No More Learning

265. Dr. Weir Mitchell: Dr. SilasW. M. , 1829? 1914, a noted neurologist and man of letters from Philadelphia. Pound prob. met him when young and approved some of his cultural projects, such as a Chaucer diction- ary and the Franklin Inn Club, of which he was the guiding spirit and president from its foundation in 1902 until his death. He invented the "phantom limb" concept to describe the sense people have of an amputa- ted limb still being there.
266. old William: W. B. Yeats [74:166]. His poem "Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation" contains the contention.
267. Gesell: [74:368].
268. Mabel: Mabel Beardsley, 1872? 1913, sister of Aubrey B.
269. Sligo in Heaven: [77:162]. Sligo was one of Yeats's favorite places.
270. old "da": John Butler Yeats, 1839? 1922, Irish artist, father ofW. B. Yeats, who spent many years in New York. Pound said in a letter of 1915 to John Quinn: "I have still a very clear recollection of Yeats pere on an elephant (at Coney Island), smiling like Elijah in the beatific viSion, and of you
243.
11] .
244. Romains: Jules R. , pseudonym of
253. Mr Binyon: Laurence B. , 1869? 1943, English poet, keeper of the prints and drawings, British Museum, authority on Oriental art, and translator of Dante. His Flight of the Dragon [1911] made a big impression on Pound [Pai, 3? 1,94? 100].
254. Penthesilea: Binyon's narrative poem in two parts ("The Coming of the Amazons" and "The Battle"), which concerns the battle between the queen of the Amazons (Penthesilia) and Achilles and dramatizes her defeat by the Greek hero. Pound heard the story from one of Binyon's three daughters (prodigies) and was prompted to hunt the story up at the British Museum. He wrote "demme if I remember anything but a word, one name, Penthesilia, and that not from reading it, but from hearing it spoken
Brisset:
Anecdote
repeated
[27: 10,
252. Mr [7840].
Lewis:
Percy
Wyndham
L.
? ? ? 442
plugging away in the shooting gallery"
[L,52].
271. Mr John Quinn: [12:18; 103:54].
272. "Liquids and fluids! ": The Cuala Press in May, 1917, published a 60? page book: Passages from the Letters of John Butler Yeats, Selected by Ezra Pound. Norman says, "old J. B. Yeats, who used to worry that his son would run off with a ballet dancer, had begun to worry that he would never run off with anyone. He began to frequent fortune tellers to learn, if possible, what his chances were of becoming a grandfather . . . "
[CN, Pound, 203]. Conversation between the palmist and J. B. Yeats was prob. reo ported in one of these letters.
273. Warren Dahler: A painter Pound knew during his 1910? 1911 months in New York, when he visited J. B. Yeats often. Dahler is seen as the discoverer of Patchin Place, where Cummings lived at no. 4 for many years after WWI. Pound wrote to Cummings in 1930: "Does a venerable figure called Dahler still live at No. 7 Pat. PI? " [L, 228].
274. Hier wohnt: G, "Here lives. "
275. Whitman: Just as the tradition lived on in Camden, N. J. while Walt Whitman lived there.
276. 596 Lexington: Address of a rooming house, the home of Pound's maternal grandmother Mary Weston from about 1887? 1892. Pound was shown many family relics there, including pictures [PD, 6? 8,12,
IS. 19;JW,Pai, 12? 1, 55-S7].
277. 24 E. 47th: Address of boardinghouse in New York that belonged to Pound's great uncle Ezra B. Weston and his wife Frances Amelia (Aunt Frank) Weston. Pound lived there as a boy [JW,Pai 12-1, 55? 87].
278. Jim: [74:461].
279. Aunt F. : Aunt Frank. The Windsor Hotel, on Fifth Avenue between 46th and 47th streets, burned down March 7, 1899. Hence the time of her remark to Jim, the black servant boy, and prob. Pound, aged 13 [ibid. ].
