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92 J A M E Stransfiguring deserves to live, deserves to live.'* But Joyce was[ 1900-1902equallyjpleased by the testimony of a witness who claimed to have recognizedthe accused man entering the house on a dark night, though he saw onlythe man's back. When pressed by Bushe he explained that he identifiedhim by his walk: 'He walked like a tailor 51(with legs half crossed). TheChilds murder case served Joyce in Ulysses as a parallel to the betrayal ofShakespeare, as Stephen alleges, by his two brothers.For more casual diversion Joyce continued to frequent the Sheehys'house. He took a special liking to the younger son, Eugene, who haplesslylost his voice in making a maiden speech at the Literary and HistoricalSociety in the fall of 1899. Joyce seized his arm leaving the halland said, 'Eugene, you have gone up a lot in my estimation,' 52sensitiveinarticulateness being preferable to the usual bombast. Such acts of kindnesswere infrequent with Joyce, but they occurred throughout his life tosurprise those who thought he was incapable of affection. He displayedhis good will more comically one day when he and Eugene were walkingin Parnell Street. A beggar came up to them and asked, 'Could you spareus a copper?' Joyce was hard up, but asked, 'And why would you want acopper?' 'To tell the honest truth,' said the man, 'I was dyin' for a drink.'Joyce gave him his last penny and commented to Sheehy, 'If he'd saidhe wanted it for a cup of tea, I'd have hit him!' 53To the Sheehys his humor seemed often impish. He met Richard andEugene on Phibsborough Road and displayed to them a curtain blindwhich he asserted to be a Sanskrit manuscript written on ribbed grass; hewas going to sell it to the professor of Oriental languages in Trinity College.Just then a nursemaid wheeled a large and empty perambulatorclose to him, and Joyce allowed himself to tumble into it. Sitting therewith his manuscript still unrolled, he drawled, 'Are you going far, miss?' 54He liked to tell the Sheehys stories of his sisters' conversations, such asone about the Mater (Misericordiae) Hospital. 'Why is it called that?'asked one sister, and another gravely replied, 'Because you go there whensomething is the matter with you.' Or he would suggest new inscriptionsfor Dublin statues: for Tom Moore in College Green, who stands withright forefinger raised, the legend: 'Oh! I know,' and for Bishop Plunketin Kildare Street, who is posed with fingerplaced thoughtfully on hisbrow, 'Now, where on earth did I put that stud?' t 5 5Joyce's name appears as one of the witnesses on a mock agreementsigned by the Sheehy sons and daughters on September 30, 1900, prom-* In his Pola notebook Joyce noted down what perhaps were more precisely Bushes words:'which, if anything that the hand of man has wrought of noble and inspiring and beautifuldeserves to live deserves to live.' 50t In Exiles (557 [390]), Robert says: 'Once I made a little epigram about statues. Allstatues are of two kinds. He folds his arms across his chest. The statue which says: "Howshall I get down?" and the other kind (he unfolds his arms and extends his right arm,averting his head) the statue which says: "In my time the dunghill was so high." '