“A”-21
18 Aug. 1966-11/13 May 1967; notes for the movement have the dates 2 May 1966-30 April 1967

 

437.1    Rudens: or The Rope by the Roman comic playwright T. Maccius Plautus (c.254-184 BC). According to Ahearn (176), LZ used the Loeb edition: Plautus: Poenulus, Pseudolus, and Rudens, trans. Paul Nixon (1965), although he also had in his library a Latin text of Rudens with plentiful notes edited by Edward A. Sonneschein (Oxford UP). LZ “translated” the Latin text line by line but restricted himself to a five count line (five words per line irregardless of syllable count). “A”-21 is sometimes described as a homophonic translation, but this is not the case, although there is a good deal of homophonic suggestion throughout. I have noted some of the more curious manifestations, but made no effort note the numerous homophonic echoes. On LZ’s translation practice in “A”-21, see Wray, “cool rare air” 52-69 and Hatlen, “Zukofsky as Translator” 357-364.

437.3    John Gassner: John Waldhorn Gassner (1903-1967) drama critic, scholar and Yale professor; he was a long-time friend of LZ from their student days together at Columbia. Gassner died 2 April 1967 as LZ was completing “A”-21. On Gassner, see Scroggins Bio 401.

437.4    Morris Ephraim: (1892-1966) LZ’s older brother (spelled his surname Zukowsky), who died 22 Aug. 1966; in Autobiography (33) LZ mentions that Morris took him as a child to the Yiddish theater (also mentioned at 8.83.25). On Morris Zukowsky, see Scroggins Bio 400.

438.2    (Voice off): of the various passages designated as “(Voice off)” throughout “A”-21, those assigned to a character are asides from Plautus’ text, while those that are unassigned are LZ’s interpolations. The usual meaning of voice off is simply when a voice is heard but the speaker remains unseen and is more often associated with cinema and television than drama. However, it is worth noting that LZ used two voice offs in the first scene of Arise, Arise: the play opens with a dialogue between Mother and Son who initially remain hidden behind the Dream Curtain, and near the end they listen to the Father speaking to his grandson (the Son’s nephew) who remains off-stage.

438.3    an ’twere any nightingale: from Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream I.ii:

            Bottom: I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you an ’twere any nightingale.

438.4    an if they be not / sprites: from Shakespeare, The Tempest II.ii:

            Caliban [Aside]: These be fine things, an if they be not sprites.
That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor.
I will kneel to him.

438.8    fisheRman’s sea   net dragged Up…: LZ’s “Plot” translates the Acrostic Argument of the original attributed to Priscian the Grammarian.

439.1    Acturus: a star near the Great Bear whose rising and setting portends tempests.

439.19  impetrating: impetrate = to obtain by entreaty or petition. Impetration = the act of impetrating or obtaining by prayer or petition; procurement; specifically in Old English statutes, the procurement from the court of Rome of benefices and church offices in England which by law belonged to the disposition of the king and other lay patrons (CD).

439.21  mulcts: mulct = a fine or other penalty imposed on a person for some offence or misdeameanor, usually a pecuniary fine (also verb) (CD).

439.33  primum mobile: in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the tenth or outmost of the revolving spheres of the universe, which was supposed to revolve from east to west in twenty-four hours, and to carry the others along with it in its motion; hence any great or first source of motion (CD).

439.33  Diphilus: a 4th century BC Greek dramatist of New Comedy; the editor of the Loeb text LZ used notes that Rudens was adapted from an unknown play by Diphilus (vi), and in fact many of his plays were reworked by both Plautus and Terence.

439.34  Cyrene: city situated in Libya, the most important Hellenic colony in Africa, founded in the first century BC.

440.5    Attic: of Athens.

440.13  Agrigentum: important Greek city in Sicily.

440.17  “where the voluptuaries / ride gaily…: this is loosely suggested by the Latin text: ibi esse hominess voluptarios / dicit, potesse ibi eum fieri divitem (“People go in for a gay life there,” says he. “There’s where you can make your fortune”; trans. Paul Nixon).

440.23  fane: temple.

440.32  hibernal: of winter.

440.33  acerb: variant of acerbic.

442.3    ye lightnings, ye thunders—: from Bach, St. Matthew Passion; see 1.5.27.

442.8    Euripides’ Alcmena: a lost play evidently famous for its tempest scene.

442.29  Salvé: L. hail!

443.4    Hercules’ club: Hercules was typically depicted as carrying a club or two; see 469.38. Hercules was associated with strength, victory and commercial enterprise, and was the patron of traders. Throughout Rudens, LZ translates the L. exclamation hercle literally as “Hercules,” although Nixon renders this variously as “Jove,” “God,” “Lord,” “ye gad,” etc. As LZ well knew, this exclamation survived into English at least until Shakespeare’s time in the form Mehercle (by Hercules) in Love’s Labour’s Lost IV.ii.80 (qtd. Bottom 440).

443.10  probate: proof; official proof of a will or testament (CD).

443.18  eructed: to belch forth or eject, as wind from the stomach (CD).

443.32  prinked: to dress for show, adorn one’s self; dress ostentatiously or fantastically; to strut, put on pompous airs (CD).

444.9    Ceres: Greek goddess of the earth, grain and agriculture.

444.30  Palaemon: Roman god of ports and harbors. Palaemon was originally Melicertes, son of Athamas and Ino, but when Athamas tried to kill his wife and son they both leapt into the sea and were transformed into sea divinities by Zeus, Melicertes becoming Palaemon and Ino becoming Leukothea. They had the power to save sailors from shipwreck and are often depicted as riding dolphins. Palaemon was also one of Hercules’ original names.

444.31  sockdologer: a conclusive argument, the winding up of a debate, a settler; a knock-down or decisive blow; something very big, a whopper; (U.S. slang) a patent fish-hook having two hooked points which close upon each other as soon as the fish bites, thus securing the fish with certainty (CD).

445.12  vesper: evening.

