BRONZE by gold heard the
hoofirons, steelringing Imperthnthn thnthnthn.
Chips, picking chips
off rocky thumbnail, chips.
Horrid! And gold flushed more.
A husky fifenote blew.
Blew. Blue bloom is on the
Gold pinnacled hair.
A jumping rose on
satiny breasts of satin, rose of Castille.
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. O rose! Notes chirruping answer. Castille.
The morn is breaking.
Jingle jingle jaunted
jingling.
Coin rang. Clock clacked.
Avowal. Sonnez. I could.
Rebound of garter. Not leave
thee. Smack. La cloche!
Thigh smack. Avowal. Warm.
Sweetheart, goodbye!
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!
Clapclop. Clipclap.
Clappyclap.
Goodgod henev erheard
inall.
Deaf bald Pat brought
pad knife took up.
A moonlight 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. Lizst'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.
Naminedamine. 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 Castille of
summer left bloom I feel so say 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.
Fiff! Oo!
Where bronze from
anear? Where gold from afar? Where hoofs?
Rrrpr. Kraa.
Kraandl.
Then, not till
then. My eppripfftaph. Be pfrwitt.
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.
- Is that he? asked
Miss Kennedy.
Miss Douce said yes,
sitting with his ex, pearl grey and 'eau de Nil'.
- Exquisite contrast,
Miss Kennedy said.
When all agog Miss
Douce said eagerly:
- Look at the fellow in
the tall silk.
- Who? Where? gold asked more eagerly.
- In the second
carriage, Miss Douce's wet lips said, laughing in the sun. He'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:
- He's killed looking
back.
She laughed:
- 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.
- It's them has the
fine times, sadly then she said.
A man.
Bloowho went 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
- There's your teas, he
said.
Miss Kennedy with
manners transposed the teatray down to an upturned lithia crate, safe from
eyes, low.
- What is it? loud
boots unmannerly asked.
- Find out, Miss Douce
retorted, leaving her spying point.
- Your beau, is
it?
A haughty bronze
replied:
- I'll complain to Mrs
de Massey on you if I hear any more of your impertinent insolence.
- Imperthnthn
thnthnthn, bootsnout sniffed rudely, as he retreated as she threatened as he
had come.
Bloom.
On her flower frowning
Miss Douce said:
- 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.
- 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.
- Am I awfully
sunburnt?
Miss Bronze unbloused
her neck.
- No, said Miss
Kennedy. It 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.
- And leave it to my
hands, she said.
- Try it with the
glycerine, Miss Kennedy advised.
Bidding her neck and
hands adieu Miss Douce.
- Those things only
bring out a rash, replied, reseated. I
asked that old fogey in Boyd's for something for my skin.
Miss Kennedy, pouring
now fulldrawn tea, grimaced and prayed:
- O don't remind me of
him for mercy'sake!
- But wait till I tell
you, Miss Douce entreated.
Sweet tea Miss Kennedy
having poured with milk plugged both two ears with little fingers.
- No, don't, she cried.
- I won't listen, she
cried.
But Bloom?
Miss Douce grunted in
snuffy fogey's tone:
- For your what? says
he.
Miss Kennedy unplugged
her ears to hear, to speak: but said, but prayed again:
- 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.
- Here he was, Miss
Douce said, cocking her bronze head three quarters, ruffling her
nosewings. Hufa! Hufa!
Shrill shriek of
laughter sprang from Miss Kennedy's throat.
Miss Douce huffed and snorted down her nostrils that quivered
imperthnthnthn like a shout in quest.
- O! Shrieking, Miss
Kennedy cried. Will you ever forget his
goggle eye?
Miss Douce chimed in in
deep bronze laughter, shouting:
- And your other eye!
Bloowhose dark eye read
Aaron Figatner's name. Why do I always
think Figather? Gathering figs I
think. And Prosper Lore's huguenot
name. By Bassi's blessed virgin Bloom's
dark eyes went by. Bluerobed, 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 again 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:
- O greasy eyes! Imagine being married to a man like that, she
cried. With his bit of beard!
