Hop!
- hops: an ingredient used in the brewing of Guinness
Commentary
The flea in HCE's bed is our first introduction to the character Joyce represented in his notes and early drafts with the siglum S, a bloodsucking parasite on HCE. His principal role in the novel is the tavern's manservant or barman, "Old Jo".
He is old and corrupt, and in one note for FW, Joyce calls him a beggar (cf. the references to begging in the paragraph before his appearance as the flea: thigging thugs and Flippety!). He is also identified with the serpent in the Garden of Eden (HCE and ALP being Adam and Eve); he seems to represent the indigenous inhabitants of Ireland and Dublin, who were conquered and enslaved by the foreign invaders (and perhaps forced to do their dirty work). He is usually bestial: he is called an "ape" in one note; he is also called Sackerson after the bear of that name in Shakespearean London.
In the bedroom he may also be associated with the dragon (i.e. Satan) in the painting of St Michael and the Dragon above the mantelpiece (FW 559.11-12), with Michael being HCE (otherwise these two are Shem and Shaun).
S also takes the form of a menacing policeman. In Book I he is frequently involved in the harassment of Shem, but in Book III he seems to be identified with Shem.
It has also been suggested that S is the Ass or Donkey who always accompanies the Four Old Men.
