SLY. Ay, it stands so, that I may hardly tarry so long. But I would be loth to fall into my dreams again. I will therefore tarry, in despite of the flesh and the blood. Enter a Servant. SERV. Your honour's players, hearing your amendment, Are come to play a pleasant comedy, For so your doctors hold it very meet: Seeing too much sadness hath congeal'd your blood, Therefore, they thought it good you hear a play, SLY. Marry, I will let them play: Is it not a commonty, a Christmas gambol, or a tumbling-trick? PAGE. No, my good lord: it is more pleasing stuff. SLY. What, household stuff? PAGE. It is a kind of history. SLY. Well, we 'll see 't: Come, madam wife, sit by my side, And let the world slip; we shall ne'er be youngera. [They sit down. We print these lines as in the original, where they stand as verse. Are they not a portion of an old song, and intended to be sung? a A course of learning, and ingenious studies. Gave me my being, and my father first, A merchant of great traffic through the world, Vincentio's son, brought up in Florence, It shall become, to serve all hopes conceiv'd, My. So the folio. The word has been changed by the modern editors to most. Haply. So the original. Usually printed happily. It seems to us that Lucentio uses the word in the sense of probably. To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds a : Tell me thy mind: for I have Pisa left, Glad that you thus continue your resolve, The mathematics, and the metaphysics, Fall to them, as you find your stomach serves you: TRA. Master, some show, to welcome us to town. This passage has been a source of perplexity to the commentators; but it appears to us sufficiently clear: Pisa gave me my being, and also first gave my father being-that father was Vincentio, &c. It shall become Vincentio's son, that he may fulfil the hopes conceived of him, to deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds. Checks. Sir W. Blackstone proposes to read ethicks. In Ben Jonson's 'Silent Woman' we have "Aristotle's ethicks." This emendation is ingenious; but it is scarcely necessary to disturb the text. • Balk. This word of the original has been changed into talk, "corrected by Mr. Rowe." By this correction the meaning of the passage has been destroyed. Tranio draws a distinction between the dry and the agreeable of the liberal sciences. Balk logic-pass over logic-with your acquaintance, but practise rhetoric in your common talk;-use (in the legitimate sense of resorting to frequently) music and poetry to quicken you, but fall to mathematics and metaphysics as you find your inclination serves. Enter BAPTISTA, KATHARINA, BIANCA, GREMIO, and HORTENSIO. LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand aside. BAP. Gentlemen, importune me no farther, 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. To make a stale of me amongst these mates a? I wis, it is not half way to her heart: But, if it were, doubt not her care should be TRA. Hush, master! here is some good pastime toward; Luc. But in the other's silence do I see Maids' mild behaviour and sobriety. Peace, Tranio. TRA. Well said, master; mum! and gaze your fill. And let it not displease thee, good Bianca; KATH. A pretty peat; 't is best Put finger in the eye-an she knew why. Luc. Hark, Tranio! thou mayst hear Minerva speak. [Aside. * Douce says that this expression seems to have been suggested by the chess term of stale-mate. Surely the occurrence of mates and stale in the same line does not warrant this assertion. A stale is a thing stalled-exposed for common sale. Baptista, somewhat coarsely, has offered Katharina to Gremio and Hortensio, “either of you;" and she is justly indignant at being set up for the bidding of these companions. b Peat-pet-spoiled child. And, for I know she taketh most delight To mine own children in good bringing-up; [Exit BIANCA. [Exit. [Exit. What, shall I be appointed hours; as though, belike, I knew not what to take, and what to leave? Ha! GRE. You may go to the devil's dam; your gifts are so good, here's none will hold you. Their loveb 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 c to her father. HOR. So will I, signior Gremio: But a word, I pray. Though the nature of our quarrel yet never brooked parle, know now, upon advice, it toucheth 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. Cunning-knowing-learned. Cunning, conning, was originally knowledge, skill; and is so used in our translation of the Bible. Shakspere, in general, uses cunning in the modern sense, as in 'Lear:' "Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides." But in this play the adjective is used in two other instances in the same way as in the passage before us (see Act II., Scene 1):— "Cunning in Greek, Latin, and other languages." Their love. Mason would read our love; Malone, your love. Their love, it appears to us, refers to the affection between Katharine and her father, who have been jarring throughout the scene. Baptista has resolved that Bianca shall not wed till he has found a husband for his elder daughter. Gremio and Hortensio, who aspire to Bianca, think that there is so little love between the Shrew and her father, that his resolve will change, while they blow their nails together-while they submit to some delay. e Wish him-commend him. |