Ulysses and stream of consciousness in fiction

Ulysses is famous of course for introducing stream of consciousness to fiction. Characters' thoughts, fragments of memory and fantasies are mixed with input from the outside world. But it is all rather academic for me. Despite Joyce's attempts to replicate the flow of sensation through characters' minds with a diverse repertoire of literary effects, I doubt anyone has such intelligible thought processes as the characters in Ulysses do. In my own experience, vast stretches of mental time are passed without any thoughts that are expressed internally in words. This is a failing of the stream-of-consciousness method. An author must either include blank pages, pages of scribbling, musical notes, etc., or give up the pretence that one is reproducing the mental process. An author has to acknowledge that out of the nearly infinite range of daily human experience he is selecting specific items to put together artificially to represent through language what is largely inarticulate.


The stream-of-consciousness approach introduced by Joyce has had a great effect on modern writing, but Ulysses may be the over-the-top experiment (we won't even mention Finnegans Wake) that has allowed other writers to use the technique selectively as is appropriate in their writing. read the complete article here

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Ulysses, from one exile to another

By Helene Monsacré
Literary magazine n° 221
Juillet/Août 1985 (File literature and the exile).


"Oh! not, nothing is softer than fatherland and parents; in the exile, what good is the richest residence, among foreigners and far from its parents?"
Ulysses in.

It is at the time when Ulysses has just declined his identity in Phéaciens, and before even beginning the long account of its adventures, which it makes reference to the hardness of the exile. And what a exile! Ten years with guerroyer under the walls of Troy with the other Greeks, nine years to be wandered on the seas with the research of the way of the return. Because,it is to it the post-war period; it is the account of the returns of the Greek heroes in their hearths, more particularly the recit of the return of Ulysses. During nearly ten years, Ulysses fights to leave the inhospitable regions where, inlassablement, it fails; during ten years, this so difficult return will lead it of one exile to the other.

And which best framework to choose to make wander a man than that of the sea, of this Mediterranean, sea "in the medium of the grounds", on which Ulysses is condemned to undergo the anger of Poséidon? The sea is dangerous and is not made for the man: to cross wants to say to expose itself to the storms, the marine monsters, the desolation of the moving and sterile vastness. Coming from the sea Ulysses does not miss the tests: hurricanes, storms, shipwrecks, exhaustions and bad meetings abound. Each stopover holds its surprises and moves away a little more Ulysses of his goal, the ground of the "men eaters of bread"; each halt brings its batch of sufferings.
As of the first towards poem, it is "that which such an amount of wandered (…) and, on the seas, passed by so many anguishes ", and its first appearance is characterized pareillement: prisoner of Calypso, it spends his days to be cried, with the variation, over his impossible return. The fabulous history of Ulysses it is, in a certain manner, the most completed human experiment exile, truth: that which makes that a man is nothing any more, is nobody any more. Beyond the account of tirednesses, wounds, frights which a man can support, there is in the marvellous painting of a temporary depersonalization. Because, in the last analysis, Ulysses is nothing any more, it very lost: its spoils, its boat, his/her companions, its weapons, his heroic past and until its name. It is an unknown, shipwrecked man anonymous; it "most obscure of all the men", is insulated in an inhuman world.
Where is king d' Ithaque, where is the hero of Troy? In these fabulous regions, the fame of Ulysses is impossible, does not have a catch. It is compared to the company of the men, thanks to the song of the aède which praises its value, that a hero can exist as such in the memory of the alive ones.
But, we know it, the destiny of Ulysses is not to disappear without burial at sea-bed, or unknown ground of the men. The poet shows it well: if it does not save any test with its hero, it always leaves him however its intelligence; and this intelligence, it is also the memory of its humanity. Ulysses never loses the direction of the return.
Ulysses held good: he never forgot his fatherland, never given up his wife, in spite of the charm of Calypso and the proposals for an immortality that she makes him. To remain on the island and in company of the nymph, safe from any concern, eternally young, would however be easy. Ulysses, however, faithful to itself, i.e. his temperament of endurance, resists and chooses the tests of the return, the anguish of the sea to find his place of mortal.
But if it finally leaves, thanks to Athéna, the world of the exile in fabulous country, it did not finish any, for all that, with the refusal of its true identity. Even in Ithaque, Ulysses is always except statute, of itself. He must pass by again a series of tests, to undergo many tests to find his véitable identity.
State of old anonymous vagrant, collected by his own Eumée pig-keeper, with that of poor wretch begging sitted on the threshold for its own palate, Ulysses, disguised, will know all humiliations. Once more, the variation is large between the condition of the beggar haillons some, abused by the applicants, and that of the all-powerful king of justice; it is in the sense that, even in Ithaque, Ulysses did not finish any with the exile. It is only after the contest of the arc and the massacre of the applicants, who mark the ultimate transition in the reconquest from his royalty, that his identity is recognized of all. By making a success of the exploit which qualifies it, it is worthy of the royalty, worthy of his wife; it is become again Ulysses, king d' Ithaque at the same time as the victorious hero of Troy.
In were Troy, precisely, the Greeks ofIliade confronted with the feeling of exile? More than one index makes it possible to think it. It is advisable, however, to moderate the things: nothing is comparable with the long wander of Ulysses of, with his progressive dispossession of identity.
Iliade never evokes the need for warlike exploits without the obligatory reference to the fame, with the heroic morals which takes its direction only compared to the fatherland of origin. It is a question of taking Troy to avenge the made affront with Ménélas, but also to return as a winner to Greece.
Allusions to the discouragement, with lassitude abound and punctuate the action with the camp of the Greeks. And, in a certain direction, the community of the Achaens is in exile under the walls of Troy: the confrontations last since too a long time. The recurring memory of the native soil corrodes the tired warriors. But this memory stimulates them at the same time: the topic of the fatherland is dissociable heroic requirement. Because, being a hero, it is to be worthy of his ancestors, warriors them also, and valorous for his sons; it is to acquire the glory which will be sung by the generations to come. To return overcome is impossible.
The Achilles, most courageous of the Greeks, it knows better than whoever, even if temptation to return in his country effleure one moment. Indeed, since his quarrel with Agamemnon, Achille is with the variation of the combat. Far from its fatherland, far from his comrades in arms, it makes, for the time, him, "best of the Achaens", appears of exiled. But its inactivity cannot last. The history is known: it chooses glory, it is essential on him, it will remain in Troy. "If I remain to beat me here around the town of Troy, it in is done for me return; on the other hand, an imperishable glory awaits me. If I return myself from there on the contrary in the war of my fatherland, it in is done for me noble glory; a long life, on the other hand, is reserved to me, and the death, which all completes, for a long time could not reach me."
Since Patrocle, his/her friend, this "other itself", is massacred by Hector, death is already on him. It does not escape from its destiny which is to die young person, in an immense glory: it will kill Hector, allow the catch of Troy and will die far from its country.
If the topic of the distance, of the exile is present in Homeric poetry, it is it to differing degree. On a side, inIliade, a community of warriors is temporarily cut of his country during ten years; other, in, an individual is ballotté with the liking of the fury of a god in dangerous worlds, in a nonhuman space and indelimity.
