ABSTRACT
Pound returned to London in August 1911 and went to stay at the home or boarding-house of a Mrs Worthington — his room at Church Walk having been let in his absence. During the next few months he gathered up the threads he had let fall in June 1910 and began to look in earnest for means of support. It was with work in mind that in September he sought a meeting with G. R. S. Mead of the Quest Society who was also editor of The Quest, a quarterly review devoted to gnosticism, Theosophy and the pagan mystery religions. Something of an expert in such matters Mead had edited and translated texts of the Naassenes and other sects active during the early years of Christianity. They met about 16 September when it was agreed that at a date to be fixed Pound would lecture for the society on pagan elements in the troubadours. In a letter to his father on 17 September he mentioned the possibility of a job at Hamilton College but the idea seems to have died immediately. As Homer was still helping to support him it was possibly little more than a gesture on Pound's part to satisfy his father that he was not idle and was always on the lookout for new opportunities. Two days later Augener Ltd of London published separately at two shillings each the sheet music of three songs by Pound with instrumental accompaniment by Walter Morse Rummel: ‘Madrigale’, ‘Au bal masqué’, and ‘Aria’. At half-a-crown each they were still being sold by Augener as late as 1957.
