Why, sir, what 'cerns it you if I wear pearl and gold! I thank my good father, I am able to main

tain it.

Vin. Thy father? O, villain! he is a sail-maker in Bergamo.

Bap. You mistake, sir: you mistake, sir. Pray what do you think is his name?

Vin. His name? as if I knew not his name: I have brought him up ever since he was three years old, and his name is Tranio.

Ped. Away, away, mad ass! his name is Lucentio; and he is mine only son, and heir to the lands of me, signior Vincentio.

Vin. Lucentio! O! he hath murdered his master.-Lay hold on him, I charge you, in the duke's name.-O, my son, my son !-tell me, thou villain. where is my son Lucentio?

Tra. Call forth an officer.

Enter one with an Officer.

Carry this mad knave to the jail.-Father Baptista.
I charge you see that he be forthcoming.
Vin. Carry me to the jail!

Gre. Stay, officer: he shall not go to prison. Bap. Talk not, signior Gremio. I say, he shall go to prison.

Gre. Take heed, signior Baptista, lest you be cony-catched in this business. I dare swear this is the right Vincentio.

Ped. Swear, if thou darest.

Gre. Nay, I dare not swear it.

Tra. Then thou wert best say, that I am not Lucentio.

Gre. Yes, I know thee to be signior Lucentio. Bap. Away with the dotard! to the jail with

him!

Vin. Fear not, Baptista; we will content you: go to; but I will in, to be revenged for this villainy.

[Erit. Bap. And I, to sound the depth of this knavery. [Erit.

Luc. Look not pale, Bianca; thy father will not frown. [Exeunt Luc. and BIAN. Gre. My cake is dough; but I'll in among the

rest,

Out of hope of all, but my share of the feast. [Exit. PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA advance.

Kath. Husband, let's follow, to see the end of this ado.

Pet. First kiss me, Kate, and we will.
Kath. What, in the midst of the street?
Pet. What! art thou ashamed of me?
Kath. No, sir, God forbid; but ashamed to kiss.
Pet. Why, then let's home again.-Come, sirrah.
let's away.

Kath. Nay, I will give thee a kiss: now pray thee, love, stay.

Pet. Is not this well?-Come, my sweet Kate: Better once than never, for never too late. [Exeunt.

SCENE II-A Room in LUCENTIO'S House.

A Banquet set out; Enter BAPTISTA, VINCENTIO, GREMIO, the Pedant, LUCENTIO, BIANCA, PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, HORTENSIO, and Widow. TRANIO, BIONDello, Grumio, and others, attending.

Luc. At last, though long, our jarring notes agree:

And time it is, when raging war is done,
To smile at 'scapes and perils overblown.—
My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome,
While I with self-same kindness welcome thine.--
Brother Petruchio,-sister Katharina,—
And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow,
Feast with the best, and welcome to my house :
My banquet is to close our stomachs up,
After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down;
For now we sit to chat, as well as eat.

[They sit at table. Pet. Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat! Bap. Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio. Pet. Padua affords nothing but what is kind. Hor. For both our sakes I would that word were true.

Pet. Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow.
Wid. Then never trust me if I be afeard.
Pet. You are very sensible, and yet you miss
my sense:

I mean, Hortensio is afeard of you.

Hor. That's my office.

Pet. Spoke like an officer:-Ha' to thee, lad. [Drinks to HORTENSIO. Bap. How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks? Gre. Believe me, sir, they butt together well. Bian. Head and butt? an hasty-witted body Would say, your head and butt were head and horn. Vin. Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken'd you? Bian. Ay, but not frighted me; therefore, I'll sleep again.

Pet. Nay, that you shall not; since you have begun,

Have at you for a better jest or two.

Bian. Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush, And then pursue me as you draw your bow.You are welcome all.

[Exeunt BIANCA, KATHARINA, and Widow. Pet. She hath prevented me.-Here, signior Tranio;

This bird you aim'd at, though you hit her not:
Therefore, a health to all that shot and miss'd.

