Ulysses page-by-page: Page 17 (1.513-550) "And putting... waistcoat:"

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Delaney: [39] [40] [41] Useen: [47] [48] [49] [map] [*]

Delaney: [39]

And putting on his stiff collar and rebellious tie he spoke to them, chiding them, and to his dangling watchchain. His hands plunged and rummaged in his trunk while he called for a clean handkerchief.

Haines' collar was 'loose' and his scarf wellbehaved. (p16 above). BM's stiff collar sounds like he's dressing to impress someone (or everyone) rather than for comfort.

1908 notebook: "Gogarty: He addresses lifeless objects and hits them smartly with his cane: the naturalism of the Celtic mind." (as atypical as OG must have been, JAJ sees him here as typically Celtic)
We don't hear what he says to these lifeless objects (yet), surprisingly.

The watchchain would have been attached to the watch in his yellow vest's watchpocket (aka "primrose waistcoat" below), to be buttoned to the vest (suggesting he's assembling his public persona (disguise?) here).

Joyce used the word 'trunk' for BM on page 6, above: "Laughter seized all his strong wellknit trunk." He'll re-use 'plunged' below, again of BM: "His plump body plunged."

"called for" = talking to himself, pretending to have a servant (neither Haines nor SD would have responded)

God, we'll simply have to dress the character. I want puce gloves and green boots. Contradiction. Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. Mercurial Malachi.

Joyce omits both paragraph break and leading dash for once, BM speaking aloud, to no one, as if it's a running interior monolog. (Haines is out of hearing, at the door.)

'Dressing the character' implies BM is still pondering his spat with SD, imagining 'playing them' via ostentatious dandyism.

"puce" echoes 'prepuces' above (p13). The color notoriously derives from squashed fleas (cf squashed lice above). (Reds paired with greens are a recurring motif in PoA.)

BM is quoting Walt Whitman here (continues "...I am large, I contain multitudes")

A limp black missile flew out of his talking hands.
— And there's your Latin quarter hat, he said.

cf Portrait "the greasy leather orb flew like a heavy bird through the grey light"

The latin quarter of Paris was the student/bohemian ghetto at the time [wiki] Joyce could in fact speak Latin as a lingua franca there.

rather than play the dandy, SD's rebellion-of-dress is limited perhaps to romantic bohemian poverty.

Stephen picked it up and put it on. Haines called to them from the doorway:
— Are you coming, you fellows?
— I'm ready, Buck Mulligan answered, going towards the door.

Throwing the hat so SD has to pick it up off the floor (and saying "There's" rather than 'Here's') shows some lingering contempt, which BM never risks with Haines even though he insults him behind his back.

Delaney: [40]

Come out, Kinch. You have eaten all we left, I suppose.
Resigned he passed out with grave words and gait, saying, wellnigh with sorrow:
— And going forth he met Butterly.

BM is wellfed, SD is always hungry. "You have eaten all we left" anticipates the first vignette of FW, Roderick O'Connor drinking everyone's dregs

longshot: Maurice Butterly, 69yo magistrate in 1901

'butter' is a leitmotif associated with JAJ's enemies

'wept bitterly' Matthew 26:75 in the Douay-Rheims, not KJV

Stephen, taking his ashplant from its leaningplace, followed them out and, as they went down the ladder, pulled to the slow iron door and locked it. He put the huge key in his inner pocket.
At the foot of the ladder Buck Mulligan asked:
— Did you bring the key?
— I have it, Stephen said, preceding them.

Gogarty says the ashplant had a right-angled handle:

'leaning-place' is a real word, rarely needed.

"inner pocket" (of his (black) jacket)

The towers were designed with one ladder each that could be pulled up to discourage attackers. I think these were bolted on in peacetime, or replaced with stairs. If this ladder truly hadn't been replaced yet, the milkwoman's ascent while carrying a full milkjug would have been remarkable!

ladder or stairs?

Delaney: [41]

He walked on. Behind him he heard Buck Mulligan club with his heavy bathtowel the leader shoots of ferns or grasses.
— Down, sir! How dare you, sir!

cf 1908 notebook: "Gogarty: He addresses lifeless objects and hits them smartly with his cane: the naturalism of the Celtic mind."

SD sees himself as another leadershoot clubbed by BM

"sir" could refer to a dog

Haines asked:
— Do you pay rent for this tower?
— Twelve quid, Buck Mulligan said.
— To the secretary of state for war, Stephen added over his shoulder.

either Mulligan or Joyce is exaggerating: it was even cheaper, at eight pounds a year ($90/month now) paid quarterly

SD seems to lighten up a bit here, unless it's a subtle jesuit jibe about contributing to the enemy (the detail about the shoulder seems to make this less likely, somehow. Cf above? "Buck Mulligan showed a shaven cheek over his right shoulder.")

They halted while Haines surveyed the tower and said at last:
— Rather bleak in wintertime, I should say. Martello you call it?
— Billy Pitt had them built, Buck Mulligan said, when the French were on the sea. But ours is the omphalos.

(how bleaker than other places? why winter especially, given that snow is rare?)

worldmap of Towers

[♬ when the French were on the sea]

JAJ and OG did describe the Tower as 'the Omphalos'

— What is your idea of Hamlet? Haines asked Stephen.
— No, no, Buck Mulligan shouted in pain. I'm not equal to Thomas Aquinas and the fiftyfive reasons he has made to prop it up. Wait till I have a few pints in me first.
He turned to Stephen, saying, as he pulled down neatly the peaks of his primrose waistcoat:

Aquinas was a Jesuit favorite Joyce never rejected