INDUCTION.

Serv.
An it please your honour,
Players that offer service to your lordship.
Lord. Bid them come near :---
Enter Players.

Now, fellows, you are welcome.

1 Play. We thank your honour.
Lord. Do you intend to stay with me to-night?
2 Play. So please your lordship to accept our
duty ?11

Lord. With all my heart.---This fellow I re-
member,

Since once he play'd a farmer's eldest son ;---
'Twas where you woo'd the gentlewoman so well:
I have forgot your name; but, sure, that part
Was aptly fitted, and naturally perform'd.

1 Play. I think 'twas Soto that your honour

Lord. 'Tis very true ;---thou didst it excellent.-
Well, you are come to me in happy time;
Wherein your cunning can assist me much.
The rather for I have some sport in hand,
There is a lord will hear you play to-night:
Lest, over-eying of his odd behaviour,
But I am doubtful of your modesties;
(For yet his honour never heard a play),
You break into some merry passion,
And so offend him? for I tell you, sirs,
If you should smile, he grows impatient.
I Play. Fear not, my lord; we can contain our-
selves,

Were he the veriest antick in the world.1

1 So again in Troilus and Cressida, Ajax says of 8 Brach originally signified a particular species of Achilles-I'll pheese his pride. And in Ben Jon-dog used for the chace. It was a long eared dog, huntson's Alchemist: ing by the scent.

9 Naturally. 11 It was in old times customary for players to travel in companies and offer their service at great houses.

12 The old copy prefixes the name of Sincklo to this line, who was an actor in the same company with Shak speare. Soto is a character in Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman Pleased; he is a farmer's eldest son, but he does not woo any gentlewoman.

13 In the old play the dialogue is thus continued: T'Emboss'd,' says Philips in his World of Words, is a term in hunting, when a deer is so hard chased cleyne your shooes, and Ile speak for the properties. San. [To the other.] Go get a dishclout to make that she foams at the mouth; it comes from the Span-[Exit Player.] My lord, we must have a shoulder of ish Desembocar, and is inetaphorically used for any mutton for a property, and a little vinegre to make our kind of iceariness." divell roar.'

Lord. Go, sirrah, take them to the buttery,'
And give them friendly welcome every one:
Let them want nothing that my house affords.---
[Exeunt Servants and Players.
Sirrah, go you to Bartholomew my page

[To a Servant.
And see him dress'd in all suits like a lady:
That done, conduct him to the drunkard's chamber,
And call him---Madam, do him obeisance,
Tell him from me (as he will win my love),
He bear himself with honourable action,
Such as he hath observ'd in noble ladies
Unto their lords, by them accomplish'd:
Such duty to the drunkard let him do,
With soft low tongue, and lowly courtesy:
And say,-What is't your honour will command,
Wherein your lady and your humble wife,
May show her duty, and make known her love?
And then-with kind embracements, tempting kisses,
And with declining head into his bosom,-
Bid him shed tears, as being overjoy'd
To see her noble lord restored to health,
Who, for twice seven years, hath esteem'd him3
No better than a poor and loathsome beggar:
And if the boy have not a woman's gift,
To rain a shower of commanded tears,
An onion will do well for such a shift:
Which in a napkin being close convey'd,
Shall in despite enforce a watery eye.

See this despatch'd with all the haste thou canst ;
Anon I'll give thee more instructions.-

[Exit Servant.

I know the boy will well usurp the grace,
Voice, gait, and action of a gentlewoman:
I long to hear him call the drunkard husband;
And how my men will stay themselves from laughter,
When they do homage to this simple peasant.
I'll in to counsel them: haply, my presence
May well abate the over-merry spleen,
Which otherwise would grow into extremes.

[Exeunt. SCENE II. A Bedchamber in the Lord's House. SLY is discovered in a rich night gown, with Attendants; some with apparel, others with bason, ewer, and other appurtenances. Enter Lord, dressed like a Servant.5

Sly. For God's sake, a pot of small ale.

