The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 22.0210  Tuesday, 30 August 2011

From:         John W. Kennedy < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Date:         August 26, 2011 7:03:46 PM EDT

Subject:      Re: More MV

Philip Weller < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > wrote, 

>Another case in point is another AYLI line “Atalanta's better part”

>(http://www.shakespeare-navigators.com/as_you_like_it/As_You_Like_It_Act_3_Scene_2.html#147). 

>David Bevington and Anne Barton (Riverside) agree that Atalanta's 

>better part is her “fleetness of foot” (I’m quoting both editors at 

>once), but to me, that hardly seems likely, as the line is bracketed 

>between “Cleopatra's majesty” and “Sad Lucretia's modesty.” If 

>“fleetness of foot” is really “Atalanta's better part” then the 

>passage seems comic, as in the following paraphrase: Rosalind 

>has the awe-inspiring majesty of Cleopatra, the world-shaking 

>virtue of Lucretia, and she can run really fast. Maybe it is 

>supposed to be comic, but I think it’s very possible that both 

>Shakespeare and his audiences had an understanding of  

>“Atalanta's better part” which has been long lost.

Chastity seems the most obvious. (Note that modesty and chastity are not the same thing.)

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