This portrait of Leopold Bloom , by James Joyce, was drawn in Myron C. Nutting's Paris studio in 1923. The Greek line shown is the beginning line of the Odyssey, "Tell me Muse, of the man of many devices, who over many ways . . ."

***

The announcement of Bloomusalem, as presented below, is made in the Circe episode in one of the dream scenes. Both the phrases "tell you verily it is even now at hand," and " You have said it" allude to the words of or the way the words would have been spoken by Jesus Christ. The reference to "Thirty two workmen . . . from all the counties of Ireland" alludes to a historical event that had occurred in Hungary under Emperor Francis Joseph and there was an actual craftsman named Derwan in Dublin. In the Cyclops episode a question directed to Bloom: "Are you talking about the new Jerusalem? says the citizen." Bloomusalem is Joyce's riff of "new Jerusalem."

***

"BLOOM: My beloved subjects, a new era is about to dawn. I, Bloom,
tell you verily it is even now at hand. Yea, on the word of a Bloom, Bloomusalem in the Nova Hibernia of the future.

(THIRTYTWO WORKMEN, WEARING ROSETTES, FROM ALL THE COUNTIES OF IRELAND, UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF DERWAN THE
BUILDER, CONSTRUCT THE NEW BLOOMUSALEM. IT IS A COLOSSAL
EDIFICE WITH CRYSTAL ROOF, BUILT IN THE SHAPE OF A HUGE
PORK KIDNEY, CONTAINING FORTY THOUSAND ROOMS. IN THE
COURSE OF ITS EXTENSION SEVERAL BUILDINGS AND MONUMENTS
ARE DEMOLISHED. GOVERNMENT OFFICES ARE TEMPORARILY
TRANSFERRED TO RAILWAY SHEDS. NUMEROUS HOUSES ARE RAZED
TO THE GROUND. THE INHABITANTS ARE LODGED IN BARRELS AND
BOXES, ALL MARKED IN RED WITH THE LETTERS: L. B. SEVERAL
PAUPERS FILL FROM A LADDER. A PART OF THE WALLS OF DUBLIN,

CROWDED WITH LOYAL SIGHTSEERS, COLLAPSES.)

THE SIGHTSEERS: (DYING) MORITURI TE SALUTANT. (THEY DIE)"

Later in the same episode:

"A VOICE: Bloom, are you the Messiah ben Joseph or ben David?

BLOOM: (DARKLY) You have said it."

***

Morituri Te Salutant-"Those (who are) about to die salute thee; the gladiators saluted the Roman emperor at the start of the gladiatorial games" (Gifford).

In Ulysses Almidano Artifoni is a fictional character who takes his name from the owner of the Berlitz School of languages in Trieste, where Joyce taught. The picture is of the man and not the character in Ulysses.

Stephen meets his music teacher, Almidano Artifoni, near Trinity College in the Wandering Rocks, in the sixth of eighteen vignettes. Artifoni urges Stephen to develop his singing voice so one day he might perform professionally. Much of the conversation is in Italian. They take leave of each other when Artifoni runs to get the Dalkey tram:

"Almidano Artifoni, holding up a baton of rolled music as a signal, trotted on stout trousers after the Dalkey tram. In vain he trotted, signalling in vain among the rout of barekneed gillies smuggling implements of music through Trinity gates."

The reader hasn't seen the last of Artifoni since in the final vignette presenting the viceregal cavalcade there is "the salute of Almidano Artifoni's sturdy trousers swallowed by a closing door," which is of course the door of the Dalkey tram. Richard Ellmann in Ulysses on the Liffey mentions this as one of the salutes at the end of the episode and says, "Viceroy and priest are made a little absurd, subjected to the denigrations of comedy. . . . This irreverence intimates that the viceregal glory has not, in its resounding passage, escaped diminution" (77).

In the scene with Stephen and Artifoni, there is the reference, "By the stern stone hand of Grattan," which is an observation of the statue of Henry Grattan, however, the statue is bronze not stone. Could Joyce have made such an egregious error? Weldon Thornton in Voices and Values in Joyce's Ulysses states, "I take these to be errors made by the narrator, and see their presence in the episode as one further means by which Joyce takes the measure of the narrator and shows his fallibility" (140). This seems to beg the question of why Joyce would create a fallible narrator that would make such an error.

***

In the Circe episode in one of the dream scenes Artifoni appears again holding "a baton of rolled music" as he says in Italian, "Think it over. You ruin everything." to Stephen. When Florry says, " The bird that can sing and won't sing." he is presenting a proverb that has, in effect, the advice Artifoni has been recommending to Stephen and the proverb is completed with, "must be made to sing."

(ALMIDANO ARTIFONI HOLDS OUT A BATONROLL OF MUSIC WITH
VIGOROUS MOUSTACHEWORK.)
ARTIFONI: CI RIFLETTA. LEI ROVINA TUTTO.
FLORRY: Sing us something. Love's old sweet song.
STEPHEN: No voice. I am a most finished artist. Lynch, did I show
you the letter about the lute?
FLORRY: (SMIRKING) The bird that can sing and won't sing.

This photo of Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses was taken on Long Island by Eve Arnold in 1954. Here is what Arnold has to say about the photograph.

