My banquet' is to close our stomachs up, After our great good cheer: Pray you, sit down ; For now we sit to chat, as well as eat. [They sit at table. PET. Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat! BAP. Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio. PET. Padua affords nothing but what is kind. HOR. For both our sakes, I would that word were true. PET. Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow. WID. Then never trust me if I be afeard. PET. You are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense 9; I mean, Hortensio is afeard of you. WID. He that is giddy, thinks the world turns round. PET. Roundly replied. KATH. Mistress, how mean you that? WID. Thus I conceive by him. PET. Conceives by me!-How likes Hortensio that? HOR. My widow says, thus she conceives her tale. PET. Very well mended: Kiss him for that, good widow. KATH. He that is giddy, thinks the world turns round : I pray you, tell me what you meant by that. 7 My BANQUET-] A banquet, or (as it is called in some of our old books,) an afterpast, was a slight refection, like our modern desert, consisting of cakes, sweetmeats, and fruit. See note on Romeo and Juliet, Act I. Sc. V. STEEVENS. 8 - FEARS his widow,] To fear, as has been already observed, meant in our author's time both to dread, and to intimidate. The widow understands the word in the latter sense: and Petruchio tells her, he used it in the former. MALONE. 9 You are sensible, and yet you miss my sense ;] The old copy redundantly reads-You are very sensible." STEEVENS. Measures my husband's sorrow by his woe1: KATH. A very mean meaning. WID. Right, I mean you. KATH. And I am mean, indeed, respecting you. PET. To her, Kate! HOR. To her, widow! PET. A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down. HOR. That's my office 2. PET. Spoke like an officer:-Ha' to thee, lad 3. [Drinks to HORTENSIO. BAP. How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks? GRE. Believe me, sir, they butt together well. BLAN. Head, and butt? an hasty-witted body Would say, your head and butt were head and horn. VIN. Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken'd you? BIAN. Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll sleep again. PET. Nay, that you shall not; since you have begun, Have at you for a bitter jest or two. I-shrew, woe;] As this was meant for a rhyming couplet, it should be observed that anciently the word-shrew was pronounced as if it had been written-shrow. See the finale of the play, p. 522. STEEVENS. 2 ― put her down. Hor. That's my office.] This passage will be best explained by another in Much Ado about Nothing: " Lady, you have put him down. So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools." STEEVENS. 3 Ha' to THEE, lad.] The old copy has-to the. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. Have at you for a BITTER jest or two.] The old copy reads― a better jest. The emendation, (of the propriety of which there cannot, I conceive, be the smallest doubt,) is one of the very few corrections of any value made by Mr. Capell. So, before, in the present play : "Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour." Again, in Love's Labour's Lost : "Too bitter is thy jest." Again, in Bastard's Epigrams, 1598: BLAN. Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush, And then pursue me as you draw your bow :— You are welcome all. [Exeunt BIANCA, KATHARINA, and Widow. PET. She hath prevented me.-Here, signior Tranio, This bird you aim'd at, though you hit her not; Therefore, a health to all that shot and miss'd. TRA. O, sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound, Which runs himself, and catches for his master. PET. A good swift simile, but something cur rish. 5 TRA. "Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself; 'Tis thought, your deer does hold you at a bay. BAP. O ho, Petruchio, Tranio hits you now. Luc. I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio. HOR. Confess, confess, hath he not hit you here? PET. 'A has a little gall'd me, I confess; And, as the jest did glance away from me, 'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright'. "He shut up the matter with this bitter jest." MALONE. I have received this emendation; and yet a better jest " may mean no more than a good one. Shakspeare often uses the comparative for the positive degree. So, in King Lear: her smiles and tears “Were like a better day.” Again, in Macbeth : 66 go not my horse the better-.” i. e. if he does not go well. STEEVENS. 