574
94/635
94/635
575
anity was not made a state religion and Con- stantine himself was not baptized until he was dying.
94/635
94/635
575
anity was not made a state religion and Con- stantine himself was not baptized until he was dying.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
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].
31. The Bulgar: The king or ruler of the Bulgars, one of the groups Justinian could not subdue by war, whose differences with the emperor concerned not only taxation but also Justinian's vigorous support of church dogma. The Bulgars dissension went back to the time of Constantine the Great and the founding of the Eastern Empire.
32. Constantine: C. the Great, 288? -337, who in the process of winning the throne of the empire saw a "flaming cross" in the sky, the sign by which he would win. He won handsomely. Thereafter, he set forth the Edict of Toleration of Christianity. Christi-
14. Alex . . . Biddle: Alexander
1856? 1916, the son of Alexander Biddle and Julia Rush. Alex Bioile (not to be confused with Nicholas Biddle of the bank wars [34:70; 88:92]) was a medical doctor who practiced in Pennsylvania. His wife, a descen~ dent of Benjamin Rush, engaged his interest in the JA~Rush correspondence, from which he made selections for publication.
"communicating
of hu-
Williams
B. ,
I!
a n d c o m m e n t a r y 313? 324].
s e e
D G ,
P a i ,
11~2,
21. Pandects: The Pandecta (or Digests) of Roman-law produced by direction of Jus- tinian I [cf. 45 below] .
22. Gaius: A Roman jurist of the 2d cen- tury who did an early codification of the law. His Institutes formed the structural de? sign of the Digests, which were organized into fifty books each with a differing num? ber of subsections.
23. divini . . . : L,
man and divine law. " A phrase from Bk. I; Title 8.
24. Ius ItaIicum: L, "Italian Law. "
25. Digest: Bk. L, Title 15 concerns tax laws: "8 Paulus, On Taxation, Book II" con~ tains this sentence: "The same privileges were conferred by the Divine Severus and
? ? ?
574
94/635
94/635
575
anity was not made a state religion and Con- stantine himself was not baptized until he was dying. But he convened the Council of Nicea, moved the capital to Byzantium, re- built the city as Constantinople, and by his very success displeased the Slavs and Bulgars
to the north, who tried to discredit him. The Council of Nicea, after much argument and dissension, adopted the dogma of the Trini- ty. In the end all the bishops present (esti- mates vary from 225 to over 300) voted for it except two, who were banished along with Arius (the father of Arianism). Thereafter, those who objected to the idea of the Son being coequal with the Father said that many bishops voted under threats and pres- sures. The phrase "horse sense" may refer to
the anti-Trinity feeling of the Bulgars and Slavs, whose territories were hotbeds of Ari- anism. In fact, Constantine convened the Council of Nicea in 325 in order to settle the question because the struggles -between the Arians and their opponents were tearing the church apart and making it difficult to gov? ern. But the council settled nothing: the struggles, sometimes violent, went on for centuries and contributed to the final split
between the Eastern and Western churches. Pound calls Constantine a louse because of inhuman laws he made against the offspring of female slaves or prostitutes, dispossessing them of property and torturing them. The new law of Justinian (whose empress, Theo-
dora, had been an actress and had given birth to an megitimate child before he married her) changed all that. Novel (an amendment to Justinian's code) 127, Chap. IV says that "such women can contract marriage with men of every description . . . provided that
dotal instruments are executed. . . . All others . . . can contract marriage through af- fection alone, provided the women with whom it is lawful for them to contract mar? riage are free" [DG, Pai, 11-2,313-324].
33. CODE V. 27: The source of the data in the preceding gloss [Scott, vol. 13,214].
34. Code V . iv . . . : Subsection 23,5 con- tains much detail about "daughters of wom- en of this kind" directing how they can
avoid previous harsh legal sanctions, so that, in the sense of "persistent" or "painstak? ing," "fuss-cat" is appropriate [DG, ibid. ].
35. Kung: Confucius [13:1;53:78]. 36. the Odes: The Confucian odes.
Philostratus is generally regarded as a reli- gious work of fiction" [EB] [cf. 78 below].
43. madepeace . . . : [91:9,94;93/623]. A natural affinity is supposed to have existed between animals and most holy men of the East both before and after the time of Christ. Of Apollonius, Conybeare wrote: "he professed to know all languages without ever having learned them . . . to understand the language of birds and animals . . . [and] shared the Pythagorean belief of the migra- tions of human souls from body to body, both of animals and of human beings" [P, Life, xii].
