Anastasia: Saint Anastasia, 4th-century cular people at the DTC who helped make
Roman noblewoman martyred under Diode- his imprisonment tolerable.
Roman noblewoman martyred under Diode- his imprisonment tolerable.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
When Pound was at Pisa, the planet was bright in the autumn sky.
Here he sees it with a crescent moon [Flory, Pai, 5-1,
461.
345: Chu Hsi: (rhymes with "juicy"), 1130-1200, Chinese philosopher and most important of the neo-Confucians of the southern Sung dynasty.
346. luz: [cf. 90 aboveJ. This bone was considered the seed from which at the last judgment the whole physical body could be made to spring: a sort of medieval, eschato- logical cloning.
347. Sigismundo: Invokes Platina and the usual subject of conversation among intelli- gent men [11 :26, 29J.
348. Cocteau: [cf. 217 above].
349. Marie Laurencin: 1885-1956, French painter and illustrator. She did the 6 color plates for Alice in Wonderland [Black Sun Press, 1930J. The painting of Cocteau is mentioned by Nina Hammet [Laughing Tor- so) London, 1932], who saw it at the salon ofCocteau's mother [po 190].
350. Whistler: [cf. 175 above].
351. Miss Alexander: Miss Cecily Henri- etta A. In 1872 Whistler did a full-length standing portrait of her and entitled it Ar-
Lussac: F, "13,
321. treize
Street. " On the left bank. A circular stone bas-relief of Fritz is still visible on the bal- cony [HKJ.
Gay-Lussac
1828-
330. Les hommes . . . beaute:
I don't know what strange fear/ . . . of beauty,"
331. Beardsley: [74:4IOJ.
332. Yeats: W. B. Yeats [74:166J. Yeats tells the anecdote about beauty. "I said to him once) 'you have never done anything to equal your Salome with the head of John the Baptist. ' I think that for the moment he was sincere when he replied, 'Yes, yes; but beauty is so difficult'" [The Autobiogra- phy, Anchor A142, p. 223J.
333. Burne-Jones: Sir Edward B. -J. , 1833- 1898, English painter and decorator, strong- ly influenced by the Rossettis and an expo-
nent of Pre-Raphaelite principles.
334. Arthur: A. Symons, 1865-1945, Brit- ish poet and critic, author of The Symbolist Movement in Literature. His poem "Modern Beauty" has lines Pound always liked: "I am the torch, she saith, and what to me / Ifthe moth die of me? I am the flame / of Beauty, and I burn that all may see. "
Aphrodite, or here the planet Venus, which on this Pisan dawn appeared to be in the arms of the crescent moon [cf. 327 above].
337. Sandro: S. Botlicelli [20:19J. 338. Jacopo: J. Sellaio [20: 17J.
339. Vehisquez: [cf. 15 aboveJ.
340. Rembrandt: R. Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669, Dutch painter.
341. Rubens: Peter Paul R. , 1577-1640, Flemish painter.
'Hw~: H,
336. Kv81)p" oelv&': H, "Fearful Cythera. "
335. ~POOOO&. "TVAO~ fingered dawn" [74:403].
"rosy-
F ,
"Men have
T
. . . which is conspicuous leather),' [Fang, IV, 118].
by the
shell
(Le. ,
344. TO rr&'v: H, "the whole, the all. "
? ? ? ? ? ? ? 446
362. Bill Shepard: William Pierce Shepard, 1870-1948, professor of romance languages at Hamilton College who was Pound's teacher 1903-1905.
363. Siracusa: [77:52].
364. Im"p flopoV: H, "beyond what is des- tined. " A recurrent phrase in Homer. Per- haps here because of the word 'YACtVKWrn, used several times in the Pisan and earlier cantos; it come from ad. v, 536-537. The island attacked may be Ismarus of the Cicones [79:39].
365. with a mind: Speaking of savoir-faire in translating, Pound said about "polumetis" [9:38, 78: 119] : "And as Zeus said: 'A chap with a mind like THAT! The fellow is one of
80/512-513 80/513-515
373. the raft broke: [ad. v, 365-369; 388. Seitz: A captain in the provost section.
447
of Browning's "Home-Thoughts from Abroad" [Speare, 227].
407. the bank: The Bank of England. Time [Aug. 13, 1945] carried a note which encap- sulated its history from 1694 to the mo- ment: "But last week many an Englishman hearing Labor's Harold Laski demand the immediate nationalization of the Bank of England wondered how long it would stay what it has been for over two centuries-the world's most powerful private bank"
[p. 82].
