a statue o f Farinata
kneeling
which Pound remem- bered in a church at San Zeno, Verona.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
A
quote from Micah 4. 5.
38. Gaudier: [77:80].
39. Hulme: [16:27].
40. Wyndham: Percy W. Lewis, 1882-1957, a British writer and painter Pound defended and promoted for a lifetime, Lewis joined with Gaudier-Brzeska and Pound to establish Vorticism and publish Blast. His birth-date is often given as 1884 because he made himself two years younger to enhance his precocity
[HK].
41. Mana aboda: Title of a poem by T. E.
Hulme [F,252].
48. front name . . . : A recurrent axiom of
Fascist thought which Pound repeats often
in his prose: "We are tired of a government in which there is no responsible person having a front name, a hind name and an address" [Exile, no. 4, Autumn 1928, 5;see also FE, 101; Exile, no. 2, 1927, 117; ABCE, 119;SF,261].
49. "not a right . . . ": A Mussolini state-
ment, "La liberta non e un diritto: e un
dovere" (Liberty is not a right but a duty),
was a part of the Fascist credo Pound
endorsed; he had it printed on his stationery. He used Liberta un Dovere as the epigraph for Carta da Visita [SF,306].
SO. "Presente! ": I, "Present. " A significant word at Fascist gatherings: " I t [Fascism] even has the mystery of Transubstantiation. For members who have died in great ex- ploits . . . . When the roll is called, and the unbreathing lips remain silent, his circle of Fascist comrades reply, 'Presente! ''' The prayer of the Fascist militia says in part: "Oh, God, who lights every flame and strengthens every heart, renew my passion for Italy in me day by day! Make me worthier of our dead, so that they them- selves-ever strongly-shall answer to the living, 'Presente! . ,. Amen'" [Finer, M's
42. Steele . . . : Lt.
manding officer of the DTC. Col. Steele later "could understand" the accusation o f sadism. The record seems to show that he went quite a way beyond express orders to allow Pound privileges [King, "Steele," 50].
Col. John
Steele,
com-
47. "definition
a scene but not define meaning.
": A
camera may
? 418
Italy, 360; quoted Fang, 1II, 83]. M de R
objected to this as a gross overstatement.
51. merrda. . . swine: Presumed accom- plishments of Mussolini Pound mentions often [41/202].
52. Sitalkas . . . Upward: [74:272].
53. Pellegrini: Giampietro P. (b. 1899), finance minister o f Salo Republic. On November 27, 1943 he told M he would allot 125,000 lira a month to him as chief of state. M refused the money, saying that "4000 lira for his family of four would be more than ample. " But Pellegrini insisted and M "agreed to the sum, but on Decem- ber 27, 1944 he had the further payment of the money stopped. " M seemed suspi- cious that that much money should honestly be there [Fang, III, 87-88].
54. Justinian: [65: 126; 77:44; 94:45].
55. Titus: T. Flavius Vespasianus, A. D. 9-79, Roman emperor (69-79) noted for administrative and financial reforms that salvaged the empire from the critical state it was left in by Nero. "He was industrious, and the simplicity of his life was taken as a model. . . . He cultivated a bluff manner, characteristic of the humble origins he liked to recall. His initial appointments . . . reflect his astuteness in building a powerful partyJ
78/479-480
tive column in the Campus Martius" [OCD, 76]. Pound mentions A. often in his prose: "[One] can . . . find the known beginnings of usury entangled with those of marine insurance, sea lawyers, the law of Rhodes, the disputed text of Antoninus Pius on the limits of his jurisdiction" [SP, 272; cf. 58 below].
57. lex Rhodi: L, "the law of Rhodes" [42:4].
58. private misfortune: Said Pound: "the
cultural tradition with regard to money . . .
may be traced . . . from the indignation of Antoninus Pius, that people should attempt to exploit other people's misfortunes (e. g. , shipwrecks . . . )" [SP,311].
