Ch1 Pt2

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter one, Part two of A Portrait of the Artist
as a young Man by James Joyce. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Peter Bobby, A Portrait of the Artist as

(00:24):
a young Man, Chapter one, Part two. A great fire
banked high and red, flamed in the grate and under
the ivy twined branches of the chandelier. The Christmas table
was spread. They had come home a little late, and
still dinner was not ready, but it would be ready

(00:44):
in a jiffy, his mother had said. They were waiting
for the door to open and for the servants to
come in, holding the big dishes covered with their heavy
metal covers. All were waiting Uncle Charles, who sat far
away in the shadow of the window, Dante and mister Casey,
who sat in the easy chairs at either side of
the hearth. Stephen seated on a chair between them, his

(01:07):
feet resting on the toasted boss. Mister Daedalus looked at
himself in the pier glass above the mantelpiece, waxed out
his mustache ends, and then parting his coat tails, stood
with his back to the glowing fire, and still, from
time to time he withdrew a hand from his coat
tail to wax out one of his mustache ends. Mister

(01:29):
Casey leaned his head to one side and smiling, tapped
the gland of his neck with his fingers. And Stephen
smiled too, for he knew now that it was not
true that mister Casey had a purse of silver in
his throat. He smiled to think how the silvery noise
which mister Casey used to make had deceived him. And
when he had tried to open mister Casey's hand to

(01:51):
see if the purse of silver was hidden there, he
had seen that the fingers could not be straightened out,
and mister Casey had told him that he had got
those three cramped fingers making a birthday present for Queen Victoria.
Mister Casey tapped the gland of his neck and smiled
at Stephen with sleepy eyes, and mister Daedalus said to him, yes, well,

(02:13):
now that's all right. Oh, we had a good walk,
hadn't we, John, Yes, I wonder if there's any likelihood
of dinner this evening? Yes, oh, well, now we got
a good breath of ozone round the head to day,
I bid Dad. He turned to Dante and said, you
didn't stir out at all, missus Reordan. Dantes frowned and

(02:37):
said shortly no. Mister Daedalus dropped his coat tails and
went over to the sideboard. He brought forth a great
stone jar of whisky from the locker and filled the decanter, slowly,
bending now and then to see how much he had
poured in. Then replacing the jar in the locker, he
poured a little of the whisky into two glasses, added

(02:59):
a little water, and came back with them to the
fireplace a thimbleful. John, He said, just to wet your appetite.
Mister Casey took the glass, drank and placed it near
him on the mantelpiece. Then he said, well, I can't
help thinking of our friend Christopher manufacturing. He broke into

(03:20):
a fit of laughter and coughing, and added, manufacturing that
champagne for those fellows. Mister Daedalus laughed loudly, is it Christie?
He said, there's more cunning in one of those warts
on his bald head than in a pack of jack foxes.
He inclined his head, closed his eyes, and licking his

(03:41):
lips profusely, began to speak with the voice of the
hotel keeper. And he has such a soft mouth when
he's speaking to you, don't you know? He's very moist
and watery about the dew lapse, God bless him. Mister
Casey was still struggling through his fit of coughing and laughter. Stephen,

(04:01):
seeing and hearing the hotel keeper through his father's face
and voice, laughed. Mister Daedalus put up his eye glass
and staring down at him, said quietly and kindly, what
are you laughing at, you little poppy? You? The servants
entered and placed the dishes on the table. Missus Daedalus followed,
and the places were arranged. Sit over, she said. Mister

(04:26):
Daedalus went to the end of the table and said, now,
Missus Riordan, sit over, John, sit you down, my hearty.
He looked round to where Uncle Charles sat and said, now, then, sir,
there's a bird here waiting for you. When all had
taken their seats, he laid his hand on the cover
and then said, quickly withdrawing it now Stephen. Stephen stood

(04:49):
up in his place to say the grace before meals.
Bless us, o Lord, and these thy gifts which through
thy bounty we are about to receive through Christ our Lord. Amen,
all blessed themselves, and mister Dadalus, with a sigh of pleasure,
lifted from the dish. The heavy cover pearled around the
edge with glistening drops. Stephen looked at the plump turkey

