*

*

THE

BEAUTIES

OF

SHAKESPEAR.

T

The Taming of the Shrew.

INDUCTION.

SCENE II. Hounds.

HY hounds (1) shall make the welkin answer

them, And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth.

Painting.

(1) See Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 4. Sc. 2. In the Two Noble Kinmen, Act 2. Sc. 2. Palamon fays,

To our Theban hounds,

That shook the aged forest with their echoes,
No more now must we hollow, no more shake

VOL. II.

Painting.

Dost thou love pictures? we will fetch thee strait,

Adonis, painted by a running brook;
And Citherea all in fedges hid,
Which seem to move, and wanton with her breath,
Ev'n as the waving sedges play with wind.

Mirth and Merriment, its Advantage.

Seeing too much fadness hath congeal'd your blood, And melancholy is the nurfe of phrenzy,

Therefore they thought it good you hear a play,
And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,
Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life.

The Uses of Travel and Study.

Luc. Tranio, fince-for the great defire I had
To fee fair Padua, nursery of arts, -
1 am arriv'd from fruitful Lombardy,
The pleasant garden of great Italy;
And by my father's love and leave am arm'd
With his good-will, and thy good company,
My trusty servant, well approv'd in all;
Here let us breathe, and happily institute
A course of learning and ingenious studies.
• Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,
Gave me my being, and my father first,
A merchant of great traffick through the world,
Vincentio, come of the Bentivoli ;

Vincentio,

Our pointed javelins, whilft the angry fwine
Flies like a Parthian quiver, from our rages,
Struck with our well-fteel'd darts.

Vincentio his fon, (2) brought up in Florence,
It shall become, to serve all hopes conceiv'd,
To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds :
And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,
Virtue, and that part of philosophy
Will I apply, that treats of happiness
By virtue specially to be atchiev'd.
Tell me thy mind: for I have Pisa left,
And am to Padua come; as he that leaves
A shallow plash, to plunge him in the deep,
And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.

Tra. Mi perdonate, gentle master mine,
I am in all affected as yourself;
Glad that you thus continue your refolve,
To fuck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
Only, good master, while we do admire
This virtue, and this moral discipline,
Let's be no ftoicks, nor no stocks, I pray;
Or so devote to Ariftotle's checks, (3)
As Ovid be an ourcast quite abjur'd:
Talk logic with acquaintance that you have,
And practise rhetoric in your common talk:
Mufic, and poefy, use to quicken you;
The mathematicks, and the metaphyficks,
Fall to thein as you find your ftomach ferves you:
Noprofit grows, where is no pleasure ta'en;-
In brief, Sir, study what you most affect.

Money

(2) Vincentio bis fon.] Means the fon of Vincentio, or as we should fay, Vincentio's fon. This mode of expreffion is common with the old writers. See Love's Labour loft,

St.

His teeth as white as whale HIS bone.

(3) Aristotle's checks.] i. e. The harsh rules of Aristotle

Money an Inducement to marry with the vileft.

Gre.

Think'st thou, (4) Hortenfio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be marry'd 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 her faults, and money enough.

Love (5) at first Sight.

Tra. I pray, Sir, tell me, -is it possible, That love should of a sudden take such hold?

Luc. O, Tranio, (6) till I found it to be true, I never thought it possible, or likely;

But

(4) Think't thou, &c.] So a little after Grumio says, " Nay look you, Sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is : why give him gold enough and marry him to an aglet-baby, or an old trot with never a tooth in her head, though the have as many diseases, as two-and-fifty horses; why nothing comes amiss, fo money comes withal." And Petruchio, immediately after, on Hortenfio's remonftrance, says,

"Peace, thou know'st not gold's effect." (See Much ado about Nothing.) This is a truth too frequently and unhappily verified in the matrimonial world.

(5) Love, &c.] Love conceived at first sight is the subject of most romances; and the philofophy of these northern climes looks for it only there: but if we confult the volume of nature more at large, we shall find that such extempore paffions are not infrequent in the more fouthern regions of the world: and the clear and warm air of Italy communicates a brisker motion to the heart and spirits, than our natural phlegm can possibly be sensible of. Mrs. G. See the note on Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 2. Sc. 2.

(6) O Tranio, &c.] Speaking of the lady, who had thus engaged his heart, he says, soon after,

I faw her coral lips to move,

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