Bian. [Reads.] Gamut I am, the ground of all accord. A re, to plead Hortensio's passion; Call you this-gamut? Tut! I like it not: Old fashions please me best; I am not so nice, To change true rules for odd inventions. Enter a Servant. Serv. Mistress, your father prays you leave your books, And help to dress your sister's chamber up; You know to-morrow is the wedding-day. Bian. Farewell, sweet masters both; I must be [Exeunt BIANCA and Servant. Luc. 'Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay. gone. [Exit. Hor. But I have cause to pry into this pedant; Methinks he looks as though he were in love.Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble, To cast thy wandering eyes on every stale,1 Seize thee that list. If once I find thee ranging, Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing. [Exit. SCENE II. The same. Before Baptista's House. Enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, TRANIO, KATHARINA, BiANCA, LUCENTIO, and Attendants. Bap. Seignior Lucentio, [To TRANIO.] this is the 'pointed day, That Katharine and Petruchio should be married, 1 A stale was a decoy or bait. Stale here may, however, only mean every common object. And yet we hear not of our son-in-law. What says Lucentio to this shame of ours? forced I must, forsooth, be To give my hand, opposed against my heart, Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure. Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behavior; He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage, Tra. Patience, good Katharine, and Baptista too. Kath. 'Would Katharine had never seen him though! [Exit, weeping, followed by BIANCA and others. Bap. Go, girl; I cannot blame thee now to weep; For such an injury would vex a very saint, Much more a shrew of thy impatient humor. Enter BIONDello. Bion. Master, master! news, old news, and such news as you never heard of! 1 Humor, caprice, inconstancy. 2 Them is not in the old copy; it was supplied by Malone: the second folio reads-yes. 3 Old news. These words were added by Rowe, and necessarily, as appears by the reply of Baptista. Old, in the sense of abundant, as, "old turning the key," &c. occurs elsewhere in Shakspeare. Bap. Is it new and old too? How may that be? Bion. Why, is it not news to hear of Petruchio's coming? Bap. Is he come? Bion. Why, no, sir. Bion. He is coming. Bap. When will he be here? Bion. When he stands where I am, and sees you there. Tra. But, say, what.-To thine old news. Bion. Why, Petruchio is coming, in a new hat and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches, thrice turned; a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town armory, with a broken hilt and chapeless; with two broken points.' His horse hipped with an old mothy saddle, the stirrups of no kindred: besides, possessed with the glanders, and like to mose in the chine; troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions, full of windgalls, sped with spavins, raied with the yellows, past cure of the fives, stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots; swayed in the back, and shoulder-shotten; ne'er legged before; and with a half-checked bit, and a head-stall of sheep's leather; which, being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots; one girt six times pieced, and a woman's crupper of velure, which hath two letters for her name, fairly set down in studs, and here and there pieced with packthread. Bap. Who comes with him? 3 Bion. O sir, his lackey, for all the world caparisoned like the horse; with a linen stock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, gartered with a red and 1 Points were tagged laces used in fastening different parts of the dress. 2 i. e. the farcy, called fashions in the west of England. 3 Vives; a distemper in horses, little differing from the strangles. 4 Velvet. blue list; an old hat, and The humor of forty fancies,' pricked in't for a feather: a monster, a very monster in apparel; and not like a Christian footboy, or a gentleman's lackey. Tra. 'Tis some odd humor pricks him to this fashion! Yet oftentimes he goes but mean apparelled. Bap. I am glad he is come, howsoever he comes. Bion. Why, sir, he comes not. Bap. Didst thou not say, he comes? Bion. Who? that Petruchio came? Bap. Ay, that Petruchio came. Bion. No, sir; I say, his horse comes with him on his back. Bap. Why, that's all one. Bion. Nay, by Saint Jamy, I hold you a penny, A horse and a man is more than one, and yet not many. Enter PETRUCHIO and GRumio. Pet. Come, where be these gallants? Who is at home? Bap. You are welcome, sir. And yet I come not well. Not so well apparelled Bap. And yet you halt not. As I wish you were. Pet. Were it better, 1 should rush in thus. But where is Kate? Where is my lovely bride?— As if they saw some wondrous monument, Bap. Why, sir, you know, this is your wedding day. 1 Warburton's supposition, that Shakspeare ridicules some popular, cheap book of this title, by making Petruchio prick it up in his footboy's hat instead of a feather, has been well supported by Steevens; he observes that "a penny book, containing forty short poems, would, properly managed, furnish no unapt plume of feathers for the hat of a humorist's servant." First were we sad, fearing you would not come; Tra. And tell us, what occasion of import Pet. Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear: As you shall well be satisfied withal. But where is Kate? I stay too long from her; To me she's married, not unto my clothes. [Exeunt PET., GRU., and BION. Tra. He hath some meaning in his mad attire. We will persuade him, be it possible, To put on better ere he go to church. Bap. I'll after him, and see the event of this. [Exit. Tra. But, sir, to her love concerneth us to add Her father's liking; which to bring to pass, As I before imparted to your worship, 1 i. e. to deviate from my promise. 2 The old copy reads, " But, sir, love concerneth us to add, Her father's liking." The emendation is Mr. Tyrwhitt's. The nominative case to the verb concerneth is here understood. |