There is a onelegged sailor in the "Wandering Rocks" episode who has encounters with three characters in the episode. First with Father Conmee near the convent of the sisters of charity, then presumably with Molly Bloom on Eccles Street, and finally 14 Nelson Street where he is observed by Buck Mulligan. In the first two instances he is referred to as "a onelegged sailor" and in the third instance as "the onelegged sailor." Weldon Thornton in his book referred to in the last post considers this description as one of several instances in which character descriptions are "persistently impersonal." When I asked Dr. Ware, my Ulysses professor, about the role of the onelegged sailor he replied "comic relief." Several times the one legged sailor utters the phrases, "For England," and "home and beauty," which sound more like the words of a West Briton than words that would influence Irish persons to give gifts.

Chuck