14 SCENE I. "I will unto Venice, To buy apparel 'gainst the wedding-day.”

"My house within the city · Is richly furnished with plate and gold," &c. If Shakspere had not seen the interior of Italian houses when he wrote this play, he must have possessed some effectual means of knowing and realising in his imagination the particulars of such an interior. Every educated man might be aware that the extensive commerce of Venice must bring within the reach of the neighbouring cities a multitude of articles of foreign production and taste. But there is a particularity in his mention of these articles which strongly indicates the experience of an eyewitness. The cypress chests," and "ivory coffers," rich in antique carving, are still existing, with some remnants of "Tyrian tapestry," to carry back the imagination of the traveller to the days of the glory of the republic. The plate and gold" are, for the most part, gone, to supply the needs of the impoverished aristocracy, who (to their credit) will part with every

thing sooner than their pictures. The "tents and canopies," and "Turkey cushions boss'd with pearl," now no longer seen, were appropriate to the days when Cyprus, Candia, and the Morea were dependencies of Venice, scattering their productions through the eastern cities of Italy, and actually establishing many of their customs in the singular capital of the Venetian dominion. After Venice, Padua was naturally first served with importations of luxury.

Venice was, and is still, remarkable for its jewellery, especially its fine works in gold. | "Venice gold" was wrought into "valance ”— tapestry-by the needle, and was used for every variety of ornament, from chains as fine as if made of woven hair, to the most massive form in which gold can be worn. At the present day, the traveller who walks round the Piazza of St. Mark's is surprised at the large propor tion of jewellers' shops, and at the variety and elegance of the ornaments they contain,—the shell necklaces, the jewelled rings and tiaras, and the profusion of gold chains.—(M.)

15 SCENE I.-" Gamut I am, the ground of all accord," &c.

GAMUT, or, more correctly, Gammut, is, in the sense here intended, the lowest note of the musical scale, established in the eleventh century by a Benedictine monk, Guido, of Arezzo in Tuscany. To this sound (G, the first line in the base,) he gave the name of the third letter in the Greek alphabet, r (Gamma), cutting off the final vowel, and affixing the syllable ut. This, and the other syllables, re, mi, fa, &c., names assigned by Guido to the notes of the diatonic scale, were suggested to him by the following verses, which form the first stanza of a hymn, by Paulus Diaconus, to St. John the Baptist :

"Ut queant laxis resonare fibris,
Mira gestorum fumuli tuorum,
Solve polluti labii reatum,
Sanctæ Joannes!"

The tune to which this hymn was anciently sung in the Catholic church, ascends by the diatonic intervals G, A, B, C, D, and E, at the syllables here printed in italics.

18 SCENE II.-" His horse hipped," &c. Shakspere describes the imperfections and unsoundness of a horse with as much precision as if he had been bred in a farrier's shop. In the same way, in the Venus and Adonis,' he is equally circumstantial in summing up the qualities of a noble courser :"Round-hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostrils wide, High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong, Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide."

17 SCENE II.-"A health, quoth he." It was the universal custom, in our poet's time, at the marriage of the humblest as well as the highest, for a bride-cup, sometimes called "a knitting-cup," to be quaffed in church. At ¦ the marriage of Philip and Mary, in Winchester cathedral, in 1554, this part of the ceremony is thus described:-"The trumpets sounded, and they both returned to their traverses in the quire, and there remained until mass was done; at which time wine and sops were hallow'd and delivered to them both." (Leland's Collectanea.)

In Laneham's Letter (1575), describing the entertainments at Kenilworth, we have an account of a real rustic wedding, in which there was borne before the bride, "The bride-cup, formed of a sweet sucket barrel, a fair turned post set to it, all seemingly besilvered and parcel-gilt." Laneham adds that 66 the busy flies flocked about the bride-cup for the sweetness of the sucket that it savoured on."

18 SCENE II.-"I must away to-day," &c. We subjoin the parallel scene in the earlier play:

Fer. Father, farewell, my Kate and I must home. Sirrah, go make ready my horse presently.

Alf. Your horse! what, son, I hope you do but jest;

I am sure you will not go so suddenly.

Kate. Let him go or tarry, I am resolved to stay,

And not to travel on my wedding-day.

I Fer. Tut, Kate, I tell thee we must needs go home.
Villain, hast thou saddled my horse?

San. Which horse-your curtall?

Fer. Zounds! you slave, stand you prating here! Saddle the bay gelding for your mistress.

Kate. Not for me, for I will not go. San. The ostler will not let me have him; you owe tenpence For his meat, and sixpence for stuffing my mistress' saddle. Fer. Here, villain, go pay him straight.

San. Shall I give them another peck of lavender? Fer. Out, slave! and bring them presently to the door. Alf. Why, son, I hope at least you 'll dine with us. San. I pray you, master, let 's stay till dinner be done. Fer. Zounds, villain, art thou here yet? [Erit SANDER Come, Kate, our dinner is provided at home.

Kate. But not for me, for here I mean to dine: I'll have my will in this as well as you; Though you in madding mood would leave your friends, Despite of you I'll tarry with them still.

Fer. Ay, Kate, so thou shalt, but at some other time: When as thy sisters here shall be espoused, Then thou and I will keep our wedding-day In better sort than now we can provide; For here I promise thee before them all, We will ere long return to them again. Come, Kate, stand not on terms, we will away; This is my day, to-morrow thou shalt rule, And I will do whatever thou command'st. Gentlemen, farewell, we 'll take our leaves, It will be late, before that we come home. [Exeunt FERANDO and KATE.

as it would have been shaped, by the composer himself, in the present day, merely changing the tenor clef into the treble, and adding, as the correction of what most likely is a clerical error, a sharp to the c in the third staff.

