Ulysses

(Barry) #1

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preferred the fighting parson who founded the protestant
error. But beware Antisthenes, the dog sage, and the last
end of Arius Heresiarchus. The agony in the closet.
LYNCH: All one and the same God to her.
STEPHEN: (Devoutly) And sovereign Lord of all things.
FLORRY: (To Stephen) I’m sure you’re a spoiled priest.
Or a monk.
LYNCH: He is. A cardinal’s son.
STEPHEN: Cardinal sin. Monks of the screw.
(His Eminence Simon Stephen Cardinal Dedalus, Primate
of all Ireland, appears in the doorway, dressed in red soutane,
sandals and socks. Seven dwarf simian acolytes, also in red,
cardinal sins, uphold his train, peeping under it. He wears a
battered silk hat sideways on his head. His thumbs are stuck
in his armpits and his palms outspread. Round his neck
hangs a rosary of corks ending on his breast in a corkscrew
cross. Releasing his thumbs, he invokes grace from on high
with large wave gestures and proclaims with bloated pomp:)
THE CARDINAL:


Conservio lies captured
He lies in the lowest dungeon
With manacles and chains around his limbs
Weighing upwards of three tons.

(He looks at all for a moment, his right eye closed tight, his
left cheek puffed out. Then, unable to repress his merriment,
he rocks to and fro, arms akimbo, and sings with broad rol-
licking humour:)

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