BABBALANJA—No, your Highness; though he loved it, no wine for Lombardo while actually at work. MOHI—Indeed? Why, I ever thought that it was to the superior quality of Lombardo’s punches, that Mardi was indebted for that abounding humor of his. BABBALANJA—Not so; he had another way of keeping himself well braced. YOOMY—Quick! tell us the secret. BABBALANJA—He never wrote by rush-light. His lamp swung in heaven.— He rose from his East, with the sun; he wrote when all nature was alive. MOHI—Doubtless, then, he always wrote with a grin; and none laughed louder at his quips, than Lombardo himself. BABBALANJA—Hear you laughter at the birth of a man child, old man? The babe may have many dimples; not so, the parent. Lombardo was a hermit to behold. MEDIA—What! did Lombardo laugh with a long face? BABBALANJA—His merriment was not always merriment to him, your Highness. For the most part, his meaning kept him serious. Then he was so intensely riveted to his work, he could not pause to laugh. MOHI—My word for it; but he had a sly one, now and then. BABBALANJA—For the nonce, he was not his own master: a mere amanuensis writing by dictation. YOOMY—Inspiration, that! BABBALANJA.—Call it as you will, Yoomy, it was a sort of sleep- walking of the mind. Lombardo never threw down his pen: it dropped from him; and then, he sat disenchanted: rubbing his eyes; staring; and feeling faint—sometimes, almost unto death. MEDIA—But pray, Babbalanja, tell us how he made acquaintance with some of those rare worthies, he introduces us to, in his Koztanza. BABBALANJA—He first met them in his reveries; they were walking about in him, sour and moody: and for a long time, were shy of his advances; but still importuned, they at last grew ashamed of their reserve; stepped forward; and gave him their hands. After that, they were frank and friendly. Lombardo set places for them at his board; when he died, he left them something in his will. MEDIA—What! those imaginary beings? ABRAZZA—Wondrous witty! infernal fine! MEDIA—But, Babbalanja; after all, the Koztanza found no favor in the eyes of some Mardians. ABRAZZA—Ay: the arch-critics Verbi and Batho denounced it. BABBALANJA—Yes: on good authority, Verbi is said to have detected a superfluous comma; and Batho declared that, with the materials he could have constructed a far better world than Lombardo’s. But, didst ever hear of his laying his axis? ABRAZZA—But the unities; Babbalanja, the unities! they are wholly wanting in the Koztanza. BABBALANJA—Your Highness; upon that point, Lombardo was frank. Saith he, in his autobiography: “For some time, I endeavored to keep in the good graces of those nymphs; but I found them so captious, and exacting; they threw me into such a violent passion with their fault-findings; that, at last, I renounced them.” ABRAZZA—Very rash!