man's name.

Ped. Lay hands on the villain; I believe, 'a means to cozen somebody in this city under my countenance.

Re-enter BIONDello.

Bion. I have seen them in the church together; God send 'em good shipping!-But who is here? mine old master, Vincentio? now we are undone, and brought to nothing.

Vin. Come hither, crack-hemp. [Seeing BIONDEL.
Bion. I hope, I may choose, sir.

Vin. Come, hither, you rogue; What, have you forgot me?

Bion. Forgot you? no, sir: I could not forget you, for I never saw you before in all my life. Vin. What, you notorious villain, didst thou never see thy master's father, Vincentio ?

Bion. What, my old, worshipful old master? yes, marry, sir; see where he looks out of the window. Vin. Is't so, indeed? [Beats BIONDELLO. Bion. Help, help, help! here's a madman will murder me. [Exit. Ped. Help, son help, signior Baptista! [Exit, from the window. Pet. Pr'ythee, Kate, let's stand aside, and see the end of this controversy. [They retire. Re-enter Pedant below; BAPTISTA, TRANIO, & Servants. Tra. Sir, what are you, that offer to beat my servant? Vin. What am I, sir? nay, what are you, sir?— O immortal gods? O fine villain! A silken doublet! a velvet hose! a scarlet cloak! and a copatain hat! -O, I am undone! I am undone! while I play the good husband at home, my son and my servant spend all at the university.

Tra. How now! what's the matter?
Bap. What, is the man lunatic?

Tra. Sir, you seem a sober ancient gentleman by your habit, but your words shew you a madman: Why, sir, what concerns it you, if I wear pearl and gold? 1 thank my good father, I am able to maintain it. Vin. Thy father? O villain! he is a sail-maker in Bergamo.

Bap. You mistake, sir; you mistake, sir: Pray, what do you think is his name? Vin. His name

2 as if I knew not his name:

Officer.] carry this mad knave to the gaol :-Father, Tra. Call forth an officer: [Enter one with an Baptista, I charge you see that he be forthcoming. Vin. Carry me to the gaol!

Gre. Stay, officer; he shall not go to prison. Bap. Talk not, signior Gremio; I say, he shall go to prison.

catched in this business; I dare swear, this is the Gre. Take heed, signior Baptista, lest you be coney. right Vincentio.

Ped. Swear, if thou darest.
Gre. Nay, I dare not swear it.

Tra. Then thou wert best say, that I am not Lucentio.

Gre. Yes, I know thee to be signior Lucentio. Bap. Away with the dotard; to the gaol with him. Vin. Thus strangers may be haled and abus'd.— O monstrous villain!

Re-enter BIONDELLO, with LUCENTIO and BIANCA. Bion. O, we are spoiled, and-Yonder he is; deny him, forswear him, or else we are all undone. Luc. Pardon, sweet father.

[Kneeling.

Vin. Lives my sweetest son 1 [BIONDELLO, TRANIO, and Pedant run out. Bian. Pardon, dear father. [Kneeling. Bap. How hast thou offended? Where is Lucentio ? Luc. Here's Lucentio, Right son unto the right Vincentio ; That have by marriage made thy daughter mine, While counterfeit supposes blear'd thine eyne. Gre. Here's packing, with a witness, to deceive us all! Vin. Where is that damned villain, Tranio, That fac'd and brav'd me in this matter so? Bap. Why tell me, is not this my Cambio? Bian. Cambio is chang'd into Lucentio. Luc. Love wrought these miracles. Bianca's love Made me exchange my state with Tranio, While he did bear my countenance in the town And happily I have arriv'd at last Unto the wished haven of my bliss:What Tranio did, myself enforc'd him to; Then pardon him, sweet father, for my sake.

Kath. Nay, I will give thee a kiss: now pray thee, love, stay.

Pet. Is not this well?-Come, my sweet Kate; Better once than never, for never too late. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-A room in Lucentio's House. A Banquet set out. Enter BAPTISTA, VINCENTIO, GREMIO, the Pedant, LUCENTIO, BIANCA, PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, HORTENSIO, and Widow. TRANIO, BIONDELLO, GRUMIO, and others, attending. Luc. At last, though long, our jarring notes agree: And time it is, when raging war is done, To smile at 'scapes and perils overblown.My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome, While I with self-same kindness welcome thine :Brother Petruchio,-sister Katharina,And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow,Feast with the best, and welcome to my house; My banquet is to close our stomachs up, After our great good cheer: Pray you, sit down; For now we sit to chat, as well as eat. [They sit at table. Pet. Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat! Bap. Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio. Pet. Padua affords nothing but what is kind. Hor. For both our sakes I would that word were true. Pet. Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow. Wid. Then never trust me if I be afeard.

