Oriflamme. Joan of Arc

" *** [W]hatever is good is certainly useful -- therefore whatever is virtuous is useful.  Wherefore, it is an error of bad men, when it grasps at something that appears useful, separates it immediately from virtue. Hence spring stilettoes, hence poisons, hence forgery of wills, hence thefts, embezzlements, hence robberies and extortions from allies and fellow-citizens, hence the intolerable expressions of excessive opulence -- hence, even in free states, the lust of sway, than which nothing darker or fouler can be conceived.  For men perceive the profits of transactions with false judgment, but they do not see the punishment -- I do not say of the laws, which they often break through, but of moral turpitude itself which is more severe. *** "

See it also at  http://books.google.com/books?id=4m5JAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=lust+of+sway+essay&source=bl&ots=UzMfWiscrA&sig=4q3JdmlrcLle6Fpj6DVc24XQkFw&hl=en&ei=Zz8QTePsBYK0lQfzv9zgDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=lust%20of%20sway%20essay&f=false


b. Re Joan of Arc: 1412-1431    

This segment, on her mission -- The Poetical Books of Robert Southey, Joan of Arc Book VIII, from page 181

" *** [T]o save this ravaged realm of France,
To England friendly as to all the world;
Only to those an enemy, whose lust
Of sway makes them the enemies of man."

See ://books.google.com/books?id=Cq_yAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Poetical+Works+of+Robert+Southey&source=bl&ots=efCE2ANJzZ&sig=LUB4P_ZVbqFVnaZGF9wOzQo2NIk&hl=en&ei=CEsQTY-5HIK0lQfzv9zgDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false



c.  Essayist James Allen 1739-1808

Boston, Lines on the Massacre.  This poem was to have been printed along with an oration (by someone else) on the topic of the Boston Massacre, then was suppressed by the commissioning committee as unorthodox; so was published by Allen's friends to demonstrate the soundness of his thinking and skills. He was a bit of a gadabout, but also happened on the lust of sway.

" From the poem on the massacre:

[gist:  God's chosen came to this land for freedom's sake, how wonderful the fruitfulness here, etc., jow wonderful it is that science and art and liberal Commerce flourish here, and ending with the need for watchfulness to protect this glorious state against the meagre mammon's lust of sway that even oceans can't keep away, roughly summarized:]

" ***
Here golden Ceres clothes th' autumnal plain
And art's fair empress holds her new domain;
Here angel Science spreads her lucid wing,
And, hark, how sweet the new-born muses sing;
Here generous Commerce spreads her liberal hand
And scatters foreign blessings round the land.
Shall meagre mammon, or proud lust of sway,
Reverse these scenes -- will Heaven permit the day?
Shall in this era all our hopes expire,
And weeping freedom from her fanes retire!
 **** "

From the Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol 1 page 236, see http://books.google.com/books?id=HLtroQeQ33IC&pg=PA236&lpg=PA236&dq=lust+of+sway+essay&source=bl&ots=UbphEYl7q-&sig=LiNhSfUnc0qcPs4BlMdaCTqtNK8&hl=en&ei=Zz8QTePsBYK0lQfzv9zgDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=lust%20of%20sway%20essay&f=false


d.  William Tell,

Play by J. C. Schiller 1759-1805-- Act II, Scene 1

Note when the "lust of sway" is used against governmental power over people, the people are already on their own level playing field, each enjoying "liberty" until the government came along, as when Austria took over much of Switzerland and imposed its governors. The population was homogeneous, same culture, same traditions, a working clock. Then along came outsiders' government, on the take. It was not the "people's cause," their joint goals, for which they were bled.

" *** How Austria`s thraldom weighs the Cantons down.
Soon she will come to count our sheep, our cattle,
To portion out the Alps, e`en to their peaks,
And in our own free woods to hinder us
From striking down the eagle or the stag;
To set her tolls on every bridge and gate,
Impoverish us, to swell her lust of sway,
And drain our dearest blood to feed her wars.
No, if our blood must flow, let it be shed
In our own cause! We purchase liberty
More cheaply far than bondage.
***  "

See biography at http://schiller.classicauthors.net/WilliamTell/WilliamTell1.html/; play at://schiller.classicauthors.net/WilliamTell/WilliamTell7.html

.

e.  Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834.  

