the fingers, and made fast with glue. Their use is referred to in the next line, to 'tune' the strings, i.e., to 'stop' the string accurately at each semitone.
There is a quaint illustration of ll. 1135–6, about the nightingale singing 'against a thorn' to keep her awake, in the words of a favourite old part song of King Henry VIII., 'By a bank as I lay,' where the poem has these lines on the nightingale—
'She syngeth in the thyke; and under her brest
A pricke, to kepe hur fro sleepe.'
In close connection with this is the conversation between Julia and her maid Lucetta, in Two Gent. 1/2, 76–93, about the letter from Proteus.
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
