On returning to Florence (Browning with the MS. of the greater part of his splendid fragmentary tragedy, “In a Balcony,” composed mainly while walking alone through the forest glades), Mrs. Browning found that the chill breath of the tramontana was affecting her lungs, so a move was made to Rome, for the passing of the winter (1853-4).  In the spring their little boy, their beloved “Pen,"[22] became ill with malaria.  This delayed their return to Florence till well on in the summer.  During this stay in Rome Mrs. Browning rapidly proceeded with “Aurora Leigh,” and Browning wrote several of his “Men and Women,” including the exquisite ‘Love among the Ruins,’ with its novel metrical music; ’Fra Lippo Lippi,’ where the painter, already immortalised by Landor, has his third warrant of perpetuity; the ‘Epistle of Karshish’ (in part); ‘Memorabilia’ (composed on the Campagna); ‘Saul,’ a portion of which had been written and published ten years previously, that noble and lofty utterance, with its trumpet-like note of the regnant spirit; the concluding part of “In a Balcony;” and ’Holy Cross Day’—­besides, probably, one or two others.  In the late spring (April 27th) also, he wrote the short dactylic lyric, ‘Ben Karshook’s Wisdom.’  This little poem was given to a friend for appearance in one of the then popular Keepsakes—­literally given, for Browning never contributed to magazines.  The very few exceptions to this rule were the result of a kindliness stronger than scruple:  as when (1844), at request of Lord Houghton (then Mr. Monckton Milnes), he sent ‘Tokay,’ the ’Flower’s Name,’ and ‘Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis,’ to “help in making up some magazine numbers for poor Hood, then at the point of death from hemorrhage of the lungs, occasioned by the enlargement of the heart, which had been brought on by the wearing excitement of ceaseless and excessive literary toil.”  As ‘Ben Karshook’s Wisdom,’ though it has been reprinted in several quarters, will not be found in any volume of Browning’s works, and was omitted from “Men and Women” by accident, and from further collections by forgetfulness, it may be fitly quoted here.  Karshook, it may be added, is the Hebraic word for a thistle.

[Footnote 22:  So-called, it is asserted, from his childish effort to pronounce a difficult name (Wiedemann).  But despite the good authority for this statement, it is impossible not to credit rather the explanation given by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who, moreover, affords the practically definite proof that the boy was at first, as a term of endearment, called “Pennini,” which was later abbreviated to “Pen.”  The cognomen, Hawthorne states, was a diminutive of “Apennino,” which was bestowed upon the boy in babyhood because he was very small, there being a statue in Florence of colossal size called “Apennino.”]

I.

“’Would a man ’scape the rod’?—­
Rabbi Ben Karshook saith,
’See that he turns to God
The day before his death.’