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Pet. I am content.

Kath.

Are you content to stay?
Pet. I am content you shall entreat me stay;
But yet not stay, entreat me how you can.
Kath. Now, if you love me, stay.

Pet.

:

Grumio, my horses: Gru. Ay, sir, they be ready; the oats have eaten the horses.6

5—

my horses.] Old copy-horse. Steevens.

6 the oats have eaten the horses.] There is still a ludicrous expression used when horses have staid so long in a place as to have eaten more than they are worth-viz. that their heads are too big for the stable-door. I suppose Grumio has some such meaning, though it is more openly expressed, as follows, in the original play:

"Enter Ferando and Kate, and Alfonso and Polidor, and Emilia, and Aurelius and Phylema.

"Feran. Father, farewel; my Kate and I must home: "Sirrha, go make ready my horse presently.

"Alfon. Your horse! what son, I hope you do but jest;

"I am sure you will not go so suddainely.

"Kate. Let him go or tarry, I am resolv'd to stay;

"And not to travel on my wedding-day."

"Feran. Tut, Kate, I tel thee we must needes go home: "Vilaine, hast thou saddled my horse?

"San. Which horse? your curtall?

"Feran. Souns you slave, stand you prating here? "Saddle the bay gelding for your mistris.

"Kate. Not for me, for I wil not go..

"San. The ostler will not let me have him: you owe ten pence

"For his meate, and 6 pence for stuffing my mistris saddle.
"Feran. Here vilaine; goe pay him strait.

"San. Shall I give them another pecke of lavender ?
"Feran. Out slave, and bring them presently to the dore.
Alfon. Why son, I hope at least youle dine with us.

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"San. I pray you, master, lets stay til dinner be done. "Feran. Sounes vilaine, art thou here yet?

"Come, Kate, our dinner is provided at home.

"Kate. But not for me, for here I meane to dine:

"Ile have my wil in this as wel as you;

[Exit San.

"Though you in madding mood would leave your frinds, "Despite of you Ile tarry with them stil.

"Feran. I Kate so thou shalt, but at some other time:

"When as thy sisters here shall be espousd,

"Then thou and I wil keepe our wedding-day,
"In better sort then now we can provide;
"For heere I promise thee before them all,
"We wil ere longe returne to them againe :

Kath. Nay, then,

Do what thou canst, I will not go to-day;
No, nor to-morrow, nor till I please myself.
The door is open, sir, there lies your way,
You may be jogging, whiles your boots are green;
For me, I'll not be gone, till I please myself:-
'Tis like, you'll prove a jolly surly groom,

That take it on you at the first so roundly.

Pet. O, Kate, content thee; pr'ythee, be not angry. Kath. I will be angry; What hast thou to do?— Father, be quiet; he shall stay my leisure.

Gre. Ay, marry, sir: now it begins to work.
Kath. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner :-
I see, a woman may be made a fool,

If she had not a spirit to resist.

Pet. They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command:

Obey the bride, you that attend on her:
Go to the feast, revel and domineer,
Carouse full measure to her maidenhead,
Be mad and merry,- —or go hang yourselves;
But for my bonny Kate, she must with me.
Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret;
I will be master of what is mine own:

She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,
My houshold-stuff, my field, my barn,

9

8

My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing;

"Come, Kate, stand not on termes; we wil away;
"This is my day, to-morrow thou shalt rule,
"And I wil doe whatever thou commandes.
"Gentlemen, farewel, wee 'l take our leaves;
"It wil be late before that we come home.

[Exeunt Feran. and Kate. "&c. Steevens.

"Pol. Farewel Ferando, since you wil be gone. 'Alfon. So mad a couple did I never see,'

66

7 nor till -] Old copy-not till. Corrected by Mr. Rowe.

Malone.

8 My houshold-stuff, my field, my barn,] This defective verse might be completed by reading, with Mr. T. Hanmer: "She is my houshold-stuff, my field, my barn;

or,

My houshold-stuff, my field, my barn, my stable

-.

Steevens.

And here she stands, touch her whoever dare;
I'll bring mine action on the proudest he
That stops my way in Padua.—Grumio,
Draw forth thy weapon, we 're beset with thieves;
Rescue thy mistress, if thou be a man:—

Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch thee, Kate; I'll buckler thee against a million.

[Exeunt PET. KATH. and GRU.

Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones.
Gre. Went they not quickly, I should die with laugh-

ing.

Tra. Of all mad matches, never was the like!

Luc. Mistress, what's your opinion of your sister? Eian. That, being mad herself, she 's madly mated. Gre. I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated.