80/507-508
280. Regeuts Park: Regent's Park, London.
281. Alma-Tadema: Sir Lawrence Alma- Tadema, 1836-1912, English painter who lived at no. 34 Grove End Road on the west of Regent's Park. The "maison" was beauti- fied "with a series of panels by eminent artists, and many other works of art" [Fang, 11,92].
282. Leighton House: The residence of Frederick, Lord Leighton, 1830-1896, at 12 Holland Park Road: "The beautiful Arab Hall, in the centre of which is a fountain, is decorated with Saracenic and Persian tiles, mainly of the 16th cent. " [ibid. , 93].
283. Selsey: The town, near the tip of Selsey Bill, S coast of England, where Ford Madox Ford and Violet Hunt lived and Pound used to visit. But after the Ford-Hunt separation, she packed the memorabilia away.
284. Swinburne: The story as told by Ford is that a cabby appeared and said to a housemaid, "I've got your master very drunk in my keb. " Finally she said, "That's Mr. Swinburne. Help me carry him upstairs and put him in the bath" [Portraits from Life, New York, 1937, 186-187]. Pound refers to the story more . obliquely in "Swinburne Versus Biographers" [Poetry, March 1918].
285. Tennyson: Pound said about him: "When he began to write for Viccy's [Victoria's] ignorant ear, he immediately ceased to be the 'Tennyson so muzzy that he tried to go out through the fireplace'"
[LE,276].
286. Miss Braddon: Mary Elizabeth B. , 1837-1915, a prolific writer of sensational novels. She was admired by Thackeray and Stevenson. Ferdie is Ford M. Ford who, being poor, marvelled at scenes of wealth.
287. Richmond: A suburb of London inhabited by people of wealth.
288. Perigueux: Capital of Dordogne de- partment, SW France. The Cathedrale St-Front there [cf. "Provincia Deserta"]
80/508-510
443
305. Sir Ronald: R. Storrs, 1881-1955, Brit- ish administrator and historian.
306. the Negus: Title of Haile Selassie, the sovereign of Ethiopia.
307. Menelik: [18:27]. For the gold bars in the palace, see "Sammy's nevvy" [104:24].
308. Alessandria: Alexandria. Pound's mem- ories of his 1898 visit to Tangiers with his Aunt Frank evoke memories of data in Pea's novel.
309. Pea: Enrico P. , 1881-1952, Pound translated his novel Moscardino and said: "the only time in my life that I have ever wanted to translate a novel" [SP, 318]. Pea tells about his talks with Pound while they worked together: "I was able to tell him how I made iron-bound wooden chests for the Ottoman Bank, for the shipment of gold sovereigns overseas; and, when the Anglo- Egyptian Bank sumptuously renewed its pre- mises . . . how I had supplied the desks of red mahogany at a price of ? 60 each" [Pea, Moscardino, New Directions, 1955,5].
310. Whitcomb Riley: James W. R. , 1849- 1916, an American poet whose dialectical sounds appealed to Pound from his earliest school days: some of his own juvenilia was written in the manner of Riley.
311. Nancy: N. Cunard, 1896-1965, poetess and wealthy patron of the arts visible in all the expected places in the 20s and 30s. In 1934, Pound contributed a piece on Frobe- nius to a book she edited called Negro An- thology [NS, Life, 322]. Both she and her money were valuable to many a struggling artist and poet. Her Hours Press was the first publisher of A Draft o f xxx Cantos [HK].
312. Whither . . . ciselatons: Based on the passage from chapter 6 of Aucassin and Ni- colette, which Pound likes in Andrew Lang's version. The lover says he doesn't want to join the "priests and halt old men" in para- dise but rather he'll head toward hell where goodly knights and ladies go and where "goes the gold, and the silver, and cloth of Yair, ? and cloth of gris" ("et s'i va Ii ors et Ii
may have reminded Pound of New York skyscrapers.
289. si com' ad Arli: I, "just as at Arles. " So Dante describes the high walls of the "City of Dis" [In! IX, 112].
290. sarascen: The walls of Dis enclosed a vast cemetery. Arles, France, is the site of the famous Aliscans (Alyschamps; Elysian Fields) cemetery for warriors against the Saracens.
