pirates in the Gulf of X

[Mark Mandel]

On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 8:50 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> I am reminded that in "As You Like It" the Forest of Arden is
> referred to (a half-dozen times) as a desert.  Must have been near the
> Gulf.
>
> Joel


Þe OED saith:

    1. An uninhabited and uncultivated tract of country; a wilderness:    a.
now conceived as a desolate, barren region, waterless and treeless, and with
but scanty growth of herbage;{em}e.g. the Desert of Sahara, Desert of the
Wanderings, etc.

    b. formerly applied more widely to any wild, uninhabited region,
including forest-land. Obs.
... 1600 SHAKES. A.Y.L. II. vii. 110 In this desert inaccessible, Vnder the
shade of melancholly boughes.

Mark Mandel