[65:56; 70:50], American
physician
and political figure, with whom John Adams had a lifelong correspon- dence.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
auditum: L, "and dolphins to the hearing.
"
flying
beautiful
? ? ? ? 568
93/631-632
93/632
569
157. un . . . spiriti: J, "a light filled with spirits. " From the opening to Cava1canti's Ballata V [T, 106].
study see Colin McDowell, "Bridge Over Worlds," Pai, 13? 1].
163. Ian Hamilton: General I. H. , 1853? 1947, an Irish officer who served in the English army. Yeats's opinion changed. In a letter to his father [Nov. 29, 1909] he said the general was "a man of the really finest culture, as fine as that of anybody I've ever met" [Wade, Letters of Yeats, 541]. But in a later letter to his father [Sept. 12,1914], he wrote: "I hear that Ian Hamilton has written home that his men are heroic but can achieve nothing because all the officers are incompetent" [ibid. , 588].
164. antennae: The sensitivity to the sur- rounding world: the body is in the soul, not the soul [only] in the body [98:20].
165. malevolence: As a real force, it is con- tinuously operating, not as an external per- sonification but as a tendency to the dilu- tion of positive human emotions such as love and compassion. Said Pound: "The Lord of terrible aspect is real and no mere personifi- cation; there are some who either cannot or will not understand this. "
166. Six ways . . . : Whereas some sectarian religions presume a transcedent personfied deity invoked only at specific times, Pound's religion assumes that divinity, which he caUs "intimate essence" [SP, 49], operates through the persona continuously as a state of mind: "A god is an eternal state of mind . . . a god [is] manifest. . . . When the states of mind take form" [SP,47].
167. Without guides: "Concerning the inti- mate essence of the universe we are utterly ignorant" [SP,49].
168. Flora Castalia: [90:5]. The earlier ref- erence implied spring. With the petals drif? ting in the air, the canto has come to autumn.
169. diafana: I, a "transcendent screen through which light can come, but through which one cannot see behind to the source of the light" [ef. 110 above].
170. e Monna Vanna: I, "and Madonna Gio- vanna," an endearing diminutive for Guido Cavalcanti's lady love.
171. tu mi fai rimembrar: I, "you call to mind. " From Dante's picture of the Earthly
Paradise, in the conversation (across a stream) with the nymph Matilda, to whom he says: "You call to mind where and what Proserpine was when her mother lost her and she the spring" [Pur. XXVII, 49-51].
158. Persephone's . . .
that Virgil led Dante through.
underworld-
159. E "chi crescera": I, "And 'who will increase'" [89:2].
160. Swedenborg: [89:3; 94:81].
161. "Blind eyes . . . ": From an
Pound poem, "Ballatetta": "The light be? came her grace and dwelt among / Blind eyes
and shadows that are formed as men; / La, how the light doth melt us into song"
[P . 38].
162. to enter . . . velocities: Pound said in a letter [3 Feb. 1957] to Wyndham Lewis: "F. Masai on Plethon notes that gods are gods cause they got more hilaritas than the animal electoral, and also that they COM- MUNICA TE more rapidly with each other" [Materer, "Ez to WynDAMN," 156]. This vortex (a complex of images in a cone- whlrling action) is a vitally important fugal leitmotif, which as it connects with other moments in the poem, expresses some of the Arabic-Moslem, Christian-Dante metaphors for the way to paradise, and climaxes with the "bridge over worlds" on the last page of the poem. The "gate" to the "way" is seen as the lost lane into heaven. One must find the narrow gate that opens onto a path lead- ing up from the labyrinth to a corridor (1/2 inch wide? [105:14]) and thence to the narrowest of bridges. As Asin [Islam and the Divine Comedy] puts it: "Over a turbid rio ver, in the Pauline vision, stretches a bridge as fine as a hair [italics Asin's], connecting this world with paradise; this bridge the righ? teous souls cross with ease, but the wicked fall into the river" [po 183]. The gates at Canto 47/236? 237 anticipate this passage, which anticipates others: the line at 94/634, "And that all gates are holy," as well as "bab,gate" [100:63], and TSO, the rope bridge between heaven and earth used by the Na? khi gods [101 :51]. [For an analytical
: The
early
CANTO XCIV Sources
John Adams, Old Family Letters, compiled by Alexander Biddle, Philadelphia, 1892 [Biddle]; Charles Rollin, The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Grecians, and Macedonians, 8 vols. , Philadelphia, 1829; Raymond De Roover, The Medici Bank, New York Univer? sity Press, 1948 [Roover, Medici]; S. P. Scott, trans. , Corpus Juris Civilis. . . , vols. 2, II, 12, 13, 16, 17,rpt. New York, AMS Press, 1973 [Scott]; Corpo Del Diritto, corredato delle note di Dionisio Gotofredo, e di C. E. Freiesleben, altrimenti Ferromon- tano. Per cura del consigliere Giovanni Vignali, Napoli: presso Vincenzo Pezzuti, editore, vols. I, 2, 7, 8, 10, 1856 [Vignali]; Philostratus, The Life o f Apollonius o f Tyana, trans. F. C. Cony? beare, 2 vols. , Harvard University Press (Loeb 16) [P, Life] ; L. A. Waddell, Egyptian Civilization: Its Sumerian Origin, London, 1930; G. R. S. Mead, Apollonius of Tyana, The Philosopher- Reformer o f the First Century A. D. , London, 190 I [Mead, A o f T] ; Agnes Strickland, Lives o f the Queens o f England, London, 1864 [Queens].