With Ulysses of the east evoked confusedly, but with force, the need for belonging in a community, a city. It is necessary to be at home to have an identity, like if, in this end of VIIIe century before J.-C., the obligatory reference to something moreover more extremely than the individual aristocratic values started to be felt.

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Ulysses by James Joyce

This is a hypertextual, self-referential edition of Ulysses by James Joyce. The text was prepared using the Project Gutenberg edition.

Click on any word to see its occurrences in the text; click on line numbers to go to that line; click on chapter names to go to that chapter; or search using the form below. Search terms can contain spaces and punctuation.

-- I --
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5] STATELY, PLUMP BUCK MULLIGAN CAME FROM THE STAIRHEAD, bearing a bowl of
[6] lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown,
[7] ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He
[8] held the bowl aloft and intoned:
[9]
[10] --INTROIBO AD ALTARE DEI.
[11]
[12] Halted, he peered down the dark winding stairs and called out coarsely:
[13]
[14] --Come up, Kinch! Come up, you fearful jesuit!
[15]
[16] Solemnly he came forward and mounted the round gunrest. He faced about
[17] and blessed gravely thrice the tower, the surrounding land and the
[18] awaking mountains. Then, catching sight of Stephen Dedalus, he bent
[19] towards him and made rapid crosses in the air, gurgling in his throat and
[20] shaking his head. Stephen Dedalus, displeased and sleepy, leaned his arms
[21] on the top of the staircase and looked coldly at the shaking gurgling
[22] face that blessed him, equine in its length, and at the light untonsured
[23] hair, grained and hued like pale oak.
[24]
[25] Buck Mulligan peeped an instant under the mirror and then covered
[26] the bowl smartly.
[27]
[28] --Back to barracks! he said sternly.
[29]
[30] He added in a preacher's tone:
[31]
[32] --For this, O dearly beloved, is the genuine Christine: body and soul and
[33] blood and ouns. Slow music, please. Shut your eyes, gents. One moment. A
[34] little trouble about those white corpuscles. Silence, all.
[35]
[36] He peered sideways up and gave a long slow whistle of call, then paused
[37] awhile in rapt attention, his even white teeth glistening here and there
[38] with gold points. Chrysostomos. Two strong shrill whistles answered
[39] through the calm.
[40]
[41] --Thanks, old chap, he cried briskly. That will do nicely. Switch off the
[42] current, will you?
[43]
[44] He skipped off the gunrest and looked gravely at his watcher, gathering
[45] about his legs the loose folds of his gown. The plump shadowed face and
[46] sullen oval jowl recalled a prelate, patron of arts in the middle ages. A
[47] pleasant smile broke quietly over his lips.
[48]
[49] --The mockery of it! he said gaily. Your absurd name, an ancient Greek!
[50]
[51] He pointed his finger in friendly jest and went over to the parapet,
[52] laughing to himself. Stephen Dedalus stepped up, followed him wearily
[53] halfway and sat down on the edge of the gunrest, watching him still as he
[54] propped his mirror on the parapet, dipped the brush in the bowl and
[55] lathered cheeks and neck.
[56]
[57] Buck Mulligan's gay voice went on.
[58]
[59] --My name is absurd too: Malachi Mulligan, two dactyls. But it has a
[60] Hellenic ring, hasn't it? Tripping and sunny like the buck himself. We
[61] must go to Athens. Will you come if I can get the aunt to fork out twenty
[62] quid?
[63]
[64] He laid the brush aside and, laughing with delight, cried:
[65]
[66] --Will he come? The jejune jesuit!
[67]
[68] Ceasing, he began to shave with care.
[69]
[70] --Tell me, Mulligan, Stephen said quietly.
[71]
[72] --Yes, my love?
[73]
[74] --How long is Haines going to stay in this tower?
[75]
[76] Buck Mulligan showed a shaven cheek over his right shoulder.
[77]
[78] --God, isn't he dreadful? he said frankly. A ponderous Saxon. He thinks
[79] you're not a gentleman. God, these bloody English! Bursting with money
[80] and indigestion. Because he comes from Oxford. You know, Dedalus, you
[81] have the real Oxford manner. He can't make you out. O, my name for you is
[82] the best: Kinch, the knife-blade.
[83]
[84] He shaved warily over his chin.
[85]
[86] --He was raving all night about a black panther, Stephen said. Where is
[87] his guncase?
[88]
[89] --A woful lunatic! Mulligan said. Were you in a funk?
[90]
[91] --I was, Stephen said with energy and growing fear. Out here in the dark
[92] with a man I don't know raving and moaning to himself about shooting a
[93] black panther. You saved men from drowning. I'm not a hero, however. If
[94] he stays on here I am off.
[95]
[96] Buck Mulligan frowned at the lather on his razorblade. He hopped down
[97] from his perch and began to search his trouser pockets hastily.
[98]
[99] --Scutter! he cried thickly.
[100]
[101] He came over to the gunrest and, thrusting a hand into Stephen's upper
[102] pocket, said:
[103]
[104] --Lend us a loan of your noserag to wipe my razor.
[105]
[106] Stephen suffered him to pull out and hold up on show by its corner a
[107] dirty crumpled handkerchief. Buck Mulligan wiped the razorblade neatly.
[108] Then, gazing over the handkerchief, he said:
[109]
[110] --The bard's noserag! A new art colour for our Irish poets: snotgreen.
[111] You can almost taste it, can't you?
[112]
[113] He mounted to the parapet again and gazed out over Dublin bay, his fair
[114] oakpale hair stirring slightly.
[115]
[116] --God! he said quietly. Isn't the sea what Algy calls it: a great sweet
[117] mother? The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea. EPI OINOPA PONTON.
[118] Ah, Dedalus, the Greeks! I must teach you. You must read them in the
[119] original. THALATTA! THALATTA! She is our great sweet mother. Come and
[120] look.
[121]
[122] Stephen stood up and went over to the parapet. Leaning on it he looked
[123] down on the water and on the mailboat clearing the harbourmouth of
[124] Kingstown.
[125]
[126] --Our mighty mother! Buck Mulligan said.
[127]
[128] He turned abruptly his grey searching eyes from the sea to Stephen's
[129] face.
[130]
[131] --The aunt thinks you killed your mother, he said. That's why she won't
[132] let me have anything to do with you.
[133]
[134] --Someone killed her, Stephen said gloomily.
[135]
[136] --You could have knelt down, damn it, Kinch, when your dying mother asked
[137] you, Buck Mulligan said. I'm hyperborean as much as you. But to think of
[138] your mother begging you with her last breath to kneel down and pray for
[139] her. And you refused. There is something sinister in you ...
[140]
[141] He broke off and lathered again lightly his farther cheek. A tolerant
[142] smile curled his lips.
[143]
[144] --But a lovely mummer! he murmured to himself. Kinch, the loveliest
[145] mummer of them all!
[146]
[147] He shaved evenly and with care, in silence, seriously.