France: An Ode [looks like a commentary on the French Revolution, how its aims have been debased with Napoleon perhaps, but not really researched yet. Don't hold me to it.  Line breaks not clear from source, so made roughly consistent here.  Need better. Coleridge: see ://incompetech.com/authors/coleridge/ ]

" ***
O France, that mockest heaven, adulterous, blind.
And patriot only in pernicious toils!
Are these thy boasts, Champion of human kind?
To mix with Kings in the low lust of sway,
Yell in the hunt, share the murderous prey;
To insult the shrine of Liberty with spoils
From Freemen torn; to tempt and to betray?
The Sensual and the Dark rebel in vain,
Slaves by their own compulsion!
*** "

See ://www.eliteskills.com/c/8426



f.  Poet Lord Byron

See Byron who also jumped on Cicero's verbal bandwagon in his Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, at section VIII, not acknowledging the source of the phrase any more than the others--  here, the Spaniard is King Charles V.  Visit http://www.readytogoebooks.com/LB-Nap-06.htm

" ***
The Spaniard, when the lust of sway
Had lost its quickening spell,
Cast crowns for rosaries away,
An empire for a cell;   ***"



Charles V of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor, gave it all up and entered the monastery at Juste in 1555. See ://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/people_n2/persons6_n2/charles.html



g.  Hindu Mythology and Lust of Sway 

No! Cicero, wake up!  Come back to claim your own! Sue them all!

Here is Rama:  W.J. Wilkins, from 1900 as translator, is pulling a fast one - or did no-one care about copycat?


"*** His brother, fired by lust of sway,
Drove forth the king in woods to stray;
In all thy search for Sita, he
Thy ready friend and help will be ****"

See Chapter III, Demigods and the Ramayana,  Hindu Mythology: Vedic and Puranic, at http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp40.htm



h.  And Virgil, again, in translation

See The Works of Virgil, by a Joseph Davidson, 1743 -- who came first, Cicero or Virgil, and which translator had access to other people's translations??Virgil's Latin dates from 29 BC, The Georgics, is the relevant part. See synopsis at ://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Georgics-Mobi-Classics/book-YIfi0wupxEG8DGSae2LZ_w/page1.html

"*** Whatever Deity thou wilt be ; (sic) (for not let Tartarus expect thee for their King, nor let such dire Luft (read: lust) of Sway once enter thy Mind (sic) : ***"


This is from a work called Georgica, see http://books.google.com/books?id=PuopAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=lust+of+sway&source=bl&ots=UIql2bLLae&sig=LUA7oU_vxsVvd4svhUmfMt50DPw&hl=en&ei=4TURTeTUL4us8Ab4_ZnsBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFQQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=lust%20of%20sway&f=false

To check who was first and what the translation is,  use your high school Latin here: This is the Latin at that google books site:


" *** Quidquid eris ; (nam te nec fperent [read, sperent] Tartara regem,
Nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido

The simple Google translation:  "But you, too reigning should come to so dire a lust"

Lust of sway is the translator.  Bet he knew Cicero, in 1743. Our kids don't.  Our loss. Knowledge and insight. Crippled by copyright.


4. Discussion.  Back to Cicero

Did Cicero really coin the phrase?  Or was "lust of sway" just a fad of the classical translators from the 1700's and Romanticists later, one of whom thought it up (or copied it from someone else) and who each then plagiarized the phrase over and over without attribution.  

It suddenly just blooms, like a red tide.  Back to the Latin to see if there is anything that literally looks like lust of sway.  No.  We find a word like concupiscience --  a simple google translation (modern) of the Cicero section says, in pertinent part, 


" *** Unde vere stilettoes hinc venena, hinc falsi vult ergo furta embezzlements hinc furta rapinis et sociis civibus intolerabili ergo voces nimio opulentia - Unde etiam in liberis civitatibus, concupiscentia imperio quam obscurior quo nihil tetrius nec cogitari possit. ***"  Swing that back into English, same translator and get something like lust of the empire, or lust of empire.  Lust of sway is far more poetic and affected.

So who first used "lust of sway" to have it so copied?  If the phrase is used in both old Cicero and old Virgil translations, whose was first. Joseph Davidson and his Virgil -- 1743,  if the Cicero is after, then where did Joseph Davidson get it for use in Virgil?

Phrases and concepts apt today.  Research history. Plagiarism of Lust of Sway?  Why not release all concepts, all intellectual property, for use by anyone, any time with attribution and (here we go) a subsidy for each use, click, from the Government from taxes.  The alternative, pay as you use, does not work.  Knowledge, insight, crippled by copyright. Let creativity roam.  Thank you.