<p>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.</p>
<p>Speech paused on Richie's lips.</p>
<p>Coming out with a whopper now. Rhapsodies about damn all.</p>
<p>Believes his own lies. Does really. Wonderful liar. But want a good
memory.</p>
<p>—Which air is that? asked Leopold Bloom.</p>
<p>—<i>All is lost now</i>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. Brave. Don't know their danger. Still hold her back. 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.</p>
<p>—A beautiful air, said Bloom lost Leopold. I know it well.</p>
<p>Never in all his life had Richie Goulding.</p>
<p>He knows it well too. Or he feels. Still harping on his daughter. Wise
child that knows her father, Dedalus said. Me?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Piano again. Sounds better than last time I heard. Tuned probably. Stopped
again.</p>
<p>Dollard and Cowley still urged the lingering singer out with it.</p>
<p>—With it, Simon.</p>
<p>—It, Simon.</p>
<p>—Ladies and gentlemen, I am most deeply obliged by your kind
solicitations.</p>
<p>—It, Simon.</p>
<p>—I have no money but if you will lend me your attention I shall
endeavour to sing to you of a heart bowed down.</p>
<p>By the sandwichbell in screening shadow Lydia, her bronze and rose, a
lady's grace, gave and withheld: as in cool glaucous <i>eau de Nil</i>
Mina to tankards two her pinnacles of gold.</p>
<p>The harping chords of prelude closed. A chord, longdrawn, expectant, drew
a voice away.</p>
<p>—<i>When first I saw that form endearing</i>...</p>
<p>Richie turned.</p>
<p>—Si Dedalus' voice, he said.</p>
<p>Braintipped, cheek touched with flame, they listened feeling that flow
endearing flow over skin limbs human heart soul spine. Bloom signed to
Pat, bald Pat is a waiter hard of hearing, to set ajar the door of the
bar. The door of the bar. So. That will do. Pat, waiter, waited, waiting
to hear, for he was hard of hear by the door.</p>
<p>—<i>Sorrow from me seemed to depart.</i></p>
<p>Through the hush of air a voice sang to them, low, not rain, not leaves in
murmur, like no voice of strings or reeds or whatdoyoucallthem dulcimers
touching their still ears with words, still hearts of their each his
remembered lives. Good, good to hear: sorrow from them each seemed to from
both depart when first they heard. When first they saw, lost Richie Poldy,
mercy of beauty, heard from a person wouldn't expect it in the least, her
first merciful lovesoft oftloved word.</p>
<p>Love that is singing: love's old sweet song. Bloom unwound slowly the
elastic band of his packet. Love's old sweet <i>sonnez la</i> gold. Bloom
wound a skein round four forkfingers, stretched it, relaxed, and wound it
round his troubled double, fourfold, in octave, gyved them fast.</p>
<p>—<i>Full of hope and all delighted</i>...</p>
<p>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? Phial of cachous, kissing comfits, in her
satchel. Yes? Hands felt for the opulent.</p>
<p>Alas the voice rose, sighing, changed: loud, full, shining, proud.</p>
<p>—<i>But alas, 'twas idle dreaming</i>...</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Tenderness it welled: slow, swelling, full it throbbed. That's the chat.
Ha, give! Take! Throb, a throb, a pulsing proud erect.</p>
<p>Words? Music? No: it's what's behind.</p>
<p>Bloom looped, unlooped, noded, disnoded.</p>
<p>Bloom. Flood of warm jamjam lickitup secretness flowed to flow in music
out, in desire, dark to lick flow invading. Tipping her tepping her
tapping her topping her. Tup. Pores to dilate dilating. Tup. The joy the
feel the warm the. Tup. To pour o'er sluices pouring gushes. Flood, gush,
flow, joygush, tupthrob. Now! Language of love.</p>
<p>—... <i>ray of hope is</i>...</p>
<p>Beaming. Lydia for Lidwell squeak scarcely hear so ladylike the muse
unsqueaked a ray of hopk.</p>
<p><i>Martha</i> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>—<i>Each graceful look</i>...</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Round and round slow. Quick round. We two. All looked. Halt. Down she sat.