59. Rostovseff: Michael Ivanovich Rosto- vtzeff, 1870-1952, American historian; pro- fessor of classical philology and ancient history at St. Petersburg, Fla. (1901-18), professor of ancient history at U. of Wiseon- sin (1920-25) and at Yale (1925-39); author of History of the Ancient World (1924-26) and Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World (1941).
60. Mencius. . . verse 7: In quoting from
the passage indicated, Pound said in "Mang Tsze" [Mencius]: "'Nothing is worse than a fixed tax. ' A fixed tax on grain is in bad years a tyranny, a tithe proper, no tyranny" [SP,89].
61. T'ang Wan Kung: C, "Duke Wan of T'ang": title of Book III of The Works of Mencius.
62. grillo: I, "cricket,"
63. quattrocento: I, "fifteenth century. "
64. o-hon. . . tout: F, imitation of collo-
quial language: "It is sometimes said in the village / that a helmet has no use / none at all / It is only good to give courage / to those who don't have any at all" [29:30].
65. Salzburg: Austrian city famous for its
annual Mozart festival.
66. Qui . . . gamba: I,
the cricket / Piano (softly), the bass viol. "
78/480-481
67. Wolfgang: W. Amadeus Mozart. 68. Lake Garda: [76:90].
69. Tailhade: Laurent T. , 1854-1919, French poet.
70. "Willy": Henri Gauthier-Villars, 1859- 1931, a French novelist, essayist, and biographer, nicknamed "Willy. "
71. Mockel: Albert Henri Louis M. , 1866- 1945, Belgian-French poet and critic, the founder (1886) and editor of La Wallonie, a magazine o f the Belgian symbolists. His strange aesthetic came to a climax in The
Immortal Flame (1924).
72. en casque . . . : F, "in pink crystal
helmets the mountebanks," from Ballet, by Stuart Merrill [cf. "Essay on French Poets," MIN, 232], a poem first published in La Wallonie.
73. cakeshops . . . Nevsky: [16:42; 74:183]. 74. Sirdar: [74:175].
75. Armenonville: [74:236].
76. Kashmiri: I, "of Kashmir. " [19:34].
77. Mozart's house: Not the house in which he was born but the Mozart-Haus in the Schwarz-Strasse (Salzburg), "built in 1912- 14 by the international 'Stiftung mozar-
419
Guelph-Ghibelline factions. When he became the head of his house in 1239, he became the leading Ghibelline and in 1248 took part in the expUlsion of the Guelphs. The Guelphs returned and in 1258 expelled the Ghibel- lines. But with the help of the Sienese, Farinata led his men to the battle of Monta- perti (1260) and crushed the Guelphs. At the council at EmpoH afterwards, it was proposed that Florence be completely destroyed and reduced to the status of a village. According to Villani, "When this proposal was made, the valiant and wise knight, Messer Farinata degli Uberti, arose and opposed it . . . saying . . . that such talk was madness . . . . So long as there was life in his body, he said, he would defend the city with sword in hand. " He prevailed. But because he was posthumously condemned as a heretic, Dante places him in the 6th circle of Hell. When F. rises up out of his tomb in Hell to speak with Dante, his arrogance is described by his attitude: "Com' avesse I' inferno a gran dispitto" ("As if he had a great scorn of Hell"). The lines here prob.
refer to a statue of Farinata in the courtyard
("cortile") at San Zeno. "Ubaldo" refers to Pound's friend, a descendant of the Farinata, Ubaldo degli Uberti, an admiral in the Italian Navy [ef. "Ezra Pound and Ubaldo degli Uberti: History of a Friendship," by Riccardo M. degli Uberti (his son), Italian Quarterly, XVI, 64, Spring 1973, 95-107]. Pound refers to him occasionally in his prose [SR,
120,160].
80. cortile: I, "court, patio. "Prob.
a statue o f Farinata kneeling which Pound remem- bered in a church at San Zeno, Verona.