Tra. O sir! Lucentio slipp'd me, like his greyhound,

Which runs himself, and catches for his master.

Pet. A good swift simile, but something currish. Tra. "Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself: 'Tis thought, your deer does hold you at a bay. Bap. O ho, Petruchio! Tranio hits you now. Luc. I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio. Hor. Confess, confess, hath he not hit you here? Pet. 'A has a little gall'd me, I confess; And, as the jest did glance away from me, 'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright.

Bap. Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio,

I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all.
Pet. Well, I say no: and therefore, for assurance,
Let's each one send unto his wife,
And he, whose wife is most obedient

To come at first when he doth send for her,
Shall win the wager which we will propose.
Hor. Content. What is the wager?
Luc.

Pet. Twenty crowns!

Twenty crowns.

Re-enter BIONDello.

Pet. The fouler fortune mine, and there an end. Enter KATHARINA.

Bap. Now, by my holidame, here comes Katharina!

Kath. What is your will, sir, that you send for me?

Pet. Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife? Kath. They sit conferring by the parlour fire. Pet. Go, fetch them hither: if they deny to come, Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands. Away, I say, and bring them hither straight.

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

An awful rule, and right supremacy;

And, to be short, what not that's sweet and happy.
Bap. Now fair befal thee, good Petruchio!
The wager thou hast won; and I will add
Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns;
Another dowry to another daughter,
For she is chang'd, as she had never been.

Pet. Nay, I will win my wager better yet,
And show more sign of her obedience,
Her new-built virtue and obedience.

Re-enter KATHARINA, with BIANCA, and Widow. See, where she comes, and brings your froward

wives

As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.-
Katharine, that cap of yours becomes you not;
Off with that bauble, throw it under foot.

[KATHARINA pulls off her cap, and throws it down. Wid. Lord! let me never have a cause to sigh, Till I be brought to such a silly pass!

Bian. Fie! what a foolish duty call you this? Luc. I would, your duty were as foolish too: The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, Hath cost me an hundred crowns since supper-time. Bian. The more fool you for laying on my duty. Pet. Katharine, 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 say; and first begin with her. Wid. She shall not.

Pet. I say, she shall :-and first begin with her.

Kath. Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,

And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor :
It blots thy beauty, as frosts do blight the meads,
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet, or amiable.

A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And, while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance; commits his body
To painful labour, both by sea and land,

To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest 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 such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she's froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?-
I am asham'd, that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth.
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,

49

But that our soft 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 see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most, which we indeed least

are.

Then vail your stomachs, 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 kiss me, Kate.

Luc. Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou shalt ha't.

Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are toward.

Luc. But a harsh hearing, when women are froward.

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

We three are married, but you two are sped. 'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white; [To LUCENTIO. And, being a winner, God give you good night. [Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA. Hor. Now go thy ways, thou hast tam'd a curst shrew.

Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be [Exeunt.

tam'd so.

39

INDUCTION.-SCENE I.

66

"I'll PHEESE you, in faith"-In the old "Taming of a Shrew," this is printed fese. Ben Jonson uses the word in his "Alchemist," and spells it, in his folio of 1616, feize. It is the same word, however spelled; and Gifford, a West-of-England man, says that in that part of England it means to beat, chastise, or humble," etc. See" Jonson's Works," vol. iv. p. 188. Dr. Johnson, on the authority of Sir Th. Smith, "De Sermone Anglico," says that it means "to separate a rope, or twist, into single threads." Such may have been its original sense, but there is no doubt that it is used figuratively in the way Gifford has explained.

"Therefore, PAUCAS PALLABRIS; let the world slide. SESSA!"

"Pocas palabras" is Spanish for "few words," a phrase common in the time of Shakespeare. "Sessa" is the Spanish word cessa, cease. It occurs also in the form of "sessy," in KING LEAR, act iii. scene 4.

"-the glasses you have BURST"-i. e. Broken. John of Gaunt "burst Shallow's head for crowding in among the marshal's men."

