distemperature

'Twere pain, no doubt, were torn away One, a minute distemperature.

At your birth Our grandam earth, having this distemperature, In passion shook.

At his distemperature.

It appears to have arisen from atmospherical distemperature and acts in most cases only upon persons weakened by want of wholesome food and clothing.

LYSIMACHUS Upon what ground is his distemperature?

And thorough this distemperature we see The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds Is, as in mockery, set.

Just as the "distemperature" of these warring lovers reaches boiling, Ms. Landau calls for snow, that "hoary-headed frost," to begin its gentle descent into "the fresh lap of the crimson rose," underscoring the alteration that the seasons have undergone because of the fairy couple's "dissension."