(05:11):
which had lain trussed and skewered on the kitchen table.
He knew that his father had paid a guinea for
it in duns of Dolier Street, and that the man
had prodded it often at the breast bone to show
how good it was. And he remembered the man's voice
when he had said, take that one, sir, that's the
real alley daily. Why did mister Barrett and Klongoes call

(05:33):
his pandybat a turkey? But Klongoes was far away, And
the warm, heavy smell of turkey and ham and celery
rose from the plates and dishes, and the great fire
was banked high and red in the grate, and the
green ivy and red holly made you feel so happy.
And when dinner was ended, the big plum pudding would

(05:54):
be carried in studded with peeled almonds and sprigs of holly,
with bluish fire running around it, and a little green
flag flying from the top. It was his first Christmas dinner,
and he thought of his little brothers and sisters who
were waiting in the nursery as he had often waited
till the pudding came. The deep, low collar and the

(06:15):
eaten jacket made him feel queer and oldish. And that morning,
when his mother had brought him down to the parlor
dressed for Mass, his father had cried that was because
he was thinking of his own father, and Uncle Charles
had said so too. Mister Daedalus covered the dish and
began to eat hungrily. Then he said, poor old Christie,

(06:38):
he's nearly lopsided now with roguery. Simon said, Missus Dadalus,
you haven't given Missus Riordan any sauce. Mister Daedalus seized
the sauce boat, haven't I? He cried Missus Riordan, pity
the poor blind Dantes covered her plate with her hands
and said no thanks. Missus Dedalus turned to Uncle Charles,

(07:02):
how are you off, sir? Right as the mail? Simon
you John, I'm all right, go on yourself. Mary. Here, Stephen,
here's something to make your hair curl. He poured sauce
freely over Stephen's plate and set the boat again on
the table. Then he asked Uncle Charles, was it tender?
Uncle Charles could not speak because his mouth was full,

(07:24):
but he nodded that it was an That was a
good answer our friend made to the canon, What, said
mister Dadalus. I didn't think he had that much in him,
said mister Casey. I'll pay you your due's father, when
you cease turning the house of God into a polling booth.
A nice answer, said Dante. For any man calling himself

(07:46):
a Catholic to give to his priest, they have only
themselves to blame, said mister Daedalus suavely. If they took
a fool's advice, they would confine their attention to religion.
It is religion, Dantes said. They are doing their duty
in warning the people. We go to the house of God,

(08:06):
mister Casey said, in all humility, to pray to our
maker and not to hear election addresses. It is religion,
Dantes said again. They are right. They must direct their
flocks and preach politics from the altar, is it, asked
mister Daedalus. Certainly, said Dantes. It is a question of

(08:26):
public morality. A priest would not be a priest if
he did not tell his flock what is right and
what is wrong. Missus Dadalus laid down her knife and fork, saying,
for pity's sake, and for pity's sake, let us have
no political discussion on this day, of all days in
the year. Quite right, ma'am, said Uncle Charles. Now Simon,

(08:49):
that's quite enough. Now not another word now, yes, yes,
said mister Daedalus. Quickly, he uncovered the dish boldly and said,
now then, who's for more turkey? Nobody answered? Dantes said,
nice language for any Catholic to use. Missus Riordan, I

(09:10):
appeal to you, said Missus Dadalas. To let the matter
drop now. Dantes turned on her and said, am I
to sit here and listen to the pastors of my
church being flouted. Nobody is saying a word against them,
said mister Daedalus. So long as they don't meddle in politics.
The bishops and priests of Ireland have spoken, said Dantes,

(09:32):
and they must be obeyed. Let them leave politics alone,
said mister Casey, where the people may leave their church alone?
You hear, said Dantes, turning to Missus Daedalas. Mister Casey,
Simon said, Missus Daedalas, let it end now. Too bad,
Too bad, said Uncle Charles. What cried mister Daedalus. Were

(09:55):
we to desert him at the bidding of the English people?
He was no longer worthy to lead, said Dante. He
was a public sinner. We are all sinners, and black sinners,
said mister Casey coldly. Woe be to the man by
whom the scandal cometh, said Missus Riordan. It would be
better for him that a millstone were tied about his neck,

