No More Learning

214. Ca s'appelle . . . : F, "That is called an
attic,"
215. Rue Jacob: Street on the Left Bank in Paris where for 60 years the house of Natalie Barney at number 20 was a landmark.
216. it l'Amitie: F, "to friendship. " Refers to "Temple a l'Amith~," a small Doric gazebo in the garden of Natalie's elegant Parisian townhouse [Sieburth, Instigations, 15] .
brought up," Implying it is "ill? mannered" to treat a lady in such a way.
223. Tiens . . . : F, "Look, she's telling you. "
224. jambe-de-bois: F, "wooden leg," mean- ing "The man with. . . . "
225. "Entrez . . . monde": F, "Enter, then, go on in I it is everybody's house. " Prob. Natalie's welcome to arriving guests.
226. H. Liveright: Horace Brisbin L. , 1886-1933, American publisher and theatri? cal producer who, with Albert Boni, founded the firm of Boni and Liveright in 1918.
227. vers Ie Noel: F, "around Christmas. " This visit was prob. after WWI.
228. three small boys . . . : The anecdote of the smacked young fanny (the incident occurred in Pound's presence according to M de R) was a story Natalie told of her early days in Paris. Her salon was known as a place liberated in talk and morals. She was famous as a writer: "But her reputation is due even more to the emancipated ideas by which she lived and to the personal magnetism which she exercised in her many love affairs. She was unquestionably the most candid, the most daring, and the most famous lesbian of her time. . . if they [younger people] listened, they might be surprised by her witty and unconventional remarks" [Wickes, American Writers in Paris, 23, 24] .
229. ce sont les . . . : F, "These are the morals of Lutece. " Lutetia Parisiorum was the ancient name for Paris.
230. Le Musee de Cluny: The Cluny Museum. A 14th-15th-century Gothic and Renaissance structure in the Left Bank, Saint-Germain des Pres district, on the Boulevard St. -Michel. Built by the abbot of Cluny, it houses medieval and Renaissance art objects and curios.
231. teatro romano: I, "Roman theater. " 232. Uncle William: W. B. Yeats [77:163].
1858-1940,
'-'-
217.
M. Jean: J. Cocteau [74:246].
Ecole Militaire: F, "Military School. "
218.
The bUilding on the Champ-de-Mars, Paris,
as the French General Staff College.
"II me parait . . . ": Repeat of anec- about Maritain [77:138].
220.
1972, one of the most famous of the Ameri- can expatriate writers, whose salon was a center of literary activity, especially during the 20s and 30s. She was known as "the Amazon," a sobriquet which inspired Remy de Gourmont's Lettres it L 'Amazone. Pound knew her first in pre. WWI visits to Paris, and since she was a close friend of Gourmont, he tried to arrange publications of his work in English as early as 1913. Since she was possessed of some wealth, Pound persuaded her to support some of his causes and authors such as "Bel Esprit," Valery, George Antheil, etc.
221. apache . . . : The male apache of a bistro (nightclub) dance team who was purported to treat his partner violently, throwing her about the stage with sadistic intent. They were, and still are, popular tourist attractions. Since Miss Barney never went out to cafes, she may have imported such a team to entertain at her. salon one evening.
222. vous etes . . . : F, "You are very badly
used
219. dote
Natalie: N. Clifford Barney, 1876-
? ? ? ? ? 440
80/505-506
80/506? 507
441
233. Ronsard: Pierre de R. , 1524? 1585, a French poet and leader of the Pleiade. Earlier, Yeats had done his "When you are old . . . " on one of Ronsard's Sonnets pour Helene.
234. the ink's heir: Eugene Ullman, 1877? 1953 (whose father manufactured ink for printers), did a portrait of Pound around 1912 which was used as a frontispiece in Donald Davie'sPoet as Sculptor lOP].
235. Monsieur C. : Cocteau [cf. 217 above] .
236. La Falange: Prob. La Phalange, the Parisian literary magazine. Or possibly money paid to the Spanish Falangists [M de R].
237. Arnold Bennett: Enoch A. B. , 1867? 1931, English novelist. .
238. old Carolus: Charles Auguste Emile Carolus? Duran, ? 1837? 1917, French portrait and genre painter.
