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Synopsis
by Gerry O'Flaherty
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It is
nearly 4 o'clock. As Bloom walks along by the Liffey he decides
to answer Martha Clifford's letter and buys some stationery. From
the shop he sees Boylan and wonders if he is going to see Molly
after all.
Bloom
goes into the Ormond Hotel with Richie Goulding to have lunch
and to watch Boylan who has come there to meet Lenehan. Boylan
leaves to keep his appointment with Molly at four o'clock without
seeing Bloom.
Simon
Dedalus is persuaded to sing 'M'appari' from the opera Martha. It
is a song of lost love and Bloom, who is about to reply to Martha,
is miserable as he thinks of Molly. As he writes he realises that
Martha is of no interest to him.
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Ormond Hotel |
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His
meal finished he stays to hear Ben Dollard sing The Croppy Boy,
a ballad of betrayal. By this time Bloom is aware that Boylan
would have arrived at Molly's house.
In
Homer, Odysseus/Bloom has himself tied to the mast and the ears
of his crew closed with wax so that the songs of the Sirens/Barmaids
cannot seduce them.
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Martha, O return love! from Martha
Words by Charles Jeffrys
Music by Friedrich von Flotow
M'appari, sung by Lyonel in Act III of Flotow's opera Martha, plays a major role in the Sirens
episode of Ulysses. Simon Dedalus, who has a fine tenor voice, is prevailed upon to sing it in the
Ormond Hotel. He sits at the piano and begins to play, but not in the original key of F major. Bob
Cowley shifts him and plays it in the original key. But the words sung are in English in a parlour
song version by Charles Jeffrys. The last high B flat on the word "come" is paralled in Bloom's
thoughts, which race in ecstatic prose echoing an orgasmic climax at the hour when Molly and
Blazes Boylan consummate their tryst. Though the opera was written in German it was often
sung in Italian, hence the usual title M'Appari, curiously, this famous aria was taken over from
Flotow's previous opera Lâme en Peine.
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My Girl's a Yorkshire Girl
Words by CW Murphy
Music by Dan Lipton
In the Wandering Rocks episode of Ulysses a band of Highland Soldiers play this tune in College
Park as Blazes Boylan walks by the Provost's house at Trinity College. It later appears in the
Nighttown episode Circe. It is associated with Boylan, Bloom and Molly. This song was used by
Joyce in Ulysses even though it was not published until 1908, four years after the events of the
book.
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The Minstrel Boy
Words by Thomas Moore
Music: a traditional air, arranged by Karl Ronan
Thomas Moore's song is alluded to twice in Ulysses: in the Sirens and Circe episodes. Its words
echo a theme of betrayal, which is one of the main themes of Ulysses. Both Joyce and his son
Giorgio sang this song.
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The Shade of the Palm
Words and music by Leslie Stuart
This song, which is sung by Frank Abercoed in Stuart's operetta Floradora, plays a big part in the
Sirens episode of Ulysses. A fragment of it is sung, inaccurately, by Lydia Douce, one of the
barmaids also known as the Sirens in the Ormond Hotel. The words of the song allude to the
situations of both Boylan and Bloom as well as Molly who, in Bloom's eyes, has associations with
the East.
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'Twas Rank and Fame from The Rose of Castille
Words by Augustus Harris and Edmund Falconer
Music by Michael Balfe
This aria is sung by Manuel in Act III of Balfe's opera The Rose of Castille. It features in both the
Aeolus and Sirens episodes in Ulysses. In Sirens, Bloom listens while Ritchie Goulding fonding
remembers his brother-in-law Simon Dedalus' singing of the aria. Another song of betrayal, its
relevance lies in the fact that Simon treats Ritchie with contempt.
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