Pet. You are sensible, and yet you miss my sense; I mean, Hortensio is afeard of you.

Wid. He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.
Pet. Roundly replied.
Kath.

Mistress, how mean you that?
Wid. Thus I conceive by him.
Pet. Conceives by me!-How likes Hortensio that?
Hor. My widow says, thus she conceives her tale.
Pet. Very well mended: Kiss him for that, good
widow.

[round

Kath. He that is giddy, thinks the world turns I pray you, tell me what you meant by that. Wid. Your husband, being troubled with a shrew, Measures my husband's sorrow by his woe: And now you know my meaning. Kath. A very mean meaning. Wid. Right, I mean you. Kath. And I am mean, indeed, respecting you. Pet. To her, Kate!

Hor. To her, widow!

Pet. A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down. Hor. That's my office.

Pet. Spoke like an officer :-Ha' to thee, lad. [Drinks to HORTENSIO. Bap. How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks? Gre. Believe me, sir, they butt together well. Bian. Head, and butt? an hasty witted body Would say your head and butt were head and horn. Vin. Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken'd you? Bian. Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll sleep again.

Pet. Nay, that you shall not; since you have begun, Have at you for a bitter jest or two.

Bian. Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush, And then pursue me as you draw your bow:You are welcome all. [Ex. BIAN., KATH., & Widow. Pet. She hath prevented me.-Here, signior Tranio, This bird you aim'd at, though you hit her not; Therefore, a health to all that shot and miss'd.'

Tra. O, sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound, Which runs himself, and catches for his master. Pet. A good swift simile, but something currish. Tra 'Tis wall, sir, that you hunted for yourself; Tis thought, your deer does hold you at a bay

Bap. O ho, Petruchio, Tranio hits you now. Luc. I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio. Hor. Confess, confess, hath he not hit you here? Pet. 'A has a little gall'd me, I confess; And, as the jest did glance away from me, 'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright.

Bap. Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio, I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all.

Pet. Well, I say-no: and therefore, for assuran Let's each one send unto his wife ; And he, whose wife is most obedient To come at first when he doth send for her, Shall win the wager which we will propose, Hor. Content:-What is the wager! Luc.

Twenty crow

Pet. Twenty crowns! I'll venture so much on my hawk, or hound, But twenty times so much upon my wife. Luc. A hundred then. Hor. Pet.

Content.

A match; 'tis done

Hor. Who shall begin? Luc. That will I. Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me. Bion. I go.

[Exit.

Bap. Son, I will be your half, Bianca comes.
Luc. I'll have no halves; I'll bear it all myself.
Re-enter BIONdello.

How now! what news?
Bion.
Sir, my mistress sends you word,
That she is busy, and she cannot come.
Pet. How! she is busy, and she cannot come !
Is that an answer?
Gre.

Ay, and a kind one too :
Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse.
Pet. I hope, better.
Hor. Sirrah, Biondello, go, and entreat my wife
To come to me forthwith. [Exit BIONDALLO.
O, ho! entreat her!
Nay, then she must needs come.
Hor.

Pet.

I am afraid, sir, Do what you can, yours will not be entreated. Re-enter BIONdello. Now where's my wife?

Bion. She says, you have some goodly jest in hand;
She will not come; she bids you come to her.
Pet. Worse and worse; she will not come! O vile.
Intolerable, not to be endur'd!

Sirrah, Grumio, go to your misuess;
Say I command her come to me.
Hor. I know her answer.
Pet.

Hor.

[Exit GRUMIO

What? She will not come. Pet. The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.

Enter KATHARINA.

Bap. Now, by my holidame, here comes Katharina! Kath. What is your will, sir, that you send for me? Pet. Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife? Kath. They sit conferring by the parlour fire.

Pet. Go, fetch them hither; if they deny to come, Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands Away, I say, and bring them hither straight.

[Erit KATHARINA. Lue. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder. Hor. And so it is; I wonder what it bodes. Pet. Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life, An awful rule, and right supremacy; And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy Bap. Now fair befal thee, good Petruchio! The wager thou hast won; and I will add

S

Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns!
Another dowry to another daughter,
For she is chang'd, as she had never been.
Pet. Nay, I will win my wager better yet,
And shew more sign of her obedience,
Her new-built virtue and obedience.

