An if you break the ice, and do this feat,

Achieve 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 slack: in sign whereof,
Please ye we may contrive this afternoona,
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 begone.

HOR. The motion 's good indeed, and be it so;

Petrucio, I shall be your ben venuto.

[Exeunt.

• Contrive this afternoon-wear away the afternoon. It is here used in the original Latin sense, as in Terence: "Totum hunc contrivi diem."

SCENE I.-The same. A Room in Baptista's House.

BIAN. Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself,
To make a bondmaid and a slave of me;
That I disdain: But for these other gawds a,
Unbind my hands, I'll pull them off myself,
Yea, all my raiment, to my petticoat;
Or, what you will command me, will I do,
So well I know my duty to my elders.

KATH. Of all thy suitors, here I charge theeb, tell
Whom thou lov'st best: see thou dissemble not.
BIAN. Believe me, sister, of all the men alive,
I never yet beheld that special face
Which I could fancy more than any other.
KATH. Minion, thou liest: Is 't not Hortensio ?
BIAN. If you affect him, sister, here I swear,

I'll plead for you myself, but you shall have him.

a

Gawds. The original reads goods. The correction was made by Theobald.
The original omits thee.

KATH. O then, belike, you fancy riches more;
You will have Gremio to keep you fair.
BIAN. Is it for him you do envy me so?

Nay, then you jest; and now I well perceive,
You have but jested with me all this while :
I prithee, sister Kate, untie my hands.
KATH. If that be jest, then all the rest was so.

Enter BAPTISTA.

[Strikes her.

BAP. Why, how now, dame! whence grows this insolence?
Bianca, stand aside;-poor girl! she weeps: :-
Go ply thy needle; meddle not with her.
For shame, thou hilding, of a devilish spirit,
Why dost thou wrong her that did ne'er wrong thee?
When did she cross thee with a bitter word?
KATH. Her silence flouts me, and I'll be reveng'd.
BAP. What, in my sight?-Bianca, get thee in.
KATH. What, will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see
She is your treasure, she must have a husband;
I must dance barefoot on her wedding-day,
And, for your love to her, lead apes in hell".
Talk not to me. I will go sit and weep,
Till I can find occasion of revenge.

BAP. Was ever gentleman thus griev'd as I?

But who comes here?

[Flies after BIANCA. [Exit BIANCA.

[Exit KATHARINA,

Enter GREMIO with LUCENTIO in the habit of a mean man; PETRUCIO, with HORTENSIO as a musician; and TRANIO, with BIONDELLO bearing a lute and books.

GRE. Good morrow, neighbour Baptista.

BAP. Good morrow, neighbour Gremio: God save you, gentlemen!

PET. And you, good sir! Pray, have you not a daughter

Call'd Katharina, fair and virtuous ?

BAP. I have a daughter, sir, call'd Katharina.

GRE. You are too blunt, go to it orderly.

PET. You wrong me, signior Gremio; give me leave.

I am a gentleman of Verona, sir,

That, hearing of her beauty, and her wit,

Her affability, and bashful modesty,

Her wondrous qualities, and mild behaviour,
Am bold to show myself a forward guest

Within your house, to make mine eye the witness

• Hilding—a mean-spirited person. See note on 'Henry IV., Part II.,' Act I., Scene 1. Capulet applies the term to Juliet. (Romeo and Juliet,' Act III., Scene 5.)

b

A proverbial expression, applied to the ill-used class of old maids.

Of that report which I so oft have heard.
And, for an entrance to my entertainment,
I do present you with a man of mine,
Cunning in music, and the mathematics,
To instruct her fully in those sciences,
Whereof, I know, she is not ignorant:
Accept of him, or else you do me wrong;
His name is Licio, born in Mantua.

BAP. You're welcome, sir; and he for your good sake:
But for my daughter Katharine, this I know,

She is not for your turn, the more my grief.
PET. I see you do not mean to part with her;
Or else you like not of my company.
BAP. Mistake me not, I speak but as I find.

