Ulysses page-by-page: Page 87 (6.104-141) "It struck... beard."

editions: [1922] [html] [archv]
notes: [Th] [G&S] [Dent] [wbks] [rw] [images] [hyper]
Delaney: [242] [243] Useen: [] maps: [path] [other] [*]
Delaney: [241]

<

— It struck me too, Martin Cunningham said.

Mr Bloom set his thigh down. Glad I took that bath. Feel my feet quite clean. But I wish Mrs Fleming had darned these socks better.

Mr Dedalus sighed resignedly.

— After all, he said, it's the most natural thing in the world.

cf? p34 "A merchant, Stephen said, is one who buys cheap and sells dear, jew or gentile, is he not?" (Corny's untrustworthiness) or p40 "What else were they invented for?" (sex/picnic) ...or death?

Delaney: [242]

— Did Tom Kernan turn up? Martin Cunningham asked, twirling the peak of his beard gently.

Kernan, Power and Cunningham were featured in "Grace"

— Yes, Mr Bloom answered. He's behind with Ned Lambert and Hynes.

Kernan and Lambert get subsections in episode 10

— And Corny Kelleher himself? Mr Power asked.

— At the cemetery, Martin Cunningham said.

— I met M'Coy this morning, Mr Bloom said. He said he'd try to come.

p72

The carriage halted short.

— What's wrong?

— We're stopped.

— Where are we?

Mr Bloom put his head out of the window.

— The grand canal, he said.

(hinting Bloom is facing forward)
2nd of 4 bridges
in 1909 the Victoria Bridge was single-lane
StreetView now

Gasworks.

https://twitter.com/PhotosOfDublin/status/430107246165786624/photo/1

"Gasworks were noted for their foul smell and generally located in the poorest areas of metropolitan areas... usually located beside a river or canal so that coal could be brought in by barge." [wiki]

Whooping cough they say it cures. Good job Milly never got it. Poor children! Doubles them up black and blue in convulsions. Shame really. Got off lightly with illness compared. Only measles. Flaxseed tea. Scarlatina, influenza epidemics. Canvassing for death. Don't miss this chance. Dogs' home over there. Poor old Athos! Be good to Athos, Leopold, is my last wish. Thy will be done. We obey them in the grave. A dying scrawl. He took it to heart, pined away. Quiet brute. Old men's dogs usually are.

"Canvassing" epidemics spread door-to-door?
Dogs' home: not quite visible across canal a block south

the mostly-UK expression 'canvassing' seems to have originated in the use of canvas/hemp/cannabis cloth to separate/sift good stuff from bad stuff, then to mean carefully sifting/surveying popular opinions, then trying to influence them. LB is an 'ad canvasser' implying he sifts the best prospects from among potential advertisers

A raindrop spat on his hat. He drew back and saw an instant of shower spray dots over the grey flags. Apart. Curious. Like through a colander. I thought it would. My boots were creaking I remember now.

Bloom is asking a very deep and imaginative question about why rain isn't more like mist falling-- the answer requiring an appreciation of factors like surface tension-- followed by a far more naive superstition about humidity and leather predicting rain

Delaney: [243]

— The weather is changing, he said quietly.

why "quietly"? because he feels like an outsider? or to take advantage of the quiet carriage to soothe everyone's edge?

— A pity it did not keep up fine, Martin Cunningham said.

— Wanted for the country, Mr Power said. There's the sun again coming out.

LB noted the "drouth" on p54

Mr Dedalus, peering through his glasses towards the veiled sun, hurled a mute curse at the sky.

(what does "a mute curse" look like?)

— It's as uncertain as a child's bottom, he said.

JSJ's rude wit, mixing 'uncertain as the weather' with 'soft as a baby's bottom' (cf BM's?)

— We're off again.

The carriage turned again its stiff wheels and their trunks swayed gently. Martin Cunningham twirled more quickly the peak of his beard.

mysteries:

[DD 03:29-04:41]