coffin and bore it in through the gates. lbSo much dead weight. Felt heavier myself stepping out of that bath. First the stiff: then the friends of the stiff. Corny Kelleher and the boy followed with their wreaths. Who is that beside them? Ah, the brother-in-law.
All walked after.
Martin Cunningham whispered:
mc―I was in mortal agony with you talking of suicide before Bloom.
jp―What? Mr Power whispered. jpHow so?
mc―His father poisoned himself, Martin Cunningham whispered. mcHad the
Queen's hotel in Ennis. You heard him say he was going to Clare.
Anniversary.
jp―O God! Mr Power whispered. jpFirst I heard of it. Poisoned himself?
He glanced behind him to where a face with dark thinking eyes
followed towards the cardinal's mausoleum. lbSpeaking.
lb―Was he insured? Mr Bloom asked.
tk―I believe so, Mr Kernan answered. tkBut the policy was heavily mortgaged.
Martin is trying to get the youngster into Artane.
lb―How many children did he leave?
tk―Five. Ned Lambert says he'll try to get one of the girls into Todd's.
lb―A sad case, Mr Bloom said gently. lbFive young children.
tk―A great blow to the poor wife, Mr Kernan added.
lb―Indeed yes, Mr Bloom agreed.
lbHas the laugh at him now.
He looked down at the boots he had blacked and polished. lbShe had
outlived him. Lost her husband. More dead for her than for me. One must
outlive the other. Wise men say. There are more women than men in the
world. Condole with her. Your terrible loss. I hope you'll soon follow him.
For Hindu widows only. She would marry another. Him? No. Yet who
knows after. Widowhood not the thing since the old queen died. Drawn on
a guncarriage. Victoria and Albert. Frogmore memorial mourning. But in
the end she put a few violets in her bonnet. Vain in her heart of hearts. All
for a shadow. Consort not even a king. Her son was the substance.
Something new to hope for not like the past she wanted back, waiting. It
never comes. One must go first: alone, under the ground: and lie no more
in her warm bed.
nl―How are you, Simon? Ned Lambert said softly, clasping hands. nlHaven't
seen you for a month of Sundays.
sid―Never better. How are all in Cork's own town?
nl―I was down there for the Cork park races on Easter Monday, Ned
Lambert said. nlSame old six and eightpence. Stopped with Dick Tivy.
sid―And how is Dick, the solid man?
nl―Nothing between himself and heaven, Ned Lambert answered.
sid―By the holy Paul! Mr Dedalus said in subdued wonder. sidDick Tivy bald?
nl―Martin is going to get up a whip for the youngsters, Ned Lambert said,
pointing ahead. nlA few bob a skull. Just to keep them going till the insurance
is cleared up.
sid―Yes, yes, Mr Dedalus said dubiously. sidIs that the eldest boy in front?
nl―Yes, Ned Lambert said, nlwith the wife's brother. John Henry Menton is
behind. He put down his name for a quid.
sid―I'll engage he did, Mr Dedalus said. sidI often told poor Paddy he ought to
mind that job. John Henry is not the worst in the world.
nl―How did he lose it? Ned Lambert asked. nlLiquor, what?
sid―Many a good man's fault, Mr Dedalus said with a sigh.
They halted about the door of the mortuary chapel. Mr Bloom stood behind the boy with the wreath looking down at his sleekcombed hair and at the slender furrowed neck inside his brandnew collar. lbPoor boy! Was he there when the father? Both unconscious. Lighten up at the last moment and recognise for the last time. All he might have done. I owe three shillings to O'Grady. Would he understand? The mutes bore the coffin into the chapel. Which end is his head?
After a moment he followed the others in, blinking in the screened light. The coffin lay on its bier before the chancel, four tall yellow candles at its corners. lbAlways in front of us. Corny Kelleher, laying a wreath at each fore corner, beckoned to the boy to kneel. The mourners knelt here and there in prayingdesks. Mr Bloom stood behind near the font and, when all had knelt, dropped carefully his unfolded newspaper from his pocket and knelt his right knee upon it. He fitted his black hat gently on his left knee and, holding its brim, bent over piously.
A server bearing a brass bucket with something in it came out through a door. The whitesmocked priest came after him, tidying his stole with one hand, balancing with the other a little book against his toad's belly. lbWho'll read the book? I, said the rook.
They halted by the bier and the priest began to read out of his book with a fluent croak.
lbFather Coffey. I knew his name was like a coffin. Dominenamine.
Bully about the muzzle he looks. Bosses the show. Muscular christian. Woe
betide anyone that looks crooked at him: priest. Thou art Peter. Burst
sideways like a sheep in clover Dedalus says he will. With a belly on him
like a poisoned pup. Most amusing expressions that man finds. Hhhn: burst
sideways.
frc―Non intres in judicium cum servo tuo, Domine.
lbMakes them feel more important to be prayed over in Latin. Requiem mass. Crape weepers. Blackedged notepaper. Your name on the altarlist. Chilly place this. Want to feed well, sitting in there all the morning in the gloom kicking his heels waiting for the next please. Eyes of a toad too. What swells him up that way? Molly gets swelled after cabbage. Air of the place maybe. Looks full up of bad gas. Must be an infernal lot of bad gas round the place. Butchers, for instance: they get like raw beefsteaks. Who was telling me? Mervyn Browne. Down in the vaults of saint Werburgh's lovely old organ hundred and fifty they have to bore a hole in the coffins sometimes to let out the bad gas and burn it. Out it rushes: blue. One whiff of that and you're a doner.
lbMy kneecap is hurting me. Ow. That's better.
The priest took a stick with a knob at the end of it out of the boy's
bucket and shook it over the coffin. Then he walked to the other end and
shook it again. Then he came back and put it back in the bucket. lbAs you
were before you rested. It's all written down: he has to do it.
frc―Et ne nos inducas in tentationem.
The server piped the answers in the treble. lbI often thought it would be better to have boy servants. Up to fifteen or so. After that, of course ...
lbHoly water that was, I expect. Shaking sleep out of it. He must be fed
up with that job, shaking that thing over all the corpses they trot up. What
harm if he could see what he was shaking it over. Every mortal day a fresh
batch: middleaged men, old women, children, women dead in childbirth,
men with beards, baldheaded businessmen, consumptive girls with little
sparrows' breasts. All the year round he prayed the same thing over them
all and shook water on top of them: sleep. On Dignam now.
frc―In paradisum.
lbSaid he was going to paradise or is in paradise. Says that over everybody. Tiresome kind of a job. But he has to say something.
The priest closed his book and went off, followed by the server. Corny Kelleher opened the sidedoors and the gravediggers came in, hoisted the coffin again, carried it out and shoved it on their cart. Corny Kelleher gave one wreath to the boy and one to the brother-in-law. All followed them out of the sidedoors into the mild grey air. Mr Bloom came last folding his paper again into his pocket. He gazed gravely at the ground till the coffincart wheeled off to the left. The metal wheels ground the gravel with a sharp grating cry and the pack of blunt boots followed the trundled barrow along a lane of sepulchres.
lbThe ree the ra the ree the ra the roo. Lord, I mustn't lilt here.
sid―The O'Connell circle, Mr Dedalus said about him.
Mr Power's soft eyes went up to the apex of the lofty cone.
jp―He's at rest, he said, jpin the middle of his people, old Dan O'. But his heart
is buried in Rome. How many broken hearts are buried here, Simon!
sid―Her grave is over there, Jack, Mr Dedalus said. sidI'll soon be stretched
beside her. Let Him take me whenever He likes.
Breaking down, he began to weep to himself quietly, stumbling a little
in his walk. Mr Power took his arm.
jp―She's better where she is, he said kindly.
sid―I suppose so, Mr Dedalus said with a weak gasp. sidI suppose she is in
heaven if there is a heaven.
Corny Kelleher stepped aside from his rank and allowed the
mourners to plod by.
tk―Sad occasions, Mr Kernan began politely.
Mr Bloom closed his eyes and sadly twice bowed his head.
tk―The others are putting on their hats, Mr Kernan said. tkI suppose we can
do so too. We are the last. This cemetery is a treacherous place.
They covered their heads.
tk―The reverend gentleman read the service too quickly, don't you think? Mr
Kernan said with reproof.
Mr Bloom nodded gravely looking in the quick bloodshot eyes. lbSecret eyes, secretsearching. Mason, I think: not sure. Beside him again. We are the last. In the same boat. Hope he'll say something else.
Mr Kernan added:
tk―The service of the Irish church used in Mount Jerome is simpler, more
impressive I must say.
Mr Bloom gave prudent assent. lbThe language of course was another thing.
Mr Kernan said with solemnity:
tk―I am the resurrection and the life. That touches a man's inmost heart.
lb―It does, Mr Bloom said.
lbYour heart perhaps but what price the fellow in the six feet by two with his toes to the daisies? No touching that. Seat of the affections. Broken heart. A pump after all, pumping thousands of gallons of blood every day. One fine day it gets bunged up: and there you are. Lots of them lying around here: lungs, hearts, livers. Old rusty pumps: damn the thing else. The resurrection and the life. Once you are dead you are dead. That last day idea. Knocking them all up out of their graves. Come forth, Lazarus! And he came fifth and lost the job. Get up! Last day! Then every fellow mousing around for his liver and his lights and the rest of his traps. Find damn all of himself that morning. Pennyweight of powder in a skull. Twelve grammes one pennyweight. Troy measure.
Corny Kelleher fell into step at their side.
ck―Everything went off A 1, he said. ckWhat?
He looked on them from his drawling eye. lbPoliceman's shoulders.
With your tooraloom tooraloom.
tk―As it should be, Mr Kernan said.
ck―What? Eh? Corny Kelleher said.
Mr Kernan assured him.
jhm―Who is that chap behind with Tom Kernan? John Henry Menton asked. jhmI
know his face.
Ned Lambert glanced back.
nl―Bloom, he said, nlMadame Marion Tweedy that was, is, I mean, the
soprano. She's his wife.
jhm―O, to be sure, John Henry Menton said. jhmI haven't seen her for some time.
She was a finelooking woman. I danced with her, wait, fifteen seventeen
golden years ago, at Mat Dillon's in Roundtown. And a good armful she
was.
He looked behind through the others.
jhm―What is he? he asked. jhmWhat does he do? Wasn't he in the stationery line?
I fell foul of him one evening, I remember, at bowls.
Ned Lambert smiled.
nl―Yes, he was, he said, nlin Wisdom Hely's. A traveller for blottingpaper.
jhm―In God's name, John Henry Menton said, jhmwhat did she marry a coon like
that for? She had plenty of game in her then.
nl―Has still, Ned Lambert said. nlHe does some canvassing for ads.
John Henry Menton's large eyes stared ahead.
The barrow turned into a side lane. A portly man, ambushed among
the grasses, raised his hat in homage. The gravediggers touched their caps.
jp―John O'Connell, Mr Power said pleased. jpHe never forgets a friend.
Mr O'Connell shook all their hands in silence. Mr Dedalus said:
sid―I am come to pay you another visit.
joc―My dear Simon, the caretaker answered in a low voice. jocI don't want your
custom at all.
Saluting Ned Lambert and John Henry Menton he walked on at
Martin Cunningham's side puzzling two long keys at his back.
joc―Did you hear that one, he asked them, jocabout Mulcahy from the Coombe?
mc―I did not, Martin Cunningham said.
They bent their silk hats in concert and Hynes inclined his ear. The
caretaker hung his thumbs in the loops of his gold watchchain and spoke in
a discreet tone to their vacant smiles.
joc―They tell the story, he said, jocthat two drunks came out here one foggy
evening to look for the grave of a friend of theirs. They asked for Mulcahy
from the Coombe and were told where he was buried. After traipsing about
in the fog they found the grave sure enough. One of the drunks spelt out the
name: Terence Mulcahy. The other drunk was blinking up at a statue of
Our Saviour the widow had got put up.
The caretaker blinked up at one of the sepulchres they passed. He
resumed:
joc―And, after blinking up at the sacred figure, Not a bloody bit like the man,
says he. That's not Mulcahy, says he, whoever done it.
Rewarded by smiles he fell back and spoke with Corny Kelleher,
accepting the dockets given him, turning them over and scanning them as he
walked.
mc―That's all done with a purpose, Martin Cunningham explained to Hynes.
jh―I know, Hynes said. jhI know that.
mc―To cheer a fellow up, Martin Cunningham said. mcIt's pure good-
heartedness: damn the thing else.
Mr Bloom admired the caretaker's prosperous bulk. lbAll want to be on good terms with him. Decent fellow, John O'Connell, real good sort. Keys: like Keyes's ad: no fear of anyone getting out. No passout checks. Habeas corpus. I must see about that ad after the funeral. Did I write Ballsbridge on the envelope I took to cover when she disturbed me writing to Martha? Hope it's not chucked in the dead letter office. Be the better of a shave. Grey sprouting beard. That's the first sign when the hairs come out grey. And temper getting cross. Silver threads among the grey. Fancy being his wife. Wonder he had the gumption to propose to any girl. Come out and live in the graveyard. Dangle that before her. It might thrill her first. Courting death. Shades of night hovering here with all the dead stretched about. The shadows of the tombs when churchyards yawn and Daniel O'Connell must be a descendant I suppose who is this used to say he was a queer breedy man great catholic all the same like a big giant in the dark. Will o' the wisp. Gas of graves. Want to keep her mind off it to conceive at all. Women especially are so touchy. Tell her a ghost story in bed to make her sleep. Have you ever seen a ghost? Well, I have. It was a pitchdark night. The clock was on the stroke of twelve. Still they'd kiss all right if properly keyed up. Whores in Turkish graveyards. Learn anything if taken young. You might pick up a young widow here. Men like that. Love among the tombstones. Romeo. Spice of pleasure. In the midst of death we are in life. Both ends meet. Tantalising for the poor dead. Smell of grilled beefsteaks to the starving. Gnawing their vitals. Desire to grig people. Molly wanting to do it at the window. Eight children he has anyway.
lbHe has seen a fair share go under in his time, lying around him field after field. Holy fields. More room if they buried them standing. Sitting or kneeling you couldn't. Standing? His head might come up some day above ground in a landslip with his hand pointing. All honeycombed the ground must be: oblong cells. And very neat he keeps it too: trim grass and edgings. His garden Major Gamble calls Mount Jerome. Well, so it is. Ought to be flowers of sleep. Chinese cemeteries with giant poppies growing produce the best opium Mastiansky told me. The Botanic Gardens are just over there. It's the blood sinking in the earth gives new life. Same idea those jews they said killed the christian boy. Every man his price. Well preserved fat corpse, gentleman, epicure, invaluable for fruit garden. A bargain. By carcass of William Wilkinson, auditor and accountant, lately deceased, three pounds thirteen and six. With thanks.
lbI daresay the soil would be quite fat with corpsemanure, bones, flesh, nails. Charnelhouses. Dreadful. Turning green and pink decomposing. Rot quick in damp earth. The lean old ones tougher. Then a kind of a tallowy kind of a cheesy. Then begin to get black, black treacle oozing out of them. Then dried up. Deathmoths. Of course the cells or whatever they are go on living. Changing about. Live for ever practically. Nothing to feed on feed on themselves.
lbBut they must breed a devil of a lot of maggots. Soil must be simply
swirling with them. Your head it simply swurls. Those pretty little seaside
gurls. He looks cheerful enough over it. Gives him a sense of power seeing
all the others go under first. Wonder how he looks at life. Cracking his
jokes too: warms the cockles of his heart. The one about the bulletin.
Spurgeon went to heaven 4 a.m. this morning. 11 p.m. (closing time). Not
arrived yet. Peter. The dead themselves the men anyhow would like to hear
an odd joke or the women to know what's in fashion. A juicy pear or
ladies' punch, hot, strong and sweet. Keep out the damp. You must laugh
sometimes so better do it that way. Gravediggers in Hamlet. Shows the
profound knowledge of the human heart. Daren't joke about the dead for
two years at least. De mortuis nil nisi prius. Go out of mourning first. Hard
to imagine his funeral. Seems a sort of a joke. Read your own obituary
notice they say you live longer. Gives you second wind. New lease of life.
joc―How many have you for tomorrow? the caretaker asked.
ck―Two, Corny Kelleher said. ckHalf ten and eleven.
The caretaker put the papers in his pocket. The barrow had ceased to trundle. The mourners split and moved to each side of the hole, stepping with care round the graves. The gravediggers bore the coffin and set its nose on the brink, looping the bands round it.
lbBurying him. We come to bury Caesar. His ides of March or June. He doesn't know who is here nor care.
lbNow who is that lankylooking galoot over there in the macintosh? Now who is he I'd like to know? Now I'd give a trifle to know who he is. Always someone turns up you never dreamt of. A fellow could live on his lonesome all his life. Yes, he could. Still he'd have to get someone to sod him after he died though he could dig his own grave. We all do. Only man buries. No, ants too. First thing strikes anybody. Bury the dead. Say Robinson Crusoe was true to life. Well then Friday buried him. Every Friday buries a Thursday if you come to look at it.
lbPoor Dignam! His last lie on the earth in his box. When you think of them all it does seem a waste of wood. All gnawed through. They could invent a handsome bier with a kind of panel sliding, let it down that way. Ay but they might object to be buried out of another fellow's. They're so particular. Lay me in my native earth. Bit of clay from the holy land. Only a mother and deadborn child ever buried in the one coffin. I see what it means. I see. To protect him as long as possible even in the earth. The Irishman's house is his coffin. Embalming in catacombs, mummies the same idea.
Mr Bloom stood far back, his hat in his hand, counting the bared heads. lbTwelve. I'm thirteen. No. The chap in the macintosh is thirteen. Death's number. Where the deuce did he pop out of? He wasn't in the chapel, that I'll swear. Silly superstition that about thirteen.
lbNice soft tweed Ned Lambert has in that suit. Tinge of purple. I had one like that when we lived in Lombard street west. Dressy fellow he was once. Used to change three suits in the day. Must get that grey suit of mine turned by Mesias. Hello. It's dyed. His wife I forgot he's not married or his landlady ought to have picked out those threads for him.
The coffin dived out of sight, eased down by the men straddled on the gravetrestles. They struggled up and out: lband all uncovered. Twenty.
lbPause.
lbIf we were all suddenly somebody else.
lbFar away a donkey brayed. Rain. No such ass. Never see a dead one, they say. Shame of death. They hide. Also poor papa went away.
Gentle sweet air blew round the bared heads in a whisper. lbWhisper. The boy by the gravehead held his wreath with both hands staring quietly in the black open space. Mr Bloom moved behind the portly kindly caretaker. lbWellcut frockcoat. Weighing them up perhaps to see which will go next. Well, it is a long rest. Feel no more. It's the moment you feel. Must be damned unpleasant. Can't believe it at first. Mistake must be: someone else. Try the house opposite. Wait, I wanted to. I haven't yet. Then darkened deathchamber. Light they want. Whispering around you. Would you like to see a priest? Then rambling and wandering. Delirium all you hid all your life. The death struggle. His sleep is not natural. Press his lower eyelid. Watching is his nose pointed is his jaw sinking are the soles of his feet yellow. Pull the pillow away and finish it off on the floor since he's doomed. Devil in that picture of sinner's death showing him a woman. Dying to embrace her in his shirt. Last act of Lucia. Shall I nevermore behold thee? Bam! He expires. Gone at last. People talk about you a bit: forget you. Don't forget to pray for him. Remember him in your prayers. Even Parnell. Ivy day dying out. Then they follow: dropping into a hole, one after the other.
lbWe are praying now for the repose of his soul. Hoping you're well and not in hell. Nice change of air. Out of the fryingpan of life into the fire of purgatory.
lbDoes he ever think of the hole waiting for himself? They say you do when you shiver in the sun. Someone walking over it. Callboy's warning. Near you. Mine over there towards Finglas, the plot I bought. Mamma, poor mamma, and little Rudy.
The gravediggers took up their spades and flung heavy clods of clay in on the coffin. Mr Bloom turned away his face. lbAnd if he was alive all the time? Whew! By jingo, that would be awful! No, no: he is dead, of course. Of course he is dead. Monday he died. They ought to have some law to pierce the heart and make sure or an electric clock or a telephone in the coffin and some kind of a canvas airhole. Flag of distress. Three days. Rather long to keep them in summer. Just as well to get shut of them as soon as you are sure there's no.
The clay fell softer. lbBegin to be forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind.
The caretaker moved away a few paces and put on his hat. lbHad enough of it. The mourners took heart of grace, one by one, covering themselves without show. Mr Bloom put on his hat and saw the portly figure make its way deftly through the maze of graves. Quietly, sure of his ground, he traversed the dismal fields.
Hynes jotting down something in his notebook. lbAh, the names. But he
knows them all. No: coming to me.
jh―I am just taking the names, Hynes said below his breath. jhWhat is your
christian name? I'm not sure.
lb―L, Mr Bloom said. lbLeopold. And you might put down M'Coy's name too.
He asked me to.
jh―Charley, Hynes said writing. jhI know. He was on the Freeman once.
lbSo he was before he got the job in the morgue under Louis Byrne.
Good idea a postmortem for doctors. Find out what they imagine they
know. He died of a Tuesday. Got the run. Levanted with the cash of a few
ads. Charley, you're my darling. That was why he asked me to. O well,
does no harm. I saw to that, M'Coy. Thanks, old chap: much obliged.
Leave him under an obligation: costs nothing.
jh―And tell us, Hynes said, jhdo you know that fellow in the, fellow was over
there in the ...
He looked around.
lb―Macintosh. Yes, I saw him, Mr Bloom said. lbWhere is he now?
jh―M'Intosh, Hynes said scribbling. jhI don't know who he is. Is that his
name?
He moved away, looking about him.
lb―No, Mr Bloom began, turning and stopping. lbI say, Hynes!
lbDidn't hear. What? Where has he disappeared to? Not a sign. Well of all the. Has anybody here seen? Kay ee double ell. Become invisible. Good Lord, what became of him?
A seventh gravedigger came beside Mr Bloom to take up an idle
spade.
lb―O, excuse me!
He stepped aside nimbly.
Clay, brown, damp, began to be seen in the hole. lbIt rose. Nearly over. A mound of damp clods rose more, rose, and the gravediggers rested their spades. lbAll uncovered again for a few instants. The boy propped his wreath against a corner: lbthe brother-in-law his on a lump. The gravediggers put on their caps and carried their earthy spades towards the barrow. Then knocked the blades lightly on the turf: lbclean. One bent to pluck from the haft a long tuft of grass. One, leaving his mates, walked slowly on with shouldered weapon, its blade blueglancing. Silently at the gravehead another coiled the coffinband. lbHis navelcord. The brother-in-law, turning away, placed something in his free hand. lbThanks in silence. Sorry, sir: trouble. Headshake. I know that. For yourselves just.
The mourners moved away slowly without aim, by devious paths,
staying at whiles to read a name on a tomb.
jh―Let us go round by the chief's grave, Hynes said. jhWe have time.
jp―Let us, Mr Power said.
They turned to the right, following their slow thoughts. With awe Mr
Power's blank voice spoke:
jp―Some say he is not in that grave at all. That the coffin was filled with
stones. That one day he will come again.
Hynes shook his head.
jh―Parnell will never come again, he said. jhHe's there, all that was mortal of
him. Peace to his ashes.
Mr Bloom walked unheeded along his grove by saddened angels, crosses, broken pillars, family vaults, stone hopes praying with upcast eyes, old Ireland's hearts and hands. lbMore sensible to spend the money on some charity for the living. Pray for the repose of the soul of. Does anybody really? Plant him and have done with him. Like down a coalshoot. Then lump them together to save time. All souls' day. Twentyseventh I'll be at his grave. Ten shillings for the gardener. He keeps it free of weeds. Old man himself. Bent down double with his shears clipping. Near death's door. Who passed away. Who departed this life. As if they did it of their own accord. Got the shove, all of them. Who kicked the bucket. More interesting if they told you what they were. So and So, wheelwright. I travelled for cork lino. I paid five shillings in the pound. Or a woman's with her saucepan. I cooked good Irish stew. Eulogy in a country churchyard it ought to be that poem of whose is it Wordsworth or Thomas Campbell. Entered into rest the protestants put it. Old Dr Murren's. The great physician called him home. Well it's God's acre for them. Nice country residence. Newly plastered and painted. Ideal spot to have a quiet smoke and read the Church Times. Marriage ads they never try to beautify. Rusty wreaths hung on knobs, garlands of bronzefoil. Better value that for the money. Still, the flowers are more poetical. The other gets rather tiresome, never withering. Expresses nothing. Immortelles.
A bird sat tamely perched on a poplar branch. lbLike stuffed. Like the wedding present alderman Hooper gave us. Hoo! Not a budge out of him. Knows there are no catapults to let fly at him. Dead animal even sadder. Silly-Milly burying the little dead bird in the kitchen matchbox, a daisychain and bits of broken chainies on the grave.
lbThe Sacred Heart that is: showing it. Heart on his sleeve. Ought to be sideways and red it should be painted like a real heart. Ireland was dedicated to it or whatever that. Seems anything but pleased. Why this infliction? Would birds come then and peck like the boy with the basket of fruit but he said no because they ought to have been afraid of the boy. Apollo that was.
lbHow many! All these here once walked round Dublin. Faithful departed. As you are now so once were we.
lbBesides how could you remember everybody? Eyes, walk, voice. Well, the voice, yes: gramophone. Have a gramophone in every grave or keep it in the house. After dinner on a Sunday. Put on poor old greatgrandfather. Kraahraark! Hellohellohello amawfullyglad kraark awfullygladaseeagain hellohello amawf krpthsth. Remind you of the voice like the photograph reminds you of the face. Otherwise you couldn't remember the face after fifteen years, say. For instance who? For instance some fellow that died when I was in Wisdom Hely's.
lbRtststr! A rattle of pebbles. lbWait. Stop!
He looked down intently into a stone crypt. lbSome animal. Wait. There he goes.
An obese grey rat toddled along the side of the crypt, moving the pebbles. lbAn old stager: greatgrandfather: he knows the ropes. The grey alive crushed itself in under the plinth, wriggled itself in under it. Good hidingplace for treasure.
lbWho lives there? Are laid the remains of Robert Emery. Robert Emmet was buried here by torchlight, wasn't he? Making his rounds.
lbTail gone now.
lbOne of those chaps would make short work of a fellow. Pick the bones clean no matter who it was. Ordinary meat for them. A corpse is meat gone bad. Well and what's cheese? Corpse of milk. I read in that Voyages in China that the Chinese say a white man smells like a corpse. Cremation better. Priests dead against it. Devilling for the other firm. Wholesale burners and Dutch oven dealers. Time of the plague. Quicklime feverpits to eat them. Lethal chamber. Ashes to ashes. Or bury at sea. Where is that Parsee tower of silence? Eaten by birds. Earth, fire, water. Drowning they say is the pleasantest. See your whole life in a flash. But being brought back to life no. Can't bury in the air however. Out of a flying machine. Wonder does the news go about whenever a fresh one is let down. Underground communication. We learned that from them. Wouldn't be surprised. Regular square feed for them. Flies come before he's well dead. Got wind of Dignam. They wouldn't care about the smell of it. Saltwhite crumbling mush of corpse: smell, taste like raw white turnips.
The gates glimmered in front: lbstill open. Back to the world again. Enough of this place. Brings you a bit nearer every time. Last time I was here was Mrs Sinico's funeral. Poor papa too. The love that kills. And even scraping up the earth at night with a lantern like that case I read of to get at fresh buried females or even putrefied with running gravesores. Give you the creeps after a bit. I will appear to you after death. You will see my ghost after death. My ghost will haunt you after death. There is another world after death named hell. I do not like that other world she wrote. No more do I. Plenty to see and hear and feel yet. Feel live warm beings near you. Let them sleep in their maggoty beds. They are not going to get me this innings. Warm beds: warm fullblooded life.
Martin Cunningham emerged from a sidepath, talking gravely.
lbSolicitor, I think. I know his face. Menton, John Henry, solicitor, commissioner for oaths and affidavits. Dignam used to be in his office. Mat Dillon's long ago. Jolly Mat. Convivial evenings. Cold fowl, cigars, the Tantalus glasses. Heart of gold really. Yes, Menton. Got his rag out that evening on the bowlinggreen because I sailed inside him. Pure fluke of mine: the bias. Why he took such a rooted dislike to me. Hate at first sight. Molly and Floey Dillon linked under the lilactree, laughing. Fellow always like that, mortified if women are by.
lbGot a dinge in the side of his hat. Carriage probably.
lb―Excuse me, sir, Mr Bloom said beside them.
They stopped.
lb―Your hat is a little crushed, Mr Bloom said pointing.
John Henry Menton stared at him for an instant without moving.
mc―There, Martin Cunningham helped, pointing also.
John Henry Menton took off his hat, bulged out the dinge and
smoothed the nap with care on his coatsleeve. He clapped the hat on his
head again.
mc―It's all right now, Martin Cunningham said.
John Henry Menton jerked his head down in acknowledgment.
jhm―Thank you, he said shortly.
They walked on towards the gates. Mr Bloom, chapfallen, drew behind a few paces so as not to overhear. Martin laying down the law. Martin could wind a sappyhead like that round his little finger, without his seeing it.
lbOyster eyes. Never mind. Be sorry after perhaps when it dawns on him. Get the pull over him that way.
lbThank you. How grand we are this morning!
Before Nelson's pillar trams slowed, shunted, changed trolley, started
for Blackrock, Kingstown and Dalkey, Clonskea, Rathgar and Terenure,
Palmerston Park and upper Rathmines, Sandymount Green, Rathmines,
Ringsend and Sandymount Tower, Harold's Cross. The hoarse Dublin
United Tramway Company's timekeeper bawled them off:
ut―Rathgar and Terenure!
ut―Come on, Sandymount Green!
Right and left parallel clanging ringing a doubledecker and a
singledeck moved from their railheads, swerved to the down line, glided
parallel.
ut―Start, Palmerston Park!
Under the porch of the general post office shoeblacks called and polished. Parked in North Prince's street His Majesty's vermilion mailcars, bearing on their sides the royal initials, E. R., received loudly flung sacks of letters, postcards, lettercards, parcels, insured and paid, for local, provincial, British and overseas delivery.
Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's
stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float
bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of
Prince's stores.
rm―There it is, Red Murray said. rmAlexander Keyes.
lb―Just cut it out, will you? Mr Bloom said, lband I'll take it round to the
Telegraph office.
The door of Ruttledge's office creaked again. Davy Stephens, minute in a large capecoat, a small felt hat crowning his ringlets, passed out with a roll of papers under his cape, a king's courier.
Red Murray's long shears sliced out the advertisement from the
newspaper in four clean strokes. lbScissors and paste.
lb―I'll go through the printingworks, Mr Bloom said, taking the cut square.
rm―Of course, if he wants a par, Red Murray said earnestly, a pen behind his
ear, rmwe can do him one.
lb―Right, Mr Bloom said with a nod. lbI'll rub that in.
lbWe.
Red Murray touched Mr Bloom's arm with the shears and whispered:
rm―Brayden.
Mr Bloom turned and saw the liveried porter raise his lettered cap as a
stately figure entered between the newsboards of the
rm―Don't you think his face is like Our Saviour? Red Murray whispered.
The door of Ruttledge's office whispered: lbee: cree. They always build one door opposite another for the wind to. Way in. Way out.
lbOur Saviour: beardframed oval face: talking in the dusk. Mary,
Martha. Steered by an umbrella sword to the footlights: Mario the tenor.
lb―Or like Mario, Mr Bloom said.
rm―Yes, Red Murray agreed. rmBut Mario was said to be the picture of Our
Saviour.
lbJesusmario with rougy cheeks, doublet and spindle legs. Hand on his heart. In Martha.
rm―His grace phoned down twice this morning, Red Murray said gravely.
They watched the knees, legs, boots vanish. lbNeck.
A telegram boy stepped in nimbly, threw an envelope on the counter
and stepped off posthaste with a word:
utb―Freeman!
Mr Bloom said slowly:
lb―Well, he is one of our saviours also.
A meek smile accompanied him as he lifted the counterflap, as he passed in through a sidedoor and along the warm dark stairs and passage, along the now reverberating boards. lbBut will he save the circulation? Thumping. Thumping.
He pushed in the glass swingdoor and entered, stepping over strewn packing paper. Through a lane of clanking drums he made his way towards Nannetti's reading closet.
lbHynes here too: account of the funeral probably. Thumping. Thump.
lbThis morning the remains of the late Mr Patrick Dignam. Machines. Smash a man to atoms if they got him caught. Rule the world today. His machineries are pegging away too. Like these, got out of hand: fermenting. Working away, tearing away. And that old grey rat tearing to get in.
Mr Bloom halted behind the foreman's spare body, admiring a glossy crown.
lbStrange he never saw his real country. Ireland my country. Member for College green. He boomed that workaday worker tack for all it was worth. It's the ads and side features sell a weekly, not the stale news in the official gazette. Queen Anne is dead. Published by authority in the year one thousand and. Demesne situate in the townland of Rosenallis, barony of Tinnahinch. To all whom it may concern schedule pursuant to statute showing return of number of mules and jennets exported from Ballina. Nature notes. Cartoons. Phil Blake's weekly Pat and Bull story. Uncle Toby's page for tiny tots. Country bumpkin's queries. Dear Mr Editor, what is a good cure for flatulence? I'd like that part. Learn a lot teaching others. The personal note. M. A. P. Mainly all pictures. Shapely bathers on golden strand. World's biggest balloon. Double marriage of sisters celebrated. Two bridegrooms laughing heartily at each other. Cuprani too, printer. More Irish than the Irish.
The machines clanked in threefour time. lbThump, thump, thump.
Now if he got paralysed there and no-one knew how to stop them they'd
clank on and on the same, print it over and over and up and back.
Monkeydoodle the whole thing. Want a cool head.
jh―Well, get it into the evening edition, councillor, Hynes said.
lbSoon be calling him my lord mayor. Long John is backing him, they say.
The foreman, without answering, scribbled press on a corner of the
sheet and made a sign to a typesetter. He handed the sheet silently over the
dirty glass screen.
jh―Right: thanks, Hynes said moving off.
Mr Bloom stood in his way.
lb―If you want to draw the cashier is just going to lunch, he said, pointing
backward with his thumb.
jh―Did you? Hynes asked.
lb―Mm, Mr Bloom said. lbLook sharp and you'll catch him.
jh―Thanks, old man, Hynes said. jhI'll tap him too.
He hurried on eagerly towards the
lbThree bob I lent him in Meagher's. Three weeks. Third hint.
Mr Bloom laid his cutting on Mr Nannetti's desk.
lb―Excuse me, councillor, he said. lbThis ad, you see. Keyes, you remember?
Mr Nannetti considered the cutting awhile and nodded.
lb―He wants it in for July, Mr Bloom said.
The foreman moved his pencil towards it.
lb―But wait, Mr Bloom said. lbHe wants it changed. Keyes, you see. He wants
two keys at the top.
lbHell of a racket they make. He doesn't hear it. Nannan. Iron nerves. Maybe he understands what I.
The foreman turned round to hear patiently and, lifting an elbow,
began to scratch slowly in the armpit of his alpaca jacket.
lb―Like that, Mr Bloom said, crossing his forefingers at the top.
lbLet him take that in first.
Mr Bloom, glancing sideways up from the cross he had made, saw the foreman's sallow face, lbthink he has a touch of jaundice, and beyond the obedient reels feeding in huge webs of paper. lbClank it. Clank it. Miles of it unreeled. What becomes of it after? O, wrap up meat, parcels: various uses, thousand and one things.
Slipping his words deftly into the pauses of the clanking he drew swiftly on the scarred woodwork.
lb―Like that, see. Two crossed keys here. A circle. Then here the name.
Alexander Keyes, tea, wine and spirit merchant. So on.
lbBetter not teach him his own business.
lb―You know yourself, councillor, just what he wants. Then round the top in
leaded: the house of keys. You see? Do you think that's a good idea?
The foreman moved his scratching hand to his lower ribs and
scratched there quietly.
lb―The idea, Mr Bloom said, lbis the house of keys. You know, councillor, the
Manx parliament. Innuendo of home rule. Tourists, you know, from the isle
of Man. Catches the eye, you see. Can you do that?
lbI could ask him perhaps about how to pronounce that voglio. But
then if he didn't know only make it awkward for him. Better not.
jpn―We can do that, the foreman said. jpnHave you the design?
lb―I can get it, Mr Bloom said. lbIt was in a Kilkenny paper. He has a house
there too. I'll just run out and ask him. Well, you can do that and just a little
par calling attention. You know the usual. Highclass licensed premises.
Longfelt want. So on.
The foreman thought for an instant.
jpn―We can do that, he said. jpnLet him give us a three months' renewal.
A typesetter brought him a limp galleypage. He began to check it silently. Mr Bloom stood by, hearing the loud throbs of cranks, watching the silent typesetters at their cases.
lbWant to be sure of his spelling. Proof fever. Martin Cunningham forgot to give us his spellingbee conundrum this morning. It is amusing to view the unpar one ar alleled embarra two ars is it? double ess ment of a harassed pedlar while gauging au the symmetry with a y of a peeled pear under a cemetery wall. Silly, isn't it? Cemetery put in of course on account of the symmetry.
lbI should have said when he clapped on his topper. Thank you. I ought to have said something about an old hat or something. No. I could have said. Looks as good as new now. See his phiz then.
lbSllt. The nethermost deck of the first machine jogged forward its flyboard with sllt the first batch of quirefolded papers. Sllt. Almost human the way it sllt to call attention. Doing its level best to speak. That door too sllt creaking, asking to be shut. Everything speaks in its own way. Sllt.
The foreman handed back the galleypage suddenly, saying:
jpn―Wait. Where's the archbishop's letter? It's to be repeated in the Telegraph.
Where's what's his name?
He looked about him round his loud unanswering machines.
upr―Monks, sir? a voice asked from the castingbox.
jpn―Ay. Where's Monks?
upr―Monks!
Mr Bloom took up his cutting. lbTime to get out.
lb―Then I'll get the design, Mr Nannetti, he said, lband you'll give it a good
place I know.
jpn―Monks!
om―Yes, sir.
lbThree months' renewal. Want to get some wind off my chest first. Try it anyhow. Rub in August: good idea: horseshow month. Ballsbridge. Tourists over for the show.
He walked on through the caseroom passing an old man, bowed, spectacled, aproned. lbOld Monks, the dayfather. Queer lot of stuff he must have put through his hands in his time: obituary notices, pubs' ads, speeches, divorce suits, found drowned. Nearing the end of his tether now. Sober serious man with a bit in the savingsbank I'd say. Wife a good cook and washer. Daughter working the machine in the parlour. Plain Jane, no damn nonsense.
He stayed in his walk to watch a typesetter neatly distributing type. lbReads it backwards first. Quickly he does it. Must require some practice that. mangiD kcirtaP. Poor papa with his hagadah book, reading backwards with his finger to me. Pessach. Next year in Jerusalem. Dear, O dear! All that long business about that brought us out of the land of Egypt and into the house of bondage alleluia. Shema Israel Adonai Elohenu. No, that's the other. Then the twelve brothers, Jacob's sons. And then the lamb and the cat and the dog and the stick and the water and the butcher. And then the angel of death kills the butcher and he kills the ox and the dog kills the cat. Sounds a bit silly till you come to look into it well. Justice it means but it's everybody eating everyone else. That's what life is after all. How quickly he does that job. Practice makes perfect. Seems to see with his fingers.
Mr Bloom passed on out of the clanking noises through the gallery on to the landing. lbNow am I going to tram it out all the way and then catch him out perhaps. Better phone him up first. Number? Yes. Same as Citron's house. Twentyeight. Twentyeight double four.
He went down the house staircase. lbWho the deuce scrawled all over those walls with matches? Looks as if they did it for a bet. Heavy greasy smell there always is in those works. Lukewarm glue in Thom's next door when I was there.
He took out his handkerchief to dab his nose. lbCitronlemon? Ah, the soap I put there. Lose it out of that pocket. Putting back his handkerchief he took out the soap and stowed it away, buttoned, into the hip pocket of his trousers.
lbWhat perfume does your wife use? I could go home still: tram: something I forgot. Just to see: before: dressing. No. Here. No.
A sudden screech of laughter came from the
He entered softly.
profmh―The ghost walks, professor MacHugh murmured softly, biscuitfully to
the dusty windowpane.
Mr Dedalus, staring from the empty fireplace at Ned Lambert's
quizzing face, asked of it sourly:
sid―Agonising Christ, wouldn't it give you a heartburn on your arse?
Ned Lambert, seated on the table, read on:
nl―Or again, note the meanderings of some purling rill as it babbles on its
way, tho' quarrelling with the stony obstacles, to the tumbling waters of
Neptune's blue domain, 'mid mossy banks, fanned by gentlest zephyrs,
played on by the glorious sunlight or 'neath the shadows cast o'er its pensive
bosom by the overarching leafage of the giants of the forest. What about
that, Simon? he asked over the fringe of his newspaper. nlHow's that for
high?
sid―Changing his drink, Mr Dedalus said.
Ned Lambert, laughing, struck the newspaper on his knees,
repeating:
nl―The pensive bosom and the overarsing leafage. O boys! O boys!
sid―And Xenophon looked upon Marathon, Mr Dedalus said, looking again
on the fireplace and to the window, sidand Marathon looked on the sea.
profmh―That will do, professor MacHugh cried from the window. profmhI don't want to
hear any more of the stuff.
He ate off the crescent of water biscuit he had been nibbling and, hungered, made ready to nibble the biscuit in his other hand.
lbHigh falutin stuff. Bladderbags. Ned Lambert is taking a day off I
see. Rather upsets a man's day, a funeral does. He has influence they say.
Old Chatterton, the vicechancellor, is his granduncle or his
greatgranduncle. Close on ninety they say. Subleader for his death written
this long time perhaps. Living to spite them. Might go first himself. Johnny,
make room for your uncle. The right honourable Hedges Eyre Chatterton.
Daresay he writes him an odd shaky cheque or two on gale days. Windfall
when he kicks out. Alleluia.
nl―Just another spasm, Ned Lambert said.
lb―What is it? Mr Bloom asked.
profmh―A recently discovered fragment of Cicero, professor MacHugh answered
with pomp of tone. profmhOur lovely land.
lb―Whose land? Mr Bloom said simply.
profmh―Most pertinent question, the professor said between his chews. profmhWith an
accent on the whose.
sid―Dan Dawson's land, Mr Dedalus said.
lb―Is it his speech last night? Mr Bloom asked.
Ned Lambert nodded.
nl―But listen to this, he said.
The doorknob hit Mr Bloom in the small of the back as the door was
pushed in.
jjom―Excuse me, J. J. O'Molloy said, entering.
Mr Bloom moved nimbly aside.
lb―I beg yours, he said.
unclear: not Bloom; not J.J. O'Molly – Simon Dedalus?―Good day, Jack.
unclear: not Bloom or O'Molloy―Come in. Come in.
unclear: J.J. O'Molloy?―Good day.
jjom―How are you, Dedalus?
sid―Well. And yourself?
J. J. O'Molloy shook his head.
lbCleverest fellow at the junior bar he used to be. Decline, poor chap.
That hectic flush spells finis for a man. Touch and go with him. What's in
the wind, I wonder. Money worry.
nl―Or again if we but climb the serried mountain peaks.
unclear: Simon Dedalus?―You're looking extra.
jjom―Is the editor to be seen? J. J. O'Molloy asked, looking towards the inner
door.
profmh―Very much so, professor MacHugh said. profmhTo be seen and heard. He's in
his sanctum with Lenehan.
J. J. O'Molloy strolled to the sloping desk and began to turn back the pink pages of the file.
lbPractice dwindling. A mighthavebeen. Losing heart. Gambling. Debts
of honour. Reaping the whirlwind. Used to get good retainers from D. and
T. Fitzgerald. Their wigs to show the grey matter. Brains on their sleeve
like the statue in Glasnevin. Believe he does some literary work for the
Express with Gabriel Conroy. Wellread fellow. Myles Crawford began on
the Independent. Funny the way those newspaper men veer about when
they get wind of a new opening. Weathercocks. Hot and cold in the same
breath. Wouldn't know which to believe. One story good till you hear the
next. Go for one another baldheaded in the papers and then all blows over.
Hail fellow well met the next moment.
nl―Ah, listen to this for God' sake, Ned Lambert pleaded. nlOr again if we but
climb the serried mountain peaks ...
profmh―Bombast! the professor broke in testily. profmhEnough of the inflated windbag!
nl―Peaks, Ned Lambert went on, nltowering high on high, to bathe our souls,
as it were ...
sid―Bathe his lips, Mr Dedalus said. sidBlessed and eternal God! Yes? Is he
taking anything for it?
nl―As 'twere, in the peerless panorama of Ireland's portfolio, unmatched,
despite their wellpraised prototypes in other vaunted prize regions, for very
beauty, of bosky grove and undulating plain and luscious pastureland of
vernal green, steeped in the transcendent translucent glow of our mild
mysterious Irish twilight ...
profmh―The moon, professor MacHugh said. profmhHe forgot Hamlet.
nl―That mantles the vista far and wide and wait till the glowing orb of the
moon shine forth to irradiate her silver effulgence ...
sid―O! Mr Dedalus cried, giving vent to a hopeless groan. sidShite and onions!
That'll do, Ned. Life is too short.
He took off his silk hat and, blowing out impatiently his bushy moustache, welshcombed his hair with raking fingers.
Ned Lambert tossed the newspaper aside, chuckling with delight. An
instant after a hoarse bark of laughter burst over professor MacHugh's
unshaven blackspectacled face.
profmh―Doughy Daw! he cried.
lbAll very fine to jeer at it now in cold print but it goes down like hot cake that stuff. He was in the bakery line too, wasn't he? Why they call him Doughy Daw. Feathered his nest well anyhow. Daughter engaged to that chap in the inland revenue office with the motor. Hooked that nicely. Entertainments. Open house. Big blowout. Wetherup always said that. Get a grip of them by the stomach.
The inner door was opened violently and a scarlet beaked face,
crested by a comb of feathery hair, thrust itself in. The bold blue eyes stared
about them and the harsh voice asked:
myc―What is it?
profmh―And here comes the sham squire himself! professor MacHugh said
grandly.
myc―Getonouthat, you bloody old pedagogue! the editor said in recognition.
sid―Come, Ned, Mr Dedalus said, putting on his hat. sidI must get a drink after
that.
myc―Drink! the editor cried. mycNo drinks served before mass.
sid―Quite right too, Mr Dedalus said, going out. sidCome on, Ned.
Ned Lambert sidled down from the table. The editor's blue eyes roved
towards Mr Bloom's face, shadowed by a smile.
nl―Will you join us, Myles? Ned Lambert asked.
myc―North Cork militia! the editor cried, striding to the mantelpiece. mycWe won
every time! North Cork and Spanish officers!
nl―Where was that, Myles? Ned Lambert asked with a reflective glance at his
toecaps.
myc―In Ohio! the editor shouted.
nl―So it was, begad, Ned Lambert agreed.
Passing out he whispered to J. J. O'Molloy:
nl―Incipient jigs. Sad case.
myc―Ohio! the editor crowed in high treble from his uplifted scarlet face. mycMy
Ohio!
profmh―A perfect cretic! the professor said. profmhLong, short and long.
He took a reel of dental floss from his waistcoat pocket and, breaking
off a piece, twanged it smartly between two and two of his resonant
unwashed teeth.
profmh―Bingbang, bangbang.
Mr Bloom, seeing the coast clear, made for the inner door.
lb―Just a moment, Mr Crawford, he said. lbI just want to phone about an ad.
He went in.
profmh―What about that leader this evening? professor MacHugh asked, coming
to the editor and laying a firm hand on his shoulder.
myc―That'll be all right, Myles Crawford said more calmly. mycNever you fret.
Hello, Jack. That's all right.
jjom―Good day, Myles, J. J. O'Molloy said, letting the pages he held slip limply
back on the file. jjomIs that Canada swindle case on today?
The telephone whirred inside.
lb―Twentyeight. No. Twenty. Double four, yes.
Lenehan came out of the inner office with
len―Who wants a dead cert for the Gold cup? he asked. Sceptre with O.
Madden up.
He tossed the tissues on to the table.
Screams of newsboys barefoot in the hall rushed near and the door
was flung open.
len―Hush, Lenehan said. lenI hear feetstoops.
Professor MacHugh strode across the room and seized the cringing
urchin by the collar as the others scampered out of the hall and down the
steps. The tissues rustled up in the draught, floated softly in the air blue
scrawls and under the table came to earth.
uns―It wasn't me, sir. It was the big fellow shoved me, sir.
myc―Throw him out and shut the door, the editor said. mycThere's a hurricane
blowing.
Lenehan began to paw the tissues up from the floor, grunting as he
stooped twice.
uns―Waiting for the racing special, sir, the newsboy said. unsIt was Pat Farrell
shoved me, sir.
He pointed to two faces peering in round the doorframe.
uns―Him, sir.
profmh―Out of this with you, professor MacHugh said gruffly.
He hustled the boy out and banged the door to.
J. J. O'Molloy turned the files crackingly over, murmuring, seeking:
jjom―Continued on page six, column four.
lb―Yes, Evening Telegraph here, Mr Bloom phoned from the inner office. lbIs
the boss ...? Yes, Telegraph .... To where? Aha! Which auction rooms? ...
Aha! I see. Right. I'll catch him.
The bell whirred again as he rang off. He came in quickly and
bumped against Lenehan who was struggling up with the second tissue.
len―Pardon, monsieur, Lenehan said, clutching him for an instant and making
a grimace.
lb―My fault, Mr Bloom said, suffering his grip. lbAre you hurt? I'm in a hurry.
len―Knee, Lenehan said.
He made a comic face and whined, rubbing his knee:
len―The accumulation of the anno Domini.
lb―Sorry, Mr Bloom said.
He went to the door and, holding it ajar, paused. J. J. O'Molloy
slapped the heavy pages over. The noise of two shrill voices, a mouthorgan,
echoed in the bare hallway from the newsboys squatted on the doorsteps:
uns―We are the boys of Wexford
Who fought with heart and hand.
lb―I'm just running round to Bachelor's walk, Mr Bloom said, lbabout this ad
of Keyes's. Want to fix it up. They tell me he's round there in Dillon's.
He looked indecisively for a moment at their faces. The editor who,
leaning against the mantelshelf, had propped his head on his hand,
suddenly stretched forth an arm amply.
myc―Begone! he said. mycThe world is before you.
lb―Back in no time, Mr Bloom said, hurrying out.
J. J. O'Molloy took the tissues from Lenehan's hand and read them,
blowing them apart gently, without comment.
profmh―He'll get that advertisement, the professor said, staring through his
blackrimmed spectacles over the crossblind. profmhLook at the young scamps after
him.
len―Show. Where? Lenehan cried, running to the window.
Both smiled over the crossblind at the file of capering newsboys in Mr
Bloom's wake, the last zigzagging white on the breeze a mocking kite, a tail
of white bowknots.
len―Look at the young guttersnipe behind him hue and cry, Lenehan said, lenand
you'll kick. O, my rib risible! Taking off his flat spaugs and the walk. Small
nines. Steal upon larks.
He began to mazurka in swift caricature across the floor on sliding
feet past the fireplace to J. J. O'Molloy who placed the tissues in his
receiving hands.
myc―What's that? Myles Crawford said with a start. mycWhere are the other two
gone?
profmh―Who? the professor said, turning. profmhThey're gone round to the Oval for a
drink. Paddy Hooper is there with Jack Hall. Came over last night.
myc―Come on then, Myles Crawford said. mycWhere's my hat?
He walked jerkily into the office behind, parting the vent of his jacket,
jingling his keys in his back pocket. They jingled then in the air and against
the wood as he locked his desk drawer.
profmh―He's pretty well on, professor MacHugh said in a low voice.
jjom―Seems to be, J. J. O'Molloy said, taking out a cigarettecase in murmuring
meditation, jjombut it is not always as it seems. Who has the most matches?
He offered a cigarette to the professor and took one himself. Lenehan
promptly struck a match for them and lit their cigarettes in turn. J. J.
O'Molloy opened his case again and offered it.
len―Thanky vous, Lenehan said, helping himself.
The editor came from the inner office, a straw hat awry on his brow.
He declaimed in song, pointing sternly at professor MacHugh:
myc―'Twas rank and fame that tempted thee,
'Twas empire charmed thy heart.
The professor grinned, locking his long lips.
myc―Eh? You bloody old Roman empire? Myles Crawford said.
He took a cigarette from the open case. Lenehan, lighting it for him
with quick grace, said:
len―Silence for my brandnew riddle!
jjom―Imperium romanum, J. J. O'Molloy said gently. jjomIt sounds nobler than
British or Brixton. The word reminds one somehow of fat in the fire.
Myles Crawford blew his first puff violently towards the ceiling.
myc―That's it, he said. mycWe are the fat. You and I are the fat in the fire. We
haven't got the chance of a snowball in hell.
profmh―Wait a moment, professor MacHugh said, raising two quiet claws. profmhWe
mustn't be led away by words, by sounds of words. We think of Rome,
imperial, imperious, imperative.
He extended elocutionary arms from frayed stained shirtcuffs,
pausing:
profmh―What was their civilisation? Vast, I allow: but vile. Cloacae: sewers. The
jews in the wilderness and on the mountaintop said: It is meet to be here.