44. the Cyprian: Aphrodite. The altars sa- cred to her on the island of Cyprus were often stained by blood sacrifice. Apollonius, at age 16 began to follow a rigid ascetic rule. He renounced wine, refused to marry, would not eat flesh of any kind, and in particular
"condemned the sacrifice of animals to the gods. . . . In antiquity hardly any meat was eaten which had not previously been conse? crated by sacrifice to a god,. . . conse- quently the priest was the butcher of a vil- lage and the butcher the priest" [P, Life, ix]. The obverse of the Hyksos motif
[93:18].
45. Justinian: Flavius Anicius Justinianus, 483. 565, called "the Great," is the most famous emperor of the Eastern Roman Em? pire. He is famous for his new modes of administration, an advanced ecclesiastical policy, and his wisdom in war and foreign policy, but most of all for his extensive legal reforms. Before his reign the vast body of contradictory legal documents, including the Perpetual Edict, resulted in conflict and con? fusion in the courts. When he became emper- or (528), he appointed 10 commissioners to study and edit all existing constitutions, re- tain what was practical, and get rid of what was wasteful. In 14 months they produced the Codex constitutionum, which was pro? mulgated in 529, all imperial edicts not in- cluded becoming instantly repealed. This work was so successful that another commis- sion of 16 was appointed in 530 to deal with
the whole history of jurisprudence and the law, and to produce extracts from the best in order to make a practical, workable docu- ment. They were to discard as much as pos- sible and retain nothing at variance with the new Codex. Their work in both Greek and Latin editions was to be contained in fifty books, each book to be divided into subti? tles, the 'general order being that of the old Perpetual Edict. Justinian promulgated the fifty? book work December 16,533. Accord? ing to authorities this work is not only "the most precious monument of the legal genius of the Romans," but by the "influence it has exerted and still exerts the most remarkable law book the world has ever seen" [EB]. The Greek volume was called Pandects (TI&voEKm), t h e L a t i n t h e Digests (Digesta). While the Code (Codex) and the Digests were in process, Justinian conceived that a third book was needed: an easy, basic man- ual for beginners which would give an out- line of the law in clear and simple words. This work, based on the previous outlines of Gaius, was published as the Institutes of Justinian. The emperor did not stop here: commissions were kept busy reviSing the work already done, such as the Codex. It is the first revision of the Codex (534) which has come down to us. Pound often lists Justinian as one of the great minds of the Western world who added to the "building up of social and economic criteria" [SP, 150,156; GK, 40,109,275,342].
46. the novel, 127: A novel was a new addi? tion, an amendment to the Codex. Pound prob. meant 117 and not 127 because the phrase "from affection" occurs in 117 [DG, Pai, 11. 2, 322n. ].
47. Goth . . . Queen Ash: Pound's source for these four names is Waddell's Egyptian Civilization, which is historically inaccurate [B de R, in EH, Approaches, 188]. Goth, "the hawk? king," is supposed to be in the early dynastic line of Sargon the Great, whom Waddell believed was the father of Menes, the founder of the Egyptian dy? nasties.
[54:66;
78: 139].
37.
the precepts of Kung, he practiced cheng ming and called things by their right name.
38. Dante: He used the language of the peo? pIe and wrote De Vulgari Eloquentia, which showed the value of avoiding "abstract yatter. "
39. Agassiz: [93:51]. He taught his stu? dents to look directly at a thing until they could finally see it [ABCR, 17], allowing the light to pour.
40. Gestalt: G, "form. " The word is related to the idea of formative power, or the kind of intelligence that directs the cherry to be- come a cherry tree [113:43]. Also, to the forma or concetta, the divine force (the light pouring) in the universe [75:8].
41. let the light: [74/429]. Let the divine force of intelligence flow. Infections grow in the moist dark.
42. Apollonius: A. of Tyana, 4 B. C. - A. D. 96? , was born in the Cappadocia of Greek Asia Minor and trained in philosophy. He traveled as a mendicant sage to most of the courts of the Mediterranean world, as far as India to the east and Spain to the west. He was a student of the lore of both Ascle- pius and the neo? Pythagorean school, to which he added a knowledge of oriental
mysticism. The story of his life, by Philostra? tus, is so replete with miracles, some have regarded him as an imaginary character. "On his return to Europe [from the East] he was received with reverence as a magician. He himself claimed only the power of foreseeing the future. . . . It was said that he was ac-
cused of treason both by Nero and Domi- tian, but escaped by miraculous means. Finally, he set up a school at Ephesus, where he died, apparently aged 100. The work of
Mencius:
Following
? 576
94/635-636
and later. Waddell took the lower part of the seal to be a cartouche and the top part to be a falcon. Pound took the top figure in the cartouche to be the image of a temple, which becomes important in later cantos when there is the recu. rrent theme "the tem- ple is not for sale" [97/676,678,679].
