the Poecile at Athens.]

[Footnote 106: Petrus Aponensis: author of a work quoted in the Idyl:
Conciliator Differentiarum. Abano is a village near Padua.]

[Footnote 107: Some expressions in this Idyl may require explaining.
"Salomo si nosset" (novisset) (p. 136). "Had Solomon but known this."
"Teneo, vix" (p. 136). "I scarcely contain myself." "Hact[=e]nus" (p.
136). The "e" is purposely made long. "Hitherto." "Peason" (p. 138). The
old English plural of "pea." "Pou sto" (p. 138). "Where I may stand:"
The alleged saying of Archimedes--"I could move the world had I a place
for my _fulcrum_--'where I might stand' to move it." "Tithon" (p. 141).
Tithonus--Aurora's lover: for whom she procured the gift of eternal
life. "Apage, Sathanas!" (p. 143). "Depart Satan." Customary adjuration.

The term "Venus," as employed in the postscript to the Idyl, signified
in Roman phraseology, the highest throw of the dice. It signified,
therefore the highest promise to him, who, in obedience to the oracle,
had tested his fortunes at the fount at Abano, by throwing golden dice
into it. The "crystal," to which Mr. Browning refers, is the water of
the well or fount, at the bottom of which, as Suetonius declared, the
dice thrown by Tiberius, and their numbers, were still visible. The
little air which concludes the post-script reflects the careless or
"lilting" mood in which Mr. Browning had thrown the "fancy dice" which
cast themselves into the form of the poem.]

[Footnote 108: "If it is proper to be credited."]

[Footnote 109: This version is more crudely reproduced by the Persian
poet Jami.]

[Footnote 110: The word "conster," which rhymes in the poem with
"monster," is Old English for "construe."]

[Footnote 111: Daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, and Queen of Sweden.]

[Footnote 112: Some confusion has here arisen between Francis I., whose
emblem was the salamander, and Henry II., the historic lover of Diane de
Poitiers. But Francis was also said to have been, for a short time,
attached to her; and the poetic contrast of the frigid moon and the
fiery salamander was perhaps worth the dramatic sacrifice of Cristina's
accuracy.]

[Footnote 113: A village close to Fontainebleau, in the church of which
Monaldeschi was buried.]

[Footnote 114: "Winged" or "fiery:" fiery from the rapidity of its
motion.]

[Footnote 115: Juno.]

[Footnote 116: That is, to Moses Maimonides.]

[Footnote 117: The names and instances given are, as well a