play the good husband at home, my son and my servant spend all at the university. TRA. How now! what's the matter? BAP. What, is the man lunatick? TRA. Sir, you seem a sober ancient gentleman by your habit, but your words show you a madman: Why, sir, what concerns it you, if I wear pearl and gold? I thank my good father, I am able to maintain it. VIN. Thy father? O, villain! he is a sail-maker in Bergamo R. BAP. You mistake, sir; you mistake, sir: Pray, what do you think is his name? VIN. His name? as if I knew not his name: I have brought him up ever since he was three years old, and his name is-Tranio. PED. Away, away, mad ass! his name is Lucentio; and he is mine only son, and heir to the lands of me, signior Vincentio. VIN. Lucentio! O, he hath murdered his master!-Lay hold on him, I charge you, in the duke's name :-O, my son, my son !-tell me, thou villain, where is my son Lucentio ? TRA. Call forth an officer: [Enter one with an 8 a sail-maker in Bergamo.] Ben Jonson has a parallel passage in his Alchemist : 66 you do resemble "One of the Austriack princes. "Her father was an Irish costarmonger." Again, Chapman, in his Widow's Tears, a comedy 1612: he draws the thread of his descent from Leda's distaff, when 'tis well known his grandsire cried coney-skins in Sparta." STEEVENS. 9 Call forth an officer: &c.] Here, in the original play, the Tinker speaks again : "Slie. I say weele have no sending to prison. "Lord. My lord, this is but the play; they're but in jest. "Slie. I tell thee Sim, weele have no sending Officer:] carry this mad knave to the goal :-Father Baptista, I charge you see, that he be forthcoming. VIN. Carry me to the gaol! GRE. Stay, officer; he shall not go to prison. BAP. Talk not, signior Gremio; I say, he shall go to prison. GRE. Take heed, signior Baptista, lest you be coney-catched' in this business; I dare swear, this is the right Vincentio. PED. Swear, if thou darest. GRE. Nay, I dare not swear it. TRA. Then thou wert best say, that I am not Lucentio. GRE. Yes, I know thee to be signior Lucentio. BAP. Away with the dotard; to the gaol with him. VIN. Thus strangers may be haled and abus'd:O monstrous villain! Re-enter BIONDELLO, with LUCENTIO, and BIANCA. BION. O, we are spoiled, and-Yonder he is; deny him, forswear him, or else we are all undone. Luc. Pardon, sweet father. [Kneeling. VIN. Lives my sweetest son? [BIONDELLO, TRANIO, and Pedant run out 2. BLAN. Pardon, dear father. BAP. Where is Lucentio ? 66 [Kneeling. How hast thou offended ? To prison, that's flat; why Sim, am not I don Christo Vari? "Therefore, I say, they shall not goe to prison. 66 "Lord. No more they shall not, my lord: They be runne away. 66 Slie. Are they run away, Sim? that's well: "Then gis some more drinke, and let them play againe. Lord. Here, my lord." STEEVENS. 66 – coney-catched —] i. e. deceived, cheated. 2 STEEVENS. run out.] The old copy says-as fast as may be. RITSON. Luc. Here's Lucentio, 3 Right son unto the right Vincentio ; VIN. Where is that damned villain, Tranio, BAP. Why, tell me, is not this my Cambio? Luc. Love wrought these miracles. Bianca's love Made me exchange my state with Tranio, 3 While counterfeit SUPPOSES blear'd thine eyne.] The modern editors read supposers, but wrongly. This is a plain allusion to Gascoigne's comedy entitled Supposes, from which several of the incidents in this play are borrowed. TYRWHITT. 66 This is highly probable; but yet supposes is a word often used in its common sense, which on the present occasion is sufficiently commodious. So, in Greene's Farewell to Folly, 1617: "-with Plato to build a commonwealth on supposes.' Shakspeare uses the word in Troilus and Cressida : That we come short of our suppose so far," &c. It appears likewise from the Preface to Greene's Metamorphosis, that supposes was a game of some kind: "After supposes, and such ordinary sports, were past, they fell to prattle," &c. Again, in Drayton's Epistle from King John to Matilda: "And tells me those are shadows and supposes." To blear the eye, was an ancient phrase signifying to deceive. So, in Chaucer's Manciple's Tale, v. 17,202, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit.: "For all thy waiting, blered is thin eye." Again, in the 10th pageant of The Coventry Plays, in the British Museum, MS. Cott. Vesp. d. viii. : "Shuld I now in age begynne to dote, STEEVENS. The ingenious editor's explanation of blear the eye, is strongly supported by Milton, Comus, v. 155: "Spells "Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion." HOLT WHITE. Here's PACKING,] i. e. plotting, underhand contrivance. So, in King Lear: "Snuffs and packings of the dukes." STEEVENS. While he did bear my countenance in the town; And happily I have arriv'd at last Unto the wished haven of my bliss : What Tranio did, myself enforc'd him to; VIN. I'll slit the villain's nose, that would have sent me to the gaol. BAP. But do you hear, sir? [To LUCENTIO.] Have you married my daughter without asking my good-will? VIN. Fear not, Baptista; we will content you, go to: But I will in, to be revenged for this villainy. [Exit. BAP. And I, to sound the depth of this knavery. frown. [Exit. Luc. Look not pale, Bianca; thy father will not Exeunt Luc. and BIAN. GRE. My cake is dough: But I'll in among the rest; Out of hope of all,-but my share of the feast. PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA advance. [Exit. KATH. Husband, let's follow, to see the end of this ado, PET. First kiss me, Kate, and we will. 5 My cake is dough:] This is a proverbial expression, which also occurs in the old interlude of Tom Tyler and his Wife: "Alas poor Tom, his cake is dough." Again, in The Case is Alter'd, 1609: 66 Steward, your cake is dough, as well as mine." STEEVENS. It was generally used when any project miscarried. MALONE. Rather when any disappointment was sustained, contrary to every appearance or expectation. Howel, in one of his letters, mentioning the birth of Louis the Fourteenth, says-" The Queen is delivered of a Dauphin, the wonderfullest thing of this kind that any story can parallel, for this is the three-and-twentieth year since she was married, and hath continued childless all this while. So that now Monsieur's cake is dough." REED. KATH. What, in the midst of the street? PET. Why, then let's home again :-Come, sirrah, let's away. KATH. Nay, I will give thee a kiss: now pray thee, love, stay. PET. Is not this well?-Come, my sweet Kate; Better once than never, for never too late. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Room in LUCENTIO'S House. A Banquet set out; Enter BAPTISTA, VINCENTIO, GREMIO, the Pedant, LUCENTIO, BIANCA, PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, HORTENSIO, and Widow. TRANIO, BIONDELLO, GRUMIO, and others, attending. Luc. At last, though long, our jarring notes agree: And time it is, when raging war is done, To smile at 'scapes and perils overblown.- And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow,- 6 - when raging war is DONE,] This is Mr. Rowe's emendation. The old copy has-" when raging war is come," which cannot be right. Perhaps the author wrote-when raging war is calm, formerly spelt calme. So, in Othello: 66 If after every tempest come such calms—.” The word overblown," in the next line, adds some little support to this conjecture. MALONE. Mr. Rowe's conjecture is justified by a passage in Othello : 66 'News, lords! our wars are done." STEEVENS. |