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 those that it concerns. Luc. Madam, it will not lie where it concerns, Unless it have a false interpreter.

Jul. Some love of yours hath writ to you, in rhyme. Luc. That I might sing it, madam, to a tune:

Give me a note: your ladyship can set.

Jul. As little by such toys as may be possible: Best sing it to the tune of Light o' love." Luc. It is too heavy for so light a tune. Jul. Heavy? belike, it hath some burden then. Luc. Ay; and melodious were it, would you sing it. Jul. And why not you?

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.
Luc. Nay, now you are too flat,

And mar the concord, with too harsh a descant:"
There wanteth but a mean, to fill your song.

6

8

Jul. The mean is drown'd with your unruly base.
Luc. Indeed, I bid the base for Proteus.9

Light o' love.] This tune is given in a note on Much Ado About Nothing, Act III. sc. iv. Steevens.

7

too harsh a descant:] Descant is a term in music. See Sir John Hawkins's note, on the first speech in K. Richard III. Steevens.

8

but a mean, &c.] The mean is the tenor in music. So, in the interlude of Mary Magdalen's Repentance, 1569:

"Utilitie can sing the base full cleane,

"And noble honour shall sing the meane." Steevens.

9 Indeed, I bid the base for Proteus.] The speaker here turns the allusion (which her mistress employed) from the base in mu

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

[Tears the letter.

Go, get you gone; and let the papers lie:

You would be fingering them, to anger me.

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! Injurious wasps! to feed on such sweet honey, And kill the bees, that yield it, with your stings! I'll kiss each several paper for amends, And, here is writ-kind Julia;-unkind Julia! As in revenge of thy ingratitude,

I throw thy name against the bruising stones,
Trampling contemptuously on thy disdain.
Look, here is writ-love-wounded Proteus :—
Poor wounded name! my bosom, as a bed,
Shall lodge thee, till thy wound be thoroughly heal'd;
And thus I search it with a sovereign kiss.
But twice, or thrice, was Proteus written down?1
Be calm, good wind, blow not a word away,
Till I have found each letter in the letter,
Except mine own name; that some whirlwind bear

sick to a country exercise, Bid the base: in which some pursue, and others are made prisoners. So that Lucetta would intend, by this, to say, Indeed I take pains to make you a captive to Proteus's passion. He uses the same allusion, in his Venus and Adonis: "To bid the winds a base he now prepares."

And, in his Cymbeline, he mentions the game:

Lads more like

"To run the country base."

Warburton.

Dr. Warburton is not quite accurate. The game was not called Bid the Base, but the Base. To bid the base means here, I believe, to challenge to a contest. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: "To bid the wind a base 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 base to the duke, even before his castle." Malone.

Mr. Malone's explanation of the verb-bid, is unquestionably just. So, in one of the parts of K. Henry VI:

1

"Of force enough to bid his brother battle." Steevens.

written down?] To write down, is still a provincial expression, for to write. Henley.

Unto a ragged, fearful, hanging rock,
And throw it thence into the raging sea!

Lo, here in one line is his name twice writ.-
Poor forlorn Proteus, passionate Proteus,

To the sweet Julia; that I'll tear away;
And yet I will not, sith so prettily
He couples it to his complaining names;
Thus 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 stays. 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.2 Jul. I see, you have a month's mind to them.3

2 Yet here they shall not lie, for catching cold.] That is, as Mr. M. Mason observes, lest 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 Britons Welfare, or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill, 1604, p. 64: "--such other ill disposed persons, being once pressed must be kept with continuall guard, &c. for running away." Again, in Chapman's version of the first Iliad:

then forked anchor cast,

"And 'gainst the violence of storms, for drifting made her

fast."

Again, in Tusser's Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, 1586: "Take heed how thou laiest the bane for the rats,

"For poisoning thy servant, thyself, and thy brats." Steevens. 3 I see, 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 less solemnity, directed 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, Inter. 7: "Whether there are any months' minds, and anniversaries?" Strype's Memorials of the Reformation, Vol. II. p. 354.

Luc. Ay, madam, you may say what sights you see; I see things too, although you judge I wink. Jul. Come, come, will 't please you go?

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

The same. 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?

"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 Mem. 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 churchwardens' accompts of St. Helen's in Abingdon, Berkshire, 1558, these month's minds, and the expenses attending them, are frequently mentioned. Instead of month's minds, they are sometimes called month's monuments, and in the Injunctions of K. Edward VI. memories, Injunct. 21. By memories, says Fuller, we understand the Obsequia for the dead, which some say succeeded in the place of the heathen Parentalia.

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

"Swifter than the moones sphere." Both these are the Saxon genitive case.

4

Steevens.

what sad talk -] Sad is the same as grave, or serious.

So, in The Wise Woman of Hogsden, 1638:

"Marry, sir knight, I saw them in sad talk,
"But to say they were directly whispering," &c.

Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 1578:

Johnson.

"The king feigneth to talk sadly with some of his coun

sel." Steevens.

Pant.

He wonder'd, that your lordship
Would suffer him to spend his youth at home;
While other men, of slender reputation,5

Put forth their sons to seek preferment out:
Some, to the wars, to try their fortune there;
Some, to discover islands far away;6
Some, to the studious universities.
For any, or for all, these exercises,

He said, that Proteus, your son, was meet,
And did request me, to impórtune 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. Nor need'st thou much impórtune me to that,
Wheron this month I have been hammering.

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 achiev'd,

And pérfected 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.3

5

of slender reputation,] i. e. who are thought slightly of, are of little consequence. Steevens.

6 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 frequently alludes, and not without high commendations of it. Warburton.

7 - great impeachment to his age,] Impeachment, as Mr. M. Mason very justly observes, in this instance signifies reproach or imputation. So, Demetrius says to Helena, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

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

Steevens.

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