drugged with poppies a reference to opium, which is prepared from dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy.
gilt covered with gold or something resembling gold.
trellis a support frame.
du supplice encore mal lavée French, "not (yet) cleansed from torment."
doigts de faune French, "fingers of the faun."
faun in Roman mythology, a royal deity having the body of a man but the horns, ears, tail, and sometimes the legs of a goat.
Lido an island off Venice.
Tintoret Tintoretto; original name, Jacopo Robusti (1518–94), Italian painter.
Nile the longest river in Africa, running from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean.
sphinx a figure with the body of a lion and the head of a man, ram, or hawk.
monstre charmant French, "charming monster."
Rubinstein Anton Rubinstein (1829–94), Russian concert pianist, composer, and educator.
ague chills, or shivering.
nitric acid a fuming, corrosive liquid.