"We worked on a beach on Long Island. She was visiting Norman Rosten the poet . . . I asked what she was reading when I went to pick her (I was trying to get an idea of how she spent her time) She said she kept Ulysses in her car and had been reading it for a long time. She said she loved the sound of it and would read it aloud to herself to try to make sense of it -- but she found it hard going. She couldn't read it consecutively. When we stopped at a local playground to photograph she got out the book and started to read while I loaded the film. So, of course, I photographed her. It was always a collaborative effort of photographer and subject where she was concerned -- but almost more her input."

One can imagine her reading the opening words of the Sirens episode with its musical rhythm:

"Bronze by gold heard the hoofirons, steelyringing Imperthnthn
thnthnthn.
Chips, picking chips off rocky thumbnail, chips.Horrid! And gold flushed more.

A husky fifenote blew.

Blew. Blue bloom is on the.

Goldpinnacled hair.

A jumping rose on satiny breast of satin, rose of Castile.

Trilling, trilling: Idolores."

One can also imagine her hearing herself speaking as she reads Molly Bloom's final words of the Penelope episode and of the work itself:

"yes I said yes I will Yes."

Whatever she read aloud and enjoyed would have pleased Joyce, since he wanted it to be a book for the ordinary person.

-------------

Norman Rosten, the poet Marilyn Monroe was visiting, wrote a book about her: Marilyn: An Untold Story

The eccentric character Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell appears in several of the episodes of Ulysses.

Bloom meets Mrs Breen on the street in the Lestrygonians episode and as they are engaged in conversation, Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell, happens by, which elicits this conversation:

"-- Mind! Let this man pass.

A bony form strode along the curbstone from the river staring with
a rapt gaze into the sunlight through a heavystringed glass. Tight as
a skullpiece a tiny hat gripped his head. From his arm a folded dustcoat, a stick and an umbrella dangled to his stride.

-- Watch him, Mr Bloom said. He always walks outside the
lampposts. Watch!

-- Who is he if it's a fair question? Mrs Breen asked. Is he dotty?
-- His name is Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell, Mr Bloom said smiling. Watch!"

***

In the Scylla and Charybdis episode the Farrell's presence is observed:

"The constant readers' room. In the readers' book Cashel Boyle

O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell parafes his polysyllables."

***

In the Wandering Rocks episode Farrell appears: " Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell, murmuring, glassyeyed, strode past the Kildare street club." This is the club in which Mulligan and Haines are present in this episode.

Farrell is on the move in the following; he utters a Latin phrase the meaning of which is obscure.

"Almidano Artifoni walked past Holles street, past Sewell's yard. Behind him Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell, with stickumbrelladustcoat dangling, shunned the lamp before Mr Law Smith's house and, crossing, walked along Merrion square. Distantly behind him a blind stripling tapped his way by the wall of College park.

Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell walked as far as
Mr Lewis Werner's cheerful windows, then turned and strode back
along Merrion square, his stickumbrelladustcoat dangling.

At the corner of Wilde's house he halted, frowned at Elijah's name
announced on the Metropolitan hall, frowned at the distant
pleasance of duke's lawn. His eyeglass flashed frowning in the sun.
With ratsteeth bared he muttered:

-- COACTUS VOLUI.

He strode on for Clare street, grinding his fierce word.

As he strode past Mr Bloom's dental windows the sway of his
dustcoat brushed rudely from its angle a slender tapping cane and
swept onwards, having buffeted a thewless body. The blind
stripling turned his sickly face after the striding form.

-- God's curse on you, he said sourly, whoever you are! You're
blinder nor I am, you bitch's bastard!" (1)

According to R.J. Schork the Latin term, "Coactus Volui" means "Having been forced I was willing." Schork's source is the Justinian's Digest IV.2.21.5. It is unclear to me what Farrell believes he is forced to do.

Farrell's carelessness in brushing against the blind stripling elicits an angry response. See Bloom's conversation with the blind stripling discussed in my blog entry of July 27, 2011.

Farrell is found watching the cavalcade, but looking across the carriages at the Austro-Hungarian viceconsulate. "Striding past Finn's hotel Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell stared through a fierce eyeglass across the carriages at the head of Mr M. E. Solomons in the window of the Austro-Hungarian viceconsulate."

***

1- In the Sirens episode Miss Douce identifies the blind stripling as the hotel's piano tuner and after praising his ability as a tuner and pianist she says:

-- So sad to look at his face, miss Douce condoled.

God's curse on bitch's bastard.

***

The following is Bloom's interior monologue as he is preparing to leave the bar in the Ormond Hotel in the Sirens episode. This random thought of Farrell is included in a farrago of thoughts.

"The chords consented. Very sad thing. But had to be. Get out before
the end. Thanks, that was heavenly. Where's my hat. Pass by her.
Can leave that Freeman. Letter I have. Suppose she were the? No.
Walk, walk, walk. Like Cashel Boylo Connoro Coylo Tisdall Maurice
Tisntdall Farrell. Waaaaaaalk."

***

In the Circe episode much of the narrative is presented in phantasmagoric dream scenes. In one the dream scenes in which Bloom has been interacting with one of the whores, Zoe, Lipoti Virag, Bloom's grandfather, emerges with very peculiar attire that includes the monocle of Farrell:

"IN HIS LEFT EYE FLASHES THE MONOCLE OF CASHEL BOYLE O'CONNOR FITZMAURICE TISDALL FARRELL."

Virag introduces himself and then says, " Promiscuous nakedness is much in evidence hereabouts, eh?" Virag stays for awhile in the dream scene offering commentary much of which is an assessment of the physical attributes of the whores in the brothel.