Page 371 - ULYSSES
P. 371
Ulysses
it. Jews, whom christians tax with avarice, are of all races
the most given to intermarriage. Accusations are made in
anger. The christian laws which built up the hoards of the
jews (for whom, as for the lollards, storm was shelter)
bound their affections too with hoops of steel. Whether
these be sins or virtues old Nobodaddy will tell us at
doomsday leet. But a man who holds so tightly to what he
calls his rights over what he calls his debts will hold tightly
also to what he calls his rights over her whom he calls his
wife. No sir smile neighbour shall covet his ox or his wife
or his manservant or his maidservant or his jackass.
—Or his jennyass, Buck Mulligan antiphoned.
—Gentle Will is being roughly handled, gentle Mr Best
said gently.
—Which will? gagged sweetly Buck Mulligan. We are
getting mixed.
—The will to live, John Eglinton philosophised, for
poor Ann, Will’s widow, is the will to die.
—Requiescat! Stephen prayed.
What of all the will to do?
It has vanished long ago ...
—She lies laid out in stark stiffness in that secondbest
bed, the mobled queen, even though you prove that a bed
in those days was as rare as a motorcar is now and that its
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