SCENE L.-Padua. A public Place.

Enter LUCENTIO and TRANIO.

Luc. Tranio, since for the great desire I had
To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,'
I am arriv'd for fruitful Lombardy,
The pleasant garden of great Italy;2
And, by my father's love and leave, am arm'd
With his good will, and thy good company,
My trusty servant, well approv'd in all;
Here let us breathe, and haply institute
A course of learning, and ingenious studies.
Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,
Gave me my being, and my father first,

A merchant of great traffic through the world,
Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.
Vincentio's son, brought up in Florence,

It shall become, to serve all hopes conceiv'd,
To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds:
And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,
Virtue, and that part of philosophy
Will I apply, that treats of happiness
By virtue 'specially to be achiev'd.
Tell me thy mind: for I have Pisa left,

b

a My. So the folio. The word has been changed by the modern editors to most.

b This passage has been a source of perplexity to the commentators; but it appears to us sufficiently clear: Pisa gave me my being, and also first gave my father being-that father was Vincentio, &c. It shall become Vincentio's son, that he may fulfil the hopes conceived of him, to deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds.

And am to Padua come, as he that leaves
A shallow plash, to plunge him in the deep,
And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.
Tra. Mi perdonate, gentle master mine,
I am in all affected as yourself;
Glad that you thus continue your resolve,
To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
Only, good master, while we do admire
This virtue, and this moral discipline,
Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray ;
Or so devote to Aristotle's checks,"
As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd:

b

Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,
And practise rhetoric in your common talk:
Music and pocsy use to quicken you;
The mathematics, and the metaphysics,

Fall to them, as you find your stomach serves you:

No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en;In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Luc. Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.

a Checks. Sir W. Blackstone proposes to read ethicks. In Ben Jonson's 'Silent Woman' we have "Aristotle's ethicks." Aristotle's "checks" are his ethical principles, as opposed to the excitements of Ovid. (White.)

b Balk. This word of the original has been changed into talk, "corrected by Mr. Rowe." By this correction the meaning of the passage has been destroyed. Tranio draws a distinction between the dry and the agreeable of the liberal sciences. Balk logic-pass over logic-with your acquaintance, but practise rhetoric in your common talk;-use (in the legitimate. sense of resorting to frequently) music and poetry to quicken you, but fall to mathematics and metaphysics as you find your inclination serves.

If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,
We could at once put us in readiness;
And take a lodging, fit to entertain
Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.
But stay awhile: What company is this?

Tra. Master, some show, to welcome us to town.

Enter BAPTISTA, KATHARINA, BIANCA, GREMIO, and HORTENSIO. LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand aside.

Bap. Gentlemen, impórtune me no farther, For how I firmly am resolv'd you know: That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter, Before I have a husband for the elder: If either of you both love Katharina, Because I know you well, and love you well, Leave shall you have to court her at your plea

sure.

Gre. To cart her rather: She's too rough for

me:

There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife ?
Kath. I pray you, sir, [to BAP.] is it your will
To make a stale of me amongst these mates ?a
Hor. Mates, maid! how mean you that? no
mates for you,

Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

Kath. I' faith, sir, you shall never need to fear : I wis, it is not half way to her heart : But, if it were, doubt not her care should be To comb your noddle with a three-legg❜d stool, And paint your face, and use you like a fool. Hor. From all such devils, good Lord, deliver us!

Gre. And me too, good Lord!

Tra. Hush, master! here is some good pastime

toward;

That wench is stark mad, or wonderful froward.
Luc. But in the other's silence do I see
Maids' mild behaviour and sobriety.
Peace, Tranio.

Tra. Well said, master; mum! and gaze your fill.

Bap. Gentlemen, that I may soon make good What I have said, Bianca, get you in: And let it not displease thee, good Bianca; For I will love thee ne'er the less, my girl. Kath. A pretty peat; b 't is best Put finger in the eye-an she knew why.

Bian. Sister, content you in my discontent. Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe : My books and instruments shall be my company; On them to look, and practise by myself.

Luc. Hark, Tranio! thou may'st hear Minerva speak. [Aside. Hor. Signior Baptista, will you be so strange? Sorry am I that our good will effects Bianca's grief.