408. the tower: A tower at Lacock Abbey in Salisbury Plain which Ezra and Dorothy once visited. Dorothy said about the visit: '''My aunt took me there a couple of times, and once Ezra and I crawled over the roof to a turret to see a copy of the Magna Charta, kept there in a glass case" [HK, Pal, 2-3, 492].
409. the old charter: The copy of the Mag- na Charta once at Lacock. It is technically an "Exemplification of Henry Ill's reissue of Magna Carta, 1225" [CFT, Pai, 5-1, 69-76].
410. John's first one: A document pre- sented to King John by the nobility who wanted confirmation of their rights-as ex- pressed by the so-called Coronation Charter of Henry I, of l100~was called "The Arti- cles of the Barons. " With changes and emendments, the document the king signed became known as "The Charter of Runny- mede" [ibid. , 70].
411. and still there: So far as Pound knew; but ironically, in the year he was writing the Pisan Cantos (1945) the Charter was pre- sented by Miss Matilda Talbot to the British Museum, where it is now.
412. Chesterton: [46:19] The lines seem to imply a crossroads. The new government
us. One of US' " [GK, 146]. 366. Favonus, . . . benigno: L,
I, "with kindly breeze. "
379. repos donneza: F, "give rest to" (from
Villan, "Grand Testament"). 396. Carleton: Mark Alfred C. , 1886-1925,
3~7. Je suis . . . forces: F, "I am at the end of my tether. " According to Wyndham Lewis, an expression frequently uttered by the owner of the Golden Calf Nightclub in London [EH].
368. gates of death: Pound means the gates of the DTC, but he adapts lines from the Bible taken from Speare's Pocket Book: "Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death" [Job 38. 17].
369. Whitman: Walt W. , 1819-1892, repre- sented in Speare by 5 selections: "When Lilacs . . . ," "0 Captain . . . ," "Mannahat? ta," "When I heard the Learn'd Astrono- mer" (8 lines), and "Out of the Cradle . . . " (complete).
370. Lovelace: Richard L. , 1618-1658, re- presented in Speare by "To Althea, from Prison" and "To Lucasta, Going to the W ars. "
371. jo-house: Latrine.
372. Professor Speare: Morris Speare, erst- while editor of The Pocket Book Of Verse, New York, first published in 1940 but fol- lowed by many reprintings.
His work led to vast increases in the world end to its action" [CON, 187]. The reader food supply. In 1901 the French govern-
"west
wind. "
380. dIs: OF, "those. "
381. senza tennine funge: I, "acts without end," from the end of Pound's Italian trans- lation of Chung Yung. The passage reads: "The unmixed functions [in time and in space1without bourne. This unmixed is the tensile light, the Immaculata. There is no
agricul tural scientist and cerealist who intro~
duced hardy wheat strains from Russia and
developed and introduced hardy and more
productive groups of oat and barley seed,
vastly increasing the yield per acre of these
and other cereal grains. Internationally
known expert in control -of plant diseases.
95:75].
374. Immaculata, Introibo: L, "Immacu~ utilities.
late, I shall enter" (from preparation of the Roman Catholic Mass).
390. Cornelison: Sergeant in provost sec~
406. Winston: W. Churchill
reported the defeat of Churchill in 1945 as "the biggest electoral upset in British his- tory" [Aug. 6, p. 38]. The Labor party of Clement Attlee was expected to nationalize the Bank of England.
tion. Following names, unless identified, 375. Perpetua: Saint Perpetua, d. 203, a prob. soldiers at the DTC.
Carthaginian martyr.
376. Agatha: Saint Agatha, 3d-century Sicil- ian virgin, martyred by Decius.
391. K_P. : Kitchen patrol.
392. gratia: L, "with thanks to. " Pound
seems to want to give thanks to these parti~ 377.
Anastasia: Saint Anastasia, 4th-century cular people at the DTC who helped make
Roman noblewoman martyred under Diode- his imprisonment tolerable.
tian. All 3 of these saints are recalled in the Mass.
378. saeculorum: L, "of the ages. "
393. Bedell: Lieutenant in provost section. 394. africanus: L, "from Africa. "
395. souterrain: F, "underground. "
should note well. Here Pound states his per- ment recognized his service by creating him ception of "the process" as the divine mys- Chevalier du Merite Agricole. An inverse
tery in action. rhyme with usurers and "haggers of harvest" 382. Immaculata Regina: L, "Immaculate [SP, 278-281; WB,Pai, 11-3,442].
Queen" (from Roman Catholic Mass; the
Virgin Mary). cern a mass with eucharist in memory of
383. Les larmes . . . Tristesse: F, "The tears Carleton.
that I created flood me I Late very late have 398. I known your sadness" (from rondo after grain.