Background
EP, LE, 160; SP, 333; The Spur o f Fame, Dialogues o f John Adams and Benjamin Rush, 1805-1813, ed. John A. Schutz and Douglass Adair, Huntington Library, 1966; Yogi Ramacharaka, Hatha Yoga, L. N. Fowler, London (continuous undated re- prints); Eike Haberland, ed. , Leo Frobenius 1873-1983: An An-
thology, trans. Patricia Crampton, Franz Steiner, 1973.
Exegeses
DG, Pai, 11? 1,99? 101; Pai, 3? 2, 164;Pai, 4? 2 & 3,554; MSB, Pai, 3-3, 334; WF, Pai, 11? 1, 39-49; J. Neault, Pai, 4-1,3? 36; JW, Later, 8? 101; P. Surette, Pai, 2? 2, 337? 338; HK, "Under the
? ? ? ? 570
94/633
94/633
571
Larches of Paradise," in Gnomon: Essays on Contemporary Liter- ature, New York, 1958; W. McNaughton, Pai, 3-3, 320; J. Neault, Pai, 3-2,226; DD, Pai, 6-1, 101-107; A. Miyake, Pai, 7-1 & 2, 98-99; CE, Ideas, 158-159; MB Trace, 324-326.
Glossary
Dejoces, several strokes, which are very curi- ous, as they resemble the Politicks of so many of our Countrymen, though the whole Character taken together is far inferiour in Purity and Magnanimity to that of Washing- ton" [Biddle, 164-165]. In two pages of description JA traces the actions of Dioce until he is finally prevailed upon by the people to be their king. He consents to this only if they will build a capital city in a certain way: '''Within the last and smallest enclosure stood the Kings Palace. In the next were several appartments for lodging the of- ficers. The Name of the City was Ecbatana'" [ibid. , 166]. JA draws parallels between the building of Ecbatan [4:32J and the building of the city of Washington, which he (JA) had been dead set against. He closes his letter: "Read the Chapter in Rollin. Wash- ington was more sincere than Dejoces; but I am persuaded he had read this description of him" [ibid. , 167]. The association of the characters with Dioces was made by Pound to Sheri Martinelli [DG, Pai, II-I, 99-10 I] .
7. Rollin: Charles Rollin, 1661-1741, French educator who Was rector of the Uni- versity of Paris (1694-1695) and coadj utor of the College de Beauvais (1699-1711). He was removed from this position because of his sympathies with the Jansenists and was in later years restored, removed, and re- stored again. He is known to scholars for his Traite des Etudes (1726-1731), a book about the duties of a college rector. But he became famous through his popular works
on ancient history [cf. sources above].
8. re / Lincoln: Benjamin L. , 1733-1810, American general from Hingham, Mass. , who was active in the provisional congresses and many battles of the revolutionary war. Wash- ington appointed him to receive the sword of Cornwallis. Later he was a member of the commission that in 1789 formed a treaty with the Creek Indians. In his final years he took a great interest in science and wrote papers that received marked attention. He was an unselfish, dedicated public man. John Adams attended his funeral (he died May 9, ISI0), and in a letter to Rush dated 14 May,
bewailed the fact that the official obsequies had not been further enlarged: "The day before yesterday I went to Hingham to con- voy to the tomb my . . . Friend Lincoln. . . . A cold unanimated and ignorant sketch of his life and Character was pronounced by his own Parson. . . . A long Train . . . of Rela- tions and Neighbors walked in Procession. No Arms; No Militia, no Regulars! . . . Lin- coIn's Education, his Reading his general Knowledge, his Talent at Composition was superiour to Washingtons" [Biddle, 256].
1. Brederode: Hendrik, Count of B. , 1531- 1568, Dutch nobleman who became a leader in the revolt of the Netherlands from Spain. In 1564 he joined other great nobles who began making demands upon Philip II of Spain. Most of the nobility, including Catho- lics, were appalled at the severity of the Inquisition against the Protestants. But many of the great nobles, including for a few years William, Prince of Orange, would do little more than appeal to Philip for compas-
sion and leniency. which would mean a re- laxation of edicts-something Philip would by no means sanction. When the greater no- bles became divided, Brederode became an activist leader of the lesser nobles. A Cal- vinist attack on Catholic churches in 1566 led to military repression and a demand for an oath of allegiance from the nobility. Bre- derode refused the oath and began recruiting troops. "He became the chief military leader
of the rebels when William, Prince of Orange (later William I, the Silent), wavered" [EB (Micropaedia),1978].