Let us build an altar to Jehovah. The Roman, like the Englishman who
follows in his footsteps, brought to every new shore on which he set his foot
(on our shore he never set it) only his cloacal obsession. He gazed about
him in his toga and he said: It is meet to be here. Let us construct a
watercloset.
len―Which they accordingly did do, Lenehan said. lenOur old ancient ancestors,
as we read in the first chapter of Guinness's, were partial to the running
stream.
jjom―They were nature's gentlemen, J. J. O'Molloy murmured. jjomBut we have
also Roman law.
profmh―And Pontius Pilate is its prophet, professor MacHugh responded.
jjom―Do you know that story about chief baron Palles? J. J. O'Molloy asked.
jjomIt was at the royal university dinner. Everything was going swimmingly .....
len―First my riddle, Lenehan said. lenAre you ready?
Mr O'Madden Burke, tall in copious grey of Donegal tweed, came in
from the hallway. Stephen Dedalus, behind him, uncovered as he entered.
len―Entrez, mes enfants! Lenehan cried.
omb―I escort a suppliant, Mr O'Madden Burke said melodiously. ombYouth led by
Experience visits Notoriety.
myc―How do you do? the editor said, holding out a hand. mycCome in. Your
governor is just gone.
Lenehan said to all:
len―Silence! What opera resembles a railwayline? Reflect, ponder, excogitate,
reply.
Stephen handed over the typed sheets, pointing to the title and
signature.
myc―Who? the editor asked.
Bit torn off.
sd―Mr Garrett Deasy, Stephen said.
myc―That old pelters, the editor said. mycWho tore it? Was he short taken?
profmh―Good day, Stephen, the professor said, coming to peer over their
shoulders. profmhFoot and mouth? Are you turned ...?
sdBullockbefriending bard.
sd―Good day, sir, Stephen answered blushing. sdThe letter is not mine. Mr
Garrett Deasy asked me to ...
myc―O, I know him, Myles Crawford said, mycand I knew his wife too. The
bloodiest old tartar God ever made. By Jesus, she had the foot and mouth
disease and no mistake! The night she threw the soup in the waiter's face in
the Star and Garter. Oho!
sdA woman brought sin into the world. For Helen, the runaway wife of
Menelaus, ten years the Greeks. O'Rourke, prince of Breffni.
sd―Is he a widower? Stephen asked.
myc―Ay, a grass one, Myles Crawford said, his eye running down the
typescript. mycEmperor's horses. Habsburg. An Irishman saved his life on the
ramparts of Vienna. Don't you forget! Maximilian Karl O'Donnell, graf
von Tirconnell in Ireland. Sent his heir over to make the king an Austrian
fieldmarshal now. Going to be trouble there one day. Wild geese. O yes,
every time. Don't you forget that!
jjom―The moot point is did he forget it, J. J. O'Molloy said quietly, turning a
horseshoe paperweight. jjomSaving princes is a thankyou job.
Professor MacHugh turned on him.
profmh―And if not? he said.
myc―I'll tell you how it was, Myles Crawford began. mycA Hungarian it was one
day ...
profmh―We were always loyal to lost causes, the professor said. profmhSuccess for us is
the death of the intellect and of the imagination. We were never loyal to the
successful. We serve them. I teach the blatant Latin language. I speak the
tongue of a race the acme of whose mentality is the maxim: time is money.
Material domination. Domine! Lord! Where is the spirituality? Lord Jesus?
Lord Salisbury? A sofa in a westend club. But the Greek!
A smile of light brightened his darkrimmed eyes, lengthened his long
lips.
profmh―The Greek! he said again. profmhKyrios! Shining word! The vowels the Semite
and the Saxon know not. Kyrie! The radiance of the intellect. I ought to
profess Greek, the language of the mind. Kyrie eleison! The closetmaker
and the cloacamaker will never be lords of our spirit. We are liege subjects
of the catholic chivalry of Europe that foundered at Trafalgar and of the
empire of the spirit, not an imperium, that went under with the Athenian
fleets at Aegospotami. Yes, yes. They went under. Pyrrhus, misled by an
oracle, made a last attempt to retrieve the fortunes of Greece. Loyal to a lost
cause.
He strode away from them towards the window.
omb―They went forth to battle, Mr O'Madden Burke said greyly, ombbut they
always fell.
len―Boohoo! Lenehan wept with a little noise. lenOwing to a brick received in
the latter half of the matinée. Poor, poor, poor Pyrrhus!
He whispered then near Stephen's ear:
sdIn mourning for Sallust, Mulligan says. Whose mother is beastly dead.
Myles Crawford crammed the sheets into a sidepocket.
myc―That'll be all right, he said. mycI'll read the rest after. That'll be all right.
Lenehan extended his hands in protest.
len―But my riddle! he said. lenWhat opera is like a railwayline?
omb―Opera? Mr O'Madden Burke's sphinx face reriddled.
Lenehan announced gladly:
len―The Rose of Castile. See the wheeze? Rows of cast steel. Gee!
He poked Mr O'Madden Burke mildly in the spleen. Mr O'Madden
Burke fell back with grace on his umbrella, feigning a gasp.
omb―Help! he sighed. ombI feel a strong weakness.
Lenehan, rising to tiptoe, fanned his face rapidly with the rustling tissues.
The professor, returning by way of the files, swept his hand across
Stephen's and Mr O'Madden Burke's loose ties.
profmh―Paris, past and present, he said. profmhYou look like communards.
jjom―Like fellows who had blown up the Bastile, J. J. O'Molloy said in quiet
mockery. jjomOr was it you shot the lord lieutenant of Finland between you?
You look as though you had done the deed. General Bobrikoff.
sd―We were only thinking about it, Stephen said.
myc―All the talents, Myles Crawford said. mycLaw, the classics ...
len―The turf, Lenehan put in.
myc―Literature, the press.
profmh―If Bloom were here, the professor said. profmhThe gentle art of advertisement.
omb―And Madam Bloom, Mr O'Madden Burke added. ombThe vocal muse.
Dublin's prime favourite.
Lenehan gave a loud cough.
len―Ahem! he said very softly. lenO, for a fresh of breath air! I caught a cold in
the park. The gate was open.
The editor laid a nervous hand on Stephen's shoulder.
myc―I want you to write something for me, he said. mycSomething with a bite in it.
You can do it. I see it in your face. In the lexicon of youth .....
sdSee it in your face. See it in your eye. Lazy idle little schemer.
myc―Foot and mouth disease! the editor cried in scornful invective. mycGreat
nationalist meeting in Borris-in-Ossory. All balls! Bulldosing the public!
Give them something with a bite in it. Put us all into it, damn its soul.
Father, Son and Holy Ghost and Jakes M'Carthy.
omb―We can all supply mental pabulum, Mr O'Madden Burke said.
Stephen raised his eyes to the bold unheeding stare.
jjom―He wants you for the pressgang, J. J. O'Molloy said.
myc―You can do it, Myles Crawford repeated, clenching his hand in emphasis.
mycWait a minute. We'll paralyse Europe as Ignatius Gallaher used to say when
he was on the shaughraun, doing billiardmarking in the Clarence. Gallaher,
that was a pressman for you. That was a pen. You know how he made his
mark? I'll tell you. That was the smartest piece of journalism ever known.
That was in eightyone, sixth of May, time of the invincibles, murder in the
Phoenix park, before you were born, I suppose. I'll show you.
He pushed past them to the files.
myc―Look at here, he said turning. mycThe New York World cabled for a special.
Remember that time?
Professor MacHugh nodded.
myc―New York World, the editor said, excitedly pushing back his straw hat.
mycWhere it took place. Tim Kelly, or Kavanagh I mean. Joe Brady and the
rest of them. Where Skin-the-Goat drove the car. Whole route, see?
omb―Skin-the-Goat, Mr O'Madden Burke said. ombFitzharris. He has that
cabman's shelter, they say, down there at Butt bridge. Holohan told me.
You know Holohan?
myc―Hop and carry one, is it? Myles Crawford said.
omb―And poor Gumley is down there too, so he told me, minding stones for
the corporation. A night watchman.
Stephen turned in surprise.
sd―Gumley? he said. sdYou don't say so? A friend of my father's, is it?
myc―Never mind Gumley, Myles Crawford cried angrily. mycLet Gumley mind
the stones, see they don't run away. Look at here. What did Ignatius
Gallaher do? I'll tell you. Inspiration of genius. Cabled right away. Have
you Weekly Freeman of 17 March? Right. Have you got that?
He flung back pages of the files and stuck his finger on a point.
myc―Take page four, advertisement for Bransome's coffee, let us say. Have
you got that? Right.
The telephone whirred.
profmh―I'll answer it, the professor said, going.
myc―B is parkgate. Good.
His finger leaped and struck point after point, vibrating.
myc―T is viceregal lodge. C is where murder took place. K is Knockmaroon
gate.
The loose flesh of his neck shook like a cock's wattles. An illstarched
dicky jutted up and with a rude gesture he thrust it back into his waistcoat.
profmh―Hello? Evening Telegraph here. Hello? ... Who's there? ... Yes ... Yes ....
Yes.
myc―F to P is the route Skin-the-Goat drove the car for an alibi, Inchicore,
Roundtown, Windy Arbour, Palmerston Park, Ranelagh. F. A. B. P. Got
that? X is Davy's publichouse in upper Leeson street.
The professor came to the inner door.
profmh―Bloom is at the telephone, he said.
myc―Tell him go to hell, the editor said promptly. mycX is Davy's publichouse,
see?
len―Clever, Lenehan said. lenVery.
myc―Gave it to them on a hot plate, Myles Crawford said, mycthe whole bloody
history.
sdNightmare from which you will never awake.
myc―I saw it, the editor said proudly. mycI was present. Dick Adams, the
besthearted bloody Corkman the Lord ever put the breath of life in, and
myself.
Lenehan bowed to a shape of air, announcing:
len―Madam, I'm Adam. And Able was I ere I saw Elba.
myc―History! Myles Crawford cried. mycThe Old Woman of Prince's street was
there first. There was weeping and gnashing of teeth over that. Out of an
advertisement. Gregor Grey made the design for it. That gave him the leg
up. Then Paddy Hooper worked Tay Pay who took him on to the Star.
Now he's got in with Blumenfeld. That's press. That's talent. Pyatt! He
was all their daddies!
len―The father of scare journalism, Lenehan confirmed, lenand the
brother-in-law of Chris Callinan.
profmh―Hello? Are you there? Yes, he's here still. Come across yourself.
myc―Where do you find a pressman like that now, eh? the editor cried.
He flung the pages down.
len―Clamn dever, Lenehan said to Mr O'Madden Burke.
omb―Very smart, Mr O'Madden Burke said.
Professor MacHugh came from the inner office.
profmh―Talking about the invincibles, he said, profmhdid you see that some hawkers
were up before the recorder ...
jjom―O yes, J. J. O'Molloy said eagerly. jjomLady Dudley was walking home
through the park to see all the trees that were blown down by that cyclone
last year and thought she'd buy a view of Dublin. And it turned out to be a
commemoration postcard of Joe Brady or Number One or Skin-the-Goat.
Right outside the viceregal lodge, imagine!
myc―They're only in the hook and eye department, Myles Crawford said.
mycPsha! Press and the bar! Where have you a man now at the bar like those
fellows, like Whiteside, like Isaac Butt, like silvertongued O'Hagan. Eh?
Ah, bloody nonsense. Psha! Only in the halfpenny place.
His mouth continued to twitch unspeaking in nervous curls of disdain.
sdWould anyone wish that mouth for her kiss? How do you know? Why did you write it then?
sdMouth, south. Is the mouth south someway? Or the south a mouth? Must be some. South, pout, out, shout, drouth. Rhymes: two men dressed the same, looking the same, two by two.
He saw them three by three, approaching girls, in green, in rose, in
russet, entwining, sdper l'aer perso, in mauve, in purple, sdquella pacifica
oriafiamma, gold of oriflamme, di rimirar fè più ardenti. But I old men,
penitent, leadenfooted, underdarkneath the night: mouth south: tomb
womb.
omb―Speak up for yourself, Mr O'Madden Burke said.
J. J. O'Molloy, smiling palely, took up the gage.
jjom―My dear Myles, he said, flinging his cigarette aside, jjomyou put a false
construction on my words. I hold no brief, as at present advised, for the
third profession qua profession but your Cork legs are running away with
you. Why not bring in Henry Grattan and Flood and Demosthenes and
Edmund Burke? Ignatius Gallaher we all know and his Chapelizod boss,
Harmsworth of the farthing press, and his American cousin of the Bowery
guttersheet not to mention Paddy Kelly's Budget, Pue's Occurrences and our
watchful friend The Skibbereen Eagle. Why bring in a master of forensic
eloquence like Whiteside? Sufficient for the day is the newspaper thereof.
myc―Grattan and Flood wrote for this very paper, the editor cried in his face.
mycIrish volunteers. Where are you now? Established 1763. Dr Lucas. Who
have you now like John Philpot Curran? Psha!
jjom―Well, J. J. O'Molloy said, jjomBushe K. C., for example.
myc―Bushe? the editor said. mycWell, yes: Bushe, yes. He has a strain of it in his
blood. Kendal Bushe or I mean Seymour Bushe.
profmh―He would have been on the bench long ago, the professor said, profmhonly
for .... But no matter.
J. J. O'Molloy turned to Stephen and said quietly and slowly:
jjom―One of the most polished periods I think I ever listened to in my life fell
from the lips of Seymour Bushe. It was in that case of fratricide, the Childs
murder case. Bushe defended him.
sdBy the way how did he find that out? He died in his sleep. Or the
other story, beast with two backs?
profmh―What was that? the professor asked.
jjom―He spoke on the law of evidence, J. J. O'Molloy said, jjomof Roman justice as
contrasted with the earlier Mosaic code, the lex talionis. And he cited the
Moses of Michelangelo in the vatican.
unclear: professor MacHugh?―Ha.
len―A few wellchosen words, Lenehan prefaced. lenSilence!
sdPause. J. J. O'Molloy took out his cigarettecase.
sdFalse lull. Something quite ordinary.
Messenger took out his matchbox thoughtfully and lit his cigar.
sdI have often thought since on looking back over that strange time that it was that small act, trivial in itself, that striking of that match, that determined the whole aftercourse of both our lives.
J. J. O'Molloy resumed, moulding his words:
jjom―He said of it: that stony effigy in frozen music, horned and terrible, of the
human form divine, that eternal symbol of wisdom and of prophecy which,
if aught that the imagination or the hand of sculptor has wrought in marble
of soultransfigured and of soultransfiguring deserves to live, deserves to live.
His slim hand with a wave graced echo and fall.
myc―Fine! Myles Crawford said at once.
omb―The divine afflatus, Mr O'Madden Burke said.
jjom―You like it? J. J. O'Molloy asked Stephen.
Stephen, his blood wooed by grace of language and gesture, blushed.
He took a cigarette from the case. J. J. O'Molloy offered his case to Myles
Crawford. Lenehan lit their cigarettes as before and took his trophy,
saying:
len―Muchibus thankibus.
jjom―Professor Magennis was speaking to me about you, J. J. O'Molloy said to
Stephen. jjomWhat do you think really of that hermetic crowd, the opal hush
poets: A. E. the mastermystic? That Blavatsky woman started it. She was a
nice old bag of tricks. A. E. has been telling some yankee interviewer that
you came to him in the small hours of the morning to ask him about planes
of consciousness. Magennis thinks you must have been pulling A. E.'s leg.
He is a man of the very highest morale, Magennis.
sdSpeaking about me. What did he say? What did he say? What did he
say about me? Don't ask.
profmh―No, thanks, professor MacHugh said, waving the cigarettecase aside.
profmhWait a moment. Let me say one thing. The finest display of oratory I ever
heard was a speech made by John F Taylor at the college historical society.
Mr Justice Fitzgibbon, the present lord justice of appeal, had spoken and
the paper under debate was an essay (new for those days), advocating the
revival of the Irish tongue.
He turned towards Myles Crawford and said:
profmh―You know Gerald Fitzgibbon. Then you can imagine the style of his
discourse.
jjom―He is sitting with Tim Healy, J. J. O'Molloy said, jjomrumour has it, on the
Trinity college estates commission.
myc―He is sitting with a sweet thing, Myles Crawford said, mycin a child's frock.
Go on. Well?
profmh―It was the speech, mark you, the professor said, profmhof a finished orator, full
of courteous haughtiness and pouring in chastened diction I will not say the
vials of his wrath but pouring the proud man's contumely upon the new
movement. It was then a new movement. We were weak, therefore
worthless.
He closed his long thin lips an instant but, eager to be on, raised an outspanned hand to his spectacles and, with trembling thumb and ringfinger touching lightly the black rims, steadied them to a new focus.
In ferial tone he addressed J. J. O'Molloy:
profmh―Taylor had come there, you must know, from a sickbed. That he had
prepared his speech I do not believe for there was not even one
shorthandwriter in the hall. His dark lean face had a growth of shaggy
beard round it. He wore a loose white silk neckcloth and altogether he
looked (though he was not) a dying man.
His gaze turned at once but slowly from J. J. O'Molloy's towards
Stephen's face and then bent at once to the ground, seeking. His unglazed
linen collar appeared behind his bent head, soiled by his withering hair. Still
seeking, he said:
profmh―When Fitzgibbon's speech had ended John F Taylor rose to reply. Briefly,
as well as I can bring them to mind, his words were these.
He raised his head firmly. His eyes bethought themselves once more. Witless shellfish swam in the gross lenses to and fro, seeking outlet.
He began:
profmh―Mr chairman, ladies and gentlemen: Great was my admiration in listening
to the remarks addressed to the youth of Ireland a moment since by my
learned friend. It seemed to me that I had been transported into a country far
away from this country, into an age remote from this age, that I stood in
ancient Egypt and that I was listening to the speech of some highpriest of that
land addressed to the youthful Moses.
His listeners held their cigarettes poised to hear, their smokes
ascending in frail stalks that flowered with his speech. sdAnd let our crooked
smokes. Noble words coming. Look out. Could you try your hand at it
yourself?
profmh―And it seemed to me that I heard the voice of that Egyptian highpriest
raised in a tone of like haughtiness and like pride. I heard his words and their
meaning was revealed to me.
sdIt was revealed to me that those things are good which yet are
corrupted which neither if they were supremely good nor unless they were
good could be corrupted. Ah, curse you! That's saint Augustine.
profmh―Why will you jews not accept our culture, our religion and our language?
You are a tribe of nomad herdsmen: we are a mighty people. You have no
cities nor no wealth: our cities are hives of humanity and our galleys, trireme
and quadrireme, laden with all manner merchandise furrow the waters of the
known globe. You have but emerged from primitive conditions: we have a
literature, a priesthood, an agelong history and a polity.
sdNile.
sdChild, man, effigy.
sdBy the Nilebank the babemaries kneel, cradle of bulrushes: a man
supple in combat: stonehorned, stonebearded, heart of stone.
profmh―You pray to a local and obscure idol: our temples, majestic and mysterious,
are the abodes of Isis and Osiris, of Horus and Ammon Ra. Yours serfdom,
awe and humbleness: ours thunder and the seas. Israel is weak and few are
her children: Egypt is an host and terrible are her arms. Vagrants and
daylabourers are you called: the world trembles at our name.
A dumb belch of hunger cleft his speech. He lifted his voice above it
boldly:
profmh―But, ladies and gentlemen, had the youthful Moses listened to and accepted
that view of life, had he bowed his head and bowed his will and bowed his
spirit before that arrogant admonition he would never have brought the
chosen people out of their house of bondage, nor followed the pillar of the
cloud by day. He would never have spoken with the Eternal amid lightnings
on Sinai's mountaintop nor ever have come down with the light of
inspiration shining in his countenance and bearing in his arms the tables of
the law, graven in the language of the outlaw.
He ceased and looked at them, enjoying a silence.
J. J. O'Molloy said not without regret:
jjom―And yet he died without having entered the land of promise.
len―A sudden-at-the-moment-though-from-lingering-illness-often-
expectorated-demise, Lenehan added. lenAnd with a great future
behind him.
The troop of bare feet was heard rushing along the hallway and
pattering up the staircase.
profmh―That is oratory, the professor said uncontradicted.
sdGone with the wind. Hosts at Mullaghmast and Tara of the kings. Miles of ears of porches. The tribune's words, howled and scattered to the four winds. A people sheltered within his voice. Dead noise. Akasic records of all that ever anywhere wherever was. Love and laud him: me no more.
sdI have money.
sd―Gentlemen, Stephen said. sdAs the next motion on the agenda paper may I
suggest that the house do now adjourn?
omb―You take my breath away. It is not perchance a French compliment? Mr
O'Madden Burke asked. omb'Tis the hour, methinks, when the winejug,
metaphorically speaking, is most grateful in Ye ancient hostelry.
len―That it be and hereby is resolutely resolved. All that are in favour say ay,
Lenehan announced. lenThe contrary no. I declare it carried. To which
particular boosingshed ...? My casting vote is: Mooney's!
He led the way, admonishing:
len―We will sternly refuse to partake of strong waters, will we not? Yes, we
will not. By no manner of means.
Mr O'Madden Burke, following close, said with an ally's lunge of his
umbrella:
omb―Lay on, Macduff!
myc―Chip of the old block! the editor cried, clapping Stephen on the shoulder.
mycLet us go. Where are those blasted keys?
He fumbled in his pocket pulling out the crushed typesheets.
myc―Foot and mouth. I know. That'll be all right. That'll go in. Where are
they? That's all right.
He thrust the sheets back and went into the inner office.
J. J. O'Molloy, about to follow him in, said quietly to Stephen:
jjom―I hope you will live to see it published. Myles, one moment.
He went into the inner office, closing the door behind him.
profmh―Come along, Stephen, the professor said. profmhThat is fine, isn't it? It has the
prophetic vision. Fuit Ilium! The sack of windy Troy. Kingdoms of this
world. The masters of the Mediterranean are fellaheen today.
The first newsboy came pattering down the stairs at their heels and
rushed out into the street, yelling:
uns―Racing special!
sdDublin. I have much, much to learn.
They turned to the left along Abbey street.
sd―I have a vision too, Stephen said.
profmh―Yes? the professor said, skipping to get into step. profmhCrawford will follow.
Another newsboy shot past them, yelling as he ran:
uns―Racing special!
sdDubliners.
sd―Two Dublin vestals, Stephen said, sdelderly and pious, have lived fifty and
fiftythree years in Fumbally's lane.
profmh―Where is that? the professor asked.
sd―Off Blackpitts, Stephen said.
sdDamp night reeking of hungry dough. Against the wall. Face glistering tallow under her fustian shawl. Frantic hearts. Akasic records. Quicker, darlint!
sdOn now. Dare it. Let there be life.
sd―They want to see the views of Dublin from the top of Nelson's pillar.
They save up three and tenpence in a red tin letterbox moneybox. They
shake out the threepenny bits and sixpences and coax out the pennies with
the blade of a knife. Two and three in silver and one and seven in coppers.
They put on their bonnets and best clothes and take their umbrellas for fear
it may come on to rain.
profmh―Wise virgins, professor MacHugh said.
sd―They buy one and fourpenceworth of brawn and four slices of panloaf at
the north city diningrooms in Marlborough street from Miss Kate Collins,
proprietress. They purchase four and twenty ripe plums from a girl at the
foot of Nelson's pillar to take off the thirst of the brawn. They give two
threepenny bits to the gentleman at the turnstile and begin to waddle slowly
up the winding staircase, grunting, encouraging each other, afraid of the
dark, panting, one asking the other have you the brawn, praising God and
the Blessed Virgin, threatening to come down, peeping at the airslits. Glory
be to God. They had no idea it was that high.
Their names are Anne Kearns and Florence MacCabe. Anne Kearns
has the lumbago for which she rubs on Lourdes water, given her by a lady
who got a bottleful from a passionist father. Florence MacCabe takes a
crubeen and a bottle of double X for supper every Saturday.
profmh―Antithesis, the professor said nodding twice. profmhVestal virgins. I can see
them. What's keeping our friend?
He turned.
A bevy of scampering newsboys rushed down the steps, scattering in
all directions, yelling, their white papers fluttering. Hard after them Myles
Crawford appeared on the steps, his hat aureoling his scarlet face, talking
with J. J. O'Molloy.
profmh―Come along, the professor cried, waving his arm.
He set off again to walk by Stephen's side.
profmh―Yes, he said. profmhI see them.
Mr Bloom, breathless, caught in a whirl of wild newsboys near the
offices of the
lb―Mr Crawford! A moment!
uns―Telegraph! Racing special!
myc―What is it? Myles Crawford said, falling back a pace.
A newsboy cried in Mr Bloom's face:
uns―Terrible tragedy in Rathmines! A child bit by a bellows!
lb―Just this ad, Mr Bloom said, pushing through towards the steps, puffing,
and taking the cutting from his pocket. lbI spoke with Mr Keyes just now.
He'll give a renewal for two months, he says. After he'll see. But he wants a
par to call attention in the Telegraph too, the Saturday pink. And he wants
it copied if it's not too late I told councillor Nannetti from the Kilkenny
People. I can have access to it in the national library. House of keys, don't
you see? His name is Keyes. It's a play on the name. But he practically
promised he'd give the renewal. But he wants just a little puff. What will I
tell him, Mr Crawford?
myc―Will you tell him he can kiss my arse? Myles Crawford said throwing out
his arm for emphasis. mycTell him that straight from the stable.
lbA bit nervy. Look out for squalls. All off for a drink. Arm in arm.
Lenehan's yachting cap on the cadge beyond. Usual blarney. Wonder is
that young Dedalus the moving spirit. Has a good pair of boots on him
today. Last time I saw him he had his heels on view. Been walking in muck
somewhere. Careless chap. What was he doing in Irishtown?
lb―Well, Mr Bloom said, his eyes returning, lbif I can get the design I suppose
it's worth a short par. He'd give the ad, I think. I'll tell him ...
myc―He can kiss my royal Irish arse, Myles Crawford cried loudly over his
shoulder. mycAny time he likes, tell him.
While Mr Bloom stood weighing the point and about to smile he strode on jerkily.
myc―Nulla bona, Jack, he said, raising his hand to his chin. mycI'm up to here.
I've been through the hoop myself. I was looking for a fellow to back a bill
for me no later than last week. Sorry, Jack. You must take the will for the
deed. With a heart and a half if I could raise the wind anyhow.
J. J. O'Molloy pulled a long face and walked on silently. They caught
up on the others and walked abreast.
sd―When they have eaten the brawn and the bread and wiped their twenty
fingers in the paper the bread was wrapped in they go nearer to the railings.
profmh―Something for you, the professor explained to Myles Crawford. profmhTwo old
Dublin women on the top of Nelson's pillar.
myc―That's new, Myles Crawford said. mycThat's copy. Out for the waxies'
Dargle. Two old trickies, what?
sd―But they are afraid the pillar will fall, Stephen went on. sdThey see the roofs
and argue about where the different churches are: Rathmines' blue dome,
Adam and Eve's, saint Laurence O'Toole's. But it makes them giddy to look
so they pull up their skirts ....
myc―Easy all, Myles Crawford said. mycNo poetic licence. We're in the
archdiocese here.
sd―And settle down on their striped petticoats, peering up at the statue of the
onehandled adulterer.
profmh―Onehandled adulterer! the professor cried. profmhI like that. I see the idea. I see
what you mean.
sd―It gives them a crick in their necks, Stephen said, sdand they are too tired to
look up or down or to speak. They put the bag of plums between them and
eat the plums out of it, one after another, wiping off with their
handkerchiefs the plumjuice that dribbles out of their mouths and spitting
the plumstones slowly out between the railings.
He gave a sudden loud young laugh as a close. Lenehan and Mr
O'Madden Burke, hearing, turned, beckoned and led on across towards
Mooney's.
myc―Finished? Myles Crawford said. mycSo long as they do no worse.
profmh―You remind me of Antisthenes, the professor said, profmha disciple of Gorgias,
the sophist. It is said of him that none could tell if he were bitterer against
others or against himself. He was the son of a noble and a bondwoman.
And he wrote a book in which he took away the palm of beauty from
Argive Helen and handed it to poor Penelope.
lbPoor Penelope. Penelope Rich.
They made ready to cross O'Connell street.
At various points along the eight lines tramcars with motionless trolleys stood in their tracks, bound for or from Rathmines, Rathfarnham, Blackrock, Kingstown and Dalkey, Sandymount Green, Ringsend and Sandymount Tower, Donnybrook, Palmerston Park and Upper Rathmines, all still, becalmed in short circuit. Hackney cars, cabs, delivery waggons, mailvans, private broughams, aerated mineral water floats with rattling crates of bottles, rattled, rolled, horsedrawn, rapidly.
myc―But what do you call it? Myles Crawford asked. mycWhere did they get the
plums?
profmh―Call it, wait, the professor said, opening his long lips wide to reflect. profmhCall
it, let me see. Call it: Deus nobis haec otia fecit.
sd―No, Stephen said. sdI call it A Pisgah Sight of Palestine or The Parable of
The Plums.
profmh―I see, the professor said.
He laughed richly.
profmh―I see, he said again with new pleasure. profmhMoses and the promised land. We
gave him that idea, he added to J. J. O'Molloy.
J. J. O'Molloy sent a weary sidelong glance towards the statue and
held his peace.
profmh―I see, the professor said.
He halted on sir John Gray's pavement island and peered aloft at Nelson through the meshes of his wry smile.
profmh―Onehandled adulterer, he said smiling grimly. profmhThat tickles me, I must
say.
myc―Tickled the old ones too, Myles Crawford said, mycif the God Almighty's
truth was known.
lbPineapple rock, lemon platt, butter scotch. A sugarsticky girl shovelling scoopfuls of creams for a christian brother. Some school treat. Bad for their tummies. Lozenge and comfit manufacturer to His Majesty the King. God. Save. Our. Sitting on his throne sucking red jujubes white.
A sombre Y. M. C. A. young man, watchful among the warm sweet fumes of Graham Lemon's, placed a throwaway in a hand of Mr Bloom.
lbHeart to heart talks.
lbBloo .... Me? No.
lbBlood of the Lamb.
His slow feet walked him riverward, reading. lbAre you saved? All are washed in the blood of the lamb. God wants blood victim. Birth, hymen, martyr, war, foundation of a building, sacrifice, kidney burntoffering, druids' altars. Elijah is coming. Dr John Alexander Dowie restorer of the church in Zion is coming.
lbIs coming! Is coming!! Is coming!!!
lbAll heartily welcome.
lbPaying game. Torry and Alexander last year. Polygamy. His wife will put the stopper on that. Where was that ad some Birmingham firm the luminous crucifix. Our Saviour. Wake up in the dead of night and see him on the wall, hanging. Pepper's ghost idea. Iron Nails Ran In.
lbPhosphorus it must be done with. If you leave a bit of codfish for instance. I could see the bluey silver over it. Night I went down to the pantry in the kitchen. Don't like all the smells in it waiting to rush out. What was it she wanted? The Malaga raisins. Thinking of Spain. Before Rudy was born. The phosphorescence, that bluey greeny. Very good for the brain.
From Butler's monument house corner he glanced along Bachelor's walk. lbDedalus' daughter there still outside Dillon's auctionrooms. Must be selling off some old furniture. Knew her eyes at once from the father. Lobbing about waiting for him. Home always breaks up when the mother goes. Fifteen children he had. Birth every year almost. That's in their theology or the priest won't give the poor woman the confession, the absolution. Increase and multiply. Did you ever hear such an idea? Eat you out of house and home. No families themselves to feed. Living on the fat of the land. Their butteries and larders. I'd like to see them do the black fast Yom Kippur. Crossbuns. One meal and a collation for fear he'd collapse on the altar. A housekeeper of one of those fellows if you could pick it out of her. Never pick it out of her. Like getting £. s. d. out of him. Does himself well. No guests. All for number one. Watching his water. Bring your own bread and butter. His reverence: mum's the word.
lbGood Lord, that poor child's dress is in flitters. Underfed she looks too. Potatoes and marge, marge and potatoes. It's after they feel it. Proof of the pudding. Undermines the constitution.
As he set foot on O'Connell bridge a puffball of smoke plumed up from the parapet. lbBrewery barge with export stout. England. Sea air sours it, I heard. Be interesting some day get a pass through Hancock to see the brewery. Regular world in itself. Vats of porter wonderful. Rats get in too. Drink themselves bloated as big as a collie floating. Dead drunk on the porter. Drink till they puke again like christians. Imagine drinking that! Rats: vats. Well, of course, if we knew all the things.
Looking down he saw flapping strongly, wheeling between the gaunt quaywalls, gulls. lbRough weather outside. If I threw myself down? Reuben J's son must have swallowed a good bellyful of that sewage. One and eightpence too much. Hhhhm. It's the droll way he comes out with the things. Knows how to tell a story too.
They wheeled lower. lbLooking for grub. Wait.
He threw down among them a crumpled paper ball. lbElijah thirtytwo feet per sec is com. Not a bit. The ball bobbed unheeded on the wake of swells, floated under by the bridgepiers. lbNot such damn fools. Also the day I threw that stale cake out of the Erin's King picked it up in the wake fifty yards astern. Live by their wits. They wheeled, flapping.
lbThat is how poets write, the similar sounds. But then Shakespeare has no rhymes: blank verse. The flow of the language it is. The thoughts. Solemn.
ua―Two apples a penny! Two for a penny!
His gaze passed over the glazed apples serried on her stand. lbAustralians they must be this time of year. Shiny peels: polishes them up with a rag or a handkerchief.
lbWait. Those poor birds.
He halted again and bought from the old applewoman two Banbury cakes for a penny and broke the brittle paste and threw its fragments down into the Liffey. lbSee that? The gulls swooped silently, two, then all from their heights, pouncing on prey. lbGone. Every morsel. Aware of their greed and cunning he shook the powdery crumb from his hands. lbThey never expected that. Manna. Live on fish, fishy flesh they have, all seabirds, gulls, seagoose. Swans from Anna Liffey swim down here sometimes to preen themselves. No accounting for tastes. Wonder what kind is swanmeat. Robinson Crusoe had to live on them.
They wheeled flapping weakly. lbI'm not going to throw any more. Penny quite enough. Lot of thanks I get. Not even a caw. They spread foot and mouth disease too. If you cram a turkey say on chestnutmeal it tastes like that. Eat pig like pig. But then why is it that saltwater fish are not salty? How is that?
His eyes sought answer from the river and saw a rowboat rock at anchor on the treacly swells lazily its plastered board.
lbGood idea that. Wonder if he pays rent to the corporation. How can you own water really? It's always flowing in a stream, never the same, which in the stream of life we trace. Because life is a stream. All kinds of places are good for ads. That quack doctor for the clap used to be stuck up in all the greenhouses. Never see it now. Strictly confidential. Dr Hy Franks. Didn't cost him a red like Maginni the dancing master self advertisement. Got fellows to stick them up or stick them up himself for that matter on the q. t. running in to loosen a button. Flybynight. Just the place too. POST NO BILLS. POST 11O PILLS. Some chap with a dose burning him.
lbIf he ....?
lbO!
lbEh?
lbNo ...... No.
lbNo, no. I don't believe it. He wouldn't surely?
lbNo, no.
Mr Bloom moved forward, raising his troubled eyes. lbThink no more about that. After one. Timeball on the ballastoffice is down. Dunsink time. Fascinating little book that is of sir Robert Ball's. Parallax. I never exactly understood. There's a priest. Could ask him. Par it's Greek: parallel, parallax. Met him pike hoses she called it till I told her about the transmigration. O rocks!
Mr Bloom smiled lbO rocks at two windows of the ballastoffice. lbShe's right after all. Only big words for ordinary things on account of the sound. She's not exactly witty. Can be rude too. Blurt out what I was thinking. Still, I don't know. She used to say Ben Dollard had a base barreltone voice. He has legs like barrels and you'd think he was singing into a barrel. Now, isn't that wit. They used to call him big Ben. Not half as witty as calling him base barreltone. Appetite like an albatross. Get outside of a baron of beef. Powerful man he was at stowing away number one Bass. Barrel of Bass. See? It all works out.
A procession of whitesmocked sandwichmen marched slowly towards him along the gutter, scarlet sashes across their boards. lbBargains. Like that priest they are this morning: we have sinned: we have suffered. He read the scarlet letters on their five tall white hats: lbH. E. L. Y. S. Wisdom Hely's. Y lagging behind drew a chunk of bread from under his foreboard, crammed it into his mouth and munched as he walked. lbOur staple food. Three bob a day, walking along the gutters, street after street. Just keep skin and bone together, bread and skilly. They are not Boyl: no, M'Glade's men. Doesn't bring in any business either. I suggested to him about a transparent showcart with two smart girls sitting inside writing letters, copybooks, envelopes, blottingpaper. I bet that would have caught on. Smart girls writing something catch the eye at once. Everyone dying to know what she's writing. Get twenty of them round you if you stare at nothing. Have a finger in the pie. Women too. Curiosity. Pillar of salt. Wouldn't have it of course because he didn't think of it himself first. Or the inkbottle I suggested with a false stain of black celluloid. His ideas for ads like Plumtree's potted under the obituaries, cold meat department. You can't lick 'em. What? Our envelopes. Hello, Jones, where are you going? Can't stop, Robinson, I am hastening to purchase the only reliable inkeraser Kansell, sold by Hely's Ltd, 85 Dame street. Well out of that ruck I am. Devil of a job it was collecting accounts of those convents. Tranquilla convent. That was a nice nun there, really sweet face. Wimple suited her small head. Sister? Sister? I am sure she was crossed in love by her eyes. Very hard to bargain with that sort of a woman. I disturbed her at her devotions that morning. But glad to communicate with the outside world. Our great day, she said. Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Sweet name too: caramel. She knew I, I think she knew by the way she. If she had married she would have changed. I suppose they really were short of money. Fried everything in the best butter all the same. No lard for them. My heart's broke eating dripping. They like buttering themselves in and out. Molly tasting it, her veil up. Sister? Pat Claffey, the pawnbroker's daughter. It was a nun they say invented barbed wire.
He crossed Westmoreland street when apostrophe S had plodded by. lbRover cycleshop. Those races are on today. How long ago is that? Year Phil Gilligan died. We were in Lombard street west. Wait: was in Thom's. Got the job in Wisdom Hely's year we married. Six years. Ten years ago: ninetyfour he died yes that's right the big fire at Arnott's. Val Dillon was lord mayor. The Glencree dinner. Alderman Robert O'Reilly emptying the port into his soup before the flag fell. Bobbob lapping it for the inner alderman. Couldn't hear what the band played. For what we have already received may the Lord make us. Milly was a kiddy then. Molly had that elephantgrey dress with the braided frogs. Mantailored with selfcovered buttons. She didn't like it because I sprained my ankle first day she wore choir picnic at the Sugarloaf. As if that. Old Goodwin's tall hat done up with some sticky stuff. Flies' picnic too. Never put a dress on her back like it. Fitted her like a glove, shoulders and hips. Just beginning to plump it out well. Rabbitpie we had that day. People looking after her.
lbHappy. Happier then. Snug little room that was with the red wallpaper. Dockrell's, one and ninepence a dozen. Milly's tubbing night. American soap I bought: elderflower. Cosy smell of her bathwater. Funny she looked soaped all over. Shapely too. Now photography. Poor papa's daguerreotype atelier he told me of. Hereditary taste.
He walked along the curbstone.
lbStream of life. What was the name of that priestylooking chap was always squinting in when he passed? Weak eyes, woman. Stopped in Citron's saint Kevin's parade. Pen something. Pendennis? My memory is getting. Pen ...? Of course it's years ago. Noise of the trams probably. Well, if he couldn't remember the dayfather's name that he sees every day.
lbBartell d'Arcy was the tenor, just coming out then. Seeing her home after practice. Conceited fellow with his waxedup moustache. Gave her that song Winds that blow from the south.
lbWindy night that was I went to fetch her there was that lodge meeting on about those lottery tickets after Goodwin's concert in the supperroom or oakroom of the Mansion house. He and I behind. Sheet of her music blew out of my hand against the High school railings. Lucky it didn't. Thing like that spoils the effect of a night for her. Professor Goodwin linking her in front. Shaky on his pins, poor old sot. His farewell concerts. Positively last appearance on any stage. May be for months and may be for never. Remember her laughing at the wind, her blizzard collar up. Corner of Harcourt road remember that gust. Brrfoo! Blew up all her skirts and her boa nearly smothered old Goodwin. She did get flushed in the wind. Remember when we got home raking up the fire and frying up those pieces of lap of mutton for her supper with the Chutney sauce she liked. And the mulled rum. Could see her in the bedroom from the hearth unclamping the busk of her stays: white.
lbSwish and soft flop her stays made on the bed. Always warm from
her. Always liked to let her self out. Sitting there after till near two taking
out her hairpins. Milly tucked up in beddyhouse. Happy. Happy. That was
the night .....
jb―O, Mr Bloom, how do you do?
lb―O, how do you do, Mrs Breen?
jb―No use complaining. How is Molly those times? Haven't seen her for
ages.
lb―In the pink, Mr Bloom said gaily. lbMilly has a position down in Mullingar,
you know.
jb―Go away! Isn't that grand for her?
lb―Yes. In a photographer's there. Getting on like a house on fire. How are
all your charges?
jb―All on the baker's list, Mrs Breen said.
lbHow many has she? No other in sight.
jb―You're in black, I see. You have no ...?
lb―No, Mr Bloom said. lbI have just come from a funeral.
lbGoing to crop up all day, I foresee. Who's dead, when and what did
he die of? Turn up like a bad penny.
jb―O, dear me, Mrs Breen said. jbI hope it wasn't any near relation.
lbMay as well get her sympathy.
lb―Dignam, Mr Bloom said. lbAn old friend of mine. He died quite suddenly,
poor fellow. Heart trouble, I believe. Funeral was this morning.
jb―Sad to lose the old friends, Mrs Breen's womaneyes said melancholily.
lbNow that's quite enough about that. Just: quietly: husband.
lb―And your lord and master?
Mrs Breen turned up her two large eyes. lbHasn't lost them anyhow.
jb―O, don't be talking! she said. jbHe's a caution to rattlesnakes. He's in there
now with his lawbooks finding out the law of libel. He has me heartscalded.
Wait till I show you.
Hot mockturtle vapour and steam of newbaked jampuffs rolypoly poured out from Harrison's. The heavy noonreek tickled the top of Mr Bloom's gullet. lbWant to make good pastry, butter, best flour, Demerara sugar, or they'd taste it with the hot tea. Or is it from her? A barefoot arab stood over the grating, breathing in the fumes. lbDeaden the gnaw of hunger that way. Pleasure or pain is it? Penny dinner. Knife and fork chained to the table.
lbOpening her handbag, chipped leather. Hatpin: ought to have a
guard on those things. Stick it in a chap's eye in the tram. Rummaging.
Open. Money. Please take one. Devils if they lose sixpence. Raise Cain.
Husband barging. Where's the ten shillings I gave you on Monday? Are
you feeding your little brother's family? Soiled handkerchief:
medicinebottle. Pastille that was fell. What is she ...?
jb―There must be a new moon out, she said. jbHe's always bad then. Do you
know what he did last night?
Her hand ceased to rummage. Her eyes fixed themselves on him, wide
in alarm, yet smiling.
lb―What? Mr Bloom asked.
lbLet her speak. Look straight in her eyes. I believe you. Trust me.
jb―Woke me up in the night, she said. jbDream he had, a nightmare.
lbIndiges.
jb―Said the ace of spades was walking up the stairs.
lb―The ace of spades! Mr Bloom said.
She took a folded postcard from her handbag.
jb―Read that, she said. jbHe got it this morning.
lb―What is it? Mr Bloom asked, taking the card. lbU. P.?
jb―U. p: up, she said. jbSomeone taking a rise out of him. It's a great shame
for them whoever he is.
lb―Indeed it is, Mr Bloom said.
She took back the card, sighing.
jb―And now he's going round to Mr Menton's office. He's going to take an
action for ten thousand pounds, he says.
She folded the card into her untidy bag and snapped the catch.
lbSame blue serge dress she had two years ago, the nap bleaching. Seen its best days. Wispish hair over her ears. And that dowdy toque: three old grapes to take the harm out of it. Shabby genteel. She used to be a tasty dresser. Lines round her mouth. Only a year or so older than Molly.
lbSee the eye that woman gave her, passing. Cruel. The unfair sex.
He looked still at her, holding back behind his look his discontent. lbPungent mockturtle oxtail mulligatawny. I'm hungry too. Flakes of pastry on the gusset of her dress: daub of sugary flour stuck to her cheek. Rhubarb tart with liberal fillings, rich fruit interior. Josie Powell that was. In Luke Doyle's long ago. Dolphin's Barn, the charades. U. p: up.
lbChange the subject.
lb―Do you ever see anything of Mrs Beaufoy? Mr Bloom asked.
jb―Mina Purefoy? she said.
lbPhilip Beaufoy I was thinking. Playgoers' Club. Matcham often
thinks of the masterstroke. Did I pull the chain? Yes. The last act.
lb―Yes.
jb―I just called to ask on the way in is she over it. She's in the lying-in
hospital in Holles street. Dr Horne got her in. She's three days bad now.
lb―O, Mr Bloom said. lbI'm sorry to hear that.
jb―Yes, Mrs Breen said. jbAnd a houseful of kids at home. It's a very stiff birth,
the nurse told me.
lb―O, Mr Bloom said.
His heavy pitying gaze absorbed her news. His tongue clacked in
compassion. Dth! Dth!
lb―I'm sorry to hear that, he said. lbPoor thing! Three days! That's terrible
for her.
Mrs Breen nodded.
jb―She was taken bad on the Tuesday ...
Mr Bloom touched her funnybone gently, warning her:
lb―Mind! Let this man pass.
A bony form strode along the curbstone from the river staring with a
rapt gaze into the sunlight through a heavystringed glass. Tight as a
skullpiece a tiny hat gripped his head. From his arm a folded dustcoat, a
stick and an umbrella dangled to his stride.
lb―Watch him, Mr Bloom said. lbHe always walks outside the lampposts.
Watch!
jb―Who is he if it's a fair question? Mrs Breen asked. jbIs he dotty?
lb―His name is Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell, Mr
Bloom said smiling. lbWatch!
jb―He has enough of them, she said. jbDenis will be like that one of these days.
She broke off suddenly.
jb―There he is, she said. jbI must go after him. Goodbye. Remember me to
Molly, won't you?
lb―I will, Mr Bloom said.
He watched her dodge through passers towards the shopfronts. Denis Breen in skimpy frockcoat and blue canvas shoes shuffled out of Harrison's hugging two heavy tomes to his ribs. lbBlown in from the bay. Like old times. He suffered her to overtake him without surprise and thrust his dull grey beard towards her, his loose jaw wagging as he spoke earnestly.
lbMeshuggah. Off his chump.
Mr Bloom walked on again easily, seeing ahead of him in sunlight the tight skullpiece, the dangling stickumbrelladustcoat. lbGoing the two days. Watch him! Out he goes again. One way of getting on in the world. And that other old mosey lunatic in those duds. Hard time she must have with him.
lbU. p: up. I'll take my oath that's Alf Bergan or Richie Goulding. Wrote it for a lark in the Scotch house I bet anything. Round to Menton's office. His oyster eyes staring at the postcard. Be a feast for the gods.
He passed the
lbBest paper by long chalks for a small ad. Got the provinces now. Cook and general, exc. cuisine, housemaid kept. Wanted live man for spirit counter. Resp. girl (R. C.) wishes to hear of post in fruit or pork shop. James Carlisle made that. Six and a half per cent dividend. Made a big deal on Coates's shares. Ca' canny. Cunning old Scotch hunks. All the toady news. Our gracious and popular vicereine. Bought the Irish Field now. Lady Mountcashel has quite recovered after her confinement and rode out with the Ward Union staghounds at the enlargement yesterday at Rathoath. Uneatable fox. Pothunters too. Fear injects juices make it tender enough for them. Riding astride. Sit her horse like a man. >Weightcarrying huntress. No sidesaddle or pillion for her, not for Joe. First to the meet and in at the death. Strong as a brood mare some of those horsey women. Swagger around livery stables. Toss off a glass of brandy neat while you'd say knife. That one at the Grosvenor this morning. Up with her on the car: wishswish. Stonewall or fivebarred gate put her mount to it. Think that pugnosed driver did it out of spite. Who is this she was like? O yes! Mrs Miriam Dandrade that sold me her old wraps and black underclothes in the Shelbourne hotel. Divorced Spanish American. Didn't take a feather out of her my handling them. As if I was her clotheshorse. Saw her in the viceregal party when Stubbs the park ranger got me in with Whelan of the Express. Scavenging what the quality left. High tea. Mayonnaise I poured on the plums thinking it was custard. Her ears ought to have tingled for a few weeks after. Want to be a bull for her. Born courtesan. No nursery work for her, thanks.
lbPoor Mrs Purefoy! Methodist husband. Method in his madness. Saffron bun and milk and soda lunch in the educational dairy. Y. M. C. A. Eating with a stopwatch, thirtytwo chews to the minute. And still his muttonchop whiskers grew. Supposed to be well connected. Theodore's cousin in Dublin Castle. One tony relative in every family. Hardy annuals he presents her with. Saw him out at the Three Jolly Topers marching along bareheaded and his eldest boy carrying one in a marketnet. The squallers. Poor thing! Then having to give the breast year after year all hours of the night. Selfish those t.t's are. Dog in the manger. Only one lump of sugar in my tea, if you please.
He stood at Fleet street crossing. lbLuncheon interval. A sixpenny at Rowe's? Must look up that ad in the national library. An eightpenny in the Burton. Better. On my way.
He walked on past Bolton's Westmoreland house. lbTea. Tea. Tea. I forgot to tap Tom Kernan.
lbSss. Dth, dth, dth! Three days imagine groaning on a bed with a vinegared handkerchief round her forehead, her belly swollen out. Phew! Dreadful simply! Child's head too big: forceps. Doubled up inside her trying to butt its way out blindly, groping for the way out. Kill me that would. Lucky Molly got over hers lightly. They ought to invent something to stop that. Life with hard labour. Twilight sleep idea: queen Victoria was given that. Nine she had. A good layer. Old woman that lived in a shoe she had so many children. Suppose he was consumptive. Time someone thought about it instead of gassing about the what was it the pensive bosom of the silver effulgence. Flapdoodle to feed fools on. They could easily have big establishments whole thing quite painless out of all the taxes give every child born five quid at compound interest up to twentyone five per cent is a hundred shillings and five tiresome pounds multiply by twenty decimal system encourage people to put by money save hundred and ten and a bit twentyone years want to work it out on paper come to a tidy sum more than you think.
lbNot stillborn of course. They are not even registered. Trouble for nothing.
lbFunny sight two of them together, their bellies out. Molly and Mrs Moisel. Mothers' meeting. Phthisis retires for the time being, then returns. How flat they look all of a sudden after. Peaceful eyes. Weight off their mind. Old Mrs Thornton was a jolly old soul. All my babies, she said. The spoon of pap in her mouth before she fed them. O, that's nyumnyum. Got her hand crushed by old Tom Wall's son. His first bow to the public. Head like a prize pumpkin. Snuffy Dr Murren. People knocking them up at all hours. For God' sake, doctor. Wife in her throes. Then keep them waiting months for their fee. To attendance on your wife. No gratitude in people. Humane doctors, most of them.
Before the huge high door of the Irish house of parliament a flock of pigeons flew. lbTheir little frolic after meals. Who will we do it on? I pick the fellow in black. Here goes. Here's good luck. Must be thrilling from the air. Apjohn, myself and Owen Goldberg up in the trees near Goose green playing the monkeys. Mackerel they called me.
A squad of constables debouched from College street, marching in Indian file. lbGoosestep. Foodheated faces, sweating helmets, patting their truncheons. After their feed with a good load of fat soup under their belts. Policeman's lot is oft a happy one. They split up in groups and scattered, saluting, towards their beats. Let out to graze. Best moment to attack one in pudding time. A punch in his dinner. A squad of others, marching irregularly, rounded Trinity railings making for the station. Bound for their troughs. Prepare to receive cavalry. Prepare to receive soup.
He crossed under Tommy Moore's roguish finger. lbThey did right to put him up over a urinal: meeting of the waters. Ought to be places for women. Running into cakeshops. Settle my hat straight. There is not in this wide world a vallee. Great song of Julia Morkan's. Kept her voice up to the very last. Pupil of Michael Balfe's, wasn't she?
He gazed after the last broad tunic. lbNasty customers to tackle. Jack
Power could a tale unfold: father a G man. If a fellow gave them trouble
being lagged they let him have it hot and heavy in the bridewell. Can't
blame them after all with the job they have especially the young hornies.
That horsepoliceman the day Joe Chamberlain was given his degree in
Trinity he got a run for his money. My word he did! His horse's hoofs
clattering after us down Abbey street. Lucky I had the presence of mind to
dive into Manning's or I was souped. He did come a wallop, by George.
Must have cracked his skull on the cobblestones. I oughtn't to have got
myself swept along with those medicals. And the Trinity jibs in their
mortarboards. Looking for trouble. Still I got to know that young Dixon
who dressed that sting for me in the Mater and now he's in Holles street
where Mrs Purefoy. Wheels within wheels. Police whistle in my ears still.