445.20  nine / men’s / morris: from Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream II.i.98-100 (qtd. Bottom 136):

            The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable […]
As Ahearn points out (178-179), there are numerous mentions of “morris” throughout “A”-21 punning on LZ’s brother’s name (see 437.4). From Webster’s (1913): “\Mor"ris\, n. [Sp. morisco Moorish, from Moro a Moor: cf. Fr. moresque, It. moresca.] 1. A Moorish dance, usually performed by a single dancer, who accompanies the dance with castanets. 2. A dance formerly common in England, often performed in pageants, processions, and May games. The dancers, grotesquely dressed and ornamented, took the parts of Robin Hood, Maidmarian, and other fictitious characters. 3. An old game played with counters, or men, which are placed at angles of a figure drawn on a board or on the ground; also, the board or ground on which the game is played. The nine-men's morris is filled up with mud. —Shak. Note: The figure consists of three concentric squares, with lines from the angles of the outer one to those of the inner, and from the middle of each side of the outer square to that of the inner. The game is played by two persons with nine or twelve pieces each (hence called nine-men's morris or twelve-men's morris). The pieces are placed alternately, and each player endeavors to prevent his opponent from making a straight row of three. Should either succeed in making a row, he may take up one of his opponent's pieces, and he who takes off all of his opponent's pieces wins the game. \Mor"ris\, n. [So called from its discoverer]. A marine fish having a very slender, flat, transparent body. It is now generally believed to be the young of the conger eel or some allied fish.”

445.23  this / is / my / form: see 2.8.3.

445.27  a / voice / blown: see 8.104.6.

445.30  Palaestra: i.e. Polly.

448.14  pomegranate: identified with both birth and death, probably because of the deep red-purple color of its fruit and its abundance of seeds; it is often associated with Kore/Persephone. The biblical apple of the Tree of Knowledge has often been taken to be a pomegranate. See 450.3 and 460.28.

448.15  And what an if / his sorrows have so / overwhelm’d: from Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus IV.iv:

            Saturninus: And what an if
His sorrows have so overwhelm'd his wits,
Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks,
His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness?

448.17  and the worst / fall that ever fell: from Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice I.ii:

            Portia: Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober, and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast: and the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him.

448.19  to know everything / is to die’:

448.23  ‘it cannot / hurt purity to love…: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées, Part I.11:

            “All great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life; but among all those which the world has invented there is none more to be feared than the theatre. It is a representation of the passions so natural and so delicate that it excites them and gives birth to them in our hearts, and, above all, to that of love, principally when it is represented as very chaste and virtuous. For the more innocent it appears to innocent souls, the more they are likely to be touched by it. Its violence pleases our self-love, which immediately forms a desire to produce the same effects which are seen so well represented; and, at the same time, we make ourselves a conscience founded on the propriety of the feelings which we see there, by which the fear of pure souls is removed, since they imagine that it cannot hurt their purity to love with a love which seems to them so reasonable. So we depart from the theatre with our heart so filled with all the beauty and tenderness of love, the soul and the mind so persuaded of its innocence, that we are quite ready to receive its first impressions, or rather to seek an opportunity of awakening them in the heart of another, in order that we may receive the same pleasures and the same sacrifices which we have seen so well represented in the theatre” (trans. W.F. Trotter).

448.32  cat posses:

448.33  ‘A made a / finer end ‘A parted…: from Shakespeare, Henry V II.iii:

            Hostess [on the death of Falstaff]: Nay, sure, he's not in hell. He's in Arthur’s bosom, if ever man went to Arthur’s bosom. ’A made a finer end and went away an it had been any christom child. ’A parted even just between twelve and one, even at the turning o’ the tide: for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers’ ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a Table of green fields.”
            The latter phrase of this quotation is as it appears in Bottom 290, where LZ defends the Folio reading, although most scholars accept Lewis Theobald’s 1726 emendation of the final phrase to “’a babbled of green fields.”

450.7    spittle / drowning / worlds: see 1.2.18.

450.14  plutocrats: those who rule or sway a community or society by virtue of their wealth; a person possessing power or power solely or mainly by virtue of their riches (CD).

450.18  Urchins, lickrocks, oysters, acornshells, purplefish…: acornshell = type of barnacle; purplefish = type of shellfish; seanettles = jellyfish or sea anemone; lampshells = brachiopod, a mollusk-type animal.

450.28  as first the / Lark when she / means to rejoice…: through 451.4 from Izaak Walton (1593-1683), The Compleat Angler (1653) Part I, Chap I (see also 477.23f):

                        “As first the lark, when she means to rejoice, to cheer herself and those that hear her; she then quits the earth, and sings as she ascends higher into the air, and having ended her heavenly employment, grows then mute and sad, to think she must descend to the dull earth, which she would not touch but for necessity.”
            “But the nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, that it might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints in heaven, when thou affordest bad men such music on earth!”
            “The earth feeds and carries those horses that carry us.”

451.11  Conch Hookandeye’s: hook and eye is a type of small garment fastening.

451.16  machétes: large, broad-bladed knife; from Plautus’ L. machaeris (sword).

451.18  Silenus: in Greek mythology, one of the satyrs who became a companion and mentor of Dionysius and usually depicted as a jovial, drunken old man.

451.30  sclerosed semen: sclerosis = abnormal hardening of a body part; from Plautus’ L. sceleris semen (Nixon: fount of infamy; literally, wicked seed/offspring).

453.13  schooners: large glasses for liquor, especially beer.

453.20  hawser: a nautical term for a cable or rope used to moor or tow a boat.

456.34  nothing to be got now-adayes / unless thou canst fish: from Shakespeare, Pericles II.i (qtd. Bottom 396): “Second Fisherman: Nay then thou wilt starue sure: for heer’s nothing to be got now-adayes, vnlesse thou canst fish for’t.” All the quotations from Shakespeare found in this Voice-off through 457.10 were previously correlated with passages from Rudens in Bottom 396-397.

456.35  Op-and-Pop art, bare engineers bare…: Op (or Optical) Art is a modern style or movement, particularly during the 1960s, that attempts to create a sense of movement on the picture surface through optical illusionism. Pop Art developed in the 1950s and 1960s in England and the U.S. using images and materials from popular and commercial culture.

457.2    a playes and tumbles, great / ones eat up little ones: from Shakespeare, Pericles II.i (qtd. Bottom 397):

            First Fisherman: Why, as Men doe a-land;
The great ones eate vp the little ones:
I can compare our rich Misers to nothing so fitly,
As to a Whale; a playes and tumbles,
Dryuing the poore Fry before him,
And at last, deuowre them all at a mouthful:
Such Whales haue I heard on, a’th land,
Who neuer leaue gaping, till they swallow’d
The whole Parish, Church, Steeple, Belles and all.

457.3    gives heauen countlesse / eye to view mens actues: from Shakespeare, Pericles I.i (qtd. Bottom 319, 396):

            Pericles: Sharpe Phisicke is the last: But ô you powers!
That giues heauen countlesse eyes to view mens actes,
Why cloude they not their sights perpetually,
If this be true, which makes me pale to read it?

