te an Arcadian coquette; she is a piece of pastoral poetry.
Audrey is only rustic. A very amusing effect is produced by the contrast
between the frank and free bearing of the two princesses in disguise,
and the scornful airs of the real Shepherdess. In the speeches of Phebe,
and in the dialogue between her and Sylvius, Shakspeare has anticipated
all the beauties of the Italian pastoral, and surpassed Tasso and
Guarini. We find two among the most poetical passages of the play
appropriated to Phebe; the taunting speech to Sylvius, and the
description of Rosalind in her page's costume;--which last is finer than
the portrait of Bathyllus in Anacreon.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Artemisia Gentileschi, an Italian artist of the seventeenth century,
painted one or two pictures, considered admirable as works of art, of
which the subjects are the most vicious and barbarous conceivable. I
remember one of these in the gallery of Florence, which I looked at
once, but once, and wished then, as I do now, for the privilege of
burning it to ashes.

[6] Lucy Ashton, in the Bride of Lammermoor, may be placed next to
Desdemona; Diana Vernon is (comparatively) a failure as every woman will
allow; while the masculine lady Geraldine in Miss Edgeworth's tale of
Ennui, and the intellectual Corinne are consistent, essential women; the
distinction is more easily felt than analyzed.

[7] Hazlitt's Essays, vol. ii. p. 167.

[8] I am informed that the original German word is _geistreiche_
literally, _rich in soul or spirit_, a just and beautiful epithet. 2d.
_Edit._

[9] In the "Mercatante di Venezia" of Ser. Giovanni, we have the whole
story of Antonio and Bassanio, and part of the story but not the
character of Portia. The incident of the caskets is from the Gesta
Romanorum.

[10] In that age, delicate points of law were not determined by the
ordinary judges of the provinces, but by doctors of law, who were called
from Bologna, Padua, and other places celebrated for their legal
colleges.

[11] Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Scene 2

[12] Characters of Shakespeare's Plays.

[13] Act iv. Scene 5.

[14] _Use_, i. e. usury, interest.

[15] In Shakspeare's time, there were people In Ireland, (there may be
so still, for aught I know,) who undertook to charm rats to death, by
chanting certain verses which acted as a spell. "Rhyme them to death, as
they do rats in Ireland," is a line in one of Ben Jonson's comedies;
this will explain Rosalind's humorous