"Gelchasser no more!"

(227.19-229.16)  Maybe I spoke too soon about finding my groove for this chapter.  Today's reading was another tough one.  But, as I've learned to do, I persisted in working my way through and made it to a point where I was able to find enjoyment and (at least some) sense in the passage.

The narration shifts away from yesterday's focus on the Floras and moves back to Glugg.  (Interestingly, it also shifts from the present tense to the past tense.)  After failing to solve the riddle, Glugg was filled with woe and rage, and he "displaid all the oathword science of his visible disgrace" (a sort of anti-sacrament, for a sacrament is defined as an outward sign of inward grace).  No gesture made by Izod or the Floras revealed anything to Glugg.  Reeling, he turns to the seven sacraments of the Catholic church.  This is one point that I missed on my first reading and found much clearer after consulting my three secondary sources.  The paragraph beginning on page 227 and ending on 228 shows Shem engaging in the seven sacraments, but also turning them on their heads.  For instance, for the sacrament of communion he "wrestled a hurry-come-union with the Gillie Beg," and for the sacrament of marriage he "had a belting bout, chaste to chaste, with McAdoo about nothing."

The disappointment before his peers and his turning toward -- and upturning of -- religion parallel Joyce's own life.  This biographical turn is reinforced when we see that Glugg swore off his homeland and faith ("Macnoon maggoty mag!  Cross of a coppersmith bishop!").  He also swore to a resolution, forming a plan for what he would do during his exile.  First, he would "split" for the European continent.  Glugg would catch a boat and follow "the bruce, the coriolano and the ignacio."  The secondary sources explain how this is Glugg making use of the tools of Joyce's literary alter ego, Stephen Dedalus:  silence (Robert Bruce hid in silence), exile (Coriolanus became an exile), and cunning (St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuit order he founded are known for their intelligence).  Silence, exile, and cunning are further explored a few lines later:  "Mum's for's maxim, ban's for's book and Dodgesome Dora for hedgehung sheolmastress.  And Unkel Silanse coach in diligence.  Disconnection of the succeeding."

Now "Gelchasser no more!" (girl chaser no more), Glugg would further follow Joyce's path by pursuing his vocation as a writer after his exile while still keeping his attention turned toward his homeland.  He would fire off "his farced epistol to the hibruws," in which he would proclaim free love and tea leaves for everybody, all the tinned salmon in the world, and harm and aches -- and/or ham and eggs -- until further orders.  In this role, Gulgg would became "General Jinglesome."

But his woe and rage would not be fully abated.  He wanted to inform the "old sniggering publicking press and its nation of sheepcopers" about the "whole plighty troth" between ALP ("the lalage of lyonesses") and HCE ("her knave arrant").  And at the end of today's reading, we learn that Glugg planned to pen chapters recalling those of Ulysses:  for instance, "Had Days" (referencing the Hades chapter of Ulysses) and "A Wondering Wreck" (referencing the Wandering Rocks chapter).