457.6    Think, in the height of / this bath…: from Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor III.v (qtd. Bottom 396):

            Falstaff: […] think of that, a man of my kidney, think of that, that am as subject to heat as butter; a man of continual dissolution and thaw: it was a miracle to ’scape suffocation. And in the height of this bath, when I was more than half stewed in grease, like a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames, and cooled, glowing hot, in that surge, like a horse-shoe; think of that, hissing hot, think of that. Master Brook!

457.9    throng’d up with / cold . . chill: from Shakespeare, Pericles II.i (qtd. Bottom 98, 396):

            Pericles: What I have been I have forgot to know;
But what I am, want teaches me to think on:
A man throng’d up with cold: my veins are chill,
And have no more of life than may suffice
To give my tongue that heat to ask your help;
Which if you shall refuse, when I am dead,
For that I am a man, pray see me buried.

457.11  Honestly rich or contentedly poor: Walton’s The Compleat Angler (see 450.28), Chap. 21: “And therefore my advice is, that you endeavour to be honestly rich, or contentedly poor: but be sure that your riches be justly got, or you spoil all.”

457.12  if a man can’t curse his / friend whom can he curse?: attributed to the Texan Sam Houston (1793-1863) by Socrates Hyacinth in “South-Western Slang” (see note at 459.17), although there it is plural friends.

457.19  Polled Liberty: polled = lopped, chopped or chipped; having no antlers; but here also suggesting voting.

457.33  sclerosis listened to your auscultations: Plautus’ text reads, “quid mihi scelesto tibi erat auscultatio” (Nixon: Oh, why was I such a cursed fool as to listen to you?). “Auscultation” is the act of listening or hearkening; a method of distinguishing the state of the internal parts of the body, particularly of the thorax and abdomen, by observing the sound arising from the part (CD).

458.2    worse than Thystes’ or Tereus’: Thystes was fed his own sons at a banquet by his brother and rival Atreus. Tereus, king of Thrace, was fed his own son by his wife Procne for raping her sister Philomela. See 461.13.

458.4    Puling: complaining, whining, crying, childish, weak (CD).

458.6    pabulum: food, nutriment; by extension, that which nourishes or supports any physical process, as fuel for a fire; hence, food for thought, intellectual or spiritual nourishment or support (CD).

458.23  No thermopile: thermopile is a thermo-electric battery, especially as arranged for measurement of small quantities of radiant heat (CD). Plautus’ text reads, Ne thermipolium quidem ullum instruit, / ita salsam praehibet potionem et frigidam (Nixon: And he doesn’t set up any hot-drinks counter, either. The kind of liquor he serves is . . . salty ice-water).

459.6    pallium: a voluminous retangular mantle worn by men, and considered at Rome, because worn by Greek savants, as the particular dress of philosophers; also a toga or other outer garment; also the mantle, mantle-flap or mantle-skirt of a mollusk (CD).

459.6    credo: L. I believe.

459.11  scut: a short tail, as that of the rabbit or deer (CD).

459.14  polecat: a fitch or skunk.

459.16  antiphon: a psalm, hymn or prayer sung responsively or by alteration of two choirs; an echo or response (CD).

459.17  Nip & Tuck   Jimtown   Rake Pocket…: most of this “Voice off” is taken from an article on “South-Western Slang” by Socrates Hyacinth, published in the Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine (Aug. 1869): 125-131. Lines 459.17-20 reproduce most of a list of colorful names of Texas towns plus a final additional curious town name, Pig Misery, in the North.

459.21  Yaller Flower of the Forest: a tag or nickname used by Davey Crockett (this is not in Socrates Hyacinth’s article).

459.22  Ten-strikers: from “South-Western Slang” (see 459.17): “Some boasted that one Southerner could ‘whale’ ten Yankees. Lieutenant J. W. Boothe, of the Seventh Texas Battalion, I am told, first applied to this sort the phrase ‘ten-strikers,’ which became immensely popular in the state.”

459.23  How’s yo’ horse, Tarheel? / Is he religious?: from “South-Western Slang” (see 459.17): “It is amusing to hear one ask of another, when about to purchase a horse: ‘Is he religious?’”[apparently meaning: is he broken?…] “A story is related of a brigade of North Carolinians, who, in one of the great battles, (Chancellorsville, if I remember correctly) failed to hold a certain hill, and were laughed at by the Mississippians for having forgotten to tar their heels that morning. Hence originated their cant name, ‘Tar-heels.’”

459.25  Moke: from “South-Western Slang” (see 459.17): “’Moke,’ a negro, (seemingly derived from Icelandic möckvi, darkness) is a word chiefly in use among the Regulars stationed in Texas and in the Territories.”

459.26  Jimpescute. / Juicy-spicy: from “South-Western Slang” (see 459.17): “When a Texan goes forth on a sparking errand, he does not go to pay his devoirs to his Amaryllis, his Lalage, his Dulcinea, or other such antiquated object of affection, but (employing a word worthy of a place in the pasilaly of mankind) his ‘jimpsecute.’ She, on the other hand, is said to receive attention from her ‘juicy-spicy.’”

459.28  Leonine: of or resembling a lion; but also leonine verse where the end of the line rhymes with the middle.

459.32  Pinkerton: private detective; in LZ’s younger days, Pinkertons were particularly associated with strike and union busting.

460.4    Sacrarium: any sacred or consecrated retired place; any place where sacred objects were deposited, as in a temple (CD).

460.15  Jump in the lake, yes?: see 18.392.31, where LZ also gives a Yiddish equivalent. Here evidently suggested by Plautus’ text: “Iuppiter te perdat, et si sunt, et si non sunt tamen” (Whether they are or are not, in either case you be damned, trans. P. Nixon).

461.13  Philomela and Procne: see 458.2; when their father, Tereus, attempted to kill Philomela and Procne, they turned into a nightingale and a swallow.

461.23  middle summer’s spring: from Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream II.i:

            Titania: These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never, since the middle summer’s spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport.

462.16  Narthex asafetida: a fetid inspissated sap from Persia and Afghanistan, the concrete juice from the roots of several large umbelliferous plants of the genus Ferula. The drug has a powerful and persistent alliaceous odor and bitter acrid taste, and consists of resin, gum, and an essential oil which contains sulphur. It is used as an antispasmodic, and in India and Persia also as a condiment (CD). Narthex also is a part of an early Christian or an Oriental church or basilica, at the end furthest from the sanctuary, and nearest to the main entrance; also a small box or casket for unguents or perfumes (CD).

