The Gloria Patri, sung as a doxology in Catholic
churches, reads, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and
to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever
shall be, world without end. Amen." As Stephen settles into
Mr. Deasy's office, he recalls the day he first sat there and
weaves the words of the doxology through his thoughts: "As it
was in the beginning, is now. On the sideboard the tray of Stuart
coins, base treasure of a bog: and ever shall be. And
snug in their spooncase of purple plush, faded, the twelve
apostles having preached to all the gentiles: world
without end."
To Stephen, they are not words of comfort. Slightly later in
this part of Nestor, with the same Trinitarian rhythm drumming in
his head, he thinks, "The same room and hour, the same
wisdom: and I the same. Three times now. Three nooses round
me here. Well? I can break them in this instant if I will."
Rather than celebrating payday, he broods morosely on being
entrapped in the same bleak reality as before. Nestor
began with Blakean
thoughts of smashing the order of time and space, and
shattering the political order. This titanic ambition acquires
more grimly personal expression as Stephen sits in his
employer's office thinking of his paycheck as a noose around
his neck.
In Proteus, he quotes the Gloria Patri as
coda to a more whimsical, lighthearted effort to transcend
material reality. Having closed his eyes in the hope of
rending the sensory veil and walking into eternity, he
acknowledges the unsurprising result: "See now. There
all the time without you: and ever shall be, world without
end."