2. Rush: Benjamin R.
[65:56; 70:50], American physician and political figure, with whom John Adams had a lifelong correspon- dence. In a letter dated April 4, 1790, JA speculates on the way fame is given by his~ tory and asserts that "The History of our Revolution will be one continued Lye from one end to the other. The essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklin's electrical Rod, smote the Earth and out sprong Gen- eral Washington. That Franklin electrified him with his rod-and thence forward these two conducted all the Policy, Negotiations, legislatures and War [JA's italics]. These un-
derscored Lines contain the whole Fable Plot and Catastrophy" [Biddle, 55]. To il- lustrate historical injustice, JA says: "But this my Friend . . . is the Fate of all ages and
Nations; and there is no resource in human nature for a Cure. Brederode did more in the Dutch Revolution than William I st Prince of Orange. Yet Brederode is forgotten and Wil- liam [is called] the Savior, Deliverer and Founder" [ibid. , 56].
3. Blue Jay: Prob. Sheri Martinelli, who dur- ing her visits to St. Elizabeths lived in nearby Alexandria, Va. , which suggested the city of Alexandria in Egypt, which in turn may have suggested the following characters to des~ cribe the son of Philip of Macedon and then Rollin's historical works [cf. 7 below].
4. T'ai: [M6020], "very. "
5. Wu: [M7195], "military" or "violent. "
6. Tzu: [M6939], "son. " The characters in this sequence do not occur elsewhere either in the works of Pound or in any of his known sources. Prob. Pound invented the phrase with two intents: (I) to suggest Alex- ander the Great, who Rollin says, "was of a violent, fiery temper" [Ancient History, Bk.
XV, vol. 5, p. 16]; and (2) to suggest by sound the city of Dioce [74:S]. T, as in tao, has the sound of d; Pound may not have recalled that t' does not. A JA letter to Rush
[Sept. 1807] evokes the notion and ties several references on this canto page togeth- er. JA, thinking by pen that Washington didn't have much educabon, wonders where he got what he had and comes up with a theory: "I will tell you what I conjecture. Rollins ancient History you know is very generally diffused through this Country, be- cause it has been and is in England. The
Reading of most of our Men of Letters ex- tends little further than this Work. . . . From Rollin I suspect Washington drew his Wis- dom . . . in the History of the Kingdom of the Medes, there are in the Character of
9. depreciations . . . peopleH
Rush dated June 21, ISII, JA says about banks and usurers and the arts they use in cheating the people: "But all these Arts are not equal to that of making immense for- tunes . . . by a financiering operation, which substitutes a Paper Money, whose immense depreciations go into the Pocketts of a few individuals in Lieu of a Paper Money whose depreciations are in favour of the whole Peo- ple" [Biddle, 28SJ.
10. Mr Adams: The longer JA watched the iniquity of bankers the more outraged he became [71: 101]. In many letters to Rush he indulged that outrage and castigated banks for using their power to defeat honest men at the polls [Biddle, 272, 276-277J and even to gull people into helping the bank to cheat them: "The Rage for Banks is a Fever a Mania. . . . Every Bank in America is an enourmous Tax upon the People for the Profit of Individuals. . . . Our Banks are the madness of the Many for the Profit of a Few. . . . Our Banks are all founded upon a fundamental Principle of Iniquity" [ibid. , 281]. Thus he saw through their "hoax" to their responsibility for "the corruption of history," referred to at the top of the next canto page.
II. Suvitch: Fulvio Suvich (b. 1887), Italian statesman who helped negotiate the Franco- Italian Rome Agreement of 1935, which per- mitted M to go ahead in Ethiopia. He was well connected in Geneva and was led to believe that Britain would make no serious protest about extending Italian Somaliland
:
In a letter to
? ? ? 572
94/633-634
94/634
573
because of the primitive and brutalized state of the Ethiopian peasants [104:24]. But he so firmly opposed the rapprochement of Italy and Germany that he was sent as am~ bassador to Washington to get him out of the way. Pound himself was uncertain of the name. In a letter to Olivia Agresti [9 Aug.
1953] he said: "NO use creating such a panic and dither as THOUGHT did at that time in little Suvitch (if that was his name). " The occasion for Suvieh's shattering re- sponse, said Pound, was "when I spoke of finance" [Folder 77, Beinecke; BK]. The implication is that if people really knew what banks were up to, it would create an explosion.
12. dinamite: I, "dynamite. "
13. the Medici . . . : [45/230]. In The Medi- ci Bank [Roover, Medici], Pound read: "As deposits poured in, it became increasingly difficult to find suitable investments. . . . Rather than refuse deposits, the Medici . . .
