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.

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 [Exeunt BIANCA and Servant. Luc. 'Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay.

gone.

[Exit.

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, To cast thy wandering eyes on every stale,1 Seize thee that list. If once I find thee ranging, Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing. [Exit.

1

SCENE II.
II. The same. Before Baptista's House.

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

Bap. Seignior Lucentio, [To TRANIO.] this is the 'pointed day,

That Katharine and Petruchio should be married,

1 A stale was a decoy or bait. Stale here may, however, only mean every common object.

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

1

To give my hand, opposed against my heart,
Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen;1
Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantic fool,

Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behavior;

And to be noted for a merry man,

2

He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage,
Make friends, invite them, and proclaim the bans;
Yet never means to wed where he hath wooed.
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 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 very saint,

Much more a shrew of thy impatient humor.

Enter BIONDello.

Bion. Master, master! news, old news,3 and such news as you never heard of!

1 Humor, caprice, inconstancy.

2 Them is not in the old copy; it was supplied by Malone: the second folio reads-yes.

3 Old news. These words were added by Rowe, and necessarily, as appears by the reply of Baptista. Old, in the sense of abundant, as, “old turning the key," &c. occurs elsewhere in Shakspeare.

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.

2

1

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 candle-cases, 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 windgalls, sped with spavins, raied with the yellows, past cure of the fives,3 stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots; swayed in the back, and shoulder-shotten; ne'er legged before; and with a half-checked 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.

4

Bap. Who comes with him?

Bion. O sir, his lackey, for all the world caparisoned like the horse; with a linen stock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, gartered with a red and

1 Points were tagged laces used in fastening different parts of the dress.

2 i. e. the farcy, called fashions in the west of England.

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

4 Velvet.

blue list; an old hat, and The humor 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 humor pricks him to this fashion!

Yet oftentimes he goes but mean apparelled.

Bap. I am glad he is come, howsoever 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.

Not so well apparelled

Bap. And yet you halt not.
Tra.

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?

Bap. Why, sir, you know, this is your wedding day.

1 Warburton's supposition, that Shakspeare ridicules some popular, cheap book of this title, by making Petruchio prick it up in his footboy's hat instead of a feather, has been well supported by Steevens; he observes that "a penny book, containing forty short poems, would, properly managed, furnish no unapt plume of feathers for the hat of a humorist's servant."

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 detained you from your wife,
And sent you hither so unlike yourself?

1

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 PET., GRU., and BION. 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.

2

[Exit.

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,

1 i. e. to deviate from my promise.

2 The old copy reads, " But, sir, love concerneth us to add, Her father's liking." The emendation is Mr. Tyrwhitt's. The nominative case to the verb concerneth is here understood.