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As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd:

Talk logick' with acquaintance that you have,
And practise rhetorick in your common talk:
Musick and poesy use to quicken you;
The mathematicks, and the metaphysicks,
Fall to them, as you find your stomach serves you:
No profit grows, where is no pleasure ta'en:-
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Luc. Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.
If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,
We could at once put us in readiness;

And take a lodging, fit to entertain

Such friends, as time in Padua shall beget.
But stay awhile: What company is this?

TRA. Master, some show, to welcome us to town.

Enter BAPTISTA, KATHARINA, BIANCA, GREMIO, and HORTENSIO. LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand aside.

BAP. Gentlemen, impórtune me no further,
For how I firmly am resolv'd you know;
That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter,
Before I have a husband for the elder:

If either of you both love Katharina,

Because I know you well, and love you well,
Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.
GRE. To cart her rather: She's too rough for

me:

7 TALK logick—] Old copy-Balk. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

I am by no means satisfied that the old reading is not the right one, although the word is now lost. It seems used in the same sense as here by Spenser, F. Q. b. iii. c. 2, st. 12:

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5 But to occasion him to further talk,

"To feed her humour with his pleasing style,

"Her list in stryfull termes with him to balke." Boswell. to QUICKEN you ;] i. e. animate. So, in All's Well that Ends Well:

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Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary." STEEVENS.

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There, there Hortensio, will you any wife?
KATH. I pray you, sir, [To BAP.] is it your will
To make a stale of me amongst these mates ? ?
HOR. Mates, maid! how mean you that? no
mates for you,

Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

KATH. I'faith, sir, you shall never need to fear; I wis, it is not half way to her heart:

But, if it were, doubt not her care should be
To comb your noddle with a three-legg'd stool,
And paint your face, and use you like a fool.

HOR. From all such devils, good Lord, deliver us!
GRE. And me too, good Lord!

TRA. Hush, master! here is some good pastime
toward :

That wench is stark mad, or wonderful froward.
Luc. But in the other's silence I do see
Maids' mild behaviour and sobriety.

Peace, Tranio.

TRA. Well said, master; mum! and gaze your fill.

BAP. Gentlemen, that I may soon make good What I have said,-Bianca, get you in: And let it not displease thee, good Bianca; For I will love thee ne'er the less, my girl. KATH. A pretty peat! tis best

9 Kath. I pray you, sir, is it

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your will

To make a STALE of me amongst these MATES ?] She means to say, Do you intend to make a strumpet of me among these companions?-But the expression seems to have been suggested by the chess-term of stale mate, which is used when the game is ended by the king being alone and unchecked, and then forced into a situation from which he is unable to move without going into check. This is a dishonourable termination to the adversary who thereby loses the game. Thus in Lord Verulam's twelfth essay" They stand still like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir."

A pretty PEAT!] Peat or pet is a word of endearment from petit, little, as if it meant pretty little thing.

JOHNSON.

Put finger in the eye,-an she knew why.

BIAN. Sister, content you in my discontent.Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe;

My books, and instruments, shall be my company; On them to look, and practise by myself.

Luc. Hark, Tranio! thou may'st hear Minerva speak.

[Aside. HOR. Signior Baptista, will you be so strange?? Sorry am I, that our good will effects

Bianca's grief.

GRE.

Why, will you mew her up,
Signior Baptista, for this fiend of hell,

And make her bear the penance of her tongue ?
BAP. Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolv'd:-
Go in, Bianca.
[Exit BIANCA
And for I know, she taketh most delight
In musick, instruments, and poetry,
Schoolmasters will I keep within my house,
Fit to instruct her youth.-If you, Hortensio,
Or signior Gremio, you,-know any such,
Prefer them hither; for to cunning men
I will be very kind and liberal

This word is used in the old play of King Leir, (not Shakspeare's):

"Gon. I marvel, Ragan, how you can endure

"To see that proud, pert peat, our youngest sister," &c. Again, in Coridon's Song, by Thomas Lodge; published in England's Helicon, 1600:

"And God send every pretty peate,

Heigh hoe the pretty peate," &c.

and is, I believe, of Scotch extraction, I find it in one of the proverbs of that country, where it signifies darling :

"He has fault of a wife, that marries mam's pet," i. e. He is in great want of a wife who marries one that is her mother's darling. STEVENS.

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-so strange?] That is, so odd, so different from others in your conduct. JOHNSON.

3 - CUNNING men,] Cunning had not yet lost its original signification of knowing, learned, as may be observed in the translation of the Bible. JOHNSON.

To mine own children in good bringing-up;
And so farewell. Katharina, you may stay ;
For I have more to commune with Bianca. [Exit.
KATH. Why, and I trust, I may go too; May I

not?

What, shall I be appointed hours; as though, belike,

I knew not what to take, and what to leave? Ha! [Exit.

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GRE. You may go to the devil's dam; your gifts are so good, here is none will hold you. Their love is not so great, Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly out; our cake's dough on both sides. Farewell:-Yet, for the love I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means light on a fit man, to teach her that wherein she delights, I will wish him to her father".

HOR. So will I, signior Gremio: But a word, I pray. Though the nature of our quarrel yet never brook'd parle, know now, upon advice, it toucheth

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your GIFTS] Gifts for endowments. MALONE.

So, before in this comedy:

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a woman's gift,

"To rain a shower of commanded tears."

STEEVENS.

THEIR love is not so great, Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly out;] I cannot conceive whose love Gremio can mean by the words their love, as they had been talking of no love but that which they themselves felt for Bianca. We must therefore read, our love, instead of their. M. MASON. Perhaps we should read-Your love. In the old manner of writing, yr stood for either their or your. The editor of the third folio and some modern editors, with, I think, less probability, read our. If their love be right, it must mean-the good will of Baptista and Bianca towards us.

MALONE.

6 I will WISH him to her father.] i. e. I will recommend him. So, in Much Ado About Nothing:

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"To wish him wrestle with affection."

REED.

upon ADVICE.] i. e. on consideration, or reflection. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

us both,―that we may yet again have access to our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca's love,— to labour and effect one thing 'specially.

GRE. What's that, I pray?

HOR. Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.
GRE. A husband! a devil.

HOR. I say, a husband.

GRE. I say, a devil: Think'st thou, Hortensio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?

HOR. Tush, Gremio, though it pass your patience, and mine, to endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all faults, and money enough.

GRE. I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this condition,-to be whipped at the high-cross every morning.

HOR. 'Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten apples. But, come; since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall be so far forth friendly maintained,―till by helping Baptista's eldest daughter to a husband, we set his youngest free for a husband, and then have to't afresh.-Sweet Bianca !— Happy man be his dole! He that runs fastest, gets the ring. How say you, signior Gremio ?

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"How shall I dote on her, with more advice,
"That thus, without advice, begin to love her!"

STEEVENS.

Happy man be his DOLE !] A proverbial expression. It is used in Damon and Pithias, 1571. Dole is any thing dealt out or distributed, though its original meaning was the provision given away at the doors of great men's houses. STEEVENS.

In Cupid's Revenge, by Beaumont and Fletcher, we meet with a similar expression, which may serve to explain that before us : "Then happy man be his fortune!" i. e. May his fortune be that of a happy man! MALONE.

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He that runs fastest, gets the RING.] An allusion to the sport of running at the ring. DOUCE.

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