Bap. Neighbours and friends, though bride and bridegroom wants

For to supply the places at the table,

You know, there wants no junkets at the feast;
Lucentio, you shall supply the bridegroom's place;
And let Bianca take her sister's room.

Tra. Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it?
Bap. She shall, Lucentio.-Come, gentlemen, let's
[Exeunt.

go.

ACT IV..... SCENE I.

A Hall in Petruchio's Country House.

Enter GRUMIO.

Gru. Fy, fy, on all tired jades! on all mad masters! and all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? was ever man so rayed? was ever man so weary? I am sent be

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my house,

my ox, my ass,] Alluding to the tenth commandment: "- thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, nor his ox, nor his ass,

1

Ritson.

was ever man so rayed?] That is, was ever man so mark'd with lashes. Johnson.

It rather means bewrayed, i. e. made dirty. So, Spenser, speaking of a fountain:

fore to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm them. Now, were not I a little pot, and soon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I should come by a fire to thaw me:-But, I with blowing the fire shall warm myself; for, considering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold. Holla, hoa! Curtis! Enter CURTIS.

Curt. Who is that, calls so coldly?

Gru. A piece of ice: If thou doubt it, thou may'st slide from my shoulder to my heel, with no greater a run but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis.

Curt. Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio? Gru. O, ay, Curtis, ay: and therefore fire, fire: cast on no water. 3

Curt. Is she so hot a shrew as she 's reported?

Gru. She was, good Curtis, before this frost: but, thou know'st, winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis."

"Which she increased with her bleeding heart, "And the clean waves with purple gore did ray." Again, in B. III, c. viii, st. 32:

"Who whiles the pitieous lady up did rise,

"Ruffled and foully ray'd with filthy soil." Tollet.

So, in Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600: "Let there be a few rushes laid in the place where Backwinter shall tumble, for fear of raying his clothes." Steevens.

2 a little pot, and soon hot,] This is a proverbial expression. It is introduced in The Isle of Gulls, 1606:

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"— Though I be but a little pot, I shall be as soon hot as another. Steevens.

3

-fire, fire; cast on no water.] There is an old popular catch of three parts in these words:

"Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth.

"Fire, fire;-Fire, fire;

"Cast on some more water."

4

Blackstone.

·winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis. &c.] "Winter, says Grumio, tames man, woman, and beast; for it has tamed my old master, my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis.. -Away, you three-inch fool, replies Curtis, I am no beast." Why, asks Dr. Warburton, had Grumio called him one? he alters therefore myself to thyself, and all the editors fol

Curt. Away, you three-inch fool! I am no beast. Gru. Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot; and so long am I, at the least. But wilt thou make a fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand (she being now at hand) thou shalt soon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot office.

Curt. I pr'ythee, good Grumio, tell me, How goes the world?

Gru. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and, therefore, fire: Do thy duty, and have thy duty; for my master and mistress are almost frozen to death. Curt. There's fire ready; And therefore, good Grumio, the news?

low him. But there is no necessity; if Grumio calls himself a beast, and Curtis, fellow; surely he calls Curtis a beast likewise. Malvolio takes this sense of the word: "let this fellow be look'd to!—Fellow! not Malvolio, after my degree, but fellow!"

In Ben Jonson's Case is Altered: "What says my Fellow Onion ?" quoth Christophero." All of a house," replies Onion, "but not fellows."

In the old play, called The Return from Parnassus, we have a curious passage, which shows the opinion of contemporaries concerning the learning of Shakspeare; this use of the word fellow brings it to my remembrance. Burbage and Kempe are introduced to teach the university men the art of acting, and are represented (particularly Kempe) as leaden spouts—very illiterate. "Few of the university (says Kempe) pen plays well; they smell too much of that writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis:why here 's our Fellow Shakspeare puts them all down. The sentence delivered by Grumio, is proverbial: Wedding, and ill-wintering, tame both man and beast.". See Ray's Collection. Steevens. 5 Away, you three-inch fool!] i. e. with a skull three inches thick; a phrase taken from the thicker sort of planks.

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Farmer.

Warburton.

This contemptuous expression alludes to Grumio's diminutive size. He has already mentioned it himself: "Now, were not I a little pot-" His answer likewise: " and so long am I, at the least," shows that this is the meaning, and that Dr. Warburton was mistaken in supposing that these words allude to the thickness of Grumio's skull. Malone.

6 why, thy horn is a foot; and so long am I, at the least.] Though all the copies agree in this reading, Mr. Theobald says, yet he cannot find what horn Curtis had; therefore he alters it to my horn. But the common reading is right, and the meaning is, that he had made Curtis a cuckold. Warburton.

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