All ousted looked. Lips laughing. Yellow knees.</p>
<p>—<i>Charmed my eye</i>...</p>
<p>Singing. <i>Waiting</i> she sang. I turned her music. Full voice of
perfume of what perfume does your lilactrees. Bosom I saw, both full,
throat warbling. First I saw. She thanked me. Why did she me? Fate.
Spanishy eyes. Under a peartree alone patio this hour in old Madrid one
side in shadow Dolores shedolores. At me. Luring. Ah, alluring.</p>
<p>—<i>Martha! Ah, Martha!</i></p>
<p>Quitting all languor Lionel cried in grief, in cry of passion dominant to
love to return with deepening yet with rising chords of harmony. In cry of
lionel loneliness that she should know, must martha feel. For only her he
waited. Where? Here there try there here all try where. Somewhere.</p>
<p>—<i>Co-ome, thou lost one!<br/>
Co-ome, thou dear one!</i><br/></p>
<p>Alone. One love. One hope. One comfort me. Martha, chestnote, return!</p>
<p><i>—Come!</i></p>
<p>It soared, a bird, it held its flight, a swift pure cry, soar silver orb
it leaped serene, speeding, sustained, to come, don't spin it out too long
long breath he breath long life, soaring high, high resplendent, aflame,
crowned, high in the effulgence symbolistic, high, of the etherial bosom,
high, of the high vast irradiation everywhere all soaring all around about
the all, the endlessnessnessness...</p>
<p>—<i>To me!</i></p>
<p>Siopold!</p>
<p>Consumed.</p>
<p>Come. Well sung. All clapped. She ought to. Come. To me, to him, to her,
you too, me, us.</p>
<p>—Bravo! Clapclap. Good man, Simon. Clappyclapclap. Encore!
Clapclipclap clap. Sound as a bell. Bravo, Simon! Clapclopclap. Encore,
enclap, said, cried, clapped all, Ben Dollard, Lydia Douce, George
Lidwell, Pat, Mina Kennedy, two gentlemen with two tankards, Cowley, first
gent with tank and bronze miss Douce and gold MJiss Mina.</p>
<p>Blazes Boylan's smart tan shoes creaked on the barfloor, said before.
Jingle by monuments of sir John Gray, Horatio onehandled Nelson, reverend
father Theobald Mathew, jaunted, as said before just now. Atrot, in heat,
heatseated. <i>Cloche. Sonnez la. Cloche. Sonnez la.</i> Slower the mare
went up the hill by the Rotunda, Rutland square. Too slow for Boylan,
blazes Boylan, impatience Boylan, joggled the mare.</p>
<p>An afterclang of Cowley's chords closed, died on the air made richer.</p>
<p>And Richie Goulding drank his Power and Leopold Bloom his cider drank,
Lidwell his Guinness, second gentleman said they would partake of two more
tankards if she did not mind. Miss Kennedy smirked, disserving, coral
lips, at first, at second. She did not mind.</p>
<p>—Seven days in jail, Ben Dollard said, on bread and water. Then
you'd sing, Simon, like a garden thrush.</p>
<p>Lionel Simon, singer, laughed. Father Bob Cowley played. Mina Kennedy
served. Second gentleman paid. Tom Kernan strutted in. Lydia, admired,
admired. But Bloom sang dumb.</p>
<p>Admiring.</p>
<p>Richie, admiring, descanted on that man's glorious voice. He remembered
one night long ago. Never forget that night. Si sang <i>'Twas rank and
fame</i>: in Ned Lambert's 'twas. Good God he never heard in all his life
a note like that he never did <i>then false one we had better part</i> so
clear so God he never heard <i>since love lives not</i> a clinking voice
lives not ask Lambert he can tell you too.</p>
<p>Goulding, a flush struggling in his pale, told Mr Bloom, face of the
night, Si in Ned Lambert's, Dedalus house, sang <i>'Twas rank and fame.</i></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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
night Si sang. The human voice, two tiny silky chords, wonderful, more
