"Check action."

(559.17-560.36)  The play (or is it a film?) picks up the pace in today's reading.  We see HCE "with nightcap" in the forefront and ALP "with curlpins" behind.  The proceedings are treated as a kind of chess game featuring "[c]heck action" and pieces -- such as queens, knights, and pawns -- woven into the language.  (I know next to nothing about chess, so whatever McHugh doesn't point out about it is lost on me.)  HCE, who is of "gross build," exhibits rage after hearing the cry in yesterday's reading, while ALP, who is "fithery wight," exhibits fear.  

Another cry is heard (this time, the stage direction "Callboy" indicates that one of the boys may be crying).  This prompts ALP to dash out of bed, while HCE plods behind "after to queen's lead."  The couple moves through the hall and up the stairs toward the children.  The narrator -- who, as Campbell and Robinson note, seems to be Matthew (the word "Matt" near the beginning of today's passage indicates he's speaking) -- notes that HCE -- the "old humburgh" --"looks a thing incomplete," perhaps because he's quite drowsy.  He can still pour "a fine head of porter," though.  Matthew compliments the home (an "ideal residence for realtar").

In the last paragraph of today's reading, the couple becomes "The Porters," a name deriving from Earwicker's occupation.  "The Porters, so to speak, after their shadowstealers in the newsbaggers, are very nice people, are they not?" asks Matthew, before answering his own question in the affirmative.  Mr. Porter "is an excellent forefather," and Mrs. Porter "is a most kindhearted messmother."  Matthew adds, "A so untied family pateramater is not more existing on papel or off of it."  They're perfectly matched ("As keymaster fits the lock it weds"), and they "care for nothing except everything that is allporterous."