'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white; [To LUCENTIO. And, being a winner, God give you good night! [Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA Hor. Now go thy ways, thou hast tam'd a curst

shrew.

Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be

tam'd so.

[Exeunt

NOTES ON THE TAMING OF THE

SHREW.

p. 393.

INDUCTION.

SCENE I.

"I'll pheese you": - It is hardly necessary to remark that 'pheese' means worry.' The etymology of the word is very doubtful. Sly means to tell the Hostess that he will pay her off." He uses the same word in the old play.

"Therefore, paucas pallabris The Spanish pocas

:

palabras, of which Sly uses a corruption common in Shakespeare's day, means few words.' Sessa is the Italian cessa= be quiet, pronounced like an English word. Italian, French, and Spanish phrases were affected, and by uneducated people, far more two hundred and fifty years ago than they are now.

66

·-

the glasses you have burst" 6 Of old burst' and 'broke' were synonymes. In Act IV. Sc. 1, Grumio says, "how her bridle was burst;" and in Henry IV. Part II., Act III. Sc. 2, Falstaff says of Justice Shallow, that John of Gaunt " burst his head for crowding among the marshal's men.'

"Go by, St. Jeronimy :-'Go by' was a contemptuous phrase; and "go by Jeronimo" occurs in Kyd's play, called Hieronimo, or The Spanish Tragedy, which was much ridiculed by the author's contemporaries.

66

I must go fetch the thirdborough":— The original has "headborough." But Sly's reply leaves no room for doubt that this is a misprint for thirdborough.'

66

(Brach Merriman, the poor cur, is emboss'd)” :Brach' is said in The Gentleman's Recreation, 1716, to be" a mannerly name for all hound bitches," but Merriman, the hound in question, was plainly not of that sex. which, in the canine species, is, from some unaccountable

p. 395.

p. 396.

prejudice, unnamable to ears polite. Warton pointed out that Sir Thomas More, in his Comfort against Tribulation, Book III. Ch. 24, says, "And I am so cunning that I cannot tell, whether among them a bitche be a bitche or no; but as I remember she is no bitche but a brache." Shakespeare uses the word in King Lear, Act III. Sc. 6, as the name of a peculiar species of dog, "hound, or spaniel, brach or lym;" and so do other writers precedent and contemporary. Thus its meaning is somewhat doubtful, though the evidence preponderates in favor of the propriety of the latter use of the word. Hitherto the interjectional nature of this line has not been made apparent, even if it were appreciated by any editor; and consequently some obscurity has been found in it, to remove which changes in the text have been proposed. Ritson suggested" Bathe Merriman," &c.; and Mr. Singer reads "Trash Merriman," &c., i. e., 'keep back Merriman,' - a reading altogether inadmissible, if for no other reason, because the chase was over, and the directions refer to the then time present. Embossed' was a hunting term, applied to any animal worried and panting with the chase. Thus, "The shaft sheath'd in his side Desire, wave pointed with a flame that heats the blood; at last imbost with rage, the poor o'er hounded wretch (far from the comforts of a cooling stream) with stag-like tears, he falls." Letter from John Harrington to his Sister, dated 1647. Nuga Antiquæ, Vol. II. p. 93. The word, as Skinner says, is from the Italian ambastia, which means a difficulty of breathing_arising from excessive fatigue. Ritson understands embossed' here as "swelled in the knees," and as being the same word which is used in the expression "embossed sores and headed evils," As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7, and in Prince Hal's phrase, "emboss'd rascal," which he applies to Falstaff, Henry IV. Part I., Act III. Sc. 3. This word is from boss' = a round protuberance.

