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1⁄2 Therefore heaven nature charg'd-] From the picture of Apelles, or the accomplishments of Pandora.

Πανδώρην, ὅτι πάνλει Ὀλύμπια δώματ' ἔχοντες

Δῶρον ἐδώρησαν.

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" So perfect, and so peerless, art created
"Of every creature's best." Tempest.

Perhaps from this passage Swift had his hint of Biddy Floyd.

JOHNSON.

3 Atalanta's better part;) I know not well what could be the better part of Atalanta here ascribed to Rosalind. Of the Atalanta most celebrated, and who therefore must be intended here where she has no epithet of difcrimination, the better part seems to have been her heels, and the worse part was so bad that Rosalind would not thank her lover for the comparison. There is a more obscure Atalanta, a huntress and a heroine, but of her nothing bad is recorded, and therefore I know not which was her better part. Shakspeare was no defpicable mythologist, yet he seems here to have mistaken some other character for that of Atalanta.

JOHNSON.

Perhaps the poet means her beauty and graceful elegance of shape, which he would prefer to her swiftness. Thus Ovid:

nec dicere poffes,

Laude pedum, formæne bono præftantior effet.
Ut faciem, et posito corpus velamine vidit,
Obstupuit.

But cannot Atalanta's better part mean her virtue or virgin chastity,
with which nature had graced Rosalind, together with Helen's
beauty without her heart or lewdness, with Cleopatra's dignity of
behaviour, and with Lucretia's modesty, that scorned to survive
the lofs of honour? Pliny's Natural History, B. XXXV. c. iii.
mentions the portraits of Atalanta and Helen, utraque excellentif-
fima forma, fed altera ut virgo; that is, "both of them for beauty,
incomparable, and yet a man may difcerne the one [Atalanta] of

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Thus Rosalind of many parts
By heavenly fynod was devis'd;
Of many faces, eyes, and hearts,
To have the touches dearest priz'd.

them to be a maiden, for her modest and chaste countenance," as Dr. P. Holland translated the passage; of which probably our poet had taken notice, for furely he had judgement in painting. TOLLET.

I suppose Atalanta's better part is her wit, i. e. the swiftness of ber mind. FARMER.

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Shakspeare might have taken part of this enumeration of diftinguished females from John Grange's Golden Aphroditis, 1577: - who seemest in my fight faire Helen of Troy, Polixene, Calliope, yea Atalanta hir selfe in beauty to furpasse, Pandora in qualities, Penelope and Lucretia in chastenesse to deface." Again, ibid:

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"Polixene fayre, Caliop, and
Penelop may give place;
"Atlanta and dame Lucres fayre

"She doth them both deface."

Again, ibid: "Atalanta who sometyme bore the bell of beauties price in that hyr native soyle."

It may be observed, that Statius also in his fixth Thebaid, has confounded Atalanta the wife of Hippomenes, and daughter of Siconeus, with Atalanta the daughter of Œnomaus, and wife of Pelops. See v. 564. STEEVENS.

Dr. Farmer's explanation may derive some support from a fubsequent passage: "as swift a wit as Atalanta's heels."

MALONE.

I think this stanza was formed on an old tetrastick epitaph, which, as I have done, Mr. Steevens may possibly have read in a country church-yard :

"She who is dead and fleepeth in this tomb,

"Had Rachel's comely face, and Leah's fruitful womb: "Sarah's obedience, Lydia's open heart,

"And Martha's care, and Mary's better part." WHALLEY.

The following passage in Marston's Infatiate Counteffe, 1613,

might lead one to fuppofe that Atalanta's better part was her lips:

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That eye was Juno's;

"Those lips were her's that won the golden ball;

"That virgin blush Diana's."

Be this as it may, these lines show that Atalanta was confidered as uncommonly beautiful, and therefore may serve to support Mr. Tollet's first interpretation.

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O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books,
And in their barks my thoughts I'll character;
That every eye, which in this forest looks,
Shall fee thy virtue witness'd every where.
Run, run, Orlando; carve, on every tree,
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressives the. [Exit.

Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE.

COR. And how like you this shepherd's life, mafter Touchstone?

