And he whose wife is most obedient Luc. Pet. Twenty crowns! Twenty crowns. I'll venture so much on my hawk, or hound, [Exit. Luc. Biondello, bid your mistress come to me. Bap. Son, I will be your half, Bianca comes. Re-enter BIOndello. How now! what news? Bion. Sir, my mistress sends That she is busy, and she cannot come. Pet. How! she is busy, and she cannot come ! Is that an answer? Gre. Ay, and a kind one too. Pet. I hope, better. Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse. Hor. Sirrah, Biondello, go, and entreat my wife To come to me forthwith. Pet. [Exit BIONDELLO. I am afraid, sir, Nay, then she must needs come. Hor. Do what you can, yours will not be entreated. Re-enter BIONdello. Now where's my wife? Bion. She says, you have some goodly jest in hand; She will not come; she bids you come to her. Pet. Worse and worse; she will not come! O vile, Intolerable, not to be endured! Sirrah, Grumio, go to your mistress; Say, I command her come to me. Pet. Hor. [Exit GRUMIO. What? She will not. Pet. The fouler fortune mine, and there an end. Enter KATHARINA. Bap. Now, by my holidame, here comes Katharina! Kath. What is your will, sir, that you send for me? Pet. Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife? Kath. They sit conferring by the parlor fire. Pet. Go fetch them hither; if they deny to come, Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands. Away, I say, and bring them hither straight. [Exit KATHARINA. Luc. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder. Hor. And so it is; I wonder what it bodes. Pet. Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life An awful rule, and right supremacy; And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy. For she is changed, as she had never been. Re-enter KATHARINA, with BIANCA and Widow. See, where she comes; and brings your froward wives [KATHARINA pulls off her cap, and throws Wid. Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh, Hath cost me a hundred crowns since supper-time. women What duty they do owe their lords and husbands. Pet. Come on, I say; and first begin with her. Pet. I say, she shall;-and first begin with her. Kath. Fie, fie! unknit that threatening, unkind brow; And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, A woman moved, is like a fountain troubled, What is she, but a foul, contending rebel, When they are bound to serve, love, and obey. But that our soft conditions1 and our hearts 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; 2 And place your hands below your husband's foot. 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 shalt 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. We three are married, but you two are sped.3 'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white; * [TO LUCENTIO. And, being a winner, God give you good night! [Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATH. 1 That is, the gentle qualities of our minds. 2 "Vail your stomachs," abate your pride, your spirit; it is no boot, i. e. it is profitless, it is no advantage. 3 i. e. the fate of you both is decided; for you both have wives who exhibit early proofs of disobedience. 4 The white was the central part of the mark or butt in archery. Here is also a play upon the name of Bianca, which is white in Italian. VOL. II. 68 Hor. Now go thy ways; thou hast tamed a curst shrew. Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so. 1 The old play continues thus:- [Exeunt.1 "Then enter two, bearing Slie in his own apparel againe, and leaves him where they found him, and then goes out: then enters the Tapster. Tapster. Now that the darksome night is overpast, And dawning day appeares in christall skie, Now must I haste abroade: but softe! who's this? What, Slie? O wondrous! hath he laine heere all night! Ile wake him: I thinke he's starved by this, But that his belly was so stufft with ale: What now, Slie? awake for shame. Slie. [Awaking.] Sim, give's more wine.—What, all the players gone? -Am I not a lord? Tap. A lord, with a murrain!-Come, art thou drunk still? Slie. Who's this? Tapster!-Oh, I have had the bravest dream that ever thou heard'st in all thy life. Tap. Yea, marry, but thou hadst best get thee home, for your wife will curse you for dreaming here all night. Slie. Will she? I know how to tame a shrew. I 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 she anger me." Or this play the two plots are so well united that they can hardly be called two, without injury to the art with which they are interwoven. The attention is entertained with all the variety of a double plot, yet is not distracted by unconnected incidents. The part between Katharina and Petruchio is eminently sprightly and diverting. At the marriage of Bianca, the arrival of the real father, perhaps, produces more perplexity than pleasure. The whole play is very popular and diverting. JOHNSON. END OF VOL. II. 1203-s. |