Douce gave full vent to
a splendid yell, a full yell of full woman, delight, joy, indignation.
- Married to the greasy
nose! she yelled.
Shrill, with deep
laughter, after bronze in gold, they urged each each to peal after peal,
ringing in changes, bronzegold goldbronze, shrilldeep, to laughter after
laughter. And they 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.
Married to Bloom, to
greaseaseabloom.
- O saints above! Miss
Douce said, sighed above her jumping rose.
I wished I hadn't laughed so much.
I feel all wet.
- O, Miss Douce! Miss
Kennedy protested. You horrid thing!
And flushed yet more
(you horrid), more goldenly.
By Cantwell's offices
roved Greaseabloom, by Ceppi's virgins, bright of their oils. Nannetti's father hawked those things about,
wheedling at doors as I. Religion pays. Must see him about Keyes's 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.
- O welcome back, Miss
Douce.
He held her hand. Enjoyed her holidays?
- Tiptop.
He hoped she had nice
weather in Rostrevor.
- Gorgeous, she
said. Look at the holy show I am. Lying out on the strand all day.
Bronze whiteness.
- That was exceedingly
naughty of you, Mr Dedalus told her and pressed her hand indulgently. Tempting poor simple males.
Miss Douce of satin
douced her arm away.
- O go away, she
said. You're very simple, I don't think.
He was.
- Well now, I am, he
mused. I looked so simple in the cradle
they christened me simple Simon.
- You must have been a
doaty, Miss Douce made answer. And what
did the doctor order today?
- Well now, he mused,
whatever you say yourself. I think I'll
trouble you for some fresh water and a half glass of whisky.
Jingle.
- 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.
- By Jove, he
mused. I 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 not said
nothing. Yes.
Gaily Miss Douce
polished a tumbler, trilling:
- O Idoleres, queen
of the eastern seas!
- Was Mr Lidwell in
today?
In came Lenehan. Round him peered Lenehan. Mr Bloom reached
He was in at lunchtime,
Miss Douce said.
Lenehan came forward.
- Was Mr Boylan looking
for me?
He asked. She answered:
- 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.
- No. He was not.
Miss gaze of Kennedy,
heard not seen, read on. Lenehan round
the sandwichbell wound his round body round.
- 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:
- 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:
- Ah me! O my!
He greeted Mr Dedalus
and got a nod.
- Greetings from the
famous son of a famous father.
- Who may he be? Mr
Dedalus asked.
Lenehan opened most
genial arms. Who?
- Who may he be? he
asked. Can you ask? Stephen, the
youthful bard.
Dry.
Mr Dedalus, famous
fighter, laid by his dry filled pipe.
- I see, he said. I didn't recognize him for the moment. I hear he is keeping very select
company. Have you seen him lately?
He had.
- I quaffed the
nectarbowl with him this very day, said Lenehan. In 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.
- The élite of
After an interval Mr
Dedalus raised his grog and
- That must have been
highly diverting, said he. I see.
He see. He drank.
With faraway mourning mountain eye.
Set down his glass.
He looked towards the
salon door.
- I see you have moved
the piano.
- The tuner was in
today, Miss Douce replied, tuning it for the smoking concert and I never heard
such an exquisite player.
- Is that a fact?
- Didn't he, Miss
Kennedy? The real classical, you
know. And blind too, poor fellow. Not twenty I'm sure he was.
- Is that a fact? Mr
Dedalus said.
He drank and strayed
away.
- 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
diningroom came bald Pat, came bothered Pat, came Pat, waiter of Ormond. Lager for dinner. Lager without alacrity she served.
With patience Lenehan
waited for Boylan with impatience, for jingle jaunty blazes boy.
Unholding 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. Are 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. Tanks awfully muchly. Wise Bloom eyed on the door a poster, a
swaying mermaid smoking mid nice waves.
Smoke mermaids, coolest whiff of all.
