Page 974 - ULYSSES

Ulysses

(He jerks the rope. the assistants leap at the victim’s legs and
drag him downward, grunting the croppy boy’s tongue protrudes
violently.)

THE CROPPY BOY:

Horhot ho hray hor hother’s hest.

(He gives up the ghost. A violent erection of the hanged sends
gouts of sperm spouting through his deathclothes on to the
cobblestones. Mrs Bellingham, Mrs Yelverton Barry and the
Honourable Mrs Mervyn Talboys rush forward with their
handkerchiefs to sop it up.)
RUMBOLD: I’m near it myself. (He undoes the noose)
Rope which hanged the awful rebel. Ten shillings a time.
As applied to Her Royal Highness. (He plunges his head into
the gaping belly of the hanged and draws out his head again
clotted with coiled and smoking entrails) My painful duty has
now been done. God save the king!
EDWARD THE SEVENTH: (Dances slowly, solemnly,
rattling his bucket, and sings with soft contentment)

On coronation day, on coronation day,
O, won’t we have a merry time,
Drinking whisky, beer and wine!

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