Page. My lord, 'tis but begun.

Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady. 'Would 'twere done!

SCENE II. The same. Before Hortensio's House.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.

Pet. Verona, for a while I take my leave,

To see my friends in Padua; but, of all,
My best beloved and approved friend,

Hortensio; and, I trow, this is his house.

Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

Gru. Knock, sir! Whom should I knock? Is there any man has rebused your worship?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

Gru. Knock you here, sir? Why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir?1

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate,
And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.
Gru. My master is grown quarrelsome. I should
knock you first,

And then I know after who comes by the worst.
Pet. Will it not be?

'Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll wring it;

I'll

try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.

[He wrings GRUMIO by the ears.

Gru. Help, masters, help! My master is mad. Pet. Now, knock when I bid you; sirrah! villain!

Enter HORTENSIO.

Hor. How now? what's the matter?-My old friend Grumio, and my good, friend Petruchio!-How do you all at Verona!

Malone remarks that Grumio's pretensions to wit have a strong resemblance to Dromio's, in The Comedy of Errors; and the two plays were probably written at no great distance of time from each other.

Pet. Seignior Hortensio, come you to part the fray? Con tutto il core bene trovato, may I say.

Hor. Alla nostra casa bene venuto,

Molto honorato, signor mio Petruchio.1

Rise, Grumio, rise; we will compound this quarrel.

Gru. Nay, 'tis no matter what he leges in Latin. -If this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service,-Look you, sir, he bid me knock him, and rap him soundly, sir. Well, was it fit for a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, (for aught I see,) two and thirty, a pip out ?3

Whom, 'would to God, I had well knocked at first;
Then had not Grumio come by the worst.

Pet. A senseless villain!-Good Hortensio,

I bade the rascal knock upon your gate,

And could not get him for my heart to do it.
Gru. Knock at the gate ?-O Heavens!

Spake you not these words plain,-Sirrah, knock me

here,

Rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly?
And come you now with-knocking at the gate?
Pet. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.
Hor. Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge.
Why, this a heavy chance 'twixt him and you;
Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant, Grumio.
And tell me now, sweet friend,-what happy gale
Blows you to Padua here, from old Verona?

Pet. Such wind as scatters young men through the world,

To seek their fortunes farther than at home,

Where small experience grows. But, in a few,
Seignior Hortensio, thus it stands with me.-
Antonio, my father, is deceased ;

4

1 Gascoigne, in his Supposes, has spelled this name correctly Petrucio ; but Shakspeare wrote it as it appears in the text, in order to teach the actors how to pronounce it.

2 i. e. what he alleges in Latin. Grumio mistakes the Italian spoken for Latin.

3 The allusic n is to the old game of Bone-ace, or one-and-thirty. A pip is a spot upon card. The old copy has it peepe.

4 In short, in a few words.

And I have thrust myself into this maze,
Haply to wive, and thrive, as best I may.

Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,
And so am come abroad to see the world.

Hor. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee, And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favored wife? Thou'dst thank me but a little for my counsel; And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich, And very rich.-But thou'rt too much my friend, And I'll not wish thee to her.

Pet. Seignior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we.
Few words suffice; and, therefore, if thou know
One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,

(As wealth is burden of my wooing dance,)
Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,'
As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
As Socrates' Xantippe, or a worse,
She moves me not, or not removes, at least,
Affection's edge in me; were she as rough
As are the swelling Adriatic seas.

I come to wive it wealthily in Padua ;
If wealthily, then happily in Padua.

2

Gru. Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is. Why, give him gold enough, and marry him to a puppet, or an aglet-baby; or an old trot with ne'er a tooth in her head, though she have as many diseases as two-and-fifty horses: why, nothing comes amiss, so money comes withal.

Hor. Petruchio, since we have stepped thus far in, I will continue that I broached in jest.

I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife

With wealth enough, and young, and beauteous;
Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman;
Her only fault (and that is faults enough)

1 This allusion is to a story told by Gower in the first book of his Confessio Amantis. Florent is the name of a knight who bound himself to marry a deformed hag provided she taught him the solution of a riddle on which his life depended.

2 An aglet-baby was a diminutive figure carved on an aglet or jewel. 3 The fifty diseases of a horse seems to be proverbial; of which, prob、 ably the text is only an exaggeration.

Is, that she is intolerably curst,

And shrewd, and froward; so beyond all measure,
That, were my state far worser than it is,

I would not wed her for a mine of gold.

Pet. Hortensio, peace; thou know'st not gold's

effect.

Tell me her father's name, and 'tis enough;
For I will board her, though she chide as loud
As thunder, when the clouds in autumn crack.
Hor. Her father is Baptista Minola,

An affable and courteous gentleman.
Her name is Katharina Minola,

Renowned in Padua for her scolding tongue.

Pet. I know her father, though I know not her; And he knew my deceased father well.

I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her;

And therefore let me be thus bold with you,
To give you over at this first encounter,
Unless you will accompany me thither.

Gru. I pray you, sir, let him go while the humor lasts. O' my word, an she knew him as well as I do, she would think scolding would do little good upon him. She may, perhaps, call him half a score knaves or so why, that's nothing; an he begin once, he'll rail in his rope-tricks.' I'll tell you what, sir,-an she stand him but a little, he will throw a figure in her face, and so disfigure her with it, that she shall have no more eyes to see withal than a cat.3 You know him not, sir.

2

Hor. Tarry, Petruchio; I must go
with thee
For in Baptista's keep my treasure is.
He hath the jewel of my life in hold,
His youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca;

And her withholds from me, and other more

1 i. e. roguish tricks. Ropery is used by Shakspeare in Romeo and A rope-ripe is one for whom the gallows groans, ac

Juliet for roguery.

cording to Cotgrave.

2 Withstand.

3 Mr. Boswell remarks "that nothing is more common in ludicrous or playful discourse than to use a comparison where no resemblance is intended."

Suitors to her, and rivals in my love:
Supposing it a thing impossible,

(For those defects I have before rehearsed,)
That ever Katharina will be wooed;

Therefore this order hath Baptista ta’en ;—-
That none shall have access unto Bianca;
Till Katharine the curst have got a husband.
Gru. Katharine the curst!

A title for a maid, of all titles the worst.

Hor. Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace; And offer me, disguised in sober robes,

To old Baptista as a schoolmaster

Well seen in music to instruct Bianca.

That so I may by this device, at least,

Have leave and leisure to make love to her,

And, unsuspected, court her by herself.

Enter GREMIO; with him LUCENTIO, disguised, with books under his arm.

Gru. Here's no knavery! See, to beguile the old folks, how the young folks lay their heads together! Master, master, look about you. Who goes there? ha! Hor. Peace, Grumio: 'tis the rival of my love.— Petruchio, stand by a while.

Gru. A proper stripling, and an amorous!

[They retire. Gre. O, very well; I have perused the note. Hark you, sir; I'll have them very fairly bound: All books of love, see that at any hand; And see you read no other lectures to her: You understand me.-Over and beside

Seignior Baptista's liberality,

2

I'll mend it with a largess. Take your papers too,
And let me have them very well perfumed;

For she is sweeter than perfume itself,

To whom they go. What will you read to her?
Luc. Whate'er I read to her, I'll plead for you,

1 To be well seen in any art was to be well skilled in it. 60

VOL. II.

2 Rate.