" This and the preceding line about "the land stored with ploughs" are taken from a section of the Magna Carta that concerns a "keeper" who is holding land in trust which is
expected
to return to
: L,
"such
custody
.
: L,
"such
custody
.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
H.
3: The 20th year of the reign of Henry III.
This was the year in which Henry removed "evil councill" and did "under his great seale confirme both Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta" [A9].
6. mother . . . of repose: Coke ends the "Proeme" to the Institutes by making a dis- tinction between other glosses written by doctors and his expositions upon the Char- ter. Others contained private interpretations; but "our expositions or commentaries upon
CANTO CVIl Sources
Sir Edward Coke, Second Institutes o f the Laws o f England, 1797 [Institutes]; Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Lion and the Throne, Little, Brown, Boston 1956 [Bowen, Lion] ; Dante, Par. X, 42,
136.
Background
EP, SR, 62, 101; EH Approaches, 173, 192; Bryce Lyon, A Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England, Harpers, N. Y. , 1960; William Stubbs, The Constitutional History of En- gland, Vol. II, Oxford, 1887; William Sharp McKechnie, Magna Carta, rev. , Burt Franklin, N. Y. , 1958.
boughs: Items in a
para-
? ? 694
107/756
107/757
695
Magna Charta. . . are the resolutions of judges in courts of justice in judiciall courses of proceeding . . . and shall (as we conceive) produce certainty, the mother and nurse of repose" [A13].
7. scutage: According to the Institutes: "Certain it is, that he that ho1deth by castle? guard shall pay no escuage, for escuage must be rated according to the quantity of the knights fees" [Chap II. pp. 9? 10]. Seutage was a fee paid by a knight in lieu of military service.
8. Milite: L, "Soldier. " Coke's name as au- thor on the title page of the Institutes reads: "Authore EDWARDO COKE, Milite, J. C. "
9. Sigier: Siger de Brabant, 13th? century French philosopher who was condemned in 1270 for Aristotelian teaching. His works reveal Avenoes' concepts of Aristotle, as ap? posed to Thomas Aquinas's interpretations, which were accepted by the church. Siger held that men have but one intellectual spirit and that, although man is mortal, mankind is immortal. Undaunted by his condemnation, Dante Places Siger in Paradise among the orthodox thinkers in the "heaven of the sun" [Par. X, 136].
10. Berengar: Raymond Berenger, count of Provence, and father of Eleanor. The House of Berenger had extensive holdings in Pro- vence and Toulouse and was linked through Eleanor of Aquitaine to the House of Plan? tagenet and England. After Eleanor of Pro? vence married Henry III, she installed mem- bers of her family in high offices, thereby alienating the barons.
II. Eleanor: E. of Provence, d. 1291. Queen of Henry III. She had a benevolent effect upon the king and helped lead him from evil counselors to those who advised him to make confirmation of the charters.
. . .
rightful heirs. The sense of the passage is that the keeper, whether acting for the king or the church, must keep up the land and "the houses, parks, warrens, ponds, mills . . . and he shall deliver to the heir . . . all the land stored with ploughs, and all other things, at the least as he received it. The passage ends with the warning to the "Custo- dian" that "such custody shall 'not be sold"
[Chap. V].
13. Light, cubic: Neoplatonic flow of light conceived by Pound as the "great acorn . . . bulging out" [106:48]. The "light descend? ing" is intelligence, as in Kung.
14. nel Sale: I, "in the sun" [cf. 9 above]. 15. non . . . parvente: I, "showing not by
color but by light" [Par. X, 42]. The fourth heaven (of the sun) is inhabited by theolo? gians, who are bathed in pure light.
16. Custumier . . . de Nonnand: Said Coke: "We have also . . . cited the Grand Custumier de Normandy . . . being a book compounded as well of the laws of England . . . which book was composed in the raign of King H. 3. " [AlO? Il].
17. de la foresta: F, "of the forest. " Early English charters, such as the Coronation Charter of Henry I and "The Articles of the Barons" (signed by King John at Runny? mede), which became known as "The Char? ter of Runnymede," included the Charter de Foresta, which in time, said Coke, was "called Magna Charter de Foresta" [A4]. This document collected all the laws can? cerned with the royal forests [CFT, Pai, 5? 1, 70]. "14/H/3" indicates the 14th year in the reign of Henry III.
