To fair Bianca, fo beloy'd of me.
Gre. Belov'd of me,-and that my

Gru. And that his bags fhall prove.

deeds fhall

Hor. Gremio, 'tis now no time to vent our love.
Liften to me; and, if you speak me fair,
I'll tell you news indifferent good for either.
Here is a gentleman whom by chance I met,
Upon agreement from us to his liking,
Will undertake to woo curft Catharine;
Yea, and to marry her, if her dowry please.
Gre. So faid, fo done, is well;-
Hortenfio, have you told him all her faults?
Pet. I know the is an irkfome brawling fcold;
If that be all, mafters, I hear no harm.

prove.

Gre. No, fayeft me fo, friend? what countryman? Pet. Born in Verona, old Antonio's fon; My father's dead, my fortune lives for me,

And I do hope good days and long to fee.

Gre. Oh, Sir, fuch a life with fuch a wife were strange:

But if you have a ftomach, to't o' God's name:
You fhall have me affifting you in all.

But will you wco this wild cat?

Pet. Will I live?

Gru. Will he woo her? ay, or I'll hang her.
Pet. Why came I hither, but to that intent?
Think you, a little din can daunt my ears?
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the fea, puff'd up with winds,.
Rage like an angry boar, chafed with fweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field?
And heav'n's artillery thunder in the fkies ?.
Have I not in a pitched battle heard

Loud larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clangue?
And do you tell me of a woman's tongue,

That gives not half fo great a blow to hear,

As will a chefnut in a farmer's fire?

Tush, tufh, fear boys with bugs.

Gru. For he fears none.

Gre. Hortenfio, hark:

This gentleman is happily arriv'd,

My

My mind prefumes, for his own good, and ours.
Hor. I promis'd, we would be contributors;
And bear his charge of wooing whatfoe'er..

Gre. And fo we will, provided that he win her.
Gru. I would, I were as fure of a good dinner,

To them Tranio bravely apparell'd, and Biondello. Tra.. Gentlemen, God fave you. If I may be bold, tell me, I beseech you, which is the readieft way to the houfe of Signior Baptifta Minola?

Bion. He that has the two fair daughters? is't he mean?

Tra. Even he, Biondello.

you

Gre. Hark you, Sir, you mean not her, to-
Tra. Perhaps, him and her; what have you to do?
Pet. Nor her that chides, Sir, at any hand, I pray.
Tra. I love no chiders, Sir: Biondello, let's away.
Luc. Well begun, Tranio.

Hor. Sir, a word ere you go:

Are you a fuitor to the maid you talk of, yea or no?
Tra. An if I be, Sir, is it any offence?

Gre. No; if without more words you will get you hence. Tra. Why, Sir, I pray, are not the ftreets as free. For me as for you?

Gre. But fo is not she..

Tra.. For what reafon, I beseech you?

Gre. For this reason, if you'll know :

That she's the choice love of Signior Gremio..
Hor. That fhe's the chofen of Signior Hortenfio.
Tra. Softly, my mafters; if you be gentlemen,
Do me this light; hear me with patience..
Baptifta is a noble gentleman,

To whom my father is not all unknown n;
And, were his daughter fairer than fhe is,
She may more fuitors have, and me for one..
Fair Leda's daughter had a thoufand wooers;
Then well one more may, fair Bianca have,
And fo the fhall. Lucentio fhall make one,
Tho' Paris came, in hope to speed alone.

Gre. What, this gentleman will out-talk us all!

Luc. Sir, give him head; I know he'll prove a jade.
Pet. Hortenfio, to what end are all these words?
Hor. Sir, let me be fo bold as to ask you,
Did you yet ever see Baptifta's daughter?

Tra. No, Sir; but, hear I do, that he hath two:
The one as famous for a scolding tongue,
As the other is for beauteous modefty.

Pet. Sir, Sir, the firft's for me; let her go by.
Gre. Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules;
And let it be more than Alcides' twelve.

Pet. Sir, understand you this of me, infooth:
The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for,
Her father keeps from all accefs of fuitors,
And will not promife her to any man,
Until the eldest fifter firft be wed:
The younger then is free, and not before.
Tra. If it be fo, Sir, that you are the man
Must steed us all, and me amongst the reft;
And if you break the ice, and do this feat,
Atchieve the elder, fet the younger free
For our accefs; whofe hap fhall be to have her,
Will not fo gracelefs be, to be ingrate.