[sought] an outlet for surplus cash in mak? ing dangerous loans to princes. This policy proved to be their undoing" [BK and TCDE, Pai, 11? 2, 282]. But the problem was not that simple: "The Medici lost in more than one way: First because gold prices of COID- modities fell steadily, and secondly because much business was done with countries . . . whose silver currency was depreciating in terms of gold. . . . While assets thus tended to shrink in value, liabilities remained the same because the Medici owed gold . . . to
depositors. As the purchasing power of gold increased, interest charges payable in gold became more and more burdensome. . . . The assets, as they declined in value, reduced the owner's equity, until there was nothing left" [Roover, Medici, 60].
IS. l'AMOR: I, "Love. " The "civic order" makes the lines into a Confucian concept
[DG,Pai, 3? 2,164].
16. Frate Egidio: I, "Brother Egidio. " Prob. the author of a treatise on Donna mi Prega consulted by Pound, who wrote: "Frate Egi? dio (Colonna, Romano, il beato, degli Agos- tiniani) goes round it [that is, a problem in the ms. of the Donna]. . ' He begins his
commentary with a graceful description of a notable lady" [LE, 160] .
17. per la mente: I, "through the mind. " Source of the line "who shd / mistake . . . " is unkown, but the intent is a rhyme with the lack of precision in language as in "drive screws with a hammer" [104/741], as devel- oped in "Axiomata" [SP,49. 52] and in the
discrimination concerning prana in the next gloss.
18. prana: [pranja]: Skt, "absolute ener- gy. " A major concept of Hindu occultism: "We may consider it as the active principle- Vital Force, if you please. It is found in all forms of life, from the amoeba to man- from the most elementary form of plant life to the highest form of animal life. Prana is "all pervading, . . . Prana must not be coun~ founded with the ego-that bit of Divine Spirit in every soul, around which clusters matter and energy. Prana is merely a form of
energy used by the Ego in its material mani- festation. When the Ego leaves the body, the prana, being no longer under its control, responds only to the orders of the individual atoms, or groups of atoms, forming the body, and as the body disintegrates and is
resolved to its original elements, each atom takes with it sufficient prana . . . to form new combinations. . . , With the Ego in con- trol, cohesion exists and the atoms are held together by the will of the Ego" [Ramacha- raka, Hatha Yoga, 157-158]. The concept is seminal in Pound's thinking. It overlaps and reinforces other seminal concepts such as virtu and directio voluntatis. Hatha Yoga devotes two chapters to the subject, taken up in more detail in other books by Yogi Ramacharaka. The foregoing quote is from a chapter entitled "Pranic Energy. " Another
chapter is called "Pranic Exercises" [ibid. , 166-175]. Pound didn't talk much about yoga at St. Elizabeths, but he routinely did some of the rhythmic breathing exercises. He also assumed his version of the lotus position and did some of the mental rituals that correlate with Richard of St. Victor's final stage in cogitatio, meditatio, and COn~ templatio [SP, 333; 85:52]. To flow with
the forces of divinity unfolding is to partici- pate in the process [Booth, Pai, 3? 3, 334; WF, Pai, 11? 1, 39-49]. The process flows through the many stages described in the metaphors of light, crystal, and finally, jade.
19. clover . . . time: Restatement of recur~ rent theme: the green world alive outlasts any structure of the earth or creation of man-basalt: (1) a dense, dark volcanic rock; (2) a black, unglazed pottery. "Learn of the green world what can be thy place"
[81/521] [DG,Pai,4? 2&3,554].
20. gates . . . holy: Gates into life and out of life: deaths and entrances [47: 10]. In Pandects, Bk. I, Title 8, we read that some things come under human law and others under divine law: "Sacred things are for ex~ ample, walls and gates, which, to a certain extent, are under divine law" [for the Latin
Antoninus upon the city of Tyre" [Scott, vol. 2,259].
26. Antoninus: [78:56]. Roman emperor, 137-166, who started the tradition of look? ing at law and money wisely.
27. Tyre: The "this" refers to the "Italian Law" of the time, which Paulus, the great jurist, gave to the city of Tyre.
28. Paulus: Julius P. , 2d century A. D. , a legal adviser of Septimius Severus and indus- trious author of some 300 books on the law of his time. The Digests of Justinian are almost one-sixth of his work.
29. Consul: One of the two chief magis. trates ruling conjointly in the Roman repub~ lic. A prefect in ancient Rome acted as a magistrate, governor, or commander. Sources refer to Paulus as a prefect but not a consul. The "7th of December" is not in the sources.
30. the "Code": It concerned bishops, other clergy, and superintendents of orphanages, hospitals, and charitable foundations for the aid and protection of old men, strangers, captives, and the sick. Grants of money were to be made: "For this, indeed, seems to be necessary, as the support and education of boys and poor persons depend upon these grants. " These activities go beyond the call of "civic order" and indicate the compassion and wisdom of feeding the people, one of Pound's tests of a good ruler, as with the
Egyptian Antef [93 :4].
flying
beautiful
? ? ? ? 568
93/631-632
93/632
569
157. un . . . spiriti: J, "a light filled with spirits. " From the opening to Cava1canti's Ballata V [T, 106].
study see Colin McDowell, "Bridge Over Worlds," Pai, 13? 1].
