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Hor. I am afraid, fir, do what you can,

Enter Biondello.

Yours will not be intreated: Now, where's my wife?
Bion. She fays, you have fome goodly jeft in hand
She will not come: fhe bids you come to her.
Pet. Worfe and worfe; fhe will not come !
Oh vile, intolerable, not to be endur'd:
Sirrah, Grumio, go to your mistress,

Say, I command her to come to me. [Exit Grumio.
Hor. I know her answer.

Pet. What?

Hor. She will not.

Pet. The fouler fortune mine, and there's an end.

Enter Catharine.

Bap. Now, by my hollidame, here comes Catharine!
Cath. What is your will, fir, that you fend for me?
Pet. Where is your fifter, and Hortenfio's wife?
Gath. They fit conferring by the parlour fire.
Pet. Go fetch them hither; if they deny to come,
Swinge me them foundly forth unto their hufbands:
Away, I fay, and bring them hither straight.

[Exit Catharine.
Luc. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.
Hor. And fo it is; I wonder, what it bodes.
Pet. Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet

life,

And awful rule, and right fupremacy;

And, to be short, what not, that's fweet and happy.
Bap. Now fair befal thee, good Petruchio!
The wager thou haft won; and I will add
Unto their loffes twenty thousand crowns;
Another dowry to another daughter,
For fhe is chang'd, as fhe had never been.
Pet. Nay, I will win my wager better yet;

And

And fhow more fign of her obedience,
Her new-built virtue and obedience.

Re-enter Catharine, Bianca, and Widow.
See, where she comes, and brings your froward wives
As prisoners to her womanly perfuafion.

Catharine, that cap of yours becomes you not;
Off with that bauble, throw it under foot.

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[She pulls off her cap, and throws it down. Wid. Lord, let me never have a cause to figh, 'Till I be brought to fuch a filly pafs!

Bian. Fy! what a foolish duty call you this? Luc. I would your duty were as foolish too!. The wifdom of your duty, fair Bianca, Coft me an hundred crowns fince fupper-time. Bian. The more fool you, for laying on my duty. Pet. Catharine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong

women,

What duty they do owe their lords and husbands. Wid. Come, come, you're mocking; we will have no telling.

Pet. Come on, I fay; and firft begin with her.
Wid. She fhall not.

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Pet. I fay, fhe fhall; and firft begin with her.
Cath. Fy! fy! unknit that threat'ning, unkind

brow;

And dart not fcornful glances from thofe eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor :
It blots thy beauty as frofts bite the meads
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds
And in no fenfe is meet or amiable."

;

A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-feeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And, while it is fo, none fo dry or thirsty
Will deign to fip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy fovereign; one that cares for thee,

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And

And for thy maintenance: commits his body
To painful labour both by fea and land;
To watch the night in ftorms, the day in cold,
While thou ly'st warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands,
But love, fair looks, and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt,
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even fuch a woman oweth to her husband:
And when fhe's froward, peevish, fullen, four,
And not obedient to his honeft will;
What is the but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am afham'd, that women are fo fimple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or feek for rule, fupremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to ferve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world;
But that our foft conditions, and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great; my reason, haply, more,
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown:
But now, I fee, our launces are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare;
That seeming to be moft, which we indeed least are.
• Then vail your ftomachs, for it is no boot;
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,

My hand is ready, may it do him ease.

Pet. Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kifs me, Kate.

Luc. Well, gothy ways, old lad; for thou shalt ha't. •Then vail your ftomachs—] i. e. lower your refentments. STEEV

Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are toward. Luc. But a harsh hearing, when women are fra

ward.

Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to-bed :

We three are married, but you two are fped. 'Twas I won the wager, tho' you hit the 7 white; And, being a winner, God give you good night! [Exeunt Petruchio and Catharine.

Hor. Now go thy ways, thou haft tam'd a curst fhrow.

Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam'd [Exeunt omnes.*

fo.

