Ulysses page-by-page: Page 53 (4.1-29) "Mr Leopold... jump me."

Friday, May 30, 2014

Page 53 (4.1-29) "Mr Leopold... jump me."

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Delaney: [158] Useen: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [*]

Delaney: [158]

Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.

Joyce's sketch confirms moustache

food details

("urine" rhymes with Van Buren, not Einstein)

Kidneys were in his mind as he moved about the kitchen softly, righting her breakfast things on the humpy tray. Gelid light and air were in the kitchen but out of doors gentle summer morning everywhere. Made him feel a bit peckish.
The coals were reddening.

source

LB must have built a fresh fire first thing, with coal
unlike Mulligan, he performs these rituals with no audience
(how "humpy"? designed to keep things separate? or battered?)
gelid = icy
peckish = hungry

Bloom in kitchen, with scullery left, plus diningroom and stairs right

(maybe)

Another slice of bread and butter: three, four: right. She didn't like her plate full. Right. He turned from the tray, lifted the kettle off the hob and set it sideways on the fire. It sat there, dull and squat, its spout stuck out. Cup of tea soon. Good. Mouth dry.

Molly, like Mulligan, prefers buttered bread (4 slices seems a lot)
hob: warming platform

an early draft of episode 12 states this is a morning ritual: "Still, they say he's always dancing attendance on her. Brings her up her breakfast in the bed every morning and has his own bit down in the kitchen."

The cat walked stiffly round a leg of the table with tail on high.
— Mkgnao!
— O, there you are, Mr Bloom said, turning from the fire.
The cat mewed in answer and stalked again stiffly round a leg of the table, mewing. Just how she stalks over my writingtable. Prr. Scratch my head. Prr.
Mr Bloom watched curiously, kindly, the lithe black form. Clean to see: the gloss of her sleek hide, the white button under the butt of her tail, the green flashing eyes. He bent down to her, his hands on his knees.

cf black cat/black panther?
(why doesn't Joyce tell us the cat's name???)
Bloom's writingtable may be in the front room, described in ch17 as a (fancy-sounding) "blue and white checker inlaid majolicatopped table" or there may be another table in his study?? It has drawers that lock.

— Milk for the pussens, he said.
— Mrkgnao! the cat cried.
They call them stupid. They understand what we say better than we understand them. She understands all she wants to. Vindictive too. Cruel. Her nature. Curious mice never squeal. Seem to like it. Wonder what I look like to her. Height of a tower? No, she can jump me.

empathy/ masochism
cf milkwoman?
"tower" cf ch1

mysteries: cat's name, humpy, stove design

[WS 00:00-02:29]