Ulysses
slanted to the rere, which, repelled in recoil, had then upturned an
irregular fringe of a rectangular rug and now displayed on its amply
upholstered seat a centralised diffusing and diminishing
discolouration. The other: a slender splayfoot chair of glossy cane
curves, placed directly opposite the former, its frame from top to seat
and from seat to base being varnished dark brown, its seat being a
bright circle of white plaited rush.
What significances attached to these two chairs?
Significances of similitude, of posture, of symbolism, of
circumstantial evidence, of testimonial supermanence.
What occupied the position originally occupied by the sideboard?
A vertical piano (Cadby) with exposed keyboard, its closed coffin
supporting a pair of long yellow ladies’ gloves and an emerald ashtray
containing four consumed matches, a partly consumed cigarette and two
discoloured ends of cigarettes, its musicrest supporting the music in
the key of G natural for voice and piano of _Love’s Old Sweet Song_
(words by G. Clifton Bingham, composed by J. L. Molloy, sung by Madam
Antoinette Sterling) open at the last page with the final indications
_ad libitum, forte_, pedal, _animato_, sustained pedal, _ritirando_,
close.
With what sensations did Bloom contemplate in rotation these objects?
With strain, elevating a candlestick: with pain, feeling on his right
temple a contused tumescence: with attention, focussing his gaze on a
large dull passive and a slender bright active: with solicitation,
bending and downturning the upturned rugfringe: with amusement,
remembering Dr Malachi Mulligan’s scheme of colour containing the
gradation of green: with pleasure, repeating the words and antecedent
act and perceiving through various channels of internal sensibility the
consequent and concomitant tepid pleasant diffusion of gradual
discolouration.
His next proceeding?
From an open box on the majolicatopped table he extracted a black
diminutive cone, one inch in height, placed it on its circular base on
a small tin plate, placed his candlestick on the right corner of the
mantelpiece, produced from his waistcoat a folded page of prospectus
(illustrated) entitled Agendath Netaim, unfolded the same, examined it
superficially, rolled it into a thin cylinder, ignited it in the
candleflame, applied it when ignited to the apex of the cone till the
latter reached the stage of rutilance, placed the cylinder in the basin
of the candlestick disposing its unconsumed part in such a manner as to
facilitate total combustion.
What followed this operation?
The truncated conical crater summit of the diminutive volcano emitted a
vertical and serpentine fume redolent of aromatic oriental incense.
What homothetic objects, other than the candlestick, stood on the
mantelpiece?
A timepiece of striated Connemara marble, stopped at the hour of 4.46
a.m. on the 21 March 1896, matrimonial gift of Matthew Dillon: a dwarf
tree of glacial arborescence under a transparent bellshade, matrimonial
gift of Luke and Caroline Doyle: an embalmed owl, matrimonial gift of
Alderman John Hooper.
What interchanges of looks took place between these three objects and
Bloom?
In the mirror of the giltbordered pierglass the undecorated back of the
dwarf tree regarded the upright back of the embalmed owl. Before the
mirror the matrimonial gift of Alderman John Hooper with a clear
melancholy wise bright motionless compassionate gaze regarded Bloom
while Bloom with obscure tranquil profound motionless compassionated
gaze regarded the matrimonial gift of Luke and Caroline Doyle.
What composite asymmetrical image in the mirror then attracted his
attention?
The image of a solitary (ipsorelative) mutable (aliorelative) man.
Why solitary (ipsorelative)?
Brothers and sisters had he none.
Yet that man’s father was his grandfather’s son.
Why mutable (aliorelative)?
From infancy to maturity he had resembled his maternal procreatrix.
From maturity to senility he would increasingly resemble his paternal
procreator.
What final visual impression was communicated to him by the mirror?
The optical reflection of several inverted volumes improperly arranged
and not in the order of their common letters with scintillating titles
on the two bookshelves opposite.
Catalogue these books.
_Thom’s Dublin Post Office Directory_, 1886.
Denis Florence M’Carthy’s _Poetical Works_ (copper beechleaf bookmark
at p. 5).
Shakespeare’s _Works_ (dark crimson morocco, goldtooled).
_The Useful Ready Reckoner_ (brown cloth).
_The Secret History of the Court of Charles II_ (red cloth, tooled
binding).
_The Child’s Guide_ (blue cloth).
_The Beauties of Killarney_ (wrappers).
_When We Were Boys_ by William O’Brien M. P. (green cloth, slightly
faded, envelope bookmark at p. 217).
_Thoughts from Spinoza_ (maroon leather).
_The Story of the Heavens_ by Sir Robert Ball (blue cloth).
Ellis’s _Three Trips to Madagascar_ (brown cloth, title obliterated).
_The Stark-Munro Letters_ by A. Conan Doyle, property of the City of
Dublin Public Library, 106 Capel street, lent 21 May (Whitsun Eve)
1904, due 4 June 1904, 13 days overdue (black cloth binding, bearing
white letternumber ticket).
_Voyages in China_ by “Viator” (recovered with brown paper, red ink
title).
_Philosophy of the Talmud_ (sewn pamphlet).
Lockhart’s _Life of Napoleon_ (cover wanting, marginal annotations,
minimising victories, aggrandising defeats of the protagonist).
_Soll und Haben_ by Gustav Freytag (black boards, Gothic characters,
cigarette coupon bookmark at p. 24).
