SCENE II.

TRANIO, BIONDELLO, GRUMIO, and others, attending"-According to the old stage-direction, "the servingmen with Tranio bring in a banquet." A banquet, as Stevens observes, properly meant what we now call a dessert, though often taken generally for a feast; and to this Lucentio refers when he says

My banquet is to close our stomachs up,
After our great good cheer.

"Have at you for a BETTER jest or two"-So the old copies; but Capell suggested "bitter jest or two," and he has been usually followed. Petruchio means better jest or two" than Bianca's last, about "head and horn."

a

:

"Exeunt"-The old play continues thus:

Then enter two, bearing Sue in his own apparel againe, and Leaves him where they found him, and then goes out; then enters the Tapster.

Tapster. Now that the darksome night is overpast,

And dawning day appeares in christall skie,

Now must I haste abroade: but softe! who's this?

What, Slie? O wondrous? hath he laine heere all night!

Ile wake him; I think he's starved by this,

But that his belly was so stufft with ale:

What now, Slie? awake for shame.

lie. (Awaking.) Sim, give's more wine.-What all the players gone? Am I not a lord?

Tap. A lord, with a murrain? come, art thou drunk still? Sie. Who's this? Tapster?-Oh I have had the bravest dream that ever thou heard'st in all thy life.

Tap. Yea, marry, but thou hadst best get thee home, for your wife will curse you for dreaming here all night.

Slie. Will she? I know how to tame a shrew. I dreamt upon it all this night, and thou hast wak'd me out of the best dream that ever I had; but I'll to my wife, and tame her too, if she anger me.

Mr. Brown's remarks on this play, as a comedy bearing the "peculiar feature and stamp" of Italy are very curious, and show that if Shakespeare did not actually visit Italy (according to Mr. Brown's supposition) some time between the composition of the earlier ROMEO AND JULIET and the date of the MERCHANT OF VENICE, and the remodelling of this play, he had certainly, in that interval, become very familiar with the scenery, manners, customs, and cities of Italy, through some other source. They serve also to strengthen the conclusion to which the internal evidence of style had led my mind, as to the date of this piece; that it was not one of his very

early works, (in which no such familiarity with Italy is manifest,) but belongs to the period of the MERCHANT

OF VENICE:-

"This comedy was entirely rewritten from an older one by an unknown hand, with some, but not many, additions to the fable. It should first be observed that in the older comedy, which we possess, the scene laid in and near Athens, and that Shakespeare removed it to Padua and its neighbourhood; an unnecessary change, if he knew no more of one country than of the other.

"The dramatis persone next attract our attention. Baptista is no longer erroneously the name of a woman, as in HAMLET, but of a man. All the other names, except one, are pure Italian, though most of them are adapted to the English ear. Biondello, the name of a boy, seems chosen with a knowledge of the language,as it signifies a little fair-haired fellow. Even the shrew has the Italian termination to her name, Katharina. The exception is Curtis, Petruchio's servant, seemingly the housekeeper at his villa; which, as it is an insignificant part, may have been the name of the player; but, more probably, it is a corruption of Cortese. For an open

"Act I. Scene I. A Public Place.' place or a square in a city, this is not a home-bred expression. It may be accidental; yet it is a literal translation of una piazza publica, exactly what was meant for the scene.

"The opening of the comedy, which speaks of Lombardy and the University of Padua, might have been written by a native Italian:

Tranio, since-for the great desire I had
To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,-
I am arrived for fruitful Lombardy,

The pleasant garden of great Italy.

Here let us breathe, and happily institute
A course of learning, and ingenious studies.

"The very next line I found myself involuntarily repeating, at the sight of the grave countenances within the walls of Pisa:

Pisa, renowned for grave citizens.

They are altogether a grave people, in their demeanour, their history, and their literature, such as it is. I never met with the anomaly of a merry Pisan. Curiously enough, this line is repeated, word for word, in the fourth act.

"Lucentio says, his father came of the Bentivolii :' this is an old Italian plural; a mere Englishman would write of the Bentivolios.' Besides, there was, and is, a branch of the Bentivolii in Florence, where Lucentio says he was brought up.

