<His Perfumed Highness> p739-40
The blending of perfumes would become his work for
days on end. In the spring he would gaze inquiringly up at the blossoming
plum, and in the autumn he would neglect the maiden flower of which poets
have so much and the hagi beloved of the stag, and instead keep beside
him, all withered and unsightly, the chrysanthemum "heedless of age"
and purple trousers, also sadly faded, and the burnet
that has so little to recommend it in the first place. Perfumes were central
to his pursuit of good taste. |