look you, is already carried away captive, and Greece weakened by the loss of no mean city.'

"Thus did Pheidippides deliver the message committed to him. And the Spartans wished to help the Athenians, but were unable to give them any present succor, as they did not like to break their established law. It was the ninth day of the first decade, and they could not march out of Sparta on the ninth, when the moon had not reached the full. So they waited for the full of the moon."

It will be seen that the original story makes no mention of a reward promised by Pan to Pheidippides. This was Browning's own invention, following a later tradition. In connection with the Marathon race at the Olympic games this was the subject of a considerable discussion, to which Professor Ernest A. Gardner contributed the following note as to Pheidippides: "His great exploit, as recorded by Herodotus, was to run from Athens to Sparta within two days, for the practical purpose of summoning the Spartans to help against the Persian invader. The whole Athenian army made a forced march back to Athens immediately after the battle, also for a practical purpose; but there is no reason to suppose that Pheidippides or any one else ran the distance. The tale of his bearing the message of victory and falling dead when he arrived is probably an invention of some later rhetorician; it is referred to by Lucian, as well as by Robert Browning, but the two authorities are about of equal value for an occurrence of the fifth century B.C. It is most unlikely that Herodotus would have omitted such a story if it had been current in his time."

χαίρετε, νικῶμεν, the Greek words prefixed by Browning to the poem, form the message which Plutarch and Lucian attribute to the dying runner after Marathon. Browning translates them "Rejoice; we conquer!" and in lines 113-114 makes effective use of the fact that xalpere ("Hail!" or "be of good cheer!") was also the customary form of salutation with the Greeks. Here again he was indebted to a suggestion derived from Lucian.

170, 4. Her of the ægis and spear. Athene. —ægis, shield. 5.-ye of the bow and the buskin. Apollo and Artemis. -buskin, laced boot.

9.-Archons. Rulers or magistrates. tettix. The golden grasshopper worn by Athenians to show that they were autochthons (natives of the country).

11. Crowned with the myrtle. This still refers to Archons. Browning is strictly accurate in these points of detail.

171, 18.-water and earth. The emblems of subjection. This demand was made in 493 B. C. The invading Persians were defeated at Marathon three years later.

19.-Eretria. The chief city of the island of Euboea, a little north of Athens.

20.-Hellas. Greek civilization regarded as a whole.

25-40.-Herodotus, as quoted above, says: "So they waited for the full of the moon." Grote ascribes the delay of the Spartans to conservatism, Rawlinson to envy; there was long-standing jealousy between Athens and Sparta, who were rivals for the leadership of Hellas. Sparta later sent 2,000 men, who arrived after the battle.

32-33.-Phoibos. Olumpos. Browning preferred to retain the Greek spelling instead of the Latinized forms "Phoebus" and "Olympus."

172, 47.-filleted. Adorned for sacrifice with wreaths and ribbons.

173, 52.-Parnes. In North Attica. But according to Herodotus, as quoted above, Pan appeared to Pheidippides near Mount Parthenium in Argolis. This would be on his way from Athens to Sparta: Parnes would not. Professor John Macnaughton suggests that Browning made the change deliberately. "He must have an Attic hill at all costs, when what he wants to say is that it is the spirit of her own mountains, her own autochthonous vigor, which is going to save Athens. He consciously sacrifices, in a small and obvious point, literal accuracy to the larger truth."-Queen's Quarterly, April, 1903. 62.-Erebos. The darkness under the earth,-Erebus.

174, 72-80.-After Marathon, the Athenians built a temple to Pan and established yearly sacrifices and a torch-race in acknowledgment of the help the god had given them in the battle by affecting the Persians with "panic"—the headlong fear Pan was supposed to inspire.

83.-Fennel. Marathon, the name of the place where the battle was fought, is also Greek for fennel. This touch is Browning's own.

175, 87.-on the razor's edge. In a critical position-a proverbial phrase in Greek.

89.-Miltiades. The leading Athenian citizen of the time and commander of the forces at Marathon.

