" During the
complicated
prob.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
" The four tuan [85:33].
148. worship . . . day! : Wen-ii: "Then even ignorant people can apply the values of cour- tesy and justice to their plowing and weed- ing. And the decisive soldier can apply the values of the Shih Odes and the Shu History to his shield and helmet. A unifying princi- ple of manners brought to Zenith. May we again see it in our day. "
149. All . . . grows: Wen-ii: "Only wanting to solidify the customs of the people, we first set out to rectify men's hearts; wanting to rectify men's hearts, we instituted a pro- gram of studies. . . now man receives the central principles of Heaven and Earth at his birth. " The final lines of the canto are a comment on this key passage which is cen- tral to the Confucianism of both Mencius and Pound [Pai, inside front cover].
115. t'ien2 ti4: [M6198], "soil. "
[M6362] ,
"land" ;
who were to become leaders in the land were especially attended to by appointed profes- sors and scholars. "
140. graceful bigots . . . phalloi: Perhaps a reference to Pound himself. David Gordon believes it is. He thinks Pound's anti- Semitism of the early 1950s gave way little by little until by the time of Thrones he could begin to see it objectively; especially since a number of people, including Gordon and John Espey, accused him over and over again of being a bigot. The "thundering phal- 10i" may refer to his continuous efforts to show that man's sexuality is divinely created and natural and has nothing to do with sin, as Gourmont showed in The Natural Philoso- phy of Love years earlier. Ethical questions involve treatment of others; sin comes from mistreatment of others, not from phallic ex- pression in itself. Trying to get such an idea across to someone brainwashed for a lifetime by puritanism may require a kind of thun- dering repetition. One of the characters in- volved is n0 4 , 'I'W [M4750]: it has the component \11 , "heart," which Pound con- sidered a drawing of the phallus, and right- hand components which are similar to if, "thunder. " N0 4 means "weak. " The lower part of the right component is not really "thunder"; hence, "mistranslation. "
141. SAGE . . . : Wen-ii: "Our meritorious ancestor even in old age was still stimulating others to goodness, and especially exalted schools and scholarship. In all things, there- fore, that would feed the spirit of scholars and conduce to their educative disciplines he was circumspectly prepared. "
142. anagogico: I, "anagogic. " The highest of the four allegorical levels of meaning as described by Dante [Conv. , 2. 1. 6], where it is called the "super-sense" and is related to a spiritual interpretation of the Bible. In Dante the anagogic relates the soul of the present to the heaven of the future. In Pound it means the wisdom of the ancestors for those of the present and the wisdom of the sages of the present for posterity.
116. (liang2 ): [M3944], "taxes in kind. "
117. Yong (2. 2. 3): Yung Cheng. The num- bers refer to the Wang text, Baller's transla- tion, and the notes on the Wen-Ii text.
118. Elkin Mathews: [82:6]. As editor, he defined the requirements and length of W. L. Courtney's work [see ! 19 below]. Perhaps a statement of the value of literary criticism in England at the time. DG remembers Pound saying the phrase often at St. Elizabeths. HK thinks that was good pay for the time.
119. Courtney's: W_ L. Courtney, editor of the Fortnightly Review during Pound's early years in London.
120. Chou rite . . . : The Sacred Edict was a last great expression of Neoconfucianisffi, which according to Kung himself, derived from the Chou dynasty [53 :77-78].
121. manesco: I, "rough, brutal. "
122. the 9 arts: Pound prob. meant "6 arts," as there is no such phrase as "9 arts" in China. But IU 4 ? 5 [M4189], "6 arts," is fun- damental to Confucianism.
123. chao! : [M236-6], "clear. "
124. CHEN: Chen4 [M316], "I. "
125. Yo el rey: S, "I the king. " Since some of the Jesuit missionaries to China were from Spain, perhaps K'ang Hsi or his son learned enough Spanish to say some things to them in their tongue.
126. (logistica): I, "logistics. " But Pound
130. Ideogram: omen. "
Ch'a0
4
[M247],
"an
131. ch'ang2 : [M213], "to show respect. "
132. chu: Chu4 [MI581], "to assemble or meet together. "
133. wu2 . . ? Ii4: [M7208], "do not"; [M4587-1O], "love ardently"; [M514], "wonderful"; [M7483], "profit"; [M5000], "double profit"; [M3867], "interest on
money. "
134. (Byzance . . . : [98: 18].
