Eric, The reference is to "The Courtship of Miles Standish" where John Alden is sent by Standish to propose to Priscilla Mullins on Standish's behalf, whereby Mullins says “Why don’t you speak for yourself, John?”
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priscilla_Alden She is known to literary history as the unrequited love of newly widowed Captain Miles Standish<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Standish>, the colony's military advisor, in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow>'s 1858 poem The Courtship of Miles Standish<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Courtship_of_Miles_Standish>. According to the poem, Standish asked his good friend John Alden<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alden> to propose to Priscilla on his behalf, only to have Priscilla ask, “Why don’t you speak for yourself, John?” Rafe in Bent Mt. VA _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.wbmutbb.com/
