Prodigious shapes of beauty in our sex.
If I were really what you would commend,
Mankind would fly me. Get a painter, Sir,

And when he has wrought a woman by your fancy,
See if you know her again. Were it not fine

If

you should see your mistress without haire,

Drest only with those glittering beams you talk of? Two suns instead of eyes, and they not melt

The forehead made of snow? No cheeks, but two Roses inoculated on a lily;

Between, a pendant alabaster nose :

Her lips cut out of corall, and no teeth

But strings of pearl: her tongue a nightingales!Would not this strange chimæra fright yourself?"

ELLIOT. Your quotation is in point, though rather long. You might have found a shorter one, and quite as apposite, I think, in the very play of Shakespeare under consideration. The ridicule of Shirley is exceedingly well expressed, as might indeed be expected from his pen, as far as I have heard any thing about him.

BOURNE. It is to be regretted that Mr. Gifford's edition of his plays is so long postponed. Shirley, as has been remarked, was the last of the old English school of dramatists, and both his Tragedies and Comedies will bear comparison with those of any of Shakespeare's contemporaries. But to proceed with Lodge: the following will strongly re

mind you of Shakespeare. It is before Rosalind and her friend Alinda, afterwards called Aliena, make their escape to the forest of Arden: "At this Rosalind began to comfort her, and after shee had wept a few kinde teares, in the bosome of her Alinda, shee gaue her hearty thankes, and then they sate them downe to consult how they should trauell. Alinda grieued at nothing but that they might haue no man in their company, saying: it would bee their greatest preiudice, in that two women went wandring about without either guide or attendant. Tush (quoth Rosalind) art thou a woman and hast not a sodaine shift to preuent a misfortune? I (thou seest) am of a tall stature, and would very well become the person and apparell of Page, thou shalt be my Mistris, and I will play the man so properly, that (trust mee) in what company soeuer I come, I will not be discouered: I will buy mee a sute, and haue a Rapier very handsomely at my side, and if any knaue offer wrong, your Page will shew him the point of his weapon. At this Alinda smiled, and vpon this they agreed, and presently gathered vp all their jewels, which they trussed vp in a casket, and Rosalind in all haste prouided her of robes, and Alinda being called Aliena, and Rosalind, Ganimede."

ELLIOT. The sentence "I will buy me a suit, and have a rapier very handsomely at my side," brings to memory Shakespeare's line, "We'll have a swashing and a martial outside;" but a preceding

sentiment of Lodge, on the quickness of woman's wit and her readiness on sudden emergencies, is copied from Ariosto, c. xxvii.

Molti consigli delle donne sono

Meglio improviso, che a pensarvi usciti;
Chè questo è speciale, e proprio dono
Tra tanti e tanti lor dal ciel largiti-

and then he goes on to contrast this excellence with the slowness and heaviness of men in similar situations.

BOURNE. On the whole, Ariosto has done the female sex more than justice, though you remember some parts of his Orlando sufficiently libellous. The first encounter of Rosader with the Duke (whom Lodge calls King Gerismond) is thus described by Lodge: "It hapned that day that Gerismond, the lawfull king of France banished by Torismond, who with a lustie crew of outlawes liued in that Forrest, that day in honour of his birth, made a feast to all his bolde yeomen, and frolickt it with store of wine and venison, sitting all at a long table vnder the shadow of Limon trees: to that place by chance fortune conducted Rosader, who seeing such a crew of braue men, hauing store of that for want of which hee and Adam perished, hee stept boldly to the boords end, and saluted the Company thus.-Whatsoeuer thou be that art maister of these lustie squires, I salute thee as graciously as a man in extreame dis

to men,

tresse may knowe that I and a fellow friend of mine, are here famished in the forrest for want of foode: perish we must, vnlesse relieued by thy fauours. Therfore if thou be a Gentleman, giue meate and such as are euery way worthie of life : let the proudest Squire that sits at thy table rise and encounter with me in any honorable point of activitie whatsoeuer, and if he and thou proue me not a man, send mee away comfortlesse: if thou refuse this, as a niggard of thy cates, I will haue amongst you with my sword, for rather wil I die valiantly, then perish with so cowardly an extreame. Gerismond looking him earnestly in the face, and seeing so proper a Gentleman in so bitter a passion, was moued with so great pitie, that rising from the table hee tooke him by the hande, and bade him welcome, willing him to sitte downe in his place, and in his roome, not onely to eate his fill, but as Lord of the feast. Gramercy Sir (quoth Rosader) but I haue a feeble friend that lies hereby famished almost for food, aged, and therefore lesse able to abide the extremitie of hunger then my selfe, and dishonour it were for mee to taste one crum, before I made him partner of my fortunes: therefore will I run and fetch him and then I will gratefully accept of your proffer."

MORTON. That is very like Shakespeare also: the description is lively and picturesque, and the affectionate considerateness of Rosader for his old and

faithful servant quite as strongly pourtrayed as in "As you Like it."

BOURNE. I will not quote the narrative of the mode in which Rosader discovers and preserves his brother Saladine from the lion, because that passage, and almost that only, has been produced by the commentators to establish the resemblance. In Shakespeare's play it is certainly a little revolting to find Celia so suddenly in love with the repentant Oliver: this incident is better managed by Lodge, than Shakespeare had the means of doing within the narrow limits of a theatrical performance. I do not think it worth while to read more from Lodge's Rosalynde:" what you have now seen will answer the purpose we had in view, and will show that Shakespeare followed his original, in this instance with an admiring closeness.

MORTON. The extracts prove likewise that the original was not quite so worthless as Mr. Steevens maintained it to be.

ELLIOT. Steevens was a tasteless pedant, and nothing better could be expected from him. His sentences have been reversed over and over again; I mean not merely with respect to the particular tract before us, but on other matters on which he has chosen to be equally dogmatical.

BOURNE. Do not let us renew that subject: we know that you and the annotators are at daggers drawing, and most frequently I should be inclined to