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THE WOMAN'S PRIZE;

OR,

THE TAMER TAM'D.

A COMEDY.

This Comedy appears to be one of the performances which Fletcher wrote, without the assistance of Beaumont. The Commendatory Verses by Gardiner and Lovelace, as well as the Prologue, ascribe it to him alone. We believe an alteration of part of it was acted about twenty years ago at Drury-Lane Theatre, as an After-Piece, for the benefit of the late Mrs. Pritchard, or one of her family.

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Make you continual anvil to his anger!
Believe me, since his first wife set him going,
Nothing can bind his rage: take your own
council;

You shall not say that I persuaded you.
But if you suffer him--

Maria. Stay! shall I do't?

Bianca. Have you a stomach to't? Maria. I never shew'd it.[stronger in you. Bianca. Till shew the rarer and the But do not say I urg'd you.

Maria. I am perfect. [leap'd Like Curtius, to redecin my country, have I Into this gulph of marriage; and I'll do it. Farewell, all poorer thoughts, but spite and anger, [cousin, 'Till I have wrought a miracle!-Now, I am no more the gentle, tame Maria: Mistake me not; I have a new soul in me, Made of a north-wind, nothing but tempest; And, like a tempest, shall it make all ruins, "Till I have run my will out!

Bianca. This is brave now,

[you! If you continue it: but, your own will lead Maria. Adieu, all tenderness! I dare continué. [blushes,

Maids that are made of fears, and modest View me, and love example!

Bianca. Here's your sister.

Maria. Here's the brave old man's loveBianca. That loves the young man. Maria. Ay, and hold thee there, wench! What a grief of heart is't, [night, When Paphos' revels should up-rouse old To sweat against a cork, to lie and tell The clock o' th' lungs, to rise sport-starv'd? Livia. Dear sister,

Where have you been, you talk thus?

Maria. Why, at church, wench; [now. Where I am tied to talk thus: I'm a wife Livia. It seems so, and a modest ! Maria. You're an ass!

When thou art married once, thy modesty Will never buy thee pins.

Livia. 'Bless me!

Maria. From what?

[sin Livia!

Bianca. From such a tame fool as our couLivia. You are not mad?

Stronger.] Sympson would read stranger.

Maria. Yes, wench, and so must you be, Or none of our acquaintance (mark me, Livia),

Or indeed fit for our sex. 'Tis bed-time:
Pardon me, yellow Hymen, that I mean
Thine offerings to protract, or to keep fasting
My valiant bridegroom!

Livia. Whither will this woman?
Bianca. You may perceive her end.
Livia. Or rather fear it.

Maria. Dare you be partner in't?
Livia. Leave it, Maria! [leave it!
(I fear I've mark'd too much) for goodness,
Divest you with obedient hands; to-bed!

Maria. To bed? No, Livia; there are comets hang

Prodigious over that yet; there's a fellow Must yet, before I know that heat (ne'er start, wench),

Be made a man, for yet he is a monster;
Here must his head be, Livia.

Livia. Never hope it:

[as

'Tis as easy with a sieve to scoop the ocean, To tame Petruchio.

Maria. Stay!-Lucina, hear me! Never unlock the treasure of my womb, For human fruit to make it capable; Nor never with thy secret hand make brief A mother's labour to me; if I do Give way unto my married husband's will, Or be a wife in any thing but hopes, "Till I have made him easy as a child, And tame as fear! (He shall not win a smile, Or a pleas'd look, from this austerity, Tho' it would pull another jointure from him, And make him ev'ry day another man) And when I kiss him, till I have my will, May I be barren of delights, and know Only what pleasures are in dreams and guesses! Livia. A strange exordium! Bianca. All the several wrongs Done by imperious husbands to their wives These thousand years and upwards, strengthen Thou hast a brave cause.

[thee!

Maria. And I'll do it bravely; Or may I kuit my life out ever after! Livia. In what part of the world' got she this spirit?

7 In what part of the world.] These six subsequent lines seem almost all misplaced. As they now stand, part of the sentence is intermixt with the parenthesis, and makes a parenthesis to the parenthesis. I read the whole thus:

Livia. In what part of the world got she this spirit?

Which yet I cannot think your own, it shews
So distant from your sweetness-

Maria. Tis, I swear.

Livia. Yet pray, Maria, look before you truly,

Besides the due obedience of a wife,

(Which you will find a heavy imputation)
Weigh but the, &c.

I have inserted an adjective in the fifth line, which seems to have been drop'd by accident. it is necessary to the measure, natural to the expression, and is used in the same manner in another part of the play. Seward.

We see no need of transposition: the construction is not more violent than many other passages of these plays, undoubtedlygenuine.

Yet.

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See the lure out, and hear their husband's
But cry like kites upon 'em: the free hag-
gard
[knows it,
(Which is that woman that bath wing, and
Spirit and plume) will make an hundred
checks,

To shew her freedom, sail in ev'ry air,
And look out ev'ry pleasure, not regarding
Lure nor quarry till her pitch command
What she desires; making her founder'd
keeper

Be glad to fling out trains, and golden ones,
To take her down again.

Livia. You're learned, sister;

Yet I say still, take heed!

Maria. A witty saying!

