No More Learning

Greeks as uncouth barbarians, was sophisti- cated enough to have his own seal, the tribal inhabitants of Ambracia were sophisticated enough to have a coinage of their own [EH].
143. Ambracia: City of ancient Greece, in
Epirus on an inlet of the Ionian Sea. The modern Greek town or Arta_
144. Caerator: L, "carver. "
145_ Pythagora: Pythagorus: L, "Pytha-
goras" [91 :97; 104:16].
137. mania . . . veins: Lusting after distant mystic paradise, many cannot see clearly the details of the paradise around them.
138. Wheat
. . .
days: [45:5].
139. (1. 46 . _ . midnight): Prob. Pound read this time as he was finishing the canto.
140. Allen Upward: [74:271]. Says David Moody: "Upward's place in this company is by virtue of more than his seal. . . . Sitalkas is the divinity in the wheat" [Pai, 4-1,56]. Since Sitalkas is mentioned nowhere in Up- ward, Pound doubtless got the name from a poem by H. D. so titled. The importance of Upward and The Divine Mystery to Pound's sun-light-divinity-intelligence cannot be over emphasized. In reviewing the book [New Freewoman, 15 Nov. 1913], Pound wrote: "The first half of the book is planned . . . on the slow recognition of the sun . . . primitive man turns from his worship of the dead . . . to a worship of the life-giving Helios. The solar missionary says it is unnecessary to bury a man in the cornfield in order that crops shall rise by virtue of his spirit. " This perception does away with the need of sacri- ficial victims and all practices against nature. The sun, not the buried slain, gives power to the seed and puts it in motion (semina ma- tuum) and ends by "snatching the victim from the cross" [ibid. , 58? 59].
141. Sitalkas: [74:272]. Sitalkas was a war- rior king of the tribe of the Odrysae inhabit- ing the Hebrus valley in southern Thrace. He reigned c. 431-424. Several Odrysian kings named Sitalkes seem to have derived from a Prince Sitalkes mentioned in Herodotus [IV, 80], Thucydides [I, 29], and Xenophon [Anabasis VI, I, 6]. The name may have derived from aiTO and aA-O::AKeiv, meaning "Protector of Grain" [EH].
CANTO CVIII Sources
Sir Edward Coke, Second Institutes o f the Laws o f England, 1797 [Institutes] ; Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Lion and the Throne, Little, I! Iown, Boston, 1956 [Bowen, Lion]; Dante, Par. X, 42, 136. Virgil, Aeneid I, 412; Servii Commentarii, Vol. I, Lipsiae,
1881.
Background
EP, SR, 62, 101; EH, Approaches, 173, 192; Bryce Lyon, A Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England, Harpers, N. Y. , 1960; William Stubbs, The Constitutional History of En? gland, Vol. II, Oxford, 1887; William Sharp McKechnie,Magna Carta, rev. , Burt Franklin, N. Y. , 1958; J. M. Rigg, Select Pleas, Starrs, and Other Records from the Rolls o f the Exchequer o f the Jews London, B. Quaritch, 1902; M de R, Discretions, 58.
Exegeses
DD, Sculptor, 239-240; DG, Pai, 4-2 & 3,223-299; DD, Pai, 6? 1, 101? 107; HK, Era, 336; CFT,Pai, 5-1, 69-76; Materer,Pai, 4, 2 & 3, 323; Moody, Pai, 4-1,55-69; MD, Trace, 444-447; EH, Pai, 5-2, 354.
