Hor. Madam, 'tis now in tune.

Luc. All but the base.

Hor. The base is right; 'tis the base knave that jars.
How fiery and forward our pedant is!

Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love:
Pedascule, I'll watch you better yet.

Bian. In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.
Luc. Mistrust it not; for, sure, acides

Was Ajax,-call'd so from his grandfather.

Bian. I must believe my master; else I promise you, I should be arguing still upon that doubt:

But let it rest.-Now, Licio, to you :

Good masters, take it not unkindly, pray,

That I have been thus pleasant with you both.

Hor. You may go walk [To LUCENTIO], and give me leave awhile;

My lessons make no music in three parts.

Luc. Are you so formal, Sir? well, I must wait,

And watch withal; for, but I be deceived,

Our fine musician groweth amorous.

Hor. Madam, before you touch the instrument,
To learn the order of my fingering,
I must begin with rudiments of art;
To teach you gamut in a briefer sort,
More pleasant, pithy, and effectual,

Than hath been taught by any of my trade:
And there it is in writing, fairly drawn.

Bian. Why, I am past my gamut long ago.
Hor. Yet read the gamut of Hortensio.

Bian. [Reads.] Gamut I am, the ground of all accord.
A re, to plead Hortensio's passion:
B mi, Bianca, take him for thy lord,
C faut, that loves with all affection:

D sol re, one cliff, two notes have I;
E la mi, show pity, or I die.

Call you this-gamut? tut! I like it not:

Old fashions please me best; I am not so nice,‡

To change true rules for odd inventions.

Enter a SERVANT.

[Aside.

Serv. Mistress, your father prays you leave your books, And help to dress your sister's chamber up; You know to-morrow is the wedding-day. Bian. Farewell, sweet masters, both; I must be gone. [Exeunt BIANCA and SERVANT. Luc. Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay. Hor. But I have cause to pry into this pedant; Methinks, he looks as though he were in love:Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble,

[Exit.

Fantastical.

To cast thy wand'ring eyes on every stale,*

Seize thee, that list: If once I find thee ranging,
Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing.

SCENE II.—The same. Before BAPTISTA's House.

[Exit.

Enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, TRANIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, LUCENTIO, and Attendants.

Bap. Signior Lucentio [To TRANIO], this is the 'pointed day That Katharine and Petruchio should be married,

And yet we hear not of our son-in-law:

What will be said? what mockery will it be,

To want the bridegroom, when the priest attends
To speak the ceremonial rites of marriage?

What says Lucentio to this shame of ours?

Kath. No shame but mine: I must, forsooth, be forced

To give my hand, opposed against my heart,

Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen ;+

Who woo'd in haste, and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantic fool,

Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour:
And to be noted for a merry man,

He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage,
Make friends, invite, yes, and proclaim the banns;
Yet never means to wed where he hath woo'd.
Now must the world point at poor Katharine,
And say,-Lo, there is mad Petruchio's wife,
If it would please him come and marry her.

Tra. Patience, good Katharine, and Baptista too;
Upon my life, Petruchio means but well,
Whatever fortune stays him from his word:
Though he be blunt, I know him passing wise;

Though he be merry, yet withal he's honest.

Kath. 'Would Katharine had never seen him though!

[Exit, weeping, followed by BIANCA and others.

Bap. Go, girl, I cannot blame thee now to weep;

For such an injury would vex a saint,

Much more a shrew of thy impatient humour.

Enter BIONDELLO.

Bion. Master, master! news, old news, and such news as you never heard of!

Bap. Is it new and old too? how may that be?

Bion. Why, is it not news, to hear of Petruchio's coming?

Bap. Is he come ?

Bion. Why, no, Sir.

Bap. What then?

Bion. He is coming.

Bap. When will he be here?

Bion. When he stands where I am, and sees you there.

Tra. But, say, what:-To thine old news.

Bion. Why, Petruchio is coming, in a new hat and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches, thrice turned: a pair of boots that have been candlecases, one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless, with two broken points:* His horse hipped with an old mothy saddle, the stirrups of no kindred: besides, possessed with the glanders, and like to mose in the chine; troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions, full of wind-galls, sped with spavins, raied with the yellows, past cure of the fives, stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots; swayed in the back, and shoulder-shotten; near-legged before,§ and with a halfchecked bit, and a head-stall of sheep's leather; which being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots: one girt six times pieced, and a woman's crupper of velure,|| which hath two letters for her name, fairly set down in studs, and here and there pieced with packthread. Bap. Who comes with him?

Bion. O, Sir, his lackey, for all the world caparisoned like the horse with a linen stock T on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, gartered with a red and blue list; an old hat, and The humour of forty fancies** pricked in't for a feather: a monster, a very monster in apparel; and not like a Christian footboy, or a gentleman's lackey.

Tra. 'Tis some odd humour pricks him to this fashion ;Yet oftentimes he goes but mean apparell'd.

Bap. I am glad he is come, howsoe'er he comes.

Bion. Why, Sir, he comes not.

Bap. Didst thou not say, he comes?

Bion. Who? that Petruchio came?

Bap. Ay, that Petruchio came.

