Richie Goulding
apparently works in bed because of back pains. In Proteus,
Stephen imagines himself turning down Richie's offer of a hot
breakfast, and Richie replying, "Sure? So much the better. We
have nothing in the house but backache pills." Bloom thinks
several times, compassionately, of Goulding's back problems,
and, sardonically, of his patent medicine cure. He believes
that Goulding's problems are a symptom of "Bright's" disease,
a kidney ailment thought to have been caused by excessive
alcohol consumption—a belief that coheres with Stephen's
assumption that Richie would be calling for "Whusky!" in the
morning hours.
Soon after the funeral carriage sets out in Hades,
Bloom notices Stephen walking in Irishtown and points him out
to Simon Dedalus, who infers that he has probably been
visiting his Aunt Sara Goulding. Bloom's thoughts turn to
Sara's husband: "His jokes are getting a bit damp. Great card
he was. Waltzing in Stamer street with Ignatius Gallaher on a
Sunday morning, the landlady's two hats pinned on his head.
Out on the rampage all night. Beginning to tell on
him now: that backache of his, I fear. Wife ironing his
back. Thinks he'll cure it with pills. All breadcrumbs they
are. About six hundred per cent profit."
In Sirens, as he is dining with Goulding at the
Ormond Hotel, Bloom's compassionate eyes notice a wince of
pain: "Tenderly Bloom over liverless bacon saw the
tightened features strain. Backache he. Bright's bright eye.
Next item on the programme. Paying the piper. Pills, pounded
bread, worth a guinea a box. Stave it off awhile."
Bright's disease was a 19th century name for certain kidney
ailments that today are classed as acute or chronic nephritis.
Back pain is one of the most common symptoms, but a "bright
eye," Gifford observes, was also supposed to be a sign of the
disease, and excessive alcohol consumption was regarded as one
of its causes. Bloom's judgment that Goulding is "Paying the
piper" for alcoholism coheres with what he has thought in Hades:
Goulding used to be "Out on the rampage all night," and it is
"beginning to tell on him now." Kidney disease is the "Next
item on the programme" for this long-term alcoholic, and pills
may "Stave it off awhile," but they won't cure Goulding's
problem any more than having his wife iron his back will.