TOUCH. Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in refpect that it is a shepherd's life, it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well; but in respect that it is private, it is a very vile life. Now in respect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in respect it is not in the court, it is tedious. As it is a spare life, look you, it fits my humour well; but as there is no more plenty in it, it goes much againft my stomach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd?

COR. No more, but that I know, the more one fickens, the worse at ease he is; and that he that wants money, means, and content, is without three good friends :-That the property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn: That good pasture makes fat fheep; and that a great cause of the night, is lack of the fun: That he, that hath learned no wit by

4-unexpressive-] For inexpressible. JOHNSON.

Milton also, in his Hymn on the Nativity, uses unexpreffive for inexpreffible:

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Harping with loud and folemn quire,
" With unexpreffive notes to heaven's new-born heir."

MALONF.

nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or

comes of a very dull kindred.s

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TOUCH. Such a one is a natural philofopher.

Wast ever in court, shepherd ?

Сок. No, truly,

TOUCH. Then thou art damn'd.

Cor. Nay, I hope,

TOUCH. Truly, thou art damn'd; like an ill

roasted egg, all on one fide.

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she, that hath learned na wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.] I am in doubt whether the custom of the language in Shakspeare's time did not authorise this mode of speech, and make complain of good breeding the fame with complain of the want of good breeding. In the last line of The Merchant of Venice we find that to fear the keeping is to fear the not keeping. JOHNSON.

I think, he means rather-may complain of a good education, for being so inefficient, of fo little use to him. MALONE.

• Such a one is a natural philofopher.] The shepherd had faid all the philofophy he knew was the property of things, that rain wetted, fire burnt, &c. And the Clown's reply, in a fatire on physicks or natural philofophy, though introduced with a quibble, is extremely just. For the natural philosopher is indeed as ignorant (notwithstanding all his parade of knowledge) of the efficient cause of things, as the ruftic. It appears, from a thousand instances, that our poet was well acquainted with the physics of his time; and his great penetration enabled him to see this remediless defect of it. WARBURTON.

Shakspeare is responsible for the quibble only, let the commentator answer for the refinement. STEEVENS.

The Clown calls Corin a natural philofopher, because he reafons from his obfervations on nature. M. MASON.

A natural being a common term for a fool, Touchstone, perhaps, means to quibble on the word. He may however only mean, that Corin is a felf-taught philofopher; the difciple of nature.

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MALONE.

-like an ill-roasted egg,] Of this jest I do not fully comprehend the meaning. JOHNSON.

There is a proverb, that a fool is the best roafter of an egg, because he is always turning it. This will explain how an egg may

COR. For not being at court? Your reason. TOUCH. Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never faw'st good manners; if thou never faw'st good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is fin, and fin is damnation: Thou art in a parlous state, shepherd.

Cor. Not a whit, Touchstone: those, that are good manners at the court, are as ridiculous in the country, as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court. You told me, you falute not at the court, but you kiss your hands; that courtesy would be uncleanly, if courtiers were shepherds.

Touch. Instance, briefly; come, instance. COR. Why, we are still handling our ewes; and their fells, you know, are greasy.

TOUCH. Why, do not your courtier's hands sweat? and is not the grease of a mutton as wholesome as the sweat of a man? Shallow, shallow: A better instance, I say; come.

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COR. Besides, our hands are hard. Touch. Your lips will feel them the fooner. Shallow, again: A more founder instance, come.

be damn'd all on one fide; but will not fufficiently show how Touchstone applies his fimile with propriety; unless he means that he who has not been at court is but half educated. STEEVENS.

I believe there was nothing intended in the corresponding part of the fimile, to answer to the words, "all on one fide." Shakspeare's fimiles (as has been already observed) hardly ever run on four feet. Touchstone, I apprehend, only means to say, that Corin is completely damned; as irretrievably destroyed as an egg that is utterly spoiled in the roasting, by being done all on one fide only. So, in a subsequent scene, " and both in a tune, like two gypfies on a horse." Here the poet certainly meant that the speaker and his companion should fing in unifon, and thus refemble each other as perfectly as two gypsies on a horse;-not that two gypfies on a horse fing both in a tune. MALONE.

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