Hair streaming: lovelorn. For
some man. For Raoul. He eyed and saw afar on
Jingling on supple
rubbers is jaunted from the bridge to Ormond quay. Follow.
Risk it. Go quick. At four.
Near now. Out.
- Twopence, sir, the
shopgirl dared to say.
- Aha ... I was
forgetting ... Excuse ...
And four.
At four she. Winsomely she on Bloohimwhom smiled. Bloo smi qui go. Ternoon.
Think 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.
- The bright stars
fade ...
A voiceless song sang
from within, singing:
- ... the morn is
breaking.
A duedene 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.
- The dewdrops pearl
...
Lenehan's lips over the
counter lisped a low whistle of decoy.
- But look this way, he
said, rose of Castille.
Jingle jaunted by the
curb and stopped.
She rose and closed her
reading, rose of Castille. Fretted
forlorn, dreamily rose.
- Did she fall or was
she pushed? he asked her.
She answered,
slighting:
- 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:
- See the conquering
hero comes.
Between the car and
window, warily walking, went Bloom, unconquered hero. See me he might. The seat he sat on: warm. Black wary hecat walked towards Richie
Goulding's legal bag, lifted aloft saluting.
- And I from thee
...
- 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.
Boylan bespoke potions.
- What's your cry? Glass of bitter? Glass of bitter, please, and a sloegin for
me. Wire in yet?
Not yet. At four he.
All said four.
Cowley's red lugs and
Adam's apple in the door of the sheriff's office. Avoid.
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
Miss Douce reached high
to take a flagon, stretching her satin arm, her bust, that all but burst, so
high.
- O! O! jerked Lenehan,
gasping at each stretch. O!
But easily she seized
her prey and led it low in triumph.
- Why don't you grow?
asked Blazed Boylan.
Shebronze, dealing from
her jar thick syrupy liquor for his lips, looked as it flowed (flower in his
coat: who gave him?), and syrupped with her voice:
- Fine goods in small
parcels.
That is to say
she. Neatly she poured slowsyrupy sloe.
- Here's fortune,
Blazed said.
He pitched a broad coin
down. Coin rang.
- Hold on, said
Lenehan, till I ...
- Fortune, he wished,
lifting his bubbled ale.
- Sceptre will win in a
canter, he said.
- I plunged a bit, said
Boylan winking and drinking. Not on my
own, you know. Fancy of a friend of
mine.
Lenehan still drank and
grinned at his titled 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
- What time is that?
asked Blazes Boylan. Four?
O'clock.
Lenehan, small eyes
ahunger on her humming, bust a humming, tugged Blazes Boylan's elbowsleeves.
- 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. Be
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.
- Go on, pressed
Lenehan. There's no-one. He never heard.
- ... to Flora's
lips did hie.
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.
- Please, please.
He pleased over
returning phrases of avowal.
- I could not leave
thee ...
- Afterwits, Miss Douce
promised coyly.
- No, now, urged
Lenehan. Sonnezlacloche! 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, list chord, and lost and found it
faltering.
- Go on! Do! Sonnez!
Bending, she nipped a
peak of skirt above her knee.
Delayed. Taunted them still,
bending, suspending, with wilful eyes.
- Sonnez!
Smack. She let free sudden in rebound her nipped
elastic garter smackwarm against her smackable woman's warmhosed thigh.
- La cloche! cried
gleeful Lenehan. Trained by owner. No sawdust there.
She smilesmirked
supercilious (wept! aren't men?), but, lightward gliding, mild she smiled on
Boylan.
- You're the essence of
vulgarity, she in gliding said.
Boylan, eyed,
eyed. Tossed to fat lips his chalice,
drankoff his tiny chalice, sucking the last fat violet syrupy drops. His spellbound eyes went 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.
- ... Sweetheart,
goodbye!
- I'm off, said Boylan
with impatience.
He slid his chalice brisk
away, grasped his change.
- Wait a shake, begged
Lenehan, drinking quickly. I wanted to
tell you. Tom Rochford ...
