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Re-enter Biondello.

How now! what news?

Bion. Sir, my mistress fends you word

That she is busy, and the cannot come.

Pet. How! the is busy, and the cannot come! Is that an anfwer?

Gre. Ay, and a kind one too:

Pray God, fir, your wife fend you not a worse.

Pet. I hope, better.

Hor. Sirrah, Biondello, go, and intreat my wife To come to me forthwith.

Pet. Oh, ho! intreat her!

Nay, then the needs muft come.

Hor. I am afraid, fır,

[Exit Biondello.

Do what you can, yours will not be entreated.
Enter Biondello.

Now, where's my wife?

Bion. She fays, you have fome goodly jeft in hand;
She will not come; the bids you come to her.
Pet. Worfe and worfe; she will not come!

Oh vile, intolerable, not to be endur'd!
Sirrah, Grumio, go to your mistress;
Say, I command her come to me.

Hor. I know her answer.

Pet. What?

Hor. She will not.

What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.
Wid. Come, come, you're mocking; we will have

no telling.

Pet. Come on, I fay, and first begin with her.
Wid. She shall not.

Pet. I fay, the shall; and first begin with her.
Kath. Fye! fye! 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 frofts bite the meads;
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds;
And in no fenfe is meet or amiable.

A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-feeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And, while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to fip, or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy fovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance: commits his body
To painful labour, both by fea and land;

To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
[Exit Grumio. While thou ly'st warm at home, secure and fafe;

Pet. The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.
Enter Katharine.

Bap. Now, by my holidame, here comes Ka-
tharina!

Kath. What is your will, fir, that you fent for me?
Pet. Where is your fifter, and Hortensio's wife?
Kath. They fit conferring by the parlour fire.

Pet. Go, fetch them hither; if they deny to come,
Swinge me them foundly forth unto their husbands:
Away, I fay, and bring them hither ftraight.

[Exit Katharine.

Luc. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.
Hor. And fo it is; I wonder what it bodes.

Pat. Marry, 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?

Bap. Now fair befal thee, good Petruchio!
The wager thou haft won; and I will add
Unto their lofses twenty thoufand crowns;
Another dowry to another daughter,
For the is chang'd, as the had never been.

Pet. Nay, 1 will win my wager better yet;
And show more fign of her obedience,
Her new-built virtue and obedience.-

Re-enter Katharine, with Bianca and Widow.
See where the comes; and brings your froward wives
As prifoners to her womanly perfuafion-
Katharine, that cap of yours becomes you not;
Off with that bauble, throw it under foot.

[She pulls off ber cap, and throws is down.
Wid. Lord, let me never have a caufe to figh,
'Till I be brought to fuch a filly pass!
Bian. Fye! what a foolish duty call you this?
Lue. I would, your duty were as foolith too:
The wildom of your duty, fair Bianca,
Hath coft me an hundred crowns fince supper-time.
Bian. The more fool you, for laying on my duty.
Pet. Katharine, I charge thee, tell thefe head-

ftrong women

And craves no other tribute at thy hands,
But love, fair looks, and true obedience;-
Too little payment for fo great a debt.
Such duty as the fubject owes the prince,
Even fuch, a woman oweth to her husband:
And, when she's froward, peevish, fullen, four,
And not obedient to his honeft will,
What is the but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?-
I am afham'd, that women are fo fimple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or feek for rule, fupremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to ferve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies foft, and weak, and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world;
But that our foft condition, and our hearts,
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms.!
My, mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great; my reason, haply, more,
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown:
But now, I fee our lances are but straws;
Our ffrength as weak, our weakness paft compare,
That feeming to be moft, which we indeed leaft are.
Then vail your ftomachs, for it is no boot;
And place your hands below your husband's foot;
In token of which duty, if he pleate,

My hand is ready, may it do him ease. [me, Kate,
Pet. Why there's a wench! - Come on, and kifs
Line. Well, go thy ways, old lad'; for thou shalt hat.
Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are
toward.
[froward.
Luc. But a harth hearing, when women are
Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to-bed:-
We three are married, but you two are sped.
'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white;
And, being a winner, God give you good night!
Excunt Petruchio and Katharine.

