Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

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 loss of honour? Pliny's Nat. Hist. b. xxxv. c. 3. mentions the portraits of Atalanta and Helen, utraque excellentissima forma, sed altera ut virgo. That is, "both of them for beauty incomparable, and yet a man may discerne the one [Atalanta] of 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 surely he had judgment in painting. TOLLET. I suppose Atalanta's better part is her wit, i. e. the swiftness of her mind.

[ocr errors]

FARMER. Shakspere might have taken part of this enumeration of distinguished females from John Grange's Golden Aphroditis, 1577. -who seemest in my sight faire Helen of Troy, Polixene, Calliope, yea Atlanta hir selfe in beauty to surpasse, Pandora in qualities, Penelope and Lucretia in chastenesse to deface."

Again, ibid:

"Polixene, fayre, Caliop, and

"Penelop may give place;
"Atlanta and dame Lucres fayre

"She doth them both deface."

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

It may be observed that Statius also, in his sixth Thebaid, has confounded Atalanta the wife of Hippomenes, and daughter of Siconeus, with Atalanta the daughter of Oenomaus, and wife of Pelops.

See Atalanta, catch-word Alphabet.

STEEVENS.

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 sleepeth 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."

Sad] is grave, sober, not light.

WHALLEY.

JOHNSON.

170. The touches] The features; les traits.

JOHNSON.

195. I was never so be-rhimed since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat,] Rosalind is a very learned lady. She alludes to the Pythagorean doctrine, which teaches that souls transmigrate from one animal to another, and relates that in his time she was an Irish rat, and by some metrical charm was rhymed to death. The power of killing rats with rhymes Donne mentions in his Satires, and Temple in his Treatises. Dr. Grey has produced a similar passage from Randolph :

"My poets

"Shall with a satire, steeped in gall and vinegar, 4 Rhyme them to death as they do rats in Ireland.”

[blocks in formation]

So, in an address to the reader, at the conclusion of

Ben Jonson's Poetaster:

"Rhime them to death as they do Irish rats

"In drumming tunes."

STEEVENS.

Again in his Staple of News, 1625: "Or the fine madrigal in rhyme, to have run him out of the counMALONE.

try like an Irish rat.”

203.

to the proverb:

friends to meet;] Alluding ironically

"Friends may meet, but mountains never greet.” See Ray's Collection. STEEVENS.

204. -but mountains may be removed with earthquakes, and so encounter.] "Montes duo inter se concurrent, &c." says Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. ii. c. 83. or in Holland's translation: "Two hills [removed by an earthquake] encountered together, charging as it were, and with violence assaulting one another, and retyring again with a most mighty noise.' TOLLET. 212. Out of all whooping!] So, in the Old Ballad of Yorke, Yorke for my money, &c. 1584:

"And then was shooting out of cry

"The skantling at a handful nie."

Again, in the old bl. 1. comedy called Commons Con• ditions:

"I have be-raced myself out of crie." STEEVENS. 213. Good my complexion!] This is a mode of expression, Mr. Theobald says, which he cannot reconcile to common sense. Like enough and so too the Oxford editor. But the meaning is, Hold good my complexion, i. e. let me not blush. WARBURTON.

Dr.

Dr. Warburton's explanation may be just, but as he gives no example of such a meaning affixed to the words in question, we are still at liberty to suspend our faith, till some luckier critick shall decide. All I can add is, that I learn from the glossary to Phil. Holland's translation of Pliny's Nat. Hist. that paint for the face was in Shakspere's time called complexions. Shakspere likewise uses complexion for disposition.So, in the Merchant of Venice:

"It is the complexion of them all to leave their dam.” STEEVENS.

The meaning, I believe, is-My native character, my female inquisitive disposition, canst thou endure this! · For thus characterising the most beautiful part of the creation, let our author answer. MALONE.

215. One inch of delay more is a South-sea of discovery.] This is stark nonsense; we must read-off discovery, i. e. from discovery. "If you delay me one inch of time longer, I shall think this secret as far from discovery as the South-sea is." WARBURTON.

This sentence is rightly noted by the commentator as nonsense, but not so happily restored to sense. I read thus:

One inch of delay more is a South-sea. Discover, Į pr'ythee; tell me who is it quickly!-When the transcriber had once made discovery from discover, 1, he easily put an article after South-sea. But it may be read with still less change, and with equal probability. Every inch of delay more is a South-sea discovery : Every delay, however short, is to me tedious and irk

[blocks in formation]

some as the longest voyage, as a voyage of discovery on the South-sea. How much voyages to the Southsea, on which the English had then first ventured, engaged the conversation of that time, may be easily imagined. JOHNSON. Of for off is frequent in the elder writers. A Southsea of discovery is a discovery a South-sea off-as far as the South-sea. FARMER.

Warburton's sophistication ought to have been reprobated, and the old, which is the only reading that can preserve the sense of Rosalind, restored. A South-sea of discovery, is not a discovery, as FAR OFF, but as COMPREHENSIVE as the South-sea; which, being the largest in the world, affords the widest scope for exercising curiosity. HENLEY.

[ocr errors]

243. Garagantua's mouth] Rosalind requires nine questions to be answered in one word. Celia tells her that a word of such magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua the giant of Rabelais. JOHNSON.

"A

Garagantua swallowed five pilgrims, their staves and all, in a sallad. It appears from the books of the Stationers-Company, that in 1592 was published, "Garagantua his Prophecie." And in 1594, booke entitled, The History of Garagantua." The book of Garagantua is likewise mentioned in Laneham's Narrative of Q. Elizabeth's Entertainment at KenelworthCastle, in 1575. STEEVENS.

250. It is as easy to count atomies] Atomies are those

« PředchozíPokračovat »