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BLOOM: O, I so want to be a mother.
MRS THORNTON: (In nursetender’s gown) Embrace me
tight, dear. You’ll be soon over it. Tight, dear.
(Bloom embraces her tightly and bears eight male yellow
and white children. They appear on a redcarpeted staircase
adorned with expensive plants. All the octuplets are hand-
some, with valuable metallic faces, wellmade, respectably
dressed and wellconducted, speaking five modern languag-
es fluently and interested in various arts and sciences. Each
has his name printed in legible letters on his shirtfront: Na-
sodoro, Goldfinger, Chrysostomos, Maindoree, Silversmile,
Silberselber, Vifargent, Panargyros. They are immediately
appointed to positions of high public trust in several different
countries as managing directors of banks, traffic managers of
railways, chairmen of limited liability companies, vicechair-
men of hotel syndicates.)
A VOICE: Bloom, are you the Messiah ben Joseph or ben
David?
BLOOM: (Darkly) You have said it.
BROTHER BUZZ: Then perform a miracle like Father
Charles.
BANTAM LYONS: Prophesy who will win the Saint
Leger.
(Bloom walks on a net, covers his left eye with his left ear,
passes through several walls, climbs Nelson’s Pillar, hangs
from the top ledge by his eyelids, eats twelve dozen oysters
(shells included), heals several sufferers from king’s evil, con-
tracts his face so as to resemble many historical personages,
Lord Beaconsfield, Lord Byron, Wat Tyler, Moses of Egypt,