I kill'd a man and fear I was descried :

Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
While I make way from hence to save my
You understand me?

life:

Luc. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth :
Tranio is changed into Lucentio.

BION. The better for him: would I were so too!
TRA. So could I, faith, boy, to have the next wish

after,

That Lucentio indeed had Baptista's youngest daughter.
But, sirrah, not for my sake, but your master's, I advise
You use your manners discreetly in all kind of com-
panies:

When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;
But in all places else your master Lucentio.

Luc. Tranio, let's go : one thing more rests, that thyself execute, to make one among these wooers: if thou ask me why, sufficeth, my reasons are both good and weighty. [Exeunt.

The presenters above speak

FIRST SERV. My lord, you nod; you do not mind the

play.

SLY. Yes, by Saint Anne, do I. A good matter, surely comes there any more of it?

PAGE. My lord, 't is but begun.
SLY. 'Tis a very excellent piece

lady: would 't were done!

of work, madam

[They sit and mark.

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10

SCENE II-PADUA

BEFORE HORTENSIO'S HOUSE

Enter PETRUCHIO and his man GRUMIO

PET. Verona, for a while I take my leave,
To see my friends in Padua, but of all
My best beloved and approved friend,
Hortensio; and I trow this is his house.
Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

GRU. Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there any man has rebused your worship?

PET. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

GRU. Knock you here, sir! why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir?

PET. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate And rap me well, or I 'll knock your knave's pate. GRU. My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock you first,

And then I know after who comes by the worst.

PET. Will it not be ?

Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll ring it;

I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.

[He wrings him by the ears. GRU. Help, masters, help! my master is mad. PET. Now, knock when I bid you, sirrah villain !

8 knock me here] knock for me here; "me" is a redundant dative, which was common in Elizabethan English.

Enter HORTENSIO

HOR. How now! what's the matter? My old friend 20 Grumio! and my good friend Petruchio! How do you all at Verona ?

PET. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray? "Con tutto il core ben trovato," may I say.

HOR. "Alla nostra casa ben venuto, molto honorato signor mio Petrucio."

Rise, Grumio, rise: we will compound this quarrel.

GRU. Nay, 't is no matter, sir, what he 'leges in Latin. If this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service, look you, sir, he bid me knock him and rap him soundly, 30 sir: well, was it fit for a servant 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 soundly"? And 40 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:

32 two-and-thirty, a pip out] Pip is a spot on playing cards. The allusion is to an old card game, called "bone ace," or one and thirty;" see IV, ii, 57, infra. Cf. Massinger's Fatal Dowry, II, ii : "[You] are thirty-two years old, which is a pip out."

Why, this 's 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 farther than at home,

Where small experience grows. But in a few,
Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:
Antonio, my father, is deceased;

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

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 'ldst 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 burden of my wooing dance,

Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,

57 come roundly] speak bluntly or outspokenly. Cf. infra, III, ii, 210, "take it on you so roundly," and IV, iv, 102, “I'll roundly go about her."

67 Florentius' love] Gower in his Confessio Amantis tells the old story of the knight Florent or Florentius, who swore to marry a

50

60

As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
As Socrates' Xanthippe, 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 Adriatic 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-baby; or an old trot 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 are 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 intolerable curst

And shrewd and froward, so beyond all measure,

hideous hag in consideration of her giving him the answer to a riddle, which he was pledged either to solve or to die. The "Wife of Bath" tells the same story, though the knight is given no name, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

68 As old as Sibyl] Cf. "As old as Sibylla," Merch. of Ven., I, ii, 119,

note.

79 two and fifty horses] The "fifty diseases of a horse" were proverbial. Cf. Yorkshire Tragedy: "The fifty diseases stop thee." The numeral in "two and fifty horses" strikes a characteristic note of exaggeration.

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80