1 Serv. Will't please your lordship drink a cup of sack?

2 Serv. Will't please your honour taste of these conserves?

3 Serv. What raiment will your honour wear today?

I

Sly. What, would you make me mad? Am not Christopher Sly, old Sly's son of Burton-heath; by birth a pedler, by education a card-maker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and now by present profession a tinker? Ask Marían Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lyingest knave in Christendom. What, I am not bestraught: Here's

1 Serv. O, this it is that makes your lady mourn.
2 Serv. O, this it is that makes your servants droop.
Lord. Hence comes it that your kindred shun your
house,

As beaten hence by your strange lunacy.
O, noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth;
Call home thy ancient thoughts from banishment,
And banish hence these abject lowly dreams:
Look how thy servants do attend on thee,
Each in his office ready at thy beck.
Wilt thou have music? hark! Apollo plays,

[Music.

And twenty caged nightingales do sing:
Or wilt thou sleep? we'll have thee to a couch,
Softer and sweeter than the lustful bed
On purpose trimm'd up for Semiramis.
Say, thou wilt walk; we will bestrew the ground:
Or wilt thou ride? thy horses shall be trapp'd,
Their harness studded all with gold and pearl.
Dost thou love hawking? thou hast hawks will soar
Above the morning lark: Or wilt thou hunt?
Thy hounds shall make the welkin answer them,
And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth.

1 Serv. Say, thou wilt course; thy greyhounds are

as swift

As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe.

2 Serv. Dost thou love pictures? we will fetch thee straight

Adonis, painted by a running brook;

And Cytherea all in sedges hid;

Which seem to move and wanton with her breath,
Even as the waving sedges play with wind.

And how she was beguiled and surpris'd,
Lord. We'll show thee Io, as she was a maid;
As lively painted as the deed was done."
3 Serv. Or Daphne roaming through a thorny wood:
Scratching her legs that one shall swear she bleeds:
And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep,
So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.

Lord. Thou art a lord, and nothing but a lord:
Thou hast a lady far more beautiful
Than any woman in this waning age.

1 Serv. And, till the tears that she hath shed for
thee,

Like envious floods, o'er-ran her lovely face,
She was the fairest creature in the world;
And yet she is inferior to none.

Sly. I am Christophero Sly; call not me-honour, nor lordship: I never drank sack in my life; and if you give me any conserves, give me conserves of Sly. Am I a lord; and have I such a lady; beef. Ne'er ask me what raiment I'll wear: for I Or do I dream? or have I dream'd till now? have no more doublets than backs, no more stock-I do not sleep; I see, I hear, I speak; ings than legs, nor no more shoes than feet; nay, sometimes, more feet than shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the over leather. Lord. Heaven cease this idle humour in your

honour!

O, that a mighty man of such descent,
Of such possessions, and so high esteem,
Should be infused with so foul a spirit!

1 Pope remarks, in his preface to Shakspeare, that the top of the profession were then mere players, not gentlemen of the stage; they were led into the buttery, not placed at the lord's table, or the lady's toilette.'

I smell sweet savours, and I feel soft things:-
Upon my life, I am a lord, indeed;
And not a tinker, nor Christopheró Sly.-
Well, bring our lady hither to our sight;
And once again, a pot o'the smallest ale.
2 Serv. Will't please your mightiness to wash your
hands;

[Servants present a ewer, bason, and napkin. near Stratford. The house kept by our genial hostess still remains, but is at present a mill. There is a vil lage also called Barton on the heath in Warwickshire.

7 Sheer-ale has puzzled the commentators; and as

2 The old copy reads this. The emendation is The-none of the conjectures offered appear to me satisfactory, obald's.

3 Him is used for himself, as in Chapman's Banquet of Sense, 1595:

The sense wherewith he feels him deified.' 4 Perhaps.

5 From the original stage direction in the first follo, it appears that Sly and the other persons mentioned in the Induction were intended to be exhibited here, and during the representation of the comedy, in a balcony above the

stage.

I shall add one of my own. Maunday Thursday, the
day preceding Good-Friday, was anciently called Sheer
Thursday, and as it was a day of great comfort to the
poor from the doles or distribution of clothes, meat and
drink, made by the rich; so Sheer-ale may have been
ale which the Tinker had drunk on that day, at his own
charge, or rather at that of his landlady, in addition to
the portion he had received as alms. But after all,
sheer-ale may mean nothing more than ale unmixed,
mere-ale, or pure ale. The word sheer is still used for

6 Wilnecotte, says Warton, is a village in Warwick-mere, pure.
slire, with which Shakspeare was well acquainted, 8 i. c. distraught, distracted.