[148]
[149] Stephen, an elbow rested on the jagged granite, leaned his palm against
[150] his brow and gazed at the fraying edge of his shiny black coat-sleeve.
[151] Pain, that was not yet the pain of love, fretted his heart. Silently, in
[152] a dream she had come to him after her death, her wasted body within its
[153] loose brown graveclothes giving off an odour of wax and rosewood, her
[154] breath, that had bent upon him, mute, reproachful, a faint odour of
[155] wetted ashes. Across the threadbare cuffedge he saw the sea hailed as a
[156] great sweet mother by the wellfed voice beside him. The ring of bay and
[157] skyline held a dull green mass of liquid. A bowl of white china had stood
[158] beside her deathbed holding the green sluggish bile which she had torn up
[159] from her rotting liver by fits of loud groaning vomiting.
[160]
[161] Buck Mulligan wiped again his razorblade.
[162]
[163] --Ah, poor dogsbody! he said in a kind voice. I must give you a shirt and
[164] a few noserags. How are the secondhand breeks?
[165]
[166] --They fit well enough, Stephen answered.
[167]
[168] Buck Mulligan attacked the hollow beneath his underlip.
[169]
[170] --The mockery of it, he said contentedly. Secondleg they should be. God
[171] knows what poxy bowsy left them off. I have a lovely pair with a hair
[172] stripe, grey. You'll look spiffing in them. I'm not joking, Kinch. You
[173] look damn well when you're dressed.
[174]
[175] --Thanks, Stephen said. I can't wear them if they are grey.
[176]
[177] --He can't wear them, Buck Mulligan told his face in the mirror.
[178] Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey
[179] trousers.
[180]
[181] He folded his razor neatly and with stroking palps of fingers felt the
[182] smooth skin.
[183]
[184] Stephen turned his gaze from the sea and to the plump face with its
[185] smokeblue mobile eyes.
[186]
[187] --That fellow I was with in the Ship last night, said Buck Mulligan, says
[188] you have g.p.i. He's up in Dottyville with Connolly Norman. General
[189] paralysis of the insane!
[190]
[191] He swept the mirror a half circle in the air to flash the tidings abroad
[192] in sunlight now radiant on the sea. His curling shaven lips laughed and
[193] the edges of his white glittering teeth. Laughter seized all his strong
[194] wellknit trunk.
[195]
[196] --Look at yourself, he said, you dreadful bard!
[197]
[198] Stephen bent forward and peered at the mirror held out to him, cleft by a
[199] crooked crack. Hair on end. As he and others see me. Who chose this face
[200] for me? This dogsbody to rid of vermin. It asks me too.
[201]
[202] --I pinched it out of the skivvy's room, Buck Mulligan said. It does her
[203] all right. The aunt always keeps plainlooking servants for Malachi. Lead
[204] him not into temptation. And her name is Ursula.
[205]
[206] Laughing again, he brought the mirror away from Stephen's peering eyes.
[207]
[208] --The rage of Caliban at not seeing his face in a mirror, he said. If
[209] Wilde were only alive to see you!
[210]
[211] Drawing back and pointing, Stephen said with bitterness:
[212]
[213] --It is a symbol of Irish art. The cracked looking-glass of a servant.
[214]
[215] Buck Mulligan suddenly linked his arm in Stephen's and walked with him
[216] round the tower, his razor and mirror clacking in the pocket where he had
[217] thrust them.
[218]
[219] --It's not fair to tease you like that, Kinch, is it? he said kindly. God
[220] knows you have more spirit than any of them.
[221]
[222] Parried again. He fears the lancet of my art as I fear that of his. The
[223] cold steelpen.
[224]
[225] --Cracked lookingglass of a servant! Tell that to the oxy chap downstairs
[226] and touch him for a guinea. He's stinking with money and thinks you're
[227] not a gentleman. His old fellow made his tin by selling jalap to Zulus or
[228] some bloody swindle or other. God, Kinch, if you and I could only work
[229] together we might do something for the island. Hellenise it.
[230]
[231] Cranly's arm. His arm.
[232]
[233] --And to think of your having to beg from these swine. I'm the only one
[234] that knows what you are. Why don't you trust me more? What have you up
[235] your nose against me? Is it Haines? If he makes any noise here I'll bring
[236] down Seymour and we'll give him a ragging worse than they gave Clive
[237] Kempthorpe.
[238]
[239] Young shouts of moneyed voices in Clive Kempthorpe's rooms. Palefaces:
[240] they hold their ribs with laughter, one clasping another. O, I shall
[241] expire! Break the news to her gently, Aubrey! I shall die! With slit
[242] ribbons of his shirt whipping the air he hops and hobbles round the
[243] table, with trousers down at heels, chased by Ades of Magdalen with the
[244] tailor's shears. A scared calf's face gilded with marmalade. I don't want
[245] to be debagged! Don't you play the giddy ox with me!
[246]
[247] Shouts from the open window startling evening in the quadrangle. A deaf
[248] gardener, aproned, masked with Matthew Arnold's face, pushes his mower on
[249] the sombre lawn watching narrowly the dancing motes of grasshalms.
[250]
[251] To ourselves ... new paganism ... omphalos.
[252]
[253] --Let him stay, Stephen said. There's nothing wrong with him except at
[254] night.
[255]
[256] --Then what is it? Buck Mulligan asked impatiently. Cough it up. I'm
[257] quite frank with you. What have you against me now?
[258]
[259] They halted, looking towards the blunt cape of Bray Head that lay on the
[260] water like the snout of a sleeping whale. Stephen freed his arm quietly.
[261]
[262] --Do you wish me to tell you? he asked.
[263]
[264] --Yes, what is it? Buck Mulligan answered. I don't remember anything.
[265]
[266] He looked in Stephen's face as he spoke. A light wind passed his brow,
[267] fanning softly his fair uncombed hair and stirring silver points of
[268] anxiety in his eyes.
[269]
[270] Stephen, depressed by his own voice, said:
[271]
[272] --Do you remember the first day I went to your house after my mother's
[273] death?
[274]
[275] Buck Mulligan frowned quickly and said:
[276]
[277] --What? Where? I can't remember anything. I remember only ideas and
[278] sensations. Why? What happened in the name of God?
[279]
[280] --You were making tea, Stephen said, and went across the landing to get
[281] more hot water. Your mother and some visitor came out of the drawingroom.
[282] She asked you who was in your room.
[283]
[284] --Yes? Buck Mulligan said. What did I say? I forget.
[285]
[286] --You said, Stephen answered, O, IT'S ONLY DEDALUS WHOSE MOTHER IS
[287] BEASTLY DEAD.
[288]
[289] A flush which made him seem younger and more engaging rose to Buck
[290] Mulligan's cheek.
[291]
[292] --Did I say that? he asked. Well? What harm is that?
[293]
[294] He shook his constraint from him nervously.