463.2    ‘What altar ‘ll shelter a man / outraging reason!: through 463.6 from Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise, Chap. XV.24: “No spirit gives testimony concerning the certitude of matters within the sphere of speculation, save only reason, who is mistress, as we have shown, of the whole realm of truth. If then they assert that they possess this Spirit which makes them certain of truth, they speak falsely, and according to the prejudices of the emotions, or else they are in great dread lest they should be vanquished by philosophers and exposed to public ridicule, and therefore they flee, as it were, to the altar; but their refuge is vain, for what altar will shelter a man who has outraged reason?”
463.3: What is denial / if not reason rejecting assent?: Theological-Political Treatise, Chap.XV.12: “If reason, however, much as she rebels, is to be entirely subjected to Scripture, I ask, are we to effect her submission by her own aid, or without her, and blindly? If the latter, we shall surely act foolishly and injudiciously; if the former, we assent to Scripture under the dominion of reason, and should not assent to it without her. Moreover, I may ask now, is a man to assent to anything against his reason? What is denial if it be not reason's refusal to assent? In short, I am astonished that anyone should wish to subject reason, the greatest of gifts and a light from on high, to the dead letter which may have been corrupted by human malice; that it should be thought no crime to speak with contempt of mind, the true handwriting of God's Word, calling it corrupt, blind, and lost, while it is considered the greatest of crimes to say the same of the letter, which is merely the reflection and image of God's Word. Men think it pious to trust nothing to reason and their own judgment, and impious to doubt the faith of those who have transmitted to us the sacred books.”
463.5: Nothing is said so rightly / it cannot twist into wrong’: Theological-Political Treatise, Chap. XII.5: “I confess that some profane men, to whom religion is a burden, may, from what I have said, assume a licence to sin, and without any reason, at the simple dictates of their lusts conclude that Scripture is everywhere faulty and falsified, and that therefore its authority is null; but such men are beyond the reach of help, for nothing, as the proverb has it, can be said so rightly that it cannot be twisted into wrong” (trans. R.H.M. Elwes).

463.17  Turbalio! Sparax!: the names of the two whips are taken straight out of Plautus.

463.29  Switch is a whip / which never has been: from “A”-7.40.21.

464.38  Alma: L. fostering, cherishing, benign, kindly.

464.40  Nixi: (nix, nixie, nixy) in Teutonic mythology, a water spirit good or bad (CD). Here suggested by Plautus’ text: “genibus nixae” (kneel and clasp, trans. P. Nixon); nixor = to lean upon, rest on.

465.10  cantabile: in music, executed in the style of a song; flowing; sustained; lyrical (CD).

465.12  mg. dancer: Davenport writes that he “once asked Zukofsky what the ‘mg. dancer’ is […], a milligram sprite, a magnesium elf, a margin dancer, or Aurora, as the dictionary allows for all of these meanings. ‘All,’ he replied” (Geography 103).

467.17  fo’c’s’le: = forecastle, a section of a ship where the seamen live, either a house on deck or a place below the spar-deck in the eyes of the ship (CD).

467.27  vulcanize: to improve the strength, resiliency, and freedom from stickiness and odor of (rubber for example) by combining with sulfur or other additives in the presence of heat and pressure (AHD). Here with play on Vulcan, god of fire and divine blacksmith, who was unfortunate in his marriage with Venus because of her infidelities with Mars.

468.17  corpus delicti: L. body of the transgression; in law, the substance or essential actual fact of the crime or offence charged. Thus a man who is proved to have clandestinely buried a dead body, no matter how suspicious the circumstances, cannot thereby be convicted of murder, without proof of the corpus delicti—that is, the fact that death was feloniously produced by him (CD).

469.38  Hercules, how quickly this Fane / alters, once Venus’, now Hercules’: Hercules was typically depicted as carrying a cudgel or club, thus evoking Leno’s conceit on the appearance of the armed whips; see 443.4.

470.30  asleep reads scripture: Cf. Spinoza, A Theologico-Political Treatise, Preface: “I grant that they are never tired of professing their wonder at the profound mysteries of Holy Writ; still I cannot discover that they teach anything but speculations of Platonists and Aristotelians, to which (in order to save their credit for Christianity) they have made Holy Writ conform; not content to rave with the Greeks themselves, they want to make the prophets rave also; showing conclusively, that never even in sleep have they caught a glimpse of Scripture’s Divine nature.”

470.31  horse with / a curb: from Spinoza, A Theologico-Political Treatise, Chap. IV: “However, as the true object of legislation is only perceived by a few, and most men are almost incapable of grasping it, though they live under its conditions, legislators, with a view to exacting general obedience, have wisely put forward another object, very different from that which necessarily follows from the nature of law: they promise to the observers of the law that which the masses chiefly desire, and threaten its violators with that which they chiefly fear: thus endeavouring to restrain the masses, as far as may be, like a horse with a curb; whence it follows that the word law is chiefly applied to the modes of life enjoined on men by the sway of others; hence those who obey the law are said to live under it and to be under compulsion” (trans. R.H.M. Elwes).

471.8    lion not / bound to roar, / cat: from Spinoza, A Theologico-Political Treatise, Chap.XVI: “The natural right of the individual man is thus determined, not by sound reason, but by desire and power. All are not naturally conditioned so as to act according to the laws and rules of reason; nay, on the contrary, all men are born ignorant, and before they can learn the right way of life and acquire the habit of virtue, the greater part of their life, even if they have been well brought up, has passed away. Nevertheless, they are in the meanwhile bound to live and preserve themselves as far as they can by the unaided impulses of desire. Nature has given them no other guide, and has denied them the present power of living according to sound reason; so that they are no more bound to live by the dictates of an enlightened mind, than a cat is bound to live by the laws of the nature of a lion” (trans. R.H.M. Elwes).

471.19  By this good light / fresh horses: two separate phrases from Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, II.iii and III.i.

472.23  qui vive: Fr. who lives? i.e. who goes there? The challenge used by French sentries to those who approach their posts.

473.21  columbine: pertaining to or having the characteristics of pigeon or dove (CD).

473.30  for no man is so / watchful he never falls asleep: Baruch Spinoza, Political Treatise (1677), Chap. VI.3: “But if human nature were so constituted, that men most desired what is most useful, no art would be needed to produce unity and confidence. But, as it is admittedly far otherwise with human nature, a dominion must of necessity be so ordered, that all, governing and governed alike, whether they will or no, shall do what makes for the general welfare; that is, that all, whether of their own impulse, or by force or necessity, shall be compelled to live according to the dictate of reason. And this is the case, if the affairs of the dominion be so managed, that nothing which affects the general welfare is entirely entrusted to the good faith of any one. For no man is so watchful, that he never falls asleep; and no man ever had a character so vigorous and honest, but he sometimes, and that just when strength of character was most wanted, was diverted from his purpose and let himself be overcome. And it is surely folly to require of another what one can never obtain from one's self; I mean, that he should be more watchful for another's interest than his own, that he should be free from avarice, envy, and ambition, and so on; especially when he is one, who is subject daily to the strongest temptations of every passion” (trans. A.H. Gosset).

