Our reading stopped at "... virgo intacta." (Penguin 613.23), (Gabler 15.1786)
We had seen last week how Bloom appears seated on a milkwhite horse, and was anointed by two archbishops.
What follows is Joyce's take on the coronation ceremonies in Great Britain. Bloom is wearing a mantle of gold, stands on the stone of destiny (aka stone of scone). The koh-i-noor diamond is shining on his right hand. Bells from surrounding churches ring. Fireworks go up from the Mirus bazaar. (Bloom had seen that noon a placard announcing the bazaar and the fireworks to raise funds for the Mercer's hospital (episode 8, Lestrygonians). In fact he had seen these fireworks that evening sitting on the Sandymount shore, where he had seen the three girl friends including Gerty McDowell (episode 13, Nausicaa). His whitehorse is now a palfrey horse, which is usually defined as a small saddle horse for women (and can also mean a horse for state occasions / Gifford 15.1500). This 'feminine' association forebodes what happens later in the episode, when Bloom's feminine nature surfaces!
Borrowing Alfred Tennyson's lines 'Half a league onward' from his poem 'The Charge of the Light Brigade, Bloom makes another speech, describing how on this day twenty years ago he overcame the hereditary enemy at Ladysmith. (A reference to the Boer war of 1900.) As many of the assembled people praise him, and as per his announcement, thirtytwo workmen wearing rosettes, from all the counties of Ireland, under the guidance of Derwan the builder, construct the new bloomusalem, a man in a brown macintosh appears saying, 'Don't you believe a word he says.' By the way, we had met this man in the brown macintosh that morning at the funeral, (Hades, episode 6), and had seen him again at lunch time while he, eating dry bread, passed swiftly and unscathed across the viceroy's path (Wandering Rocks, episode 10)
Bloom orders to shoot him, himself striking down with his scepter poppies. (According to Gifford / 15.1565-66, this recalls Tarquinius Superbus - d. 495 B. C. -, the last of the semilegendary tyrant-kings of Rome, who was supposed to have prefigured the tyrannical nature of his reign when, as a child, he beheaded poppies with a toy scepter.) Many instantaneous deaths are reported. Bloom's bodyguard distribute money, medals, loaves, fishes, butter scotch, pineapple rock, etc. Bloom had walked past that day at lunch time Graham Lemon's, a lozenge and comfit manufacturer's sweet shop, where he had seen pineapple rock and butter scotch (episode 8, Lestrygonians). Now he takes trouble to mix with the people, pokes baby boardman gently in the stomach (episode 13, Nausicaa), shakes hands with a blind stripling (episode 8, Lestrygonians), all echoing the behavior of today's politicians during election time. Even the citizen, who is so antisemitic (episode 12, Cyclops), praises Bloom saying, 'May the good God bless him!' Bloom presides over the Court of Conscience (court of requests) and gives advice to all those who come - we had met many of these people in earlier episodes - with their requests, however banal they may be.
The tide turns as Bloom is explaining to those near him his schemes for social regeneration. Suddenly people, even those who had worshipped him earlier, turn against him. Bloom tries to quieten things down by telling jokes, singing songs (I bet she's a bonny lassie). But the situation turns real serious with the appearance of Alexander J Dowie, mentioned on the placard, Elijah is coming, which Bloom had seen at lunch time. Dowie instigates the mob with his fiery speech, and the mob scream, 'Lynch him! Roast him! He's as bad as Parnell was. Mr. Fox!' (In his clandestine correspondence with Kitty O'Shea, Parnell is said to have used several assumed names, among them Fox and Stewart. Gifford 15.1762.) Mother Grogan throws her boot at bloom. Several shopkeepers throw objects like condensed milk tins, unsaleable cabbage, etc.
The scene changes to another court scene. Bloom calls on his old friend, Dr Malachi Mullign, sex specialist, to give medical testimony on his behalf. Dr. Mulligan announces that Dr Bloom is bisexually abnormal, and according to the examination he has made and after he had applied the acid test, he can declare Bloom to be virgo intacta (an intact virgin.)