135. Michelet: Jules M. , 1798-1874, French historian extraordinaire who did much to resurrect the past and explain it to his con- temporaries.
136. Ambrose: St. Ambrose [88:45]_ This bishop of Milan is a favorite of Pound's because of his attitude toward money- makers: "hoggers of harvest are the curse of the people. "
137_ "De Tobia": st. Ambrose wrote this commentary on the Book of Tobias which is a telling indictment of usury [Migne, 793- 832].
138. (que <;a doure): F, the end of an idio- matic phrase, pourvou que fa doure: "while it lasts. " Supposedly a habitual aside uttered by Donna Letizia, Napoleon's mother [RO].
139. literate Confucians: Wen-Ii: "Those
? ? 644
100/713
100/713
645
CANTOC Sources
St. Ambrose, De Moribus Brachmanorum, in Migne XVII, 1176? 1179; Brooks Adams, The Theory of Social Revolutions, N. Y. , 1913 [BA, Theory] ; Brooks Adams, The Law ofCivilization and' Decay, N. Y. , 1895 [BA, Civilization]; Dante, Par. XVIII, IX, XIX, XX; Homer, Od, V; Paul de Remusat, Thiers, trans. M. B. Anderson, Chicago, 1889 [Thiers]; F. W. Baller, trans. , The Sacred Edict, Shanghai, 1924, rpt. NPF, Orono, Me. , 1979
[Edict]; Charles de Remusat. Saint Anselme de Cantorbiirv. Paris, Didier, 1853; Alexander Del Mar, History ofMonetary Sys? terns, Chicago, 1896 [HMS].
Background
W. B. Fowler, British American Relations, 1917? 1918; The Role of Sir William Wiseman, Princeton, 1969 [Fowler, Wiseman]; Lord Beaverbrook, Men and Power, 1917? 1918, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New Y ork, 1956; Jesse D. Clarkson, A History o f Russia, Random House, 1961 [Russia]; Andrzef Walicki, The Slavophile Controversy, Oxford, 1975; James Cleugh, The Medici; A Tale of Fifteen Generations, Doubleday, 1975 [Medici].
Exegeses
EP, GK, 227;N. D. 17, 174? 175; R. Sieburth,Pai, 6? 3, 386;NS,
Reading, 110; DD, Sculptor, 239? 241; EH, Approaches, 26? 27, 31? 32, 188? 189; CB? R, ZBC, 153? 154, 262? 263; EH, Pai, 1? 2, 273; CFT, Pai, 2? 3, 451-452; MB, Trace, 338? 340; William Cookson,A Guide to the Cantos, inedit [WC, Guide].
Glossary
ciple be larger, but that at that historic junc? ture, such action could lead to infringement of liberties.
6. Joffre . . . : Joseph J.
1931, marshal of France and eventually chairman of the Allied War Council for WWI. After his setback at the battle of Verdun, he
was promoted because of outmoded tactics. Prob. at Verdun he made the remark about Napoleon.
7. Lenin: Vladimir Ilyich L. [V. I. Ulyanov], 1870? 1924, inciter and leader of the Bal? shevik overthrow of the Mensheviks (minor? ity party who engineered the October Revo? lution) in November 1917. Lenin's exposure of monopoly capitalism's technique of fos? tering the appreciation followed by the
depreciation of money, finally led to the creation of the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insur? ance Corporation), which insures small bank accounts.
. . .
9. Moslem: Source unknown.
10. Danton: John Jacques D. , 1759? 1794, a leading statesman in the French Revolu~ tion. Said Brooks Adams: "Topina? Lebrun, the artist. . . sat on the jury which tried Danton, and observed that the heart of his colleague seemed failing him. Topino took the waverer aside, and said: "This is not a
him "one of the most efficient men of his age I ever met.
" During the complicated prob. lems that evolved after the war was over he acted as a behind-the-scenes adviser to all 'the most important people in both the British and American governments. Wilson much pre- ferred to talk to him privately than to the official ambassador. Wiseman carne t o believe that it would be easier for England and the U. S. to coordinate actions leading to Versailles if Congress gave Wilson the power to act. During 1917 and 1918 he sent
hundreds of cables to those who could influ? ence events, such as Lord Reading, the British ambassador.
