51(U540.1773)

On the roadway which they were approaching 

51st cast. page 540, line 1773. 

 

　On the roadway which they were approaching whilst still speaking beyond the swingchains a horse, dragging a sweeper, paced on the paven ground, brushing a long swathe of mire up so that with the noise Bloom was not perfectly certain whether he had caught aright the allusion to sixtyfive guineas and John Bull. He inquired if it was John Bull the political celebrity of that ilk, as it struck him, the two identical names, as a striking coincidence.

Episode 16. At around 2.00 am. Mr Bloom has just left the cabman’s shelter to Beresford Place to take Stephen to his home. This passage immediately after the 32nd issue of the blog.

John Bull (composer)

File:John Bull (composer).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

They talk about their musical tastes. Stephen is a lover of Elizabethan English music, such as John Bull, and want to buy a lute for 65 guineas. (One guinea is 21 shillings, or approximately one pound. One pound in 1904 was about 80 pounds in today's value, so 65 guineas is 5200 pounds in today's value. )

 

Episode 16 is deliberately written in bad language and is difficult to capture the meaning.

 

 First of all, it is not clear what "swingchains" are.

 

 The later part of this passage states：

 

“Side by side Bloom, profiting by the contretemps, with Stephen passed through the gap of the chains, divided by the upright, and, stepping over a strand of mire, went across towards Gardiner street lower, Stephen singing more boldly, but not loudly, the end of the ballad.” （U543.1880）

 

 I suppose these could be chains stretched across the poles to separate the roadway from the pavement.

 

The two men appear to get out from the pavement side of Beresford Place towards the roadway in order to cross towards Gardiner Street. There is a horse-drawn sweeper on the roadway side, beyond the chain-link fence. (the cabman’s shelter is located around ☆).

 

"swathe" means a line of grass or corn cut by the scythe.I think "a long swathe of mire" means a wide strip after the mud has been brushed away.

 

"Certain" and "aright" are redundant and the repetition of "truck" and "striking" is not smart.

 

John Bull are (i) a national personification of the United Kingdom and (ii) the name of an English Elizabethan keyboard player and composer. Mr Bloom knew the former but not the latter.

John Bull (left figure)

File:Bruin become Mediator or Negotiation for Peace.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

 

There is a reason why Mr Bloom was astonished by the ’coincidence’. Today, he had a lot of coincidences. I will count them up for another time, but here I only mention the coincidences in Episode 16.

 

①Stephen says in conversation with the sailors that 'Shakespeares were as common as Murphies.', and the sailor says that his name iss Murphy. (U509.364) (U510.415)

 

②The sailor says he knows Stephen's father, Simon Dedalus, but it must have been someone else with the same name. (U510.414)

 

③The Greek who tattooed the sailor is called Antonio, the same name as the character in Shakespeare's play. (U520.839)

 

④When Stephen praises the ancient Italians, Dante, Da Vinci and Thomas Aquinas, Mr Bloom also admires the ancient statues in the museum today. (U525.890)

⑤It is a coincidence, Mr Bloom muses, that the unsettled sailors and vagabonds are gathered together in this way, a microcosm of the world. (U528.1222)

 

⑥Mr Bloom muses, it is a coincidence that the unsettled sailors and vagabonds are gathered together in this way, a microcosm of the world. (U528.1222)

 

⑦And finally, the coincidence of this passage.

 

horse-drawn street sweeper

File:Eckert Kehrmaschine.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

 The method of this blog ⇒ Here