in requital whereof, henceforth carry your letters yourself. And so, sir, I'll commend you to my master. Pro. Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck, [Exeunt SCENE II. The Same. Julia's Garden. Enter JULIA and LUCETTA. Jul. But say, Lucetta, now we are alone, That every day with parle encounter me, In thy opinion which is worthiest love? Luc. Please you, repeat their names, I'll show my mind According to my shallow simple skill. Jul. What think'st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour? But, were I you, he never should be mine. Jul. What think'st thou of the rich Mercatio ? Should censure thus a loving gentleman ". As or a knight] In Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, it is "As our knight," &c., showing how easy even now are errors of mishearing. That I, unworthy body, as I CAN, Should censure thus a LOVING GENTLEMAN.] The whole of this part of the scene is in rhyme, excepting these two lines; and as they are made to jingle in the corr. fo. 1632, we may be sufficiently sure that they originally did so. We are by no means confident that the first line of the couplet might not run, as in the folios, "That I, unworthy body as I am," am being here considered an unobjectionable rhyme to "man," as in various other Jul. Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest? Luc. Then thus,-of many good I think him best. Luc. I have no other but a woman's reason: I think him so, because I think him so. Jul. And wouldst thou have me cast my love on him? Peruse this paper, madam. [Giving a letter. Jul. "To Julia." Say, from whom? That the contents will show. Jul. Say, say, who gave it thee? Luc. Sir Valentine's page; and sent, I think, from Proteus. He would have given it you, but I, being in the way, [Giving back the letter. Or else return no more into my sight. Luc. places; but the alteration of the old annotator renders it more exact. In the next line, for "a loving gentleman," the old copies have on lovely gentlemen: that gentlemen is wrong the rhyme may be said to establish, and the next observation of Julia also shows that Proteus only was referred to by Lucetta. The change of lovely to "loving" seems natural and proper, though by no means imperative, excepting that, if one portion of the emendation be necessarily adopted, it may be thought to give sanction to the rest: besides, lovely seems hardly an epithet that even a waiting-maid would apply to a gentleman, who moreover was certainly "loving" as regards her mistress. It were a shame to call her back again, And ask remission for my folly past.— Luc. Re-enter LUCETTA. What would your ladyship? Jul. Is it near dinner-time ? I would, it were; That you might kill your stomach on your meat, [Dropping the letter, and taking it up again". Jul. What is't that you took up so gingerly? Luc. Nothing. Jul. Why didst thou stoop, then ? Luc. That I let fall. Jul. To take a paper up, And is that paper nothing? Luc. Nothing concerning me. Jul. Then, let it lie for those that it concerns. Unless it have a false interpreter. Jul. Some love of your's hath writ to you in rhyme. Give me a note: your ladyship can set. Jul. As little by such toys as may be possible: 7 Dropping the letter and taking it up again.] This and other stage-directions about the letter are from the corr. fo. 1632: they relate to the business of the scene, as, we may believe, the comedy was performed in the time of the old annotator. Modern editions are without them, and performers might, therefore, omit to do what was required in the course of the dialogue. Best sing it to the tune of "Light o' love'." Jul. Heavy? belike, it hath some burden then. Luc. I cannot reach so high. Jul. Let's see your song.-[snatching the letter.] How now, minion! Luc. Keep tune there still, so you will sing it out. And yet, methinks, I do not like this tune. Jul. You do not ? Luc. No, madam; it is too sharp. Nay, now you are too flat, Jul. You, minion, are too saucy. And mar the concord with too harsh a descant': Jul. The mean is drown'd with your unruly base. Jul. This babble shall not henceforth trouble me. [Tearing the letter, and throwing it down, Go, get you gone, and let the papers lie: You would be fingering them to anger me. Luc. She makes it strange, but she would be pleas'd better To be so anger'd with another letter'. Jul. Nay, would I were so anger'd with the same! Oh hateful hands, to tear such loving words! Injurious wasps, to feed on such sweet honey, [Exit. • Best sing it to the tune of "LIGHT O' LOVE."] This tune is often mentioned; the earliest authority for it, perhaps, being the "Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions,” 4to, 1578; but see Chappell's “English Song and Ballad Music,” Vol. i. p. 221, second edition. In Deloney's "Strange Histories," 8vo, 1607, "the-doleful lamentation of Lord Matrevers," &c. is "to the tune of Light of love." Percy Society's Reprint, p. 42. 9 too harsh a DESCANT:] "Descant" formerly signified what we now denominate variations. See also Vol. iv. p. 298. There wanteth but a MEAN] The "mean" is what is now called the tenor. ? — I BID THE BASE] The allusion of Lucetta is to the base cleff in music, and to the well-known game of prison-base, or prisoner's-base, at which "to bid the base" seems to have meant to invite to a contest who should first arrive at the base. See the note on "to bid the wind a base," in "Venus and Adonis," Vol. vi. p. 494. • To be so anger'd with another letter.] This line rhymes with the preceding one, according to the corr. fo. 1632, where best pleas'd is therefore amended to "pleas'd better." It is almost self-evident that Lucetta rhymed on making her exit; and, although she speaks as if aside, she is overheard by Julia. VOL. I. H And kill the bees that yield it with your stings! I throw thy name against the bruising stones, But twice, or thrice, was Proteus written down: Except mine own name; that some whirlwind bear And throw it thence into the raging sea. Lo! here in one line is his name twice writ,— "Poor forlorn Proteus: passionate Proteus To the sweet Julia:"—that I'll tear away; And yet I will not, sith so prettily He couples it to his complaining names. Now kiss, embrace, contend, do what you will. Luc. What! shall these papers lie like tell-tales here? Luc. Nay, I was taken up for laying them down; Yet here they shall not lie for catching cold. Jul. I see, you have a month's mind unto them". • And thus I SEARCH it] To "search" a wound is to probe it, or tent it. Respecting tent, see Vol. iv. p. 510. 5 — 8 MONTH'S MIND UNTO them.] A" month's mind " is here equivalent to "a great mind" or strong inclination; "A month's mind" in its "ritual sense," is a month's remembrance; and when Nash wrote his "Martin's Month's Mind," 4to, 1589, he applied it in that way: it was a month's remembrance of Martin Mar-prelate. The ritual "Month's Mind" was derived from times prior to the Reformation, when masses were said for a stated period in memory of the dead: hence they were also called "Month's Memories," and "Month's monuments." "Unto," for to, is from the corr. fo. 1632, and it amends the measure without the slightest violence to the meaning. |