Be bride to you, if you make this assurance; If not, to signior Gremio: And so I take my leave, and thank you both. [Exit. To give thee all, and, in his waning age, [Exit. An old Italian fox is not so kind, my boy. Yet I have faced it with a card of ten.7 6 Sirrah, young gamester,] Perhaps alluding to the pretended Lucentio's having before talked of out-vying him. See the last note. Malone. Gamester, in the present instance, has no reference to gaming, and only signifies-a wag, a frolicksome character. So, in King Henry VIII: "You are a merry gamester, my lord Sands." Steevens. 7 Yet I have faced it with a card of ten.] That is, with the highest card, in the old simple games of our ancestors. So that this became a proverbial expression. So, Skelton: "Fyrste pycke a quarrel, and fall out with him then, And, Ben Jonson, in his Sad Shepherd: a hart of ten "I trow he be." i. e. an extraordinary good one. Warburton. A hart of ten has no reference to cards, but is an expression taken from The Laws of the Forest, and relates to the age of the deer. When a hart is past six years old, he is generally called a hart of ten. See Forest Laws, 4to. 1598. Again, in the sixth scene of The Sad Shepherd: 66 - a great large deer! "Rob. What head? "John. Forked. A hart of ten." The former expression is very common. So, in Law-Tricks, &c. 1608: "I may be out-fac'd with a card of ten." Mr. Malone is of opinion that the phrase was "applied to those persons who gained their ends by impudence, and bold confident assertion." As we are on the subject of cards, it may not be amiss to take notice of a common blunder relative to their names. We call the king, queen, and knave, court-cards, whereas they were anciently denominated coats, or coat-cards, from their coats or dresses. So, Ben Jonson, in his New Inn : "When she is pleas'd to trick or trump mankind, Again, in May-day, a comedy, by Chapman, 1611: 'Tis in my head to do my master good: I see no reason, but suppos'd Lucentio Do get their children; but, in this case of "wooing, winning A child shall get a sire, if I fail not of my cunning. [Exit. "She had in her hand the ace of harts and a coat-card. She led the board with her coat; I plaid the varlet, and took up her coat; and meaning to lay my finger on her ace of harts, up started a quite contrary card." Again, in Rowley's When you see me you know me, 1621: "You have been at noddy, I see. 8 "Ay, and the first card comes to my hand is a knave. "Then thou must needs be a knave, for thou art neither queen nor king." Steevens. if I fail not of my cunning.] As this is the conclusion of an act, I suspect that the poet designed a rhyming couplet. Instead of cunning we might read-doing, which is often used by Shakspeare in the sense here wanted, and agrees perfectly well with the beginning of the line-" a child shall get a sire." After this, the former editors add "Sly. Sim, when will the fool come again?* "Sim. Anon, my lord. 1 "Sly. Give us some more drink here; where's the tapster? "Here, Sim, eat some of these things. "Sim. I do, my lord. "Sly. Here, Sim, I drink to thee." These speeches of the presenters, (as they are called) are not in the folio. Mr. Pope, as in some former instances, introduced them from the old spurious play of the same name; and therefore we may easily account for their want of connexion with the present comedy. I have degraded them as usual into the note. By the fool in the original piece, might be meant Sander the servant to Ferando, (who is the Petruchio of Shakspeare) or Ferando himself. It appears, however, from the following passage in the eleventh Book of Thomas Lupton's Notable Things, edit. 1660, that it was the constant office of the fool to preserve the stage from vacancy: "79. When Stage-plays were in use, there was in every place *when will the fool come again?] The character of the fool has not been introduced in this drama, therefore I believe that the word again should be omitted, and that Sly asks, When will the fool come? the fool being the favourite of the vulgar, or, as we now phrase it, of the upper gallery, was naturally expected in every interlude. Johnson. 1 Tut! ACT III.....SCENE I. A Room in Baptista's House. Iavouch Enter LUCENTIO, HORTENSIO, and BIANCA. A Luc. Preposterous ass! that never read so far Hor. Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine. one that was called the Foole; as the Proverb saies, Like a Fool 9 - this is - Probably our author wrote this lady is, which completes the metre, wrangling being used as a trisyllable. Malone. We should read, with Sir T. Hanmer: But wrangling pedant, know this lady is. Ritson. 1 - no breeching scholar -] i. e. no school-boy liable to corporal correction. So, in King Edward the Second, by Marlow, 1598: "Whose looks were as a breeching to a boy." Again, in The Hog has lost his Pearl, 1614: " he went to fetch whips, I think, and, not respecting my honour, he would have breech'd me." I 'll not be tied to hours, nor 'pointed times, Hor. You 'll leave his lecture when I am in tune? i [70 BIAN. Hor. retires. Luc. That will be never;-tune your instrument. Luc. Here, madam:--- Hac ibat Simois; hic est Sigeia tellus; Luc. Hac ibat, as I told you before, Simois, I am Lucentio, hic est, son unto Vincentio of Pisa. Sigeia tellus, disguised thus to get your love; Hic steterat, and that Lucentio that comes a wooing, Priami, is my man Tranio, regia, bearing my port, -celsa senis, that we might beguile the old pantaloon.2 Hor. Madam my instrument's in tune. [Returning. Bian. Let's hear;[Hor. plays. O fy! the treble jars. Luc. Spit in the hole, man, and tune again. Bian. Now let me see if I can construe it: Hac ibat Simois, I know you not; hic est Sigeia tellus, I trust you not;-Hic steterat Priami, take heed he hear us not;regia, presume not; -celsa senis, despair not. Hor. Madam, 'tis now in tune. Luc. All but the base. Hor. The base is right; 'tis the base knave that jars. How fiery and forward our pedant is! Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love: 3 Pedascule, I'll watch you better yet. Again, in Amends for Ladies, 1618: "If I had had a son of fourteen that had served me so, I would have breech'd him." Steevens. 2 - pantaloon.] The old cully in Italian farces. Johnson. 3 Pedascule,] He should have said, Didascale, but thinking this too honourable, he coins the word Pedascule, in imitation of it, from pedant. Warburton. I believe it is no coinage of Shakspeare's, it is more propable that it lay in his way, and he found it. Steevens. Bian. In time I may believe, yet I mistrust. I should be arguing still upon that doubt: Hor. You may go walk, [to Luc.] and give me leave awhile; My lessons make no musick in three parts. And watch withal; for, but I be deceiv'd," [Aside. Hor. Madam, before you touch the instrument, To learn the order of my fingering, Bian. Why, I am past my gamut long ago. A re, to plead Hortensio's passion: B mi, Bianca, take him for thy lord, C faut, that loves with all affection: 4 In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.] This and the seven verses that follow, have in all the editions been stupidly shuffled and misplaced to wrong speakers; so that every word said was glaringly out of character. Theobald. 5 -for, sure, Æacides &c.] This is only said to deceive Hortensio, who is supposed to listen. The pedigree of Ajax, however, is properly made out, and might have been taken from Golding's version of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book XIII: "The highest Jove of all call. "Thus am I Ajax third from Jove." Steevens. 6 Good masters,] Old copy-master. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone. 7 but I be deceiv'd,] But has here the signification of unless. Malone. |