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Tuesday 28 January 2020

Thursday, 23 January 2020, Episode 5 (5.138 - 5.402)

The reading stopped at "Quis est homo." (5.402)

Summary:

M'Coy finally moves away after telling Bloom, "My missus has just got an engagement. At least it's not settled yet" (5.148) and asking him to put down his name at Patty Dignam's funeral if he is not there because the drowning case at Sandycove may turn up (5.171). We had heard of the drowning case in episode 1.
Bloom is finally left in peace. He strolls towards Brunswick street. His eyes wander over the multicoloured hoardings (5.192) at the corner of Westland Row and Great Brunswick street. One of them is the playbill of the play Leah with Mrs Bandmann Palmer. (Mrs Bandmann Palmer (1845-1926) was a famous English actress.) Bloom recollects that she had played Hamlet the previous night. That a woman had played Hamlet, makes him wonder at first whether Hamlet was a woman. (Perhaps he was a woman. (5.196)) This thought leads to the next whether that was the reason that Ophelia committed suicide. Thinking of 'suicide' naturally makes Bloom remember his father, who had committed suicide.
Walking on, Bloom comes to a secluded spot near the Westland Row railway station, where he opens the letter he had collected earlier at the post office. The letter addressed to Henry Flower by Martha has a flower pinned to it. Now it is clear that Bloom is carrying on an affair under the assumed name of Henry Flower with Martha, whom he is yet to meet! Could meet one Sunday after the rosary (5.270). The pin which Martha has used brings back to his memory a song he had once heard, O, Mairy lost the pin of her drawers. . . (5.281)
This song resurfaces again in Bloom's thoughts - suppose he [the priest] lost the pin of his. He wouldn't know what to do to. (5.372) - once he comes near the open backdoor of All Hallows (5.318) and enters the church. (All Hallows aka St. Andrew's is a Roman Catholic church on Westland Row.) The paragraphs that follow describing Bloom's observing the rituals which are being conducted involving members of a sodality, and his reactions to what he sees are some of the most hilarious paragraphs in Ulysses.

Sunday 19 January 2020

Thursday, 16 January 2020, Episode 5 (5.1 - 5.137)

We completed episode 4, and started episode 5, stopping at "One of the best, M'Coy said." (5.137)

Summary of the beginning of episode 5:

After completing his business asquat on the cuckstool (4.500), while he read the story, Matcham's Masterstroke (4.502), by Mr Philip Beaufoy published in an old number of Titbits (4.467), and while he thought that he himself might manage (such) a sketch (4.518), Bloom [tears] away half the prize story sharply and [wipes] himself with it (4.537), pulls up his pants and [comes] forth from the gloom into the air (4.539) as the bells of George's church (4.544) toll Heigho! Heigho! (4.506) . . .

Mr Bloom leaves his house, and goes out. He is to attend Patty Dignam's funeral at quarter to (4.549) that morning which means that he has enough time to do other things before going to the funeral. He is no hurry. Sauntering along, he passes John Rogerson's quay, Windmill Lane, Lime street, Westland row etc. His mind is occupied by the things he sees, the shops such as the Belfast and Oriental Tea Company (5.19) he passes by, the people - for example, the boy and the girl near Brady's cottages (5.5) - he sees/meets on the way. He goes into a post office and produces a card on which his name is given as Henry Flower (5.62) - Bloom/Flower -, and gets a letter waiting for him. Obviously he is carrying on some kind of an affair with somebody. Before he could open the letter outside the post office, M'Coy hails him. Bloom has no interest in stopping and exchanging small talk with M'Coy but cannot get rid of him. As M'Coy stays on to chat, Bloom's attention is distracted by two people waiting near an outsider (a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage) drawn up before the door of the Grosvenor (5.98) hotel. While Bloom is busy observing and admiring the rich silk stockings (5.122) of the woman and wondering from which side she will get into the carriage, M'Coy continues to talk explaining how he heard of Dignam's passing away. If she would in fact get into the carriage from the side he can see, Bloom would get to see her ankles as she would have to lift her skirt up to get into the carriage! But that does not happen as a heavy tramcar (5.131) goes by blocking his view just as she gets into the carriage! 

Tuesday 14 January 2020

Thursday, 9 January 2020, Episode 4 (4.201 - 4.446)

The reading stopped at " . . . braiding." (4.446)

Apologies for not being able to post any summary of this week's reading.