18. yellow green: May indicate permanence,
a s w i t h " T h e Sacn~d E d i c t . " T h e c o l o r
rhymes with 99/694: "Till the blue grass
turn yellow / and the yellow leaves float in
not" [Chap. VIII, (1)]. The royal "we" en? compasses the kings before us and the kings who will come after us, as implied in "The king is dead; long live the king. "
20. ancient eit franchies: OF, "that it have its ancient liberties. " From Coke's comment on this article, which reads: "The city of London shall have all the old liberties and customs, which it hath been used to have. Moreover we will and grant, that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and barons of the five ports, and all other ports, shall have all their liberties and free customs" [Chap. IX] .
21. ne injuste vexes: OF, "not unjustly ha? rass. " Coke said: "No man shall be dis- trained to do more service for a knights fee, nor any freehold, than therefore is due. " Coke says this concept was founded in an- cient law, in "the form of the writ of Ne injuste vexes" [Chap. X].
22. progressus ostendunt: L, "progress [of things] reveals. " From a note which says that, when a question cannot be settled by a justice or circuit, it can be taken to London. Coke cites an old Latin rule of law which translates: "But the progress of things re- veals much that could not have been fore? seen at the beginning" [Chap. XII, (4)b].
23. periplum . . . : English justices were required to go out throughout the kingdom to the local courts of assize to bring justice to the people. Here the concept is made to rhyme with the ideas of Kung (Confucius). Kung found the root in the process. Pound sees a similar root in Magna Carta. As in the Pisan Cantos, "periplum" simply indicates, in addition, moving from place to place
[74/431,443,444].
24. Ideogram: Pen [M5025], "root, source,
origin. " Part of pen yeh [98:55,56].
25. Glanvil: Ranulf de Glanvill[e], d. 1190.
A chief justicier for Henry II of England. One of the great works of English law, Trae? tatus de Zegibus et consuetudinibus regni An- gliae [Treatise on the laws and customs of the realm of England], has been ascribed to him. Coke said: "It appeareth by Glanvile
that this act was made in affirmance of the common law" [Chap. XIV, (2)].
26. saving his wainage: One of Glanvi11e's concepts, that no fine should be so severe that it would take away a man's means of making a living [DG, Pai, 4? 2 & 3, 255].
27. hominum . . . proborum: L. An inver? sion of "Nisi per sacramentum proborum et legalium hominum de vicineto" ("But by the oath of honest and lawful men of the vici? nage"). The article concerns fines or amer- ciaments and prescribes that "the punish- ment should fit the crime" and that no fine can be assessed except by the oath as in?
dicated [Chap. XIV].
28. laicum tenementum: L, "lay-tenement. " From a section which extends protection to church members: "No man of the church shall be amerced after the quantity of his spiritual benefice, but after his lay? tenament, and after the quantity of his offence"
[Chap. XIV].
29. de par Ie monde: F, "somewhere. " 30. J'ai connu: F, "I knew. "
31. books of a scholler: Coke distinguishes the legal sense of the words "contenement" and "countenance" and ends: "countenance is used for contenement: the armor of a souldior is his countenance, the books of a scholler his countenance and the like" [Chap XIV, (2)].
32. H. 2 E. I: Kings Henry II and Edward I, whom Coke praises for their dedication to justice.
33. en temps . . . : F, "in the time of King Henry Second. "
34. Jim First: King James 1. "When he drank, His thick tongue slobbered 'very un- comely, as if eating his drink, which came out into the cup on each side of his mouth . . . '" [Bowen, Lion, 228]. Because of his fondling of, and attachment to', a long series of handsome young men, James was known as a sodomist.
12. quod custod'
shall not be sold.
" This and the preceding line about "the land stored with ploughs" are taken from a section of the Magna Carta that concerns a "keeper" who is holding land in trust which is expected to return to
: L,
"such
custody
. "
an.
19. king dies not: Coke said: "These words being spoken in the politique capacity doe extend to the successors, for in judgement of law the king in his politique capacity dieth
? ? ? ? ? 696
107/757-758
107/758-759
697
35. bitched our heritage: James I's long fight for the divine right of Kings and the royal prerogative as superior to the common law. Coke, who fought tirelessly against the concepts, ended up in the Tower. Thus the king is seen as one who undermined the legal heritage of the people.
