Ulysses - Gabler Edition [271]
PRIVATE CARR
(to Cissy Caffrey) Was he insulting you?
STEPHEN
Addressed her in vocative feminine. Probably neuter. Ungenitive.
VOICES
No, he didn’t. I seen him. The girl there. He was in Mrs Cohen’s. What’s up? Soldier and civilian.
CISSY CAFFREY
I was in company with the soldiers and they left me to do, you know, and the young man run up behind me. But I’m faithful to the man that’s treating me though I’m only a shilling whore.
VOICES
Shesfaithfultheman.
STEPHEN
(catches sight of Lynch’s and Kitty’s heads) Hail, Sisyphus. (he points to himself and the others) Poetic. Uropoetic.
CISSY CAFFREY
Yes, to go with him. And me with a soldier friend.
PRIVATE COMPTON
He doesn’t half want a thick ear, the blighter. Biff him one, Harry.
PRIVATE CARR
(to Cissy) Was he insulting you while me and him was having a piss?
LORD TENNYSON
(gentleman poet in Union Jack blazer and cricket flannels, bareheaded, flowingbearded) Theirs not to reason why.
PRIVATE COMPTON
Biff him, Harry.
STEPHEN
(to Private Compton) I don’t know your name but you are quite right. Doctor Swift says one man in armour will beat ten men in their shirts. Shirt is synechdoche. Part for the whole.
CISSY CAFFREY
(to the crowd) No, I was with the privates.
STEPHEN
(amiably) Why not? The bold soldier boy. In my opinion every lady for example .....
PRIVATE CARR
(his cap awry, advances to Stephen) Say, how would it be, governor, if I was to bash in your jaw?
STEPHEN
(looks up to the sky) How? Very unpleasant. Noble art of selfpretence. Personally, I detest action. (he waves his hand) Hand hurts me slightly. Enfin ce sont vos oignons. (to Cissy Caffrey) Some trouble is on here. What is it precisely?
DOLLY GRAY
(from her balcony waves her handkerchief, giving the sign of the heroine of Jericho) Rahab. Cook’s son, goodbye. Safe home to Dolly. Dream of the girl you left behind and she will dream of you.
(The soldiers turn their swimming eyes.)
BLOOM
(elbowing through the crowd, plucks Stephen’s sleeve vigorously) Come now, professor, that carman is waiting.
STEPHEN
(turns) Eh? (he disengages himself) Why should I not speak to him or to any human being who walks upright upon this oblate orange? (he points his finger) I’m not afraid of what I can talk to if I see his eye. Retaining the perpendicular. (he staggers a pace back)
BLOOM
(propping him) Retain your own.
STEPHEN
(laughs emptily) My centre of gravity is displaced. I have forgotten the trick. Let us sit down somewhere and discuss. Struggle for life is the law of existence but but human philirenists, notably the tsar and the king of England, have invented arbitration. (he taps his brow) But in here it is I must kill the priest and the king.
BIDDY THE CLAP
Did you hear what the professor said? He’s a professor out of the college.
CUNTY KATE
I did. I heard that.
BIDDY THE CLAP
He expresses himself with such marked refinement of phraseology.
CUNTY KATE
Indeed, yes. And at the same time with such apposite trenchancy.
PRIVATE CARR
(pulls himself free and comes forward) What’s that you’re saying about my king?
(Edward the Seventh appears in an archway. He wars a white jersey on which an image of the Sacred Heart is stitched with the insignia of Garter and Thistle, Golden Fleece, Elephant of Denmark, Skinner’s and Probyn’s horse, Lincoln’s Inn bencher and ancient and honourable artillery company of Massachusetts. He sucks a red jujube. He is robed as a grand elect perfect and sublime mason with trowel and apron, marked made in Germany. In his left hand he holds a plasterer’s bucket on which is printed Défense d’uriner. A roar of welcome greets him.)
EDWARD THE SEVENTH
(slowly, solemnly but indistinctly) Peace, perfect peace. For identification, bucket in my hand. Cheerio, boys. (he turns to his subjects) We have come here to witness a clean straight fight and we heartily wish both men the best of good luck. Mahak makar a bak. (he