than all others.</p>
<p>That voice was a lamentation. Calmer now. It's in the silence after you
feel you hear. Vibrations. Now silent air.</p>
<p>Bloom ungyved his crisscrossed hands and with slack fingers plucked the
slender catgut thong. He drew and plucked. It buzz, it twanged. While
Goulding talked of Barraclough's voice production, while Tom Kernan,
harking back in a retrospective sort of arrangement talked to listening
Father Cowley, who played a voluntary, who nodded as he played. While big
Ben Dollard talked with Simon Dedalus, lighting, who nodded as he smoked,
who smoked.</p>
<p>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. <i>Corpus
paradisum.</i> Corncrake croaker: belly like a poisoned pup. Gone. They
sing. Forgotten. I too; And one day she with. Leave her: get tired. Suffer
then. Snivel. Big spanishy eyes goggling at nothing. Her
wavyavyeavyheavyeavyevyevyhair un comb:'d.</p>
<p>Yet too much happy bores. He stretched more, more. Are you not happy in
your? Twang. It snapped.</p>
<p>Jingle into Dorset street.</p>
<p>Miss Douce withdrew her satiny arm, reproachful, pleased.</p>
<p>—Don't make half so free, said she, till we are better acquainted.</p>
<p>George Lidwell told her really and truly: but she did not believe.</p>
<p>First gentleman told Mina that was so. She asked him was that so. And
second tankard told her so. That that was so.</p>
<p>Miss Douce, miss Lydia, did not believe: miss Kennedy, Mina, did not
believe: George Lidwell, no: miss Dou did not: the first, the first: gent
with the tank: believe, no, no: did not, miss Kenn: Lidlydiawell: the
tank.</p>
<p>Better write it here. Quills in the postoffice chewed and twisted.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>—Yes, Mr Bloom said, teasing the curling catgut line. 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.</p>
<p>—Grandest number in the whole opera, Goulding said.</p>
<p>—It is, Bloom said.</p>
<p>Numbers it is. All music when you come to think. Two multiplied by two
divided by half is twice one. Vibrations: chords those are. One plus two
plus six is seven. Do anything you like with figures juggling. Always find
out this equal to that. Symmetry under a cemetery wall. He doesn't see my
mourning. Callous: all for his own gut. Musemathematics. And you think
you're listening to the etherial. But suppose you said it like: Martha,
seven times nine minus x is thirtyfive thousand. Fall quite flat. It's on
account of the sounds it is.</p>
<p>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. <i>Blumenlied</i> I bought for her. The name. Playing it slow, a
girl, night I came home, the girl. Door of the stables near Cecilia
street. Milly no taste. Queer because we both, I mean.</p>
<p>Bald deaf Pat brought quite flat pad ink. Pat set with ink pen quite flat
pad. Pat took plate dish knife fork. Pat went.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Down the edge of his <i>Freeman</i> baton ranged Bloom's, your other eye,
scanning for where did I see that. Callan, Coleman, Dignam Patrick.
Heigho! Heigho! Fawcett. Aha! Just I was looking...</p>
<p>Hope he's not looking, cute as a rat. He held unfurled his <i>Freeman.</i>
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 <i>imposs.</i> To write today.</p>
<p>Bore this. Bored Bloom tambourined gently with I am just reflecting
fingers on flat pad Pat brought.</p>
<p>On. Know what I mean. No, change that ee. Accep my poor litt pres enclos.
Ask her no answ. Hold on. Five Dig. Two about here. Penny the gulls.
Elijah is com. Seven Davy Byrne's. Is eight about. Say half a crown. My
poor little pres: p. o. two and six. Write me a long. Do you despise?