36. Obit: L, "died. "
37. Jacques Pere: Shakespeare.
38. Noll: Nickname of Oliver Cromwell, who had King Charles I beheaded in 1649.
39. Puer Apulius: L, "the boy from Apu- lia," i. e. , Frederick II. The words "Ver" and "L'estate" are from Ciullo d'Alcano's "Fres- ca rosa Aulentissima" [DD, Pai, 6-1, 101-
107;SR, 62,101].
40. Voltaire could not: Prob. "could not"
conceive of a government that provided such protection to the people as Magna Carta provided.
41. Queen of Akragas: Prob. Athena, as goddess of wisdom and justice. Akragas [cf. 2 above] had a temple of Athena; even to- day a certain prominence is called "the Rock of Athena" [EB].
42. resistent: Prob. F, resistant, ~'strong. "
43. templum aedificavit: L, "built a tem- ple" [8:43]. Thus the lines construe: "built a temple to the strong goddess Athena. "
44. Segesta: Ancient city of Sicily and bit- ter rival of Selinus [cf. 1 above]. Its ruins, with a temple to Artemis, are near modern Alcamo, and it is thus associated with the Sicilian poet Ciulio d'Alcamo, which Pound hopes will "evoke the enlightened legal Codes of Frederick II" of Sicily [DG, Pai, 4-2 & 3, 257].
45. II. Inst. XXI: This chapter of Magna Carta says: "No sheriff nor bailiff . . . shall take the horses or carts of any man to make carriage, except he pay the old price" In his commentary Coke says the statute applies to all nobility but "extendeth not to any per- son ecclisiasticall," and, "all t h i s . . . was ( . . . for the advancement and maintenance
of that great peacemaker, and love-holder, hospitality) one of the auncient ornaments, and commendations of the kingdome of En- gland" [Chap. XXI] .
46. Nee alii boseum: L, "nor any other [take another man's] wood. " Conflation of "nee nos, nee baHvi nostri, nee alii, capiemus
boscum alienum ad castra" ("not we, nor our bailiffs, nor any other, shall take any man's wood for our castles") [Chap. XXI].
47. high-wood is called saltus: In his com- mentary Coke writes: "High-wood is proper- ly calledSaltus" [ibid. ].
48. Fleta: "It [boscum] is called in Fleta, maeremium" [ibid. ]. The Fleta is a treatise on the English common law written by an unknown person in the 13th century. Tradi- tion says it was written in the old Fleet Prison, hence the name "Fleta" or "Fleda. "
49. qui utIagatus est: L, prob. ut + legatus, "who has a legal commission. " The phrase occurs in a quote Coke makes from Glan- ville, as notes to an article in Magna Carta which reads: "We will not hold the lands of them that be convict of felony but one year and one day, and then those lands shall be delivered to the lords of the fee. " At the end of his commentary Coke says: "hereby it also appeareth, how necessary the reading of auncient authors is for understanding of aun" cient statutes" [Chap. XXII].
50. kidells and skarkells: Names for "open weares [weirs] whereby fish are caught. " Men were accustomed to spread weirs across rivers, which disrupted river traffic: "All wears from henceforth shall be utterly put down by Thames and Medway, and through all England, but only by the sea-coasts. " Coke comments: " I t waS specially given in charge by the justices in eire, that all juries should enquire, De hits qui piscantur cum kidellis et skarkellis [concerning those who were fishing with kidells and skarkells]"
[Chap. XXIII].
note ends: "And this is the worthiest and richest commoditie of this kingdome, for divide our native commodities exported into tenne parts, and that which comes from the sheepes back, is nine parts in value of the tenne, and setteth great numbers of people on worke" [Chap. XXV].
into England, to tarry in and go through England, as well by land as by water . . . etc. " [Chap. XXX].
57. wooll woolfels & leather: In this regulation-"And where some have supposed that there was a custom due to the king by the common law, as well of the stranger . . . viz for wools, wooll-fells, and leather . . . " - Coke shows that the custom was owing not to the common law but to a special act of a parliament of Edward III, granted for a lim- ited time only [ibid. ].
58. hearth silver: A tax Edward III imposed on the French after he took Aquitaine; it involved such an odious process of search, "an opening of kitchen doors to the king's officers," that it caused a revolt" [ibid. ].
. . .
60. Scacarrio Rot. 319: Queen Elizabeth set a custom in all the pope's dominions "upon every hundred weight of allome. " The cus- tom was challenged by some, but "judge- ment in the exchequer was given against them" [ibid. ]. Custom: 3 shillings, 4 pence.
