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[ Aetat. 36 ] J O Y C E 435homes did. Nora Joyce welcomed them kindly, and Giorgio played onthe piano and sang to them. When they were going out they met whatseemed to them 'an entirely black man' in the hall. He wore a blackjacket, had a black goat's beard and black, bristly hair on his head. Heshook hands with them and looked at them with his dark eyes from behindvery thick glasses. Unable to bear this concentrated gaze, they leftas quickly as they decently could, agreeing as they went down the stairsthat Giorgio's father looked exactly like the devil. While the details-of .thepicture were not accurate, the impression must havc'been genuineenough, for a landlady of the Joyces referred to him as 'Herr Satan.'Although Joyce talked with Budgen and Suter about many things, healways came back to the book he was writing. Nora chided him at firstfor boring them, but seeing that they were not bored, she came to feelthat perhaps there was something in this work after all. Budgen becameJoyce's particular confidant; Joyce took full advantage of his friend's attentivemind. At their second meeting, as Budgen has told, Joyce announcedto him that he was writing a book based on the Odyssey, butdealing with eighteen hours in the life of a contemporary man. He wasat pains to point out to Budgen, as he had to Borach, the many-sidednature of his hero. 'You seem to have read a lot, Mr. Budgen,' he said.'Do you know of any complete all-round character presented by anywriter?' To Budgen's nomination of Christ Joyce objected, 'He was abachelor, and never lived with a woman. Surely living with a woman isone of the most difficult things a man has to do, and he never did it.''What about Faust,' Budgen asked, 'or Hamlet?''Faust!' said Joyce. 'Far from being a complete man, he isn't a man atall. Is he an old man or a young man? Where are his home and family?We don't know. And he can't be complete because he's never alone.Mephistopheles is always hanging round him at his side or heels. We seea lot of him, that's all.'JYour complete man in literature is, I suppose, Ulysses?'""Yes,' said Joyce? 'No-age Faust isn't a man". But you mentioned Hamlet.Hamlet is a human being, but he is a son only. Ulysses is son toLaertes, but he is father to Telemachus, husband to Penelope, lover ofCalypso, companion in arms of the Greek warriors around Troy, andKing of Ithaca. He was subjected to many trials, but with wisdom andcourage came through them all. Don't forget that he was a war dodgerwho tried to evade military service by simulating madness. He mightnever have taken up arms and gone to Troy, but the Greek recruitingsergeant was too clever for him and while he was ploughing the sands,placed young Telemachus in front of his plough. But once at the war theconscientious objector became a jusqu'au-boutist. When the others wantedto abandon the siege he insisted on staying till Troy should fall.' Thenhe went on, 'Another thing, the history of Ulysses did not come to anend when the Trojan war was over. It began just when the other Greek