13. Isaacs: Rufus Daniell. , 1st earl Reading, 1860? 1935, lord chief justice of England since 1913, he was appointed preSident of the Anglo? French Loan Mission to the U. S. in 1917 and ambassador to the U. S. in Jan. 1918. In a Cablegram [CXP 701, 16 August 1918] from Wiseman t o Lord Reading, labeled "Personal & Very Secret," we read of a conversation between Wiseman and President Wilson with Colonel House pres? ent. The cable concerns ways of getting a
powerful League of Nations and the neces- sity to avoid pUblicity before agreements were reached [Fowler, Wiseman, 278]. No such cable for Aug. 18 has yet been found.
14. Francis: F. the 1st, 1494? 1547, king of France (1515. 1547).
IS. S . . . W. . . : Identified in Beinecke drafts as sumner Welles, 1892? 1961, Ameri? can diplomat and expert in Latin-American affairs, who under FDR became assistant and then undersecretary of state. After his retirement, he was found unconscious and half-frozen on his estate, where he had apparently fallen into a stream [BK: NY Times, 27 Dec. 1948]. Pound thought highly of Welles and thought if people had listened to him WWII might have been avoided [EP, Speaking, 306? 308].
16. Mazarin: Jules M. , 1602? 1661, French statesman and cardinal who succeeded Richelieu in 1642. An effective negotiator who won concessions at the Peace of West-
I. Supreme Court: Because the high court was systematically declaring the legislation of the New Deal unconstitutional, President Roosevelt proposed the court be increased from nine judges to twelve. His political ene? mies orchestrated a chorus of protest so that the proposal failed to carry.
2. Senator Wheeler: Burton Kendall W. , 1882? 1975, a Democrat from Montana elected to the U. S. Senate in 1922. After a brief flirtation with the Progressive party of Robert La Follette, he returned to the Democratic party and backed much of the
New Deal legislation. But as war loomed in Europe, he became a leading exponent of isolationism and by 1940 had broken with Roosevelt because of his pro-Allied posture, his attempt to "pack the Supreme Court," and other matters.
trial, it is a measure . . . "[BA, 223].
Theory,
3. some Habsburg . . .
: [86:78].
II. Jo Skelton: John S. , ca. 1460? 1529, the creator of Skeltonic verse, pilloried Cardinal Wolsey with unrestrained enthu? siasm during the reign of Henry VIII but he was never "committed. "
12. Wiseman: Sir William George Eden W. (b. 1885), served in WWI and was gassed at Ypres. In 1917, as chief of British Intelli? gence in the U. S. , he so impressed Colonel House (Wilson's inside man) that he called
4. Eu ZoOn: H, "living well. " The capitol 0 indicates the word has two syllables.
S. Not . . . liberties: Arguments about not tampering with the Supreme Court: the issue was not that the court should never in prin-
of debt
8. increase
expedient of the New Deal was the creation of money by debt, which is anathema to Social Creditors because the same effect could be managed without going into debt.
Cesaire J. ,
1852?
: The
temporary
? ? 646
100/713-714
100/714-715
647
phalia (1648), but his financial abuses led to trouble with the Fronde. He won but put the state into great debt.
17. PERENNE BELLUM: L, "Everlasting War. "
18. Code out of . . . : The Napoleonic Code. N)s contribution to civilization should be looked for not in his everlasting wars (he must always be going somewhere [34/165]) but in his codification of the laws.
19. Peloponesus: The western Greek penin- sula dominated by Sparta, whence came the legal code of Lycurgus.
20. Maison Quarree: [Carree]: An ancient (ca. 2d cent. ) building at Nimes, France, called by many the most perfect Roman temple to survive. It inspired President Jefferson in the design of Monticello [31 :22] .
21. Gave . . . trade: The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 passed from France to England the monopoly (for 30 years) of supplying Negro slaves to the Spanish colonies. The contracts were earlier passed from the Dutch to the French. No special change is recorded for
1708.
22. Gibraltar: Controlled by the Turks, then by the Spanish, then by the Moors, and after 1462 by the Spanish again, it passed into the control of the English in 1704, which in effect gave them control over at least part of the slave trade.
