THE

BEAUTIES

O F

SHAKESPEAR.

X.

The Taming of the Shrew.

INDUCTION.

SCENE II. Hounds.

THY

HY hounds (1) fhall make the welkin anfwer them,

And fetch fhrill echoes from the hollow earth.

Painting.

•

(1) See Midfummer Night's Dream, A&t 4. Sc, 2. the Two Noble Kinsmen, A& 2. Sc. 2. Palamon fays, To our Theban hounds, That shook the aged foreft with their echoes, No more now muft we hollow, no more fhake VOL. II. B

In

Our

Painting.

Doft thou love pictures we will fetch thee ftrait, Adonis, painted by a running brook;

And Citherea all in fedges hid,

Which feem to move, and wanton with her breath, Ev'n as the waving fedges play with wind.

Mirth and Merriment, its Advantage.

Seeing too much sadness ha h 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 thoufand harms, and lengthens life.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

The Ufes 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 pleafant garden of great Italy;
And by my father's love and leave am arm'd
With his good-will, and thy good company,
My trufty fervant, well approv'd in all;
Here let us breathe, and happily institute
A course of learning and ingenious ftudies.
Pifa, 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 pomted 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 ferve 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 philofophy
Will I apply, that treats of happiness
By virtue 'fpecially to be atchiev'd.
Tell me thy mind: for I have Pisa left,
And am to Padua come; as he that leaves
A fhallow plafh, to plunge him in the deep,
And with fatiety feeks to quench his thirst.

Tra. Mi perdonate, gentle mafter mine,
I am in all affected as yourfelf;
Glad that you thus continue your refolve,
To fuck the sweets of fweet philofophy.
Only, good mafter, while we do admire
This virtue, and this moral discipline,
Let's be no ftoicks, nor no ftocks, I pray;
Or fo devote to Ariftotle's checks, (3)
As Ovid be an outcaft quite abjur'd:
Talk logic with acquaintance that you have,
And practife rhetoric in your common talk
Mufic, and poefy, ufe to quicken you;
The mathematicks, and the metaphyficks,
Fall to them as you find your ftomach ferves you:
No profit grows, where is no pleafure ta'en ;-
In brief, Sir, ftudy what you most affect.

:

Money

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

His teeth as white as whale His bone.

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

Money an Inducement to marry with the vileft.

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

Love (5) at firft Sight.

Tra. I pray, Sir, tell me,- is it poffible, That love fhould of a fudden take fuch hold?

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

But

86

(4) Think' thou, &c.] So a little after Grumio fays, 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 amifs, fo money comes withal." And Petruchio, immediately after, on Hortenfio's remonftrance, fays, -“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 fight 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 fhall find that fuch 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 poffibly be fenfible of. Mrs. G. See the note on Midfummer Night's Dream, A&t 2. Sc. 2.

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

I faw her coral lips to move,

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