Wednesday 12 February 2020

Tuesday, 11 February 2020 (5.287)


The last reading stopped at: To keep it up.” (5.287)

Summary:

Mr Bloom leaves his house. He is to attend Patty Dignam's funeral at quarter to (4.549) that morning which means that he has enough time to do other things before going to the funeral. Sauntering along, he passes John Rogerson's quay, Windmill Lane, Lime street, Westland row etc., sees shops such as the Belfast and Oriental Tea Company (5.19) and meets/sees people - for example, the boy and the girl near Brady's cottages (5.5).
He goes into a post office and produces a card on which his name is given as Henry Flower (5.62) and gets a letter waiting for him. Before he could open it outside the post office, M'Coy hails him. Bloom has no interest in stopping and exchanging small talk with M'Coy but cannot get rid of him. As M'Coy stays on to chat, Bloom's attention is distracted by two people waiting near an outsider (a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage) drawn up before the door of the Grosvenor (5.98) hotel. While Bloom is busy observing and admiring the rich silk stockings (5.122) of the woman and wondering from which side she will get into the carriage, M'Coy continues to talk explaining how he heard of Dignam's passing away. If she would in fact get into the carriage from the side he can see, Bloom would get to see her ankles as she would have to lift her skirt up to get into the carriage! But that does not happen as a heavy tramcar (5.131) goes by blocking his view just as she gets into the carriage! M'Coy finally moves away after telling Bloom, "My missus has just got an engagement. At least it's not settled yet" (5.148) and asking him to put down his name at Patty Dignam's funeral if he is not there because the drowning case at Sandycove may turn up (5.171). We had heard of the drowning case in episode 1.
Bloom is finally left in peace. He strolls towards Brunswick street. His eyes wander over the multicoloured hoardings (5.192) at the corner of Westland Row and Great Brunswick street. One of them is the playbill of the play Leah with Mrs Bandmann Palmer. (Mrs Bandmann Palmer (1845-1926) was a famous English actress.) Bloom recollects that she had played Hamlet the previous night. That a woman had played Hamlet, makes him wonder at first whether Hamlet was a woman. (Perhaps he was a woman. (5.196)) This thought leads to the next whether that was the reason that Ophelia committed suicide. Thinking of 'suicide' naturally makes Bloom remember his father, who had committed suicide.
Walking on, Bloom comes to a secluded spot near the Westland Row railway station, where he opens the letter he had collected earlier at the post office. The letter addressed to Henry Flower by Martha has a flower pinned to it. Now it is clear that Bloom is carrying on an affair under the assumed name of Henry Flower with Martha, whom he is yet to meet! Could meet one Sunday after the rosary (5.270). The pin which Martha has used brings back to his memory a song he had once heard, O, Mairy lost the pin of her drawers. . . (5.281)