23. Medicis: Marie de M. , 1573? 1642, queen of France, second wife of Henry IV. After he was assassinated (1610), she became regent for her son Louis XIII. She engaged in power struggles for over 30 years and was sometimes exiled, sometimes restored. Richelieu helped force her final exile in 1630, when she fled first to the Netherlands and then to England. Finally rejected by her son? in-Iaw, King Charles of England, and by Philip N of Spain, who would not allow her back into the Netherlands, she was accepted into the city of Cologne by a prince-
archbishop who felt Christian sympathy for her misery [Cleugh, Medici, 314-330]. Her
anti-Hapsburg posture during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and her personal intriguing behind the scenes from Gibraltar to Compeigne, may have put her on the wrong side in Pound's mind.
24. John Law: 1671-1729, Scottish banker and financier who went to France, which chartered his Banque Generale in 1716 and allowed the bank to issue paper currency. After 1719 the bank's paper became guar- anteed by the state, and the stock issued by it soared to ridiculous prices as the bank became involved in colonial speculation such as the Mississippi scheme. Before the bubble burst, insiders cleaned up by selling their stock. When it did burst, thousands of inves- tors were left destitute, the government was weakened, and Law left in disgrace. He became a gambler in Venice and in 1729 died and was interred there in the church- yard of St. Moise west of St. Mark's Square.
It wasn't the idea of the state bank issuing currency that was bad, however-that worked beautifully and, for a brief time, created great prosperity. It was the unre- strained speculation of big money men-who misused both the bank and the state-that was disastrous. For Pound, Law demon- strated that the state could extend credit and create prosperity: thus, he should not lie in a grave unhonored.
25. SUMBAINAI: H, "coheres" [WT, 50: "What / SPLENDOUR / IT ALL COHERES"; 109:17; 116:20].
26. Grevitch: Inmate at St. Elizabeths [MSB, Pai, 3-3, 332].
27. Young Labarre: For a few schoolboy pranks involving "the desecration of cru- cifixes," this chevalier was sentenced to be tortured, mutilated, beheaded, and burned. Some of Voltaire's works were found in his possession, including the Dictionnaire philo- sophique, which "was burned with [La- barre's] corpse" [Sieburth,Pai, 6-3, 386].
28. Cavour: [61:19].
29. Hohenlohe: Chlodwig Karl Viktor, Furst zu H. , 1819-1901. As a premier of
Bavaria, he supported German unification and the program of Bismarck. He was ambas- sador to Paris after the War of 1870, and, later, governor of Alsace-Lorraine (1885- 1894). Pound sees the settlement of that war as a wise one that maintained the peace in Europe until the usurers created WWI.
the Franco-Prussian War was to be the war to end all wa! s.
38. Clodovic: [Cf. 29 above].
39. U1tramontaines: L, "Beyond the moun- tains. " Name given to Catholics whose first allegiance was to the pope, on the other side of the Alps, rather than to the king of France itself. They were opposed to the Gal1icans, who said France first and pope after. The term was revived in 19th-century Germany and Austria and applied to the Old Catholics.
. . .
41. "JESUS . . . for . ": The reaction of Queen Elizabeth. The source is Braoks Adams [RO, Pai, 6-2, 181]; but her concern in Adams is with the number of clergy, not with money: "Jesus (quoth the queen) 13,000 it is not to be looked for, I thinke the time hath been, there hath not been 4. preachers in a diocesse, my meaning is not you should make choice of learned minis- ters only for they are not to be found, but of honest, sober, and wise men, and such as can read the scriptures and homilies well unto the people" [BA, Civilization, 225].
42. ploughing . . . solid: A central theme of the poem: Justice comes from the growing of food to feed the people and in using words precisely-in law, the press, the schoolroom, economics, and politics.
43. V on Moltke: Helmuth Karl Bernhard, Graf von M. , 1800-1891, a great Prussian field marshal, who trained his armies so well he won the Danish War (1864), the Austro- Prussian War (1866), and the Franco-Prussian War (1870). He could also be charming at the court of Napoleon III at Fontainebleau.
44. "In locis . . . viventia": "In desert places / we rejoice in the middle of the woods. / are sheared, you kill, they are milked / by which you till the land. / You
30. Chez . . . civilizee: F, "In our the press is still very little civilized. "
country
31. Napoleon Third: 1808-1873, president of the Second Republic, 1848-1852, emperor of the French, 1852-1870.
32. '69: southern Slavs .