Bion. No, Sir: I say, his horse comes with him on his back. Bap. Why, that's all one.

Bion. Nay, by Saint Jamy, I hold you a penny,

A horse and a man is more than one, and yet not many.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.

Pet. Come, where be these gallants? who is at home?
Bap. You are welcome, Sir.

Pet. And yet I come not well.

Bap. And yet you halt not.
Tra. Not so well apparell'd

As I wish you were.

Pet. Were it better I should rush in thus.

But where is Kate, where is my lovely bride?

How does my father ?-Gentles, methinks you frown:

And wherefore gaze this goodly company;

As if they saw some wondrous monument,

Some comet, or unusual prodigy?

* Tags.

+ Farcy.

Vives; a distemper in horses, little differing from the strangles.

Foundered in the forefeet.

** A ballad of the period.

Bap. Why, Sir, you know, this is your wedding-day:
First were we sad, fearing you would not come;
Now sadder, that you come so unprovided.
Fie! doff this habit, shame to your estate,
An eye-sore to our solemn festival.

Tra. And tell us, what occasion of import
Hath all so long detain'd you from your wife,
And sent you hither so unlike yourself?

Pet. Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear:
Sufficeth, I am come to keep my word,
Though in some part enforced to digress;*
Which, at more leisure, I will so excuse

As you shall well be satisfied withal.

But, where is Kate? I stay too long from her;

The morning wears, 'tis time we were at church.

Tra. See not your bride in these unreverent robes;

Go to my chamber, put on clothes of mine.

Pet. Not I, believe me; thus I'll visit her.

Bap. But thus, I trust, you will not marry her.

Pet. Good sooth, even thus; therefore have done with words;
To me she's married, not unto my clothes:
Could I repair what she will wear in me,
As I can change these poor accoutrements,
'Twere well for Kate, and better for myself.
But what a fool am I, to chat with you,

When I should bid good-morrow to my bride,
And seal the title with a lovely kiss!

[Exeunt PETRUCHIO, GRUMIO, and BIONDELLO.

Tra. He hath some meaning in his mad attire: We will persuade him, be it possible,

To put on better ere he go to church.

Bap. I'll after him, and see the event of this.
Tra. But, Sir, to her love concerneth us to add
Her father's liking: Which to bring to pass,
As I before imparted to your worship,

I am to get a man,-whate'er he be,

It skillst not much; we'll fit him to our turn,―
And he shall be Vincentio of Pisa;
And make assurance, here in Padua,
Of greater sums than I have promised.
So shall you quietly enjoy your hope,
And marry sweet Bianca with consent.

Luc. Were it not that my fellow-schoolmaster
Doth watch Bianca's steps so narrowly,
"Twere good, methinks, to steal our marriage;
Which once perform'd, let all the world say no,
I'll keep mine own, despite of all the world.
Tra. That by degrees we mean to look into,
And watch our vantage in this business:
We'll over-reach the grey-beard, Gremio,
The narrow-prying father, Minola;

*I. e. deviate.

+ Matters.

[Exit.

The quaint* musician, amorous Licio;
All for my master's sake, Lucentio.-

Re-enter GREMIO.

Signior Gremio! came you from the church?
Gre. As willingly as e'er I came from school.

Tra. And is the bride and bridegroom coming home?
Gre. A bridegroom, say you ? 'tis a groom, indeed,
A grumbling groom, and that the girl shall find.
Tra. Curster than she? why, 'tis impossible.
Gre. Why, he's a devil, a devil, a very fiend.
Tra. Why, she's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam.
Gre. Tut! she's a lamb, a dove, a fool to him.
I'll tell you, Sir Lucentio; When the priest
Should ask-if Katharine should be his wife,
Ay, by gogs-wouns, quoth he; and swore so loud,
That, all amazed, the priest let fall the book:
And, as he stoop'd again to take it up,

The mad-brain'd bridegroom took him such a cuff,
That down fell priest and book, and book and priest;
Now take them up, quoth he, if any list.

Tra. What said the wench, when he arose again?

Gre. Trembled and shook; for why, he stamp'd, and swore, As if the vicar meant to cozen him.

But after many ceremonies done,

He calls for wine:-A health, quoth he; as if
He had been aboard carousing to his mates
After a storm:-Quaff'd off the muscadel,t
And threw the sops all in the sexton's face;
Having no other reason,-

But that his beard grew thin and hungerly,
And seem'd to ask him sops as he was drinking.
This done, he took the bride about the neck;
And kiss'd her lips with such a clamorous smack,
That, at the parting, all the church did echo.
I, seeing this, came thence for very shame;
And after me, I know, the rout is coming:
Such a mad marriage never was before;
Hark, hark! I hear the minstrels play.

[Music.

Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, BAPTISTA,
HORTENSIO, GRUMIO, and Train.

Pet. Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for your pains:

I know, you think to dine with me to-day,

And have prepared great store of wedding cheer;

But so it is, my haste doth call me hence,

And therefore here I mean to take my leave.
Bap. Is't possible, you will away to-night?

* Strange.

†The wine drunk by the company in church immediately after the marriage-ceremony.