61. on currants: In the same chapter we read: "A judgement was given in the exche- quer, for an imposition set upon currants, but the common opinion was, that that judgement was against law, and divers ex" presse acts of parliament. . . . " And: "To conclude this point, with two of the max- imes of the common law. 1. Le common ley ad tielment admeasure les prerogatives Ie roy, que ilz ne tolleront, ne prejudiceront Ie inheritance dascun" ("The common law hath so admeasured the prerogatives of the king, that they should not take away, nor prejudice the inheritance of any") [Chap. XXX, (2), 3].
62. ad mesure: L, "measured out. "
63. Laws of Edgar: Coke said: "And amongst the laws of King Edgar it is thus
. . .
the uniform standards of weights and mea-
: From a
sures. Concerning "broade cloathes," Coke's.
51. sheepes back
chapter on
52. tonsured . . . untonsured:
express the attitude of Coke during his strug- gles against the ecclesiastical courts, when they were taking jurisdiction in cases Coke believed should be tried under the common law. In King James's time both church peo- ple (tonsured) and nonchurch lawyers (un- tonsured) tried to play safe by pleasing the king, who promoted the ecclesiastical courts.
53. vitex . . . market: These 5 lines are a pastiche of memories cut into the canto. Pound translated the Chinese characters for a tree (ch 'ang-ts"o) as "vitex negundo. " DG associates this with Pound's earliest poem about turning into a tree and the process of metamorphosis, "Excideuil" returns us to his Walking tour in Provence in the summer of 1919 [80:315; HK, Era 333-40]. At one point they were on a plateau so high, they were level with the tops of the poplar trees and the spire of a church. "From Val Ca- brere, were two miles of roofs to San Ber" trand" [48/243]. "Mme Pierre," prob. the old woman at Excideuil: "In the castle an old woman lived in a couple of rooms, and drew no water from the ill-kept well in the courtyard. Ezra bought a beam to lay across the well-curb (high on the castle bluff; level with the spire of St. Thomas)" [HK, Era, 336].
. . .
"and for the
54. Atque
good, the laws of war are to be observed"
[Chap. XXX, (1),2].
55. butlerage: In ancient times import du- ties were paid to the king's butler-hence, butlerage.
56. strangers: Foreigners. From a regulation concerning the protection of foreign mer- chants, who "shall have their safe and sure conduct to depart out of England, to come
belli: L,
public
These
lines
59. naught new imposed
Coke's comment on the attempt of Queen Mary Tudor to impose an illegal duty on Malmsey wine: the duty was found to be illegal under the common law [ibid. ].
: Concerns
? ? 698
107/759
107/759-760
699
concerning the sheriffes toum provided. " The "Sheriffs toum" was the name of a circuit court [Chap. XXXV, (1)].
6 4 . e x o m n i s a t r a p i a : L , " i n a l l satrap~ counties. " The sense is, "all provinces which come under the jurisdiction of the courts. " The judges traveled to all the counties to bring justice to the people.
65. a circuit: The law provided that "the bishop with the sheriffe did goe in circuit twice every yeare, by every hundred within the county. . . [such circuit] was called tour, or tourn, which signifieth a circuit or perambulation" [ibid. ].
66. sil ne fuit dizein: OF, "ifhe were not of a group of ten. " Coke citation from ancient law. The whole sentence in the source trans- lates: "It was anciently ordered that no one could live in the realms if he did not pledge himself part of a group of ten" [ibid. , (4)].
67. quod trithinga teneatur integra: L, "that the trithing be entirely kept. " The trithing was a division between a shire and a hun- dred, and refers to the "group of ten" [ibid. , (5)].
68, decemvirale collegium: L, "group of ten. " The phrase was adapted from Roman law, in which it referred to the council of assistants to the praetor [ibid. ] .
et . . .
[Chap. XXXVI].
70. vide Bracton: L, "See B. " Henry Brac-
ton, d. 1268, was the author of De Legibus et cansuetudinibus Angliae [On the laws and customs of England]. It was Coke's primary source of materials in his struggle against the king.
71. sub colore donationis: L, "under color of donation. " A continuation of the gloss above which says the sale of land could not be made as if it were a gift [ibid. ].