Demeter:
Ceres
[47: 3]
goddess of
stanza 165 in "Grand Testament" of Vii-
lon)[ef. SR,171-178]. 399. (Zupp, Bufford, and Bohon): Trainees
at the DTC.
are called out to dQ KP duty or who line up 400. men of no fortune: [cf. 386 above].
384. (Nadasky . . . ): Soldiers whose names for sick call.
385. hieri: I, ieri, "yesterday. "
386. no fortune: A musical figure [1/4;
74:319].
404. o. t. a. : Of the army.
tion, DTC. 405. Oh . . . out: Paraphrase of the rhythms
387. Bankers: A corporal in the provost sec-
389. Hildebrand: Major in charge of post
397. celebrate Christ:? The lines may con-
[1: 12]. [76: 139]. 403. Pepitone: Trainee.
401. Elpenor:
402. Zoagli:
[41 :33]. Time
? ? ? ? 448
80/515-516
80/516
449
could make money "free again" and return to the old England owned by right-wingers such as Chesterton [Surette, Pai, 6-1, 111- 113J.
413. Talbot: Charles Talbot was of the Shakespear family and a cousin of Dorothy Pound. It was he who inherited Lacock Abbey and left it to his niece, who, in order to pay the death duties, had to sell treasures such as paintings and the Magna Charta.
"Dorothy's father had and Omar now has a beautiful gold seal of the Talbots: their dog emblem both as handle and in imprint"
[HK, Pai, 2-3, 492J.
414. Let backe . . . : The rhythms of this passage are based on a variety of 15th- century lyrics Pound saw in Speare, such as "J oily good ale and old. " "Back and side go bare, go bare, / Both foot and hand go cold; / But, belly, God send thee good ale enough, / Whether it be new or old. "
415. boneen: Irish, baneen or bainin, a litter of pigs.
416. Claridge's: A most posh and fasrnon- able hotel on Brook Street in West End, London.
417. Hewlett's: [74: 170J. Hewlett lived at. the Old Rectory, Broad Chalke, Salisbury. Pound wrote to rns mother on Dec. 24,1911 saying he was at Salisbury and expected to "motor over to see Henry Newbolt some- time or other" [BK, Pai, 5-2, 350J.
418. Southampton: City on southwestern coast of England.
419. the green holly: "Heigh-ho! unto the green holly: / Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly," from As You Like It [Speare, 70J.
420. Salisbury plain: In SW England, NW of Salisbury, an undulating chalk plateau noted for a number of ancient monuments, espe- cially Stonehenge.
421. the Lady Anne: Lady Anne Blunt, wife ofW. S. Blunt [81:61]' who was born Lady Anne Isabella King-Noel, a descendant
of Lord Byron. The Noel may have provided the link in the chain of associations.
422. Le Portel: [82:9J French fishing port which Pound, erroneously, associates with Swinburne, who dramatized the assassina- tion of Queen Mary Stuart's secretary, David Rizzio.
423. La Stuarda: Mary Stewart. Maurice Hewlett wrote a novel about her life (The Queen's Quair, 1903) as well as a play in 1912, which deals dramatically with the murder of Rizzio. In a small cabinet or bou- doir, Mary was having supper with a small party. Darnley, her husband, and others came in to get Rizzio. "Suspecting their pur" pose, Rizzio threw himself behind the queen and caught hold Of her dress, but was stabbed by George Douglas" [Pai, 5-1, 74J.
424. Si tuit Ii dolh . . . : P, "If all the griefs, and the laments, and the pain. " Imperfectly remembered 1st line from Bertran de Born's lament at the death of Henry the young king
[84:1J.
425. leopards: The struggle for power in the House of ? Plantagenet between Eleanor of Aquitaine and her husband Henry II was car- ried on by alliances among their children. Henry's eldest son, calJed the young king, was actually crowned in 1170 to rule with his father. Richard the Lion-hearted, the youngest son, at one time declared war against his brother. "The Leopard," as we recall from "Sestina: Altaforte," was "the device of Richard Coeur de Lion" [P, 28J. But later on during the War of the Roses, the heads of leopards became identified mainly with the House of York.
426. broom plants: The heraldic devices of the Lancasters had a plantagenet (sprig of broom).
427. Tudor: The royal family that ruled En- gland beginning with Henry VII in 1485 to the death of Elizabeth in 1603. The stanzaic and rhythmic pattern of the three verses derives from the part of the Rubaiyat in Speare'sPocket Book.