Hozier’s _History of the Russo-Turkish War_ (brown cloth, 2 volumes,
with gummed label, Garrison Library, Governor’s Parade, Gibraltar, on
verso of cover).
_Laurence Bloomfield in Ireland_ by William Allingham (second edition,
green cloth, gilt trefoil design, previous owner’s name on recto of
flyleaf erased).
_A Handbook of Astronomy_ (cover, brown leather, detached, 5 plates,
antique letterpress long primer, author’s footnotes nonpareil, marginal
clues brevier, captions small pica).
_The Hidden Life of Christ_ (black boards).
_In the Track of the Sun_ (yellow cloth, titlepage missing, recurrent
title intestation).
_Physical Strength and How to Obtain It_ by Eugen Sandow (red cloth).
_Short but yet Plain Elements of Geometry_ written in French by F.
Ignat. Pardies and rendered into Engliſh by John Harris D. D. London,
printed for R. Knaplock at the Biſhop’s Head, MDCCXI, with dedicatory
epiſtle to his worthy friend Charles Cox, eſquire, Member of Parliament
for the burgh of Southwark and having ink calligraphed statement on the
flyleaf certifying that the book was the property of Michael Gallagher,
dated this 10th day of May 1822 and requeſting the perſon who should
find it, if the book should be loſt or go aſtray, to reſtore it to
Michael Gallagher, carpenter, Dufery Gate, Enniſcorthy, county Wicklow,
the fineſt place in the world.
What reflections occupied his mind during the process of reversion of
the inverted volumes?
The necessity of order, a place for everything and everything in its
place: the deficient appreciation of literature possessed by females:
the incongruity of an apple incuneated in a tumbler and of an umbrella
inclined in a closestool: the insecurity of hiding any secret document
behind, beneath or between the pages of a book.
Which volume was the largest in bulk?
Hozier’s _History of the Russo-Turkish War._
What among other data did the second volume of the work in question
contain?
The name of a decisive battle (forgotten), frequently remembered by a
decisive officer, major Brian Cooper Tweedy (remembered).
Why, firstly and secondly, did he not consult the work in question?
Firstly, in order to exercise mnemotechnic: secondly, because after an
interval of amnesia, when, seated at the central table, about to
consult the work in question, he remembered by mnemotechnic the name of
the military engagement, Plevna.
What caused him consolation in his sitting posture?
The candour, nudity, pose, tranquility, youth, grace, sex, counsel of a
statue erect in the centre of the table, an image of Narcissus
purchased by auction from P. A. Wren, 9 Bachelor’s Walk.
What caused him irritation in his sitting posture?
Inhibitory pressure of collar (size 17) and waistcoat (5 buttons), two
articles of clothing superfluous in the costume of mature males and
inelastic to alterations of mass by expansion.
How was the irritation allayed?
He removed his collar, with contained black necktie and collapsible
stud, from his neck to a position on the left of the table. He
unbuttoned successively in reversed direction waistcoat, trousers,
shirt and vest along the medial line of irregular incrispated black
hairs extending in triangular convergence from the pelvic basin over
the circumference of the abdomen and umbilicular fossicle along the
medial line of nodes to the intersection of the sixth pectoral
vertebrae, thence produced both ways at right angles and terminating in
circles described about two equidistant points, right and left, on the
summits of the mammary prominences. He unbraced successively each of
six minus one braced trouser buttons, arranged in pairs, of which one
incomplete.
What involuntary actions followed?
He compressed between 2 fingers the flesh circumjacent to a cicatrice
in the left infracostal region below the diaphragm resulting from a
sting inflicted 2 weeks and 3 days previously (23 May 1904) by a bee.
He scratched imprecisely with his right hand, though insensible of
prurition, various points and surfaces of his partly exposed, wholly
abluted skin. He inserted his left hand into the left lower pocket of
his waistcoat and extracted and replaced a silver coin (1 shilling),
placed there (presumably) on the occasion (17 October 1903) of the
interment of Mrs Emily Sinico, Sydney Parade.
Compile the budget for 16 June 1904.
Debit
£. s. d.
1 Pork kidney 0—0—3
1 Copy Freeman’s Journal 0—0—1
1 Bath and Gratification 0—1—6
Tramfare 0—0—1
1 In Memoriam Patrick Dignam 0—5—0
2 Banbury cakes 0—0—1
1 Lunch 0—0—7
1 Renewal fee for book 0—1—0
1 Packet Notepaper and Envelopes 0—0—2
1 Dinner and Gratification 0—2—0
1 Postal Order and Stamp 0—2—8
Tramfare 0—0—1
1 Pig’s Foot 0—0—4
1 Sheep’s Trotter 0—0—3
1 Cake Fry’s Plain Chocolate 0—0—1
1 Square Soda Bread 0—0—4
1 Coffee and Bun 0—0—4
Loan (Stephen Dedalus) refunded 1—7—0
BALANCE 0—16—6
—————
2—19—3
Credit
£. s. d.
Cash in hand 0—4—9
Commission recd. Freeman’s Journal 1—7—6
Loan (Stephen Dedalus) 1—7—0
—————
2—19—3
Did the process of divestiture continue?
Did the process of divestiture continue?
Sensible of a benignant persistent ache in his footsoles he extended
his foot to one side and observed the creases, protuberances and
salient points caused by foot pressure in the course of walking
repeatedly in several different directions, then, inclined, he disnoded
the laceknots, unhooked and loosened the laces, took off each of his
two boots for the second time, detached the partially moistened right