Having listened to Mulligan's clowning about old Mother Grogan making
water, Stephen hypothesizes that she "was, one imagines, a
kinswoman of Mary Ann." Mulligan picks up on the allusion and
is soon belting out a song that he and Stephen both know:
For old Mary Ann
She doesn’t care a damn,
But, hising up her petticoats...
Slote notes that "hising," according to the
OED, means
"to lift, especially to raise a sail." Given the lifting of
skirts, and the link with Mother Grogan, the omitted line must
have something to do with urination.
Gifford and Seidman describe "Mary Ann" as “An anonymous
bawdy Irish song.” They note that the only printed version
cleans up the story of Mary Anne—a young woman who is quite
charming “Though in build, and talk, and manner, like a man.”
A bawdy version located by Mabel Worthington, however,
concludes with a line that perfectly completes Mulligan’s
quatrain: "She pisses like a man."
§ In Proteus,
Stephen recalls the third line of the quatrain just after
urinating into a rising tidepool. Under the surface of the
moving water, he sees "writhing weeds lift languidly and sway
reluctant arms, hising up their petticoats."
In Circe "a standing woman, bent
forward, her feet apart, pisses cowily" in the street,
her action echoing the musical example of Mary Ann. In this
episode Bloom also imagines the reverse: how he once lifted
"billowy flounces, on the smoothworn throne," in the interests
of "Science. To compare the various joys we each enjoy. (Earnestly.) And
really it's better the position... because often I used to
wet..."
