Pet. She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio, This bird you aim'd at, tho' you hit it not'; Therefore, a health to all that shot and mifs'd. Tra. Oh, Sir, Lucentio flip'd me like his gray-hound, Which runs him felf, and catches for his mafter.

'there?

Pet. A good fwift fimile, but fomething currish. Tra. 'Tis well, Sir, that you hunted for yourself; 'Tis thought, your deer does hold you at a bay. Bap. Oh, oh, Petruchio, Tranio hits you now. Luc. I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio. Hor. Confefs, confefs, hath he not hit Pet. He has a little gaul'd me, I confess; And as the jeft did glance away from me, 'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright. Bap. Now, in good fadness, fon Petruchio, I think, thou haft the veriest shrew of all.

you

Pet. Well, I fay, no; and therefore for affurance, Let's each one fend unto his wife, and he Whofe wife is moft obedient to come first,

When he doth fend for her, fhall win the wager. -what wager?

Hor. Content ;

Luc. Twenty crowns.

Pet. Twenty crowns!

I'll venture fo much on my hawk or hound,

But twenty times fo much upon my wife.
Luc. A hundred then.

Hor. Content.

Pet. A match, 'tis done.

Hor. Who fhall begin?

Luc. That will I.

Go, Biondello, bid your miftrefs come to me.

Bion. I go.

Bap. Son, I'll be your half, Bianca comes.
Luc. I'll have no halves: I'll bear it all myself.

Re-enter Biondello.

How now, what news?

[Exit.

Bion. Sir, my mistress fends you

word

That he is bufy, and cannot come.

Pet.

Pet. How? fhe's bufy and cannot come : is that an anfwer?
Gre. Ay, and a kind one too :

Pray God, Sir, your wife fend you not a worse.
Pet. I hope better.

Hor. Sirrah, Biondello, go and intreat my wife to come to me forthwith. [Exit Biondello. Pet. Oh, ho! intreat her! nay, then fhe needs muft come. Hor. I am afraid, Sir, do you what you can,

Enter Biondello.

Yours will not be intreated: now, where's my wife?
Bion. She fays, you have fome goodly jeft in hand;
She will not come : fhe bids you come to her.
Pet. Worfe and worfe, fhe will not come !
Oh vile, intolerable, not to be indur'd:
Sirrah, Grumio, go to your mistress,
Say, I command her to come to me.

Hor. I know her answer.

Pet. What?

Hor. She will not.

[Exit Gru.

Pet. The fouler fortune mine, and there's an end.

Enter Catharina.

Bap. Now, by my hollidam, here comes Catharine! Cath. What is your will, Sir, that you fend for me? Pet. Where is your fifter, and Hortenfio's wife? Cath. They fit conferring by the parlour fire. Pet. Go fetch them hither; if they deny to come, Swinge me them foundly forth unto their husbands: Away, I fay, and bring them hither straight.

[Exit Catharina.
Luc. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.
Hor. And fo it is: I wonder, what it boads.
Pet. Marry, peace it boads, and love, and quiet life,
And awful rule, and right fupremacy :

And, to be fhort, what not, that's fweet and happy.
Bap. Now fair befal thee, good Petruchio!

The wager thou haft won; and I will add
Unto their loffes twenty thousand crowns,
Another dowry to another daughter;

For

For fhe is chang'd, as she had never been.
Pet. Nay, I will win my wager better yet,
And how more fign of her obedience,
Her new-built virtue and obedience.

Enter Catharina, Bianca and Widow.

See where he comes, and brings your froward wives
As prifoners to her womanly perfuafion:
Catharine, that cap of yours becomes you not;
Off with that bauble, throw it under foot.

[She pulls off her cap, and throws it down. Wid. Lord, let me never have a caufe to figh, 'Till I be brought to fuch a filly pafs.

Bian. Fy, what a foolish duty call

you this? Luc. I would, your duty were as foolish too! The wifdom of your duty, fair Bianca,

Coft me an hundred crowns fince fupper-time.

Bian. The more fool you, for laying on my duty. Pet.Catharine, I charge thee, tell thefe headstrong women, What duty they owe to their Lords and husbands.