5-swift-] Besides the original sense of speedy in motion, signified witty, quick-witted. So, in As You Like It, the Duke says of the Clown: "He is very swift and sententious." Quick is now used in almost the same sense as nimble was in the age after that of our author. Heylin says of Hales, that "he had known Laud for a nimble disputant." JOHNSON. 6 that GIRD, good Tranio.] A gird is a sarcasm, a gibe. So, in Stephen Gosson's School of Abuse, 1579: "Curculio may chatte till his heart ake, ere any be offended with his gyrdes." 7 you Two outright.] Old copy-you too. Mr. Rowe. MALONE. STEEVENS. Corrected by BAP. Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio, I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all. PET. Well, I say-no: and therefore, for assur ance 8, Let's each one send unto his wife; 8 FOR assurance,] Instead of for, the original copy has sir. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. 9 Let's each one send unto his wife ;] Thus in the original play: "Feran. Come, gentlemen; nowe that supper's done, "How shall we spend the time til we go to bed? 66 Aurel. Faith, if you wil, in trial of our wives, "Who wil come soonest at their husbands cal. Pol. Nay, then, Ferando, he must needes sit out; "For he may cal, I thinke, til he be weary, "Before his wife wil come before she list. "Feran. 'Tis wel for you that have such gentle wives : "Yet in this trial wil I not sit out; "It may be Kate wil come as soone as I do send. "Aurel. My wife comes soonest, for a hundred pound. Pol. I take it. Ile lay as much to yours, 66 "That my 66 wife comes as soone as I do send. Aurel. How now, Ferando! you dare not lay, belike. "Feran. Why true, I dare not lay indeed: "But how? So little mony on so sure a thing. "A hundred pound! Why I have laid as much Upon my dog in running at a deere, 66 "She shall not come so far for such a trifle : "But wil you lay five hundred markes with me? 66 And whose wife soonest comes, when he doth cal, "And shewes herselfe most loving unto him, "Let him injoy the wager I have laid : 66 Now what say you? Dare you adventure thus? "Pol. I, were it a thousand pounds, I durst presume 66 On my wife's love and I wil lay with thee. 66 "Enter Alfonso. Alfon. How now sons! What in conference so hard? May I, without offence, know where about ? "Aurel. Faith, father, a waighty cause, about our wives: "Five hundred markes already we have laid; 66 And he whose wife doth shew most love to him, "He must injoy the wager to himselfe. 66 Alfon. Why then Ferando, he is sure to lose it : I promise thee son, thy wife will hardly come; "And therefore I would not wish thee lay so much. VOL. V. 2 L And he, whose wife is most obedient To come at first when he doth send for her, "Feran. Tush, father; were it ten times more, "I durst adventure on my lovely Kate :— "But if I lose, Ile pay, and so shall you. 66 Aurel. Upon mine honour, if I lose Ile pay. "Pol. And so wil I upon my faith, I vow. "Feran. Then sit we downe, and let us send for them. 66 66 Alfon. I promise thee Ferando, I am afraid thou wilt lose. "Go bid your mistress come to me. "Val. I wil, my lord. "Aurel. Now for my hundred pound :"Would any lay ten hundred more with me, "I know I should obtain it by her love. 66 66 [Exit Valeria. Feran. I pray God, you have laid too much already. "For you, I dare presume, have lost it al.' 66 Enter Valeria againe. "Now, sirha, what saies your mistris? "Val. She is something busie, but sheele come anone. "Feran. Why so: did I not tel you this before? "She was busie, and cannot come. "Aurel. I pray God, your wife send you so good an answere: "She may be busie, yet she says sheele come. "Feran, Wel, wel: Polidor, send you for your wife. "Pol. Agreed. Boy, desire your mistris to come hither. 66 Boy. I wil, sir. "Feran. I, so, so; he desires hir to come. Alfon. Polidor, I dare presume for thee, "I thinke thy wife will not denie to come; And I do marvel much, Aurelius, "That your wife came not when you sent for her. "Enter the Boy againe. "Pol. Now, wher's your mistris? 66 Boy. She bade me tell you that she will not come : "And you have any businesse, you must come to her. "Feran. O monstrous intollerable presumption, "Worse than a blasing star, or snow at midsummer, Earthquakes or any thing unseasonable! 66 "She will not come; but he must come to hir. "Pol. Wel, sir, I pray you, let's heare what "Answere your wife will make. [Exit. |
