CEL. You must borrow me Garagantua's mouth" firft: 'tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's fize: To fay, ay, and no, to these particulars, is more than to answer in a catechism. Ros. But doth he know that I am in this foreft, and in man's apparel? Looks he as freshly as he did the day he wrestled? CEL. It is as easy to count atomies," as to refolve the propofitions of a lover:-but take a taste of my finding him, and relish it with a good observance. I found him under a tree, like a dropp'd acorn. Ros. It may well be call'd Jove's tree, when it drops forth fuch fruit. 8 6-Garagantua's mouth-] Rofalind requires nine queftions to be answered in one word. Celia tells her that a word of fuch magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua the giant of Rabelais. JOHNSON. Garagantua fwallowed five pilgrims, their ftaves and all, in a fallad. It appears from the books of the Stationers' Company, that in 1592 was published, " Garagantua his Prophecie.” And in 1594," A booke entitled, The Hiftory of Garagantua." The book of Garagantua is likewife mentioned in Laneham's Narrative of 2 Elizabeth's Entertainment at Kenel-worth-Caftle, in 1575. Some tranflator of one of these pieces is cenfured by Hall, in his Second Book of Satires: "But who conjur'd, &c. "Or wicked Rablais dronken revellings "To grace the mifrule of our tavernings?" STEEVENS. 7 to count atomies,] Atomies are thofe minute particles difcernible in a stream of funshine that breaks into a darkened room. HENLEY. "An atomie (fays Bullokar in his English Expofitor, 1616) is à mote flying in the funne. Any thing fo fmall that it cannot be made leffe." MALONE. 8 when it drops forth fuch fruit.] The old copy readswhen it drops forth fruit. The word fuch was fupplied by the editor of the fecond folio. I once fufpected the phrafe," when it drops forth," to be corrupt; but it is certainly our author's; for it occurs again in this play: CEL. Give me audience, good madam. Ros. Proceed. CEL. There lay he, ftretch'd along, like a wounded knight. Ros. Though it be pity to fee fuch a fight, it well becomes the ground.? CEL. Cry, holla! to thy tongue,' I pr'ythee; it curvets very unfeafonably. He was furnish'd like a hunter. Ros. O ominous! he comes to kill my heart.' CEL. I would fing my fong without a burden: thou bring'ft me out of tune, Ros. Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak. Sweet, fay on. woman's gentle brain "Could not drop forth fuch giant-rude invention." This paffage ferves likewife to fupport the emendation that ha been made. - 9 -fuch a fight, it well becomes the ground.] So, in Hamlet: Such a fight as this "Becomes the field,” STEEVENS, 2 Cry, holla! to thy tongue.] The old copy has the tongue, Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Holla was a term of the manege, by which the rider reftrained and stopp'd his horfe. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: "What recketh he his rider's angry ftir, "His flattering bella, or his ftand I fay?" The word is again ufed in Othello, in the fame fenfe as here: 3to kill my heart.] A quibble between heart and hart. STEEVENS. Our author has the fame expreffion in many other places. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: Why, that contempt will kill the fpeaker's heart." 66 they have murder'd this poor heart of mine." But the preceding word, hunter, fhows that a quibble was here intended between heart and hart. In our author's time the latter word was often written inftead of heart, as it is in the prefent inftance, in .e old copy of this play. MALONE. Enter ORLANDO and JAQUES. CEL. You bring me out :-Soft! comes he not here? Ros. 'Tis he; Slink by, and note him. [CELIA and ROSALIND retire. FA, I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had as lief have been myself alone. ORL. And fo had I; but yet, for fashion fake, I thank you too for your society. F42. God be with you; let's meet as little as we can. ORL. I do defire we may be better strangers. 42. I pray you, mar no more trees with writing love-fongs in their barks. ORL. I pray you, mar no more of my verfes with reading them ill-favouredly. 742. Rofalind is your love's name? ORL. Yes, juft. Jag. I do not like her name. ORL. There was no thought of pleasing you, when fhe was chriften'd. F42. What ftature is fhe of? ORL. Juft as high as my heart. F42. You are full of pretty anfwers: Have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths' wives, and conn'd them out of rings? ORL. Not fo; but I anfwer you right painted cloth, from whence you have ftudied your questions. 4 but I answer you right painted cloth,] This alludes to the fashion in old tapestry hangings, of mottoes and moral sentences from the mouths of the figures worked or painted in them. The poct again hints at this custom in his poem, called, Tarquin and Lucrece: "Who fears a fentence, or an old man's faw, 2 Therefore bearsen nature charg'd-] From the picture of Apelles, or the accomplishments of Pandora. Πανδώρην, ὅτι πανίει Ολύμπια δώματ' ἔχοντες So, before: "So perfect, and fo peerlefs, art created Perhaps from this paffage 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 afcribed to Rofalind. Of the Atalanta most celebrated, and who therefore must be intended here where the has no epithet of difcrimination, the better part seems to have been her heels, and the worse part was fo bad that Rosalind would not thank her lover for the comparifon. There is a more obfcure 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 mythologift, yet he feems here to have mistaken fome other character for that of Atalanta. JOHNSON. Perhaps the poet means her beauty and graceful elegance of fhape, which he would prefer to her fwiftnefs. Thus Ovid: -nec dicere poffes, Laude pedum, formæne bono præftantior effet. But cannot Atalanta's better part mean her virtue or virgin chastity, with which nature had graced Rofalind, together with Helen's beauty without her heart or lewdnefs, with Cleopatra's dignity of behaviour, and with Lucretia's modefty, that fcorned to furvive the lofs of honour? Pliny's Natural Hiftory, 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 Thus Rofalind of many parts By heavenly fynod was devis'd; them to be a maiden, for her modeft and chafte countenance,' as Dr. P. Holland tranflated the paffage; 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. c. the fwiftness of her mind. FARMER. Shakspeare might have taken part of this enumeration of distinguifhed females from John Grange's Golden Aphroditis, 1577: who feemeft in my fight faire Helen of Troy, Polixene, Calliope, yea Atalanta hir felfe in beauty to furpaffe, Pandora in qualities, Penelope and Lucretia in chafteneffe to deface." Again, ibid: "Polixene fayre, Caliop, and "She doth them both deface." Again, ibid: "Atalanta who fometyme bore the bell of beauties price in that hyr native foyle." It may be observed, that Statius alfo in his fixth Thebaid, has confounded Atalanta the wife of Hippomenes, and daughter of Siconeus, with Atalanta the daughter of Enomaus, and wife of Pelops. See v. 564. STEEVENS. Dr. Farmer's explanation may derive fome fupport from a subfequent paffage: as fwift a wit as Atalanta's heels.' MALONE. I think this ftanza was formed on an old tetrastick epitaph, which, as I have done, Mr. Steevens may poffibly 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 paffage in Marston's Infatiate Countesse, 1613, might lead one to fuppofe that Atalanta's better part was her lips: That eye was Juno's; "Thofe lips were her's that won the golden ball; Be this as it may, thefe lines fhow that Atalanta was confidered as uncommonly beautiful, and therefore may serve to support Mr. Tollet's firft interpretation. |