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Thus will I fold them one upon

another;

Now kifs, embrace, contend, do what you will.
Re-enter Lucetta.

Luc. Madam, dinner's ready, and your father stays. ful. Well, let us go.

Luc. What, fhall these papers lie like tell-tales here?

Jul. If thou refpect them, beft to take them up, Luc. Nay, I was taken up for laying them down: Yet here they shall not lie, for catching cold.

5

Jul. I fee, you have a month's mind to them. Luc. Ay, madam, you may say what fights you fee; I fee things too, although you judge I wink.

Jul. Come, come, will't please you go? [Exeunt.

5 I fee you have a month's mind to them.] A month's mind was an anniversary in times of popery; or, as Mr. Ray calls it, a lefs folemnity directed by the will of the deceased. There was alfo a year's mind, and a week's mind. See Proverbial Phrases.

This appears from the interrogatories and obfervations againft the clergy, in the year 1552. Inter. 7. "Whether there are any month's minds, and anniverfaries ?" Strype's Memorials of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 354.

Was the month's mind of fir Will. Laxton, who died the last month (July 1556.) his hearse burning with wax, and the morrow mafs celebrated, and a fermon preached," &c. Strype's Mem. vol. iii. p. 305. Dr. GRAY.

A month's mind, in the ritual fenfe, fignifies not defire or inclination, but remonftrance; yet I fuppofe this is the true original of the expreffion. JOHNSON.

Puttenham, in his Art of Poctry, 1589, chap. 24. fpeaking of Poetical Lamentations, fays, they were chiefly ufed" at the burials of the dead, alfo at month's minds, and longer times:" and in the churchwarden's accompts of St. Helens in Abington, Berkfhire, 1558, these month's minds, and the expences attending them, are frequently mentioned. Instead of month's minds, they are fometimes called month's monuments, and in the Injunctions of K. Edward VI. memories, Injunct. 21. By memories, fays Fuller, we understand the Obfequia for the dead, which some fay fucceeded in the place of the heathen Parentalia.

If this line was defigned for a verfe, we should read-monthes mind. So in the Midfummer Night's Dream:

"Swifter than the moones fphere."

Both these are the Saxon genitive cafe. STEEVENS.

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SCEN. E III.

Anthonio's houfe.

Enter Anthonio and Panthino.

Ant. Tell me, Panthino, what fad talk was that,
Wherewith my brother held
brother held you in the cloister?
Pant, 'Twas of his nephew Protheus, your fon
Ant. Why, what of him?

Pant. He wonder'd, that your lordship
Would fuffer him to spend his youth at home;
While other men, of flender reputation,
Put forth their fons to feek preferment out:
Some to the wars, to try their fortune there;
7 Some, to discover iflands far away;-
Some, to the ftudious univerfities.
For any, or for all these exercises,

He faid, that Protheus, your fon, was meet;
And did request me, to importune you,
To let him spend his time no more at home,
Which would be great impeachment to his age,
In having known no travel in his youth.

8

Ant, Nor need'st thou much importune me to that Whereon this month I have been hammering.

what fad talk

-] Sad is the fame as grave or ferious. JOHNSON.

7 Some, to difcover islands far away;] In Shakespeare's time, voyages for the discovery of the islands of America were much in vogue. And we find, in the journals of the travellers of that time, that the fons of noblemen, and of others of the best families in England, went very frequently on these adventures. Such as the Fortefcues, Collitons, Thornhills, Farmers, Pickerings, Littletons, Willoughbys, Chefters, Hawleys, Bromleys, and others. To this prevailing fafhion our poet frequently alludes, and not without high commendations of it. WARBURTON.

8

great impeachment to his age,] Impeachment is hindrance, So in Henry V:

66 -but could be glad
"Without impeachment to march on to Calais."

STEEVENS,

I have confider'd well his lofs of time;
And how he cannot be a perfect man,
Not being try'd, and tutor'd in the world:
Experience is by industry atchiev❜d,

And perfected by the fwift course of time:
Then, tell me, whither were I beft to fend him?
Pant. I think, your lordship is not ignorant,
How his companion, youthful Valentine,
'Attends the emperor in his royal court.
Ant, I know it well.

