Ulysses - Gabler Edition [233]
MASTIANSKY AND CITRON
Belial! Laemlein of Istria, the false Messiah! Abulafia! Recant!
(George R Mesias, Bloom’s tailor, appears, a tailor’s goose under his arm, presenting a bill.)
MESIAS
To alteration one pair trousers eleven shillings.
BLOOM
(rubs his hands cheerfully) Just like old times. Poor Bloom!
(Reuben J Dodd, blackbearded Iscariot, bad shepherd, bearing on his shoulders the drowned corpse of his son, approaches the pillory.)
REUBEN J
(whispers hoarsely) The squeak is out. A split is gone for the flatties. Nip the first rattler.
THE FIRE BRIGADE
Pflaap!
BROTHER BUZZ
(Invests Bloom in a yellow habit with embroidery of painted flames and high pointed hat. He places a bag of gunpowder round his neck and hands him over to the civil power, saying) Forgive him his trespasses.
(Lieutenant Myers of the Dublin Fire Brigade by general request sets fire to Bloom. Lamentations.)
THE CITIZEN
Thank heaven!
BLOOM
(in a seamless garment marked I. H. S. stands upright amid phoenix flames) Weep not for me, O daughters of Erin. (he exhibits to Dublin reporters traces of burning)
(The daughters of Erin, in black garments, with large prayerbooks and long lighted candles in their hands, kneel down and pray.)
THE DAUGHTERS OF ERIN
Kidney of Bloom, pray for us
Flower of the Bath, pray for us
Mentor of Menton, pray for us
Canvasser for the Freeman, pray for us
Charitable Mason, pray for us
Wandering Soap, pray for us
Sweets of Sin, pray for us
Music without Words, pray for us
Reprover of the Citizen, pray for us
Friend of all Frillies, pray for us
Midwife Most Merciful, pray for us
Potato Preservative against Plague and Pestilence, pray for us.
(A choir of six hundred voices, conducted by Vincent O’Brien, sings the chorus from Handel’s Messiah Alleluia for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, accompanied on the organ by Joseph Glynn. Bloom becomes mute, shrunken, carbonised.)
ZOE
Talk away till you’re black in the face.
BLOOM
(in caubeen with clay pipe stuck in the band, dusty brogues, an emigrant’s red handkerchief bundle in his hand, leading a black bogoak pig by a sugaun, with a smile in his eye) Let me be going now, woman of the house, for by all the goats in Connemara I’m after having the father and mother of a bating. (with a tear in his eye) All insanity. Patriotism, sorrow for the dead, music, future of the race. To be or not to be. Life’s dream is o’er. End it peacefully. They can live on. (he gazes far away mournfully) I am ruined. A few pastilles of aconite. The blinds drawn. A letter. Then lie back to rest. (he breathes softly) No more. I have lived. Fare. Farewell.
ZOE
(stiffly, her finger in her neckfillet) Honest? Till the next time. (she sneers) Suppose you got up the wrong side of the bed or came too quick with your best girl. O, I can read your thoughts!
BLOOM
(bitterly) Man and woman, love, what is it? A cork and bottle. I’m sick of it. Let everything rip.
ZOE
(in sudden sulks) I hate a rotter that’s insincere. Give a bleeding whore a chance.
BLOOM
(repentantly) I am very disagreeable. You are a necessary evil. Where are you from? London?
ZOE
(glibly) Hog’s Norton where the pigs plays the organs. I’m Yorkshire born. (she holds his hand which is feeling for her nipple) I say, Tommy Tittlemouse. Stop that and begin worse. Have you cash for a short time? Ten shillings?
BLOOM
(smiles, nods slowly) More, houri, more.
ZOE
And more’s mother? (she pats him offhandedly with velvet paws) Are you coming into the musicroom to see our new pianola? Come and I’ll peel off.
BLOOM
(feeling his occiput dubiously with the unparalleled embarrassment of a harassed pedlar gauging the symmetry of her peeled pears) Somebody would be dreadfully jealous if she knew. The greeneyed monster. (earnestly) You know how difficult it is. I needn’t tell you.
ZOE
(flattered) What the eye can’t see the heart can’t grieve for. (she pats him) Come.
BLOOM
Laughing witch! The hand that rocks the cradle.
ZOE