39 (U483.4494)

STEPHEN: (Nods, smiling and laughing.) Gentleman, patriot, scholar and judge of impostors.

39th cast. page 483, line 4494.

　

   STEPHEN: (Nods, smiling and laughing.) Gentleman, patriot, scholar and judge of impostors.

　PRIVATE CARR: I don’t give a bugger who he is.

　PRIVATE COMPTON: We don’t give a bugger who he is.

　STEPHEN: I seem to annoy them. Green rag to a bull.

 

End of Episode 15. Mr. Bloom and Stephen leave the brothel. An argument arises when Stephen accosts a British soldier's woman.

The two sergeants appear to be identical to the two from the beginning of Episode 15. (Blog #25)

 

In 1918, during Joyce's stay in Zurich, he founded the theater group " The English Players" with actor Claude W. Sykes. Joyce sought official recognition of the group from the British Consulate, but the British Consul General at the time, A. Percy Bennett, responded in a brusque manner.

The group' s first play was The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde. Joyce selected Henry Carr, a consulate official and former member of the British Highland Regiment, to play the lead role of Algernon Moncrieff. However, after the performance, Carr and Joyce had a dispute over appearance fees and ticket prices, resulting in a lawsuit.

Carr shouted at Joyce. “You’re a cad. You’ve cheated me and pocketed the proceeds. You’re a swindler. If you don’t get out, I’ll throw you down stairs. Next time I catch you outside I’ll wring your neck.”

(P.427 Richard Ellman, James Joyce, 1959.1982)

 

I wonder if this is where the HCE enemy "cad" in Finnegans Wake comes from.

The "judge of impostors" in this passage may be related to this abuse, although it is a swindler, not an impostor.

 

Joyce, with a grudge against Carr, named the soldier in this scene Carr. Consul General Bennett was made the name of the British special sergeant who is beaten by the Irishman in boxing. (Blog #27) Compton is said to be the name of the business manager who botched the job of the theater group.

In June 1904, Joyce approached a young woman with a companion in St. Stephen's Green and they argued. Her escort beaten Joyce to such a state  "with black eye,  sprained wrist, sprained ankle, cut chin, cut hand" and left. (p. 161, James Joyce)

After this passage, Stephen is beaten up by Carr, which is tied to this episode.

 

"bugger" is slang, the same as damn.

 

“like a red rag to a bull” means "terribly angry" because showing a red rag to a bull makes him excited. The red cloth is replaced by a green cloth, the symbol of Ireland. Bull represents England. (Blog #28)

Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Royal Dublin Fusiliers. - NYPL Digital Collections

This is one of the cigarette cards that were enclosed as freebies in cigarette packages at the beginning of the 20th century. I think the uniform of a British soldier in Dublin at that time looked like this.

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