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brought a table, about whose marge were written the following verses:
Dip thou with spoons in saucers four and gladden heart and eye With many a various kind of stew and fricassee and fry.
Thereon fat quails (ne’er shall I cease to love and tender them) And rails and fowls and dainty birds of all the kinds that fly.
Glory to God for the kabobs, for redness all aglow, And potherbs, steeped in vinegar, in porringers thereby!
Fair fall the rice with sweet milk dressed, wherein the hands did plunge And eke the forearms of the fair were buried, bracelet-high!
How my heart yearneth with regret over two plates of fish That by two manchet-cakes of bread of Tewarij[1] did lie!
Then they ate and drank and made merry, after which the servants removed the table of food and set on the wine service. The cup and the bowl passed round between them and their hearts were gladdened. Then Mesrour filled the cup and saying, ‘To her whose I am and who is my mistress!’ chanted the following verses:
I marvel at mine eyes that feed their fill upon the charms Of a fair maid whose beauty bright enlightens every place.
In all her time she hath no like nor any may compare With her for very goodliness and sweet harmonious grace.
The willow sapling envies her the slimness of her shape, When, in her symmetry arrayed, she fares with stately pace.
The crown of her, for radiance, is as the crescent moon, Ay, and the full moon of the dark she shames with shining face.
Whenas she walks upon the earth, her fragrance wafts abroad A breeze that scents her every hill and every level space.
‘O Mesrour,’ said she, ‘whoso keepeth his faith and hath eaten our bread and salt, it behoveth us to give him his due; so put away from thee the thought of what hath passed and I will restore thee thy lands and houses and
- ↑ Apparently some place celebrated for its fine bread, as Gonesse in seventeenth-century France.