81. Ubaldo: [77:99].
82. Can Grande: C. G. della Scala, 1291- 1329, lord of Verona and greatest member of the Ghibelline family that ruled Verona from 1277-1387. He was a friend and protector of Dante. The face on an eques- trian statue surmounting his tomb outside the Church of Santa Maria Antica in Verona is striking because of a broad grin [Ivancich,
Ezra Pound in Italy, has picture] .
o f
which the core
was his own
family"
with two
concert-rooms, an
[OCD, 1116]. Prob. Pound believed M was a 20th-century Vespasian [94:118].
56. Antoninus: A. Pius, 86-161, Roman
emperor; adopted son of Hadrian, whom
he succeeded in 138. He was followed by
Marcus Aurelius, whom Hadrian persuaded
him to adopt. The reign of Antoninus was
marked by reason, restraint, fiscal wisdom,
and vastly improved administrative tech-
niques. "The general tone of harmony and
well-being under Antoninus is well expressed by Aristides . . . [who] pictures the Empire as a congery of happy, peaceful, and pros- perous city-states under the aegis of Rome's beneficent hegemony and protection. . _. Deified by universal accord, he received all the usual honours, including a commemora-
"Here
sings
Wolfgang
1
teum' . . .
academy of music, and archives" [Baedeker's Austria, 1929, 251;Fang, III, 118].
78. San Zeno: [74:483]. A romanesque
church in Verona which Pound visited with
Edgar Williams (W. C. Williams's brother), which had a signed column [45: 14] . In his "Paris Letter" [Dial, vol. 74, 1923, 89], Pound ends his tale of the visit with: "Williams looked at the two simple spirals of red marble cut in one block, and burst out, 'How the hell do you expect us to get any buildings when we have to order OUr columns by the gross? ' "
79. Farinata: F. degli Uberti. The great Ghibelline leader of Florence. He was born in Florence at the beginning of the 13th century and saw the development of the
? 420
78/481
78/481-482
421
83. Tommy Cochran: Said Pound: "just a nice kid I knew in Wyncote" [ibid. ].
84. "E fa . . . tremare": I, "And makes the air tremble with light" [74:425].
85. we sat there: The "we" included Pound, T. S. Eliot, and D. M. G. Adams [RO; DG]. The visit took place in the early 20s [Pai, 5-1,47].
86. Thiy: Bride Scratton. Pound called her Thiy after an early Egyptian queen [NS, Life,243].
87. il decaduto: I, "the decadent one. " T. S. Eliot [EH].
88. Rochefoucauld: La R. Perhaps a mem- ory of the Eliot poem that ends, "I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning / Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld / If the street were time and he at the end of the street, / And I say, 'Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript. ' "
89. Cafe Dante: A cafe in Verona. Pound recalls with fondness the great literary plans they made there by the arena, even though they came to naught.
90. Griffith: [19:10].
91. Aram vult nemus: [74:441].
92. under . . . (confusions): Analects XXI, 1: "Fan Ch'ih walking with him below the rain altars . . . said: Venture to ask how to lift one's conscience in action; to correct the hidden tare, and separate one's errors? " [CON, 247].
93. "Chose . . . off": Analects XXII, 3-6: "He said: Promote the straight, and grind the crooked. . . . Shun had the Empire, picked out Kao-Yao [53:29] from the multitude, promoted him, and wrong 'uns departed. T'ang . . . picked out I Yin [85:5] from all the hordes, promoted him, and the wrong 'uns departed" [CON, 248] .
94. One hell of a fight . . . : The next dozen lines concern U. S. Senate fights over the League of Nations and the 18th amendment.
Pound turned against the League because it voted sanctions against Italy for invading Ethiopia: "America (the U. S. ) has not paid its debt even in thought to the men who kept the U. S. OUT of the league at Geneva. If we have' Susan B. Anthony . . . shoved onto our postage stamps, we shd. think up something better. . . for Lodge Knox Borah, and George Holden Tinkham fa; having kept our fatherland out of at least one stinking imbroglio. The League of Two
Measures" [GK,247].