Note: Richard Ellman writes in his biography, James Joyce, the following about the episode, Circe (Page 76): "... He came to know the European theater well, and decided that Ibsen's principal disciple was Hauptmann."... Hauptmann's Hanneles Himmelfahrt, purchased a few months earlier, juxtaposed a naturalistic setting with apparitions of Hanneles father and mother in a way that crudely foreshadows the Circe episode of Ulysses."
We had seen last week how Bloom appears seated on a milkwhite horse, and was anointed by two archbishops.
 |
| (The koh-i-noor diamond) |
Borrowing Alfred Tennyson's lines 'Half a league onward' from his poem 'The Charge of the Light Brigade, Bloom makes another speech, describing how on this day twenty years ago he overcame the hereditary enemy at Ladysmith. (A reference to the Boer war of 1900.) As many of the assembled people praise him, and as per his announcement, thirtytwo workmen wearing rosettes, from all the counties of Ireland, under the guidance of Derwan the builder, construct the new bloomusalem, a man in a brown macintosh appears saying, 'Don't you believe a word he says.' By the way, we had met this man in the brown macintosh that morning at the funeral, (Hades, episode 6), and had seen him again at lunch time while he, eating dry bread, passed swiftly and unscathed across the viceroy's path (Wandering Rocks, episode 10)
Bloom orders to shoot him, himself striking down with his scepter poppies. (According to Gifford / 15.1565-66, this recalls Tarquinius Superbus - d. 495 B. C. -, the last of the semilegendary tyrant-kings of Rome, who was supposed to have prefigured the tyrannical nature of his reign when, as a child, he beheaded poppies with a toy scepter.) Many instantaneous deaths are reported. Bloom's bodyguard distribute money, medals, loaves, fishes, butter scotch, pineapple rock, etc. Bloom had walked past that day at lunch time Graham Lemon's, a lozenge and comfit manufacturer's sweet shop, where he had seen pineapple rock and butter scotch (episode 8, Lestrygonians). Now he takes trouble to mix with the people, pokes baby boardman gently in the stomach (episode 13, Nausicaa), shakes hands with a blind stripling (episode 8, Lestrygonians), all echoing the behavior of today's politicians during election time. Even the citizen, who is so antisemitic (episode 12, Cyclops), praises Bloom saying, 'May the good God bless him!' Bloom presides over the Court of Conscience (court of requests) and gives advice to all those who come - we had met many of these people in earlier episodes - with their requests, however banal they may be.
The tide turns as Bloom is explaining to those near him his schemes for social regeneration. Suddenly people, even those who had worshipped him earlier, turn against him. Bloom tries to quieten things down by telling jokes, singing songs (I bet she's a bonny lassie). But the situation turns real serious with the appearance of Alexander J Dowie, mentioned on the placard, Elijah is coming, which Bloom had seen at lunch time. Dowie instigates the mob with his fiery speech, and the mob scream, 'Lynch him! Roast him! He's as bad as Parnell was. Mr. Fox!' (In his clandestine correspondence with Kitty O'Shea, Parnell is said to have used several assumed names, among them Fox and Stewart. Gifford 15.1762.) Mother Grogan throws her boot at bloom. Several shopkeepers throw objects like condensed milk tins, unsaleable cabbage, etc.
The scene changes to another court scene. Bloom calls on his old friend, Dr Malachi Mullign, sex specialist, to give medical testimony on his behalf. Dr. Mulligan announces that Dr Bloom is bisexually abnormal, and according to the examination he has made and after he had applied the acid test, he can declare Bloom to be virgo intacta (an intact virgin.)
Note: Richard Ellman writes in his biography, James Joyce, the following about the episode, Circe (Page 76): "... He came to know the European theater well, and decided that Ibsen's principal disciple was Hauptmann."... Hauptmann's Hanneles Himmelfahrt, purchased a few months earlier, juxtaposed a naturalistic setting with apparitions of Hanneles father and mother in a way that crudely foreshadows the Circe episode of Ulysses."
