No More Learning

68. San Pietro: I, "St. Peter. " The castle and church of S1. Peter offer a magnificent panoramic view of Verona.
69. "quel naszhong": I, "what a nation. " Remark in accent by French child upon see- ing doors of San Zeno.
70. Ed: Edgar Williams, brother of the poet William Carlos Williams. In 1911 he was in Italy on an architectual scholarship and helped Pound find a column inscribed by the sculptor, "Adarninus. " E. W. asked "how the hell we could have any architecture when we ordered our columns by the gross" [HK, Era, 323].
71. Nanni: A lawyer and journalist at Forli and one of the few socialists with whom Mussolini had maintained friendly relations since his youth. Torquato N. wrote the first full biographical sketch of Mussolini in 1924. But in 1934 Mussolini let his old friend be sent to prison for not bending to Fascist orthodoxy. Later he was restored to favor and became a member of Mussolini's in-group during the Sala Republic; he was among those who were captured and shot with him and his mistress, Clara Petacci, at Como in 1945.
72. Battista: Cesare Battisti. He ran a Social- ist paper at Trent before WWI. When Mussol? ini was in Trent in 1909, he occasionally collaborated with Battisti by writing for the paper. Battisti was destined to die on the Austrian gallows for collaborating with the Italians in WWI. His fate influenced Mussol? ini to leave Avanti! , the official Socialist paper, and establish (Nov. 15, 1914) an "Intervention" paper: Il Popolo d'Italia: The Interventionists were a pro-Allied group in WWI.
73. Salo: The Sala Republic in Northern Italy, which Mussloini took over in 1943 as a subservient of Hitler after the fall of the Fascist government at Rome and his dis- missal by King Emanuele III.
74. (Arpinati): Leandro A. One of the
group captured with Mussolini during the attempted fiight from Salo. Pound presumes he died in the manner described, but the historical data are ambiguous.
75. Farinata: F. degli Uberti [78:79]. "Pudg'd" prob. describes a statue.
76. Can Grande's grin: Can Grande della Scala, the great friend and patron of Dante. A statue of Can Grande in the square at Verona shows him with a very toothfu1 smile. A photograph can be found in Ivancich, Ezra Pound in Italy.
82. quidity: The essential nature or "what- ness" of a thing which flows in "the pro- cess" from its virtu. Dante wrote: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, / and the proof of things not apparent, / and this I take to be its quiddity" [Par. XXIV, 64-65; JW translation: Pai, 2-2, 190] . Pound adap- ted the Italian quiditate [93/631; 103:7J.
83. fire . . . crystal . . . light: [Cf. 2, 3, 15 above J .
4 Rhea: The female Titan, wife of Saturn (Cronos) and mother of the chief gods, in- cluding Ceres (Demeter). Her Latin name was Cybele. In works of art she is often depicted seated on a throne with lions at her side or sometimes riding in a chariot drawn by lions.
85. Musonius: A philosopher colleague of Apollonius of Tyana [94:42] who was forced by Nero to dig the Corinth Canal as a slave laborer-but he did it in defiance of tyranny. Hence, the "tough guy" epithet and the "honor" by Pound [94: 114].
86. Ideogram: Tan [M6037] , "dawn. "
87. The arcanum: The mysterium, or final secrets, unrevealed in the rites of Eleusis except symbolically. Also, the final or secret aspirations of esoteric alchemy. Pound wrote: "The mysteries are not revealed, and no guide book to them has been or will be written" [L, 327].
88. Kc,811OV 8V7C,-rrW H, "Daughter of Cadmus. "
89. parapernalia: Paraphernalia. Leucothea, daughter of Cadmus, in the form of a seabird flew over the foundering raft of Odysseus and told him to get rid of the clothes Calyp? so had given him rOd. V, 331-357; 95:32]
90. Tlemousune: H, "Misery to be suffered with patience. "
91. Domitian: Titus Flavius D. , 51-96, Ro- man emperor. D. was a strict moralist (for others, but a man of unrestrained sensuality himself) who executed many people for lit- tle reason and many for plotting against his tyranny. His wife finally joined others in a
plot that resulted in his murder. At least twice he banished all philosophers from Rome, once while Apollonius, the traveling man of wisdom, was there. Apollonius, re- fusing to leave, was arrested and taken to court [Apol/onius, Bk. VIII, chap. 3; Neault, Poi, 4? 1,4].
