Olga Rudge & Ezra Pound: "What Thou Lovest Well..."

55 A Marriage That Didn’t Happen
probably improve her playing as much as anything else will. Has she been
to San Giorgio Schiavoni and S[an] G[iorgio] dei Graeci, and Sa[nta]
M[aria] Miracoli? Also S[an] Marco . . . she guarda the fonte a destra, per i
riflessi della tettoia [she should look at the baptismal font on the right, for
its reflections o√ the ceiling]. . . . She stick her head back in and out of the
window, and not fall into the stern chains of the cargo boat just there
under the finestra . . . and don’t take a rez-de-chaussée at any price—
especially in Venezia!’’
Ezra’s mother-in-law, Olivia Shakespear, was vacationing in Rapallo
until November 11, after which he proposed a rendezvous in Genoa; they
might meet at the monument to Cristoforo Colombo in front of the
railroad station, and ‘‘perhaps in the afternoon, go together to the hotel? If
I don’t see you, I’ll go to the Hotel de Genes and get a room . . . and leave a
note at the desk to tell you what number. . . . I take it that you are now
certain of being in Genoa from eve[ning] of 12th ’til morning of 14th?’’
Olga kept a daily agenda, marking in red on the calendar five days of
major significance: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,
November 9–13. But their well-laid plans went awry. Ezra wrote in frustration:
‘‘By the time I got to the ’phone, the communication had been
cut . . . the porter of [the] Genes was incoherent, save that you ‘parte
adesso’.’’ It is certain they met later that month, as Olga jotted in the small
agenda: ‘‘piantato un figlio.’’ She then traveled back to London, stopping
in Monte Carlo, before arriving at Dalliba-John’s in St. John’s Wood on
November 21.
Etta Glover, Olga’s mother’s friend, o√ered her flat on the Piazza Margana
in Rome for the Christmas holiday, but Ezra was distancing himself
from the relationship: ‘‘Just telegraphed ‘no.’ We are here ’til 11th, to get
safely out of Italy before Anny Santy [Holy Year] begins on Xmas. . . .
Non mi piace Roma—only stop there for work in the library—can’t suddenly
change one’s habits and known predilections. . . . I am much too
practical, ma!—ti voglio bene, e tante grazie.’’
The Pounds went to Sicily for the Christmas holiday, possibly with the
idea of another change of residence. But after a brief stay in Palermo, Ezra
wrote to his father: ‘‘It’ll be Rapallo. . . . This country is interesting, but