291. "Surrender of Breda": [ef. 19 above].
292. Velasquez: [cf. 15 above].
293. Avignon: The seat of popes from 1309 to 1377 and, after them, two antipopes. In the porch of the cathedral Notre-Dame des Doms at A. , there are "dilapidated frescoes by Simone Martini" [Fang, 11, 320].
294. y cavals armatz: P, "and horses all armed" [7: ! O].
295. "Me Hercule! ": L, "By Hercules! "
296. c'est n6tre comune: F, "It's our bailiwick. "
297.
"Borr": Dialect pronunciation of Born, ancestral town in French Perigord of trouba- dour Bertran de Born, whose family moved to the castle of Altafort (Hautefort) when his brother married into the Delastours family [JW] .
298. V entadour:
[6:29; 27:35;
74:73].
299. Aubeterre: [76:76]. Visited on the 1911 walking tour.
300. Unkle George: G. Holden Tinkham [74:180]. Pound visited Monte Grappa near
the Piave with him [M de R].
301. suI Piave: I, "on the Piave. " A river in NE Italy.
302. Volpe: Giuseppe Volpi [76:191].
303. Lido Excelsior: Excelsior Palace Hotel on the island Lido off Venice [76:192].
304. Florian's: Cafe on the south side of St. Mark's square in Venice [76:95].
? ? ? ? 444
argens et Ii vaiIS et Ii gris"). Pound said Lang
was born to translate the book [SR, 84J. The opening of "Blandula, Tenella, Vagula" comes from the Lang version [P, 39J.
313. yair: P, "varicolored furs. "
314. cisclatons: P, "rich silk gowns. "
315. Excideui1: Town in SW France [29:40J.
316. Mt Segur: [23:25J. 317. Dioce: [74:8J.
318. Que . . . Iune: F, "that every month we have a new moon. "
319. Herbiet: Georges H. , French poet who, in 1921 under the name of "Christian," translated Pound's "Moeurs Contempo-
80/510-511
328. Munch: Gerhardt M. [75:2J. The anec- dote suggests the Kornmandant was a Ger- man in Italy because of the pronunciation of Puccini as "Spewcini. "
329. man seht: G, "one sees. "
80/511-512
342. lordaens: Jacob J. , 1593-1678, Flem- ish painter. All the names in this passage denote painters of Venus [HK, Era, 363- 365J. For painters of our time [cf. 349 belowJ we have Cocteau (a hermaphrodite), a prepubescent girl, and 3 fat ladies [HK].
343. "This alone . . . the all: Chu Hsi com- ments on the opening Hnes of Chung Yung and says, among other things: "The main thing is to illumine the root of process. . . . The components, the bones of things, the materials are implicit" [CON, 99J. Fang is at
a loss to see how Pound could derive leather from the characters but proposes a possibili- ty: "it may . . . be conjectured that he either interpreted the lower part of ku as 'flesh' . . . or the lower part of li as 'bean'
445
rangement in Grey Green: Miss Alexander
[Fang, III, 144J.
352. Sargent: John Singer S. , 1856-1925, an American painter who did a number of paintings of three ladies together, with an occasional fat one-but none in which all the ! acties can be called fat.
353. Rodenbach: Georges R. , 1855-1898, Belgian poet of the symbolist group. The painting was done by Levy-Dhurmer [HK, Era, 479J.
354. L'Ile St Louis: F, "St. Louis Island. " One of the islands in the Seine at Paris.
355. Abelard: Peter A. , 1079-1142, French philosopher and teacher who was such a favorite that "to hear him, his pupils crossed the Petit Pont by thousands. " The Roden- bach self-portrait indicated places the poet at the center: "its background consists of a bridge, several gabled houses, two spires, but not trees" [Fang, III, 135J. But the bridge may have reminded Pound of the Petit Pont, which may be called Abelard's bridge.
