Note 318
The Eldest Lady’s Tale.
In other copies of these verses the fourth couplet swears "by the scorpions of his brow" i.e. the accroche-cœurs, the beau-catchers, bell-ropes or aggravators," as the B.P. calls them. In couplet eight the poet alludes to his love's "Unsur," or element his nature made up of the four classicals, and in the last couplet he makes the nail paring refer to the moon not the sun.
…of ambergris through him perfume the air; The sun, methinks, the broad bright sun, before my love would pale * And sans his splendour would appear a paring of his nail.[FN#318]
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