473.33  reason’s monsters: perhaps refers to a famous etching by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), “El sueño de la razón produce monstrous” (The sleep of reason engenders monsters).

473.34  a dream unexplained like an / unopened letter: attributed to the Talmud: “An uninterpreted dream is like an unopened letter from God.”

474.8    rote: a musical instrument with strings, and played either by a bow, like a crowd or fiddle, or by a wheel, like a hurdy-gurdy (CD). A rote-song is a song to be taught by rote, or by frequent repetition to the listener (CD).

474.29  The moon washes all the / air: from Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream II.i (see 445.20):

            Titania: The nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
The human mortals want their winter here:
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:

474.31  Of / the God in the table: / that you cannot make it / eat grass: from Spinoza, A Political Treatise, Chap. IV.4: “For a commonwealth is most independent when it acts according to the dictate of reason (Chap. III. Sec.7), so far, then, as it acts against reason, it fails itself, or does wrong. And we shall be able more easily to understand this if we reflect, that when we say, that a man can do what he will with his own, this authority must be limited not only by the power of the agent, but by the capacity of the object. If, for instance, I say that I can rightfully do what I will with this table, I do not certainly mean, that I have the right to make it eat grass. So, too, though we say, that men depend not on themselves, but on the commonwealth, we do not mean, that men lose their human nature and put on another; nor yet that the commonwealth has the right to make men wish for this or that, or (what is just as impossible) regard with honour things which excite ridicule or disgust. But it is implied, that there are certain intervening circumstances, which supposed, one likewise supposes the reverence and fear of the subjects towards the commonwealth, and which abstracted, one makes abstraction likewise of that fear and reverence, and therewith of the commonwealth itself. The commonwealth, then, to maintain its independence, is bound to preserve the causes of fear and reverence, otherwise it ceases to be a commonwealth” (trans. A.H. Gosset). Without acknowledging Spinoza, LZ paraphrases the passage concerning the table that cannot eat grass in his 1968 interview with L.S. Dembo (Prep+ 230).

474.34  ‘Signed and dayed.’ / Dated? No not an erratum— / a felicity: LZ’s notebook (HRC 4.11) indicates this is a typo and response by PZ.

475.14  fluke vehement sea mar: this curious phrase suggested by Plautus’ text: “ita fluctuare video vehementer mare” (trans. by Nixon: such a heavy sea as this running).

475.15  prandial: relating or pertaining to a dinner or other meal (CD).

476.10  Alexander’s stringplayer: in the original, Plautus gives the name Stratonicus, who Nixon notes was “A famous musician-errant of the time of Alexander the Great” (377).

476.18  rude deigns: < Rudens, which means “rope” (Wray, “cool rare air” 56).

476.24  for faith nor / ask thine oath: from Shakespeare, Pericles I.ii:

            Pericles: The care I had and haue of subiects good,
On thee I lay, whose wisdomes strength can beare it,
Ile take thy word, for faith, nor aske thine oath,         [modern editions usually have not for nor]
Who shuns not to breake one, will cracke both.
But in our orbs will liue so round, and safe,
That time of both this truth shall nere conuince,
Thou shewdst a subiects shine, I a true Prince.

476.37  Gregor’s / story, the convict’s / wistfulness ‘I’m sorry / for the children / they’ve no sense’: from Anton Checkov, “The Island of Sakhalin,” his journalistic account of a prison colony. The prisoner Yegor is asked: “‘Are you homesick?’ ‘No. there’s only one thing—I’m sorry for the children. They’ve no sense.’”

477.23  the river Epirus / puts out the / torch…: through 480.38 from Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler (see 450.28). For catalog of passages used, Click here.

477.26  and the drafts / hurt: this phrase, which does not appear to be from Walton, perhaps alludes to LZ’s well-known sensitivity to drafty rooms (see 18.394.16).

478.18  chub: name of various fish.

478.31  brandling: small red worms.

478.32  bark of tanners: the bark of trees containing tannic acid, stripped and prepared for use in tanning skins (CD).

479.3    Pyrausta: type of moth.

479.23  herl: or harl, the barb of a feather from a peacock’s tail, used as a hackle in dressing fly-hooks (CD).

480.37  Diogenes: Diogenes of Sinope (404-323 BC), Greek Cynic philosopher; see 22.518.30-519.3.

480.38  finnimbruns: trinkets, trifles; apparently Walton invented or at least is the first to record this word.

480.39  ‘admiring in animals / what we hate / in men?’: from Spinoza, Letter XXXII to William Blyenbergh dated 5 Jan. 1665: “For we all admire in animals qualities which we regard with dislike and aversion in men, such as the pugnacity of bees, the jealousy of doves, &c.; these in human beings are despised, but are nevertheless considered to enhance the value of animals” (trans. R.H.M Elwes).