148. worship . . . day! : Wen-ii: "Then even ignorant people can apply the values of cour- tesy and justice to their plowing and weed- ing. And the decisive soldier can apply the values of the Shih Odes and the Shu History to his shield and helmet. A unifying princi- ple of manners brought to Zenith. May we again see it in our day. "
149. All . . . grows: Wen-ii: "Only wanting to solidify the customs of the people, we first set out to rectify men's hearts; wanting to rectify men's hearts, we instituted a pro- gram of studies. . . now man receives the central principles of Heaven and Earth at his birth. " The final lines of the canto are a comment on this key passage which is cen- tral to the Confucianism of both Mencius and Pound [Pai, inside front cover].
115. t'ien2 ti4: [M6198], "soil. "
[M6362] ,
"land" ;
who were to become leaders in the land were especially attended to by appointed profes- sors and scholars. "
140. graceful bigots . . . phalloi: Perhaps a reference to Pound himself. David Gordon believes it is. He thinks Pound's anti- Semitism of the early 1950s gave way little by little until by the time of Thrones he could begin to see it objectively; especially since a number of people, including Gordon and John Espey, accused him over and over again of being a bigot. The "thundering phal- 10i" may refer to his continuous efforts to show that man's sexuality is divinely created and natural and has nothing to do with sin, as Gourmont showed in The Natural Philoso- phy of Love years earlier. Ethical questions involve treatment of others; sin comes from mistreatment of others, not from phallic ex- pression in itself. Trying to get such an idea across to someone brainwashed for a lifetime by puritanism may require a kind of thun- dering repetition. One of the characters in- volved is n0 4 , 'I'W [M4750]: it has the component \11 , "heart," which Pound con- sidered a drawing of the phallus, and right- hand components which are similar to if, "thunder. " N0 4 means "weak. " The lower part of the right component is not really "thunder"; hence, "mistranslation. "
141. SAGE . . . : Wen-ii: "Our meritorious ancestor even in old age was still stimulating others to goodness, and especially exalted schools and scholarship. In all things, there- fore, that would feed the spirit of scholars and conduce to their educative disciplines he was circumspectly prepared. "
142. anagogico: I, "anagogic. " The highest of the four allegorical levels of meaning as described by Dante [Conv. , 2. 1. 6], where it is called the "super-sense" and is related to a spiritual interpretation of the Bible. In Dante the anagogic relates the soul of the present to the heaven of the future. In Pound it means the wisdom of the ancestors for those of the present and the wisdom of the sages of the present for posterity.
116. (liang2 ): [M3944], "taxes in kind. "
117. Yong (2. 2. 3): Yung Cheng. The num- bers refer to the Wang text, Baller's transla- tion, and the notes on the Wen-Ii text.
118. Elkin Mathews: [82:6]. As editor, he defined the requirements and length of W. L. Courtney's work [see ! 19 below]. Perhaps a statement of the value of literary criticism in England at the time. DG remembers Pound saying the phrase often at St. Elizabeths. HK thinks that was good pay for the time.
119. Courtney's: W_ L. Courtney, editor of the Fortnightly Review during Pound's early years in London.
120. Chou rite . . . : The Sacred Edict was a last great expression of Neoconfucianisffi, which according to Kung himself, derived from the Chou dynasty [53 :77-78].
121. manesco: I, "rough, brutal. "
122. the 9 arts: Pound prob. meant "6 arts," as there is no such phrase as "9 arts" in China. But IU 4 ? 5 [M4189], "6 arts," is fun- damental to Confucianism.
123. chao! : [M236-6], "clear. "
124. CHEN: Chen4 [M316], "I. "
125. Yo el rey: S, "I the king. " Since some of the Jesuit missionaries to China were from Spain, perhaps K'ang Hsi or his son learned enough Spanish to say some things to them in their tongue.
126. (logistica): I, "logistics. " But Pound
130. Ideogram: omen. "
Ch'a0
4
[M247],
"an
131. ch'ang2 : [M213], "to show respect. "
132. chu: Chu4 [MI581], "to assemble or meet together. "
133. wu2 . . ? Ii4: [M7208], "do not"; [M4587-1O], "love ardently"; [M514], "wonderful"; [M7483], "profit"; [M5000], "double profit"; [M3867], "interest on
money. "
134. (Byzance . . . : [98: 18].