Glossary
1. COMMINUIT . . . BRUM: A phrase from Bk. 1,412, of The Aeneid, which is glossed [Servii Commentarii, 137] thus: "412. CIR- CUM DEA FUDIT figura est tmesis, quae fit cum secto uno sermone aliquid interponi- mus, ut alibi septem subiecta triant. sed hoc
142. Coin . . . Ambracia: Just as
the king of a tribe looked upon by the
tolerabile est in sermone conposito, ceterum in simplici nimis est asperum; quod tamen faciebat antiquitas, ut saxo cere comminuit brum. " ("CIRCUM DEA FUDIT [DEA CIR- CUMFUDIT: "the goddess closely em- braced"] is the figure tmesis, which is made
some
Sitalkas,
? ? ? ? ? 704
108/764
108/764-765
705
when we interpose something in a split word, as elsewhere septem subiecta triani [septemtrioni subiecta: "lying under the great bear"]. But this is permissible in a compound word, otherwise in a simple word it is too harsh: however, the ancients used to do this, such as SAXO CERE COMMINUIT BRUM [SAXO CEREBRUM COMMINUIT: "he split his head with a rock" /1. ") A gloss on SAXO in this passage in the Servii cites the Annales of Quintus Ennius [Enn. Ann. reI. 586 Vahi. ]. To show that he was using the rhetorical figure tmesis Pound put the two Latin components into striking capitals and split them by an interpolation of two other striking figures. Pound told J. Laughlin that the cluster derived from Ennius, whom he admired as a precursor of e e cummings. HK [letter, 14 Oct. 1981] says of splitting the word: "EP likens this to the frost split? ting the rock itself. " Laughlin made use of the information in a poem he wrote in the 50s entitled "Saxo Cere," the first line of which is "Comminuit brum a rainy day" [In Another Country, Poems 1935? 1975, selec? ted by Robert Fitzgerald, City Lights, San Francisco, 1978]. Thls poem was noted as
source by Eva Hesse [Pai, 5? 2, 354].
2. 25 Edward III: This statute begins, "Loans against the will of the subjects are against reason and the franchises of the land. " Coke quoted it in a House of Com? mons session during which Dudley Digges said: "meum and tuum. . . [is] the nurse of industry, the mother of courage; for if a man hath no property, he has no care to defend it" [DG, Pai, 4? 2 & 3, 277] .
3. "alIa" at Verona: Part of "a11a [I, "to
thee"] non della" [I, "of thee"] in the Pro- gramma di Verona of Mussolini [86:63] : "e un diritto alla proprieta" (I, "it is a right to property"): a rhyme with statute 25 of Ed?
ward III.
4. pen yeh: [98:55, 56]: "source of
knowledge. "
5. Enrolled . . . her hands: Lyric evocation of pomona theme [79/490-492] and the fire of life in semina motuum [90:24].
6. Charter to . . . Petition: The instrument by which Coke finally won his battle against Buckingham (the man behind the scenes prompting Charles I) and achieved habeas corpus and other rights [107:105? 107] was called "The Petition of Right. " The king finally assented to it by the appropriate legal formula in June o f 1628. The activities o f Buckingham constituted a fundamental at? tack upon Magna Carta. The petition became a reaffirmation of all the charters. If the parliament had lost the battle for the peti? tion, justice and freedom would have. re- ceived a terrible setback.