All skedaddled. Why he fixed on me. Give me in charge. Right here it
began.
uycs―Up the Boers!
uycs―Three cheers for De Wet!
uycs―We'll hang Joe Chamberlain on a sourapple tree.
lbSilly billies: mob of young cubs yelling their guts out. Vinegar hill. The Butter exchange band. Few years' time half of them magistrates and civil servants. War comes on: into the army helterskelter: same fellows used to. Whether on the scaffold high.
lbNever know who you're talking to. Corny Kelleher he has Harvey
Duff in his eye. Like that Peter or Denis or James Carey that blew the gaff
on the invincibles. Member of the corporation too. Egging raw youths on to
get in the know all the time drawing secret service pay from the castle. Drop
him like a hot potato. Why those plainclothes men are always courting
slaveys. Easily twig a man used to uniform. Squarepushing up against a
backdoor. Maul her a bit. Then the next thing on the menu. And who is the
gentleman does be visiting there? Was the young master saying anything?
Peeping Tom through the keyhole. Decoy duck. Hotblooded young student
fooling round her fat arms ironing.
uystud―Are those yours, Mary?
msy―I don't wear such things ..... Stop or I'll tell the missus on you. Out half
the night.
uystud―There are great times coming, Mary. Wait till you see.
msy―Ah, gelong with your great times coming.
lbBarmaids too. Tobaccoshopgirls.
lbJames Stephens' idea was the best. He knew them. Circles of ten so that a fellow couldn't round on more than his own ring. Sinn Fein. Back out you get the knife. Hidden hand. Stay in. The firing squad. Turnkey's daughter got him out of Richmond, off from Lusk. Putting up in the Buckingham Palace hotel under their very noses. Garibaldi.
lbYou must have a certain fascination: Parnell. Arthur Griffith is a squareheaded fellow but he has no go in him for the mob. Or gas about our lovely land. Gammon and spinach. Dublin Bakery Company's tearoom. Debating societies. That republicanism is the best form of government. That the language question should take precedence of the economic question. Have your daughters inveigling them to your house. Stuff them up with meat and drink. Michaelmas goose. Here's a good lump of thyme seasoning under the apron for you. Have another quart of goosegrease before it gets too cold. Halffed enthusiasts. Penny roll and a walk with the band. No grace for the carver. The thought that the other chap pays best sauce in the world. Make themselves thoroughly at home. Show us over those apricots, meaning peaches. The not far distant day. Homerule sun rising up in the northwest.
His smile faded as he walked, a heavy cloud hiding the sun slowly, shadowing Trinity's surly front. Trams passed one another, ingoing, outgoing, clanging. lbUseless words. Things go on same, day after day: squads of police marching out, back: trams in, out. Those two loonies mooching about. Dignam carted off. Mina Purefoy swollen belly on a bed groaning to have a child tugged out of her. One born every second somewhere. Other dying every second. Since I fed the birds five minutes. Three hundred kicked the bucket. Other three hundred born, washing the blood off, all are washed in the blood of the lamb, bawling maaaaaa.
lbCityful passing away, other cityful coming, passing away too: other coming on, passing on. Houses, lines of houses, streets, miles of pavements, piledup bricks, stones. Changing hands. This owner, that. Landlord never dies they say. Other steps into his shoes when he gets his notice to quit. They buy the place up with gold and still they have all the gold. Swindle in it somewhere. Piled up in cities, worn away age after age. Pyramids in sand. Built on bread and onions. Slaves Chinese wall. Babylon. Big stones left. Round towers. Rest rubble, sprawling suburbs, jerrybuilt. Kerwan's mushroom houses built of breeze. Shelter, for the night.
lbNo-one is anything.
lbThis is the very worst hour of the day. Vitality. Dull, gloomy: hate this hour. Feel as if I had been eaten and spewed.
lbProvost's house. The reverend Dr Salmon: tinned salmon. Well tinned in there. Like a mortuary chapel. Wouldn't live in it if they paid me. Hope they have liver and bacon today. Nature abhors a vacuum.
The sun freed itself slowly and lit glints of light among the silverware opposite in Walter Sexton's window by which John Howard Parnell passed, unseeing.
lbThere he is: the brother. Image of him. Haunting face. Now that's a
coincidence. Course hundreds of times you think of a person and don't
meet him. Like a man walking in his sleep. No-one knows him. Must be a
corporation meeting today. They say he never put on the city marshal's
uniform since he got the job. Charley Kavanagh used to come out on his
high horse, cocked hat, puffed, powdered and shaved. Look at the
woebegone walk of him. Eaten a bad egg. Poached eyes on ghost. I have a
pain. Great man's brother: his brother's brother. He'd look nice on the city
charger. Drop into the D. B. C. probably for his coffee, play chess there.
His brother used men as pawns. Let them all go to pot. Afraid to pass a
remark on him. Freeze them up with that eye of his. That's the fascination:
the name. All a bit touched. Mad Fanny and his other sister Mrs Dickinson
driving about with scarlet harness. Bolt upright like surgeon M'Ardle. Still
David Sheehy beat him for south Meath. Apply for the Chiltern Hundreds
and retire into public life. The patriot's banquet. Eating orangepeels in the
park. Simon Dedalus said when they put him in parliament that Parnell
would come back from the grave and lead him out of the house of commons
by the arm.
ae―Of the twoheaded octopus, one of whose heads is the head upon which
the ends of the world have forgotten to come while the other speaks with a
Scotch accent. The tentacles ....
They passed from behind Mr Bloom along the curbstone. lbBeard and bicycle. Young woman.
lbAnd there he is too. Now that's really a coincidence: second time. Coming events cast their shadows before. With the approval of the eminent poet, Mr Geo. Russell. That might be Lizzie Twigg with him. A. E.: what does that mean? Initials perhaps. Albert Edward, Arthur Edmund, Alphonsus Eb Ed El Esquire. What was he saying? The ends of the world with a Scotch accent. Tentacles: octopus. Something occult: symbolism. Holding forth. She's taking it all in. Not saying a word. To aid gentleman in literary work.
His eyes followed the high figure in homespun, beard and bicycle, a listening woman at his side. lbComing from the vegetarian. Only weggebobbles and fruit. Don't eat a beefsteak. If you do the eyes of that cow will pursue you through all eternity. They say it's healthier. Windandwatery though. Tried it. Keep you on the run all day. Bad as a bloater. Dreams all night. Why do they call that thing they gave me nutsteak? Nutarians. Fruitarians. To give you the idea you are eating rumpsteak. Absurd. Salty too. They cook in soda. Keep you sitting by the tap all night.
lbHer stockings are loose over her ankles. I detest that: so tasteless. Those literary etherial people they are all. Dreamy, cloudy, symbolistic. Esthetes they are. I wouldn't be surprised if it was that kind of food you see produces the like waves of the brain the poetical. For example one of those policemen sweating Irish stew into their shirts you couldn't squeeze a line of poetry out of him. Don't know what poetry is even. Must be in a certain mood.
He crossed at Nassau street corner and stood before the window of Yeates and Son, pricing the fieldglasses. lbOr will I drop into old Harris's and have a chat with young Sinclair? Wellmannered fellow. Probably at his lunch. Must get those old glasses of mine set right. Goerz lenses six guineas. Germans making their way everywhere. Sell on easy terms to capture trade. Undercutting. Might chance on a pair in the railway lost property office. Astonishing the things people leave behind them in trains and cloakrooms. What do they be thinking about? Women too. Incredible. Last year travelling to Ennis had to pick up that farmer's daughter's bag and hand it to her at Limerick junction. Unclaimed money too. There's a little watch up there on the roof of the bank to test those glasses by.
His lids came down on the lower rims of his irides. lbCan't see it. If you imagine it's there you can almost see it. Can't see it.
He faced about and, standing between the awnings, held out his right hand at arm's length towards the sun. lbWanted to try that often. Yes: completely. The tip of his little finger blotted out the sun's disk. Must be the focus where the rays cross. If I had black glasses. Interesting. There was a lot of talk about those sunspots when we were in Lombard street west. Looking up from the back garden. Terrific explosions they are. There will be a total eclipse this year: autumn some time.
lbNow that I come to think of it that ball falls at Greenwich time. It's the clock is worked by an electric wire from Dunsink. Must go out there some first Saturday of the month. If I could get an introduction to professor Joly or learn up something about his family. That would do to: man always feels complimented. Flattery where least expected. Nobleman proud to be descended from some king's mistress. His foremother. Lay it on with a trowel. Cap in hand goes through the land. Not go in and blurt out what you know you're not to: what's parallax? Show this gentleman the door.
lbAh.
His hand fell to his side again.
lbNever know anything about it. Waste of time. Gasballs spinning about, crossing each other, passing. Same old dingdong always. Gas: then solid: then world: then cold: then dead shell drifting around, frozen rock, like that pineapple rock. The moon. Must be a new moon out, she said. I believe there is.
He went on by la maison Claire.
lbWait. The full moon was the night we were Sunday fortnight exactly there is a new moon. Walking down by the Tolka. Not bad for a Fairview moon. She was humming. The young May moon she's beaming, love. He other side of her. Elbow, arm. He. Glowworm's la-amp is gleaming, love. Touch. Fingers. Asking. Answer. Yes.
lbStop. Stop. If it was it was. Must.
Mr Bloom, quickbreathing, slowlier walking passed Adam court.
With lbha quiet keep quiet relief his eyes took note lbthis is the street here middle of the day of Bob Doran's bottle shoulders. lbOn his annual bend, M'Coy said. They drink in order to say or do something or cherchez la femme. Up in the Coombe with chummies and streetwalkers and then the rest of the year sober as a judge.
lbYes. Thought so. Sloping into the Empire. Gone. Plain soda would do him good. Where Pat Kinsella had his Harp theatre before Whitbred ran the Queen's. Broth of a boy. Dion Boucicault business with his harvestmoon face in a poky bonnet. Three Purty Maids from School. How time flies, eh? Showing long red pantaloons under his skirts. Drinkers, drinking, laughed spluttering, their drink against their breath. More power, Pat. Coarse red: fun for drunkards: guffaw and smoke. Take off that white hat. His parboiled eyes. Where is he now? Beggar somewhere. The harp that once did starve us all.
lbI was happier then. Or was that I? Or am I now I? Twentyeight I was. She twentythree. When we left Lombard street west something changed. Could never like it again after Rudy. Can't bring back time. Like holding water in your hand. Would you go back to then? Just beginning then. Would you? Are you not happy in your home you poor little naughty boy? Wants to sew on buttons for me. I must answer. Write it in the library.
Grafton street gay with housed awnings lured his senses. Muslin prints, silkdames and dowagers, jingle of harnesses, hoofthuds lowringing in the baking causeway. lbThick feet that woman has in the white stockings. Hope the rain mucks them up on her. Countrybred chawbacon. All the beef to the heels were in. Always gives a woman clumsy feet. Molly looks out of plumb.
He passed, dallying, the windows of Brown Thomas, silk mercers. lbCascades of ribbons. Flimsy China silks. A tilted urn poured from its mouth a flood of bloodhued poplin: lustrous blood. The huguenots brought that here. Lacaus esant tara tara. Great chorus that. Taree tara. Must be washed in rainwater. Meyerbeer. Tara: bom bom bom.
lbPincushions. I'm a long time threatening to buy one. Sticking them all over the place. Needles in window curtains.
He bared slightly his left forearm. lbScrape: nearly gone. Not today anyhow. Must go back for that lotion. For her birthday perhaps. Junejulyaugseptember eighth. Nearly three months off. Then she mightn't like it. Women won't pick up pins. Say it cuts lo.
Gleaming silks, petticoats on slim brass rails, rays of flat silk stockings.
lbUseless to go back. Had to be. Tell me all.
lbHigh voices. Sunwarm silk. Jingling harnesses. All for a woman, home and houses, silkwebs, silver, rich fruits spicy from Jaffa. Agendath Netaim. Wealth of the world.
A warm human plumpness settled down on his brain. His brain yielded. Perfume of embraces all him assailed. With hungered flesh obscurely, he mutely craved to adore.
lbDuke street. Here we are. Must eat. The Burton. Feel better then.
He turned Combridge's corner, still pursued. Jingling, hoofthuds.
Perfumed bodies, warm, full. All kissed, yielded: in deep summer fields,
tangled pressed grass, in trickling hallways of tenements, along sofas,
creaking beds.
uls―Jack, love!
uls―Darling!
uls―Kiss me, Reggy!
uls―My boy!
uls―Love!
His heart astir he pushed in the door of the Burton restaurant. Stink gripped his trembling breath: lbpungent meatjuice, slush of greens. See the animals feed.
lbMen, men, men.
Perched on high stools by the bar, hats shoved back, at the tables
calling for more bread no charge, swilling, wolfing gobfuls of sloppy food,
their eyes bulging, wiping wetted moustaches. A pallid suetfaced young man
polished his tumbler knife fork and spoon with his napkin. lbNew set of
microbes. A man with an infant's saucestained napkin tucked round him
shovelled gurgling soup down his gullet. lbA man spitting back on his plate:
halfmasticated gristle: gums: no teeth to chewchewchew it. Chump chop
from the grill. Bolting to get it over. Sad booser's eyes. Bitten off more than
he can chew. Am I like that? See ourselves as others see us. Hungry man is
an angry man. Working tooth and jaw. Don't! O! A bone! That last pagan
king of Ireland Cormac in the schoolpoem choked himself at Sletty
southward of the Boyne. Wonder what he was eating. Something
galoptious. Saint Patrick converted him to Christianity. Couldn't swallow it
all however.
bds―Roast beef and cabbage.
bds―One stew.
lbSmells of men. Spaton sawdust, sweetish warmish cigarettesmoke, reek of plug, spilt beer, men's beery piss, the stale of ferment.
His gorge rose.
lbCouldn't eat a morsel here. Fellow sharpening knife and fork to eat all before him, old chap picking his tootles. Slight spasm, full, chewing the cud. Before and after. Grace after meals. Look on this picture then on that. Scoffing up stewgravy with sopping sippets of bread. Lick it off the plate, man! Get out of this.
He gazed round the stooled and tabled eaters, tightening the wings of
his nose.
bds―Two stouts here.
bds―One corned and cabbage.
lbThat fellow ramming a knifeful of cabbage down as if his life depended on it. Good stroke. Give me the fidgets to look. Safer to eat from his three hands. Tear it limb from limb. Second nature to him. Born with a silver knife in his mouth. That's witty, I think. Or no. Silver means born rich. Born with a knife. But then the allusion is lost.
An illgirt server gathered sticky clattering plates. Rock, the head bailiff, standing at the bar blew the foamy crown from his tankard. lbWell up: it splashed yellow near his boot. A diner, knife and fork upright, elbows on table, ready for a second helping stared towards the foodlift across his stained square of newspaper. lbOther chap telling him something with his mouth full. Sympathetic listener. Table talk. I munched hum un thu Unchster Bunk un Munchday. Ha? Did you, faith?
Mr Bloom raised two fingers doubtfully to his lips. His eyes said:
lb―Not here. Don't see him.
lbOut. I hate dirty eaters.
He backed towards the door. lbGet a light snack in Davy Byrne's.
Stopgap. Keep me going. Had a good breakfast.
bds―Roast and mashed here.
bds―Pint of stout.
lbEvery fellow for his own, tooth and nail. Gulp. Grub. Gulp. Gobstuff.
He came out into clearer air and turned back towards Grafton street. lbEat or be eaten. Kill! Kill!
lbSuppose that communal kitchen years to come perhaps. All trotting down with porringers and tommycans to be filled. Devour contents in the street. John Howard Parnell example the provost of Trinity every mother's son don't talk of your provosts and provost of Trinity women and children cabmen priests parsons fieldmarshals archbishops. From Ailesbury road, Clyde road, artisans' dwellings, north Dublin union, lord mayor in his gingerbread coach, old queen in a bathchair. My plate's empty. After you with our incorporated drinkingcup. Like sir Philip Crampton's fountain. Rub off the microbes with your handkerchief. Next chap rubs on a new batch with his. Father O'Flynn would make hares of them all. Have rows all the same. All for number one. Children fighting for the scrapings of the pot. Want a souppot as big as the Phoenix park. Harpooning flitches and hindquarters out of it. Hate people all round you. City Arms hotel table d'hôte she called it. Soup, joint and sweet. Never know whose thoughts you're chewing. Then who'd wash up all the plates and forks? Might be all feeding on tabloids that time. Teeth getting worse and worse.
lbAfter all there's a lot in that vegetarian fine flavour of things from the earth garlic of course it stinks after Italian organgrinders crisp of onions mushrooms truffles. Pain to the animal too. Pluck and draw fowl. Wretched brutes there at the cattlemarket waiting for the poleaxe to split their skulls open. Moo. Poor trembling calves. Meh. Staggering bob. Bubble and squeak. Butchers' buckets wobbly lights. Give us that brisket off the hook. Plup. Rawhead and bloody bones. Flayed glasseyed sheep hung from their haunches, sheepsnouts bloodypapered snivelling nosejam on sawdust. Top and lashers going out. Don't maul them pieces, young one.
lbHot fresh blood they prescribe for decline. Blood always needed. Insidious. Lick it up smokinghot, thick sugary. Famished ghosts.
lbAh, I'm hungry.
He entered Davy Byrne's. lbMoral pub. He doesn't chat. Stands a drink now and then. But in leapyear once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once.
lbWhat will I take now? He drew his watch. lbLet me see now.
Shandygaff?
nf―Hello, Bloom, Nosey Flynn said from his nook.
lb―Hello, Flynn.
nf―How's things?
lb―Tiptop ... Let me see. I'll take a glass of burgundy and ... let me see.
lbSardines on the shelves. Almost taste them by looking. Sandwich?
Ham and his descendants musterred and bred there. Potted meats. What is
home without Plumtree's potted meat? Incomplete. What a stupid ad!
Under the obituary notices they stuck it. All up a plumtree. Dignam's
potted meat. Cannibals would with lemon and rice. White missionary too
salty. Like pickled pork. Expect the chief consumes the parts of honour.
Ought to be tough from exercise. His wives in a row to watch the effect.
There was a right royal old nigger. Who ate or something the somethings of
the reverend Mr MacTrigger. With it an abode of bliss. Lord knows what
concoction. Cauls mouldy tripes windpipes faked and minced up. Puzzle
find the meat. Kosher. No meat and milk together. Hygiene that was what
they call now. Yom Kippur fast spring cleaning of inside. Peace and war
depend on some fellow's digestion. Religions. Christmas turkeys and geese.
Slaughter of innocents. Eat drink and be merry. Then casual wards full
after. Heads bandaged. Cheese digests all but itself. Mity cheese.
lb―Have you a cheese sandwich?
dbc―Yes, sir.
lbLike a few olives too if they had them. Italian I prefer. Good glass of
burgundy take away that. Lubricate. A nice salad, cool as a cucumber, Tom
Kernan can dress. Puts gusto into it. Pure olive oil. Milly served me that
cutlet with a sprig of parsley. Take one Spanish onion. God made food, the
devil the cooks. Devilled crab.
nf―Wife well?
lb―Quite well, thanks .... A cheese sandwich, then. Gorgonzola, have you?
dbc―Yes, sir.
Nosey Flynn sipped his grog.
nf―Doing any singing those times?
lbLook at his mouth. Could whistle in his own ear. Flap ears to match.
Music. Knows as much about it as my coachman. Still better tell him. Does
no harm. Free ad.
lb―She's engaged for a big tour end of this month. You may have heard
perhaps.
nf―No. O, that's the style. Who's getting it up?
The curate served.
lb―How much is that?
dbc―Seven d, sir .... Thank you, sir.
Mr Bloom cut his sandwich into slender strips. lbMr MacTrigger. Easier
than the dreamy creamy stuff. His five hundred wives. Had the time of their
lives.
dbc―Mustard, sir?
lb―Thank you.
He studded under each lifted strip yellow blobs. lbTheir lives. I have it.
It grew bigger and bigger and bigger.
lb―Getting it up? he said. lbWell, it's like a company idea, you see. Part shares
and part profits.
nf―Ay, now I remember, Nosey Flynn said, putting his hand in his pocket to
scratch his groin. nfWho is this was telling me? Isn't Blazes Boylan mixed up
in it?
A warm shock of air heat of mustard hanched on Mr Bloom's heart. He raised his eyes and met the stare of a bilious clock. lbTwo. Pub clock five minutes fast. Time going on. Hands moving. Two. Not yet.
His midriff yearned then upward, sank within him, yearned more longly, longingly.
lbWine.
He smellsipped the cordial juice and, bidding his throat strongly to
speed it, set his wineglass delicately down.
lb―Yes, he said. lbHe's the organiser in point of fact.
lbNo fear: no brains.
Nosey Flynn snuffled and scratched. Flea having a good square meal.
nf―He had a good slice of luck, Jack Mooney was telling me, over that
boxingmatch Myler Keogh won again that soldier in the Portobello
barracks. By God, he had the little kipper down in the county Carlow he
was telling me ...
lbHope that dewdrop doesn't come down into his glass. No, snuffled it
up.
nf―For near a month, man, before it came off. Sucking duck eggs by God till
further orders. Keep him off the boose, see? O, by God, Blazes is a hairy
chap.
Davy Byrne came forward from the hindbar in tuckstitched
shirtsleeves, cleaning his lips with two wipes of his napkin. lbHerring's blush.
Whose smile upon each feature plays with such and such replete. Too much
fat on the parsnips.
nf―And here's himself and pepper on him, Nosey Flynn said. nfCan you give
us a good one for the Gold cup?
db―I'm off that, Mr Flynn, Davy Byrne answered. dbI never put anything on a
horse.
nf―You're right there, Nosey Flynn said.
Mr Bloom ate his strips of sandwich, fresh clean bread, with relish of disgust pungent mustard, the feety savour of green cheese. Sips of his wine soothed his palate. lbNot logwood that. Tastes fuller this weather with the chill off.
lbNice quiet bar. Nice piece of wood in that counter. Nicely planed.
Like the way it curves there.
db―I wouldn't do anything at all in that line, Davy Byrne said. dbIt ruined
many a man, the same horses.
lbVintners' sweepstake. Licensed for the sale of beer, wine and spirits
for consumption on the premises. Heads I win tails you lose.
nf―True for you, Nosey Flynn said. nfUnless you're in the know. There's no
straight sport going now. Lenehan gets some good ones. He's giving
Sceptre today. Zinfandel's the favourite, lord Howard de Walden's, won at
Epsom. Morny Cannon is riding him. I could have got seven to one against
Saint Amant a fortnight before.
db―That so? Davy Byrne said.
He went towards the window and, taking up the pettycash book,
scanned its pages.
nf―I could, faith, Nosey Flynn said, snuffling. nfThat was a rare bit of
horseflesh. Saint Frusquin was her sire. She won in a thunderstorm,
Rothschild's filly, with wadding in her ears. Blue jacket and yellow cap.
Bad luck to big Ben Dollard and his John O'Gaunt. He put me off it. Ay.
He drank resignedly from his tumbler, running his fingers down the
flutes.
nf―Ay, he said, sighing.
Mr Bloom, champing, standing, looked upon his sigh. lbNosey numbskull. Will I tell him that horse Lenehan? He knows already. Better let him forget. Go and lose more. Fool and his money. Dewdrop coming down again. Cold nose he'd have kissing a woman. Still they might like. Prickly beards they like. Dogs' cold noses. Old Mrs Riordan with the rumbling stomach's Skye terrier in the City Arms hotel. Molly fondling him in her lap. O, the big doggybowwowsywowsy!
Wine soaked and softened rolled pith of bread mustard a moment mawkish cheese. lbNice wine it is. Taste it better because I'm not thirsty. Bath of course does that. Just a bite or two. Then about six o'clock I can. Six. Six. Time will be gone then. She.
Mild fire of wine kindled his veins. lbI wanted that badly. Felt so off colour. His eyes unhungrily saw shelves of tins: sardines, gaudy lobsters' claws. lbAll the odd things people pick up for food. Out of shells, periwinkles with a pin, off trees, snails out of the ground the French eat, out of the sea with bait on a hook. Silly fish learn nothing in a thousand years. If you didn't know risky putting anything into your mouth. Poisonous berries. Johnny Magories. Roundness you think good. Gaudy colour warns you off. One fellow told another and so on. Try it on the dog first. Led on by the smell or the look. Tempting fruit. Ice cones. Cream. Instinct. Orangegroves for instance. Need artificial irrigation. Bleibtreustrasse. Yes but what about oysters. Unsightly like a clot of phlegm. Filthy shells. Devil to open them too. Who found them out? Garbage, sewage they feed on. Fizz and Red bank oysters. Effect on the sexual. Aphrodis. He was in the Red Bank this morning. Was he oysters old fish at table perhaps he young flesh in bed no June has no ar no oysters. But there are people like things high. Tainted game. Jugged hare. First catch your hare. Chinese eating eggs fifty years old, blue and green again. Dinner of thirty courses. Each dish harmless might mix inside. Idea for a poison mystery. That archduke Leopold was it no yes or was it Otto one of those Habsburgs? Or who was it used to eat the scruff off his own head? Cheapest lunch in town. Of course aristocrats, then the others copy to be in the fashion. Milly too rock oil and flour. Raw pastry I like myself. Half the catch of oysters they throw back in the sea to keep up the price. Cheap no-one would buy. Caviare. Do the grand. Hock in green glasses. Swell blowout. Lady this. Powdered bosom pearls. The élite. Crème de la crème. They want special dishes to pretend they're. Hermit with a platter of pulse keep down the stings of the flesh. Know me come eat with me. Royal sturgeon high sheriff, Coffey, the butcher, right to venisons of the forest from his ex. Send him back the half of a cow. Spread I saw down in the Master of the Rolls' kitchen area. Whitehatted chef like a rabbi. Combustible duck. Curly cabbage à la duchesse de Parme. Just as well to write it on the bill of fare so you can know what you've eaten. Too many drugs spoil the broth. I know it myself. Dosing it with Edwards' desiccated soup. Geese stuffed silly for them. Lobsters boiled alive. Do ptake some ptarmigan. Wouldn't mind being a waiter in a swell hotel. Tips, evening dress, halfnaked 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. Still it's the same fish perhaps old Micky Hanlon of Moore street ripped the guts out of making money hand over fist finger in fishes' gills can't write his name on a cheque think he was painting the landscape with his mouth twisted. Moooikill A Aitcha Ha ignorant as a kish of brogues, worth fifty thousand pounds.
Stuck on the pane two flies buzzed, stuck.
Glowing wine on his palate lingered swallowed. lbCrushing in the winepress grapes of Burgundy. Sun's heat it is. Seems to a secret touch telling me memory. Touched his sense moistened remembered. Hidden under wild ferns on Howth below us bay sleeping: sky. No sound. The sky. The bay purple by the Lion's head. Green by Drumleck. Yellowgreen towards Sutton. Fields of undersea, the lines faint brown in grass, buried cities. Pillowed on my coat she had her hair, earwigs in the heather scrub my hand under her nape, you'll toss me all. O wonder! Coolsoft with ointments her hand touched me, caressed: her eyes upon me did not turn away. Ravished over her I lay, full lips full open, kissed her mouth. Yum. Softly she gave me in my mouth the seedcake warm and chewed. Mawkish pulp her mouth had mumbled sweetsour of her spittle. Joy: I ate it: joy. Young life, her lips that gave me pouting. Soft warm sticky gumjelly lips. Flowers her eyes were, take me, willing eyes. Pebbles fell. She lay still. A goat. No-one. High on Ben Howth rhododendrons a nannygoat walking surefooted, dropping currants. Screened under ferns she laughed warmfolded. Wildly I lay on her, kissed her: eyes, her lips, her stretched neck beating, woman's breasts full in her blouse of nun's veiling, fat nipples upright. Hot I tongued her. She kissed me. I was kissed. All yielding she tossed my hair. Kissed, she kissed me.
lbMe. And me now.
Stuck, the flies buzzed.
His downcast eyes followed the silent veining of the oaken slab. Beauty: lbit curves: curves are beauty. Shapely goddesses, Venus, Juno: curves the world admires. Can see them library museum standing in the round hall, naked goddesses. Aids to digestion. They don't care what man looks. All to see. Never speaking. I mean to say to fellows like Flynn. Suppose she did Pygmalion and Galatea what would she say first? Mortal! Put you in your proper place. Quaffing nectar at mess with gods golden dishes, all ambrosial. Not like a tanner lunch we have, boiled mutton, carrots and turnips, bottle of Allsop. Nectar imagine it drinking electricity: gods' food. Lovely forms of women sculped Junonian. Immortal lovely. And we stuffing food in one hole and out behind: food, chyle, blood, dung, earth, food: have to feed it like stoking an engine. They have no. Never looked. I'll look today. Keeper won't see. Bend down let something drop. See if she.
Dribbling a quiet message from his bladder came to go to do not to do there to do. A man and ready he drained his glass to the lees and walked, to men too they gave themselves, manly conscious, lay with men lovers, a youth enjoyed her, to the yard.
When the sound of his boots had ceased Davy Byrne said from his
book:
db―What is this he is? Isn't he in the insurance line?
nf―He's out of that long ago, Nosey Flynn said. nfHe does canvassing for the
Freeman.
db―I know him well to see, Davy Byrne said. dbIs he in trouble?
nf―Trouble? Nosey Flynn said. nfNot that I heard of. Why?
db―I noticed he was in mourning.
nf―Was he? Nosey Flynn said. nfSo he was, faith. I asked him how was all at
home. You're right, by God. So he was.
db―I never broach the subject, Davy Byrne said humanely, dbif I see a
gentleman is in trouble that way. It only brings it up fresh in their minds.
nf―It's not the wife anyhow, Nosey Flynn said. nfI met him the day before
yesterday and he coming out of that Irish farm dairy John Wyse Nolan's
wife has in Henry street with a jar of cream in his hand taking it home to
his better half. She's well nourished, I tell you. Plovers on toast.
db―And is he doing for the Freeman? Davy Byrne said.
Nosey Flynn pursed his lips.
nf―He doesn't buy cream on the ads he picks up. You can make bacon of
that.
db―How so? Davy Byrne asked, coming from his book.
Nosey Flynn made swift passes in the air with juggling fingers. He
winked.
nf―He's in the craft, he said.
db―Do you tell me so? Davy Byrne said.
nf―Very much so, Nosey Flynn said. nfAncient free and accepted order. He's
an excellent brother. Light, life and love, by God. They give him a leg up. I
was told that by a – well, I won't say who.
db―Is that a fact?
nf―O, it's a fine order, Nosey Flynn said. nfThey stick to you when you're
down. I know a fellow was trying to get into it. But they're as close as damn
it. By God they did right to keep the women out of it.
Davy Byrne smiledyawnednodded all in one:
db―Iiiiiichaaaaaaach!
nf―There was one woman, Nosey Flynn said, nfhid herself in a clock to find
out what they do be doing. But be damned but they smelt her out and swore
her in on the spot a master mason. That was one of the saint Legers of
Doneraile.
Davy Byrne, sated after his yawn, said with tearwashed eyes:
db―And is that a fact? Decent quiet man he is. I often saw him in here and I
never once saw him – you know, over the line.
nf―God Almighty couldn't make him drunk, Nosey Flynn said firmly. nfSlips
off when the fun gets too hot. Didn't you see him look at his watch? Ah,
you weren't there. If you ask him to have a drink first thing he does he outs
with the watch to see what he ought to imbibe. Declare to God he does.
db―There are some like that, Davy Byrne said. dbHe's a safe man, I'd say.
nf―He's not too bad, Nosey Flynn said, snuffling it up. nfHe's been known to
put his hand down too to help a fellow. Give the devil his due. O, Bloom has
his good points. But there's one thing he'll never do.
His hand scrawled a dry pen signature beside his grog.
db―I know, Davy Byrne said.
nf―Nothing in black and white, Nosey Flynn said.
Paddy Leonard and Bantam Lyons came in. Tom Rochford followed
frowning, a plaining hand on his claret waistcoat.
unclear: Leonard Lyons or Rochford (or all three?)―Day, Mr Byrne.
db―Day, gentlemen.
They paused at the counter.
pl―Who's standing? Paddy Leonard asked.
nf―I'm sitting anyhow, Nosey Flynn answered.
pl―Well, what'll it be? Paddy Leonard asked.
bl―I'll take a stone ginger, Bantam Lyons said.
pl―How much? Paddy Leonard cried. plSince when, for God' sake? What's
yours, Tom?
nf―How is the main drainage? Nosey Flynn asked, sipping.
For answer Tom Rochford pressed his hand to his breastbone and
hiccupped.
tr―Would I trouble you for a glass of fresh water, Mr Byrne? he said.
db―Certainly, sir.
Paddy Leonard eyed his alemates.
pl―Lord love a duck, he said. plLook at what I'm standing drinks to! Cold
water and gingerpop! Two fellows that would suck whisky off a sore leg.
He has some bloody horse up his sleeve for the Gold cup. A dead snip.
nf―Zinfandel is it? Nosey Flynn asked.
Tom Rochford spilt powder from a twisted paper into the water set
before him.
tr―That cursed dyspepsia, he said before drinking.
db―Breadsoda is very good, Davy Byrne said.
Tom Rochford nodded and drank.
unclear: likely Nosey Flynn―Is it Zinfandel?
bl―Say nothing! Bantam Lyons winked. blI'm going to plunge five bob on my
own.
pl―Tell us if you're worth your salt and be damned to you, Paddy Leonard
said. plWho gave it to you?
Mr Bloom on his way out raised three fingers in greeting.
nf―So long! Nosey Flynn said.
The others turned.
bl―That's the man now that gave it to me, Bantam Lyons whispered.
pl―Prrwht! Paddy Leonard said with scorn. plMr Byrne, sir, we'll take two of
your small Jamesons after that and a ....
db―Stone ginger, Davy Byrne added civilly.
pl―Ay, Paddy Leonard said. plA suckingbottle for the baby.
Mr Bloom walked towards Dawson street, his tongue brushing his teeth smooth. lbSomething green it would have to be: spinach, say. Then with those Röntgen rays searchlight you could.
At Duke lane a ravenous terrier choked up a sick knuckly cud on the cobblestones and lapped it with new zest. lbSurfeit. Returned with thanks having fully digested the contents. First sweet then savoury. Mr Bloom coasted warily. lbRuminants. His second course. Their upper jaw they move. Wonder if Tom Rochford will do anything with that invention of his? Wasting time explaining it to Flynn's mouth. Lean people long mouths. Ought to be a hall or a place where inventors could go in and invent free. Course then you'd have all the cranks pestering.
He hummed, prolonging in solemn echo the closes of the bars:
lb―Don Giovanni, a cenar teco
M'invitasti.
lbFeel better. Burgundy. Good pick me up. Who distilled first? Some chap in the blues. Dutch courage. That Kilkenny People in the national library now I must.
Bare clean closestools waiting in the window of William Miller,
plumber, turned back his thoughts. lbThey could: and watch it all the way
down, swallow a pin sometimes come out of the ribs years after, tour round
the body changing biliary duct spleen squirting liver gastric juice coils of
intestines like pipes. But the poor buffer would have to stand all the time
with his insides entrails on show. Science.
lb―A cenar teco.
lbWhat does that teco mean? Tonight perhaps.
lb―Don Giovanni, thou hast me invited
To come to supper tonight,
The rum the rumdum.
lbDoesn't go properly.
lbKeyes: two months if I get Nannetti to. That'll be two pounds ten about two pounds eight. Three Hynes owes me. Two eleven. Prescott's dyeworks van over there. If I get Billy Prescott's ad: two fifteen. Five guineas about. On the pig's back.
lbCould buy one of those silk petticoats for Molly, colour of her new garters.
lbToday. Today. Not think.
lbTour the south then. What about English wateringplaces? Brighton, Margate. Piers by moonlight. Her voice floating out. Those lovely seaside girls. Against John Long's a drowsing loafer lounged in heavy thought, gnawing a crusted knuckle. Handy man wants job. Small wages. Will eat anything.
Mr Bloom turned at Gray's confectioner's window of unbought tarts and passed the reverend Thomas Connellan's bookstore. lbWhy I left the church of Rome. Birds' nest women run him. They say they used to give pauper children soup to change to protestants in the time of the potato blight. Society over the way papa went to for the conversion of poor jews. Same bait. Why we left the church of Rome.
A blind stripling stood tapping the curbstone with his slender cane.
lbNo tram in sight. Wants to cross.
lb―Do you want to cross? Mr Bloom asked.
The blind stripling did not answer. His wallface frowned weakly. He
moved his head uncertainly.
lb―You're in Dawson street, Mr Bloom said. lbMolesworth street is opposite.
Do you want to cross? There's nothing in the way.
The cane moved out trembling to the left. Mr Bloom's eye followed its
line and saw again the dyeworks' van drawn up before Drago's. lbWhere I
saw his brillantined hair just when I was. Horse drooping. Driver in John
Long's. Slaking his drouth.
lb―There's a van there, Mr Bloom said, lbbut it's not moving. I'll see you
across. Do you want to go to Molesworth street?
ubst―Yes, the stripling answered. ubstSouth Frederick street.
lb―Come, Mr Bloom said.
He touched the thin elbow gently: then took the limp seeing hand to guide it forward.
lbSay something to him. Better not do the condescending. They mistrust
what you tell them. Pass a common remark.
lb―The rain kept off.
lbNo answer.
lbStains on his coat. Slobbers his food, I suppose. Tastes all different for
him. Have to be spoonfed first. Like a child's hand, his hand. Like Milly's
was. Sensitive. Sizing me up I daresay from my hand. Wonder if he has a
name. Van. Keep his cane clear of the horse's legs: tired drudge get his
doze. That's right. Clear. Behind a bull: in front of a horse.
ubst―Thanks, sir.
lbKnows I'm a man. Voice.
lb―Right now? First turn to the left.
The blind stripling tapped the curbstone and went on his way, drawing his cane back, feeling again.
Mr Bloom walked behind the eyeless feet, a flatcut suit of herringbone tweed. lbPoor young fellow! How on earth did he know that van was there? Must have felt it. See things in their forehead perhaps: kind of sense of volume. Weight or size of it, something blacker than the dark. Wonder would he feel it if something was removed. Feel a gap. Queer idea of Dublin he must have, tapping his way round by the stones. Could he walk in a beeline if he hadn't that cane? Bloodless pious face like a fellow going in to be a priest.
lbPenrose! That was that chap's name.
lbLook at all the things they can learn to do. Read with their fingers. Tune pianos. Or we are surprised they have any brains. Why we think a deformed person or a hunchback clever if he says something we might say. Of course the other senses are more. Embroider. Plait baskets. People ought to help. Workbasket I could buy for Molly's birthday. Hates sewing. Might take an objection. Dark men they call them.
lbSense of smell must be stronger too. Smells on all sides, bunched together. Each street different smell. Each person too. Then the spring, the summer: smells. Tastes? They say you can't taste wines with your eyes shut or a cold in the head. Also smoke in the dark they say get no pleasure.
lbAnd with a woman, for instance. More shameless not seeing. That girl passing the Stewart institution, head in the air. Look at me. I have them all on. Must be strange not to see her. Kind of a form in his mind's eye. The voice, temperatures: when he touches her with his fingers must almost see the lines, the curves. His hands on her hair, for instance. Say it was black, for instance. Good. We call it black. Then passing over her white skin. Different feel perhaps. Feeling of white.
lbPostoffice. Must answer. Fag today. Send her a postal order two shillings, half a crown. Accept my little present. Stationer's just here too. Wait. Think over it.
With a gentle finger he felt ever so slowly the hair combed back above his ears. lbAgain. Fibres of fine fine straw. Then gently his finger felt the skin of his right cheek. Downy hair there too. Not smooth enough. The belly is the smoothest. No-one about. There he goes into Frederick street. Perhaps to Levenston's dancing academy piano. Might be settling my braces.
Walking by Doran's publichouse he slid his hand between his waistcoat and trousers and, pulling aside his shirt gently, felt a slack fold of his belly. lbBut I know it's whitey yellow. Want to try in the dark to see.
He withdrew his hand and pulled his dress to.
lbPoor fellow! Quite a boy. Terrible. Really terrible. What dreams would he have, not seeing? Life a dream for him. Where is the justice being born that way? All those women and children excursion beanfeast burned and drowned in New York. Holocaust. Karma they call that transmigration for sins you did in a past life the reincarnation met him pike hoses. Dear, dear, dear. Pity, of course: but somehow you can't cotton on to them someway.
lbSir Frederick Falkiner going into the freemasons' hall. Solemn as Troy. After his good lunch in Earlsfort terrace. Old legal cronies cracking a magnum. Tales of the bench and assizes and annals of the bluecoat school. I sentenced him to ten years. I suppose he'd turn up his nose at that stuff I drank. Vintage wine for them, the year marked on a dusty bottle. Has his own ideas of justice in the recorder's court. Wellmeaning old man. Police chargesheets crammed with cases get their percentage manufacturing crime. Sends them to the rightabout. The devil on moneylenders. Gave Reuben J a great strawcalling. Now he's really what they call a dirty jew. Power those judges have. Crusty old topers in wigs. Bear with a sore paw. And may the Lord have mercy on your soul.
lbHello, placard. Mirus bazaar. His Excellency the lord lieutenant. Sixteenth. Today it is. In aid of funds for Mercer's hospital. The Messiah was first given for that. Yes. Handel. What about going out there: Ballsbridge. Drop in on Keyes. No use sticking to him like a leech. Wear out my welcome. Sure to know someone on the gate.
Mr Bloom came to Kildare street. lbFirst I must. Library.
lbStraw hat in sunlight. Tan shoes. Turnedup trousers. It is. It is.
His heart quopped softly. lbTo the right. Museum. Goddesses. He swerved to the right.
lbIs it? Almost certain. Won't look. Wine in my face. Why did I? Too heady. Yes, it is. The walk. Not see. Get on.
Making for the museum gate with long windy steps he lifted his eyes. lbHandsome building. Sir Thomas Deane designed. Not following me?
lbDidn't see me perhaps. Light in his eyes.
The flutter of his breath came forth in short sighs. lbQuick. Cold statues: quiet there. Safe in a minute.
lbNo. Didn't see me. After two. Just at the gate.
lbMy heart!
His eyes beating looked steadfastly at cream curves of stone. Sir Thomas Deane was the Greek architecture.
lbLook for something I.
His hasty hand went quick into a pocket, took out, read unfolded Agendath Netaim. lbWhere did I?
lbBusy looking.
He thrust back quick Agendath.
lbAfternoon she said.
lbI am looking for that. Yes, that. Try all pockets. Handker. Freeman. Where did I? Ah, yes. Trousers. Potato. Purse. Where?
lbHurry. Walk quietly. Moment more. My heart.
lbHis hand looking for the where did I put found in his hip pocket soap lotion have to call tepid paper stuck. Ah soap there I yes. Gate.
lbSafe!
Urbane, to comfort them, the quaker librarian purred:
tl―And we have, have we not, those priceless pages of Wilhelm Meister. A
great poet on a great brother poet. A hesitating soul taking arms against a
sea of troubles, torn by conflicting doubts, as one sees in real life.
He came a step a sinkapace forward on neatsleather creaking and a step backward a sinkapace on the solemn floor.
A noiseless attendant setting open the door but slightly made him a
noiseless beck.
tl―Directly, said he, creaking to go, albeit lingering. tlThe beautiful
ineffectual dreamer who comes to grief against hard facts. One always feels
that Goethe's judgments are so true. True in the larger analysis.
Twicreakingly analysis he corantoed off. Bald, most zealous by the door he gave his large ear all to the attendant's words: heard them: and was gone.
sdTwo left.
sd―Monsieur de la Palice, Stephen sneered, sdwas alive fifteen minutes before
his death.
je―Have you found those six brave medicals, John Eglinton asked with
elder's gall, jeto write Paradise Lost at your dictation? The Sorrows of Satan
he calls it.
sdSmile. Smile Cranly's smile.
je―I feel you would need one more for Hamlet. Seven is dear to the mystic
mind. The shining seven WB calls them.
Glittereyed his rufous skull close to his greencapped desklamp sought the face bearded amid darkgreener shadow, an ollav, holyeyed. He laughed low: a sizar's laugh of Trinity: unanswered.
sdHe holds my follies hostage.
sdCranly's eleven true Wicklowmen to free their sireland. Gaptoothed Kathleen, her four beautiful green fields, the stranger in her house. And one more to hail him: ave, rabbi: the Tinahely twelve. In the shadow of the glen he cooees for them. My soul's youth I gave him, night by night. God speed. Good hunting.
sdMulligan has my telegram.
sdFolly. Persist.
je―Our young Irish bards, John Eglinton censured, jehave yet to create a
figure which the world will set beside Saxon Shakespeare's Hamlet though
I admire him, as old Ben did, on this side idolatry.
ae―All these questions are purely academic, Russell oracled out of his
shadow. aeI mean, whether Hamlet is Shakespeare or James I or Essex.
Clergymen's discussions of the historicity of Jesus. Art has to reveal to us
ideas, formless spiritual essences. The supreme question about a work of art
is out of how deep a life does it spring. The painting of Gustave Moreau is
the painting of ideas. The deepest poetry of Shelley, the words of Hamlet
bring our minds into contact with the eternal wisdom, Plato's world of
ideas. All the rest is the speculation of schoolboys for schoolboys.
sdA. E. has been telling some yankee interviewer. Wall, tarnation strike
me!
sd―The schoolmen were schoolboys first, Stephen said superpolitely.
sdAristotle was once Plato's schoolboy.
je―And has remained so, one should hope, John Eglinton sedately said. jeOne
can see him, a model schoolboy with his diploma under his arm.
He laughed again at the now smiling bearded face.
sdFormless spiritual. Father, Word and Holy Breath. Allfather, the heavenly man. Hiesos Kristos, magician of the beautiful, the Logos who suffers in us at every moment. This verily is that. I am the fire upon the altar. I am the sacrificial butter.
sdDunlop, Judge, the noblest Roman of them all, A. E., Arval, the Name Ineffable, in heaven hight: K. H., their master, whose identity is no secret to adepts. Brothers of the great white lodge always watching to see if they can help. The Christ with the bridesister, moisture of light, born of an ensouled virgin, repentant sophia, departed to the plane of buddhi. The life esoteric is not for ordinary person. O. P. must work off bad karma first. Mrs Cooper Oakley once glimpsed our very illustrious sister H. P. B.'s elemental.
sdO, fie! Out on't! Pfuiteufel! You naughtn't to look, missus, so you naughtn't when a lady's ashowing of her elemental.
Mr Best entered, tall, young, mild, light. He bore in his hand with
grace a notebook, new, large, clean, bright.
sd―That model schoolboy, Stephen said, sdwould find Hamlet's musings about
the afterlife of his princely soul, the improbable, insignificant and
undramatic monologue, as shallow as Plato's.
John Eglinton, frowning, said, waxing wroth:
je―Upon my word it makes my blood boil to hear anyone compare Aristotle
with Plato.
sd―Which of the two, Stephen asked, sdwould have banished me from his
commonwealth?
sdUnsheathe your dagger definitions. Horseness is the whatness of allhorse. Streams of tendency and eons they worship. God: noise in the street: very peripatetic. Space: what you damn well have to see. Through spaces smaller than red globules of man's blood they creepycrawl after Blake's buttocks into eternity of which this vegetable world is but a shadow. Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.
Mr Best came forward, amiable, towards his colleague.
rib―Haines is gone, he said.
je―Is he?
rib―I was showing him Jubainville's book. He's quite enthusiastic, don't you
know, about Hyde's Lovesongs of Connacht. I couldn't bring him in to
hear the discussion. He's gone to Gill's to buy it.
je―The peatsmoke is going to his head, John Eglinton opined.
sdWe feel in England. Penitent thief. Gone. I smoked his baccy. Green
twinkling stone. An emerald set in the ring of the sea.
ae―People do not know how dangerous lovesongs can be, the auric egg of
Russell warned occultly. aeThe movements which work revolutions in the
world are born out of the dreams and visions in a peasant's heart on the
hillside. For them the earth is not an exploitable ground but the living
mother. The rarefied air of the academy and the arena produce the
sixshilling novel, the musichall song. France produces the finest flower of
corruption in Mallarmé but the desirable life is revealed only to the poor of
heart, the life of Homer's Phaeacians.
From these words Mr Best turned an unoffending face to Stephen.
rib―Mallarmé, don't you know, he said, ribhas written those wonderful prose
poems Stephen MacKenna used to read to me in Paris. The one about
Hamlet. He says: il se promène, lisant au livre de lui-même, don't you
know, reading the book of himself. He describes Hamlet given in a French
town, don't you know, a provincial town. They advertised it.
His free hand graciously wrote tiny signs in air.
He repeated to John Eglinton's newgathered frown:
rib―Pièce de Shakespeare, don't you know. It's so French. The French point
of view. Hamlet ou ...
sd―The absentminded beggar, Stephen ended.
John Eglinton laughed.
je―Yes, I suppose it would be, he said. jeExcellent people, no doubt, but
distressingly shortsighted in some matters.
sdSumptuous and stagnant exaggeration of murder.
sd―A deathsman of the soul Robert Greene called him, Stephen said. sdNot for
nothing was he a butcher's son, wielding the sledded poleaxe and spitting in
his palms. Nine lives are taken off for his father's one. Our Father who art
in purgatory. Khaki Hamlets don't hesitate to shoot. The bloodboltered
shambles in act five is a forecast of the concentration camp sung by Mr
Swinburne.
sdCranly, I his mute orderly, following battles from afar.
sdBetween the Saxon smile and yankee yawp. The devil and the deep
sea.
je―He will have it that Hamlet is a ghoststory, John Eglinton said for Mr
Best's behoof. jeLike the fat boy in Pickwick he wants to make our flesh
creep.
sdMy flesh hears him: creeping, hears.
sd―What is a ghost? Stephen said with tingling energy. sdOne who has faded
into impalpability through death, through absence, through change of
manners. Elizabethan London lay as far from Stratford as corrupt Paris
lies from virgin Dublin. Who is the ghost from limbo patrum, returning to
the world that has forgotten him? Who is King Hamlet?
John Eglinton shifted his spare body, leaning back to judge.
sdLifted.
sd―It is this hour of a day in mid June, Stephen said, begging with a swift
glance their hearing. sdThe flag is up on the playhouse by the bankside. The
bear Sackerson growls in the pit near it, Paris garden. Canvasclimbers who
sailed with Drake chew their sausages among the groundlings.
sdLocal colour. Work in all you know. Make them accomplices.
sd―Shakespeare has left the huguenot's house in Silver street and walks by
the swanmews along the riverbank. But he does not stay to feed the pen
chivying her game of cygnets towards the rushes. The swan of Avon has
other thoughts.
sdComposition of place. Ignatius Loyola, make haste to help me!
sd―The play begins. A player comes on under the shadow, made up in the
castoff mail of a court buck, a wellset man with a bass voice. It is the ghost,
the king, a king and no king, and the player is Shakespeare who has studied
Hamlet all the years of his life which were not vanity in order to play the
part of the spectre. He speaks the words to Burbage, the young player who
stands before him beyond the rack of cerecloth, calling him by a name:
Hamlet, I am thy father's spirit,
bidding him list. To a son he speaks, the son of his soul, the prince, young
Hamlet and to the son of his body, Hamnet Shakespeare, who has died in
Stratford that his namesake may live for ever.
Is it possible that that player Shakespeare, a ghost by absence, and in the
vesture of buried Denmark, a ghost by death, speaking his own words to
his own son's name (had Hamnet Shakespeare lived he would have been
prince Hamlet's twin), is it possible, I want to know, or probable that he
did not draw or foresee the logical conclusion of those premises: you are
the dispossessed son: I am the murdered father: your mother is the
guilty queen, Ann Shakespeare, born Hathaway?
ae―But this prying into the family life of a great man, Russell began
impatiently.
sdArt thou there, truepenny?
ae―Interesting only to the parish clerk. I mean, we have the plays. I mean
when we read the poetry of King Lear what is it to us how the poet lived?
As for living our servants can do that for us, Villiers de l'Isle has said.
Peeping and prying into greenroom gossip of the day, the poet's drinking,
the poet's debts. We have King Lear: and it is immortal.
Mr Best's face, appealed to, agreed.
sdHow now, sirrah, that pound he lent you when you were hungry?
sdMarry, I wanted it.
sdTake thou this noble.
sdGo to! You spent most of it in Georgina Johnson's bed, clergyman's daughter. Agenbite of inwit.
sdDo you intend to pay it back?
sdO, yes.
sdWhen? Now?
sdWell .... No.
sdWhen, then?
sdI paid my way. I paid my way.
sdSteady on. He's from beyant Boyne water. The northeast corner. You owe it.
sdWait. Five months. Molecules all change. I am other I now. Other I got pound.
sdBuzz. Buzz.
sdBut I, entelechy, form of forms, am I by memory because under everchanging forms.
sdI that sinned and prayed and fasted.
sdA child Conmee saved from pandies.
sdI, I and I. I.
sdA. E. I. O. U.
je―Do you mean to fly in the face of the tradition of three centuries? John
Eglinton's carping voice asked. jeHer ghost at least has been laid for ever.
She died, for literature at least, before she was born.
sd―She died, Stephen retorted, sdsixtyseven years after she was born. She saw
him into and out of the world. She took his first embraces. She bore his
children and she laid pennies on his eyes to keep his eyelids closed when he
lay on his deathbed.
sdMother's deathbed. Candle. The sheeted mirror. Who brought me into this world lies there, bronzelidded, under few cheap flowers. Liliata rutilantium.
sdI wept alone.
sdJohn Eglinton looked in the tangled glowworm of his lamp.
je―The world believes that Shakespeare made a mistake, he said, jeand got out
of it as quickly and as best he could.
sd―Bosh! Stephen said rudely. sdA man of genius makes no mistakes. His
errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
sdPortals of discovery opened to let in the quaker librarian,
softcreakfooted, bald, eared and assiduous.
je―A shrew, John Eglinton said shrewdly, jeis not a useful portal of discovery,
one should imagine. What useful discovery did Socrates learn from
Xanthippe?
sd―Dialectic, Stephen answered: sdand from his mother how to bring thoughts
into the world. What he learnt from his other wife Myrto (absit nomen!),
Socratididion's Epipsychidion, no man, not a woman, will ever know. But
neither the midwife's lore nor the caudlelectures saved him from the
archons of Sinn Fein and their naggin of hemlock.
rib―But Ann Hathaway? Mr Best's quiet voice said forgetfully. ribYes, we seem
to be forgetting her as Shakespeare himself forgot her.