135. Michelet: Jules M. , 1798-1874, French historian extraordinaire who did much to resurrect the past and explain it to his con- temporaries.
136. Ambrose: St. Ambrose [88:45]_ This bishop of Milan is a favorite of Pound's because of his attitude toward money- makers: "hoggers of harvest are the curse of the people. "
137_ "De Tobia": st. Ambrose wrote this commentary on the Book of Tobias which is a telling indictment of usury [Migne, 793- 832].
138. (que <;a doure): F, the end of an idio- matic phrase, pourvou que fa doure: "while it lasts. " Supposedly a habitual aside uttered by Donna Letizia, Napoleon's mother [RO].
139. literate Confucians: Wen-Ii: "Those
? ? 644
100/713
100/713
645
CANTOC Sources
St. Ambrose, De Moribus Brachmanorum, in Migne XVII, 1176? 1179; Brooks Adams, The Theory of Social Revolutions, N. Y. , 1913 [BA, Theory] ; Brooks Adams, The Law ofCivilization and' Decay, N. Y. , 1895 [BA, Civilization]; Dante, Par. XVIII, IX, XIX, XX; Homer, Od, V; Paul de Remusat, Thiers, trans. M. B. Anderson, Chicago, 1889 [Thiers]; F. W. Baller, trans. , The Sacred Edict, Shanghai, 1924, rpt. NPF, Orono, Me. , 1979
[Edict]; Charles de Remusat. Saint Anselme de Cantorbiirv. Paris, Didier, 1853; Alexander Del Mar, History ofMonetary Sys? terns, Chicago, 1896 [HMS].
Background
W. B. Fowler, British American Relations, 1917? 1918; The Role of Sir William Wiseman, Princeton, 1969 [Fowler, Wiseman]; Lord Beaverbrook, Men and Power, 1917? 1918, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New Y ork, 1956; Jesse D. Clarkson, A History o f Russia, Random House, 1961 [Russia]; Andrzef Walicki, The Slavophile Controversy, Oxford, 1975; James Cleugh, The Medici; A Tale of Fifteen Generations, Doubleday, 1975 [Medici].
Exegeses
EP, GK, 227;N. D. 17, 174? 175; R. Sieburth,Pai, 6? 3, 386;NS,
Reading, 110; DD, Sculptor, 239? 241; EH, Approaches, 26? 27, 31? 32, 188? 189; CB? R, ZBC, 153? 154, 262? 263; EH, Pai, 1? 2, 273; CFT, Pai, 2? 3, 451-452; MB, Trace, 338? 340; William Cookson,A Guide to the Cantos, inedit [WC, Guide].
Glossary
ciple be larger, but that at that historic junc? ture, such action could lead to infringement of liberties.
6. Joffre . . . : Joseph J.
1931, marshal of France and eventually chairman of the Allied War Council for WWI. After his setback at the battle of Verdun, he
was promoted because of outmoded tactics. Prob. at Verdun he made the remark about Napoleon.
7. Lenin: Vladimir Ilyich L. [V. I. Ulyanov], 1870? 1924, inciter and leader of the Bal? shevik overthrow of the Mensheviks (minor? ity party who engineered the October Revo? lution) in November 1917. Lenin's exposure of monopoly capitalism's technique of fos? tering the appreciation followed by the
depreciation of money, finally led to the creation of the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insur? ance Corporation), which insures small bank accounts.
. . .
9. Moslem: Source unknown.
10. Danton: John Jacques D. , 1759? 1794, a leading statesman in the French Revolu~ tion. Said Brooks Adams: "Topina? Lebrun, the artist. . . sat on the jury which tried Danton, and observed that the heart of his colleague seemed failing him. Topino took the waverer aside, and said: "This is not a
him "one of the most efficient men of his age I ever met.
" During the complicated prob. lems that evolved after the war was over he acted as a behind-the-scenes adviser to all 'the most important people in both the British and American governments. Wilson much pre- ferred to talk to him privately than to the official ambassador. Wiseman carne t o believe that it would be easier for England and the U. S. to coordinate actions leading to Versailles if Congress gave Wilson the power to act. During 1917 and 1918 he sent
hundreds of cables to those who could influ? ence events, such as Lord Reading, the British ambassador.
