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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.'
I, seeing this, came thence for very shame;
And after me, I know, the rout is coming:
Such a mad marriage never was before;
Hark, hark! I hear the minstrels play.

[Music.

Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, BAPTISTA, HORTensio, GrumiO, and Train.

Pet. Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for
your pains.
I know, you think to dine with me to-day,
And have prepar'd great store of wedding cheer;
But so it is, my haste doth call me hence,
And therefore here I mean to take my leave.
Bap. Is't possible, you will away to-night?
Pet. I must away to-day, before night come
Make it no wonder; if you knew my business,
You would entreat me rather go than stay.
And, honest company, I thank you all,
That have beheld me give away myself
To this most patient, sweet, and virtuous wife :
Dine with my father, drink a health to me;
For I must hence, and farewell to you all.

Tra. Let us entreat you stay till after dinner.
Pet. It may not be.

Gre. Let me entreat you. -
Pet. It cannot be.

Kath. Let me entreat

Pet. I am content.

you.

Kath. Are you content to stay?

Pet. I am content you shall entreat me stay ; But yet not stay, entreat me how you can.

Kath. Now, if you love me, stay.

Pet. Grumio, my horses.

Gru. Ay, sir, they be ready; the oats have eaten the horses.2

Kath. Nay, then,

Do what thou canst, I will not go to-day;

It appears that this was also part of the marriage ceremonial. STEEVENS: There is still a ludicrous expression used when horses have staid so long in a place as to have eaten more than they are worth-viz. that their heads are too big for the stable-door. STEEVENS.

19

VOL. III

N

No, nor to-morrow, nor till I please myself.
The door is open, sir, there lies your way,
You may be jogging, whiles your boots are green ;
For me, I'll not be gone, till I please myself:-
'Tis like, you'll prove a jolly surly groom,
That take it on you at the first so roundly.

Pet. O, Kate, content thee; pr'ythee, be not angry.
Kath. I will be angry; What hast thou to do?
-Father, be quiet; he shall stay my leisure.
Gre. Ay, marry, sir: now it begins to work.
Kath. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner :-
I see, a woman may be made a fool,

If she had not a spirit to resist.

Pet. They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command:
-Obey the bride, you that attend on her:
Go to the feast, revel and domineer,
Carouse full measure to her maidenhead,
Be mad and merry,—or go hang yourselves ;
But for my bonny Kate, she must with me.
Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret;
I will be master of what is mine own:

She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,
My household-stuff, my field, my barn,

My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing;
And here she stands, touch her whoever dare;
I'll bring my action on the proudest he
That stops my way in Padua.-Grumio,

Draw forth thy weapon; we're beset with thieves ;
Rescue thy mistress, if thou be a man :-

Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch thee, Kate ;
I'll buckler thee against a million. [Ex. PET. KATH. & GRU.
Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones,
Gre. Went they not quickly, I should die with laughing.
Tra. Of all mad matches, never was the like!
Luc. Mistress, what's your opinion of your sister?
Bian. That, being mad herself, she's madly mated.

Gre. I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated.

Bap. Neighbours and friends, though bride and bridegroom wants

For to supply the places at the table,

You know, there wants no junkets at the feast ;-
Lucentio, you shall supply the bridegroom's place;

[4] Alluding to the tenth commandment: "-thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, nor his ox, nor his ass."

RITSON.

And let Bianca take her sister's room.

Tra. Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it?
Bap. She shall, Lucentio.-Come, gentlemen, let's go.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.-A Hall in PETRUCHIO's Country House. Enter GRUMIO. Grumio.

FYE, fye, on all tired jades! on all mad masters! and all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? was ever man so rayed? was ever man so weary? I am sent before to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm them. Now, were not I a little pot, and soon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I should come by a fire to thaw me:-But, I, with blowing the fire, shall warm myself; for, considering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold.-Holla, hoa! Curtis !

Enter CURTIS.

Curt. Who is that, calls so coldly?