- Come on to blazes,
said Blazes Boylan, going.
Lenehan gulped to go.
- Got the horn or what?
he said. Wait, I'm coming.
He followed the hasty
creaking shoes but stood by nimbly by the threshold, saluting forms, a bulky
with a slender.
- How do you do, Mr
Dollard?
- Eh? How do?
How do? Ben Dollard's vague bass answered, turning an instant from
Father Cowley's woe. He won't give you
any trouble, Bob. Alf Bergin 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.
- Hoho, we will, Ben
Dollard yodelled jollily. Come 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. Not 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.
- What's that? Mr
Dedalus said. I was only vamping, man.
- Come on, come on, Ben
Dollard called. Begone, dull care. Come, Bob.
He ambled Dollard,
bulky slops, before them (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. He's off. Light sob of breath Bloom sighed on the
silent bluehued flowers. Jingling. He's gone.
Jingle. Hear.
- Love and war, Ben, Mr
Dedalus said. God be with old times.
Miss Douce's brave
eyes, unregarded, turned from the crossblind, smitten by sunlight. Gone.
Pensive (who knows?), smitted (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, eau de Nil.
- Poor old Goodwin was the pianist that night, Father Cowley
reminded them. There was a slight
difference of opinion between himself and the Collard grand.
There was.
- A symposium all his
own, Mr Dedalus said. The devil wouldn't
stop him. He was a crotchety old fellow
in the primary stage of drink.
- God, do you remember?
Ben bulky Dollard said, turning from the punished keyboard. And by Jaspers I had no wedding garment.
They laughed all
three. He had no wed. All trio laughed. No wedding garment.
- Our friend Bloom
turned in handy that night, Mr Dedalus said.
Where'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.
- I saved the
situation, Ben, I think.
- You did, averred Ben
Dollard. I 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.
- I knew he was on the
rocks, he said. The 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 have to search all
Ben remembered, his
broad visage wondering.
- By God she had some
luxurious opera cloaks and things there.
Mr Dedalus wandered
back, pipe in hand.
- 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?
- Ay, ay, Mr Dedalus
nodded. Mrs 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.
Mrs Marion met him pike
hoses. Smell of burn of Paul de
Kock. Nice name he.
- What's this her name
was? A buxom lassy.
- Tweedy.
- Yes. Is she alive?
- And kicking.
- She was a daughter of
...
- Daughter of the
regiment.
- Yes, begad. I remember the old drummajor.
Mr Dedalus struck,
whizzed, lit, puffed savoury puff after.
- Irish? I don't know, faith. Is she, Simon?
Puff after stiff, a
puff, strong, savoury, crackling.
- Buccinator muscle is
... What? ... Bit rusty ... O, she is ... My Irish Molly, O.
He puffed a pungent
plumy blast.
- From the rock of
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' rows 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:
- When love absorbs
my ardent soul ...
Roll of Bensoulbenjamin
rolled to the quivery loveshivery roofpanes.
- War! War! cried
Father Cowley. You're the warrior.
- So I am, Ben Warrior
laughed. I was thinking of your
landlord. Love or money.
He stopped. He wagged huge beard, huge face over his
blunder huge.
- Sure, you'd burst the
tympanum of her ear, man, Mr Dedalus said through smoke aroma, with an organ
like yours.
In bearded abundant
laughter Dollard shook upon the keyboard.
He would.
- Not to mention another
membrane, Father Cowley added. Half
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 needn't trouble. No trouble.
She waved about her outspread Independent, searching, the lord
lieutenant, her pinnacles of hair slowmoving, lord lieuten. Too much trouble, first gentleman said. O, not in the least. Way he looked that. Lord lieutenant. Gold by bronze heard iron steel.
- ............ my
ardent soul
I care not foror the morrow.
In liver gravy Bloom
mashed mashed potatoes. Love 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.
- Your friends are
inside, Mr Lidwell.
George Lidwell, suave,
solicited, held a lydiahand.
