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 you there? Pet. He has a little gauled me, I confefs; And as the jeft did glance away from me, 'Tis ten to one it maimed you two outright.. Bap. Now, in good fadness, fon Petruchio, I think thou haft the verieft fhrew of all. Pet. Well, I fay, no; and therefore for affurance, Let's each one fénd unto his wife, and he Whofe wife is most obedient to come first, When he doth fend for her, fhall win the wager. Hor. Content;-what wager? Luc. Twenty crowns.. Pet.. Twenty crowns! I'll venture fo much on my hawk or hound,. Luc. A hundred then.. Hor. Content. Pet. A match, 'tis done. : Hor. Who fhall begin? Luc. That will I.. Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.. Bion. I go. [Exit. 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? Bion. Sir, my miftrefs fends you word That the is bufy, and cannot come. Pet. How? fhe's bufy and cannot come? is that an answer? Gre. Ay, and a kind one too: Pray Ged, 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 the needs must come. Hor. I am afraid, Sir, do you what you can, Enter BIONDELLO. I Yours will not be intreated: now, where's my wife? 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 Ca tharine! Cath. What is your will, Sir, that you fend for me? Pet. Where is your filter, 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 ftraight [Exit Catharina. Luc. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder. Hor. And fo it is; I wonder what it bodes. Pet. Marry, peace it bodes, and love and quiet life, And awful rule, and right fupremacy: And to be short, what not, that's fweet and happy? Bap. Now fair befal thee, good Petruchio The wager thou haft won; and I will add Enter CATHARINA, BIANCA, and Widow. [She pulls off her cap, and throws it dowm Wid. Lord, let me never have a cause 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 these headstrong women What duty they owe to their Lords and husbands. Wid. Come, come, you're mocking; we will have no telling. Pet. Come on, I fay, and first begin with her. Wid. She fhall not. Pet. I fay, fhe fhall; and firft begin with her.. Cath. Fy! fy! unknit that threatning unkind brow, And dart not fcornful glances from thofe eyes, A woman moved is like a fountain troubled, When they are bound to ferve, love and obey. (26) Then vale your ftomachs, &c.] This doctrine of con In token of which duty, if he please, My hand is ready, may it do him eafe. [me, Kate, Pet. Why, there's a wench: come on and kifs Luc. Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou fhalt ha't. [ward. Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are toLuc. But a harsh hearing, when women are froPet. Come, Kate, we'll to bed; [ward. (27) We three are married, but you two are fped: jugal obedience, that runs through all Catharine's speech, fhews the bufiness of the play to be compleated in her being fo thoroughly reformed. 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 cleared 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 unreafonable 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 ventured at, these inconveniencies are remedied, and the action lyes 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 to dif cover 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 sth act; the main business is wound up, of Catharine approving herfelf 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) fpeak in the middle of an act; that is a matter of no importance. Their short interlocution was never defigned to mark the intervals of the acts. (27) We two are married, but you two are sped.] This is the reading only of the modern copies, I have chose 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 |