Mint Act of 1870 [of Queen
Victoria]
.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
].
132. Such suckers . . . Liverpool: The "Me- tallic School" taught that "the unit of mon- ey is both the whole volume of money and each indivisible fraction of it; money is me- tal, and metal is money; finally, the national honor is subject to the comparative output of the gold and silver mines! All these and many other sophistries will be found in the essays of Harris, Chevalier and Lord liver- pool" [HMS, 371]. This issue involves a central doctrine of Social Credit, now several hundred years old. One must understand why Hume, Von Humboldt, Douglas, Kit- son, Orage, Pound, and dozens of others found these arguments "sophistries" to un- derstand the central thesis of Social Credit.
To agree with the "Metallic School" is to agree that money is just a form of barter and not a legal instrument [Del Mar, Science, 25-56].
133. Cobden: "[These sophistries] led . . . Mr. Cobden to recommend corn rents and payments in kind. " A footnote says: "Che- valier's essays were published . . . shortly af- ter the opening of California. Most of the sophistries [are] . . . in the first chapter of his subsequent work 'The Fall in the Value of Gold,' translated by Cobden" [HMS, 371].
115. degradations
yet clearly understood that whatever degra- dation of money was committed by the em- perors, whatever debasement was afterwards committed by the kings, these have since been vastly exceeded by the dishonest use made of 'individual' coinage and the control of bank issues? Not at all. The Emperors of Rome controlled emissions . . . for thirteen centuries, and the kings and dukes for nearly four centuries afterwards; whilst the usurers
have held it to the present time, for about two centuries. . . . During these two centu- ries . . . more losses have been occasioned to the industrial classes . . . than were made by alI the degradations and debasements of the Imperial and regal periods put together. . . . 'The control of money' says an eloquent writer on the subject, 'is the ground upon which an international or cosmopolitan com- bination "finances" the world and "farms" humanity. ' " [HMS,330-331].
116. Kitson, Fenton . . . : Del Mar footnote identifying the eloquent writer: "Reginald Fenton, Esq. formerly of Kim- berly, South Africa, now of San Diego, Cali- fornia. 'The distribution of wealth and the exploitation of some men by others are de-
pendent upon money. ' Count Leo Tolstoi in his Essay on Money in Kitson's 'Scientific Solution of the Money Question'" [HMS, 33In. ; EH,Pai, 4-1,182-185].
117. Brooks Adams: American historian, 1848-1927, whose works, especially The Law o f Civilization and Decay, were admired
by Pound [SP, 307-309].
118. "Salzburg: Saltzburg. "In 1763 an im-
perial decree. ,. established a convention coinage rate [for North German States]: . . . 360. 8 grains fine siher to the riks thaler effectives . . . the Austrian 'effectives' struck under this convention actually contained but 353. 7 grains . . . Saltzburg alone struck them
of full weight" [HMS, 352].
119. The 1806 . . . years: "The paper notes
resemblance:
has a
3581/5; . . . Austria 1753 (nominally actually-3533/4" [HMS,358].
118
361 gr)
124. Bryan: William Jennings B. ,
1925. During Bryan's campaign for president in 1896, Arthur Kitson jumped on his free- silver bandwagon. Since Kitson was for de- monetizing silver, that seemed strange. After Bryan's death, Kitson said Bryan understood "that the real issue was to gain presidential control of the national credit" [EH, Pai, 4-1,
183]. Pound wrote to Stock years later: "William J. Bryan admitted to Arthur Kitson many years ago that the 'Free Silver' cam- paign was window dressing" [ibid. ].
1850-
97/673-674
619
usurers . . .
131. V on Hutnboldt:
von H. , 1769-1859, German scientist, ex- plorer, and natural philosopher, who served in the Prussian department of mines and afterwards made worldwide explorations.
the money-lenders and ter" [HMS, 370] .
knew bet-
Alexander
Freiherr
134. V on
more power to banks to issue money, "in the interest of international circulation," were opposed by some: "the declaration of Von Schultz, that to sign away the indepen- dence of the State in reference to money would constitute an act of treason. " A foot- note to this statement says: "Sir Wrn. Har- court said he was 'not willing to place the
Schultz:
Arguments
to extend
? ? 620
97/674
97/674-675
currency of England at the mercy of foreign States' " [HMS,378].
135. Frank Harris: 1854? 1931, a famous editor, critic, novelist, playwright and auto- biographer. In Blast, Pound includes him on the list of those to be blessed. Where or when he said this is not yet known. But the context suggests the banking industry's abili- ty to create money based on ambiguous backing.
