Ulysses
with its cap back to the front.)
STEPHEN: As a matter of fact it is of no importance
whether Benedetto Marcello found it or made it. The rite is
the poet’s rest. It may be an old hymn to Demeter or also il-
lustrate Coela enarrant gloriam Domini. It is susceptible of
nodes or modes as far apart as hyperphrygian and mixolyd-
ian and of texts so divergent as priests haihooping round
David’s that is Circe’s or what am I saying Ceres’ altar and
David’s tip from the stable to his chief bassoonist about the
alrightness of his almightiness. Mais nom de nom, that is
another pair of trousers. Jetez la gourme. Faut que jeunesse
se passe. (He stops, points at Lynch’s cap, smiles, laughs)
Which side is your knowledge bump?
THE CAP: (With saturnine spleen) Bah! It is because it
is. Woman’s reason. Jewgreek is greekjew. Extremes meet.
Death is the highest form of life. Bah!
STEPHEN: You remember fairly accurately all my er-
rors, boasts, mistakes. How long shall I continue to close
my eyes to disloyalty? Whetstone!
THE CAP: Bah!
STEPHEN: Here’s another for you. (He frowns) The
reason is because the fundamental and the dominant are
separated by the greatest possible interval which ...
THE CAP: Which? Finish. You can’t.
STEPHEN: (With an effort) Interval which. Is the great-
est possible ellipse. Consistent with. The ultimate return.
The octave. Which.
THE CAP: Which?
(Outside the gramophone begins to blare The Holy City.)