13. Isaacs: Rufus Daniell. , 1st earl Reading, 1860? 1935, lord chief justice of England since 1913, he was appointed preSident of the Anglo? French Loan Mission to the U. S. in 1917 and ambassador to the U. S. in Jan. 1918. In a Cablegram [CXP 701, 16 August 1918] from Wiseman t o Lord Reading, labeled "Personal & Very Secret," we read of a conversation between Wiseman and President Wilson with Colonel House pres? ent. The cable concerns ways of getting a
powerful League of Nations and the neces- sity to avoid pUblicity before agreements were reached [Fowler, Wiseman, 278]. No such cable for Aug. 18 has yet been found.
14. Francis: F. the 1st, 1494? 1547, king of France (1515. 1547).
IS. S . . . W. . . : Identified in Beinecke drafts as sumner Welles, 1892? 1961, Ameri? can diplomat and expert in Latin-American affairs, who under FDR became assistant and then undersecretary of state. After his retirement, he was found unconscious and half-frozen on his estate, where he had apparently fallen into a stream [BK: NY Times, 27 Dec. 1948]. Pound thought highly of Welles and thought if people had listened to him WWII might have been avoided [EP, Speaking, 306? 308].
16. Mazarin: Jules M. , 1602? 1661, French statesman and cardinal who succeeded Richelieu in 1642. An effective negotiator who won concessions at the Peace of West-
I. Supreme Court: Because the high court was systematically declaring the legislation of the New Deal unconstitutional, President Roosevelt proposed the court be increased from nine judges to twelve. His political ene? mies orchestrated a chorus of protest so that the proposal failed to carry.
2. Senator Wheeler: Burton Kendall W. , 1882? 1975, a Democrat from Montana elected to the U. S. Senate in 1922. After a brief flirtation with the Progressive party of Robert La Follette, he returned to the Democratic party and backed much of the
New Deal legislation. But as war loomed in Europe, he became a leading exponent of isolationism and by 1940 had broken with Roosevelt because of his pro-Allied posture, his attempt to "pack the Supreme Court," and other matters.
trial, it is a measure . . . "[BA, 223].
Theory,
3. some Habsburg . . .
: [86:78].
II. Jo Skelton: John S. , ca. 1460? 1529, the creator of Skeltonic verse, pilloried Cardinal Wolsey with unrestrained enthu? siasm during the reign of Henry VIII but he was never "committed. "
12. Wiseman: Sir William George Eden W. (b. 1885), served in WWI and was gassed at Ypres. In 1917, as chief of British Intelli? gence in the U. S. , he so impressed Colonel House (Wilson's inside man) that he called
4. Eu ZoOn: H, "living well. " The capitol 0 indicates the word has two syllables.
S. Not . . . liberties: Arguments about not tampering with the Supreme Court: the issue was not that the court should never in prin-
of debt
8. increase
expedient of the New Deal was the creation of money by debt, which is anathema to Social Creditors because the same effect could be managed without going into debt.
Cesaire J. ,
1852?
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647
phalia (1648), but his financial abuses led to trouble with the Fronde. He won but put the state into great debt.
17. PERENNE BELLUM: L, "Everlasting War. "
18. Code out of . . . : The Napoleonic Code. N)s contribution to civilization should be looked for not in his everlasting wars (he must always be going somewhere [34/165]) but in his codification of the laws.
19. Peloponesus: The western Greek penin- sula dominated by Sparta, whence came the legal code of Lycurgus.
20. Maison Quarree: [Carree]: An ancient (ca. 2d cent. ) building at Nimes, France, called by many the most perfect Roman temple to survive. It inspired President Jefferson in the design of Monticello [31 :22] .
21. Gave . . . trade: The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 passed from France to England the monopoly (for 30 years) of supplying Negro slaves to the Spanish colonies. The contracts were earlier passed from the Dutch to the French. No special change is recorded for
1708.
22. Gibraltar: Controlled by the Turks, then by the Spanish, then by the Moors, and after 1462 by the Spanish again, it passed into the control of the English in 1704, which in effect gave them control over at least part of the slave trade.