56. caligine: I, "darkness. "
57. 1/2 year . . . tin: Source
the two "1/2" lines appear to articulate with the "Agada, Gana" line, which they bracket.
58. Agada, Gana: [cf. 48 above]. Pound may be rhyming the religious spirit that formed the city of Agdu, sacred to Osiris, with a similar spirit that formed the city sacred to Wagadu in "Gassire's Lute" [74: 134] , as found in Frobenius. Or he may be suggesting that Agdu, the city ofSargon, was actually the second Wagadu from that "Tale of the Sudan. " The tale says: "Four times Wagadu was built and stood there in spendour. Four times it was destroyed so that there was no trace of it to be seen. Once it was lost through vanity, once through faith being broken, once through greed, and once through strife. Four times Wagadu
changed its name. First it was Dierra, then Agada, then Ganna and finally Silla" [Haber- land, Frobenius, 146]. As a metaphor, the tale articulates with The Cantos. Having de- stroyed Agada by broken faith, we may be at the Gaona stage, where greed is the de- stroyer: "Hoggers of harvest are the curse of the people" is a recurrent theme of the later cantos [88:44].
59. Swans . . . : As with
birth of Apollonius was accompanied by marvels. His mother was told in a dream to go to a meadow and pick flowers. She did this and then fell asleep: "Thereupon the swans who fed in the meadow set up a dance around her as she slept, and lifting their wings. . . cried out aloud. . . . She then leaped up at the sound of their song and bore her child . . . just at the moment of the birth, a thunderbolt seemed about to fall to earth and then rose up into the air and disappeared" [P, Life, 1,14-15].
I I;
94/636-637
60. 1roA. A. ovr; nf-l. wv . . OA. q{O~\: H, "to re- spect many, and confide in few. " [Cony- beare's translation, P, Life, I, 109. The ac- cents are incorrect in the canto text. ]. This was A. 's answer to King Vardanes of Baby- lon, who asked him what was "the most stable and secure way of governing. "
61.
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].
31. The Bulgar: The king or ruler of the Bulgars, one of the groups Justinian could not subdue by war, whose differences with the emperor concerned not only taxation but also Justinian's vigorous support of church dogma. The Bulgars dissension went back to the time of Constantine the Great and the founding of the Eastern Empire.
32. Constantine: C. the Great, 288? -337, who in the process of winning the throne of the empire saw a "flaming cross" in the sky, the sign by which he would win. He won handsomely. Thereafter, he set forth the Edict of Toleration of Christianity. Christi-
14. Alex . . . Biddle: Alexander
1856? 1916, the son of Alexander Biddle and Julia Rush. Alex Bioile (not to be confused with Nicholas Biddle of the bank wars [34:70; 88:92]) was a medical doctor who practiced in Pennsylvania. His wife, a descen~ dent of Benjamin Rush, engaged his interest in the JA~Rush correspondence, from which he made selections for publication.
"communicating
of hu-
Williams
B. ,
I!
a n d c o m m e n t a r y 313? 324].
s e e
D G ,
P a i ,
11~2,
21. Pandects: The Pandecta (or Digests) of Roman-law produced by direction of Jus- tinian I [cf. 45 below] .
22. Gaius: A Roman jurist of the 2d cen- tury who did an early codification of the law. His Institutes formed the structural de? sign of the Digests, which were organized into fifty books each with a differing num? ber of subsections.
23. divini . . . : L,
man and divine law. " A phrase from Bk. I; Title 8.