92. "Is this a bath-house? ": As Apollonius waited before court, a clerk said to him, "Man of Tyana, you must enter the court with nothing on you," meaning he should have no papers or books. A. 's response, taking the remark to mean "no clothes," resulted in a witty reply which Pound gives as, "Is this a bathouse. . . or a Court House? " [ibid. J.
93. o,AAOT? . . . 8LWK? LV: H, "Has the east wind abandoned him for the west wind to play with? " rOd. V, 332]. Concerns the havoc the winds of Poseidon played with Odysseus's raft. Apollonius traveled much in the eastern countries and was always wel- comed by kings and wise men and treated with great honor and respect. But in the west (Rome) his life was in danger.
94. Apollonius: Like many wise men of old, A. was supposedly able to converse with animals. In Egypt a "whining and fawning" lion approached him as he was sitting in the temple. He explained to bystanders: "This lion is begging me to make you understand that a human soul is within him" [Pai,4-1, 27; 94:42J.
95. charitas insuperabilis: L, "love invinci- ble. " From Richard of St. Victor's Tractatus de Gradibus Charitatis [Treatise on the steps of love].
96. Heydon: [87:82]. John Heydon; secre- tary of nature, author of The Holy Guide, where in Bk. I, Ch. II, we read: " . . . but if God would give you leave and power to ascend to those high places I meane to these heavenly thoughts and studies . . . " [po 26J. And later: "for God, when he cast his mind upon the building of the world, he went to make a beautiful and goodly work, meet for the Power, Wisdome and Pleasure of such a Builder, and therefore a stirring and change-
77. T ommy Cochran: A boyhood
who lived next door to Pound in Jenkin- town. A photograph of the two sitting together can be seen in Stock's Ezra Pound's
Pennsylvania [po 24]. Can Grande's "grin" must have evoked a memory of a similar grin sported by Tommy Cochran when they were young. The same line appears in the Pisan Cantos, also associated with Farinata
[78:79].
78. Plenod' alegreca: S, "full of mirth. " the spelling may indicate a connotation of "in the Greek style. "
79. Rapunzel: OG, "lamb's lettuce. " The name of various plants used as salad greens. Also, the comic name of a Grimm's fairy tale. In "A Study in French Poets" [Instiga- tions, 62J, Pound described a Poem by Mon~as: "Mo[(~as was born in 1856, the year after Verhaeren, but his Madeline-aux- serpents might be William Morris on Rapunzel. "
80. Adah Lee, Ida: In 1906 Pound met Miss Adah Lee and Miss Ida Lee Mapel, ladies from Virginia, with whom he maintained a friendship for over 40 years. In 1919 he and Dorothy stayed at Ida Lee's Paris flat. Dur- ing the St. Elizabeths years, the Mapel ladies both lived in Washington and visited Pound regularly. Dorothy later described them to Stock as "two old ladies not used to having friends in gaol. " She said that "they were
invaluable" [NS, Life, 540].
81. Merlin's moder: [Cf. 49 above].
friend
,
,~
? 554
91/616
91/617,92/618
555
able work, because there might be no cun? ning shown, no delight taken in one ever like or still thing; but light fighting for speed, is ever best in such a ground: let us away, and follow" [po 28]. Heydon recommends that on should rule the desire for "honour and pleasure" and seek rather "Wisdorne and Vertue" [pp. 31. 32] and adds: "let us know
. first, that the minde of man being come from that high City of Heaven, desireth of her self to live still that heavenly life" [pp. 33? 34]. A few pages later Heydon writes: "the whole Creation is concerned in this Number four" [po 39]. In Bk. III Heydon writes: "And to say there is no such things as Pulchritude, and some say, there is no way to felicity" [po 87]. Speaking of the vision of Euterpe, Heydon writes [Bk. VI] : "her hour to Translation was come, and tak- ing as I thought our last leave, she past before my eyes into the Aether ofNature"
[WB in EH,Approaches, 313? 316].
97. Pythagoras: [Cf. II above]. Apollonius claimed himself to be a spiritual descendant of Pythagoras. Heydon claimed that both Pythagoras and Apollonius were able to be in two different places at the same time: hence, Apollonius "who was with Pytha? goras at Taormina" while being elsewhere with others [Neault,Pai, 4? 1,17].
98. Taormina: A town that flourished as a Greek colony. In E Sicily at the foot of Mt. Etna above the Ionian Sea. Apollonius taught philosophy there.
99. Porphyrius: Prophyry, A. D. 232/3? 305, a scholar-philosopher who studied under Longinus at Athens and became a devoted personal disciple of Plotinus at Rome. He edited the Enneads after 300. A prolific writer who adopted many Neoplatonic concepts.
