ACT IV. SCENE I.

A Hall in Petruchio's Country Houfe.

Enter GRUMIO.

GRU. Fye, fye, on all tired jades! on all mad mafters! and all foul ways! Was ever man fo beaten? was ever man fo rayed ?8 was ever man fo weary? I am fent before to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm them. Now, were not I a little pot, and foon 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, fhall warm myfelf; for, confidering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold. Holla, hoa! Curtis !

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was ever man fo rayed?] That is, was ever man fo mark'd with lafhes. JOHNSON.

It rather means bewrayed, i. e. made dirty. So, Spenser, speaking of a fountain :

"Which fhe increased with her bleeding heart, "And the clean waves with purple gore did ray." Again, in B. III. c. viii. ft. 32 :

"Who whiles the pitieous lady up did rife,

"Ruffled and foully ray'd with filthy foil." TOLLET. So, in Summer's Laft Will and Teftament, 1600: "Let there be a few rushes laid in the place where Backwinter shall tumble, for fear of raying his clothes." STEEVENS.

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a little pot, and foon hot,] This is a proverbial expreffion. It is introduced in The Ifle of Gulls, 1606 :

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-Though I be but a little pot, I fhall be as foon hot, as another." STEEVENS.

Enter CURTIS.

CURT. Who is that, calls fo coldly?

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

CURT. Is my mafter and his wife coming, Grumio ?

GRU. O, ay, Curtis, ay: and therefore fire, fire;

caft on no water.'

CURT. Is the fo hot a fhrew as fhe's reported?

GRU. She was, good Curtis, before this froft: but, thou know'ft, winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old mafter, and my new miftrefs, and myself, fellow Curtis.

-fire, fire; caft on no water.] There is an old popular

catch of three parts in these words:

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"Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth.

"Fire, fire;- -Fire, fire;

"Caft on fome more water."

BLACKSTONE.

winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old mafter, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis, &c.]" Winter, fays Grumio, tames man, woman, and beaft; for it has tamed my old mafter, my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis.-Away, you three-inch fool, replies Curtis, I am no beast." Why, afks Dr. Warburton, `had Grumio called him one? he alters therefore myself to thyself, and all the editors follow him. But there is no neceffity; if Grumio calls himself a leaft, and Curtis, fellow; furely he calls Curtis a beaft likewife. Malvolio takes this fense of the word : "let this fellow be look'd to!-Fellow! not Malvolio, after my degree, but fellow!"

In Ben Jonfon's Cafe is Altered: "What fays my Fellow Onion ?" quoth Chriftophero." All of a houfe," replies Onion, "but not fellows."

In the old play, called The Return from Parnaffus, we have

CURT. Away, you three-inch fool!3 I am no beast. GRU. Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot; and fo long am I, at the leaft. But wilt thou make a fire, or fhall I complain on thee to our miftrefs, whofe hand (fhe being now at hand,) thou fhalt foon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being flow 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

a curious paffage, which shows the opinion of contemporaries concerning the learning of Shakspeare; this ufe of the word fellow brings it to my remembrance. Burbage and Kempe are introduced to teach the university men the art of acting, and are represented (particularly Kempe) as leaden fpouts-very illiterate. "Few of the univerfity (fays Kempe) pen plays well; they smell too much of that writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphofis-why here's our Fellow Shakspeare puts them all down." FARMER.

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The fentence delivered by Grumio, is proverbial: 'Wedding, and ill-wintering, tame both man and beaft." See Ray's Collection. STEEVENS. Away, you three-inch fool!] i. e. with a skull three inches thick; a phrafe taken from the thicker fort of planks.

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WARBURTON.

This contemptuous expreffion alludes to Grumio's diminutive fize. He has already mentioned it himself: "Now, were not I a little pot-." His answer likewife: "-and fo long am I, at the least," shows that this is the meaning, and that Dr. Warburton was miftaken in fuppofing that these words allude to the thickness of Grumio's kull. MALONE.

why, thy horn is a foot; and fo long am I, at the leaft.] Though all the copies agree in this reading, Mr. Theobald fays, yet he cannot find what horn Curtis had; therefore he alters it to my horn. But the common reading is right, and the meaning is, that he had made Curtis a cuckold.

thy duty; for my mafter and miftrefs are almost frozen to death.

CURT. There's fire ready; And therefore, good Grumio, the news?

GRU. Why, Jack boy! ho boy !5 and as much news as thou wilt.6

CURT. Come, you are fo full of conycatching :

GRU. Why therefore, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. Where's the cook? is fupper ready, the house trimmed, rushes ftrewed, cobwebs fwept ; the ferving-men in their new fuftian, their white ftockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on? Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets laid, and every thing in order?

5 Jack boy! ho boy !] Is the beginning of an old round in three parts:

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ま

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SIR J. HAWKINS.

as thou wilt.] Old copy-wilt thou. Corrected by

the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

7 their white stockings,] The old copy reads-the white. -Corrected by the editor of the third folio. MALONE.

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Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without,] i. c. are the drinking veffels clean, and the maid fervants dreffed?

CURT. All ready; And therefore, I pray thee, news?

GRU. First, know, my horfe is tired; my mafter and mistress fallen out.

CURT. HOW?

GRU. Out of their faddles into the dirt; And thereby hangs a tale.

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

GRU. Lend thine ear.

But the Oxford editor alters it thus:

Are the Jacks fair without, and the Jills fair within? What his conceit is in this, I confess I know not.

WARBURTON.

Sir T. Hanmer's meaning feems to be this: "Are the men who are waiting without the house to receive my master, dressed; and the maids, who are waiting within, dreffed too?"

I believe the poet meant to play upon the words Jack and Jill, which fignify two drinking measures, as well as men and maid fervants. The diftinction made in the queftions concerning them, was owing to this: The Jacks being of leather, could not be made to appear beautiful on the outfide, 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 infide, like the leather.

The quibble on the former of these words I find in The Atheist's Tragedy, by C. Tourner, 1611:

"

have you drunk yourselves mad?

"1. Ser. My lord, the Jacks abus'd me.

“D'Am. I think they are Jacks indeed that have abus'd

thee."

Again, in The Puritan, 1607 : "I owe money to several hofteffes, and you know fuch jills will quickly be upon a man's jack." In this last inftance, the allufion to drinking measures is evident. STEEVENS.

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the carpets laid,] In our author's time it was cuftomary to cover tables with carpets. Floors, as appears from the prefent paffage and others, were ftrewed with rushes. MALONE.

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I pray thee, news?] I believe the author wrote-I