Bloom ate liv as said
before. Clean here at least. That chap in the
Piano again. Cowley it is.
Way he sits in to it, like one together, mutual understanding. Tiresome scrapers 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.
Only the harp. Lovely gold glowering light. Girl touched
it. Poop of a lovely. Gravy's rather good fit for a. Golden ship.
- Ah, I couldn't man,
Mr Dedalus said, shy, listless.
Strongly.
- Go on, blast you, Ben
Dollard growled. Get it out in bits.
- 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: A Last Farewell.
A headland, a ship, a sail upon the billows. Farewell.
A lovely girl, her veil awave upon the wind upon the headland, wind
around her.
Cowley sang:
- 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.
- Go on, Simon.
- 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.
- No, Simon, Father
Cowley turned. Play it in the original. One flat.
The keys, obedient,
rose higher, told, faltered, confessed, confused.
Up stage strode Father
Cowley.
- Here, Simon, I'll
accompany you, he said. Get up.
By Graham Lemon's
pineapple rock, by Elvery's elephant jingle 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: Sonnambula. He heard Joe Maas sing that one night. Ah, that M'Guckin! Yes.
In his way. Choirboy style.
Tenderly Bloom over
liverless bacon saw the tightened features strain. Backache 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.
Coming out with a
whopper now. Rhapsodies about damn
all. Believes his own lies. Does really.
Wonderful liar. But want a good
memory.
- Which air is that?
asked Leopold Bloom.
- 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. Is 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. Fall,
surrender, lost.
Bloom bent leopold ear,
turning a fringe of doyley down under the vase.
Order. Yes, I remember. Lovely air.
In sleep she went to him.
Innocence in the moon. Still hold
her back. Brave, don't know their
danger. Call name. Touch water.
Jingle jaunty. Too late. She longed to go. That's why.
Woman. As easy stop the sea. Yes: all is lost.
- A beautiful air, said
Bloom lost Leopold. I know it well.
Never in all his life
had Richie Goulding.
He 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.
Piano again. Sounds better than last time I heard. Tuned probably. Stopped again.
Dollar and Cowley still
urged the lingering singer out with it.
- With it, Simon.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
I am most deeply obliged by your kind solicitations.
- It, Simon.
- 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,
The harping chords of
prelude closed. A chord longdrawn,
expectant drew a voice away.
- When first I saw
that form endearing.
Richie turned.
- Si Dedalus' voice, he
said.
Braintipped, cheek
touched with flame, they listened feeling that flow endearing flow over silk
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.
- Sorrow from me
seemed to depart.
Through the hush of air
a voice sang to them, low, not rain, not leaves in murmur, like no voice of
strings of 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 sonnez la gold.
Bloom wound a skein round four forkfingers, stretched it, relaxed, and
wound it round his troubled double, fourfold, in octave, gyved them fast.
- Full of hope and
all delighted ...
Tenors 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? Phila of chachous, kissing comfits, in her
satchel. Yes? Hands felt for the opulent.
Alas! The voice rose, sighing, changed: loud, full,
shining, proud.
- But alas, 'twas
idle dreaming ...
Glorious 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. That's the chat. Ha, give!
Take! Throb, a throb, a pulsing
proud erect.
Words? Music?
No: it's what's behind.
Bloom looped, unlooped,
noded, disnoded.
Bloom. Flood of warm jimjam 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,
tupthrop. Now! Language of love.
- ... ray of hope
...
Beaming.
Martha 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.
Wish 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.
- Each graceful look
...
First 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.
- Charmed my eye ...
Singing. 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
- Martha! Ah, Martha!
Quitting all langour
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.
- Co-me thou lost one!
Co-me thou dear one!
Alone. One love.
One hope. One comfort me. Martha, chestnote, return.
- Come!
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 ethereal bosom, high, of the high vast irradiation
everywhere all soaring all around about the all, the endlessnessnessness ...
To me!
Siopold!
Consumed.
Come. Well sung.
