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The lord de Coucy, so celebrated for his ioves, acknow- 
ledges in his verses that such eyes were the secret charms 
that Madame de Fay el practised on him. These bluish 
grey eyes are those which commonly are of a pale blue, or 
sometimes of a water-colour which varies or undulates, with 
different shades, in the course of the day. The green eyes 
never change their shades. Diodorus Siculus tells us that 
Pallas was named by the Egyptians Glaucopis, that is, 
having eyes of a greenish white. And Pope’s “ blue-eyed 
maid ” has been censured for being inexact ; it should be 
“ eyes of a bright citron.” ( Histoire des Chats, p. 127.) 
It is a custom in the East to tinge the eyes of women, 
particularly those of a fair complexion, with an impalpable 
powder prepared chiefly from crude antimony. It is of a 
purple colour, and a Persian compares it to the violet. The 
Arabian poets compare the eyelids of a fine woman bathed 
in tears to violets dropping with dew. 
Shakspere has 
Violets dim, 
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes. 
Winkleman observes that “ his researches concerning the 
mysterious art, said to be practised among the Greeks, of 
changing blue eyes into black ones, have not succeeded to 
his wish. I find it mentioned but once by Dioscorides. 
Could I have cleared up this art, it would have been a 
problem worthy to fix the attention of the Newtons and the 
Algarottis, and have interested the fair sex by a discovery 
so advantageous to their charms, especially in Germany, 
where large fine blue eyes are more frequently met with 
than black ones.” The same author also notices the green 
eyes we have alluded to, and gives us the charming line 
in which the Sieur de Coucy describes the eyes of Madame 
de Fayel: 
“ Et si bel ceil vert, et riant, et clair.” 
(The above and other references will be found in I, Disraeli’s 
