Think you, a little din can daunt mine ears?
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the fea, puff'd up with winds,
Rage like an angry boar, chafed with sweat ?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitched battle heard

Loud 'larums, neighing fteeds, and trumpets' clang

And do you tell me of a woman's tongue;
That gives not half fo great a blow to the ear,"

6 and trumpets' clang ?] Probably the word clang is here ufed adjectively, as in the Paradife Loft, B. XI. v. 834, and not as a verb:

- an island salt and bare,

"The haunt of feals, and orcs, and fea-mews clang." T. WARTON.

I believe Mr. Warton is mistaken. Clang, as a fubftantive, is used in The Noble Gentleman of Beaumont and Fletcher : "I hear the clang of trumpets in this house."

Again, in Tamburlaine, &c. 1590:

hear you the clang

"Of Scythian trumpets?"

Again, in The Cobler's Prophecy, 1594:

"The trumpets clang, and roaring noise of drums." Again, in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607:

"Hath not the clang of harth Armenian troops," &c. Again, in Drant's tranflation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1567: "Fit for a chorus, and as yet the boyftus founde and

fhryll

"Of trumpetes clang the ftalles was not accustomed to

fill."

Laftly, in Turberville's tranflation of Ovid's epiftle from Medea to Jafon :

"Doleful to me than is the trumpet's clang." The Trumpet's clang is certainly the clang of trumpets, and not an epithet bestowed on those inftruments. STEEVENS.

7 -fo great a blow to the ear,] The old copy reads-to hear. STEEVENS.

As will a chefnut in a farmer's fire?
Tufh tufh fear boys with bugs.
GRU.

GRE. Hortenfio, hark!

This gentleman is happily arriv'd,

For he fears none.

[Afide.

My mind prefumes, for his own good, and yours. HOR. I promis'd, we would be contributors, And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe'er.

GRE. And fo we will; provided, that he win her. GRU. I would, I were as fure of a good dinner.

[Afide.

Enter TRANIO, bravely apparell'd; and BION

DELLO.

TRA. Gentlemen, God fave you! If I may be bold,

Tell me, I beseech you, which is the readieft way To the house of fignior Baptifta Minola?

GRE. He that has the two fair daughters-is't [Afide to TRANIO.] he you mean ?9

This aukward phrase could never come from Shakspeare. He wrote, without question :

-fo great a blow to th' ear. The emendation is Sir T. Hanmer's.

So, in King John:

WARBURTON.

MALONE.

"Our ears are cudgell'd; not a word of his

"But buffets better than a fift of France." STEEVENS.

with bugs.] i. e. with bug-bears.

So, in Cymbeline:

"The mortal bugs o' the field." STEEVENS.

9 He that has the two fair daughters: &c.] In the old copy, this fpeech is given to Biondello. STEEVENS.

TRA. Even he. Biondello !

GRE. Hark you, fir; You mean not her to

TRA. Perhaps, him and her, fir; What have you to do?

PET. Not her that chides, fir, at any hand, I pray.

TRA. I love no chiders, fir:-Biondello, let's

away.

Luc. Well begun, Tranio.

HOR. Sir, a word ere you go;~~

Are

[Afide.

you a fuitor to the maid you talk of, yea, or no? TRA. An if I be, fir, is it any offence?

GRE. No; if, without more words, you will get you hence.

TRA. Why, fir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me, as for you?

GRE.

But fo is not the.

TRA. For what reafon, I befeech $

you

It should rather be given to Gremio ; to whom, with the others, Tranio has addreffed himself. The following paffages might be written thus:

Gre. Hark you, fir; you mean not her too.

TYRWHITT.

I think the old copy, both here and in the preceding 1peech is right. Biondello adds to what his master had said, the words→→→ "He that has the two fair daughters," to afcertain more precifely the perfon for whom he had enquired; and then addreffes Tranio: is't he you mean?"

w00.

-You mean not her to] I believe, an abrupt sentence was intended; or perhaps Shakspeare might have written her to Tranio in his answer might mean, that he would woo the father, to obtain his confent, and the daughter for herself. This, however, will not complete the metre. I incline, therefore, to my firft fuppofition. MALONE.

I have followed Mr. Tyrwhitt's regulation. STEEVENS.

GRE. For this reason, if you'll know,

That she's the choice love of fignior Gremio.

HOR. That fhe's the chofen of fignior Hortenfio.

TRA. Softly, my masters! if you be gentlemen,
Do me this right,-hear me with patience.
Baptifta is a noble gentleman,

To whom my father is not all unknown;
And, were his daughter fairer than fhe is,
She may more fuitors have, and me for one.
Fair Leda's daughter had a thousand wooers;
Then well one more may fair Bianca have:
And fo fhe fhall; Lucentio fhall make one,
Though Paris came, in hope to speed alone.

GRE. What! this gentleman will out-talk us all. Luc. Sir, give him head; I know, he'll prove a jade.

PET. Hortenfio, to what end are all thefe words?

HOR. Sir, let me be fo bold as to afk you,

Did

you yet ever fee Baptifta's daughter?

TRA. No, fir; but hear I do, that he hath two; The one as famous for a fcolding tongue,

As is the other for beauteous modefty.

PET. Sir, fir, the firft's for me; let her

go by. GRE. Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules; And let it be more than Alcides' twelve.

PĒT. Sir, understand you this of me, infooth ;The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for, Her father keeps from all accefs of fuitors; And will not promife her to any man, Until the elder fifter first be wed: The younger then is free, and not before.

TRA. If it be fo, fir, that you are the man

Must stead us all, and me among the reft;
An if you break the ice, and do this feat,1-
Achieve the elder, fet the younger free

For our accefs,-whofe hap fhall be to have her,
Will not fo graceless be, to be ingrate.

HOR. Sir, you fay well, and well you do conceive;

And fince you do profess to be a fuitor,

You muft, as we do, gratify this gentleman,
To whom we all reft generally beholden.

TRA. Sir, I fhall not be flack: in fign whereof,
Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,2
And quaff carouses to our mistress' health;
And do as adverfaries do in law,3————

Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

I

this feat,] The old copy reads-this feek. The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS.

2

Pleafe ye we may contrive this afternoon,] Mr. Theobald afks what they were to contrive? and then fays, a foolish corruption poffeffes the place, and fo alters it to convive; in which he is followed, as he pretty conftantly 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 fignify here to project but to spend, and wear out. As in this paffage of Spenfer :

"Three ages fuch as mortal men contrive."
Fairy Queen, B. XI. ch. ix.

WARBURTON. The word is used in the fame fenfe of fpending or wearing out, in Painter's Palace of Pleafure. JOHNSON.

So, in Damon and Pithias, 1571:

"In travelling countries, we three have contrived
"Full many a year," &c.

Contrive, I fuppofe, is from contero. So, in the Hecyra of Terence: "Totum hunc contrivi diem." STEEVENS.

3

as adverfaries do in law,] By adverfaries in law, I believe, our author means not fuitors, but barristers, who, how