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CHARACTERS IN THE INDUCTION,

A Lord, before whom the Play is supposed to be piay'd.

CHRISTOPHER SLY, a drunken Tinker.
Hoftefs.

Page, Players, Huntsmen, and other Servants attending on the Lord.

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Taylor, Haberdasher; with Servants attending on Baptifla and Petruchio.

SCENE, fometimes in Padua; and fometimes in Petrucbia's House in the Country.

IN D

SCENE

I.

Before an Alebouse on a Heath.

Sly.

'LL

Hofl.

Enter Hoftefs and Sly.

1

you, in faith.

A pair of stocks, you rogue!

UCTION..

Look in the chronicles, we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore, paucas pallabris 3: let the world flide 4: Seffa!

Hoft. You will not pay for the glaffes you have burst 5?

Sly. No, not a denier: Go by, Jeronimy;

Sly. Y'are a baggage; the Slies are no 2 rogues: Go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.

Hoft.

1 i. e. I'll harrafs or plague you; or perhaps I'll pheese you, may have a meaning fimilar to the vulgar phrase of I'll comb your head. 2 Meaning, no vagrants, but gentlemen. 3 Sly, as an ignorant fellow, is purposely made to aim at languages out of his knowledge, and knock the words out of joint. The Spaniards say, pocas palabras, i. e. few words: as they do likewife, Ceffa, i. e. be quiet.-Mr. Steevens fays, this is a burlesque on Hieronymo, which Theobald speaks of in a following note. 4 A proverbial expreffion, 5 i. c. broke. 6 Mr. Theobald's comment on this speech thus: "The passage has particular humour in it, and must have been very pleasing at that time of "day. But I must clear up a piece of itage history, to make it understood. There is a fustian old play, "called Hieronymo; or, The Spanish Tragedy: which, I find, was the common butt of raillery to all the poets in Shakfpeare's time: and a pailage, that appeared very ridiculous in that play, is here hu"mouroufly alluded to. Hieronymo, thinking himself injured, applies to the king for juftice; but "the courtiers, who did not defire his wrongs should be fet in a true light, attempt to hinder him # from an audience, Hiero. Justice, oh! justice to Hieronimo. Lor. Back-fee'st thou not the

!

Hoft. I know my remedy, I must go fetch the And, with a low fubmiffive reverence, thirdborough . [Exit. Say, What is it your honour will command? Sly. Third, fourth, or fifth borough, I'll answer Let one attend him with a filver bafon, him by law: I'll not budge an inch, boy; let him Full of rose-water, and bestrew'd with flowers; come, and kindly. [Falls afteep. Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper, Wind barns. Enter a Lord from bunting, with a train. And fay, Will 't please your lordfinip coul

Lord. Huntiman, I charge thee, tender well my

hounds:

Brach Merriman, -the poor cur is imbost 35-
And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach.
Saw'ft thou not, boy, how Silver made it good
At the hedge-corner, in the coldeft fault?
I would not lofe the dog for twenty pound.

Hur. Why, Belman is as good as he, my lord;
He cried. upon it at the meereft lofs,
And twice to-day pick'd out the dullest scent:
Trust me, I take him for the better dog.

Lord. Thou art a fool; if Eccho were as fleet,
I would efteem him worth a dozen fuch.
But fup them well, and look unto them all;
To-morrow I intend to hunt again.

Hun. I will, my lord.

Lord. What's here? one dead, or drunk? See,

doth he breathe?

2 Hun. He breathes, my lord: Were he not
warm'd with ale,

This were a bed but cold to fleep fo foundly.

Lord. O monftrous beaft! how like a fwine
he lies!

Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine
image!-

Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man.
What think you, if he were convey'd to bed,
Wrap'd in tweet cloaths, rings put upon his fingers,
A moft delicious banquet by his bed,
And brave attendants near him when he wakes
Would not the beggar then forget himself?

1 H. Believe me, lord, I think he cannot chuse.
2 Hun. It would feem strange unto him when

he wak'd.

Lerd. Even as a flattering dream, or worthless
fancy.

Then take him up, and manage well the jeit:-
Carry him gently to my fairest chamber,
And hang it round with all my wanton pictures:
Balm his foul head with warm diftilled waters,
And burn fwect wood to make the lodging fweet:
Procrire me mufick ready when he wakes,
To make a dulcet and a heavenly found ;
And if he chance to fpeak, be ready straight,

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your hands?
Some one be ready with a costly fuit,
And ask him what apparel he will wear;
Another tell him of his hounds and horie,
And that his lady mourns at his disease:
Perfuade him that he hath been lunatick;
And, when he says he is,-say that he dreams,
For he is nothing but a mighty lord.
This do, and do it kindly, gentle firs;
It will be paftime patling excellent,
If it be husbanded with modefty 4.

