JUL. Why not on Proteus, as of all the reft? Luc. Then thus, beft. JUL. Your reason? of many good I think him Luc. I have no other but a woman's reafon ; I think him fo, because I think him fo. JUL. And would'ft thou have me caft my love Luc. Ay, if you thought your love not caft away. fmall. Luc. Fire, that is closeft kept, burns most of all. love. Luc. O, they love leaft, that let men know their JUL. To Julia, Say, from whom? Luc. That the contents will fhew. JUL. Say, fay; who gave it thee? Luc. Sir Valentine's page; and fent, I think, He would have given it you, but I, being in the way, 6 a goodly broker!) A broker was used for matchmaker, fometimes for a procurefs. JOHNSON. Now, truft me, 'tis an office of great worth, There, take the paper, fee it be return'd; Or elfe return no more into my fight. LUC. To plead for love deferves more fee than hate. JUL. Will you be gone? Luc. That you may ruminate. (Exit, JUL. And yet, I would I had o'erlook'd the letter. It were a fhame, to call her back again, So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rofamond, 1599: 7 "And flie (o flie) these bed-brokers unclean, -Say No, to that, &c. (A paraphrafe on the old proverb, "Maids fay nay, and take it.' STEEVENS. N 3 That you might kill your ftomach on your meat, And not upon your maid. Nothing concerning me. Luc. To take a paper up that I let fall. JUL. And is that paper nothing? Luc. JUL. Then let it lie for thofe that it concerns. Luc. Madam, it will not lie where it concerns, Unless it have a falfe interpreter. JUL. Some love of yours hath writ to you in rhime. Luc. That I might fing it, madam, to a tune : Give me a note: your ladyfhip can set. JUL. As little by fuch toys as may be poffible: Beft fing it to the tune of Light'o love. 9 Luc. It is too heavy for fo light a tune. JUL. Heavy? belike, it hath fome burden then. Luc. Ay; and melodious were it, would you fing it. JUL. And why not you? 8 ftomach on your meat,) Stomach was used for passion or obftinacy. JOHNSON. 9 Light o' love.) This tune is given in a note on Much ad♦ about Nothing, A& III. fc. iv. STEEVENS. Luc. I cannot reach fo high. JUL. Let's fee your fong:-How now, minion? Luc. Keep tune there ftill, fo you will fing it out: And yet, methinks, I do not like this tune. JUL. You do not? Luc. No, madam; it is too fharp. JUL. You, minion, are too faucy. Luc. Nay, now you are too flat, And mar the concord with too harsh a descant:2 Luc. Indeed, I bid the bafe for Proteus.* -too harsh a defcant: ] Defcant is a term in mufic. See Sir John Hawkin's note on the firft fpeech in K. Richard III. STEEVENS. 3 11 - but a mean, &c.] The mean is the tenor in mufic. So, in the interlude of Mary Magdalen's Repentance 1569; "Utilitie can fing the bafe full cleane, "And noble honour fhall fing the meane." STEEVENS. 4 Indeed I bid the bafe for Proteus.] The fpeaker here turns the allufion (which her miftrefs employed) from the base in mufick to a country exercise, Bid the bafe: 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 Proteus's paffion. He ufes the fame allufion in his Venus and Adonis: To bid the winds a bafe he now prepares." And in his Cymbeline he mentions the game: Lads more like "To run the country bafe." WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton is not quite accurate. The game was not called Bid the Bafe, but the Bafe. To bid the bafe means here, I believe, to challenge to a conteft. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: To bid the wind a bafe he now prepares, "And wh'er he run, or fly, they knew not whether." Again, in Hall's Chronicle, fol. 98. b. "The queen marched from York to Wakefield, and bade bafe to the duke, even before his caftle." MALONE.. JUL. This babble fhall not henceforth trouble me. Here is a coil with proteftation!— [Tears the letter. 4 Go, get you gone; and let the papers lie: Luc. She makes it strange; but she would be To be fo anger'd with another letter. [Exit. O hateful hands, to tear fuch loving words! And here is writ-kind Julia;-unkind Julia! I throw thy name against the bruifing ftones, And thus I fearch it with a fovereign kifs. But twice, or thrice, was Proteus written down?" Except mine own name; that fome whirlwind bear And throw it thence into the raging fea! Lo, here in one line is his name twice writ, Mr. Malone's explanation of the verb-bid, is unquestionably juft. So, in one of the parts of K. Henry VI : "Of force enough to bid his brother battle." STEEVENS. --written down?] To write down is fill a provincial ex preffion for to write. HENLEY. |