[295]
[296] --And what is death, he asked, your mother's or yours or my own? You saw
[297] only your mother die. I see them pop off every day in the Mater and
[298] Richmond and cut up into tripes in the dissectingroom. It's a beastly
[299] thing and nothing else. It simply doesn't matter. You wouldn't kneel down
[300] to pray for your mother on her deathbed when she asked you. Why? Because
[301] you have the cursed jesuit strain in you, only it's injected the wrong
[302] way. To me it's all a mockery and beastly. Her cerebral lobes are not
[303] functioning. She calls the doctor sir Peter Teazle and picks buttercups
[304] off the quilt. Humour her till it's over. You crossed her last wish in
[305] death and yet you sulk with me because I don't whinge like some hired
[306] mute from Lalouette's. Absurd! I suppose I did say it. I didn't mean to
[307] offend the memory of your mother.
[308]
[309] He had spoken himself into boldness. Stephen, shielding the gaping wounds
[310] which the words had left in his heart, said very coldly:
[311]
[312] --I am not thinking of the offence to my mother.
[313]
[314] --Of what then? Buck Mulligan asked.
[315]
[316] --Of the offence to me, Stephen answered.
[317]
[318] Buck Mulligan swung round on his heel.
[319]
[320] --O, an impossible person! he exclaimed.
[321]
[322] He walked off quickly round the parapet. Stephen stood at his post,
[323] gazing over the calm sea towards the headland. Sea and headland now grew
[324] dim. Pulses were beating in his eyes, veiling their sight, and he felt
[325] the fever of his cheeks.
[326]
[327] A voice within the tower called loudly:
[328]
[329] --Are you up there, Mulligan?
[330]
[331] --I'm coming, Buck Mulligan answered.
[332]
[333] He turned towards Stephen and said:
[334]
[335] --Look at the sea. What does it care about offences? Chuck Loyola, Kinch,
[336] and come on down. The Sassenach wants his morning rashers.
[337]
[338] His head halted again for a moment at the top of the staircase, level
[339] with the roof:
[340]
[341] --Don't mope over it all day, he said. I'm inconsequent. Give up the
[342] moody brooding.
[343]
[344] His head vanished but the drone of his descending voice boomed out of the
[345] stairhead:
[346]
[347]
[348] AND NO MORE TURN ASIDE AND BROOD
[349] UPON LOVE'S BITTER MYSTERY
[350] FOR FERGUS RULES THE BRAZEN CARS.
[351]
[352]
[353] Woodshadows floated silently by through the morning peace from the
[354] stairhead seaward where he gazed. Inshore and farther out the mirror of
[355] water whitened, spurned by lightshod hurrying feet. White breast of the
[356] dim sea. The twining stresses, two by two. A hand plucking the
[357] harpstrings, merging their twining chords. Wavewhite wedded words
[358] shimmering on the dim tide.
[359]
[360] A cloud began to cover the sun slowly, wholly, shadowing the bay in
[361] deeper green. It lay beneath him, a bowl of bitter waters. Fergus' song:
[362] I sang it alone in the house, holding down the long dark chords. Her door
[363] was open: she wanted to hear my music. Silent with awe and pity I went to
[364] her bedside. She was crying in her wretched bed. For those words,
[365] Stephen: love's bitter mystery.
[366]
[367] Where now?
[368]
[369] Her secrets: old featherfans, tasselled dancecards, powdered with musk, a
[370] gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer. A birdcage hung in the sunny
[371] window of her house when she was a girl. She heard old Royce sing in the
[372] pantomime of TURKO THE TERRIBLE and laughed with others when he sang:
[373]
[374]
[375] I AM THE BOY
[376] THAT CAN ENJOY
[377] INVISIBILITY.
[378]
[379]
[380] Phantasmal mirth, folded away: muskperfumed.
[381]
[382]
[383] AND NO MORE TURN ASIDE AND BROOD.
[384]
[385]
[386] Folded away in the memory of nature with her toys. Memories beset his
[387] brooding brain. Her glass of water from the kitchen tap when she had
[388] approached the sacrament. A cored apple, filled with brown sugar,
[389] roasting for her at the hob on a dark autumn evening. Her shapely
[390] fingernails reddened by the blood of squashed lice from the children's
[391] shirts.
[392]
[393] In a dream, silently, she had come to him, her wasted body within its
[394] loose graveclothes giving off an odour of wax and rosewood, her breath,
[395] bent over him with mute secret words, a faint odour of wetted ashes.
[396]
[397] Her glazing eyes, staring out of death, to shake and bend my soul. On me
[398] alone. The ghostcandle to light her agony. Ghostly light on the tortured
[399] face. Her hoarse loud breath rattling in horror, while all prayed on
[400] their knees. Her eyes on me to strike me down. LILIATA RUTILANTIUM TE
[401] CONFESSORUM TURMA CIRCUMDET: IUBILANTIUM TE VIRGINUM CHORUS EXCIPIAT.
[402]
[403] Ghoul! Chewer of corpses!
[404]
[405] No, mother! Let me be and let me live.
[406]
[407] --Kinch ahoy!
[408]
[409] Buck Mulligan's voice sang from within the tower. It came nearer up the
[410] staircase, calling again. Stephen, still trembling at his soul's cry,
[411] heard warm running sunlight and in the air behind him friendly words.
[412]
[413] --Dedalus, come down, like a good mosey. Breakfast is ready. Haines is
[414] apologising for waking us last night. It's all right.
[415]
[416] --I'm coming, Stephen said, turning.
[417]
[418] --Do, for Jesus' sake, Buck Mulligan said. For my sake and for all our
[419] sakes.
[420]
[421] His head disappeared and reappeared.
[422]
[423] --I told him your symbol of Irish art. He says it's very clever. Touch
[424] him for a quid, will you? A guinea, I mean.
[425]
[426] --I get paid this morning, Stephen said.
[427]
[428] --The school kip? Buck Mulligan said. How much? Four quid? Lend us one.
[429]
[430] --If you want it, Stephen said.
[431]
[432] --Four shining sovereigns, Buck Mulligan cried with delight. We'll have a
[433] glorious drunk to astonish the druidy druids. Four omnipotent sovereigns.
[434]
[435] He flung up his hands and tramped down the stone stairs, singing out of
[436] tune with a Cockney accent:
[437]
[438]
[439] O, WON'T WE HAVE A MERRY TIME,
[440] DRINKING WHISKY, BEER AND WINE!
[441] ON CORONATION,
[442] CORONATION DAY!
[443] O, WON'T WE HAVE A MERRY TIME
[444] ON CORONATION DAY!
[445]
[446]
[447] Warm sunshine merrying over the sea. The nickel shavingbowl shone,
[448] forgotten, on the parapet. Why should I bring it down? Or leave it there
[449] all day, forgotten friendship?
[450]
[451] He went over to it, held it in his hands awhile, feeling its coolness,
[452] smelling the clammy slaver of the lather in which the brush was stuck. So
[453] I carried the boat of incense then at Clongowes. I am another now and yet
[454] the same. A servant too. A server of a servant.
[455]
[456] In the gloomy domed livingroom of the tower Buck Mulligan's gowned form
[457] moved briskly to and fro about the hearth, hiding and revealing its
[458] yellow glow. Two shafts of soft daylight fell across the flagged floor
[459] from the high barbacans: and at the meeting of their rays a cloud of
[460] coalsmoke and fumes of fried grease floated, turning.