Jingle, have you the? So excited. Why do you call me naught? You naughty
too? O, Mairy lost the string of her. Bye for today. Yes, yes, will tell
you. Want to. To keep it up. Call me that other. Other world she wrote. My
patience are exhaust. To keep it up. You must believe. Believe. The tank.
It. Is. True.</p>
<p>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 all. Useless pain. If
they don't see. Woman. Sauce for the gander.</p>
<p>A hackney car, number three hundred and twentyfour, driver Barton James of
number one Harmony avenue, Donnybrook, on which sat a fare, a young
gentleman, stylishly dressed in an indigoblue serge suit made by George
Robert Mesias, tailor and cutter, of number five Eden quay, and wearing a
straw hat very dressy, bought of John Plasto of number one Great Brunswick
street, hatter. Eh? This is the jingle that joggled and jingled. By
Dlugacz' porkshop bright tubes of Agendath trotted a gallantbuttocked
mare.</p>
<p>—Answering an ad? keen Richie's eyes asked Bloom.</p>
<p>—Yes, Mr Bloom said. Town traveller. Nothing doing, I expect.</p>
<p>Bloom mur: best references. But Henry wrote: it will excite me. You know
how. In haste. Henry. Greek ee. Better add postscript. What is he playing
now? Improvising. Intermezzo. P. S. The rum tum tum. How will you pun? You
punish me? Crooked skirt swinging, whack by. Tell me I want to. Know. O.
Course if I didn't I wouldn't ask. La la la ree. Trails off there sad in
minor. Why minor sad? Sign H. They like sad tail at end. P. P. S. La la la
ree. I feel so sad today. La ree. So lonely. Dee.</p>
<p>He blotted quick on pad of Pat. Envel. Address. Just copy out of paper.
Murmured: Messrs Callan, Coleman and Co, limited. Henry wrote:</p>
<p>Miss Martha Clifford c/o P. O. Dolphin's Barn Lane Dublin</p>
<p>Blot over the other so he can't read. There. Right. Idea prize titbit.
Something detective read off blottingpad. Payment at the rate of guinea
per col. Matcham often thinks the laughing witch. Poor Mrs Purefoy. U. P:
up.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In Gerard's rosery of Fetter lane he walks, greyedauburn. One life is all.
One body. Do. But do.</p>
<p>Done anyhow. Postal order, stamp. Postoffice lower down. Walk now. Enough.
Barney Kiernan's I promised to meet them. Dislike that job.</p>
<p>House of mourning. Walk. Pat! Doesn't hear. Deaf beetle he is.</p>
<p>Car near there now. Talk. Talk. Pat! Doesn't. Settling those napkins. Lot
of ground he must cover in the day. Paint face behind on him then he'd be
two. Wish they'd sing more. Keep my mind off.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Douce now. Douce Lydia. Bronze and rose.</p>
<p>She had a gorgeous, simply gorgeous, time. And look at the lovely shell
she brought.</p>
<p>To the end of the bar to him she bore lightly the spiked and winding
seahorn that he, George Lidwell, solicitor, might hear.</p>
<p>—Listen! she bade him.</p>
<p>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. <i>Scoundrel,</i> said he, <i>You'll sing no more lovesongs.</i>
He did, faith, sir Tom. Bob Cowley wove. Tenors get wom. Cowley lay back.</p>
<p>Ah, now he heard, she holding it to his ear. Hear! He heard.</p>
<p>Wonderful. She held it to her own. And through the sifted light pale gold
in contrast glided. To hear.</p>
<p>Tap.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Bronze by a weary gold, anear, afar, they listened.</p>
<p>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 the
mouth, why? Her eyes over the sheet. Yashmak. Find the way in. A cave. No
admittance except on business.</p>
<p>The sea they think they hear. Singing. A roar. The blood it is. Souse in
the ear sometimes. Well, it's a sea. Corpuscle islands.</p>
<p>Wonderful really. So distinct. Again. George Lidwell held its murmur,
hearing: then laid it by, gently.</p>
<p>—What are the wild waves saying? he asked her, smiled.</p>
<p>Charming, seasmiling and unanswering Lydia on Lidwell smiled.</p>
<p>Tap.</p>
<p>By Larry O'Rourke's, by Larry, bold Larry O', Boylan swayed and Boylan
turned.</p>
<p>From the forsaken shell miss Mina glided to her tankards waiting. No, she
was not so lonely archly miss Douce's head let Mr Lidwell know. Walks in
the moonlight by the sea. No, not alone. With whom? She nobly answered:
with a gentleman friend.</p>
<p>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, one, one: two,
one, three, four.</p>
<p>Sea, wind, leaves, thunder, waters, cows lowing, the cattlemarket, cocks,
hens don't crow, snakes hissss. There's music everywhere. Ruttledge's
door: ee creaking. No, that's noise. Minuet of <i>Don Giovanni</i> 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.</p>
<p>That's joyful I can feel. Never have written it. Why? My joy is other joy.
