And, for I know she taketh most delight
In music, instruments, and poetry,
Schoolmasters will I keep within my house,
Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,
Or signior Gremio, you, know any such,
Prefer them hither; for to cunning a men
I will be very kind, and liberal

To mine own children in good bringing-up;
And so farewell. Katharina, you may stay;
For I have more to commune with Bianca.
KATH. Why, and I trust I may go too. May I not?

What, shall I be appointed hours; as though, belike,
I knew not what to take, and what to leave? Ha!

[Exit BIANCA.

[Exit.

[Exit.

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

HOR. So will I, signior Gremio: But a word, I pray. Though the nature of our quarrel yet never brooked parle, know now, upon advice, 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 specially. GRE. What's that, I pray?

HOR. Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.

a Cunning-knowing-learned. Cunning, conning, was originally knowledge, skill; and is so used in our translation of the Bible. Shakspere, in general, uses cunning in the modern sense, as in' Lear: '

"Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides."

But in this play the adjective is used in two other instances in the same way as in the passage before us (see Act II., Scene 1):—

Their love. Mason would read our love; Malone, your love. Their love, it appears to us, refers to the affection between Katharine and her father, who have been jarring throughout the scene. Baptista has resolved that Bianca shall not wed till he has found a husband for his elder daughter. Gremio and Hortensio, who aspire to Bianca, think that there is so little love between the Shrew and her father, that his resolve will change, while they blow their nails together-while they submit to some delay.

• Wish him-commend him.

VOL. I.

Z

GRE. A husband! a devil.

HOR. I say, a husband.

GRE. I say, a devil: Think'st thou, Hortensio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool as to be married to hell?

HOR. Tush, 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-cross every morning.

HOR. 'Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten apples.

But, come; since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall be so far forth friendly maintained, till by helping Baptista's eldest daughter to a husband, we set his youngest free for a husband, and then have to 't afresh.-Sweet Bianca! -Happy man be his dole! He that runs fastest gets the ring. How say you, signior Gremio?

GRE. I am agreed: and 'would I had given him the best horse in Padua to begin his wooing, that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her. Come on. [Exeunt GREMIO and HORTENSIO.

TRA. [Advancing.] I pray, sir, tell me,-Is it possible

That love should of a sudden take such hold?

Luc. O Tranio, till I found it to be true,
I never thought it possible, or likely;
But see! while idly I stood looking on,
I found the effect of love in idleness:
And now in plainness do confess to thee,--
That art to me as secret, 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 modest girl:
Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst
Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.
TRA. Master, it is no time to chide you now;
Affection is not rated from the heart:

If love have touch'd you, nought remains but so,—
Redime te captum quam queas minimo.

Luc. Gramercies, lad; go forward, this contents;

The rest will comfort, for thy counsel's sound.

a If love have touch'd you. Monck Mason, one of the most prosaic of the commentators, very gravely refers the exquisite word touch'd to the shoulder-clap of the bailiff:-" It is a common expression at this day to say, when a bailiff has arrested a man, that he has touched him on the shoulder." One would think it impossible for a reader of Shakspere to forget how favourite a word this is with him, and how beautifully he uses it, as he does a thousand other words, to convey, by a syllable or two, an idea which feebler writers would have elaborated into many lines. Who can remember

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,"

and not smile at Monck Mason with his bailiff?

TRA. Master, you look'd so longly on the maid,
Perhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all.
Luc. O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,

Such as the daughter of Agenor had,

That made great Jove to humble him to her hand, When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand". TRA. Saw you no more? mark'd you not, how her sister Began to scold; and raise up such a storm,

That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?
Luc. Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,

And with her breath she did perfume the air;
Sacred, and sweet, was all I saw in her.

TRA. Nay, then, 't is time to stir him from his trance.
I pray, awake, sir: If you love the maid,

Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands:→→

Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd,

That, till the father rids his hands of her,
Master, your love must live a maid at home;
And therefore has he closely mew'd her up,
Because she shall a not be annoy'd with suitors.
Luc. Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!

But art thou not advis'd, he took some care
To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?
TRA. Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now 't is plotted.
Luc. I have it, Tranio.

