[xxi ] 



acter, and accomplishments became the 

 subject of papers innumerable. It was an 

 extraordinary outburst, one of those excep- 

 tional occurrences when people do not wait 

 for the passing in this case so near at hand 

 -to say, what is in their hearts to say, of 

 the life of a friend. A brief characterization 

 of him from one of the most eminent of Brit- 

 ish scholars was quoted early in this note, 

 and it may be fitting to close with some lines 

 by the dean of American classical schol- 

 ars, Basil L. Gildersleeve, written for what 

 proved to be his last birthday: 



ON A PORTRAIT OF SIR WILLIAM 

 OSLER, BART. 



William the Fowler, Guillaume TOiseleur ! 

 I love to call him thus, and when I scan 

 The counterfeit presentment of the man, 

 I feel his net, I hear his arrows whir. 

 Make at the homely surname no demur, 

 Nor on a nomination lay a ban 

 With which a line of sovran lords began, 

 Henry the Fowler was first Emperor. 