7. DROIT FAIT: F. Key phrase in the for? mula by which the monarch had for cen? turies made acts of Parliament legal: "Soit droit fait comme il est desire" ("Let right be done as it is desired"). Behind the phrase lies one of the most dramatic moments in the hlstory of English and American law. For months Coke and the Commons had been petitioning the king to reaffirm the charter and stop his ministers, led by Buckingham, from taking peoples' property by forced loans, arresting them illegally, holding them in the tower without trial, and so on. The struggle between the Commons and the king was traditional and simple: he wanted taxes levied; the Commons refused until the Peti? tion of Right was legally adopted. In May of 1628 the King began threatening to dissolve the Parliament if they did not get on with the royal business, saying always that the Commons need not worry because he had long since affirmed the charters and he exis- ted to see justice done for all his people. Neither side gave in; but on June 2 great hope prevailed. The king came to Parliament and listened to the Petition of Right read in its entirety. After it was over, the day be- came known as "Black Thursday," because the lord keeper said, "The King Willeth that right be done according to the laws . . . " etc. Instantly, the Commons knew they had failed: the traditional soit droit fait was not spoken. After the king departed, the Com? mons continued to sit in uncertain sadness. On June 3d the king sent a message saying the session must end in a week. On June 4th
the House continued to sit as if the message had not come. According to one member, there were "above a hundred weeping eyes" among strong men, some of whom had been tested by imprisonment. Then Coke had an idea. If the lords would join them, they could not lose. It had long been an axiom that no king could hold out against the Lords and Commons together. Since forced loans and false arrests had been made against the lords of the land, too, they did join. "After a brief conference with the Commons they dispatched a joint deputation to ask his Majesty for 'a clear and satisfactory answer', given in full Parliament [both houses] to their Petition of Right. " The king assented. Somewhat after 4 o'clock on Saturday, June 6th, amid much pomp and circumstance, the king, lords, and Commons heard again the whole document: "their words as they had set them down, the confirmation of their ancient rights a. . tld liberties. " When the clerk's voice ceased, the Commons broke into an applause, which was followed by an immediate hush as he stepped forward again to give the royal response. The clerk said: "Soil droit fait comme il est desire. " A great shout rang out which was repeated again and again. The news spread to the street, where it "broke out into ringing of bells. " Says Bowen: "as the June dusk began to fall there were bonfires 'at every door . . . ''' [Lion, 497? 503].
8. Statutum Tallagio: A statute of 28 Ed? ward I, De tal/agio non concedendo, whlch states that no tax shall be levied except by the whole people through the elected memo bers of Parliament. This statute was one of the basic sources of the Petition of Right
[DG,Pai, 4? 2 & 3, 278].
9. Lambarde on Valla: Coke sought to give
precise definitions of key terms by resorting
to etymology. At one point he tried to de?
rive parliament from parler Ie ment, saying he got the idea "from the antiquarian Lam- barde. " But he thought better of it, saying: "But Laurence Valla misliketh that manner of Etymology, and therefore I will not stand upon it" [ibid. ].
10. "all monopolies": Says Coke: "General- ly all monopolies are against the great Char? ter, because they are against the liberty and freedom of the subject and against the law of the land" [Chap. XXIX, (4)].
11. UNor against . . .
Ireland: Ireland is a personal matter here because when James I wanted Parliament to pass illegal taxes to fit out a fleet, he thought of sending Coke to Ireland to get him out of the way [Bowen, Lion, 460]. The Institutes says: "Therefore the king cannot send any subject of England against his will into Ireland to serve the king as hls deputy there" [ibid. ,461].
12. autarchia: H, [aimipKEla]: "indepen? dence. " Used by Coke in his concern for the independence of traders [Chap. XXX, 57? 59].
13. not cloth . . . Realm: In the past, kings
had imposed a custom on wool, to which Parliament had assented. The wool was con- verted into cloth and often exported. When attempts were made to extend this tariff to wool already made into cloth, they pro? tested [Cap. XXX, 60? 62] .
14. Owse . . . Tine: Rivers o f England which needed and received protection from the over-fishing o f salmon: "Before the making of this act fishermen for a little lucre did very much harm, and destroyed the increase of salmons by fishing for them in unseason- able times" [DG, Pai, 4? 2 & 3, 279].
15. Post . . . disherisons: L, "After the feast
of st. Hilary many evils and disinheritings. " An act passed in the year 1290 (the 18th year of the reign of Edward I) concerned property lost to legal heirs because of usury. It goes on to define limits to usury and leads to acts to protect Jews. King JOlm had reo stricted Jews to any occupation except mon- eylending and then confiscated their proper? ty because they were guilty of usury. Edward I attempted to remedy such injus? tice [ibid. , 280? 282].
16. ne curge . . . prochainement: L, phrase
from que nul usury ne curge de S. Edward prochainement passe en avant, "that no
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 706
usury will run from the feast of St. Edward next coming and afterwards" [ibid. ].
