to tempt me with her flow of animal spirits. She climbed their crooked tree and I. A saint couldn't resist ^|4(+it^+)4|. ^|4(+The demon possessed me.^+)4| Besides who saw?

(staggering Bob, a whitepolledº calf, thrusts a ruminating head with humid nostrils through the foliage)

Staggering Bob

⁽⁺⁴(large teardrops rolling from his prominent eyes, snivels)^+)4| Me. Me see.

Bloom

Simply satisfying a need. I (with pathos) No girl would. Too ugly. They wouldn't play …

(High on Ben Howth through rhododendrons a nanny goat passes, plumpuddered, buttytailed, dropping currants)

The Nannygoat

(Bleats) ⁽⁺⁴Megeggaggegg Megegoaggegg^+)4|! Nannannanny!

Bloom

(hatless, flushed covered with burrs of thistledown and gorsepine) Regularly engaged. Circumstances alter cases (he gazes intently downwards on the water) Thirtytwo head over heels per second. ^|4(+Press Nightmare.^+)4| Giddy Elijah. ⁽⁺⁴Clerk of government printer's office fall from cliff. Fall from cliff. Sad end of Government printer's clerk.^+)4|

(throughº silversilent summer air the dummy of Bloom, rolled in a mummy, rolls roteatingly from the ⁽⁺⁴Lions Lion's^+)4| Head cliff into the purple waiting waters)

The Dummymummy

Bbbbblllllblblblblobschb!º

(Far out in the bay⁽⁺⁴,^+)4| between Bailey and Kish lights⁽⁺⁴,^+)4| the Erin's King sails, sending a broadening plume of coalsmoke from her funnel towards the land)

Councillor Nannetti

(alone on deck, in dark alpaca, yellowkitefacedº, his hand in his waistcoat opening, declaiming) When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth^|4(+,^+)4| then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have …

Bloom

Done. Prff.

The Nymph

(loftily) We immortals, as you saw today,º have not such a place and no hair there either. We are stonecold and pure. We eat electric light (she arches her body ^|4(+in lascivious crispation,º placing her forefinger in her mouth^+)4|) ⁽⁺⁴You spoke Spoke^+)4| to me. ⁽⁺⁴I heard Heard^+)4| from behind. How then could you ⁽⁺⁴ever^+)4|  …?

Bloom

(pawingº the heather abjectly) O, I have been a perfect pig. Enemas too Iº have administered. One third of a pint of infusion ofº quassia to which add a tablespoonful of rocksalt. Up the fundament. With Hamilton Long's syringe, the ladies' friend.

The Nymph

In my presence. The powderpuff^|4(+.^+)4| (she blushes ^|4(+and makes a knee^+)4|) And the rest!

Bloom

(dejected) Yes. Peccavi. I have paid homage on that living altar where the back changes name (with sudden fervour) For why should the dainty scented jewelled hand, the hand that rules⁽⁺⁴ …?? …^+)4|

The Voice of Kitty

(in the thicket) Show us one of them cushions.

The Voice of Florrie

Here.

(A grouse wings clumsily through the underwood)

The Voice of Lynch

(in the thicket) Whew! Piping hot!

The Voice of Zoe

(from the thicket) Came from a hot place.

The Voice of Virag

(A birdchief, bluestreaked and feathered⁽⁺⁴,^+)4| in war panoply⁽⁺⁴,^+)4| with his assegai, striding through a crackling canebrake over beechmast and acorns) Hot! Hot! Ware Sitting Bull!

Bloom

It overpowers me. The warm impress of her warm form. Even to sit where a woman has sat, especially with divaricated thighs, most especially with previously well uplifted white sateen coatpans. So womanly⁽⁺⁴,^+)4| full. It fills me full.

The Waterfall

Phillaphulla. Poulaphouca. Poulaphouca. Poulaphouca.

The Yews

Ssh! Sister, speak.

The Nymph

(eyeless, in nun's white habit, coif and hugewingedº wimple, softly, with remote eyes) tranquilla convent. Sister Agatha. Mount Carmel⁽⁺⁴. The, the^+)4| apparitions of Knock and Lourdes. No more desire (she reclines her head, sighing) only the ethereal. Where dreamy creamy gull waves o'er the waters dull.

(Bloom half rises. His back ⁽⁺⁴trouserbutton trousers' button^+)4| snaps)

The Button

Bip!

(Two sluts of the Coombe dance rainily by, shawled, yelling flatly:)

The Sluts

O⁽⁺⁴,^+)4| Leopold lost the pin of his drawers
He didn't know what to do,
To keep it up,
To keep it up.

Bloom

(coldly) You have broken the spell. The last straw. If there were only ethereal where would you be? ^|4(+Shy but willing like an ass pissing.^+)4|

The Yews

(their silverfoil of leaves precipitating, their skinny arms aging and swaying) Deciduously.

The Nymph

(her features hardening, gropes in the folds of her habit) Sacrilege! To attempt my virtue! (A large moist stain appears on her robe) Sully my innocence! You are not fit to touch the garment of a pure woman (she clutches again in her robe) Wait.º Satan, you'll sing no more lovesongs!

