My heart as great; my reason, haply, more, Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,- My hand is ready, may it do him ease. Pet. Why, there's a wench!-Come on, and kiss me, Kate. Luc. Well, go thy ways, old lad; for thou shalt ha't. Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are toward. Luc. But a harsh hearing, when women are froward. Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to-bed :We three are married, but you two are sped." Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white ;" [TO LUCENTIO. : And, being a winner, God give you good-night! [Exe. PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA. Hor. Now go thy ways, thou hast tam'd a curst shrew. Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam'd so. [Exeunt. [5] i. e. abate your pride, your spirit STEEVENS. [6] i. e. the fate of you both is decided; for you have wives who exhibit early proofs of disobedience. STEEVENS. [7] To hit the white is a phrase borrowed from archery: the mark was commonly white. Here it alludes to the name, Bianca, or white. JOHNSON. [8] As this was meant for a rhyming couplet, it should be observed that anciently the word-shrew was pronounced as if it had been written-shrow. Thus, in Mr. Lodge's Illustrations of English History, Vol. II. p. 164, Burghley calls Lord Shrewsbury-Shrowsbury. See, also, the same work, Vol. II. p. 168-9. STEEVENS. [9] At the conclusion of this piece, Mr. Pope continued his insertions from the old play, as follows: "Enter two Servants, bearing Sly in his own apparel, and leaving him on the stage. Then enter a Tapster. "Sly. [awaking.] Sim, give's some more wine.-What, all the players gone?- Am I not a lord? "Tap. A lord, with a murrain?-Come, art thou drunk still? Sly. Who's this? Tapster!-Oh, I have had the bravest dream that ever thou heard'st in all thy life. "Tap. Yea, marry, but thou hadst best get thee home, for your wife will curse you for dreaming here all night. Sly. Will she? I know how to tame a shrew. I dreamt upon it all this night, and thou hast wak'd me out of the best dream that ever I had. But I'll to my wife, and tame her too, if she anger me." These passages, which have been hitherto printed as part of the work of Sbakespeare, I have sunk into the notes, that they nay he preserved, as they seem to be necessary to the integrity of the piece, though they really compose no part of it, being not published in the folio, 1623. Mr. Pope, however, has quoted them with a degree of inaccuracy which would have deserved censure, bad they veen or greater consequence than they are. The players delivered down this comedy, among the rest, as one of Shakespeare's own; and its intrinsic merit bears sufficient evidence to the propriety of their decision. May I add a few reasons why I neither believe the former comedy of The Taming of the Shrew, 1607, nor the old play of King John, in two Parts, to have been the work of Shakespeare? He generally followed every novel or history from whence he took his plots, as closely as he could; and is so often indebted to these originals for his very thoughts and expressions, that we may fairly pronounce him not to have been above borrowing, to spare himself the labour of invention. It is therefore probable, that both these plays, (like that of King Henry V. in which Oldcastle is introduced,) were the unsuccessful performances of contemporary players. Shakespeare saw they were meanly written, and yet that their plans were such as would furnish incidents for a better dramatist. He therefore might lazily adopt the order of their scenes, still writing the dialogue anew, and inserting little wore from either piece, than a few lines which he might think worth preserving, or was too much in haste to alter. It is no uncommon thing in the literary world, to see the track of others followed by those who would never have given themselves the trouble to mark out one of their own. STEEVENS. END OF VOL. III. + |