It will be pastime passing excellent,
If it be husbanded with modesty 10.

1 Hunt. My lord, I warrant you, we'll play our part, As he shall think, by our true diligence,

He is no less than what we say he is.

Lord. Take him up gently, and to bed with him; And each one to his office when he wakes.

[Some bear out SLY. A trumpet sounds. Sirrah, go see what trumpet 'tis that sounds :[Exit Servant.

Belike, some noble gentleman; that means,
Travelling some journey, to repose him here.

Re-enter a Servant.

How now? who is it?

Serv.

An it please your honour,

Players that offer service to your lordship.
Lord. Bid them come near :-

Enter Players.

Now, fellows, you are welcome.

1 Play. We thank your honour.

Lord. Do you intend to stay with me to-night? 2 Play. So please your lordship to accept our duty 11?

Lord. With all my heart.—This fellow I remember, Since once he play'd a farmer's eldest son;'Twas where you woo'd the gentlewoman so well: I have forgot your name; but, sure, that part Was aptly fitted, and naturally perform'd.

1 Play. I think 'twas Soto that your honour means 12.

10 Moderation.

11 It was in old times customary for players to travel in companies and offer their service at great houses.

12 The old copy prefixes the name of Sincklo to this line, who was an actor in the same company with Shakspeare. Soto is a character in Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman Pleased; he is a farmer's eldest son, but he does not woo any gentlewoman.

Lord. 'Tis very true;-thou didst it excellent.— Well, you are come to me in happy time; The rather for I have some sport in hand, Wherein your cunning can assist me much. There is a lord will hear you play to-night: But I am doubtful of your modesties; Lest, over-eying of his odd behaviour, (For yet his honour never heard a play,) You break into some merry passion, And so offend him? for I tell you, sirs, If you should smile, he grows impatient.

1 Play. Fear not, my lord; we can contain ourselves,

Were he the veriest antick in the world 13.

Lord. Go, sirrah, take them to the buttery 14,
And give them friendly welcome every one:
Let them want nothing that my house affords.-

[Exeunt Servant and Players. Sirrah, go you to Bartholomew my page

[To a Servant. And see him dress'd in all suits like a lady: That done, conduct him to the drunkard's chamber, And call him-madam, do him obeisance,

Tell him from me (as he will win my love),

13 In the old play the dialogue is thus continued:

'San. [To the other.] Go get a dishclout to make cleyne your shooes, and Ile speak for the properties. [Exit Player.] My lord, we must have a shoulder of mutton for a property, and a little vinegre to make our divell roar.'

Upon which Steevens remarks, 'The shoulder of mutton might indeed be necessary for the dinner of Petruchio, but there is no devil in this piece, or in the original on which Shakspeare formed neither was it yet determined what comedy should be represented.'

it;

14 Pope remarks, in his Preface to Shakspeare, that the top of the profession were then mere players, not gentlemen of the stage; they were led into the buttery, not placed at the lord's table, or the lady's toilette.'

He bear himself with honourable action,
Such as he hath observ'd in noble ladies
Unto their lords, by them accomplish'd:
Such duty to the drunkard let him do,
With soft low tongue, and lowly courtesy:
And say,-What is't your honour will command,
Wherein your lady and your humble wife,
May show her duty, and make known her love?
And then-with kind embracements, tempting kisses,
And with declining head into his bosom,-
Bid him shed tears, as being overjoy'd

To see her noble lord restored to health,

15

Who, for twice seven years, hath esteem'd him 16

No better than a poor and loathsome beggar:
And if the boy have not a woman's gift,
To rain a shower of commanded tears,
An onion will do well for such a shift:
Which in a napkin being close convey'd,
Shall in despite enforce a watery eye.
See this despatch'd with all the haste thou canst;
Anon I'll give thee more instructions.-

I know the boy will well usurp the

[Exit Servant.

grace, Voice, gait, and action of a gentlewoman:

I long to hear him call the drunkard husband;
And how my men will stay themselves from laughter,
When they do homage to this simple peasant.
I'll in to counsel them: haply 17, my presence
May well abate the over-merry spleen,
Which otherwise would grow into extremes.

[Exeunt.

15 The old copy reads this. The emendation is Theobald's. 16 Him is used for himself, as in Chapman's Banquet of Sense, 1595:

The sense wherewith he feels him deified.'

17 Perhaps.

SCENE II.

A Bedchamber in the Lord's House.

SLY is discovered in a rich night gown, with Attendants; some with apparel, others with bason, ewer, and other appurtenances. Enter Lord, dressed like a Servant 1.

Sly. For God's sake, a pot of small ale.

1 Serv. Will't please your lordship drink a cup of sack?

2 Serv. Will't please your honour taste of these conserves?

3 Serv. What raiment will your honour wear to-day? Sly. I am Christophero Sly; call not me-honour, nor lordship: I never drank sack in my life; and if you give me any conserves, give me conserves of beef. Ne'er ask me what raiment I'll wear: for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no more shoes than feet; nay, sometimes, more feet than shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the over leather.

Lord. Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour!

O, that a mighty man of such descent,
Of such possessions, and so high esteem,
Should be infused with so foul a spirit!

Sly. What, would you make me mad? Am not I Christopher Sly, old Sly's son of Burton-heath; by birth a pedler, by education a card-maker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and now by present profession

1 From the original stage direction in the first folio, it appears that Sly and the other persons mentioned in the Induction were intended to be exhibited here, and during the representation of the comedy, in a balcony above the stage.

a tinker? Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale 3, score me up for the lyingest knave in Christendom. What, I am not bestraught: Here's

3

1 Serv. O, this it is that makes your lady mourn. 2 Serv. O, this it is that makes your servants droop. Lord. Hence comes it that your kindred shun your

house,

As beaten hence by your strange lunacy.

O, noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth;

Call home thy ancient thoughts from banishment,
And banish hence these abject lowly dreams:
Look how thy servants do attend on thee,
Each in his office ready at thy beck.
Wilt thou have musick? hark! Apollo plays,

[Musick.

And twenty caged nightingales do sing:
Or wilt thou sleep? we'll have thee to a couch,
Softer and sweeter than the lustful bed

On

purpose trimm'd up for Semiramis.

2 Wilnecotte, says Warton, is a village in Warwickshire, with which Shakspeare was well acquainted, near Stratford. The house kept by our genial hostess still remains, but is at present a mill. There is a village also called Barton on the heath in Warwickshire.

3 Sheer-ale has puzzled the commentators; and as none of the conjectures offered appear to me satisfactory, I shall add one of my own. Maunday Thursday, the day preceding Good-Friday, was anciently called Sheer-Thursday, and as it was a day of great comfort to the poor from the doles or distribution of clothes, meat and drink, made by the rich; so Sheer-ale may have been ale which the Tinker had drunk on that day, at his own charge, or rather at that of his landlady, in addition to the portion he had received as alms. But after all sheer-ale may mean nothing more than ale unmixed, mere-ale or pure ale. The word sheer is still used for mere, pure. We have stark beer' for stout and strong beer, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Beggar's Bush, Act iii. Sc. 1.

i. e. distraught, distracted.