72. his testibus: The source reads: "hiis tes- tibus": L, "these being witnesses. " The last chapter of Magna Carta makes a general statement about the "customs and liberties" outlined and described earlier and con- cludes: "And we have granted into them [all subjects] .
6. mother . . . of repose: Coke ends the "Proeme" to the Institutes by making a dis- tinction between other glosses written by doctors and his expositions upon the Char- ter. Others contained private interpretations; but "our expositions or commentaries upon
CANTO CVIl Sources
Sir Edward Coke, Second Institutes o f the Laws o f England, 1797 [Institutes]; Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Lion and the Throne, Little, Brown, Boston 1956 [Bowen, Lion] ; Dante, Par. X, 42,
136.
Background
EP, SR, 62, 101; EH Approaches, 173, 192; Bryce Lyon, A Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England, Harpers, N. Y. , 1960; William Stubbs, The Constitutional History of En- gland, Vol. II, Oxford, 1887; William Sharp McKechnie, Magna Carta, rev. , Burt Franklin, N. Y. , 1958.
boughs: Items in a
para-
? ? 694
107/756
107/757
695
Magna Charta. . . are the resolutions of judges in courts of justice in judiciall courses of proceeding . . . and shall (as we conceive) produce certainty, the mother and nurse of repose" [A13].
7. scutage: According to the Institutes: "Certain it is, that he that ho1deth by castle? guard shall pay no escuage, for escuage must be rated according to the quantity of the knights fees" [Chap II. pp. 9? 10]. Seutage was a fee paid by a knight in lieu of military service.
8. Milite: L, "Soldier. " Coke's name as au- thor on the title page of the Institutes reads: "Authore EDWARDO COKE, Milite, J. C. "
9. Sigier: Siger de Brabant, 13th? century French philosopher who was condemned in 1270 for Aristotelian teaching. His works reveal Avenoes' concepts of Aristotle, as ap? posed to Thomas Aquinas's interpretations, which were accepted by the church. Siger held that men have but one intellectual spirit and that, although man is mortal, mankind is immortal. Undaunted by his condemnation, Dante Places Siger in Paradise among the orthodox thinkers in the "heaven of the sun" [Par. X, 136].
10. Berengar: Raymond Berenger, count of Provence, and father of Eleanor. The House of Berenger had extensive holdings in Pro- vence and Toulouse and was linked through Eleanor of Aquitaine to the House of Plan? tagenet and England. After Eleanor of Pro? vence married Henry III, she installed mem- bers of her family in high offices, thereby alienating the barons.
II. Eleanor: E. of Provence, d. 1291. Queen of Henry III. She had a benevolent effect upon the king and helped lead him from evil counselors to those who advised him to make confirmation of the charters.
. . .
rightful heirs. The sense of the passage is that the keeper, whether acting for the king or the church, must keep up the land and "the houses, parks, warrens, ponds, mills . . . and he shall deliver to the heir . . . all the land stored with ploughs, and all other things, at the least as he received it. The passage ends with the warning to the "Custo- dian" that "such custody shall 'not be sold"
[Chap. V].
13. Light, cubic: Neoplatonic flow of light conceived by Pound as the "great acorn . . . bulging out" [106:48]. The "light descend? ing" is intelligence, as in Kung.
14. nel Sale: I, "in the sun" [cf. 9 above]. 15. non . . . parvente: I, "showing not by
color but by light" [Par. X, 42]. The fourth heaven (of the sun) is inhabited by theolo? gians, who are bathed in pure light.
16. Custumier . . . de Nonnand: Said Coke: "We have also . . . cited the Grand Custumier de Normandy . . . being a book compounded as well of the laws of England . . . which book was composed in the raign of King H. 3. " [AlO? Il].
17. de la foresta: F, "of the forest. " Early English charters, such as the Coronation Charter of Henry I and "The Articles of the Barons" (signed by King John at Runny? mede), which became known as "The Char? ter of Runnymede," included the Charter de Foresta, which in time, said Coke, was "called Magna Charter de Foresta" [A4]. This document collected all the laws can? cerned with the royal forests [CFT, Pai, 5? 1, 70]. "14/H/3" indicates the 14th year in the reign of Henry III.