"But these indications, just at the commencement of the play, are not of great force. We now come to something more important; a remarkable proof of his having been aware of the law of the country in respect to the betrothment of Katharina and Petruchio, of which there is not a vestige in the older play. The father gives her hand to him, both parties consenting, before two witnesses, who declare themselves such, to the act. Such a ceremony is as indissoluble as that of marriage, unless both parties should consent to annul it. The betrothment takes place in due form, exactly as in many of Goldoni's comedies:

Вар.

Give me your hands;
God send you joy, Petruchio! 'tis a match.

Gre. and Tra. Amen! say we; we will be witnesses. Instantly Petruchio addresses them as 'father and wife;' because, from that moment, he possesses the legal power of a husband over her, saving that of taking her to his own house. Unless the betrothment is understood in this light, we cannot account for the father's so tamely yielding afterwards to Petruchio's whim of going in his 'mad attire' with her to the church. Authority is no longer with the father; in vain he hopes and requests the bridegroom will change his clothes; Petruchio is peremptory in his lordly will and pleasure, which he could not possibly be, without the previous Italian betrothment.

"Padua lies between Verona and Venice, at a suitable distance from both, for the conduct of the comedy. Petruchio, after being securely betrothed, sets off for Venice, the very place for finery, to buy rings and things, and fine array' for the wedding; and, when married, he takes her to his country-house, in the direction of Verona, of which city he is a native. All this is complete; and in marked opposition to the worse than mistakes in the Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, which was written when he knew nothing whatever of the country.

"The rich old Gremio, when questioned respecting the dower he can assure to Bianca, boasts, as a primary consideration, of his richly furnished house :

First, as you know, my house within the city
Is richly furnished with plate and gold;
Basons and ewers, to lave her dainty hands;
My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry:

In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns,
In cypress chests my arras, counterpoints,
Costly apparel, tents, and canopies;

Fine linen, Turkey cushions 'boss'd with pearl,
Valance of Venice gold in needlework;
Pewter and brass, and all things that belong

To house or house-keeping.

"Lady Morgan, in her 'Italy,' says, (and my own observation corroborates her account,) "there is not an article here described, that I have not found in some one or other of the palaces of Florence, Venice, and Genoa -the mercantile republics of Italy-even to the Turkey cushions 'boss'd with pearl.' She then adds, 'this is the knowledge of genius, acquired by the rapid perception and intuitive appreciation,' etc.; never once suspecting that Shakespeare had been an eye-witness of such furniture. For my part, (unable to comprehend

the intuitive knowledge of genius,) in opposition to her ladyship's opinion, I beg leave to quote Dr. Johnson: Shakespeare, however favoured by nature, could impart only what he had learned.' With this text as our guide, it behooves us to point out how he could obtain such an intimate knowledge of facts, without having been, like Lady Morgan, an eye-witness to them.

"In addition to these instances, the whole comedy bears an Italian character, and seems written as if the author had said to his friends,-'Now I will give you a comedy, built on Italian manners, neat as I myself have imported.' Indeed, did I not know its archetype, with the scene in Athens, I might suspect it to be an adaptation of some unknown Italian play, retaining rather too many local allusions for the English stage.

"Some may argue that it was possible for him to learn all this from books of travels now lost, or in conversation with travellers; but my faith recoils from so bare a possibility, when the belief that he saw what he described, is, in every point of view, without difficulty, and probable. Books and conversation may do much for an author; but should he descend to particular descriptions, or venture to speak of manners and customs intimately, is it possible he should not once fall into error with no better instruction? An objection has been made, imputing an error, in Grumio's inquiring after the 'rushes strewed.' But the custom of strewing rushes, as in England, belonged also to Italy: this may be seen in old authors; and their very word giuncare, now out of use, is a proof of it. English Christian-names, incidentally introduced, are but translations of the same Italian names, as Catarina is called Katharine and Kate; and, if they were not, comedy may well be allowed to take a liberty of that nature."-C. A. BROWN.