15 January 2024

Enter Julia and Lucetta

JULIA              But say, Lucetta, now we are alone–

Wouldst thou then counsel me to fall in love?

LUCETTA        Ay, madam, so you stumble not unheedfully.

JULIA Of all the fair resort of gentlemen

That every day with parle encounter me,

In thy opinion which is worthiest love?

LUCETTA Please you repeat their names, I’ll show my mind

According to my shallow simple skill.          (1.2.1-8)

Girls! Is this Proteus’s beloved Julia? Time will tell. The implication that they’re usually in the midst of a busy household, perhaps? But say, Lucetta, now we are alone—this is something she’s been wanting to ask for a while, perhaps, but the opportunity hasn’t been there—wouldst thou then counsel me to fall in love? Would you advise it? What do you think? (Perhaps the implication is that they’ve been talking about love more generally, and there’s now a chance to make it more personal.) Julia’s used thou, so these are perhaps friends, but Lucetta’s beginning—ay, madam—establishes that they are probably of different statuses; mistress and maid, or companion at least. Yes, madam, you might as well, responds Lucetta, so you stumble not unheedfully. So long as you don’t make a bad choice—and, in particular, so long as you take care that you don’t get yourself into any sticky situations, do anything you’ll regret, get yourself into trouble, fall pregnant… (Julia’s not really thinking along such lines; Lucetta has to, she’s more worldly, perhaps a bit older.)

Julia’s been thinking about this, not in the abstract, for some time, and her question may well be the start of a fishing expedition; there could be a sense that she’s got someone in mind already. But she’s trying to play it cool. Of all the fair resort of gentlemen that every day with parle encounter me, all those prospective suitors, gallants, gentlemen callers who keep hanging around, dropping in to give me their compliments, day after day, making overtures, courting me to the best of their ability—in thy opinion, which is worthiest love? who’s the biggest catch, the best bet? where should I bestow my favours?

Well, please you repeat their names—list them, one by one; let’s have a roll-call—and I’ll show my mind. I’ll tell you what I think of each of them, oh yes, and tell you who my favourite is, according to my shallow, simple skill. Shallowand simple has to be ironic; Lucetta can play worldly, even world-weary—so many men, so little time; so many boys, so few real men—to Julia’s innocence, or else it can be a game for the two of them, perhaps one they’ve played before, both of them entirely aware what’s at stake, and where Julia’s heart already lies…