Imatges de pàgina
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But fee! while idly I ftood looking on,
I found the effect of love in idleness:
And now in plainnefs 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 atchieve not this young modest girl:
Counfel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst;
Affift me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt

Tra. Mafter, it is no time to chide you now;
Affection is not rated (7) from the heart:

If love have touch'd you, nought remains but fo,
Redime te captum quàm queas minimô.

Travel.

Such wind (8) as fcatters young men thro' the world,

To feek their fortunes further than at home,

Where small experience grows.

Woman's

(7) Rated.] i. e. chid, or counfelled away. Inftead of touch'd in the next line, Warburton reads toyl'd, which the next line from Terence, says he, fhews to be the true reading. J. &c., defirous to reduce poor S's learning as low as poffible, affure us, that he had the next line from Lilly! which I mention, fays J., " that it might not be brought as an argument of his learning :" wonderful kindness to our noble poet ! Rifum teneatis? Appendix, at the end of his translation of Terence. (8) Such wind, &c.] Hortenfio had asked,

-What happy gale

See Colman's fpirited

Blows you to Padua here from old Verona ?

See Two Gentlemen of Verona, A&t 1. Sc. 1.

Woman's Tongue.

(9) Think you, a little din can daunt my ears ? Have I not in my time heard lions roar?

Have I not heard the fea, puff'd up with winds,
Rage like an angry boar, chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field?
And heav'ns artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitched battle heard

Loud larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?
And do you tell me of a woman's tongue ?

That gives not half fo great a blow to th' ear, (10) As will a chefnut in a farmer's fire ?

ACT II.

SCENE I.

Extremes cure each other.

When two raging fires meet together,
They do confume the thing that feeds their fury;
Though little fire grows great with little wind,
Yet extreme gufts will blow out fire and all.

Beauty.

Say that the frown; I'll fay fhe looks as clear As morning rofes newly wafh'd with dew.

ACT HI.

SCENE I.

Mufick.

Prepofterous afs! that never read fo far,
To know the caufe why mufic was ordain'd!
Was it not, to refresh the mind of man,
After his ftudies, of his ufual pain?
Then give me leave to read philofophy,
And, when I paufe, ferve in your harmony.

(9) See Comedy of Errors, A& 5. Sc. 3. (10) Th' ear. W. commonly, bear.

SCENE

SCENE II. Wife married to all her Husband's Fortunes.

To me fhe's marry'd, not unto my cloaths:
Could I repair what he will wear in me,
As I can change thefe poor accoutrements, (11)
'Twere well for Kate, and better for myself.

Defcription of a mad Wedding.

When the priest

Did afk if Catherine fhould be his wife;

Ay,

(11) Thefe poor accoutrements.] This is the droll defcription which S. gives of them" Why, Petruchio is coming, in a new hat, and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches, thrice turn'd; a pair of boots that have been candle cafes, one buckled, another lac'd; an old rusty fword ta'en out of the town armory, with a broken hilt, and chapelefs, with two broken points. His horfe hip'd with an old mothy faddle, the stirrups of no kindred: befides, poffeft with the glanders, and like to none in the chine, troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions, full of wind-galls, fped with the fpavins, ray'd with the yellows, paft cure of the vives, ftark fpoiled with the ftaggers, begnawn with the bots, fway'd in the back, and fhoulder thotten; near legg'd before, and with a half check'd bit, and a head-tall of fheep's leather; which, being reftrain'd to keep him from tumbling, hath been often burst, and now repair'd with knots: one girth fix times piec'd, and a woman's crupper of velure, which hath two letters for her name, fairly set down in studs, and here and there picc'd with pack-thread.

Bat. Who comes with him?

Bed. O, Sir, his lacquey, for all the world caparison'd like the horfe; with a linen ftock on one leg, and a kerfey boot-hofe, on the other, gartered with a red and blue list; an old hat, and the humour of forty fancies prick'd in 't for a feather: a monfter, a very monfter in apparel; and not like a Chriftian foot-boy, or a gentleman's lacquey."

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"Ay, by gogs-woons," quoth he, and fwore fo loud,
That all-amaz'd the priest let fall the book
And as he stoop'd again to take it up,

This mad-brain'd bridegroom took him fuch a cuff,
That down fell prieft and book, and book and priest;
"Now take them up," quoth he, "if any lift."
Tran. What faid the wench when he rofe up again ?
Grem. Trembled and fhook; for why, he ftamped
and fwore,

As if the vicar meant to cozen him;
But after many ceremonies done,
He calls for wine: ""
a health," quoth he, as if
H'ad been aboard caroufing to his mates
After a ftorm; quafft off the mufcadel, (12)
And threw the fops all in the fexton's face;
Having no other caufe, but that his beard
Grew thin and hungerly, and feem'd to afk
His fops as he was drinking. This done, he took
The bride about the neck, and kift her lips
With fuch a clamorous fmack, that at the parting
All the church echo'd.

ACT

(12) Quafft off the mufcadel.] It appears from this paffage and the following one, in the Hiftory of the Two Maids of Moreclacke, a comedy by Robert Armin, 1609, that it was the custom to drink wine immediately after the marriage ceremony. Armin's play begins thus ;

Enter a maid firewing flowers, and a ferving man perfuming the door.

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Man. The muscadine stays for the bride at church,
The priest and Hymen's ceremonies 'tend

To make them man and wife.

Again, in Decker's Satiromaftix, 1602.

And when we are at church, bring the wine and cakes. We find it practifed at the magnificent marriage of Queen Mary and Philip, in Winchefter cathedral, 1554. "The trumpets

ACT IV. SCENE II.

Petruchio's Trial of his Wife in the Article of
Drefs.

Hab. Here is the cap your worship did bespeak.
Pet. Why this was moulded on a porringer,
A velvet dish,-fie, fie! 'tis lewd and filthy:
Why, 'tis a cockle, or a walnut shell,
A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap;
Away with it, come let me have a bigger.

Cath. I'll have no bigger, this doth fit the time, (13) And gentlewomen wear fuch caps as these.

Pet. When you are gentle, you fhall have one too, And not till then.

Hor. Cath.

That will not be in hafte.

Why, Sir, I trust, (14) I may have leave to fpeak;

And speak I will; I am no child, no babe;

Your

trumpets founded, and they both returned to their traverses in the quire, and there remayned until masse was done: at which tyme, wyne and fopes were hallowed and delivered to them both." Collect. Append. Vol. IV. p. 400. Edit. 1770. See St. and Warton.

(13) Doth fit the time.], i. e.. is fashionable. Mrs. G.

(14) Why, Sir, I truft, &c.] Warburton obferves on this paffage, that "S. has here copied nature with great fkill-Petruchio by frightning, ftarving, and over-watching his wife, had tamed her into gentleness and submission : and the audience expect to hear no more of the fhrew : when on her being croffed in the article of fashion and finery, the most inveterate folly of the fex,' fhe flies out again for the last time, into all the intemperate rage of her nature." It is but just to hear a lady's reply to this remark of the critic: "This," fays Mrs. G. " is being fevere on our fex at a very cheap rate indeed: foibles, paffions, and inconfiderable attachments, are equally common to all mankind, without diftinction of gender: and the difference of objects gives no fort of advantage to men,

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