Hor. Now go thy ways, thou haft tam'd a curft
shrow.
Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be
[Exeunt omnes.

tam'd fo.

Meaning, lower your pride. 2 A phrafe borrowed from archery: the mark being commonly

white.

ALL'

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Count.

I

N delivering my fon from me, I bury a second husband.

Ber. And I, in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in fubjection...

Laf. You shall find of the king a husband, madam;-you, fir, a father: He that so generally is at all times good, must of neceffity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would ftir it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance.

Count. What hope is there of his majesty's

amendment?

Laf. He hath abandon'd his physicians, madam; under whose practices he hath perfecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in the process, but only the lofing of hope by time,

Count. This young gentlewoman had a father, (0, that bad! how fad a paffage 2 'tis! whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretch'd fo far, it would have made nature immortal, and death should have play'd for lack of work. 'Would, for the king's fake, he were living! I think, it would be the death of the king's disease..

4

1

the Widow

Laf. How call'd you the man you speak of, madam?

:

Count. He was famous, fir, in his profeffion, and it was his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon.

Laf. He was excellent, indeed, madam; the king very lately spoke of him, admiringly, and mourningly: he was skilful enough to have liv'd ftill, if knowledge could have been fet up againft mortality.

Ber. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?

Laf. A fistula, my lord,

Ber. I heard not of it before.. Laf. I would, it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?

Count. His fole child, my lord; and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good, that her education promises: her difpofitions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer: for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qua lities, there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too 3; in her they are the bet ter for their simpleness4; she derives her honefty, and atchieves her goodness..

Laf. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears.

Count. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can feafon her praise in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart, but the tyranny of her forrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No

The heirs of great fortunes were anciently the king's wards, 2 Paffage means any thing that pafes, and is here applied in the fame fenfe as when we lay the paffage of a book. 3 Dr. Johnfon this comments upon this passage: "Eftimable and useful qualities, joined with an evil difpofition, give that evil disposition power over others, who, by admiring the virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence." 4i. c. her excellencies are the better because they are artless and open, without fraud, without design,

T3

more

more of this, Helena, go to, no more; left it be Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full off rather thought you affect a forrow, than to have.

*Hel. I do affect a forrow, indeed, but I have Cold wisdom waiting on fuperfluous folly. it too.

we fee

Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the

Par. Save you, fair queen. Hel. And you, monarch.

Par. No.

dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living.

Count. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it foon mortal 1.

Ber. Madam, I desure your holy wishes. Laf. How understand we that? [father Count. Be thou blest, Bertram! and fucceed thy In manners, as in shape! Thy blood, and virtue, Contend for empire in thee; and thy goodness Share with thy birth-right! Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key: be check'd for filence, But never tax'd for speech. What heaven more will, That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down, Fallon thy head Farewell. My lord, 'Tis an unfeafon'd courtier, good my lord, Advise him.

Laf. He cannot want the best, That shall attend his love.

Count. Heaven bless him! Farewell, Bertram. [Exit Countess.

Ber. [To Helena.] The best wishes, that can be forg'd in your thoughts, be servants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her.

Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the credit of your father. [Ex. Bertram and Lafeu. Hel. Oh, were that all!-I think not on my father;

And these great tears 2 grace his remembrance more,
Than those I shed for him. What was he like?
I have forgot him: my imagination
Carries no favour in it, but Bertram's.
Iam undone; there is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. It were all one,
That I should love a bright particular star,
And think to wed it, he is so above me:
In his bright radiance and collateral light
Muft I be comforted, not in his sphere.
The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
The hind, that would be mated by the lion,
Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though a plague,
To fee him every hour; to fit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table; heart, too capable

every line and 3 trick of his sweet favour, But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy. Muft fan, Stify his relicks. Who comes here?

Enter Parolles.

One that goes with him: I love him for his fake;
And yet I know i'm a notorious liar,
Think him a great we fool, folely a coward;
Yet these fix'd evils fit fit in him,

That they take place, when virtue's steely bones

the

3.

Hel. And no..

Par. Are you meditating on virginity ?

Hel. Ay. You have fome § stain of foldier in you; let me ask you a question: Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it against him? Par. Keep him out.

