to use his master so; being, perhaps, (for aught I see), two and thirty,-a pip out?

Whom, 'would to God, I had well knock'd at first,
Then had not Grumio come by the worst.

Pet. A senseless villain-Good Hortensio,
I bade the rascal knock upon your gate,
And could not get him for my heart to do it.
Gru. Knock at the gate?-O heavens!

Spake you not these words plain,-Sirrah, knock me here,

Rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly1? And come you now with-knocking at the gate?

Pet. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you, Hor. Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge: Why, this a heavy chance 'twixt him and you; Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio. And tell me now, sweet friend,-what happy gale Blows you to Padua here, from old Verona?

Pet. Such wind as scatters young men through the world,

To seek their fortunes further than at home,
Where small experience grows. But, in a few5,
Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:—
Antonio, my father, is deceas'd;

And I have thrust myself into this maze,
Haply to wive, and thrive, as best I

may:

4 This passage has escaped the commentators, and yet it is more obscure than many they have explained. Perhaps it was passed over because it was not understood? The allusion is to the old game of Bone-ace or one-and-thirty. A pip is a spot upon a card. The old copy has it peepe. The same allusion is found in Massinger's Fatal Dowry, Act ii. Sc. 2: You think, because you served my lady's mother [you] are thirty-two years old, which is a pip out, you know.' There is a secondary allusion (in which the joke lies) to a popular mode of inflicting punishment upon certain offenders. For a curious illustration of which the reader may consult Florio's Ital. Dict. in v. Trentuno. 5 In a few means the same as in short, in a few words.

VOL. III.

K K

Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,
And so am come abroad to see the world.

Hor. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee,
And wish thee to a shrewd ill favour'd wife?
Thou'dst thank me but a little for my counsel:
And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich,
And very rich:-But thou'rt too much my friend,

And I'll not wish thee to her.

Pet. Signior Hortensio; 'twixt such friends as we
Few words suffice: and, therefore, if thou know
One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,
(As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance),
Be she as foul as was Florentius' love",
As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
As Socrates' Xantippe, or a worse,
She moves me not, or not removes, at least,
Affection's edge in me; were she as rough
As are the swelling Adriatick seas;

I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;
If wealthily, then happily in Padua.

Gru. Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is: Why, give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet, or an aglet-baby7; or an old trot

6 This allusion is to a story told by Gower in the first book of his Confessio Amantis. Florent is the name of a knight who bound himself to marry a deformed hag provided she taught him the solution of a riddle on which his life depended. This story may have been taken from the Gesta Romanorum: Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale is of a similar kind.

7 i. e. ' a diminutive being, not exceeding in size the tag of a point,' says Steevens; a small image or head cut on the tag of a point or lace,' says Malone. It was no such thing; an aglet was not only a tag of a point, but a brooch or jewel in one's cap,' as Baret explains it. An aglet-baby, therefore, was a diminutive figure carved on an aglet or jewel; such as Queen Mab is described:

In shape no bigger than an agate stone

On the fore finger of an alderman.'

Shakspeare was fond of the image, and refers to it again in Much Ado about Nothing:

with ne'er a tooth in her head, though she have as many diseases as two and fifty horses: why, nothing comes amiss, so money comes withal.

Hor. Petruchio, since we have stepp'd thus far in, I will continue that I broach'd in jest.

I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife

With wealth enough, and young, and beauteous;
Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman;
Her only fault (and that is faults enough),
Is, that she is intolerably curst9,

And shrewd, and froward; so beyond all measure,
That, were my state far worser than it is,
I would not wed her for a mine of gold.

Pet. Hortensio, peace; thou know'st not gold's effect:

Tell me her father's name, and 'tis enough;
For I will board her, though she chide as loud
As thunder, when the clouds in autumn crack.
Hor. Her father is Baptista Minola,

An affable and courteous gentleman:

Her name is Katharina Minola,

Renown'd in Padua for her scolding tongue.

'If low, an agate very vilely cut.'

And in Henry IV. Part II. :-'I was never mann'd with an agate till now.'

It may be remarked that aglet was also another name for a spangle, as may be seen in Florio's Ital. Dict. in the word tremola; who also distinguishes the tags of points as long aglets, in the word Puntale. This will explain a passage in Beaumont and Fletcher's Two Noble Kinsmen, Act iii. Sc. 4:

The little stars and all, that look like aglets,'

i. e. spangles. And another in Jeronimo, 1605:

And all those stars that gaze upon her face
Are aglets on her sleeve-pins and her train.'

Several passages in Spenser have been misinterpreted for want of a proper acquaintance with the meaning of aglets.

8 The fifty diseases of a horse seems to be proverbial, of which, probably, the text is only an exaggeration.

9 Cross, froward, petulant.

Pet. I know her father, though I know not her; And he knew my deceased father well: I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her; And therefore let me be thus bold with you, To give you over at this first encounter, Unless you will accompany me thither.

Gru. I pray you, sir, let him go while the humour lasts. O' my word, an she knew him as well as I do, she would think scolding would do little good upon him: She may, perhaps, call him half a score knaves or so: why, that's nothing; an he begin once, he'll rail in his rope-tricks 10. I'll tell you what, sir,-an she stand11 him but a little, he will throw a figure in her face, and so disfigure her with it, that she shall have no more eyes to see withal than a cat 12: You know him not, sir. Hor. Tarry, Petruchio, I must go with thee; For in Baptista's keep 13 my treasure is: He hath the jewel of my life in hold, His youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca; And her withholds from me, and other more Suitors to her, and rivals in my love: Supposing it a thing impossible,

13

(For those defects I have before rehears'd), That ever Katharina will be woo'd; Therefore this order 14 hath Baptista ta'en;

10 i. e. roguish tricks. Ropery is used by Shakspeare in Romeo and Juliet for roguery. A rope-ripe is one for whom the gallows groans, according to Cotgrave. So in Bullein's Dialogue, ed. 1578:- Oh Lorde, it is sportation to hear the clowting beetles to rowle in their rope-ripe terms.'

11 Withstand.

12 To endeavour to explain this would certainly be lost labour. Mr. Boswell justly remarks that nothing is more common in ludicrous or playful discourse than to use a comparison where no resemblance is intended.'

13 Keep here means care, keeping, custody.

14 To take order is to take measures. So in Othello:

That none shall have access unto Bianca,

Till Katharine the curst have got a husband.
Gru. Katharine the curst!

A title for a maid, of all titles the worst.

Hor. Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace;
And offer me, disguis'd in sober robes,
To old Baptista as a schoolmaster

Well seen 15 in musick, to instruct Bianca:
That so I may by this device, at least,
Have leave and leisure to make love to her,
And, unsuspected, court her by herself.

Enter GREMIO; with him LUCENTIO disguised, with books under his arm.

Gru. Here's knavery! See, to beguile the old folks, how the young folks lay their heads together! Master, master, look about you: Who goes there? ha!

Hor. Peace, Grumio; 'tis the rival of my love:Petruchio, stand by a while.

Gru. A proper stripling, and an amorous!

[They retire. Gre. O, very well; I have perus'd the note. Hark you, sir; I'll have them very fairly bound: All books of love, see that at any hand 16; And see you read no other lectures to her: You understand me;-Over and beside Signior Baptista's liberality,

I'll mend it with a largess 17:-Take your papers too, And let me have them very well perfum'd;

For she is sweeter than perfume itself,

To whom they go. What will you read to her?

15 To be well seen in any art was to be well skilled in it. So Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 2:—

'Well seene in every science that mote be.'

16 Rate.

17 Present.