23. Medicis: Marie de M. , 1573? 1642, queen of France, second wife of Henry IV. After he was assassinated (1610), she became regent for her son Louis XIII. She engaged in power struggles for over 30 years and was sometimes exiled, sometimes restored. Richelieu helped force her final exile in 1630, when she fled first to the Netherlands and then to England. Finally rejected by her son? in-Iaw, King Charles of England, and by Philip N of Spain, who would not allow her back into the Netherlands, she was accepted into the city of Cologne by a prince-
archbishop who felt Christian sympathy for her misery [Cleugh, Medici, 314-330]. Her
anti-Hapsburg posture during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and her personal intriguing behind the scenes from Gibraltar to Compeigne, may have put her on the wrong side in Pound's mind.
24. John Law: 1671-1729, Scottish banker and financier who went to France, which chartered his Banque Generale in 1716 and allowed the bank to issue paper currency. After 1719 the bank's paper became guar- anteed by the state, and the stock issued by it soared to ridiculous prices as the bank became involved in colonial speculation such as the Mississippi scheme. Before the bubble burst, insiders cleaned up by selling their stock. When it did burst, thousands of inves- tors were left destitute, the government was weakened, and Law left in disgrace. He became a gambler in Venice and in 1729 died and was interred there in the church- yard of St. Moise west of St. Mark's Square.
It wasn't the idea of the state bank issuing currency that was bad, however-that worked beautifully and, for a brief time, created great prosperity. It was the unre- strained speculation of big money men-who misused both the bank and the state-that was disastrous. For Pound, Law demon- strated that the state could extend credit and create prosperity: thus, he should not lie in a grave unhonored.
25. SUMBAINAI: H, "coheres" [WT, 50: "What / SPLENDOUR / IT ALL COHERES"; 109:17; 116:20].
26. Grevitch: Inmate at St. Elizabeths [MSB, Pai, 3-3, 332].
27. Young Labarre: For a few schoolboy pranks involving "the desecration of cru- cifixes," this chevalier was sentenced to be tortured, mutilated, beheaded, and burned. Some of Voltaire's works were found in his possession, including the Dictionnaire philo- sophique, which "was burned with [La- barre's] corpse" [Sieburth,Pai, 6-3, 386].
28. Cavour: [61:19].
29. Hohenlohe: Chlodwig Karl Viktor, Furst zu H. , 1819-1901. As a premier of
Bavaria, he supported German unification and the program of Bismarck. He was ambas- sador to Paris after the War of 1870, and, later, governor of Alsace-Lorraine (1885- 1894). Pound sees the settlement of that war as a wise one that maintained the peace in Europe until the usurers created WWI.
the Franco-Prussian War was to be the war to end all wa! s.
38. Clodovic: [Cf. 29 above].
39. U1tramontaines: L, "Beyond the moun- tains. " Name given to Catholics whose first allegiance was to the pope, on the other side of the Alps, rather than to the king of France itself. They were opposed to the Gal1icans, who said France first and pope after. The term was revived in 19th-century Germany and Austria and applied to the Old Catholics.
. . .
41. "JESUS . . . for . ": The reaction of Queen Elizabeth. The source is Braoks Adams [RO, Pai, 6-2, 181]; but her concern in Adams is with the number of clergy, not with money: "Jesus (quoth the queen) 13,000 it is not to be looked for, I thinke the time hath been, there hath not been 4. preachers in a diocesse, my meaning is not you should make choice of learned minis- ters only for they are not to be found, but of honest, sober, and wise men, and such as can read the scriptures and homilies well unto the people" [BA, Civilization, 225].
42. ploughing . . . solid: A central theme of the poem: Justice comes from the growing of food to feed the people and in using words precisely-in law, the press, the schoolroom, economics, and politics.
43. V on Moltke: Helmuth Karl Bernhard, Graf von M. , 1800-1891, a great Prussian field marshal, who trained his armies so well he won the Danish War (1864), the Austro- Prussian War (1866), and the Franco-Prussian War (1870). He could also be charming at the court of Napoleon III at Fontainebleau.
44. "In locis . . . viventia": "In desert places / we rejoice in the middle of the woods. / are sheared, you kill, they are milked / by which you till the land. / You
30. Chez . . . civilizee: F, "In our the press is still very little civilized. "
country
31. Napoleon Third: 1808-1873, president of the Second Republic, 1848-1852, emperor of the French, 1852-1870.
32. '69: southern Slavs .