481.2    A pretty poetry / to suit the / sound to the / corrupt…: through 481.18, except for italicized passage, mostly from Spinoza:
481.2 A pretty poetry / to suit the / sound to the / corrupt: Theologico-Political Treatise, Chap. X.20: “Those, therefore, who explain these pas sages otherwise, deny the plain meaning of Scripture — nay, they deny Scripture itself. They think it pious to reconcile one passage of Scripture with another — a pretty piety, forsooth, which accommodates the clear passages to the obscure, the correct to the faulty, the sound to the corrupt.”
481.5: none legislated / into blessedness: Theologico-Political Treatise, Chap. VII.69: “With religion the case is widely different. Inasmuch as it consists not so much in outward actions as in simplicity and truth of character, it stands outside the sphere of law and public authority. Simplicity and truth of character are not produced by the constraint of laws, nor by the authority of the state, no one the whole world over can be forced or legislated into a state of blessedness; the means required for such a consummation are faithful and brotherly admonition, sound education, and, above all, free use of the individual judgment.”
481.6: Blest / against obstinacy: as usual, Blest suggests Spinoza. The Theologico-Political Treatise frequently mentions “obstinacy” as a negative trait in the context of Old Testament religion. The following from Chap. XIII.9 sums up Spinoza’s view on the matter: “The task will be easy, for we know that Scripture does not aim at imparting scientific knowledge, and, therefore, it demands from men nothing but obedience, and censures obstinacy, but not ignorance.”
481.7: not / your envy for / my sake: Theologico-Political Treatise, Chap. XVII.17: “See Numbers xi. 28. In this passage it is written that two men prophesied in the camp, and that Joshua wished to punish them. This he would not have done, if it had been lawful for anyone to deliver the Divine oracles to the people without the consent of Moses. But Moses thought good to pardon the two men, and rebuked Joshua for exhorting him to use his royal prerogative, at a time when he was so weary of reigning, that he preferred death to holding undivided sway (Numb. xi:14). For he made answer to Joshua, ‘Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His spirit upon them.’ That is to say, would God that the right of taking counsel of God were general, and the power were in the hands of the people.”
481.12  no book / in the country: from Spinoza, Letter XXI to Blyenbergh dated 28 Jan. 1665, in a parenthetical aside: “I cannot give the precise reference, for I have not the book with me here in the country.”
481.14: no lecture for / love of quietness: from Spinoza, 30 March 1672 letter to Fabritus, putting off the Elector Palatine’s offer of a prestigious position at the University of Heidelberg: “Thus you see, distinguished Sir, that I am not holding back in the hope of getting something better, but through my love of quietness, which I think I can in some measure secure, if I keep away from lecturing in public. I therefore most earnestly entreat you to beg of the Most Serene Elector, that I may be allowed to consider further about this matter, and I also ask you to conciliate the favour of the most gracious prince to his most devoted admirer, thus increasing the obligations of your sincere friend.”
481.18  prophecy: harp: from Spinoza, A Theologico-Political Treatise, Part I, Chap. 1: “The first point is proved from the case of Elisha, who, in order to prophecy to Jehoram, asked for a harp, and was unable to perceive the Divine purpose till he had been recreated by its music […].”

481.27  squamous: covered with scales, scaly; scale-like (CD).

483.18  passel pustule: passel = archaic form of parcel; pustule = a small inflammatory tumor or pimple containing pus, or a slight elevation like a pimple or little blister (CD).

483.25  fourflusher: worthless, incompetent; something false or insincere—derives from poker in which a flush consists of five cards of the same suit, whereas only four is worthless.

483.27  Punic-red: puniceous in entomology is purplish-red or crimson; having the color of a pomegranate (CD). The pomegranate (see 448.14, 450.3, 460.28) was also called in L. Punic apple, because of its color.

483.37  Thales: pre-Socratic philosopher; Nixon notes: “One of the ‘seven wise men’ of Greece” (386).

485.10  fiat: L. let it be done. Although this is taken straight from Plautus, which is translated by Nixon as: “There you are!,” in the Vulgate, this is God’s command: Let there be light, is Fiat lux (CD).

485.24  Now disallow legal make-believe / sabotage down the road…: much of this “Voice off” is taken from at least a couple different works of Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), who had interested LZ in the 1930s (see 8.56.13-57.5, 8.79.19-80.4, CSP 41, also 12.257.7-11):
485.24  Now disallow legal make-believe: from Veblen, The Engineers and the Price System (1921): “In fact, the disallowance will touch nothing more substantial than a legal make-believe. This would, of course, be serious enough in its consequences to those classes—called the kept classes—whose livelihood hangs on the maintenance of this legal make-believe.”
485.25  sabotage […] / price, wage and / right […] delay: the first chapter of Veblen’s The Engineers and the Price System is “On the Nature and Uses of Sabotage,” in which appears the following sentences that LZ noted in his working notebook (HRC 4.11): “But the tactics of these syndicalists, and their use of sabotage, do not differ, except in detail, from the tactics of other workmen elsewhere, or from the similar tactics of friction, obstruction, and delay habitually employed, from time to time, by both employees and employers to enforce an argument about wages and prices.”
485.25  down the road / […] aliens of uneasy / feet: from Veblen, “Intellectual Pre-Eminence of Jews in Modern Europe”: “For [intellectually gifted Jew] as for other men in the like case, the skepticism that goes to make him an effectual factor in the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men involves a loss of that peace of mind that is the birthright of the safe and sane quietist. He becomes a disturber of the intellectual peace, but only at the cost of becoming an intellectual wayfaring man, a wanderer in the intellectual no-man's-land, seeking another place to rest, farther along the road, somewhere over the horizon. They are neither a complaisant nor a contented lot, these aliens of the uneasy feet; but that is, after all, not the point in question.”
485.28  masthead / profound and alert: from Veblen, The Engineers and the Price System: “This sentimental deference of the American people to the sagacity of its business men is massive, profound, and alert.”
485.29  usufruct: in The Engineers and the Price System, Veblen makes several mentions of usufruct, meaning: the right of enjoying all the advantages derivable from the use of something which belongs to another so far as is compatible with the substance of the thing not being destroyed or injured (CD): e.g. “To speak after the analogy of private business, it has been found best to disallow such use of the mail facilities as does not inure to the benefit of the Administration in the way of good will and vested rights of usufruct.”

487.3    peach: to impeach; to betray one’s accomplices, turn informer (CD).

488.9    springe: a noose or snare for catching small game (CD).

488.29  prorogue: to prolong, protract; to defer, put off, delay (CD).

491.33  I cannot submit to the loss of the salarium: from a letter by J.S. Bach dated 14 Sept. 1725 to Augustus II, King-Elector of Sachsen-Poland asking for the sovereign’s intervention in a dispute in Leipzig (Terry 182-183). Salarium here is L. for salary or fee.

491.34  greater care must be taken satisfying the modern gustum: from J.S. Bach’s report to the Leipzig town council, “A short and much-needed statement of the requirements of church music” (see 8.45.3): “Now the present status Musices is quite different from what it was, its technique is so much more complex, and the public gusto so changed, that old-fashioned music sounds strangely in our ears. Greater care must therefore be taken to obtain subjecta capable of satisfying the modern gustum [L. taste] in music, and also instructed in its technique, to say nothing of the composer’s desire to hear his works performed properly” (Terry 203).

491.35  Georg Erdmann…: an old school friend of J.S. Bach; the following extracts are from a long letter of 28 Oct. 1730 complaining about his situation in Leipzig (the “L” at 491.38) and asking if Erdmann knows of other opportunities; reproduced by Terry 204-206. The remark, “L’s a healthy place,” refers to the fact that Bach’s income came mainly from accidentia, fees primarily from weddings and funerals beyond his regular fixed salary—so fewer funerals, less accidentia.

492.27  dandling: to fondle or make much of, treat as a child, pet, amuse; to defer or protract by trifles (CD).

492.35  Likely: from L. licet (yes, alright).

493.31  Bed joy and prosperity: from Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream II.i:
Titania: But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

494.7    panther’s screams   feared night / bears preyed on the swine…: from the second stanza of Abraham Lincoln poem, “The Bear Hunt,” written 1846:
When first my father settled here,
   'Twas then the frontier line:
The panther's scream, filled night with fear
   And bears preyed on the swine.

