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? Page. My lord, 'tis but begun. Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady; 'Would't were done! SCENE II. The same. Before Hortensio's House. Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO. Pet. Verona, for a while I take my leave, 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 then I know after who comes by the worst. 'Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll wring it;" [He wrings GRUMIO by the ears. the speeches of the Tinker are introduced; though they have been hitherto thrown to the end of the first Act, according to a modern and arbitrary regulation. STEEvens. 9- wring it ;] Here seems to be a quibble between ring ing at a door, and wringing a man's ears. STEEVENS. 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 ? Pet. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray? Con tutto il core bene trovato, may I say. Rise, Grumio, rise; we will compound this quarrel. Pet. A senseless villain!-Good Hortensio, 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. what he 'leges in Latin.] i. e. I suppose, what he alleges in Latin. STEEVENS. -knock me soundly?] Shakspeare seems to design a ridicule on this clipped and ungrammatical phraseology; which yet he has introduced in Othello : "I pray talk me of Cassio." Hor. Petruchio, 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 further than at home, And I have thrust myself into this maze, Hor. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee, And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife? Pet. Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we, As old as Sybil, and as curst and shrewd 3 Where small experience grows. But, in a few,] In a few, means the same as in short, in few words. JOHNSON. +(As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance,)] The burthen of a dance is an expression which I have never heard; the burthen of his wooing song had been more proper. JoHNSON. 5 Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,] 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. As Socrates' Xantippe, or a worse, She moves me not, or not removes, at least, 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 Tell me her father's name, and 'tis enough; Renown'd in Padua for her scolding tongue. 6 aglet-baby ;] i. e. a diminutive being, not exceeding in size the tag of a point. An aglet-baby was a small image or head cut on the tag of a point, or lace. 7 shrewd,] Here means, having the qualities of a shrew The adjective is now used only in the sense of acute, intelligent, And he knew my deceased father well:- 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 rope-tricks. 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 withal than a cat: You know him not, sir. Hor. Tarry, Petruchio, I must go with thee; For in Baptista's keep my treasure is: He hath the jewel of my life in hold, His youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca ; And her withholds from me, and other more (For those defects I have before rehears'd,) That none shall have access unto Bianca, 8an he begin once, he'll rail in his rope-tricks.] Ropery or rope-tricks originally signified abusive language, without any determinate idea; such language as parrots are taught to speak. stand him-] i. e. withstand, resist him, 9 1 that she shall have no more eyes to see withal than a cat :] 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. 2 Therefore this order hath Baptista ta'en ;] To take order is to take measures. |