But both are joys. Yes, joy it must be. Mere fact of music shows you are.
Often thought she was in the dumps till she began to lilt. Then know.</p>
<p>M'Coy valise. My wife and your wife. Squealing cat. Like tearing silk.
Tongue when she talks like the clapper of a bellows. They can't manage
men's intervals. Gap in their voices too. Fill me. I'm warm, dark, open.
Molly in <i>quis est homo</i>: Mercadante. My ear against the wall to
hear. Want a woman who can deliver the goods.</p>
<p>Jog jig jogged stopped. Dandy tan shoe of dandy Boylan socks skyblue
clocks came light to earth.</p>
<p>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. Diddleiddle addleaddle ooddleooddle. Hissss. Now.
Maybe now. Before.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Tap.</p>
<p>—<i>Qui sdegno,</i> Ben, said Father Cowley.</p>
<p>—No, Ben, Tom Kernan interfered. <i>The Croppy Boy.</i> Our native
Doric.</p>
<p>—Ay do, Ben, Mr Dedalus said. Good men and true.</p>
<p>—Do, do, they begged in one.</p>
<p>I'll go. Here, Pat, return. Come. He came, he came, he did not stay. To
me. How much?</p>
<p>—What key? Six sharps?</p>
<p>—F sharp major, Ben Dollard said.</p>
<p>Bob Cowley's outstretched talons griped the black deepsounding chords.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>But wait. But hear. Chords dark. Lugugugubrious. Low. In a cave of the
dark middle earth. Embedded ore. Lumpmusic.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Tap.</p>
<p>Ben Dollard's voice. Base barreltone. Doing his level best to say it.
Croak of vast manless moonless womoonless marsh. Other comedown. Big
ships' chandler's business he did once. Remember: rosiny ropes, ships'
lanterns. Failed to the tune of ten thousand pounds. Now in the Iveagh
home. Cubicle number so and so. Number one Bass did that for him.</p>
<p>The priest's at home. A false priest's servant bade him welcome. Step in.
The holy father. With bows a traitor servant. Curlycues of chords.</p>
<p>Ruin them. Wreck their lives. Then build them cubicles to end their days
in. Hushaby. Lullaby. Die, dog. Little dog, die.</p>
<p>The voice of warning, solemn warning, told them the youth had entered a
lonely hall, told them how solemn fell his footsteps there, told them the
gloomy chamber, the vested priest sitting to shrive.</p>
<p>Decent soul. Bit addled now. Thinks he'll win in <i>Answers,</i> 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.</p>
<p>Listen. Bloom listened. Richie Goulding listened. And by the door deaf
Pat, bald Pat, tipped Pat, listened. The chords harped slower.</p>
<p>The voice of penance and of grief came slow, embellished, tremulous. Ben's
contrite beard confessed. <i>in nomine Domini,</i> in God's name he knelt.