1 Hun. My lord, I warrant you, we'll play our part,
As he thall think, by our true diligence,
He is no lefs than what we fay he is.

Lord. Take him up gently, and to bed with him; And each one to his office when he wakes.

[Some bear out Sly. Sourd trumpets, Sirrah, go fee what trumpet 'tis that founds :Belike, fome noble gentleman, that means,

[Exit Sovant
Travelling fome journey, to repofe him here.
Re-enter a Servant.
How now? who is it?

Ser. An't please your honour, players,
That offer fervice to your lordship.
Lord. Bid them come near-
Enter Players.
Now, fellows, you are welcome.
Play. We thank your honour.
Lord. Do you intend to stay with me to-night?
2 Play. So please your lordship to accept our
duty.

Lord. With all my heart. This fellow I re-
member,

Since once he play'd a farmer's eldeft fon:--
'I was where you woo'd the gentlewoman fo well;
I have forgot your name; but, fure, that part
Was aptly fitted, and naturally perform'd.

Sinklo. I think, 'twas Soto that your honour

means.

I ord. 'Tis very true;-thou didst it excellent.-
Well, you are come to me in happy time;
The rather for I have fome sport in hand,
Wherein your cunning can affift me much.

"king is busy? Hiero. Oh, is he fo? King. Who is he that interrupts our business? Hiero. Not Is -Hieronymo, beware; go by, go by." So Sly here, not caring to be dunn'd by the Hoftefs, cries to her in effect, "Don't be troulle fome, don't interrupt me, go by" I The thirdborough of ancient times was an officer fimilar to the prefent conftable. 2 Mr. Edwards explains Brach to fignify a hound in general; while Mr. Steevens thinks it to have been a particular fort of hound: and Mr. Tollet obferves, that brache originally meant a bitch; and adds, from Ulitius, that "bitches having a fu

perior fagacity of nofe; hence, perhaps, any hound withe minent quicknefs of scent, whether dog or "bitch, was called brache, for the term brache is fometimes applied to males. Our ancestors hunted "much with the large fouthern hounds, and had in every pack a couple of dogs peculiarly good and "cunning to find game, or recover the scent. To this custom Shakspeare seems to allude, by " naming two braches, which, in my opinion, are beagles; and this difcriminates brache trom the tum, a blo d-hound mentioned together with it, in the tragedy of King Lear." 3 Imbeft is a term in hunting. When a dog is ftrained with hard running (efpecially upon hard ground) he will have his knees swelled, and then he is faid to be emboss'd; from the French word teffe, fignifying a tuj nour. 4 Meaning, with moderation.

There

There is a lord will hear you play to-night:
But I am doubtful of your modefties;
Leit, over-eyeing of his odd behaviour,
(For yet his honour never heard a play)
You break into fome merry paffion,
And fo offend him for I tell you, firs,
If you should fmile, he grows impatient.
Play. Fear not, my lord; we can contain ourselves,
Were he the verieft antick in the world.

Lerd. Go, firrah, take them to the buttery,
And give them friendly welcome every one;
Let them want nothing that my house affords.-
[Exit one with the Players.

Sirrab, go you to Bartholomew my page,
And fee him dress'd in all fuits like a lady:
That done, conduct him to the drunkard's chamber,
And call him-madam, do him obeifance.
Tell him from me, (as he will win my love)
He bear himself with honourable action,
Such as he hath observ'd in noble ladies
Unto their lords, by them accomplished:
Such duty to the drunkard let him do,
With foft low tongue, and lowly courtefy;
And fay, What is't your honour will command,
Wherein your lady, and your humble wife,
May thew her duty, and make known her love?
And then with kind embracements, tempting
And with declining head into his bofom,- [kitfes,
B.d him shed tears, as being over-joy'd
To fee her noble lord restor'd to health,
Who for twice feven years hath esteemed him
No better than a poor and loathfome beggar:
And if the boy have not a woman's gift,
To rain a shower of commanded tears,
An onion will do well for fuch a shift;
W..ch in a napkin being close convey'd,
Sall in defpight enforce a watry eye.

See tiris difpatch'd with all the hafte thou canft;

Sly. I am Chriftopher Sly; -call not me-honour, nor lordship: I ne'er drank fack in my life; and if you give me any conferves, give me conferves of beef: Ne'er ask me what raiment I'll wear; for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no more fhoes than feet; nay, fometimes, more feet than fhoes, or fuch shoes as my toes look through the over

leather.

Lord. Heaven cease this idle humour in your

honour !

Oh, that a mighty man, of fuch defcent,
Of fuch poffeftions, and fo high esteem,
Should be infused with fo foul a fpirit!

Sly. What, would you make me mad? Am not I Christopher Sly, old Sly's fon of Burtonheath by birth a pedlar, by education a cardmaker, by tranfmutation a bear-herd, and now by present profeffion a tinker? Afk Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if the know me not: if the fay I am not fourteen-peace on the fcore for theer ale, score me up for the lying it knave in Christendom. What, I am not befraught: Here's

mourn.