(10:16):
and that he were cast into the depth of the sea,
rather than that he should scandalize one of these my
least little ones. That is the language of the holy ghost,
and very bad language, if you ask me, said mister
Daedalus coolly, Simon, Simon said Uncle Charles. The boy, yes, yes,
said mister Daedalus. I meant about the I was thinking

(10:40):
about the bad language of that railway porter. Well, now
that's all right here, Stephen, show me your plate, old
chap eat away now here. He heaped up the food
on Stephen's plate, and served Uncle Charles and mister Casey
to large pieces of turkey and splashes of sauce. Missus
Daedalus was eating little, and Dantes sat with her hands

(11:01):
in her lap. She was red in the face. Mister
Daedalus rooted with the carvers at the end of the
dish and said, there's a tasty bit here we call
the Pope's nose. If any lady or gentleman. He held
a piece of fowl upon the prong of the carving fork,
nobody spoke. He put it on his own plate, saying, well,

(11:23):
you can't say, but you were asked. I think I'd
better eat it myself, because I'm not well in my
health lately. He winked at Stephen, and, replacing the dish cover,
began to eat again. There was silence while he ate.
Then he said, well, now the day kept up fine.
After all, there were plenty of strangers down too. Nobody spoke.

(11:47):
He said again, I think there were more strangers down
than last Christmas. He looked round at the others, whose
faces were bent towards their plates, and, receiving no reply,
waited for a moment, said bitterly, well, my Christmas dinner
has been spoiled. Anyhow, there could be neither luck nor grace,
Dantes said, in a house where there is no respect

(12:10):
for the pastors of the church. Mister Daedalus threw his
knife and fork noisily on his plate respect. He said,
is it for billy with the lip or for the
tub of guts up in armagh? Respect princes of the church,
said mister Casey, with slow scorn, lord Lytram's coachman. Yes,

(12:32):
said mister Dadalus. They are the lords anointed, Dantes said,
they are in honor to their country. Tub of guts,
said mister Daedalus coarsely. He has a handsome face. Mind you,
in repose, you should see that fellow lapping up his
bacon and cabbage of a cold winter's day. O Johnny,

(12:53):
He twisted his features into a grimace of heavy bestiality
and made a lapping noise with his lips. Really, simons,
missus Daedalas, you should not speak that way before Stephen.
It's not right. Oh, he'll remember all this when he
grows up, said Dantes hotly. The language he heard against
God and religion and priests in his own home. Let

(13:14):
him remember too, cried mister Casey to her from across
the table. The language with which the priests and the
priest's pawns broke Parnell's heart and hounded him into his grave.
Let him remember that too when he grows up. Sons
of bitches, cried mister Daedalus. When he was down, they
turned on him, to betray him and rend him like

(13:35):
rats in a sewer, low lived dogs. And they look it,
by Christ, they look it. They behaved rightly, cried Dantes.
They obeyed their bishops, and their priests honored them. Well.
It is perfectly dreadful to say that, not even for
one day in the year, said Missus Daedalas can we
be free from these dreadful disputes? Uncle Charles raised his

(13:58):
hands mildly and said, come, now, come, now, come now.
Can we not have our opinions, whatever they are, without
this bad temper and this bad language. It is too bad. Surely,
Missus Teddlis spoke to Dantes in a low voice. But
Dantes said loudly, I will not say nothing. I will
defend my church and my religion when it is insulted
and spit on by renegade Catholics. Mister Casey pushed his

(14:22):
plate rudely into the middle of the table, and resting
his elbows before him, said, in a hoarse voice to
his host, tell me, did I tell you that story
about a very famous spit. You did not, John, said
mister Daedalus. Why then, said mister Casey. It is a
most instructive story. It happened not long ago in the

(14:44):
county Wicklow where we are now. He broke off, and
turning towards Dante, said, with quiet indignation, and I may
tell you, ma'am that I if you mean me, am
no renegade Catholic. I am a Catholic, slick as my
father was, and his father before him, and his father
before him. Again, when we gave up our lives rather