I'll tell thee, Livia, had this fellow tir'd
As many wives as horses under him,
With spurring of their patience; had he got
A patent, with an office to reclaim us,
Confirm'd by parliament; had he all the ma-
And subtilty of devils, or of us,
Or any thing that's worse than both-
Livia. Hey, hey, boys! this is excellent!

[lice

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Cast his wives new again, like bells, to make
Sound to his will; or had the fearful name
Of the first breaker of wild women; yet,
Yet would I undertake this man, thus single.
And, spite of all the freedom he has reach'd
to,
[him
Turn him and bend him as I list, and mould
Into a babe again, that aged women, [him.
Wanting both teeth and spleen, may master
Bianca. Thou wilt be chronicled.
Maria. That's all I aim at. [heart
Livia. I must confess I do with all my
Hate an imperious husband, and in time
Might be so wrought upon--

Bianca. To make him cuckold?
Maria. If he deserve it.

Livia. Then I'll leave ye 10, ladies. Bianca. Thou hast not so much noble an ger in thee. [to do Maria. Go sleep, go sleep! What we intend Lies not for such starv'd souls as thou hast, Livia. [be with you presently. Livia. Good night! The bridegroom will Maria. That's more than you know. Livia. If you work upon him

As you have promis'd, you may give example, Which no doubt will be follow'd..

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Besides the obedience of a wife.] We read, disobedience, which Maria's answer certainly confirms. Again, obedience, or, as Seward would read, due obedience, is no heavy imputation, but disobedience is; and supplies the the measure, and, what is of more consequence, ought to observe, that we have altered the stops. thus:

A weaker subject

syllable required by Seward to complete agrees with the sense of the context.-We The text in Maria's speech used to stand

Would shame the end I aim at, disobedience.

You talk too tamely

Eyasses.] Eyess, a (watery-eyed) hawk brought up under a kite. Coles's Dict. 1677. 10 Then I'll leave ye.] Probably we should read, there I'll leave ye.

Maria. Am I his groom?

Where lay he last night, forsooth? Jaques. In the low matted parlour.

mistress.

Maria. There lies his way, by the long gallery. [very merry, Jaques. I mean your chamber. You are Maria. 'Tis a good sign I am sound-hearted, Jaques.

But, if you'll know where I lie, follow me; And what thou seest, deliver to thy master.

Bianca. Do, gentle Jaques. [Exeunt. Jaques. Ha! is the wind in that door? By'r lady, we shall have foul weather then! I do not like the shuffling of these women; They are mad beasts, when they knock their heads together: [pers

I have observ'd them all this day, their whisOne in another's ear; their signs and pinches, And breaking often into violent laughters, As if the end they purpos'd were their own. Call you this weddings? Sure this is a kna

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Soph. I am your first man: a pair of gloves Of twenty shillings.

Petru. Done! Who takes me up next? I am for all bets. [night now, Mor. Well, lusty Lawrence, were but my Old as I am, I'd make you clap on spurs, But I would reach you, and bring you to your I would, gallants. [trot too; Petru, Well said, Good-will; but where's the staff, boy, ha?

Old father Time, your hour-glass is empty.

Tra. A good tough train would break thee all to pieces;

[ers. Thou hast not breath enough to say thy pray

Petron. See how these boys despise us!Will you to bed, son?

This pride will have a fall.

Petru. Upon your daughter;
But I shall rise again, if there be truth
In eggs, and butter'd parsnips.

[talking?
Petron. Will you to bed, son, and leave
To-morrow morning we shall have you look 12,
For all your great words, like St. George at
Kingston,
[gon,
Running a foot-back from the furious dra-
That with her angry tail belabours him
For being lazy.

[quench'dTra. His courage quench'd, and so far Petru. 'Tis well, sir.

What then?

Soph. Fly, fly.quoth then the fearful dwarf; Here is no place for living man.

Petru. Well, my masters, if I

Do sink under my business, as I find
'Tis very possible, I am not the first
That has miscarried; so that's my comfort;
What may be done without impeach or waste,
Enter Jaques.

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I'll try all the law i'th' land, but I'll cut it off.
Let's up, let's up; come!

Jaques. That you cannot neither.
Petru. Why?

[ney

Jaques. Unless you will drop thro' the chimLike a daw, or force a breach i'th' windows; You may untile the house, 'tis possible.

Petru. What dost thou mean? [press it: Jaques. A moral, sir; the ballad will exThe wind and the rain

Have turn'd you back again, And you cannot be lodged there. The truth is, all the doors are barricadoed; Not a cat-hole, but holds a murd’rer in't: She's victuall'd for this month.

"Where's the staff boy, ha ?] Tho' I take no pleasure in the raking into a dunghill, yet the amending of passages to the honour of our author's good sense, whether innocent or obscene, is the duty of every careful editor; for staff, therefore, I propose reading stuff, and the following line seems to confirm the alteration:

but where's the stuff boy, ha? Old father Time, your hour-glass is empty.

We think Sympson might have left the staff alone. 12 Will you to bed, son, and leave talking?

To-morrow morning we shall have you look,

Sympson.

For all your great words-] The gravity of the speaker, old Petronius, made me suspicious that, For all your great, &c. must belong to Sophocles: and if they won't come more decently, yet certainly they will flow more properly from his than the old gentleman's mouth. Mr. Seward too advanc'd the same alteration, altho' I have not dar'd to disturb the text.

Sympson. Petru

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