18. yellow green: May indicate permanence,
a s w i t h " T h e Sacn~d E d i c t . " T h e c o l o r
rhymes with 99/694: "Till the blue grass
turn yellow / and the yellow leaves float in
not" [Chap. VIII, (1)]. The royal "we" en? compasses the kings before us and the kings who will come after us, as implied in "The king is dead; long live the king. "
20. ancient eit franchies: OF, "that it have its ancient liberties. " From Coke's comment on this article, which reads: "The city of London shall have all the old liberties and customs, which it hath been used to have. Moreover we will and grant, that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and barons of the five ports, and all other ports, shall have all their liberties and free customs" [Chap. IX] .
21. ne injuste vexes: OF, "not unjustly ha? rass. " Coke said: "No man shall be dis- trained to do more service for a knights fee, nor any freehold, than therefore is due. " Coke says this concept was founded in an- cient law, in "the form of the writ of Ne injuste vexes" [Chap. X].
22. progressus ostendunt: L, "progress [of things] reveals. " From a note which says that, when a question cannot be settled by a justice or circuit, it can be taken to London. Coke cites an old Latin rule of law which translates: "But the progress of things re- veals much that could not have been fore? seen at the beginning" [Chap. XII, (4)b].
23. periplum . . . : English justices were required to go out throughout the kingdom to the local courts of assize to bring justice to the people. Here the concept is made to rhyme with the ideas of Kung (Confucius). Kung found the root in the process. Pound sees a similar root in Magna Carta. As in the Pisan Cantos, "periplum" simply indicates, in addition, moving from place to place
[74/431,443,444].
24. Ideogram: Pen [M5025], "root, source,
origin. " Part of pen yeh [98:55,56].
25. Glanvil: Ranulf de Glanvill[e], d. 1190.
A chief justicier for Henry II of England. One of the great works of English law, Trae? tatus de Zegibus et consuetudinibus regni An- gliae [Treatise on the laws and customs of the realm of England], has been ascribed to him. Coke said: "It appeareth by Glanvile
that this act was made in affirmance of the common law" [Chap. XIV, (2)].
26. saving his wainage: One of Glanvi11e's concepts, that no fine should be so severe that it would take away a man's means of making a living [DG, Pai, 4? 2 & 3, 255].
27. hominum . . . proborum: L. An inver? sion of "Nisi per sacramentum proborum et legalium hominum de vicineto" ("But by the oath of honest and lawful men of the vici? nage"). The article concerns fines or amer- ciaments and prescribes that "the punish- ment should fit the crime" and that no fine can be assessed except by the oath as in?
dicated [Chap. XIV].
28. laicum tenementum: L, "lay-tenement. " From a section which extends protection to church members: "No man of the church shall be amerced after the quantity of his spiritual benefice, but after his lay? tenament, and after the quantity of his offence"
[Chap. XIV].
29. de par Ie monde: F, "somewhere. " 30. J'ai connu: F, "I knew. "
31. books of a scholler: Coke distinguishes the legal sense of the words "contenement" and "countenance" and ends: "countenance is used for contenement: the armor of a souldior is his countenance, the books of a scholler his countenance and the like" [Chap XIV, (2)].
32. H. 2 E. I: Kings Henry II and Edward I, whom Coke praises for their dedication to justice.
33. en temps . . . : F, "in the time of King Henry Second. "
34. Jim First: King James 1. "When he drank, His thick tongue slobbered 'very un- comely, as if eating his drink, which came out into the cup on each side of his mouth . . . '" [Bowen, Lion, 228]. Because of his fondling of, and attachment to', a long series of handsome young men, James was known as a sodomist.
12. quod custod'
shall not be sold.
" This and the preceding line about "the land stored with ploughs" are taken from a section of the Magna Carta that concerns a "keeper" who is holding land in trust which is expected to return to
: L,
"such
custody
. "
an.
19. king dies not: Coke said: "These words being spoken in the politique capacity doe extend to the successors, for in judgement of law the king in his politique capacity dieth
? ? ? ? ? 696
107/757-758
107/758-759
697
35. bitched our heritage: James I's long fight for the divine right of Kings and the royal prerogative as superior to the common law. Coke, who fought tirelessly against the concepts, ended up in the Tower. Thus the king is seen as one who undermined the legal heritage of the people.
36. Obit: L, "died. "
37. Jacques Pere: Shakespeare.
38. Noll: Nickname of Oliver Cromwell, who had King Charles I beheaded in 1649.
39. Puer Apulius: L, "the boy from Apu- lia," i. e. , Frederick II. The words "Ver" and "L'estate" are from Ciullo d'Alcano's "Fres- ca rosa Aulentissima" [DD, Pai, 6-1, 101-
107;SR, 62,101].
