70. =as=. As if. 91. =Not it!= Memory did not give hope and solace. 106. =howlet=. A small owl. 114. =bespate=. Spattered. 133. =cirque=. A circle or enclosure. 137. =galley-slaves= whom =the Turk=, etc. 140. =engine=. Machine. 143. =Tophet=. Hell. 160. =Apollyon=. The Devil. Note the hero's mood of doubt and despair. At what point in his quest do we see him? What does he do after meeting the cripple? How does the landscape seem as he goes on? What _moral_ quality does it seem to have? See lines 56-75. What new elements are introduced to add to the horror of the scene? What memories come to him of the failures of his friends? Was their disgrace in physical or moral failure? How does he come to find the Tower? Why does Browning represent it as a "dark tower"? Does his courage fail at the end of his quest? Or does he win the victory in finding the tower and blowing the challenge? AN EPISTLE. (PAGE 183.) The Arabs were among the earliest in the cultivation of mathematical and medical science. This fact, together with their monotheism, makes Karshish an appropriate character for the experience of the poem. 1-14. An ancient and oriental idea of the soul and its relation to the body. 15. =Sage=. Abib, to whom the letter is sent. 17. =snake-stone=. A stone used to cure snake-bites. 19. =charms=. Note here and elsewhere the mixture of science and superstition. 21-33. The poet has given local color to the journey. 28. =Vespasian= was appointed general-in-chief against the insurgent Jews in 67 A.D., and began the great siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The date of the poem and the length of time since Lazarus's return to life may thus be estimated. 37-38. Note the vividness gained by making Karshish keep the physician's point of view. 44. =falling-sickness ... cure=. Epilepsy. Karshish is already admitting into his letter the story of Lazarus. 48. Not only spiders, but many other animals or parts of animals were formerly used as medicines. 64-65. Karshish, still half ashamed of his interest in the marvellous story he has to tell, first gives this as a pretext, and then, in the next lines confesses. 171 ff. Belief in magic survived in some degree among the educated until a century or two ago. 177. =Greek-fire=. A violently inflammable substance, supposed to have been a compound of naphtha, sulphur, and nitre, which was hurled against the enemy in battle. As it was first used in 673, in the siege of Constantinople, Browning is guilty of an unimportant anachronism. 252-255. A good touch, to make the earthquake mean to Karshish an omen of the gravest event within his ken. 268-269. Karshish, still unconvinced by the story of Lazarus, naturally regards it as irreverent. 304-311. This comes to Karshish as an afterthought, a corollary to the idea in the body of the poem.