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Jul. You do not?

Luc. No, madam, 'tis too fharp.
Jul. You, minion, are too faucy.

Luc. Nay, now you are too flat,

[Boxes ber.

And mar the concord with too harsh a defcant:
There wanteth but a mean to fill your fong.

Jul. The mean is drown'd with your unruly base.
Luc. 7 Indeed I bid the base for Protheus.

Jul. This babble fhall not henceforth trouble me. Here is a coil with protestation!

Go, get you gone; and let the papers

lie:

You would be fingering them to anger me.

[Tears it.

Luc. She makes it strange; but she would be best pleas'd

To be fo anger'd with another letter.

[Exit. Jul. Nay, would I were fo anger'd with the fame! Oh hateful hands, to tear fuch loving words! Injurious wafps, to feed on such sweet honey, And kill the bees, that yield it, with your ftings! I'll kiss each several paper for amends. Look, here is writ kind Julia

As in revenge of thy, ingratitude,

unkind Julia!

I throw thy name against the bruifing ftones;
Trampling contemptuously on thy disdain.
Look, here is writ, love-wounded Protheus.
Poor wounded name! my bofom, as a bed,
Shall lodge thee, till thy wound be throughly heal'd;
And thus I fearch it with a fovereign kiss.

7 Indeed I bid the bafe for Protheus.] The fpeaker here turns the allufion (which her mittrefs employed) from the bafe in mufick to a country exercise, Bid-the baje: in which fome purfue, and others are made prifoners. So that Lucetta would intend, by this, to fay, Indeed I take pains to make you a captive to Pro.heus's paflion. He uses the fame allufion in his

Venus and Adonis:

"To bid the winds a base he now prepares." And in his Cymbeline he mentions the game:

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-Lads more like

To run the country base." WARBURTON.

But

But twice, or thrice, was Protheus written down:
Be calm, good wind, blow not a word away,
Till I have found each letter in the letter,
Except mine own name: that fome whirlwind bear
Unto a ragged, fearful, hanging rock,
And throw it thence into the raging fea!
Lo, here in one line is his name twice writ:
Poor forlorn Protheus, paffionate Protheus,
To the fweet Julia: that I'll tear away;
And yet I will not, fith fo prettily
He couples it to his complaining names:
Thus will I fold them one upon another;
Now kifs, embrace, contend, do what
you will.

Re-enter Lucetta.

Luc. Madam, dinner is ready, and your father ftays. Jul. Well, let us go.

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

Jul. I fee you have a month's mind to them.

Luc.

• 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 Phrafes.

This appears from the interrogatories and obfervations against the clergy, in the year 1552. Inter. VII. "Whether there are azy month's minds, and anniverfaries? Strype's Memorials of the Reformation, vol. 2. p. 354.

"Was the month's mind of Sir Will. Laxton, who died the "last month (July 1556.) his hearfe burning with wax, and "the morrow mafs celebrated, and a fermon preached," &c. Strype's Mem. vol. 3. 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 Poetry, 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,

H 3

Berk

fee:

Luc. Ay, madam, you may say what fights you I fee things too, although you judge I wink. Jul. Come, come, will't pleafe you go? [Exeunt.

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Enter Anthonio and Panthino.

Ant. Tell me, Panthino, 9 what fad talk was that, Wherewith my 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;
Some, to discover islands far away;
Some, to the studious universities.
For any, or for all these exercises,

He faid, that Protheus, your fon, was meet:
And did requeft me to importune you,
To let him fpend his time no more at home;

Berkshire, 1558, these month's minds, and the expences attending them, are frequently mentioned. Inftead 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 fome fay fucceeded in the place of the heathen Parentalia. STEEV, what fad talk] Sad is the fame as grave or ferious.

JOHNSON,

Some, to difcover islands far away;] In Shakespeare's time, voyages for the difcovery 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 beft families in England, went very frequently on thefe adventures. Such as the Fortefcues, Colliténs, Thornhills, Farmers, Pickerings, Littletons, Willoughbys, Chefters, Hawleys, Bromleys, and others. To this prevailing fashion our poet frequently alludes, and not without high commendations of it. WARB.

Which would be great impeachment to his age,
In having known no travel in his youth.

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

2

* 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,
Hear fweet difcourfe, converse with noblemen;
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'ft perceive how well I like it, The execution of it fhall make known; Even with the speediest expedition

I will dispatch him to the emperor's court.

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 seems 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 hiftory. 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,

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Pant. To-morrow, may it please you, Don Alphonfo, With other gentlemen of good esteem,

Are journeying to falute the emperor,

And to commend their service to his will.

Ant. Good company: with them fhall Protheus go. And, 3 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 happinefs 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;

Wifhing me with him partner of his fortune.
Ant. And how ftand you affected to his wifh?
Pro. As one relying on your lordship's will,
And not depending on his friendly wifh.

Ant. My will is fomething forted with his wish:
Mufe not that I thus fuddenly proceed;
For what I will, I will, and there's 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 thou fhalt have from me:

3 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. II.

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

STEEVENS,

To

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