Hel. But he affails; and our virginity, though valiant, in the defence yet is weak; unfold to us fome warlike refiftance.

Par. There is none; man, sitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up.

Hel. Bless our poor virginity from 'underminers, and blowers up!-Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men?

Par. Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politick in the common wealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first lott. That, you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once loft, may be ten times found : by being ever kept, is ever loft: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it.

Hal. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin.

Par. There's little can be faid in't; 'tis againft the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virgi nity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most in fallible difobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin: virginity murders itself; and should be buried in highways, out of all fanctified limit, as a defperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; confumes itself to the very paring, and fo dies with feeding its own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevith, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited fin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot chuse but lose by't: Out with't: within ten years it will make itself two, which is a goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse. Away with 't.

Hel. How might one do, fir, to lese it to her own liking?

Par. Let me fee: Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. 'Tis a commodity will lofe the glofs with lying; the longer kept, the less worth: off with 't, while 'tis vendible: answer the time of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fafhion; richly fuited, but unfuitable; just like the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not now: Your date is better in your pye

* That is, " If the living do not indulge grief, grief destroys itself by its own excess." z i, e. the tears of the king and countess. e. fome peculiar feature of his face. 4 Cold is here put for naked, and thus contrasted with fuperfluous or over-cloathed. 5 Meaning, fome colour of foldier. Parelles was in red, as appears from his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble bee.. e. forbidden in

apd

and your porridge, than in your cheek And thou dieft in thine unthankfulness, and thine igno.

your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our
French wither'd pears: it looks ill, it eats dryly;
marry, 'tis a wither'd pear: it was formerly bet-
ter; marry, yet, 'tis a wither'd pear: Will you
any thing with it?

Hel. Not my virginity yet.
There shall your master have a thousand loves,
A mother, and a mistress, and a friend,
A phoenix, captain, and an enemy,
A guide, a goddess, and a fovereign,
A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear;
His humble ambition, proud humility,
His jarring concord, and his difcord dulcet,
His faith, his sweet disafter; with a world
Of pretty, fond, adoptious chriftendoms,
That blinking Cupid goffips 2. Now shall he
I know not what he shall:-God fend him well!-
The court's a learning place;-and he is one
Par. What one, i'faith?

Hel. That I wish well. 'Tis pity
Par. What's pity?

Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't,
Which might be felt: that we, the poorer born,
Whose baser stars do shut us up in wishes,
Might with effects of them follow our friends,
And fhew what we alone must think; which never
Returns us thanks.

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Par. Under Mars, I.

Hel. I especially think, under Mars.

Par. Why under Mars?

rance makes thee away; farewel. When thou
haft leifure, say thy prayers; when thou haft none
remember thy friends: get thee a good husband,
and use him as he uses thee; so farewel. [Exit.

Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we afcribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull
Our flow defigns, when we ourselves are dull.
What power is it, which mounts my love so high;
That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye ?
The mightieft space in fortune nature brings
To join like likes, and kiss like native things 4.
Impoffible be strange attempts, to those
That weigh their pain in fenfe; and do suppose,
What hath been cannot be: Who ever strove
To thew her merit, that did miss her love?
The king's disease-my project may deceive me,
But my intents are fix'd, and will not leave me.

SCENE II.
The Court of France.

[Exit.

Flourish Cornets. Enter the King of France, with
Letters, and divers Attendants.

King. The Florentines and Senoyss are by the

ears;

Have fought with equal fortune, and continue
A braving war.

I Lord. So 'tis reported, fir.
King. Nay, 'tis most credible; we here receive it
A certainty, vouch'd from our coufin Austria,
With caution, that the Florentine will move us
For speedy aid; wherein our dearest friend
Prejudicates the business, and would feem
To have us make denial.

1 Lord. His love and wisdom,

Hel. The wars have kept you so under, that you Approv'd fo to your majesty, may plead

must needs be born under Mars.

Par. When he was predominant.

Hal. When he was retrograde, I think, rather.
Par. Why think you so ?

Hel. You go so much backward, when you fight.
Par. That's for advantage.

Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes the fafety: But the compofition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well.

For ampleft credence.