I Man. Oh, this it is that makes your lady [droop. 2 Man. Oh, this it is that makes your fervants Lord. Hence comes it that your kindred shun

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And twenty caged nightingales do fing:

Anon I'll give thee more instructions. - [Ex. Ser. Or wilt thou fleep? we'll have thee to a couch,

I know, the boy will well ufurp the grace,

Softer and fweeter than the luftful, bed

Voine, gait, and action of a gentlewoman:

On purpose trimm'd up for Semiramis.

I song to hear him call the drunkard, hufband; [ter, Say, thou wilt walk; we will bestrow the ground: And how my men will stay themielves from laugh-Or wilt thou ride? thy hories shall be trapp'l,

W..en they do homage to this fimple peafant.

Their harness studded all with gold and pearl.

Tu in to countel them: haply, my prefence May well abate the over-merry fpleen, Which otherwife would grow into extremes,

Doft thou love hawking? thou haft hawks will foar Above the morning lark: Or wilt thou hunt? Thy hounds shall make the welkin anfwer them,

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[Exit Lord. And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth.
I Man. Say, thou wilt course; thy greyhounds

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3 Mrs. What raiment will your honour wear to-day?

are as fwift

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3 Man. Or Daphne, roaming through a thorny Scratching her legs, that one thall swear the bleeds:

• Perhaps we ought to read, distraught, i. e, distracted.

And

And at that fight shall fad Apollo weep,
So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.

Lord. Thou art a lord, and nothing but a lord:

Thou haft a lady far more beautiful
Than any woman in this waining age.

I Man. And, 'till the tears, that the hath shed

for thee,

Like envious floods, o'er-ran her lovely face,
She was the faireft creature in the world;
And yet the is inferior to none.

Sly. Am I a lord? and have I fuch a lady?
Or do I dream? or have I dream'd 'till now ?
I do not fleep; I fee, I hear, I fpeak;
I fmell sweet favours, and I feel foft things:-
Upon my life, I am a lord, indeed;
And not a tinker, nor Chriftopher Sly.-
Well, bring our lady hither to our fight;
And once again, a pot o'the smallest ale.

2 Man. Will't please your mightiness to wash

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Sometimes you would call out for Cicely Hacket.
Siy. Ay, the woman's maid of the house.
3 Man. Why, fir, you know no house, nor no
fuch maid;

Nor no fuch men, as you have reckon'd up,-
As Stephen Sly, and old John Naps of Greece 2,
And Peter Turf, and Henry Pimpernell;
And twenty more fuch names and men as these,
Which never were, nor no man ever faw.

Sly. Now, Lord be thanked for my good amends!
All. Amen.

Sly. I thank thee; thou shalt not lofe by it.
Enter the Page, as a lady, with attendants.

Lady. How fares my noble lord ?

[enough.

Lady. Here, noble lord; What is thy will with

her?

Sly. Are you my wife, and will not call mehusband?

My men should call me-lord, I am your good-man. Lady. My husband and my lord, my lord and husband;

I am your wife in all obedience.

Sly. I know it well :- What must I call her?
Lord. Madam.

Sly. Alce madam, or Joan madam?
[ladies.
Lord. Madam, and nothing else; so lords coll
Sly. Madam wife, they fay, that I have dream'd

and flept

Above fome fifteen years and more.

Lady. Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me; Being all this time abandon'd from your bed.

Sly. 'Tis much; Servants, leave me and her alone.

Madam, undress you, and come now to-bed.

Lady. Thrice noble lord, let me intreat of you, To pardon me yet for a night or two; Or, if not fo, until the fun be fet: For your phyficians have exprefsly charg'd, In peril to incur your former malady, That I should yet absent me from your bed: I hope this reason stands for my excuse.

Sty. Ay, it stands fo, that I may hardly tarry fo long. But I would be loth to fall into my dreams again; I will therefore tarry, in despight of the fieth and the blood.

Enter a Meffenger.

Meff. Your honour's players, hearing your amendment,

Are come to play a pleafant comedy,
For fo your doctors hold it very meet;
Seeing too much fadness hath congeal'd your blood,
And melancholy is the nurse 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.

Sly. Marry I will; let them play it: Is not a commonty 3 a Chriftmas gambol, or a tumbling trick?

Lady. No, my good lord, it is more pleasing stuff.
Sly. What, houthold stuff?
Lady. It is a kind of hiftory.

Sly. Well, we'll fee it: Come, madam wife,

Sly. Marry, I fare well; for here is cheer fit by my fide, and let the world flip; we shall Where is my wife?

ne'er be younger.

