"Distorted mirage, aloofiest of the plain"

(264.15-266.19)  In preparation for HCE's inevitable return, today's passage presents a bird's eye view of Chapelizod and environs and zooms its focus onto HCE's home there.  As part of our "sojeournemus" (a fake Latin word for "let us journey") through the area, the description of the scenes are loaded with references to actual places within Chapelizod.  For instance, McHugh notes that the phrase "with our king's house of stone, belgroved of mulbrey" references King's House, Stone House, Belgrov, Mulberry Hill, and Mulberry House.  These ubiquitous references add color to the passage while grounding it in (a version of) reality.

One thing I liked about today's reading was the way this scenic view of Chapelizod incorporated verbal scenes we've encountered throughout the Wake.  Two particular passages jumped out at me as references to chapter endings.  When discussing the female river figures ALP and Isabel, we read:  "but Izolde, her chaplet gardens, an litlee pads af liefest pose, arride the winnerful wonders off, the winnerful wonnerful wanders off."  This calls to mind the closing of the eighth chapter:  "Beside the rivering waters of, hitherandthithering waters of."  And the description of the sleeping HCE includes:  "D'Oblong's by his by.  Which we all pass.  Tons.  In our snoo.  Znore.  While we hickerwards the thicker.  Schein.  Schore."  This echoes the conclusion of the third chapter:  "Humph is in his doge.  Words weigh no no more to him than raindrips to Rethfernhim.  Which we all like.  Rain.  When we sleep.  Drops.  But wait until our sleeping.  Drain.  Sdops."

The passage ends, as I've noted, inside the Earwicker home.  HCE, as I just mentioned, is snoring in his sleep (apparently somewhere downstairs in the pub).  We leave the barroom, walk past the breakfast table ("Morningtop's necessity") and toilet ("Harington's invention") upstairs, and encounter the children at their studies:  "the clarience of the childlight in the studiorium upsturts."  Some days these readings are nicely self-contained, and this is a particularly good example of one of those.