Jaq. To see no pastime, I:-what you would have I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave. [Erit. Duke Sen. Proceed, proceed: we will begin these rites, As we do trust they'll end, in true delights. EPILOGUE. sinuate with you in the behalf of a good play!—I am not furnish'd2 like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is, to conjure you: and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O 5 women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as pleases them; and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, (as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hate them) that between you and the women, the play may please, If I were a woman', I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me, complexions that lik'd me, and breaths that I defy'd not: and, I am sure, as many as have good beards, for good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind 15 offer when I make curtsy, bid me farewel. [Exeunt omnes. Ros. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epiJogue: but it is no more unhandsome, than to see 10 the lord the prologue. If it be true, that good wine needs no bush', 'tis true, that a good play needs no epilogue: Yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor can in 'It is even now the custom in some of the midland counties, (particularly Staffordshire) to hang a bush at the door of an ale-house, or, as it is there called, mug-house, 1i. e. dressed. 3 In our author's time, the parts of women were always performed by men or boys. TAMING TAMING OF THE THE SHREW. CHARACTERS IN THE INDUCTION, A Lord, before whom the Play is supposed to be play'd. Hostess. Page, Players, Huntsmen, and other Servants attending on the Lord, PERSONS REPRESENTE D, BAPTISTA, Father to Katharina and Bianca, very| rich. VINCENTIO, an old Gentleman of Pisa. GREMIO, }Pretenders to Bianca. TRANIO, BIONDELLO, Servants to Lucentio, GRUMIO, Servant to Petruchio. PEDANT, an old Fellow set up to personate Vin centio. KATHARINA, the Shrew. BIANCA, her Sister. Widow, Taylor, Haberdasher; with Servants attending on Baptista and Petruchio. SCENE, sometimes in Padua; and sometimes in Petruchio's House in the Country. A pair of stocks, you rogue ! Sly. Y'are a baggage; the Slies are no2 rogues : " Look in the chronicles, we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore paucas pallabris': let the world slide: Sessa! Host. You will not pay for the glasses you 5 burst"? have Sly. No, not a denier: Go by, Jeronimy ;Go to thy cold bed, and warm thee'.. 3 Host. Sly, as an ignorant 1i. e. I'll harass or plague you; or perhaps I'll pheese you, may have a meaning similar to the Meaning, no vagrants, but gentlemen. vulgar phrase of I'll comb your head. fellow, is purposely made to aim at languages out of his knowledge and knock the words out of joint. The Spaniards say, pocas palabras, i. e. few words; as they do likewise, Cessa, i. e. be quiet. Mr. Steevens says, this is a burlesque on Hieronymo, which Theobald speaks of in a following note. * A proverbial expression. i, e. broke, Mr. Theobald's comment on this speech is thus: "The passage has particular humour in it, and must have been very pleasing at that time of day. But I "must clear up a piece of stage history, to make it understood. There is a fustian old play, called Hieronymo; or The Spanish Tragedy: which, I find, was the common butt of raillery to all the "poets in Shakspeare's time: and a passage that appeared very ridiculous in that play, is here hu"mourously alluded to. Hieronymo, thinking himself injured, applies to the king for justice; but "the courtiers, who did not desire his wrongs should be set in a true light, attempt to hinder him "king "from an audience. Hiero, Justice, oh! justice to Hieronimo. Lor, Back-see'st thou not the Host. I know my remedy, I must go fetch the thirdborough'. [Exit) Sly. Third, fourth, or fifth borough, I'll answer him by law: I'll not budge an inch, boy; let him come, and kindly. [Falls asleep. 5 Windhorns. Enter aLord fromhunting with a train. Lord. Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds: Brach Merriman,-the poor cur is imbost ',-- And twice to-day pick'd out the dullest scent: Lord. Thou art a fool: if Eccho were as fleet, But Hun. I will, my lord. Lord. What's here? one dead, or drunk? See, doth he breathe? And with a low submissive reverence, hands? Some one be ready with a costly suit, 1 Hun. My lord, I warrant you, we'll play our As he shall think, by our true diligence, [part, 20 He is no less than what we say he is. Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man.- 1 Hun. Believe me, lord, I think he cannot chuse. Lord. Even as a flattering dream, or worthless Then take him up, and manage well the jest:- 35 40 45 Lord. With all my heart. This fellow I re- Since once he play'd a farmer's eldest son ;-- Sincklo. I think 'twas Soto that your honour means. Lord.'Tisvery true;-thou did'st it excellent.