The Annotated "Ulysses"/Page 016

by James Joyce

— All Ireland is washed by the gulfstream, Stephen said as he let honey
trickle over a slice of the loaf.

Haines from the corner where he was knotting easily a scarf about the
loose collar of his tennis shirt spoke:

— I intend to make a collection of your sayings if you will let me.

Speaking to me. They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit.
Conscience. Yet here’s a spot.

— That one about the cracked lookingglass of a servant being the symbol
of Irish art is deuced good.

Buck Mulligan kicked Stephen’s foot under the table and said with
warmth of tone:

— Wait till you hear him on Hamlet, Haines.

— Well, I mean it, Haines said, still speaking to Stephen. I was just
thinking of it when that poor old creature came in.

— Would I make money by it? Stephen asked.

Haines laughed and, as he took his soft grey hat from the holdfast of
the hammock, said :

— I don’t know, I’m sure.

He strolled out to the doorway. Buck Mulligan bent across to Stephen
and said with coarse vigour :

— You put your hoof in it now. What did you say that for?

— Well? Stephen said. The problem is to get money. From whom?
From the milkwoman or from him. It’s a toss up, I think.

— I blow him out about you, Buck Mulligan said, and then you come
along with your lousy leer and your gloomy jesuit jibes.

— I see little hope, Stephen said, from her or from him.

Buck Mulligan sighed tragically and laid his hand on Stephen’s arm.

— From me, Kinch, he said.

In a suddenly changed tone he added :

— To tell you the God’s truth I think you’re right. Damn all else they
are good for. Why don’t you play them as I do? To hell with them all. Let
us get out of the kip.

He stood up, gravely ungirdled and disrobed himself of his gown, saying
resignedly :

— Mulligan is stripped of his garments.

He emptied his pockets on to the table.

— There’s your snotrag, he said.

Annotations

—Mulligan is stripped of his garments

Reference to the Tenth Station of the Cross, Jesus is stripped of his garments.

—There's your snotrag, he said.

Possibly an allusion to the Sixth Station of the Cross, Veronica wipes the face of Jesus. Recall the rag was used previously to wipe the blade that cleaned the face of BM certainly, and presumably cleaned his face directly when done.