Bloom

(starts up, seizes her hand) Hoy! Cat of nine lives! Fair play, madam. No pruningknifeº. The fox and the grapes, is it? What do youº lack with your barbed wire? Crucifix not thick enough? ^|4(+(he clutches her veil)^+)4| A holy abbot you want or ⁽⁺⁴Mullins Brophy^+)4|, the lame gardener, ^|4(+or the spoutless statue of the watercarrier,^+)4| or good Mother Alphonsus, eh Reynard?

The Nymph

(with a cry flees from him ^|4(+unveiled^+)4|, her plaster cast cracking, a cloud of stench escaping from the cracks) Poli …!

Bloom

(calls after her) As if you didn't get it on the double yourselves. ^|4(+No jerks and multiple mucosities all over you.^+)4| I tried it. Your strength our weakness. What's our studfee? What will you pay on the nail? You fee mendancers on the Riviera, I read (the fleeing nymph raises a keen) Eh! I have sixteen years of black slave labour behind me. And would a jury give me five shillings alimony tomorrow, eh? Fool someone else^|4(+,^+)4| not me (he sniffs) Rut. Onions. Stale sulphur. Grease. (the figure of Bella Cohen stands before him)

Bella

You'll know me the next time.

Bloom

(composed, regards her) Passée. Long in the tooth and superfluous hair. A raw onion the last thing at night would benefit your complexion. And take some double chin drill. Your eyes are as vapid as the ⁽⁺⁴glasseyes glass eyes^+)4| of your stuffed fox. They have the dimensions of your other features, that's all. I'm not a triple screw propeller.

Bella

(contemptuously) You're not game, in fact ^|4(+(Her cunt barks) Fbhracht!^+)4|

Bloom

(contemptuously) Clean your nailless middle finger first, ⁽⁺⁴your bully's the^+)4| cold spunk ^|4(+of your bully^+)4| is dripping from ⁽⁺⁴you your cockscomb^+)4|. Take a handful of hay and wipe yourself.

Bella

I know you, canvasser⁽⁺⁴, dead! Dead^+)4| cod!

Bloom

I saw him, kipkeeper⁽⁺⁴,!^+)4|

Bella

(turns to the piano) Which of you was playing theº dead march from Saul?º

Zoe.º

Me. Mind your cornflowers. (she darts to the piano and bangs chorus on it with crossed arms) the cat's ramble through the slag (she glances back) Eh? Who's making love to my sweeties? (she darts back to the table) What's yours is mine and what's mine is my own.

(Kitty disconcerted coats her teeth with the silver paper.º Bloom approaches Zoe.)

Bloom

(gently) Give me back that potato, will you?

Zoe

Forfeits, a fine thing and a superfine thing

Bloom

(with feeling) It is nothing but still, a relic of poor mamma.

Zoe

Give a thing and take it back
God'll ask you where is that
You'll say you dont know
God'll send you down below.

Bloomº

There is a memory attached to it. I should like to have it.

Stephen

To have or not to have that is the question.

Zoe

Here. (she hauls up a reef of her slip, revealing her bare thigh and unrolls the potato from the top of her stocking) Those that hides knows where to find.º

Bellaº

(frowns) There Here. This isn't a musical peepshow.º And don't you smash that piano. Who's paying here?

(she goes to the pianola. Stephen fumbles in his pocket and taking out a banknote by its corner hands it to her)

Stephen

(with exagerated politeness) This silken purse I made out of the sow's ear of the public. Madam, excuse me. If you allow me (he indicates vaguely Lynch and Bloom) We are all in the same sweepstake. Dans ce bordel où tenons nostre état.

Lynch

(calls from the hearth) Dedalus! Give her your blessing for me.

Stephen

(hands Bella a coin) Gold. She has it.

Bella

(looks at the money, then at Stephen, then at Zoe, Florrie and Kitty.) Do you want three girls? Its ten shillings here.

Stephen

(delightedly) A hundred thousand apologies (he fumbles again and takes out and hands her two crowns) Permit, brevi manu, my sight is somewhat troubled.

(Bella goes to the table to count the money while Stephen talks to himself in monosyllables. Zoe bends over the table. Kitty leans over Zoe's neck. Lynch gets up, rights his cap and clasping Kitty's waist, adds his head to the group)

Florrie

(strives heavily to rise) Ow! My foot's asleep. (she limps over to the table. Bloom approaches)

Bella, Zoe, Kitty, Lynch, Bloom.

(chattering and squabbling) The gentleman … ten shillings …. Paying for the three … Allow me a moment … This gentleman pays separate …. Who's touching it? … Ow! … Mind who you're pinching … Are you staying the night or a short time? … Who did? … You're a liar, excuse me … the gentleman paid down like a gentleman … Drink … Its long after eleven.

Stephen

(at the pianola, making a gesture of abhorrence) No bottles! What, eleven? A riddle!

Zoe

(lifting up her pettigown and folding a half sovereign into the top of her stocking) Hard earned on the flat of my back.

Lynch

(lifting Kitty from the table) Come!

Kitty

Wait (she clutches her the two crowns)

Florrie

And me?

