As is the other for beauteous modesty. Pet. Sir, understand you this of me, insooth;- For our access, whose hap shall be to have her, Hor. Sir, you say well, and well you do conceive; And since you do profess to be a suitor, You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman, To whom we all rest generally beholden. Tra. Sir, I shall not be slack; in sign whereof, 4 this feat,] The old copy reads—this scek. The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. Steevens. 5 Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,] Mr. Theobald asks what they were to contrive? and then says, a foolish corruption possesses the place, and so alters it to convive; in which he is followed, as he pretty constantly is, when wrong, by the Oxford editor. But the common reading is right, and the critic was only ignorant of the meaning of it. Contrive does not signify here to project but to spend and wear out. As in this passage of Spenser: "Three ages such as mortal men contrive." Fairy Queen, B. XI, ch. ix. Warburton. The word is used in the same sense of spending or wearing out, in Painter's Palace of Pleasure. Johnson. So, in Damon and Pithias, 1571: "In travelling countries, we three have contrived "Full many a year," &c. Contrive, I suppose, is from contero. So, in the Hecyra of Terence: "Totum hunc contrivi diem." Steevens. 6 ——— as adversaries do in law,] By adversaries in law, I believe, our author means not suitors, but barristers, who, however warm Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. Gru. Bion. O excellent motion! Fellows, let's be gone.7 Hor. The motion 's good indeed, and be it so;→→ Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto. [Exeunt. ACT II.....SCENE I. The same. A Room in Baptista's House. Enter KATHARINA and BIANCA. Bian. Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong your 8 self, & 9 To make a bondmaid and a slave of me: Kath. Of all thy suitors, here I charge thee,1 tell in their opposition to each other in the courts of law, live in greater harmony and friendship in private, than perhaps those of any other of the liberal professions. Their clients seldom "eat and drink with their adversaries as friends." Malone. 7 Fellows, let's begone.] Fellows means fellow-servants. Grumio and Biondello address each other, and also the disguised Lucentio. Malone. 8 nor wrong yourself,] Do not act in a manner unbecoming a woman and a sister. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Master Ford, this wrongs you." Malone. 9 but for these other gawds,] The old copy reads-these other goods. Steevens. This is so trifling and unexpressive a word, that I am satisfied our author wrote gawds, (i. e. toys, trifling ornaments;) a term that he frequently uses and seems fond of. 1 Theobald. I charge thee,] Thee, which was accidentally omitted in the old copy, was supplied by the editor of the second folio. Malone. Which I could fancy more than any other. Kath. Minion, thou liest; Is 't not Hortensio? Bian. Is it for him you do envy me so? Kath. If that be jest, then all the rest was so. Enter BAPTISTA. [Strikes her. Bap. Why, how now, dame! whence grows this insolence? Bianca, stand aside;-poor girl! she weeps:- Kath. Her silence flouts me, and I'll be reveng❜d. [Flies after BIAN. Bap. What, in my sight?-Bianca, get thee in. [Exit BIAN. Kath. Will you not suffer me?4 Nay, now I see, She is your treasure, she must have a husband; I must dance bare-foot on her wedding-day, And, for your love to her, lead apes in hell." 2 to keep you fair.] I wish to read-to keep you fine. But either word may serve. Johnson. 3 - hilding -] The word hilding or hinderling, is a low wretch it is applied to Katharina for the coarseness of her behaviour. Johnson. Will you not suffer me?] The old copy reads-What, will, &c. The compositor probably caught the former word from the preceding line. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone. 5 And, for your love to her, lead apes in hell.] "To lead apes" was in our author's time, as at present, one of the employments of a bear-herd, who often carries about one of those animals along with his bear: but I know not how this phrase came to be applied to old maids. We meet with it again in Much Ado about Nothing: "Therefore (says Beatrice) I will even take six-pence in earnest of the bear-herd, and lead his apes to hell. Malone. Talk not to me; I will go sit and weep, Till I can find occasion of revenge. [Exit KATH. Bap. Was ever gentleman thus griev'd as I? But who comes here? Enter GREMIO, with LUCENTIo in the habit of a mean man; PETRUCHIO, with HORTENSIO as a Musician; and TRANIO, with BIONDELLO bearing a lute and books. Gre. Good-morrow, neighbour Baptista. Bap. Good-morrow, neighbour Gremio: God save you, gentlemen! Pet. And you, good sir! Pray, have you not a daughter Call'd Katharina, fair, and virtuous? Bap. I have a daughter, sir, call'd Katharina. Gre. You are too blunt, go to it orderly. Pet. You wrong me, signior Gremio; give me leave.--I am a gentleman of Verona, sir, That, hearing of her beauty, and her wit, Her affability, and bashful modesty, Her wondrous qualities, and mild behaviour,- woman's Within your house, to make mine eye the witness And, for an entrance to my entertainment, I do present you with a man of mine, [Presenting HOR. To instruct her fully in those sciences, Accept of him, or else you do me wrong; His name is Licio, born in Mantua. Bap. You're welcome, sir; and he, for your good sake: But for my daughter Katharine, this I know, Or else you like not of my company. Bap. Mistake me not, I speak but as I find. Whence are you, sir? what may I call your name? Pet. Petruchio is my name; Antonio's son, That women who refused to bear children, should, after death, be condemned to the care of apes in leading-strings, might have been considered as an act of posthumous retribution. Steevens. A man well known throughout all Italy. Bap. I know him well: you are welcome for his sake. Let us, that are poor petitioners, speak too: Pet. O, pardon me, signior Gremio; I would fain be doing. Gre. I doubt it not, sir; but you will curse your wooing. 7 Neighbour, this is a gift very grateful, I am sure of it. To express the like kindness myself, that have been more kindly beholden to you than any, I freely give unto you this young scholar,' [presenting Luc.] that hath 6 Baccare! you are marvellous forward.] We must read—Baccalare; by which the Italians mean, thou arrogant, presumptuous man? the word is used scornfully upon any one that would assume a port of grandeur. Warburton. The word is neither wrong nor Italian: it was an old proverbial one, used by John Heywood; who hath made, what he pleases to call, Epigrams upon it. Take two of them, such as they are: "Backare, qouth Mortimer to his sow, "Went that sow backe at that bidding, trow you?" "Mortimer's sow speaketh as good Latin as he." Howel takes this from Heywood, in his Old Sawes and Adages: and Philpot introduces it into the proverbs collected by Camden. Farmer. Again, in the ancient Enterlude of The Repentance of Mary Magdalene, 1567: 66 Nay, hoa there, Backare, you must stand apart : "You love me best, I trow, mystresse Mary." Again, in John Lyly's Midas, 1592: "The masculine gender is more worthy than the feminine, and therefore, Licio, Backare." Again, in John Grange's Golden Aphroditis, 1577: "-yet wrested he so his effeminate bande to the seige of backwarde affection, that both trumpe and drumme sounded nothing for their larum, but Baccare, Baccare." Steevens. 7 Neighbour,] The old copy has-neighbours. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. Malone. 8 I doubt it not, sir; but you will curse your wooing. Neighbour, this is a gift-] The old copy gives the passage as follows: I doubt it not, sir. But you will curse Your wooing neighbors: this is a guift. Steevens. This nonsense may be rectified by only pointing it thus: I doubt it not, sir, but you will curse your wooing. Neighbour, this is a gift, &c. addressing himself to Baptista. Warburton. |