And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she, but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am asham'd, that women are so simple
To offer war, where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,

When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth,
Unapt to toil, and trouble in the world,

But that our soft 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 reason, haply, more,
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown;
But now, I see our lances are but straws;

Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,-
That seeming to be most, which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot;
And place your hands below your husbands' foot:
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,

Kate.

and kiss me,

Luc. Well, go thy ways, old lad; for thou shalt ha 't.

Vin. T is a good hearing, when children are to ward.

Luc. But a harsh hearing, when women are froward. Pet. Come, Kate, we 'll to bed:

We three are married, but you two are sped. "T was I won the wager, though you hit the white; a

[To LUCENTIO. And, being a winner, God give you good night!

[Exeunt PET. and KATHI.

a Hit the white-a term in archery.

L

VOL. II.

Hor. Now go thy ways, thou hast tam'd a curst

shrew.a

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

tam'd so.

[Exeunt.

Shrew. It would appear from this couplet, and another in this scene, where shrew rhymes to woc, that shrow was the old pronunciation.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE,' like A MidsummerNight's Dream,' was first printed in 1600; and it had a further similarity to that play from the circumstance of two editions appearing in the same year-the one bearing the name of a publisher, Thomas Heyes, the other that of a printer, J. Roberts. The play was not reprinted till it appeared in the folio of 1623. In that edition there are a few variations from the quartos. All these editions present the internal evidence of having been printed from correct copies. Venice' is one of the plays of Shakspere mentioned by Francis Meres in 1598, and it is the last mentioned in

his list.

The Merchant of

Stephen Gosson, who, in 1579, was moved to publish a tract called The School of Abuse, containing a pleasant invective against poets, pipers, players, jesters, and such like caterpillars of the commonwealth,' thus describes a play of his time :--"The Jew, shown at the Bull, representing the greedyness of worldly choosers, and the bloody minds of usurers." Whatever might have been the plot of The Jew' mentioned by Gosson, the story of the bond was ready to Shakspere's hand, in a ballad to which Warton first drew attention. He considers that the ballad was written before The Merchant of Venice.' But this ballad of 'Gernutus' wants that remarkable feature of the play, the intervention of Portia to save the life of the Merchant; and this, to our minds, is the strongest confirmation that the ballad preceded the cornedy. Shakspere found that incident