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Gru. Ay, Sir, they be ready; the oats have eaten

the horses.

:

Cath. Nay, then,

Do what thou canft, I will not go to-day;
No, nor to-morrow, nor till I please myself:
The door is open, Sir, there lies your way,
You may be jogging, while your boots are green;
For me, I'll not go, 'till I pleafe myself:
'Tis like, you'll prove a jolly furly groom,
That take it on you at the first so roundly.
Pet. O Kate, content thee, pry'thee, be not angry.
Cath. I will be angry; what haft thou to do?
Father, be quiet; he fhall ftay my leifure.

Gre. Ay, marry, Sir; now it begins to work.
Cath. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner.
I fee, a woman may be made a fool,

If fhe had not a fpirit to refift.

Pet. They fhall go forward, Kate, at thy command.
Obey the bride, you that attend on, her:
Go to the feaft, revel and domineer;
Carowfe full measure to her maiden-head;
Be mad and merry, or go hang yourselves;
But for my bonny Kate, the muft with me.
Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor ftare, nor fret.
I will be mafter of what is mine own;

She is my goods, my chattels, fhe is my house,
My houfhold-stuff, my field, my barn,

My horfe, my ox, my afs, my any thing;
And here the stands, touch her who ever dare.
I'll bring my action on the proudeft he,
That ftops my way in Padua: Grumio,

Draw forth thy weapon; we're beset with thieves;
Refcue thy miftrefs, if thou be a man:"

Fear not, fweet wench, they fhall not touch thee,

Kate;

I'll buckler thee against a million.

[Exeunt Pet. and Cath.

Gre.

Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones.

Gre. Went they not quickly, I fhould die with laughing.

Tra. Of all mad matches, never was the like.

Luc. Mistress, what's your opinion of your Sifter? Bian. That, being mad herself, she's madly mated. Gre. I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated.

Bap. Neighbours and friends, tho' Bride and Bridegroom want

For to fupply the places at the table;

You know, there wants no junkets at the feast;
Lucentio, you fupply the Bride-groom's place;
And let Bianca take her Sifter's room.

Tra. Shall fweet Bianca practife how to bride it?
Bap. She fhall, Lucentio: Gentlemen, let's go.
[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

IV. SCENE I.

Y,

Petruchio's Country House.

Enter Grumio..

GRUMIO.

FX, fy on all tired jades, and all mad mafters,

and all foul ways! was ever man fo beaten? 3 was ever man fo ray'd? was ever man fo weary? I am fent before, to make a fire; and they are coming after, to warm them now were not 1 a little pot, and foon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I fhould come by a fire to thaw me; but I with blow

I Was ever man fo ray'd?] That is, was ever man fo mark'd with lathes.

ing

ing the fre fhall warm myfelf; for, confidering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold: holla, hoa, Gurtis!

Enter Curtis.

Curt. Who is it that calls fo coldly?

Gru. A piece of ice. If thou doubt it, thou may'ft flide from my fhoulder to my heel, with no greater a run but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis.

Curt. Is my mafter and his wife coming, Grumio? Gru. Oh, ay, Curtis, ay; and therefore fire, fire; caft on no water.

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Curt. Is the fo hot a Shrew, as fhe's reported?

Gru. She was, good Curtis, before this froft; but thou know'ft, winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tam'd my old mafter, and my new miftrefs, and thyfelf, fellow Curtis.

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Curt. Away, you three-inch'd fool; I am no beaft.

Gru. Am I but three inches? why, my horn is a foot, and fo long am I at the leaft. But wilt thou make a fire, or fhall I complain on thee to our mif

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WARBURTON.

4 Gru. -winter tames man, the fense of this alteration. woman, and beaft; for it hath tam'd my old mafter, and my new miftrefs, and my felf, fellow Cur

tis.

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Curt. Away, you three-inch'd fool; I am no beaft.] Why had Grumio called h nr one? to give his refentment any colour. We muft read as, without queftion, Shakespeare wrote,

and THY felf, fellow Curtis. Why Grumio faid that winter had tamed Curtis was for his flowness in fhewing Grumio to a good fire. Befides, all the joke confifts in

5 Away, you three-inch'd fool;] i. e. with a fcull three inches thick, a phrafe taken from the thicker fort of planks.

WARBURTON.

Why thy born is a foot, and fo long am I at leaft.] Tho' all the copies agree in this reading, Mr. Theobald fays, yet he cannot find what horn Curtis bad; therefore he alters it to my born. But the common reading is right, and the meaning is that he had made Curtis a cuckold.

WARBURTON.

trefs,

1

trefs, whofe hand, fhe being now at hand, thou fhalt foon feel to thy cold comfort, for being flow in thy hot office.

Curt. I pr'ythee, good Gremio, tell me, how the world?

goes

Gru. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and therefore, fire: do thy duty, and have thy duty; for my mafter and miftrefs are almoft frozen to death.

Curt. There's fire ready; and therefore, good Grumio, the news.

Gru. Why, Jack boy, ho boy, and as much news as thou wilt..

Curt. Come, you are fo full of conycatching.

Gru. Why therefore, fire: for I have caught extream cold. Where's the cook? is fupper ready, the houfe trimm'd, rushes ftrew'd, cobwebs fwept, the fervingmen in their new fuftian, their white ftockings, and every officer his wedding garment on? be the Jacks fair within, the Jills fair without, carpets laid, and every thing in order?

Curt. All ready: and therefore, I pray thee, what news?

Gru. First, know my horse is tired,, my mafter and miftrefs fall'n out.

Curt. How?

Gru. Out of their faddles into the dirt; and thereby hangs a tale.

Curt. Let's ha't, good Grumio.

Gru. Lend thine ear.

Curt. Here.

Gru. There.

7 Jack boy, &c.] fragment of fome old ballad.] WARB. Be the Jacks fair within, the Jills fair without ?] i. e. Are the drinking veffels clean, and the maid fervants drefs'd? But

[Strikes him.

the Oxford Editor alters it thus, Are the Jacks fair without, the

Jills fair within?

What his conceit is in this, I confefs I know not.

WARBURTON.
Curt.

Curt. This is to feel a tale, not to hear a tale.

Gru. And therefore 'tis call'd a fenfible tale: and this cuff was but to knock at your ear, and befeech liftning. Now I begin imprimis, we came down a foul hill, my mafter riding behind my mistress.

Curt. Both on one horse?
Gru. What's that to thee?
Curt. Why, a horse.

But hadft thou not

Gru. Tell thou the tale. croft me, thou should'st have heard how her horse fell, and the under her horfe: thou fhould't have heard in how miry a place, how fhe was bemoil'd, how he left her with the horfe upon her, how he beat me because her horse stumbled, how fhe waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; how he fwore, how the pray'd that never pray'd before; how I cry'd; how the horses ran away; how her bridle was burft: how I loft my crupper; with many things of worthy memory, which now fhall die in oblivion, and thou return unexperienc'd to thy grave.

Curt. By this reckoning he is more fhrew than the. Gru. Ay, and that you and the proudest of you all fhall find when he comes home. But what talk I of this call forth Nathanael, Jofeph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugarfop, and the reft: let their heads be fleekly comb'd, their blue coats brush'd, and their 9 garters of an indifferent knit; let them curt'fy with their left legs, and not prefume to touch a hair of my master's horse tail, 'till they kifs their hands. Are they all ready?

Curt They are.

Gru. Call them forth.

Curt. Do you hear, ho? you must meet my master to countenance my mistress.

9 Garters of an indifferent knit.] What is the fenfe of this I know not, unless it means,

that their Garters should be fellows; indifferent, or not different, one from the other.

Gru.

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