[461]
[462] --We'll be choked, Buck Mulligan said. Haines, open that door, will you?
[463]
[464] Stephen laid the shavingbowl on the locker. A tall figure rose from the
[465] hammock where it had been sitting, went to the doorway and pulled open
[466] the inner doors.
[467]
[468] --Have you the key? a voice asked.
[469]
[470] --Dedalus has it, Buck Mulligan said. Janey Mack, I'm choked!
[471]
[472] He howled, without looking up from the fire:
[473]
[474] --Kinch!
[475]
[476] --It's in the lock, Stephen said, coming forward.
[477]
[478] The key scraped round harshly twice and, when the heavy door had been set
[479] ajar, welcome light and bright air entered. Haines stood at the doorway,
[480] looking out. Stephen haled his upended valise to the table and sat down
[481] to wait. Buck Mulligan tossed the fry on to the dish beside him. Then he
[482] carried the dish and a large teapot over to the table, set them down
[483] heavily and sighed with relief.
[484]
[485] --I'm melting, he said, as the candle remarked when ... But, hush! Not a
[486] word more on that subject! Kinch, wake up! Bread, butter, honey. Haines,
[487] come in. The grub is ready. Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts.
[488] Where's the sugar? O, jay, there's no milk.
[489]
[490] Stephen fetched the loaf and the pot of honey and the buttercooler from
[491] the locker. Buck Mulligan sat down in a sudden pet.
[492]
[493] --What sort of a kip is this? he said. I told her to come after eight.
[494]
[495] --We can drink it black, Stephen said thirstily. There's a lemon in the
[496] locker.
[497]
[498] --O, damn you and your Paris fads! Buck Mulligan said. I want Sandycove
[499] milk.
[500]
[501] Haines came in from the doorway and said quietly:
[502]
[503] --That woman is coming up with the milk.
[504]
[505] --The blessings of God on you! Buck Mulligan cried, jumping up from his
[506] chair. Sit down. Pour out the tea there. The sugar is in the bag. Here, I
[507] can't go fumbling at the damned eggs.
[508]
[509] He hacked through the fry on the dish and slapped it out on three plates,
[510] saying:
[511]
[512] --IN NOMINE PATRIS ET FILII ET SPIRITUS SANCTI.
[513]
[514] Haines sat down to pour out the tea.
[515]
[516] --I'm giving you two lumps each, he said. But, I say, Mulligan, you do
[517] make strong tea, don't you?
[518]
[519] Buck Mulligan, hewing thick slices from the loaf, said in an old woman's
[520] wheedling voice:
[521]
[522] --When I makes tea I makes tea, as old mother Grogan said. And when I
[523] makes water I makes water.
[524]
[525] --By Jove, it is tea, Haines said.
[526]
[527] Buck Mulligan went on hewing and wheedling:
[528]
[529] --SO I DO, MRS CAHILL, says she. BEGOB, MA'AM, says Mrs Cahill, GOD SEND
[530] YOU DON'T MAKE THEM IN THE ONE POT.
[531]
[532] He lunged towards his messmates in turn a thick slice of bread, impaled
[533] on his knife.
[534]
[535] --That's folk, he said very earnestly, for your book, Haines. Five lines
[536] of text and ten pages of notes about the folk and the fishgods of
[537] Dundrum. Printed by the weird sisters in the year of the big wind.
[538]
[539] He turned to Stephen and asked in a fine puzzled voice, lifting his
[540] brows:
[541]
[542] --Can you recall, brother, is mother Grogan's tea and water pot spoken of
[543] in the Mabinogion or is it in the Upanishads?
[544]
[545] --I doubt it, said Stephen gravely.
[546]
[547] --Do you now? Buck Mulligan said in the same tone. Your reasons, pray?
[548]
[549] --I fancy, Stephen said as he ate, it did not exist in or out of the
[550] Mabinogion. Mother Grogan was, one imagines, a kinswoman of Mary Ann.
[551]
[552] Buck Mulligan's face smiled with delight.
[553]
[554] --Charming! he said in a finical sweet voice, showing his white teeth and
[555] blinking his eyes pleasantly. Do you think she was? Quite charming!
[556]
[557] Then, suddenly overclouding all his features, he growled in a hoarsened
[558] rasping voice as he hewed again vigorously at the loaf:
[559]
[560]
[561] --FOR OLD MARY ANN
[562] SHE DOESN'T CARE A DAMN.
[563] BUT, HISING UP HER PETTICOATS ...
[564]
[565]
[566] He crammed his mouth with fry and munched and droned.
[567]
[568] The doorway was darkened by an entering form.
[569]
[570] --The milk, sir!
[571]
[572] --Come in, ma'am, Mulligan said. Kinch, get the jug.
[573]
[574] An old woman came forward and stood by Stephen's elbow.
[575]
[576] --That's a lovely morning, sir, she said. Glory be to God.
[577]
[578] --To whom? Mulligan said, glancing at her. Ah, to be sure!
[579]
[580] Stephen reached back and took the milkjug from the locker.
[581]
[582] --The islanders, Mulligan said to Haines casually, speak frequently of
[583] the collector of prepuces.
[584]
[585] --How much, sir? asked the old woman.
[586]
[587] --A quart, Stephen said.
[588]
[589] He watched her pour into the measure and thence into the jug rich white
[590] milk, not hers. Old shrunken paps. She poured again a measureful and a
[591] tilly. Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a
[592] messenger. She praised the goodness of the milk, pouring it out.
[593] Crouching by a patient cow at daybreak in the lush field, a witch on her
[594] toadstool, her wrinkled fingers quick at the squirting dugs. They lowed
[595] about her whom they knew, dewsilky cattle. Silk of the kine and poor old
[596] woman, names given her in old times. A wandering crone, lowly form of an
[597] immortal serving her conqueror and her gay betrayer, their common
[598] cuckquean, a messenger from the secret morning. To serve or to upbraid,
[599] whether he could not tell: but scorned to beg her favour.
[600]
[601] --It is indeed, ma'am, Buck Mulligan said, pouring milk into their cups.
[602]
[603] --Taste it, sir, she said.
[604]
[605] He drank at her bidding.
[606]
[607] --If we could live on good food like that, he said to her somewhat
[608] loudly, we wouldn't have the country full of rotten teeth and rotten
[609] guts. Living in a bogswamp, eating cheap food and the streets paved with
[610] dust, horsedung and consumptives' spits.
[611]
[612] --Are you a medical student, sir? the old woman asked.
[613]
[614] --I am, ma'am, Buck Mulligan answered.
[615]
[616] --Look at that now, she said.
[617]
[618] Stephen listened in scornful silence. She bows her old head to a voice
[619] that speaks to her loudly, her bonesetter, her medicineman: me she
[620] slights. To the voice that will shrive and oil for the grave all there is
[621] of her but her woman's unclean loins, of man's flesh made not in God's
[622] likeness, the serpent's prey. And to the loud voice that now bids her be
[623] silent with wondering unsteady eyes.
[624]
[625] --Do you understand what he says? Stephen asked her.