136. Albuquerque . . . Goa: "Albuquer? que . . . raised the flag of Portugal upon the battlements of Goa. " Right away he issued "an unauthorized and debased coinage of gold, silver and copper . . . to relieve [so he
and selfish a spirit, that its arbiters have repeatedly plunged the commercial world in? to bankruptcy and confiscated . . . its accu- mulated earnings, either for their own bene- fit or else to save themselves from the effects of their own blundering" [HMS, 390].
142. ao? icx: H, "wisdom"
143. 7fian<:: H, "trust [in others]. " G. R. S Mead edited a Gnostic miscellany entitled
150. 1858 . . . : A
this entry: "1858-15. 0-The British Crown resumes its prerogative of the government of India. End of the East India Company"
[HMS, 397].
151. Sylla . . . Byzantium: A table entitled "The Roman Ratio" has these entries: "78 B. c. -9-Sylla. Social Wars. " And, "A. D. 1204-Alexis IV, sovereign? pontiff. Fall of the [Byzantine] Empire" [ibid. ].
152. "The signal . . . Marble": "In 1868, one of the two great national parties . . . [in favor of retaining] the greenback . . . was suddenly deserted by its leaders on the eve of the Presidential election and . . . defeated
coins . . .
fact] to buy the gold . . . and sell it . . . at
cent per cent profit" [HMS, 387? 388].
137. 18, CHARLES . . . 5: An act of Charles II which to Pound was the climax of a long process that finally put the right of coinage into the hands of banks. "The Brit- ish East India Company . . . struck idola? trous coins, under native permission, in 1620; and, with the door thus ajar to private coinage, it was easily pushed wide open. An intrigue with this object was introduced . . , during the reign of Charles I, which bIos? somed during that of his SOD, in the Act 18 Charles II. , c. 5, an Act that bargained away the Measure of Value" [HMS, 388].
138. 1816: "In 1816 the Crown was per? suaded to suspend the exercise of its power over the ratio. In this manner was silver demonetized. By the . . .
Mint Act of 1870 [of Queen Victoria] . . . the last remnant of a prerogative whose exercise is essential to the autonomy of the State was innocently surrendered to private hands" [HMS, 389].
139. "Victoria . . . ": [35:48]. The caption under a Max Beerbopm cartoon.
140. Ideogram: I [M3002], "right conduct" or "public spirit. "
141. Goldsmiths: Concerning the power of goldsmiths Del Mar says: "These tremendous powers have been wielded . . . in so narrow
at Washington, 1876" [HMS, 39In. ].
said] a local
dearth of
[but in
polls. . . .
The signal of
Pistis Sophia [Peck, Pai, 1? 1, 28]. 144. Gansl . . . death: "Consult the
writer's [Del Mar's] examination of Mr Albert Gansl, banker and agent of the Rothschilds before the U. S. Monetary Commission, printed . . .
. . .
146. "Portcullis . . . devices": In a table entitled "Ratio of Silver to Gold in India," we read: "1677-East India Company autho? rized by the British Crown [then Charles II] to coin gold, silver, copper, or lead, with its own devices" [HMS, 396].
": "The
145. "Duped
1873 were duped into doubling their indebt? edness [have dispensed] . . . with that mis? chief of Private Coinage. . . . Most of them now exercise. . . a more or less complete control over their own monetary systems"
[HMS, 392].
147. Assyria . . . somewhere:
epoch of Mahomet, . . every state in the West . . . [seemed] to value its gold coins at twice the quantity of silver for which they exchanged in the Orient. Such was the case with Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Macedon . . . and Imperial Rome" [HMS, 393].
148. (abbreviare): L, I, "to abridge, short? en. " Various tables in the source show that over the years [1650 B. C. to A. D. 1893] the differences between the Orient-to-West ra- tios became smaller [HMS, 394-400].
149. Steed: Henry Wickham S. (1871? 1956), foreign ed. of the London Times, author of numerous books, lecturer on Central Euro- pean history at King's College. Also owner and ed. of the Review o f Reviews, founded by W. T. Stead in 1890 [100: 107].
States which in
"Down to
the
table [cf. 146
above] has
154. Geryon: [51:16].
155. novelle piante: I, "new plants" [Pur. XXXII1, 143? 144]. The passage reads: "I turned myself remade like new plants with new leaves [novella fronda] ". Dante, atop Mount Purgatory, faces a new life by cutting away the old [JW].
