Beer O'Clock: "I was blue mouldy for the want of that pint ..."

 

Just in time for your Friday pint is this line from James Joyce's Ulysses's 'Cyclops' section, said to take place in Barney Kiernan's pub.

The two men [Hynes and the Nameless narrator] enter Barney Kiernan’s, where the Citizen is passing time with a mangy dog called Garryowen, waiting on someone to arrive with money enough to stand rounds. The Citizen and the Nameless One are spongers - people without money who’ll drink up whatever someone else will buy for him. Hynes offers to buy a round, and the men place their orders.
    In an interruption, the Citizen is described in fantastic terms: this middle-aged former shot-putter becomes a “broadshouldered deepchested stronglimbed frankeyed redhaired freelyfreckled shaggybearded widemouthed largenosed longheaded deepvoiced barekneed brawnyhanded hairylegged ruddyfaced sinewyarmed hero” with “rocklike mountainous knees” and whose “heart thundered rumblingly causing the ground, the summit of the lofty tower and the still loftier walls of the cave to vibrate and tremble” (12.151-67). The technique listed for this episode in the schema is “gigantism,” as this passage exemplifies.
    Terry, the publican, brings the three pints, and Joe Hynes puts down a £1 coin to the amazement of the Nameless One. The Citizen then reads the marriage announcements and obituaries from the newspaper. As the narrator takes his first sip, he offers a truly wonderful string of phrases to describe the satisfaction of his thirst: “Ah! Ow! Don’t be talking! I was blue mouldy for the want of that pint. Declare to God I could hear it hit the pit of my stomach with a click” (12.242-43).

Alright, get that pint downya. Make it click.

[Cartoon from the Ulysses "Seen" graphic novel project. Bernard Kiernan's pub from the Ulysses Guide website.]