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Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.

Thy husband 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 sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands,
But love, fair looks, and true obedience,
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she's froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord ?—
I am asham'd, that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft 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 your's,
My heart as great, my reason, haply, more
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most, which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband'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 shalt ha't.
Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are toward.
Luc. But a harsh hearing, when women are froward.

3 Then VAIL your stomachs,] i. e. Lower or abate your pride: both literally and figuratively it was constantly employed by our old poets. It is from the Fr. avaler, and perhaps ought to be spelt vale.

Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to bed.

We three are married, but you two are sped.

"Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white';

And, being a winner, God give you good night.

[TO LUCENTIO.

[Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATH.

Hor. Now go thy ways, thou hast tam'd a curst shrew. Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam'd so 3.

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though you hit the WHITE;] To "hit the white" is a phrase from archery, the white being the centre of the target.

5

she will be tam'd so.] The last line in this play affords proof that the folio, 1623, must have been printed after the 4to: in the 4to. it runs,

""Tis a wonder by your leave she will tam'd so."

which being defective, the folio, 1623, amended it as follows:

""Tis a wonder, by your leave, she wil be tam'd so."

For the rhyme's sake, "shrew," in the preceding line, must be pronounced shrow, as indeed it is spelt in all the old editions, and as it was often spelt even when no rhyme was intended. It may be added that in the old "Taming of a Shrew," 1594, 4to, Sly is again brought back by the Lord's servants to the alehouse-door and left there. The tapster, entering, wakes him, and threatens that Sly's wife will "course him" (i. e. pursue and beat him) for lying out all night: he replies that he does not care, for he has had a brave dream, in which he had learned how to tame a shrew. Mr. Singer quotes this termination in a note, but from whence he transcribed it does not appear; if it be compared with the original, reprinted by the Shakespeare Society twelve years ago, it will be found that Mr. Singer commits more errors than there are lines, that he omits and misrepresents important words, and that he leaves out entirely the winding up of the performance. It has been his misfortune to take for his authority some grossly corrupted copy of the conclusion of the old play, which he, perhaps, fancied correct, because he was deceived by the old orthography. Were it at all compatible with our design, we would quote this portion of the Shakespeare Society's reprint of the 4to, 1594 (collated with the 4tos, 1596 and 1607), if only for the purpose of setting the matter right: it is to be lamented that any edition of Shakespeare should be so disfigured. Mr. Singer usually takes as much pains to be accurate as is consistent with the amount of his knowledge of such matters, and perhaps he was not aware that "The Taming of a Shrew," 1594, had been reprinted as long since as 1844.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

"All's Well that Ends Well" was first printed in the folio of 1623, and occupies twenty-five pages, viz. from p. 230 to p. 254 inclusive, in the division of "Comedies." It fills the same space and place in the three later folios.

INTRODUCTION.

THE most interesting question in connexion with "All's Well that Ends Well" is, whether it was originally called "Love's Labour's Won!" If it were, we may be sure that it was written before 1598; because in that year, and under the title of "Love Labours Wonne," it is included by Francis Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, in the list of Shakespeare's plays.

It was the opinion of Coleridge, an opinion which he first delivered in 1811, and again in 1818, though it is not found in his "Literary Remains," that " All's Well that Ends Well," as it has come down to us, was written at two different, and rather distant periods of the poet's life. He pointed out very clearly two distinct styles, not only of thought, but of expression; and Professor Tieck, at a later date, adopted and enforced the same belief. So far we are disposed to agree with Tieck; but when he adds, that some passages in "All's Well that Ends Well," which it is difficult to understand and explain, are relics of the first draught of the play, we do not concur, because they are chiefly to be discovered in that portion of the drama which affords evidence of riper thought, and of a more involved and constrained mode of writing: surely those parts which reminded Tieck, as he states, of "Venus and Adonis," are to be placed among the earlier efforts of Shakespeare. There can be little doubt, however, that Coleridge and Tieck are right in their conclusion, that "All's Well that Ends Well," which was printed for the first time in the folio of 1623, contains indications of the workings of Shakespeare's mind, and specimens of his composition at two separate dates in his career.

It has been a controverted point whether the "Love Labours Won" of Meres were the same piece as "All's Well that Ends Well." The supposition that they were identical was first promulgated by Dr. Farmer, in 1767, in his "Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare." On the other hand, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, in his "Disquisition on the Tempest," 8vo. 1839, has contended that by "Love Labours Won" Meres meant "The Tempest," and that it originally bore "Love Labours Won" as its second title. I do not think that Mr. Hunter, with all his acuteness and learning, has made out his case; and in our Introduction to "The Tempest," some strong reasons will be found for assigning that play to the year 1610, or 1611. Mr. Hunter argues that "The Tempest," even

VOL. II.

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