Advancing his theory about Shakespeare, Stephen majestically quotes from many Shakespearean plays (Pericles, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest and naturally from Hamlet) to underscore his argument that the dead king in Hamlet is indeed Shakespeare himself. John Eglinton makes it clear that Stephen has a tough task to convince him of his theory.
Just as Stephen says that the voice of the ghost is “heard only in the heart of him who is the substance of his shadow, . . . ” (9.480) the seriousness of the discussion is deflated like a balloon pierced, by the entrance of Buck Mulligan, pronouncing, “Amen!" (9.482)
Buck Mulligan is his usual self, joking when he should be serious. For example, when the librarian says, “Mr Mulligan, I’ll be bound, has his theory too of the play and of Shakespeare” (9.503), Mulligan responds saying, “Shakespeare? I seem to know the name" (9.508).
Taking out from his pocket the telegram that Stephen had earlier sent canceling their appointment of meeting in The Ship, Mulligan imitates the style of the writer, Synge, when he describes how he and Haines waited for “one hour and two hours and three hours in Connery’s sitting civil waiting for pints apiece” (9.561).
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
