Gru. Help, masters, help! my master is mad. Enter HORTENSIO. Hor. How now? what's the matter?-My old friend 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 bene trovato, may I say. 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? Whom, 'would to God, I had well knock'd at first, Pet. A senseless villain!-Good Hortensio, I bade the rascal knock upon your gate, Pet. Such wind as scatters young men through the world, To seek their fortunes further than at home, Where small experience grows. But, in a few, Antonio, my father, is deceas'd; And I have thrust myself into this maze, Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home, And so am come abroad to see the world. [6] i. e. I suppose, what he aliges in Latin. Petruchio has been just speak. Italian to Hortensio, wbich Grumio mistakes for the other language. STEEVENS Hor. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee, Pet. Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we, I come to wive it wealthily 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 have 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; And shrewd, and froward; so beyond all measure, I would not wed her for a mine of gold. Pet. Hortensio, peace; thou know'st not gold's effect: -Tell me her father's name, and 'tis enough; For I will board her, though she chide as loud Hor. Her father is Baptista Minola, [6] The allusion is to a story told by Gower in the first Book De Confessione Amantis. Florent is the name of a knight who had bound himself to marry a deformed hag, provided she taught him the solution of a riddle on which his life depended. STEEVENS. [7] i. c. a diminutive being, not exceeding in size the tag of a point STEEVENS. An affable and courteous gentleman: Her name is Katharina Minola, Renown'd in Padua for her scolding tongue. Pet. I know her father, though I know not her; And he knew my deceased father well: : I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her; Gru. I pray you, sir, let him go while the humour lasts. O' my word, an she knew him as well as I do, she would think scolding would do little good upon him: She may, perhaps, call him half a score knaves, or so: why, that's nothing; an he begin once, he'll rail in his ropetricks. I'll tell you what, sir,-an she stand him but a little, he will throw a figure in her face, and so disfigure her with it, that she shall have no more eyes to see witha' than a cat: You know him not, sir. Hor. Tarry, Petruchio, I must go with thee; (For those defects I have before rehears'd,) Till Katharine the curst have got a husband. A title for a maid, of all titles the worst. Hor. Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace; And offer me, disguis'd in sober robes, To old Baptista as a schoolmaster 2 Well seen in music, to instruct Bianca: [8] Ropery or rope-tricks originally signified abusive language, without any determinate idea; such language as parrots are taught to speak. So, in Hudibras : Could tell what subt'lest parrots mean, "That speak, and think contrary clean; "When they cry rope, and walk, knave walk." MALONE. 19] It may mean, that he shall swell up her eyes with blows, till she shall seem to peep with a contracted pupil like a cat in the light. JOHNSON. [1] Keep is custody. The strongest part of an ancient castle was called the keep STEEVEN [2] Seen is versed, practised. STEEVENS. That so I may by this device, at least, Have leave and leisure to make love to her, And, unsuspected, court her by herself. Enter GREMIO; with him LUCENTIO disguised, with books under his arm. Gru. Here's no knavery! See; to beguile the old folks, how the young folks lay their heads together! Master, Master, look about you: Who goes there? ha! Hor. Peace, Grumio; 'tis the rival of my love : -Petruchio, stand by a while. Gru. A proper stripling, and an amorous! [They retire. Gre. O, very well; I have perus'd the note. And see, you read no other lectures to her: Signior Baptista's liberality, I'll mend it with a largess :-Take your papers too, For she is sweeter than perfume itself, To whom they go. What will you read to her? As for my patron, (stand you so assur'd,) Yea, and (perhaps) with more successful words Hor. Grumio, mum!-God save you, signior Gremio! Gre. And you're well met, signior Hortensio. Trow you, Whither I am going?-To Baptista Minola. I promis'd to inquire carefully About a schoolmaster for fair Bianca: And, by good fortune, I have lighted well On this young man; for learning, and behaviour, Fit for her turn; well read in poetry, And other books,-good ones, I warrant you. Hor. 'Tis well and I have met a gentleman, Hath promis'd me to help me to another, 268 Gre. Belov'd of me,—and that my Gru. And that his bags shall prove. deeds shall prove. [Aside Hor. Gremio, 'tis now no time to vent our love: Listen to me, and if you speak me fair, I'll tell you news indifferent good for either. Pet. I know, she is an irksome brawling scold; If that be all, masters, I hear no harm. Gre. No, say'st me so, friend? What countryman? My father dead, my fortune lives for me; And I do hope good days, and long, to see. Gre. O, sir, such a life, with such a wife, were strange. But, if you have a stomach, to't, o' God's name ; You shall have me assisting you in all. But will you woo this wild cat? Pet. Will I live? Gru. Will he woo her? ay, or I'll hang her. [Aside. Pet. Why came I hither, but to that intent? Think you, a little din can daunt mine ears? Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang?" That gives not half so great a blow to th' ear, Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs.* Gru. For he fears none. Gre. Hortensio, hark! This gentleman is happily arriv'd, My mind presumes, for his own good, and yours. [Aside. [3] Probably the word clang is here used adjectively, as in the Paradise Lost, b. xi. ver. 834, and not as a verb. "an island salt and bare, The haunt of seals and ores, and sea-wews clang." T. WARTON. [4] i. e. with bug-bears. STEEVENS. |