While thou ly'ft warm at home, fecure and fafe,
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 fubject owes the Prince,
Even fuch a woman oweth to her husband:
And when she's froward, peevish, fullen, fower,
And not obedient to his honeft 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 should kneel for peace;
Or feek for rule, fupremacy, and fway,
When they are bound to ferve, 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 reafon 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 bufinefs of the play to be compleated in her being fo thoroughly reform'd. But this comedy has likewise 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 fhalt 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 sped.
'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 curst shrew. 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 Tapfter.

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

-what,

Tap. A Lord, with a murrain! come, art thou drunk still? Sly. Who's this? Tapfter! oh, I have had the braveft 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 difcover the impofture carried on by the Pedant: and after this eclairciffement is hung in fufpence (always a pleafure to an audience,) till towards the middle of the 5th act; the main bufinefs is wound up, of Catharine approving herself to be a convert; and an instructer, 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) fpeak 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 refpect, we are all three married; but you two are finely help'd up with wives, that don't know the duty of obedience.

Sly.

Sly. Will be? I know how to tame a fhrew. I dreamt upon it all this night, and thau haft swak'd me out of the best dream that ever I had. But I'll to my wife, and tame her 100, if fhe anger me.

The End of the SECOND Volume.

RA