"Go, by S. Jeronimy," etc.-This sentence is generally printed, in the majority of modern editions, "Go by, says Jeronimy:-Go to thy cold bed," etc. Theobald pointed out that, in the old play of "Hieronymo" there is the expression "Go by, go by." On this authority, Mason altered the "Go by S. Jeronimie" of the original copy to "Go by, says Jeronimy." With Knight we retain the old reading, and agree with him that "the tinker swears by Saint Jerome, calling him Saint

Jeronimy, "Go, by S. Jeronimy,' etc." But at the same time, the author conveys the sneer (frequent in the dramatic satire of his day) at Kyd's play.

"I must go fetch the THIRDBOROUGH"-In the original folio this is printed headborough, by which mistake the humour of Sly's answer is lost. The "thirdborough" is a name given in old law-books, and in the statute of 28 Hen. VIII., to the officer more generally since called constable. The name appears, from a quotation of Ritson's, to be still retained in Warwickshire.

"I'll not budge an inch, boy: let him come, and kindly. [Lies down on the ground," etc.

The older play opens thus:

Enter a Tapster, beating out of his doors, SLIE, drunken.
Tap. You whoreson, drunken slave, you had best be gone
And empty your drunken paunch somewhere else,
For in this house thou shalt not rest to-night.

Slie. Tilly vally; by crisee, Tapster, I'll fese you anon,
Fill's the other pot, and all's paid for, look you.

I do drink it of mine own instigation.

Here I'll lie a while. Why, Tapster, I say,
Fill's a fresh cushen here.

Heigh-ho, here's good warm lying.

He falls asleep.

The comic part of the original drama is feeble. The more serious portions are better, and not unworthy of Greene, to whom the play is ascribed by Knight and others, with much probability.

above, affords a fair specimen :-
The next extract, which immediately follows the

Enter a Nobleman, and his Men, from hunting.
Lord. Now that the gloomy shadow of the night,
Longing to view Orion's drisling locks,
Leaps from th' antarctic world unto the sky,

And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath,
And darksome night o'ershades the crystal heavens,
Here break we off our hunting for to-night.
Couple up the hounds, let us hie us home,
And bid the huntsman see them meated well,

For they have all deserved it well to-day.

But soft, what sleepy fellow is this lies here?

Or is he dead? See one what he doth lack.

Sere. My lord, 'tis nothing but a drunken sleep:

His head is too heavy for his body,

And he hath drunk so much, that he can go no further. Lord. Fie, how the slavish villain stinks of drink!

Ho, sirrah, arise! What, so sound asleep?--

Go, take him up, and bear him to my house,

And bear him easily, for fear he wake;

And in my fairest chamber make a fire,
And set a sumptuous banquet on the board,
And put my richest garments on his back,
Then set him at the table in a chair;
When that is done, against he shall awake,
Let heavenly music sound about him still.-
Go two of you away, and bear him hence,
And then I'll tell you what I have devised.

"For God's sake, a pot of SMALL ALE"-This beverage is mentioned in the accounts of the Stationers' Company for the year 1558:-" For a stande of small ale." It is supposed to be the same liquor as is now called small beer; no mention being made of the last in the same accounts, though "duble bere" and "duble ale" are frequently recorded. Sly subsequently reverts to his first request:-"Once again, a pot o' the smallest ale." Its thinness, which might have been an objection on the preceding day, is now its most desirable quality to the parched palate of the recovering drunkard.

"-by transmutation a BEAR-HERD"-i. e. Bearward, or keeper of bears for baiting.

"Ask Marian Hacket, the fat alewife of Wincot"-Doubtless, Marian Hacket was living and well known at Wincot, about four miles from Stratford-upon-Avon, about the time this play was written. Afterwards. Cicely Hacket" is spoken of by one of the servants. "What! I am not BESTRAUGHT"- "Bestraught" was used by Warner, and also Lord Surrey. It is explained by Minshew as synonymous with distraught or dis

Now take my cloak, and give me one of yours:
All fellows now, and see you take me so:
For we will wait upon this drunken man,
To see his countenance when he doth awake
And find himself clothed in such attire,
With heavenly music sounding in his ears,
And such a banquet set before his eyes;
The fellow sure will think he is in heaven;
But we will be about him when he wakes;
And see you call him lord at every word;
And offer thou him his horse to ride abroad;
And thou his hawk, and hounds to hunt the deer;
And I will ask what suit he means to wear;
And whatsoe'er he saith, see you do not laugh,
But still persuade him that he is a lord.

