To give my hand, oppos'd against my heart,
Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen1;

Who woo'd in haste, and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantick 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 them, and proclaim the banns 2;
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:
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.

Bio. Master, master! news, old news3, 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?

1 Humour, caprice, inconstancy.

2 Them is not in the old copy, it was supplied by Malone : the second folio reads-yes.

3 Old news.

These words were added by Rowe, and necessarily, as appears by the reply of Baptista. Old, in the sense of abundant, as old turning the key,' &c. occurs elsewhere in Shakspeare.

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 armory, with a broken hilt and chapeless; with two broken points: His horse hipped with an old mothy saddle, the stirrups of no kindred: besides, possessed with the glanders, and like to mose in the chine; troubled with the lampas, infected with the fashions 5, 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 shouldershotten; ne'er legged before; and with a half-checked 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 girt six times pieced, and a woman's crupper of

4 Lest the reader should imagine that a sword with two broken points is here meant, he should know that points were tagged laces used in fastening different parts of the dress: two broken points would therefore add to the slovenly appearance of Petruchio. Shakspeare puns upon the word in K. Henry IV. P. 1. Fals. Their points being broken Pr. Down fell their hose.'

And again in Twelfth Night, Act i. Sc. 5.

5 i. e. the farcy, called fashions in the west of England.

6 Vives; a distemper in horses, little differing from the strangles.

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 8 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 feather: 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, howsoever 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.

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 many.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.

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

Bap. You are welcome, sir.

9 Warburton's supposition, that Shakspeare ridicules some popular chap book of this title, by making Petruchio prick it up in his footboy's hat instead of a feather, has been well supported by Steevens; he observes that a penny book, containing forty short poems, would, properly managed, furnish no unapt plume of feathers for the hat of a humourist's servant.'

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 weddingday:

First were we sad, fearing you would not come;
Now sadder, that you come so unprovided.
Fye! 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 disgress 10;
Which, at more leisure, I will so excuse
As you shall well be satisfied withal.

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,
10 i. e. to deviate from my promise.

"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 PET. GRU. and BION. 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.

[Exit. Tra. But, sir, to her11 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 12 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,
"Twere good, methinks, to steal our marriage;
Which once perform'd, let all the world say-no,
I'll keep mine own, despite of all the world.
Tra. That by degrees we mean to look into,
And watch our vantage in this business:
We'll overreach the greybeard, Gremio,

11 The old copy reads, But, sir, love concerneth us to add, Her father's liking.' The emendation is Mr. Tyrwhitt's. The nominative case to the verb concerneth is here understood.

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12 It matters not much,' it is of no importance. Thus in the old phrase book, Hormanni Vulgaria, 1519, 'It maketh little matter, or it skilleth not whether thou come or not.' Shakspeare has the phrase again in Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1, p. 391.'it skills not much where they are delivered.' See also K. Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 1.