Pet. Were it better I should rush in thus.

But where is Kate? where is my lovely bride?—

How does my father?-Gentles, methinks you frown; And wherefore gaze this goodly company;

As if they saw some wondrous monument,

Some comet, or unusual prodigy?

Bap. Why, sir, you know, this is your wedding-day:
First were we sad, fearing you would not come;
Now sadder, that you come so unprovided.

Fy! doff this habit, shame to your estate,
An eye-sore to our solemn festival.

"Feran. Good morrow, father: Polidor well met,

"You wonder, I know, that I have staide so long.

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Alfon. Yea, marry sonne: we were almost persuaded "That we should scarce have had our bridegroome heere: "But say, why art thou thus basely attired?

"Feran. Thus richly, father, you should have saide;

"For when my wife and I are married once,

"Shee's such a shrew, if we should once fall out,
"Sheele pull my costly sutes over mine ears,
"And therefore I am thus attir'd a while:
"For many things I tell you 's in my head,
"And none must know thereof but Kate and I;
"For we shall live like lambes and lions sure:
"Nor lambes to lions never were so tame,
"If once they lie within the lions pawes,
"As Kate to me, if we were married once:
"And therefore, come, let 's to church presently.
"Pol. Fie, Ferando! not thus attired: for shame,
"Come to my chamber, and there suite thyselfe,
"Of twenty sutes that I did never weare.

"Feran. Tush, Polidor: I have as many sutes
"Fantastike made to fit my humour so,
"As any in Athens; and as richly wrought
"As was the massie robe that late adorn'd

"The stately legat of the Persian king,

"And this from them I have made choise to weare.

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Alfon. I prethee, Ferando, let me intreat,

"Before thou go'st unto the church with us,
"To put some other sute upon thy backe.
"Feran. Not for the world," &c. Steevens.

Tra. And tell us, what occasion of import Hath all so long detain'd you from your wife, And sent you hither so unlike yourself?

6

Pet. Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear:
Sufficeth, I am come to keep my word,
Though in some part enforced to digress;
Which, at more leisure, I will so excuse
As you shall well be satisfied withal.

But, where is Kate? I stay too long from her;
The morning wears, 'tis time we were at church.
Tra. See not your bride in these unreverent robes;
Go to my chamber, put on clothes of mine.

Pet. Not I, believe me; thus I'll visit her.
Bap. But thus, I trust, you will not marry her.
Pet. Good sooth, even thus; therefore have done with

words;

To me she's married, not unto my clothes:
Could I repair what she will wear in me,
As I can change these poor accoutrements,
'Twere well for Kate, and better for myself.
But what a fool am I, to chat with you,
When I should bid good-morrow to my bride,
And seal the title with a lovely kiss?

[Exeunt PET. GRU. and BION.

Tra. He hath some meaning in his mad attire:

We will persuade him, be it possible,

To put on better ere he go to church.

bap. I'll after him, and see the event of this. [Exit. Tra. But, sir, to her love concerneth us to add

6 — to digress;] To deviate from my promise. Johnson. 7 Tra. But, sir, to her love ] Mr. Theobald reads-our love. Steevens.

Our is an injudicious interpolation. The first folio reads-But, sir, love concerneth us to add, Her father's liking—which, I think, should be thus corrected:

But sir, to her love concerneth us to add
Her father's liking.-

We must suppose, that Lucentio had before informed Tranio in private of his having obtained Bianca's love; and Tranio here resumes the conversation, by observing, that to her love it concerns them to add her father's consent, and then goes on to propose a scheme for obtaining the latter. Tyrwhitt.

The nominative case to the verb concerneth is here understood. A similar license may be found in Coriolanus:

Her father's liking: Which to bring to pass,
As I before imparted to your worship,

I am to get a man,-whate'er he be,

It skills not much; we 'll fit him to our turn,-
And he shall be Vincentio of Pisa;

And make assurance, here in Padua,
Of greater sums than I have promised.
So shall you quietly enjoy your hope,
And marry sweet Bianca with consent.

Luc. Were it not that my fellow schoolmaster
Doth watch Bianca's steps so narrowly,
"Twere good, methinks, to steal our marriage;
Which once perform'd, let all the world say-no,
I'll keep mine own, despite of all the world.
Tra. That by degrees we mean to look into,
And watch our vantage in this business:
We'll over-reach the greybeard, Gremio,
The narrow-prying father, Minola;
The quaint musician, amorous Licio;
All for my master's sake, Lucentio.-

Re-enter GREMIO.

Signior Gremio! came you from the church?
Gre. As willingly as e'er I came from school.9
Tra. And is the bride and bridegroom coming home?
Gre. A bridegroom, say you? 'tis a groom, indeed,
A grumbling groom, and that the girl shall find.

"Remains that in the official marks invested,

"You anon do meet the senate."

Again, in Troilus and Cressida:

"The beauty that is borne here in the face

"The bearer knows not, but commends itself

8 As I before imparted-] I, which was inadvertently omitted in the old copy, was added by the editor of the second folio; but with his usual inaccuracy was inserted in the wrong place.