494.10  cultus:  L. cultivated, tilled; neat, well-dressed; cultivated, refined. The moral or esthetic state or condition of a particular time or place (CD). However, see Bach’s 1725 letter to King-Elector Augustus, in which the sentence LZ quotes at 491.33 continues, “[…] which belonged to my office long before the new cultus was instituted” (Terry 182). Cultus here is being used ironically to mean a new way of doing things or the new group that is changing traditional procedures.

494.17  soldiering returned / unpaid scars: from Spinoza, A Political Treatise, Chap. VII.7: “But it cannot be doubted that the majority of this council will never be minded to wage war, but rather always pursue and love peace. For besides that war will always cause them fear of losing their property and liberty, it is to be added, that war requires fresh expenditure, which they must meet, and also that their own children and relatives, though intent on their domestic cares, will be forced to turn their attention to war and go a-soldiering, whence they will never bring back anything but unpaid-for scars” (trans. A.H. Gosset).

494.19  philosophers A Golden Age / when their need was least: from Spinoza, A Political Treatise, Chap. I, opening paragraph: “Philosophers conceive of the passions which harass us as vices into which men fall by their own fault, and, therefore, generally deride, bewail, or blame them, or execrate them, if they wish to seem unusually pious. And so they think they are doing something wonderful, and reaching the pinnacle of learning, when they are clever enough to bestow manifold praise on such human nature, as is nowhere to be found, and to make verbal attacks on that which, in fact, exists. For they conceive of men, not as they are, but as they themselves would like them to be. Whence it has come to pass that, instead of ethics, they have generally written satire, and that they have never conceived a theory of politics, which could be turned to use, but such as might be taken for a chimera, or might have been formed in Utopia, or in that golden age of the poets when, to be sure, there was least need of it. Accordingly, as in all sciences, which have a useful application, so especially in that of politics, theory is supposed to be at variance with practice; and no men are esteemed less fit to direct public affairs than theorists or philosophers.”

494.21  brains diverse as palates: from Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise, Chap. 20: That in a Free State Every Man May Think What He Likes, and Say What He Likes: “I admit that the judgment can be biassed in many ways, and to an almost incredible degree, so that while exempt from direct external control it may be so dependent on another man's words, that it may fitly be said to be ruled by him; but although this influence is carried to great lengths, it has never gone so far as to invalidate the statement, that every man's understanding is his own, and that brains are as diverse as palates” (trans. R.H.M. Elwes).

494.23  once She now Eunuch / reigned   something new   one man / inadequate to so great / a load: from Spinoza, A Political Treatise, Chap. VI.5: “And in fact they are much mistaken, who suppose that one man can by himself hold the supreme right of a commonwealth. For the only limit of right, as we showed (Chap. II.), is power. But the power of one man is very inadequate to support so great a load. And hence it arises, that the man, whom the multitude has chosen king, looks out for himself generals, or counsellors, or friends, to whom he entrusts his own and the common welfare; so that the dominion, which is thought to be a perfect monarchy, is in actual working an aristocracy, not, indeed, an open but a hidden one, and therefore the worst of all. Besides which, a king, who is a boy, or ill, or overcome by age, is but king on sufferance; and those in this case have the supreme authority, who administer the highest business of the dominion, or are near the king's person; not to mention, that a lascivious king often manages everything at the caprice of this or that mistress or minion. ‘I had heard,’ says Orsines, ‘that women once reigned in Asia, but for a eunuch to reign is something new.’”

494.28  to flatter / his persecutor or imitate / the victim: from Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise, Chapter XX.57: “He that knows himself to be upright does not fear the death of a criminal, and shrinks from no punishment; his mind is not wrung with remorse for any disgraceful deed: he holds that death in a good cause is no punishment, but an honour, and that death for freedom is glory. What purpose then is served by the death of such men, what example in proclaimed? the cause for which they die is unknown to the idle and the foolish, hateful to the turbulent, loved by the upright. The only lesson we can draw from such scenes is to flatter the persecutor, or else to imitate the victim.”

494.31  A blind date with / principle…: this stanza is worked from some remarks by Buckminster Fuller (1985-1983) found in a New York Times article by David Jacobs, “An Expo Named Buckminster Fuller” (23 April 1967): “[…] ‘I knew that my credit would be alright—it would take care of itself. I used to say that I had a blind date with principle. Well, I took care of the principles, and the credit is there. […] The real profit is that there is a waiting when you come to it, there’s a river you can cross. That’s the profit’” (135). See 496.4-24.

495.1    perfection understanding’s satisfaction invariably / from not being able / to leave undone what / is doing: from Spinoza, Short Treatise on God, Man and Human Welfare: “[Understanding] has but one property, and that is to understand clearly and distinctly at all times, and from this an infinite or absolutely perfect satisfaction invariably arises at not being able to leave undone that which is done” (trans. Lydia Gillingham Robinson).

495.6    one thing to till / by right another for / one’s life: from Spinoza, A Political Treatise, Chap. V.1: “In Chap. II. Sec. 2, we showed, that man is then most independent, when he is most led by reason, and, in consequence (Chap. III. Sec. 7), that that commonwealth is most powerful and most independent, which is founded and guided by reason. But, as the best plan of living, so as to assure to the utmost self-preservation, is that which is framed according to the dictate of reason, therefore it follows, that that in every kind is best done, which a man or commonwealth does, so far as he or it is in the highest degree independent. For it is one thing to till a field by right, and another to till it in the best way. One thing, I say, to defend or preserve one's self, and to pass judgment by right, and another to defend or preserve one's self in the best way, and to pass the best judgment; and, consequently, it is one thing to have dominion and care of affairs of state by right, and another to exercise dominion and direct affairs of state in the best way.”

495.11  no assent above conviction: from Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise, Chap. XX.58: “If formal assent is not to be esteemed above conviction, and if governments are to retain a firm hold of authority and not be compelled to yield to agitators, it is imperative that freedom of judgment should be granted, so that men may live together in harmony, however diverse, or even openly contradictory their opinions may be. We cannot doubt that such is the best system of government and open to the fewest objections, since it is the one most in harmony with human nature.”

495.12  gentleness courtesy: from Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise, Chap. XX.67: “On the other hand, when the religious controversy between Remonstrants and Counter-Remonstrants began to be taken up by politicians and the States, it grew into a schism, and abundantly showed that laws dealing with religion and seeking to settle its controversies are much more calculated to irritate than to reform, and that they give rise to extreme licence: further, it was seen that schisms do not originate in a love of truth, which is a source of courtesy and gentleness, but rather in an inordinate desire for supremacy.”