428. Blood-red, blanch-white: The War of the Roses between the House of York (White) and the House of Lancaster (Red). When the duke of Richmond (Lancaster) became Henry VII and married Elizabeth of York and started the House of Tudor, the heraldic devices showed both roses: "The rose, either red or white, survived in sweet simplicity till Tudor times, when the one, of a small diameter, was superimposed upon the other, as a symbol that the Yorkists and Lancastrians were united" (Julian Franklin,
Heraldry, 68J.
429. Howard: Catherine H. , 11521-1542, queen of England, fifth wife of Henry VIII; she was accused of immoral conduct before her marriage and was beheaded.
430. Boleyn: Anne B. , 11507-1536, second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I; she was beheaded.
431. York: The English royal house of
York, one branch of the Plantagenets, which came into prominence with Richard Plantag~ enet, 3d duke of York (1411-60); Yorkist kings of England were Edward IV (1461-70; 1471-83), Edward V (1483), Richard III (1483-85).
432. Lancaster: The House of Lancaster; the English royal house derived from John of Gaunt, who was created duke of Lancas~ ter in 1362; Lancastrian kings were Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI.
433. Serpentine: A curved pond in Hyde Park near Kensington and Church Walk, where Pound lived for a time.
434. couturier: A male dress designer. A grand one designs expensive costumes for royalty and the very wealthy. The Mediter- ranean sunset in which the roses glow at the top of this page has now transformed the whole landscape in spectacular fashion.
CANTO LXXXI Sources
Loeb, The Greek Bucolic Poets, 26; George Santayana, Persons and Places, vols. 1, 2, New York, 1944-45; Morris Speare, The Pocket Book of Verse, 1940 [SpeareJ ;Poetry, vol. 3, no. 4, Mar. 1914,220-223.
Background
EP, GK, 53,182,155,71,248,151; JIM, 47;PE, 79;L, 331, 333, 34; LE, 431-440; NS, LIfe, 352; George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, Boston, Beacon Press, 1962; John Espey, Ezra Pound's Mauberley, Berkeley, 1974, 98; Claude Gernade Bowers, Beve- ridge and the Progressive Party, Cambridge, Mass. , 1932, 112; Edith Finch, Wilfred Scawen Blunt, London, 1938; John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, 1892 [BurnetJ; Augustin Cabanes, The Erotikon, trans. from French by Robert Meadows, New York, Anthropological Press, 1933.
? ? ? ? ? ? 450
81/517-518
81/518
eluding Les Indiscretions de l' htstoire, 6
vols. , Paris, 1903-1909, which is in Pound's library at Brunnenburg. A. C. was most fa- mous for his research in sexual behavior, as reported in his last book The Eratikon: Being an Illustrated Treasury o f Scientific Marvels of Human Sexuality, trans. by Ro- bert Meadows and privately issued by the Anthropological Press, New York, 1933. An introductory note to the book says, "Dr. Cabanes, actuated by the spirit of the real scientist, has brought to light strange data which make vital contributions to our know- ledge of the forces controlling the intimate life of men and women. " Cabanes's work would thus interest Pound as a continuation of Remy de Gourmont's work on the sexual- ity of other species in The Natural Philoso- phy of Love. The meaning of the egg in his pocket is not known, though a weird theory has been suggested [Pai, 11-3,451-453].
19. Basil . . . Canaries: B. Bunting, born in the Tyne Valley area of England, and still (in 1982) going strong. [For the story of his life and work see Pai, 9-1, Spring 1980, devoted to him and his Pound connectionsJ. During the three days between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, when Christ was supposed to have been harrowing Hell, the villagers- man, woman and child-were supposed to beat drums day and night nourished by little except wine. They did this until the hands of many became a bloody mess and hundreds were groaning with pain. They called the an- nual event a simple village fiest-a. "As for life
in the Canaries," says Bunting, "I suppose Ezra is thinking of my description of the sexual mores of the islands in those days, so very unlike those of New York and Philadel- phia in his time, perhaps even a bit alarming to his fundamentally puritan soul" [Bunting,
Pai, 10-3,619-621].
20. Possum: T. S. Eliot.
21. portagoose: Portuguese.
22. Cole: [80: 153]. Reprise of the demon- stration Cole mounted at Italy's entrance into WWI.
451
23. Andre Spire: [77:134]. Pound wrote: "Old Spire who had sat on a Credit Agricole board said: 'Yes, very nice, communal cre- dit, but when you get your board, every man on that board has a brother-in-law'" [JIM, 47) . The agricultural credit board was a de- vice to extend credit to farmers for seed, fertilizer, etc. Since community credit for development is at the heart of Social Credit economics, note that Pound was aware of one of the most serious flaws in it as a program: influence and favoritism, which, being impossible to prevent, posed serious problems even with reasonable control.
