Ben Karshook's Wisdom
The eighth line of the fourteenth section of One Word More reads,
"Karshish, Cleon, Norbert and the fifty."
Originally it read,
"Karshook, Cleon, Norbert and the fifty."
The reference apparently was to the poem written in April, 1854, and printed in The Keepsake, an annual edited by Miss Power, a niece of Lady Blessington, in whom Dickens also took an interest. It may have been Browning's intention to include this poem in Men and Women, but he never did place it there, and finally dropped Karshook and substituted Karshish, who narrates his medical experience.
I
"Would a man 'scape the rod?"
Rabbi Ben Karshook saith,
"See that he turn to God
The day before his death."
"Ay, could a man inquire
When it shall come!" I say.
The Rabbi's eye shoots fire—
"Then let him turn to-day!"
II
Quoth a young Sadducee:
"Reader of many rolls,
Is it so certain we
Have, as they tell us, souls?"
"Son, there is no reply!"
The Rabbi bit his beard:
"Certain, a soul have I—
We may have none," he sneered.
Thus Karshook, the Hiram's-Hammer,
The Right-hand Temple-column,
Taught babes in grace their grammar,
And struck the simple, solemn.