495.13  tho institutes cultivate to / restrain: from Spinoza, A Political Treatise, Chap. VIII.49: “Academies, that are founded at the public expense, are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them. But in a free commonwealth arts and sciences will be best cultivated to the full, if everyone that asks leave is allowed to teach publicly, and that at his own cost and risk.”

495.17  where man claims his soil / what to it adheres / he cannot carry where / he please: from Spinoza, A Political Treatise, Chap. VII.19: “Furthermore, in the state of nature, there is nothing which any man can less claim for himself, and make his own, than the soil, and whatever so adheres to the soil, that he cannot hide it anywhere, nor carry it whither he pleases. The soil, therefore, and whatever adheres to it in the way we have mentioned, must be quite common property of the commonwealth — that is, of all those who, by their united force, can vindicate their claim to it, or of him to whom all have given authority to vindicate his claim. And therefore the soil, and all that adheres to it, ought to have a value with the citizens proportionate to the necessity there is, that they may be able to set their feet thereon, and defend their common right or liberty.”

495.21  horse sound of / skin and skeleton free from / faults and faculties: a remark attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "[…] his father’s story of a man who was asked for a warrantee bill of a horse he was selling and he guaranteed him ‘sound of skin and skeleton and free from faults and faculties’: and so on” (Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, 1927).

495.27  south wing five windows: this would appear to refer to the Zukofskys’ 135 Willow Street apartment where they lived from 1957-1962 (see 13.309.23), although at the time “A”-21 was written, the Zukofskys were living at 160 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn.

496.4    a sphere / of pyramidal honeycomb…: through 496.24 primarily from a New York Times article (23 April 1967) by David Jacobs on Buckminster Fuller (see 494.31), who designed the iconic geodesic Biosphere as the U.S. Pavilion for the 1967 Montreal World Exposition. The article explains the principles of the geodesic dome and Fuller’s philosophy: “Although many variations of it are possible, the structure is basically a sphere composed of tetrahedrons (pyramid shapes with four sides—including the base). The design principle encompasses two mathematical truths: that the sphere, of all geometrical forms, encloses the most space with the least surface and is strongest against internal pressure; that the tetrahedron encloses the least space with the most surface and best withstands external pressure. Thus design, not weight, gives the dome its incredible strength” (134).
496.15: knowing like transported cargo…: “[Fuller] describes the development of civilization as though it were cargo being transported and exchanged at a series of ports around the globe; his home, like the sailor’s, is a cocoon and exists wherever he happens to be. All evolution, he says, is aiming towards the production of a world man through man’s natural migrations. ‘The United States,’ for example, ‘is not a nation at all; it is a phase of this developing world man crossing between East and West.’ […] And the best city in the world is the Queen Mary. ‘She’s an organic city,’ he explains, ‘capable of accommodating a very large number of people at a very high standard of living. […] She’s an organic whole, not a piece of real estate that anybody with money can add anything to. She’s so much with so little’” (135).
[Fuller describes a current project to design an entire city for the media mogul Matsutaro Shoriki]: “‘it will probably be a floating city […] The tetrahedron is the only geometrical form that can grow asymmetrically without losing its symmetry. It provides the greatest possible surface area for the volume it encloses. Nature uses the tetrahedron for basic crystal making: the city will grow like a crystal, cellularly, with little tetrahedrons on top of the bigger ones, all forming an organic whole. It will be able to come apart and float around like hydras.’ […] Parts of the city—the power plant and probably some heavy industry—may remain stable, but the other parts may, in Fuller’s words, ‘break away and float all around the world.’ Dwellers will remain in Tokyo Bay when they must, but at vacation time they might remove their apartment and place it in one of the sections that can sail away” (144).

496.13  one lean buck / take heart grow fuller: play on “buck” + “fuller” (Davenport 104); see preceding note.

498.1    Opine: to think, suppose; be of the opinion that (CD).

498.5    Consent-ho!: from L. censeo (to assent, so I gather).

499.11  When Plautus lay dead Comedy wept…: this and the following two lines are Plautus’ epitaph said to be written by himself. It is likely LZ worked his version from the Latin text and prose translation he found in the Penguin Book of Latin Verse, trans. Frederick Brittain (1962):
Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, comoedia luget
Scaena est deserta; dein risus ludus jocusque
Et numeri innumeri simul omnes conlacrimarunt.

When Plautus met his death, comedy mourned,
the stage was deserted, and laughter, play, jest,
and innumerable numbers wept all together.

501.32  Eight hundred Philips marsupially wrapped…: in Plautus, these two lines read: “Nummi octingenti aurei in marsuppio infuerunt, / praeterea centum minaria Philippa in pasceolo sorsus” (Nixon: Well, there were eight hundred pounds in it, in a wallet, besides a hundred sovereigns in a leather bag, all by itself). Philips presumably would be coins minted by or depicting Philip of Macedonia. A marsupium in ancient Rome was a purse of the kind usually borne in the hand of Mercury, and indicating his character as god of gain; later a sack or bag in which any part of the body is fomented; in zoology, a purse- or pouch-like receptacle for the eggs or young, more external than any of the proper organs of gestation (CD).

501.33  Tetrarch: in the Roman empire, the ruler of the fourth part of a country or province in the East, a viceroy, a subordinate ruler.

503.6    Cyrenian Venus: the Venus of Cyrene is a nude headless statue from the 4th century B.C. found in Cyrene in 1913.

504.37  Pontifex: in Roman antiquity, a member of the principal college of priests, who performed general functions of the state religion (CD).

507.3    EPILOGUE I—GREAVE…: first epilogue interpolated by LZ.

507.6    nine-year old’s / Shakespeare…: this epilogue refers to LZ’s older brother Morris taking him to see many classical plays in Yiddish when he was a boy; this is specifically mentioned in the Autobiography 33 (see 8.83.25, which is echoed in lines 507.11-13).

507.7    Diphilus: see 439.33.

507.9    Kings / dalas poorest: see 15.363.30; dalas Heb. = poorest, found in 2 Kings 24:14.

507.10  droll roll and gambol risk / of a playful sea: see 13.301.18, where a variation on these lines is associated with Shakespeare, Pericles, specifically the dialogue among the fishermen that Pericles overhears in II.i; see quotation at 457.2.

507.15  LE. O let’s! / EPILOGUE II—DADS / Applaud: these are from the final two lines of Plautus’ play, which continue from 507.2; what follows is added by LZ.