Wid. Come, come, you're mocking; we will have no Pet. Come on, I fay, and first begin with her. [telling. Wid. She fhall not.

Pet. I fay, fhe fhall; and first begin with her.

Cath. Fy! fy! unknit that threatning unkind brow,
And dart not icornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy Lord, thy King, thy Governor.
It blots thy beauty, as frofts bite the meads;
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds;
And in no sense is meet or amiable.

A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-feeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is fo, none fo dry or thirsty
Will dain to fip, or touch one drop of it.
Thy hufband is thy Lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy fovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance: commits his body
To painful labour, both by fea and land;
To watch the night in ftorms, the day in cold,

While thou ly'ft warm at home, fecure and safe,
And craves no other tribute at thy hands,
But love, fair looks, and true obedience;
Too little payment for fo great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the Prince,
Even fuch a woman oweth to her husband:
And when she's froward, peevish, fullen, fower,
And not obedient to his honest will;
What is the but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving Lord?
I am afham'd, that women are fo fimple
To offer war where they fhould kneel for peace;
Or feek for rule, fupremacy, and fway,
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies foft, and weak and fmooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our foft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms,
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown;
But, now I fee, our launces are but ftraws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare;
That feeming to be moft, which we indeed least are.
(26) Then vale your ftomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot:

In

(26) Then vale your ftomachs, &c.] This doctrine of conjugal obedience, that runs thro' all Catharine's fpeech, fhews the business of the play to be compleated in her being fo thoroughly reform'd. But this comedy has likewife a fubfervient walk, which from the beginning is connected to, and made a part of the main plot; viz. the marriage of Bianca. This marriage, according to the regulation of all the copies, is executed and clear'd up in the fourth act: and the fifth act is not made to begin till the whole company meet at Lucentio's apartment. By this regulation, there is not only an unreasonable difproportion in length betwixt the 4th and 5th acts; but a manifeft abfurdity committed in the conduct of the fable. By the divifion I have ventur'd at, thefe inconveniencies are remedied: and the action lies more uniform. For now the whole catastrophe is wound up in the 5th act: it begins with Lucentio going to church to marry Bianca: the true Vincentio

arrives,

In token of which duty, if he please,

My hand is ready, may it do him ease.

Pet. Why, there's a wench: come on, and kiss me, Kate. Luc. Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou shalt ha't. Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are toward, Luc. But a harsh hearing, when women are froward. Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to bed; (27) We three are married, but you two are fped. 'Twas I won the wager, tho' you hit the white; And being a winner, God give you good night.

[Exeunt Petruchio and Catharina. Hor. Now go thy ways, thou haft tam'd a curft fhrew. Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, fhe will be tam'd fo. [Exeunt omnes.

Enter two fervants bearing Sly in his own apparel, and leave him on the Stage. Then enter a Tapiter.

Sly arvaking.] Sim, give's fome more wine-what, all the Players gone? am not I a Lord?

Tap. Lord, with a murrain! come, art thou drunk ftill? Sly. Who's this? Tapiter! oh, I have had the bravest dream that ever thou heardft in all thy life.

Tap. Yea, merry, but thou hadst beft get thee home, for your wife will courfe you for dreaming here all night.

arrives, to discover the impofture carried on by the Pedant: and after this eclairciffement is hung in fufpence (always a pleasure to an audience,) till towards the middle of the 5th act; the main business is wound up, of Catharine approving herself to be a convert; and an inftructer, in their duty, to the other new-married Ladies.- -If it be objected, that, by the change I make, the Lord and his fervants (who are characters out of the Drama) speak in the middle of an act; that is a matter of no importance. Their fhort interlocution was never defign'd to mark the intervals of the acts.

(27) We two are married, but you two are fped.] This is the reading only of the modern copies, I have chofe to read with the older books. Petruchio, I think verily, would fay this: I, and you Lucentio, and you Hortenfio, are all under the fame predicament in one respect, we are all three married; but you two are finely help'd up with wives, that don't know the duty of obedience.

Sly.