40. Voltaire could not: Prob. "could not"
conceive of a government that provided such protection to the people as Magna Carta provided.
41. Queen of Akragas: Prob. Athena, as goddess of wisdom and justice. Akragas [cf. 2 above] had a temple of Athena; even to- day a certain prominence is called "the Rock of Athena" [EB].
42. resistent: Prob. F, resistant, ~'strong. "
43. templum aedificavit: L, "built a tem- ple" [8:43]. Thus the lines construe: "built a temple to the strong goddess Athena. "
44. Segesta: Ancient city of Sicily and bit- ter rival of Selinus [cf. 1 above]. Its ruins, with a temple to Artemis, are near modern Alcamo, and it is thus associated with the Sicilian poet Ciulio d'Alcamo, which Pound hopes will "evoke the enlightened legal Codes of Frederick II" of Sicily [DG, Pai, 4-2 & 3, 257].
45. II. Inst. XXI: This chapter of Magna Carta says: "No sheriff nor bailiff . . . shall take the horses or carts of any man to make carriage, except he pay the old price" In his commentary Coke says the statute applies to all nobility but "extendeth not to any per- son ecclisiasticall," and, "all t h i s . . . was ( . . . for the advancement and maintenance
of that great peacemaker, and love-holder, hospitality) one of the auncient ornaments, and commendations of the kingdome of En- gland" [Chap. XXI] .
46. Nee alii boseum: L, "nor any other [take another man's] wood. " Conflation of "nee nos, nee baHvi nostri, nee alii, capiemus
boscum alienum ad castra" ("not we, nor our bailiffs, nor any other, shall take any man's wood for our castles") [Chap. XXI].
47. high-wood is called saltus: In his com- mentary Coke writes: "High-wood is proper- ly calledSaltus" [ibid. ].
48. Fleta: "It [boscum] is called in Fleta, maeremium" [ibid. ]. The Fleta is a treatise on the English common law written by an unknown person in the 13th century. Tradi- tion says it was written in the old Fleet Prison, hence the name "Fleta" or "Fleda. "
49. qui utIagatus est: L, prob. ut + legatus, "who has a legal commission. " The phrase occurs in a quote Coke makes from Glan- ville, as notes to an article in Magna Carta which reads: "We will not hold the lands of them that be convict of felony but one year and one day, and then those lands shall be delivered to the lords of the fee. " At the end of his commentary Coke says: "hereby it also appeareth, how necessary the reading of auncient authors is for understanding of aun" cient statutes" [Chap. XXII].
50. kidells and skarkells: Names for "open weares [weirs] whereby fish are caught. " Men were accustomed to spread weirs across rivers, which disrupted river traffic: "All wears from henceforth shall be utterly put down by Thames and Medway, and through all England, but only by the sea-coasts. " Coke comments: " I t waS specially given in charge by the justices in eire, that all juries should enquire, De hits qui piscantur cum kidellis et skarkellis [concerning those who were fishing with kidells and skarkells]"
[Chap. XXIII].
note ends: "And this is the worthiest and richest commoditie of this kingdome, for divide our native commodities exported into tenne parts, and that which comes from the sheepes back, is nine parts in value of the tenne, and setteth great numbers of people on worke" [Chap. XXV].
into England, to tarry in and go through England, as well by land as by water . . . etc. " [Chap. XXX].
57. wooll woolfels & leather: In this regulation-"And where some have supposed that there was a custom due to the king by the common law, as well of the stranger . . . viz for wools, wooll-fells, and leather . . . " - Coke shows that the custom was owing not to the common law but to a special act of a parliament of Edward III, granted for a lim- ited time only [ibid. ].
58. hearth silver: A tax Edward III imposed on the French after he took Aquitaine; it involved such an odious process of search, "an opening of kitchen doors to the king's officers," that it caused a revolt" [ibid. ].
. . .
60. Scacarrio Rot. 319: Queen Elizabeth set a custom in all the pope's dominions "upon every hundred weight of allome. " The cus- tom was challenged by some, but "judge- ment in the exchequer was given against them" [ibid. ]. Custom: 3 shillings, 4 pence.
