Your betters have endured me fay my mind; Pet. Why thou fay'ft true; it is a paltry cap, Cath. Love me, or love me not, I like the cap; And it I will have, or I will have none. Pet. Thy gown? why, ay: come, taylor, let's fee 't. [Taylor lays forth the gown. O, mercy, God! what masking ftuff is here! What's this? a fleeve? 'tis like a demi-cannon: What! up and down, carv'd like an apple tart? Here's fnip, and nip, and cut, and slish, and slash, Like to a cenfer's (15) in a barber's shop: Why, what, a devil's name, taylor, call'ft thou this ? Hor. over us : as all eager purfuits, except thofe of virtue, are alike ridiculous, in the candid and impartial estimation of reafon and philofophy : Another Florio doating on a flower.” Young. (15) To a cenfer, &c ] Cenfers, in barbers fhops are now difufed, but they may eafily be imagined to have been veffels, which, for the emiffion of the smoke, were cut with great number and variety of interftices. J-who adds, the taylors trade having an appearance of effeminacy, has always been among the rugged English, liable to farcafms and contempt. Nothing can be more humorously pointed than the following droll defcription of the taylors, by Petruchio. O monftrous arrogance!-thou ly'ft, thou fhears, Thou yard, three quarters, half yard, quarter, nail, Away, Hor. I fee, fhe 's like to have neither cap nor gown. Tayl. You bid me make it orderly and well, According to the fashion and the time. Pet. Marry, and did; but, if you be remember'd, I did not bid you mar it to the time. Go, hop me over every kennel home, For you fhall hop without my custom, Sir: I'll none of it; hence make your best of it. Cath. I never faw a better fashion'd gown, More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable: Be like, you mean to make a puppet of me. The Mind alone valuable. Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's, Pet. Even in thefe honest mean habiliments; A CT V. SCENE I A lovely Woman. (16) Fair lovely woman, young and affable, More Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant: Or I fhall fo be-mete thee with thy yard, As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'st! (16) Thefe fpeeches are found in the first draught of More clear of hue, and far more beautiful Cath. Fair, lovely lady, bright and cryftalline, SCENE II. Happiness attained. Happily I have arriv'd at laft, Unto the wished haven of my blifs. SCENE this play, printed in 1607; they feem evidently to be of S's hand, and well worth preferving; fpeeches preferred to them, are here subjoined. Such war of white and red within her cheeks! Cath. Young budding virgin fair, and fresh, and fweet, Whither away; or where is thy abode? An attentive reader, Steevens thinks, will perceive in the fpeech in the text feveral words which are employed in none of the legitimate plays of S. whence he concludes, that the first draught, as it is called, was not the work of S. SCENE III. Others measured by ourselves. He that (17) is giddy thinks the world turns round. Greyhound. O Sir, Lucentio flipt me for his greyhound, Which runs himself, and catches for his master. Wife's Submiffion. Marry, (18) peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life, And awful rule, and right fupremacy; And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy. The Wife's Duty to her Husband. Fie! fie! unknit that threat'ning, unkind brow, And dart not fcornful glances from those eyes, To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor : It blots thy beauty, as froft bites the meads; Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds fhake fair buds ; And in nofenfe is meet or amiable. A woman mov'd, is like a fountain troubled, Thy (17) He that, &c.] The widow explains her meaning in this general obfervation, by faying afterwards, Your husband being troubled with a fhrew, (18) Marry, &c.] Petruchio fays this on Hortenfio's wondering, what Catherine's fubmiffion might bode. (19) Thy husband, &c.] Leave not the faithful fide That gave thee being, ftill fhades thee and protects. The wife, where danger or difhonour lurks, Safeft Thy head, thy fovereign; one that cares for thee, Safeft and feemlieft by her hufband stays, And a little before he says, Nothing lovelier can be found, Too (20) And craves, &c.] Statius, fpeaking of a good wife, in the 5th book of his Silvæ, fays, -Mallet paupertate pudica Intemerata mori, vitamque impendere famæ : She'd rather chufe, 'midt poverty and shame, Chafte, with good-humour, with reserv'dness, free, In the Amphitrion of Plautus (Act 2. Sc. 2.) Alcmena fpeaks thus: What the world calls a portion with a wife Anony. See p. 30. |