TRA. Not possible. For who shall bear your part,

And be in Padua here Vincentio's son ?

Keep house, and ply his book; welcome his friends;
Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?

Luc. Basta; content thee; for I have it full.
We have not yet been seen in any house;
Nor can we be distinguish'd by our faces,
For man or master: then it follows thus ;-
Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead,
Keep house, and port, and servants, as I should:

a Shall. In the original, will. Rowe made the correction.

Port-state, show. Thus, in 'The Merchant of Venice,' Act III., Scene 2:

"And the magnificos of greatest port."

I will some other be; some Florentine,
Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.

"T is hatch'd, and shall be so :-Tranio, at once
Uncase thee; take my colour'd hat and cloak a :
When Biondello comes, he waits on thee;
But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.
TRA. So had you need.

In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,
And I am tied to be obedient,

(For so your father charg'd me at our parting;
"Be serviceable to my son," quoth he,

Although, I think, 't was in another sense,)
I am content to be Lucentio,

Because so well I love Lucentio.

Luc. Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves:

And let me be a slave, t' achieve that maid

Whose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye.

Enter BIONDELLO.

[They exchange habits.

Here comes the rogue.-Sirrah, where have you been?
BION. Where have I been? Nay, how now, where are you?
Master, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes?
Or you stol'n his? or both? pray, what 's the news?

Luc. Sirrah, come hither; 't is no time to jest,

And therefore frame your manners to the time.
Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
Puts my apparel and my countenance on,
And I for my escape have put on his;
For in a quarrel, since I came ashore,
I kill'd a man, and fear I was descried.

Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
While I make way from hence to save my life;
You understand me?

Luc. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth;

Tranio is chang'd into Lucentio.

BION. The better for him. 'Would I were so too!
TRA. So would I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,-
That Lucentio indeed had Baptista's youngest daughter.
But, sirrah, not for my sake, but your master's, I advise
You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies :

a Colour'd hat and cloak. Fashions have changed. Servants formerly wore clothes of sober hue-black or sad-colour; their masters bore about the hues of the rainbow in their doublets and mantles, and hats and feathers. Such gay vestments were called emphatically coloured.

When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;

But in all places else, your master Lucentio ".

Luc. Tranio, let's go :

One thing more rests, that thyself execute;

To make one among these wooers: If thou ask me why,-
Sufficeth, my reasons are both good and weighty.

(The Presenters above speak 8.)

[Exeunt.

A good matter, surely. Comes there any more of it?

1 SERV. My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play.
SLY. Yes, by saint Anne, do I.
PAGE. My lord, 't is but begun.

SLY. 'T is a very excellent piece of work, madam lady. 'Would 't were done!

[They sit and mark.

SCENE II.-The same. Before Hortensio's House.

Enter PETRUCIOb and GRUMIO.

PET. Verona, for a while I take my leave,

To see my friends in Padua; but, of all,
My best beloved and approved friend,
Hortensio; and, I trow, this is his house:

Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

GRU. Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there any man has rebused your worship?

PET. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

GRU. Knock you here, sir? why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir?

PET. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate,

And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.

GRU. My master is grown quarrelsome: should knock you first,

And then I know after who comes by the worst.

PET. Will it not be?

'Faith, sirrah, an you 'll not knock, I'll wring it;

I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it. [He wrings GRUMIO by the ears. GRU. Help, masters, help! my master is mad.

PET. Now, knock when I bid you: sirrah! villain!

a These lines of doggrel are printed as prose in the original. The same remark applies to other passages, which it will be unnecessary more particularly to notice. The doggrel is one of the marks of the early date of the play.

Petrucio. We have thought it right to spell this name correctly, as Gascoigne did, in his 'Supposes.' Shakspere most probably wrote the word with the h, that the actors might not blunder in the pronunciation. In the same way Dekker wrote Infeliche. After two centuries of illumination, such a precaution as regards the theatre would not be wholly unnecessary; for when the proprietors of one of our great houses piratically seized upon Mr. Milman's beautiful tragedy of 'Fazio,' the author was denied the poor privilege of having the name pronounced correctly.