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

Curt. Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio? Gru. O, ay, Curtis, ay and therefore fire, fire; cast on no water.

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before this frost : but, woman, and beast; for

Curt. Is she so hot a shrew as she's reported? Gru. She was, good Curtis, thou know'st, winter tames man, it hath tamed my old master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis.

Curt. Away, you three-inch fool! I am no beast.

Gru. Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot;

[5] That is, was ever man so marked with lashes. JOHNSON.

It rather means bewrayed, i. e. made dirty. So Spenser, speaking of a fountain, "Which she increased with her bleeding heart,

And the clean waves with purple gore did ray.'

Again, in book III. cant. 8. st. 32.

"Who whiles the piteous lady up did rise,

Ruffled and foully ray'd with filthy soil." TOLLET.

[6] i. e. with a skull three inches thick, a phrase taken from the thicker sört of planks. WARBURTON.

and so long am I, at the least. But wilt thou make a fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand (she being now at hand,) thou shalt soon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot office.

Curt. I pr'ythee, good Grumio, tell me, How goes the world?

Gru. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine ; and, therefore, fire: Do thy duty, and have thy duty; for my master and mistress are almost 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 so full of conycatching;

Gru. Why, therefore, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. Where's the cook? is supper ready, the house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs swept; the serving-men in their new fustian, their white stockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on? Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets laid, and every thing in order?

8

Curt. All ready; and therefore, I pray thee, news? Gru. First, know, my horse is tired; my master and mistress fallen out.

Curt. How?

Gru. Out of their saddles into the dirt; And thereby hangs a tale.

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

Gru. Lend thine ear.

Curt. Here.

Gru. There.

[Striking him.

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

Gru. And therefore 'tis called, a sensible tale: and this cuff was but to knock at your ear, and beseech listening. Now I begin: Imprimis, we came down a foul hill, my master riding behind my mistress :

Fragment of some old ballad. WARBURTON.

I believe the poet meant to play upon the words Jack and Jill, which sigrify two drinking measures, as well as men and maid-servants. The distinction made in the questions concerning them, was owing to this. The Jacks being of leather, could not be made to appear beautiful on the outside, but were very apt to contract foulness within; whereas the Jills, being of metal, were expected to be kept bright externally, and were not liable to dirt on the inside like the leather. STEEVENS.

[9] In our author's time it was customary to cover tables with carpets. Floors, as appears from the present passage and others, were strewed with rushes.

MALONE.

Curt. Both on one horse?

Gru. What's that to thee?

Curt. Why, a horse.

Gru. Tell thou the tale :-But hadst thou not crossed me, thou should'st have heard how her horse fell, and she under her horse; thou should'st have heard, in how miry a place how she was bemoiled; how he left her with the horse upon her; how he beat me because her horse stumbled; how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; how he swore; how she prayed-that never prayed before; how I cried; how the horses ran away; how her bridle was burst; how I lost my crupper ;--with many things of worthy memory; which now shall die in oblivion, and thou return unexperienced to thy grave.

Curt. By this reckoning, he is more shrew than she. Gru. Ay; and that, thou and the proudest of you all shall find, when he comes home. But what talk I of this?-call forth Nathaniel, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugarsop, and the rest; let their heads be sleekly combed, their blue coats brushed, and their garters of an indifferent knit : let them curtesy with their left legs; and not presume to touch a hair of my master's horse-tail, till they kiss 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.

Gru. Why, she hath a face of her own.

Curt. Who knows not that?

Gru. Thou, it seems; that callest for company to countenance her.

Curt. I call them forth to credit her.

Gru. Why, she comes to borrow nothing of them..
Enter several Servants.

Nath. Welcome home, Grumio.

Phil. How now, Grumio ?

Jos. What, Grumio!

Nich. Fellow Grumio!

Nath. How now, old lad?

Gru. Welcome, you;-how now, you;-what, you; -fellow, you;-and thus much for greeting. Now, my spruce companions, is all ready, and all things neat?

Nath. All things are ready: How near is our master?

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