-- 18. overcome: pass over, overhang, overshadow; used as in Macbeth III. IV. 3, “overcome us like a summer’s cloud”.
39, 40. New measures, . . .finished?: do you say? not at all.
42. All in parentheses, throughout the poem, is addressed by the speaker directly to his companions.
57. Actual life comes next: do you say? No. I have more to do first.
129. Hoti: the Greek particle ‘/Oti, conj. that, etc.
130. Oun: Greek particle Ou^’n, then, now then, etc.
131. the enclitic De: Greek De { Delta epsilon}; in regard to this, the following letter by Browning appeared in the London ‘Daily News’ of Nov. 21, 1874: “To the Editor of ‘The Daily News’. Sir,-- In a clever article this morning you speak of ‘the doctrine of the enclitic De’--‘which, with all deference to Mr. Browning, in point of fact does not exist.’ No, not to Mr. Browning: but pray defer to Herr Buttmann, whose fifth list of ‘enclitics’ ends ‘with the inseparable De’--or to Curtius, whose fifth list ends also with ‘De (meaning ‘towards’ and as a demonstrative appendage)’. That this is not to be confounded with the accentuated ‘De, meaning BUT’, was the ‘doctrine’ which the Grammarian bequeathed to those capable of receiving it.-- I am, sir, yours obediently, R. B.”--‘Browning Soc. Papers’, Part I., p. 56.
An Epistle containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician.
Karshish, the picker-up of learning’s crumbs, The not-incurious in God’s handiwork (This man’s-flesh he hath admirably made, Blown like a bubble, kneaded like a paste, To coop up and keep down on earth a space That puff of vapor from his mouth, man’s soul) --To Abib, all-sagacious in our art, Breeder in me of what poor skill I boast, Like me inquisitive how pricks and cracks Befall the flesh through too much stress and strain, { 10} Whereby the wily vapor fain would slip Back and rejoin its source before the term,-- And aptest in contrivance (under God) To baffle it by deftly stopping such:-- The vagrant Scholar to his Sage at home Sends greeting (health and knowledge, fame with peace) Three samples of true snake-stone--rarer still, One of the other sort, the melon-shaped (But fitter, pounded fine, for charms than drugs), And writeth now the twenty-second time. { 20}