Pet. What?

Hor. She will not.

Pet. The fouler fortune minę, and there's an end.

SCENE V.

Enter Catharina.

Bap. Now, by my hollidam, here comes Catharine ! Cath. What is your will, Sir, that you fend for me?

Pet. Where is your Sifter, 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 straight.

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 fhort, what not, that's fweet and happy.
Bap. Now fair befal thee, good Petruchio!
The wager thou haft won; and I will add
Unto their loffes twenty thousand crowns,
Another dowry to another Daughter;
For fhe is chang'd, as fhe had never been.
Pet. Nay, I will win my wager better yet,
And show more fign of her obedience,
Her new-built virtue and obedience.

Enter Catharina, Bianca, and widow.

See, where she comes, and brings your froward wives
As prisoners to her womanly perfuafion :
Catharine, that Cap of yours becomes you not;
Off with that bauble, throw it under foot.

[She pulls off her cap, and throws it down.

Wid

Wid. Lord, let me never have a caufe to figh,'Till I be brought to fuch a filly pass.

Bian. Fy, what a foolish duty call you this? Luc. I would, your duty were as foolish too! The wisdom 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 headftrong
Women,

What duty they owe to their Lords and Hufbands. 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 first begin with her.
Cath. Fy! fy! unknit that threatning unkind brow,
And dart not fcornful glances from thofe eyes,
To wound thy Lord, thy King, thy Governor.
It blots thy beauty, as frofts bite the meads;
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds fhake fair buds;
And in no fenfe is meet or amiable.

A Woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-feeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is fo, none fo dry or thirsty
Will dain to fip, or touch one drop of it.
Thy Husband is thy Lord, thy Life, thy Keeper,
Thy Head, thy Sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance: commits his body
To painful labour, both by fea and land;
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
While thou ly'ft warm at home, secure and safe,
And craves no other tribute at thy hands,
But love, fair looks, and true obedience;
Too little payment for fo great a debt.
Such duty as the Subject owes the Prince,
Even fuch a woman oweth to her husband:
And when she's froward, peevish, fullen, fower,
And not obedient to his honeft will;

What

1

What is the but a foul contending Rebel,
And graceless Traitor to her loving Lord?
I am afham'd, that Women are fo fimple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or feek for rule, fupremacy, and fway,

When they are bound to ferve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies foft, and weak and fmooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,

But that our foft 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 reafon haply more,
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown;
But, now I fee, our launces are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weaknefs paft compare;
That feeming to be moft, which we indeed leaft are.
Then vale your ftomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's 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, and kiss me,
Kate.

Luc. Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou fhalt ha't.
Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are toward.
Luc. But a harsh hearing, when women are froward.
Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to bed;

6

We two are married, but you two are sped.
'Twas I won the wager, tho' you hit the white;
And being a winner, God give you good night.

[Exeunt Petruchio and Catharine.

Hor. Now go thy ways, thoù haft tam'd a curft
Shrew.

Though you hit the white,] To hit the white is a phrase bor. rowed from archery: the mark

was commonly white. Here it alludes to the name Bianca or white.

Luc.

Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, fhe will be
tam'd fo.
: [Exeunt omnes.

Enter two fervants bearing Sly in his own apparel, and leaving him on the Stage. Then enter a Tapfter.

Sly awaking,] Sim, give's fome more wine-what, all the Players gone? am not I a Lord?

Tap. A Lord, with a murrain! come, art thou drunk fill?

Sly. Who's this? Tapfter! ob, I have had the bravest dream that ever thou beardft in all thy life.

I

Tap. Yea, marry, but thou hadst beft get thee home, for your wife will curfe you for dreaming here all night. Sly. Will be? I know how to tame a Shrew. dreamt upon it all this night, and thou hast wak'd me out of the best dream that ever I had But I'll to my Wife, and tame her too, if ske anger me

*From this play the Tatler formed a ftory, Vol. IV. N° 131.

T

HERE are very many ill Habits that might with much Eafe have been prevented, which, after we have indulged ourselves in them, become incorrigible. We have a fort of Proverbial Expreffion, of taking a Woman down in her Wedding Shoes, if you would bring her to Reafon. An early Behaviour of this Sort, had a very remarkable good Effect in a Family wherein I was feveral Years an intimate Acquaintance.

A Gentleman in Lincolshire had four Daughters, three of which were early married very happily, but the fourth, though no Way inferior to any of her Sifters, either in Perfon or Accomplishments, had from her InVOL. III.

fancy difcovered fo imperious a Temper (ufually called a high Spirit) that it continually made great Uneafinefs in the Family, became her known Character in the Neighbourhood, and deterred all her Lovers from declaring themselves. However, in Procefs of Time, a Gentleman of a plentiful Fortune and long Acquaintance, having obferved that Quickness of Spirit to be her only Fault, made his Addresses, and obtained her Confent in due Form. The Lawyers finished the Writings (in which, by the Way, there was no Pin-Money) and they were married. After a decent Time spent in the Father's Houfe, the Bridegroom went to prepare hisSeat for her Reception. During the whole Course of his Courtship, though a Man of the moft equal Temper, he had artifiH

cially