No More Learning

59. infaustus: L, "unfortunate. "
eripuit:
slight
[91 :91].
58. Domitian:
tensity of his reign of terror resulted in his assassination.
The increased in-
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103/732
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665
Mencius to show the Confucian idea of a reasonable balance between public and pri- vate lands and ownership: " A square Ii covers 9 squares of land, which 9 squares contain 900 mau. The central square is the public field, and 8 families, each having its private 100 mau, cultivate in common the public field. And not until the public work is finished, may they presume to attend to their private affairs" [Pai, 3? 3, 393] .
6. kolschoz: R, "collective farm"
[104:113]. In the same issue of Strike [cf. 5 above], Pound went on: "We ask the 'Voice of America' if they are making full use of this idea in the fight against Communism in China. Bolshevism started off as an attack against loan? capital and quickly shifted into an attack against the homestead" [ibid. ]. The idea stuck with Pound. In the Bridson interview, July 9, 1959, he said: "Lack of local government is an effect, not a cause, The contest is between the homestead and the kolchos. Mommsen noted that the Ro? man Empire endured longer than Oriental tyrannies because they settled veterans on the land. Civilization is from the homestead. The Russian Revolution was a fake: it pre? tended to attack capital-the general under? standing being that that was loan capital- and it merely attacked landed property down to the peasant's cow" [ND 17, p. 179].
7. Rome . . . Babylon: In Rome "gold was under the Pontifex" [92 :43]. In Babylon, the. rulers did not perceive the "power inlIer- ent" [quiddity; 91 :82] of gold to the state [ef. 5above].
again; this time to . . . Hawthorne. . . . The funeral was imposing because of those who attended: Emerson, Whittier, Lowell, Long?
Cuba, because the large sum . . . would in? sure the payment of the debt. " Belmont was appointed to a diplomatic post at The Hague. The negotiations were delicate and secrecy was essential. The abolitionists would consider the whole thing the under? handed deal it was. But Pierce was under the threat of powerful southerners that they'd take the island by force if need be. Says Nichols: "Into the midst of the puzzle came Mr. Sickles" [Pierce, 357? 358] .
14. Sickles: Daniel Edgar S. , 1819? 1914,
early became a lawyer and a democratic poli~ tician and, by age 35, an ebullient charmer. At this moment he was the secretary of Buchanan's legation in London and arrived in New York with dispatches for Pierce. Says Nichols: "Pierce and Sickles were kindred spirits. Sickles talked too much in his usual vein. He had a great deal to say about the revolution in Spain" [Pierce, 358]. Pierce got him to return to Europe and explore other ways to obtain Cuba. He did, and bounced around Europe, and just before the fan elections of 1854 he talked freely to a group of Congressmen and others in Paris about his plans. The uproar that broke in the
press thereafter guaranteed the party's de?
feat in the elections and the end of any plans
to annex Cuba. Says Nichols: "Pierce's last Cuban card was thrown away by his agents"
[366] .
15. land . . . veterans: Toward the end of a
chapter entitled "Salvaging the Program,"
Nichols lists a number of bills that failed, a few which the 33rd Congress passed: "It had voted 160 acres of land to all veterans, their widows or minors, a blanket grant which Pierce signed in spite of its size; he had a tender spot for old soldiers" [Pierce, 379]. The Mommsen reference [97:33] relates the act to the homestead acts [cf. 5, 6 above] .
16. Hui: Kung was asked [Analects. Five, VIII]: "Who comprehends most, you or Hui? " He answered: "No comparison, Hui hears one point and relates it to ten . . . ; I hear one point and can only get to the next"
[CON, 210]. Pound is asking the reader to
act like Hui and see how many random things relate in a dramatic way; how states and governments rise and fall, not by the well? considered merits of their causes, but by what ought to be minor matters. It is a central theme of this and mimy other cantos.
17. cunicoli: [101:16].
18. canalesque: [canalisque]: L, "and con?
duits. "
19. (min): C [M4508], "the people;
mankind. "
20. caelum renovabat: L, "he restored heaven. "
21. manes: [60:43].
22. Protocol . . . : In the duc de Broglie's
Memoirs there are a'number of chapters con? cerned with efforts to restore the balance of power to Europe after the revolution of 1830. Much of the problem developed around the possibility of obtaining the neu? trality of Belgium as a buffer state between France, to the south, and the powerful Neth? erlands, to the north. In a letter proposing neutrality, he has an introductory sentence: "In sending the protocol of this sitting to Paris on January 29th, I wrote as follows:" What follows is an outline of the problem and the proposal of the neutrality solution [Memoirs, IV, 26]. It should be noted that the problem was not solved quickly, nor in perpetuity.