24. John Adams: [31:15; 69:56]. JA said that TJ feared monarchy but that he (JA) feared an aristocracy.
25. MrJefferson: [31:2).
26. To break . . .
461.
345: Chu Hsi: (rhymes with "juicy"), 1130-1200, Chinese philosopher and most important of the neo-Confucians of the southern Sung dynasty.
346. luz: [cf. 90 aboveJ. This bone was considered the seed from which at the last judgment the whole physical body could be made to spring: a sort of medieval, eschato- logical cloning.
347. Sigismundo: Invokes Platina and the usual subject of conversation among intelli- gent men [11 :26, 29J.
348. Cocteau: [cf. 217 above].
349. Marie Laurencin: 1885-1956, French painter and illustrator. She did the 6 color plates for Alice in Wonderland [Black Sun Press, 1930J. The painting of Cocteau is mentioned by Nina Hammet [Laughing Tor- so) London, 1932], who saw it at the salon ofCocteau's mother [po 190].
350. Whistler: [cf. 175 above].
351. Miss Alexander: Miss Cecily Henri- etta A. In 1872 Whistler did a full-length standing portrait of her and entitled it Ar-
Lussac: F, "13,
321. treize
Street. " On the left bank. A circular stone bas-relief of Fritz is still visible on the bal- cony [HKJ.
Gay-Lussac
1828-
330. Les hommes . . . beaute:
I don't know what strange fear/ . . . of beauty,"
331. Beardsley: [74:4IOJ.
332. Yeats: W. B. Yeats [74:166J. Yeats tells the anecdote about beauty. "I said to him once) 'you have never done anything to equal your Salome with the head of John the Baptist. ' I think that for the moment he was sincere when he replied, 'Yes, yes; but beauty is so difficult'" [The Autobiogra- phy, Anchor A142, p. 223J.
333. Burne-Jones: Sir Edward B. -J. , 1833- 1898, English painter and decorator, strong- ly influenced by the Rossettis and an expo-
nent of Pre-Raphaelite principles.
334. Arthur: A. Symons, 1865-1945, Brit- ish poet and critic, author of The Symbolist Movement in Literature. His poem "Modern Beauty" has lines Pound always liked: "I am the torch, she saith, and what to me / Ifthe moth die of me? I am the flame / of Beauty, and I burn that all may see. "
Aphrodite, or here the planet Venus, which on this Pisan dawn appeared to be in the arms of the crescent moon [cf. 327 above].
337. Sandro: S. Botlicelli [20:19J. 338. Jacopo: J. Sellaio [20: 17J.
339. Vehisquez: [cf. 15 aboveJ.
340. Rembrandt: R. Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669, Dutch painter.
341. Rubens: Peter Paul R. , 1577-1640, Flemish painter.
'Hw~: H,
336. Kv81)p" oelv&': H, "Fearful Cythera. "
335. ~POOOO&. "TVAO~ fingered dawn" [74:403].
"rosy-
F ,
"Men have
T
. . . which is conspicuous leather),' [Fang, IV, 118].
by the
shell
(Le. ,
344. TO rr&'v: H, "the whole, the all. "
? ? ? ? ? ? ? 446
362. Bill Shepard: William Pierce Shepard, 1870-1948, professor of romance languages at Hamilton College who was Pound's teacher 1903-1905.
363. Siracusa: [77:52].
364. Im"p flopoV: H, "beyond what is des- tined. " A recurrent phrase in Homer. Per- haps here because of the word 'YACtVKWrn, used several times in the Pisan and earlier cantos; it come from ad. v, 536-537. The island attacked may be Ismarus of the Cicones [79:39].
365. with a mind: Speaking of savoir-faire in translating, Pound said about "polumetis" [9:38, 78: 119] : "And as Zeus said: 'A chap with a mind like THAT! The fellow is one of
80/512-513 80/513-515
373. the raft broke: [ad. v, 365-369; 388. Seitz: A captain in the provost section.
447
of Browning's "Home-Thoughts from Abroad" [Speare, 227].
407. the bank: The Bank of England. Time [Aug. 13, 1945] carried a note which encap- sulated its history from 1694 to the mo- ment: "But last week many an Englishman hearing Labor's Harold Laski demand the immediate nationalization of the Bank of England wondered how long it would stay what it has been for over two centuries-the world's most powerful private bank"
[p. 82].
408. the tower: A tower at Lacock Abbey in Salisbury Plain which Ezra and Dorothy once visited. Dorothy said about the visit: '''My aunt took me there a couple of times, and once Ezra and I crawled over the roof to a turret to see a copy of the Magna Charta, kept there in a glass case" [HK, Pal, 2-3, 492].