Whence are you, sir? what may I call your name?
PET. Petrucio is my name; Antonio's son,

A man well known throughout all Italy.

BAP. I know him well: you are welcome for his sake.
GRE. Saving your tale, Petrucio, I pray,

Let us, that are poor petitioners, speak too:
Baccarea! you are marvellous forward.

[Presenting HORTENSIO.

PET. O, pardon me, signior Gremio; I would fain be doing.
GRE. I doubt it not, sir; but you will curse your wooing.

Neighbour, this is a gift very grateful, I am sure of it. To express the like kindness myself, that have been more kindly beholding to you than any, I freely give unto youb this young scholar [presenting LUCENTIO], that hath been long studying at Rheims; as cunning in Greek, Latin, and other languages, as the other in music and mathematics: his name is Cambio; pray accept his service.

BAP. A thousand thanks, signior Gremio: welcome, good Cambio.-But, gentle sir [to TRANIO], methinks, you walk like a stranger. May I be so bold to know the cause of your coming?

TRA. Pardon me, sir, the boldness is mine own;

That, being a stranger in this city here,
Do make myself a suitor to your daughter,
Unto Bianca, fair, and virtuous.

Nor is your firm resolve unknown to me,

• Baccare-a word once in common use, meaning go back. "Backare, quoth Mortimer to his sow," was a proverbial expression before the time of Shakspere. It occurs in Ralph Roister Doister;' and John Heywood gives it in his 'Proverbes' (1546). Back is Anglo-Saxon, in the usual sense of the word; and are, ar, or aer, is an ancient word common to the Greek and Gothic language, meaning to go. See note on aroint, in 'King Lear,' Illustrations of Act III.

The original omits I and you, without which it is difficult to make sense of the passage. The speech is printed as verse in the original; and it may be easily read as verse with tolerable syllabic regularity. But it is not Shakspere's verse; and it is better therefore to leave the passage as prose.

In the preferment of the eldest sister:
This liberty is all that I request,-
That, upon knowledge of my parentage,

I may have welcome 'mongst the rest that woo,
And free access and favour as the rest.

And, toward the education of your daughters,

I here bestow a simple instrument,

And this small packet of Greek and Latin books 12:
If you accept them, then their worth is great.

BAP. Lucentio is your name? of whence, I pray?
TRA. Of Pisa, sir; son to Vincentio.

BAP. A mighty man of Pisa: by report

I know him well: you are very welcome, sir.

Take you [to HORTENSIO] the lute, and you [to LUCENTIO] the set of books, You shall go see your pupils presently.

Holla, within!

Sirrah, lead

Enter a Servant.

These gentlemen to my daughters; and tell them both,

These are their tutors: bid them use them well.

[Exit Servant, with HORTENSIO, LUCENTIO, and BIONDELLO.

We will go walk a little in the orchard,

And then to dinner: You are passing welcome,
And so I pray you all to think yourselves.
PET. Signior Baptista, my business asketh haste,
And every day I cannot come to wooa.

You knew my father well; and in him, me,
Left solely heir to all his lands and goods,
Which I have better'd rather than decreas'd:
Then tell me,-If I get your daughter's love,
What dowry shall I have with her to wife?
BAP. After my death, the one half of my lands:
And, in possession, twenty thousand crowns.
PET. And, for that dowry, I'll assure her of

Her widowhood b,-be it that she survive me,-
In all my lands and leases whatsoever:
Let specialties be therefore drawn between us,
That covenants may be kept on either hand.
BAP. Ay, when the special thing is well obtain'd,

• The burthen of an old English ballad, called 'The Ingenious Braggadocio,' was

"And I cannot come every day to woo."

Her widowhood. Widowhood must here mean, not the condition of a widow, but the property to which the widow would be entitled. Petrucio would assure Katharine of a widow's full provision in all his "lands and leases." He would not "bar dower,"-by fine and recovery.