e telling the story.

864. morion: a sort of helmet.

884. What age had Methusalem: the old man forgets his Bible.

906. He also must be such a lady's scorner: he who is such a poor
judge of horses and wines.

910. Orson the wood-knight (Fr. `ourson', a small bear): twin-brother
of Valentine, and son of Bellisant. The brothers were born in a wood
near Orleans, and Orson was carried off by a bear, which suckled him
with her cubs. When he grew up, he became the terror of France, and was
called "The Wild Man of the Forest". Ultimately he was reclaimed by his
brother Valentine, overthrew the Green Knight, his rival in love, and
married Fezon, daughter of the duke of Savary, in Aquitaine.--`Romance
of Valentine and Orson' (15th cent.). Brewer's `Reader's Handbook' and
`Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'.

The Last Ride Together.

1.

I said--Then, dearest, since 'tis so,
Since now at length my fate I know,
Since nothing all my love avails,
Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails,
Since this was written and needs must be--
My whole heart rises up to bless
Your name in pride and thankfulness!
Take back the hope you gave,--I claim
Only a memory of the same,
--And this beside, if you will not blame,
Your leave for one more last ride with me.

--
St. 1. Browning has no moping melancholy lovers. His lovers generally
reflect his own manliness; and when their passion is unrequited,
they acknowledge the absolute value of love to their own souls.
As Mr. James Thomson, in his `Notes on the Genius of Robert Browning',
remarks (`B. Soc. Papers', Part II., p. 246), "Browning's passion
is as intense, noble, and manly as his intellect is profound and subtle,
and therefore original. I would especially insist on its manliness,
because our present literature abounds in so-called passion
which is but half-sincere or wholly insincere sentimentalism,
if it be not thinly disguised prurient lust, and in so-called pathos
which is maudlin to nauseousness. The great unappreciated poet
last cited {George Meredith} has defined passion as `noble strength
on fire'; and this is the true passion of great natures and great poets;
while sentimentalism is ignoble weakness dallying with fire; . . .
Browning's passion is of utter self-sacrifice, self-annihilation,
self-vindicated by its irresistible intensity. So we read it
in `Time's Revenges', so in the scornful