Gre. Why, will you mew her, Signior Baptista, for this fiend of hell, And make her bear the penance of her tongue? Bap. Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolv❜d: Go in, Bianca. [Exit BIANCA. And, for I know she taketh most delight In music, instruments, and poetry, Schoolmasters will I keep within my house, Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio, Or Signior Gremio, you, know any such, Prefer them hither; for to cunning men I will be very kind, and liberal

a

To mine own children in good bringing-up;
And so farewell. Katharina you may stay;
For I have more to commune with Bianca. [Exit.
Kath. Why, and I trust I may go too. May

I not?

What, shall I be appointed hours; as though, belike,

I knew not what to take, and what to leave! Ha! [Exit.

Gre. You may go to the devil's dam; your gifts are so good here is none will hold you. Their love is not so great, Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly out; our cake's dough on both sides. Farewell:-Yet, for the love I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means light on a fit man to teach her that wherein she delights, I will wish him° to her father.

Hor. So will I, signior Gremio: But a word, I pray. Though the nature of our quarrel yet

Cunning-knowing-learned. Cunning, conning, was originally knowledge, skill; and is so used in our translation of the Bible. Shakspere, in general, uses cunning in the modern sense, as in Lear:

"Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides." But in this play the adjective is used in two other instances in the same way as in the passage before us: (See Act 11. Sc. 1.)

"Cunning in music and the mathematics."
"Cunning in Greek, Latin, and other languages."

b Their love. Mason would read our love; Malone, your love. Their love, it appears to us, refers to the affection between Katharine and her father, who have been jarring throughout the scene. Baptista has resolved that Bianca shall not wed till he has found a husband for his elder daughter. Gremio and Hortensio, who aspire to Bianca, think that there is so little love between the Shrew and her father, that his resolve will change, while they blow their nails together-while they submit to some delay.

c Wish him-commend him.

never brook'd parle, know now, upon advice, it toucheth us both,-that we may yet again have access to our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca's love,-to labour and effect one thing specially.

Gre. What's that, I pray ?

Hor. Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister. Gre. A husband! a devil.

Hor. I say, a husband.

Gre. I say, a devil: Think'st thou, Hortensio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool as to be married to hell?

Hor. Tush, Gremio, though it pass your patience and mine to endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all faults, and money enough.

Gre. I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this condition,-to be whipped at the high-cross every morning.

Hor. 'Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten apples. But, come; since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall be so far forth friendly maintained, till by helping Baptista's eldest daughter to a husband, we set his youngest free for a husband, and then have to 't afresh. -Sweet Bianca!-Happy man be his dole! He that runs fastest gets the ring. How say you, signior Gremio ?

Gre. I am agreed: and 'would I had given him the best horse in Padua to begin his wooing, that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her. Come on.

[Exeunt GREMIO and HORTENSIO.

Tra. [Advancing.] I pray, sir, tell me,-Is it possible

That love should of a sudden take such hold?
Luc. O Tranio, till I found it to be truc,
I never thought it possible, or likely;
But see! while idly I stood looking on,
I found the effect of love in idleness:
And now in plainness do confess to thee,—
That art to me as secret, and as dear,
As Anna to the queen of Carthage was,-
Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
If I achieve not this young modest girl:
Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst;
Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.

Tra. Master, it is no time to chide you now;
Affection is not rated from the heart:
If love have touch'd you," nought remains but

So,

Redime te captum quam queas minimo.

a If love have touch'd you. Monck Mason, one of the most prosaic of the commentators, very gravely refers the

Luc. Gramercies, lad; go forward, this contents;

The rest will comfort, for thy counsel's sound. Tra. Master, you look'd so longly on the

maid,

Perhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all. Luc. O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face, Such as the daughter of Agenor had,

That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,

When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand.3

Tra. Saw you no more? mark'd you not, how her sister

Began to scold; and raise up such a storm, That mortal cars might hardly endure the din?

Luc. Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move, And with her breath she did perfume the air; Sacred, and sweet, was all I saw in her.

