The reading stopped at "Tis a merry rogue."(12.1620) but we shall continue the next session with the parody that starts with "Our travellers reached ..." (12.1593)
Summary:
In Barney Kiernan's pub, the citizen’s behaviour becomes increasingly aggressive towards Bloom, whom he ridicules and insults. The situation reaches the first climax of the episode when the citizen asks Bloom, “What is your nation if I may ask (12.1430),” spitting and wiping his mouth with a handkerchief when Bloom replies, "Ireland, . . . I was born here. Ireland (12.1431).” The handkerchief is a cue to start another parody celebrating Irish handicraft. There are more exaggerations and parodies in the remaining part of the episode: for example, of foreign customs, of the Bible, and of different types of fiction.
Bloom continues his rather serious talk that seems more forceful and infused with more emotion than usual, getting increasingly cornered when he expresses his opinion. He finally chooses to find an excuse to leave the pub.
The men continue with more talk of England's cruelty to Ireland, until Lenehan takes the floor and starts talking about Bloom and his actual reason for leaving. He claims that Bloom has gone to collect his wins from the horse race of the day. As proof he tells the story of his meeting Bantom Lyons, who had said that he had borrowed a newspaper from Bloom earlier in the day (See episode 5, Lotus Eaters). We finally understand, retrospectively, what had not made any sense before in that episode.
Cyclops, an episode of misunderstandings, presents facts that are not straight forward, and connects thus to the episode in Odyssey where Odysseus saves himself through a play on words, calling himself "Οὖτις", which means 'nobody'. This works ironically precisely because Bloom cannot play on words.
At this point, the narrator takes off to the gents' room. He urinates, thinking or talking to himself. His thoughts come out in spurts, which seems somewhat appropriate to his relieving himself.
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