163. Ian Hamilton: General I. H. , 1853? 1947, an Irish officer who served in the English army. Yeats's opinion changed. In a letter to his father [Nov. 29, 1909] he said the general was "a man of the really finest culture, as fine as that of anybody I've ever met" [Wade, Letters of Yeats, 541]. But in a later letter to his father [Sept. 12,1914], he wrote: "I hear that Ian Hamilton has written home that his men are heroic but can achieve nothing because all the officers are incompetent" [ibid. , 588].
164. antennae: The sensitivity to the sur- rounding world: the body is in the soul, not the soul [only] in the body [98:20].
165. malevolence: As a real force, it is con- tinuously operating, not as an external per- sonification but as a tendency to the dilu- tion of positive human emotions such as love and compassion. Said Pound: "The Lord of terrible aspect is real and no mere personifi- cation; there are some who either cannot or will not understand this. "
166. Six ways . . . : Whereas some sectarian religions presume a transcedent personfied deity invoked only at specific times, Pound's religion assumes that divinity, which he caUs "intimate essence" [SP, 49], operates through the persona continuously as a state of mind: "A god is an eternal state of mind . . . a god [is] manifest. . . . When the states of mind take form" [SP,47].
167. Without guides: "Concerning the inti- mate essence of the universe we are utterly ignorant" [SP,49].
168. Flora Castalia: [90:5]. The earlier ref- erence implied spring. With the petals drif? ting in the air, the canto has come to autumn.
169. diafana: I, a "transcendent screen through which light can come, but through which one cannot see behind to the source of the light" [ef. 110 above].
170. e Monna Vanna: I, "and Madonna Gio- vanna," an endearing diminutive for Guido Cavalcanti's lady love.
171. tu mi fai rimembrar: I, "you call to mind. " From Dante's picture of the Earthly
Paradise, in the conversation (across a stream) with the nymph Matilda, to whom he says: "You call to mind where and what Proserpine was when her mother lost her and she the spring" [Pur. XXVII, 49-51].
158. Persephone's . . .
that Virgil led Dante through.
underworld-
159. E "chi crescera": I, "And 'who will increase'" [89:2].
160. Swedenborg: [89:3; 94:81].
161. "Blind eyes . . . ": From an
Pound poem, "Ballatetta": "The light be? came her grace and dwelt among / Blind eyes
and shadows that are formed as men; / La, how the light doth melt us into song"
[P . 38].
162. to enter . . . velocities: Pound said in a letter [3 Feb. 1957] to Wyndham Lewis: "F. Masai on Plethon notes that gods are gods cause they got more hilaritas than the animal electoral, and also that they COM- MUNICA TE more rapidly with each other" [Materer, "Ez to WynDAMN," 156]. This vortex (a complex of images in a cone- whlrling action) is a vitally important fugal leitmotif, which as it connects with other moments in the poem, expresses some of the Arabic-Moslem, Christian-Dante metaphors for the way to paradise, and climaxes with the "bridge over worlds" on the last page of the poem. The "gate" to the "way" is seen as the lost lane into heaven. One must find the narrow gate that opens onto a path lead- ing up from the labyrinth to a corridor (1/2 inch wide? [105:14]) and thence to the narrowest of bridges. As Asin [Islam and the Divine Comedy] puts it: "Over a turbid rio ver, in the Pauline vision, stretches a bridge as fine as a hair [italics Asin's], connecting this world with paradise; this bridge the righ? teous souls cross with ease, but the wicked fall into the river" [po 183]. The gates at Canto 47/236? 237 anticipate this passage, which anticipates others: the line at 94/634, "And that all gates are holy," as well as "bab,gate" [100:63], and TSO, the rope bridge between heaven and earth used by the Na? khi gods [101 :51]. [For an analytical
: The
early
CANTO XCIV Sources
John Adams, Old Family Letters, compiled by Alexander Biddle, Philadelphia, 1892 [Biddle]; Charles Rollin, The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Grecians, and Macedonians, 8 vols. , Philadelphia, 1829; Raymond De Roover, The Medici Bank, New York Univer? sity Press, 1948 [Roover, Medici]; S. P. Scott, trans. , Corpus Juris Civilis. . . , vols. 2, II, 12, 13, 16, 17,rpt. New York, AMS Press, 1973 [Scott]; Corpo Del Diritto, corredato delle note di Dionisio Gotofredo, e di C. E. Freiesleben, altrimenti Ferromon- tano. Per cura del consigliere Giovanni Vignali, Napoli: presso Vincenzo Pezzuti, editore, vols. I, 2, 7, 8, 10, 1856 [Vignali]; Philostratus, The Life o f Apollonius o f Tyana, trans. F. C. Cony? beare, 2 vols. , Harvard University Press (Loeb 16) [P, Life] ; L. A. Waddell, Egyptian Civilization: Its Sumerian Origin, London, 1930; G. R. S. Mead, Apollonius of Tyana, The Philosopher- Reformer o f the First Century A. D. , London, 190 I [Mead, A o f T] ; Agnes Strickland, Lives o f the Queens o f England, London, 1864 [Queens].
