Like to a cenfer in a barber's shop:

Why, what o' devil's name, taylor, call'st thou this? Hor. I fee, fhe's like to have neither cap nor gown.

[Afiae. Tay. You bid me make it orderly and well,

According to the fashion and the time.

Pet. Marry, and did but if you be remembred,

I did not bid you mar it to the time.

Go, hop me over every kennel home,

For you fhall hop without my custom, fir:
I'll none of it; hence, make your best of it.
Cath. I never faw a better fashion'd
gown,
More quaint, more pleafing, nor more commendable.
Belike, you mean to make a puppet of me.

Pet. Why, true, he means to make a puppet of thee.

Tay. She fays, your worship means to make a puppet of her:

Pet. Oh monftrous arrogance!

Thou lyeft, thou thread, thou thimble, 3

Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail,
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket thou!
Brav'd in mine own house with a fkein of thread!
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant,
Or I fhall fo be-mete thee with thy yard,

As thou shalt think on prating whilft thou liv'ft!

I tell thee, I, that thou haft marr'd her gown.

1

Tay. Your worship is deceiv'd: the gown is made Just as my master had direction:

Grumio gave order how it fhould be done.

2 Cenfers,] in barber's fhops, are now difufed, but they may eafily be imagined to have been veffels which, for the emiffion of the fmoke, were cut with great number and varieties of interflices. JOHNSON.

3

-thou thimble,] The taylor's trade having an appearance of effeminacy, has always been, among the rugged English, Jiable to faccafms and contempt. JOHNSON.

Gru,

Gru. I gave him no order, I gave him the stuff.
Tay. But how did you defire it should be made?
Gru. Marry, fir, with needle and thread.

Tay. But did you not request to have it cut?
Gru. Thou haft fac'd many things.

Tay. I have.

I

Gru. Face not me: thou haft brav'd many men ; brave not me: I will neither be fac'd, nor brav'd. fay unto thee, I bid thy mafter cut out the gown; but I did not bid him cut it to pieces: ergo, thou lieft.

Tay. Why, here is a note of the fashion to teftify.

Pet. Read it.

Gru. The note lies in his throat, if he fay I faid fo. Tay. Imprimis, a loofe-bodied gown:

Gru. Mafter, if ever I faid loofe-bodied gown, fow me up in the fkirts of it, and beat me to death with a bottom of brown thread; I faid a gown.

Pet. Proceed.

Tay. With a small compass'd cape; 3
Gru. I confels the cape.

Tay. With a trunk sleeve:
Gru. I confefs two fleeves.
Tay. The fleeves curiously cut.

Pet. Ay, there's the villany.

Gru Error i' the bill, fir, error i' the bill. I commanded, the fleeves fhould be cut out, and fow'd up again; and that I'll prove upon thee, though thy little finger be armed in a thimble.

3-a small compass'd cape ;] Stubbs, in his Anatomy of Abuses, 1565, gives a most elaborate defcription of the gowns of women; and adds "Some have capes reaching down to the midst of their backs, faced with velvet, or elfe with fome fine wrought taffata, at the leaft, fringed about, very bravely." STEEVENS.

A compass'd cape is a round cape. To compass is to come round.

JOHNSON,
Tay.

Tay. This is true, that I fay; an' I had thee in place where, thou fhou'dft know it.

Gru. I am for thee ftraight: take thou the bill, give me thy mete-yard, and spare not me.

Hor. God-a-mercy, Grumio! then he fhall have
no odds.

Pet. Well, fir, in brief, the gown is not for me.
Gru. You are i' the right, fir, 'tis for my mistress.
Pet. Go, take it up unto thy master's use.

Gru. Villain, not for thy life: take up my mistress's gown for thy master's use!

Pet. Why, fir, what's your conceit in that?

Gru. Oh, fir, the conceit is deeper than you think for:

Take up my miftrefs's gown unto his master's ufe! Oh, fy, fy, fy!

Pet. Hortenfio, fay, thou wilt fee the taylor paid.

[Afide. Go take it hence, be gone, and fay no more. Hor. Taylor, I'll pay thee for thy gown to-mor

row,

Take no unkindness of his hafty words:

Away, I fay; commend me to thy master.

[Exit Tay.

Pet. Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your fa

ther's,

Even in these honeft mean habiliments:

Our purfes fhall be proud, our garments poor;
For 'tis the mind, that makes the body rich:

And as the fun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meaneft habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel,
Because his painted fkin contents the eye?

-thy mete-yard,] i. e. thy measuring-yard. STEEVENS.

Oh,

Oh, no, good Kate; neither art thou the worfe
For this poor furniture, and mean array.
If thou account'ft it fhame, lay it on me:
And therefore, frolick; we will hence forthwith,
To feast and sport us at thy father's house.-
Go, call my men, and let us ftraight to him;
And bring our horfes unto Long-lane end,
There will we mount, and thither walk on foot.-
Let's fee; I think, 'tis now fome feven o'clock,
And well we may come there by dinner time.
Cath. I dare affure you, fir, 'tis almost two;
And 'twill be fupper-time, ere you come there.
Pet. It fhall be feven, ere I go to horse.
Look, what I fpeak, or do, or think to do,
You are still croffing it. Sirs, let't alone,
I will not go to-day; and ere I do,
It fhall be what o'clock I fay it is.

Hor. Why, fo! this gallant will command the fun. [Exit. Pet. Cath. and Hor.*

After this exit, the characters before whom the play is fuppofed to be exhibited, are introduced again, from the fpurious comedy mentioned in the former notes.

Lord. Who's within there?

Enter Servants.

Afleep again! go take him easily up, and put him in his own apparel again. But fee you wake him not in any cafe,"

Serv. It shall be done, my lord; come help to bear him bence. [They bear off Sly. STEEVENS.

VOL. III.

F f

SCENE

SCENE IV.

Before Baptifta's boufe.

Enter Tranio, and the Pedant dressed like Vincentio.

Tra. Sir, this is the houfe; please it you, that I call?

Ped. Ay, what else! and (but I be deceiv'd,) Signior Baptifta may remember me

Near twenty years ago, in Genoa,

Where we were lodgers, at the Pegafus.

Tra. 'Tis well, and hold your own in any cafe With fuch aufterity as 'longeth to a father.

Enter Biondello.

Ped. I warrant you: But, fir, here comes your boy;

'Twere good, he wère school'd.

Tra. Fear you not him. Sirrah, Biondello, Now do your duty throughly, I advise you; Imagine, 'twere the right Vincentio.

Bion. Tut! fear not me.

Tra. But haft thou done thy errand to Baptifta? Bion. I told him, that your father was in Venice;

5 I cannot but think that the direction about the Tinker, who is always introduced at the end of the acts, together with the change of the fcene, and the proportion of each act to the rest, make it probable that the fifth act begins here. JOHNSON.

• Tra. Where we were lodgers, at the Pegafus.] This line ha3 in all the editions hitherto been given to Tranio. But Tranio could with no propriety fpeak this, either in his affumed or real character. Lucentio was too young to know any thing of lodging with his father, twenty years before at Genoa: and Tranio muft be as much too young, or very unfit to reprefent and perfonate Lucentio. I have ventured to place the line to the Pedant, to whom it must certainly belong, and is a fequel of what he was before faying. THEOBALD.

And