(15:07):
than sell our faith. The more shame to you now,
Dantes said, to speak as you do the story, John,
said mister Daedalus, smiling. Let us have the story anyhow Catholic, indeed,
repeated Dante ironically, the blackest Protestant in the land would
not speak the language I have heard. This evening, mister

(15:29):
Daedalus began to sway his head to and fro, crooning
like a country singer. I am no Protestant. I tell
you again, said mister Casey, flushing. Mister Daedalus, still crooning
and swaying his head, began to sing in a grunting
nasal tone, Oh come all yer, ome man Carthals that

(15:52):
never went to mass. He took up his knife and
fork again in good humor, and set eating, saying to
mister Casey, let us have the story, John. It will
help us to digest. Stephen looked with affection at mister
Casey's face, which stared across the table over his joined hands.

(16:13):
He liked to sit near him at the fire, looking
up at his dark, fierce face. But his dark eyes
were never fierce, and his slow voice was good to
listen to. But why was he then against the priests?
Because Dantes must be right? Then, but he had heard
his father say that she was a spoiled nun, and
that she had come out of the convent in the

(16:35):
Alleghanies when her brother had got the money from the
savages for the trinkets and the cheneys. Perhaps that made
her severe against Parnell, and she did not like him
to play with Eileen because Eileen was a Protestant, and
when she was young she knew children that used to
play with Protestants, and the Protestants used to make fun
of the litany of the Blessed Virgin Tower of Ivory.

(16:57):
They used to say, house of gold? How could a
woman be a tower of Ivory or a house of gold?
Who was right? Then? And he remembered the evening in
the infirmary in Clongoes, the dark waters, the light at
the pier head, and the moan of sorrow from the
people when they had heard Aileen had long white hands

(17:21):
one evening when playing tig she had put her hands
over his eyes, long and white and thin and cold
and soft. That was Ivory, a cold white thing. That
was the meaning of Tower of Ivory. The story is
very short and sweet. Mister Casey said it was one

(17:42):
day down in Arclough, a cold, bitter day, not long
before the chief died. May God have mercy on him.
He closed his eyes wearily and paused. Mister Daedalus took
a bone from his plate and tore some meat from
it with his teeth, saying, before he was kill you mean?

(18:02):
Mister Casey opened his eyes, sighed, and went on, It
was down in our cloth one day we were down
there at a meeting, and after the meeting was over,
we had to make our way to the railway station
through the crowd. Such booing and buying. Man, you never
heard they called us all the names in the world. Well,

(18:22):
there was one old lady and a drunken old herod,
and she was surely that paid all her attention to me.
She kept dancing along beside me in the mud, bawling
and screaming into my face, Priest Hunter that Paris fans
mister Fox, Kitty O Shay. And what did you do, John,

(18:43):
asked mister Daedalus. I let her bawl away, said mister Casey.
It was a cold day, and to keep up my heart,
I had saving your presents, ma'am, a quit of Tullimore
in my mouth, And sure I couldn't say a word
in any case, because my mouth was full of tobacco.
Ju Well, John, Well, I let her ball away to

(19:05):
her heart's content, Kitty O Shay and all the rest
of it, till at last she called that lady a
name that I won't sully this Christmas board, nor your ears, ma'am,
nor my own lips. By repeating, he paused, mister Daedalus,
lifting his head from the bone, asked, and what did
you do, John do, said mister Casey. She stuck her

(19:28):
ugly old face up at me when she said it,
and I had my mouth full of tobacco juice. I
bent down to her and says I to her like that.
He turned aside and made the active spitting, says I
to her like that, ride into her eye. He clapped
a hand to his eye and gave a hoarse scream

(19:48):
of pain. Oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph, says she. I'm blinded.
I'm blinded and drowned. He stopped, in a fit of
coughing and laughter, repeated, I'm blind and entirely. Mister Daedalus
laughed loudly and lay back in his chair, while Uncle
Charles swayed his head to and fro Dantes looked terribly

(20:12):
angry and repeated while they laughed, very nice, ha, very nice.
It was not nice about the spit in the woman's eye.
But what was the name the woman had called? Kitty
o'she that mister Casey would not repeat. He thought of
mister Casey walking through the crowds of people and making
speeches from a wagonette. That was what he had been

