Enter Hortenfio.

Hor. How now? what's the matter?-My old friend Grumio! and my good friend Petruchio !-How do you all at Verona ?

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

Y

Hor. "Alla noftra cafa ben venuto,

Molto bonorato fignor mio Petruccio.

Rife, Grumio, rife; we will compound this quarrel.

Gru. Nay, 'tis no matter, "what be leges in Latin, if this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his fervice.Look you, fir,—he bid me knock him, and rap him foundly, fir: Well, was it fit for a fervant to use his master fo; being, perhaps, (for ought I fee) two and thirty, -a pip out?

Whom, would to God, I had well knock'd at first,
Then had not Grumio come by the worst.

Pet. A fenfelefs villain !-Good Hortenfio,

I bid 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,-Sirrab, knock me here,
Rap me bere, knock me well, and knock me foundly?
And come you now with-knocking at the gate

?

Pet. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.
Hor. Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge:
Why, this is a heavy chance 'twixt him and you;
Your ancient, trufty, pleafant fervant Grumio.
And tell me now, fweet friend,-what happy gale
Blows you to Padua here, from old Verona ?

Pet. Such wind as scatters young men through the world,

▾ Con tutto il core ben trovato,]-Well met with all my heart. "Alla noftra casa ben venuto, Molto honorato fignor mio Petruccio.]— Welcome to our house, my much honoured Lord Petruchio. "what be leges]-what is law.

W

To feek their fortunes farther than at home,
Where small experience grows. But, in a few,
Signior Hortenfio, thus it ftands with me :-
Antonio, my father, is deceas'd;

And I have thruft myself into this maze,
Happly to wive, and thrive, as best I may:
Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,
And fo am come abroad to see the world.

Hor. Petruchio, fhall I then come roundly to thee,
And wish thee to a fhrewd ill-favour'd wife?
Thou'dft thank me but a little for my counsel :
And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich,
And very rich but thou'rt too much my friend,
And I'll not wish thee to her.

y

Pet. Signior Hortenfio, 'twixt fuch friends as we,
Few words fuffice: and, therefore, if thou know
One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,
(As wealth is * burden of my wooing dance)
Be fhe as foul as was Florentius' love,
As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
As Socrates' Xantippe, or a worse,
She moves me not, or not removes, at least,
Affection's edge in me, were fhe as rough
As are the fwelling Adriatick feas:

I come to wive it wealthily in Padua ;
If wealthily, then happily in Padua.

Gru. Nay, look you, fir, 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

win a few,]-in fhort, in few words.

x burden]-the leading step.

Y Florentius' love,]-a Knight who vow'd to marry a deformed hag, provided she taught him to folve a riddle, whereon his life depended. aglet-baby-image in the tag of a point.

Z

tooth

tooth in her head, though fhe have as many diseases * too as fifty horses: why, nothing comes amifs, fo money comes withal.

Hor. Petruchio, fince we have stept thus far in,
I will continue that I broach'd in jeft.

I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife
With wealth enough, and young, and beauteous;
Brought up, as best becomes a gentlewoman :
Her only fault (and that is fault enough)

Is, that she is intolerably curft,

b

And shrewd, and froward; so beyond all measure,
That, were my state far worfer than it is,

I would not wed her for a mine of gold.

Pet. Hortenfio, peace; thou know'st not gold's effect :

Tell me her father's name, and 'tis enough;

For I will board her, though the chide as loud
As thunder, when the clouds in autumn crack.
Hor. Her father is Baptifta Minola,

An affable and courteous gentleman :

Her name is, Katharina Minola,
Renown'd in Padua for her fcolding tongue.

Pet. I know her father, though I know not her;
And he knew my deceased father well :—
I will not fleep, Hortenfio, till I fee her;
And therefore let me be thus bold with you,
'To give you over at this first encounter,
Unless you will accompany me thither.

Gru. I pray you, fir, let him go while the humour lasts. O' my word, an fhe knew him as well as I do, fhe would think scolding would do little good upon him: She may, perhaps call him half a score knaves, or fo: why, that's

as two and-The fifty difeafes of a horfe, was a proverbial expreffion. b intolerably curft,]-fuch an infufferable vixen."

To give you over]—to leave you.

U 4

nothing;

nothing; an he begin once, he'll rail in his rope-tricks. I'll tell you what, fir,-an fhe ftand him but a little, he will throw a figure in her face, and fo disfigure her with it, that she shall have no more eyes to fee withal than a cat: You know him not, fir.

Hor. Tarry, Petruchio, I must go with thee;
For in Baptifta's 'keep my treasure is:
He hath the jewel of my life in hold,
His youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca;
Her he witholds from me, and other more
Suitors to her, and rivals in my love:
Suppofing it a thing impoffible,

(For those defects I have before rehears'd)
That ever Katharina will be woo'd,
Therefore this order hath Baptista ta’en ;—
That none fhall have accefs unto Bianca,
'Till Katharine the curft have got a husband.
Gru. Katherine the curft!

A title for a maid, of all titles the worst.

Hor. Now fhall my friend Petruchio do me grace;

And offer me, difguis'd in fober robes,
To old Baptifta as a school-mafter

Well feen in mufick, to inftruct Bianca:
That fo I may by this device, at least,
Have leave and leisure to make love to her,
And, unfufpected, court her by herself.

Enter Gremio, and Lucentio difguis'd, with books under bis

arm.

Gru. Here's no knavery! See; to beguile the old folks,

he'll rail in his rope-tricks. ]-roguery-rhetoricks-he'll overwhelm her with a torrent of abuse.

throw a figure in her face, &c.]-give her fuch a fpecimen of practical rhetorick, as fhall leave her no more light than a muffled cat -he'll feal up her eyes.

f

keep the strongest part, the inner works of a castle-in his cuftody. Jeen]-fkill'd, vers'd.

how

how the young folks lay their heads together! Mafter, master, look about you: Who goes there? ha.

Hor. Peace, Grumio; 'tis the rival of my love:-Petruchio, ftand by a while.

h

Gru. A proper ftripling, and an amorous!

Gre. O, very well; I have perus'd the note.
Hark you, fir; I'll have them very fairly bound:
All books of love, see that, at any hand;

And see you read no other lectures to her :
You understand me:-Over and befide
Signior Baptifta's liberality,

I'll mend it with a largess -Take your papers too,
And let me have them very well perfum'd;
For fhe is sweeter than perfume itself,

To whom they go. What will you read to her?
Luc. Whate'er I read to her, I'll plead for you,
As for my patron, (stand you so assur’d)
As firmly as yourself were still in place:
Yea, and (perhaps,) with more fuccessful words
Than you, unless you were a scholar, fir.

Gre. O this learning! what a thing it is!
Gru. O this woodcock! what an afs it is!
Pet. Peace, firrah.

Hor. Grumio, mum !-God fave you, fignior Gremio!
Gre. You are well met, fignior Hortenfio. Trow you
Whither I am going?-To Baptifta Minola.
I promis'd to enquire carefully

About a schoolmafter for the 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.

proper ftripling,]-ironically, Gremio being advanced in years. band;]-at all events.

at any

Hor.