O, how we joy to see your wit restor❜d!
O, that once more you knew but what you are!
These fifteen years you have been in a dream;
Or, when you wak'd, so wak'd as if you slept.
Sly. These fifteen years! by my fay,' a goodly

nap.

But did I never speak of all that time?

1 Serv. O, yes, my lord; but very idle words :-
For though you lay here in this goodly chamber,
Yet would you say, ye were beaten out of door;
And rail upon the hostess of the house;
And say, you would present her at the feet,2
Because she brought stone jugs and no seal'd quarts:
Sometimes you would call out for Cicely Hacket.
Sly. Ay, the woman's maid of the house.

3 Serv. Why, sir, you know no house, nor no such
maid,

Nor no such men as you have reckon'd up,-
As Stephen Sly, and old John Naps of Greece,3
And Peter Turf, and Henry Pimpernell;
And twenty more such names and men as these,
Which never were, nor no man ever saw.
Sly. Now, Lord be thanked for my good amends!
All. Amen.

Sly. I thank thee; thou shalt not lose by it.
Enter the Page, as a Lady, with Attendants.
Page. How fares my noble lord?
Sly. Marry, I fare well; for here is cheer enough.
Where is my wife?

Page. Here, noble lord; What is thy will with
her?

Sly. Are you my wife, and will not call mehusband?

My men should call me-lord; I am your goodman. Page. My husband and my lord, my lord and husband;

I am your wife in all obedience.

Sly. I know it well:-What must I call her?
Lord. Madam.

Sly. Al'ce madam, or Joan madam?
Lord. Madam, and nothing else: so lords call
ladies.

Sly. Madam wife, they say that I have dream'd
and slept

Above some fifteen year and more.

Page. Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me;
Being all this time abandon'd from your bed.
Sly. "Tis much;-Servants, leave me and her

alone.

Madam, undress you, and come now to bed.

Therefore they thought it good you hear a pay,
And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,
Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life.

Page. Thrice noble lord, let me entreat of you To pardon me yet for a night or two; Or, if not so, until the sun be set: For your physicians have expressly charg'd, In peril to incur your former malady, That I should yet absent me from your bed: I hope this reason stands for my excuse. Sly. Ay, it stands so, that I may hardly tarry so long. But I would be loath to fall into my dreams again; I will therefore tarry, in despite of the flesh and the blood.

Enter a Servant.

Sly. Marry, I will; let them play it: Is not a com-
monty a Christmas gambol, or a tumbling trick?
Page. No, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff
Sly. What, household stuff?
Page. It is a kind of history.

Sly. Well, we'll see't: Come, madam wife, sit
by my side, and let the world slip; we shall e'er
be younger.
[They sit down,

ACT I.

SCENE I. Padua. A public Place. Enter
LUCENTIO and TRANIO.

Luc. Tranio, since-for the great desire I had
To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,-
I am arriv'd for fruitful Lombardy,
The pleasant garden of great Italy;
And, by my father's love and leave, am arm'd
With his good will, and thy good company,
Most trusty servant, well approv'd in all;
Here let us breathe, and happily institute
A course of learning, and ingenious studies.
Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,
Gave me my being, and my father first,
A merchant of great traffic through the world,
Vincentio, come of the Bentivoli.
Vincentio's son, brought up in Florence,
It shall become, to serve all hopes conceiv'd,
To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds:
And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,
Virtue, and that part of philosophy
Will I apply, that treats of happiness
By virtue 'specially to be achiev'd.
Tell me thy mind: for I have Pisa left,
And am to Padua come: as he that leaves
A shallow plash, to plunge him in the deep,
And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.

Tra. Mi perdonate, gentle master mine,
I am in all affected as yourself.
Glad that you thus continue your resolve,
To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
Only, good master, while we do admire
This virtue, and this moral discipline,
Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray :
Or so devote to Aristotle's ethics, 1
As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd:
Balke logic with acquaintance that
you have,
And practise rhetoric in your common talk:
Music and poesy use to quicken12 you;
The mathematics, and the metaphysics,
Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you:
No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en:-
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Luc. Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.
If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,
We could at once put us in readiness;
And take a lodging fit to entertain
Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.
But stay awhile: What company is this?
Tra. Master, some show, to welcome us to town.

Serv. Your honour's players, hearing your amend- Enter BAPTISTA, KATHARINA, BIANCA, GRE

ment,

Are come to play a pleasant comedy,

For so your doctors hold it very meet;

MIO, and HORTENSIO. LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand aside.

