KATH. I pray you, fir, [To BAP.] is it your will To make a ftale of me amongst these mates?

HOR. Mates, maid! how mean you that? no mates for you,

Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

KATH. I'faith, fir, you shall never need to fear; I wis, it is not half way to her heart :

But, if it were, doubt not her care fhould be
To comb your noddle with a three-legg'd stool,
And paint your face, and ufe you like a fool.

HOR. From all fuch devils, good Lord, deliver us!

GRE. And me too, good Lord!

TRA. Hufh, mafter! here is fome good paftime toward;

That wench is stark mad, or wonderful froward.

Luc. But in the other's filence I do fee

Maids' mild behaviour and fobriety.

Peace, Tranio.

TRA. Well faid, master; mum! and gaze your fill.

BAP. Gentlemen, that I may foon make good What I have faid,-Bianca, get you in: And let it not difpleafe thee, good Bianca; For I will love thee ne'er the lefs, my girl. KATH. A pretty peat ! 'tis best

Put finger in the eye, an fhe knew why.

A pretty peat!] Peat or pet is a word of endearment from petit, little, as if it meant pretty little thing. JOHNSON.

This word is used in the old play of King Leir, (not Shak fpeare's :)

"Gon. I marvel, Ragan, how you can endure

"To fee that proud, pert peat, our youngest fifter," &c.

difcontent.

BIAN. Sifter, content you in my Sir, to your pleasure humbly I fubfcribe: My books, and inftruments, fhall be my company; On them to look, and practife by myself.

speak.

Luc. Hark, Tranio! thou may'st hear Minerva [Afide. HOR. Signior Baptifta, will you be so strange?? Sorry am I, that our good will effects

Bianca's grief.

GRE.

Why, will you mew her up,

Signior Baptifta, for this fiend of hell,

And make her bear the penance of her tongue?

BAP. Gentlemen, content ye; I am refolv'd:Go in, Bianca. [Exit BIANCA, And for I know, fhe taketh moft delight In mufick, inftruments, and poetry, Schoolmafters will I keep within my house, Fit to inftruct her youth.-If you, Hortenfio, Or fignior Gremio, you,-know any fuch, Prefer them hither; for to cunning men' I will be very kind, and liberal

To mine own children in good bringing-up;

Again, in Coridon's Song, by Thomas Lodge; published in England's Helicon, 1600:

"And God fend every pretty peate,

"Heigh hoe the pretty peate," &c.

and is, I believe, of Scotch extraction. I find it in one of the proverbs of that country, where it fignifies darling:

"He has fault of a wife, that marries mam's pet." i. e. He is in great want of a wife who marries one that is her mother's darling. STEEVENS.

in

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-fo ftrange ?] That is, fo odd, fo different from others your conduct. JOHNSON.

-cunning men,] Cunning had not yet loft its original fignification of knowing, learned, as may be obferved in the tranflation of the Bible. JOHNSON.

And fo farewell. Katharina you may stay;
For I have more to commune with Bianca.

[Exit. KATH. Why, and I truft, I may go too; May I

not?

What, fhall I be appointed hours; as though, be

like,

I knew not what to take, and what to leave? Ha!

[Exit. GRE. You may go to the devil's dam; your gifts 2 are fo good, here is none will hold you. Their love is not fo great, Hortenfio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly out;3 our cake's dough on both fides. Farewell:-Yet, for the love I bear my fweet Bianca, if I can by any means light on a fit man, to teach her that wherein the delights, I will with him to her father.4

HOR. So will I, fignior Gremio: But a word, I pray. Though the nature of our quarrel yet never

2

- your gifts-] Gifts for endowments. MALONE. So, before in this comedy :

3

a woman's gift,

"To rain a fhower of commanded tears."

STEEVENS,

Their love is not fo great, Hortenfio, but we may blow our nails together, and faft it fairly out;] I cannot conceive whofe love Gremio can mean by the words their love, as they had been talking of no love but that which they themselves felt for Bianca. We must therefore read, our love, instead of their. M. MASON.

In the old manner of
The editor of the third

Perhaps we should read-Your love. writing yr stood for either their or your. folio and fome modern editors, with, I think, less probability, If their love be right, it must mean- -the good will MALONE.

read our.

of Baptifta and Bianca towards us.

4

I will with him to her father.] i. e. I will recommend him. So, in Much Ado about Nothing:

To wish him wrestle with affection." REED.

brook'd parle, know now, upon advice,5 it toucheth us both, that we may yet again have access to our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca's love,— to labour and effect one thing 'fpecially.

GRE. What's that, I pray ?

HOR. Marry, fir, to get a husband for her fifter.
GRE. A hufband! a devil.

HOR. I fay, a husband.

GRE. I fay, a devil: Think'ft thou, Hortenfio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?

HOR. Tufh, Gremio, though it pass your patience, and mine, to endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all faults, and money enough.

GRE. I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this condition,-to be whipped at the high-crofs every morning.

HOR. 'Faith, as you fay, there's small choice in rotten apples. But, come; fince this bar in law makes us friends, it fhall be fo far forth friendly maintained, till by helping Baptifta's eldest daughter to a husband, we fet his youngest free for a hufband, and then have to't afrefh.-Sweet Bianca !Happy man be his dole ! He that runs fafteft, gets the ring. How fay you, fignior Gremio?

upon advice,] i. e. on confideration, or reflection. So,

in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

6

How fhall I dote on her, with more advice,
"That thus, without advice, begin to love her!"

STEEVENS.

Happy man be his dole !] A proverbial expreffion. It is used in Damon and Pithias, 1571. Dole is any thing dealt out or

GRE. I am agreed: and 'would I had given him the beft horfe in Padua to begin his wooing, that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the houfe of her. Come on.

[Exeunt GREMIO and HORTENSIO.

TRA. [Advancing.] I pray, fir, tell me,-Is it poffible

That love fhould of a fudden take fuch hold?

Luc. O Tranio, till I found it to be true,
I never thought it poffible, or likely;
But fee! while idly I ftood looking on,
I found the effect of love in idleness:
And now in plainness do confefs to thee,-
That art to me as fecret, and as dear,
As Anna to the queen of Carthage was,-
Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
If I achieve not this young modeft girl :
Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canft;
Affift me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.

TRA. Mafter, it is no time to chide you now; Affection is not rated from the heart:

diftributed, though its original meaning was the provision given away at the doors of great men's houfes. STEEVENS.

In Cupid's Revenge, by Beaumont and Fletcher, we meet with a fimilar expreffion, which may serve to explain that before us : "Then happy man be his fortune!" i. e. May his fortune be that of a happy man! MALONE.

7 He that runs fafteft, gets the ring.] An allufion to the fport of running at the ring. DOUCE.

8

is not rated-] Is not driven out by chiding.