For ladies e’en of most uneasy virtue
Prefer a spouse whose age is short of thirty.
Don Juan 1. 62.
[280]. Arab. “Lázuward:” see vol. iii. [33]
[281]. Arab. “Sidillah.” The Bresl. Edit. (v. 99), has, “a couch of ivory and ebony, whereon was that which befitted it of mattresses and cushions * * * * and on it five damsels.”
[282]. i.e. As she untunes the lute by “pinching” the strings over-excitedly with her right, her other hand retunes it by turning the pegs.
[283]. i.e. The slim cupbearer (Zephyr) and fair-faced girl (Moon) handed round the bubbling bowl (star).
[284]. Arab. “Al-Sath” whence the Span. Azotea. The lines that follow are from the Bresl. Edit. v. 110.
[285]. This “’Ar’ar” is probably the Callitris quadrivalvis whose resin (“Sandarac”) is imported as varnish from African Mogador to England. Also called the Thuja, it is of cypress shape, slow growing and finely veined in the lower part of the base. Most travellers are agreed that it is the Citrus-tree of Roman Mauritania, concerning which Pliny (xiii. 29) gives curious details, a single table costing from a million sesterces (£900) to 1,400,000. For other details see p. 95. “Morocco and the Moors,” by my late friend Dr. Leared (London: Sampson Low, 1876).
[286]. i.e. Kings might sigh for her in vain.