Background
EP, LE, 160; SP, 333; The Spur o f Fame, Dialogues o f John Adams and Benjamin Rush, 1805-1813, ed. John A. Schutz and Douglass Adair, Huntington Library, 1966; Yogi Ramacharaka, Hatha Yoga, L. N. Fowler, London (continuous undated re- prints); Eike Haberland, ed. , Leo Frobenius 1873-1983: An An-
thology, trans. Patricia Crampton, Franz Steiner, 1973.
Exegeses
DG, Pai, 11? 1,99? 101; Pai, 3? 2, 164;Pai, 4? 2 & 3,554; MSB, Pai, 3-3, 334; WF, Pai, 11? 1, 39-49; J. Neault, Pai, 4-1,3? 36; JW, Later, 8? 101; P. Surette, Pai, 2? 2, 337? 338; HK, "Under the
? ? ? ? 570
94/633
94/633
571
Larches of Paradise," in Gnomon: Essays on Contemporary Liter- ature, New York, 1958; W. McNaughton, Pai, 3-3, 320; J. Neault, Pai, 3-2,226; DD, Pai, 6-1, 101-107; A. Miyake, Pai, 7-1 & 2, 98-99; CE, Ideas, 158-159; MB Trace, 324-326.
Glossary
Dejoces, several strokes, which are very curi- ous, as they resemble the Politicks of so many of our Countrymen, though the whole Character taken together is far inferiour in Purity and Magnanimity to that of Washing- ton" [Biddle, 164-165]. In two pages of description JA traces the actions of Dioce until he is finally prevailed upon by the people to be their king. He consents to this only if they will build a capital city in a certain way: '''Within the last and smallest enclosure stood the Kings Palace. In the next were several appartments for lodging the of- ficers. The Name of the City was Ecbatana'" [ibid. , 166]. JA draws parallels between the building of Ecbatan [4:32J and the building of the city of Washington, which he (JA) had been dead set against. He closes his letter: "Read the Chapter in Rollin. Wash- ington was more sincere than Dejoces; but I am persuaded he had read this description of him" [ibid. , 167]. The association of the characters with Dioces was made by Pound to Sheri Martinelli [DG, Pai, II-I, 99-10 I] .
7. Rollin: Charles Rollin, 1661-1741, French educator who Was rector of the Uni- versity of Paris (1694-1695) and coadj utor of the College de Beauvais (1699-1711). He was removed from this position because of his sympathies with the Jansenists and was in later years restored, removed, and re- stored again. He is known to scholars for his Traite des Etudes (1726-1731), a book about the duties of a college rector. But he became famous through his popular works
on ancient history [cf. sources above].
8. re / Lincoln: Benjamin L. , 1733-1810, American general from Hingham, Mass. , who was active in the provisional congresses and many battles of the revolutionary war. Wash- ington appointed him to receive the sword of Cornwallis. Later he was a member of the commission that in 1789 formed a treaty with the Creek Indians. In his final years he took a great interest in science and wrote papers that received marked attention. He was an unselfish, dedicated public man. John Adams attended his funeral (he died May 9, ISI0), and in a letter to Rush dated 14 May,
bewailed the fact that the official obsequies had not been further enlarged: "The day before yesterday I went to Hingham to con- voy to the tomb my . . . Friend Lincoln. . . . A cold unanimated and ignorant sketch of his life and Character was pronounced by his own Parson. . . . A long Train . . . of Rela- tions and Neighbors walked in Procession. No Arms; No Militia, no Regulars! . . . Lin- coIn's Education, his Reading his general Knowledge, his Talent at Composition was superiour to Washingtons" [Biddle, 256].
1. Brederode: Hendrik, Count of B. , 1531- 1568, Dutch nobleman who became a leader in the revolt of the Netherlands from Spain. In 1564 he joined other great nobles who began making demands upon Philip II of Spain. Most of the nobility, including Catho- lics, were appalled at the severity of the Inquisition against the Protestants. But many of the great nobles, including for a few years William, Prince of Orange, would do little more than appeal to Philip for compas-
sion and leniency. which would mean a re- laxation of edicts-something Philip would by no means sanction. When the greater no- bles became divided, Brederode became an activist leader of the lesser nobles. A Cal- vinist attack on Catholic churches in 1566 led to military repression and a demand for an oath of allegiance from the nobility. Bre- derode refused the oath and began recruiting troops. "He became the chief military leader
of the rebels when William, Prince of Orange (later William I, the Silent), wavered" [EB (Micropaedia),1978].
