't't half want a thick ear, the blighter. Biff him one, Harry. PRIVATE CARR: (To Cissy) Was he insulting you while me and him was having a piss? LORD TENNYSON: (Gentleman poet in Union Jack blazer and cricket flannels, bareheaded, flowingbearded) Theirs not to reason why. PRIVATE COMPTON: Biff him, Harry. STEPHEN: (To Private Compton) I don't know your name but you are quite right. Doctor Swift says one man in armour will beat ten men in their shirts. Shirt is synechdoche. Part for the whole. CISSY CAFFREY: (To The Crowd) No, I was with the privates. STEPHEN: (Amiably) Why not? The bold soldier boy. In my opinion every lady for example... PRIVATE CARR: (His cap awry, advances to Stephen) Say, how would it be, governor, if I was to bash in your jaw? STEPHEN: (Looks up to the sky) How? Very unpleasant. Noble art of selfpretence. Personally, I detest action. (He waves his hand) Hand hurts me slightly. Enfin ce sont vos oignons. (To Cissy Caffrey) Some trouble is on here. What is it precisely? DOLLY GRAY: (From her balcony waves her handkerchief, giving the sign of the heroine of Jericho) Rahab. Cook's son, goodbye. Safe home to Dolly. Dream of the girl you left behind and she will dream of you. (The soldiers turn their swimming eyes.) BLOOM: (Elbowing through the crowd, plucks Stephen's sleeve vigorously) Come now, professor, that carman is waiting. STEPHEN: (Turns) Eh? (He disengages himself) Why should I not speak to him or to any human being who walks upright upon this oblate orange? (He points his finger) I'm not afraid of what I can talk to if I see his eye. Retaining the perpendicular. (He staggers a pace back) BLOOM: (Propping him) Retain your own. STEPHEN: (Laughs emptily) My centre of gravity is displaced. I have forgotten the trick. Let us sit down somewhere and discuss. Struggle for life is the law of existence but but human philirenists, notably the tsar and the king of England, have invented arbitration. (He taps his brow) But in here it is I must kill the priest and the king. BIDDY THE CLAP: Did you hear what the professor said? He's a professor out of the college. CUNTY KATE: I did