176, 106.-Akropolis.

The citadel of Athens.

109.-the Fennel-field. Marathon. See note on line 83.
Pheidippides is in a measure of Browning's own, composed of
dactyls and spondees, each line ending in a half foot or pause.
It gives the impression of firm, continuous, and rhythmic
emotion, and is generally fitted to convey the exalted sentiment
and heroic character of the poem.-Mrs. Orr.

The metrical scheme should be carefully analysed. Dr. D. G.
Brunton uses this poem as an illustration of Browning's employ-
ment of rhyme "merely as a means of heightening his secondary
rhythm. The rhyming words are so far apart that we are
aware only of a faint melodious echo. The always artificial and
somewhat mechanical effect of rhyme is thus avoided, while its
rhythmic essence is retained."

ECHETLOS

This is a poetical treatment of another Greek legend of the
same battle of Marathon (B. c. 490), which saved Greek civiliza-
tion from overthrow by the Persians. The original story is
found in Pausanias, Description of Greece, I, 32:-"And it
chanced, they say, that in the battle a man of rustic appear-
ance and dress appeared, who slew many of the Persians with a
ploughshare, and vanished after the fight: and when the Athe-
nians made enquiry of the oracle, the god gave no other answer,
but bade them honor the god Echetlaus," that is, the holder of
the ploughshare.

717, 2.-Barbarians. So the Greeks called all the rest of the
world.

178, 15.—Polemarch (three syllables-rhymes with "stark”).
The Athenian archon or magistrate who had charge of the
military affairs of the state. Kallimachos, who held this office
in B. C. 490, was slain at Marathon.

16.—phalanx. The battle-array of the Greek heavy infantry,
-ranks eight to sixteen deep.

18. Sakian

Mede. Subject races in the Persian empire.
179, 28-30.-Miltiades and Themistokles, who had both been
held in high honor by the Athenians for their services during the
Persian war, afterwards fell into disgrace. Miltiades died of a
wound received at Paros, which he had besieged from corrupt
motives; Themistokles, convicted of treason, fled to the
Persian Court at Sardis, and became a satrap or officer in the
service of his hereditary enemies.

WHY I AM A LIBERAL

In the English political crisis of 1885, when the extension of
the suffrage was being hotly debated, a question in this form
was addressed to several leading men of letters. This sonnet
is Browning's answer.

EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO

We have given at the foot of each poem the date of its publi-
cation, and the volume to which this little poem is the Epilogue
bears the date 1890; it was actually issued in London on Dec.
12, 1889, the day of Browning's death at Venice. "The report
of his illness had quickened public interest in the forthcoming
work, and his son had the satisfaction of telling him of its already
realized success, while he could still receive a warm, if momen-
tary pleasure from the intelligence." (Mrs. Orr.) Browning
prepared the volume for publication while staying in the Asolo
villa of his friend Mrs. Arthur Bronson, to whom it is dedicated.
The fanciful title is derived from the Italian verb asolare- "to
disport in the open air, amuse one's self at random "—popularly
ascribed, Browning tells us, to Cardinal Bembo, who was Queen
Cornaro's secretary, and in his dialogue, Gli Asolani, described
the discussions on platonic love and kindred subjects the little
court at Asolo used to indulge in. To Mrs. Bronson Browning
justified the title in the following sentence: "I use it for love
of the place and in requital of your pleasant assurance that an
early poem of mine first attracted you thither." This was, no
doubt, Pippa Passes, for which, and further particulars as to
Browning's connection with Asolo, see Introduction, pp. xiv
and xx.

The Epilogue is a final expression of Browning's profound
belief in a future life of hopeful activity. When reading the
poem in proof, he said of the third stanza:-"It almost looks
like bragging to say this, and as if I ought to cancel it, but it's
the simple truth; and as it's true, it shall stand."

As in life he had faith in right, so in death-which only fools
think of as a prison of the soul-he would be, not pitied, but
encouraged by the good wishes of those who are working in the
world.

181, 17.-the unseen. The poet himself after death.