All clapped. She ought to. Come.
To me, to him, to her, you too, me, us.
- Bravo! Clapclap.
Goodman, Simon.
Clappyclapclap. Encore! Clapclipclap.
Sound as a bell. Bravo,
Simon! Clapclopclap. Encore, enclap, said, cried, clapped all. Ben Dollard, Lydia Douce, George Lidwell,
Pat, Mina, 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 Matthew, jaunted as said before just now. Atrot, in heat, heatseated. Cloche.
Sonnez la. Cloche. Sonnez la.
Slower the mare went up the hill by the Rotunda,
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 tankards if she did not mind. Miss Kennedy smirked, disserving, coral lips,
at first, at second. She did not mind.
- Seven days in jail,
Ben Dollard said, on 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;
Admiring.
Richie, admiring,
descanted on that man's glorious voice.
He remembered one night long ago.
Never forget that night. Si sang 'Twas
rank and fame: in Ned Lambert's 'twas.
Good God he never heard in all his life a note like that he never did then
false one we had better part so clear so God he never heard since love
lives not a clinking voice ask Lambert he can tell you too.
Goulding, a flush
struggling in his pale, told Mr Bloom, face of the night, Si in Ned Lambert's,
Dedalus' house, sang 'Twas rank and fame.
He, Mr Bloom, listened
while he, Richie Goulding, told him, Mr Bloom of the night he, Richie, heard
him, Si Dedalus, sing 'Twas rank and fame in his, Ned Lambert's house.
Brothers-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
nights Si sang. The human voice, two
tiny silky chords. Wonderful, more than
all the others.
That voice was a
lamentation. Calmer now. It's in the silence 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 buzzed, it twanged. While Goulding talked to 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.
Thou lost one. All songs on that theme. Yet more Bloom stretched his string. Cruel 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. Bib Spanish eyes goggling
at nothing. Her
wavyavyeavyheavyeavyevyevy hair un comb:'d.
Yet too much happy
bores. He stretched more, more. Are you not happy in your? Twang.
It snapped.
Jingle into
Miss Douce withdrew her
satiny arm, reproachful, pleased.
- Don't make half so
free, said she, till 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
Better 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.
- Yes, Mr Bloom said,
teasing the curling catgut fine. It
certainly is. Few 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.
- Grandest number in
the whole opera, Goulding said.
- It is, Bloom said.
Number 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
ethereal. 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.
Instance 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. Blumenlied I bought for her. The name.
Playing it slow, a girl, night I came home, the girl. Door of the stables near
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
'Freeman' baton ranged Bloom's your other eye, scanning for where did I see
that. Callan, Coleman, Dignam
Patrick. Heigho! Heigho!
Fawcett. Aha! Just as I was looking ...
Hope he's not looking,
cute as a rat. He held unfurled his Freeman. Can't see now. Remember write Greek ees. Bloom dipped, Bloo mur: dear sir. Dear Henry wrote: dear Mady. Got your lett and flow. Hell did I put? Some pock or oth. It is utterl imposs. Underline imposs. To write today.
Bore this. Bored Bloom tambourined gently with I am just
reflecting fingers on flat pad Pat brought.
On. Know what I mean. No, change that ee. Accept my poor little 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 pin of
her. Bye for today. Yes, yes, will tell you. Want to.
To keep it up. Call me that
other. Other word she wrote. My patience are exhaust. To keep it up. You must believe. Believe.
The tank. It. Is. True.
Folly 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 at all. Useless pain.
If they don't see. Woman. Sauce for the gander.
A hackney car, number
three hundred and twentyfive, 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.
- Answering an ad? keen
Richie's eyes asked Bloom.
- Yes, Mr Bloom
said. Town traveller. Nothing doing, I expect.
Bloom mur: best
references. But Henry wrote: it will
excite me. You know now. 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 say today. La ree.
So lonely.
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
Blot over the other so
he can't read. 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.
Too 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.
In Gerard's rosary of
Fetter lane he walks, greyedauburn. One
life is all. One body. Do.
