SCENE II.

The Same. Before BAPTISTA'S House.

Enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, TRANIO, KATHARINE, Bianca, LUCENTIO, and Attendants.

Bap. Signior Lucentio, this is the 'pointed day That Katharine and Petruchio should be married, And yet we hear not of our son-in-law.

What will be said? what mockery will it be,

To want the bridegroom, when the priest attends

To speak the ceremonial rites of marriage?

What says Lucentio to this shame of ours?

Kath. No shame but mine: I must, forsooth, be forc'd

To give my hand, oppos'd against my heart,

Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen;

Who woo'd in haste, and means to wed at leisure.

I told you, I, he was a frantic fool,

Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour;
And to be noted for a merry man,

He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage,
Make friends, invite, yes, and proclaim the banns1;
Yet never means to wed where he hath woo'd.
Now must the world point at poor Katharine,
And say,-"Lo, there is mad Petruchio's wife,
If it would please him come and marry her."

Tra. Patience, good Katharine, and Baptista too.
Upon my life, Petruchio means but well,
Whatever fortune stays him from his word:

Make friends, invite, yes, and proclaim the banns ;] "Yes" was added after "invite" by the editor of the second folio, in order to complete what he considered an imperfect line. Malone and other modern editors inserted them instead of “ yes,” but without any authority. The reading of the second folio is certainly to be preferred to any recent conjectural emendation, and we may, perhaps, presume that a small word like "yes" dropped out in the press.

Though he be blunt, I know him passing wise;
Though he be merry, yet withal he's honest.

Kath. Would Katharine had never seen him though! [Exit, weeping, followed by BIANCA, and others. Bap. Go, girl; I cannot blame thee now to weep, For such an injury would vex a very saint,

Much more a shrew of thy impatient humour.

Enter BIONdello.

Bion. Master, master! old news, and such news as you never heard of!

Bap. Is it new and old too? how may that be?

Bion. Why, is it not news to hear of Petruchio's coming?

Bap. Is he come?

Bion. Why, no, sir.

Bap. What then?

Bion. He is coming.

Bap. When will he be here?

Bion. When he stands where I am, and sees you there.

Tra. But, say, what to thine old news?

Bion. Why, Petruchio is coming, in a new hat, and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches, thrice turned; a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town armoury, with a broken hilt, and chapeless'; with two broken points: his horse hipped with an old mothy saddle, and stirrups of no kindred: besides, possessed with the glanders, and like to mose in the chine; troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions,

5 of THY impatient humour.] The second folio reads "of thy impatient humour," the first folio omitting the pronoun, which seems necessary, as well for the sense as for the metre.

6 OLD news,] "Old" is wanting in the early editions. Rowe added it in consequence of Baptista's question, "Is it new and old too?" which shows that the word had been accidentally omitted. It was very common in the time of Shakespeare to use old as a species of superlative.

7

8

and CHAPELESS ;] i. e., says Todd, without a hook to the scabbard. infected with the FASHIONS,] . e. Farcins, a well-known disease in

full of wind-galls, sped with spavins, raied with the yellows, past cure of the fives', stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots; swayed in the back', and shoulder-shotten; ne'er-legged before, and with a half-cheeked bit, and a head-stall of sheep's leather; which, being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots: one girth six times pieced, and a woman's crupper of velure, which hath two letters for her name fairly set down in studs, and here and there pieced with packthread.

Bap. Who comes with him?

Bion. O, sir! his lackey, for all the world caparisoned like the horse; with a linen stock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, gartered with a red and blue list; an old hat, and "the humour of forty fancies" pricked in't for a feather2: a monster, a very monster in apparel, and not like a Christian footboy, or a gentleman's lackey.

Tra. 'Tis some odd humour pricks him to this fashion;

Yet oftentimes he goes but mean apparell'd.

Bap. I am glad he is come, howsoe'er he comes.
Bion. Why, sir, he comes not.

Bap. Didst thou not say, he comes?

Bion. Who? that Petruchio came?

Bap. Ay, that Petruchio came.

Bion. No, sir; I say, his horse comes, with him on his back.

horses; often mentioned by old writers, as in Rowlands' "Looke to it, for I'll Stabbe you," 1604 :

"You gentle-puppets of the proudest size,

That are, like horses, troubled with the fashions.”

Sign. D. 2 b.

9 past cure of the FIVES,] i. e. Vires, or avires, another disorder in horses. swayed in the back,] "Waid in the back," old copies.

2 an old hat, and "the humour of forty fancies" prick'd in't for a feather.] It seems likely that this "humour of forty fancies" was either a ballad so called, or a collection of ballads, stuck in the "lackey's" hat instead of a feather. No such publication is now known.

Bap. Why, that's all one.

Bion. Nay, by Saint Jamy,

I hold you a penny,

A horse and a man

Is more than one,

And yet not many3.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.

Pet. Come, where be these gallants? who is at

Pet. Were it better, I should rush in thus.

But where is Kate? where is my lovely bride ?— How does my father?-Gentles, methinks you frown: And wherefore gaze this goodly company,

As if they saw some wondrous monument,

Some comet, or unusual prodigy?

Bap. Why, sir, you know, this is your wedding-day : First were we sad, fearing you would not come; Now sadder, that you come so unprovided. Fie! doff this habit, shame to your estate, An eye-sore to our solemn festival.

Tra. And tell us what occasion of import
Hath all so long detain'd you from your wife,
And sent you hither so unlike yourself?

Pet. Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear:
Sufficeth, I am come to keep my word,
Though in some part enforced to digress;
Which, at more leisure, I will so excuse
As you shall well be satisfied withal.

3 And yet not many.] This is undoubtedly a scrap of some old ballad. Perhaps Biondello was led to recollect it by his own mention of "the humour of forty fancies" just before.

But, where is Kate? I stay too long from her:
The morning wears, 'tis time we were at church.

Tra. See not your bride in these unreverent robes.
Go to my chamber: put on clothes of mine.
Pet. Not I, believe me: thus I'll visit her.

Bap. But thus, I trust, you will not marry her.
Pet. Good sooth, even thus; therefore have done

with words:

To me she's married, not unto my clothes.
Could I repair what she will wear in me,
As I can change these poor accoutrements,
"Twere well for Kate, and better for myself.
But what a fool am I to chat with you,
When I should bid good-morrow to my bride,
And seal the title with a lovely kiss?

[Exeunt PETRUCHIO, GRUMIO, and BIONDELLO. Tra. He hath some meaning in his mad attire. We will persuade him, be it possible,

To put on better ere he go to church.

Bap. I'll after him, and see the event of this.

Tra. But, sir, to love concerneth us to add
Her father's liking; which to bring to pass,
As I before imparted to your worship,
I am to get a man,-whate'er he be,
It skills not much, we'll fit him to our turn,-
And he shall be Vincentio of Pisa,
And make assurance, here in Padua,
Of greater sums than I have promised.
So shall you quietly enjoy your hope,
And marry sweet Bianca with consent.

Luc. Were it not that my fellow schoolmaster
Doth watch Bianca's steps so narrowly,

[Exit.

But, sir, To love-] The preposition is wanting in the old copies, and without it both metre and meaning are defective. Malone injured the line, by adding her also, after "to." Tranio is here addressing himself to Lucentio, on the subject of their joint scheme.

As I before imparted-] The pronoun is omitted in the old copies.