· Poor forlorn Proteus, pasjonale Proteus,

To the sweet Julia ;--that I'll tear away;
And yet I will not, fith so prettily
He couples it to his complaining names :
I hus will I fold them one upon another;
Now kiss, embrace, contend, do what you will.

Re-enter LUCETTA.

Luc. Madam, dinner's ready, and your father

flays. Jul. Well, let us go. Luc. What, shall these papers lie like tell-tales

here? JUL. If you respect them, best 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 see, you have a month's mind to them."

6 Yet here they Mall not lie, for catching cold.] That is, as Mr. M. Mafon observes, left they should catch cold. This mode of expression (he adds) is not frequent in Shakspeare, but occurs in every play of Beaumont and Fletcher. So, in The Captain :

" We'll have a bib, for spoiling of your doublet." Again, in Love's Pilgrimage :

“ Stir my horse, for catching cold.” Again, in The Pilgrim :

- All her face patch'd, for discovery." To these I shall add another instance from Barnabie Riche's Souldiers Wishe to Briton's Welfare, or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill, 1604. p. 64: "--fuch other ill disposed persons, being once preised, must be kept with continual guard, &c. for running away.'

STEEVENS. ? I see you have a month's mind to them, ] A month's mind was an anniversary in times of popery; as Mr. Ray calls it, a less solemnity dire&ted by the will of the deceased. There was also a year's mind, and a week's mind. See Proverbial Phrases.

This appears from the interrogatories and observations against the clergy, in the year 1552:

" Whether there are any

or

Inter. 7:

Luc. Ay, madam, you may say what fights you

fee; I see things too, although you judge I wink. Jul. Come, come, will’t please you go?

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

The same.

A Room in Antonio's House.

Enter ANTONIO and PANTHINO.

8

Ant. Tell me, Panthino, what sad talks was that, Wherewith my brother held you in the cloister?

Pan. 'Twas of his nephew Proteus, your fon.

months' minds, and anniversaries? Strype's Memorials of the Reformation, Vol. ll. p. 354.

" Was the month's mind of Sir William Laxton, who died the last month (July 1556.) his hearse burning with wax, and the morrow mass celebrated, and a sermon preached,” &c. Strype's Niem. Vol. III. p. 305. GREY.

A month's mind, in the ritual sense, signifies not desire or inclination, but remembrance; yet I suppose this is the true original of the expression. JOHNSON.

In Hampshire, and other western counties, for " I can't remember it," they say, " I can't mind it." BLACKSTONE.

Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry 1589, chap. 24. speaking of Poetical Lamentations, says, they were chiefly used “at the burials of the dead, also at month's minds, and longer times :" and in the church wardens' accompts of St. Helen's in Abingdon, Berkshire, 1558, these month's minds, and the expences attending thein, are frequently mentioned. Instead of month's minds, they are sometimes called month's monuments, and in the Injuncions of K. Edward VI. anemories, Injun&. 21. By memories, says Fuller, we understand the Obsequia for the dead, which some say succeeded in the place of the hcathen Parentalia.

If this line was designed for a verse, we should read-monthes mind. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream :

co Svifter thaù the moones sphere." Both these are the Saxon genitive case. STEEVENS. --whut sad talk--- ] Sad is the same as grave or serious.

JOHNSON.

8

ANT. Why, what of him ?
PAN.
He wonder'd, that

your lordship
Would suffer him to spend his youth at home;
While other men, of slender reputation,
Put forth their sons to seek 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 said, that Proteus, 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.

ANT. Nornced'lt thou much importune me to that Whereon this month I have been hammering.

8

So, in The Wise Woman of Hogfden, 1638:

Marry, fir knight, I saw them in sad talk,

“ But to say they were direály whispering,” &c. Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 15,78: “ The king feigneth to talk sadly with some of his counsel."

STEEVENS. of slender reputation, ] i. e. who are thought flightly of, are of little consequence. STEEVENS.

9 Some to discover islands far away;] In Shakspeare'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 frequenily alludes, and not without high commendations of it. WARBURTON.

---great impeachmeant to his age, ] Impeachment, as Mr. M. Mason very juftly observes, in this initance fignifies reproach or imputation. So Demetrius says to Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream :

" You do impeach your modesty too much,
* To leave the ciiy, and commit yourself
• Into the hands of one that loves you not." STEEVENS.

I have consider'd well his loss 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 swift course of time:
Then tell me, whither were I best to send 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 sent

him thither:
There shall he practice tilts and tournaments.
Hear sweet discourse, converse with noblemen ;
And be in eye of every exercise,
Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth.

Ant. I like thy counsel ; well halt thou advis’d:
And, that thou may'st perceive how well I like it,
The execution of it shall make known;
Even with the speediest expedition
I will dispatch him to the emperor's court.
PANT. To-morrow, may it please you, Don Al-

phonso,

3 Attends the emperor in his royal court. ] Shakspeare has been guilty of no mistake in placing the emperor's court at Milan in this play.

Several of the first 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 contradidion 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, or viceroys, under the emperors, and removeable 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, frequentiy refided at Milan." STEEVENS.

With other gentlemen of good esteem,
Are journeying to salute the emperor,
And to commend their service to his will.
Ant. Good company; with them fhall Proteus

go: And, in good time, “_now will we break with him.

Enter PROTEUS.

PRO. Sweet love! sweet lincs! sweet life!
Here is her hand, the agent of her heart;
Here is her oath for love, her honour's pawn :
O, that our fathers would applaud our loves,
To seal our happiness with their consents!
O 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 see 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 stand you affected to his wish?

4

in good time, ] In good time was the old expression when something happened that suited the thing in hand, as the French say, à propos. JOHNSON. So, in Richard III. " And, in good time, here comes the sweating lord."

STEEVENS. - now will we break with him. ] That is, break the matter to him.

The same phrase occurs in Much Ado about Nothing, Aa I. fc. i. M. MASON.