His look went from brooder's beard to carper's skull, to remind, to
chide them not unkindly, then to the baldpink lollard costard, guiltless
though maligned.
sd―He had a good groatsworth of wit, Stephen said, sdand no truant memory.
He carried a memory in his wallet as he trudged to Romeville whistling The
Girl I left behind me. If the earthquake did not time it we should know
where to place poor Wat, sitting in his form, the cry of hounds, the studded
bridle and her blue windows. That memory, Venus and Adonis, lay in the
bedchamber of every light-of-love in London. Is Katharine the shrew
illfavoured? Hortensio calls her young and beautiful. Do you think the
writer of Antony and Cleopatra, a passionate pilgrim, had his eyes in the
back of his head that he chose the ugliest doxy in all Warwickshire to lie
withal? Good: he left her and gained the world of men. But his boywomen
are the women of a boy. Their life, thought, speech are lent them by males.
He chose badly? He was chosen, it seems to me. If others have their will
Ann hath a way. By cock, she was to blame. She put the comether on him,
sweet and twentysix. The greyeyed goddess who bends over the boy Adonis,
stooping to conquer, as prologue to the swelling act, is a boldfaced
Stratford wench who tumbles in a cornfield a lover younger than herself.
sdAnd my turn? When?
sdCome!
rib―Ryefield, Mr Best said brightly, gladly, raising his new book, gladly,
brightly.
He murmured then with blond delight for all:
rib―Between the acres of the rye
These pretty countryfolk would lie.
sdParis: the wellpleased pleaser.
A tall figure in bearded homespun rose from shadow and unveiled its
cooperative watch.
ae―I am afraid I am due at the Homestead.
sdWhither away? Exploitable ground.
je―Are you going? John Eglinton's active eyebrows asked. jeShall we see you
at Moore's tonight? Piper is coming.
rib―Piper! Mr Best piped. ribIs Piper back?
sdPeter Piper pecked a peck of pick of peck of pickled pepper.
ae―I don't know if I can. Thursday. We have our meeting. If I can get away
in time.
sdYogibogeybox in Dawson chambers. Isis Unveiled. Their Pali book we tried to pawn. Crosslegged under an umbrel umbershoot he thrones an Aztec logos, functioning on astral levels, their oversoul, mahamahatma. The faithful hermetists await the light, ripe for chelaship, ringroundabout him. Louis H. Victory. T. Caulfield Irwin. Lotus ladies tend them i'the eyes, their pineal glands aglow. Filled with his god, he thrones, Buddh under plantain. Gulfer of souls, engulfer. Hesouls, shesouls, shoals of souls. Engulfed with wailing creecries, whirled, whirling, they bewail.
tl―They say we are to have a literary surprise, the quaker librarian said,
friendly and earnest. tlMr Russell, rumour has it, is gathering together a
sheaf of our younger poets' verses. We are all looking forward anxiously.
Anxiously he glanced in the cone of lamplight where three faces, lighted, shone.
sdSee this. Remember.
Stephen looked down on a wide headless caubeen, hung on his ashplanthandle over his knee. sdMy casque and sword. Touch lightly with two index fingers. Aristotle's experiment. One or two? Necessity is that in virtue of which it is impossible that one can be otherwise. Argal, one hat is one hat.
sdListen.
sdYoung Colum and Starkey. George Roberts is doing the commercial part. Longworth will give it a good puff in the Express. O, will he? I liked Colum's Drover. Yes, I think he has that queer thing genius. Do you think he has genius really? Yeats admired his line: As in wild earth a Grecian vase. Did he? I hope you'll be able to come tonight. Malachi Mulligan is coming too. Moore asked him to bring Haines. Did you hear Miss Mitchell's joke about Moore and Martyn? That Moore is Martyn's wild oats? Awfully clever, isn't it? They remind one of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Our national epic has yet to be written, Dr Sigerson says. Moore is the man for it. A knight of the rueful countenance here in Dublin. With a saffron kilt? O'Neill Russell? O, yes, he must speak the grand old tongue. And his Dulcinea? James Stephens is doing some clever sketches. We are becoming important, it seems.
sdCordelia. Cordoglio. Lir's loneliest daughter.
sdNookshotten. Now your best French polish.
sd―Thank you very much, Mr Russell, Stephen said, rising. sdIf you will be so
kind as to give the letter to Mr Norman ...
ae―O, yes. If he considers it important it will go in. We have so much
correspondence.
sd―I understand, Stephen said. sdThanks.
sdGod ild you. The pigs' paper. Bullockbefriending.
sdSynge has promised me an article for Dana too. Are we going to be read? I feel we are. The Gaelic league wants something in Irish. I hope you will come round tonight. Bring Starkey.
Stephen sat down.
The quaker librarian came from the leavetakers. Blushing, his mask
said:
tl―Mr Dedalus, your views are most illuminating.
He creaked to and fro, tiptoing up nearer heaven by the altitude of a
chopine, and, covered by the noise of outgoing, said low:
tl―Is it your view, then, that she was not faithful to the poet?
sdAlarmed face asks me. Why did he come? Courtesy or an inward
light?
sd―Where there is a reconciliation, Stephen said, sdthere must have been first a
sundering.
tl―Yes.
sdChristfox in leather trews, hiding, a runaway in blighted treeforks,
from hue and cry. Knowing no vixen, walking lonely in the chase. Women
he won to him, tender people, a whore of Babylon, ladies of justices, bully
tapsters' wives. Fox and geese. And in New Place a slack dishonoured body
that once was comely, once as sweet, as fresh as cinnamon, now her leaves
falling, all, bare, frighted of the narrow grave and unforgiven.
tl―Yes. So you think ....
The door closed behind the outgoer.
Rest suddenly possessed the discreet vaulted cell, rest of warm and brooding air.
sdA vestal's lamp.
Here he ponders things that were not: what Caesar would have lived to do had he believed the soothsayer: what might have been: possibilities of the possible as possible: things not known: what name Achilles bore when he lived among women.
sdCoffined thoughts around me, in mummycases, embalmed in spice of words. Thoth, god of libraries, a birdgod, moonycrowned. And I heard the voice of that Egyptian highpriest. In painted chambers loaded with tilebooks.
sdThey are still. Once quick in the brains of men. Still: but an itch of
death is in them, to tell me in my ear a maudlin tale, urge me to wreak their
will.
je―Certainly, John Eglinton mused, jeof all great men he is the most enigmatic.
We know nothing but that he lived and suffered. Not even so much. Others
abide our question. A shadow hangs over all the rest.
rib―But Hamlet is so personal, isn't it? Mr Best pleaded. ribI mean, a kind of
private paper, don't you know, of his private life. I mean, I don't care a
button, don't you know, who is killed or who is guilty ...
He rested an innocent book on the edge of the desk, smiling his defiance. sdHis private papers in the original. Ta an bad ar an tir. Taim in mo shagart. Put beurla on it, littlejohn.
sdQuoth littlejohn Eglinton:
je―I was prepared for paradoxes from what Malachi Mulligan told us but I
may as well warn you that if you want to shake my belief that Shakespeare
is Hamlet you have a stern task before you.
sdBear with me.
Stephen withstood the bane of miscreant eyes glinting stern under
wrinkled brows. sdA basilisk. E quando vede l'uomo l'attosca. Messer
Brunetto, I thank thee for the word.
sd―As we, or mother Dana, weave and unweave our bodies, Stephen said,
sdfrom day to day, their molecules shuttled to and fro, so does the artist
weave and unweave his image. And as the mole on my right breast is where
it was when I was born, though all my body has been woven of new stuff
time after time, so through the ghost of the unquiet father the image of the
unliving son looks forth. In the intense instant of imagination, when the
mind, Shelley says, is a fading coal, that which I was is that which I am and
that which in possibility I may come to be. So in the future, the sister of the
past, I may see myself as I sit here now but by reflection from that which
then I shall be.
sdDrummond of Hawthornden helped you at that stile.
rib―Yes, Mr Best said youngly. ribI feel Hamlet quite young. The bitterness
might be from the father but the passages with Ophelia are surely from the
son.
sdHas the wrong sow by the lug. He is in my father. I am in his son.
sd―That mole is the last to go, Stephen said, laughing.
John Eglinton made a nothing pleasing mow.
je―If that were the birthmark of genius, he said, jegenius would be a drug in
the market. The plays of Shakespeare's later years which Renan admired so
much breathe another spirit.
tl―The spirit of reconciliation, the quaker librarian breathed.
sd―There can be no reconciliation, Stephen said, sdif there has not been a
sundering.
sdSaid that.
sd―If you want to know what are the events which cast their shadow over the
hell of time of King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, look to
see when and how the shadow lifts. What softens the heart of a man,
shipwrecked in storms dire, Tried, like another Ulysses, Pericles, prince of
Tyre?
sdHead, redconecapped, buffeted, brineblinded.
sd―A child, a girl, placed in his arms, Marina.
je―The leaning of sophists towards the bypaths of apocrypha is a constant
quantity, John Eglinton detected. jeThe highroads are dreary but they lead to
the town.
sdGood Bacon: gone musty. Shakespeare Bacon's wild oats. Cypherjugglers going the highroads. Seekers on the great quest. What town, good masters? Mummed in names: A. E., eon: Magee, John Eglinton. East of the sun, west of the moon: Tir na n-og. Booted the twain and staved.
sd―Mr Brandes accepts it, Stephen said, sdas the first play of the closing period.
je―Does he? What does Mr Sidney Lee, or Mr Simon Lazarus as some aver
his name is, say of it?
sd―Marina, Stephen said, sda child of storm, Miranda, a wonder, Perdita, that
which was lost. What was lost is given back to him: his daughter's child.
My dearest wife, Pericles says, was like this maid. Will any man love the
daughter if he has not loved the mother?
rib―The art of being a grandfather, Mr Best gan murmur. ribL'art d'être
grandp .....
sd―Will he not see reborn in her, with the memory of his own youth added,
another image?
sdDo you know what you are talking about? Love, yes. Word known to
all men. Amor vero aliquid alicui bonum vult unde et ea quae
concupiscimus ...
sd―His own image to a man with that queer thing genius is the standard of
all experience, material and moral. Such an appeal will touch him. The
images of other males of his blood will repel him. He will see in them
grotesque attempts of nature to foretell or to repeat himself.
The benign forehead of the quaker librarian enkindled rosily with
hope.
tl―I hope Mr Dedalus will work out his theory for the enlightenment of the
public. And we ought to mention another Irish commentator, Mr George
Bernard Shaw. Nor should we forget Mr Frank Harris. His articles on
Shakespeare in the Saturday Review were surely brilliant. Oddly enough
he too draws for us an unhappy relation with the dark lady of the sonnets.
The favoured rival is William Herbert, earl of Pembroke. I own that if the
poet must be rejected such a rejection would seem more in harmony with –
what shall I say? – our notions of what ought not to have been.
Felicitously he ceased and held a meek head among them, auk's egg, prize of their fray.
sdHe thous and thees her with grave husbandwords. Dost love,
Miriam? Dost love thy man?
sd―That may be too, Stephen said. sdThere's a saying of Goethe's which Mr
Magee likes to quote. Beware of what you wish for in youth because you
will get it in middle life. Why does he send to one who is a buonaroba, a bay
where all men ride, a maid of honour with a scandalous girlhood, a lordling
to woo for him? He was himself a lord of language and had made himself a
coistrel gentleman and he had written Romeo and Juliet. Why? Belief in
himself has been untimely killed. He was overborne in a cornfield first (a
ryefield, I should say) and he will never be a victor in his own eyes after nor
play victoriously the game of laugh and lie down. Assumed dongiovannism
will not save him. No later undoing will undo the first undoing. The tusk of
the boar has wounded him there where love lies ableeding. If the shrew is
worsted yet there remains to her woman's invisible weapon. There is, I feel
in the words, some goad of the flesh driving him into a new passion, a
darker shadow of the first, darkening even his own understanding of
himself. A like fate awaits him and the two rages commingle in a whirlpool.
sdThey list. And in the porches of their ears I pour.
sd―The soul has been before stricken mortally, a poison poured in the porch
of a sleeping ear. But those who are done to death in sleep cannot know the
manner of their quell unless their Creator endow their souls with that
knowledge in the life to come. The poisoning and the beast with two backs
that urged it King Hamlet's ghost could not know of were he not endowed
with knowledge by his creator. That is why the speech (his lean unlovely
English) is always turned elsewhere, backward. Ravisher and ravished,
what he would but would not, go with him from Lucrece's bluecircled ivory
globes to Imogen's breast, bare, with its mole cinquespotted. He goes back,
weary of the creation he has piled up to hide him from himself, an old dog
licking an old sore. But, because loss is his gain, he passes on towards
eternity in undiminished personality, untaught by the wisdom he has
written or by the laws he has revealed. His beaver is up. He is a ghost, a
shadow now, the wind by Elsinore's rocks or what you will, the sea's voice,
a voice heard only in the heart of him who is the substance of his shadow,
the son consubstantial with the father.
bm―Amen! was responded from the doorway.
sdHast thou found me, O mine enemy?
sdEntr'acte.
A ribald face, sullen as a dean's, Buck Mulligan came forward, then
blithe in motley, towards the greeting of their smiles. sdMy telegram.
bm―You were speaking of the gaseous vertebrate, if I mistake not? he asked of
Stephen.
Primrosevested he greeted gaily with his doffed Panama as with a bauble.
sdThey make him welcome. Was Du verlachst wirst Du noch dienen.
sdBrood of mockers: Photius, pseudo Malachi, Johann Most.
sdHe Who Himself begot middler the Holy Ghost and Himself sent Himself, Agenbuyer, between Himself and others, Who, put upon by His fiends, stripped and whipped, was nailed like bat to barndoor, starved on crosstree, Who let Him bury, stood up, harrowed hell, fared into heaven and there these nineteen hundred years sitteth on the right hand of His Own Self but yet shall come in the latter day to doom the quick and dead when all the quick shall be dead already.
sdGlo-o--ri--a in ex--cel--sis De--o.
sdHe lifts his hands. Veils fall. O, flowers! Bells with bells with bells
aquiring.
tl―Yes, indeed, the quaker librarian said. tlA most instructive discussion. Mr
Mulligan, I'll be bound, has his theory too of the play and of Shakespeare.
All sides of life should be represented.
He smiled on all sides equally.
Buck Mulligan thought, puzzled.
bm―Shakespeare? he said. bmI seem to know the name.
A flying sunny smile rayed in his loose features.
bm―To be sure, he said, remembering brightly. bmThe chap that writes like
Synge.
Mr Best turned to him.
rib―Haines missed you, he said. ribDid you meet him? He'll see you after at the
D. B. C. He's gone to Gill's to buy Hyde's Lovesongs of Connacht.
bm―I came through the museum, Buck Mulligan said. bmWas he here?
je―The bard's fellowcountrymen, John Eglinton answered, jeare rather tired
perhaps of our brilliancies of theorising. I hear that an actress played
Hamlet for the fourhundredandeighth time last night in Dublin. Vining
held that the prince was a woman. Has no-one made him out to be an
Irishman? Judge Barton, I believe, is searching for some clues. He swears
(His Highness not His Lordship) by saint Patrick.
rib―The most brilliant of all is that story of Wilde's, Mr Best said, lifting his
brilliant notebook. ribThat Portrait of Mr W. H. where he proves that the
sonnets were written by a Willie Hughes, a man all hues.
tl―For Willie Hughes, is it not? the quaker librarian asked.
sdOr Hughie Wills? Mr William Himself. W. H.: who am I?
rib―I mean, for Willie Hughes, Mr Best said, amending his gloss easily. ribOf
course it's all paradox, don't you know, Hughes and hews and hues, the
colour, but it's so typical the way he works it out. It's the very essence of
Wilde, don't you know. The light touch.
His glance touched their faces lightly as he smiled, a blond ephebe. sdTame essence of Wilde.
sdYou're darned witty. Three drams of usquebaugh you drank with Dan Deasy's ducats.
sdHow much did I spend? O, a few shillings.
sdFor a plump of pressmen. Humour wet and dry.
sdWit. You would give your five wits for youth's proud livery he pranks in. Lineaments of gratified desire.
sdThere be many mo. Take her for me. In pairing time. Jove, a cool ruttime send them. Yea, turtledove her.
sdEve. Naked wheatbellied sin. A snake coils her, fang in's kiss.
tl―Do you think it is only a paradox? the quaker librarian was asking. tlThe
mocker is never taken seriously when he is most serious.
They talked seriously of mocker's seriousness.
Buck Mulligan's again heavy face eyed Stephen awhile. Then, his
head wagging, he came near, drew a folded telegram from his pocket. His
mobile lips read, smiling with new delight.
bm―Telegram! he said. bmWonderful inspiration! Telegram! A papal bull!
He sat on a corner of the unlit desk, reading aloud joyfully:
bm―The sentimentalist is he who would enjoy without incurring the immense
debtorship for a thing done. Signed: Dedalus. Where did you launch it
from? The kips? No. College Green. Have you drunk the four quid? The
aunt is going to call on your unsubstantial father. Telegram! Malachi
Mulligan, The Ship, lower Abbey street. O, you peerless mummer! O, you
priestified Kinchite!
Joyfully he thrust message and envelope into a pocket but keened in a
querulous brogue:
bm―It's what I'm telling you, mister honey, it's queer and sick we were,
Haines and myself, the time himself brought it in. 'Twas murmur we did for
a gallus potion would rouse a friar, I'm thinking, and he limp with leching.
And we one hour and two hours and three hours in Connery's sitting civil
waiting for pints apiece.
He wailed:
bm―And we to be there, mavrone, and you to be unbeknownst sending us
your conglomerations the way we to have our tongues out a yard long like
the drouthy clerics do be fainting for a pussful.
Stephen laughed.
Quickly, warningfully Buck Mulligan bent down.
bm―The tramper Synge is looking for you, he said, bmto murder you. He heard
you pissed on his halldoor in Glasthule. He's out in pampooties to murder
you.
sd―Me! Stephen exclaimed. sdThat was your contribution to literature.
Buck Mulligan gleefully bent back, laughing to the dark
eavesdropping ceiling.
bm―Murder you! he laughed.
sdHarsh gargoyle face that warred against me over our mess of hash of
lights in rue Saint André des Arts. In words of words for words, palabras.
Oisin with Patrick. Faunman he met in Clamart woods, brandishing a
winebottle. C'est vendredi saint! Murthering Irish. His image, wandering,
he met. I mine. I met a fool i'the forest.
uatt―Mr Lyster, an attendant said from the door ajar.
tl―..... in which everyone can find his own. So Mr Justice Madden in his
Diary of Master William Silence has found the hunting terms .... Yes? What
is it?
uatt―There's a gentleman here, sir, the attendant said, coming forward and
offering a card. uattFrom the Freeman. He wants to see the files of the Kilkenny
People for last year.
tl―Certainly, certainly, certainly. Is the gentleman ......?
He took the eager card, glanced, not saw, laid down unglanced,
looked, asked, creaked, asked:
tl―Is he .....? O, there!
Brisk in a galliard he was off, out. In the daylit corridor he talked
with voluble pains of zeal, in duty bound, most fair, most kind, most honest
broadbrim.
tl―This gentleman? Freeman's Journal? Kilkenny People? To be sure. Good
day, sir. Kilkenny .... We have certainly ....
A patient silhouette waited, listening.
tl―All the leading provincial .... Northern Whig, Cork Examiner,
Enniscorthy Guardian. Last year. 1903 .... Will you please ... Evans,
conduct this gentleman ... If you just follow the atten .... Or, please allow
me .... This way ... Please, sir ....
Voluble, dutiful, he led the way to all the provincial papers, a bowing dark figure following his hasty heels.
The door closed.
bm―The sheeny! Buck Mulligan cried.
He jumped up and snatched the card.
bm―What's his name? Ikey Moses? Bloom.
He rattled on:
bm―Jehovah, collector of prepuces, is no more. I found him over in the
museum where I went to hail the foamborn Aphrodite. The Greek mouth
that has never been twisted in prayer. Every day we must do homage to her.
Life of life, thy lips enkindle.
Suddenly he turned to Stephen:
bm―He knows you. He knows your old fellow. O, I fear me, he is Greeker
than the Greeks. His pale Galilean eyes were upon her mesial groove.
Venus Kallipyge. O, the thunder of those loins! The god pursuing the
maiden hid.
je―We want to hear more, John Eglinton decided with Mr Best's approval.
jeWe begin to be interested in Mrs S. Till now we had thought of her, if at all,
as a patient Griselda, a Penelope stay-at-home.
sd―Antisthenes, pupil of Gorgias, Stephen said, sdtook the palm of beauty from
Kyrios Menelaus' brooddam, Argive Helen, the wooden mare of Troy in
whom a score of heroes slept, and handed it to poor Penelope. Twenty years
he lived in London and, during part of that time, he drew a salary equal to
that of the lord chancellor of Ireland. His life was rich. His art, more than
the art of feudalism as Walt Whitman called it, is the art of surfeit. Hot
herringpies, green mugs of sack, honeysauces, sugar of roses, marchpane,
gooseberried pigeons, ringocandies. Sir Walter Raleigh, when they arrested
him, had half a million francs on his back including a pair of fancy stays.
The gombeenwoman Eliza Tudor had underlinen enough to vie with her of
Sheba. Twenty years he dallied there between conjugial love and its chaste
delights and scortatory love and its foul pleasures. You know
Manningham's story of the burgher's wife who bade Dick Burbage to her
bed after she had seen him in Richard III and how Shakespeare,
overhearing, without more ado about nothing, took the cow by the horns
and, when Burbage came knocking at the gate, answered from the capon's
blankets: William the conqueror came before Richard III. And the gay
lakin, mistress Fitton, mount and cry O, and his dainty birdsnies, lady
Penelope Rich, a clean quality woman is suited for a player, and the punks
of the bankside, a penny a time.
sdCours la Reine. Encore vingt sous. Nous ferons de petites cochonneries.
Minette? Tu veux?
sd―The height of fine society. And sir William Davenant of Oxford's mother
with her cup of canary for any cockcanary.
Buck Mulligan, his pious eyes upturned, prayed:
bm―Blessed Margaret Mary Anycock!
sd―And Harry of six wives' daughter. And other lady friends from
neighbour seats as Lawn Tennyson, gentleman poet, sings. But all those
twenty years what do you suppose poor Penelope in Stratford was doing
behind the diamond panes?
sdDo and do. Thing done. In a rosery of Fetter lane of Gerard, herbalist, he walks, greyedauburn. An azured harebell like her veins. Lids of Juno's eyes, violets. He walks. One life is all. One body. Do. But do. Afar, in a reek of lust and squalor, hands are laid on whiteness.
Buck Mulligan rapped John Eglinton's desk sharply.
bm―Whom do you suspect? he challenged.
sd―Say that he is the spurned lover in the sonnets. Once spurned twice
spurned. But the court wanton spurned him for a lord, his dearmylove.
sdLove that dare not speak its name.
je―As an Englishman, you mean, John sturdy Eglinton put in, jehe loved a
lord.
sdOld wall where sudden lizards flash. At Charenton I watched them.
sd―It seems so, Stephen said, sdwhen he wants to do for him, and for all other
and singular uneared wombs, the holy office an ostler does for the stallion.
Maybe, like Socrates, he had a midwife to mother as he had a shrew to wife.
But she, the giglot wanton, did not break a bedvow. Two deeds are rank in
that ghost's mind: a broken vow and the dullbrained yokel on whom her
favour has declined, deceased husband's brother. Sweet Ann, I take it, was
hot in the blood. Once a wooer, twice a wooer.
Stephen turned boldly in his chair.
sd―The burden of proof is with you not with me, he said frowning. sdIf you
deny that in the fifth scene of Hamlet he has branded her with infamy tell
me why there is no mention of her during the thirtyfour years between the
day she married him and the day she buried him. All those women saw their
men down and under: Mary, her goodman John, Ann, her poor dear
Willun, when he went and died on her, raging that he was the first to go,
Joan, her four brothers, Judith, her husband and all her sons, Susan, her
husband too, while Susan's daughter, Elizabeth, to use granddaddy's
words, wed her second, having killed her first. O, yes, mention there is. In
the years when he was living richly in royal London to pay a debt she had
to borrow forty shillings from her father's shepherd. Explain you then.
Explain the swansong too wherein he has commended her to posterity.
He faced their silence.
To whom thus Eglinton: jeYou mean the will.
But that has been explained, I believe, by jurists.
She was entitled to her widow's dower
At common law. His legal knowledge was great
Our judges tell us.
Him Satan fleers,
Mocker:
jeAnd therefore he left out her name
From the first draft but he did not leave out
The presents for his granddaughter, for his daughters,
For his sister, for his old cronies in Stratford
And in London. And therefore when he was urged,
As I believe, to name her
He left her his
Secondbest
Bed.
sdPunkt.
sdLeftherhis
Secondbest
Leftherhis
Bestabed
Secabest
Leftabed.
sdWoa!
je―Pretty countryfolk had few chattels then, John Eglinton observed, jeas they
have still if our peasant plays are true to type.
sd―He was a rich country gentleman, Stephen said, sdwith a coat of arms and
landed estate at Stratford and a house in Ireland yard, a capitalist
shareholder, a bill promoter, a tithefarmer. Why did he not leave her his
best bed if he wished her to snore away the rest of her nights in peace?
rib―It is clear that there were two beds, a best and a secondbest, Mr
Secondbest Best said finely.
bm―Separatio a mensa et a thalamo, bettered Buck Mulligan and was smiled
on.
je―Antiquity mentions famous beds, Second Eglinton puckered, bedsmiling.
jeLet me think.
sd―Antiquity mentions that Stagyrite schoolurchin and bald heathen sage,
Stephen said, sdwho when dying in exile frees and endows his slaves, pays
tribute to his elders, wills to be laid in earth near the bones of his dead wife
and bids his friends be kind to an old mistress (don't forget Nell Gwynn
Herpyllis) and let her live in his villa.
rib―Do you mean he died so? Mr Best asked with slight concern. ribI mean ....
bm―He died dead drunk, Buck Mulligan capped. bmA quart of ale is a dish for a
king. O, I must tell you what Dowden said!
je―What? asked Besteglinton.
sdWilliam Shakespeare and company, limited. The people's William.
For terms apply: E. Dowden, Highfield house ....
bm―Lovely! Buck Mulligan suspired amorously. bmI asked him what he thought
of the charge of pederasty brought against the bard. He lifted his hands and
said: All we can say is that life ran very high in those days. Lovely!
sdCatamite.
rib―The sense of beauty leads us astray, said beautifulinsadness Best to ugling
Eglinton.
Steadfast John replied severe:
je―The doctor can tell us what those words mean. You cannot eat your cake
and have it.
sdSayest thou so? Will they wrest from us, from me, the palm of beauty?
sd―And the sense of property, Stephen said. sdHe drew Shylock out of his own
long pocket. The son of a maltjobber and moneylender he was himself a
cornjobber and moneylender, with ten tods of corn hoarded in the famine
riots. His borrowers are no doubt those divers of worship mentioned by
Chettle Falstaff who reported his uprightness of dealing. He sued a
fellowplayer for the price of a few bags of malt and exacted his pound of
flesh in interest for every money lent. How else could Aubrey's ostler and
callboy get rich quick? All events brought grist to his mill. Shylock chimes
with the jewbaiting that followed the hanging and quartering of the queen's
leech Lopez, his jew's heart being plucked forth while the sheeny was yet
alive: Hamlet and Macbeth with the coming to the throne of a Scotch
philosophaster with a turn for witchroasting. The lost armada is his jeer in
Love's Labour Lost. His pageants, the histories, sail fullbellied on a tide of
Mafeking enthusiasm. Warwickshire jesuits are tried and we have a porter's
theory of equivocation. The Sea Venture comes home from Bermudas and
the play Renan admired is written with Patsy Caliban, our American
cousin. The sugared sonnets follow Sidney's. As for fay Elizabeth,
otherwise carrotty Bess, the gross virgin who inspired the Merry Wives of
Windsor, let some meinherr from Almany grope his life long for deephid
meanings in the depths of the buckbasket.
sdI think you're getting on very nicely. Just mix up a mixture of
theolologicophilolological. Mingo, minxi, mictum, mingere.
je―Prove that he was a jew, John Eglinton dared, expectantly. jeYour dean of
studies holds he was a holy Roman.
sdSufflaminandus sum.
sd―He was made in Germany, Stephen replied, sdas the champion French
polisher of Italian scandals.
rib―A myriadminded man, Mr Best reminded. ribColeridge called him
myriadminded.
sdAmplius. In societate humana hoc est maxime necessarium ut sit
amicitia inter multos.
sd―Saint Thomas, Stephen began ...
bm―Ora pro nobis, Monk Mulligan groaned, sinking to a chair.
There he keened a wailing rune:
bm―Pogue mahone! Acushla machree! It's destroyed we are from this day! It's
destroyed we are surely!
sdAll smiled their smiles.
sd―Saint Thomas, Stephen smiling said, sdwhose gorbellied works I enjoy
reading in the original, writing of incest from a standpoint different from
that of the new Viennese school Mr Magee spoke of, likens it in his wise and
curious way to an avarice of the emotions. He means that the love so given
to one near in blood is covetously withheld from some stranger who, it may
be, hungers for it. Jews, whom christians tax with avarice, are of all races
the most given to intermarriage. Accusations are made in anger. The
christian laws which built up the hoards of the jews (for whom, as for the
lollards, storm was shelter) bound their affections too with hoops of steel.
Whether these be sins or virtues old Nobodaddy will tell us at doomsday
leet. But a man who holds so tightly to what he calls his rights over what he
calls his debts will hold tightly also to what he calls his rights over her
whom he calls his wife. No sir smile neighbour shall covet his ox or his wife
or his manservant or his maidservant or his jackass.
bm―Or his jennyass, Buck Mulligan antiphoned.
rib―Gentle Will is being roughly handled, gentle Mr Best said gently.
bm―Which will? gagged sweetly Buck Mulligan. bmWe are getting mixed.
je―The will to live, John Eglinton philosophised, jefor poor Ann, Will's
widow, is the will to die.
sd―Requiescat! Stephen prayed.
sd―She lies laid out in stark stiffness in that secondbest bed, the mobled
queen, even though you prove that a bed in those days was as rare as a
motorcar is now and that its carvings were the wonder of seven parishes. In
old age she takes up with gospellers (one stayed with her at New Place and
drank a quart of sack the town council paid for but in which bed he slept it
skills not to ask) and heard she had a soul. She read or had read to her his
chapbooks preferring them to the Merry Wives and, loosing her nightly
waters on the jordan, she thought over Hooks and Eyes for Believers'
Breeches and The Most Spiritual Snuffbox to Make the Most Devout Souls
Sneeze. Venus has twisted her lips in prayer. Agenbite of inwit: remorse of
conscience. It is an age of exhausted whoredom groping for its god.
je―History shows that to be true,
sdLean, he lay back. Shy, deny thy kindred, the unco guid. Shy, supping with the godless, he sneaks the cup. A sire in Ultonian Antrim bade it him. Visits him here on quarter days. Mr Magee, sir, there's a gentleman to see you. Me? Says he's your father, sir. Give me my Wordsworth. Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
sdYour own? He knows your old fellow. The widower.
sdHurrying to her squalid deathlair from gay Paris on the quayside I
touched his hand. The voice, new warmth, speaking. Dr Bob Kenny is
attending her. The eyes that wish me well. But do not know me.
sd―A father, Stephen said, battling against hopelessness, sdis a necessary evil.
He wrote the play in the months that followed his father's death. If you
hold that he, a greying man with two marriageable daughters, with
thirtyfive years of life, nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita, with fifty of
experience, is the beardless undergraduate from Wittenberg then you must
hold that his seventyyear old mother is the lustful queen. No. The corpse of
John Shakespeare does not walk the night. From hour to hour it rots and
rots. He rests, disarmed of fatherhood, having devised that mystical estate
upon his son. Boccaccio's Calandrino was the first and last man who felt
himself with child. Fatherhood, in the sense of conscious begetting, is
unknown to man. It is a mystical estate, an apostolic succession, from only
begetter to only begotten. On that mystery and not on the madonna which
the cunning Italian intellect flung to the mob of Europe the church is
founded and founded irremovably because founded, like the world, macro
and microcosm, upon the void. Upon incertitude, upon unlikelihood. Amor
matris, subjective and objective genitive, may be the only true thing in life.
Paternity may be a legal fiction. Who is the father of any son that any son
should love him or he any son?
sdWhat the hell are you driving at?
sdI know. Shut up. Blast you. I have reasons.
sdAmplius. Adhuc. Iterum. Postea.
sdAre you condemned to do this?
sd―They are sundered by a bodily shame so steadfast that the criminal annals
of the world, stained with all other incests and bestialities, hardly record its
breach. Sons with mothers, sires with daughters, lesbic sisters, loves that
dare not speak their name, nephews with grandmothers, jailbirds with
keyholes, queens with prize bulls. The son unborn mars beauty: born, he
brings pain, divides affection, increases care. He is a new male: his growth
is his father's decline, his youth his father's envy, his friend his father's
enemy.
sdIn rue Monsieur le Prince I thought it.
sd―What links them in nature? An instant of blind rut.
sdAm I a father? If I were?
sdShrunken uncertain hand.
sd―Sabellius, the African, subtlest heresiarch of all the beasts of the field, held
that the Father was Himself His Own Son. The bulldog of Aquin, with
whom no word shall be impossible, refutes him. Well: if the father who has
not a son be not a father can the son who has not a father be a son? When
Rutlandbaconsouthamptonshakespeare or another poet of the same name
in the comedy of errors wrote Hamlet he was not the father of his own son
merely but, being no more a son, he was and felt himself the father of all his
race, the father of his own grandfather, the father of his unborn grandson
who, by the same token, never was born, for nature, as Mr Magee
understands her, abhors perfection.
Eglintoneyes, quick with pleasure, looked up shybrightly. Gladly glancing, a merry puritan, through the twisted eglantine.
sdFlatter. Rarely. But flatter.
bm―Himself his own father, Sonmulligan told himself. bmWait. I am big with
child. I have an unborn child in my brain. Pallas Athena! A play! The
play's the thing! Let me parturiate!
He clasped his paunchbrow with both birthaiding hands.
sd―As for his family, Stephen said, sdhis mother's name lives in the forest of
Arden. Her death brought from him the scene with Volumnia in
Coriolanus. His boyson's death is the deathscene of young Arthur in King
John. Hamlet, the black prince, is Hamnet Shakespeare. Who the girls in
The Tempest, in Pericles, in Winter's Tale are we know. Who Cleopatra,
fleshpot of Egypt, and Cressid and Venus are we may guess. But there is
another member of his family who is recorded.
je―The plot thickens, John Eglinton said.
The quaker librarian, quaking, tiptoed in, quake, his mask, quake, with haste, quake, quack.
sdDoor closed. Cell. Day.
sdThey list. Three. They.
sdI you he they.
sdCome, mess.
StephenHe had three brothers, Gilbert, Edmund, Richard. Gilbert in his old age told some cavaliers he got a pass for nowt from Maister Gatherer one time mass he did and he seen his brud Maister Wull the playwriter up in Lunnon in a wrastling play wud a man on's back. The playhouse sausage filled Gilbert's soul. He is nowhere: but an Edmund and a Richard are recorded in the works of sweet William.
MageeglinjohnNames! What's in a name?
BestThat is my name, Richard, don't you know. I hope you are going to say a good word for Richard, don't you know, for my sake.
(laughter) Buckmulligan (piano, diminuendo)In his trinity of black Wills, the villain shakebags, Iago, Richard
Crookback, Edmund in
I hope Edmund is going to catch it. I don't want Richard, my name .....
(laughter) Quakerlyster(a tempo) But he that filches from me my good name .....
Stephen(stringendo) He has hidden his own name, a fair name, William, in the plays, a super here, a clown there, as a painter of old Italy set his face in a dark corner of his canvas. He has revealed it in the sonnets where there is Will in overplus. Like John o'Gaunt his name is dear to him, as dear as the coat and crest he toadied for, on a bend sable a spear or steeled argent, honorificabilitudinitatibus, dearer than his glory of greatest shakescene in the country. What's in a name? That is what we ask ourselves in childhood when we write the name that we are told is ours. A star, a daystar, a firedrake, rose at his birth. It shone by day in the heavens alone, brighter than Venus in the night, and by night it shone over delta in Cassiopeia, the recumbent constellation which is the signature of his initial among the stars. His eyes watched it, lowlying on the horizon, eastward of the bear, as he walked by the slumberous summer fields at midnight returning from Shottery and from her arms.
sdBoth satisfied. I too.
sdDon't tell them he was nine years old when it was quenched.
sdAnd from her arms.
sdWait to be wooed and won. Ay, meacock. Who will woo you?
sdRead the skies. Autontimorumenos. Bous Stephanoumenos. Where's
your configuration? Stephen, Stephen, cut the bread even. S. D: sua donna.
Già: di lui. Gelindo risolve di non amare S. D.
tl―What is that, Mr Dedalus? the quaker librarian asked. tlWas it a celestial
phenomenon?
sd―A star by night, Stephen said. sdA pillar of the cloud by day.
sdWhat more's to speak?
Stephen looked on his hat, his stick, his boots.
sdStephanos, my crown. My sword. His boots are spoiling the shape of
my feet. Buy a pair. Holes in my socks. Handkerchief too.
je―You make good use of the name, John Eglinton allowed. jeYour own name
is strange enough. I suppose it explains your fantastical humour.
sdMe, Magee and Mulligan.
sdFabulous artificer. The hawklike man. You flew. Whereto? Newhaven-Dieppe, steerage passenger. Paris and back. Lapwing. Icarus. Pater, ait. Seabedabbled, fallen, weltering. Lapwing you are. Lapwing be.
Mr Best eagerquietly lifted his book to say:
rib―That's very interesting because that brother motive, don't you know, we
find also in the old Irish myths. Just what you say. The three brothers
Shakespeare. In Grimm too, don't you know, the fairytales. The third
brother that always marries the sleeping beauty and wins the best prize.
sdBest of Best brothers. Good, better, best.
The quaker librarian springhalted near.
tl―I should like to know, he said, tlwhich brother you .... I understand you to
suggest there was misconduct with one of the brothers .... But perhaps I am
anticipating?
He caught himself in the act: looked at all: refrained.
An attendant from the doorway called:
uatt2―Mr Lyster! Father Dineen wants ...
tl―O, Father Dineen! Directly.
Swiftly rectly creaking rectly rectly he was rectly gone.
John Eglinton touched the foil.
je―Come, he said. jeLet us hear what you have to say of Richard and
Edmund. You kept them for the last, didn't you?
sd―In asking you to remember those two noble kinsmen nuncle Richie and
nuncle Edmund, Stephen answered, sdI feel I am asking too much perhaps. A
brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella.
sdLapwing.
sdWhere is your brother? Apothecaries' hall. My whetstone. Him, then Cranly, Mulligan: now these. Speech, speech. But act. Act speech. They mock to try you. Act. Be acted on.
sdLapwing.
sdI am tired of my voice, the voice of Esau. My kingdom for a drink.
sdOn.
sd―You will say those names were already in the chronicles from which he
took the stuff of his plays. Why did he take them rather than others?
Richard, a whoreson crookback, misbegotten, makes love to a widowed
Ann (what's in a name?), woos and wins her, a whoreson merry widow.
Richard the conqueror, third brother, came after William the conquered.
The other four acts of that play hang limply from that first. Of all his kings
Richard is the only king unshielded by Shakespeare's reverence, the angel
of the world. Why is the underplot of King Lear in which Edmund figures
lifted out of Sidney's Arcadia and spatchcocked on to a Celtic legend older
than history?
je―That was Will's way, John Eglinton defended. jeWe should not now
combine a Norse saga with an excerpt from a novel by George Meredith.
Que voulez-vous? Moore would say. He puts Bohemia on the seacoast and
makes Ulysses quote Aristotle.
sd―Why? Stephen answered himself. sdBecause the theme of the false or the
usurping or the adulterous brother or all three in one is to Shakespeare,
what the poor are not, always with him. The note of banishment,
banishment from the heart, banishment from home, sounds uninterruptedly
from The Two Gentlemen of Verona onward till Prospero breaks his staff,
buries it certain fathoms in the earth and drowns his book. It doubles itself
in the middle of his life, reflects itself in another, repeats itself, protasis,
epitasis, catastasis, catastrophe. It repeats itself again when he is near the
grave, when his married daughter Susan, chip of the old block, is accused
of adultery. But it was the original sin that darkened his understanding,
weakened his will and left in him a strong inclination to evil. The words are
those of my lords bishops of Maynooth. An original sin and, like original
sin, committed by another in whose sin he too has sinned. It is between the
lines of his last written words, it is petrified on his tombstone under which
her four bones are not to be laid. Age has not withered it. Beauty and peace
have not done it away. It is in infinite variety everywhere in the world he
has created, in Much Ado about Nothing, twice in As You Like It, in The
Tempest, in Hamlet, in Measure for Measure – and in all the other plays
which I have not read.
He laughed to free his mind from his mind's bondage.
Judge Eglinton summed up.
je―The truth is midway, he affirmed. jeHe is the ghost and the prince. He is all
in all.
sd―He is, Stephen said. sdThe boy of act one is the mature man of act five. All
in all. In Cymbeline, in Othello he is bawd and cuckold. He acts and is
acted on. Lover of an ideal or a perversion, like José he kills the real
Carmen. His unremitting intellect is the hornmad Iago ceaselessly willing
that the moor in him shall suffer.
bm―Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuck Mulligan clucked lewdly. bmO word of fear!
sdDark dome received, reverbed.
je―And what a character is Iago! undaunted John Eglinton exclaimed.
jeWhen all is said Dumas fils (or is it Dumas père?) is right. After God
Shakespeare has created most.
sd―Man delights him not nor woman neither, Stephen said. sdHe returns after
a life of absence to that spot of earth where he was born, where he has
always been, man and boy, a silent witness and there, his journey of life
ended, he plants his mulberrytree in the earth. Then dies. The motion is
ended. Gravediggers bury Hamlet père and Hamlet fils. A king and a
prince at last in death, with incidental music. And, what though murdered
and betrayed, bewept by all frail tender hearts for, Dane or Dubliner,
sorrow for the dead is the only husband from whom they refuse to be
divorced. If you like the epilogue look long on it: prosperous Prospero, the
good man rewarded, Lizzie, grandpa's lump of love, and nuncle Richie, the
bad man taken off by poetic justice to the place where the bad niggers go.
Strong curtain. He found in the world without as actual what was in his
world within as possible. Maeterlinck says: If Socrates leave his house today
he will find the sage seated on his doorstep. If Judas go forth tonight it is to
Judas his steps will tend. Every life is many days, day after day. We walk
through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men,
wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves. The
playwright who wrote the folio of this world and wrote it badly (He gave us
light first and the sun two days later), the lord of things as they are whom
the most Roman of catholics call dio boia, hangman god, is doubtless all in
all in all of us, ostler and butcher, and would be bawd and cuckold too but
that in the economy of heaven, foretold by Hamlet, there are no more
marriages, glorified man, an androgynous angel, being a wife unto himself.
bm―Eureka! Buck Mulligan cried. bmEureka!
Suddenly happied he jumped up and reached in a stride John
Eglinton's desk.
bm―May I? he said. bmThe Lord has spoken to Malachi.
He began to scribble on a slip of paper.
bmTake some slips from the counter going out.
rib―Those who are married, Mr Best, douce herald, said, riball save one, shall
live. The rest shall keep as they are.
He laughed, unmarried, at Eglinton Johannes, of arts a bachelor.
Unwed, unfancied, ware of wiles, they fingerponder nightly each his
variorum edition of
je―You are a delusion, said roundly John Eglinton to Stephen. jeYou have
brought us all this way to show us a French triangle. Do you believe your
own theory?
sd―No, Stephen said promptly.
rib―Are you going to write it? Mr Best asked. ribYou ought to make it a
dialogue, don't you know, like the Platonic dialogues Wilde wrote.
John Eclecticon doubly smiled.
je―Well, in that case, he said, jeI don't see why you should expect payment for
it since you don't believe it yourself. Dowden believes there is some mystery
in Hamlet but will say no more. Herr Bleibtreu, the man Piper met in
Berlin, who is working up that Rutland theory, believes that the secret is
hidden in the Stratford monument. He is going to visit the present duke,
Piper says, and prove to him that his ancestor wrote the plays. It will come
as a surprise to his grace. But he believes his theory.
sdI believe, O Lord, help my unbelief. That is, help me to believe or help
me to unbelieve? Who helps to believe? Egomen. Who to unbelieve? Other
chap.
je―You are the only contributor to Dana who asks for pieces of silver. Then
I don't know about the next number. Fred Ryan wants space for an article
on economics.
bmFraidrine. Two pieces of silver he lent me. Tide you over. Economics.
sd―For a guinea, Stephen said, sdyou can publish this interview.
Buck Mulligan stood up from his laughing scribbling, laughing: and
then gravely said, honeying malice:
bm―I called upon the bard Kinch at his summer residence in upper
Mecklenburgh street and found him deep in the study of the Summa contra
Gentiles in the company of two gonorrheal ladies, Fresh Nelly and Rosalie,
the coalquay whore.
He broke away.
bm―Come, Kinch. Come, wandering Aengus of the birds.
bmCome, Kinch. You have eaten all we left. Ay. I will serve you your orts and offals.
Stephen rose.
sdLife is many days. This will end.
je―We shall see you tonight, John Eglinton said. jeNotre ami Moore says
Malachi Mulligan must be there.
Buck Mulligan flaunted his slip and panama.
bm―Monsieur Moore, he said, bmlecturer on French letters to the youth of
Ireland. I'll be there. Come, Kinch, the bards must drink. Can you walk
straight?
bmLaughing, he ....
bmSwill till eleven. Irish nights entertainment.
bmLubber ....
bmStephen followed a lubber ...
bmOne day in the national library we had a discussion. Shakes. After. His lub back: I followed. I gall his kibe.
Stephen, greeting, then all amort, followed a lubber jester, a wellkempt head, newbarbered, out of the vaulted cell into a shattering daylight of no thought.
bmWhat have I learned? Of them? Of me?
bmWalk like Haines now.
bmThe constant readers' room. In the readers' book Cashel Boyle
O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell parafes his polysyllables. Item: was
Hamlet mad? The quaker's pate godlily with a priesteen in booktalk.
tl―O please do, sir ..... I shall be most pleased ....
Amused Buck Mulligan mused in pleasant murmur with himself,
selfnodding:
bm―A pleased bottom.
bmThe turnstile.
bmIs that ...? Blueribboned hat ...? Idly writing ...? What? .... Looked ...?
The curving balustrade: smoothsliding Mincius.
Puck Mulligan, panamahelmeted, went step by step, iambing, trolling:
He spluttered to the air:
bm―O, the chinless Chinaman! Chin Chon Eg Lin Ton. We went over to their
playbox, Haines and I, the plumbers' hall. Our players are creating a new
art for Europe like the Greeks or M. Maeterlinck. Abbey Theatre! I smell
the pubic sweat of monks.
He spat blank.
bmForgot: any more than he forgot the whipping lousy Lucy gave him. And left the femme de trente ans. And why no other children born? And his first child a girl?
bmAfterwit. Go back.
bmThe dour recluse still there (he has his cake) and the douce youngling, minion of pleasure, Phedo's toyable fair hair.
bmEh ... I just eh .... wanted ... I forgot ... eh ...
bm―Longworth and M'Curdy Atkinson were there ...
Puck Mulligan footed featly, trilling:
bmJest on. Know thyself.
bmHalted, below me, a quizzer looks at me. I halt.
bm―Mournful mummer, Buck Mulligan moaned. bmSynge has left off wearing
black to be like nature. Only crows, priests and English coal are black.
A laugh tripped over his lips.
bm―Longworth is awfully sick, he said, bmafter what you wrote about that old
hake Gregory. O you inquisitional drunken jewjesuit! She gets you a job on
the paper and then you go and slate her drivel to Jaysus. Couldn't you do
the Yeats touch?
He went on and down, mopping, chanting with waving graceful
arms:
bm―The most beautiful book that has come out of our country in my time.
One thinks of Homer.
He stopped at the stairfoot.
bm―I have conceived a play for the mummers, he said solemnly.
bmThe pillared Moorish hall, shadows entwined. Gone the nine men's morrice with caps of indices.
In sweetly varying voices Buck Mulligan read his tablet:
He turned a happy patch's smirk to Stephen, saying:
bm―The disguise, I fear, is thin. But listen.
He read,
bm―Characters:
Toby Tostoff (a ruined Pole)
Crab (a bushranger)
Medical Dick
and (two birds with one stone)
Medical Davy
Mother Grogan (a watercarrier)
Fresh Nelly
and
Rosalie (the coalquay whore).
He laughed, lolling a to and fro head, walking on, followed by
Stephen: and mirthfully he told the shadows, souls of men:
bm―O, the night in the Camden hall when the daughters of Erin had to lift
their skirts to step over you as you lay in your mulberrycoloured,
multicoloured, multitudinous vomit!
sd―The most innocent son of Erin, Stephen said, sdfor whom they ever lifted
them.
About to pass through the doorway, feeling one behind, he stood aside.
sdPart. The moment is now. Where then? If Socrates leave his house today, if Judas go forth tonight. Why? That lies in space which I in time must come to, ineluctably.
sdMy will: his will that fronts me. Seas between.
A man passed out between them, bowing, greeting.
bm―Good day again, Buck Mulligan said.
sdThe portico.
sdHere I watched the birds for augury. Aengus of the birds. They go,
they come. Last night I flew. Easily flew. Men wondered. Street of harlots
after. A creamfruit melon he held to me. In. You will see.
bm―The wandering jew, Buck Mulligan whispered with clown's awe. bmDid you
see his eye? He looked upon you to lust after you. I fear thee, ancient
mariner. O, Kinch, thou art in peril. Get thee a breechpad.
sdManner of Oxenford.
sdDay. Wheelbarrow sun over arch of bridge.
A dark back went before them, step of a pard, down, out by the gateway, under portcullis barbs.
They followed.
sdOffend me still. Speak on.
Kind air defined the coigns of houses in Kildare street. sdNo birds. Frail from the housetops two plumes of smoke ascended, pluming, and in a flaw of softness softly were blown.
sdCease to strive. Peace of the druid priests of Cymbeline: hierophantic: from wide earth an altar.
The superior, the very reverend John Conmee S. J. reset his smooth watch in his interior pocket as he came down the presbytery steps. jcFive to three. Just nice time to walk to Artane. What was that boy's name again? Dignam. Yes. Vere dignum et iustum est. Brother Swan was the person to see. Mr Cunningham's letter. Yes. Oblige him, if possible. Good practical catholic: useful at mission time.
A onelegged sailor, swinging himself onward by lazy jerks of his crutches, growled some notes. He jerked short before the convent of the sisters of charity and held out a peaked cap for alms towards the very reverend John Conmee S. J. Father Conmee blessed him in the sun for his purse held, he knew, one silver crown.
Father Conmee crossed to Mountjoy square. He thought, but not for
long, of soldiers and sailors, whose legs had been shot off by cannonballs,
ending their days in some pauper ward, and of cardinal Wolsey's words: twIf
I had served my God as I have served my king He would not have
abandoned me in my old days. He walked by the treeshade of sunnywinking
leaves: and towards him came the wife of Mr David Sheehy M. P.
esy―Very well, indeed, father. And you, father?
Father Conmee was wonderfully well indeed. He would go to Buxton probably for the waters. And her boys, were they getting on well at Belvedere? Was that so? Father Conmee was very glad indeed to hear that. And Mr Sheehy himself? Still in London. The house was still sitting, to be sure it was. Beautiful weather it was, delightful indeed. Yes, it was very probable that Father Bernard Vaughan would come again to preach. O, yes: a very great success. A wonderful man really.
Father Conmee was very glad to see the wife of Mr David Sheehy
M. P. looking so well and he begged to be remembered to Mr David Sheehy
M. P. Yes, he would certainly call.
jc―Good afternoon, Mrs Sheehy.
Father Conmee doffed his silk hat and smiled, as he took leave, at the jet beads of her mantilla inkshining in the sun. And smiled yet again, in going. He had cleaned his teeth, he knew, with arecanut paste.
Father Conmee walked and, walking, smiled for he thought on Father
Bernard Vaughan's droll eyes and cockney voice.
bv―Pilate! Wy don't you old back that owlin mob?
jcA zealous man, however. Really he was. And really did great good in his way. Beyond a doubt. He loved Ireland, he said, and he loved the Irish. Of good family too would one think it? Welsh, were they not?
O, lest he forget. jcThat letter to father provincial.
Father Conmee stopped three little schoolboys at the corner of Mountjoy square. Yes: they were from Belvedere. The little house. Aha. And were they good boys at school? O. That was very good now. And what was his name? Jack Sohan. And his name? Ger. Gallaher. And the other little man? His name was Brunny Lynam. O, that was a very nice name to have.
