64 (U262.997)

Hoho begob says I to myself says I.

The 64th Cast. Page 262, line 997.

　Hoho begob says I to myself says I. That explains the milk in the cocoanut and absence of hair on the animal’s chest. Blazes doing the tootle on the flute. Concert tour. Dirty Dan the dodger’s son off Island bridge that sold the same horses twice over to the government to fight the Boers.

Episode 12. In Barney Kiernan’s pub, Mr. Bloom is in conversation with the nationalist known as Citizen, along with Joe Hynes and the other drinkers.

Someone mentions that Bloom’s wife Molly is supposed to be going away on a concert tour with the impresario Blazes Boylan, and at that moment the narrator of this episode realizes that it is in fact to be an adulterous trip.

“begob” is an Irish exclamation, apparently derived from “by God.”

According to Gifford’s annotation, “says I to myself says I” echoes a phrase from the song “When I Went to the Bar” in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera Iolanthe (1882). ⇒ ♪

When I went to the Bar as a very young man,

(Said I to myself — said I),

I’ll work on a new and original plan,

(Said I to myself — said I),

I’ll never assume that a rogue or a thief

Is a gentleman worthy implicit belief,

Because his attorney has sent me a brief,

(Said I to myself — said I).

However, when I looked into it, I also found that there is an Irish song with exactly the title “Says I To Myself, Says I,” by Harry Von Tilzer and Ed Moran.

It was published in 1917, so it does not fit the novel’s date of 1904, but it is still an interesting coincidence. ⇒ 　♪

“the milk in the cocoanut” means, according to the dictionary, “the heart of the matter” or “the explanation of the mystery.”

The idea seems to be: how did the milk get into the coconut in the first place?

“absence of hair on the animal’s chest” is much less clear.

I am not sure what exactly it means. Is the narrator saying that either Bloom or Boylan has no chest hair?

Naoki Yanase argued that the narrator of this episode is actually a dog (in Solving the Mysteries of James Joyce, Iwanami Shinsho, 1996).

One of his reasons is precisely this kind of phrasing: referring to a human being as “the animal” and being oddly preoccupied with hair.

“the tootle on the flute” comes from a line in Percy French’s song “Phil the Fluter’s Ball.” ⇒ ♪

With a toot on the flute

And a twiddle on the fiddle-oh

Hopping in the middle

Like a herrin’ on the griddle-oh

Up, down, hands around

And crossing to the wall

Sure hadn’t we the gaiety

At Phil the Fluter’s ball

Island Bridge is a place-name on the western edge of Dublin.

The narrator in this episode is a remarkably inventive user of language.

　　

“Says I To Myself, Says I”

https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/saysimyselfsays00vont

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