24. Ius ItaIicum: L, "Italian Law. "
25. Digest: Bk. L, Title 15 concerns tax laws: "8 Paulus, On Taxation, Book II" con~ tains this sentence: "The same privileges were conferred by the Divine Severus and
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anity was not made a state religion and Con- stantine himself was not baptized until he was dying. But he convened the Council of Nicea, moved the capital to Byzantium, re- built the city as Constantinople, and by his very success displeased the Slavs and Bulgars
to the north, who tried to discredit him. The Council of Nicea, after much argument and dissension, adopted the dogma of the Trini- ty. In the end all the bishops present (esti- mates vary from 225 to over 300) voted for it except two, who were banished along with Arius (the father of Arianism). Thereafter, those who objected to the idea of the Son being coequal with the Father said that many bishops voted under threats and pres- sures. The phrase "horse sense" may refer to
the anti-Trinity feeling of the Bulgars and Slavs, whose territories were hotbeds of Ari- anism. In fact, Constantine convened the Council of Nicea in 325 in order to settle the question because the struggles -between the Arians and their opponents were tearing the church apart and making it difficult to gov? ern. But the council settled nothing: the struggles, sometimes violent, went on for centuries and contributed to the final split
between the Eastern and Western churches. Pound calls Constantine a louse because of inhuman laws he made against the offspring of female slaves or prostitutes, dispossessing them of property and torturing them. The new law of Justinian (whose empress, Theo-
dora, had been an actress and had given birth to an megitimate child before he married her) changed all that. Novel (an amendment to Justinian's code) 127, Chap. IV says that "such women can contract marriage with men of every description . . . provided that
dotal instruments are executed. . . . All others . . . can contract marriage through af- fection alone, provided the women with whom it is lawful for them to contract mar? riage are free" [DG, Pai, 11-2,313-324].
33. CODE V. 27: The source of the data in the preceding gloss [Scott, vol. 13,214].
34. Code V . iv . . . : Subsection 23,5 con- tains much detail about "daughters of wom- en of this kind" directing how they can
avoid previous harsh legal sanctions, so that, in the sense of "persistent" or "painstak? ing," "fuss-cat" is appropriate [DG, ibid. ].
35. Kung: Confucius [13:1;53:78]. 36. the Odes: The Confucian odes.
Philostratus is generally regarded as a reli- gious work of fiction" [EB] [cf. 78 below].
43. madepeace . . . : [91:9,94;93/623]. A natural affinity is supposed to have existed between animals and most holy men of the East both before and after the time of Christ. Of Apollonius, Conybeare wrote: "he professed to know all languages without ever having learned them . . . to understand the language of birds and animals . . . [and] shared the Pythagorean belief of the migra- tions of human souls from body to body, both of animals and of human beings" [P, Life, xii].
44. the Cyprian: Aphrodite. The altars sa- cred to her on the island of Cyprus were often stained by blood sacrifice. Apollonius, at age 16 began to follow a rigid ascetic rule. He renounced wine, refused to marry, would not eat flesh of any kind, and in particular
"condemned the sacrifice of animals to the gods. . . . In antiquity hardly any meat was eaten which had not previously been conse? crated by sacrifice to a god,. . . conse- quently the priest was the butcher of a vil- lage and the butcher the priest" [P, Life, ix]. The obverse of the Hyksos motif
[93:18].
45. Justinian: Flavius Anicius Justinianus, 483. 565, called "the Great," is the most famous emperor of the Eastern Roman Em? pire. He is famous for his new modes of administration, an advanced ecclesiastical policy, and his wisdom in war and foreign policy, but most of all for his extensive legal reforms. Before his reign the vast body of contradictory legal documents, including the Perpetual Edict, resulted in conflict and con? fusion in the courts. When he became emper- or (528), he appointed 10 commissioners to study and edit all existing constitutions, re- tain what was practical, and get rid of what was wasteful. In 14 months they produced the Codex constitutionum, which was pro? mulgated in 529, all imperial edicts not in- cluded becoming instantly repealed. This work was so successful that another commis- sion of 16 was appointed in 530 to deal with
the whole history of jurisprudence and the law, and to produce extracts from the best in order to make a practical, workable docu- ment. They were to discard as much as pos- sible and retain nothing at variance with the new Codex. Their work in both Greek and Latin editions was to be contained in fifty books, each book to be divided into subti? tles, the 'general order being that of the old Perpetual Edict. Justinian promulgated the fifty? book work December 16,533. Accord? ing to authorities this work is not only "the most precious monument of the legal genius of the Romans," but by the "influence it has exerted and still exerts the most remarkable law book the world has ever seen" [EB]. The Greek volume was called Pandects (TI&voEKm), t h e L a t i n t h e Digests (Digesta). While the Code (Codex) and the Digests were in process, Justinian conceived that a third book was needed: an easy, basic man- ual for beginners which would give an out- line of the law in clear and simple words. This work, based on the previous outlines of Gaius, was published as the Institutes of Justinian. The emperor did not stop here: commissions were kept busy reviSing the work already done, such as the Codex. It is the first revision of the Codex (534) which has come down to us. Pound often lists Justinian as one of the great minds of the Western world who added to the "building up of social and economic criteria" [SP, 150,156; GK, 40,109,275,342].