239. "vous . . . toile? ": F, "Are you going to shave a canvas? " In a 1955 letter about the female nude in painting Pound described an event of 1912 in Paris. The authorities felt that three paintings of Carriere needed retouching because they were too nude. So he "putt on a few dabs of pastel. " While he was doing it, Durand passed by and said, "Ah Monsieur, valiS allez raser une toile? ! "
[Kimpel, Pai, 10? 2,308].
240. Puvis: Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1824? 1898, French muralist. Some of his best work is in the Sorbonne and the
Pantheon.
241. Carriere: Eugene C. , 1849? 1906, French painter and lithographer; known for his portrait of Verlaine and for decorations in the Sorbonne.
242. o? hon dit quelque fois au vi'age: Recurrent phrase [29:30; 78:64]: "It is sometimes said in the village. "
Louis Farigoule, 1885? 1972, French poet and novelist who invented unanimism.
245. Vildrac: Charles V. , pseudonym of Charles Messager, 1882? 1971, French essayist, critic, poet, dramatist, and author of children's books.
246. Chenneviere: Georges C. , 1884? 1927, French poet.
247. Quand . . . vieille: F, "When you are very old. " A line from Sonnets pour Helene [II, 42] which inspired Yeats poem that starts, "When you are old and grey and full
of sleep. "
248. mia pargoletta: I, "my little girl. " The phrase may be addressed to Pound's daughter, Mary. The manuscripts of the Pisan Cantos were sent directly to her to make clean copies for the publisher.
249. Jugoslavian: Yugoslavian.
250. Schlag: G, a Viennese idiom, "with whipped cream. " Used to garnish Vienna coffee.
251. that cafe: The Vienna Cafe [cf. 255 below].
by a precocious Binyonian offspring" [PE, 29].
255. WIENER CAFE: The Vienna Cafe at lbe corner of Oxford and Hart streets. Wyndham Lewis wrote: "When the Belgian fortresses fen to the 'Hun,' the Vienna Cafe tottered and fell, too. For it was staffed and owned entirely by Germans, or Austrians, 'Alien enemies. ' It would not have survived under all-British management. So it became a Bank" [Lewis, Blasting, 280]. Lewis first met Pound there ca. 1910.
256. Jozefff: Prob. a waiter at the Vienna Cafe who returned to Austria to follow Emperor Franz Joseph.
257. Neptune: Name for Sturge Moore [HK].
258. Laomedon: Thomas Sturge Moore's The Rout (Pound recalls Defeat) of the Amazons (1903) opens with these lines: "Faun: Ahi, ahi, ahi, Laomedon!
I Laomedon: It is the faun: He is in sore dismay: I That shrewd 'ah ee' denoteth grief or pain. " The sonority of the lines so impressed Pound that he refers to them in an early article on Dante [SR, 161; rpt. PE, 205].
259. Mr Newbolt: Sir Henry John N. [12:5, 74:171]. His "A Ballad of John Nicholson" contained inversions Pound couldn't endure: "the captains passed in silence forth I And stood the door behind. " He indicates pro- fane thoughts about the line? in a piece on Harold Monro: " B u t . . . (blanks left for profanity) . . . it, Hewlett, look at the line: 'He stood the door behind. ' " [PE, 11] .
260. cummings: e. e. cummings [74:157].
261. meum . . . in tabernam: L, "it is my intention . . . [to die, mari] in a tavern. " First 2 lines of stanza 12 of the Goliardic confession poem Estuans intrinsecus (Burp. - ing up inside) attributed to the so? called Archpoet of the Middle Ages, included in the Carmina Burana [JW] .
262. Chinese food . . . debacle: This seem?
ing nonsequitur has a Poundian logic about it: Any country so backward and uncivilized as not to have a Chinese restaurant is due for disaster.
263. Mr Bridges: Robert B. , 1844? 1930, English poet who became laureate in 1913. Pound said: "Anecdote: years ago when I was just trying to find and use modern speech, old Bridges carefully went through Personae and Exultations and commended every archaism (to my horror), exclaiming 'We'll git em all back; we'll git em all back' "
[L. , 179].
264. Furnivall: Frederick James F. , 1825?
1910, English scholar and philologist who edited the Oxford English Dictionary in the beginning (1861), founded the Early English Text Society, the Chaucer Society, etc.
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 . .