Ah, how her beauty all excels! ah how ✿ That shape transcends the graceful waving bough!
Then they adorned her with the sixth toilette, a dress which was green. And now she shamed in her slender straightness the nut-brown spear; her radiant face dimmed the brightest beams of full moon and she outdid the bending branches in gentle movement and flexile grace. Her loveliness exalted the beauties of earth's four quarters and she broke men's hearts by the significance of her semblance; for she was even as saith one of the poets in these lines:—
A damsel 'twas the tirer's art had decked with snares and sleight:[[414]] ✿ And robed in rays as though the sun from her had borrowed light:
She came before us wondrous clad in chemisette of green, ✿ As veilèd by its leafy screen pomegranate hides from sight:
And when he said "How callest thou the manner of thy dress?" ✿ She answered us in pleasant way with double meaning dight;
"We call this garment crève-cœur; and rightly is it hight, ✿ For many a heart wi' this we broke[[415]] and conquered many a sprite!"
Then they displayed her in the seventh dress, coloured between safflower[[416]] and saffron, even as one of the poets saith:—
In vest of saffron pale and safflower red ✿ Musk'd, sandal'd, ambergris'd, she came to front:
"Rise!" cried her youth, "go forth and show thyself!" ✿ "Sit!" said her hips, "we cannot bear the brunt!"
And when I craved a bout, her Beauty said ✿ "Do, do!" and said her pretty shame, "Don't, don't!"