The second folio reads:

As before I imparted, &c.

Malone.

As this passage is now pointed, where is the inaccuracy of it? or, if there be any, might it not have happened through the carelessness of the compositor? - Steevens.

9 As willingly &c.] This is a proverbial saying. See Ray's Collection.

Steevens.

Tra. Curster than she? why, 'tis impossible.

Gre. Why, he 's a devil, a devil, a very fiend. Tra. Why, she 's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam. Gre. Tut! she's a lamb, a dove, a fool to him. I'll tell you, sir Lucentio; When the priest Should ask-if Katharine should be his wife, Ay, by gogs-wouns, quoth he; and swore so loud, That, all amaz'd, the priest let fall the book: And, as he stoop'd again to take it up,

The mad-brain'd bridegroom took him such a cuff, That down fell priest and book, and book and priest; Now take them up, quoth he, if any list.

Tra. What said the wench, when he arose again? Gre. Trembled and shook; for why, he stamp'd, and

swore,

As if the vicar meant to cozen him.

But after many ceremonies done,

He calls for wine:-A health, quoth he; as if
He had been aboard, carousing to his mates
After a storm:-Quaff'd off the muscadel,1

11

Quaff'd off the muscadel,] It appears from this passage, and the following one in The History of the Two Maids of Moreclacke, a comedy, by Robert Armin, 1609, that it was the custom to drink wine immediately after the marriage ceremony.— Armin's play begins thus:

"Enter a Maid strewing flowers, and a serving-man perfuming the door.

"Maid. strew, strew.

"Man. The muscadine stays for the bride at church. "The priest and Hymen's ceremonies 'tend

"To make them man and wife."

Again, in Decker's Satiromastix, 1602:

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and when we are at church, bring the wine and cakes." In Ben Jonson's Magnetic Lady, the wine drank on this occasion is called a "knitting-cup."

Again, in No Wit like a Woman's, by Middleton:

"Even when my lip touch'd the contracting cup."

There was likewise a flower that borrowed its name from this ceremony:

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Bring sweet carnations, and sops in wine,

"Worne of paramours." Hobbinol's Dittie, &c. by Spenser.

Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady:

"Were the rosemary branches dipp'd, and all
"The hippocras and cakes eat and drunk off;

"Were these two arms encompass'd with the hands
"Of bachelors to lead me to the church," &¤..

And threw the sops all in the sexton's face;
Having no other reason,-

But that his beard grew thin and hungerly,
And seem'd to ask him sops as he was drinking.
This done, he took the bride about the neck;
And kiss'd her lips with such a clamorous smack,
That, at the parting, all the church did echo.2

6

Again, in The Articles ordained by King Henry VII, for the Regulation of his Household: Article" For the Marriage of a Princess."" Then pottes of Ipocrice to bee ready, and to bee putt into the cupps with soppe, and to bee borne to the estates; and to take a soppe and drinke," &c. Steevens.

So, in an old canzonet on a wedding, set to musick by Morley, 1606:

Sops in wine, spice-cakes are a dealing." Farmer. The fashion of introducing a bowl of wine into the church at a wedding, to be drank by the bride and bridegroom and persons present, was very anciently a constant ceremony; and, as appears from this passage, not abolished in our author's age.We find it practised at the magnificent marriage of Queen Mary and Philip, in Winchester Cathedral, 1554: "The trumpetts sounded, and they both returned to their traverses in the quire, and there remayned untill masse was done: at which tyme, wyne and sopes were hallowed and delyvered to them both." Leland's Collect. Append. Vol. IV, p. 400, edit. 1770. T. Warton.

I insert the following quotation merely to show that the custom remained in Shakspeare's time. At the marriage of the Elector Palatine to King James's daughter, the 14th day of February, 1612-13, we are told by one who assisted at the ceremonial: "- In conclusion, a joy pronounced by the king and queen, and seconded with congratulation of the lords there present, which crowned with draughts of Ippocras out of a great golden bowle, as an health to the prosperity of the marriage, began by the prince Palatine and answered by the princess. After which were served up by six or seven barons so many bowles filled with wafers, so much of that work was consummate." Finet's Phi loxenis, 1656, p. 11. Reed.

This custom is of very high antiquity; for it subsisted among our Gothick ancestors:-"Ingressus domum convivalem sponsus cum pronubo suo, sumpto poculo, quod maritale vocant, ac paucis a pronubo de mutato vitæ genere prefatis, in signum constantiæ, virtutis, defensionis et tutelæ propinat sponsæ et simul morgennaticam [dotalitium ob virginitatem] promittit, quod ipsa grato animo recolens, pari ratione et modo, paulo post mutato in uxorium habitum operculo capitis, ingressa, poculum, uti nostrates vocant, uxorium leviter delibans, amorem, fidem, diligentiam, et subjectionem promittit." Stiernhook de Jure Sueonum et Go thorum vetusto, p. 163, quarto, 1672. Malone.