poet had one of these in mind, at least he accurately describes
their manner of seeking prey. The next line is an interrupted one,
'Take five and drop them. . . .' Take five what? Five of these
ash-gray mottled spiders? Certainly. But what can be meant by the
expression 'drop them'? This opens up to us a strange chapter in
human superstition. It was long a prevalent idea that the spider in
various forms possessed some occult power of healing, and men
administered it internally or applied it externally as a cure for
many diseases. Pliny gives a number of such remedies. A certain
spider applied in a piece of cloth, or another one ('a white spider
with very elongated thin legs'), beaten up in oil is said by this
ancient writer upon Natural History to form an ointment for the
eyes. Similarly, 'the thick pulp of a spider's body, mixed with the
oil of roses, is used for the ears.' Sir Matthew Lister, who was
indeed the father of English araneology, is quoted in Dr. James's
Medical Dictionary as using the distilled water of boiled black
spiders as an excellent cure for wounds." (Dr. H. C. McCook in
Poet-lore, Nov., 1889.)

53. Gum-tragacanth: yielded by the leguminous shrub, Astragalus
tragacantha.

60. Zoar: the only one that was spared of the five cities of the
plain (Genesis 14. 2).

108. Lazarus . . . fifty years of age: in The Academy, Sept. 16,
1896, Dr. Richard Garnett says: "Browning commits an oversight, it
seems to me, in making Lazarus fifty years of age at the eve of the
siege of Jerusalem, circa 68 A. D." The miracle is supposed to have
been wrought about 33 A. D., and Lazarus would then have been only