"The Mookse and The Gripes."

(152.15-154.17)  Today Shaun's answer to the eleventh question of chapter six shifts from philosophical discourse to parable.  More specifically, he begins to deliver the parable of "The Mookse and the Gripes."  The parable opens with a clear link to the space/time theme that I discussed yesterday:  "Eins within a space and a wearywide space it wast . . . ."  This is another obvious invocation of one of Joyce's earlier works:  this time, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which begins, "Once upon a time and a very good time it was . . . ."  It's thus pretty clear that we're going to continue to examine the conflict between spacial and temporal interpretation, and in a sense the conflict pits Shaun versus Joyce/Shem.

Getting to the parable, though.  The Mookse is a lonely man who, in a sense, stands in for Adam, the first man.  He is also a Pope, for, deciding to take a walk, his pre-walk preparations are described using language associated with the papacy.  After setting off from his Vatican-like home, he comes upon a shallow stream that evokes ALP:  "And as it rinn it dribbled like any llively purliteasy."  On the bank of the stream, perched upon the branch of a tree, is the Gripes.  

We learn that the Mookse currently goes by the name Adrian, which McHugh identifies as associating the Mookse with Pope Adrian IV.  Adrian IV, whose birth name was Nicholas Breakspear (we've previously heard the Mookse referred to as "Bragspear"), granted Ireland to England's Henry II.  Seeing the Gripes in terrible shape, the Mookse takes a seat on a nearby stone, thus recalling the tree-stone dichotomy that's been hinted at throughout the book.

A conversation between the Mookse and the Gripes commences.  The Gripes cordially greets the pontifical Mookse and asks him to tell the Gripes everything.  The Mookse wants none of it:  "No, hang you for an animal rurale!  I am superbly in my supremest poncif!  Abase you, baldyqueens!  Gather behind me, satraps!  Rots!"  The obsequious Gripes is undeterred, however, and asks the Mookse what time it is.  This recalls the story of the Cad asking HCE what time it is (and thereby triggering HCE's downfall), and it also fits into the time-space debate.  More to come on the Mookse and the Gripes tomorrow . . .