23. (T. C. P. ): Thaddeus Coleman Pound [97:205] .
8. The slaves . . .
issuers:
Pound believed
the
Pound preferred the idea that, after Tally?
rand, France started no war in Europe. When
the facts dictated otherwise he blanked these
two lines, but they were restored in the New
Directions edition [MB, Trace, 417] . "No" was replaced by "one. "
25. Bismarck: [86:3]. B's EMS Dispatch
presumably insulted France into starting the
Franco? Prussian War in 1870. B believed that
was to be the "war to end all wars. "
26. Casimir: C. Pierre Perier, 1777? 1832,
American Civil War was fought not to free
the slaves but to protect New York bankers,
who had many great plantations under mort?
gage [SP, 180].
9. Emerson . . . funeral: Says Nichols: "On
December 2, 1863, Mrs. Pierce died. Haw?
thorne came to him immediately and to?
gether they looked at the shrunken figure in the coffin, which strangely affected the au? thor. . . . In the spring of 1864, death came
13. Belmont:
gust Belmont had once suggested to Bucha? nan [now Minister to Great Britain] that the way to acquire Cuba- was to use backstairs influence on the Spanish royal family and to call in the aid of the great European banking houses . . . the Barings, the Rothschilds, and other large holders of Spanish bonds who would be interested in having Spain sell
fellow, Agassiz, and Alcott.
there too" [Pierce, 524? 525].
10. Agassiz: [93:51].
. . .
Pierce
was
11. Alcot: Amos Bronson Alcott, 1799? 1888, one of the New England Transcenden? talists and once a nonresident member of Brook Farm.
12. principal bond? holders: The Spanish royal house was greatly in debt to most of the big banking houses of Europe, all of which had branches in the U. S. The problem of Cuba was one of the most difficult and treacherous o f Pierce's administration. The South demanded that Cuba be "freed" from Spain. What really frightened them were rU' mors that Cuba was on the point of freeing its slaves, an idea which was anathema to all slave~state politicians in the U. S. Proposi? tions to either conquer the island or buy it were in the works for years. The Gadsden Purchase had just passed by a narrow mar~ gin. In May 1854 a secret agent returned from Cuba and reported it was all true. Spain was getting ready to free Cuban slaves. An uproar ensued in the Senate. The situa? tion was more complicated because of a movement in Spain itself to overthrow the government. This revolution in the making was being financed by Great Britain. Pierce was prepared to buy the island, but Congress would not pass the funds. Abolitionists in the North would by no means have Cuba entered into the Union as another slave state. At this point carne the plan to borrow the purchase price [Pierce, 266? 267, 329? 330, passim] .
24. France
. . .
Europe: For
some time
[40: 18].
Says Nichols:
"Au?
? 666
French statesman from a wealthy family of
bankers and Hnanciers who became head of
the ministry of Louis Philippe (1831). He
opposed the ancien regime and supported the constitutional monarchy.
In Broglie we read: "Mr. Perier has just
made an incalculable mistake, by the decree which replaces the statue of Buonaparte on the column in the Place Vendome. The Buo- napartist party, led by the Republicans and Monarchists, will gain fresh strength. " A footnote reads: "See Casimer Perier's an- nouncement which preceded the king's proc- lamation, ordering the statue of Napoleon to be replaced (Journal des Debats, April 12). " The document is headlined: "Paris, April 12th, 1831" [Memoirs, IV, 95].
27. Mme de Lieven: Dorothy de Benken- dorf, 1784-1857, married the Prince de Lie- ven (1800) and was appointed lady-in- waiting to the empress of Russia (1828); she developed strong relationships with many powerful men.
"Canning, and later on Lord Grey were the most constant attendants of her salon" [Memoirs, III, 279]. She was thus in a position to side with the Englishmen who were messing up Talleyrand's efforts to convince England to help him create a long- lasting balance of power in Europe. Broglie does not use a phrase such as "that bitch. " But he does indicate the situation: "Lord Grey, influenced by Madame de Lieven, sought for pretexts to avoid all intervention of the part of England in a cause that was looked upon as lost" [Memoirs, IV, 164].
28. Mme de Stael: [100/717]. A similar sit- uation applied.
29. Bolivar: Sim6n Bolivar, 1783-1830,
South American revolutionist who was
called "the Liberator. " As president of
Greater Columbia, he organized the govern- ment of Peru and created the state named after him, Bolivia. Pis death just at the wrong moment tended to destabilize South America and European interests there.