He beat his hand upon his breast, confessing: <i>mea culpa.</i></p>
<p>Latin again. That holds them like birdlime. Priest with the communion
corpus for those women. Chap in the mortuary, coffin or coffey, <i>corpusnomine.</i>
Wonder where that rat is by now. Scrape.</p>
<p>Tap.</p>
<p>They listened. Tankards and miss Kennedy. George Lidwell, eyelid well
expressive, fullbusted satin. Kernan. Si.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Bronze, listening, by the beerpull gazed far away. Soulfully. Doesn't half
know I'm. Molly great dab at seeing anyone looking.</p>
<p>Bronze gazed far sideways. Mirror there. Is that best side of her face?
They always know. Knock at the door. Last tip to titivate.</p>
<p>Cockcarracarra.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>She looked fine. Her crocus dress she wore lowcut, belongings on show.
Clove her breath was always in theatre when she bent to ask a question.
Told her what Spinoza says in that book of poor papa's. Hypnotised,
listening. Eyes like that. She bent. Chap in dresscircle staring down into
her with his operaglass for all he was worth. Beauty of music you must
hear twice. Nature woman half a look. God made the country man the tune.
Met him pike hoses. Philosophy. O rocks!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>He bore no hate.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>Ireland comes now. My country above the king. She listens. Who fears to
speak of nineteen four? Time to be shoving. Looked enough.</p>
<p>—<i>Bless me, father,</i> Dollard the croppy cried. <i>Bless me and
let me go.</i></p>
<p>Tap.</p>
<p>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 owny Mumpsypum.
Laughter in court. Henry. I never signed it. The lovely name you.</p>
<p>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. The thrill they itch for. Yeoman cap.</p>
<p>Tap. Tap.</p>
<p>Thrilled she listened, bending in sympathy to hear.</p>
<p>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. Say something. Make her hear. With look
to look. Songs without words. Molly, that hurdygurdy boy. She knew he
meant the monkey was sick. Or because so like the Spanish. Understand
animals too that way. Solomon did. Gift of nature.</p>
<p>Ventriloquise. My lips closed. Think in my stom. What?</p>
<p>Will? You? I. Want. You. To.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Tap. Tap.</p>
<p>Thrill now. Pity they feel. To wipe away a tear for martyrs that want to,
dying to, die. For all things dying, for all things born. Poor Mrs
Purefoy. Hope she's over. Because their wombs.</p>
<p>A liquid of womb of woman eyeball gazed under a fence of lashes, calmly,
hearing. See real beauty of the eye when she not speaks. On yonder river.
At each slow satiny heaving bosom's wave (her heaving embon) red rose rose
slowly sank red rose. Heartbeats: her breath: breath that is life. And all
the tiny tiny fernfoils trembled of maidenhair.</p>
<p>But look. The bright stars fade. O rose! Castile. 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.</p>
<p>On the smooth jutting beerpull laid Lydia hand, lightly, plumply, leave it
to my hands. All lost in pity for croppy. Fro, to: to, fro: over the
polished knob (she knows his eyes, my eyes, her eyes) her thumb and finger
passed in pity: passed, reposed and, gently touching, then slid so
smoothly, slowly down, a cool firm white enamel baton protruding through
their sliding ring.</p>
<p>With a cock with a carra.</p>
<p>Tap. Tap. Tap.</p>
<p>I hold this house. Amen. He gnashed in fury. Traitors swing.</p>
<p>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 Boylo Connoro Coylo Tisdall Maurice Tisntdall Farrell.
Waaaaaaalk.</p>
<p>Well, I must be. Are you off? Yrfmstbyes. Blmstup. O'er ryehigh blue. Ow.
Bloom stood up. Soap feeling rather sticky behind. Must have sweated:
music. That lotion, remember. Well, so long. High grade. Card inside. Yes.</p>
<p>By deaf Pat in the doorway straining ear Bloom passed.</p>
<p>At Geneva barrack that young man died. At Passage was his body laid.
