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ACT III. SCENE I.

A Room in BAPTISTA'S House.

Enter LUCENTIO, HORTENSIO, and BIANCA. Luc. Fiadler, forbear; you grow too forward, sir: Have you so soon forgot the entertainment Her sister Katharine welcom'd you withal? HOR. But, wrangling pedant, this is " The patroness of heavenly harmony : Then give me leave to have prerogative; And when in musick we have spent an hour, Your lecture shall have leisure for as much.

Luc. Preposterous ass! that never read so far
To know the cause why musick was ordain'd!
Was it not to refresh the mind of man,

After his studies, or his usual pain?
Then give me leave to read philosophy,

the folio. Mr. Pope, as in some former instances, introduced them from the old spurious play of the same name; and therefore we may easily account for their want of connection with the present comedy. I have degraded them as usual into the note. By the fool in the original piece, might be meant Sander the servant to Ferando, (who is the Petruchio of Shakspeare,) or Ferando himself.

It appears, however, from the following passage in the eleventh Book of Thomas Lupton's Notable Things, edit. 1660, that it was the constant office of the fool to preserve the stage from vacancy:

"79. When Stage-plays were in use, there was in every place one that was called the Foole; as the Proverb saies, Like a Fool in a Play. At the Red Bull Play-house it did chance that the Clown or the Fool, being in the attireing house, was suddenly called upon the stage, for it was empty. He suddenly going, forgot his Fooles-cap. One of the players bad his boy take it, and put it on his head as he was speaking. No such matter (saies the boy,) there's no manners nor wit in that, nor wisdom neither; and my master needs no cap, for he is known to be a Fool without it, as well as with it." STEEVENS.

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this is] We should read, with Sir T. Hanmer: .
"But, wrangling pedant, know this lady is." RITSON.

And, while I pause, serve in your harmony.

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HOR. Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine. BIAN. Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong, To strive for that which resteth in my choice: I am no breeching scholar in the schools; I'll not be tied to hours, nor 'pointed times, But learn my lessons as I please myself. And, to cut off all strife, here sit we down :Take you your instrument, play you the whiles; His lecture will be done, ere you have tun'd. HOR. You'll leave his lecture when I am in tune? [TO BIANCA.-HORTENSIO retires. Luc. That will be never;-tune your instrument. BIAN. Where left we last?

Luc. Here, madam :-

Hac ibat Simois; hic est Sigeia tellus ;

Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis.
BIAN. Construe them.

Luc. Hac ibat, as I told you before ',-Simois, I am Lucentio,—hic est, son unto Vincentio of Pisa,Sigeia tellus, disguised thus to get your love ;—Hic steterat, and that Lucentio that comes a wooing,

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no BREECHING scholar] i. e. no school-boy liable to corporal correction. So, in King Edward the Second, by

Marlow, 1598 :

"Whose looks were as a breeching to a boy." Again, in The Hog has lost his Pearl, 1614:

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he went

to fetch whips, I think, and, not respecting my honour, he would have breech'd me."

Again, in Amends for Ladies, 1618:

"If I had had a son of fourteen that had served me so, I would have breech'd him." STEEVENS.

Hac ibat, as I told you before.] This species of humour, in which Latin is translated into English of a perfectly different meaning, is rot uncommon among our old writers. We meet with instances in Middleton's Witch, and the same author's Chaste Maid of Cheapside. So, in Nashe's Four Letters Confuted, 1593: "Cura leves loquuntur, he hath but a little care to look to. Majores stupent, more living would make him study MALONE.

more."

Priami, is my man Tranio, regia, bearing my port,— celsa senis, that we might beguile the old pantaloon 2.

HOR. Madam, my instrument's in tune.

BIAN. Let's hear;

O fye! the treble jars.

[Returning. [HORTENSIO plays.

Luc. Spit in the hole, man, and tune again. BIAN. Now let me see if I can construe it: Hac ibat Simois, I know you not ;-hic est Sigeia tellus, I trust you not ;-Hic steterat Priami, take heed he hear us not;-regia, presume not;—celsa senis, despair not.

HOR. Madam, 'tis now in tune.

Luc.

All but the base. HOR. The base is right; 'tis the base knave that

jars.

How fiery and forward our pedant is!

Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love: Pedascule, I'll watch you better yet.

BIAN. In time I may believe, yet I mistrust *. Luc. Mistrust it not; for, sure, Æacides Was Ajax,-call'd so from his grandfather.

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- pantaloon.] The old cully in Italian farces. JOHNSON. 3 Pedascule,] He should have said Didascale, but thinking this too honourable, he coins the word Pedascule, in imitation of it, from pedant. WARBURTON.

I believe it is no coinage of Shakspeare's, it is more probable that it lay in his way, and he found it. STEEVENS.

4 In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.] This and the seven verses that follow, have in all the editions been stupidly shuffled and misplaced to wrong speakers; so that every word said was glaringly out of character. THEOBALD.

5-for, sure, acides, &c.] This is only said to deceive Hortensio, who is supposed to listen. The pedigree of Ajax, however, is properly made out, and might have been taken from Golding's version of Ovid's Metamorphosis, book xiii.:

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The highest Jove of all

Acknowledgeth this Eacus, and dooth his sonne him call. "Thus am I Ajax third from Jove." STEEVENS.

BIAN. I must believe my master; else, I pro

mise you,

I should be arguing still upon that doubt:
But let it rest.-Now, Licio, to you :-

Good masters, take it not unkindly, pray,
That I have been thus pleasant with you both.
HOR. You may go walk, [To LUCENTIO,] and
give me leave awhile;

My lessons make no musick in three parts.

Luc. Are you so formal, sir? well, I must wait, And watch withal: for, but I be deceiv d?,

Our fine musician groweth amorous.

[Aside.

HOR. Madam, before you touch the instrument,
To learn the order of my fingering,
I must begin with rudiments of art;
To teach you gamut in a briefer sort,
More pleasant, pithy, and effectual,
Than hath been taught by any of my trade:
And there it is in writing, fairly drawn.

BIAN. Why, I am past my gamut long ago.
HOR. Yet read the gamut of Hortensio.
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, shore 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.

• Good MASTERS,] Old copy-master. Corrected by Mr. Pope.

MALONE.

7 BUT I be deceiv'd,] But has here the signification of unless. MALONE.

8 TO CHANGE true rules for ODD inventions.] The old copy reads-To charge true rules for old inventions: The former emendation was made by the editor of the second folio; the latter by

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
gone. [Exeunt BIANCA and Servant.
Luc. 'Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to
stay.
[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 wand'ring eyes on every stale,
Seize thee, that list: If once I find thee ranging,
Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The same.

Before BAPTISTA'S House.

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

BAP. Signior Lucentio, [To TRANIO,] this is the 'pointed day

Mr. Theobald. Old, however may be right.

I believe, an oppo

sition was intended. As change was corrupted into charge, why might not true have been put instead of new? Perhaps the author

wrote:

To change new rules for old inventions :

i. e. to accept of new rules in exchange for old inventions. The same error of the press however has happened in all the quarto copies of King Richard III. except the first:

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Eighty old years of sorrow have I seen' This therefore is a sufficient ground for Theobald's emendation. MALONE.

9 Enter a Servant.] The old copy reads-Enter a Messenger -who, at the beginning of his speech is called-Nicke. RITSON. Meaning, I suppose, Nicholas Tooley. See Mr. Malone's Historical Account of the English Stage. STEEVENS.

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