book, we must regard the Lyric as suggested by
the argument, not necessarily as part of it.

The EPILOGUE is a vision of present and future, in which the woe and
conflict of our mortal existence are absorbed in the widening glory of
an eternal day. The vision comes to one cradled in the happiness of
love; and he is startled from it by a presentiment that it has been an
illusion created by his happiness. But we know that from Mr. Browning's
point of view, Love, even in its illusions, may be accepted as a
messenger of truth.

Index to names and titles in "Ferishtah's Fancies;"--

P. 12. "Shah Abbas." An historical personage used
fictitiously.

P. 15. "Story of Tahmasp." Fictitious.

P. 16. "Ishak son of Absal." Fictitious.

P. 20. "The householder of Shiraz." Fictitious.

P. 32. "Mihrab Shah." Fictitious.

P. 36. "Simorgh." A fabulous creature in Persian mythology.

P. 40. The "Pilgrim's soldier-guide." Fictitious.

P. 41. "Raksh." Rustum's horse in the "Shah Nemeh."
(Firdausi's "Epic of Kings.")

P. 50. (_Anglice_), "Does Job serve God for nought?" Hebrew
word at p. 51, line 2, "M[=e] El[=o]h[=i]m": "from God."

P. 54. "Mushtari." The planet Jupiter.

P. 65. "Hudhud." Fabulous bird of Solomon.

P. 68. "Sitara." Persian for "a star."

P. 85. "Shalim Shah." Persian for "King of kings."

P. 86. "Rustem," "Gew," "Gudarz," "Sindokht," "Sulayman,"
"Kawah." Heroes in the "Shah Nemeh."

P. 87. The "Seven Thrones." Ursa Major. "Zurah." Venus.
"Parwin." The Pleiades. "Mubid." A kind of mage.

P. 88. "Zerdusht." "Zoroaster."

"PARLEYINGS WITH CERTAIN PEOPLE OF IMPORTANCE IN THEIR DAY."

This volume occupies, even more than its predecessor, a distinctive
position in Mr. Browning's work. It does not discard his old dramatic
methods, but in a manner it inverts them; Mr. Browning has summoned his
group of men not for the sake of drawing their portraits, but that they
might help him to draw his own. It seems as if the accumulated
convictions which find vent in the "parleyings" could no longer endure
even the form of dramatic disguise; and they appear in them in all the
force of direct reiterated statement, and all the freshness of novel
points of view. And the portrait is in some degree a biography; it is
full of reminiscences. The "people" with whom Mr. Browning parleys,
important in their day, virtually