20 SCENE I.-" Jack, boy! ho, boy!" The first words of a Round for four voices, printed, in 1609, in a musical work, now become exceedingly rare, entitled 'Pammelia, Musickes Miscellanie; or Mixed Varietie of pleasant Roundelayes and delightful Catches,' &c.

Malone gives a rather inaccurate copy of this, and in the enigmatic form which it takes in Pammelia, without seeming to be aware that it is printed in that work, for he cites Sir John Hawkins as his authority, in whose History of Music, however, it not only does not appear, but is not even alluded to. We here insert it

3

21 SCENE I." Where be these knaves," &c. This scene is one of the most spirited and characteristic in the play; and we see a joyous revelling spirit shining through Petrucio's affected violence. The Ferando of the old Taming of a Shrew' is a coarse bully, without

[He beats them all. [They cover the board, and fetch in the meat. Zounds, burnt and scorch'd! Who dress'd this meat? Wil. Forsooth, John Cook.

[He throws down the table, and meat, and all,
and beats them all.

Fer. Go, you villains, bring me such meat!
Out of my sight, I say, and bear it hence:
Come, Kate, we 'll have other meat provided.
Is there a fire in my chamber, sir?
Sun. Ay, forsooth.

[Ereunt FERANDO and KATE. [Manent Serving-men, and eat up all the meat. Tom. Zounds! I think of my conscience my master 's mad since he was married.

Wil. I laughed, what a box he gave Sander for pulling off his boots.

Enter FERANDO again.

San. I hurt his foot for the nonce, man.
Fer. Did you so, you damned villain?

[He beats them all out again.
This humour must I hold me to awhile,
To bridle and hold back my headstrong wife,
With curbs of hunger, ease, and want of sleep;
Nor sleep, nor meat shall she enjoy to-night.
I'll mew her up as men do mew their hawks,
And make her gently come unto the lure:
Were she as stubborn, or as full of strength,
As was the Thracian horse Alcides tamed,
That king Egeus fed with flesh of men,
Yet would I pull her down, and make her come,
As hungry hawks do fly unto their lure.

22 SCENE I.

[Erit.

"It was the friar of orders gray," &c. Percy's poem, 'The Friar of Orders Gray,' which is partly made up of fragments of ballads found in Shakspere, begins thus :

"It was a friar of orders gray
Walk'd forth to tell his beads."

23 SCENE III.-"No, no; forsooth, I dare not for my life."

We subjoin the parallel scene from the other play :

Enter SANDER and his Mistress.

San. Come, mistress.

Kate. Sander, I prithee help me to some meat,

I am so faint that I can scarcely stand.

San. Ay, marry, mistress, but you know my master has given me a charge that you must eat nothing, but that which he himself giveth you.

Kate. Why, man, thy master needs never know it.

San. You say true, indeed. Why, look you, mistress, what say you to a piece of beef and mustard now? Kate. Why, I say 't is excellent meat; canst thou help me to some?

San. Ay, I could help you to some, but that I doubt the mustard is too choleric for you. But what say you to a sheep's head and garlic?

Kate. Why, anything, I care not what it be.

San. Ay, but the garlic I doubt will make your breath stink, and then my master will curse me for letting you eat it. But what say you to a fat capon?

Kate. That's meat for a king, sweet Sander, help me to some of it.

San. Nay by'rlady! then 't is too dear for us; we must not meddle with the king's meat.

Kate. Out, villain! dost thou mock me? Take that for thy sauciness.

[She beats him. Grey has been hastily betrayed into a remark upon this scene in Shakspere, which is singularly opposed to his usual accuracy:*- This seems to be borrowed from Cervantes' account of Sancho Panza's treatment by his physician when sham governor of the island of Barataria." The first part of Don Quixote' was not published till 1605; and our poet unquestionably took the scene from the old "Taming of a Shrew,' which was published in 1594.

24 SCENE III.-"Come, tailor, let us see these ornaments," &c.

The resemblance of this scene to the scene in the old play, in which the Shrew is tried to the utmost by her husband's interference with her dress, is closer than in almost any other part. The "face not me," and "brave not me," of Grumio, are literal transcripts of the elder jokes. In the speech of Petrucio, after the tailor is driven out, we have three lines, which are the same, with the slightest alteration, from the following:

"Come, Kate, we now will go see thy father's house, Even in these honest mean habiliments; Our purses shall be rich, our garments plain." And yet, in spirit and taste, the differences are as remarkable as the resemblances.

Enter FERANDO and KATE, and SANDER.

San. Master, the haberdasher has brought my mistress home her cap here.

Fer. Come hither, sirrah: what have you there?
Haberdasher. A velvet cap, sir, an it please you.

Fer. Who spoke for it? didst thou, Kate? Kate. What if I did? Come hither, sirrah, give me the cap; I'll see if it will fit me. [She sets it on her head. Fer. O monstrous! why, it becomes thee not: Let me see it, Kate. Here, sirrah, take it hence, This cap is out of fashion quite.

Kate. The fashion is good enough: belike you mean to make a fool of me.

Fer. Why, true, he means to make a fool of thee,

To have thee put on such a curtal'd cap.

Sirrah, begone with it.