30. Tolosa: [101 :53]. Town in the Basque
provinces of N Spain.
31. Gubbio: [101:54].
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32. on pouvait manger: F, "they can eat. " Pound believed that the economic actions of Mussolini, following the dictate of all wise rulers to "Feed the people" [101/695], led to this result.
33. Picahia: [87:31,32].
34. T. to Broglie: Achille C. L. Victor, duc de Broglie, 1785-1870, premier of France (1835-1836). Talleyrand wrote him a letter dated 9 April 1833 in which he said: "I am a little surprised to hear the public opinion of Vienna; my recollections and my actual knowledge of that place, led me to believe that there was no such thing as public opin- ion in Vienna; society there has an opinion, but society is one; it is not divided and M. de Metternich is its leading spirit" [Memoirs, V ,9].
35. Mettemich: [50:13,27]. Clemens Wen- zel N. Lothar, Flirst von M. , 1773-1859, Austrian statesman and the most compelling force at the Congress of Vienna. As a voice of conservatism he was anathema to liberals for over a hundred years, especially because of his endorsement and promotion of the Holy Alliance proposed by Alexander I of Russia.
36. Maria Theresa: 1717-1780, empress con-
sort o f Francis I o f Bohemia and dowager empress on the accession of her son Jo- seph II in 1765, after which she carried out a series of agrarian reforms. During her time Vienna became a center of the arts and music. The only application possible is that Metternich, at the Congress of Vienna 35 years after her death, helped destroy her aspirations and the work she had done. She is not mentioned in Broglie.
o f Tuscany famous for swamps, snakes, and malaria [Int. XXV, 19-20]. T. S. Eliot made the place famous with his note to line 293 of The Waste Land, which cites "Siena mi fe', disfecemi Maremma" ("Siena made me, the
Maremma undid me"), said by La Pia [Pur. V ,133].
38. Hroosia: Russia. If the phrases are put
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667
power in Europe after the revolution of
1830. Napoleon I had made members of his
family kings in various places. His eldest son,
Charles, was known as the king of Rome (1811-1814); Napoleon I abdicated in 1814 in favor of Charles, who technically became Napoleon II. He became a sad creature known in literature as "L'AigIet," and al- though he never ruled, he and his family had a strong political following allover Europe known as the Bonapartists. But others, in- cluding Broglie and T. , were now supporting the Monarchist party, which meant main- taining in power the restored Bourbon, Louis XVIII. While king of Rome Napo- leon II-to-be married Hortense de Beauhar- nais. When the family fell she lived as an exile in Switzerland, with her son, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1808-1873), who would eventually become Emperor Napo- leon III (1852-1870). At a most inopportune moment, Charles, the presumptive heir, was killed fighting the war in the Papal States. That made the second son the heir; and he turned out to be in the last place he should be during delicate negotiations: Paris. In ear~ lier years, when T. had served Napoleon I in a number of official capacities, he had done much for Hortense. During her exile she had taken the title of duchesse de Saint-Leu, a fiefdom that in better times T. had helped attain for her. She called upon him now for help in getting passports for herself and her entourage; but her son, Louis, was ill at an embarrassing moment. T. allowed her to stay in Paris, hoping to be unnoticed, until the health of the young prince improved enough to allow them to travel to London. But they were discovered, and the press had a field day. Broglie says of this contretemps: "Be- fore continuing my dispatches, I must men- tion a matter of no great importance in itself, but which gave rise to the most absurd comments in certain newspapers" [Memoirs, IV, 120]. It seemed as if the public outcry might blow to bits all efforts to reach a resolution to the problem of a balance of power in Europe, and undo T. 's years of work. It didn't. The final irony, however, may be that the young prince's health im-
37. Maremma:
Italian coastal
section
40. B. Mussolini: A trap for M had been laid, which he expected. Says M de R: "Mus- soHni was prepared for treachery, but not on the King's doorstep" [Discretions, 184].
41. Predappio: Village of Romany, south of ForH; hometown of Mussolini, who made the remark above to a man from there.
42. Knole: Perhaps the family seat in Knole and the Sackvilles, by V. Sackville-West. The chronicle, beginning in Elizabethan times, is sad enough.
