Reading this page, I had a great sense of Catholic churchyness. At the beginning, he seems to be talking about a Catholic homily, which he doesn't seem to like very much, because he calls the priest an "unfrillfrocked quackfriar." The tone is mocking and disrespectful- he calls him a monkey- "Afferyank!- "Affe" is Monkey in German. The following passage affirms that sense of disrespect/mockery feel, at least for me, because the passage has the flow and sound of this church song they sing back at home called, "One Faith." "There is one faith, one hope, and one baptism, one God and Father of all" - "one gob, one gap, one gulp and gorger of all!"
The page then moves into childhood, which is connected, I think, because Joyce himself went to a Catholic boarding school. The boy on the page comes from "uncivilized" type of area, or at least a poverty stricken area, maybe, but people can see his potential. The older people seem to think he will turn out well, "incomeshare lotetree(lottery)"- they just have to take the chance. Kids seem to like him, and the speech switches to that of a youth- "tome to Tindertarten, pease." The tone shifts yet again from this optimistic view of this boy to something more negative, paralleled with the passing of a day. "but him you laid low with one hand one fine May morning in the Meddle of your Might, your bosom foe, because he mussed your speller on you." Something competitive perhaps? Maybe the guy encountered a bully or two. He's the nerd getting smacked and crammed into a locker. Or perhaps not?
This is what I got out of my page. That was a fairly anticlimactic way to end.
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