[626]
[627] --Is it French you are talking, sir? the old woman said to Haines.
[628]
[629] Haines spoke to her again a longer speech, confidently.
[630]
[631] --Irish, Buck Mulligan said. Is there Gaelic on you?
[632]
[633] --I thought it was Irish, she said, by the sound of it. Are you from the
[634] west, sir?
[635]
[636] --I am an Englishman, Haines answered.
[637]
[638] --He's English, Buck Mulligan said, and he thinks we ought to speak Irish
[639] in Ireland.
[640]
[641] --Sure we ought to, the old woman said, and I'm ashamed I don't speak the
[642] language myself. I'm told it's a grand language by them that knows.
[643]
[644] --Grand is no name for it, said Buck Mulligan. Wonderful entirely. Fill
[645] us out some more tea, Kinch. Would you like a cup, ma'am?
[646]
[647] --No, thank you, sir, the old woman said, slipping the ring of the
[648] milkcan on her forearm and about to go.
[649]
[650] Haines said to her:
[651]
[652] --Have you your bill? We had better pay her, Mulligan, hadn't we?
[653]
[654] Stephen filled again the three cups.
[655]
[656] --Bill, sir? she said, halting. Well, it's seven mornings a pint at
[657] twopence is seven twos is a shilling and twopence over and these three
[658] mornings a quart at fourpence is three quarts is a shilling. That's a
[659] shilling and one and two is two and two, sir.
[660]
[661] Buck Mulligan sighed and, having filled his mouth with a crust thickly
[662] buttered on both sides, stretched forth his legs and began to search his
[663] trouser pockets.
[664]
[665] --Pay up and look pleasant, Haines said to him, smiling.
[666]
[667] Stephen filled a third cup, a spoonful of tea colouring faintly the thick
[668] rich milk. Buck Mulligan brought up a florin, twisted it round in his
[669] fingers and cried:
[670]
[671] --A miracle!
[672]
[673] He passed it along the table towards the old woman, saying:
[674]
[675] --Ask nothing more of me, sweet. All I can give you I give.
[676]
[677] Stephen laid the coin in her uneager hand.
[678]
[679] --We'll owe twopence, he said.
[680]
[681] --Time enough, sir, she said, taking the coin. Time enough. Good morning,
[682] sir.
[683]
[684] She curtseyed and went out, followed by Buck Mulligan's tender chant:
[685]
[686]
[687] --HEART OF MY HEART, WERE IT MORE,
[688] MORE WOULD BE LAID AT YOUR FEET.
[689]
[690]
[691] He turned to Stephen and said:
[692]
[693] --Seriously, Dedalus. I'm stony. Hurry out to your school kip and bring
[694] us back some money. Today the bards must drink and junket. Ireland
[695] expects that every man this day will do his duty.
[696]
[697] --That reminds me, Haines said, rising, that I have to visit your
[698] national library today.
[699]
[700] --Our swim first, Buck Mulligan said.
[701]
[702] He turned to Stephen and asked blandly:
[703]
[704] --Is this the day for your monthly wash, Kinch?
[705]
[706] Then he said to Haines:
[707]
[708] --The unclean bard makes a point of washing once a month.
[709]
[710] --All Ireland is washed by the gulfstream, Stephen said as he let honey
[711] trickle over a slice of the loaf.
[712]
[713] Haines from the corner where he was knotting easily a scarf about the
[714] loose collar of his tennis shirt spoke:
[715]
[716] --I intend to make a collection of your sayings if you will let me.
[717]
[718] Speaking to me. They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit.
[719] Conscience. Yet here's a spot.
[720]
[721] --That one about the cracked lookingglass of a servant being the symbol
[722] of Irish art is deuced good.
[723]
[724] Buck Mulligan kicked Stephen's foot under the table and said with warmth
[725] of tone:
[726]
[727] --Wait till you hear him on Hamlet, Haines.
[728]
[729] --Well, I mean it, Haines said, still speaking to Stephen. I was just
[730] thinking of it when that poor old creature came in.
[731]
[732] --Would I make any money by it? Stephen asked.
[733]
[734] Haines laughed and, as he took his soft grey hat from the holdfast of the
[735] hammock, said:
[736]
[737] --I don't know, I'm sure.
[738]
[739] He strolled out to the doorway. Buck Mulligan bent across to Stephen and
[740] said with coarse vigour:
[741]
[742] --You put your hoof in it now. What did you say that for?
[743]
[744] --Well? Stephen said. The problem is to get money. From whom? From the
[745] milkwoman or from him. It's a toss up, I think.
[746]
[747] --I blow him out about you, Buck Mulligan said, and then you come along
[748] with your lousy leer and your gloomy jesuit jibes.
[749]
[750] --I see little hope, Stephen said, from her or from him.
[751]
[752] Buck Mulligan sighed tragically and laid his hand on Stephen's arm.
[753]
[754] --From me, Kinch, he said.
[755]
[756] In a suddenly changed tone he added:
[757]
[758] --To tell you the God's truth I think you're right. Damn all else they
[759] are good for. Why don't you play them as I do? To hell with them all. Let
[760] us get out of the kip.
[761]
[762] He stood up, gravely ungirdled and disrobed himself of his gown, saying
[763] resignedly:
[764]
[765] --Mulligan is stripped of his garments.
[766]
[767] He emptied his pockets on to the table.
[768]
[769] --There's your snotrag, he said.
[770]
[771] And putting on his stiff collar and rebellious tie he spoke to them,
[772] chiding them, and to his dangling watchchain. His hands plunged and
[773] rummaged in his trunk while he called for a clean handkerchief. God,
[774] we'll simply have to dress the character. I want puce gloves and green
[775] boots. Contradiction. Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I
[776] contradict myself. Mercurial Malachi. A limp black missile flew out of
[777] his talking hands.
[778]
[779] --And there's your Latin quarter hat, he said.
[780]
[781] Stephen picked it up and put it on. Haines called to them from the
[782] doorway:
[783]
[784] --Are you coming, you fellows?
[785]
[786] --I'm ready, Buck Mulligan answered, going towards the door. Come out,
[787] Kinch. You have eaten all we left, I suppose. Resigned he passed out with
[788] grave words and gait, saying, wellnigh with sorrow:
[789]
[790] --And going forth he met Butterly.
[791]
[792] Stephen, taking his ashplant from its leaningplace, followed them out
[793] and, as they went down the ladder, pulled to the slow iron door and
[794] locked it. He put the huge key in his inner pocket.
[795]
[796] At the foot of the ladder Buck Mulligan asked:
[797]
[798] --Did you bring the key?
[799]
[800] --I have it, Stephen said, preceding them.
[801]
[802] He walked on. Behind him he heard Buck Mulligan club with his heavy
[803] bathtowel the leader shoots of ferns or grasses.
[804]
[805] --Down, sir! How dare you, sir!
[806]
[807] Haines asked:
[808]
[809] --Do you pay rent for this tower?
[810]
[811] --Twelve quid, Buck Mulligan said.
[812]
[813] --To the secretary of state for war, Stephen added over his shoulder.