- king is busy? Hiero. Oh, is he so? King. Who is he that interrupts our business? Hiero. "Not I:-Hieronymo, bezvare; go by, go by. So Sly here, not caring to be dunn'd by the Hos"tess, cries to her in effect, Don't be troublesome, don't interrupt me, go by." The thirdbo rough of ancient times was an officer similar to the present constable. 2 Mr. Edwards explains Bruch to signify a hound in general; while Mr. Steevens thinks it to have been a particular sort of hound: and Mr. Tollet observes, that brache originally meant a bitch; and adds, from Ulitius, that "bitches having a superior sagacity of nose; hence, perhaps, any hound with eminent quickness of "scent, whether dog or bitch, was called brache, for the term brache is sometimes applied to males. "Our ancestors hunted much with the large southern hounds, and had in every pack a couple of dogs "peculiarly good and cunning to find game or recover the scent. To this custom Shakspeare seems "to allude, by naming two braches, which, in my opinion, are beagles; and this discriminates brache "from the lym, a blood-hound mentioned together with it, in the tragedy of King Lear.” 3 Imbost is a term in hunting. When a dog is strained with hard running (especially upon hard ground) he will have his knees swelled, and then he is said to be emboss'd; from the French word bosse, signifying a tumour. Meaning, with moderation. There TAMING OF THE SHREW. There is a lord will hear you play to-night: Lord. Go, sirrah, take them to the buttery, Sly. I am Christopher Sly:-call not me-ho- 10 Lord. Heaven cease this idle humour in your Oh, that a mighty man, of such descent, Sly. What, would you make me mad? Am, not I Christopher Sly, old Sly's son of Burtonheath: by birth a pedlar, by education a cardmaker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and now by present profession a tinker? Ask Marian Hacket, 20 the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lying'st knave in Christendom. What, I am not bestraught': Here's 25 Sirrah, go you to Bartholomew my page, SCENE II. A Room in the Lord's House. Ser. Enter Sly, with Attendants, some with apparel, bason and ewer, and other appurtenances. Re-enter Lord. Sly. For God's sake, a pot of small ale. 1 Man. Will't please your lordship drink a cup 2 Man. Will't please your honour taste of these 3 Man. What raiment will your honour wear mourn. i Man. Ob, this it is that makes your lady 30 As beaten hence by your strange lunacy. And twenty caged nightingales do sing: 50 As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe. Adonis, painted by a running brook; 55 And Cytherea all in sedges hid; Which seem to move and wanton with her breath, Lord. We'll shew thee lo, as she was a maid; Perhaps we ought to read, distraught, i. e. distracted. And And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep, 1 Man. And, 'till the tears, that she hath shed Like envious floods, o'er-ran her lovely face, Sly. Am I a lord? and have I such a lady? 2 Man. Will't please your mightiness to wash your hands? [are! Oh, how we joy to see your wit restor'd! nap. But did I never speak of all that time? 1 Man. Oh,yes,my lord; but very idle words:For though you lay here in this goodly chamber, Yet would you say, ye were beaten out of door; And rail upon the hostess of the house; And say you would present her at the leet', Because she brought stone jugs, and no seal'd quarts: [man. My men shall call me-lord, I am your goodLady. My husband and my lord, my lord and husband; I am your wife in all obedience. Sly. I know it well:-What must I call her? Sly. Alce madam, or Joan madam? [ladies. 15 Above some fifteen years and more. 20 25 30 Sometimes you would call out for Cicely Hacket. 35 3 Man. Why, sir, you know no house, nor no 40 Nor no such men, as you have reckon'd up,- Lady. Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me; Madam, undress you, and come now to bed. For your physicians have expressly charg'd, I hope this reason stands for my excuse. bed: Sly. Ay, it stands so, that I may hardly tarry so long. But I would be loth to fall into my dreams again; I will therefore tarry, in despight of the flesh and the blood. Enter a Messenger. Mess. Your honour's players, hearing your Are come to play a pleasant comedy, Therefore, they thought it good you hear a play, Lady. It is a kind of history. Sly. Well, we'll see it: Come, madam wife, sit by my side, and let the world slip; we shall 50 ne'er be younger. Meaning, the Court leet, or courts of the manor. 2 Greece seems here to be no more than a quibble or pun (of which our author was remarkably fond) upon grease; when the expression will only imply that John Naps was a fat Man. Commonty is here probably put for comedy. A C T |