156. Ideogram: Hsin [M2737]. Part of "Make new, day by day make new" on T'ang's washbasin [53:40-43]. Pound said of this ideogram: "[It] shows the fascist ax for the clearing away of rubbish . . . the tree, organic vegetable renewal" [J/M, 113].
157. Ideogram: Ch'in! [MlI07] , "rela? tives" or "people. " Pound translates the character, "the way people grow," in the Ta
Hio [CON,27].
158. Ideogram: Tan4 [M6037], "dawn. "
159. o[voc: cxi8[olj;: H, "wine-dark. " Homeric epithet. "Gloss" is the reflected shining [Peck, Pai, 1? 1,21? 23].
160. Sibilla . . . : OE, "Sibyl put it in a book" [91:54;CB? R,ZBC, 198].
161. C,Al7fOPrpVpo" H, "of sea purple. "
162. orixalxo: Form of orichalchi, "of cop?
per"[1:29].
163. xaladines: The last line of the Merrill sonnet quoted earlier, "En casque de cristal rose les baladines" [80:205], ends with this rhyme [78:72]. Merrill and Pound use the word to suggest a certain rare color in the eyes of the goddess. [MB, Trace, 355. 356, has good discussion. ]
164. nature the sign: [90:2].
165. San Marco: Cathedral in St. Mark's Square with emblematic lions set on pillars at the front. In Canto 102, the "smalltions are there in benevolence" [102/730].
166. Ideogram: Ling [M407l] , "sensiblity" [85: I].
167. Kuanon: [90/606]. The compassion? ate bodhisattva, who has her own salvation boat. Here she replaces Ra? Set [91: 19, 36] .
at the
known as 'The Betrayal,' was given by Man? ton Marble, editor of The New York World, the trusted organ of the party" [HMS, 420].
153. Mr Carlyle: John Griffin Carlisle, 1835? 1910, longtime congressman from Kentucky in both the House and the Senate. He was speaker of the House for 6 years and served in the Senate until Feb. 4, 1893, when he resigned to become secretary of the treasury during Grover Cleveland's second term. He is one of the unsung heroes in the long fight against the money barons. As ear? ly as 1878 he said: "The struggle now going on cannot cease, and ought not to cease, until all the industrial interests of the coun- try are fully and finally emancipated from the heartless domination of the syndicates, stock exchanges, and other great combina- tions of money-grabbers in this country and
in Europe" [Barnes, Carlisle, 36]. [As I write this, Dec. 23, 1982, a tragic irony is clear: the entire industrial world and the developing countries upon which we depend for materials and markets have been brought to the brink of monetary and fiscal disaster, not because the people cannot produce and distribute goods and services, but because of the operations of bankers and the vested interests that support them. Worst of all, no voice such as Carlisle's is heard in the media. The public debates concern "apples and oranges," while the solution to the problem is "preventive medicine"] .
desertion,
621
? ? ? i
622
97/675-677
97/677-678
623
168. 8a7TE7(30C:;: H, "flowering from heav- en," or the "celestial" Nile.
169. Maaovatv: H, "flitting about" rOd. X, 495, 102:41].
170. Bernice: Berenice, the wife of Ptole? my III, placed a lock of her hair in the shrine of her mother-in-law, Arsinoe, at Zephyrium as an earnest of her husband's return from war in Syria. The lock disappeared, but the court astronomer found it as a new constel- lation and called it Coma ["hair"] Berenices
[106:57].
171. folc-loristica: I, "folkloristic. "
172. reserpine: A tranquilizing drug once prepared from rauwolfia alkaloids.
173. Uncle William: W. B. Yeats. See such poems as "Dialogue of Self and Soul," and "Ego Dominus TUliS. "
174. per esempio: I, "for example. "
175. ooArX'IPETl1ot(J(: H, "long-oared. " Ho-
meric epithet [Od. , passim].
176. Ideogram: Jen [M3099], "perfect vir-
tue" or Hunselfishness. " Read left to right.
177. Ideogram: Wei [M7059], "to do or cause. "
preside over all earthly splendors, and she is Fortuna.
184. beata gode: I, "blessed, she enjoys" [Int. VII, 96]. Virgil says of Fortuna that, though cursed by mankind, she "turns her sphere and enjoys her bliss [beata si gode]. "
185. eel in sedge: Dante [Int. VII, 84] de- scribes the secret decisions of Fortuna as inscrutable to men: "hidden like a snake in the grass [oeeulto come in erba l'angue] . "
186.
