Chapter LI: Appendix

=Epistle Of Karshish.= Dr. R. Garnett published the following note on this poem in the _Academy_ of 10th October, 1896:--

"BRITISH MUSEUM,
"_16th Sept., 1896_.

"Browning, in his 'Epistle of Karshish,' commits an oversight, as it
seems to me, in making Lazarus fifty years of age at the eve of the
siege of Jerusalem, _circa_ 68 A.D. The miracle of which he was the
subject is supposed to have been wrought about 33 A.D. He would
consequently have been only about fifteen at the time, which is quite
inconsistent with the general tenor of the narrative. According to
tradition, Lazarus was thirty at the time, and lived thirty years
longer, not surviving, therefore, to the date intimated in Browning's
poem.

'A black lynx snarled and pricked a tufted ear.'

If I do not mistake, there is no such thing as a black lynx, except as
a _lusus naturae_. It is easy to see how the generally accurate
Browning fell into this error. The Syrian lynx, which he is
describing, has black tufted ears--the whole outer surface of the ear
is black--and the Turkish name by which it is commonly known,
_cara-cal_, means 'black ear.' Browning, intent on the creature's
special characteristic, has extended the blackness from the ear to the
entire body."

=Pietro of Abano.= Verse 10.

"ALPHABET ON A MAN'S EYES.

"In Alonzo Lee, of Atlanta, Galveston, the Americans have found a
singular phenomenon, nothing less than the alphabet marked quite
plainly on the edge of the iris of each of his eyes similar to the
figures on a watch. This wonder is said to have been caused by his
mother, who was an illiterate woman, desiring to educate herself. In
each eye the entire alphabet is plainly marked in capital letters,
not, however, in regular order. The 'W' is in the lower part of the
iris and 'X' at the top. They appear to be made if white fibre wove
cord, being connected at the top by another cord seemingly linked to
the upper extremity of each letter. The eye itself is blue, with white
lines radiating from the centre almost to the letters themselves:
these letters do not slope exactly in the direction that the radials
extend from the centre. Beginning at the bottom with 'W' and following
the letters like the hands of a watch they can be more readily
distinguished. So too, the irregularity is a striking feature, showing
how the mother learned her letters in broken patches, as a child
learns when beginning to read. Lee, who has been three times divorced,
has a son whose eyes are similar to his father's."

_Echo_, 23rd March, 1896.

=The Ring and the Book.= Book I., l. 902. "_Caritellas_," evidently for "carretellas." "A kind of drosky with a single pony harnessed to the near side of the pole." See _The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton_, vol. ii., p. 538.