46. the novel, 127: A novel was a new addi? tion, an amendment to the Codex. Pound prob. meant 117 and not 127 because the phrase "from affection" occurs in 117 [DG, Pai, 11. 2, 322n. ].
47. Goth . . . Queen Ash: Pound's source for these four names is Waddell's Egyptian Civilization, which is historically inaccurate [B de R, in EH, Approaches, 188]. Goth, "the hawk? king," is supposed to be in the early dynastic line of Sargon the Great, whom Waddell believed was the father of Menes, the founder of the Egyptian dy? nasties.
[54:66;
78: 139].
37.
the precepts of Kung, he practiced cheng ming and called things by their right name.
38. Dante: He used the language of the peo? pIe and wrote De Vulgari Eloquentia, which showed the value of avoiding "abstract yatter. "
39. Agassiz: [93:51]. He taught his stu? dents to look directly at a thing until they could finally see it [ABCR, 17], allowing the light to pour.
40. Gestalt: G, "form. " The word is related to the idea of formative power, or the kind of intelligence that directs the cherry to be- come a cherry tree [113:43]. Also, to the forma or concetta, the divine force (the light pouring) in the universe [75:8].
41. let the light: [74/429]. Let the divine force of intelligence flow. Infections grow in the moist dark.
42. Apollonius: A. of Tyana, 4 B. C. - A. D. 96? , was born in the Cappadocia of Greek Asia Minor and trained in philosophy. He traveled as a mendicant sage to most of the courts of the Mediterranean world, as far as India to the east and Spain to the west. He was a student of the lore of both Ascle- pius and the neo? Pythagorean school, to which he added a knowledge of oriental
mysticism. The story of his life, by Philostra? tus, is so replete with miracles, some have regarded him as an imaginary character. "On his return to Europe [from the East] he was received with reverence as a magician. He himself claimed only the power of foreseeing the future. . . . It was said that he was ac-
cused of treason both by Nero and Domi- tian, but escaped by miraculous means. Finally, he set up a school at Ephesus, where he died, apparently aged 100. The work of
Mencius:
Following
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and later. Waddell took the lower part of the seal to be a cartouche and the top part to be a falcon. Pound took the top figure in the cartouche to be the image of a temple, which becomes important in later cantos when there is the recu. rrent theme "the tem- ple is not for sale" [97/676,678,679].
56. caligine: I, "darkness. "
57. 1/2 year . . . tin: Source
the two "1/2" lines appear to articulate with the "Agada, Gana" line, which they bracket.
58. Agada, Gana: [cf. 48 above]. Pound may be rhyming the religious spirit that formed the city of Agdu, sacred to Osiris, with a similar spirit that formed the city sacred to Wagadu in "Gassire's Lute" [74: 134] , as found in Frobenius. Or he may be suggesting that Agdu, the city ofSargon, was actually the second Wagadu from that "Tale of the Sudan. " The tale says: "Four times Wagadu was built and stood there in spendour. Four times it was destroyed so that there was no trace of it to be seen. Once it was lost through vanity, once through faith being broken, once through greed, and once through strife. Four times Wagadu
changed its name. First it was Dierra, then Agada, then Ganna and finally Silla" [Haber- land, Frobenius, 146]. As a metaphor, the tale articulates with The Cantos. Having de- stroyed Agada by broken faith, we may be at the Gaona stage, where greed is the de- stroyer: "Hoggers of harvest are the curse of the people" is a recurrent theme of the later cantos [88:44].
59. Swans . . . : As with
birth of Apollonius was accompanied by marvels. His mother was told in a dream to go to a meadow and pick flowers. She did this and then fell asleep: "Thereupon the swans who fed in the meadow set up a dance around her as she slept, and lifting their wings. . . cried out aloud. . . . She then leaped up at the sound of their song and bore her child . . . just at the moment of the birth, a thunderbolt seemed about to fall to earth and then rose up into the air and disappeared" [P, Life, 1,14-15].
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60. 1roA. A. ovr; nf-l. wv . . OA. q{O~\: H, "to re- spect many, and confide in few. " [Cony- beare's translation, P, Life, I, 109. The ac- cents are incorrect in the canto text. ]. This was A. 's answer to King Vardanes of Baby- lon, who asked him what was "the most stable and secure way of governing. "
61.