43. Warsaw: In a letter to Talleyrand (Dec. 12, 1830), Madame Adelaide expresses sadness about the situation brought about at the Congress of Vienna which eventually led to another partition of Poland: "how star- tling is the news of the Revolution at War- saw. . . . Ah! if Prussia and Austria would only understand their own interests, how splendid it would be for England and our- selves, if we could obtain a fairer and more tolerable state of things for poor unhappy Poland! . . . The Powers are now reaping what the Holy Alliance sowed" [Memoirs, 1II,321].
44. de Vaux: Louis de V. , 1766-1841, who founded the Journal des Debats, which at first was interested in arts and literature. He lost this journal but edited others and seemed to conform to the tastes of the time. In 1830, however, he vigorously supported the monarchical party [Memoirs, IV, 51 ff. ].
45. (the Archbishop): This representative of
the church is an ironic picture of an authori- ty whose grasp of events in indicated by his belief that such things as sacred relics are significant [cf. 47 below].
. . .
T
into the mouth of Vienna personified, we would have the sequence "Maria made me, Metternich [with the contrivance of Alex- ander I of Russia] undid me. "
39. '"tranne
of the king. "
. . .
re": I,
"except in the house
46. St Leu
volve a detail that, ironically, complicated and delayed the resolution of the balance of
Talleyrand:
These lines in-
? ? I
668
103/734
France. . . . I have, perhaps, dwelt too long on this very uninteresting person, but this digression was necessary in order to expose the hot? bed of intrigue which impeded the progress of our affairs in England" [Mem? oirs, III, 309]. Pound would not caIl it a digression. He would call such things lumi? nous details at the heart of the matter. Dur? ing the decade in which these cantos were written, the same nations of Europe were struggling for position and power, as they always had been, only now the tentacles of intrigue reached into every corner of the world; and the U. S. was in the grip of such public panics as the McCarthy scandals, the Alger Hiss trials, and other cold? war battles. These considerations gave way at times to
such things as the vicuna coat seen as a bribe to Eisenhower's chief of staff, Sherman Adams.
103/734
shu the Troublemaker" in Frobenius. Prob.
Joachim von Ribbentrop or the jolli"~[i1ist Alfred? Ingemar Berndt, who added azerino the reported casualties of 5000 to get 50,000 [EH, Pai, 1? 1,86? 88].
53. 1831 . . . : Says Griffis: "Two great measures, the abolition of imprisonment for debt and that of religious tests for witnesses in the Empire State, are to be credited to Millard Fillmore. The first [was] passed by the assembly, April 2nd, 1831"
[Fillmore,S].
54. John Quinn: [12: 18]. A lawyer ofIrish background, 1870? 1924, who became a rna? jor supporter of artists in the 20th? century revolutions. His first law partner, Bainbridge Colby, was appointed by Wilson to be his new secretary of state in Feb. 1920. The furor in the press prompted Quinn (who hated Wilson and all he stood for) to volun? teer his services to represent Colby before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "He worked hard for six consecutive days on the matter and apparently turned it into another oneman show, and a successful one . . . . Colby was painlessly instated on March 27" [Reid, The Man/rom New York, 460? 461].
55. Lansing's . . . : Robert L. , 1864? 1928, secretary of state, 1915? 1920, lost Wilson's favor by calling several meetings of the cabi? net during Wilson's illness. Wilson asked for and got his resignation in early Feb. 1920
[ibid. ] .
56. 1841 Fillimore: Millard Fillmore, 1800? 1874, 13th president of the U. S. (1850? 1853). In his struggle for primacy among New York Whigs in the 1830s, he lost the speakership of the House to Henry Clay; but as runner-up, he became chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee and thus, in 1841, was able to direct the finances of the nation. In addition to over a decade of squabbles about renewing the charter of the Bank of the United States, new conflicts arose over the use of the millions of dollars of income received from the sale of federal lands. A thirty? year struggle between "Free
669
Soilers" and those who wanted to buy land cheap for speculation, as well as fights over tariffs, reached many climaxes: "In 1841 the industrial forces had reassembled their strength in the Whig party. . . . To lead them into battle . . . they had chosen . . . Millard Fillmore" [Rayback, Fillmore, 126].
57. Wolverine . . . : Also in 1841,MFtooka statesmanlike stand on the "Caroline" affair: "During the Patriot War in Canada . . . a virtual invasion of the soil of the United States took place. " On Dec 29, 1837, armed Canadians boarded the American steamer Caroline, set it afire, and headed it blazing for Niagara Falls. The British government took responsibility and knighted the instiga? tor. Congress took to incendiary oratory. War seemed to 100m.