2. Rush: Benjamin R.
[65:56; 70:50], American physician and political figure, with whom John Adams had a lifelong correspon- dence. In a letter dated April 4, 1790, JA speculates on the way fame is given by his~ tory and asserts that "The History of our Revolution will be one continued Lye from one end to the other. The essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklin's electrical Rod, smote the Earth and out sprong Gen- eral Washington. That Franklin electrified him with his rod-and thence forward these two conducted all the Policy, Negotiations, legislatures and War [JA's italics]. These un-
derscored Lines contain the whole Fable Plot and Catastrophy" [Biddle, 55]. To il- lustrate historical injustice, JA says: "But this my Friend . . . is the Fate of all ages and
Nations; and there is no resource in human nature for a Cure. Brederode did more in the Dutch Revolution than William I st Prince of Orange. Yet Brederode is forgotten and Wil- liam [is called] the Savior, Deliverer and Founder" [ibid. , 56].
3. Blue Jay: Prob. Sheri Martinelli, who dur- ing her visits to St. Elizabeths lived in nearby Alexandria, Va. , which suggested the city of Alexandria in Egypt, which in turn may have suggested the following characters to des~ cribe the son of Philip of Macedon and then Rollin's historical works [cf. 7 below].
4. T'ai: [M6020], "very. "
5. Wu: [M7195], "military" or "violent. "
6. Tzu: [M6939], "son. " The characters in this sequence do not occur elsewhere either in the works of Pound or in any of his known sources. Prob. Pound invented the phrase with two intents: (I) to suggest Alex- ander the Great, who Rollin says, "was of a violent, fiery temper" [Ancient History, Bk.
XV, vol. 5, p. 16]; and (2) to suggest by sound the city of Dioce [74:S]. T, as in tao, has the sound of d; Pound may not have recalled that t' does not. A JA letter to Rush
[Sept. 1807] evokes the notion and ties several references on this canto page togeth- er. JA, thinking by pen that Washington didn't have much educabon, wonders where he got what he had and comes up with a theory: "I will tell you what I conjecture. Rollins ancient History you know is very generally diffused through this Country, be- cause it has been and is in England. The
Reading of most of our Men of Letters ex- tends little further than this Work. . . . From Rollin I suspect Washington drew his Wis- dom . . . in the History of the Kingdom of the Medes, there are in the Character of
9. depreciations . . . peopleH
Rush dated June 21, ISII, JA says about banks and usurers and the arts they use in cheating the people: "But all these Arts are not equal to that of making immense for- tunes . . . by a financiering operation, which substitutes a Paper Money, whose immense depreciations go into the Pocketts of a few individuals in Lieu of a Paper Money whose depreciations are in favour of the whole Peo- ple" [Biddle, 28SJ.
10. Mr Adams: The longer JA watched the iniquity of bankers the more outraged he became [71: 101]. In many letters to Rush he indulged that outrage and castigated banks for using their power to defeat honest men at the polls [Biddle, 272, 276-277J and even to gull people into helping the bank to cheat them: "The Rage for Banks is a Fever a Mania. . . . Every Bank in America is an enourmous Tax upon the People for the Profit of Individuals. . . . Our Banks are the madness of the Many for the Profit of a Few. . . . Our Banks are all founded upon a fundamental Principle of Iniquity" [ibid. , 281]. Thus he saw through their "hoax" to their responsibility for "the corruption of history," referred to at the top of the next canto page.
II. Suvitch: Fulvio Suvich (b. 1887), Italian statesman who helped negotiate the Franco- Italian Rome Agreement of 1935, which per- mitted M to go ahead in Ethiopia. He was well connected in Geneva and was led to believe that Britain would make no serious protest about extending Italian Somaliland
:
In a letter to
? ? ? 572
94/633-634
94/634
573
because of the primitive and brutalized state of the Ethiopian peasants [104:24]. But he so firmly opposed the rapprochement of Italy and Germany that he was sent as am~ bassador to Washington to get him out of the way. Pound himself was uncertain of the name. In a letter to Olivia Agresti [9 Aug.
1953] he said: "NO use creating such a panic and dither as THOUGHT did at that time in little Suvitch (if that was his name). " The occasion for Suvieh's shattering re- sponse, said Pound, was "when I spoke of finance" [Folder 77, Beinecke; BK]. The implication is that if people really knew what banks were up to, it would create an explosion.
12. dinamite: I, "dynamite. "
13. the Medici . . . : [45/230]. In The Medi- ci Bank [Roover, Medici], Pound read: "As deposits poured in, it became increasingly difficult to find suitable investments. . . . Rather than refuse deposits, the Medici . . .
