JUL. ... 'twas Ariadne, passioning For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight. A note is here inserted, "not" says its learned and classical author, "on the business of Shakspeare," but to introduce a conjecture relating to one of Guido's paintings commonly supposed to represent Ariadne as deserted by Theseus and courted by Bacchus, but which he conceives to have been intended for Bacchus's desertion of this lady for an Indian captive. An attentive examination of the print from Guido's picture will, it is presumed, incline any one to hesitate much before he shall decide on having discerned any traces of an Indian princess; and this supposed character may rather turn out to be Venus introducing the amorous Deity, attended by his followers, to Ariadne, forlorn and abandoned by Theseus in the isle of Chios, according to Ovid, or Naxos according to Lactantius. Nor is the female who accompanies Bacchus "hanging on his arm," as stated by the critic. It is impossible likewise to perceive in this figure the modest looks or demeanour of a female captive, or in the supposed Bacchus the character of a lover, insulting, according to Ovid's description, his former mistress by displaying the beauties of another. Boccaccio has very comically accounted for Ariadne's desertion by Theseus, and her subsequent transfer to Bacchus. He supposes the lady to have been too fond of the juice of the grape, and that on her continuing to indulge this propensity, she was therefore called the wife of Bacchus. See _Geneal. deor._ lib. xi. c. 29. SCENE 4. Page 274. JUL. Her eyes are _grey as glass_. This was in old times the favourite colour of the eyes in both sexes: "His eyen are _gray_ as any _glasse_." _Romance of Sir Isenbras._ "Her eyen gray as glas." _Romance of Libeaus desconus._ "Les iex _vairs_ et rians com un faucon." _Roman de Guerin de Montglaive. MS._ And to come nearer to Shakspeare's time:--In the interlude of _Marie Magdalene_, a song in praise of her says, "your eyes as _gray_ as glasse and right amiable." The French term _ver_ or _vair_ has induced some of their antiquaries to suppose that it meant _green_; but it has been very satisfactorily shown to signify in general the colour still called by heralds _vair_. It is certain however that the French romances and other authorities allude occasionally to _green_ eyes. SCENE 4. Page 274. JUL. My substance should be _statue_ in thy stead.