Pet. It may not be. Gre. Let me entreat you. Pet. It cannot be. Cath. Let me intreat you. Pet. I am content Cath. Are you content to stay? Pet. I am content, you fhall intreat me, ftay; But yet not stay, intreat me how you can. Cath. Now, if you love me, ftay. Pet. Grumio, my horses. 3 Gru. Ay, Sir, they be ready: the oats have eaten the horses. Cath. Nay, then, Do what thou canft, I will not go to day; No, nor to morrow, nor 'till I please my self: Pet. O, Kate, content thee, pr'ythee, be not angry. Cath. I will be angry; what haft thou to do? Father, be quiet; he fhall ftay my leisure. Grey. Ay, marry, Sir; now it begins to work. Cath. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner. I fee, a woman may be made a fool, If she had not a spirit to refift. Pet. They fhall go forward, Kate, at thy command. Obey the Bride, you that attend on her : 3 the oats have eaten the horses.] That is the distemper fo called. Nay, Nay, look not big, nor ftamp, nor ftare, nor fret, She is my goods, my chattels, fhe is my house, Fear not, fweet wench, they fhall not touch thee, Kate; I'll buckler thee against a million. [Exeunt Pet. and Cath. Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones. Gre. Went they not quickly, I fhould die with laughing. Tra. Of all mad matches, never was the like. Bap. Neighbours and Friends, tho' Bride and Bride- For to fupply the places at the table; You know, there wants no junkets at the feaft: Tra. Shall fweet Bianca practise how to bride it? ACT ACT IV. SCENE SCENE I. Petruchio's Country House. Enter Grumio. GRUMI 0. FIE, fie on all tired jades, and all mad masters, and all foul ways! was ever man fo beaten ? was ever man fo raide? was ever man fo weary? I am fent before, to make a fire; and they are coming after, to warm them: now were I not a little pot, and foon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I fhould come by a fire to thaw me; but I with blowing the fire fhall warm my felf; for, confidering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold: holla, hoa, Curtis! Enter Curtis. Curt. Who is it that calls fo coldly? Gru. A piece of ice. If thou doubt it, thou may'ft flide from my shoulder to my heel, with no greater a run but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis. Curt. Is my mafter and his wife coming, Grumio? Gru. Oh, ay, Curtis, ay; and therefore, fire, fire; caft on no water. Curt. Is fhe fo hot a Shrew, as fhe's reported? Gru. She was, good Curtis, before this froft; but thou know'ft, winter tames man, woman and beast; for 1 Gru. ·winter tames man, rwoman and beaft; for it hath tam'd my old mafter, and my new miftrefs, and MY felf, fellow Curtis. Curt. Away, you three-inch'd fool; I am no beaft] Why had Grumio called him one? to give his refentment any colour. We muft for it hath tam'd my old master, and my new mistress, and thy felf, fellow Curtis. 2 Curt. Away, you three-inch'd fool; I am no beast. Gru. Am I but three inches? 3 why, thy horn is a foot, and fo long am I at the leaft. But wilt thou make a fire, or fhall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand, fhe being now at hand, thou shalt foon feel to thy cold comfort, for being flow in thy hot office. Curt. I pr'ythee, good Grumio, tell me, how goes the world? Gru. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and, therefore, fire: do thy duty, and have thy duty; for my master and mistress are almost frozen to death. Curt. There's fire ready; and therefore, good Grumio, the news. Gru. Why, Jack boy, bo boy, and as much news as thou wilt. Curt. Come, you are fo full of cony catching. Gru. Why, therefore, fire; for I have caught extream cold. Where's the cook? is fupper ready, the houfe trimm'd, rufhes ftrew'd, cobwebs fwept, the fervingmen in their new fustian, their white ftockings, muft read as, without question, Shakespear wrote, and THY felf, fellow Curtis. Why Grumio faid that winter had tamed Curtis was for his flownefs in fhewing Grumio to a good fire. Befides, all the joke confifts in the fenfe of this alteration. 2 Away you three-inch'd fool;] i. e. with a fcull three inches thick, a phrase taken from the thicker fort of planks. 3 Why thy born is a foot, and fo long am I at leaft.] Tho all the copies agree in this reading, Mr. Theobald fays, yet he cannot find what horn Curtis bad; therefore he alters it to my born. But the common reading is right, and the meaning is that he had made Curtis a cuckold. 4 Jack boy, &c.] fragment of fome old ballad. and and every officer his wedding garment on? 5 be the Jacks fair within, the Jills fair without, carpets laid, and every thing in order? Curt. All ready and therefore, I pray thee, what news? Gru. First, know, my horfe is tired, my mafter and mistress fall'n out. Curt. How? Gru. Out of their faddles into the dirt; and thereby hangs a tale. Curt. Let's ha't, good Grumio. Gru. Lend thine ear. Curt. Here. Gru. There. [Strikes bim. Curt. This is to feel a tale, not to hear a tale. Gru. And therefore 'tis call'd a fenfible tale: and this cuff was but to knock at your ear, and beseech liftning. Now I begin: imprimis, we came down a foul hill, my mafter riding behind my mistress. Curt. Both on one horse? Gru. What's that to thee? Curt. Why, a horse. - Gru. "Tell thou the tale But hadft thou "not croft me, thou fhould't have heard how her "horfe fell, and fhe under her horse: thou fhould'st "have heard in how miry a place, how fhe was be. "moil'd, how he left her with the horse upon her, "how he beat me because her horfe ftumbled, how "fhe waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; "how he fwore, how the pray'd that never pray'd "before; how I cry'd; how the horfes ran away; << how her bridle was burft; how I loft my crupper; "with many things of worthy memory, which now 5 Be the Jacks fair within, the Jills fair without ?] i. e. Are the drinking veffels clean, and the maid fervants dress'd? But the Oxford Editor alters it thus, Are the Jacks fair without, the Jills fair within? What his conceit is in this, I confefs I know not. fhall |