But do.
Done 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.
Car near there
now. Talk. Talk.
Pat! Doesn't. Settling those napkins.
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
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.
- Listen! she bade him.
Under Tom Kernan's
ginhot words the accompanist wove music slow.
Authentic 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, sir Tom. Bob Cowley wove. Tenors get worse. 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.
Her 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 their mouth, why? Her eyes over the sheet, a yashmak. Find the way in. A cave.
No admittance except on business.
The sea they think they
hear. Singing. A roar.
The blood is it. Souse in the ear
sometimes. Well, it's a sea. Corpuscle islands.
Wonderful really. So distinct.
Again. George Lidwell held its
murmur, hearing: then laid it by, gently.
- What are the wild
waves saying? he asked her, smiled.
Charming, seasmiling
and unanswering
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 tankard 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. The
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: two, one, three, four.
Sea, wind, leaves,
thunder, waters, cows lowing, the cattle market, 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.
That's joyful I can
feel. Never have written it. Why?
My love 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.
M'Coy valise. My wife and your wife. Squealing cat. Like tearing silk. 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.
O, 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. Diddle iddle addle addle oodle oodle. Hiss.
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.
- Qui sdegno,
Ben, said Father Cowley.
- No, Ben, Tom Kernan
interfered, The Croppy Boy. Our
native Doric.
- Ay, do, Ben, Mr
Dedalus said. Good men and true.
- Do, do, they begged
in one.
I'll go. Here, Pat, return. Come.
He came, he came, he did not stay.
To me. How much?
- What key? Six sharps?
- F sharp major, Ben
Dollard said.
Bob Cowley's outstretched
talons gripped the black deepsounding chords.
Must go prince Bloom
told Richie prince. No, Richie
said. Yes, must. Got 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
barreltone. Doing his level best to say
it. Croak of vast manless moonless
womanless 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. Curlycues of chords.
Ruin 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 footstep there, told them the gloomy chamber, the vested priest
sitting to shrive.
Decent 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: in nomine Domini, in God's
name. He knelt. He beat his hand upon his breast, confessing:
mea culpa.
Latin again. That holds them like birdlime. Priest with the communion corpus for those
women. Chap in the mortuary, coffin or
coffey, corpusnomini. 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.
Soulfully. Doesn't half know
I'm. Molly great dab at seeing anyone
looking.
Bronze gazed far
sideways. Mirror there. Is that best side of her face? They always know. Knock at the door. Last tip to titivate.
Cockcarracarra.
What 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.
She looked fine. Her crocus dress she wore, lowcut, belongings
on show. Clove her breast 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.
I 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.
Hate. 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 but when was young.
- Bless me, father,
Dollard the croppy cried. Bless me
and let me go.
Tap.
Bloom looked, unblessed
to go. Got 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 own 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. They know it all by heart. They thrill they itch for. Yeoman cap.
Tap. Tap.
Thrilled, she listened,
bending in sympathy to hear.
Blank 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. 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.
Ventriloquise. My lips closed. Think in my stom. What?
Will? 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.
Thrill now. Pity they feel. To wipe away a tear for martyrs. For all things dying, want to, dying to,
die. For that 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. See real beauty of the eye when she not
speak. On yonder river. At each slow satiny heaving bosom's wave (her
heaving embon) red rose rose slowly, sank red rose. Heartbeats her breath: breath that is
life. And all the tiny tiny fernfoils
trembled of maidenhair.
But look. The bright stars fade. O rose!
Castille. The morn. Ha.
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. For, to: to, fro: over the polished knob (she
knows his eyes, my eyes, her eyes) her thumb and finger passed in pity: passed,
repassed and, gently touching, then slid to 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. Very sad thing. But had to be.
Get 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
Boyle Connoro Coylo Tisdall Maurice Tisntdall Farrell, Waaaaaaalk.
Well I must be. Are you off?
Yrfmstbyes. Blmstup. O'er ryrhigh blue. Bloom stood up. Ow.
