First Night-Watch

Chapter 39 pauses over Stubb’s response to an exchange he only partly heard, making the aftermath of authority’s exercise its immediate subject. His admission, “I heard not all his talk with Starbuck,” limits his testimony: the chapter presents an interpretation rather than a complete account. Nevertheless, Stubb confidently concludes that “the old Mogul has fixed him, too.” That “too” connects Starbuck’s apparent condition with Stubb’s recollection of his own feelings “the other evening,” suggesting a shared experience of being overborne. At this point, the chapter adds a subordinate’s private adjustment to that pressure. Rather than resolve the situation, it shows how Stubb prepares to continue within it: “I’ll go to it laughing.”

The chapter takes the form of a miniature theatrical scene. “Fore-Top.” establishes the setting, while “Stubb solus, and mending a brace” places solitary speech alongside practical shipboard work. With no intervening narrator explaining him, Stubb characterizes himself through laughter, questions, self-address, and song. The opening “Ha! ha! ha! ha! hem!” makes bodily sound precede argument; clearing his throat turns almost immediately into a philosophy of laughter. His repeated naming of himself, particularly “wise Stubb,” makes that wisdom sound self-conferred and rehearsed. The song briefly gives his wandering speech a patterned lyric form. Finally, Starbuck’s call interrupts the performance, and the marked “Aside” divides Stubb’s private commentary from his outward obedience.

Stubb’s claim that “it’s all predestinated” makes fatalism a source of comfort rather than an occasion for solemn reflection. Yet his insistence that laughter is “the wisest, easiest answer” leaves wisdom entangled with convenience: laughing may sustain him without requiring him to confront what frightens him. “Here’s a carcase” abruptly introduces bodily vulnerability, while the “waggish leering” he finds in “your horribles” converts menace into grotesque comedy. His song similarly couples pleasure with disappearance: its bubbles “break on the lips while meeting.” Lightness therefore does not exclude fragility; it accompanies it. The closing observation that Starbuck “has his too” returns this philosophy to the ship’s hierarchy, acknowledging limits on each man’s power without imagining escape from them.