Ulysses page-by-page: Page 54 (4.30-65) "Afraid... farseeing."

editions: [1922] [html] [arch]
notes: [Th] [G&S] [Dent] [wbks] [rw] [images] [hyper] [map]
Delaney: [159] Useen: [7] [8] [9] [*]
Delaney: [158]

— Afraid of the chickens she is, he said mockingly. Afraid of the chookchooks. I never saw such a stupid pussens as the pussens.
— Mrkrgnao! the cat said loudly.

(could LB be using the cat as a proxy, calling Molly stupid?)

"Mkgnao! ...Mrkgnao! ...Mrkrgnao!" (each added 'r' = more aggressive-sounding?)

She blinked up out of her avid shameclosing eyes, mewing plaintively and long, showing him her milkwhite teeth. He watched the dark eyeslits narrowing with greed till her eyes were green stones. Then he went to the dresser, took the jug Hanlon's milkman had just filled for him, poured warmbubbled milk on a saucer and set it slowly on the floor.

"shameclosing" (what does this mean? Molly again, surely?)

"a jug of brown crockery containing... one imperial pint, the total quantity originally delivered"
the 1901 census shows a milkman named Stephen Hanlon at 26 Dorset Street Lower.
(cf the old woman's rural milk delivery vs the urban milkman?)

— Gurrhr! she cried, running to lap.
He watched the bristles shining wirily in the weak light as she tipped three times and licked lightly. Wonder is it true if you clip them they can't mouse after. Why? They shine in the dark, perhaps, the tips. Or kind of feelers in the dark, perhaps.
He listened to her licking lap. Ham and eggs, no. No good eggs with this drouth. Want pure fresh water. Thursday: not a good day either for a mutton kidney at Buckley's. Fried with butter, a shake of pepper. Better a pork kidney at Dlugacz's. While the kettle is boiling. She lapped slower, then licking the saucer clean. Why are their tongues so rough? To lap better, all porous holes. Nothing she can eat? He glanced round him. No.

cats' whiskers sense subtle air currents [cite]

scientific thinker (unlike SD or BM)
[no drought in June 1904]
a 'victualler' named John Buckley lived at 48 Upper Dorset in 1901

JAJ had a Zionist acquaintance in Trieste named Moses Dlugacz, making him a porkbutcher in Dublin is a little bizarre

On quietly creaky boots he went up the staircase to the hall, paused by the bedroom door. She might like something tasty. Thin bread and butter she likes in the morning. Still perhaps: once in a way.
He said softly in the bare hall:
— I'm going round the corner. Be back in a minute.
And when he had heard his voice say it he added:
— You don't want anything for breakfast?

"bedroom door" if/when the upstairs rooms are rented out, this hall will be shared by everyone, so (lockable?) doors are critical for privacy

"bare hall" (poverty? simplicity?)
is the house so quiet she can hear him speaking softly outside the closed bedroom door?
"heard his voice" (cf disembodied voices of BM and Haines)
"round the corner" (half a block to the corner, a block and a half to the butcher's)

Delaney: [159]

A sleepy soft grunt answered:
— Mn.
No. She did not want anything. He heard then a warm heavy sigh, softer, as she turned over and the loose brass quoits of the bedstead jingled. Must get those settled really. Pity. All the way from Gibraltar. Forgotten any little Spanish she knew. Wonder what her father gave for it. Old style. Ah yes! of course. Bought it at the governor's auction. Got a short knock. Hard as nails at a bargain, old Tweedy. Yes, sir. At Plevna that was. I rose from the ranks, sir, and I'm proud of it. Still he had brains enough to make that corner in stamps. Now that was farseeing.

the bedsprings are part of the brass bed frame, not a separate boxspring
why "Pity."?
"Old style" (Gibraltar's money system changed in 1872 when Molly was 2yo)
Tweedy and Molly brought the bed from Gibraltar, Tweedy probably gave it as a wedding present (1918 notebook, re Homer's Penelope: "Bed given by her father")
in episode 18 she'll call it "Cohens old bed" and explain "the lumpy old jingly bed always reminds me of old Cohen I suppose he scratched himself in it often enough and he [Bloom] thinks father bought it from Lord Napier"
short knock
Tweedy saw an opportunity to corner the market for some postage stamp desired by collectors, and made a tidy profit (Gibraltar had peculiar stamps from 1886 on)
map

mysteries: shameclosing, Still perhaps: once in a way., Pity, Old style

[WS 02:29-05:30]