409. the old charter: The copy of the Mag- na Charta once at Lacock. It is technically an "Exemplification of Henry Ill's reissue of Magna Carta, 1225" [CFT, Pai, 5-1, 69-76].
410. John's first one: A document pre- sented to King John by the nobility who wanted confirmation of their rights-as ex- pressed by the so-called Coronation Charter of Henry I, of l100~was called "The Arti- cles of the Barons. " With changes and emendments, the document the king signed became known as "The Charter of Runny- mede" [ibid. , 70].
411. and still there: So far as Pound knew; but ironically, in the year he was writing the Pisan Cantos (1945) the Charter was pre- sented by Miss Matilda Talbot to the British Museum, where it is now.
412. Chesterton: [46:19] The lines seem to imply a crossroads. The new government
us. One of US' " [GK, 146]. 366. Favonus, . . . benigno: L,
I, "with kindly breeze. "
379. repos donneza: F, "give rest to" (from
Villan, "Grand Testament"). 396. Carleton: Mark Alfred C. , 1886-1925,
3~7. Je suis . . . forces: F, "I am at the end of my tether. " According to Wyndham Lewis, an expression frequently uttered by the owner of the Golden Calf Nightclub in London [EH].
368. gates of death: Pound means the gates of the DTC, but he adapts lines from the Bible taken from Speare's Pocket Book: "Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death" [Job 38. 17].
369. Whitman: Walt W. , 1819-1892, repre- sented in Speare by 5 selections: "When Lilacs . . . ," "0 Captain . . . ," "Mannahat? ta," "When I heard the Learn'd Astrono- mer" (8 lines), and "Out of the Cradle . . . " (complete).
370. Lovelace: Richard L. , 1618-1658, re- presented in Speare by "To Althea, from Prison" and "To Lucasta, Going to the W ars. "
371. jo-house: Latrine.
372. Professor Speare: Morris Speare, erst- while editor of The Pocket Book Of Verse, New York, first published in 1940 but fol- lowed by many reprintings.
His work led to vast increases in the world end to its action" [CON, 187]. The reader food supply. In 1901 the French govern-
"west
wind. "
380. dIs: OF, "those. "
381. senza tennine funge: I, "acts without end," from the end of Pound's Italian trans- lation of Chung Yung. The passage reads: "The unmixed functions [in time and in space1without bourne. This unmixed is the tensile light, the Immaculata. There is no
agricul tural scientist and cerealist who intro~
duced hardy wheat strains from Russia and
developed and introduced hardy and more
productive groups of oat and barley seed,
vastly increasing the yield per acre of these
and other cereal grains. Internationally
known expert in control -of plant diseases.
95:75].
374. Immaculata, Introibo: L, "Immacu~ utilities.
late, I shall enter" (from preparation of the Roman Catholic Mass).
390. Cornelison: Sergeant in provost sec~
406. Winston: W. Churchill
reported the defeat of Churchill in 1945 as "the biggest electoral upset in British his- tory" [Aug. 6, p. 38]. The Labor party of Clement Attlee was expected to nationalize the Bank of England.
tion. Following names, unless identified, 375. Perpetua: Saint Perpetua, d. 203, a prob. soldiers at the DTC.
Carthaginian martyr.
376. Agatha: Saint Agatha, 3d-century Sicil- ian virgin, martyred by Decius.
391. K_P. : Kitchen patrol.
392. gratia: L, "with thanks to. " Pound
seems to want to give thanks to these parti~ 377.
Anastasia: Saint Anastasia, 4th-century cular people at the DTC who helped make
Roman noblewoman martyred under Diode- his imprisonment tolerable.
tian. All 3 of these saints are recalled in the Mass.
378. saeculorum: L, "of the ages. "
393. Bedell: Lieutenant in provost section. 394. africanus: L, "from Africa. "
395. souterrain: F, "underground. "
should note well. Here Pound states his per- ment recognized his service by creating him ception of "the process" as the divine mys- Chevalier du Merite Agricole. An inverse
tery in action. rhyme with usurers and "haggers of harvest" 382. Immaculata Regina: L, "Immaculate [SP, 278-281; WB,Pai, 11-3,442].
Queen" (from Roman Catholic Mass; the
Virgin Mary). cern a mass with eucharist in memory of
383. Les larmes . . . Tristesse: F, "The tears Carleton.
that I created flood me I Late very late have 398. I known your sadness" (from rondo after grain.
Demeter:
Ceres
[47: 3]
goddess of
stanza 165 in "Grand Testament" of Vii-
lon)[ef. SR,171-178]. 399. (Zupp, Bufford, and Bohon): Trainees
at the DTC.
are called out to dQ KP duty or who line up 400. men of no fortune: [cf. 386 above].