95. Lodge: Henry Cabot L. , 1850-1924,
American legislator; member of the House of Representatives (1887-93), and of the Senate (1893-1924); as chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Senate he was opposed to the peace treaty and'the League of Nations (1919).
96. Knox: Philander Chase K. , 1853-1921, American political leader, member of the U. S. Senate (1904-09; 1917-21); against entry of the U. s. into the League of Nations.
97. Bacchus: Dionysus. Here as a god of wine.
98. Number XVIII: The 18th amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors; ratified in 1919, re- pealed in 1933.
99. Mr Tinkham: [74: 180].
100. Odon: O. Por (b. 1883). One of Pound's favorite Italian writers on social and economic problems. "In six weeks Par had two articles out" [GK, 166] ; "Odon Por has kept a level head, being in Rome and keep- ing tab on international knowledge" [GK, 246]. The volume referred to here is prob- ably Finanzia nuova, which Pound trans-
103. return to Midas: As chancellor of the exchequer in 1925, Churchill restored the gold standard. The act created a devastating depression at home and great suffering in other places in the empire [74:32].
104. taxes: A major premise of social credit is that if the government controls the extension of credit and receives interest for extending it, the people of a nation will collect dividends rather than pay taxes.
o f
of money could be avoided and its velocity maintained by fixing stamps that had to be purchased: the cost of the stamps cancelled a proportion of the face value of a bank note
[SP ,274-282].
106. Ideogram: Tao [M6136], "the pro- cess," or "the Taoist Way. "
107. ala Worgl: F, "in the manner of W" [41 :44; 74:345].
great big tits / Just like Jack Dempsey's mitts" [77:91].
114. Mr Wilson: [74:65].
115. Harriet: Harriette Wilson, 1789-1846,
her Memoirs (1825; ed. J. Laver, 1929) have a discussion between Wellington and her concerning the propriety of a man having sex with his boots on. The story Pound's text seems to refer to is usually associated with the duke and duchess of Marlborough.
116. Wellington: [33:24].
117. mannirs: "Manners. " Early variant spelling as in Gawin Douglas, whose transla- tion of the Aeneid Pound liked [LE,245].
118. videt et urbes: L, "he saw and cities. " [cf. trans. Odyssey I, 2: qui mores hominum
multorum vidit et urbes, LE, 265].
119. 7rOAV! l'r/7l~:Polumetis [9:38].
120. ce ruse personnage: F, "this shrewd character. " Said Pound: "Dr. Rouse has at last translated 'polumetis. ' Salel in 1543 found a living phrase when he called Ulysses 'ce ruse personnage'" [PE, 126].
121. Otis: James 0. , 1725-1783, American lawyer and patriot who resigned as advocate general of Boston in protest against the issuing of writs of assistance. He was head of the State Committee of Correspondence, opposed the Stamp Act, and did scholarly work on Latin and Greek prosody [71:89].
122. Nausikaa: Nausicaa, daughter of the Phaecian king Alcinous [ad. VI]; Odysseus approached her as she was playing ball on the beach, just after she had finished wash- ing the household linen.
123. Bagni Romagna: Bagno di Romagna is a commune in Forli Province, N Italy.
124. Cassandra: [77:192]. At 23/109 we have the waves of the sea "a glitter of crystal. . . . No light reaching through them"
[cf. 4 above].
125. the asphodel: Homer said: "But they passed beyond the flowing waters of ocean,
Policy o f
translated from the original Arabic by Lady Anne Blunt, done into verse by Wilfred Scawen Blunt, 1892. A medieval romance popular in Egypt and N Africa for over 800 years. It tells how Emir Abu Zeyd stole a treasured mare from the stable of the Agheyli Jaber with the help of Jaber's daughter, Princess Alia, whose life he once saved. The act was a cause of war but none took place.
