{ms, 022}

Zoeº

No wit, no wrinkles (she counts them) Three. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars. That's for courage. ^|1(Stephen shakes his head)^1|

Lynch

(ricane?) The youth who could not shiver and shake.

Zoe

No? ^|1What day were you born?

Thursday's child has far to go.^{1| |1}Show us Hold out^1| your hand (she examines it) ^|1Hand like a woman^1| But I see itº your face. That look. ^|1Can't kid me. The face is ^|ayou what you were and are^a|.^1| (She frowns sternly. A pandybat is heard to crack loudly twice. ^|1A Jack in the box The top of the piano^1| suddenly ^|1flies open blank^1|. The bald little round fluffy head of Father Dolan springs up like a Jack in the box)

Father Dolan

Lazy idle little schemer. See it in yr eyes.

Stephen

Continue. Lie. Hold me. Caress. ^|1I never could read God's handwriting.^1|

Zoe

(tracing lines on his hand) Line of fate. You have influential friends. A long life. Mount of the Moon imagination. And show your foot. Yes. (brusquely) I won't tell you what's not good for you. Or do you want to know.?º

Bloom

(hastily offering his hand) ^|1You do more harm than good.^1| Here. Read mine.

Zoe

^|1Show us^1| (peering at it) Gridirons. ^|1little finger short. Henpecked husband.^{1| |1|x}knobby knuckles^x|1| Travels beyond the sea and marry money.

^|1Black Liz, a huge ^|ahen blank^a|, roosting on ^|athe curtain pole a corner within a chalked circle stirs herself^a|, stretches her wings and clucks.

^|xrises from a soft egg and waddles off^x|1|
{ms, 023}

Bloom

That ridge there was an accident. I fell and cut it.

Zoe

^|1Tell us news.^1| I see, says the blind man ^|1Tell us news.^1| The line of Venus crosses ^|1|aUnlucky lucky^a| in cards, unlucky in love^1| (she peers, twisting his hand) Hold on. Wait. (she laughs in a frank odd fashion) Ha ha ha ha ha. Wait (peering again, she laughs with head flung back) Ha ha ha ha ha

(she whispers to Florrie Power ^|1then to Kitty Rickets^1|)

Florrie

(looking at Bloom ^|1unread^1|) Heh heh heh hehº

Kitty

Florrie

(giggling) Eeh Eeh eeh eeh.º

^|1(Blazes Boylan in a flashing straw hat set sideways, a red flower in his mouth, leans on the mantelpiece. Lenehan at his side officiously detaches from his shoulder a long hair)

(winks) Up to sample or yr money back^a|1|

Zoe

O, it's there written plain His wife goes with a fancyman

^|1Bloom º Bella^1|

(Bella Cohen and Lynch laugh together)

Bellaº

(striking her fan) Hohohohoho.

Lynchº

(sardonically) Hu hu hu

Bloom

It may be ^|1though it excites your risibles.^1|

(All laugh together. In the mirror appears the head of William Shakespeare outlined by its starched ruff ^|1the features rigid in facial paralysis^1|)

Shakespeare

(^|1with dignity of utterance ^|awith^a| dignified ventriloquism^1|) 'Tis the loud
{ms, 024}
laugh ^|1that speaks bespeaks^1| the vacant mind

^|1Mrs ^|aThe widow blank^a|1| Dignam ^|1|xher snub nose red^{x|1| |1}her face flushed with talk, tears & old tawny sherry,^{1| |1}perspiring^1| in ^|1widow's weeds ^|aher weeds in merry widow's hat with weeds^a| beneath which appear her late husband's everyday trousers and large eight boots with turnedup toecaps)^{1| |1}her streamer flaunting aloft^1| hurries across. She holding a large ^|1marquee^1| umbrella under which ^|1the rest^1| her brood of ^|1fretful^{1| |1}children tired kids^1| are huddled. Patsy Dignam hops on one ^|1shod^1| foot, ^|1his collar loose^1| the other being unshod. She holds in her hand an insurance policy ^|1Freddy Dignam totters snivelling)

ah, ma, you're dragging me along!^1|

^|1|xShe cuffs them on. ^|a(Susie Dignam ^|bwith a crying cod's mouth^b| calls whimpers,

Mamm the beeftea is fizzing over^a|x|1|

Shakespeare-Cunningham

^|1(sternly)^1| None wed the second but who kill the first.

(Mrs Dignam

(His face changes into that of Martin Cunningham ^|1gazing upon his wife^1|. Mrs Dignam, her face inflamed, sways in her walk drunkenly. Her children abandon her side.)

Mrs Cunningham

(with sidling ^|1slipping flopping^1| movements, twirling japanesily her umbrella) And they call me the jewel of Asia

^|1Martin Cunningham Cunningham-Shakespeare^1|

(impassive, objective) ^|1Immense^1| A ^|1most^1| bloody awful bitch.