132. Such suckers . . . Liverpool: The "Me- tallic School" taught that "the unit of mon- ey is both the whole volume of money and each indivisible fraction of it; money is me- tal, and metal is money; finally, the national honor is subject to the comparative output of the gold and silver mines! All these and many other sophistries will be found in the essays of Harris, Chevalier and Lord liver- pool" [HMS, 371]. This issue involves a central doctrine of Social Credit, now several hundred years old. One must understand why Hume, Von Humboldt, Douglas, Kit- son, Orage, Pound, and dozens of others found these arguments "sophistries" to un- derstand the central thesis of Social Credit.
To agree with the "Metallic School" is to agree that money is just a form of barter and not a legal instrument [Del Mar, Science, 25-56].
133. Cobden: "[These sophistries] led . . . Mr. Cobden to recommend corn rents and payments in kind. " A footnote says: "Che- valier's essays were published . . . shortly af- ter the opening of California. Most of the sophistries [are] . . . in the first chapter of his subsequent work 'The Fall in the Value of Gold,' translated by Cobden" [HMS, 371].
115. degradations
yet clearly understood that whatever degra- dation of money was committed by the em- perors, whatever debasement was afterwards committed by the kings, these have since been vastly exceeded by the dishonest use made of 'individual' coinage and the control of bank issues? Not at all. The Emperors of Rome controlled emissions . . . for thirteen centuries, and the kings and dukes for nearly four centuries afterwards; whilst the usurers
have held it to the present time, for about two centuries. . . . During these two centu- ries . . . more losses have been occasioned to the industrial classes . . . than were made by alI the degradations and debasements of the Imperial and regal periods put together. . . . 'The control of money' says an eloquent writer on the subject, 'is the ground upon which an international or cosmopolitan com- bination "finances" the world and "farms" humanity. ' " [HMS,330-331].
116. Kitson, Fenton . . . : Del Mar footnote identifying the eloquent writer: "Reginald Fenton, Esq. formerly of Kim- berly, South Africa, now of San Diego, Cali- fornia. 'The distribution of wealth and the exploitation of some men by others are de-
pendent upon money. ' Count Leo Tolstoi in his Essay on Money in Kitson's 'Scientific Solution of the Money Question'" [HMS, 33In. ; EH,Pai, 4-1,182-185].
117. Brooks Adams: American historian, 1848-1927, whose works, especially The Law o f Civilization and Decay, were admired
by Pound [SP, 307-309].
118. "Salzburg: Saltzburg. "In 1763 an im-
perial decree. ,. established a convention coinage rate [for North German States]: . . . 360. 8 grains fine siher to the riks thaler effectives . . . the Austrian 'effectives' struck under this convention actually contained but 353. 7 grains . . . Saltzburg alone struck them
of full weight" [HMS, 352].
119. The 1806 . . . years: "The paper notes
resemblance:
has a
3581/5; . . . Austria 1753 (nominally actually-3533/4" [HMS,358].
118
361 gr)
124. Bryan: William Jennings B. ,
1925. During Bryan's campaign for president in 1896, Arthur Kitson jumped on his free- silver bandwagon. Since Kitson was for de- monetizing silver, that seemed strange. After Bryan's death, Kitson said Bryan understood "that the real issue was to gain presidential control of the national credit" [EH, Pai, 4-1,
183]. Pound wrote to Stock years later: "William J. Bryan admitted to Arthur Kitson many years ago that the 'Free Silver' cam- paign was window dressing" [ibid. ].
1850-
97/673-674
619
usurers . . .
131. V on Hutnboldt:
von H. , 1769-1859, German scientist, ex- plorer, and natural philosopher, who served in the Prussian department of mines and afterwards made worldwide explorations.
the money-lenders and ter" [HMS, 370] .
knew bet-
Alexander
Freiherr
134. V on
more power to banks to issue money, "in the interest of international circulation," were opposed by some: "the declaration of Von Schultz, that to sign away the indepen- dence of the State in reference to money would constitute an act of treason. " A foot- note to this statement says: "Sir Wrn. Har- court said he was 'not willing to place the
Schultz:
Arguments
to extend
? ? 620
97/674
97/674-675
currency of England at the mercy of foreign States' " [HMS,378].
135. Frank Harris: 1854? 1931, a famous editor, critic, novelist, playwright and auto- biographer. In Blast, Pound includes him on the list of those to be blessed. Where or when he said this is not yet known. But the context suggests the banking industry's abili- ty to create money based on ambiguous backing.