• Meaning, the Court leet, or courts of the manor. 2 Greece feems here to be no more than a quibble or pun (of which our author was remarkably fond) upon grease; when the expreffion will only imply that John Naps was a fat man. 3 Commenty is here probably put for comedy.

ACT

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SCENE

A Street in Padua.

I.

Flourish. Enter Lucentio, and bis man Tranio.

Lac.

For how I firmly am refolv'd you know;
That is, not to beftow my youngest daughter,
Before I have a husband for the elder :
If either of you both love Katharina,

TRANIO, fince for the great defire I Because I know you well, and love you well,

To fee fair Padua, nursery of arts,

I am arriv'd for fruitful Lombardy,

The pleafant garden of great Italy;

And, by my father's love and leave, am arm'd

studies.

With his good will, and thy good company,
Most trufty fervant, well approv'd in all;
Here let us breathe, and happily inftitute
A course of learning, and ingenious
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 Bentivolii.

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,
Vatue, and that part of philofophy
Will I apply 3, that treats of happiness
By virtue 'fpecially to be atchiev'd.
Teil me thy mind: for I have Pisa left,
And am to Padua come; as he that leaves
Athallow plath, to plunge him in the deep,
And with fatiety feeks to quench his thirft.

Tra. Me pardonato, gentle mafter mine,
Iam in all affected as yourself;,
Glad that you thus continue your refolve,
To fuck the sweets of sweet philofophy.
Ordy, good matter, while we do admire
This virtue, and this moral difcipline,
Let's be no ftoicks, nor no stocks, I pray;
Or fo devote to Aristotle's checks 5,
As Ovid be an outcaft quite abjur'd:

Taik logick with acquaintance that you have,
And practife rhetorick in your common talk;
Mufick, and poefy, use to quicken you;
The mathematicks, and the metaphyficks,
Fall to them, as you find your stomach serves you:
No profit grows, where is no pleasure ta'en;-
la brief, fir, study what you most affect.

Luc. Gramercies, Tranio, well doft thou advife. , Biondello, thou wert come afhore,

We could at once put us in readiness;

And take a lodging, fit to entertain

Sach friends as time in Padua shall beget.
Butitay a while: What company is this?

Leur Baptista, with Katharina and Bianca.

Leave shall you have to court her at your pleafure.
Gre. To cart her rather: She's too rough for me:
There, there, Hortenfio, will you any wife?
Kath. I pray you, fir, is it your will
To make a stale of me amongst these mates?

Hor. Mates, maid! how mean you that? no

mates for you,

Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

Kath. I' faith, fir, you shall never need to fear;
I-wis, it is not half way to her heart:
But, if it were, doubt not, her care shall be
To comb your noddle with a three-legg'd stool,
And paint your face, and use you like a fool.

Hor. From all fuch devils, good Lord, deliver us!
Gre. And me too, good Lord!

Tra. Hush, master! here is fome good pastime
toward;

That wench is stark mad, or wonderful froward.
Luc. But in the other's filence I do fee

Maid's mild behaviour and fobriety.
Peace, Tranio.

[fl.

Tra. Well faid, master; mum! and gaze your
Bap. Gentlemen, that I may foon make good
What I have faid-Bianca, get you in:
And let it not difplease thee, good Bianca;
For I will love thee ne'er the lefs, my girl.
Kath. A pretty peat! 'tis best
Put finger in the eye,-an she knew why.

Bian. Sifter, content you in my difcontent.-
Sir, to your pleafure humbly I fubfcribe :
My books, and inftruments, shall be my company;
On them to look, and praćtife by myfelf.

Luc. Hark, Tranio! thou may'st hear Minerva
[Alide

fpeak.

Hor. Signior Baptista, will you be so strange 72
Sorry am I that our good will affects
Bianca's grief.

Gre. Why, will you mew her up,
Signior Baptitta, for this fiend of hell,
And make her bear the penance of her tongue?
Bap. Gentlemen, content ye; I am refolv'd:
Go in, Bianca.
[Exit Biança.

And, for I know the taketh moft delight
In mufick, instruments, and poetry,
Schoolmafters will I keep within my house,
Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortenfio, -

Tra. Maiter, fome shew to welcome us to town. Or fignior Gremio, you,-know any fuch,
Gre-Prefer them hither; for to cunning men

we and Hortenfia. Lucentio and Tranio stand by. I will be very kind, and liberal.
kap. Gentlemen, importune me no farther, To mine own children in good bringing-up;

4 The

1 Perhaps we ought to read, ingenuous. 2 i. e. Vincentio's fon. 3 i. e. will I apply to. correct Italian words are, "Mi perdonate." 5 Meaning his rules. 6 Peat, or pet, is a word of endearmen, from petit, little. 7 i. e. fo fingular. 8 Cunning here retains its original fignification of

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learned;

oned in which fenfe it is ufed in the tranflation of the Bible.

And

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