Yea, and to marry her, if her dowry please.

Gre. So said, so done, is well:
Hortensio, have you told him all her faults?

Pet. I know, she is an irksome brawling scold;
If that be all, mafters, I hear no harm.

Gre. No, fay'st me so, friend? what countryman?

Pet. Born in Verona, old Antonio's fon :
My father's dead, my fortune lives for me ;
And I do hope good days and long to fee.
Gre. Oh, sir, such a life with such a wife were

strange :
But, if you have a ftomach, to't, o'God's name;
You shall have me affifting you in all.
But will you woo this wild cat?

Pet. Will I live?
Gru. Will he woo her? ay, or I'll hang her.

Pet. Why came I hither, but to that intent?
Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
Have I not in my time heard lions roar ?
Have I not heard the sea, puff’d up with winds,
Rage like an angry boar, chafed with sweat ?
Have I not heard great ordinance in the field ?
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitched battle heard
Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and+ trumpet's clang?
And do ye tell me of a woman's tongue,

4 —and trumpets clang?] Probably the word clang is here vsed adjectively, as in the Paradise Lost. b. xi, v. 829, and not as a verb.

an isla á falt an bare,
The haunt of jeals, and ores, and sia-mews clang.

WARTON. I believe Mr. Warton is mistaken. Clang as a substantive, is used in The Noble Gentleman of Beaumont and Fletcher:

I hear the clang of trumpets in this huf?. be trumpet's clang is certainly the clang of trumpets, and not an epithet bestowed on that instrument. STEEVENS.

That

That gives not half so great a blow to the ears
As will a chesnut in a farmer's fire ?
Tush, tush ! fear boys with bugs.

Gru. For he fears none.

Gre. Hortenfio, hark !
This gentleman is happily arriv’d,
My mind presumes, for his own good, and ours.

Hor. I promis’d, we would be contributors;
And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe'er.

Gre. And so we will ; provided that he win her Gru. I would I were as sure of a good dinner.

To them Tranio bravely apparelld, and Biondello. Tra. Gentlemen, God save you! if I may be bold, Tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way To the house of signior Baptista Minola ?

Bion. He that has the two fair daughters ? ? Is’t he you mean?

Tra. Even he, Biondello.
Gre. Hark you, fir; you mean not her to
Tra. Perhaps him and her, sir: What have you

to do?
Pet. Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray.
Tra. I love no chiders, fir: Biondello, let's away.
Luc. Well begun, Tranio.
Hor. Sir, a word ere you go :-

$ That gives not half so great a blow 10 HEAR,] This aukward phrase could never come from Shakespeare. He wrote, without question, -fo great a blow to Th’EAR.

WARBURTON. .-wib bugs.] i. c. with bug-bears. So in Cymbeline,

are become

The mortal bugs o'tb' field. STEVENS. ? He that has the two fair daughters, &c.) This speech should rather be given to Gremio ; to whom, with the others, Tranio has addressed himself. The following passages might be written thus,

Tra. Even he. Biondello!
Ģre, Hark you, fir ; you mean not ber too. T. T.

Are

Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea or no?

Tra. An if I be, fir, is it any offence ?
Gre. No; if without more words you will

get you hence. Tra. Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me, as for you?

Gre. But so is not the.
Tra. For what reason, I beseech you

?
Gre. For this reason, if you'll know,-
That she's the choice love of signior Gremio.

Hor. That she's the chosen of signior Hortensio.
Tra. Softly, my masters ! if

masters ! if you be gentlemen,
Do me this right; hear me with patience.
Baptista is a noble gentleman,
To whom my father is not all unknown;
And, were his daughter fairer than the is,
She may more suitors have, and me for one.
Fair Leda's daughter had a thousand wooers ;
Then well one more may fair Bianca have;
And so she shall. Lucentio shall make one,
Tho' Paris came, in hope to speed alone.

Gre. What, this gentleman will out-talk us all! Luc, Sir, give him head; I know, he'll prove a

jade. Pet. Hortensio, to what end are all these words?

Hor. Sir, let me be so bold as to ask you, Did you yet ever see Baptista's daughter ?

Tra. No, fir; but hear I do, that he hath two: The one as famous for a scolding tongue, As the other is for beauteous modesty.

Pet. Sir, fir, the first's for me ; let her go by.

Gre. Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules; And let it be more than Alcides' cwelve.

Pet. Sir, understand you this of me, insooth:The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for, Her father keeps from all access of suitors, And will not promise her to any man, Until the eldest filter first be wed:

The

The younger then is free, and not before.

Tra. If it be so, sir, that you are the man Must stead us all, and me amongst the rest; And if you break the ice, and do this feat, Atchieve the elder, set the younger free For our access,—whose hap shall be to have her, Will not so graceless be, to be ingrate.

Hor. Sir, you say well, and well you do conceive : And since you do profess to be a suitor, You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman, To whom we all rest generally beholden.

Tra. Sir, I shall not be sack: in sign whereof, Please ye, we may contrive this afternoon, And quaff carouses to our mistress' health ; And do as adversaries do in law, Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. Gru. Bion. O excellent motion! Fellows, let's be

gone. Hor. The motion's good indeed, and be it so, Petruchio, I shall be your ben venulo. {Exeunt.

[The Presenters, above, Speak here. I Man. My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play.

Sly. Yea, by St. Ann, do I. A good matter, surely, - comes there any more of it? Lady. My Lord, 'tis but begun.

Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, nadam lady. 'Would, 'rwere done!

• Please ge, we may contrive this afternoon,] Mr. Theobald aks echat they were to contrive? and then says, a foolish corruptiin pojSibes the place, and so alters it to convive; in which he is followed, as he pretty constantly is, when wrong, by the Oxford editor. But the common reading is right, and the critic was only ignorant of the meaning of it. Contrive does not signify here to project but to spend, and wear out.

As in this passage of Spenser,
Three ages such as mortal men CONTRIVE.

Fairy Queen. b. xi. ch. 9.

WARBURTON. The word is used in the same sense of spending or wearing out in the Palace of Pleasure. JOHNSON.

ACT

Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea or no?

Tra. An if I be, fir, is it any offence ?
Gre. No; if without more words you will

get you hence. Tra. Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me, as for you?

Gre. But fo is not the.
Tra. For what reason, I beseech you ?

Gre. For this reason, if you'll know,----
That she's the choice love of signior Gremio.

Her. That she's the chosen of signior Hortensio.

Tra. Softly, my masters ! if you be gentlemen, Do me this right; hear me with patience. Baptista is a noble gentleman, To whom my father is not all unknown; And, were his daughter fairer than the is, She may more suitors have, and me for one. Fair Leda's daughter had a thousand wooers; Then well one more may fair Bianca bave; And so she shall. Lucentio shall make one, Tho' Paris came, in hope to speed alone.

Gre. What, this gentleman will out-talk us all! Luc. Sir, give him head; I know, he'll prove a

jade. Pet. Hortensio, to what end are all these words?

Hor. Sir, let me be so bold as to ask you, Did you yet ever see Baptista's daughter?

Tra. No, fir; but hear I do, that he hath two: The one as famous for a scolding tongue, As the other is for beauteous modesty.

Pei. Sir, fir, the first's for me; let her go by.

Gre. Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules; And let it be more than Alcides twelve.

Pet. Sir, understand you this of me, infooth :The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for, Her father keeps from all access of suitors, And will not promise her to any man, Until the eldest fifter first be wed:

The