136. Albuquerque . . . Goa: "Albuquer? que . . . raised the flag of Portugal upon the battlements of Goa. " Right away he issued "an unauthorized and debased coinage of gold, silver and copper . . . to relieve [so he
and selfish a spirit, that its arbiters have repeatedly plunged the commercial world in? to bankruptcy and confiscated . . . its accu- mulated earnings, either for their own bene- fit or else to save themselves from the effects of their own blundering" [HMS, 390].
142. ao? icx: H, "wisdom"
143. 7fian<:: H, "trust [in others]. " G. R. S Mead edited a Gnostic miscellany entitled
150. 1858 . . . : A
this entry: "1858-15. 0-The British Crown resumes its prerogative of the government of India. End of the East India Company"
[HMS, 397].
151. Sylla . . . Byzantium: A table entitled "The Roman Ratio" has these entries: "78 B. c. -9-Sylla. Social Wars. " And, "A. D. 1204-Alexis IV, sovereign? pontiff. Fall of the [Byzantine] Empire" [ibid. ].
152. "The signal . . . Marble": "In 1868, one of the two great national parties . . . [in favor of retaining] the greenback . . . was suddenly deserted by its leaders on the eve of the Presidential election and . . . defeated
coins . . .
fact] to buy the gold . . . and sell it . . . at
cent per cent profit" [HMS, 387? 388].
137. 18, CHARLES . . . 5: An act of Charles II which to Pound was the climax of a long process that finally put the right of coinage into the hands of banks. "The Brit- ish East India Company . . . struck idola? trous coins, under native permission, in 1620; and, with the door thus ajar to private coinage, it was easily pushed wide open. An intrigue with this object was introduced . . , during the reign of Charles I, which bIos? somed during that of his SOD, in the Act 18 Charles II. , c. 5, an Act that bargained away the Measure of Value" [HMS, 388].
138. 1816: "In 1816 the Crown was per? suaded to suspend the exercise of its power over the ratio. In this manner was silver demonetized. By the . . .
Mint Act of 1870 [of Queen Victoria] . . . the last remnant of a prerogative whose exercise is essential to the autonomy of the State was innocently surrendered to private hands" [HMS, 389].
139. "Victoria . . . ": [35:48]. The caption under a Max Beerbopm cartoon.
140. Ideogram: I [M3002], "right conduct" or "public spirit. "
141. Goldsmiths: Concerning the power of goldsmiths Del Mar says: "These tremendous powers have been wielded . . . in so narrow
at Washington, 1876" [HMS, 39In. ].
said] a local
dearth of
[but in
polls. . . .
The signal of
Pistis Sophia [Peck, Pai, 1? 1, 28]. 144. Gansl . . . death: "Consult the
writer's [Del Mar's] examination of Mr Albert Gansl, banker and agent of the Rothschilds before the U. S. Monetary Commission, printed . . .
. . .
146. "Portcullis . . . devices": In a table entitled "Ratio of Silver to Gold in India," we read: "1677-East India Company autho? rized by the British Crown [then Charles II] to coin gold, silver, copper, or lead, with its own devices" [HMS, 396].
": "The
145. "Duped
1873 were duped into doubling their indebt? edness [have dispensed] . . . with that mis? chief of Private Coinage. . . . Most of them now exercise. . . a more or less complete control over their own monetary systems"
[HMS, 392].
147. Assyria . . . somewhere:
epoch of Mahomet, . . every state in the West . . . [seemed] to value its gold coins at twice the quantity of silver for which they exchanged in the Orient. Such was the case with Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Macedon . . . and Imperial Rome" [HMS, 393].
148. (abbreviare): L, I, "to abridge, short? en. " Various tables in the source show that over the years [1650 B. C. to A. D. 1893] the differences between the Orient-to-West ra- tios became smaller [HMS, 394-400].
149. Steed: Henry Wickham S. (1871? 1956), foreign ed. of the London Times, author of numerous books, lecturer on Central Euro- pean history at King's College. Also owner and ed. of the Review o f Reviews, founded by W. T. Stead in 1890 [100: 107].
States which in
"Down to
the
table [cf. 146
above] has
154. Geryon: [51:16].
155. novelle piante: I, "new plants" [Pur. XXXII1, 143? 144]. The passage reads: "I turned myself remade like new plants with new leaves [novella fronda] ". Dante, atop Mount Purgatory, faces a new life by cutting away the old [JW].