61. on currants: In the same chapter we read: "A judgement was given in the exche- quer, for an imposition set upon currants, but the common opinion was, that that judgement was against law, and divers ex" presse acts of parliament. . . . " And: "To conclude this point, with two of the max- imes of the common law. 1. Le common ley ad tielment admeasure les prerogatives Ie roy, que ilz ne tolleront, ne prejudiceront Ie inheritance dascun" ("The common law hath so admeasured the prerogatives of the king, that they should not take away, nor prejudice the inheritance of any") [Chap. XXX, (2), 3].
62. ad mesure: L, "measured out. "
63. Laws of Edgar: Coke said: "And amongst the laws of King Edgar it is thus
. . .
the uniform standards of weights and mea-
: From a
sures. Concerning "broade cloathes," Coke's.
51. sheepes back
chapter on
52. tonsured . . . untonsured:
express the attitude of Coke during his strug- gles against the ecclesiastical courts, when they were taking jurisdiction in cases Coke believed should be tried under the common law. In King James's time both church peo- ple (tonsured) and nonchurch lawyers (un- tonsured) tried to play safe by pleasing the king, who promoted the ecclesiastical courts.
53. vitex . . . market: These 5 lines are a pastiche of memories cut into the canto. Pound translated the Chinese characters for a tree (ch 'ang-ts"o) as "vitex negundo. " DG associates this with Pound's earliest poem about turning into a tree and the process of metamorphosis, "Excideuil" returns us to his Walking tour in Provence in the summer of 1919 [80:315; HK, Era 333-40]. At one point they were on a plateau so high, they were level with the tops of the poplar trees and the spire of a church. "From Val Ca- brere, were two miles of roofs to San Ber" trand" [48/243]. "Mme Pierre," prob. the old woman at Excideuil: "In the castle an old woman lived in a couple of rooms, and drew no water from the ill-kept well in the courtyard. Ezra bought a beam to lay across the well-curb (high on the castle bluff; level with the spire of St. Thomas)" [HK, Era, 336].
. . .
"and for the
54. Atque
good, the laws of war are to be observed"
[Chap. XXX, (1),2].
55. butlerage: In ancient times import du- ties were paid to the king's butler-hence, butlerage.
56. strangers: Foreigners. From a regulation concerning the protection of foreign mer- chants, who "shall have their safe and sure conduct to depart out of England, to come
belli: L,
public
These
lines
59. naught new imposed
Coke's comment on the attempt of Queen Mary Tudor to impose an illegal duty on Malmsey wine: the duty was found to be illegal under the common law [ibid. ].
: Concerns
? ? 698
107/759
107/759-760
699
concerning the sheriffes toum provided. " The "Sheriffs toum" was the name of a circuit court [Chap. XXXV, (1)].
6 4 . e x o m n i s a t r a p i a : L , " i n a l l satrap~ counties. " The sense is, "all provinces which come under the jurisdiction of the courts. " The judges traveled to all the counties to bring justice to the people.
65. a circuit: The law provided that "the bishop with the sheriffe did goe in circuit twice every yeare, by every hundred within the county. . . [such circuit] was called tour, or tourn, which signifieth a circuit or perambulation" [ibid. ].
66. sil ne fuit dizein: OF, "ifhe were not of a group of ten. " Coke citation from ancient law. The whole sentence in the source trans- lates: "It was anciently ordered that no one could live in the realms if he did not pledge himself part of a group of ten" [ibid. , (4)].
67. quod trithinga teneatur integra: L, "that the trithing be entirely kept. " The trithing was a division between a shire and a hun- dred, and refers to the "group of ten" [ibid. , (5)].
68, decemvirale collegium: L, "group of ten. " The phrase was adapted from Roman law, in which it referred to the council of assistants to the praetor [ibid. ] .
et . . .
[Chap. XXXVI].
70. vide Bracton: L, "See B. " Henry Brac-
ton, d. 1268, was the author of De Legibus et cansuetudinibus Angliae [On the laws and customs of England]. It was Coke's primary source of materials in his struggle against the king.
71. sub colore donationis: L, "under color of donation. " A continuation of the gloss above which says the sale of land could not be made as if it were a gift [ibid. ].
72. his testibus: The source reads: "hiis tes- tibus": L, "these being witnesses. " The last chapter of Magna Carta makes a general statement about the "customs and liberties" outlined and described earlier and con- cludes: "And we have granted into them [all subjects] .
