Page:Ulysses, 1922.djvu/552

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
549

here to witness a clean straight fight and we heartily wish both men the best of good luck. Mahak makar a back.

(He shakes hands with Private Carr, Private Compton, Stephen, Bloom and Lynch. General applause. Edward the Seventh lifts the bucket graciously in acknowledgement.)

private carr

(To Stephen.) Say it again.

stephen

(Nervous, friendly, pulls himself up.) I understand your point of view, though I have no king myself for the moment. This is the age of patent medicine. A discussion is difficult down here. But this is the point. You die for your country, suppose. (He places his arm on Private Carr’s sleeve.) Not that I wish it for you. But I say: Let my country die for me. Up to the present it has done so. I don’t want it to die. Damn death. Long live life!

edward the seventh

(Levitates over heaps of slain in the garb and with the halo of Joking Jesus, a white jujube in his phosphorescent face.)

My methods are new and are causing surprise.
To make the blind see I throw dust in their eyes.

stephen

Kings and unicorns! (He falls back a pace.) Come somewhere and we’ll… What was that girl saying?…

private compton

Eh, Harry, give him a kick in the knackers. Stick one into Jerry.

bloom

(To the privates, softly.) He doesn’t know what he’s saying. Taking a little more than is good for him. Absinthe, the greeneyed monster. I know him. He’s a gentleman, a poet. It’s all right.

stephen

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