Pant. "Twere good, I think, your lordship fent
him thither:

There fhall he practife tilts and tournaments,
Hear sweet difcourfe, converfe with noblemen;

Attends the emperor in his royal court.] The emperor's royal court is properly at Vienna, but Valentine, 'tis plain, is at Milan; where, in most other paffages, it is faid he is attending the duke, who makes one of the characters in the drama. This feems to convict the author of a forgetfulness and contradiction; but perhaps it may be folved thus, and Milan be called the emperor's court; as, fince the reign of Charlemaigne, this dukedom and its territories have belonged to the emperors. I wish I could as eafily folve another abfurdity which encounters us, of Valentine's going from Verona to Milan, both inland places, by fea.

THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald discovers not any great skill in history. Vienna is not the court of the emperor as emperor, nor has Milan been always without its princes fince the days of Charlemaigne; but the note has its ufe. JOHNSON.

Shakespeare has been guilty of no mistake in placing the em peror's court at Milan in this play. Several of the first German emperors held their courts there occafionally, it being, at that time, their immediate property, and the chief town of their Italian dominions. Some of them were crowned kings of Italy at Milan, before they received the imperial crown at Rome. Nor has the poet fallen into any contradiction by giving a duke to Milan at the fame time that the emperor held his court there. The first dukes of that, and all the other great cities in Italy, were not sovereign princes, as they afterwards became; but were merely governors, or viceroys, under the emperors, and removeable at their plea fure. Such was the Duke of Milan mentioned in this play.

STEEVENS.

And

And be in eye of every exercise,

Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth.

Ant. I like thy counfel; well haft thou advis'd: And, that thou may'st perceive how well I like it, The execution of it shall make known ;

Even with the speedieft expedition

I will dispatch him to the emperor's court.
Pant. To-morrow, may it please you, Don Al-
phonfo,

With other gentlemen of good esteem,
Are journeying to falute the emperor,
And to commend their fervice to his will.

Ant. Good company; with them shall Protheus go And, in good time,-now will we break with him.

Enter Protheus.

Pro. Sweet love! fweet lines! fweet life!
Here is her hand, the agent of her heart;
Here is her oath for love, her honour's pawn:
Oh! that our fathers would applaud our loves,
To feal our happiness with their confents!
Oh heavenly Julia!

Ant. How now? what letter are you reading there? Pro. May't please your lordship, 'tis a word or two Of commendation fent from Valentine,

Deliver'd by a friend that came from him.

Ant. Lend me the letter; let me fee what news. Pro. There is no news, my lord; but that he writes How happily he lives, how well belov'd,

And daily graced by the emperor;

Wishing me with him, partner of his fortune.
Ant. And how ftand you affected to his wish?

2

-in good time] In good time was the old expreffion when fomething happened which fuited the thing in hand, as the French fay, à propos. JOHNSON.

So in Rich. III:

"And, in good time, here comes the fweating lord."

STEEVENS.

Pro.

Pro. As one relying on your lordship's will, And not depending on his friendly with.

Ant. My will is fomething forted with his wifh:
Mufe not that I thus fuddenly proceed;
For what I will, I will, and there an end.
I am refolv'd, that thou fhalt spend some time-
With Valentino in the emperor's court;

What maintenance he from his friends receives,
Like exhibition 3 thou fhalt have from me.
To-morrow be in readiness to go:

Excufe it not, for I am peremptory.

Pro. My lord, I cannot be fo foon provided; Please you, deliberate a day or two.

Ant. Look, what thou want'ft, fhall be fent after thee:

No more of ftay; to-morrow thou must go.-
Come on, Panthino; you shall be employ'd
To haften on his expedition. [Exeunt Ant. and Pant.
Pro. Thus have I fhunn'd the fire, for fear of

burning;

And drench'd me in the fea, where I am drown'd:
I fear'd to fhew my father Julia's letter,
Left he should take exceptions to my love;
And with the vantage of mine own excufe
Hath he excepted most against my love.
4 Oh, how this fpring of love refembleth

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"Due reference of place and exhibition.” Again, in the Devil's Law-cafe, 1623:

The

in his riot does far exceed the exhibition I allowed

him." STEEVENS.

4 Oh, how this Spring of love refembleth] At the end of this verfe there is wanting a fyllable, for the fpeech apparently ends in a quatrain. I find nothing that will rhyme to fun, and therefore fhall leave it to fome happier critic. But I fufpect that the author might write thus:

Oh, how this fpring of love refembleth right,
The uncertain glory of an April day;
Which now fhews all the glory of the light,
And, by and by, a cloud takes all away!

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