17. ne quis injuriam: L, phrase from writ for the protection of Jews: ne quis . . . injuriam, molestiam, damnum inferat, seu gravamen, "no one will suffer injury, moles~ tation, damage or trouble,"
18. salvum conductum: L, "safe conduct. " From a specific provision which guaranteed safe? conduct to Jews if they wanted to leave the country. DG summarizes passages from J. M. Rigg [Select Pleas, Starrs, and Other Records from the Rolls o f the Excheques o f the Jews] and others concerned with usury and the Jews in medieval England: "We shall see how much the English crown had been benefitting from the Jews. . . . This statute [Edward I] forbids usury but also forbids the persecution of the Jews. As Coke points out, many had decisively banished the Jews and discriminated against them racially but Edward I saw the injustice of this and mere? ly made a law against usury. " He also made a law assuring those Jews who wanted to leave England that "<hey might have the king's writ to the sherifes for their safe conduct"
[ibid. ] .
19. die decimoctave: L, "18th day. "
20. was 15 000 three score: The number of Jews who left the country under the anti? usury law.
. . .
22. Uncle Carlo: C. Delcroix [88:46].
23. Margherita: [86:5]. But possibly the person MB identifies thus: "Alias Val di Tures, in the environs of which P. 's daughter was raised" [Trace, 452].
108/765-766
26. Et Forestae . . . Edward: NF, "[Can? cerning the liberties] and forests by the grace of God [Edward King] of England. " A condensation of the first chapter of the Charter of Confirmation adopted in the 25th year of Edward I's reign. It says to the sher- iffs that the charters have been confirmed in all points and they should be published throughout the realm.
108/766-767
back of Parliament [86:61]; but Parliament
was not in session and the transaction had to be accomplished, if at all, with great speed and secrecy.
36. de la maletot . . . : NF, "of the sack of the laws 40 shillings. " The source has "leynes": "wool. "
37. nous lettres . . . 8 pence: NF, "In wit- ness of which things we have caused these our letters to be made patents . . . [Witness Edward] our son at London the tenth day of October, the five and twentieth year of our reign" [Institutes, 530].
38. dimidium . . . pellibus: NF, "half a mark [about 6s. 8p. ] for three hundred pelts. " The amount of illegal tax Edward I assessed
on the wool trade [Institutes, 530] .
39. aliorum liberorum: NF, "of other free men. " Part of "De Tallagio . . . " [cf. 8 aboveJ. Tax could not be assessed on free men without consent "of other free men"
[ibid. , 532].
40. nullum tallagium: NF, "no tallage [cus? toms charge]" [ibid. , 534].
41. in pleno . . . : NF, part of, "this must be petitioned in a full parliament. "
42. or to, or for . . . : Part of sentence about taxes which ends: "either to or for the king, or to or for any subject by the king's letters patents . . . is prohibited by the act" [ibid. , 534].
43. et vacua nulla: NF, part of vacua ut nulla sint, "shall be void and frustrate for evermore" [ibid. , 534].
44. nihil capiatur: NF, "nothing shall be taken" [ibid. ,534].
45. Bohun: Humfrey Ie Bohun, earl of Here? ford, was one of those who refused to pay the war tax of Edward I. He was, along with others, specifically pardoned by act of Par? liament.
46. John de Ferraris: John Ferrers, also pardoned.
707
47. Felton: [Cf. 54 below]. His name is included among the others as one who risked and gave his life for a greater good.
. . .
49. CESTASCAVOIR: NF, "that is to say. " The opening of Chap. I of the Charter of Confirmation, which was "a son people," an
21. divers
other kings had banished the Jews, but no king before Edward had forbidden usury it? self. The three names are Coke's marginal citation of sources [ibid. ].
24. no officer . . . : Opening De taliagio . . . [cf. 8 above] .
of the
statute
exeuntibus:
25. cujus bona: For cui bono: I, early form for "for whose advantage? "
In paraphrase,
27. Devant . . . guier: NF,
judgment . . . that is to know . . . amending our realm . . .