Tra. Master, you look'd so longly on the maid, Perhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all.

Luc. O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
Such as the daughter of Agenor had,

That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand.3

Tra. Saw you no more? mark'd you not, how her sister Began to scold; and raise up such a storm, That mortal ears might hardly endure the din? Luc. Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move, And with her breath she did perfume the air; Sacred, and sweet, was all I saw in her.

Tra. Nay, then, 't is time to stir him from his trance. I pray, awake, sir: If you love the maid,

Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands :-
Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd,

That, till the father rids his hands of her,
Master, your love must live a maid at home;
And therefore has he closely mew'd her up,
Because she shall not be annoy'd with suitors.

a

Luc. Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!
But art thou not advis'd, he took some care
To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?
Tra. Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now 't is plotted.
Luc. I have it, Tranio.

Tra.

Master, for my hand,

Both our inventions meet and jump in one.

Luc. Tell me thine first.

Tra. Not possible. For who shall bear your part, And be in Padua here Vincentio's son?

Keep house, and ply his book; welcome his friends;

Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?

Luc. Basta; content thee; for I have it full.

We have not yet been seen in any house;

VOL. II.

a Shall. In the original, will.

Rowe made the correction.

L

Nor can we be distinguish'd by our faces,
For man or master: then it follows thus ;-
Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead,
Keep house, and port, and servants, as I should:
I will some other be; some Florentine,
Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.
'Tis hatch'd, and shall be so :-Tranio, at once
Uncase thee; take my colour'd hat and cloak :
When Biondello comes, he waits on thee;
But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.
Tra. So had you need.

In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,

And I am tied to be obedient,

[They exchange habits.

(For so your father charg'd me at our parting;
"Be serviceable to my son," quoth he,

Although, I think, 't was in another sense,)
I am content to be Lucentio,

Because so well I love Lucentio.

Luc. Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves :

And let me be a slave, t' achieve that maid

Whose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye.

Enter BIONDELLO.

Here comes the rogue.-Sirrah, where have you been?
Bion. Where have I been? Nay, how now, where are you?

Master, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes?
Or you stol'n his? or both? pray, what's the news?
Luc. Sirrah, come hither; 't is no time to jest,

And therefore frame your manners to the time.
Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,

Puts
my apparel and my countenance on,
And I for my escape have put on his;
For in a quarrel, since I came ashore,

I kill'd a man, and fear I was descried.

■ Port-state, show. Thus, in 'The Merchant of Venice,' Act III., Scene 2:"And the magnificos of greatest port."

b Colour'd hat and cloak. Fashions have changed. Servants formerly wor clothes of sober hue-black or sad-colour; their masters bore about the hues of the rainbow in their doublets and mantles, and hats and feathers. Such gay vestments were called emphatically coloured.

Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,

While I make way from hence to save my life;
You understand me?

Luc. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth; Tranio is chang'd into Lucentio.

Bion. The better for him. 'Would I were so too!

Tra. So would 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 companies : 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.

(The Presenters above speak.*)

1 Serv. My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play.

[Exeunt.

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. 'T is a very excellent piece of work, madam lady. 'Would 't were done!

[They sit and mark.

SCENE II.-The same.

Before Hortensio's House.

Enter PETRUCIO b and 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,

" These lines of doggrel are printed as prose in the original. The same remark applies to other passages, which it will be unnecessary more particularly to notice. The doggrel is one of the marks of the early date of the play.

b Petrucio. We have thought it right to spell this name correctly, as Gascoigne did, in his Supposes.' Shakspere most probably wrote the word with the h, that the actors might not blunder in the pronunciation. In the same way Dekker wrote Infeliche. After two centuries of illumination, such a precaution as regards the theatre would not be wholly unnecessary; for when the proprietors of one of our great houses piratically seized upon Mr. Milman's beautiful tragedy of Fazio,' the author was denied the poor privilege of having the name pronounced correctly.

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 wring it;

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

[He wrings GRUMIO by the ears.

Gru. Help, masters, help! my master is mad.

Pet. Now, knock when I bid you: sirrah! villain!

Enter HORTENSIO.

Hor. How now? what's the matter?-My old friend Grumio! and my good friend Petrucio!-How do you all at Verona?

Pet. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray? Con tutto il core bene trovato, may I say.

Hor. Alla nostra casa bene venuto,

Molto honorato signor mio Petrucio.

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

Gru. Nay, 't is no matter, 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, 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.

a 'Leges-alleges.

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 come you now with-knocking at the gate?
Pet. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.
Hor. Petrucio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge:
Why, this 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 deceas'd;

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. Petrucio, shall I then come roundly to thee,
And wish thee to a shrew'd ill-favour'd wife?

Thou 'dst 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 Petrucio's wife,
(As wealth is burden of my wooing dance,)

Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,"

As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
As Socrates' Xantippe, 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; 7

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