my home; and as we past Lorenzo's outer gate, and looked backward upon the highest piece of rising ground, we fancied we saw the twilight of morning. Never was a mortal more heartily thanked for his colloquial exertions than was Lysander. On reaching home, as we separated for our respective chambers, we shook hands most cordially; and my eloquent guest returned the squeeze, in a manner which seemed to tell that he had no greater happiness at heart than that of finding a reciprocity of sentiment among those whom he tenderly esteemed. At this moment, we could have given to each other the choicest volume in our libraries; and I regretted that I had not contrived to put my black-morocco copy of the small Aldine Petrarch, printed upon VELLUM, under Lysander's pillow, as a 'Pignus Amicitiæ.'-But we were all to assemble together in Lorenzo's ALCOVE on the morrow; and this thought gave me such lively pleasure that I did not close my eyes 'till the clock · had struck five. Such are the bed-luxuries of a Bibliomaniac! The reader is here presented with one of the "Facs," or ornamental letters in Pierce Ploughman's Creed. PART VI. The Alcove. SYMPTOMS OF THE BIBLIOMANIA. OF ITS CURE. -PROBABLE MEANS "One saith this booke is too long; another, too short: the third, of due length; and for fine phrase and style, the like [of] that booke was not made a great while. It is all lies, said another; the booke is starke naught." Choice of Change; 1585. 4to., sign. N. i. The Alcove. SYMPTOMS OF THE BIBLIOMANIA.-PROBABLE MEANS OF ITS CURE. the OFTLY blew breeze, and merrily sung the lark, when Lisardo quitted his bed - chamber at seven in the morning, and rang lustily at my outer gate for admission. So early a visitor put the whole house in commotion; nor was it without betraying some marks of peevishness and irritability that, on being informed of his arrival, I sent word by the servant to know what might be the cause of such an interruption. The reader will readily forgive this trait of harshness and precipitancy, on my part, when he is informed that I was then just enjoying the "honey dew" of sleep, after many wakeful and restless hours. Lisardo's name was announced: and his voice, conveyed in the sound of song-singing, from the bottom of the garden, left the name of the visitor |