Father Conmee gave a letter from his breast to Master Brunny Lynam
and pointed to the red pillarbox at the corner of Fitzgibbon street.
jc―But mind you don't post yourself into the box, little man, he said.
The boys sixeyed Father Conmee and laughed:
bss―O, sir.
jc―Well, let me see if you can post a letter, Father Conmee said.
Master Brunny Lynam ran across the road and put Father Conmee's letter to father provincial into the mouth of the bright red letterbox. Father Conmee smiled and nodded and smiled and walked along Mountjoy square east.
Mr Denis J Maginni, professor of dancing &c, in silk hat, slate frockcoat with silk facings, white kerchief tie, tight lavender trousers, canary gloves and pointed patent boots, walking with grave deportment most respectfully took the curbstone as he passed lady Maxwell at the corner of Dignam's court.
jcWas that not Mrs M'Guinness?
Mrs M'Guinness, stately, silverhaired, bowed to Father Conmee from the farther footpath along which she sailed. And Father Conmee smiled and saluted. How did she do?
jcA fine carriage she had. Like Mary, queen of Scots, something. And to think that she was a pawnbroker! Well, now! Such a ... what should he say? .... such a queenly mien.
Father Conmee walked down Great Charles street and glanced at the shutup free church on his left. The reverend T. R. Greene B. A. will (D. V.) speak. jcThe incumbent they called him. He felt it incumbent on him to say a few words. But one should be charitable. Invincible ignorance. They acted according to their lights.
Father Conmee turned the corner and walked along the North Circular road. jcIt was a wonder that there was not a tramline in such an important thoroughfare. Surely, there ought to be.
A band of satchelled schoolboys crossed from Richmond street. All raised untidy caps. Father Conmee greeted them more than once benignly. jcChristian brother boys.
Father Conmee smelt incense on his right hand as he walked. jcSaint Joseph's church, Portland row. For aged and virtuous females. Father Conmee raised his hat to the Blessed Sacrament. jcVirtuous: but occasionally they were also badtempered.
Near Aldborough house Father Conmee thought of that spendthrift nobleman. And now it was an office or something.
Father Conmee began to walk along the North Strand road and was saluted by Mr William Gallagher who stood in the doorway of his shop. Father Conmee saluted Mr William Gallagher and perceived the odours that came from baconflitches and ample cools of butter. He passed Grogan's the Tobacconist against which newsboards leaned and told of a dreadful catastrophe in New York. jcIn America those things were continually happening. Unfortunate people to die like that, unprepared. Still, an act of perfect contrition.
Father Conmee went by Daniel Bergin's publichouse against the window of which two unlabouring men lounged. They saluted him and were saluted.
Father Conmee passed H. J. O'Neill's funeral establishment where Corny Kelleher totted figures in the daybook while he chewed a blade of hay. A constable on his beat saluted Father Conmee and Father Conmee saluted the constable. In Youkstetter's, the porkbutcher's, Father Conmee observed pig's puddings, white and black and red, lie neatly curled in tubes. Moored under the trees of Charleville Mall Father Conmee saw a turfbarge, a towhorse with pendent head, a bargeman with a hat of dirty straw seated amidships, smoking and staring at a branch of poplar above him. It was idyllic: and Father Conmee reflected on the providence of the Creator who had made turf to be in bogs whence men might dig it out and bring it to town and hamlet to make fires in the houses of poor people.
On Newcomen bridge the very reverend John Conmee S. J. of saint Francis Xavier's church, upper Gardiner street, stepped on to an outward bound tram.
Off an inward bound tram stepped the reverend Nicholas Dudley C. C. of saint Agatha's church, north William street, on to Newcomen bridge.
At Newcomen bridge Father Conmee stepped into an outward bound tram for he disliked to traverse on foot the dingy way past Mud Island.
Father Conmee sat in a corner of the tramcar, a blue ticket tucked with care in the eye of one plump kid glove, while four shillings, a sixpence and five pennies chuted from his other plump glovepalm into his purse. Passing the ivy church he reflected that the ticket inspector usually made his visit when one had carelessly thrown away the ticket. The solemnity of the occupants of the car seemed to Father Conmee excessive for a journey so short and cheap. Father Conmee liked cheerful decorum.
It was a peaceful day. The gentleman with the glasses opposite Father Conmee had finished explaining and looked down. His wife, Father Conmee supposed.
A tiny yawn opened the mouth of the wife of the gentleman with the glasses. She raised her small gloved fist, yawned ever so gently, tiptapping her small gloved fist on her opening mouth and smiled tinily, sweetly.
Father Conmee perceived her perfume in the car. He perceived also that the awkward man at the other side of her was sitting on the edge of the seat.
Father Conmee at the altarrails placed the host with difficulty in the mouth of the awkward old man who had the shaky head.
At Annesley bridge the tram halted and, when it was about to go, an old woman rose suddenly from her place to alight. The conductor pulled the bellstrap to stay the car for her. She passed out with her basket and a marketnet: and Father Conmee saw the conductor help her and net and basket down: and Father Conmee thought that, as she had nearly passed the end of the penny fare, she was one of those good souls who had always to be told twice jcbless you, my child, that they have been absolved, jcpray for me. But they had so many worries in life, so many cares, poor creatures.
From the hoardings Mr Eugene Stratton grimaced with thick niggerlips at Father Conmee.
Father Conmee thought of the souls of black and brown and yellow
men and of his sermon on saint Peter Claver S. J. and the African mission
and of the propagation of the faith and of the millions of black and brown
and yellow souls that had not received the baptism of water when their last
hour came like a thief in the night. That book by the Belgian jesuit,
At the Howth road stop Father Conmee alighted, was saluted by the conductor and saluted in his turn.
The Malahide road was quiet. It pleased Father Conmee, road and name. jcThe joybells were ringing in gay Malahide. Lord Talbot de Malahide, immediate hereditary lord admiral of Malahide and the seas adjoining. Then came the call to arms and she was maid, wife and widow in one day. Those were old worldish days, loyal times in joyous townlands, old times in the barony.
Father Conmee, walking, thought of his little book
jcA listless lady, no more young, walked alone the shore of lough Ennel, Mary, first countess of Belvedere, listlessly walking in the evening, not startled when an otter plunged. Who could know the truth? Not the jealous lord Belvedere and not her confessor if she had not committed adultery fully, eiaculatio seminis inter vas naturale mulieris, with her husband's brother? She would half confess if she had not all sinned as women did. Only God knew and she and he, her husband's brother.
Father Conmee thought of that tyrannous incontinence, needed however for man's race on earth, and of the ways of God which were not our ways.
jcDon John Conmee walked and moved in times of yore. He was humane and honoured there. He bore in mind secrets confessed and he smiled at smiling noble faces in a beeswaxed drawingroom, ceiled with full fruit clusters. And the hands of a bride and of a bridegroom, noble to noble, were impalmed by Don John Conmee.
It was a charming day.
The lychgate of a field showed Father Conmee breadths of cabbages, curtseying to him with ample underleaves. The sky showed him a flock of small white clouds going slowly down the wind. jcMoutonner, the French said. A just and homely word.
Father Conmee, reading his office, watched a flock of muttoning clouds over Rathcoffey. His thinsocked ankles were tickled by the stubble of Clongowes field. He walked there, reading in the evening, and heard the cries of the boys' lines at their play, young cries in the quiet evening. He was their rector: his reign was mild.
Father Conmee drew off his gloves and took his rededged breviary out. An ivory bookmark told him the page.
jcNones. He should have read that before lunch. But lady Maxwell had come.
Father Conmee read in secret
He walked calmly and read mutely the nones, walking and reading till
he came to
jc―Principium verborum tuorum veritas: in eternum omnia iudicia iustitiae
tuae.
A flushed young man came from a gap of a hedge and after him came a young woman with wild nodding daisies in her hand. The young man raised his cap abruptly: the young woman abruptly bent and with slow care detached from her light skirt a clinging twig.
Father Conmee blessed both gravely and turned a thin page of his
breviary.
jc―Principes persecuti sunt me gratis: et a verbis tuis formidavit cor meum.
Corny Kelleher closed his long daybook and glanced with his drooping eye at a pine coffinlid sentried in a corner. He pulled himself erect, went to it and, spinning it on its axle, viewed its shape and brass furnishings. Chewing his blade of hay he laid the coffinlid by and came to the doorway. There he tilted his hatbrim to give shade to his eyes and leaned against the doorcase, looking idly out.
Father John Conmee stepped into the Dollymount tram on Newcomen bridge.
Corny Kelleher locked his largefooted boots and gazed, his hat downtilted, chewing his blade of hay.
Constable 57 C, on his beat, stood to pass the time of day.
c57c―That's a fine day, Mr Kelleher.
ck―Ay, Corny Kelleher said.
c57c―It's very close, the constable said.
Corny Kelleher sped a silent jet of hayjuice arching from his mouth
while a generous white arm from a window in Eccles street flung forth a
coin.
ck―What's the best news? he asked.
c57c―I seen that particular party last evening, the constable said with bated
breath.
A onelegged sailor crutched himself round MacConnell's corner,
skirting Rabaiotti's icecream car, and jerked himself up Eccles street.
Towards Larry O'Rourke, in shirtsleeves in his doorway, he growled
unamiably:
usr―For England ....
He swung himself violently forward past Katey and Boody Dedalus,
halted and growled:
usr―home and beauty.
J. J. O'Molloy's white careworn face was told that Mr Lambert was in the warehouse with a visitor.
A stout lady stopped, took a copper coin from her purse and dropped it into the cap held out to her. The sailor grumbled thanks, glanced sourly at the unheeding windows, sank his head and swung himself forward four strides.
He halted and growled angrily:
usr―For England .....
Two barefoot urchins, sucking long liquorice laces, halted near him, gaping at his stump with their yellowslobbered mouths.
He swung himself forward in vigorous jerks, halted, lifted his head
towards a window and bayed deeply:
usr―home and beauty.
The gay sweet chirping whistling within went on a bar or two, ceased. The blind of the window was drawn aside. A card Unfurnished Apartments slipped from the sash and fell. A plump bare generous arm shone, was seen, held forth from a white petticoatbodice and taut shiftstraps. A woman's hand flung forth a coin over the area railings. It fell on the path.
One of the urchins ran to it, picked it up and dropped it into the
minstrel's cap, saying:
uu―There, sir.
Katey and Boody Dedalus shoved in the door of the closesteaming
kitchen.
bod―Did you put in the books? Boody asked.
Maggy at the range rammed down a greyish mass beneath bubbling
suds twice with her potstick and wiped her brow.
magd―They wouldn't give anything on them, she said.
Father Conmee walked through Clongowes fields, his thinsocked
ankles tickled by stubble.
bod―Where did you try? Boody asked.
magd―M'Guinness's.
Boody stamped her foot and threw her satchel on the table.
bod―Bad cess to her big face! she cried.
Katey went to the range and peered with squinting eyes.
kd―What's in the pot? she asked.
magd―Shirts, Maggy said.
Boody cried angrily:
bod―Crickey, is there nothing for us to eat?
Katey, lifting the kettlelid in a pad of her stained skirt, asked:
kd―And what's in this?
A heavy fume gushed in answer.
magd―Peasoup, Maggy said.
kd―Where did you get it? Katey asked.
magd―Sister Mary Patrick, Maggy said.
The lacquey rang his bell.
dl―Barang!
Boody sat down at the table and said hungrily:
bod―Give us it here.
Maggy poured yellow thick soup from the kettle into a bowl. Katey,
sitting opposite Boody, said quietly, as her fingertip lifted to her mouth
random crumbs:
bod―A good job we have that much. Where's Dilly?
magd―Gone to meet father, Maggy said.
Boody, breaking big chunks of bread into the yellow soup, added:
bod―Our father who art not in heaven.
Maggy, pouring yellow soup in Katey's bowl, exclaimed:
magd―Boody! For shame!
A skiff, a crumpled throwaway, Elijah is coming, rode lightly down the Liffey, under Loopline bridge, shooting the rapids where water chafed around the bridgepiers, sailing eastward past hulls and anchorchains, between the Customhouse old dock and George's quay.
* * *The blond girl in Thornton's bedded the wicker basket with rustling
fibre. Blazes Boylan handed her the bottle swathed in pink tissue paper and
a small jar.
bb―Put these in first, will you? he said.
tg―Yes, sir, the blond girl said. tgAnd the fruit on top.
bb―That'll do, game ball, Blazes Boylan said.
She bestowed fat pears neatly, head by tail, and among them ripe shamefaced peaches.
Blazes Boylan walked here and there in new tan shoes about the fruitsmelling shop, lifting fruits, young juicy crinkled and plump red tomatoes, sniffing smells.
H. E. L. Y'S filed before him, tallwhitehatted, past Tangier lane, plodding towards their goal.
He turned suddenly from a chip of strawberries, drew a gold watch
from his fob and held it at its chain's length.
bb―Can you send them by tram? Now?
A darkbacked figure under Merchants' arch scanned books on the
hawker's cart.
tg―Certainly, sir. Is it in the city?
bb―O, yes, Blazes Boylan said. bbTen minutes.
The blond girl handed him a docket and pencil.
tg―Will you write the address, sir?
Blazes Boylan at the counter wrote and pushed the docket to her.
bb―Send it at once, will you? he said. bbIt's for an invalid.
tg―Yes, sir. I will, sir.
Blazes Boylan rattled merry money in his trousers' pocket.
bb―What's the damage? he asked.
The blond girl's slim fingers reckoned the fruits.
Blazes Boylan looked into the cut of her blouse. bbA young pullet. He
took a red carnation from the tall stemglass.
bb―This for me? he asked gallantly.
The blond girl glanced sideways at him, bbgot up regardless, with his tie
a bit crooked, blushing.
tg―Yes, sir, she said.
Bending archly she reckoned again fat pears and blushing peaches.
Blazes Boylan looked in her blouse with more favour, the stalk of the
red flower between his smiling teeth.
bb―May I say a word to your telephone, missy? he asked roguishly.
aa―Ma! Almidano Artifoni said.
He gazed over Stephen's shoulder at Goldsmith's knobby poll.
Two carfuls of tourists passed slowly, their women sitting fore,
gripping the handrests. Palefaces. Men's arms frankly round their stunted
forms. They looked from Trinity to the blind columned porch of the bank
of Ireland where pigeons roocoocooed.
aa―Anch'io ho avuto di queste idee, Almidano Artifoni said, aaquand' ero
giovine come Lei. Eppoi mi sono convinto che il mondo è una bestia. È
peccato. Perchè la sua voce .... sarebbe un cespite di rendita, via. Invece, Lei
si sacrifica.
sd―Sacrifizio incruento, Stephen said smiling, swaying his ashplant in slow
swingswong from its midpoint, lightly.
aa―Speriamo, the round mustachioed face said pleasantly. aaMa, dia: retta a
me. Ci rifletta.
By the stern stone hand of Grattan, bidding halt, an Inchicore tram
unloaded straggling Highland soldiers of a band.
sd―Ci rifletterò, Stephen said, glancing down the solid trouserleg.
aa―Ma, sul serio, eh? Almidano Artifoni said.
His heavy hand took Stephen's firmly. sdHuman eyes. They gazed
curiously an instant and turned quickly towards a Dalkey tram.
aa―Eccolo, Almidano Artifoni said in friendly haste. aaVenga a trovarmi e ci
pensi. Addio, caro.
sd―Arrivederla, maestro, Stephen said, raising his hat when his hand was
freed. sdE grazie.
aa―Di che? Almidano Artifoni said. aaScusi, eh? Tante belle cose!
Almidano Artifoni, holding up a baton of rolled music as a signal, trotted on stout trousers after the Dalkey tram. In vain he trotted, signalling in vain among the rout of barekneed gillies smuggling implements of music through Trinity gates.
* * *Miss Dunne hid the Capel street library copy of
missdToo much mystery business in it. Is he in love with that one, Marion? Change it and get another by Mary Cecil Haye.
The disk shot down the groove, wobbled a while, ceased and ogled them: six.
Miss Dunne clicked on the keyboard:
missd―16 June 1904.
Five tallwhitehatted sandwichmen between Monypeny's corner and the slab where Wolfe Tone's statue was not, eeled themselves turning H. E. L. Y'S and plodded back as they had come.
Then she stared at the large poster of Marie Kendall, charming soubrette, and, listlessly lolling, scribbled on the jotter sixteens and capital esses. missdMustard hair and dauby cheeks. She's not nicelooking, is she? The way she's holding up her bit of a skirt. Wonder will that fellow be at the band tonight. If I could get that dressmaker to make a concertina skirt like Susy Nagle's. They kick out grand. Shannon and all the boatclub swells never took his eyes off her. Hope to goodness he won't keep me here till seven.
The telephone rang rudely by her ear.
missd―Hello. Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, sir. I'll ring them up after five. Only those
two, sir, for Belfast and Liverpool. All right, sir. Then I can go after six if
you're not back. A quarter after. Yes, sir. Twentyseven and six. I'll tell him.
Yes: one, seven, six.
She scribbled three figures on an envelope.
missd―Mr Boylan! Hello! That gentleman from Sport was in looking for you.
Mr Lenehan, yes. He said he'll be in the Ormond at four. No, sir. Yes, sir.
I'll ring them up after five.
Two pink faces turned in the flare of the tiny torch.
nl―Who's that? Ned Lambert asked. nlIs that Crotty?
jjom―Ringabella and Crosshaven, a voice replied groping for foothold.
nl―Hello, Jack, is that yourself? Ned Lambert said, raising in salute his
pliant lath among the flickering arches. nlCome on. Mind your steps there.
The vesta in the clergyman's uplifted hand consumed itself in a long
soft flame and was let fall. At their feet its red speck died: and mouldy air
closed round them.
hcl―How interesting! a refined accent said in the gloom.
nl―Yes, sir, Ned Lambert said heartily. nlWe are standing in the historic
council chamber of saint Mary's abbey where silken Thomas proclaimed
himself a rebel in 1534. This is the most historic spot in all Dublin.
O'Madden Burke is going to write something about it one of these days.
The old bank of Ireland was over the way till the time of the union and the
original jews' temple was here too before they built their synagogue over in
Adelaide road. You were never here before, Jack, were you?
jjom―No, Ned.
hcl―He rode down through Dame walk, the refined accent said, hclif my
memory serves me. The mansion of the Kildares was in Thomas court.
nl―That's right, Ned Lambert said. nlThat's quite right, sir.
hcl―If you will be so kind then, the clergyman said, hclthe next time to allow me
perhaps ....
nl―Certainly, Ned Lambert said. nlBring the camera whenever you like. I'll get
those bags cleared away from the windows. You can take it from here or
from here.
In the still faint light he moved about, tapping with his lath the piled seedbags and points of vantage on the floor.
From a long face a beard and gaze hung on a chessboard.
hcl―I'm deeply obliged, Mr Lambert, the clergyman said. hclI won't trespass on
your valuable time ....
nl―You're welcome, sir, Ned Lambert said. nlDrop in whenever you like. Next
week, say. Can you see?
hcl―Yes, yes. Good afternoon, Mr Lambert. Very pleased to have met you.
nl―Pleasure is mine, sir, Ned Lambert answered.
He followed his guest to the outlet and then whirled his lath away among the pillars. With J. J. O'Molloy he came forth slowly into Mary's abbey where draymen were loading floats with sacks of carob and palmnut meal, O'Connor, Wexford.
He stood to read the card in his hand.
nl―The reverend Hugh C. Love, Rathcoffey. Present address: Saint
Michael's, Sallins. Nice young chap he is. He's writing a book about the
Fitzgeralds he told me. He's well up in history, faith.
The young woman with slow care detached from her light skirt a
clinging twig.
jjom―I thought you were at a new gunpowder plot, J. J. O'Molloy said.
Ned Lambert cracked his fingers in the air.
nl―God! he cried. nlI forgot to tell him that one about the earl of Kildare after
he set fire to Cashel cathedral. You know that one? I'm bloody sorry I did it,
says he, but I declare to God I thought the archbishop was inside. He
mightn't like it, though. What? God, I'll tell him anyhow. That was the
great earl, the Fitzgerald Mor. Hot members they were all of them, the
Geraldines.
The horses he passed started nervously under their slack harness. He
slapped a piebald haunch quivering near him and cried:
nl―Woa, sonny!
He turned to J. J. O'Molloy and asked:
nl―Well, Jack. What is it? What's the trouble? Wait awhile. Hold hard.
With gaping mouth and head far back he stood still and, after an
instant, sneezed loudly.
nl―Chow! he said. nlBlast you!
jjom―The dust from those sacks, J. J. O'Molloy said politely.
nl―No, Ned Lambert gasped, nlI caught a .... cold night before .... blast your
soul ... night before last ... and there was a hell of a lot of draught ....
He held his handkerchief ready for the coming ...
nl―I was .... Glasnevin this morning ... poor little ... what do you call him ...
Chow! ... Mother of Moses!
Tom Rochford took the top disk from the pile he clasped against his
claret waistcoat.
tr―See? he said. trSay it's turn six. In here, see. Turn Now On.
He slid it into the left slot for them. It shot down the groove, wobbled a while, ceased, ogling them: six.
Lawyers of the past, haughty, pleading, beheld pass from the
consolidated taxing office to Nisi Prius court Richie Goulding carrying the
costbag of Goulding, Collis and Ward and heard rustling from the
admiralty division of king's bench to the court of appeal an elderly female
with false teeth smiling incredulously and a black silk skirt of great
amplitude.
tr―See? he said. trSee now the last one I put in is over here: Turns Over. The
impact. Leverage, see?
He showed them the rising column of disks on the right.
nf―Smart idea, Nosey Flynn said, snuffling. nfSo a fellow coming in late can
see what turn is on and what turns are over.
tr―See? Tom Rochford said.
He slid in a disk for himself: and watched it shoot, wobble, ogle, stop:
four. Turn Now On.
len―I'll see him now in the Ormond, Lenehan said, lenand sound him. One good
turn deserves another.
tr―Do, Tom Rochford said. trTell him I'm Boylan with impatience.
cpm―Goodnight, M'Coy said abruptly. cpmWhen you two begin .....
Nosey Flynn stooped towards the lever, snuffling at it.
nf―But how does it work here, Tommy? he asked.
len―Tooraloo, Lenehan said. lenSee you later.
He followed M'Coy out across the tiny square of Crampton court.
len―He's a hero, he said simply.
cpm―I know, M'Coy said. cpmThe drain, you mean.
len―Drain? Lenehan said. lenIt was down a manhole.
They passed Dan Lowry's musichall where Marie Kendall, charming soubrette, smiled on them from a poster a dauby smile.
Going down the path of Sycamore street beside the Empire musichall
Lenehan showed M'Coy how the whole thing was. One of those manholes
like a bloody gaspipe and there was the poor devil stuck down in it, half
choked with sewer gas. Down went Tom Rochford anyhow, booky's vest
and all, with the rope round him. And be damned but he got the rope round
the poor devil and the two were hauled up.
len―The act of a hero, he said.
At the Dolphin they halted to allow the ambulance car to gallop past
them for Jervis street.
len―This way, he said, walking to the right. lenI want to pop into Lynam's to see
Sceptre's starting price. What's the time by your gold watch and chain?
M'Coy peered into Marcus Tertius Moses' sombre office, then at
O'Neill's clock.
cpm―After three, he said. cpmWho's riding her?
len―O. Madden, Lenehan said. lenAnd a game filly she is.
While he waited in Temple bar M'Coy dodged a banana peel with gentle pushes of his toe from the path to the gutter. cpmFellow might damn easy get a nasty fall there coming along tight in the dark.
The gates of the drive opened wide to give egress to the viceregal
cavalcade.
len―Even money, Lenehan said returning. lenI knocked against Bantam Lyons in
there going to back a bloody horse someone gave him that hasn't an
earthly. Through here.
They went up the steps and under Merchants' arch. A darkbacked
figure scanned books on the hawker's cart.
len―There he is, Lenehan said.
cpm―Wonder what he's buying, M'Coy said, glancing behind.
len―Leopoldo or the Bloom is on the Rye, Lenehan said.
cpm―He's dead nuts on sales, M'Coy said. cpmI was with him one day and he
bought a book from an old one in Liffey street for two bob. There were fine
plates in it worth double the money, the stars and the moon and comets
with long tails. Astronomy it was about.
Lenehan laughed.
len―I'll tell you a damn good one about comets' tails, he said. lenCome over in
the sun.
They crossed to the metal bridge and went along Wellington quay by the riverwall.
Master Patrick Aloysius Dignam came out of Mangan's, late
Fehrenbach's, carrying a pound and a half of porksteaks.
len―There was a long spread out at Glencree reformatory, Lenehan said
eagerly. lenThe annual dinner, you know. Boiled shirt affair. The lord mayor
was there, Val Dillon it was, and sir Charles Cameron and Dan Dawson
spoke and there was music. Bartell d'Arcy sang and Benjamin Dollard .....
cpm―I know, M'Coy broke in. cpmMy missus sang there once.
len―Did she? Lenehan said.
A card Unfurnished Apartments reappeared on the windowsash of number 7 Eccles street.
He checked his tale a moment but broke out in a wheezy laugh.
len―But wait till I tell you, he said. lenDelahunt of Camden street had the
catering and yours truly was chief bottlewasher. Bloom and the wife were
there. Lashings of stuff we put up: port wine and sherry and curaçoa to
which we did ample justice. Fast and furious it was. After liquids came
solids. Cold joints galore and mince pies ....
cpm―I know, M'Coy said. cpmThe year the missus was there .....
Lenehan linked his arm warmly.
len―But wait till I tell you, he said. lenWe had a midnight lunch too after all the
jollification and when we sallied forth it was blue o'clock the morning after
the night before. Coming home it was a gorgeous winter's night on the
Featherbed Mountain. Bloom and Chris Callinan were on one side of the
car and I was with the wife on the other. We started singing glees and duets:
Lo, the early beam of morning. She was well primed with a good load of
Delahunt's port under her bellyband. Every jolt the bloody car gave I had
her bumping up against me. Hell's delights! She has a fine pair, God bless
her. Like that.
He held his caved hands a cubit from him, frowning:
len―I was tucking the rug under her and settling her boa all the time. Know
what I mean?
His hands moulded ample curves of air. He shut his eyes tight in
delight, his body shrinking, and blew a sweet chirp from his lips.
len―The lad stood to attention anyhow, he said with a sigh. lenShe's a gamey
mare and no mistake. Bloom was pointing out all the stars and the comets
in the heavens to Chris Callinan and the jarvey: the great bear and
Hercules and the dragon, and the whole jingbang lot. But, by God, I was
lost, so to speak, in the milky way. He knows them all, faith. At last she
spotted a weeny weeshy one miles away. And what star is that, Poldy? says
she. By God, she had Bloom cornered. That one, is it? says Chris Callinan,
sure that's only what you might call a pinprick. By God, he wasn't far wide
of the mark.
Lenehan stopped and leaned on the riverwall, panting with soft
laughter.
len―I'm weak, he gasped.
M'Coy's white face smiled about it at instants and grew grave.
Lenehan walked on again. He lifted his yachtingcap and scratched his
hindhead rapidly. He glanced sideways in the sunlight at M'Coy.
len―He's a cultured allroundman, Bloom is, he said seriously. lenHe's not one of
your common or garden ... you know ... There's a touch of the artist about
old Bloom.
Mr Bloom turned over idly pages of
He laid both books aside and glanced at the third:
lb―That I had, he said, pushing it by.
The shopman let two volumes fall on the counter.
ubk―Them are two good ones, he said.
Onions of his breath came across the counter out of his ruined mouth. He bent to make a bundle of the other books, hugged them against his unbuttoned waistcoat and bore them off behind the dingy curtain.
On O'Connell bridge many persons observed the grave deportment and gay apparel of Mr Denis J Maginni, professor of dancing &c.
Mr Bloom, alone, looked at the titles.
He opened it. lbThought so.
A woman's voice behind the dingy curtain. lbListen: the man.
lbNo: she wouldn't like that much. Got her it once.
He read the other title: lbSweets of Sin. More in her line. Let us see.
He read where his finger opened.
lb―All the dollarbills her husband gave her were spent in the stores on
wondrous gowns and costliest frillies. For him! For Raoul!
lbYes. This. Here. Try.
lb―Her mouth glued on his in a luscious voluptuous kiss while his hands felt
for the opulent curves inside her deshabille.
lbYes. Take this. The end.
lb―You are late, he spoke hoarsely, eying her with a suspicious glare.
The beautiful woman threw off her sabletrimmed wrap, displaying her
queenly shoulders and heaving embonpoint. An imperceptible smile played
round her perfect lips as she turned to him calmly.
Mr Bloom read again: The beautiful woman ....
Warmth showered gently over him, cowing his flesh. Flesh yielded amply amid rumpled clothes: whites of eyes swooning up. His nostrils arched themselves for prey. Melting breast ointments (for him! for Raoul!). lbArmpits' oniony sweat. Fishgluey slime (her heaving embonpoint!). Feel! Press! Chrished! Sulphur dung of lions!
lbYoung! Young!
An elderly female, no more young, left the building of the courts of chancery, king's bench, exchequer and common pleas, having heard in the lord chancellor's court the case in lunacy of Potterton, in the admiralty division the summons, exparte motion, of the owners of the Lady Cairns versus the owners of the barque Mona, in the court of appeal reservation of judgment in the case of Harvey versus the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation.
Phlegmy coughs shook the air of the bookshop, bulging out the dingy curtains. The shopman's uncombed grey head came out and his unshaven reddened face, coughing. He raked his throat rudely, puked phlegm on the floor. He put his boot on what he had spat, wiping his sole along it, and bent, showing a rawskinned crown, scantily haired.
Mr Bloom beheld it.
Mastering his troubled breath, he said:
lb―I'll take this one.
The shopman lifted eyes bleared with old rheum.
ubk―Sweets of Sin, he said, tapping on it. ubkThat's a good one.
The lacquey by the door of Dillon's auctionrooms shook his handbell twice again and viewed himself in the chalked mirror of the cabinet.
Dilly Dedalus, loitering by the curbstone, heard the beats of the bell, the cries of the auctioneer within. Four and nine. Those lovely curtains. Five shillings. Cosy curtains. Selling new at two guineas. Any advance on five shillings? Going for five shillings.
The lacquey lifted his handbell and shook it:
dl―Barang!
Bang of the lastlap bell spurred the halfmile wheelmen to their sprint. J. A. Jackson, W. E. Wylie, A. Munro and H. T. Gahan, their stretched necks wagging, negotiated the curve by the College library.
Mr Dedalus, tugging a long moustache, came round from Williams's
row. He halted near his daughter.
did―It's time for you, she said.
sid―Stand up straight for the love of the lord Jesus, Mr Dedalus said. sidAre you
trying to imitate your uncle John, the cornetplayer, head upon shoulder?
Melancholy God!
Dilly shrugged her shoulders. Mr Dedalus placed his hands on them
and held them back.
sid―Stand up straight, girl, he said. sidYou'll get curvature of the spine. Do you
know what you look like?
He let his head sink suddenly down and forward, hunching his
shoulders and dropping his underjaw.
did―Give it up, father, Dilly said. didAll the people are looking at you.
Mr Dedalus drew himself upright and tugged again at his moustache.
did―Did you get any money? Dilly asked.
sid―Where would I get money? Mr Dedalus said. sidThere is no-one in Dublin
would lend me fourpence.
did―You got some, Dilly said, looking in his eyes.
sid―How do you know that? Mr Dedalus asked, his tongue in his cheek.
Mr Kernan, pleased with the order he had booked, walked boldly
along James's street.
did―I know you did, Dilly answered. didWere you in the Scotch house now?
sid―I was not, then, Mr Dedalus said, smiling. sidWas it the little nuns taught
you to be so saucy? Here.
He handed her a shilling.
sid―See if you can do anything with that, he said.
did―I suppose you got five, Dilly said. didGive me more than that.
sid―Wait awhile, Mr Dedalus said threateningly. sidYou're like the rest of them,
are you? An insolent pack of little bitches since your poor mother died. But
wait awhile. You'll all get a short shrift and a long day from me. Low
blackguardism! I'm going to get rid of you. Wouldn't care if I was stretched
out stiff. He's dead. The man upstairs is dead.
He left her and walked on. Dilly followed quickly and pulled his coat.
did―Well, what is it? he said, stopping.
The lacquey rang his bell behind their backs.
dl―Barang!
sid―Curse your bloody blatant soul, Mr Dedalus cried, turning on him.
The lacquey, aware of comment, shook the lolling clapper of his bell
but feebly:
dl―Bang!
Mr Dedalus stared at him.
sid―Watch him, he said. sidIt's instructive. I wonder will he allow us to talk.
did―You got more than that, father, Dilly said.
sid―I'm going to show you a little trick, Mr Dedalus said. sidI'll leave you all
where Jesus left the jews. Look, there's all I have. I got two shillings from
Jack Power and I spent twopence for a shave for the funeral.
He drew forth a handful of copper coins, nervously.
did―Can't you look for some money somewhere? Dilly said.
Mr Dedalus thought and nodded.
sid―I will, he said gravely. sidI looked all along the gutter in O'Connell street.
I'll try this one now.
did―You're very funny, Dilly said, grinning.
sid―Here, Mr Dedalus said, handing her two pennies. sidGet a glass of milk for
yourself and a bun or a something. I'll be home shortly.
He put the other coins in his pocket and started to walk on.
The viceregal cavalcade passed, greeted by obsequious policemen, out
of Parkgate.
did―I'm sure you have another shilling, Dilly said.
The lacquey banged loudly.
Mr Dedalus amid the din walked off, murmuring to himself with a
pursing mincing mouth gently:
sid―The little nuns! Nice little things! O, sure they wouldn't do anything! O,
sure they wouldn't really! Is it little sister Monica!
From the sundial towards James's gate walked Mr Kernan, pleased with the order he had booked for Pulbrook Robertson, boldly along James's street, past Shackleton's offices. tkGot round him all right. How do you do, Mr Crimmins? First rate, sir. I was afraid you might be up in your other establishment in Pimlico. How are things going? Just keeping alive. Lovely weather we're having. Yes, indeed. Good for the country. Those farmers are always grumbling. I'll just take a thimbleful of your best gin, Mr Crimmins. A small gin, sir. Yes, sir. Terrible affair that General Slocum explosion. Terrible, terrible! A thousand casualties. And heartrending scenes. Men trampling down women and children. Most brutal thing. What do they say was the cause? Spontaneous combustion. Most scandalous revelation. Not a single lifeboat would float and the firehose all burst. What I can't understand is how the inspectors ever allowed a boat like that .... Now, you're talking straight, Mr Crimmins. You know why? Palm oil. Is that a fact? Without a doubt. Well now, look at that. And America they say is the land of the free. I thought we were bad here.
tkI smiled at him. tkAmerica, tkI said quietly, just like that. tkWhat is it? The sweepings of every country including our own. Isn't that true? tkThat's a fact.
tkGraft, my dear sir. Well, of course, where there's money going there's always someone to pick it up.
tkSaw him looking at my frockcoat. Dress does it. Nothing like a
dressy appearance. Bowls them over.
fc―Hello, Simon, Father Cowley said. fcHow are things?
sid―Hello, Bob, old man, Mr Dedalus answered, stopping.
Mr Kernan halted and preened himself before the sloping mirror of Peter Kennedy, hairdresser. tkStylish coat, beyond a doubt. Scott of Dawson street. Well worth the half sovereign I gave Neary for it. Never built under three guineas. Fits me down to the ground. Some Kildare street club toff had it probably. John Mulligan, the manager of the Hibernian bank, gave me a very sharp eye yesterday on Carlisle bridge as if he remembered me.
tkAham! Must dress the character for those fellows. Knight of the road. Gentleman. And now, Mr Crimmins, may we have the honour of your custom again, sir. The cup that cheers but not inebriates, as the old saying has it.
North wall and sir John Rogerson's quay, with hulls and anchorchains, sailing westward, sailed by a skiff, a crumpled throwaway, rocked on the ferrywash, Elijah is coming.
Mr Kernan glanced in farewell at his image. tkHigh colour, of course. Grizzled moustache. Returned Indian officer. Bravely he bore his stumpy body forward on spatted feet, squaring his shoulders. tkIs that Ned Lambert's brother over the way, Sam? What? Yes. He's as like it as damn it. No. The windscreen of that motorcar in the sun there. Just a flash like that. Damn like him.
Aham! Hot spirit of juniper juice warmed his vitals and his breath. tkGood drop of gin, that was. His frocktails winked in bright sunshine to his fat strut.
tkDown there Emmet was hanged, drawn and quartered. Greasy black rope. Dogs licking the blood off the street when the lord lieutenant's wife drove by in her noddy.
tkBad times those were. Well, well. Over and done with. Great topers too. Fourbottle men.
tkLet me see. Is he buried in saint Michan's? Or no, there was a midnight burial in Glasnevin. Corpse brought in through a secret door in the wall. Dignam is there now. Went out in a puff. Well, well. Better turn down here. Make a detour.
Mr Kernan turned and walked down the slope of Watling street by the corner of Guinness's visitors' waitingroom. Outside the Dublin Distillers Company's stores an outside car without fare or jarvey stood, the reins knotted to the wheel. tkDamn dangerous thing. Some Tipperary bosthoon endangering the lives of the citizens. Runaway horse.
Denis Breen with his tomes, weary of having waited an hour in John Henry Menton's office, led his wife over O'Connell bridge, bound for the office of Messrs Collis and Ward.
Mr Kernan approached Island street. tkTimes of the troubles. Must ask Ned Lambert to lend me those reminiscences of sir Jonah Barrington. When you look back on it all now in a kind of retrospective arrangement. Gaming at Daly's. No cardsharping then. One of those fellows got his hand nailed to the table by a dagger. Somewhere here lord Edward Fitzgerald escaped from major Sirr. Stables behind Moira house.
tkDamn good gin that was.
tkFine dashing young nobleman. Good stock, of course. That ruffian, that sham squire, with his violet gloves gave him away. Course they were on the wrong side. They rose in dark and evil days. Fine poem that is: Ingram. They were gentlemen. Ben Dollard does sing that ballad touchingly. Masterly rendition.
A cavalcade in easy trot along Pembroke quay passed, outriders leaping, leaping in their, in their saddles. Frockcoats. Cream sunshades.
Mr Kernan hurried forward, blowing pursily.
tkHis Excellency! Too bad! Just missed that by a hair. Damn it! What a pity!
* * *Stephen Dedalus watched through the webbed window the lapidary's fingers prove a timedulled chain. Dust webbed the window and the showtrays. Dust darkened the toiling fingers with their vulture nails. Dust slept on dull coils of bronze and silver, lozenges of cinnabar, on rubies, leprous and winedark stones.
sdBorn all in the dark wormy earth, cold specks of fire, evil, lights shining in the darkness. Where fallen archangels flung the stars of their brows. Muddy swinesnouts, hands, root and root, gripe and wrest them.
sdShe dances in a foul gloom where gum burns with garlic. A sailorman, rustbearded, sips from a beaker rum and eyes her. A long and seafed silent rut. She dances, capers, wagging her sowish haunches and her hips, on her gross belly flapping a ruby egg.
Old Russell with a smeared shammy rag burnished again his gem, turned it and held it at the point of his Moses' beard. sdGrandfather ape gloating on a stolen hoard.
sdAnd you who wrest old images from the burial earth? The brainsick words of sophists: Antisthenes. A lore of drugs. Orient and immortal wheat standing from everlasting to everlasting.
Two old women fresh from their whiff of the briny trudged through Irishtown along London bridge road, one with a sanded tired umbrella, one with a midwife's bag in which eleven cockles rolled.
The whirr of flapping leathern bands and hum of dynamos from the powerhouse urged Stephen to be on. sdBeingless beings. Stop! Throb always without you and the throb always within. Your heart you sing of. I between them. Where? Between two roaring worlds where they swirl, I. Shatter them, one and both. But stun myself too in the blow. Shatter me you who can. Bawd and butcher were the words. I say! Not yet awhile. A look around.
sdYes, quite true. Very large and wonderful and keeps famous time. You say right, sir. A Monday morning. 'Twas so, indeed.
Stephen went down Bedford row, the handle of the ash clacking against his shoulderblade. In Clohissey's window a faded 1860 print of Heenan boxing Sayers held his eye. Staring backers with square hats stood round the roped prizering. The heavyweights in tight loincloths proposed gently each to other his bulbous fists. And they are throbbing: heroes' hearts.
He turned and halted by the slanted bookcart.
uh―Twopence each, the huckster said. uhFour for sixpence.
sdTattered pages. The Irish Beekeeper. Life and Miracles of the Curé of Ars. Pocket Guide to Killarney.
sdI might find here one of my pawned schoolprizes. Stephano Dedalo, alumno optimo, palmam ferenti.
Father Conmee, having read his little hours, walked through the hamlet of Donnycarney, murmuring vespers.
sdBinding too good probably. What is this? Eighth and ninth book of
Moses. Secret of all secrets. Seal of King David. Thumbed pages: read and
read. Who has passed here before me? How to soften chapped hands.
Recipe for white wine vinegar. How to win a woman's love. For me this.
Say the following talisman three times with hands folded:
sd―Se el yilo nebrakada femininum! Amor me solo! Sanktus! Amen.
sdWho wrote this? Charms and invocations of the most blessed abbot
Peter Salanka to all true believers divulged. As good as any other abbot's
charms, as mumbling Joachim's. Down, baldynoddle, or we'll wool your
wool.
did―What are you doing here, Stephen?
sdDilly's high shoulders and shabby dress.
sdShut the book quick. Don't let see.
sd―What are you doing? Stephen said.
sdA Stuart face of nonesuch Charles, lank locks falling at its sides. It
glowed as she crouched feeding the fire with broken boots. I told her of
Paris. Late lieabed under a quilt of old overcoats, fingering a pinchbeck
bracelet, Dan Kelly's token. Nebrakada femininum.
sd―What have you there? Stephen asked.
did―I bought it from the other cart for a penny, Dilly said, laughing
nervously. didIs it any good?
sdMy eyes they say she has. Do others see me so? Quick, far and daring. Shadow of my mind.
He took the coverless book from her hand.
sd―What did you buy that for? he asked. sdTo learn French?
She nodded, reddening and closing tight her lips.
sdShow no surprise. Quite natural.
sd―Here, Stephen said. sdIt's all right. Mind Maggy doesn't pawn it on you. I
suppose all my books are gone.
did―Some, Dilly said. didWe had to.
sdShe is drowning. Agenbite. Save her. Agenbite. All against us. She will drown me with her, eyes and hair. Lank coils of seaweed hair around me, my heart, my soul. Salt green death.
sdWe.
sdAgenbite of inwit. Inwit's agenbite.
sdMisery! Misery!
* * *
fc―Hello, Simon, Father Cowley said. fcHow are things?
sid―Hello, Bob, old man, Mr Dedalus answered, stopping.
They clasped hands loudly outside Reddy and Daughter's. Father
Cowley brushed his moustache often downward with a scooping hand.
sid―What's the best news? Mr Dedalus said.
fc―Why then not much, Father Cowley said. fcI'm barricaded up, Simon, with
two men prowling around the house trying to effect an entrance.
sid―Jolly, Mr Dedalus said. sidWho is it?
fc―O, Father Cowley said. fcA certain gombeen man of our acquaintance.
sid―With a broken back, is it? Mr Dedalus asked.
fc―The same, Simon, Father Cowley answered. fcReuben of that ilk. I'm just
waiting for Ben Dollard. He's going to say a word to long John to get him
to take those two men off. All I want is a little time.
He looked with vague hope up and down the quay, a big apple
bulging in his neck.
sid―I know, Mr Dedalus said, nodding. sidPoor old bockedy Ben! He's always
doing a good turn for someone. Hold hard!
He put on his glasses and gazed towards the metal bridge an instant.
sid―Here he is, by God, he said, sidarse and pockets.
Ben Dollard's loose blue cutaway and square hat above large slops crossed the quay in full gait from the metal bridge. He came towards them at an amble, scratching actively behind his coattails.
As he came near Mr Dedalus greeted:
sid―Hold that fellow with the bad trousers.
bed―Hold him now, Ben Dollard said.
Mr Dedalus eyed with cold wandering scorn various points of Ben
Dollard's figure. Then, turning to Father Cowley with a nod, he muttered
sneeringly:
sid―That's a pretty garment, isn't it, for a summer's day?
bed―Why, God eternally curse your soul, Ben Dollard growled furiously, bedI
threw out more clothes in my time than you ever saw.
He stood beside them beaming, on them first and on his roomy
clothes from points of which Mr Dedalus flicked fluff, saying:
sid―They were made for a man in his health, Ben, anyhow.
bed―Bad luck to the jewman that made them, Ben Dollard said. bedThanks be to
God he's not paid yet.
fc―And how is that basso profondo, Benjamin? Father Cowley asked.
Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell, murmuring, glassyeyed, strode past the Kildare street club.
Ben Dollard frowned and, making suddenly a chanter's mouth, gave
forth a deep note.
bed―Aw! he said.
sid―That's the style, Mr Dedalus said, nodding to its drone.
bed―What about that? Ben Dollard said. bedNot too dusty? What?
He turned to both.
fc―That'll do, Father Cowley said, nodding also.
The reverend Hugh C. Love walked from the old chapterhouse of saint Mary's abbey past James and Charles Kennedy's, rectifiers, attended by Geraldines tall and personable, towards the Tholsel beyond the ford of hurdles.
Ben Dollard with a heavy list towards the shopfronts led them
forward, his joyful fingers in the air.
bed―Come along with me to the subsheriff's office, he said. bedI want to show you
the new beauty Rock has for a bailiff. He's a cross between Lobengula and
Lynchehaun. He's well worth seeing, mind you. Come along. I saw John
Henry Menton casually in the Bodega just now and it will cost me a fall if I
don't ... Wait awhile ..... We're on the right lay, Bob, believe you me.
fc―For a few days tell him, Father Cowley said anxiously.
Ben Dollard halted and stared, his loud orifice open, a dangling
button of his coat wagging brightbacked from its thread as he wiped away
the heavy shraums that clogged his eyes to hear aright.
bed―What few days? he boomed. bedHasn't your landlord distrained for rent?
fc―He has, Father Cowley said.
bed―Then our friend's writ is not worth the paper it's printed on, Ben Dollard
said. bedThe landlord has the prior claim. I gave him all the particulars. 29
Windsor avenue. Love is the name?
fc―That's right, Father Cowley said. fcThe reverend Mr Love. He's a minister
in the country somewhere. But are you sure of that?
bed―You can tell Barabbas from me, Ben Dollard said, bedthat he can put that
writ where Jacko put the nuts.
He led Father Cowley boldly forward, linked to his bulk.
sid―Filberts I believe they were, Mr Dedalus said, as he dropped his glasses on
his coatfront, following them.
mc―The youngster will be all right, Martin Cunningham said, as they passed
out of the Castleyard gate.
The policeman touched his forehead.
mc―God bless you, Martin Cunningham said, cheerily.
He signed to the waiting jarvey who chucked at the reins and set on towards Lord Edward street.
Bronze by gold, Miss Kennedy's head by Miss Douce's head,
appeared above the crossblind of the Ormond hotel.
mc―Yes, Martin Cunningham said, fingering his beard. mcI wrote to Father
Conmee and laid the whole case before him.
jp―You could try our friend, Mr Power suggested backward.
mc―Boyd? Martin Cunningham said shortly. mcTouch me not.
John Wyse Nolan, lagging behind, reading the list, came after them quickly down Cork hill.
On the steps of the City hall Councillor Nannetti, descending, hailed Alderman Cowley and Councillor Abraham Lyon ascending.
The castle car wheeled empty into upper Exchange street.
jwn―Look here, Martin, John Wyse Nolan said, overtaking them at the
mc―Quite right, Martin Cunningham said, taking the list. mcAnd put down the
five shillings too.
jp―Without a second word either, Mr Power said.
mc―Strange but true, Martin Cunningham added.
John Wyse Nolan opened wide eyes.
jwn―I'll say there is much kindness in the jew, he quoted, elegantly.
They went down Parliament street.
jp―There's Jimmy Henry, Mr Power said, jpjust heading for Kavanagh's.
mc―Righto, Martin Cunningham said. mcHere goes.
Outside la maison Claire Blazes Boylan waylaid Jack Mooney's brother-in-law, humpy, tight, making for the liberties.
John Wyse Nolan fell back with Mr Power, while Martin
Cunningham took the elbow of a dapper little man in a shower of hail suit,
who walked uncertainly, with hasty steps past Micky Anderson's watches.
jwn―The assistant town clerk's corns are giving him some trouble, John Wyse
Nolan told Mr Power.
They followed round the corner towards James Kavanagh's
winerooms. The empty castle car fronted them at rest in Essex gate. Martin
Cunningham, speaking always, showed often the list at which Jimmy Henry
did not glance.
jwn―And long John Fanning is here too, John Wyse Nolan said, jwnas large as
life.
The tall form of long John Fanning filled the doorway where he
stood.
mc―Good day, Mr Subsheriff, Martin Cunningham said, as all halted and
greeted.
Long John Fanning made no way for them. He removed his large
Henry Clay decisively and his large fierce eyes scowled intelligently over all
their faces.
jf―Are the conscript fathers pursuing their peaceful deliberations? he said
with rich acrid utterance to the assistant town clerk.
Hell open to christians they were having, Jimmy Henry said pettishly,
about their damned Irish language. Where was the marshal, he wanted to
know, to keep order in the council chamber. And old Barlow the
macebearer laid up with asthma, no mace on the table, nothing in order, no
quorum even, and Hutchinson, the lord mayor, in Llandudno and little
Lorcan Sherlock doing
Long John Fanning blew a plume of smoke from his lips.
Martin Cunningham spoke by turns, twirling the peak of his beard, to
the assistant town clerk and the subsheriff, while John Wyse Nolan held his
peace.
jf―What Dignam was that? long John Fanning asked.
Jimmy Henry made a grimace and lifted his left foot.
jih―O, my corns! he said plaintively. jihCome upstairs for goodness' sake till I
sit down somewhere. Uff! Ooo! Mind!
Testily he made room for himself beside long John Fanning's flank
and passed in and up the stairs.
mc―Come on up, Martin Cunningham said to the subsheriff. mcI don't think
you knew him or perhaps you did, though.
With John Wyse Nolan Mr Power followed them in.
jp―Decent little soul he was, Mr Power said to the stalwart back of long John
Fanning ascending towards long John Fanning in the mirror.
mc―Rather lowsized. Dignam of Menton's office that was, Martin
Cunningham said.
Long John Fanning could not remember him.
Clatter of horsehoofs sounded from the air.
mc―What's that? Martin Cunningham said.
All turned where they stood. John Wyse Nolan came down again.
From the cool shadow of the doorway he saw the horses pass Parliament
street, harness and glossy pasterns in sunlight shimmering. Gaily they went
past before his cool unfriendly eyes, not quickly. In saddles of the leaders,
leaping leaders, rode outriders.
mc―What was it? Martin Cunningham asked, as they went on up the
staircase.
jwn―The lord lieutenantgeneral and general governor of Ireland, John Wyse
Nolan answered from the stairfoot.
As they trod across the thick carpet Buck Mulligan whispered behind
his Panama to Haines:
bm―Parnell's brother. There in the corner.
They chose a small table near the window, opposite a longfaced man
whose beard and gaze hung intently down on a chessboard.
ha―Is that he? Haines asked, twisting round in his seat.
bm―Yes, Mulligan said. bmThat's John Howard, his brother, our city marshal.
John Howard Parnell translated a white bishop quietly and his grey
claw went up again to his forehead whereat it rested. An instant after, under
its screen, his eyes looked quickly, ghostbright, at his foe and fell once more
upon a working corner.
ha―I'll take a mélange, Haines said to the waitress.
bm―Two mélanges, Buck Mulligan said. bmAnd bring us some scones and butter
and some cakes as well.
When she had gone he said, laughing:
bm―We call it D. B. C. because they have damn bad cakes. O, but you missed
Dedalus on Hamlet.
Haines opened his newbought book.
ha―I'm sorry, he said. haShakespeare is the happy huntingground of all minds
that have lost their balance.
The onelegged sailor growled at the area of 14 Nelson street:
usr―England expects .....
Buck Mulligan's primrose waistcoat shook gaily to his laughter.
bm―You should see him, he said, bmwhen his body loses its balance. Wandering
Aengus I call him.
ha―I am sure he has an idée fixe, Haines said, pinching his chin thoughtfully
with thumb and forefinger. haNow I am speculating what it would be likely to
be. Such persons always have.
Buck Mulligan bent across the table gravely.
bm―They drove his wits astray, he said, bmby visions of hell. He will never
capture the Attic note. The note of Swinburne, of all poets, the white death
and the ruddy birth. That is his tragedy. He can never be a poet. The joy of
creation ....
ha―Eternal punishment, Haines said, nodding curtly. haI see. I tackled him this
morning on belief. There was something on his mind, I saw. It's rather
interesting because professor Pokorny of Vienna makes an interesting point
out of that.
Buck Mulligan's watchful eyes saw the waitress come. He helped her
to unload her tray.
ha―He can find no trace of hell in ancient Irish myth, Haines said, amid the
cheerful cups. haThe moral idea seems lacking, the sense of destiny, of
retribution. Rather strange he should have just that fixed idea. Does he
write anything for your movement?