Lynch

Hoopla!

(he lifts her, carries her and bumps her down on the sofa)

Stephen

The fox crew, the cocks flew
the bells in heaven
Were striking eleven
'Tis time for her poor soul
To go to heaven.

Bloom

(quietly lays a half sovereign on the table between Bella and Florrie) So. Allow me (he takes up the poundnote) three times three. We're square.

Bella

(admiringly) You're such a slyboots, old cockey. I could kiss you.

Zoe

(points) Him? Deep as a draw well.

(Lynch bends Kitty back over the sofa and kisses her. Bloom goes with the poundnote to Stephen)

Bloom

This is yours.

Stephen

How is that? The Le distrait or absentminded beggar. (he fumbles again in his pocket and draws out a handful of coins. An object falls) That fell.

Bloom

(stooping, picks up and hands a box of matches) This.

Stephen

Lucifers Lucifer. Thanks.

Bloom

(quietly) You had better hand over that cash to me to take care of. Why pay more?

Stephen

(hands him all his coins) Be just before you are generous.

Bloom

I will, but is it wise? (he counts) One. Seven (Eleven) and five. Six. Eleven. I dont answer for what you may have lost.

Stephen

Why striking eleven? Proparoxyton. Moment before the next Lessing says. Thirsty fox, (he laughs loudly) Burying his grandmother. Probably he killed her.

Bloom

That is one pound, six and eleven. One pound seven, say.

Stephen

Doesn't matter a rambling damn.

Bloom

No, but ….

Stephen

(comes to the table) Cigarette, please. And so Georgina Johnson is dead and married. (Lynch tosses a cigarette from the sofa to the table. Stephen looks at it) Wonder — Parlour magic. Married. Hm. (he strikes a match and proceeds to light the cigarette with enigmatic melancholy)

Lynch

(watching him) You would have a better chance of lighting it if you held the match nearer.

Stephen

(brings the match near his eye) Lynx eye. Must get glasses. Broke them yesterday. Sixteen years ago. Distance. The eye sees all flat (he draws the match away. It goes out) Brain thinks,. near Near it far(?) Ineluctable modality of the visible. (he frowns misteriously) Hm. Married.

Zoe

It was a commercial traveller married her and took her away with him.

Florrie

(nods) Mr Lambe from London.

Stephen

Lamb of London, who takest away the sins of the world.

Lynch

(embracing Kitty on the sofa, chants deeply) Dona nobis pacem.

(the cigarette slips from Stephen's fingers. Bloom picks it up and throws it in the grate)

Bloom

Don't smoke. You ought to eat. Cursed dog I met. (to Zoe) You have nothing?

Zoe

Is he hungry?

Stephen

(extends his hand to her smiling and chants to the air of the bloodoath in The Dusk of the Gods)º

Hangendeº Hunger
Fragende Frau
Macht uns alle Kaput.

Zoe

(tragically) Hamlet: I am thy father's gimlet: (she takes his hand) Blue eyes beauty? I'll read your hand. (she points to his forehead) No wit, no wrinkles (she counts) two, three, Mars, that's courage (Stephen shakes his head) no kid.

Lynch

Sheet lightning courage. The youth who could not shiver and shake (to Zoe) Who taught you palmistry?

Zoe

(turns) Ask my ballocks that I haven't got. (to Stephen) I see it in your face. The eye, like that. (she frowns with lowered head)

Lynch

(laughing, slaps Kitty behind twice) Like that Pandy bat.

(twice loudly a pandybat cracks, the coffin of the pianola flies open, the bald little round jack-in-the-box head of Father Dolan springs up)

Father Dolan

Any boy want flogging? Broke his glasses? Lazy, idle little schemer. See it in your eye.

(mild benign, rectorial, reproving, the head ofº Donº John Conmee rises from the pianola coffin)

Don John Conmee

Now, Father Dolan! Now. Im sure that Stephen is a very good little boy!

Zoe

(examining Stephen's palm) Woman's hand.

Stephen

(murmurs) Continue. Lie. Hold me. Caress. I never could read her his handwriting except his criminal thumbprint on the haddock.

Zoe

What day were you born?

Stephen

Thursday. Today.

Zoe

Thursday's child has far to go. (she traces lines on his hand) Line of Fate. Influential friends.

Florrie

(pointing) Imagination.

Zoe

Mount of the moon. You'll meet with a …. (she peers at his hands abruptly) I won't tell you what's not good for you. Or do you want to know?

Bloom

(detaches her fingers and offers his palm) More harm than good. Here. Read mine.

Bella

Show. (She turns up Bloom's hand) I thought so Knobby knuckles for the women.

Zoe

(peering at Bloom's palm) Gridiron. Travels beyond the sea and marry money.

Bloom

Wrong.

Zoe

(quickly) O, I see. Short little finger. Henpeckedº husband. That wrong? (Black Liz, a huge rooster hatching in a chalked circle, rises, stretches his her wings and clucks)

Black Liz

Gara. Klook. Klook. Klook. (she sidles from her newlaid egg and waddles off)

Bloom

(points to his hand) That weal thereº