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· Poor forlorn Proteus, paffionate Proteus, To the fweet Julia;—that I'll tear away; And yet I will not, fith so 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's ready, and your father flays.

JUL. Well, let us go.

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

JUL. If you refpect them, beft to take them up. Luc. Nay, I was taken up for laying them down: Yet here they fhall not lie, for catching cold." JUL. I fee, you have a month's mind to them."

6 Yet here they shall not lie, for catching cold.] That is, as Mr. M. Mafon obferves, left they should catch cold. This mode of expreffion (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 horfe, for catching cold."

Again, in The Pilgrim:

All her face patch'd, for discovery."

To thefe I fhall add another inftance from Barnabie Riche's Souldiers Wife to Briton's Welfare, or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill, 1604. p. 64: "-fuch other ill difpofed perfons, being once preffed, must be kept with continual guard, &c. for running away."

STEEVENS.

7 I fee you have a month's mind to them.] A month's mind was an anniversary in times of popery; ΟΙ as Mr. Ray calls it, a less folemnity directed by the will of the deceased. There was alfe 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. 7: Whether there are any

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

fee;

I fee things too, although you judge I wink,
JUL. Come, come, will't please you go?

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

The fame.

A Room in Antonio's Houfe.

Enter ANTONIO and PANTHINO.

8

ANT. Tell me, Panthino, what fad talk 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. 11. p. 354.

"Was the month's mind of Sir William Laxton, who died the laft month (July 1556.) his hearfe burning with wax, and the morrow mafs celebrated, and a fermon preached," &c. Strype's Mem. Vol. III. p. 305. GREY.'

A month's mind, in the ritual fenfe, fignifies not defire or inclination, but remembrance; yet I fuppofe this is the true original of the expreffion. JOHNSON.

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

..

"I can't re

Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry 1589, chap. 24. fpeaking of Poetical Lamentations, fays, they were chiefly used "at the burials of the dead, also at month's minds, and longer times:" and in the churchwardens' accompts of St. Helen's in Abingdon, 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, Injun&. 21. By memories, fays Fuller, we understand the Obfequia for the dead, which fome fay fucceeded in the place of the heathen Parentalia.

If this line was defigned for a verfe, we fhould read-monthes mind. So, in A Midfummer Night's Dream: Svifter than the moones fphere."

Both these are the Saxon genitive cafe.

8

STEEVENS.

——what sad talk] Sad is the fame as grave or ferious.

JOHNSON.

ANT. Why, what of him?

PAN.

He wonder'd, that your lordship
Would fuffer him to spend his youth at home;
While other men, of flender reputation,3
Put forth their fons to feek preferment out:
Some, to the wars, to try their fortune there;
Some, to discover iflands far away;'
Some, to the ftudious univerfities.
For any, or for all thefe exercifes,

He faid, that Proteus, your fon, was meet;
And did requeft me, to importune you,
To let him fpend his time no more at home,
Which would be great impeachment to his age,
In having known no travel in his youth.

2

ANT. Nor need'ft thou much impórtune me to that Whereon, this month I have been hammering.

So, in The Wife Woman of Hogfden, 1638:

"Marry, fir knight, I faw them in fad talk, "But to fay they were directly whispering," &c. Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Caffandra, 1578:

8

“The king feigneth to talk fadly with fome of his counsel."

STEEVENS.

of flender reputation, ] i. e. who are thought flightly of, are of little confequence. STEEvens.

9 Some to difcover islands far away;] In Shakspeare'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 fous of noblemen, and of others of the best families in England, went very frequently on thefe adventures. Such as the Fortescues, Collitons, Thornhills, Farmers, Pickerings, Littletons, Willoughbys, Chefters, Hawleys, Bromleys, and others. To this prevailing fathion our poet frequently alludes, and not without high commendations of it. WARBURTON.

2 great impeachmeant to his age, Impeachment, as Mr. M. Mafon very juftly obferves, in this inftance fignifies reproach or imputation. So Demetrius fays to Helena in A Midfummer Night's

Dream:

"You do impeach your modefty too much,

To leave the city, and commit yourself

"Into the hands of one that loves you not." STEEVENS.

1

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 induftry atchiev'd,

And perfected by the swift course 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,
Attends the emperor in his royal court.3
ANT. I know it well.

PANT. 'Twere good, I think, your lordship sent him thither:

There fhall he practice tilts and tournaments.
Hear fweet difcourfe, converfe with noblemen;
And be in eye of every exercife,

Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth.

ANT. I like thy counsel; well hast thou advis'd: And, that thou may'st perceive how well I like it, The execution of it fhall make known; Even with the speedieft expedition

I will dispatch him to the emperor's court.

PANT. To-morrow, may it please you, Don Alphonfo,

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 firft German emperors held their courts there occafionally, 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 fame time that the emperor held his court there. The firft dukes of that, and all the other great cities in Italy, were not fovereign princes, as they afterwards became; but were merely governors, or viceroys, under the emperors, and removeable at their pleafure. 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 refided at Milan." STEEVENS.

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With other gentlemen of good esteem,
Are journeying to falute the emperor,
And to commend their fervice 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! fweet lines! fweet 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 feal our happiness with their confents!
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 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?

4 in good time,] In good time was the old expression when fomething happened that fuited the thing in hand, as the French fay, a propos. JOHNSON.

So, in Richard III.

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

STEEVENS.

now will we break with him.] That is, break the matter The same phrase occurs in Much Ado about Nothing, A& I.

M. MASON.

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