He sank two lumps of sugar deftly longwise through the whipped
cream. Buck Mulligan slit a steaming scone in two and plastered butter over
its smoking pith. He bit off a soft piece hungrily.
bm―Ten years, he said, chewing and laughing. bmHe is going to write something
in ten years.
ha―Seems a long way off, Haines said, thoughtfully lifting his spoon. haStill, I
shouldn't wonder if he did after all.
He tasted a spoonful from the creamy cone of his cup.
ha―This is real Irish cream I take it, he said with forbearance. haI don't want to
be imposed on.
Elijah, skiff, light crumpled throwaway, sailed eastward by flanks of ships and trawlers, amid an archipelago of corks, beyond new Wapping street past Benson's ferry, and by the threemasted schooner Rosevean from Bridgwater with bricks.
* * *Almidano Artifoni walked past Holles street, past Sewell's yard. Behind him Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell, with stickumbrelladustcoat dangling, shunned the lamp before Mr Law Smith's house and, crossing, walked along Merrion square. Distantly behind him a blind stripling tapped his way by the wall of College park.
Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell walked as far as Mr Lewis Werner's cheerful windows, then turned and strode back along Merrion square, his stickumbrelladustcoat dangling.
At the corner of Wilde's house he halted, frowned at Elijah's name
announced on the Metropolitan hall, frowned at the distant pleasance of
duke's lawn. His eyeglass flashed frowning in the sun. With ratsteeth bared
he muttered:
cbocftf―Coactus volui.
He strode on for Clare street, grinding his fierce word.
As he strode past Mr Bloom's dental windows the sway of his
dustcoat brushed rudely from its angle a slender tapping cane and swept
onwards, having buffeted a thewless body. The blind stripling turned his
sickly face after the striding form.
ubst―God's curse on you, he said sourly, ubstwhoever you are! You're blinder nor
I am, you bitch's bastard!
Opposite Ruggy O'Donohoe's Master Patrick Aloysius Dignam, pawing the pound and a half of Mangan's, late Fehrenbach's, porksteaks he had been sent for, went along warm Wicklow street dawdling. It was too blooming dull sitting in the parlour with Mrs Stoer and Mrs Quigley and Mrs MacDowell and the blind down and they all at their sniffles and sipping sups of the superior tawny sherry uncle Barney brought from Tunney's. And they eating crumbs of the cottage fruitcake, jawing the whole blooming time and sighing.
After Wicklow lane the window of Madame Doyle, courtdress milliner, stopped him. He stood looking in at the two puckers stripped to their pelts and putting up their props. From the sidemirrors two mourning Masters Dignam gaped silently. Myler Keogh, Dublin's pet lamb, will meet sergeantmajor Bennett, the Portobello bruiser, for a purse of fifty sovereigns. mpadGob, that'd be a good pucking match to see. Myler Keogh, that's the chap sparring out to him with the green sash. Two bar entrance, soldiers half price. I could easy do a bunk on ma. Master Dignam on his left turned as he turned. mpadThat's me in mourning. When is it? May the twentysecond. Sure, the blooming thing is all over. He turned to the right and on his right Master Dignam turned, his cap awry, his collar sticking up. Buttoning it down, his chin lifted, he saw the image of Marie Kendall, charming soubrette, beside the two puckers. mpadOne of them mots that do be in the packets of fags Stoer smokes that his old fellow welted hell out of him for one time he found out.
Master Dignam got his collar down and dawdled on. mpadThe best pucker going for strength was Fitzsimons. One puck in the wind from that fellow would knock you into the middle of next week, man. But the best pucker for science was Jem Corbet before Fitzsimons knocked the stuffings out of him, dodging and all.
In Grafton street Master Dignam saw a red flower in a toff's mouth and a swell pair of kicks on him and he listening to what the drunk was telling him and grinning all the time.
mpadNo Sandymount tram.
Master Dignam walked along Nassau street, shifted the porksteaks to his other hand. His collar sprang up again and he tugged it down. The blooming stud was too small for the buttonhole of the shirt, blooming end to it. He met schoolboys with satchels. mpadI'm not going tomorrow either, stay away till Monday. He met other schoolboys. mpadDo they notice I'm in mourning? Uncle Barney said he'd get it into the paper tonight. Then they'll all see it in the paper and read my name printed and pa's name.
mpadHis face got all grey instead of being red like it was and there was a fly walking over it up to his eye. The scrunch that was when they were screwing the screws into the coffin: and the bumps when they were bringing it downstairs.
mpadPa was inside it and ma crying in the parlour and uncle Barney telling the men how to get it round the bend. A big coffin it was, and high and heavylooking. How was that? The last night pa was boosed he was standing on the landing there bawling out for his boots to go out to Tunney's for to boose more and he looked butty and short in his shirt. Never see him again. Death, that is. Pa is dead. My father is dead. He told me to be a good son to ma. I couldn't hear the other things he said but I saw his tongue and his teeth trying to say it better. Poor pa. That was Mr Dignam, my father. I hope he's in purgatory now because he went to confession to Father Conroy on Saturday night.
* * *William Humble, earl of Dudley, and lady Dudley, accompanied by lieutenantcolonel Heseltine, drove out after luncheon from the viceregal lodge. In the following carriage were the honourable Mrs Paget, Miss de Courcy and the honourable Gerald Ward A. D. C. in attendance.
The cavalcade passed out by the lower gate of Phoenix park saluted
by obsequious policemen and proceeded past Kingsbridge along the
northern quays. The viceroy was most cordially greeted on his way through
the metropolis. At Bloody bridge Mr Thomas Kernan beyond the river
greeted him vainly from afar. Between Queen's and Whitworth bridges lord
Dudley's viceregal carriages passed and were unsaluted by Mr Dudley
White, B. L., M. A., who stood on Arran quay outside Mrs M. E. White's,
the pawnbroker's, at the corner of Arran street west stroking his nose with
his forefinger, undecided whether he should arrive at Phibsborough more
quickly by a triple change of tram or by hailing a car or on foot through
Smithfield, Constitution hill and Broadstone terminus. In the porch of Four
Courts Richie Goulding with the costbag of Goulding, Collis and Ward saw
him with surprise. Past Richmond bridge at the doorstep of the office of
Reuben J Dodd, solicitor, agent for the Patriotic Insurance Company, an
elderly female about to enter changed her plan and retracing her steps by
King's windows smiled credulously on the representative of His Majesty.
From its sluice in Wood quay wall under Tom Devan's office Poddle river
hung out in fealty a tongue of liquid sewage. Above the crossblind of the
Ormond hotel, gold by bronze, Miss Kennedy's head by Miss Douce's head
watched and admired. On Ormond quay Mr Simon Dedalus, steering his
way from the greenhouse for the subsheriff's office, stood still in midstreet
and brought his hat low. His Excellency graciously returned Mr Dedalus'
greeting. From Cahill's corner the reverend Hugh C. Love, M. A., made
obeisance unperceived, mindful of lords deputies whose hands benignant
had held of yore rich advowsons. On Grattan bridge Lenehan and M'Coy,
taking leave of each other, watched the carriages go by. Passing by Roger
Greene's office and Dollard's big red printinghouse Gerty MacDowell,
carrying the Catesby's cork lino letters for her father who was laid up,
knew by the style it was the lord and lady lieutenant but she couldn't see
what Her Excellency had on because the tram and Spring's big yellow
furniture van had to stop in front of her on account of its being the lord
lieutenant. Beyond Lundy Foot's from the shaded door of Kavanagh's
winerooms John Wyse Nolan smiled with unseen coldness towards the lord
lieutenantgeneral and general governor of Ireland. The Right Honourable
William Humble, earl of Dudley, G. C. V. O., passed Micky Anderson's
alltimesticking watches and Henry and James's wax smartsuited
freshcheeked models, the gentleman Henry,
And wears no fancy clothes.
Baraabum.
Yet I've a sort of a
Yorkshire relish for
My little Yorkshire rose.
Baraabum.
Bronze by gold heard the hoofirons, steelyringing.
Imperthnthn thnthnthn.
Chips, picking chips off rocky thumbnail, chips.
Horrid! And gold flushed more.
A husky fifenote blew.
Blew. Blue bloom is on the.
Goldpinnacled hair.
A jumping rose on satiny breast of satin, rose of Castile.
Trilling, trilling Idolores.
Peep! Who's in the .... peepofgold?
Tink cried to bronze in pity.
And a call, pure, long and throbbing. Longindying call.
Decoy. Soft word. But look the bright stars fade. Notes chirruping answer.
O rose! Castile. The morn is breaking.
Jingle jingle jaunted jingling.
Coin rang. Clock clacked.
Avowal.
Jingle. Bloo.
Boomed crashing chords. When love absorbs. War! War! The tympanum.
A sail! A veil awave upon the waves.
Lost. Throstle fluted. All is lost now.
Horn. Hawhorn.
When first he saw. Alas!
Full tup. Full throb.
Warbling. Ah, lure! Alluring.
Martha! Come!
Clapclap. Clipclap. Clappyclap.
Goodgod henev erheard inall.
Deaf bald Pat brought pad knife took up.
A moonlit nightcall far, far.
I feel so sad. P. S. So lonely blooming.
Listen!
The spiked and winding cold seahorn. Have you the? Each, and for other, plash and silent roar.
Pearls when she. Liszt's rhapsodies. Hissss.
You don't?
Did not no, no believe Lidlyd. With a cock with a carra.
Black. Deepsounding. Do, Ben, do.
Wait while you wait. Hee hee. Wait while you hee.
But wait!
Low in dark middle earth. Embedded ore.
All gone. All fallen.
Tiny, her tremulous fernfoils of maidenhair.
Amen! He gnashed in fury.
Fro. To, fro. A baton cool protruding.
Bronzelydia by Minagold.
By bronze, by gold, in oceangreen of shadow. Bloom. Old Bloom.
One rapped, one tapped, with a carra, with a cock.
Pray for him! Pray, good people!
His gouty fingers nakkering.
Big Benaben. Big Benben.
Last rose Castile of summer left bloom I feel so sad alone.
Pwee! Little wind piped wee.
True men. Lid Ker Cow De and Doll. Ay, ay. Like you men. Will lift your tschink with tschunk.
Fff! Oo!
Where bronze from anear? Where gold from afar? Where hoofs?
Rrrpr. Kraa. Kraandl.
Then not till then. My eppripfftaph. Be pfrwritt.
Done.
Begin!
Bronze by gold, miss Douce's head by miss Kennedy's head, over the
crossblind of the Ormond bar heard the viceregal hoofs go by, ringing steel.
mk―Is that her? asked miss Kennedy.
Miss Douce said yes, sitting with his ex, pearl grey and
mk―Exquisite contrast, miss Kennedy said.
When all agog miss Douce said eagerly:
ld―Look at the fellow in the tall silk.
mk―Who? Where? gold asked more eagerly.
ld―In the second carriage, miss Douce's wet lips said, laughing in the sun.
ldHe's looking. Mind till I see.
She darted, bronze, to the backmost corner, flattening her face against the pane in a halo of hurried breath.
Her wet lips tittered:
ld―He's killed looking back.
She laughed:
ld―O wept! Aren't men frightful idiots?
With sadness.
Miss Kennedy sauntered sadly from bright light, twining a loose hair
behind an ear. Sauntering sadly, gold no more, she twisted twined a hair.
Sadly she twined in sauntering gold hair behind a curving ear.
mk―It's them has the fine times, sadly then she said.
A man.
Bloowho went by by Moulang's pipes bearing in his breast the sweets of sin, by Wine's antiques, in memory bearing sweet sinful words, by Carroll's dusky battered plate, for Raoul.
The boots to them, them in the bar, them barmaids came. For them
unheeding him he banged on the counter his tray of chattering china. And
ubo―There's your teas, he said.
Miss Kennedy with manners transposed the teatray down to an
upturned lithia crate, safe from eyes, low.
ubo―What is it? loud boots unmannerly asked.
ld―Find out, miss Douce retorted, leaving her spyingpoint.
ubo―Your beau, is it?
A haughty bronze replied:
ld―I'll complain to Mrs de Massey on you if I hear any more of your
impertinent insolence.
ubo―Imperthnthn thnthnthn, bootssnout sniffed rudely, as he retreated as she
threatened as he had come.
Bloom.
On her flower frowning miss Douce said:
ld―Most aggravating that young brat is. If he doesn't conduct himself I'll
wring his ear for him a yard long.
Ladylike in exquisite contrast.
mk―Take no notice, miss Kennedy rejoined.
She poured in a teacup tea, then back in the teapot tea. They cowered under their reef of counter, waiting on footstools, crates upturned, waiting for their teas to draw. They pawed their blouses, both of black satin, two and nine a yard, waiting for their teas to draw, and two and seven.
Yes, bronze from anear, by gold from afar, heard steel from anear,
hoofs ring from afar, and heard steelhoofs ringhoof ringsteel.
ld―Am I awfully sunburnt?
Miss bronze unbloused her neck.
mk―No, said miss Kennedy. mkIt gets brown after. Did you try the borax with
the cherry laurel water?
Miss Douce halfstood to see her skin askance in the barmirror
gildedlettered where hock and claret glasses shimmered and in their midst a
shell.
ld―And leave it to my hands, she said.
mk―Try it with the glycerine, miss Kennedy advised.
Bidding her neck and hands adieu miss Douce
ld―Those things only bring out a rash, replied, reseated. ldI asked that old
fogey in Boyd's for something for my skin.
Miss Kennedy, pouring now a fulldrawn tea, grimaced and prayed:
mk―O, don't remind me of him for mercy' sake!
ld―But wait till I tell you, miss Douce entreated.
Sweet tea miss Kennedy having poured with milk plugged both two
ears with little fingers.
mk―No, don't, she cried.
mk―I won't listen, she cried.
But Bloom?
Miss Douce grunted in snuffy fogey's tone:
ld―For your what? says he.
Miss Kennedy unplugged her ears to hear, to speak: but said, but
prayed again:
mk―Don't let me think of him or I'll expire. The hideous old wretch! That
night in the Antient Concert Rooms.
She sipped distastefully her brew, hot tea, a sip, sipped, sweet tea.
ld―Here he was, miss Douce said, cocking her bronze head three quarters,
ruffling her nosewings. ldHufa! Hufa!
Shrill shriek of laughter sprang from miss Kennedy's throat. Miss
Douce huffed and snorted down her nostrils that quivered imperthnthn like
a snout in quest.
mk―O! shrieking, miss Kennedy cried. mkWill you ever forget his goggle eye?
Miss Douce chimed in in deep bronze laughter, shouting:
ld―And your other eye!
Bloowhose dark eye read Aaron Figatner's name. lbWhy do I always think Figather? Gathering figs, I think. And Prosper Loré's huguenot name. By Bassi's blessed virgins Bloom's dark eyes went by. lbBluerobed, white under, come to me. God they believe she is: or goddess. Those today. I could not see. That fellow spoke. A student. After with Dedalus' son. He might be Mulligan. All comely virgins. That brings those rakes of fellows in: her white.
By went his eyes. The sweets of sin. Sweet are the sweets.
Of sin.
In a giggling peal young goldbronze voices blended, Douce with Kennedy your other eye. They threw young heads back, bronze gigglegold, to let freefly their laughter, screaming, your other, signals to each other, high piercing notes.
Ah, panting, sighing, sighing, ah, fordone, their mirth died down.
Miss Kennedy lipped her cup again, raised, drank a sip and
gigglegiggled. Miss Douce, bending over the teatray, ruffled again her nose
and rolled droll fattened eyes. Again Kennygiggles, stooping, her fair
pinnacles of hair, stooping, her tortoise napecomb showed, spluttered out of
her mouth her tea, choking in tea and laughter, coughing with choking,
crying:
mk―O greasy eyes! Imagine being married to a man like that! she cried. mkWith
his bit of beard!
Douce gave full vent to a splendid yell, a full yell of full woman,
delight, joy, indignation.
ld―Married to the greasy nose! she yelled.
Shrill, with deep laughter, after, gold after bronze, they urged each each to peal after peal, ringing in changes, bronzegold, goldbronze, shrilldeep, to laughter after laughter. And then laughed more. Greasy I knows. Exhausted, breathless, their shaken heads they laid, braided and pinnacled by glossycombed, against the counterledge. All flushed (O!), panting, sweating (O!), all breathless.
lbMarried to Bloom, to greaseabloom.
ld―O saints above! miss Douce said, sighed above her jumping rose. ldI wished
I hadn't laughed so much. I feel all wet.
mk―O, miss Douce! miss Kennedy protested. mkYou horrid thing!
And flushed yet more (you horrid!), more goldenly.
By Cantwell's offices roved Greaseabloom, by Ceppi's virgins, bright of their oils. lbNannetti's father hawked those things about, wheedling at doors as I. Religion pays. Must see him for that par. Eat first. I want. Not yet. At four, she said. Time ever passing. Clockhands turning. On. Where eat? The Clarence, Dolphin. On. For Raoul. Eat. If I net five guineas with those ads. The violet silk petticoats. Not yet. The sweets of sin.
Flushed less, still less, goldenly paled.
Into their bar strolled Mr Dedalus. Chips, picking chips off one of his
rocky thumbnails. Chips. He strolled.
sid―O, welcome back, miss Douce.
He held her hand. Enjoyed her holidays?
ld―Tiptop.
He hoped she had nice weather in Rostrevor.
ld―Gorgeous, she said. ldLook at the holy show I am. Lying out on the strand
all day.
Bronze whiteness.
sid―That was exceedingly naughty of you, Mr Dedalus told her and pressed
her hand indulgently. sidTempting poor simple males.
Miss Douce of satin douced her arm away.
ld―O go away! she said. ldYou're very simple, I don't think.
He was.
sid―Well now I am, he mused. sidI looked so simple in the cradle they christened
me simple Simon.
ld―You must have been a doaty, miss Douce made answer. ldAnd what did the
doctor order today?
sid―Well now, he mused, sidwhatever you say yourself. I think I'll trouble you
for some fresh water and a half glass of whisky.
Jingle.
ld―With the greatest alacrity, miss Douce agreed.
With grace of alacrity towards the mirror gilt Cantrell and
Cochrane's she turned herself. With grace she tapped a measure of gold
whisky from her crystal keg. Forth from the skirt of his coat Mr Dedalus
brought pouch and pipe. Alacrity she served. He blew through the flue two
husky fifenotes.
sid―By Jove, he mused, sidI often wanted to see the Mourne mountains. Must be
a great tonic in the air down there. But a long threatening comes at last,
they say. Yes. Yes.
Yes. He fingered shreds of hair, her maidenhair, her mermaid's, into the bowl. Chips. Shreds. Musing. Mute.
None nought said nothing. Yes.
Gaily miss Douce polished a tumbler, trilling:
sid―Was Mr Lidwell in today?
In came Lenehan. Round him peered Lenehan. Mr Bloom reached
Essex bridge. Yes, Mr Bloom crossed bridge of Yessex. lbTo Martha I must
write. Buy paper. Daly's. Girl there civil. Bloom. Old Bloom. Blue bloom is
on the rye.
ld―He was in at lunchtime, miss Douce said.
Lenehan came forward.
len―Was Mr Boylan looking for me?
He asked. She answered:
ld―Miss Kennedy, was Mr Boylan in while I was upstairs?
She asked. Miss voice of Kennedy answered, a second teacup poised,
her gaze upon a page:
mk―No. He was not.
Miss gaze of Kennedy, heard, not seen, read on. Lenehan round the
sandwichbell wound his round body round.
len―Peep! Who's in the corner?
No glance of Kennedy rewarding him he yet made overtures. To mind her stops. To read only the black ones: round o and crooked ess.
Jingle jaunty jingle.
Girlgold she read and did not glance. Take no notice. She took no
notice while he read by rote a solfa fable for her, plappering flatly:
len―Ah fox met ah stork. Said thee fox too thee stork: Will you put your bill
down inn my troath and pull upp ah bone?
He droned in vain. Miss Douce turned to her tea aside.
He sighed aside:
len―Ah me! O my!
He greeted Mr Dedalus and got a nod.
len―Greetings from the famous son of a famous father.
sid―Who may he be? Mr Dedalus asked.
Lenehan opened most genial arms. Who?
len―Who may he be? he asked. lenCan you ask? Stephen, the youthful bard.
Dry.
Mr Dedalus, famous father, laid by his dry filled pipe.
sid―I see, he said. sidI didn't recognise him for the moment. I hear he is keeping
very select company. Have you seen him lately?
He had.
len―I quaffed the nectarbowl with him this very day, said Lenehan. lenIn
Mooney's en ville and in Mooney's sur mer. He had received the rhino for
the labour of his muse.
He smiled at bronze's teabathed lips, at listening lips and eyes:
len―The élite of Erin hung upon his lips. The ponderous pundit, Hugh
MacHugh, Dublin's most brilliant scribe and editor and that minstrel boy
of the wild wet west who is known by the euphonious appellation of the
O'Madden Burke.
After an interval Mr Dedalus raised his grog and
sid―That must have been highly diverting, said he. sidI see.
He see. He drank. With faraway mourning mountain eye. Set down his glass.
He looked towards the saloon door.
sid―I see you have moved the piano.
ld―The tuner was in today, miss Douce replied, ldtuning it for the smoking
concert and I never heard such an exquisite player.
sid―Is that a fact?
ld―Didn't he, miss Kennedy? The real classical, you know. And blind too,
poor fellow. Not twenty I'm sure he was.
sid―Is that a fact? Mr Dedalus said.
He drank and strayed away.
ld―So sad to look at his face, miss Douce condoled.
God's curse on bitch's bastard.
Tink to her pity cried a diner's bell. To the door of the bar and diningroom came bald Pat, came bothered Pat, came Pat, waiter of Ormond. Lager for diner. Lager without alacrity she served.
With patience Lenehan waited for Boylan with impatience, for jinglejaunty blazes boy.
Upholding the lid he (who?) gazed in the coffin (coffin?) at the oblique triple (piano!) wires. He pressed (the same who pressed indulgently her hand), soft pedalling, a triple of keys to see the thicknesses of felt advancing, to hear the muffled hammerfall in action.
Two sheets cream vellum paper one reserve two envelopes when I was in Wisdom Hely's wise Bloom in Daly's Henry Flower bought. lbAre you not happy in your home? Flower to console me and a pin cuts lo. Means something, language of flow. Was it a daisy? Innocence that is. Respectable girl meet after mass. Thanks awfully muchly. Wise Bloom eyed on the door a poster, a swaying mermaid smoking mid nice waves. lbSmoke mermaids, coolest whiff of all. Hair streaming: lovelorn. For some man. For Raoul. He eyed and saw afar on Essex bridge a gay hat riding on a jaunting car. lbIt is. Again. Third time. Coincidence.
Jingling on supple rubbers it jaunted from the bridge to Ormond
quay. lbFollow. Risk it. Go quick. At four. Near now. Out.
hsg―Twopence, sir, the shopgirl dared to say.
lb―Aha ... I was forgetting ... Excuse ...
hsg―And four.
lbAt four she. Winsomely she on Bloohimwhom smiled. Bloo smi qui go. Ternoon. lbThink you're the only pebble on the beach? Does that to all. For men.
In drowsy silence gold bent on her page.
From the saloon a call came, long in dying. That was a tuningfork the tuner had that he forgot that he now struck. A call again. That he now poised that it now throbbed. You hear? It throbbed, pure, purer, softly and softlier, its buzzing prongs. Longer in dying call.
Pat paid for diner's popcorked bottle: and over tumbler, tray and popcorked bottle ere he went he whispered, bald and bothered, with miss Douce.
A voiceless song sang from within, singing:
A duodene of birdnotes chirruped bright treble answer under sensitive hands. Brightly the keys, all twinkling, linked, all harpsichording, called to a voice to sing the strain of dewy morn, of youth, of love's leavetaking, life's, love's morn.
Lenehan's lips over the counter lisped a low whistle of decoy.
len―But look this way, he said, lenrose of Castile.
Jingle jaunted by the curb and stopped.
She rose and closed her reading, rose of Castile: fretted, forlorn,
dreamily rose.
len―Did she fall or was she pushed? he asked her.
She answered, slighting:
len―Ask no questions and you'll hear no lies.
Like lady, ladylike.
Blazes Boylan's smart tan shoes creaked on the barfloor where he
strode. Yes, gold from anear by bronze from afar. Lenehan heard and knew
and hailed him:
len―See the conquering hero comes.
Between the car and window, warily walking, went Bloom, unconquered hero. lbSee me he might. The seat he sat on: warm. Black wary hecat walked towards Richie Goulding's legal bag, lifted aloft, saluting.
bb―I heard you were round, said Blazes Boylan.
He touched to fair miss Kennedy a rim of his slanted straw. She smiled on him. But sister bronze outsmiled her, preening for him her richer hair, a bosom and a rose.
Smart Boylan bespoke potions.
bb―What's your cry? Glass of bitter? Glass of bitter, please, and a sloegin for
me. Wire in yet?
lbNot yet. At four she. Who said four?
Cowley's red lugs and bulging apple in the door of the sheriff's office. lbAvoid. Goulding a chance. What is he doing in the Ormond? Car waiting. Wait.
Hello. Where off to? Something to eat? I too was just. In here. What, Ormond? Best value in Dublin. Is that so? lbDiningroom. Sit tight there. See, not be seen. I think I'll join you. Come on. Richie led on. Bloom followed bag. lbDinner fit for a prince.
Miss Douce reached high to take a flagon, stretching her satin arm,
her bust, that all but burst, so high.
len―O! O! jerked Lenehan, gasping at each stretch. lenO!
But easily she seized her prey and led it low in triumph.
bb―Why don't you grow? asked Blazes Boylan.
Shebronze, dealing from her oblique jar thick syrupy liquor for his
lips, looked as it flowed (flower in his coat: who gave him?), and syrupped
with her voice:
ld―Fine goods in small parcels.
That is to say she. Neatly she poured slowsyrupy sloe.
bb―Here's fortune, Blazes said.
He pitched a broad coin down. Coin rang.
len―Hold on, said Lenehan, lentill I ....
len―Fortune, he wished, lifting his bubbled ale.
len―Sceptre will win in a canter, he said.
bb―I plunged a bit, said Boylan winking and drinking. bbNot on my own, you
know. Fancy of a friend of mine.
Lenehan still drank and grinned at his tilted ale and at miss Douce's lips that all but hummed, not shut, the oceansong her lips had trilled. Idolores. The eastern seas.
Clock whirred. Miss Kennedy passed their way (flower, wonder who gave), bearing away teatray. Clock clacked.
Miss Douce took Boylan's coin, struck boldly the cashregister. It
clanged. Clock clacked. Fair one of Egypt teased and sorted in the till and
hummed and handed coins in change. Look to the west. A clack. For me.
bb―What time is that? asked Blazes Boylan. bbFour?
O'clock.
Lenehan, small eyes ahunger on her humming, bust ahumming,
tugged Blazes Boylan's elbowsleeve.
len―Let's hear the time, he said.
The bag of Goulding, Collis, Ward led Bloom by ryebloom flowered tables. Aimless he chose with agitated aim, bald Pat attending, a table near the door. lbBe near. At four. Has he forgotten? Perhaps a trick. Not come: whet appetite. I couldn't do. Wait, wait. Pat, waiter, waited.
Sparkling bronze azure eyed Blazure's skyblue bow and eyes.
len―Go on, pressed Lenehan. lenThere's no-one. He never heard.
High, a high note pealed in the treble clear.
Bronzedouce communing with her rose that sank and rose sought
Blazes Boylan's flower and eyes.
len―Please, please.
He pleaded over returning phrases of avowal.
ld―Afterwits, miss Douce promised coyly.
len―No, now, urged Lenehan. lenSonnez la cloche! O do! There's no-one.
She looked. Quick. Miss Kenn out of earshot. Sudden bent. Two kindling faces watched her bend.
Quavering the chords strayed from the air, found it again, lost chord,
and lost and found it, faltering.
len―Go on! Do! Sonnez!
Bending, she nipped a peak of skirt above her knee. Delayed. Taunted
them still, bending, suspending, with wilful eyes.
len―Sonnez!
Smack. She set free sudden in rebound her nipped elastic garter
smackwarm against her smackable a woman's warmhosed thigh.
len―La cloche! cried gleeful Lenehan. lenTrained by owner. No sawdust there.
She smilesmirked supercilious (wept! aren't men?), but, lightward
gliding, mild she smiled on Boylan.
ld―You're the essence of vulgarity, she in gliding said.
Boylan, eyed, eyed. Tossed to fat lips his chalice, drank off his chalice tiny, sucking the last fat violet syrupy drops. His spellbound eyes went after, after her gliding head as it went down the bar by mirrors, gilded arch for ginger ale, hock and claret glasses shimmering, a spiky shell, where it concerted, mirrored, bronze with sunnier bronze.
Yes, bronze from anearby.
bb―I'm off, said Boylan with impatience.
He slid his chalice brisk away, grasped his change.
len―Wait a shake, begged Lenehan, drinking quickly. lenI wanted to tell you.
Tom Rochford ...
bb―Come on to blazes, said Blazes Boylan, going.
Lenehan gulped to go.
len―Got the horn or what? he said. lenWait. I'm coming.
He followed the hasty creaking shoes but stood by nimbly by the
threshold, saluting forms, a bulky with a slender.
len―How do you do, Mr Dollard?
bed―Eh? How do? How do? Ben Dollard's vague bass answered, turning an
instant from Father Cowley's woe. bedHe won't give you any trouble, Bob. Alf
Bergan will speak to the long fellow. We'll put a barleystraw in that Judas
Iscariot's ear this time.
Sighing Mr Dedalus came through the saloon, a finger soothing an
eyelid.
bed―Hoho, we will, Ben Dollard yodled jollily. bedCome on, Simon. Give us a
ditty. We heard the piano.
Bald Pat, bothered waiter, waited for drink orders. Power for Richie.
And Bloom? Let me see. lbNot make him walk twice. His corns. Four now.
How warm this black is. Course nerves a bit. Refracts (is it?) heat. Let me
see. Cider. Yes, bottle of cider.
sid―What's that? Mr Dedalus said. sidI was only vamping, man.
bed―Come on, come on, Ben Dollard called. bedBegone dull care. Come, Bob.
He ambled Dollard, bulky slops, before them lb(hold that fellow with the: hold him now) into the saloon. He plumped him Dollard on the stool. His gouty paws plumped chords. Plumped, stopped abrupt.
Bald Pat in the doorway met tealess gold returning. Bothered, he wanted Power and cider. Bronze by the window, watched, bronze from afar.
Jingle a tinkle jaunted.
Bloom heard a jing, a little sound. lbHe's off. Light sob of breath Bloom
sighed on the silent bluehued flowers. Jingling. lbHe's gone. Jingle. Hear.
sid―Love and War, Ben, Mr Dedalus said. sidGod be with old times.
Miss Douce's brave eyes, unregarded, turned from the crossblind,
smitten by sunlight. Gone. Pensive (who knows?), smitten (the smiting
light), she lowered the dropblind with a sliding cord. She drew down
pensive (why did he go so quick when I?) about her bronze, over the bar
where bald stood by sister gold, inexquisite contrast, contrast inexquisite
nonexquisite, slow cool dim seagreen sliding depth of shadow,
fc―Poor old Goodwin was the pianist that night, Father Cowley reminded
them. fcThere was a slight difference of opinion between himself and the
Collard grand.
There was.
sid―A symposium all his own, Mr Dedalus said. sidThe devil wouldn't stop him.
He was a crotchety old fellow in the primary stage of drink.
bed―God, do you remember? Ben bulky Dollard said, turning from the
punished keyboard. bedAnd by Japers I had no wedding garment.
They laughed all three. He had no wed. All trio laughed. No wedding
garment.
sid―Our friend Bloom turned in handy that night, Mr Dedalus said. sidWhere's
my pipe, by the way?
He wandered back to the bar to the lost chord pipe. Bald Pat carried
two diners' drinks, Richie and Poldy. And Father Cowley laughed again.
fc―I saved the situation, Ben, I think.
bed―You did, averred Ben Dollard. bedI remember those tight trousers too. That
was a brilliant idea, Bob.
Father Cowley blushed to his brilliant purply lobes. He saved the
situa. Tight trou. Brilliant ide.
fc―I knew he was on the rocks, he said. fcThe wife was playing the piano in
the coffee palace on Saturdays for a very trifling consideration and who
was it gave me the wheeze she was doing the other business? Do you
remember? We had to search all Holles street to find them till the chap in
Keogh's gave us the number. Remember?
Ben remembered, his broad visage wondering.
bed―By God, she had some luxurious operacloaks and things there.
Mr Dedalus wandered back, pipe in hand.
bed―Merrion square style. Balldresses, by God, and court dresses. He
wouldn't take any money either. What? Any God's quantity of cocked hats
and boleros and trunkhose. What?
sid―Ay, ay, Mr Dedalus nodded. sidMrs Marion Bloom has left off clothes of all
descriptions.
Jingle jaunted down the quays. Blazes sprawled on bounding tyres.
Liver and bacon. Steak and kidney pie. Right, sir. Right, Pat.
lbMrs Marion. Met him pike hoses. Smell of burn. Of Paul de Kock.
Nice name he.
bed―What's this her name was? A buxom lassy. Marion ...?
sid―Tweedy.
bed―Yes. Is she alive?
sid―And kicking.
bed―She was a daughter of ...
sid―Daughter of the regiment.
bed―Yes, begad. I remember the old drummajor.
Mr Dedalus struck, whizzed, lit, puffed savoury puff after
bed―Irish? I don't know, faith. Is she, Simon?
Puff after stiff, a puff, strong, savoury, crackling.
sid―Buccinator muscle is ... What? ... Bit rusty ... O, she is ... My Irish Molly,
O.
He puffed a pungent plumy blast.
sid―From the rock of Gibraltar ... all the way.
They pined in depth of ocean shadow, gold by the beerpull, bronze by maraschino, thoughtful all two. Mina Kennedy, 4 Lismore terrace, Drumcondra with Idolores, a queen, Dolores, silent.
Pat served, uncovered dishes. Leopold cut liverslices. As said before he ate with relish the inner organs, nutty gizzards, fried cods' roes while Richie Goulding, Collis, Ward ate steak and kidney, steak then kidney, bite by bite of pie he ate Bloom ate they ate.
Bloom with Goulding, married in silence, ate. Dinners fit for princes.
By Bachelor's walk jogjaunty jingled Blazes Boylan, bachelor, in sun in heat, mare's glossy rump atrot, with flick of whip, on bounding tyres: sprawled, warmseated, Boylan impatience, ardentbold. Horn. Have you the? Horn. Have you the? Haw haw horn.
Over their voices Dollard bassooned attack, booming over bombarding chords:
Roll of Bensoulbenjamin rolled to the quivery loveshivery roofpanes.
fc―War! War! cried Father Cowley. fcYou're the warrior.
bed―So I am, Ben Warrior laughed. bedI was thinking of your landlord. Love or
money.
He stopped. He wagged huge beard, huge face over his blunder huge.
sid―Sure, you'd burst the tympanum of her ear, man, Mr Dedalus said
through smoke aroma, sidwith an organ like yours.
In bearded abundant laughter Dollard shook upon the keyboard. He
would.
fc―Not to mention another membrane, Father Cowley added. fcHalf time,
Ben. Amoroso ma non troppo. Let me there.
Miss Kennedy served two gentlemen with tankards of cool stout. She
passed a remark. It was indeed, first gentleman said, beautiful weather.
They drank cool stout. Did she know where the lord lieutenant was going?
And heard steelhoofs ringhoof ring. No, she couldn't say. But it would be
in the paper. O, she need not trouble. No trouble. She waved about her
outspread
In liver gravy Bloom mashed mashed potatoes. lbLove and War someone is. Ben Dollard's famous. Night he ran round to us to borrow a dress suit for that concert. Trousers tight as a drum on him. Musical porkers. Molly did laugh when he went out. Threw herself back across the bed, screaming, kicking. With all his belongings on show. O saints above, I'm drenched! O, the women in the front row! O, I never laughed so many! Well, of course that's what gives him the base barreltone. For instance eunuchs. Wonder who's playing. Nice touch. Must be Cowley. Musical. Knows whatever note you play. Bad breath he has, poor chap. Stopped.
Miss Douce, engaging, Lydia Douce, bowed to suave solicitor, George
Lidwell, gentleman, entering. Good afternoon. She gave her moist (a lady's)
hand to his firm clasp. Afternoon. Yes, she was back. To the old dingdong
again.
ld―Your friends are inside, Mr Lidwell.
George Lidwell, suave, solicited, held a lydiahand.
Jingle.
Bloom ate liv as said before. lbClean here at least. That chap in the Burton, gummy with gristle. No-one here: Goulding and I. Clean tables, flowers, mitres of napkins. Pat to and fro. Bald Pat. Nothing to do. Best value in Dub.
Piano again. lbCowley it is. Way he sits in to it, like one together, mutual understanding. Tiresome shapers scraping fiddles, eye on the bowend, sawing the cello, remind you of toothache. Her high long snore. Night we were in the box. Trombone under blowing like a grampus, between the acts, other brass chap unscrewing, emptying spittle. Conductor's legs too, bagstrousers, jiggedy jiggedy. Do right to hide them.
Jiggedy jingle jaunty jaunty.
lbOnly the harp. Lovely. Gold glowering light. Girl touched it. Poop of
a lovely. Gravy's rather good fit for a. Golden ship. Erin. The harp that
once or twice. Cool hands. Ben Howth, the rhododendrons. We are their
harps. I. He. Old. Young.
sid―Ah, I couldn't, man, Mr Dedalus said, shy, listless.
Strongly.
bed―Go on, blast you! Ben Dollard growled. bedGet it out in bits.
fc―M'appari, Simon, Father Cowley said.
Down stage he strode some paces, grave, tall in affliction, his long
arms outheld. Hoarsely the apple of his throat hoarsed softly. Softly he
sang to a dusty seascape there:
Cowley sang:
fc―M'appari tutt'amor:
Il mio sguardo l'incontr ...
She waved, unhearing Cowley, her veil, to one departing, dear one, to
wind, love, speeding sail, return.
bed―Go on, Simon.
sid―Ah, sure, my dancing days are done, Ben ... Well ...
Mr Dedalus laid his pipe to rest beside the tuningfork and, sitting,
touched the obedient keys.
fc―No, Simon, Father Cowley turned. fcPlay it in the original. One flat.
The keys, obedient, rose higher, told, faltered, confessed, confused.
Up stage strode Father Cowley.
fc―Here, Simon, I'll accompany you, he said. fcGet up.
By Graham Lemon's pineapple rock, by Elvery's elephant jingly jogged.
Steak, kidney, liver, mashed, at meat fit for princes sat princes Bloom and Goulding. Princes at meat they raised and drank, Power and cider.
Most beautiful tenor air ever written, Richie said:
Tenderly Bloom over liverless bacon saw the tightened features strain. lbBackache he. Bright's bright eye. Next item on the programme. Paying the piper. Pills, pounded bread, worth a guinea a box. Stave it off awhile. Sings too: Down among the dead men. Appropriate. Kidney pie. Sweets to the. Not making much hand of it. Best value in. Characteristic of him. Power. Particular about his drink. Flaw in the glass, fresh Vartry water. Fecking matches from counters to save. Then squander a sovereign in dribs and drabs. And when he's wanted not a farthing. Screwed refusing to pay his fare. Curious types.
Never would Richie forget that night. As long as he lived: never. In the gods of the old Royal with little Peake. And when the first note.
Speech paused on Richie's lips.
lbComing out with a whopper now. Rhapsodies about damn all.
Believes his own lies. Does really. Wonderful liar. But want a good memory.
lb―Which air is that? asked Leopold Bloom.
rg―All is lost now.
Richie cocked his lips apout. A low incipient note sweet banshee murmured: all. A thrush. A throstle. His breath, birdsweet, good teeth he's proud of, fluted with plaintive woe. lbIs lost. Rich sound. Two notes in one there. Blackbird I heard in the hawthorn valley. Taking my motives he twined and turned them. All most too new call is lost in all. Echo. How sweet the answer. How is that done? All lost now. Mournful he whistled. lbFall, surrender, lost.
Bloom bent leopold ear, turning a fringe of doyley down under the
vase. lbOrder. Yes, I remember. Lovely air. In sleep she went to him.
Innocence in the moon. Brave. Don't know their danger. Still hold her
back. Call name. Touch water. Jingle jaunty. lbToo late. She longed to go.
That's why. Woman. As easy stop the sea. Yes: all is lost.
lb―A beautiful air, said Bloom lost Leopold. lbI know it well.
lbNever in all his life had Richie Goulding.
lbHe knows it well too. Or he feels. Still harping on his daughter. Wise child that knows her father, Dedalus said. Me?
Bloom askance over liverless saw. Face of the all is lost. Rollicking Richie once. Jokes old stale now. Wagging his ear. Napkinring in his eye. Now begging letters he sends his son with. Crosseyed Walter sir I did sir. Wouldn't trouble only I was expecting some money. Apologise.
lbPiano again. Sounds better than last time I heard. Tuned probably. Stopped again.
Dollard and Cowley still urged the lingering singer out with it.
bed fc―With it, Simon.
bed fc―It, Simon.
sid―Ladies and gentlemen, I am most deeply obliged by your kind
solicitations.
bed fc―It, Simon.
sid―I have no money but if you will lend me your attention I shall endeavour
to sing to you of a heart bowed down.
By the sandwichbell in screening shadow Lydia, her bronze and rose,
a lady's grace, gave and withheld: as in cool glaucous
The harping chords of prelude closed. A chord, longdrawn, expectant, drew a voice away.
Richie turned.
rg―Si Dedalus' voice, he said.
Braintipped, cheek touched with flame, they listened feeling that flow endearing flow over skin limbs human heart soul spine. Bloom signed to Pat, bald Pat is a waiter hard of hearing, to set ajar the door of the bar. The door of the bar. So. That will do. Pat, waiter, waited, waiting to hear, for he was hard of hear by the door.
Through the hush of air a voice sang to them, low, not rain, not leaves in murmur, like no voice of strings or reeds or whatdoyoucallthem dulcimers touching their still ears with words, still hearts of their each his remembered lives. Good, good to hear: sorrow from them each seemed to from both depart when first they heard. When first they saw, lost Richie Poldy, mercy of beauty, heard from a person wouldn't expect it in the least, her first merciful lovesoft oftloved word.
Love that is singing: love's old sweet song. Bloom unwound slowly
the elastic band of his packet. Love's old sweet
lbTenors get women by the score. Increase their flow. Throw flower at his feet. When will we meet? My head it simply. Jingle all delighted. He can't sing for tall hats. Your head it simply swurls. Perfumed for him. What perfume does your wife? I want to know. Jing. Stop. Knock. Last look at mirror always before she answers the door. The hall. There? How do you? I do well. There? What? Or? Phial of cachous, kissing comfits, in her satchel. Yes? Hands felt for the opulent.
Alas the voice rose, sighing, changed: loud, full, shining, proud.
lbGlorious tone he has still. Cork air softer also their brogue. Silly man! Could have made oceans of money. Singing wrong words. Wore out his wife: now sings. But hard to tell. Only the two themselves. If he doesn't break down. Keep a trot for the avenue. His hands and feet sing too. Drink. Nerves overstrung. Must be abstemious to sing. Jenny Lind soup: stock, sage, raw eggs, half pint of cream. For creamy dreamy.
Tenderness it welled: slow, swelling, full it throbbed. lbThat's the chat. Ha, give! Take! Throb, a throb, a pulsing proud erect.
lbWords? Music? No: it's what's behind.
Bloom looped, unlooped, noded, disnoded.
Bloom. Flood of warm jamjam lickitup secretness flowed to flow in music out, in desire, dark to lick flow invading. Tipping her tepping her tapping her topping her. Tup. Pores to dilate dilating. Tup. The joy the feel the warm the. Tup. To pour o'er sluices pouring gushes. Flood, gush, flow, joygush, tupthrob. Now! Language of love.
Beaming. Lydia for Lidwell squeak scarcely hear so ladylike the muse unsqueaked a ray of hopk.
lbMartha it is. Coincidence. Just going to write. Lionel's song. Lovely name you have. Can't write. Accept my little pres. Play on her heartstrings pursestrings too. She's a. I called you naughty boy. Still the name: Martha. How strange! Today.
The voice of Lionel returned, weaker but unwearied. It sang again to Richie Poldy Lydia Lidwell also sang to Pat open mouth ear waiting to wait. How first he saw that form endearing, how sorrow seemed to part, how look, form, word charmed him Gould Lidwell, won Pat Bloom's heart.
lbWish I could see his face, though. Explain better. Why the barber in Drago's always looked my face when I spoke his face in the glass. Still hear it better here than in the bar though farther.
lbFirst night when first I saw her at Mat Dillon's in Terenure. Yellow, black lace she wore. Musical chairs. We two the last. Fate. After her. Fate. Round and round slow. Quick round. We two. All looked. Halt. Down she sat. All ousted looked. Lips laughing. Yellow knees.
lbSinging. Waiting she sang. I turned her music. Full voice of perfume of what perfume does your lilactrees. Bosom I saw, both full, throat warbling. First I saw. She thanked me. Why did she me? Fate. Spanishy eyes. Under a peartree alone patio this hour in old Madrid one side in shadow Dolores shedolores. At me. Luring. Ah, alluring.
Quitting all languor Lionel cried in grief, in cry of passion dominant to love to return with deepening yet with rising chords of harmony. In cry of lionel loneliness that she should know, must martha feel. For only her he waited. Where? Here there try there here all try where. Somewhere.
Alone. One love. One hope. One comfort me. Martha, chestnote, return!
It soared, a bird, it held its flight, a swift pure cry, soar silver orb it leaped serene, speeding, sustained, to come, don't spin it out too long long breath he breath long life, soaring high, high resplendent, aflame, crowned, high in the effulgence symbolistic, high, of the etherial bosom, high, of the high vast irradiation everywhere all soaring all around about the all, the endlessnessnessness .......
lbSiopold!
lbConsumed.
lbCome. Well sung. All clapped. She ought to. Come. To me, to him, to
her, you too, me, us.
bed fc―Bravo! Clapclap. bed fcGood man, Simon. Clappyclapclap. bed fcEncore!
Clapclipclap clap. bed fcSound as a bell. Bravo, Simon! Clapclopclap. bed fcEncore,
enclap, said, cried, clapped all, Ben Dollard, Lydia Douce, George Lidwell,
Pat, Mina Kennedy, two gentlemen with two tankards, Cowley, first gent
with tank and bronze miss Douce and gold miss Mina.
Blazes Boylan's smart tan shoes creaked on the barfloor, said before.
Jingle by monuments of sir John Gray, Horatio onehandled Nelson,
reverend father Theobald Mathew, jaunted, as said before just now. Atrot,
in heat, heatseated.
An afterclang of Cowley's chords closed, died on the air made richer.
And Richie Goulding drank his Power and Leopold Bloom his cider
drank, Lidwell his Guinness, second gentleman said they would partake of
two more tankards if she did not mind. Miss Kennedy smirked, disserving,
coral lips, at first, at second. She did not mind.
bed―Seven days in jail, Ben Dollard said, bedon bread and water. Then you'd
sing, Simon, like a garden thrush.
Lionel Simon, singer, laughed. Father Bob Cowley played. Mina Kennedy served. Second gentleman paid. Tom Kernan strutted in. Lydia, admired, admired. But Bloom sang dumb.
Admiring.
Richie, admiring, descanted on that man's glorious voice. He
remembered one night long ago. Never forget that night. Si sang
Goulding, a flush struggling in his pale, told Mr Bloom, face of the
night, Si in Ned Lambert's, Dedalus house, sang
He, Mr Bloom, listened while he, Richie Goulding, told him, Mr
Bloom, of the night he, Richie, heard him, Si Dedalus, sing
lbBrothers-in-law: relations. We never speak as we pass by. Rift in the lute I think. Treats him with scorn. See. He admires him all the more. The night Si sang. The human voice, two tiny silky chords, wonderful, more than all others.
lbThat voice was a lamentation. Calmer now. It's in the silence after you feel you hear. Vibrations. Now silent air.
Bloom ungyved his crisscrossed hands and with slack fingers plucked the slender catgut thong. He drew and plucked. It buzz, it twanged. While Goulding talked of Barraclough's voice production, while Tom Kernan, harking back in a retrospective sort of arrangement talked to listening Father Cowley, who played a voluntary, who nodded as he played. While big Ben Dollard talked with Simon Dedalus, lighting, who nodded as he smoked, who smoked.
lbThou lost one. All songs on that theme. Yet more Bloom stretched his string. lbCruel it seems. Let people get fond of each other: lure them on. Then tear asunder. Death. Explos. Knock on the head. Outtohelloutofthat. Human life. Dignam. Ugh, that rat's tail wriggling! Five bob I gave. Corpus paradisum. Corncrake croaker: belly like a poisoned pup. Gone. They sing. Forgotten. I too. And one day she with. Leave her: get tired. Suffer then. Snivel. Big spanishy eyes goggling at nothing. Her wavyavyeavyheavyeavyevyevyhair un comb:'d.
lbYet too much happy bores. He stretched more, more. lbAre you not happy in your? Twang. It snapped.
Jingle into Dorset street.
Miss Douce withdrew her satiny arm, reproachful, pleased.
ld―Don't make half so free, said she, ldtill we are better acquainted.
George Lidwell told her really and truly: but she did not believe.
First gentleman told Mina that was so. She asked him was that so. And second tankard told her so. That that was so.
Miss Douce, miss Lydia, did not believe: miss Kennedy, Mina, did not believe: George Lidwell, no: miss Dou did not: the first, the first: gent with the tank: believe, no, no: did not, miss Kenn: Lidlydiawell: the tank.
lbBetter write it here. Quills in the postoffice chewed and twisted.
Bald Pat at a sign drew nigh. A pen and ink. He went. A pad. He
went. A pad to blot. He heard, deaf Pat.
lb―Yes, Mr Bloom said, teasing the curling catgut line. lbIt certainly is. lbFew
lines will do. My present. All that Italian florid music is. Who is this wrote?
Know the name you know better. Take out sheet notepaper, envelope:
unconcerned. It's so characteristic.
rg―Grandest number in the whole opera, Goulding said.
lb―It is, Bloom said.
lbNumbers it is. All music when you come to think. Two multiplied by two divided by half is twice one. Vibrations: chords those are. One plus two plus six is seven. Do anything you like with figures juggling. Always find out this equal to that. Symmetry under a cemetery wall. He doesn't see my mourning. Callous: all for his own gut. Musemathematics. And you think you're listening to the etherial. But suppose you said it like: Martha, seven times nine minus x is thirtyfive thousand. Fall quite flat. It's on account of the sounds it is.
lbInstance he's playing now. Improvising. Might be what you like, till you hear the words. Want to listen sharp. Hard. Begin all right: then hear chords a bit off: feel lost a bit. In and out of sacks, over barrels, through wirefences, obstacle race. Time makes the tune. Question of mood you're in. Still always nice to hear. Except scales up and down, girls learning. Two together nextdoor neighbours. Ought to invent dummy pianos for that. Milly no taste. Queer because we both, I mean. Blumenlied I bought for her. The name. Playing it slow, a girl, night I came home, the girl. Door of the stables near Cecilia street.
Bald deaf Pat brought quite flat pad ink. Pat set with ink pen quite flat pad. Pat took plate dish knife fork. Pat went.
It was the only language Mr Dedalus said to Ben. He heard them as a boy in Ringabella, Crosshaven, Ringabella, singing their barcaroles. Queenstown harbour full of Italian ships. Walking, you know, Ben, in the moonlight with those earthquake hats. Blending their voices. God, such music, Ben. Heard as a boy. Cross Ringabella haven mooncarole.
Sour pipe removed he held a shield of hand beside his lips that cooed a moonlight nightcall, clear from anear, a call from afar, replying.
Down the edge of his
lbHope he's not looking, cute as a rat. He held unfurled his
lbBore this. Bored Bloom tambourined gently with I am just reflecting fingers on flat pad Pat brought.
lbOn. Know what I mean. No, change that ee. Accep my poor litt pres enclos. Ask her no answ. Hold on. Five Dig. Two about here. Penny the gulls. Elijah is com. Seven Davy Byrne's. Is eight about. Say half a crown. My poor little pres: p. o. two and six. Write me a long. Do you despise? Jingle, have you the? So excited. Why do you call me naught? You naughty too? O, Mairy lost the string of her. Bye for today. Yes, yes, will tell you. Want to. To keep it up. Call me that other. Other world she wrote. My patience are exhaust. To keep it up. You must believe. Believe. The tank. It. Is. True.
lbFolly am I writing? Husbands don't. That's marriage does, their wives. Because I'm away from. Suppose. But how? She must. Keep young. If she found out. Card in my high grade ha. No, not tell all. Useless pain. If they don't see. Woman. Sauce for the gander.
A hackney car, number three hundred and twentyfour, driver Barton
James of number one Harmony avenue, Donnybrook, on which sat a fare,
a young gentleman, stylishly dressed in an indigoblue serge suit made by
George Robert Mesias, tailor and cutter, of number five Eden quay, and
wearing a straw hat very dressy, bought of John Plasto of number one
Great Brunswick street, hatter. Eh? This is the jingle that joggled and
jingled. By Dlugacz' porkshop bright tubes of Agendath trotted a
gallantbuttocked mare.
rg―Answering an ad? keen Richie's eyes asked Bloom.
lb―Yes, Mr Bloom said. lbTown traveller. Nothing doing, I expect.
