That have beheld me give away myself
To this most patient, fweet, and virtuous wife.
Dine with my father, drink a health to me,
For I must hence, and farewel to you all.
Tra. Let us intreat you stay 'till after dinner,
Pet. It may not be.

Gre. Let me intreat you.

Pet. It cannot be.

Cath. Let me intreat you.

Pet. I am content

Cath. Are you content to stay?

Pet. I am content you shall intreat me stay ;
But yet not stay, intreat me how you can.
Cath. Now, if you love me, stay. .

Pet. Grumio, my horses.

Gru. Ay, fir, they be ready; the oats have eaten the horses.

Cath. Nay, then,

Do what thou canft, I will not go to-day;
No, nor to-morrow, nor 'till I please myfelf.
The door is open, fir, there lies your way,
You may be jogging, while your boots are green;
For me, I'll not be gone, 'till pleafe myself :
'Tis like, you'll prove a jolly furly groom,
That take it on you at the firft fo roundly.

Pet. O Kate content thee; pr'ythee, be not angry.
Cath. I will be angry; what haft thou to do ?-
Father, be quiet; he fhall ftay my leifure.
Gre. Ay, marry, fir: now it begins to work.
Cath. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner:-
I fee, a woman may be made a fool,

If she had not a spirit to refift.

Pet. They fhall go forward, Kate, at thy command.

Obey the bride, you that attend on her :

Go to the feaft, revel and domineer;

7

Ca

Caroufe full measure to her maiden-head;
Be mad and merry, or go hang yourselves:
But for my bonny Kate, she must with me.
Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret;
I will be mafter of what is mine own :

She is my goods, my chattels; fshe is my house,
My houshold-stuff, my field, my barn,
My horfe, my ox, my afs, my any thing;
And here fhe ftands, touch her whoever dare.
I'll bring my action on the proudeft he
That ftops my way in Padua. Grumio,
Draw forth thy weapon; we're befet with thieves;
Rescue thy miftrefs, if thou be a man:-

Fear not, sweet wench, they fhall not touch thee,

Kate;

I'll buckler thee against a million.

[Exit Pet. and Cath. Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones. Gre. Went they not quickly, I fhould die with laughing.

Tra. Of all mad matches, never was the like.
Luc. Miftrefs, what's your opinion of your fifter?
Bian. That being mad herself, fhe's madly mated.
Gre. I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated.

Bap. Neighbours and friends, tho' bride and bride-
groom want

For to fupply the places at the table,

You know, there wants no junkets at the feaft;-
Lucentio, you fhall fupply the bridegroom's place;
And let Bianca take her fifter's room.

Tra. Shall fweet Bianca practife how to bride it?
Bap. She hall, Lucentio: Come, gentlemen, let's

go.

[Exeunt.

ACT

A CT IV. SCENE L

F

Petruchio's country house.

Enter Grumio.

GRUMIO.

Y, fy on all tired jades, on all mad masters,

and all foul ways! Was ever man fo beaten? 9 was ever man fo ray'd? was ever man so weary? I am fent before, to make a fire; and they are coming after to warm them. Now were not I a little pot, and foon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I could come by a fire to thaw me: but I, with blowing the fire fhall warm myfelf; for confidering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold: Holla, hoa, Curtis !

Enter Curtis.

Curt. Who is it that calls fo coldly?

Gru. A piece of ice. If thou doubt it, thou may'st flide from my shoulder to my heel, with no greater

9 Was ever man so ray'd?] That is, was ever man fo mark'd with lashes. JOHNSON.

It rather means beray'd, i. e. made dirty. So Spenfer speaking of a fountain, b. ii. cant. 8. ft. 32.

Which fhe increased with her bleeding heart,

And the clean waves with purple gore did ray.

Again, b. iii. cant. 8. ft. 32.

The whiles the piteous lady up did rise,
Ruffled and foully ray'd with filthy foil.

TOLLET.

a run

a run but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis.

Curt. Is my mafter and his wife coming, Grumio? Gru. Oh, ay, Curtis, ay: and therefore fire, fire; cast on no water.

Curt. Is fhe fo hot a fhrew, as fhe's reported?

Gru. She was, good Curtis, before this froft: but thou know'ft,' winter tames man, woman and beast; for it hath tam'd my old mafter, and my new miftrefs, and thyself, fellow Curtis.

2

Curt. Away, you three-inch'd fool! I am no beast.

3

Gru. Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot; and fo long am I, at the leaft. But wilt thou make a fire, or fhall I complain on thee to our mistrefs, whose hand, (fhe being now at hand) thou shalt foon feel to thy cold comfort, for being flow in thy hot office.

Curt. I pr'ythee, good Grumio, tell me, how goes the world?

' Gru. -winter tames man, woman and beast; for it hath tam'd my old mafter, and my new mistress, and my self, fellow Curtis. Curt. Away, you three-inch'd fool; I am no beaft.] Why had Grumio call'd him one; to give his refentment any colour. We muft read as, without question, Shakespeare wrote,

—and THY felf, fellow Curtis.

Why Grumio faid that winter had tamed Curtis was for his flownefs in fhewing Grumio to a good fire. Befides, all the joke confifts in the fenfe of this alteration. WARBURTON.

2 Away, you three-inch'd fool;] i. e. with a skull three inches thick, a phrase taken from the thicker fort of planks.

WARBURTON,

3 Why thy born is a foot, and fo long am I at leaft.] Though all the copies agree in this reading, Mr. Theobald fays, yet he cannot find what bern Curtis bad; therefore he alters it to my born. But the common reading is right, and the meaning is that he had made Curtis a cuckold. WARBURTON.

Gru. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and, therefore, fire: do thy duty, and have thy duty; for my mafter and miftrefs are almost frozen to death.

Curt. There's fire ready; and therefore, good Grumio, the news.

4

Gru. Why, Jack boy! ho boy! and as much news as thou wilt.

Curt. Come, you are fo full of conycatching :

Gru. Why, therefore, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. Where's the cook? is fupper ready, the house trimm'd, rushes ftrew'd, cobwebs fwept, the ferving-men in their new fuftian, their white ftockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on? be

4 Jack boy, &c.] fragment of some old ballad.

WARE.

5 Be the Jacks fair within, the fills fair without?] i. e. Are the drinking veffels clean, and the maid fervants drefs'd? But the Oxford Editor alters it thus,

Are the Jacks fair without, the fills fair within'? What his conceit is in this, I confess I know not.

WARBURTON.

Hanmer's meaning feems to be this: Are the men who are waiting without the boufe to receive my master drefs'd; and the maids, whe are waiting within drefs'd too?

I believe the poet meant to play upon the words Jack and Jill, which fignify two drinking measures, as well as men and mard-fir vants. The diftinction made in the questions concerning them, was owing to this. The Jacks being of leather, could not be made to appear beautiful on the outfide, but were very apt to contract foulness within; whereas, the fills, being of metal, were expected to be kept bright externally, and were not liable to dirt on the infide like the leather.

The quibble on the former of thefe words I find in the Atheist's Tragedy, by C. Turner, 1611.

"have you drunk yourfelves mad?

"I Ser. My lord, the Jacks abus'd me.

"D'Am. I think they are Jasks indeed that have abus'd thee."

STEEVENS.

the