I'll venture fo much on my hawk or hound,
But twenty times fo much upon my Wife.

Luc. A hundred then.

Hor. Content.

Pet. A match, 'tis done.

Hor. Who fhall begin?
Luc. That will I.

Go, Biondello, bid your Mistress come to me.

Bion. I go.

[Exit.

Bap. Son, I'll be your half, Bianca comes.

Luc. I'll have no halves: I'll bear it all myself.

Re-enter Biondello.

How now, what news?

Bion. Sir, my Mistress fends you word

That she is bufy, and cannot come.

Pet. How? The's bufy and cannot come, is that an answer?

Gre. Ay, and a kind one too :

Pray, God, Sir, your wife fend you not a worse.
Pet. I hope better.

Hor. Sirrah, Biondello, go and intreat my wife to come to me forthwith.

[Exit Biondello.' Pet. Oh, ho! intreat her! nay, then she needs mult

come.

Hor. I am afraid, Sir, do you what you can,

Enter Biondello.

Yours will not be intreated: now, where's my wife?
Bion. She fays, you have some goodly jeft in hand;

She will not come: fhe bids you come to her.
Pet. Worfe and worse, she will not come !

Oh vile, intolerable, not to be indur'd:
Sirrah, Grumio, go to your mistress,

Say, I command her to come to me. [Exit Grumio.
Hor. I know her answer,

Pet.

Pet. What?.

Hor. She will not.

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

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 hufbands: 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 prifoners 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. Lord, let me never have a cause 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 thefe 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 firft begin with her.
Wid. She thall not.

Pet. I fay, fhe fhall; and firft 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 Hufband 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 ftorms, the day in cold,
While thou ly'ft warm at home, fecure and fafe,
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 he's froward, peevish, fullen, fower,
And not obedient to his honeft will ;.

What

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 soft, and weak and smooth,
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 ftraws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness paft compare ;
That feeming to be moft, which we indeed least are.
Then vale your ftomachs, for it is no boot,

And place your hands below your hufband'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, thou haft tam'd a curft
Shrew.

Though you bit the white,] To hit the white is a phrafe borrowed 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 drank fill?

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

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

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

THE

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 Shues, 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 Lincolnshire 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 deter red 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 Addrefies, and obtained her Confent in due Form. The Lawyers fmifhed 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 artifi

H

cially