Bloom mur: lbbest references. But Henry wrote: it will excite me. You know how. In haste. Henry. Greek ee. Better add postscript. What is he playing now? Improvising. Intermezzo. P. S. The rum tum tum. How will you pun? You punish me? Crooked skirt swinging, whack by. Tell me I want to. Know. O. Course if I didn't I wouldn't ask. La la la ree. Trails off there sad in minor. Why minor sad? Sign H. They like sad tail at end. P. P. S. La la la ree. I feel so sad today. La ree. So lonely. Dee.
He blotted quick on pad of Pat. Envel. Address. Just copy out of paper. Murmured: Messrs Callan, Coleman and Co, limited. Henry wrote:
Miss Martha Clifford
c/o P. O.
Dolphin's Barn Lane
Dublin
lbBlot over the other so he can't read. There. Right. Idea prize titbit. Something detective read off blottingpad. Payment at the rate of guinea per col. Matcham often thinks the laughing witch. Poor Mrs Purefoy. U. P: up.
lbToo poetical that about the sad. Music did that. Music hath charms. Shakespeare said. Quotations every day in the year. To be or not to be. Wisdom while you wait.
lbIn Gerard's rosery of Fetter lane he walks, greyedauburn. One life is all. One body. Do. But do.
lbDone anyhow. Postal order, stamp. Postoffice lower down. Walk now. Enough. Barney Kiernan's I promised to meet them. Dislike that job. House of mourning. Walk. Pat! Doesn't hear. Deaf beetle he is.
lbCar near there now. Talk. Talk. Pat! Doesn't. Settling those napkins. Lot of ground he must cover in the day. Paint face behind on him then he'd be two. Wish they'd sing more. Keep my mind off.
Bald Pat who is bothered mitred the napkins. Pat is a waiter hard of his hearing. Pat is a waiter who waits while you wait. Hee hee hee hee. He waits while you wait. Hee hee. A waiter is he. Hee hee hee hee. He waits while you wait. While you wait if you wait he will wait while you wait. Hee hee hee hee. Hoh. Wait while you wait.
Douce now. Douce Lydia. Bronze and rose.
She had a gorgeous, simply gorgeous, time. And look at the lovely shell she brought.
To the end of the bar to him she bore lightly the spiked and winding
seahorn that he, George Lidwell, solicitor, might hear.
ld―Listen! she bade him.
Under Tom Kernan's ginhot words the accompanist wove music slow. lbAuthentic fact. How Walter Bapty lost his voice. Well, sir, the husband took him by the throat. Scoundrel, said he, you'll sing no more lovesongs. He did, faith, sir Tom. Bob Cowley wove. Tenors get wom. Cowley lay back.
Ah, now he heard, she holding it to his ear. Hear! He heard. Wonderful. She held it to her own. And through the sifted light pale gold in contrast glided. To hear.
Tap.
Bloom through the bardoor saw a shell held at their ears. He heard more faintly that that they heard, each for herself alone, then each for other, hearing the plash of waves, loudly, a silent roar.
Bronze by a weary gold, anear, afar, they listened.
lbHer ear too is a shell, the peeping lobe there. Been to the seaside. Lovely seaside girls. Skin tanned raw. Should have put on coldcream first make it brown. Buttered toast. O and that lotion mustn't forget. Fever near her mouth. Your head it simply. Hair braided over: shell with seaweed. Why do they hide their ears with seaweed hair? And Turks the mouth, why? Her eyes over the sheet. Yashmak. Find the way in. A cave. No admittance except on business.
lbThe sea they think they hear. Singing. A roar. The blood it is. Souse in the ear sometimes. Well, it's a sea. Corpuscle islands.
lbWonderful really. So distinct. Again. George Lidwell held its murmur,
hearing: then laid it by, gently.
gl―What are the wild waves saying? he asked her, smiled.
Charming, seasmiling and unanswering Lydia on Lidwell smiled.
Tap.
By Larry O'Rourke's, by Larry, bold Larry O', Boylan swayed and Boylan turned.
From the forsaken shell miss Mina glided to her tankards waiting. No, she was not so lonely archly miss Douce's head let Mr Lidwell know. Walks in the moonlight by the sea. No, not alone. With whom? She nobly answered: with a gentleman friend.
Bob Cowley's twinkling fingers in the treble played again. lbThe landlord has the prior. A little time. Long John. Big Ben. Lightly he played a light bright tinkling measure for tripping ladies, arch and smiling, and for their gallants, gentlemen friends. One: one, one, one, one, one: two, one, three, four.
lbSea, wind, leaves, thunder, waters, cows lowing, the cattlemarket, cocks, hens don't crow, snakes hissss. There's music everywhere. Ruttledge's door: ee creaking. No, that's noise. Minuet of Don Giovanni he's playing now. Court dresses of all descriptions in castle chambers dancing. Misery. Peasants outside. Green starving faces eating dockleaves. Nice that is. Look: look, look, look, look, look: you look at us.
lbThat's joyful I can feel. Never have written it. Why? My joy is other joy. But both are joys. Yes, joy it must be. Mere fact of music shows you are. Often thought she was in the dumps till she began to lilt. Then know.
lbM'Coy valise. My wife and your wife. Squealing cat. Like tearing silk. Tongue when she talks like the clapper of a bellows. They can't manage men's intervals. Gap in their voices too. Fill me. I'm warm, dark, open. Molly in quis est homo: Mercadante. My ear against the wall to hear. Want a woman who can deliver the goods.
Jog jig jogged stopped. Dandy tan shoe of dandy Boylan socks skyblue clocks came light to earth.
lbO, look we are so! Chamber music. Could make a kind of pun on that. It is a kind of music I often thought when she. Acoustics that is. Tinkling. Empty vessels make most noise. Because the acoustics, the resonance changes according as the weight of the water is equal to the law of falling water. Like those rhapsodies of Liszt's, Hungarian, gipsyeyed. Pearls. Drops. Rain. Diddleiddle addleaddle ooddleooddle. Hissss. Now. Maybe now. Before.
One rapped on a door, one tapped with a knock, did he knock Paul de Kock with a loud proud knocker with a cock carracarracarra cock. Cockcock.
Tap.
fc―Qui sdegno, Ben, said Father Cowley.
tk―No, Ben, Tom Kernan interfered. tkThe Croppy Boy. Our native Doric.
sid―Ay do, Ben, Mr Dedalus said. sidGood men and true.
fc tk sid―Do, do, they begged in one.
lbI'll go. Here, Pat, return. Come. He came, he came, he did not stay.
To me. How much?
fc―What key? Six sharps?
bed―F sharp major, Ben Dollard said.
Bob Cowley's outstretched talons griped the black deepsounding chords.
Must go prince Bloom told Richie prince. No, Richie said. Yes, must. lbGot money somewhere. He's on for a razzle backache spree. Much? He seehears lipspeech. One and nine. Penny for yourself. Here. Give him twopence tip. Deaf, bothered. But perhaps he has wife and family waiting, waiting Patty come home. Hee hee hee hee. Deaf wait while they wait.
But wait. But hear. Chords dark. Lugugugubrious. Low. In a cave of the dark middle earth. Embedded ore. Lumpmusic.
The voice of dark age, of unlove, earth's fatigue made grave approach and painful, come from afar, from hoary mountains, called on good men and true. The priest he sought. With him would he speak a word.
Tap.
Ben Dollard's voice. lbBase barreltone. Doing his level best to say it. Croak of vast manless moonless womoonless marsh. Other comedown. Big ships' chandler's business he did once. Remember: rosiny ropes, ships' lanterns. Failed to the tune of ten thousand pounds. Now in the Iveagh home. Cubicle number so and so. Number one Bass did that for him.
The priest's at home. A false priest's servant bade him welcome. Step in. The holy father. With bows a traitor servant. Curlycues of chords.
lbRuin them. Wreck their lives. Then build them cubicles to end their days in. Hushaby. Lullaby. Die, dog. Little dog, die.
The voice of warning, solemn warning, told them the youth had entered a lonely hall, told them how solemn fell his footsteps there, told them the gloomy chamber, the vested priest sitting to shrive.
lbDecent soul. Bit addled now. Thinks he'll win in Answers, poets' picture puzzle. We hand you crisp five pound note. Bird sitting hatching in a nest. Lay of the last minstrel he thought it was. See blank tee what domestic animal? Tee dash ar most courageous mariner. Good voice he has still. No eunuch yet with all his belongings.
Listen. Bloom listened. Richie Goulding listened. And by the door deaf Pat, bald Pat, tipped Pat, listened.
The chords harped slower.
The voice of penance and of grief came slow, embellished, tremulous.
Ben's contrite beard confessed.
lbLatin again. That holds them like birdlime. Priest with the communion corpus for those women. Chap in the mortuary, coffin or coffey, corpusnomine. Wonder where that rat is by now. Scrape.
Tap.
They listened. Tankards and miss Kennedy. George Lidwell, eyelid well expressive, fullbusted satin. Kernan. Si.
The sighing voice of sorrow sang. His sins. Since Easter he had cursed three times. You bitch's bast. And once at masstime he had gone to play. Once by the churchyard he had passed and for his mother's rest he had not prayed. A boy. A croppy boy.
Bronze, listening, by the beerpull gazed far away. lbSoulfully. Doesn't half know I'm. Molly great dab at seeing anyone looking.
Bronze gazed far sideways. lbMirror there. Is that best side of her face? They always know. Knock at the door. Last tip to titivate.
Cockcarracarra.
lbWhat do they think when they hear music? Way to catch rattlesnakes. Night Michael Gunn gave us the box. Tuning up. Shah of Persia liked that best. Remind him of home sweet home. Wiped his nose in curtain too. Custom his country perhaps. That's music too. Not as bad as it sounds. Tootling. Brasses braying asses through uptrunks. Doublebasses helpless, gashes in their sides. Woodwinds mooing cows. Semigrand open crocodile music hath jaws. Woodwind like Goodwin's name.
lbShe looked fine. Her crocus dress she wore lowcut, belongings on show. Clove her breath was always in theatre when she bent to ask a question. Told her what Spinoza says in that book of poor papa's. Hypnotised, listening. Eyes like that. She bent. Chap in dresscircle staring down into her with his operaglass for all he was worth. Beauty of music you must hear twice. Nature woman half a look. God made the country man the tune. Met him pike hoses. Philosophy. O rocks!
All gone. All fallen. At the siege of Ross his father, at Gorey all his brothers fell. To Wexford, we are the boys of Wexford, he would. Last of his name and race.
lbI too. Last of my race. Milly young student. Well, my fault perhaps. No son. Rudy. Too late now. Or if not? If not? If still?
He bore no hate.
lbHate. Love. Those are names. Rudy. Soon I am old.
Big Ben his voice unfolded. Great voice Richie Goulding said, a flush struggling in his pale, to Bloom soon old. lbBut when was young?
lbIreland comes now. My country above the king. She listens. Who
fears to speak of nineteen four? Time to be shoving. Looked enough.
bed―Bless me, father, Dollard the croppy cried. bedBless me and let me go.
Tap.
Bloom looked, unblessed to go. lbGot up to kill: on eighteen bob a week. Fellows shell out the dibs. Want to keep your weathereye open. Those girls, those lovely. By the sad sea waves. Chorusgirl's romance. Letters read out for breach of promise. From Chickabiddy's owny Mumpsypum. Laughter in court. Henry. I never signed it. The lovely name you.
Low sank the music, air and words. Then hastened. The false priest rustling soldier from his cassock. A yeoman captain. lbThey know it all by heart. The thrill they itch for. Yeoman cap.
Tap. Tap.
Thrilled she listened, bending in sympathy to hear.
lbBlank face. Virgin should say: or fingered only. Write something on it: page. If not what becomes of them? Decline, despair. Keeps them young. Even admire themselves. See. Play on her. Lip blow. Body of white woman, a flute alive. Blow gentle. Loud. Three holes, all women. Goddess I didn't see. They want it. Not too much polite. That's why he gets them. Gold in your pocket, brass in your face. Say something. Make her hear. With look to look. Songs without words. Molly, that hurdygurdy boy. She knew he meant the monkey was sick. Or because so like the Spanish. Understand animals too that way. Solomon did. Gift of nature.
lbVentriloquise. My lips closed. Think in my stom. What?
lbWill? You? I. Want. You. To.
With hoarse rude fury the yeoman cursed, swelling in apoplectic bitch's bastard. A good thought, boy, to come. One hour's your time to live, your last.
Tap. Tap.
lbThrill now. Pity they feel. To wipe away a tear for martyrs that want to, dying to, die. For all things dying, for all things born. Poor Mrs Purefoy. Hope she's over. Because their wombs.
A liquid of womb of woman eyeball gazed under a fence of lashes, calmly, hearing. lbSee real beauty of the eye when she not speaks. On yonder river. At each slow satiny heaving bosom's wave (her heaving embon) red rose rose slowly sank red rose. lbHeartbeats: her breath: breath that is life. And all the tiny tiny fernfoils trembled of maidenhair.
But look. The bright stars fade. O rose! Castile. The morn.
lbHa. Lidwell. For him then not for. Infatuated. I like that? See her from here though. Popped corks, splashes of beerfroth, stacks of empties.
On the smooth jutting beerpull laid Lydia hand, lightly, plumply, leave it to my hands. All lost in pity for croppy. Fro, to: to, fro: over the polished knob (she knows his eyes, my eyes, her eyes) her thumb and finger passed in pity: passed, reposed and, gently touching, then slid so smoothly, slowly down, a cool firm white enamel baton protruding through their sliding ring.
With a cock with a carra.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
I hold this house. Amen. He gnashed in fury. Traitors swing.
The chords consented. lbVery sad thing. But had to be.
lbGet out before the end. Thanks, that was heavenly. Where's my hat. Pass by her. Can leave that Freeman. Letter I have. Suppose she were the? No. Walk, walk, walk. Like Cashel Boylo Connoro Coylo Tisdall Maurice Tisntdall Farrell. Waaaaaaalk.
lbWell, I must be. Are you off? Yrfmstbyes. Blmstup. O'er ryehigh blue. Ow. Bloom stood up. lbSoap feeling rather sticky behind. Must have sweated: music. That lotion, remember. Well, so long. High grade. Card inside. Yes.
By deaf Pat in the doorway straining ear Bloom passed.
At Geneva barrack that young man died. At Passage was his body laid. Dolor! O, he dolores! The voice of the mournful chanter called to dolorous prayer.
By rose, by satiny bosom, by the fondling hand, by slops, by empties, by popped corks, greeting in going, past eyes and maidenhair, bronze and faint gold in deepseashadow, went Bloom, soft Bloom, I feel so lonely Bloom.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Pray for him, prayed the bass of Dollard. You who hear in peace. Breathe a prayer, drop a tear, good men, good people. He was the croppy boy.
Scaring eavesdropping boots croppy bootsboy Bloom in the Ormond
hallway heard the growls and roars of bravo, fat backslapping, their boots
all treading, boots not the boots the boy. lbGeneral chorus off for a swill to
wash it down. Glad I avoided.
sid―Come on, Ben, Simon Dedalus cried. sidBy God, you're as good as ever you
were.
tk―Better, said Tomgin Kernan. tkMost trenchant rendition of that ballad,
upon my soul and honour it is.
fc―Lablache, said Father Cowley.
Ben Dollard bulkily cachuchad towards the bar, mightily praisefed
and all big roseate, on heavyfooted feet, his gouty fingers nakkering
Big Benaben Dollard. Big Benben. Big Benben.
Rrr.
And deepmoved all, Simon trumping compassion from foghorn nose,
all laughing they brought him forth, Ben Dollard, in right good cheer.
gl―You're looking rubicund, George Lidwell said.
Miss Douce composed her rose to wait.
sid―Ben machree, said Mr Dedalus, clapping Ben's fat back shoulderblade.
sidFit as a fiddle only he has a lot of adipose tissue concealed about his person.
Rrrrrrrsss.
bed―Fat of death, Simon, Ben Dollard growled.
Richie rift in the lute alone sat: Goulding, Collis, Ward. Uncertainly he waited. Unpaid Pat too.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Miss Mina Kennedy brought near her lips to ear of tankard one.
mk―Mr Dollard, they murmured low.
ugt―Dollard, murmured tankard.
lbTank one believed: miss Kenn when she: that doll he was: she doll: the tank.
He murmured that he knew the name. The name was familiar to him, that is to say. That was to say he had heard the name of. lbDollard, was it? Dollard, yes.
Yes, her lips said more loudly, Mr Dollard. He sang that song lovely,
murmured Mina. Mr Dollard. And
'Tis the last rose of summer dollard left bloom felt wind wound round inside.
lbGassy thing that cider: binding too. Wait. Postoffice near Reuben J's one and eightpence too. Get shut of it. Dodge round by Greek street. Wish I hadn't promised to meet. Freer in air. Music. Gets on your nerves. Beerpull. Her hand that rocks the cradle rules the. Ben Howth. That rules the world. lbFar. Far. Far. Far.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Up the quay went Lionelleopold, naughty Henry with letter for Mady, with sweets of sin with frillies for Raoul with met him pike hoses went Poldy on.
Tap blind walked tapping by the tap the curbstone tapping, tap by tap.
lbCowley, he stuns himself with it: kind of drunkenness. Better give way only half way the way of a man with a maid. Instance enthusiasts. All ears. Not lose a demisemiquaver. Eyes shut. Head nodding in time. Dotty. You daren't budge. Thinking strictly prohibited. Always talking shop. Fiddlefaddle about notes.
lbAll a kind of attempt to talk. Unpleasant when it stops because you never know exac. Organ in Gardiner street. Old Glynn fifty quid a year. Queer up there in the cockloft, alone, with stops and locks and keys. Seated all day at the organ. Maunder on for hours, talking to himself or the other fellow blowing the bellows. Growl angry, then shriek cursing (want to have wadding or something in his no don't she cried), then all of a soft sudden wee little wee little pipy wind.
Pwee! A wee little wind piped eeee. In Bloom's little wee.
sid―Was he? Mr Dedalus said, returning with fetched pipe. sidI was with him
this morning at poor little Paddy Dignam's ...
unclear: George Lidwell?―Ay, the Lord have mercy on him.
sid―By the bye there's a tuningfork in there on the ...
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
gl―The wife has a fine voice. Or had. What? Lidwell asked.
ld―O, that must be the tuner, Lydia said to Simonlionel first I saw, ldforgot it
when he was here.
Blind he was she told George Lidwell second I saw. And played so
exquisitely, treat to hear. Exquisite contrast: bronzelid, minagold.
bed―Shout! Ben Dollard shouted, pouring. bedSing out!
fc―'lldo! cried Father Cowley.
Rrrrrr.
I feel I want ....
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
sid―Very, Mr Dedalus said, staring hard at a headless sardine.
Under the sandwichbell lay on a bier of bread one last, one lonely, last
sardine of summer. Bloom alone.
sid―Very, he stared. sidThe lower register, for choice.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Bloom went by Barry's. lbWish I could. Wait. That wonderworker if I had. Twentyfour solicitors in that one house. Counted them. Litigation. Love one another. Piles of parchment. Messrs Pick and Pocket have power of attorney. Goulding, Collis, Ward.
lbBut for example the chap that wallops the big drum. His vocation: Mickey Rooney's band. Wonder how it first struck him. Sitting at home after pig's cheek and cabbage nursing it in the armchair. Rehearsing his band part. Pom. Pompedy. Jolly for the wife. Asses' skins. Welt them through life, then wallop after death. Pom. Wallop. Seems to be what you call yashmak or I mean kismet. Fate.
Tap. Tap. A stripling, blind, with a tapping cane came taptaptapping by Daly's window where a mermaid hair all streaming (but he couldn't see) blew whiffs of a mermaid (blind couldn't), mermaid, coolest whiff of all.
lbInstruments. A blade of grass, shell of her hands, then blow. Even comb and tissuepaper you can knock a tune out of. Molly in her shift in Lombard street west, hair down. I suppose each kind of trade made its own, don't you see? Hunter with a horn. Haw. Have you the? Cloche. Sonnez la. Shepherd his pipe. Pwee little wee. Policeman a whistle. Locks and keys! Sweep! Four o'clock's all's well! Sleep! All is lost now. Drum? Pompedy. Wait. I know. Towncrier, bumbailiff. Long John. Waken the dead. Pom. Dignam. Poor little nominedomine. Pom. It is music. I mean of course it's all pom pom pom very much what they call da capo. Still you can hear. As we march, we march along, march along. Pom.
lbI must really. Fff. Now if I did that at a banquet. Just a question of custom shah of Persia. Breathe a prayer, drop a tear. All the same he must have been a bit of a natural not to see it was a yeoman cap. Muffled up. Wonder who was that chap at the grave in the brown macin. O, the whore of the lane!
A frowsy whore with black straw sailor hat askew came glazily in the day along the quay towards Mr Bloom. When first he saw that form endearing? lbYes, it is. I feel so lonely. Wet night in the lane. Horn. Who had the? Heehaw shesaw. Off her beat here. What is she? Hope she. Psst! Any chance of your wash. Knew Molly. Had me decked. Stout lady does be with you in the brown costume. Put you off your stroke, that. Appointment we made knowing we'd never, well hardly ever. Too dear too near to home sweet home. Sees me, does she? Looks a fright in the day. Face like dip. Damn her. O, well, she has to live like the rest. Look in here.
In Lionel Marks's antique saleshop window haughty Henry Lionel Leopold dear Henry Flower earnestly Mr Leopold Bloom envisaged battered candlesticks melodeon oozing maggoty blowbags. lbBargain: six bob. Might learn to play. Cheap. Let her pass. Course everything is dear if you don't want it. That's what good salesman is. Make you buy what he wants to sell. Chap sold me the Swedish razor he shaved me with. Wanted to charge me for the edge he gave it. She's passing now. Six bob.
lbMust be the cider or perhaps the burgund.
Near bronze from anear near gold from afar they chinked their clinking glasses all, brighteyed and gallant, before bronze Lydia's tempting last rose of summer, rose of Castile. First Lid, De, Cow, Ker, Doll, a fifth: Lidwell, Si Dedalus, Bob Cowley, Kernan and big Ben Dollard.
Tap. A youth entered a lonely Ormond hall.
Bloom viewed a gallant pictured hero in Lionel Marks's window.
Robert Emmet's last words. lbSeven last words. Of Meyerbeer that is.
bed―True men like you men.
unclear: Simon Dedalus Father Cowley―Ay, ay, Ben.
bed―Will lift your glass with us.
They lifted.
Tschink. Tschunk.
Tip. An unseeing stripling stood in the door. He saw not bronze. He saw not gold. Nor Ben nor Bob nor Tom nor Si nor George nor tanks nor Richie nor Pat. Hee hee hee hee. He did not see.
Seabloom, greaseabloom viewed last words. lbSoftly. When my country takes her place among.
Prrprr.
lbMust be the bur.
Fff! Oo. Rrpr.
lbNations of the earth. No-one behind. She's passed. Then and not till then. Tram kran kran kran. lbGood oppor. Coming. Krandlkrankran. lbI'm sure it's the burgund. Yes. One, two. Let my epitaph be. Kraaaaaa. lbWritten. I have.
Pprrpffrrppffff.
lbDone.
I was just passing the time of day with old Troy of the D. M. P. at the
corner of Arbour hill there and be damned but a bloody sweep came along
and he near drove his gear into my eye. I turned around to let him have the
weight of my tongue when who should I see dodging along Stony Batter
only Joe Hynes.
tn―Lo, Joe, says I. tnHow are you blowing? Did you see that bloody
chimneysweep near shove my eye out with his brush?
jh―Soot's luck, says Joe. jhWho's the old ballocks you were talking to?
tn―Old Troy, says I, tnwas in the force. I'm on two minds not to give that
fellow in charge for obstructing the thoroughfare with his brooms and
ladders.
jh―What are you doing round those parts? says Joe.
tn―Devil a much, says I. tnThere's a bloody big foxy thief beyond by the
garrison church at the corner of Chicken lane – old Troy was just giving
me a wrinkle about him – lifted any God's quantity of tea and sugar to pay
three bob a week said he had a farm in the county Down off a
hop-of-my-thumb by the name of Moses Herzog over there near
Heytesbury street.
jh―Circumcised? says Joe.
tn―Ay, says I. tnA bit off the top. An old plumber named Geraghty. I'm
hanging on to his taw now for the past fortnight and I can't get a penny out
of him.
jh―That the lay you're on now? says Joe.
tn―Ay, says I. tnHow are the mighty fallen! Collector of bad and doubtful
debts. But that's the most notorious bloody robber you'd meet in a day's
walk and the face on him all pockmarks would hold a shower of rain. Tell
him, says he, I dare him, says he, and I doubledare him to send you round
here again or if he does, says he, I'll have him summonsed up before the
court, so I will, for trading without a licence. And he after stuffing himself
till he's fit to burst. Jesus, I had to laugh at the little jewy getting his shirt
out. He drink me my teas. He eat me my sugars. Because he no pay me my
moneys?
For nonperishable goods bought of Moses Herzog, of 13 Saint
Kevin's parade in the city of Dublin, Wood quay ward, merchant,
hereinafter called the vendor, and sold and delivered to Michael E.
Geraghty, esquire, of 29 Arbour hill in the city of Dublin, Arran quay ward,
gentleman, hereinafter called the purchaser, videlicet, five pounds
avoirdupois of first choice tea at three shillings and no pence per pound
avoirdupois and three stone avoirdupois of sugar, crushed crystal, at
threepence per pound avoirdupois, the said purchaser debtor to the said
vendor of one pound five shillings and sixpence sterling for value received
which amount shall be paid by said purchaser to said vendor in weekly
instalments every seven calendar days of three shillings and no pence
sterling: and the said nonperishable goods shall not be pawned or pledged
or sold or otherwise alienated by the said purchaser but shall be and remain
and be held to be the sole and exclusive property of the said vendor to be
disposed of at his good will and pleasure until the said amount shall have
been duly paid by the said purchaser to the said vendor in the manner
herein set forth as this day hereby agreed between the said vendor, his heirs,
successors, trustees and assigns of the one part and the said purchaser, his
heirs, successors, trustees and assigns of the other part.
jh―Are you a strict t. t.? says Joe.
tn―Not taking anything between drinks, says I.
jh―What about paying our respects to our friend? says Joe.
tn―Who? says I. tnSure, he's out in John of God's off his head, poor man.
jh―Drinking his own stuff? says Joe.
tn―Ay, says I. tnWhisky and water on the brain.
jh―Come around to Barney Kiernan's, says Joe. jhI want to see the citizen.
tn―Barney mavourneen's be it, says I. tnAnything strange or wonderful, Joe?
jh―Not a word, says Joe. jhI was up at that meeting in the City Arms.
tn―What was that, Joe? says I.
jh―Cattle traders, says Joe, jhabout the foot and mouth disease. I want to give
the citizen the hard word about it.
So we went around by the Linenhall barracks and the back of the courthouse talking of one thing or another. Decent fellow Joe when he has it but sure like that he never has it. Jesus, I couldn't get over that bloody foxy Geraghty, the daylight robber. For trading without a licence, says he.
In Inisfail the fair there lies a land, the land of holy Michan. There rises a watchtower beheld of men afar. There sleep the mighty dead as in life they slept, warriors and princes of high renown. A pleasant land it is in sooth of murmuring waters, fishful streams where sport the gurnard, the plaice, the roach, the halibut, the gibbed haddock, the grilse, the dab, the brill, the flounder, the pollock, the mixed coarse fish generally and other denizens of the aqueous kingdom too numerous to be enumerated. In the mild breezes of the west and of the east the lofty trees wave in different directions their firstclass foliage, the wafty sycamore, the Lebanonian cedar, the exalted planetree, the eugenic eucalyptus and other ornaments of the arboreal world with which that region is thoroughly well supplied. Lovely maidens sit in close proximity to the roots of the lovely trees singing the most lovely songs while they play with all kinds of lovely objects as for example golden ingots, silvery fishes, crans of herrings, drafts of eels, codlings, creels of fingerlings, purple seagems and playful insects. And heroes voyage from afar to woo them, from Eblana to Slievemargy, the peerless princes of unfettered Munster and of Connacht the just and of smooth sleek Leinster and of Cruachan's land and of Armagh the splendid and of the noble district of Boyle, princes, the sons of kings.
And there rises a shining palace whose crystal glittering roof is seen by mariners who traverse the extensive sea in barks built expressly for that purpose, and thither come all herds and fatlings and firstfruits of that land for O'Connell Fitzsimon takes toll of them, a chieftain descended from chieftains. Thither the extremely large wains bring foison of the fields, flaskets of cauliflowers, floats of spinach, pineapple chunks, Rangoon beans, strikes of tomatoes, drums of figs, drills of Swedes, spherical potatoes and tallies of iridescent kale, York and Savoy, and trays of onions, pearls of the earth, and punnets of mushrooms and custard marrows and fat vetches and bere and rape and red green yellow brown russet sweet big bitter ripe pomellated apples and chips of strawberries and sieves of gooseberries, pulpy and pelurious, and strawberries fit for princes and raspberries from their canes.
megI dare him, says he, megand I doubledare him. Come out here, Geraghty, you notorious bloody hill and dale robber!
And by that way wend the herds innumerable of bellwethers and flushed ewes and shearling rams and lambs and stubble geese and medium steers and roaring mares and polled calves and longwools and storesheep and Cuffe's prime springers and culls and sowpigs and baconhogs and the various different varieties of highly distinguished swine and Angus heifers and polly bullocks of immaculate pedigree together with prime premiated milchcows and beeves: and there is ever heard a trampling, cackling, roaring, lowing, bleating, bellowing, rumbling, grunting, champing, chewing, of sheep and pigs and heavyhooved kine from pasturelands of Lusk and Rush and Carrickmines and from the streamy vales of Thomond, from M'Gillicuddy's reeks the inaccessible and lordly Shannon the unfathomable, and from the gentle declivities of the place of the race of Kiar, their udders distended with superabundance of milk and butts of butter and rennets of cheese and farmer's firkins and targets of lamb and crannocks of corn and oblong eggs in great hundreds, various in size, the agate with the dun.
So we turned into Barney Kiernan's and there, sure enough, was the
citizen up in the corner having a great confab with himself and that bloody
mangy mongrel, Garryowen, and he waiting for what the sky would drop
in the way of drink.
tn―There he is, says I, tnin his gloryhole, with his cruiskeen lawn and his load
of papers, working for the cause.
The bloody mongrel let a grouse out of him would give you the
creeps. Be a corporal work of mercy if someone would take the life of that
bloody dog. I'm told for a fact he ate a good part of the breeches off a
constabulary man in Santry that came round one time with a blue paper
about a licence.
tc―Stand and deliver, says he.
jh―That's all right, citizen, says Joe. jhFriends here.
tc―Pass, friends, says he.
Then he rubs his hand in his eye and says he:
tc―What's your opinion of the times?
Doing the rapparee and Rory of the hill. But, begob, Joe was equal to
the occasion.
jh―I think the markets are on a rise, says he, sliding his hand down his fork.
So begob the citizen claps his paw on his knee and he says:
tc―Foreign wars is the cause of it.
And says Joe, sticking his thumb in his pocket:
jh―It's the Russians wish to tyrannise.
tn―Arrah, give over your bloody codding, Joe, says I. tnI've a thirst on me I
wouldn't sell for half a crown.
jh―Give it a name, citizen, says Joe.
tc―Wine of the country, says he.
jh―What's yours? says Joe.
tn―Ditto MacAnaspey, says I.
jh―Three pints, Terry, says Joe. jhAnd how's the old heart, citizen? says he.
tc―Never better, a chara, says he. tcWhat Garry? Are we going to win? Eh?
And with that he took the bloody old towser by the scruff of the neck and, by Jesus, he near throttled him.
The figure seated on a large boulder at the foot of a round tower
was that of a broadshouldered deepchested stronglimbed frankeyed
redhaired freelyfreckled shaggybearded widemouthed largenosed
longheaded deepvoiced barekneed brawnyhanded hairylegged ruddyfaced
sinewyarmed hero. From shoulder to shoulder he measured several ells and
his rocklike mountainous knees were covered, as was likewise the rest of his
body wherever visible, with a strong growth of tawny prickly hair in hue
and toughness similar to the mountain gorse (
He wore a long unsleeved garment of recently flayed oxhide reaching to the knees in a loose kilt and this was bound about his middle by a girdle of plaited straw and rushes. Beneath this he wore trews of deerskin, roughly stitched with gut. His nether extremities were encased in high Balbriggan buskins dyed in lichen purple, the feet being shod with brogues of salted cowhide laced with the windpipe of the same beast. From his girdle hung a row of seastones which jangled at every movement of his portentous frame and on these were graven with rude yet striking art the tribal images of many Irish heroes and heroines of antiquity, Cuchulin, Conn of hundred battles, Niall of nine hostages, Brian of Kincora, the ardri Malachi, Art MacMurragh, Shane O'Neill, Father John Murphy, Owen Roe, Patrick Sarsfield, Red Hugh O'Donnell, Red Jim MacDermott, Soggarth Eoghan O'Growney, Michael Dwyer, Francy Higgins, Henry Joy M'Cracken, Goliath, Horace Wheatley, Thomas Conneff, Peg Woffington, the Village Blacksmith, Captain Moonlight, Captain Boycott, Dante Alighieri, Christopher Columbus, S. Fursa, S. Brendan, Marshal MacMahon, Charlemagne, Theobald Wolfe Tone, the Mother of the Maccabees, the Last of the Mohicans, the Rose of Castile, the Man for Galway, The Man that Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, The Man in the Gap, The Woman Who Didn't, Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon Bonaparte, John L. Sullivan, Cleopatra, Savourneen Deelish, Julius Caesar, Paracelsus, sir Thomas Lipton, William Tell, Michelangelo Hayes, Muhammad, the Bride of Lammermoor, Peter the Hermit, Peter the Packer, Dark Rosaleen, Patrick W. Shakespeare, Brian Confucius, Murtagh Gutenberg, Patricio Velasquez, Captain Nemo, Tristan and Isolde, the first Prince of Wales, Thomas Cook and Son, the Bold Soldier Boy, Arrah na Pogue, Dick Turpin, Ludwig Beethoven, the Colleen Bawn, Waddler Healy, Angus the Culdee, Dolly Mount, Sidney Parade, Ben Howth, Valentine Greatrakes, Adam and Eve, Arthur Wellesley, Boss Croker, Herodotus, Jack the Giantkiller, Gautama Buddha, Lady Godiva, The Lily of Killarney, Balor of the Evil Eye, the Queen of Sheba, Acky Nagle, Joe Nagle, Alessandro Volta, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, Don Philip O'Sullivan Beare. A couched spear of acuminated granite rested by him while at his feet reposed a savage animal of the canine tribe whose stertorous gasps announced that he was sunk in uneasy slumber, a supposition confirmed by hoarse growls and spasmodic movements which his master repressed from time to time by tranquilising blows of a mighty cudgel rudely fashioned out of paleolithic stone.
So anyhow Terry brought the three pints Joe was standing and begob
the sight nearly left my eyes when I saw him land out a quid. O, as true as
I'm telling you. A goodlooking sovereign.
jh―And there's more where that came from, says he.
tn―Were you robbing the poorbox, Joe? says I.
jh―Sweat of my brow, says Joe. jh'Twas the prudent member gave me the
wheeze.
tn―I saw him before I met you, says I, tnsloping around by Pill lane and Greek
street with his cod's eye counting up all the guts of the fish.
Who comes through Michan's land, bedight in sable armour?
O'Bloom, the son of Rory: it is he. Impervious to fear is Rory's son: he of
the prudent soul.
tc―For the old woman of Prince's street, says the citizen, tcthe subsidised
organ. The pledgebound party on the floor of the house. And look at this
blasted rag, says he. tcLook at this, says he. tcThe Irish Independent, if you
please, founded by Parnell to be the workingman's friend. Listen to the
births and deaths in the Irish all for Ireland Independent, and I'll thank you
and the marriages.
And he starts reading them out:
tc―Gordon, Barnfield crescent, Exeter; Redmayne of Iffley, Saint Anne's on
Sea: the wife of William T Redmayne of a son. How's that, eh? Wright and
Flint, Vincent and Gillett to Rotha Marion daughter of Rosa and the late
George Alfred Gillett, 179 Clapham road, Stockwell, Playwood and
Ridsdale at Saint Jude's, Kensington by the very reverend Dr Forrest, dean
of Worcester. Eh? Deaths. Bristow, at Whitehall lane, London: Carr, Stoke
Newington, of gastritis and heart disease: Cockburn, at the Moat house,
Chepstow ...
jh―I know that fellow, says Joe, jhfrom bitter experience.
tc―Cockburn. Dimsey, wife of David Dimsey, late of the admiralty: Miller,
Tottenham, aged eightyfive: Welsh, June 12, at 35 Canning street,
Liverpool, Isabella Helen. How's that for a national press, eh, my brown
son! How's that for Martin Murphy, the Bantry jobber?
jh―Ah, well, says Joe, handing round the boose. jhThanks be to God they had
the start of us. Drink that, citizen.
tc―I will, says he, tchonourable person.
tn―Health, Joe, says I. tnAnd all down the form.
Ah! Ow! Don't be talking! I was blue mouldy for the want of that pint. Declare to God I could hear it hit the pit of my stomach with a click.
And lo, as they quaffed their cup of joy, a godlike messenger came swiftly in, radiant as the eye of heaven, a comely youth and behind him there passed an elder of noble gait and countenance, bearing the sacred scrolls of law and with him his lady wife a dame of peerless lineage, fairest of her race.
Little Alf Bergan popped in round the door and hid behind Barney's
snug, squeezed up with the laughing. And who was sitting up there in the
corner that I hadn't seen snoring drunk blind to the world only Bob Doran.
I didn't know what was up and Alf kept making signs out of the door. And
begob what was it only that bloody old pantaloon Denis Breen in his
bathslippers with two bloody big books tucked under his oxter and the wife
hotfoot after him, unfortunate wretched woman, trotting like a poodle. I
thought Alf would split.
ab―Look at him, says he. abBreen. He's traipsing all round Dublin with a
postcard someone sent him with U. p: up on it to take a li ...
And he doubled up.
tn―Take a what? says I.
ab―Libel action, says he, abfor ten thousand pounds.
tn―O hell! says I.
The bloody mongrel began to growl that'd put the fear of God in you
seeing something was up but the citizen gave him a kick in the ribs.
tc―Bi i dho husht, says he.
jh―Who? says Joe.
ab―Breen, says Alf. abHe was in John Henry Menton's and then he went round
to Collis and Ward's and then Tom Rochford met him and sent him round
to the subsheriff's for a lark. O God, I've a pain laughing. U. p: up. The
long fellow gave him an eye as good as a process and now the bloody old
lunatic is gone round to Green street to look for a G man.
jh―When is long John going to hang that fellow in Mountjoy? says Joe.
bd―Bergan, says Bob Doran, waking up. bdIs that Alf Bergan?
ab―Yes, says Alf. abHanging? Wait till I show you. Here, Terry, give us a pony.
That bloody old fool! Ten thousand pounds. You should have seen long
John's eye. U. p ....
And he started laughing.
bd―Who are you laughing at? says Bob Doran. bdIs that Bergan?
ab―Hurry up, Terry boy, says Alf.
Terence O'Ryan heard him and straightway brought him a crystal cup full of the foamy ebon ale which the noble twin brothers Bungiveagh and Bungardilaun brew ever in their divine alevats, cunning as the sons of deathless Leda. For they garner the succulent berries of the hop and mass and sift and bruise and brew them and they mix therewith sour juices and bring the must to the sacred fire and cease not night or day from their toil, those cunning brothers, lords of the vat.
Then did you, chivalrous Terence, hand forth, as to the manner born, that nectarous beverage and you offered the crystal cup to him that thirsted, the soul of chivalry, in beauty akin to the immortals.
But he, the young chief of the O'Bergan's, could ill brook to be
outdone in generous deeds but gave therefor with gracious gesture a testoon
of costliest bronze. Thereon embossed in excellent smithwork was seen the
image of a queen of regal port, scion of the house of Brunswick, Victoria
her name, Her Most Excellent Majesty, by grace of God of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British dominions beyond
the sea, queen, defender of the faith, Empress of India, even she, who bore
rule, a victress over many peoples, the wellbeloved, for they knew and loved
her from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, the pale, the dark,
the ruddy and the ethiop.
tc―What's that bloody freemason doing, says the citizen, tcprowling up and
down outside?
jh―What's that? says Joe.
ab―Here you are, says Alf, chucking out the rhino. abTalking about hanging,
I'll show you something you never saw. Hangmen's letters. Look at here.
So he took a bundle of wisps of letters and envelopes out of his
pocket.
tn―Are you codding? says I.
ab―Honest injun, says Alf. abRead them.
So Joe took up the letters.
bd―Who are you laughing at? says Bob Doran.
So I saw there was going to be a bit of a dust Bob's a queer chap
when the porter's up in him so says I just to make talk:
tn―How's Willy Murray those times, Alf?
ab―I don't know, says Alf. abI saw him just now in Capel street with Paddy
Dignam. Only I was running after that ....
jh―You what? says Joe, throwing down the letters. jhWith who?
ab―With Dignam, says Alf.
jh―Is it Paddy? says Joe.
ab―Yes, says Alf. abWhy?
jh―Don't you know he's dead? says Joe.
ab―Paddy Dignam dead! says Alf.
jh―Ay, says Joe.
ab―Sure I'm after seeing him not five minutes ago, says Alf, abas plain as a
pikestaff.
bd―Who's dead? says Bob Doran.
jh―You saw his ghost then, says Joe, jhGod between us and harm.
ab―What? says Alf. abGood Christ, only five .... What? ... And Willy Murray
with him, the two of them there near whatdoyoucallhim's .... What?
Dignam dead?
bd―What about Dignam? says Bob Doran. bdWho's talking about ....?
ab―Dead! says Alf. abHe's no more dead than you are.
jh―Maybe so, says Joe. jhThey took the liberty of burying him this morning
anyhow.
ab―Paddy? says Alf.
jh―Ay, says Joe. jhHe paid the debt of nature, God be merciful to him.
ab―Good Christ! says Alf.
Begob he was what you might call flabbergasted.
In the darkness spirit hands were felt to flutter and when prayer by tantras had been directed to the proper quarter a faint but increasing luminosity of ruby light became gradually visible, the apparition of the etheric double being particularly lifelike owing to the discharge of jivic rays from the crown of the head and face. Communication was effected through the pituitary body and also by means of the orangefiery and scarlet rays emanating from the sacral region and solar plexus. Questioned by his earthname as to his whereabouts in the heavenworld he stated that he was now on the path of prālāyā or return but was still submitted to trial at the hands of certain bloodthirsty entities on the lower astral levels. In reply to a question as to his first sensations in the great divide beyond he stated that previously he had seen as in a glass darkly but that those who had passed over had summit possibilities of atmic development opened up to them. Interrogated as to whether life there resembled our experience in the flesh he stated that he had heard from more favoured beings now in the spirit that their abodes were equipped with every modern home comfort such as tālāfānā, ālāvātār, hātākāldā, wātāklāsāt and that the highest adepts were steeped in waves of volupcy of the very purest nature. Having requested a quart of buttermilk this was brought and evidently afforded relief. Asked if he had any message for the living he exhorted all who were still at the wrong side of Māyā to acknowledge the true path for it was reported in devanic circles that Mars and Jupiter were out for mischief on the eastern angle where the ram has power. It was then queried whether there were any special desires on the part of the defunct and the reply was: We greet you, friends of earth, who are still in the body. Mind C. K. doesn't pile it on. It was ascertained that the reference was to Mr Cornelius Kelleher, manager of Messrs H. J. O'Neill's popular funeral establishment, a personal friend of the defunct, who had been responsible for the carrying out of the interment arrangements. Before departing he requested that it should be told to his dear son Patsy that the other boot which he had been looking for was at present under the commode in the return room and that the pair should be sent to Cullen's to be soled only as the heels were still good. He stated that this had greatly perturbed his peace of mind in the other region and earnestly requested that his desire should be made known. Assurances were given that the matter would be attended to and it was intimated that this had given satisfaction.
He is gone from mortal haunts: O'Dignam, sun of our morning. Fleet
was his foot on the bracken: Patrick of the beamy brow. Wail, Banba, with
your wind: and wail, O ocean, with your whirlwind.
tc―There he is again, says the citizen, staring out.
tn―Who? says I.
tc―Bloom, says he. tcHe's on point duty up and down there for the last ten
minutes.
And, begob, I saw his physog do a peep in and then slidder off again.
Little Alf was knocked bawways. Faith, he was.
ab―Good Christ! says he. abI could have sworn it was him.
And says Bob Doran, with the hat on the back of his poll, lowest
blackguard in Dublin when he's under the influence:
bd―Who said Christ is good?
ab―I beg your parsnips, says Alf.
bd―Is that a good Christ, says Bob Doran, bdto take away poor little Willy
Dignam?
ab―Ah, well, says Alf, trying to pass it off. abHe's over all his troubles.
But Bob Doran shouts out of him.
bd―He's a bloody ruffian, I say, to take away poor little Willy Dignam.
Terry came down and tipped him the wink to keep quiet, that they
didn't want that kind of talk in a respectable licensed premises. And Bob
Doran starts doing the weeps about Paddy Dignam, true as you're there.
bd―The finest man, says he, snivelling, bdthe finest purest character.
The tear is bloody near your eye. Talking through his bloody hat.
Fitter for him go home to the little sleepwalking bitch he married, Mooney,
the bumbailiff's daughter, mother kept a kip in Hardwicke street, that used
to be stravaging about the landings Bantam Lyons told me that was
stopping there at two in the morning without a stitch on her, exposing her
person, open to all comers, fair field and no favour.
bd―The noblest, the truest, says he. bdAnd he's gone, poor little Willy, poor
little Paddy Dignam.
And mournful and with a heavy heart he bewept the extinction of that beam of heaven.
Old Garryowen started growling again at Bloom that was skeezing
round the door.
tc―Come in, come on, says the citizen. tcHe won't eat you.
So Bloom slopes in with his cod's eye on the dog and he asks Terry
was Martin Cunningham there.
jh―O, Christ M'Keown, says Joe, reading one of the letters. jhListen to this,
will you?
And he starts reading out one.
jh―7 Hunter Street,
Liverpool.
To the High Sheriff of Dublin,
Dublin.
Honoured sir i beg to offer my services in the abovementioned painful case i
hanged Joe Gann in Bootle jail on the 12 of Febuary 1900 and i hanged ....
tn―Show us, Joe, says I.
jh―... private Arthur Chace for fowl murder of Jessie Tilsit in Pentonville
prison and i was assistant when ....
tn―Jesus, says I.
jh―... Billington executed the awful murderer Toad Smith ...
The citizen made a grab at the letter.
jh―Hold hard, says Joe, jhi have a special nack of putting the noose once in he
can't get out hoping to be favoured i remain, honoured sir, my terms is five
ginnees.
H. Rumbold,
Master Barber.
tc―And a barbarous bloody barbarian he is too, says the citizen.
jh―And the dirty scrawl of the wretch, says Joe. jhHere, says he, jhtake them to
hell out of my sight, Alf. Hello, Bloom, says he, jhwhat will you have?
So they started arguing about the point, Bloom saying he wouldn't
and he couldn't and excuse him no offence and all to that and then he said
well he'd just take a cigar. Gob, he's a prudent member and no mistake.
jh―Give us one of your prime stinkers, Terry, says Joe.
And Alf was telling us there was one chap sent in a mourning card
with a black border round it.
ab―They're all barbers, says he, abfrom the black country that would hang
their own fathers for five quid down and travelling expenses.
And he was telling us there's two fellows waiting below to pull his heels down when he gets the drop and choke him properly and then they chop up the rope after and sell the bits for a few bob a skull.
In the dark land they bide, the vengeful knights of the razor. Their deadly coil they grasp: yea, and therein they lead to Erebus whatsoever wight hath done a deed of blood for I will on nowise suffer it even so saith the Lord.
So they started talking about capital punishment and of course Bloom
comes out with the why and the wherefore and all the codology of the
business and the old dog smelling him all the time I'm told those jewies does
have a sort of a queer odour coming off them for dogs about I don't know
what all deterrent effect and so forth and so on.
ab―There's one thing it hasn't a deterrent effect on, says Alf.
jh―What's that? says Joe.
ab―The poor bugger's tool that's being hanged, says Alf.
jh―That so? says Joe.
ab―God's truth, says Alf. abI heard that from the head warder that was in
Kilmainham when they hanged Joe Brady, the invincible. He told me when
they cut him down after the drop it was standing up in their faces like a
poker.
jh―Ruling passion strong in death, says Joe, jhas someone said.
lb―That can be explained by science, says Bloom. lbIt's only a natural
phenomenon, don't you see, because on account of the ...
And then he starts with his jawbreakers about phenomenon and science and this phenomenon and the other phenomenon.
The distinguished scientist Herr Professor Luitpold Blumenduft
tendered medical evidence to the effect that the instantaneous fracture of the
cervical vertebrae and consequent scission of the spinal cord would,
according to the best approved tradition of medical science, be calculated to
inevitably produce in the human subject a violent ganglionic stimulus of the
nerve centres of the genital apparatus, thereby causing the elastic pores of
the
So of course the citizen was only waiting for the wink of the word
and he starts gassing out of him about the invincibles and the old guard and
the men of sixtyseven and who fears to speak of ninetyeight and Joe with
him about all the fellows that were hanged, drawn and transported for the
cause by drumhead courtmartial and a new Ireland and new this, that and
the other. Talking about new Ireland he ought to go and get a new dog so
he ought. Mangy ravenous brute sniffing and sneezing all round the place
and scratching his scabs. And round he goes to Bob Doran that was
standing Alf a half one sucking up for what he could get. So of course Bob
Doran starts doing the bloody fool with his:
bd―Give us the paw! Give the paw, doggy! Good old doggy! Give the paw
here! Give us the paw!
Arrah, bloody end to the paw he'd paw and Alf trying to keep him from tumbling off the bloody stool atop of the bloody old dog and he talking all kinds of drivel about training by kindness and thoroughbred dog and intelligent dog: give you the bloody pip. Then he starts scraping a few bits of old biscuit out of the bottom of a Jacobs' tin he told Terry to bring. Gob, he golloped it down like old boots and his tongue hanging out of him a yard long for more. Near ate the tin and all, hungry bloody mongrel.
And the citizen and Bloom having an argument about the point, the
brothers Sheares and Wolfe Tone beyond on Arbour Hill and Robert
Emmet and die for your country, the Tommy Moore touch about Sara
Curran and she's far from the land. And Bloom, of course, with his
knockmedown cigar putting on swank with his lardy face. Phenomenon!
The fat heap he married is a nice old phenomenon with a back on her like a
ballalley. Time they were stopping up in the City Arms pisser Burke told me
there was an old one there with a cracked loodheramaun of a nephew and
Bloom trying to get the soft side of her doing the mollycoddle playing
bézique to come in for a bit of the wampum in her will and not eating meat
of a Friday because the old one was always thumping her craw and taking
the lout out for a walk. And one time he led him the rounds of Dublin and,
by the holy farmer, he never cried crack till he brought him home as drunk
as a boiled owl and he said he did it to teach him the evils of alcohol and by
herrings, if the three women didn't near roast him, it's a queer story, the old
one, Bloom's wife and Mrs O'Dowd that kept the hotel. Jesus, I had to
laugh at pisser Burke taking them off chewing the fat. And Bloom with his
lbbut don't you see? and lbbut on the other hand. And sure, more be token, the
lout I'm told was in Power's after, the blender's, round in Cope street going
home footless in a cab five times in the week after drinking his way through
all the samples in the bloody establishment. Phenomenon!
tc―The memory of the dead, says the citizen taking up his pintglass and
glaring at Bloom.
jh―Ay, ay, says Joe.
lb―You don't grasp my point, says Bloom. lbWhat I mean is ....
tc―Sinn Fein! says the citizen. tcSinn fein amhain! The friends we love are by
our side and the foes we hate before us.
The last farewell was affecting in the extreme. From the belfries far
and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the
gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums
punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance. The deafening
claps of thunder and the dazzling flashes of lightning which lit up the
ghastly scene testified that the artillery of heaven had lent its supernatural
pomp to the already gruesome spectacle. A torrential rain poured down
from the floodgates of the angry heavens upon the bared heads of the
assembled multitude which numbered at the lowest computation five
hundred thousand persons. A posse of Dublin Metropolitan police
superintended by the Chief Commissioner in person maintained order in
the vast throng for whom the York street brass and reed band whiled away
the intervening time by admirably rendering on their blackdraped
instruments the matchless melody endeared to us from the cradle by
Speranza's plaintive muse. Special quick excursion trains and upholstered
charabancs had been provided for the comfort of our country cousins of
whom there were large contingents. Considerable amusement was caused
by the favourite Dublin streetsingers L-n-h-n and M-ll-g-n who sang
Quietly, unassumingly Rumbold stepped on to the scaffold in faultless
morning dress and wearing his favourite flower, the
tt―God blimey if she aint a clinker, that there bleeding tart. Blimey it makes
me kind of bleeding cry, straight, it does, when I sees her cause I thinks of
my old mashtub what's waiting for me down Limehouse way.
