FURTHER RECOLLECTIONS OF JOYCE
531
Boylan's exit from the Ormond Hotel, well knowing that the organizer
of Molly Bloom's concert tour is bound for 7 Eccles Street, and that in
all probability an act of adultery will there take place. What was to be
explained was Bloom's inactivity when, seeing that the drift of events
is toward his wife's infidelity and his own cuckoldry, he makes no effort
to stem the drift. Rather he contemplates in advance the
fait accompli
with a sort of cool, detached fatalism.
Joyce said: "You see an undercurrent of homosexuality in Bloom
as well as his loneliness as a J ew who finds no warmth of fellowship
among either J ews or Gentiles, and no doubt you are right. But there
is another aspect of the matter you seem to have missed."
"And that is?"
"Have you ever read or seen
L e
C
ocu M agnifique?"
I told him I hadn't and waited for the sequel.
"You ought to read it," he said. "Do you remember I wrote to you
soon after I came to Paris that
Exiles
was to be put on by Lugne Poe,
and that in the end nothing came of it? You do? Well, it was
Le Cocu
Magnifique
that took the wind out of the sails of
Exiles.
The jealousy
motive is the same in kind in both cases. The only difference is that in
my play the p eople act with a certain reserve, whereas in
Le Cocu
the
hero, to mention only one, acts like a madman. Make a ll the necessary
allowances, and you'll see that Bloom is of the same family."
It was not difficult to see the family likeness in Leopold Bloom
and Richard R owan as soon as it was pointed out. In due course a copy
of
Le Cocu Magnifique
was forwarded to me in Switzerl and, and sure
enough there was the same theme- only heavily scored for the brass.
Richard and Leopold provoke and let happen, whereas the magnificen t
cuckold stands by with his shotgun and his
"Malheur
d
celui que ne
vient pas."
Unfortunately it was then too late for me to make the de–
sirable addition to my own text.
Apropos the said galley proofs: as they were read aloud by Gilbert
or myself they were placed one after the other on J oyce's knees, from
which insecure position they slithered, as is their way, a few at a time
on to the floor. As soon as Joyce stooped to pick up the fallen ones
others slipped off to take their place. Joyce's comment was: "Galley
proofs remind me of the persons of the Trinity. Get firm hold of one
of them and you lose grip on the others."
This theological image occurs again in a letter to me dictated to
his daughter Lucia and sent to me shortly after I left Paris for Switzer–
land. Joyce was very interested in my working something about the
(C
altkatholische Kirch e"
into my record of life in Zurich. He felt that
a picture of that noble city would be incomplete without such a refer-