156. Ideogram: Hsin [M2737]. Part of "Make new, day by day make new" on T'ang's washbasin [53:40-43]. Pound said of this ideogram: "[It] shows the fascist ax for the clearing away of rubbish . . . the tree, organic vegetable renewal" [J/M, 113].
157. Ideogram: Ch'in! [MlI07] , "rela? tives" or "people. " Pound translates the character, "the way people grow," in the Ta
Hio [CON,27].
158. Ideogram: Tan4 [M6037], "dawn. "
159. o[voc: cxi8[olj;: H, "wine-dark. " Homeric epithet. "Gloss" is the reflected shining [Peck, Pai, 1? 1,21? 23].
160. Sibilla . . . : OE, "Sibyl put it in a book" [91:54;CB? R,ZBC, 198].
161. C,Al7fOPrpVpo" H, "of sea purple. "
162. orixalxo: Form of orichalchi, "of cop?
per"[1:29].
163. xaladines: The last line of the Merrill sonnet quoted earlier, "En casque de cristal rose les baladines" [80:205], ends with this rhyme [78:72]. Merrill and Pound use the word to suggest a certain rare color in the eyes of the goddess. [MB, Trace, 355. 356, has good discussion. ]
164. nature the sign: [90:2].
165. San Marco: Cathedral in St. Mark's Square with emblematic lions set on pillars at the front. In Canto 102, the "smalltions are there in benevolence" [102/730].
166. Ideogram: Ling [M407l] , "sensiblity" [85: I].
167. Kuanon: [90/606]. The compassion? ate bodhisattva, who has her own salvation boat. Here she replaces Ra? Set [91: 19, 36] .
at the
known as 'The Betrayal,' was given by Man? ton Marble, editor of The New York World, the trusted organ of the party" [HMS, 420].
153. Mr Carlyle: John Griffin Carlisle, 1835? 1910, longtime congressman from Kentucky in both the House and the Senate. He was speaker of the House for 6 years and served in the Senate until Feb. 4, 1893, when he resigned to become secretary of the treasury during Grover Cleveland's second term. He is one of the unsung heroes in the long fight against the money barons. As ear? ly as 1878 he said: "The struggle now going on cannot cease, and ought not to cease, until all the industrial interests of the coun- try are fully and finally emancipated from the heartless domination of the syndicates, stock exchanges, and other great combina- tions of money-grabbers in this country and
in Europe" [Barnes, Carlisle, 36]. [As I write this, Dec. 23, 1982, a tragic irony is clear: the entire industrial world and the developing countries upon which we depend for materials and markets have been brought to the brink of monetary and fiscal disaster, not because the people cannot produce and distribute goods and services, but because of the operations of bankers and the vested interests that support them. Worst of all, no voice such as Carlisle's is heard in the media. The public debates concern "apples and oranges," while the solution to the problem is "preventive medicine"] .
desertion,
621
? ? ? i
622
97/675-677
97/677-678
623
168. 8a7TE7(30C:;: H, "flowering from heav- en," or the "celestial" Nile.
169. Maaovatv: H, "flitting about" rOd. X, 495, 102:41].
170. Bernice: Berenice, the wife of Ptole? my III, placed a lock of her hair in the shrine of her mother-in-law, Arsinoe, at Zephyrium as an earnest of her husband's return from war in Syria. The lock disappeared, but the court astronomer found it as a new constel- lation and called it Coma ["hair"] Berenices
[106:57].
171. folc-loristica: I, "folkloristic. "
172. reserpine: A tranquilizing drug once prepared from rauwolfia alkaloids.
173. Uncle William: W. B. Yeats. See such poems as "Dialogue of Self and Soul," and "Ego Dominus TUliS. "
174. per esempio: I, "for example. "
175. ooArX'IPETl1ot(J(: H, "long-oared. " Ho-
meric epithet [Od. , passim].
176. Ideogram: Jen [M3099], "perfect vir-
tue" or Hunselfishness. " Read left to right.
177. Ideogram: Wei [M7059], "to do or cause. "
preside over all earthly splendors, and she is Fortuna.
184. beata gode: I, "blessed, she enjoys" [Int. VII, 96]. Virgil says of Fortuna that, though cursed by mankind, she "turns her sphere and enjoys her bliss [beata si gode]. "
185. eel in sedge: Dante [Int. VII, 84] de- scribes the secret decisions of Fortuna as inscrutable to men: "hidden like a snake in the grass [oeeulto come in erba l'angue] . "
186.