112. casus bellorum: L, "cause of wars. "
113.
quote from Micah 4. 5.
38. Gaudier: [77:80].
39. Hulme: [16:27].
40. Wyndham: Percy W. Lewis, 1882-1957, a British writer and painter Pound defended and promoted for a lifetime, Lewis joined with Gaudier-Brzeska and Pound to establish Vorticism and publish Blast. His birth-date is often given as 1884 because he made himself two years younger to enhance his precocity
[HK].
41. Mana aboda: Title of a poem by T. E.
Hulme [F,252].
48. front name . . . : A recurrent axiom of
Fascist thought which Pound repeats often
in his prose: "We are tired of a government in which there is no responsible person having a front name, a hind name and an address" [Exile, no. 4, Autumn 1928, 5;see also FE, 101; Exile, no. 2, 1927, 117; ABCE, 119;SF,261].
49. "not a right . . . ": A Mussolini state-
ment, "La liberta non e un diritto: e un
dovere" (Liberty is not a right but a duty),
was a part of the Fascist credo Pound
endorsed; he had it printed on his stationery. He used Liberta un Dovere as the epigraph for Carta da Visita [SF,306].
SO. "Presente! ": I, "Present. " A significant word at Fascist gatherings: " I t [Fascism] even has the mystery of Transubstantiation. For members who have died in great ex- ploits . . . . When the roll is called, and the unbreathing lips remain silent, his circle of Fascist comrades reply, 'Presente! ''' The prayer of the Fascist militia says in part: "Oh, God, who lights every flame and strengthens every heart, renew my passion for Italy in me day by day! Make me worthier of our dead, so that they them- selves-ever strongly-shall answer to the living, 'Presente! . ,. Amen'" [Finer, M's
42. Steele . . . : Lt.
manding officer of the DTC. Col. Steele later "could understand" the accusation o f sadism. The record seems to show that he went quite a way beyond express orders to allow Pound privileges [King, "Steele," 50].
Col. John
Steele,
com-
47. "definition
a scene but not define meaning.
": A
camera may
? 418
Italy, 360; quoted Fang, 1II, 83]. M de R
objected to this as a gross overstatement.
51. merrda. . . swine: Presumed accom- plishments of Mussolini Pound mentions often [41/202].
52. Sitalkas . . . Upward: [74:272].
53. Pellegrini: Giampietro P. (b. 1899), finance minister o f Salo Republic. On November 27, 1943 he told M he would allot 125,000 lira a month to him as chief of state. M refused the money, saying that "4000 lira for his family of four would be more than ample. " But Pellegrini insisted and M "agreed to the sum, but on Decem- ber 27, 1944 he had the further payment of the money stopped. " M seemed suspi- cious that that much money should honestly be there [Fang, III, 87-88].
54. Justinian: [65: 126; 77:44; 94:45].
55. Titus: T. Flavius Vespasianus, A. D. 9-79, Roman emperor (69-79) noted for administrative and financial reforms that salvaged the empire from the critical state it was left in by Nero. "He was industrious, and the simplicity of his life was taken as a model. . . . He cultivated a bluff manner, characteristic of the humble origins he liked to recall. His initial appointments . . . reflect his astuteness in building a powerful partyJ
78/479-480
tive column in the Campus Martius" [OCD, 76]. Pound mentions A. often in his prose: "[One] can . . . find the known beginnings of usury entangled with those of marine insurance, sea lawyers, the law of Rhodes, the disputed text of Antoninus Pius on the limits of his jurisdiction" [SP, 272; cf. 58 below].
57. lex Rhodi: L, "the law of Rhodes" [42:4].
58. private misfortune: Said Pound: "the
cultural tradition with regard to money . . .
may be traced . . . from the indignation of Antoninus Pius, that people should attempt to exploit other people's misfortunes (e. g. , shipwrecks . . . )" [SP,311].