356. Elysium: In Greek mythology, the Is- lands of the Blessed.
357. rr&v7O< pel: H, "Everything fiows. " As the sage Heraclitus says [GK, 31, 79, etc. ]. Pound associates the Greek aphorism with the Confucian process [96: 168J.
358. rain altars . . . parapets: Analects XII, 21, 1 says: "Fan Ch'ih walking with him below the rain altars . . . said: 'Venture to ask how to lift one's conscience in action' "
[CON,247].
359. Aliscans: [cf. 290 aboveJ.
360. MtSegur: [cf. 316 aboveJ.
361. Spencer: H. Spencer, Pound's instruc- tor at the Cheltenham Military Academy. Pound said: "A fellow named Spenser [sicJ recited a long passage of Iliad to me, after tennis. That was worth more than grammar when one was 13 years old" [GK, 145].
raines for the [105/746J.
Dadaist journal 391
320. Fritz: F. Vanderpyl [7:22J.
. . .
322. Orage: Alfred Richard O. [46: 17J.
323. Fordie: Ford Madox Ford [74:165J.
324. Crevel: Rene C. [41 :35J.
325. de . . . vengan: S, "out of my solitude let them come. " From poem by Lope de Vega [cf. SR,208J.
326. Rossetti: Dante Gabriel R. ,
1882, English painter and poet who was the founder and leader of the Pre-Raphaelite school. He found remaindered copies of Fitzgerald's Rubiiiyat in a secondhand book shop. Pound mentions the discovery in sev- eral places: "Y eux Glauques" [P, 192; ABCR, 79-80J.
327. Cythera: Here the planet Venus [Peck, Pai, I-I, 9J. When Pound was at Pisa, the planet was bright in the autumn sky. Here he sees it with a crescent moon [Flory, Pai, 5-1,
461.
345: Chu Hsi: (rhymes with "juicy"), 1130-1200, Chinese philosopher and most important of the neo-Confucians of the southern Sung dynasty.
346. luz: [cf. 90 aboveJ. This bone was considered the seed from which at the last judgment the whole physical body could be made to spring: a sort of medieval, eschato- logical cloning.
347. Sigismundo: Invokes Platina and the usual subject of conversation among intelli- gent men [11 :26, 29J.
348. Cocteau: [cf. 217 above].
349. Marie Laurencin: 1885-1956, French painter and illustrator. She did the 6 color plates for Alice in Wonderland [Black Sun Press, 1930J. The painting of Cocteau is mentioned by Nina Hammet [Laughing Tor- so) London, 1932], who saw it at the salon ofCocteau's mother [po 190].
350. Whistler: [cf. 175 above].
351. Miss Alexander: Miss Cecily Henri- etta A. In 1872 Whistler did a full-length standing portrait of her and entitled it Ar-
Lussac: F, "13,
321. treize
Street. " On the left bank. A circular stone bas-relief of Fritz is still visible on the bal- cony [HKJ.
Gay-Lussac
1828-
330. Les hommes . . . beaute:
I don't know what strange fear/ . . . of beauty,"
331. Beardsley: [74:4IOJ.
332. Yeats: W. B. Yeats [74:166J. Yeats tells the anecdote about beauty. "I said to him once) 'you have never done anything to equal your Salome with the head of John the Baptist. ' I think that for the moment he was sincere when he replied, 'Yes, yes; but beauty is so difficult'" [The Autobiogra- phy, Anchor A142, p. 223J.
333. Burne-Jones: Sir Edward B. -J. , 1833- 1898, English painter and decorator, strong- ly influenced by the Rossettis and an expo-
nent of Pre-Raphaelite principles.
334. Arthur: A. Symons, 1865-1945, Brit- ish poet and critic, author of The Symbolist Movement in Literature. His poem "Modern Beauty" has lines Pound always liked: "I am the torch, she saith, and what to me / Ifthe moth die of me? I am the flame / of Beauty, and I burn that all may see. "
Aphrodite, or here the planet Venus, which on this Pisan dawn appeared to be in the arms of the crescent moon [cf. 327 above].
337. Sandro: S. Botlicelli [20:19J. 338.