Soap 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 delores! 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 growls and roars of
bravo, fat backslapping, their boots all treading, boots not the boots the
boy. General chorus off for a swill to
wash it down. Glad I avoided.
- Come on, Ben, Simon
Dedalus said. By God, you're as good as
ever you were.
- Better, said Tomgin
Kernan. Most trenchant rendition of that
ballad, upon my soul and honour it is.
Lablache, said Father
Cowley.
Ben Dollard bulkily
cachuchad towards the bar, mightily praisefed and all big roseate, on
heavyfooted feet, his gouty fingers nakkering castagnettes in the air.
Bib Benaben Dollard,
Bib 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.
- You're looking
rubicund, George Lidwell said.
Miss Douce composed her
rose to wait.
- Ben machree, said Mr
Dedalus, clapping Ben's fat back shoulderblade.
Fit as a fiddle, only he has a lot of adipose tissue concealed about his
person.
Rrrrrrsss.
- 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.
- Mr Dollard, they
murmured low.
- Dollard, murmured
tankard.
Tank 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 Dollard, was it?
Dollard, yes.
Yes, her lips said more
loudly, Mr Dollard. He sang that song
lovely, murmured Mina. And The last
rose of summer was a lovely song.
Mina loved that song. Tankard
loved the song that Mina.
'Tis the last rose of
summer Dollard left Bloom felt wind wround round inside.
Gassy 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.
Far. 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.
Cowley, he stunts
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.
All a kind of attempt
to talk. Unpleasant when it stops
because you never know exac. Organ in
Pwee! A wee little wind piped eeee. In Bloom's little wee.
- Was he? Mr Dedalus
said, returning, with fetched pipe. I
was with him this morning at little Paddy Dignam's ...
- Ay, the Lord have
mercy on him.
- By the by there's a
tuningfork in there on the ...
Tap. Tap.
Tap. Tap.
- The wife has a fine
voice. Or had. What? Lidwell asked.
- O, that must be the
tuner,
Blind he was she told
George Lidwell second I saw. And played
so exquisitely, treat to hear. Exquisite
contrast: bronzelid minagold.
- Shout! Ben Dollard
shouted, pouring. Sing out!
- 'lldo! cried Father
Cowley.
Rrrrrr.
I feel I want ...
Tap. Tap.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
- 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.
- Very, he stared. The lower register, for choice.
Tap. Tap.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Bloom went by
Barry's. Wish I could. Wait.
That wonderworker if I had.
Twentyfour solicitors in that one house.
Litigation. Love one
another. Piles of parchment. Messrs Pick and Pocket have power of
attorney. Goulding, Collis, Ward.
But for example the
chap that wallops the big drum. His
vocation: Micky Rooney's band. Wonder
how it first struck him. Sitting at home
after pig's cheek and cabbage nursing it in the armchair. Rehearsing the 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.
Instruments. 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
I must really. Fff.
Now if I did that at a banquet.
Just a question of custom shah of
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. Yes, 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 Mark's
antique saleshop window haughty Henry Lionel Leopold dear Henry Flower
earnestly Mr Leopold Bloom envisaged candlestick melodeon oozing maggoty
blowbags. Bargain: six bob. Might learn to play. Cheap.
Let her pass. Course everything
is dear if you don't want it. That's
what good salesmen 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.
Must 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
Castille. 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 Mark's window.
Robert Emmet's last words. Seven
last words. Of Meyerbeer that is.
- True men like you
men.
- Ay, ay, Ben.
- 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. Softly. When my country takes her place among.
Prrprr.
Must be the bur.
Fff. Oo.
Rrpr.
Nations of the earth. No-one behind. She's passed.
Then and not till then.
Tram. Kran, kran, kran. Good oppor.
Coming. Krandlkrankran. I'm sure it's the burgund. Yes.
One, two. Let my epitaph be. Karaaaaaaa.
Written. I have.
Pprrpffrrppfff.
Done.