59. Rostovseff: Michael Ivanovich Rosto- vtzeff, 1870-1952, American historian; pro- fessor of classical philology and ancient history at St. Petersburg, Fla. (1901-18), professor of ancient history at U. of Wiseon- sin (1920-25) and at Yale (1925-39); author of History of the Ancient World (1924-26) and Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World (1941).
60. Mencius. . . verse 7: In quoting from
the passage indicated, Pound said in "Mang Tsze" [Mencius]: "'Nothing is worse than a fixed tax. ' A fixed tax on grain is in bad years a tyranny, a tithe proper, no tyranny" [SP,89].
61. T'ang Wan Kung: C, "Duke Wan of T'ang": title of Book III of The Works of Mencius.
62. grillo: I, "cricket,"
63. quattrocento: I, "fifteenth century. "
64. o-hon. . . tout: F, imitation of collo-
quial language: "It is sometimes said in the village / that a helmet has no use / none at all / It is only good to give courage / to those who don't have any at all" [29:30].
65. Salzburg: Austrian city famous for its
annual Mozart festival.
66. Qui . . . gamba: I,
the cricket / Piano (softly), the bass viol. "
78/480-481
67. Wolfgang: W. Amadeus Mozart. 68. Lake Garda: [76:90].
69. Tailhade: Laurent T. , 1854-1919, French poet.
70. "Willy": Henri Gauthier-Villars, 1859- 1931, a French novelist, essayist, and biographer, nicknamed "Willy. "
71. Mockel: Albert Henri Louis M. , 1866- 1945, Belgian-French poet and critic, the founder (1886) and editor of La Wallonie, a magazine o f the Belgian symbolists. His strange aesthetic came to a climax in The
Immortal Flame (1924).
72. en casque . . . : F, "in pink crystal
helmets the mountebanks," from Ballet, by Stuart Merrill [cf. "Essay on French Poets," MIN, 232], a poem first published in La Wallonie.
73. cakeshops . . . Nevsky: [16:42; 74:183]. 74. Sirdar: [74:175].
75. Armenonville: [74:236].
76. Kashmiri: I, "of Kashmir. " [19:34].
77. Mozart's house: Not the house in which he was born but the Mozart-Haus in the Schwarz-Strasse (Salzburg), "built in 1912- 14 by the international 'Stiftung mozar-
419
Guelph-Ghibelline factions. When he became the head of his house in 1239, he became the leading Ghibelline and in 1248 took part in the expUlsion of the Guelphs. The Guelphs returned and in 1258 expelled the Ghibel- lines. But with the help of the Sienese, Farinata led his men to the battle of Monta- perti (1260) and crushed the Guelphs. At the council at EmpoH afterwards, it was proposed that Florence be completely destroyed and reduced to the status of a village. According to Villani, "When this proposal was made, the valiant and wise knight, Messer Farinata degli Uberti, arose and opposed it . . . saying . . . that such talk was madness . . . . So long as there was life in his body, he said, he would defend the city with sword in hand. " He prevailed. But because he was posthumously condemned as a heretic, Dante places him in the 6th circle of Hell. When F. rises up out of his tomb in Hell to speak with Dante, his arrogance is described by his attitude: "Com' avesse I' inferno a gran dispitto" ("As if he had a great scorn of Hell"). The lines here prob.
refer to a statue of Farinata in the courtyard
("cortile") at San Zeno. "Ubaldo" refers to Pound's friend, a descendant of the Farinata, Ubaldo degli Uberti, an admiral in the Italian Navy [ef. "Ezra Pound and Ubaldo degli Uberti: History of a Friendship," by Riccardo M. degli Uberti (his son), Italian Quarterly, XVI, 64, Spring 1973, 95-107]. Pound refers to him occasionally in his prose [SR,
120,160].
80. cortile: I, "court, patio. "Prob.
a statue o f Farinata kneeling which Pound remem- bered in a church at San Zeno, Verona.