“BRACH Merriman,—the poor cur is EMBOSS'D," etc.

"In LEAR, act. iii. scene 5, Shakespeare uses the word 'brach' as indicating a dog of a particular species, or class:

Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,

Hound or spaniel, brach or lym.

But he in other places employs it in the way indicated in an old book on sports, called 'The Gentleman's Recreation:- A brach is a mannerly name for all hound bitches.' The Lord is pointing out one of his packBrach Merriman'-adding, 'the poor cur is emboss'd,' that is, swollen by hard running. Ritson, however, would read-Bathe Merriman,' and Hanmer-' Leech Merriman.'"-KNIGHT.

"A dog, when strained with hard running, will have his knees swelled, and then he is said to be emboss'd." T. WARTON.

“And, when he says he is,—say, that he dreams," etc. The sentence is left imperfect," observes Blackstone, "because the Lord does not know what to call him,-as

-as if he had said, when he says he is so and so.' Hanmer would insert poor, and Johnson Sly, although the Lord could not know the name of the beggar. No change is necessary, and the metre of the line is perfect as it stands.

Thus the editors generally; yet there is some probability in the correction suggested by the typographical experience of Z. Jackson:" And what he says he is, say that he dreams," which corresponds with the First Huntsman's reply:

-he shall think, by our true diligence, He is no less than what we say he is.

SCENE II.

"SLY is discovered," etc.-"The old stage direction is, 'Enter aloft the drunkard with attendants,' etc.; the meaning of which is, that Sly and those about him were represented in a balcony at the back of the stage, whence they were to witness the performance of the actors. Such appears to have been invariably the case when 'a play within a play' was represented in the old heatres; the reverse of our modern practice, where the play within a play is exhibited on a raised platform at the back of the stage, and the actors in the main play are in front."-COLLIER.

tracted.

"nor CHRISTOPHER Sly"-The modern editions print this Christophero, to make out the metre. I have preferred retaining the old reading, because it marks a change in pronunciation: "Christopher" having anciently the accent on the syllable before the last.

"-present her at the LEET"-i. e. At the court-leet or manor-court, which had special jurisdiction over innholders and abuses in selling liquor by other measures than the sealed or licensed quarts.

"and old JOHN NAPS OF GREECE"-Blackstone suggested that we ought to read, o' the Green, instead of Greece;" and it is the more probable, as green was formerly almost invariably spelled with a final e. "John Naps of Greece" seems nonsense, notwithstanding Stevens shows "a hart of greece," or grease, meant a fat hart; and hence he argues that it was only a mode of calling John Naps a fat man.

The shallow plash, to plunge him in the deep,or, a 'Pedant,' (act iv. scene 2,) turning aside from the road to Rome and Tripoly,' to spend a week or two' in the great nursery of arts' of the Italian peninsula. The University of Padua was in all its glory in Shakespeare's day; and it is difficult to those who have explored the city to resist the persuasion that the Poet himself had been one of the travellers who had come from afar to look upon its seats of learning, if not to partake of its ingenious studies.' There is a pure Paduan atmo sphere hanging about this play; and the visitor of to-day sees other Lucentios and Tranios in the knots of students who meet and accost in the 'public places,' and the servants who buy in the market; while there may be many an accomplished Bianca among the citizens' daughters who take their walks along the arcades of the venerable streets. Influences of learning, love, and mirth, are still abroad in the place, breathing as they do in the play.

"The University of Padua was founded by Frederick Barbarossa, early in the thirteenth century, and was, for several hundred years, a favourite resort of learned men. Among other great personages, Petrarch, Galileo, and