Tra. Nay, then, 't is time to stir him from his

trance.

pray, awake, sir: If you love the maid, Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands :

Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd,
That, till the father rids his hands of her,
Master, your love must live a maid at home;
And therefore has he closely mew'd her up,
Because she will not be annoy'd with suitors.

Luc. Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!
But art thou not advis'd, he took some care
To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct
her?

Tra. Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now 'tis plotted.

exquisite word touch'd to the shoulder-clap of the bailiff:"It is a common expression at this day to say, when a bailiff has arrested a man, that he has touched him on the shoulder." One would think it impossible for a reader of Shakspere to forget how favourite a word this is with him, and how beautifully he uses it, as he does a thousand other words, to convey, by a syllable or two, an idea which feebler writers would have elaborated into many lines. Who can

remember

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin," and not smile at Monck Mason with his bailiff!

Keep house, and ply his book; welcome his friends;

Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?

Luc. Basta; content thee; for I have it full. We have not yet been seen in any house; Nor can we be distinguished by our faces, For man or master: then it follows thus ;Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead, Keep house, and port," and servants, as I should: I will some other be; some Florentine, Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa. 'Tis hatch'd, and sball be so :-Tranio, at once Uncase thee; take my colour'd hat and cloak: b When Biondello comes, he waits on thee; But I will charm him first to keep his tongue. Tra. So had you need.

[They exchange habits. In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is, And I am tied to be obedient;

(For so your father charg'd me at our parting; 'Be serviceable to my son,' quoth he, Although, I think, 't was in another sense,) I am content to be Lucentio, Because so well I love Lucentio.

Luc. Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves : And let me be a slave, t' achieve that maid Whose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye.

Enter BIONDELLO.

Here comes the rogue.-Sirrah, where have you been?

Bion. Where have I been? Nay, how now, where are you?

Master, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes? Or you stol❜n his? or both? pray, what's the news?

Luc. Sirrah, come hither; 't is no time to
jest,

And therefore frame your manners to the time.
Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
Puts my apparel and my countenance on,
And I for my escape have put on his;
For in a quarrel, since I came ashore,
I kill'd a man, and fear I was descried.
Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
While I make way from hence to save my life;
You understand me?
Bion.

I, sir? ne'er a whit.

Port-state, show. Thus, in the Merchant of Venice, Act III. Sc. ii.

"And the magnificos of greatest port."

b Colour'd hat and cloak. Fashions have changed. Servants formerly wore clothes of sober hue-black or sadcolour; their masters bore about the hues of the rainbow in their doublets and mantles, and hats and feathers. Such gay vestments were called emphatically coloured.

Tra. So would I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,

That Lucentio indeed had Baptista's youngest daughter.

But, sirrah, not for my sake, but your master's, I advise

You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies :

When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;
But in all places else, your master Lucentio.
Luc. Tranio, let's go :-

One thing more rests, that thyself execute;
To make one among these wooers: If thou ask

me why,

Sufficeth, my reasons are both good and weighty. [Exeunt.

(The Presenters above speak.4)

1 Serv. My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play. Sly. Yes, by saint Anne, do I. A good matter, surely.

Comes there any more of it?

Page. My lord, 't is but begun.

Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady. 'Would 't were done!

[They sit and mark.

SCENE II.-The same. Before Hortensio's House.

Enter PETRUCIO" and GRUMIO.

Pet. Verona, for a while I take my leave, To see my friends in Padua; but, of all, My best beloved and approved friend, Hortensio; and, I trow, this is his house: Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

Gru. Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there any man has rebused your worship? Pet. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly. Gru. Knock you here, sir? why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate, And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.

Gru. My master is grown quarrelsome: I should knock you first,

And then I know after who comes by the worst.

a Petrucio. We have thought it right to spell this name correctly, as Gascoigne did, in his Supposes.' Shakspere most probably wrote the word with the h, that the actors might not blunder in the pronunciation. In the same way Decker wrote Infeliche. After two centuries of illumination, such a precaution as regards the theatre would not be wholly unnecessary; for when the proprietors of one of our great houses piratically seized upon Mr. Milman's beautiful tragedy of Fazio, the author was denied the poor privilege of having the name pronounced correctly.