81. Ubaldo: [77:99].
82. Can Grande: C. G. della Scala, 1291- 1329, lord of Verona and greatest member of the Ghibelline family that ruled Verona from 1277-1387. He was a friend and protector of Dante. The face on an eques- trian statue surmounting his tomb outside the Church of Santa Maria Antica in Verona is striking because of a broad grin [Ivancich,
Ezra Pound in Italy, has picture] .
o f
which the core
was his own
family"
with two
concert-rooms, an
[OCD, 1116]. Prob. Pound believed M was a 20th-century Vespasian [94:118].
56. Antoninus: A. Pius, 86-161, Roman
emperor; adopted son of Hadrian, whom
he succeeded in 138. He was followed by
Marcus Aurelius, whom Hadrian persuaded
him to adopt. The reign of Antoninus was
marked by reason, restraint, fiscal wisdom,
and vastly improved administrative tech-
niques. "The general tone of harmony and
well-being under Antoninus is well expressed by Aristides . . . [who] pictures the Empire as a congery of happy, peaceful, and pros- perous city-states under the aegis of Rome's beneficent hegemony and protection. . _. Deified by universal accord, he received all the usual honours, including a commemora-
"Here
sings
Wolfgang
1
teum' . . .
academy of music, and archives" [Baedeker's Austria, 1929, 251;Fang, III, 118].
78. San Zeno: [74:483]. A romanesque
church in Verona which Pound visited with
Edgar Williams (W. C. Williams's brother), which had a signed column [45: 14] . In his "Paris Letter" [Dial, vol. 74, 1923, 89], Pound ends his tale of the visit with: "Williams looked at the two simple spirals of red marble cut in one block, and burst out, 'How the hell do you expect us to get any buildings when we have to order OUr columns by the gross? ' "
79. Farinata: F. degli Uberti. The great Ghibelline leader of Florence. He was born in Florence at the beginning of the 13th century and saw the development of the
? 420
78/481
78/481-482
421
83. Tommy Cochran: Said Pound: "just a nice kid I knew in Wyncote" [ibid. ].
84. "E fa . . . tremare": I, "And makes the air tremble with light" [74:425].
85. we sat there: The "we" included Pound, T. S. Eliot, and D. M. G. Adams [RO; DG]. The visit took place in the early 20s [Pai, 5-1,47].
86. Thiy: Bride Scratton. Pound called her Thiy after an early Egyptian queen [NS, Life,243].
87. il decaduto: I, "the decadent one. " T. S. Eliot [EH].
88. Rochefoucauld: La R. Perhaps a mem- ory of the Eliot poem that ends, "I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning / Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld / If the street were time and he at the end of the street, / And I say, 'Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript. ' "
89. Cafe Dante: A cafe in Verona. Pound recalls with fondness the great literary plans they made there by the arena, even though they came to naught.
90. Griffith: [19:10].
91. Aram vult nemus: [74:441].
92. under . . . (confusions): Analects XXI, 1: "Fan Ch'ih walking with him below the rain altars . . . said: Venture to ask how to lift one's conscience in action; to correct the hidden tare, and separate one's errors? " [CON, 247].
93. "Chose . . . off": Analects XXII, 3-6: "He said: Promote the straight, and grind the crooked. . . . Shun had the Empire, picked out Kao-Yao [53:29] from the multitude, promoted him, and wrong 'uns departed. T'ang . . . picked out I Yin [85:5] from all the hordes, promoted him, and the wrong 'uns departed" [CON, 248] .
94. One hell of a fight . . . : The next dozen lines concern U. S. Senate fights over the League of Nations and the 18th amendment.
Pound turned against the League because it voted sanctions against Italy for invading Ethiopia: "America (the U. S. ) has not paid its debt even in thought to the men who kept the U. S. OUT of the league at Geneva. If we have' Susan B. Anthony . . . shoved onto our postage stamps, we shd. think up something better. . . for Lodge Knox Borah, and George Holden Tinkham fa; having kept our fatherland out of at least one stinking imbroglio. The League of Two
Measures" [GK,247].