[sought] an outlet for surplus cash in mak? ing dangerous loans to princes. This policy proved to be their undoing" [BK and TCDE, Pai, 11? 2, 282]. But the problem was not that simple: "The Medici lost in more than one way: First because gold prices of COID- modities fell steadily, and secondly because much business was done with countries . . . whose silver currency was depreciating in terms of gold. . . . While assets thus tended to shrink in value, liabilities remained the same because the Medici owed gold . . . to
depositors. As the purchasing power of gold increased, interest charges payable in gold became more and more burdensome. . . . The assets, as they declined in value, reduced the owner's equity, until there was nothing left" [Roover, Medici, 60].
IS. l'AMOR: I, "Love. " The "civic order" makes the lines into a Confucian concept
[DG,Pai, 3? 2,164].
16. Frate Egidio: I, "Brother Egidio. " Prob. the author of a treatise on Donna mi Prega consulted by Pound, who wrote: "Frate Egi? dio (Colonna, Romano, il beato, degli Agos- tiniani) goes round it [that is, a problem in the ms. of the Donna]. . ' He begins his
commentary with a graceful description of a notable lady" [LE, 160] .
17. per la mente: I, "through the mind. " Source of the line "who shd / mistake . . . " is unkown, but the intent is a rhyme with the lack of precision in language as in "drive screws with a hammer" [104/741], as devel- oped in "Axiomata" [SP,49. 52] and in the
discrimination concerning prana in the next gloss.
18. prana: [pranja]: Skt, "absolute ener- gy. " A major concept of Hindu occultism: "We may consider it as the active principle- Vital Force, if you please. It is found in all forms of life, from the amoeba to man- from the most elementary form of plant life to the highest form of animal life. Prana is "all pervading, . . . Prana must not be coun~ founded with the ego-that bit of Divine Spirit in every soul, around which clusters matter and energy. Prana is merely a form of
energy used by the Ego in its material mani- festation. When the Ego leaves the body, the prana, being no longer under its control, responds only to the orders of the individual atoms, or groups of atoms, forming the body, and as the body disintegrates and is
resolved to its original elements, each atom takes with it sufficient prana . . . to form new combinations. . . , With the Ego in con- trol, cohesion exists and the atoms are held together by the will of the Ego" [Ramacha- raka, Hatha Yoga, 157-158]. The concept is seminal in Pound's thinking. It overlaps and reinforces other seminal concepts such as virtu and directio voluntatis. Hatha Yoga devotes two chapters to the subject, taken up in more detail in other books by Yogi Ramacharaka. The foregoing quote is from a chapter entitled "Pranic Energy. " Another
chapter is called "Pranic Exercises" [ibid. , 166-175]. Pound didn't talk much about yoga at St. Elizabeths, but he routinely did some of the rhythmic breathing exercises. He also assumed his version of the lotus position and did some of the mental rituals that correlate with Richard of St. Victor's final stage in cogitatio, meditatio, and COn~ templatio [SP, 333; 85:52]. To flow with
the forces of divinity unfolding is to partici- pate in the process [Booth, Pai, 3? 3, 334; WF, Pai, 11? 1, 39-49]. The process flows through the many stages described in the metaphors of light, crystal, and finally, jade.
19. clover . . . time: Restatement of recur~ rent theme: the green world alive outlasts any structure of the earth or creation of man-basalt: (1) a dense, dark volcanic rock; (2) a black, unglazed pottery. "Learn of the green world what can be thy place"
[81/521] [DG,Pai,4? 2&3,554].
20. gates . . . holy: Gates into life and out of life: deaths and entrances [47: 10]. In Pandects, Bk. I, Title 8, we read that some things come under human law and others under divine law: "Sacred things are for ex~ ample, walls and gates, which, to a certain extent, are under divine law" [for the Latin
Antoninus upon the city of Tyre" [Scott, vol. 2,259].
26. Antoninus: [78:56]. Roman emperor, 137-166, who started the tradition of look? ing at law and money wisely.
27. Tyre: The "this" refers to the "Italian Law" of the time, which Paulus, the great jurist, gave to the city of Tyre.
28. Paulus: Julius P. , 2d century A. D. , a legal adviser of Septimius Severus and indus- trious author of some 300 books on the law of his time. The Digests of Justinian are almost one-sixth of his work.
29. Consul: One of the two chief magis. trates ruling conjointly in the Roman repub~ lic. A prefect in ancient Rome acted as a magistrate, governor, or commander. Sources refer to Paulus as a prefect but not a consul. The "7th of December" is not in the sources.
30. the "Code": It concerned bishops, other clergy, and superintendents of orphanages, hospitals, and charitable foundations for the aid and protection of old men, strangers, captives, and the sick. Grants of money were to be made: "For this, indeed, seems to be necessary, as the support and education of boys and poor persons depend upon these grants. " These activities go beyond the call of "civic order" and indicate the compassion and wisdom of feeding the people, one of Pound's tests of a good ruler, as with the
Egyptian Antef [93 :4].