6

"And when he says he is, say that he dreams": That is, plainly, and when, on your telling him that he hath been crazy, he says that he is, say that he dreams.' This is the punctuation of the original; and yet all modern editions hitherto, for the last hundred and fifty years, have read either And when he says he is say that he dreams,' (the editors supposing an awkward and obscure ellipsis for when he says he is so and so,') or "when he says he's poor," as Pope gave the passage. In the event Sly actually is in doubt whether he is crazy or dreaming. players that offer service," &c. :- - It was the custom of the time just preceding, and even during, that

66

when Shakespeare wrote, for actors to travel from place to place and offer their services to noblemen or persons in authority.

p. 396. "1 Play. I think 'twas Soto," &c.: 66 In the original this speech has the prefix Sincklo. Sincklo was an inferior actor in Shakespeare's company: - an evidence this that the folio was printed from a stage copy. Sincklo's name appears again in Henry IV. Part II. and Henry VI. Part III. It is not certainly known what play is referred to here. Theobald suggested Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman Pleased, in which there is a Soto; and although, as Tyrwhitt pointed out, he does not woo a, gentlewoman, yet as he is a farmer's eldest son, it seems more than probable that Theobald was right.

p. 398.

p. 399.

"

p. 400.

P. 401.

SCENE II.

"SLY is discovered," &c.: -The stage direction in the original is, "Enter aloft the drunkard," &c. In our old theatres in England there was a small balcony at the back of the stage, which made shift to represent towers and battlements and all high places upon which the personages of the play were supposed to appear. In it also the characters sat who were the audience of a play within a play.

66— a pot of small ale":— Small ale was used of old, and is now used by poor people in England, in the place of soda water, as a corrective after over indulgence in alcoholic liquors. Sly makes the same demand in the old play.

66

the fat alewife of Wincot”: — "Wincot," after the clipping English fashion, was the common pronunciation of Wilmecote, a village near Stratford-on-Avon, where Shakespeare's grandfather, Robert Arden, lived. "I am not bestraught” : — i. e., distracted, crazy. "O, this it is": - On the second occurrence of these words in the folio, they are transposed, accidentally, without a doubt.

66

that one shall swear she bleeds": - It has been noticed before in these Notes, but it must constantly be remembered, that the distinction now existing between shall' and 'will' was not known in Shakespeare's day. This is merely a corruption of the oath, common of old, "by my faith." Hamlet uses it. Act II. Sc. 2.

66

by my fay":

present her at the Leet":-A Court Leet was anciently a petty tribunal which had manorial jurisdic

p. 401.

p. 402.

tion, and in which the Steward presided. Sealed quarts were measures, the correctness of which was attested by an official stamp.

66

-The folio has

· Old John Naps o' th' Green": "of Greece;' but asof Greece' seems utterly senseless here, and 'o' th' Green' was of old a common to-name, there seems to be no reason why the latter reading, which is an anonymous conjectural emendation, should not be adopted. Steevens would have justified the old text on the ground that "a hart of Greece was a fat hart"!

"Is it not a comonty

This is the Tinker's blunder for comedy.' In the old play one of the Servants uses the corruption commodotie.'

ACT FIRST.

p. 403.

p. 404.

SCENE I.

"Padua, nursery of arts' The famous University of Padua was in the height of its glory in Shakespeare's day. It numbered its students almost by tens of thousands; and among its alumni were Petrarch, Galileo, and Christoval Colon, whom we call Columbus. In the next line for' is used as 'from.'

learning and ingenious studies": So the original. As ingenious' and 'ingenuous' were rarely distinguished in our old orthography, the latter may be the word intended by the author.

"Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii": -The original has “ Vincentios, come," &c. This is plainly a misprint, the possessive form having been caught from the same word immediately below. But Mr. Collier retains Vicentio's,' which he considers a contraction of Vincentio is,' though he confesses that the reading is "rather ob

scure.

66

""

to Aristotle's checks :- - This is the reading of the original, -'checks' meaning the restraints of Aristotle's moral precepts. Blackstone suggested 'ethicks,' which was also found in Mr. Collier's folio of 1632. It is noteworthy that the old play commences thus:

"Welcome to Athens my beloved friend,

To Platoe's schoole and Aristotle's walks." This has given rise to the not unplausible conjecture that we should read, "to Aristotle's walks."

"Balk logic," &c.:

To balk' is to puzzle, to deal in cross purposes. Boswell quoted in illustration,