100. NUXTo, . . . f}11? P<Y. : H, "But of the Night both day and skie were born" [Hesiod, Theogony II, 13 (Loeb)]. EP quotes the line from Heydon [Bk. II, Chapt. III, p. 13].
who attributes it to Plato.
101. Z'lVOS rrvpos: H, "Wheat of Zeus. "
Pound added these words to Hesiod to get a third element "born of night" [NeaUlt, Pai, 4? 1, IS].
102. "my bikini . . . ": Pound paraphrases the words of Leucothea rOd. V, 339? 350] when she told Odysseus to get rid of his water-logged clothes and raft and rely on her magic cloth: "kredemnon" [96: I].
103. celandine: Heydon believed that some beasts "have knowledge in the Virtue of Plants," so they will go to the right place for medicinal help [92:3].
104. before my eyes: [Cf. 96 above].
105. The water? bug's . . . : Pound sent the fragment that appears in The Cantos [p. 800] in a letter to Katue Kitasono. It ends with a variant of these lines. The letter contains a note about the "mittens": "If I were 30 years younger I would call 'em his boxing gloves. I wonder if it is clear that I mean the shadow of the 'mittens'? and can you ideograph it; very like petals of bios? soms" [L,348].
106. natrix: L, "water snake" [90:30].
107. NUTT: Nut, the Egyptian goddess Night, from which Day is born, is sometimes imaged as a cow arching over the earth. Budge renders a key inscription in this way: "[Hail] Osiris . . . living for ever, born of heaven, conceived of Nut. . . . Spreadeth her- self thy mother Nut over thee in her name of 'Mystery of heaven', she granteth that thou mayest exist as a god to thy foes" [Budge, Book of the Dead, 16]. Note the mystery? arcanum motif.
108. "mand'io a la Pinella": I, "I send to Pinella. "
109. Guido: G. Cavalcanti. Pound translated a line of his Sonnet XVII: "I send Pinella a river in full fiood" [T, 58]. Pinella was a lady to whom Bemado da Bologna wrote a sonnet. Cavalcanti wrote a sonnet to Ber- nado in reply "and explains why they have sweet waters in Galicia" [ibid. ]. Writing about Cavaleanti, Pound asks, "What is the magic river 'filled full of lamias' that Guido
sends to Pinella in return for her car- avan . . . ? [LE, 180].
110. "Ghosts . . . adorned": The source of the quote is unknown, but the intent seems clear: visions of other ladies adorn the mem- ory when the divine spirit animates the mind and heart.
111. "Et lehanne": L, "And Joan. " Joan of Arc came from Lorraine. Can we call her visionary experience lost to the world?
Pound's answer is, "Scarcely," if we allow the power of love to prevail.
112. 0 Queen Cytherea: Aphrodite, goddess of love.
113. che 'I terzo ciel movete: I, "which moves the third heaven" [Par. VIII, 37]. The whole line says "0 you who knowing" does the moving. Pound makes the lines re- fer back to the goddess of love [JW, Pai, 2? 2, 188].
CANTO XCII Sources
Dante, Pur. I, XXVIII,1nf X, Par. IX; Shakespeare, The Tempest I, ii; Cavalcanti, Ballata VII [T, III] ; Isaiah 1. 11; Joshua 2. 1? 24; Sordello, Le Poesie, ed. Marco Bono, Bologna, 1954.
Background
EP, NPL, 152; SR, 92; CON, 188; SP, 265; GK 229; John Read, The Alchemist in Life, Literature and Art, Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1947; Desmond Fitzgerald, Memoirs, ed. Fergus Fitzgerald, London, 1968; Francesco Guicciardini, Stana d'Italia, ed. Rosini, 10 vols. , Pisa, 1819; Roberto Ridolfi, The Life of Francesco Guicciardini, trans. Cecil Grayson, Knopf, 1968.
Exegeses
FR, Pai, 7? 2 & 3, 41; Akiko Miyake, Pai, 7? 2 & 3, 110; JW, Pai, 2? 2, 176? 181; J. Neault, Pai, 4? 1, 35; EH, Pai, 2? 3, 498-499; W. B. Michaels, Pai, 1? 1, 51; CE, Ideas, 110? 111; DD, Sculptor, 180? 181; HK,Era, 51? 53, 113, 412;MB, Trace, 303? 310.