[814]
[815] They halted while Haines surveyed the tower and said at last:
[816]
[817] --Rather bleak in wintertime, I should say. Martello you call it?
[818]
[819] --Billy Pitt had them built, Buck Mulligan said, when the French were on
[820] the sea. But ours is the OMPHALOS.
[821]
[822] --What is your idea of Hamlet? Haines asked Stephen.
[823]
[824] --No, no, Buck Mulligan shouted in pain. I'm not equal to Thomas Aquinas
[825] and the fifty-five reasons he has made out to prop it up. Wait till I have
[826] a few pints in me first.
[827]
[828] He turned to Stephen, saying, as he pulled down neatly the peaks of his
[829] primrose waistcoat:
[830]
[831] --You couldn't manage it under three pints, Kinch, could you?
[832]
[833] --It has waited so long, Stephen said listlessly, it can wait longer.
[834]
[835] --You pique my curiosity, Haines said amiably. Is it some paradox?
[836]
[837] --Pooh! Buck Mulligan said. We have grown out of Wilde and paradoxes.
[838] It's quite simple. He proves by algebra that Hamlet's grandson is
[839] Shakespeare's grandfather and that he himself is the ghost of his own
[840] father.
[841]
[842] --What? Haines said, beginning to point at Stephen. He himself?
[843]
[844] Buck Mulligan slung his towel stolewise round his neck and, bending in
[845] loose laughter, said to Stephen's ear:
[846]
[847] --O, shade of Kinch the elder! Japhet in search of a father!
[848]
[849] --We're always tired in the morning, Stephen said to Haines. And it is
[850] rather long to tell.
[851]
[852] Buck Mulligan, walking forward again, raised his hands.
[853]
[854] --The sacred pint alone can unbind the tongue of Dedalus, he said.
[855]
[856] --I mean to say, Haines explained to Stephen as they followed, this tower
[857] and these cliffs here remind me somehow of Elsinore. THAT BEETLES O'ER
[858] HIS BASE INTO THE SEA, ISN'T IT?
[859]
[860] Buck Mulligan turned suddenly. for an instant towards Stephen but did not
[861] speak. In the bright silent instant Stephen saw his own image in cheap
[862] dusty mourning between their gay attires.
[863]
[864] --It's a wonderful tale, Haines said, bringing them to halt again.
[865]
[866] Eyes, pale as the sea the wind had freshened, paler, firm and prudent.
[867] The seas' ruler, he gazed southward over the bay, empty save for the
[868] smokeplume of the mailboat vague on the bright skyline and a sail tacking
[869] by the Muglins.
[870]
[871] --I read a theological interpretation of it somewhere, he said bemused.
[872] The Father and the Son idea. The Son striving to be atoned with the
[873] Father.
[874]
[875] Buck Mulligan at once put on a blithe broadly smiling face. He looked at
[876] them, his wellshaped mouth open happily, his eyes, from which he had
[877] suddenly withdrawn all shrewd sense, blinking with mad gaiety. He moved a
[878] doll's head to and fro, the brims of his Panama hat quivering, and began
[879] to chant in a quiet happy foolish voice:
[880]
[881]
[882] --I'M THE QUEEREST YOUNG FELLOW THAT EVER YOU HEARD.
[883] MY MOTHER'S A JEW, MY FATHER'S A BIRD.
[884] WITH JOSEPH THE JOINER I CANNOT AGREE.
[885] SO HERE'S TO DISCIPLES AND CALVARY.
[886]
[887]
[888] He held up a forefinger of warning.
[889]
[890]
[891] --IF ANYONE THINKS THAT I AMN'T DIVINE
[892] HE'LL GET NO FREE DRINKS WHEN I'M MAKING THE WINE
[893] BUT HAVE TO DRINK WATER AND WISH IT WERE PLAIN
[894] THAT I MAKE WHEN THE WINE BECOMES WATER AGAIN.
[895]
[896]
[897] He tugged swiftly at Stephen's ashplant in farewell and, running forward
[898] to a brow of the cliff, fluttered his hands at his sides like fins or
[899] wings of one about to rise in the air, and chanted:
[900]
[901]
[902] --GOODBYE, NOW, GOODBYE! WRITE DOWN ALL I SAID
[903] AND TELL TOM, DIEK AND HARRY I ROSE FROM THE DEAD.
[904] WHAT'S BRED IN THE BONE CANNOT FAIL ME TO FLY
[905] AND OLIVET'S BREEZY ... GOODBYE, NOW, GOODBYE!
[906]
[907]
[908] He capered before them down towards the forty-foot hole, fluttering his
[909] winglike hands, leaping nimbly, Mercury's hat quivering in the fresh wind
[910] that bore back to them his brief birdsweet cries.
[911]
[912] Haines, who had been laughing guardedly, walked on beside Stephen and
[913] said:
[914]
[915] --We oughtn't to laugh, I suppose. He's rather blasphemous. I'm not a
[916] believer myself, that is to say. Still his gaiety takes the harm out of
[917] it somehow, doesn't it? What did he call it? Joseph the Joiner?
[918]
[919] --The ballad of joking Jesus, Stephen answered.
[920]
[921] --O, Haines said, you have heard it before?
[922]
[923] --Three times a day, after meals, Stephen said drily.
[924]
[925] --You're not a believer, are you? Haines asked. I mean, a believer in the
[926] narrow sense of the word. Creation from nothing and miracles and a
[927] personal God.
[928]
[929] --There's only one sense of the word, it seems to me, Stephen said.
[930]
[931] Haines stopped to take out a smooth silver case in which twinkled a green
[932] stone. He sprang it open with his thumb and offered it.
[933]
[934] --Thank you, Stephen said, taking a cigarette.
[935]
[936] Haines helped himself and snapped the case to. He put it back in his
[937] sidepocket and took from his waistcoatpocket a nickel tinderbox, sprang
[938] it open too, and, having lit his cigarette, held the flaming spunk
[939] towards Stephen in the shell of his hands.
[940]
[941] --Yes, of course, he said, as they went on again. Either you believe or
[942] you don't, isn't it? Personally I couldn't stomach that idea of a
[943] personal God. You don't stand for that, I suppose?
[944]
[945] --You behold in me, Stephen said with grim displeasure, a horrible
[946] example of free thought.
[947]
[948] He walked on, waiting to be spoken to, trailing his ashplant by his side.
[949] Its ferrule followed lightly on the path, squealing at his heels. My
[950] familiar, after me, calling, Steeeeeeeeeeeephen! A wavering line along
[951] the path. They will walk on it tonight, coming here in the dark. He wants
[952] that key. It is mine. I paid the rent. Now I eat his salt bread. Give him
[953] the key too. All. He will ask for it. That was in his eyes.
[954]
[955] --After all, Haines began ...
[956]
[957] Stephen turned and saw that the cold gaze which had measured him was not
[958] all unkind.
[959]
[960] --After all, I should think you are able to free yourself. You are your
[961] own master, it seems to me.
[962]
[963] --I am a servant of two masters, Stephen said, an English and an Italian.
