When the Poulaphouca yews in Circe reveal to the Nymph that a young Bloom "profaned our sacred shade" by masturbating "In the open air...And on our virgin sward," he responds with a gush of excuses: "I was precocious. Youth. The fauna. I sacrificed to the god of the forest. The flowers that bloom in the spring. It was pairing time. Capillary attraction is a natural phenomenon." These lame excuses distract from the much more relevant confession that comes next: the waterfall made Bloom remembering spying on a urinating girl. The allusion to a song in Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado slyly undermines Bloom's attempts at self-justification.

One of many memorable numbers in the Mikado is "The flowers that bloom in the spring," which comes near the end of the operetta as plot complications are being resolved. In order to bring the supposedly executed Nanki-Poo back to life and avoid being executed himself, Ko-Ko becomes convinced that he must marry the elderly Katisha, whom Nanki-Poo has been trying to avoid marrying. Nanki-Poo and his beloved Yum-Yum, who have recently married, paint the situation in the rosiest light:

The flowers that bloom in the spring,
Tra la,
Breathe promise of merry sunshine —
As we merrily dance and we sing,
Tra la,
We welcome the hope that they bring,
Tra la,
Of a summer of roses and wine,
Of a summer of roses and wine.
And that′s what we mean when we say that a thing
Is welcome as flowers that bloom in the spring.

Ko-Ko, however, is having none of it:

The flowers that bloom in the spring,
Tra la,
Have nothing to do with the case.
I've got to take under my wing,
Tra la,
A most unattractive old thing,
Tra la,
With a caricature of a face,
With a caricature of a face.
And that′s what I mean when I say, or I sing,
"Oh, bother the flowers that bloom in the spring."
Tra la la la la,
Tra la la la la,
"Oh, bother the flowers of spring."

The bolded words are among the most memorable in Gilbert's libretto, and they bear brilliantly on Bloom's "case." Flowers blooming in spring had nothing to do with his masturbation; it was prompted by running water. As far as I know no Joyce commentator has commented on this. It is one of countless moments in Ulysses where an allusion demands not merely to have its source recognized but to have its content scrutinized.

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John Hunt 2025

  J. Hassal's 1919 publicity poster for The Mikado, from Robin Wilson and Lloyd Frederic's Gilbert & Sullivan: The Official D'Oyly Carte Picture History (1984). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

  The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring in the 1966 film of the Mikado (audio upgraded with a 1965 stereo recording by the same cast, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent). Source: www.youtube.com.

  Eric Idle as Ko-Ko in the same number (he substitutes "bugger" for "bother") in a modern-setting 1986 English National Opera production directed for television by Jonathan Miller. Source: www.youtube.com.