rt,
which had been brought on by the wearing excitement of ceaseless and
excessive literary toil." As 'Ben Karshook's Wisdom,' though it has been
reprinted in several quarters, will not be found in any volume of
Browning's works, and was omitted from "Men and Women" by accident, and
from further collections by forgetfulness, it may be fitly quoted here.
Karshook, it may be added, is the Hebraic word for a thistle.

[Footnote 22: So-called, it is asserted, from his childish effort to
pronounce a difficult name (Wiedemann). But despite the good authority
for this statement, it is impossible not to credit rather the
explanation given by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who, moreover, affords the
practically definite proof that the boy was at first, as a term of
endearment, called "Pennini," which was later abbreviated to "Pen." The
cognomen, Hawthorne states, was a diminutive of "Apennino," which was
bestowed upon the boy in babyhood because he was very small, there being
a statue in Florence of colossal size called "Apennino."]

I.

"'Would a man 'scape the rod'?--
Rabbi Ben Karshook saith,
'See that he turns to God
The day before his death.'

'Ay, could a man inquire
When it shall come!' I say.
The Rabbi's eye shoots fire--
'Then let him turn to-day!'

II.

Quoth a young Sadducee,--
'Reader of many rolls,
Is it so certain we
Have, as they tell us, souls?'--

'Son, there is no reply!'
The Rabbi bit his beard:
'Certain, a soul have _I_--
_We_ may have none,' he sneer'd.

Thus Karshook, the Hiram's Hammer,
The Right-Hand Temple column,
Taught babes their grace in grammar,
And struck the simple, solemn."

It was in this year (1855) that "Men and Women" was published. It is
difficult to understand how a collection comprising poems such as "Love
among the Ruins," "Evelyn Hope," "Fra Lippo Lippi," "A Toccata of
Galuppi's," "Any Wife to any Husband," "Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha,"
"Andrea del Sarto," "In a Balcony," "Saul," "A Grammarian's Funeral," to
mention only ten now almost universally known, did not at once obtain a
national popularity for the author. But lovers of literature were simply
enthralled: and the two volumes had a welcome from them which was
perhaps all the more ardent because of their disproportionate numbers.
Ears alert to novel po