[Footnote 2: Wiedemann is the second baptismal name of Mr. Browning's
son; and, in his infantine mouth, it became (we do not exactly guess
how), the "Penini," shortened into "Pen," which some ingenious
interpreters have derived from the word "Apennine."]

[Footnote 3: And--we are bound to admit--the singular literary
obtuseness of the England of fifty years ago.]

[Footnote 4: A distinguished American philologist, the late George P.
Marsh, has declared that he exceeds all other modern English writers in
his employment of them.]

[Footnote 5: In "In Memoriam" we have such rhymes as:--

{now {curse {mourn {good {light {report
{low {horse {turn {blood {delight {port

In the blank verse of "The Princess," and of "Enoch Arden" such
assonances as:--

{sun {lost {whom {wand
{noon {burst {seem {hand.

{known {clipt {word
{down {kept {wood, etc.

I take these instances from the works of so acknowledged a master of
verse as Mr. Tennyson, rather than from those of a smaller poet who
would be no authority on the subject, because they thus serve to show