Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Pages 755 - 766, Eumaeus, Episode 16

We stopped at "I'll just pay this lot." (Penguin 766.26), (Gabler 16.1646)

The Irish Nationalist politician, Charles Stewart Parnell (1846 - 1891), has been the topic of conversation at this late hour in the cabman's shelter.

 

(Photographs of the Parnell Monument (left), with details (right) taken on 3 June 2015 during the Joyceans' trip to Dublin)

Skin-the Goat's comment that the husband of Katherine O'Shea (who had a long affair with Parnell & married him later),  was a cottonball one, makes Bloom think of that scandal, of the court case, and how finally it brought Parnell down. The evidence produced in the court during the divorce case filed by the husband was the affectionate letters that passed between them. (Bloom used the name, Henry Flower, for his correspondence with Martha.) He also muses about the eternal question of the life connubial... Can real love, supposing there happens to be another chap in the case, exist between married folk? There is obviously another chap in his own marriage. Bloom is doing his utmost to suppress thoughts about this chap. Bloom makes a wrong remark that Katherine O'Shea was Spanish or half so. Like Molly. Types that wouldn't do things by halves. As is typical of him, Stephen murmurs something only he understands about The king of Spain's daughter, Spanish onions, etc. Mistaking that Stephen means that O'Shea was the king of Spain's daughter, Bloom is astonished, admiting that he had not heard that rumour before. He removes a faded photo of Molly from the book, Sweets of Sin, he has in his pocket, and shows it to Stephen.

Bloom tells Stephen: (that the photo is of)  'Mrs. Bloom, my wife the Prima donna...', that she appeared in public as a singer when she was barely sweet sixteen, (listen to the song, When you were sweet sixteen, by James Thornton, sung by Perry Como here), that no photo could reproduce a person like marble could. He had seen that very afternoon those Grecian statues, perfectly developed. Thoughts of Molly, makes Bloom ask himself, suppose she was gone when he (i.e., when he was gone??), and reminds him of the line, I looked for the lamp which she told me, from Thomas Moore's song, The Song of O'Ruark. (This line also reminded me of Charles Dickens's novel, David Copperfield, in which the fisherman, Mr. Peggotty used to leave a candle lit in the window. He explains to David Copperfield: '... it's for our little Em'ly. You see, the path ain't over light or cheerful after dark; and when I'm here at the hour as she's a common' home, I puts the light in the winder...' When Emily elopes with David Copperfield's friend, Steerforth, Mr. Peggotty goes in search of his young niece. During that time too, he makes sure that every evening a candle is kept lit in the window, so that Emily knows that the house is waiting for her. )

Parnell is still in Bloom's mind. He remembers how he had once picked up Parnell's silk hat that had been knocked off in the crowd, and had handed it back. Parnell had thanked Bloom with perfect Aplomb, saying: 'Thank you, sir. Parnell's behavior as Bloom remembered it contrasted with another incident regarding a hat that morning. To be fair, Bloom does not clearly recall whether Parnell had just said, 'Thank you' or 'Thank you, sir.' 

Bloom's thoughts wander back to Stephen. It was getting on for one. Bloom wonders when Stephen had eaten last, where he will sleep that night, whether he should take him home. Not being sure of how to invite Stephen to go with him, Bloom formulates his invitation in many ways in his mind. He has also not forgotten how Molly was angry with him when once he had brought home a dog (breed unknown). After mature reflection, Bloom tells Stephen, 'As it's rather stuffy here you just come home with me and talk things over.... Do you like cocoa? Wait, I'll just pay this lot.'

On these pages, Joyce makes use liberal use of metaphors (cooked his matrimonial goose, ass's kick, upsetting the applecart, their idol had feet of clay, placing him upon a pedestal... ). Some of them misplaced, though, in keeping with the over all nature of the episode, in which one is never sure of what is true, what is not.