114
PARTISAN REVIEW
"balance" appears several times, usually following John Adams's mention
of either personal restraint or governmental balance of powers). However,
many of the Latin tags are from Adams himself. In addition, Pound renders
phrases in the ole Ez jargon of his letters. "Says" becomes "sez," "them"
becomes "'em," "Dr. Franklin ," "Doc Franklin, " "soldiers," "sojers," and
"navy," pointlessly, "navee." The "Johnnie Adams" ofearlier cantos disap–
pears, but Pound having learned that "Chas. H. Adams" is actually Charles
F . Adams, takes to referring to the editor of the
Works
of John Adams as
"Chawles Fwances." For the most part Pound's vulgarizations are identifi–
able as interpolations: "Philadelphy" and "Baastun," for example, are
clearly private jokes, invariably repeated . Frequently, though, there is a
misleading appearance of eighteenth-century diction having been repro–
duced, as in the cases of "Capn Preston" and "Lard Narf ' (for Lord North) ,
neither of which appears in the original. Similarly, Pound appears to
reproduce the immediacy of old documents when he writes "N. York, "
"shd," "wd, " "reed," or "Mr. A. " None of these, though, is abbreviated in
the original. When Pound writes, "Mr D (Deane's) recommendations," or
"He (Jay) returned yesterday ro N . York" he appears to clarify when
actually he is obscuring the original. The first line he has copied reads
simply, "by Mr. Deane's recommendation, " ("not recommendations"),
and the second reads "His Excellency, Governor Jay, returned yesterday to
New York ."
Pound's own writing, which amounts to a few single lines in each
canto, may be classed as exclamatory interjection. The widely separated
phrases of his own in the Adams cantos have the appearance and effect of
marginal comments made by a solitary reader for his own satisfaction:
sojers aiming?'
... all bugwash
Hutchinson sucking
up
to
George III:d.
Damn well right, Mr. Zubly.
(leaving us no doubt Vergennes was a twister)
(which seems fairly English)
(question?)
In the same spirit , when copying a list of names Pound may add one of his
own : "KUNG Zoroaster Socrates and Mahomet," or else indicate that he
would wish to do so: "add Jay ."
One can understand the reluctance of a Poundian to look at these
cantos in detail. But it is surprising, even in view of their appearance under
the protective cloak of modernism,
to
find that independent critics have
