Twentieth = Thirteenth.
Fricquot = Picot.
Page 802. My Kirkup.
Baron Kirkup, a connoisseur in literature and art, who was numbered among Browning's Florentine friends. He was ennobled by the King of Italy, because of his literary and patriotic services to his country. He discovered a portrait of Dante in the Bargello at Florence.
Page 827. Epilogue.
The poet referred to is Mrs. Browning in Wine of Cyprus.
Page 880. Ivàn Ivànovitch.
Mr. Nathan Haskell Dole, the author of a History of Russia, and the translator of Tolstoi and other Russian authors, furnishes for Mr. Cooke's Browning Guide Book the following notes:—
"A verst is about .66 of a mile (3500 feet).—I take it the highway broad and straight from the Neva's mouth to Moscow's gates of gold must refer to the legend that when the first railroad was built from one city to the other, the Emperor Nicholas ordered that it should run absolutely straight, himself marking it with a ruler on the map. I do not think the old highway ran straight.—Ivàn Ivànovitch is equivalent to John Johnson, or more correctly Jack Jackson, Ivàn being the familiar of Ioànn, John. The ending vitch, however, is not exactly an equivalent to son; it really means father.—Droug, more correctly spelt druk (pronounced drook), means friend.—Browning's motherkin corresponds to the Russian màtushka, and is an endearing diminutive of mat, mother; it is always applied to any old peasant woman; it is a familiar form of address, often applied to any woman or even girl.—Vàssili (accented by Browning incorrectly on the first syllable) should be spelt Vasìli: it is our Basil.—Lukeria is a colloquial form of Glikeria, Glycera; the proper diminutive is Lusha and also Lushka.—Browning makes one odd mistake in the poem; it would be impossible for the breath to go up straight when the people were riding fast in a Russian sledge.—He speaks of twin pigeons; the most familiar term of endearment in Russian is golùbchik, which is the diminutive of the word for pigeon.—Stòpka is the proper diminutive of Stepàn, Stephen; the io merely represents the sound of the e (as in yelk) with which it is written in Russian.—Pope should not be with a capital; it simply means priest.—Marpha should be spelt Marfa; it is our Martha, but the Russians cannot pronounce th; they represent it by f.—Pomeschìk should be pomyèschik; it means merely a landed proprietor.—Stàrosta is correctly accented; it is the bailiff of a village, also overseer, inspector; it merely means old man (from stàrost, old age, star, old.)— Kremlin is better kreml; it is any fortress, but especially the fortress of Moscow.—Kàtia is the diminutive of Yekaterìna, Katherine.—Kòlokol is pronounced as though it were two syllables, accent on the first.—I am not certain about the correctness of Teriòscha. It should have no c: nor should Stèscha."
Page 899. Pietro of Abano.