[See Introduction.]
L. 1140. 'Frets upon an instrument' can still be seen on the modern
mandoline, guitar, and banjo. In Shakespeare days, the viol, lute, and
cittern all had frets on the fingerboard, but they were then simply
bits of string tied round at the right places for 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._ I, ii, 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.
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