Dolor! O, he dolores! The voice of the mournful chanter called to dolorous
prayer.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Tap. Tap. Tap.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Scaring eavesdropping boots croppy bootsboy Bloom in the Ormond hallway
heard the growls and roars of bravo, fat backslapping, their boots all
treading, boots not the boots the boy. General chorus off for a swill to
wash it down. Glad I avoided.</p>
<p>—Come on, Ben, Simon Dedalus cried. By God, you're as good as ever
you were.</p>
<p>—Better, said Tomgin Kernan. Most trenchant rendition of that
ballad, upon my soul and honour It is.</p>
<p>—Lablache, said Father Cowley.</p>
<p>Ben Dollard bulkily cachuchad towards the bar, mightily praisefed and all
big roseate, on heavyfooted feet, his gouty fingers nakkering castagnettes
in the air.</p>
<p>Big Benaben Dollard. Big Benben. Big Benben.</p>
<p>Rrr.</p>
<p>And deepmoved all, Simon trumping compassion from foghorn nose, all
laughing they brought him forth, Ben Dollard, in right good cheer.</p>
<p>—You're looking rubicund, George Lidwell said.</p>
<p>Miss Douce composed her rose to wait.</p>
<p>—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.</p>
<p>Rrrrrrrsss.</p>
<p>—Fat of death, Simon, Ben Dollard growled.</p>
<p>Richie rift in the lute alone sat: Goulding, Collis, Ward. Uncertainly he
waited. Unpaid Pat too.</p>
<p>Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.</p>
<p>Miss Mina Kennedy brought near her lips to ear of tankard one.</p>
<p>—Mr Dollard, they murmured low.</p>
<p>—Dollard, murmured tankard.</p>
<p>Tank one believed: miss Kenn when she: that doll he was: she doll: the
tank.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Yes, her lips said more loudly, Mr Dollard. He sang that song lovely,
murmured Mina. Mr Dollard. And <i>The last rose of summer</i> was a lovely
song. Mina loved that song. Tankard loved the song that Mina.</p>
<p>'Tis the last rose of summer dollard left bloom felt wind wound round
inside.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Far. Far. Far. Far.</p>
<p>Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Tap blind walked tapping by the tap the curbstone tapping, tap by tap.</p>
<p>Cowley, he stuns himself with it: kind of drunkenness. Better give way
only half way the way of a man with a maid. Instance enthusiasts. All
ears. Not lose a demisemiquaver. Eyes shut. Head nodding in time. Dotty.
You daren't budge. Thinking strictly prohibited. Always talking shop.
Fiddlefaddle about notes.</p>
<p>All a kind of attempt to talk. Unpleasant when it stops because you never
know exac. Organ in Gardiner street. Old Glynn fifty quid a year. Queer up
there in the cockloft, alone, with stops and locks and keys. Seated all
day at the organ. Maunder on for hours, talking to himself or the other
fellow blowing the bellows. Growl angry, then shriek cursing (want to have
wadding or something in his no don't she cried), then all of a soft sudden
wee little wee little pipy wind.</p>
<p>Pwee! A wee little wind piped eeee. In Bloom's little wee.</p>
<p>—Was he? Mr Dedalus said, returning with fetched pipe. I was with
him this morning at poor little Paddy Dignam's...</p>
<p>—Ay, the Lord have mercy on him.</p>
<p>—By the bye there's a tuningfork in there on the...</p>
<p>Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.</p>
<p>—The wife has a fine voice. Or had. What? Lidwell asked.</p>
<p>—O, that must be the tuner, Lydia said to Simonlionel first I saw,
forgot it when he was here.</p>
<p>Blind he was she told George Lidwell second I saw. And played so
exquisitely, treat to hear. Exquisite contrast: bronzelid, minagold.</p>
<p>—Shout! Ben Dollard shouted, pouring. Sing out!</p>
<p>—'lldo! cried Father Cowley.</p>
<p>Rrrrrr.</p>
<p>I feel I want...</p>
<p>Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap</p>
<p>—Very, Mr Dedalus said, staring hard at a headless sardine.</p>
<p>Under the sandwichbell lay on a bier of bread one last, one lonely, last
sardine of summer. Bloom alone.</p>
<p>—Very, he stared. The lower register, for choice.</p>
<p>Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.</p>
<p>Bloom went by Barry's. Wish I could. Wait. That wonderworker if I had.