Hor. Sir, you fay well, and well you do conceive:

And fince you do profefs to be a fuitor,

You muft, as we do, gratify this gentleman,
To whom we all reft generally beholden.

Tra. (10) Sir, I fhall not be flack; in fign whereof,

(10) Sir, I fall not be flack; in fign zubereof,

Pleafe you, que may contrive this afternoon,]

Please

What were they to contrive? or how is it any teftimony of Tranio's confenting to be liberal, that he will join in contriving with them? in fhort, a foolish corruption poffeffes the place, that quite ftrips the poet of his intended humour. What was faid here is purely, as the old Scholiafs call it, in character. Tranio is but a fuppos'd gentleman his habit is all the gentility he has about him: and the poet, I am perfuaded, meant that the Servingman's qualities thould break out upon him; and that his mind fhould rather run on good cbeer than contrivances. I have therefore ventured to fufpe&t;

Phafe you we may convive this afternoon,

This agrees with, quaff caroufes; and with what he fays at the conclufion of this fpeech, but eat and drink as friends. And this word

convive,

Please ye, we may convive this afternoon,
And quaff caroufes to our mistress' health;
And do as adversaries do in law,

Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

Gru. Bion. O excellent motion: fellows, let's be gone. Hor. The motion's good indeed, and be it fo, Petruchio, I fhall be your ben venuto.

[Exeunt. [The Prefenters, above, speak here. 1 Man. My Lord, you nod; you do not mind the play. Sly. Yea, by St. Anr., de I: a good matter, furely ! comes there any more of it?

Lady. My Lord, 'tis but begun.

Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, Madam Lady. Would 'twere done!

ACT

II.

SCENE, Baptifla's House in Padua.

Go

Enter Catharina and Bianca.

BIANCA.

OOD Sifter, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself, To make a bond-maid and a ilave of me; That I difdain; (11) but for thefe other gawds,

Unbind

convive, however queint and uncommon it may be, is again ufed by our poet in his Troilus and Creffida:

First, all you Peers of Greece, go to my tent;

There in the full convive you.

It is regularly deriv'd from convivium of the Latins; and the active verb, ufed more obfoletely inftead of the paffive. Si calendis convivant idibus cœnant foris.

And,

Malo bercle fuo magno convivant, fine modo.
Say Pomponius and Ennius, as quoted by Nonius Marcellus.

(11) But for thefe other goods,] This is fo trifling and unexpreffive a word, that, I am satisfied, our author wrote, gawds, (i. e.

toys,

Unbind my hands, I'll pull them off myself;
Yea, all my raiment, to my petticoat,
Or, what you will command me, will I do;
So weil I know my duty to my elders.

Cath. Of all thy fuitors here, I charge thee, tell
Whom thou lov'ft best: fee, thou diffemble not.
Bian. Believe me, fifter, of all men alive

I never yet beheld that special face,

Which I could fancy more than any other.
Cath. Minion, thou lyeft; is't not Hortenfio?
Bian. If you affect him, fifter, here I fwear,
I'll plead for you myself, but you fhall have him.
Cath. Oh, then, belike, you fancy riches more;
You will have Gremio, to keep you fair.

Bian. Is it for him you do so envy me ?
Nay, then you jeft; and now, I well perceive,
You have but jefted with me all this while ;
I pr'ythee, fifter Kate, untie my hands.

Cath. If that be jeft, then all the reft was fo.

Enter Baptista.

[Strikes ber.

Bap. Why,how now, dame, whence grows this infolence? Bianca, ftand aside; poor girl, she

weeps ;

Go ply thy needle, meddle not with her.

toys, trifling ornaments;) a term that he frequently uses and feems

fond of.

Midfummer Night's dream.

And again,

With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles,

As the remembrance of an idle garde,
Which in my childhood I did doat upon..

King John.

Is all too wanton, and too full of gawds,
To give me audience.

So Beaumont and Fletcher in their Women pleas'd;

Her rules and precepts hung with gawds and ribbands.

And in their Two Noble Kinfien:

What a mere child is fancy,

That having two fair gazuds of equal fweetness,,
Cannot diftinguish, but must cry for both.

&c. &c, &c..

For