Should censure 2 thus on lovely gentlemen.

Jul. Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest?

Luc. Then thus, — of many good I think him best.
Jul. Your reason?

Luc. I have no other but a woman's reason:

I think him so, because I think him so.

Jul. And wouldst thou have me cast my love on him?
Luc. Ay, if you thought your love not cast away.
Jul. Why, he, of all the rest, hath never moved me.
Luc. Yet he, of all the rest, I think, best loves ye.
Jul. His little speaking shows his love but small.
Luc. Fire 3 that's closest kept burns most of all.
Jul. They do not love that do not show their love.
Luc. O, they love least that let men know their love.
Jul. I would I knew his mind.

Luc. Peruse this paper, madam.

[Gives a letter.

Jul. [Reads.] To Julia.- Say, from whom?

Luc. That the contents will show.

Jul. Say, say, who gave it thee?

Luc. Sir Valentine's page; and sent, I think, from Pro

teus.

He would have given it you; but I, being in the way,
Did in your name receive it: pardon the fault, I pray.
Jul. Now, by my modesty, a goodly broker!4
Dare you presume to harbour wanton lines?
To whisper and conspire against my youth?
Now, trust me, 'tis an office of great worth;

2 Censure was continually used thus in the sense of judging or passing judgment. The next line gives an instance of on and of used interchangeably. The Poet has many such.

3 Fire is here a dissyllable. This and various other words, as hour, power, flower, dower, your, towards, &c., are used by the Poet as one or two syllables indifferently, to suit his verse.

4 Broker was often used for a match-maker or go-between; one that broke the ice between bashful lovers.

[Exit.

And you an officer fit for the place!

There, take the paper: see it be return'd;

Or else return no more into my sight.

Luc. To plead for love deserves more fee than hate.
Jul. Will ye be gone?

Luc.

That you may ruminate.

Jul. And yet I would I had o'erlook'd the letter:

It were a shame to call her back again,

And pray her to a fault for which I chid her.

What fool is she,5 that knows I am a maid,

And would not force the letter to my view!
Since maids, in modesty, say No to that
Which they would have the profferer construe Ay.
Fie, fie, how wayward is this foolish love,
That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse,
And presently, all humbled, kiss the rod !

How churlishly I chid Lucetta hence,
When willingly I would have had her here!
How angrily I taught my brow to frown,
When inward joy enforced my heart to smile!
My penance is, to call Lucetta back,

And ask remission for my folly past. —
What, ho! Lucetta!

Re-enter LUCETTA.

Luc.

What would your ladyship?

Jul. Is it near dinner-time?
Luc.

I would it were,

5 To express the sense of this passage, we should say, "What a fool she is!" The Poet repeatedly omits the article in such exclamative clauses. So in Twelfth Night, ii. 5: “What dish o' poison has she dress'd him!" And in Julius Cæsar, i. 3: "Cassius, what night is this!" Sometimes, as in the text, the original marks such omissions with an apostrophe, thus: "What' fool is she!"

That you might kill your stomach on your meat,

And not upon your maid.

Jul. What is't that you took up so gingerly?7

Luc. Nothing.

Jul. Why didst thou stoop, then?

Luc. To take a paper up that I let fall.

Jul. And is that paper nothing?

Luc. Nothing concerning me.

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.9

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 [Taking the letter]. Why, 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.

6 Stomach in the double sense of hunger and anger. and resentment are also among the meanings of stomach.

Pride, courage,

7 Gingerly is nicely, cautiously. To touch a thing gingerly, is to touch it as if it burnt the fingers.

8 A quibble upon lie, which is here used in the sense of speaking falsely. 9 Meaning set it to music. In the next line, Julia plays upon the word, taking it in the sense of set by or make account of. In reference to what follows, about Light o' Love, see Much Ado, iii. 4.

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.10

Jul. The mean is drown'd with your unruly base.
Luc. Indeed, I bid the base 11 for Proteus.

Jul. This babble shall not henceforth trouble me :
Here is a coil 12 with protestation ! -

Go get you gone, and let the papers lie :
You would be fingering them, to anger me.

[Tears the letter.

Luc. She makes it strange; but she would be best pleased To be so anger'd with another letter.

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.

Look, 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.
And here is writ Love-wounded Proteus:

[Exit.

10 Descant was sometimes used, apparently, for what we call variations. But it was also used in other senses; and here it seems to mean harmony, or music in parts, as distinguished from simple melody or solo. As Mr. White observes, "Lucetta's terms, sharp, flat, mar the concord, show that she used descant because she and her mistress were at discord, and descant meant a performance in strict harmony."- Mean was used for the intermediate part between the treble and the tenor; so named because it served as a mean or harmonizing medium. - This use of musical terms before a popular audience would seem to infer that taste and knowledge in music was a characteristic trait of " merry England in the olden time."

11 Lucetta is still quibbling, and turns the allusion off upon the rustic game of base or prison-base, in which one ran and challenged another to catch him.

12 Coil was much used for stir, bustle, or fuss. See page 105, note 8.

Poor wounded name! my bosom, as a bed,

Shall lodge thee, till thy wound be throughly 13 heal'd ;

And thus I search it with a sovereign kiss.

But twice or thrice was Proteus 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 some whirlwind bear
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 14 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.

Luc. Madam,

Re-enter LUCETTA.

Dinner is 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 15 catching cold.
Jul. I see you have a month's mind 16 to them.

18 Throughly and thoroughly are but different forms of the same word, and were used interchangeably.

14 Sith is an old form of since, and was fast giving place to the latter in Shakespeare's time. -Names, in the next line, refers, apparently, to the repetition of the name, with the epithets poor, forlorn, and passionate.

15 For was much used in the sense of because of or on account of. So that "for catching cold" means "because they will catch cold," or "lest they catch cold."

16 "A month's mind" is an old phrase for an eager desire or longing. So in Ben Johnson's Magnetic Lady: "I have a month's mind to peep a little too." And in Hudibras: "For, if a trumpet sound or drum beat, who