Twentyfour solicitors in that one house. Counted them. Litigation. Love
one another. Piles of parchment. Messrs Pick and Pocket have power of
attorney. Goulding, Collis, Ward.</p>
<p>But for example the chap that wallops the big drum. His vocation: Mickey
Rooney's band. Wonder how it first struck him. Sitting at home after pig's
cheek and cabbage nursing it in the armchair. Rehearsing his band part.
Pom. Pompedy. Jolly for the wife. Asses' skins. Welt them through life,
then wallop after death. Pom. Wallop. Seems to be what you call yashmak or
I mean kismet. Fate.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 Lombard
street west, hair down. I suppose each kind of trade made its own, don't
you see? Hunter with a horn. Haw. Have you the? <i>Cloche. Sonnez la.</i>
Shepherd his pipe. Pwee little wee. Policeman a whistle. Locks and keys!
Sweep! Four o'clock's all's well! Sleep! All is lost now. Drum? Pompedy.
Wait. I know. Towncrier, bumbailiff. Long John. Waken the dead. Pom.
Dignam. Poor little <i>nominedomine.</i> Pom. It is music. I mean of
course it's all pom pom pom very much what they call <i>da capo.</i> Still
you can hear. As we march, we march along, march along. Pom.</p>
<p>I must really. Fff. Now if I did that at a banquet. Just a question of
custom shah of Persia. Breathe a prayer, drop a tear. All the same he must
have been a bit of a natural not to see it was a yeoman cap. Muffled up.
Wonder who was that chap at the grave in the brown macin. O, the whore of
the lane!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In Lionel Marks's antique saleshop window haughty Henry Lionel Leopold
dear Henry Flower earnestly Mr Leopold Bloom envisaged battered
candlesticks melodeon oozing maggoty blowbags. 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 salesman is. Make you buy what he wants to sell.
Chap sold me the Swedish razor he shaved me with. Wanted to charge me for
the edge he gave it. She's passing now. Six bob.</p>
<p>Must be the cider or perhaps the burgund.</p>
<p>Near bronze from anear near gold from afar they chinked their clinking
glasses all, brighteyed and gallant, before bronze Lydia's tempting last
rose of summer, rose of Castile. First Lid, De, Cow, Ker, Doll, a fifth:
Lidwell, Si Dedalus, Bob Cowley, Kernan and big Ben Dollard.</p>
<p>Tap. A youth entered a lonely Ormond hall.</p>
<p>Bloom viewed a gallant pictured hero in Lionel Marks's window. Robert
Emmet's last words. Seven last words. Of Meyerbeer that is.</p>
<p>—True men like you men.</p>
<p>—Ay, ay, Ben.</p>
<p>—Will lift your glass with us.</p>
<p>They lifted.</p>
<p>Tschink. Tschunk.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Seabloom, greaseabloom viewed last words. Softly. <i>When my country takes
her place among.</i></p>
<p>Prrprr.</p>
<p>Must be the bur.</p>
<p>Fff! Oo. Rrpr.</p>
<p><i>Nations of the earth.</i> No-one behind. She's passed. <i>Then and not
till then.</i> Tram kran kran kran. Good oppor. Coming. Krandlkrankran.
I'm sure it's the burgund. Yes. One, two. <i>Let my epitaph be.</i>
Kraaaaaa. <i>Written. I have.</i></p>
<p>Pprrpffrrppffff.</p>
<p><i>Done.</i></p>
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