Bap. Gentlemen, importune me no further,

Seeing too much sadness hath congeal'd your blood, For how I firmly am resolv'd you know;

And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy,

1 According to some old authorities, Sly here uses a very ladylike imprecation. Ecastor,' says Cooper, by my fay, used only of women.' traction of by my fuith. It is merely a con2 That is at the Court Leet, where it was usual to present such matters, as appears from Kitchen on Courts: Also if tiplers sell by cups and dishes, or measures sealed or not sealed, is inquirable.'

3 Blackstone proposes to read, old John Naps o'the

That is not to bestow my youngest daughter,

6 i. e. to fulfil the expectations of his friends. 7 Apply for ply is frequently used by old writers. Thus Baret: with diligent endeavour to applie the she her wheele applyde.' studies. And in Turberville's Tragic Tales: 'How

8 Small piece of water.

9 Pardon me.

10 The old copy reads Aristotle's checks. Blackstone seems to require it; I have therefore admitted it into the suggests that we should read ethics, and the seps

Green.' The addition seems to have been a common text. one.

4 For comedy.

11 The modern editions read, Talk logic, &c. The old copy reads Balke, which Mr. Boswell suggests may

5 Ingenious and ingenuous were very commonly be right, although the meaning of the word is now lost confounded by old writers.

12 Animate.

Before I have a husband for the elder:
If either of you both love Katharina,
Because I know you well, and love you well,
Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.
Gre. To cart her rather: She's too rough for me:-
There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?
Kath. I pray you, sir, [To BAP.] is it your will
To make a stale of me amongst these mates?
Hor. Mates, maid! how mean you that? no mates
for you,

Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

Kath. I'faith, sir, you shall never need to fear;
I wis, it is not half way to her heart:
But if it were, doubt not her care should be
To comb your noddle with a three-legg'd stool,
And paint your face, and use you like a fool.
Hor. From all such devils, good Lord, deliver us!
Gre. And me too, good Lord!

Tra Hush, master! here is some good pastime
toward;

That wench is stark mad, or wonderful froward.
Luc. But in the other's silence I do see
Maid's mild behaviour and sobriety.
Peace, Tranio.

Tra Well said, master; mum! and gaze your
fill.

Bap. Gentlemen, that I may soon make good
What I have said,-Bianca, get you in:
And let it not displease thee, good Bianca;
For I will love thee ne'er the less, my girl."
Kath. A pretty peat!' 'tis best

Put finger in the eye,-an she knew why.

Bian. Sister, content you in my discontent.-
Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe:
My books, and instruments, shall be my company;
On them to look, and practise by myself.

Luc. Hark, Tranio! thou may'st hear Minerva
speak.
[Aside.
Hor. Signior Baptista, will you be so strange ?4
Sorry am I that our goodwill effects
Bianca's grief.

Gre.

Why, will you mew her up, Signior Baptista, for this fiend of hell,

And make her bear the penance of her tongue?

light on a fit man to teach her that wherein she delights, I will wish10 him to her father.

Hor. So will I, signior Gremio: but a word, I
pray. Though the nature of our quarrel yet never
brook'd parle, know now, upon advice,11 it toucheth
us both, that we may yet again have access to
our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca's
love,-to labour and effect one thing 'specially.
Gre. What's that, I pray?

Hor. Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.
Gre. A husband! a devil.

Hor. I say, a husband.

Gre. I say, a devil: Think'st thou, Hortensio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?

Hor. Tush, Gremio, though it pass your patience and mine, to endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all faults, and money enough.

Gre. I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this condition,-to be whipped at the high-cross every morning.

Hor. 'Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten apples. But come; since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall be so far forth friendly maintained,-till by helping Baptista's eldest daughter to a husband, we set his youngest free for a husband, and then have to't afresh.-Sweet Bianca! -Happy man be his dole !12 He that runs fastest, gets the ring." How say you, signior Gremio?

Gre. I am agreed: and 'would I had given him the best horse in Padua to begin his wooing, that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her. Come on.

