the verses came to the ear of Timour in his palace. Timour taxed Hafiz with treating disrespectfully his two cities, to raise and adorn which he had conquered nations. Hafiz replied, "Alas, my lord, if I had not been so prodigal, I had not been so poor!" The Persians had a mode of establishing copyright the most secure of any contrivance with which we are acquainted. The law of the _ghaselle_, or shorter ode, requires that the poet insert his name in the last stanza. Almost every one of several hundreds of poems of Hafiz contains his name thus interwoven more or less closely with the subject of the piece. It is itself a test of skill, as this self-naming is not quite easy. We remember but two or three examples in English poetry; that of Chaucer, in the "House of Fame": Jonson's epitaph on his son,— "Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry": and Cowley's,— "The melancholy Cowley lay." But it is easy to Hafiz. It gives him the opportunity of the most playful self-assertion, always gracefully, sometimes almost in the fun of Falstaff, sometimes with feminine delicacy. He tells us, "The angels in heaven were lately learning his last pieces." He says, "The fishes shed their pearls, out of desire and longing as soon as the ship of Hafiz swims the deep." "Out of the East, out of the West, no man understands me; O, the happier I, who confide to none but the wind! This morning heard I how the lyre of the stars resounded, 'Sweeter tones have we heard from Hafiz!'" Again,—"I heard the harp of the planet Venus, and it said in the early morning, 'I am the disciple of the sweet-voiced Hafiz!'" And again,—"When Hafiz sings, the angels hearken, and Anaitis, the leader of the starry host, calls even the Messiah in heaven out to the dance." "No one has unveiled thoughts like Hafiz, since the locks of the Word-bride were first curled." "Only he despises the verse of Hafiz who is not himself by nature noble." But we must try to give some of these poetic flourishes the metrical form which they seem to require:— "Fit for the Pleiad's azure chord The songs I sung, the pearls I bored." Another:— "I have no hoarded treasure, Yet have I rich content; The first from Allah to the Shah, The last to Hafiz went." Another:— "High heart, O Hafiz! though not thine Fine gold and silver ore; More worth to thee the gift of song, And the clear insight more." Again:— "O Hafiz speak not of thy need; Are not these verses thine? Then all the poets are agreed, No man can less repine."