384. (Nadasky . . . ): Soldiers whose names for sick call.
385. hieri: I, ieri, "yesterday. "
386. no fortune: A musical figure [1/4;
74:319].
404. o. t. a. : Of the army.
tion, DTC. 405. Oh . . . out: Paraphrase of the rhythms
387. Bankers: A corporal in the provost sec-
389. Hildebrand: Major in charge of post
397. celebrate Christ:? The lines may con-
[1: 12]. [76: 139]. 403. Pepitone: Trainee.
401. Elpenor:
402. Zoagli:
[41 :33]. Time
? ? ? ? 448
80/515-516
80/516
449
could make money "free again" and return to the old England owned by right-wingers such as Chesterton [Surette, Pai, 6-1, 111- 113J.
413. Talbot: Charles Talbot was of the Shakespear family and a cousin of Dorothy Pound. It was he who inherited Lacock Abbey and left it to his niece, who, in order to pay the death duties, had to sell treasures such as paintings and the Magna Charta.
"Dorothy's father had and Omar now has a beautiful gold seal of the Talbots: their dog emblem both as handle and in imprint"
[HK, Pai, 2-3, 492J.
414. Let backe . . . : The rhythms of this passage are based on a variety of 15th- century lyrics Pound saw in Speare, such as "J oily good ale and old. " "Back and side go bare, go bare, / Both foot and hand go cold; / But, belly, God send thee good ale enough, / Whether it be new or old. "
415. boneen: Irish, baneen or bainin, a litter of pigs.
416. Claridge's: A most posh and fasrnon- able hotel on Brook Street in West End, London.
417. Hewlett's: [74: 170J. Hewlett lived at. the Old Rectory, Broad Chalke, Salisbury. Pound wrote to rns mother on Dec. 24,1911 saying he was at Salisbury and expected to "motor over to see Henry Newbolt some- time or other" [BK, Pai, 5-2, 350J.
418. Southampton: City on southwestern coast of England.
419. the green holly: "Heigh-ho! unto the green holly: / Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly," from As You Like It [Speare, 70J.
420. Salisbury plain: In SW England, NW of Salisbury, an undulating chalk plateau noted for a number of ancient monuments, espe- cially Stonehenge.
421. the Lady Anne: Lady Anne Blunt, wife ofW. S. Blunt [81:61]' who was born Lady Anne Isabella King-Noel, a descendant
of Lord Byron. The Noel may have provided the link in the chain of associations.
422. Le Portel: [82:9J French fishing port which Pound, erroneously, associates with Swinburne, who dramatized the assassina- tion of Queen Mary Stuart's secretary, David Rizzio.
423. La Stuarda: Mary Stewart. Maurice Hewlett wrote a novel about her life (The Queen's Quair, 1903) as well as a play in 1912, which deals dramatically with the murder of Rizzio. In a small cabinet or bou- doir, Mary was having supper with a small party. Darnley, her husband, and others came in to get Rizzio. "Suspecting their pur" pose, Rizzio threw himself behind the queen and caught hold Of her dress, but was stabbed by George Douglas" [Pai, 5-1, 74J.
424. Si tuit Ii dolh . . . : P, "If all the griefs, and the laments, and the pain. " Imperfectly remembered 1st line from Bertran de Born's lament at the death of Henry the young king
[84:1J.
425. leopards: The struggle for power in the House of ? Plantagenet between Eleanor of Aquitaine and her husband Henry II was car- ried on by alliances among their children. Henry's eldest son, calJed the young king, was actually crowned in 1170 to rule with his father. Richard the Lion-hearted, the youngest son, at one time declared war against his brother. "The Leopard," as we recall from "Sestina: Altaforte," was "the device of Richard Coeur de Lion" [P, 28J. But later on during the War of the Roses, the heads of leopards became identified mainly with the House of York.
426. broom plants: The heraldic devices of the Lancasters had a plantagenet (sprig of broom).
427. Tudor: The royal family that ruled En- gland beginning with Henry VII in 1485 to the death of Elizabeth in 1603. The stanzaic and rhythmic pattern of the three verses derives from the part of the Rubaiyat in Speare'sPocket Book.
428. Blood-red, blanch-white: The War of the Roses between the House of York (White) and the House of Lancaster (Red). When the duke of Richmond (Lancaster) became Henry VII and married Elizabeth of York and started the House of Tudor, the heraldic devices showed both roses: "The rose, either red or white, survived in sweet simplicity till Tudor times, when the one, of a small diameter, was superimposed upon the other, as a symbol that the Yorkists and Lancastrians were united" (Julian Franklin,
Heraldry, 68J.