So then the citizen begins talking about the Irish language and the corporation meeting and all to that and the shoneens that can't speak their own language and Joe chipping in because he stuck someone for a quid and Bloom putting in his old goo with his twopenny stump that he cadged off of Joe and talking about the Gaelic league and the antitreating league and drink, the curse of Ireland. Antitreating is about the size of it. Gob, he'd let you pour all manner of drink down his throat till the Lord would call him before you'd ever see the froth of his pint. And one night I went in with a fellow into one of their musical evenings, song and dance about she could get up on a truss of hay she could my Maureen Lay and there was a fellow with a Ballyhooly blue ribbon badge spiffing out of him in Irish and a lot of colleen bawns going about with temperance beverages and selling medals and oranges and lemonade and a few old dry buns, gob, flahoolagh entertainment, don't be talking. Ireland sober is Ireland free. And then an old fellow starts blowing into his bagpipes and all the gougers shuffling their feet to the tune the old cow died of. And one or two sky pilots having an eye around that there was no goings on with the females, hitting below the belt.
So howandever, as I was saying, the old dog seeing the tin was empty
starts mousing around by Joe and me. I'd train him by kindness, so I
would, if he was my dog. Give him a rousing fine kick now and again where
it wouldn't blind him.
tc―Afraid he'll bite you? says the citizen, jeering.
tn―No, says I. tnBut he might take my leg for a lamppost.
So he calls the old dog over.
tc―What's on you, Garry? says he.
Then he starts hauling and mauling and talking to him in Irish and
the old towser growling, letting on to answer, like a duet in the opera. Such
growling you never heard as they let off between them. Someone that has
nothing better to do ought to write a letter
All those who are interested in the spread of human culture among
the lower animals (and their name is legion) should make a point of not
missing the really marvellous exhibition of cynanthropy given by the
famous old Irish red setter wolfdog formerly known by the
So he told Terry to bring some water for the dog and, gob, you could
hear him lapping it up a mile off. And Joe asked him would he have
another.
tc―I will, says he, tca chara, to show there's no ill feeling.
Gob, he's not as green as he's cabbagelooking. Arsing around from
one pub to another, leaving it to your own honour, with old Giltrap's dog
and getting fed up by the ratepayers and corporators. Entertainment for
man and beast. And says Joe:
jh―Could you make a hole in another pint?
tn―Could a swim duck? says I.
jh―Same again, Terry, says Joe. jhAre you sure you won't have anything in the
way of liquid refreshment? says he.
lb―Thank you, no, says Bloom. lbAs a matter of fact I just wanted to meet
Martin Cunningham, don't you see, about this insurance of poor Dignam's.
Martin asked me to go to the house. You see, he, Dignam, I mean, didn't
serve any notice of the assignment on the company at the time and
nominally under the act the mortgagee can't recover on the policy.
jh―Holy Wars, says Joe, laughing, jhthat's a good one if old Shylock is landed.
So the wife comes out top dog, what?
lb―Well, that's a point, says Bloom, lbfor the wife's admirers.
jh―Whose admirers? says Joe.
lb―The wife's advisers, I mean, says Bloom.
Then he starts all confused mucking it up about mortgagor under the act like the lord chancellor giving it out on the bench and for the benefit of the wife and that a trust is created but on the other hand that Dignam owed Bridgeman the money and if now the wife or the widow contested the mortgagee's right till he near had the head of me addled with his mortgagor under the act. He was bloody safe he wasn't run in himself under the act that time as a rogue and vagabond only he had a friend in court. Selling bazaar tickets or what do you call it royal Hungarian privileged lottery. True as you're there. O, commend me to an israelite! Royal and privileged Hungarian robbery.
So Bob Doran comes lurching around asking Bloom to tell Mrs
Dignam he was sorry for her trouble and he was very sorry about the
funeral and to tell her that he said and everyone who knew him said that
there was never a truer, a finer than poor little Willy that's dead to tell her.
Choking with bloody foolery. And shaking Bloom's hand doing the tragic
to tell her that. Shake hands, brother. You're a rogue and I'm another.
bd―Let me, said he, bdso far presume upon our acquaintance which, however
slight it may appear if judged by the standard of mere time, is founded, as I
hope and believe, on a sentiment of mutual esteem as to request of you this
favour. But, should I have overstepped the limits of reserve let the sincerity
of my feelings be the excuse for my boldness.
lb―No, rejoined the other, lbI appreciate to the full the motives which actuate
your conduct and I shall discharge the office you entrust to me consoled by
the reflection that, though the errand be one of sorrow, this proof of your
confidence sweetens in some measure the bitterness of the cup.
bd―Then suffer me to take your hand, said he. bdThe goodness of your heart, I
feel sure, will dictate to you better than my inadequate words the
expressions which are most suitable to convey an emotion whose
poignancy, were I to give vent to my feelings, would deprive me even of
speech.
And off with him and out trying to walk straight. Boosed at five o'clock. Night he was near being lagged only Paddy Leonard knew the bobby, 14 A. Blind to the world up in a shebeen in Bride street after closing time, fornicating with two shawls and a bully on guard, drinking porter out of teacups. And calling himself a Frenchy for the shawls, Joseph Manuo, and talking against the Catholic religion, and he serving mass in Adam and Eve's when he was young with his eyes shut, who wrote the new testament, and the old testament, and hugging and smugging. And the two shawls killed with the laughing, picking his pockets, the bloody fool and he spilling the porter all over the bed and the two shawls screeching laughing at one another. ussHow is your testament? Have you got an old testament? Only Paddy was passing there, I tell you what. Then see him of a Sunday with his little concubine of a wife, and she wagging her tail up the aisle of the chapel with her patent boots on her, no less, and her violets, nice as pie, doing the little lady. Jack Mooney's sister. And the old prostitute of a mother procuring rooms to street couples. Gob, Jack made him toe the line. Told him if he didn't patch up the pot, Jesus, he'd kick the shite out of him.
So Terry brought the three pints.
jh―Here, says Joe, doing the honours. jhHere, citizen.
tc―Slan leat, says he.
tn―Fortune, Joe, says I. tnGood health, citizen.
Gob, he had his mouth half way down the tumbler already. Want a
small fortune to keep him in drinks.
jh―Who is the long fellow running for the mayoralty, Alf? says Joe.
ab―Friend of yours, says Alf.
jh―Nannan? says Joe. jhThe mimber?
ab―I won't mention any names, says Alf.
jh―I thought so, says Joe. jhI saw him up at that meeting now with William
Field, M. P., the cattle traders.
tc―Hairy Iopas, says the citizen, tcthat exploded volcano, the darling of all
countries and the idol of his own.
So Joe starts telling the citizen about the foot and mouth disease and the cattle traders and taking action in the matter and the citizen sending them all to the rightabout and Bloom coming out with his sheepdip for the scab and a hoose drench for coughing calves and the guaranteed remedy for timber tongue. Because he was up one time in a knacker's yard. Walking about with his book and pencil here's my head and my heels are coming till Joe Cuffe gave him the order of the boot for giving lip to a grazier. Mister Knowall. Teach your grandmother how to milk ducks. Pisser Burke was telling me in the hotel the wife used to be in rivers of tears some times with Mrs O'Dowd crying her eyes out with her eight inches of fat all over her. Couldn't loosen her farting strings but old cod's eye was waltzing around her showing her how to do it. What's your programme today? Ay. Humane methods. Because the poor animals suffer and experts say and the best known remedy that doesn't cause pain to the animal and on the sore spot administer gently. Gob, he'd have a soft hand under a hen.
Ga Ga Gara. Klook Klook Klook. Black Liz is our hen. She lays eggs
for us. When she lays her egg she is so glad. Gara. Klook Klook Klook.
Then comes good uncle Leo. He puts his hand under black Liz and takes
her fresh egg. Ga ga ga ga Gara. Klook Klook Klook.
jh―Anyhow, says Joe, jhField and Nannetti are going over tonight to London
to ask about it on the floor of the house of commons.
lb―Are you sure, says Bloom, lbthe councillor is going? I wanted to see him, as
it happens.
jh―Well, he's going off by the mailboat, says Joe, jhtonight.
lb―That's too bad, says Bloom. lbI wanted particularly. Perhaps only Mr Field
is going. I couldn't phone. No. You're sure?
jh―Nannan's going too, says Joe. jhThe league told him to ask a question
tomorrow about the commissioner of police forbidding Irish games in the
park. What do you think of that, citizen? The Sluagh na h-Eireann.
Arising out of the question of my honourable friend, the member for Shillelagh, may I ask the right honourable gentleman whether the government has issued orders that these animals shall be slaughtered though no medical evidence is forthcoming as to their pathological condition?
Mr Allfours (Tamoshant. Con.):Honourable members are already in possession of the evidence produced before a committee of the whole house. I feel I cannot usefully add anything to that. The answer to the honourable member's question is in the affirmative.
Mr Orelli O'Reilly (Montenotte. Nat.):Have similar orders been issued for the slaughter of human animals who dare to play Irish games in the Phoenix park?
Mr Allfours:The answer is in the negative.
Mr Cowe Conacre:Has the right honourable gentleman's famous Mitchelstown telegram inspired the policy of gentlemen on the Treasury bench? (O! O!)
Mr Allfours:I must have notice of that question.
Mr Staylewit (Buncombe. Ind.):Don't hesitate to shoot. (Ironical opposition cheers.)
The speaker:Order! Order! (The house rises. Cheers.)
jh―There's the man, says Joe, jhthat made the Gaelic sports revival. There he is
sitting there. The man that got away James Stephens. The champion of all
Ireland at putting the sixteen pound shot. What was your best throw,
citizen?
tc―Na bacleis, says the citizen, letting on to be modest. tcThere was a time I
was as good as the next fellow anyhow.
jh―Put it there, citizen, says Joe. jhYou were and a bloody sight better.
ab―Is that really a fact? says Alf.
lb―Yes, says Bloom. lbThat's well known. Did you not know that?
So off they started about Irish sports and shoneen games the like of lawn tennis and about hurley and putting the stone and racy of the soil and building up a nation once again and all to that. And of course Bloom had to have his say too about if a fellow had a rower's heart violent exercise was bad. I declare to my antimacassar if you took up a straw from the bloody floor and if you said to Bloom: tnLook at, Bloom. Do you see that straw? That's a straw. Declare to my aunt he'd talk about it for an hour so he would and talk steady.
A most interesting discussion took place in the ancient hall of Brian
O'Ciarnain's in
Amongst the clergy present were the very rev. William Delany, S. J.,
L. L. D.; the rt rev. Gerald Molloy, D. D.; the rev. P. J. Kavanagh,
C. S. Sp.; the rev. T. Waters, C. C.; the rev. John M. Ivers, P. P.; the rev.
P. J. Cleary, O. S. F.; the rev. L. J. Hickey, O. P.; the very rev. Fr.
Nicholas, O. S. F. C.; the very rev. B. Gorman, O. D. C.; the rev. T.
Maher, S. J.; the very rev. James Murphy, S. J.; the rev. John Lavery,
V. F.; the very rev. William Doherty, D. D.; the rev. Peter Fagan, O. M.;
the rev. T. Brangan, O. S. A.; the rev. J. Flavin, C. C.; the rev. M. A.
Hackett, C. C.; the rev. W. Hurley, C. C.; the rt rev. Mgr M'Manus,
V. G.; the rev. B. R. Slattery, O. M. I.; the very rev. M. D. Scally, P. P.; the
rev. F. T. Purcell, O. P.; the very rev. Timothy canon Gorman, P. P.; the
rev. J. Flanagan, C. C. The laity included P. Fay, T. Quirke, etc., etc.
ab―Talking about violent exercise, says Alf, abwere you at that Keogh-Bennett
match?
jh―No, says Joe.
ab―I heard So and So made a cool hundred quid over it, says Alf.
jh―Who? Blazes? says Joe.
And says Bloom:
lb―What I meant about tennis, for example, is the agility and training the
eye.
ab―Ay, Blazes, says Alf. abHe let out that Myler was on the beer to run up the
odds and he swatting all the time.
tc―We know him, says the citizen. tcThe traitor's son. We know what put
English gold in his pocket.
jh―True for you, says Joe.
And Bloom cuts in again about lawn tennis and the circulation of the
blood, asking Alf:
lb―Now, don't you think, Bergan?
ab―Myler dusted the floor with him, says Alf. abHeenan and Sayers was only a
bloody fool to it. Handed him the father and mother of a beating. See the
little kipper not up to his navel and the big fellow swiping. God, he gave him
one last puck in the wind, Queensberry rules and all, made him puke what
he never ate.
It was a historic and a hefty battle when Myler and Percy were
scheduled to don the gloves for the purse of fifty sovereigns. Handicapped
as he was by lack of poundage, Dublin's pet lamb made up for it by
superlative skill in ringcraft. The final bout of fireworks was a gruelling for
both champions. The welterweight sergeantmajor had tapped some lively
claret in the previous mixup during which Keogh had been receivergeneral
of rights and lefts, the artilleryman putting in some neat work on the pet's
nose, and Myler came on looking groggy. The soldier got to business,
leading off with a powerful left jab to which the Irish gladiator retaliated by
shooting out a stiff one flush to the point of Bennett's jaw. The redcoat
ducked but the Dubliner lifted him with a left hook, the body punch being a
fine one. The men came to handigrips. Myler quickly became busy and got
his man under, the bout ending with the bulkier man on the ropes, Myler
punishing him. The Englishman, whose right eye was nearly closed, took
his corner where he was liberally drenched with water and when the bell
went came on gamey and brimful of pluck, confident of knocking out the
fistic Eblanite in jigtime. It was a fight to a finish and the best man for it.
The two fought like tigers and excitement ran fever high. The referee twice
cautioned Pucking Percy for holding but the pet was tricky and his
footwork a treat to watch. After a brisk exchange of courtesies during
which a smart upper cut of the military man brought blood freely from his
opponent's mouth the lamb suddenly waded in all over his man and landed
a terrific left to Battling Bennett's stomach, flooring him flat. It was a
knockout clean and clever. Amid tense expectation the Portobello bruiser
was being counted out when Bennett's second Ole Pfotts Wettstein threw in
the towel and the Santry boy was declared victor to the frenzied cheers of
the public who broke through the ringropes and fairly mobbed him with
delight.
ab―He knows which side his bread is buttered, says Alf. abI hear he's running a
concert tour now up in the north.
jh―He is, says Joe. jhIsn't he?
lb―Who? says Bloom. lbAh, yes. That's quite true. Yes, a kind of summer tour,
you see. Just a holiday.
jh―Mrs B. is the bright particular star, isn't she? says Joe.
lb―My wife? says Bloom. lbShe's singing, yes. I think it will be a success too.
He's an excellent man to organise. Excellent.
Hoho begob says I to myself says I. That explains the milk in the cocoanut and absence of hair on the animal's chest. Blazes doing the tootle on the flute. Concert tour. Dirty Dan the dodger's son off Island bridge that sold the same horses twice over to the government to fight the Boers. Old Whatwhat. I called about the poor and water rate, Mr Boylan. You what? The water rate, Mr Boylan. You whatwhat? That's the bucko that'll organise her, take my tip. 'Twixt me and you Caddareesh.
Pride of Calpe's rocky mount, the ravenhaired daughter of Tweedy. There grew she to peerless beauty where loquat and almond scent the air. The gardens of Alameda knew her step: the garths of olives knew and bowed. The chaste spouse of Leopold is she: Marion of the bountiful bosoms.
And lo, there entered one of the clan of the O'Molloy's, a comely hero
of white face yet withal somewhat ruddy, his majesty's counsel learned in
the law, and with him the prince and heir of the noble line of Lambert.
ab―Hello, Ned.
nl―Hello, Alf.
jh―Hello, Jack.
unclear: J.J. O'Molloy or Ned Lambert―Hello, Joe.
tc―God save you, says the citizen.
jjom―Save you kindly, says J. J. jjomWhat'll it be, Ned?
nl―Half one, says Ned.
So J. J. ordered the drinks.
jh―Were you round at the court? says Joe.
jjom―Yes, says J. J. jjomHe'll square that, Ned, says he.
nl―Hope so, says Ned.
Now what were those two at? J. J. getting him off the grand jury list
and the other give him a leg over the stile. With his name in Stubbs's.
Playing cards, hobnobbing with flash toffs with a swank glass in their eye,
adrinking fizz and he half smothered in writs and garnishee orders.
Pawning his gold watch in Cummins of Francis street where no-one would
know him in the private office when I was there with Pisser releasing his
boots out of the pop. What's your name, sir? Dunne, says he. Ay, and done
says I. Gob, he'll come home by weeping cross one of those days, I'm
thinking.
ab―Did you see that bloody lunatic Breen round there? says Alf. abU. p: up.
jjom―Yes, says J. J. jjomLooking for a private detective.
nl―Ay, says Ned. nlAnd he wanted right go wrong to address the court only
Corny Kelleher got round him telling him to get the handwriting examined
first.
ab―Ten thousand pounds, says Alf, laughing. abGod, I'd give anything to hear
him before a judge and jury.
jh―Was it you did it, Alf? says Joe. jhThe truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth, so help you Jimmy Johnson.
ab―Me? says Alf. abDon't cast your nasturtiums on my character.
jh―Whatever statement you make, says Joe, jhwill be taken down in evidence
against you.
jjom―Of course an action would lie, says J. J. jjomIt implies that he is not compos
mentis. U. p: up.
ab―Compos your eye! says Alf, laughing. abDo you know that he's balmy?
Look at his head. Do you know that some mornings he has to get his hat on
with a shoehorn.
jjom―Yes, says J. J., jjombut the truth of a libel is no defence to an indictment for
publishing it in the eyes of the law.
jh―Ha ha, Alf, says Joe.
lb―Still, says Bloom, lbon account of the poor woman, I mean his wife.
tc―Pity about her, says the citizen. tcOr any other woman marries a half and
half.
lb―How half and half? says Bloom. lbDo you mean he ...
tc―Half and half I mean, says the citizen. tcA fellow that's neither fish nor
flesh.
jh―Nor good red herring, says Joe.
tc―That what's I mean, says the citizen. tcA pishogue, if you know what that
is.
Begob I saw there was trouble coming. And Bloom explaining he
meant on account of it being cruel for the wife having to go round after the
old stuttering fool. Cruelty to animals so it is to let that bloody
povertystricken Breen out on grass with his beard out tripping him,
bringing down the rain. And she with her nose cockahoop after she married
him because a cousin of his old fellow's was pewopener to the pope. Picture
of him on the wall with his Smashall Sweeney's moustaches, the signior
Brini from Summerhill, the eyetallyano, papal Zouave to the Holy Father,
has left the quay and gone to Moss street. And who was he, tell us? A
nobody, two pair back and passages, at seven shillings a week, and he
covered with all kinds of breastplates bidding defiance to the world.
jjom―And moreover, says J. J., jjoma postcard is publication. It was held to be
sufficient evidence of malice in the testcase Sadgrove v. Hole. In my opinion
an action might lie.
Six and eightpence, please. Who wants your opinion? Let us drink
our pints in peace. Gob, we won't be let even do that much itself.
nl―Well, good health, Jack, says Ned.
jjom―Good health, Ned, says J. J.
jh―There he is again, says Joe.
ab―Where? says Alf.
And begob there he was passing the door with his books under his
oxter and the wife beside him and Corny Kelleher with his wall eye looking
in as they went past, talking to him like a father, trying to sell him a
secondhand coffin.
jh―How did that Canada swindle case go off? says Joe.
jjom―Remanded, says J. J.
One of the bottlenosed fraternity it was went by the name of James
Wought alias Saphiro alias Spark and Spiro, put an ad in the papers saying
he'd give a passage to Canada for twenty bob. What? Do you see any green
in the white of my eye? Course it was a bloody barney. What? Swindled
them all, skivvies and badhachs from the county Meath, ay, and his own
kidney too. J. J. was telling us there was an ancient Hebrew Zaretsky or
something weeping in the witnessbox with his hat on him, swearing by the
holy Moses he was stuck for two quid.
jh―Who tried the case? says Joe.
nl―Recorder, says Ned.
ab―Poor old sir Frederick, says Alf, abyou can cod him up to the two eyes.
nl―Heart as big as a lion, says Ned. nlTell him a tale of woe about arrears of
rent and a sick wife and a squad of kids and, faith, he'll dissolve in tears on
the bench.
ab―Ay, says Alf. abReuben J was bloody lucky he didn't clap him in the dock
the other day for suing poor little Gumley that's minding stones, for the
corporation there near Butt bridge.
And he starts taking off the old recorder letting on to cry:
ab―A most scandalous thing! This poor hardworking man! How many
children? Ten, did you say?
ab―Yes, your worship. And my wife has the typhoid.
ab―And the wife with typhoid fever! Scandalous! Leave the court
immediately, sir. No, sir, I'll make no order for payment. How dare you,
sir, come up before me and ask me to make an order! A poor hardworking
industrious man! I dismiss the case.
And whereas on the sixteenth day of the month of the oxeyed goddess
and in the third week after the feastday of the Holy and Undivided Trinity,
the daughter of the skies, the virgin moon being then in her first quarter, it
came to pass that those learned judges repaired them to the halls of law.
There master Courtenay, sitting in his own chamber, gave his rede and
master Justice Andrews, sitting without a jury in the probate court, weighed
well and pondered the claim of the first chargeant upon the property in the
matter of the will propounded and final testamentary disposition
tc―Those are nice things, says the citizen, tccoming over here to Ireland filling
the country with bugs.
So Bloom lets on he heard nothing and he starts talking with Joe,
telling him he needn't trouble about that little matter till the first but if he
would just say a word to Mr Crawford. And so Joe swore high and holy by
this and by that he'd do the devil and all.
lb―Because, you see, says Bloom, lbfor an advertisement you must have
repetition. That's the whole secret.
jh―Rely on me, says Joe.
tc―Swindling the peasants, says the citizen, tcand the poor of Ireland. We want
no more strangers in our house.
lb―O, I'm sure that will be all right, Hynes, says Bloom. lbIt's just that Keyes,
you see.
jh―Consider that done, says Joe.
lb―Very kind of you, says Bloom.
tc―The strangers, says the citizen. tcOur own fault. We let them come in. We
brought them in. The adulteress and her paramour brought the Saxon
robbers here.
jjom―Decree nisi, says J. J.
And Bloom letting on to be awfully deeply interested in nothing, a
spider's web in the corner behind the barrel, and the citizen scowling after
him and the old dog at his feet looking up to know who to bite and when.
tc―A dishonoured wife, says the citizen, tcthat's what's the cause of all our
misfortunes.
ab―And here she is, says Alf, that was giggling over the
tn―Give us a squint at her, says I.
And what was it only one of the smutty yankee pictures Terry
borrows off of Corny Kelleher. Secrets for enlarging your private parts.
Misconduct of society belle. Norman W. Tupper, wealthy Chicago
contractor, finds pretty but faithless wife in lap of officer Taylor. Belle in
her bloomers misconducting herself, and her fancyman feeling for her
tickles and Norman W. Tupper bouncing in with his peashooter just in time
to be late after she doing the trick of the loop with officer Taylor.
jh―O jakers, Jenny, says Joe, jhhow short your shirt is!
tn―There's hair, Joe, says I. tnGet a queer old tailend of corned beef off of that
one, what?
So anyhow in came John Wyse Nolan and Lenehan with him with a
face on him as long as a late breakfast.
tc―Well, says the citizen, tcwhat's the latest from the scene of action? What did
those tinkers in the city hall at their caucus meeting decide about the Irish
language?
O'Nolan, clad in shining armour, low bending made obeisance to the
puissant and high and mighty chief of all Erin and did him to wit of that
which had befallen, how that the grave elders of the most obedient city,
second of the realm, had met them in the tholsel, and there, after due
prayers to the gods who dwell in ether supernal, had taken solemn counsel
whereby they might, if so be it might be, bring once more into honour
among mortal men the winged speech of the seadivided Gael.
tc―It's on the march, says the citizen. tcTo hell with the bloody brutal
Sassenachs and their patois.
So J. J. puts in a word, doing the toff about one story was good till
you heard another and blinking facts and the Nelson policy, putting your
blind eye to the telescope and drawing up a bill of attainder to impeach a
nation, and Bloom trying to back him up moderation and botheration and
their colonies and their civilisation.
tc―Their syphilisation, you mean, says the citizen. tcTo hell with them! The
curse of a goodfornothing God light sideways on the bloody thicklugged
sons of whores' gets! No music and no art and no literature worthy of the
name. Any civilisation they have they stole from us. Tonguetied sons of
bastards' ghosts.
jjom―The European family, says J. J. ....
tc―They're not European, says the citizen. tcI was in Europe with Kevin Egan
of Paris. You wouldn't see a trace of them or their language anywhere in
Europe except in a cabinet d'aisance.
And says John Wyse:
jwn―Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.
And says Lenehan that knows a bit of the lingo:
len―Conspuez les anglais! Perfide Albion!
He said and then lifted he in his rude great brawny strengthy hands
the medher of dark strong foamy ale and, uttering his tribal slogan
tn―What's up with you, says I to Lenehan. tnYou look like a fellow that had
lost a bob and found a tanner.
len―Gold cup, says he.
ter―Who won, Mr Lenehan? says Terry.
len―Throwaway, says he, lenat twenty to one. A rank outsider. And the rest
nowhere.
ter―And Bass's mare? says Terry.
len―Still running, says he. lenWe're all in a cart. Boylan plunged two quid on my
tip Sceptre for himself and a lady friend.
ter―I had half a crown myself, says Terry, teron Zinfandel that Mr Flynn gave
me. Lord Howard de Walden's.
len―Twenty to one, says Lenehan. lenSuch is life in an outhouse. Throwaway,
says he. lenTakes the biscuit, and talking about bunions. Frailty, thy name is
Sceptre.
So he went over to the biscuit tin Bob Doran left to see if there was
anything he could lift on the nod, the old cur after him backing his luck
with his mangy snout up. Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard.
len―Not there, my child, says he.
jh―Keep your pecker up, says Joe. jhShe'd have won the money only for the
other dog.
And J. J. and the citizen arguing about law and history with Bloom
sticking in an odd word.
lb―Some people, says Bloom, lbcan see the mote in others' eyes but they can't
see the beam in their own.
tc―Raimeis, says the citizen. tcThere's no-one as blind as the fellow that won't
see, if you know what that means. Where are our missing twenty millions of
Irish should be here today instead of four, our lost tribes? And our potteries
and textiles, the finest in the whole world! And our wool that was sold in
Rome in the time of Juvenal and our flax and our damask from the looms
of Antrim and our Limerick lace, our tanneries and our white flint glass
down there by Ballybough and our Huguenot poplin that we have since
Jacquard de Lyon and our woven silk and our Foxford tweeds and ivory
raised point from the Carmelite convent in New Ross, nothing like it in the
whole wide world. Where are the Greek merchants that came through the
pillars of Hercules, the Gibraltar now grabbed by the foe of mankind, with
gold and Tyrian purple to sell in Wexford at the fair of Carmen? Read
Tacitus and Ptolemy, even Giraldus Cambrensis. Wine, peltries,
Connemara marble, silver from Tipperary, second to none, our farfamed
horses even today, the Irish hobbies, with king Philip of Spain offering to
pay customs duties for the right to fish in our waters. What do the
yellowjohns of Anglia owe us for our ruined trade and our ruined hearths?
And the beds of the Barrow and Shannon they won't deepen with millions
of acres of marsh and bog to make us all die of consumption?
jwn―As treeless as Portugal we'll be soon, says John Wyse, jwnor Heligoland with
its one tree if something is not done to reafforest the land. Larches, firs, all
the trees of the conifer family are going fast. I was reading a report of lord
Castletown's ....
tc―Save them, says the citizen, tcthe giant ash of Galway and the chieftain elm
of Kildare with a fortyfoot bole and an acre of foliage. Save the trees of
Ireland for the future men of Ireland on the fair hills of Eire, O.
len―Europe has its eyes on you, says Lenehan.
The fashionable international world attended
tc―And our eyes are on Europe, says the citizen. tcWe had our trade with
Spain and the French and with the Flemings before those mongrels were
pupped, Spanish ale in Galway, the winebark on the winedark waterway.
jh―And will again, says Joe.
tc―And with the help of the holy mother of God we will again, says the
citizen, clapping his thigh. tcOur harbours that are empty will be full again,
Queenstown, Kinsale, Galway, Blacksod Bay, Ventry in the kingdom of
Kerry, Killybegs, the third largest harbour in the wide world with a fleet of
masts of the Galway Lynches and the Cavan O'Reillys and the
O'Kennedys of Dublin when the earl of Desmond could make a treaty with
the emperor Charles the Fifth himself. And will again, says he, tcwhen the
first Irish battleship is seen breasting the waves with our own flag to the
fore, none of your Henry Tudor's harps, no, the oldest flag afloat, the flag
of the province of Desmond and Thomond, three crowns on a blue field, the
three sons of Milesius.
And he took the last swig out of the pint. Moya. All wind and piss like
a tanyard cat. Cows in Connacht have long horns. As much as his bloody
life is worth to go down and address his tall talk to the assembled multitude
in Shanagolden where he daren't show his nose with the Molly Maguires
looking for him to let daylight through him for grabbing the holding of an
evicted tenant.
jwn―Hear, hear to that, says John Wyse. jwnWhat will you have?
len―An imperial yeomanry, says Lenehan, lento celebrate the occasion.
jwn―Half one, Terry, says John Wyse, jwnand a hands up. Terry! Are you asleep?
ter―Yes, sir, says Terry. terSmall whisky and bottle of Allsop. Right, sir.
Hanging over the bloody paper with Alf looking for spicy bits instead
of attending to the general public. Picture of a butting match, trying to
crack their bloody skulls, one chap going for the other with his head down
like a bull at a gate. And another one: Black Beast Burned in Omaha, Ga.
A lot of Deadwood Dicks in slouch hats and they firing at a Sambo strung
up in a tree with his tongue out and a bonfire under him. Gob, they ought to
drown him in the sea after and electrocute and crucify him to make sure of
their job.
nl―But what about the fighting navy, says Ned, nlthat keeps our foes at bay?
tc―I'll tell you what about it, says the citizen. tcHell upon earth it is. Read the
revelations that's going on in the papers about flogging on the training ships
at Portsmouth. A fellow writes that calls himself Disgusted One.
So he starts telling us about corporal punishment and about the crew
of tars and officers and rearadmirals drawn up in cocked hats and the
parson with his protestant bible to witness punishment and a young lad
brought out, howling for his ma, and they tie him down on the buttend of a
gun.
tc―A rump and dozen, says the citizen, tcwas what that old ruffian sir John
Beresford called it but the modern God's Englishman calls it caning on the
breech.
And says John Wyse:
jwn―'Tis a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance.
Then he was telling us the master at arms comes along with a long
cane and he draws out and he flogs the bloody backside off of the poor lad
till he yells meila murder.
tc―That's your glorious British navy, says the citizen, tcthat bosses the earth.
The fellows that never will be slaves, with the only hereditary chamber on
the face of God's earth and their land in the hands of a dozen gamehogs
and cottonball barons. That's the great empire they boast about of drudges
and whipped serfs.
jh―On which the sun never rises, says Joe.
tc―And the tragedy of it is, says the citizen, tcthey believe it. The unfortunate
yahoos believe it.
They believe in rod, the scourger almighty, creator of hell upon earth,
and in Jacky Tar, the son of a gun, who was conceived of unholy boast,
born of the fighting navy, suffered under rump and dozen, was scarified,
flayed and curried, yelled like bloody hell, the third day he arose again from
the bed, steered into haven, sitteth on his beamend till further orders
whence he shall come to drudge for a living and be paid.
lb―But, says Bloom, lbisn't discipline the same everywhere. I mean wouldn't it
be the same here if you put force against force?
Didn't I tell you? As true as I'm drinking this porter if he was at his
last gasp he'd try to downface you that dying was living.
tc―We'll put force against force, says the citizen. tcWe have our greater
Ireland beyond the sea. They were driven out of house and home in the
black '47. Their mudcabins and their shielings by the roadside were laid
low by the batteringram and the Times rubbed its hands and told the
whitelivered Saxons there would soon be as few Irish in Ireland as redskins
in America. Even the Grand Turk sent us his piastres. But the Sassenach
tried to starve the nation at home while the land was full of crops that the
British hyenas bought and sold in Rio de Janeiro. Ay, they drove out the
peasants in hordes. Twenty thousand of them died in the coffinships. But
those that came to the land of the free remember the land of bondage. And
they will come again and with a vengeance, no cravens, the sons of
Granuaile, the champions of Kathleen ni Houlihan.
lb―Perfectly true, says Bloom. lbBut my point was ....
nl―We are a long time waiting for that day, citizen, says Ned. nlSince the poor
old woman told us that the French were on the sea and landed at Killala.
jwn―Ay, says John Wyse. jwnWe fought for the royal Stuarts that reneged us
against the Williamites and they betrayed us. Remember Limerick and the
broken treatystone. We gave our best blood to France and Spain, the wild
geese. Fontenoy, eh? And Sarsfield and O'Donnell, duke of Tetuan in
Spain, and Ulysses Browne of Camus that was fieldmarshal to Maria
Teresa. But what did we ever get for it?
tc―The French! says the citizen. tcSet of dancing masters! Do you know what
it is? They were never worth a roasted fart to Ireland. Aren't they trying to
make an entente cordial now at Tay Pay's dinnerparty with perfidious
Albion? Firebrands of Europe and they always were.
len―Conspuez les français, says Lenehan, nobbling his beer.
jh―And as for the Prooshians and the Hanoverians, says Joe, jhhaven't we had
enough of those sausageeating bastards on the throne from George the
elector down to the German lad and the flatulent old bitch that's dead?
Jesus, I had to laugh at the way he came out with that about the old
one with the winkers on her, blind drunk in her royal palace every night of
God, old Vic, with her jorum of mountain dew and her coachman carting
her up body and bones to roll into bed and she pulling him by the whiskers
and singing him old bits of songs about
jjom―Well, says J. J. jjomWe have Edward the peacemaker now.
tc―Tell that to a fool, says the citizen. tcThere's a bloody sight more pox than
pax about that boyo. Edward Guelph-Wettin!
jh―And what do you think, says Joe, jhof the holy boys, the priests and bishops
of Ireland doing up his room in Maynooth in His Satanic Majesty's racing
colours and sticking up pictures of all the horses his jockeys rode. The earl
of Dublin, no less.
ab―They ought to have stuck up all the women he rode himself, says little Alf.
And says J. J.:
jjom―Considerations of space influenced their lordships' decision.
jh―Will you try another, citizen? says Joe.
tc―Yes, sir, says he. tcI will.
jh―You? says Joe.
tn―Beholden to you, Joe, says I. tnMay your shadow never grow less.
jh―Repeat that dose, says Joe.
Bloom was talking and talking with John Wyse and he quite excited
with his dunducketymudcoloured mug on him and his old plumeyes rolling
about.
lb―Persecution, says he, lball the history of the world is full of it. Perpetuating
national hatred among nations.
jwn―But do you know what a nation means? says John Wyse.
lb―Yes, says Bloom.
jwn―What is it? says John Wyse.
lb―A nation? says Bloom. lbA nation is the same people living in the same
place.
nl―By God, then, says Ned, laughing, nlif that's so I'm a nation for I'm living
in the same place for the past five years.
So of course everyone had the laugh at Bloom and says he, trying to
muck out of it:
lb―Or also living in different places.
jh―That covers my case, says Joe.
tc―What is your nation if I may ask? says the citizen.
lb―Ireland, says Bloom. lbI was born here. Ireland.
The citizen said nothing only cleared the spit out of his gullet and,
gob, he spat a Red bank oyster out of him right in the corner.
tc―After you with the push, Joe, says he, taking out his handkerchief to swab
himself dry.
jh―Here you are, citizen, says Joe. jhTake that in your right hand and repeat
after me the following words.
The muchtreasured and intricately embroidered ancient Irish
facecloth attributed to Solomon of Droma and Manus Tomaltach og
MacDonogh, authors of the Book of Ballymote, was then carefully
produced and called forth prolonged admiration. No need to dwell on the
legendary beauty of the cornerpieces, the acme of art, wherein one can
distinctly discern each of the four evangelists in turn presenting to each of
the four masters his evangelical symbol, a bogoak sceptre, a North
American puma (a far nobler king of beasts than the British article, be it
said in passing), a Kerry calf and a golden eagle from Carrantuohill. The
scenes depicted on the emunctory field, showing our ancient duns and raths
and cromlechs and grianauns and seats of learning and maledictive stones,
are as wonderfully beautiful and the pigments as delicate as when the Sligo
illuminators gave free rein to their artistic fantasy long long ago in the time
of the Barmecides. Glendalough, the lovely lakes of Killarney, the ruins of
Clonmacnois, Cong Abbey, Glen Inagh and the Twelve Pins, Ireland's Eye,
the Green Hills of Tallaght, Croagh Patrick, the brewery of Messrs Arthur
Guinness, Son and Company (Limited), Lough Neagh's banks, the vale of
Ovoca, Isolde's tower, the Mapas obelisk, Sir Patrick Dun's hospital, Cape
Clear, the glen of Aherlow, Lynch's castle, the Scotch house, Rathdown
Union Workhouse at Loughlinstown, Tullamore jail, Castleconnel rapids,
Kilballymacshonakill, the cross at Monasterboice, Jury's Hotel, S. Patrick's
Purgatory, the Salmon Leap, Maynooth college refectory, Curley's hole, the
three birthplaces of the first duke of Wellington, the rock of Cashel, the bog
of Allen, the Henry Street Warehouse, Fingal's Cave – all these moving
scenes are still there for us today rendered more beautiful still by the waters
of sorrow which have passed over them and by the rich incrustations of
time.
tn―Show us over the drink, says I. tnWhich is which?
jh―That's mine, says Joe, jhas the devil said to the dead policeman.
lb―And I belong to a race too, says Bloom, lbthat is hated and persecuted. Also
now. This very moment. This very instant.
Gob, he near burnt his fingers with the butt of his old cigar.
lb―Robbed, says he. lbPlundered. Insulted. Persecuted. Taking what belongs
to us by right. At this very moment, says he, putting up his fist, lbsold by
auction in Morocco like slaves or cattle.
tc―Are you talking about the new Jerusalem? says the citizen.
lb―I'm talking about injustice, says Bloom.
jwn―Right, says John Wyse. jwnStand up to it then with force like men.
That's an almanac picture for you. Mark for a softnosed bullet. Old
lardyface standing up to the business end of a gun. Gob, he'd adorn a
sweepingbrush, so he would, if he only had a nurse's apron on him. And
then he collapses all of a sudden, twisting around all the opposite, as limp as
a wet rag.
lb―But it's no use, says he. lbForce, hatred, history, all that. That's not life for
men and women, insult and hatred. And everybody knows that it's the very
opposite of that that is really life.
ab―What? says Alf.
lb―Love, says Bloom. lbI mean the opposite of hatred. I must go now, says he
to John Wyse. lbJust round to the court a moment to see if Martin is there. If
he comes just say I'll be back in a second. Just a moment.
Who's hindering you? And off he pops like greased lightning.
tc―A new apostle to the gentiles, says the citizen. tcUniversal love.
jwn―Well, says John Wyse. jwnIsn't that what we're told. Love your neighbour.
tc―That chap? says the citizen. tcBeggar my neighbour is his motto. Love,
moya! He's a nice pattern of a Romeo and Juliet.
Love loves to love love. Nurse loves the new chemist. Constable 14 A
loves Mary Kelly. Gerty MacDowell loves the boy that has the bicycle.
M. B. loves a fair gentleman. Li Chi Han lovey up kissy Cha Pu Chow.
Jumbo, the elephant, loves Alice, the elephant. Old Mr Verschoyle with the
ear trumpet loves old Mrs Verschoyle with the turnedin eye. The man in the
brown macintosh loves a lady who is dead. His Majesty the King loves Her
Majesty the Queen. Mrs Norman W. Tupper loves officer Taylor. You love
a certain person. And this person loves that other person because everybody
loves somebody but God loves everybody.
tn―Well, Joe, says I, tnyour very good health and song. More power, citizen.
jh―Hurrah, there, says Joe.
tc―The blessing of God and Mary and Patrick on you, says the citizen.
And he ups with his pint to wet his whistle.
tc―We know those canters, says he, tcpreaching and picking your pocket.
What about sanctimonious Cromwell and his ironsides that put the women
and children of Drogheda to the sword with the bible text God is love
pasted round the mouth of his cannon? The bible! Did you read that skit in
the United Irishman today about that Zulu chief that's visiting England?
jh―What's that? says Joe.
So the citizen takes up one of his paraphernalia papers and he starts
reading out:
tc―A delegation of the chief cotton magnates of Manchester was presented
yesterday to His Majesty the Alaki of Abeakuta by Gold Stick in Waiting,
Lord Walkup of Walkup on Eggs, to tender to His Majesty the heartfelt
thanks of British traders for the facilities afforded them in his dominions.
The delegation partook of luncheon at the conclusion of which the dusky
potentate, in the course of a happy speech, freely translated by the British
chaplain, the reverend Ananias Praisegod Barebones, tendered his best
thanks to Massa Walkup and emphasised the cordial relations existing
between Abeakuta and the British empire, stating that he treasured as one
of his dearest possessions an illuminated bible, the volume of the word of
God and the secret of England's greatness, graciously presented to him by
the white chief woman, the great squaw Victoria, with a personal dedication
from the august hand of the Royal Donor. The Alaki then drank a
lovingcup of firstshot usquebaugh to the toast Black and White from the
skull of his immediate predecessor in the dynasty Kakachakachak,
surnamed Forty Warts, after which he visited the chief factory of
Cottonopolis and signed his mark in the visitors' book, subsequently
executing a charming old Abeakutic wardance, in the course of which he
swallowed several knives and forks, amid hilarious applause from the girl
hands.
nl―Widow woman, says Ned. nlI wouldn't doubt her. Wonder did he put that
bible to the same use as I would.
len―Same only more so, says Lenehan. lenAnd thereafter in that fruitful land the
broadleaved mango flourished exceedingly.
jwn―Is that by Griffith? says John Wyse.
tc―No, says the citizen. tcIt's not signed Shanganagh. It's only initialled: P.
jh―And a very good initial too, says Joe.
tc―That's how it's worked, says the citizen. tcTrade follows the flag.
jjom―Well, says J. J., jjomif they're any worse than those Belgians in the Congo
Free State they must be bad. Did you read that report by a man what's this
his name is?
tc―Casement, says the citizen. tcHe's an Irishman.
jjom―Yes, that's the man, says J. J. jjomRaping the women and girls and flogging
the natives on the belly to squeeze all the red rubber they can out of them.
len―I know where he's gone, says Lenehan, cracking his fingers.
tn―Who? says I.
len―Bloom, says he. lenThe courthouse is a blind. He had a few bob on
Throwaway and he's gone to gather in the shekels.
tc―Is it that whiteeyed kaffir? says the citizen, tcthat never backed a horse in
anger in his life?
len―That's where he's gone, says Lenehan. lenI met Bantam Lyons going to back
that horse only I put him off it and he told me Bloom gave him the tip. Bet
you what you like he has a hundred shillings to five on. He's the only man
in Dublin has it. A dark horse.
jh―He's a bloody dark horse himself, says Joe.
tn―Mind, Joe, says I. tnShow us the entrance out.
ter―There you are, says Terry.
Goodbye Ireland I'm going to Gort. So I just went round the back of the yard to pumpship and begob (hundred shillings to five) while I was letting off my (Throwaway twenty to) letting off my load gob says I to myself I knew he was uneasy in his (two pints off of Joe and one in Slattery's off) in his mind to get off the mark to (hundred shillings is five quid) and when they were in the (dark horse) pisser Burke was telling me card party and letting on the child was sick (gob, must have done about a gallon) flabbyarse of a wife speaking down the tube mbshe's better or mbshe's (ow!) all a plan so he could vamoose with the pool if he won or (Jesus, full up I was) trading without a licence (ow!) Ireland my nation says he (hoik! phthook!) never be up to those bloody (there's the last of it) Jerusalem (ah!) cuckoos.
So anyhow when I got back they were at it dingdong, John Wyse
saying it was Bloom gave the ideas for Sinn Fein to Griffith to put in his
paper all kinds of jerrymandering, packed juries and swindling the taxes off
of the government and appointing consuls all over the world to walk about
selling Irish industries. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Gob, that puts the
bloody kybosh on it if old sloppy eyes is mucking up the show. Give us a
bloody chance. God save Ireland from the likes of that bloody mouseabout.
Mr Bloom with his argol bargol. And his old fellow before him perpetrating
frauds, old Methusalem Bloom, the robbing bagman, that poisoned himself
with the prussic acid after he swamping the country with his baubles and
his penny diamonds. Loans by post on easy terms. Any amount of money
advanced on note of hand. Distance no object. No security. Gob, he's like
Lanty MacHale's goat that'd go a piece of the road with every one.
jwn―Well, it's a fact, says John Wyse. jwnAnd there's the man now that'll tell you
all about it, Martin Cunningham.
Sure enough the castle car drove up with Martin on it and Jack Power with him and a fellow named Crofter or Crofton, pensioner out of the collector general's, an orangeman Blackburn does have on the registration and he drawing his pay or Crawford gallivanting around the country at the king's expense.
Our travellers reached the rustic hostelry and alighted from their
palfreys.
mc2―Ho, varlet! cried he, who by his mien seemed the leader of the party.
mc2Saucy knave! To us!
So saying he knocked loudly with his swordhilt upon the open lattice.
Mine host came forth at the summons, girding him with his tabard.
uland―Give you good den, my masters, said he with an obsequious bow.
mc2―Bestir thyself, sirrah! cried he who had knocked. mc2Look to our steeds. And
for ourselves give us of your best for ifaith we need it.
uland―Lackaday, good masters, said the host, ulandmy poor house has but a bare
larder. I know not what to offer your lordships.
jp2―How now, fellow? cried the second of the party, a man of pleasant
countenance, jp2So servest thou the king's messengers, master Taptun?
An instantaneous change overspread the landlord's visage.
uland―Cry you mercy, gentlemen, he said humbly. ulandAn you be the king's
messengers (God shield His Majesty!) you shall not want for aught. The
king's friends (God bless His Majesty!) shall not go afasting in my house I
warrant me.
cr2―Then about! cried the traveller who had not spoken, a lusty trencherman
by his aspect. cr2Hast aught to give us?
Mine host bowed again as he made answer:
uland―What say you, good masters, to a squab pigeon pasty, some collops of
venison, a saddle of veal, widgeon with crisp hog's bacon, a boar's head
with pistachios, a bason of jolly custard, a medlar tansy and a flagon of old
Rhenish?
cr2―Gadzooks! cried the last speaker. cr2That likes me well. Pistachios!
jp2―Aha! cried he of the pleasant countenance. jp2A poor house and a bare
larder, quotha! 'Tis a merry rogue.
So in comes Martin asking where was Bloom.
len―Where is he? says Lenehan. lenDefrauding widows and orphans.
jwn―Isn't that a fact, says John Wyse, jwnwhat I was telling the citizen about
Bloom and the Sinn Fein?
mc―That's so, says Martin. mcOr so they allege.
ab―Who made those allegations? says Alf.
jh―I, says Joe. jhI'm the alligator.
jwn―And after all, says John Wyse, jwnwhy can't a jew love his country like the
next fellow?
jjom―Why not? says J. J., jjomwhen he's quite sure which country it is.
nl―Is he a jew or a gentile or a holy Roman or a swaddler or what the hell is
he? says Ned. nlOr who is he? No offence, Crofton.
jjom―Who is Junius? says J. J.
cr―We don't want him, says Crofter the Orangeman or presbyterian.
mc―He's a perverted jew, says Martin, mcfrom a place in Hungary and it was he
drew up all the plans according to the Hungarian system. We know that in
the castle.
jp―Isn't he a cousin of Bloom the dentist? says Jack Power.
mc―Not at all, says Martin. mcOnly namesakes. His name was Virag, the
father's name that poisoned himself. He changed it by deedpoll, the father
did.
tc―That's the new Messiah for Ireland! says the citizen. tcIsland of saints and
sages!
mc―Well, they're still waiting for their redeemer, says Martin. mcFor that matter
so are we.
jjom―Yes, says J. J., jjomand every male that's born they think it may be their
Messiah. And every jew is in a tall state of excitement, I believe, till he
knows if he's a father or a mother.
len―Expecting every moment will be his next, says Lenehan.
nl―O, by God, says Ned, nlyou should have seen Bloom before that son of his
that died was born. I met him one day in the south city markets buying a tin
of Neave's food six weeks before the wife was delivered.
jjom―En ventre sa mère, says J. J.
tc―Do you call that a man? says the citizen.
jh―I wonder did he ever put it out of sight, says Joe.
jp―Well, there were two children born anyhow, says Jack Power.
tc―And who does he suspect? says the citizen.
Gob, there's many a true word spoken in jest. One of those mixed
middlings he is. Lying up in the hotel Pisser was telling me once a month
with headache like a totty with her courses. Do you know what I'm telling
you? It'd be an act of God to take a hold of a fellow the like of that and
throw him in the bloody sea. Justifiable homicide, so it would. Then sloping
off with his five quid without putting up a pint of stuff like a man. Give us
your blessing. Not as much as would blind your eye.
mc―Charity to the neighbour, says Martin. mcBut where is he? We can't wait.
tc―A wolf in sheep's clothing, says the citizen. tcThat's what he is. Virag from
Hungary! Ahasuerus I call him. Cursed by God.
nl―Have you time for a brief libation, Martin? says Ned.
mc―Only one, says Martin. mcWe must be quick. J. J. and S.
nl―You, Jack? Crofton? Three half ones, Terry.
tc―Saint Patrick would want to land again at Ballykinlar and convert us,
says the citizen, tcafter allowing things like that to contaminate our shores.
mc―Well, says Martin, rapping for his glass. mcGod bless all here is my prayer.
tc―Amen, says the citizen.
jh―And I'm sure He will, says Joe.
And at the sound of the sacring bell, headed by a crucifer with
acolytes, thurifers, boatbearers, readers, ostiarii, deacons and subdeacons,
the blessed company drew nigh of mitred abbots and priors and guardians
and monks and friars: the monks of Benedict of Spoleto, Carthusians and
Camaldolesi, Cistercians and Olivetans, Oratorians and Vallombrosans,
and the friars of Augustine, Brigittines, Premonstratensians, Servi,
Trinitarians, and the children of Peter Nolasco: and therewith from Carmel
mount the children of Elijah prophet led by Albert bishop and by Teresa of
Avila, calced and other: and friars, brown and grey, sons of poor Francis,
capuchins, cordeliers, minimes and observants and the daughters of Clara:
and the sons of Dominic, the friars preachers, and the sons of Vincent: and
the monks of S. Wolstan: and Ignatius his children: and the confraternity
of the christian brothers led by the reverend brother Edmund Ignatius Rice.
And after came all saints and martyrs, virgins and confessors: S. Cyr and S.
Isidore Arator and S. James the Less and S. Phocas of Sinope and S. Julian
Hospitator and S. Felix de Cantalice and S. Simon Stylites and S. Stephen
Protomartyr and S. John of God and S. Ferreol and S. Leugarde and S.
Theodotus and S. Vulmar and S. Richard and S. Vincent de Paul and S.
Martin of Todi and S. Martin of Tours and S. Alfred and S. Joseph and S.
Denis and S. Cornelius and S. Leopold and S. Bernard and S. Terence and
S. Edward and S. Owen Caniculus and S. Anonymous and S. Eponymous
and S. Pseudonymous and S. Homonymous and S. Paronymous and S.
Synonymous and S. Laurence O'Toole and S. James of Dingle and
Compostella and S. Columcille and S. Columba and S. Celestine and S.
Colman and S. Kevin and S. Brendan and S. Frigidian and S. Senan and S.
Fachtna and S. Columbanus and S. Gall and S. Fursey and S. Fintan and S.
Fiacre and S. John Nepomuc and S. Thomas Aquinas and S. Ives of
Brittany and S. Michan and S. Herman-Joseph and the three patrons of
holy youth S. Aloysius Gonzaga and S. Stanislaus Kostka and S. John
Berchmans and the saints Gervasius, Servasius and Bonifacius and S. Bride
and S. Kieran and S. Canice of Kilkenny and S. Jarlath of Tuam and S.
Finbarr and S. Pappin of Ballymun and Brother Aloysius Pacificus and
Brother Louis Bellicosus and the saints Rose of Lima and of Viterbo and S.
Martha of Bethany and S. Mary of Egypt and S. Lucy and S. Brigid and S.
Attracta and S. Dympna and S. Ita and S. Marion Calpensis and the
Blessed Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus and S. Barbara and S. Scholastica
and S. Ursula with eleven thousand virgins. And all came with nimbi and
aureoles and gloriae, bearing palms and harps and swords and olive
crowns, in robes whereon were woven the blessed symbols of their
efficacies, inkhorns, arrows, loaves, cruses, fetters, axes, trees, bridges,
babes in a bathtub, shells, wallets, shears, keys, dragons, lilies, buckshot,
beards, hogs, lamps, bellows, beehives, soupladles, stars, snakes, anvils,
boxes of vaseline, bells, crutches, forceps, stags' horns, watertight boots,
hawks, millstones, eyes on a dish, wax candles, aspergills, unicorns. And as
they wended their way by Nelson's Pillar, Henry street, Mary street, Capel
street, Little Britain street chanting the introit
frof―Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.
tcob―Qui fecit coelum et terram.
frof―Dominus vobiscum.
tcob―Et cum spiritu tuo.
And he laid his hands upon that he blessed and gave thanks and he
prayed and they all with him prayed:
frof tcob―Deus, cuius verbo sanctificantur omnia, benedictionem tuam effunde super
creaturas istas: et praesta ut quisquis eis secundum legem et voluntatem
Tuam cum gratiarum actione usus fuerit per i