Though you bit the white.] To hit the white is a phrafe borrowed from archery: the mark was commonly white. Here it alludes to the name Bianca, or white. JOHNSON.

* At the conclufion of this piece, Mr. Pope continued his infertions from the old play as follows:

Enter two fervants, bearing Sly in his own apparel, and leaving him on the ftage. Then enter a Tapfter.

Sly. [awaking.] Sim, give's fome more wine—what, all the players gone? am I not a lord?

Tap. A lord, with a murrain? come, art thou drunk ftill?

Sly. Who's this? Tapfter! oh, I bave had the bravest dream that ever thou beard'ft in all thy life.

Tap. Yea, marry, but thou hadst beft get thee home, for your wife will curfe you for dreaming here all night.

Sly. Will be? I know how to tame a fhrew. I dreamt upon it all this night, and thou haft wak'd me out of the best dream that ever I bad. But I'll to my wife, and tame her too if she anger me.

Thefe paffages, which have been hitherto printed as part of the work of Shakespeare, I have funk into the notes, that they may be preferved, as they are neceffary to the integrity of the piece, though they really compofe no part of it, being neither published in the folio or quarto editions. The players delivered down this comedy, among the reft, as one of Shakespeare's own; and its intrinfic merit bears fufficient evidence to the propriety of their decifion. Mr. Pope is the only person who appears to have met with the old fpurious play of the fame name. The fpeech which he has quoted from hence, bears little refemblance, in my opinion, to the ftile of Shakespeare; and, if I am not mistaken, exhibits fe veral words, which he has employed in no other of his pieces. It

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may likewise be remarked, that the old copy of this play, dated 1607, from which Mr. Pope inferted fuch paffages as are now degraded, does not appear to have reached the hands of Dr. Warburton, who inherited all the reft which his friend had enumerated. For this copy I have repeatedly advertised, with fuch offers as might have tempted any indigent owner to have fold it, and, I hope, in fuch terms as might have procured me the loan of it from those who preferved it only on account of its rarity. It was, however, neither to be bought, borrowed, or heard of. I would therefore, excufe myself for having left fuch parts out of the text, as I do not believe to be genuine, for the fame reason that Bernini declined the task of repairing a famous though mutilated statue, because I am unwilling to unite ftucco with Grecian marble.

I must add a few more reafons why I neither believe the former comedy of the Taming the Shrew, 1607, nor the old play of King John in two parts, to have been the work of Shakespeare. He generally followed every novel or hiftory from whence he took his plots, as clofely as he could; and is fo often indebted to these ori ginals for his very thoughts and expreffions, that we may fairly pronounce him not to have been above borrowing, to spare himfelf the labour of invention. It is therefore probable, that both thefe plays, (like that of Hen. V. in which Oldcastle is introduced) were the unfuccefsful performances of contemporary authors. Shakespeare faw they were meanly written, and yet that their plans were fuch as would furnish incidents for a better dramatift. He therefore might lazily adopt the order of their fcenes, ftill writing the dialogue anew, and inferting little more from either piece, than a few lines which he might think worth preferving, or was too much in hafte to alter. It is no uncommon thing in the literary world to fee the track of others followed by those who would never have given themselves the trouble to mark out one of their own. STEEVENS.

From this play the Tatler formed a story, vol. iv. No. 231.

"T

HERE are very many ill habits that might with much ease have been prevented, which, after we have indulged ourfelves in them, become incorrigible. We have a fort of proverbial expreffion, of taking a woman down in her wedding shoes, if you would bring her to reafon. An early behaviour of this fort, had a very remarkable good effect in a family wherein I was feveral years an intimate acquaintance.

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"A gentleman in Lincoln fhire had four daughters, three of which were early married very happily; but the fourth, though no way inferior to any of her fifters, either in perfon or accomplishments, had from her infancy difcovered fo imperious a temper, (ufually called a high fpirit) that it continually made great uneafinefs in

the

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