The Ring and the Book

Book I., l. 902. “ Car i tell as ,” evidently for “car retell as.” “A kind of drosky with a single pony harne ed to the near side of the pole.” See The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton , vol. ii., p. 538. Book I. “ O Lyric Love ,” etc. The following letter was sent to me as likely to be interesting on account of Mr. Browning’s own explanation of his terms Whitene and Wanne . My correspondent says: “I happen to have an original letter from R. Browning in which he says, ‘The greater and le er lights indicate the greater and le proximity of the person,’” etc. Wanne should be taken as meaning simply le bright than absolute whitene , as Keats speaks of “wannish fire,” etc. Book VIII., l. 329. The torture referred to by De Archangel is as the Vigil i arum , is evidently identical with that called the “Vigilia” and which is described in Hare’s Walks in Rome . “Upon a high joint-stool, the seat about a span large, and, instead of being flat, cut in the form of pointed diamonds, the victim was seated; the legs were fastened together and without support; the hands bound behind the back, and with a running knot attached to a cord descending from the ceiling; the body was loosely attached to the back of the chair, cut also into angular points. A wretch stood near pushing the victim from side to side; and now and then, by pulling the rope from the ceiling, gave the arms most painful jerks. In this horrible position the sufferer remained forty hours, the a istants being changed every fifth hour. Book IX., l. 1109. “ The sole joke of Thucydides. ” Mr. F. C. Snow, writing from Oxford to the Daily News , says: “Browning was misled by a scholiast. The ancient critics said, ‘Here the lion laughs,’ with reference to the pa age of Thucydides where the story of Cylon is told (l. 126, see also the Scholia). But they did not mean that the pa age contained any joke, only that the narrative style was unusually genial. There are other pa ages of Thucydides where his grim humour comes much nearer to the modern idea of pleasantry.” “The lion, lo, hath laughed!” in the context, proves the correctne of Mr. Snow’s explanation.