95. Lodge: Henry Cabot L. , 1850-1924,
American legislator; member of the House of Representatives (1887-93), and of the Senate (1893-1924); as chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Senate he was opposed to the peace treaty and'the League of Nations (1919).
96. Knox: Philander Chase K. , 1853-1921, American political leader, member of the U. S. Senate (1904-09; 1917-21); against entry of the U. s. into the League of Nations.
97. Bacchus: Dionysus. Here as a god of wine.
98. Number XVIII: The 18th amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors; ratified in 1919, re- pealed in 1933.
99. Mr Tinkham: [74: 180].
100. Odon: O. Por (b. 1883). One of Pound's favorite Italian writers on social and economic problems. "In six weeks Par had two articles out" [GK, 166] ; "Odon Por has kept a level head, being in Rome and keep- ing tab on international knowledge" [GK, 246]. The volume referred to here is prob- ably Finanzia nuova, which Pound trans-
103. return to Midas: As chancellor of the exchequer in 1925, Churchill restored the gold standard. The act created a devastating depression at home and great suffering in other places in the empire [74:32].
104. taxes: A major premise of social credit is that if the government controls the extension of credit and receives interest for extending it, the people of a nation will collect dividends rather than pay taxes.
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of money could be avoided and its velocity maintained by fixing stamps that had to be purchased: the cost of the stamps cancelled a proportion of the face value of a bank note
[SP ,274-282].
106. Ideogram: Tao [M6136], "the pro- cess," or "the Taoist Way. "
107. ala Worgl: F, "in the manner of W" [41 :44; 74:345].
great big tits / Just like Jack Dempsey's mitts" [77:91].
114. Mr Wilson: [74:65].
115. Harriet: Harriette Wilson, 1789-1846,
her Memoirs (1825; ed. J. Laver, 1929) have a discussion between Wellington and her concerning the propriety of a man having sex with his boots on. The story Pound's text seems to refer to is usually associated with the duke and duchess of Marlborough.
116. Wellington: [33:24].
117. mannirs: "Manners. " Early variant spelling as in Gawin Douglas, whose transla- tion of the Aeneid Pound liked [LE,245].
118. videt et urbes: L, "he saw and cities. " [cf. trans. Odyssey I, 2: qui mores hominum
multorum vidit et urbes, LE, 265].
119. 7rOAV! l'r/7l~:Polumetis [9:38].
120. ce ruse personnage: F, "this shrewd character. " Said Pound: "Dr. Rouse has at last translated 'polumetis. ' Salel in 1543 found a living phrase when he called Ulysses 'ce ruse personnage'" [PE, 126].
121. Otis: James 0. , 1725-1783, American lawyer and patriot who resigned as advocate general of Boston in protest against the issuing of writs of assistance. He was head of the State Committee of Correspondence, opposed the Stamp Act, and did scholarly work on Latin and Greek prosody [71:89].
122. Nausikaa: Nausicaa, daughter of the Phaecian king Alcinous [ad. VI]; Odysseus approached her as she was playing ball on the beach, just after she had finished wash- ing the household linen.
123. Bagni Romagna: Bagno di Romagna is a commune in Forli Province, N Italy.
124. Cassandra: [77:192]. At 23/109 we have the waves of the sea "a glitter of crystal. . . . No light reaching through them"
[cf. 4 above].
125. the asphodel: Homer said: "But they passed beyond the flowing waters of ocean,
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translated from the original Arabic by Lady Anne Blunt, done into verse by Wilfred Scawen Blunt, 1892. A medieval romance popular in Egypt and N Africa for over 800 years. It tells how Emir Abu Zeyd stole a treasured mare from the stable of the Agheyli Jaber with the help of Jaber's daughter, Princess Alia, whose life he once saved. The act was a cause of war but none took place.
112. casus bellorum: L, "cause of wars. "
113.