Re-enter KATHARINA, with BIANCA and Widow.
See, where she comes; and brings your froward wives
As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.—
Katharine, that cap of yours becomes you not;
Off with that bauble, throw it under foot.
[KATHARINA pulls off her cap, and throws it down.
Wid. Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh,
Till I be brought to such a silly pass!

Bian. Fye! what a foolish duty call you this? Lue. I would, your duty were as foolish too: The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, Hath cost me an hundred crowns since supper-time. Bian. The more fool you, for laying on my duty. Pet. Katharine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women,

What duty they do owe their lords and husbands. Wid. Come, come, you're mocking; we will have no telling.

Pet. Come on, I say; and first begin with her. Wid. She shall not.

Pet. I say, she shall ;—and first begin with her.
Kath. Fye, fye! unknit that threat'ning unkind brow;
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor :
It blots thy beauty, as frosts bite the meads;
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds;
And in no sense is meet or amiable.

A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And, while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance: commits his body
To painful labour, both by sea and land;
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,

Of this play the two plots are so well united, that they can hardly called two without injury to the art with which they are eroven. The attention is entertained with all the variety of a double plot, yet is not distracted by unconnected incidents,

While thou liest warm at home, secure and safe
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks, and true obedience ;-
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband:
And when she's froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she, but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?—
I am asham'd, that women are so simple
To offer war, where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth,
Unapt to toil, and trouble in the world;
But that our soft conditions, and our hearts,
Should well agree with our external parts ?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great; my reason, haply, more,
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown;
But now, I see our lances are but straws;
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,-
That seeming to be most, which we least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot;
And place your hands before your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready, may it do him ease. [me, Kate.
Pet. Why, there's a wench !-Come on, and kiss
Luc. Well, go thy ways, old lad: for thou shalt ha't.
Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are toward.
Lue. 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! [Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHARINE. Hor. Now go thy ways, thou hast tam'd a curst shrew.

Lue. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam'd so. [Exeunt.

The part between Katharine and Petruchio is eminently sprightly and diverting. At the marriage of Bianca the arrival of the real father, perhaps, produces more perplexity than pleasure. The whole play is very perular and diverting -JOHNSON.

THE first edition of this play is that of the Players, the folio of 1623. It could not have been written before 1610, as we find from the office-book of Sir Henry Herbert, that it was licensed by Sir George Buck, who did not till that year get full possession of the office of Master of the Revels, which he had obtained by a reversionary grant: neither could the comedy have been produced later than 1613, when it was performed at Court.

The plot is taken from the Pleasant History of Dorastus and Farnia, written by Thomas Green. The poet has changed the names of the characters, and added the parts of Antigonus, Paulina, and Autolycus; he has also suppressed many circum: stances of the original story; in other respects he has adhered closely to the novel. The error of representing Bohemia as maritime country is not attributable to our author, but to the original from which he copied. Ben Jonson, in a conver sation with Drummond of Hawthornden, in 1619, remarking

this geographical mistake, observed that Shakspeare wanted art and sometimes sense, for in one of his plays he brought in a number of men, saying they had suffered ship

wreck in Bohemia, where is no sea near by a hundred miles." This remark, which was uttered in the course of private eonversation, without the slightest suspicion of its ever being made public, and which was so well justified by the example that he adduced to support it, has been quoted as another instance in proof of Jonson's enmity to Shakspeare. Jonson only professes to love Shakspeare, on this side idlatry," to admire his excellences without being blinded to his defects: the incorrectness mentioned is decidedly a great fault, but there is no malignity or undue severity expressed by the manner in which it is censured. Mr. Walpole has a ridiculous conjecture that The Winter's Tale is an historical play, that it was intended as a covert compliment to Queen Elizabeth, that it is designed as a supplement to Henry the Eighth, and that Leontes represents the bluff monarch, Hermione, Anne Bullen, Perdita, Queen Elizabeth, and Mamillius an elder brother of hers, who was still-born. "The Title of this play," says Schlegel, answers admirably to its subject. It is one of those histories which appear framed to delight the idleness of a long evening."

Sicilia.-An Antechamber in Leontes' Palace.

Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS.

Arch. If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia, and your Sicilia.

Cam. I think, this coming summer, the king of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.

Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justified in our loves: for, indeed,Cam. 'Beseech you,

ledge: we cannot with such magnificence-in so rare -I know not what to say.- -We will give you sleepy drinks; that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little accuse us.

Cam. You pay a great deal too dear, for what's given freely.

Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.

Cam. Sicilia cannot shew himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities, and royal necessities, made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attornied, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands as over a vast; and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves!

Arch. I think, there is not in the world either malice, or matter, to alter it. You have an unspeakable corafort of your young prince Mamillius; it is a gentleman of the greatest promise, that ever came into my note.

him: It is a gallant child; one that, indeed, physics Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of the subject, makes old hearts fresh; they, that went on crutches ere he was born, desire yet their life, to see him a man.

Arch. Would they else be content to die? Cam. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live.

Arch. If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The same.-A Room of State in the Palace. Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, Mamillius, CAMILLO, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the wat'ry star have been
The shepherd's note, since we have left our throne
Without a burden: time as long again
Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks;
And yet we should, for perpetuity,

Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cipher,
Yet standing in rich place, I multiply,
With one we-thank-you, many thousands more

Pol.

Leon. Stay your thanks awhile; And pay them when you part. Sir, that's to-morrow. I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance, Or breed upon our absence: That may blow No sneaping winds at home, to make us say, This is put forth too truly! Besides, I have stay'd To tire your royalty. Leon. Than you can put us to 't. Pol.

We are tougher, brother,

No longer stay.
Leon. One seven-night longer.
Pol.

Very sooth, to-morrow.
Leon. We'll part the time between's then: and in that
I'll no gainsaying.
Pol.
Press me not, 'beseech you, so;
There is no tongue that moves, none, none i'the world,
So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
"Twere needful I denied it. My affairs
Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder,
Were, in your love, a whip to me; my stay,
To you a charge, and trouble: to save both,
Farewell, our brother.

Leon. Tongue-tied, our queen? speak you. Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace, until You had drawn oaths froin him, not to stay You, sir, Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are sure, All in Bohemia 's well: this satisfaction The by-gone day proclaim'd; say this to him, He's beat from his best ward. Leon.

Well said, Hermione. Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong: But let him say so then, and let him go; But let him swear so, and he shall not stay, We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.Yet of your royal presence [to PoL.] I'll adventure The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia You take my lord, I'll give him my commission, To let him there a month, behind the gest Prefix'd for his parting: yet, good deed, Leontes, I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind What lady she her lord.-You'll stay? Pol.

Her. Nay, but you will? Pol.

Hel. Verily!

No, madam.

I may not verily.

You put me off with limber vows: But I,
Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with
Should yet say, Sir, no going. Verily
You shall not go; a lady's verily is

As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prisoner,

[oaths,

Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees,
When you depart, and save your thanks. How say you?
My prisoner or my guest? by your dread verily,
One of them you shall be.

Pol.

Your guest then, madam To be your prisoner, should import offending; Which is for me less easy to commit,

Than you to punish.

Her.

Not your gaoler then,

But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you
Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were boys;
You were pretty lordlings then.

Pol.

:

We were, fair queen, Two lads, that thought there was no more behind, But such a day to-morrow as to-day, And to be boy eternal.

Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o' the two? Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the

sun,

And bleat the one at the other: What we chang'd
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd
That any did: Had we pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven
Boldly, Not guilty; the imposition clear'd,
Hereditary ours.
Her.
By this we gather,
You have tripp'd since.
Pol.

O my most sacred lady,
Temptations have since then been born to us: for
In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl;
Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes
Of my young play-fellow.
Her.
Grace to boot!
Of this make no conclusion; lest you say,
Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on;
The offences we have made you do, we'll answer;
If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not
With any but with us.
Is he won yet?
Her. He'll stay, my lord.
Leon.
At my request, he would not.
Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st
To better purpose.

Her. What? have I twice said well? when was't I pr'ythee, tell me : Cram us with praise, and make us As fatas tame things: One good deed, dying tongueless, Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that. Our praises are our wages: You may ride us With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal ;My last good was, to entreat his stay; What was my first? it has an elder sister, Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace! But once before I spoke to the purpose When? Nay, let me have't; I long.

Leon. Why that was when Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death, Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter, I am yours for ever.

It is Grace, indeed.-
Why, lo you now I have spoke to the purpose
The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
The other, for some while a friend.

[Giving her hand to POLIXENES,
Leon.
Too hot, too hot: [Aside.
To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me :-my heart dances;
But not for joy,—not joy.—This entertainment
May a free face put on; derive a liberty
From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent: it may, I grant:
But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers,
As now they are; and making practis'd smiles,
As in a looking glass ;-and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o' the deer; O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows.—Mamillius,
Art thou my boy?