[Exeunt GREMIO and HORTENSIO. Tra. [Advancing.] I pray, sir, tell me,-Is it possible

That love should of a sudden take such hold?
Luc. O Tranio, till I found it to be true,

I never thought it possible, or likely;
But see! while idly I stood looking on,
I found the effect of love in idleness:
And now in plainness do confess to thee,-

Bap. Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolv'd:-That art to me as secret, and as dear,

Go in, Bianca,

[Exit BIANCA.
And for I know, she taketh most delight
In music, instruments, and poetry,
Schoolmasters will I keep within my house,
Fit to instruct her youth.-If you, Hortensio,
Or signior Gremio, you,-know any such,
Prefer them hither; for to cunning men
I will be very kind, and liberal

To mine own children in good bringing up;
And so farewell. Katharina, you may stay:
For I have more to commune with Bianca. [Exit.
Kath. Why, and I trust, I may go too: May I
not?

What, shall I be appointed hours; as though, be-
like,

I knew not what to take and what to leave? Ha!
[Exit.
Gre. You may go to the devil's dam: your gifts
are so good, here is none will hold you. Their
love is not so great, Hortensio, but we may blow
our nails together, and fast it fairly out; our cake's
dough on both sides. Farewell,-yet, for the love
I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means

As Anna to the queen of Carthage was,-
Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
If I achieve not this young modest girl:
Counsel me, Tranio for I know thou canst;
Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.

Tra. Master, it is no time to chide you now;
Affection is not rated14 from the heart:

If love have touch'd you, nought remains but so,-
Redime te captum quam queas minimo. 15

Luc. Gramercies, lad; go forward: this con-
tents;

The rest will comfort, for thy counsel's sound.
Tra. Master, you look'd so longly16 on the maid,
Perhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all.

Luc. Ó 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.
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.

old writing stood for either their or your. If their love
be right, it must mean-the goodwill of Baptista and
Bianca towards us.

10 i. e. I will recommend him. 11 Consideration, or reflection. 12 A proverbial expression. Dole is lot, portion. The phrase is of very common occurrence. 13 The allusion is probably to the sport of running at the ring, or some similar game.

14 Is not driven out by chiding.

15 This line is quoted as it appears in Lilly's Grammar, and not as it is in Terence. See Farmer's Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare.

16 Longingly

17 Europa.

Tra. Nay, then, 'tis 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.

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 'tis plotted.
Laic. I have it, Tranio.

Tra.

Master, for my hand,
Both our inventions meet and jump in one.
Luc. Tell me thine first.
Tra.

You will be schoolmaster,
And undertake the teaching of the maid:
That's your device.
Luc.

It is: May it be done?

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;
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,2 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. [They exchange habits.
In brief then, sir, sith it your pleasure is,
And I am tied to be obedient;

(For so your father charg'd me at our parting;
Be serviceable to my son, quoth he;
Although, I think, 'twas 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, to 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; 'tis 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:
Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
While I make way from hence to save my life:
You understand me?

Bion.

I, sir, ne'er a whit.
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!

1 It is enough, Ital.

2 Port is figure, show, appearance.

3 Since.

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 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.
1 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?

4 Here in the old copy we have, 'The presenters above speak; meaning Sly, &c. who were placed in a balcony raised at the back of the stage. After the words 'would it were done,' the marginal direction is, They sit and mark.

5 Malone remarks that Grumio's pretensions to wit have a strong resemblance to Dromio's, in The Comedy of Errors; and the two plays were probably written at no great distance of time from each other. I have else where had occasion to observe that the idiom, 'Knock me here,' is familiar to the French language.

Page. My lord, 'tis but begun.

lady: 'Would, 'twere done!
Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam

SCENE II. The same. Before Hortensio's House.
Enter PETRUCHIO 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,
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 pats.
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 Petruchio!— How do you all at Verona!

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

Hor. Alla nostra casa bene venuto,
Molto honorato, signor mio Petruchio.
Rise, Grumio, rise; we will compound this quarrel.

Gru. Nay, 'tis 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?s

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 come you now with-knocking at the gate?

rectly Petrucio, but Shakspeare wrote it as it appears in
6 Gascoigne m his Supposes has spelt this name cor-
the text, in order to teach the actors how to pronounce it.
7 i. e. what he alleges in Latin.
we should read- Nay, 'tis no matter what be leges in
Grumio mistakes
the Italian spoken for Latin. Tyrwhitt suggests that
Latin, if this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his
service. That is, "Tis no matter what is luo if this
be not a lawful cause,' &c.

8 This passage has escaped the commentators, and yet it is more obscure than many they have explained.