Which cannot perish, having thee aboard, SCENE II. [Exeunt. The same. Garden of JULIA's house. Enter JULIA and LUCETTA. Jul. But say, Lucetta, now we are alone, That every day with parle encounter me, Luc. Please you, repeat their names, I'll shew my mind According to my shallow simple skill. Jul. What think'st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour ? Luc. As of a knight well-spoken, neat and fine; But, were I you, he never should be mine. Jul. What think'st thou of the rich Mercatio? Luc. Well of his wealth; but of himself, so, so. Jul. What think'st thou of the gentle Proteus ? Luc. Lord! lord! to see what folly reigns in us! Jul. How now! what means this passion at his name? Luc. Pardon, dear madam; 'tis a passing shame, That I, unworthy body as I am, Should censure thus on lovely gentlemen. Jul. Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest? Jul. Your reason? Luc. I have no other but a woman's reason; I think him so, because I think him so. Jul. And would'st thou have me cast my love on him? Luc. Peruse this paper, madam. Jul. To Julia,-Say, from whom? Luc. Sir Valentine's page; and sent, I think, from Proteus: There, take the paper, see it be return'd; Luc. To plead for love deserves more fee than hate. Luc. That you may ruminate. Jul. And yet, I would, I had o'erlook'd the letter. Which they would have the profferer construe, Ay. And ask remission for my folly past :- Re-enter LUCETTA. Luc. What would your ladyship? Jul. Is it near dinner-time? Luc. I would it were; That you might kill your stomach on your meat, And not upon your maid. Jul. What is't you took up So gingerly? Luc. Nothing. [5] Stomach was used for passion or obstinacy. JOHNSON. 5 [Exit. Jul. Why didst thou stoop then? Luc. Nothing concerning me. Jul. Then let it lie for those that it concerns. Jul. Some love of yours hath writ to you in rhyme. Jul. As little by such toys as may be possible: Luc. It is too heavy for so light a tune. Jul. Heavy? belike, it hath some burden then. Luc. I cannot reach so high. Jul. Let's see your song :-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. Jul. You, minion, are too saucy And mar the concord with too harsh a descant : Go, get you gone; and let the papers lie: [Tears the letter Luc. She makes it strange; but she would be best pleas'd To be so anger'd with another letter. [Exit. Jul. Nay, would I were so anger'd with the same! O hateful hands, to tear such loving words! [6] Descant is a term in music. The mean is the tenor. STEEVENS. The speaker bere turns the allusion (which her mistress employ'd) from the base in music, to a country exercise, the base in which some pursue, and others are made prisoners, WARBURTON. As in revenge of thy ingratitude, I throw thy name against the bruising stones, And throw it thence into the raging sea! Now kiss, embrace, contend, do what you will. Re-enter LUCetta. Luc. Madam, dinner's ready, and your father stays. Luc. What, shall these papers lie like tell-tales here? Yet here they shall not lie, for catching cold. Jul. I see you have a month's mind to them." The same. SCENE III. [Exeunt. A room in ANTONIO's house. Enter ANTONIO and PANTHINO. Ant. Tell me, Panthino, what sad talk was that, Wherewith my brother held you in the cloister? Pant. 'Twas of his nephew Proteus, your son. Ant. Why, what of him? [9] A month's mind was an anniversary in times of popery; or, as Mr. Ray calls it, a less solemnity directed by the will of the deceased. There was also a year's mind, and a week's mind. GRAY. A month's mind, in the ritual sense, signifies not desire or inclination, but remem brance; yet I suppose this is the true original of the expression. JOHNSON, Pant. He wonder'd, that your lordship Ant. Nor need'st thou much impórtune me to that 1 have consider'd well his loss of time And perfected by the swift course of time: How his companion, youthful Valentine, Attends the emperor in his royal court. Ant. I know it well. Pant. 'Twere good, I think, your lordship sent him thither: There shall he practise tilts and tournaments, [9] 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 sons of noblemen, and of others of the best families in England, went very frequently on these adventures. Such as the Fortescues, Collitons, Thornhills, Farmers, Pickerings, Littletons, Willoughbys, Chesters, Hawleys, Bromleys, and others. To this prevailing fashion our poet frequently alludes, and not without high commendations of it. WARBURTON. MASON. [1] Impeachment in this instance signifies reproach or imputation. [2] Shakespeare has been guilty of no mistake in placing the emperor's court at Milan in this play. Several of the ârst German emperors held their courts there occasionally, 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 same 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, of viceroys, under the emperors, and removable at their pleasure: such was the Duke of Milan mentioned in this play. Mr. M. Mason adds, that, "during the wars in Italy between Francis I. and Charles V. the latter frequently resided at Milan." STEEVENS, 13 VOL. I. I |