(20:35):
in prison for and he remembered that one night Sergeant
O'Neill had come to the house and had stood in
the hall talking in a low voice with his father
and chewing nervously at the chin strap of his cap.
And that night mister Casey had not gone to Dublin
by train, but a car had come to the door,
and he had heard his father say something about the
cabin Teely Road. He was for Ireland and Parnell, and

(20:58):
so was his father, and oh was Dante too. For
one night at the band on the Esplanade, she had
hit a gentleman on the head with her umbrella because
he had taken off his hat when the band played
God Save the Queen. At the end, mister Daedalus gave
a snort of contempt. Ah John. He said, it's true
for them, we are an unfortunate priest ridden race, and

(21:21):
always were and always will be till the end of
the chapter. Uncle Charles shook his head, saying, a bad business,
A bad business. Mister Daedalus repeated, a priest ridden, god
forsaken race. He pointed to the portrait of his grandfather
on the wall to his right. D'ye see that old

(21:41):
chap up there John, He said he was a good
irishman when there was no money in the job. He
was condemned to death as a white boy. But he
had a saying about our clerical friends, that he would
never let one of them put his two feet under
his mahogany. Dante broke in angrily. If we are a
priest ridden race, we ought to be proud of it.

(22:02):
They are the apple of God's eye. Touch them not,
says Christ, for they are the apple of my eye.
And can we not love our country? Then asked mister Casey,
Are we not to follow the man that was born
to lead us? A traitor to his country, replied Dante,
A traitor, an adulterer. The priests were right to abandon him.

(22:22):
The priests were always the true friends of Ireland, were
they faith, said mister Casey. He threw his fists on
the table, and, frowning angrily, protruded one finger after another.
Didn't the bishops of Ireland betray us in the time
of the Union, when Bishop Lanigan presented an address of
loyalty to the Marquess Cornwallis. Didn't the bishops and priests

(22:45):
sell the aspirations of their country? In eighteen twenty nine,
in return for Catholic emancipation. Didn't they denounce the Fenian
movement from the pulpit and in the confession box? And
didn't they dishonor the ashes of Terence Ballou MacManus. His
face was glowing with anger, and Stephen felt the glow
rise to his own cheek. As the spoken words thrilled him,

(23:08):
mister Daedalus uttered a guffaw of coarse scorn. Oh, by God,
he cried, I forgot little old Paul Cullen, another apple
of God's eye. Dantes bent across the table and cried
to mister Casey, right right, they were always right, God
and morality and religion come first. Missus Dadalus, seeing her excitement,

(23:29):
said to her, Missus Riordan, don't excite yourself, answering them
God in religion before everything. Dantes cried, God in religion,
before the world. Mister Casey raised his clenched fist and
brought it down on the table with a crash. Very well,
then he shouted, hoarsely, if it comes to that, no
God for Ireland. John John cried mister Daedalus, seizing his

(23:53):
guest by the coat sleeve, Dantes stared across the table,
her cheeks shaking. Mister Casey struggled up from his chair
and bent across the table towards her, scraping the air
from before his eyes with one hand as though he
were tearing aside a cobweb. No God for Ireland, he cried,
We have had too much God in Ireland. Away with God,

(24:16):
that fever devil, screamed Dantes, starting to her feet and
almost spitting in his face. Uncle Charles and mister Daedalus
pulled mister Casey back into his chair again, talking to
him from both sides reasonably. He stared before him, out
of his dark, flaming eyes, repeating, away with God, I say.

(24:36):
Dantes shoved her chair violently aside and left the table,
upsetting her napkin ring, which rolled slowly along the carpet
and came to rest against the foot of an easy chair.
Missus Daedalus rose quickly and followed her towards the door.
At the door, Dantes turned round violently and shouted down
the room, her cheeks flushed and quivering with rage, Devil
out of hell. We won, We crushed him to death, fiend.

(25:00):
The door slammed behind her. Mister Casey, freeing his arms
from his holders, suddenly bowed his head on his hands
with a sob of pain. Poor Parnell, he cried loudly,
my dead king. He sobbed loudly and bitterly. Stephen, raising

(25:22):
his terror stricken face, saw that his father's eyes were
full of tears. End of Chapter one, Part two,