Glossary
1. Mount: The mount of Purgatory, at whose summit is a dense forest high up in the air, with plants of such potency that if struck they scatter their virtue and their seed abroad. The lady tells Dante that because of
this, "the holy plain, where you are, is full of every seed" [Pur. XXVIII, 91? 120]. Pound spoke of ideas as seeds: "the thought once born. . . does lead an independent life . . . blowing seeds, ideas from the paradi?
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92/618
92/618-620
557
sal garden at the summit of Dante's Mount Purgatory, capable of lodging and sprouting where they fall" [NPL, 152] .
2. plant . . . seed: Pound wrote of
men, "their consciousness is 'germinal. ' Their thoughts are in them as the thought of the tree is in the seed, or in the grass, or the grain, or the blossom" [SR, 92].
3. weasel . . . celandine: Heydon [90:2] wrote: "Beasts have knowledge in the vertue of Plants. . . . The Weasel, when she is to encounter the Serpent, arms her self with eating of RlJe. . . . The SwaIlows make use of Celandine" [WB, in EH, Approaches, 312]. Divine intelligence works in all living things, according to "the plan that is in nature I rooted. " Pound said that beneath our kin~ ship with animals "is our kinship to the vital universe, to the tree, and the living rock"
[SR,92].
4. engraven . . . silver: In the numerical sys- tem of the Pythagorean alchemist, metals had their numbers engraved on them [MB, Trace, 304].
S. unity . . . frankincense: Evokes the
ence of the alchemist's laboratory and pro- vides a link with the opening of Thrones [96:3].
6. a sea-change: A metamorphosis as in Shakespeare's "suffer a sea-change / Into something rich and strange" [Tempest, I, ii]. Here, not base metal into gold but the mate- rial into the spiritual is queried.
7. Fitzgerald: Desmond F. , 1888-1947, Irish nationalist who fought in the Easter rising in Dublin in 1916. In the later years of the revolution and after Ireland's independence was established, a test of whether a person was really a founder of the Irish Free State was whether he was present in the post of- fice, the headquarters of the insurgents, dur- ing the rising. In the 20s and 30s a number of Irish patriots claimed they were there when they were not. Fitzgerald's "I was" is supported by fact. Three days after the post office was burned, he was arrested, but he was later released. After the new state was
consolidated, he became the minister for ex- ternal affairs and, later, minister for defence, but he lost office when Valera came to power in 1932. As a young man he was a member of the imagist group in London. According to Fitzgerald's son Fergus, it was his father and Florence Farr who introduced Pound to the imagist group [Fitzgerald,
Memoirs].
8. freed a man: Grattan Freyer writes: "Fitzgerald was a fearless fighter, as well as poet and philosopher. " When the post office was under fire he prob. did not take cover and was later accused of foolhardiness. In later years when people who falsely claimed to have been at the post office were ex- posed, D. F. "did his utmost to discourage recrimination against those who had played less heroic or divisive roles" [letter to editor] .
13. Ra-Set: [91:19].
14. e piove d'amor / in mil: I, "love is rain- ing / within us. " Phrases from Cavalcanti's Ballata VII [T, III].
15. ghosts dipping . . . : [91: 110] .
16. Pinella: [91:109].
17. Hewlett: [80:417]. Besides novels, he wrote travel accounts of Italy (such as The Road in Tuscany), retold Icelandic sagas, and wrote a lot of narrative poetry. The quote is prob. a memory of the closing lines of "Leta's Child," by Hewlett, where from prison he sees his love "Snow-white on some peak blue and cold, / Moon-toucht, and see thy rapt soul hold / Communion; see thee, from my bars, / Drink, motionless, the eter-
nal stars" [JE].
18. rain . . . silver: Replay of goden rain mo- tif [4:33] with Diana, and echo of "love is raining within us" [cf. 14 above].
19_ La Luna Regina: I, "The Moon Queen": Diana.
20. Ecbatan: [4:32]. City of "Dioce whose terraces are the color of stars" [74:8]. It was built on a hill and surrounded by 7 walls, each one higher than the other; the 6th wall was silver and the 7th, which con- tained the palace of the king, was gold.
21. Anubis: The Egyptian jackal god-his home was. the cosmic mountain-who guarded the "tent of the ? ritual resurrection known as Osirification" [B de R, Approaches, 178]. Pound evoked Anubis in an early poem, "Before Sleep" [P, 147]. The "cel- lula" corresponds to the sanctum sanctorum of temples [Miyake, Pai, 7-1 & 2, 110].