[964]
[965] --Italian? Haines said.
[966]
[967] A crazy queen, old and jealous. Kneel down before me.
[968]
[969] --And a third, Stephen said, there is who wants me for odd jobs.
[970]
[971] --Italian? Haines said again. What do you mean?
[972]
[973] --The imperial British state, Stephen answered, his colour rising, and
[974] the holy Roman catholic and apostolic church.
[975]
[976] Haines detached from his underlip some fibres of tobacco before he spoke.
[977]
[978] --I can quite understand that, he said calmly. An Irishman must think
[979] like that, I daresay. We feel in England that we have treated you rather
[980] unfairly. It seems history is to blame.
[981]
[982] The proud potent titles clanged over Stephen's memory the triumph of
[983] their brazen bells: ET UNAM SANCTAM CATHOLICAM ET APOSTOLICAM ECCLESIAM:
[984] the slow growth and change of rite and dogma like his own rare thoughts,
[985] a chemistry of stars. Symbol of the apostles in the mass for pope
[986] Marcellus, the voices blended, singing alone loud in affirmation: and
[987] behind their chant the vigilant angel of the church militant disarmed and
[988] menaced her heresiarchs. A horde of heresies fleeing with mitres awry:
[989] Photius and the brood of mockers of whom Mulligan was one, and Arius,
[990] warring his life long upon the consubstantiality of the Son with the
[991] Father, and Valentine, spurning Christ's terrene body, and the subtle
[992] African heresiarch Sabellius who held that the Father was Himself His own
[993] Son. Words Mulligan had spoken a moment since in mockery to the stranger.
[994] Idle mockery. The void awaits surely all them that weave the wind: a
[995] menace, a disarming and a worsting from those embattled angels of the
[996] church, Michael's host, who defend her ever in the hour of conflict with
[997] their lances and their shields.
[998]
[999] Hear, hear! Prolonged applause. ZUT! NOM DE DIEU!
[1000]
[1001] --Of course I'm a Britisher, Haines's voice said, and I feel as one. I
[1002] don't want to see my country fall into the hands of German jews either.
[1003] That's our national problem, I'm afraid, just now.
[1004]
[1005] Two men stood at the verge of the cliff, watching: businessman, boatman.
[1006]
[1007] --She's making for Bullock harbour.
[1008]
[1009] The boatman nodded towards the north of the bay with some disdain.
[1010]
[1011] --There's five fathoms out there, he said. It'll be swept up that way
[1012] when the tide comes in about one. It's nine days today.
[1013]
[1014] The man that was drowned. A sail veering about the blank bay waiting for
[1015] a swollen bundle to bob up, roll over to the sun a puffy face, saltwhite.
[1016] Here I am.
[1017]
[1018] They followed the winding path down to the creek. Buck Mulligan stood on
[1019] a stone, in shirtsleeves, his unclipped tie rippling over his shoulder. A
[1020] young man clinging to a spur of rock near him, moved slowly frogwise his
[1021] green legs in the deep jelly of the water.
[1022]
[1023] --Is the brother with you, Malachi?
[1024]
[1025] --Down in Westmeath. With the Bannons.
[1026]
[1027] --Still there? I got a card from Bannon. Says he found a sweet young
[1028] thing down there. Photo girl he calls her.
[1029]
[1030] --Snapshot, eh? Brief exposure.
[1031]
[1032] Buck Mulligan sat down to unlace his boots. An elderly man shot up near
[1033] the spur of rock a blowing red face. He scrambled up by the stones, water
[1034] glistening on his pate and on its garland of grey hair, water rilling
[1035] over his chest and paunch and spilling jets out of his black sagging
[1036] loincloth.
[1037]
[1038] Buck Mulligan made way for him to scramble past and, glancing at Haines
[1039] and Stephen, crossed himself piously with his thumbnail at brow and lips
[1040] and breastbone.
[1041]
[1042] --Seymour's back in town, the young man said, grasping again his spur of
[1043] rock. Chucked medicine and going in for the army.
[1044]
[1045] --Ah, go to God! Buck Mulligan said.
[1046]
[1047] --Going over next week to stew. You know that red Carlisle girl, Lily?
[1048]
[1049] --Yes.
[1050]
[1051] --Spooning with him last night on the pier. The father is rotto with
[1052] money.
[1053]
[1054] --Is she up the pole?
[1055]
[1056] --Better ask Seymour that.
[1057]
[1058] --Seymour a bleeding officer! Buck Mulligan said.
[1059]
[1060] He nodded to himself as he drew off his trousers and stood up, saying
[1061] tritely:
[1062]
[1063] --Redheaded women buck like goats.
[1064]
[1065] He broke off in alarm, feeling his side under his flapping shirt.
[1066]
[1067] --My twelfth rib is gone, he cried. I'm the UBERMENSCH. Toothless Kinch
[1068] and I, the supermen.
[1069]
[1070] He struggled out of his shirt and flung it behind him to where his
[1071] clothes lay.
[1072]
[1073] --Are you going in here, Malachi?
[1074]
[1075] --Yes. Make room in the bed.
[1076]
[1077] The young man shoved himself backward through the water and reached the
[1078] middle of the creek in two long clean strokes. Haines sat down on a
[1079] stone, smoking.
[1080]
[1081] --Are you not coming in? Buck Mulligan asked.
[1082]
[1083] --Later on, Haines said. Not on my breakfast.
[1084]
[1085] Stephen turned away.
[1086]
[1087] --I'm going, Mulligan, he said.
[1088]
[1089] --Give us that key, Kinch, Buck Mulligan said, to keep my chemise flat.
[1090]
[1091] Stephen handed him the key. Buck Mulligan laid it across his heaped
[1092] clothes.
[1093]
[1094] --And twopence, he said, for a pint. Throw it there.
[1095]
[1096] Stephen threw two pennies on the soft heap. Dressing, undressing. Buck
[1097] Mulligan erect, with joined hands before him, said solemnly:
[1098]
[1099] --He who stealeth from the poor lendeth to the Lord. Thus spake
[1100] Zarathustra.
[1101]
[1102] His plump body plunged.
[1103]
[1104] --We'll see you again, Haines said, turning as Stephen walked up the path
[1105] and smiling at wild Irish.
[1106]
[1107] Horn of a bull, hoof of a horse, smile of a Saxon.
[1108]
[1109] --The Ship, Buck Mulligan cried. Half twelve.
[1110]
[1111] --Good, Stephen said.
[1112]
[1113] He walked along the upwardcurving path.
[1114]
[1115]
[1116] LILIATA RUTILANTIUM.
[1117] TURMA CIRCUMDET.
[1118] IUBILANTIUM TE VIRGINUM.
[1119]
[1120]
[1121] The priest's grey nimbus in a niche where he dressed discreetly. I will
[1122] not sleep here tonight. Home also I cannot go.
[1123]
[1124] A voice, sweettoned and sustained, called to him from the sea. Turning
[1125] the curve he waved his hand. It called again. A sleek brown head, a
[1126] seal's, far out on the water, round.
[1127]
[1128] Usurper.
[1129]
[1130]
[1131]

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