429. Howard: Catherine H. , 11521-1542, queen of England, fifth wife of Henry VIII; she was accused of immoral conduct before her marriage and was beheaded.
430. Boleyn: Anne B. , 11507-1536, second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I; she was beheaded.
431. York: The English royal house of
York, one branch of the Plantagenets, which came into prominence with Richard Plantag~ enet, 3d duke of York (1411-60); Yorkist kings of England were Edward IV (1461-70; 1471-83), Edward V (1483), Richard III (1483-85).
432. Lancaster: The House of Lancaster; the English royal house derived from John of Gaunt, who was created duke of Lancas~ ter in 1362; Lancastrian kings were Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI.
433. Serpentine: A curved pond in Hyde Park near Kensington and Church Walk, where Pound lived for a time.
434. couturier: A male dress designer. A grand one designs expensive costumes for royalty and the very wealthy. The Mediter- ranean sunset in which the roses glow at the top of this page has now transformed the whole landscape in spectacular fashion.
CANTO LXXXI Sources
Loeb, The Greek Bucolic Poets, 26; George Santayana, Persons and Places, vols. 1, 2, New York, 1944-45; Morris Speare, The Pocket Book of Verse, 1940 [SpeareJ ;Poetry, vol. 3, no. 4, Mar. 1914,220-223.
Background
EP, GK, 53,182,155,71,248,151; JIM, 47;PE, 79;L, 331, 333, 34; LE, 431-440; NS, LIfe, 352; George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, Boston, Beacon Press, 1962; John Espey, Ezra Pound's Mauberley, Berkeley, 1974, 98; Claude Gernade Bowers, Beve- ridge and the Progressive Party, Cambridge, Mass. , 1932, 112; Edith Finch, Wilfred Scawen Blunt, London, 1938; John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, 1892 [BurnetJ; Augustin Cabanes, The Erotikon, trans. from French by Robert Meadows, New York, Anthropological Press, 1933.
? ? ? ? ? ? 450
81/517-518
81/518
eluding Les Indiscretions de l' htstoire, 6
vols. , Paris, 1903-1909, which is in Pound's library at Brunnenburg. A. C. was most fa- mous for his research in sexual behavior, as reported in his last book The Eratikon: Being an Illustrated Treasury o f Scientific Marvels of Human Sexuality, trans. by Ro- bert Meadows and privately issued by the Anthropological Press, New York, 1933. An introductory note to the book says, "Dr. Cabanes, actuated by the spirit of the real scientist, has brought to light strange data which make vital contributions to our know- ledge of the forces controlling the intimate life of men and women. " Cabanes's work would thus interest Pound as a continuation of Remy de Gourmont's work on the sexual- ity of other species in The Natural Philoso- phy of Love. The meaning of the egg in his pocket is not known, though a weird theory has been suggested [Pai, 11-3,451-453].
19. Basil . . . Canaries: B. Bunting, born in the Tyne Valley area of England, and still (in 1982) going strong. [For the story of his life and work see Pai, 9-1, Spring 1980, devoted to him and his Pound connectionsJ. During the three days between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, when Christ was supposed to have been harrowing Hell, the villagers- man, woman and child-were supposed to beat drums day and night nourished by little except wine. They did this until the hands of many became a bloody mess and hundreds were groaning with pain. They called the an- nual event a simple village fiest-a. "As for life
in the Canaries," says Bunting, "I suppose Ezra is thinking of my description of the sexual mores of the islands in those days, so very unlike those of New York and Philadel- phia in his time, perhaps even a bit alarming to his fundamentally puritan soul" [Bunting,
Pai, 10-3,619-621].
20. Possum: T. S. Eliot.
21. portagoose: Portuguese.
22. Cole: [80: 153]. Reprise of the demon- stration Cole mounted at Italy's entrance into WWI.
451
23. Andre Spire: [77:134]. Pound wrote: "Old Spire who had sat on a Credit Agricole board said: 'Yes, very nice, communal cre- dit, but when you get your board, every man on that board has a brother-in-law'" [JIM, 47) . The agricultural credit board was a de- vice to extend credit to farmers for seed, fertilizer, etc. Since community credit for development is at the heart of Social Credit economics, note that Pound was aware of one of the most serious flaws in it as a program: influence and favoritism, which, being impossible to prevent, posed serious problems even with reasonable control.
24. John Adams: [31:15; 69:56]. JA said that TJ feared monarchy but that he (JA) feared an aristocracy.
25. MrJefferson: [31:2).
26. To break . . .
