ing, and men
administered it internally or applied it externally as a cure for
many diseases. Pliny gives a number of such remedies. A certain
spider applied in a piece of cloth, or another one ('a white spider
with very elongated thin legs'), beaten up in oil is said by this
ancient writer upon Natural History to form an ointment for the
eyes. Similarly, 'the thick pulp of a spider's body, mixed with the
oil of roses, is used for the ears.' Sir Matthew Lister, who was
indeed the father of English araneology, is quoted in Dr. James's
Medical Dictionary as using the distilled water of boiled black
spiders as an excellent cure for wounds." (Dr. H. C. McCook in
Poet-lore, Nov., 1889.)

53. Gum-tragacanth: yielded by the leguminous shrub, Astragalus
tragacantha.

60. Zoar: the only one that was spared of the five cities of the
plain (Genesis 14. 2).

108. Lazarus . . . fifty years of age: in The Academy, Sept. 16,
1896, Dr. Richard Garnett says: "Browning commits an oversight, 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 is supposed to have
been wrought about 33 A. D., and Lazarus would then have been only
fifteen, although according to tradition he was thirty when he was
raised from the dead, and lived only thirty years after. Upon this
Prof. Charles B. Wright comments in Poet-lore, April, 1897: "I
incline to think that the oversight is not Browning's. Let us stand
by the tradition and the resulting age of sixty-five. . . . Karshish
is simply stating his professional judgment. Lazarus is given an
age suited to his appearance--he seems a man of fifty. The years
have touched him lightly since 'heaven opened to his soul.'
. . . And that marvellous physical freshness deceives the very leech
himself."

177. Greek fire: used by the Byzantine Greeks in warfare, first
against the Saracens at the siege of Constantinople in 673 A. D.
Therefore an anachronism in this poem. Liquid fire was, however,
known to the ancients, as Assyrian bas-reliefs testify. Greek fire
was made possibly of naphtha, saltpetre, and sulphur, and was thrown
upon the enemy from copper tubes; or pledgets of tow were dipped in
it and attached to arrows.

281. Blue-flowering borage: (Borago officianalis). The ancients
deemed this plant one of the four "cordial flowers," for cheering
the spirits, the others being the rose, violet, and alkanet. Pliny
says it produces ver