King. He hath arm'd our answer,
And Florence is deny'd before he comes :
Yet, for our gentlemen, that mean to fee
The Tuscan service, freely have they leave
To stand on either part.

2 Lod. It may well ferve
A nurfery to our gentry, who are fick
For breathing and exploit.
King. What's he comes here?

Enter Bertram, Lafen, and Parolles.
I Lord. It is the count Roufillon, my good lord,

Young Bertram.

Par. I am fo full of businesses, I cannot answer thee acutely: I will return perfect courtier; in the which, my inftruction shall serve to naturalize thee, so thou wilt be capable of courtier's counfel, and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee; elfe (Frank nature, rather curious than in hafte,

King. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face;

Shakspeare here quibbles on the word date, which means both age, and a kind of candied fruit. 3. Dr. Warburton is of opinion, that the eight lines following friend, is the nonfense of some foolish conceited player, who finding a thousand loves spoken of, and only three reckoned up, namely, a mother's, a mistress's, and a friend's, would help out the number by the intermediate nonfenfe. The meaning of Helen, however, in this passage may be, that she shall prove every thing to Bertram. 3 A metaphor taken from falconry; and meaning, a virtue that will fly high, 4 Dr. Johnfon explains these lines thus: " Nature brings like qualities and difpofitions to meet through any distance that fortune may have set between them; the joins them, and makes them kiss like things born together." $ The Senois were the people of a small republick, of which the capital was Sienna, and with whom The Flarentines were at constant variance.

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Hath well compos'd thee. Thy father's moral parts | Since the physician at your father's died?
May'st thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris.

Ber. My thanks and duty are your majesty's.
King. I would I had that corporal foundness now,

As when thy father, and myself, in friendsmip
First try'd our foldiership! He did look far
Into the fervice of the time, and was
Difcipled of the bravest: he lasted long;
But on us both did haggish age steal on,
And wore us out of act. It much repairs mẹ
To talk of your good father: In his youth
He had the wit, which I can well observe
To-day in our young lords; but they may jeft,
Till their own scorn return to them unnoted,
Ere they can hide their levity in honour1.
So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness
Were in his pride or sharpness: if they were,
His equal had awak'd them; and his honour,
Clock to itself, knew the true minute when
Exception bid him speak, and, at that time,
His tongue obey'd his hand: who were below him
He us'd as creatures of another place 2
And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks,
Making them proud of his humility,

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In their poor praise he humbled 3: Such a man
Might be a copy to these younger times:
Which follow'd well, would demonftrate them now
But goers backward.

Ber. His good remembrance, fir,
Lies richer in your thoughts, than on his tomb;
So in approof 4 lives not his epitaph,
As in your royal speech 5.

King. Would, I were with him! He would al

ways fay,

(Methinks, I hear him now; his plausive words
He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them
To grow there, and to bear) - Let me not live,
Thus his good melancholy oft began,
On the catastrophe and heel of paftime,
When it was out, let me not live, quoth he,
After my flame lacks oil, to be the fruff
Of younger spirits, whose apprehenfive fenfes
All but new things disdain; whose judgments are
Mere fathers of their garments; whose conftancies
Expire before their fashions:- This he wish'd:
I, after him, do after him wish too,

Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home,
I quickly were diffolved from my hive,
To give fome labourer room.

2 Lord. You are lov'd, fir;

He was much fam'd.

Ber. Some fix months since, my lord.
King. If he were living, I would try him yet ;-
Lend me an arm; the reft have worn me out
With feveral applications :-nature and fickneís
Debate it at their leisure. Welcome, count;
My fon's no dearer.

Ber. Thank your majesty. [Flourisfb. Excunt.

SCENE

III.

A Room in the Count's Palace.

Enter Countess, Steward, and Clown 6. Count. I will now hear: what fay you of this gentlewoman?

Stew. Madam, the care I have had to even your content, I wish might be found in the calendar of my paft endeavours; for then we wound our modesty, and make foul the clearness of our deservings, when of ourselves we publish them.

Count. What does this knave here? Get you gone, firrah: The complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my flowness, that I do not: for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make fuch knaveries yours 8.

Clo. 'Tis not unknown to you, madam, that I am a poor fellow.

Count. Well, fir.

Clo. No, madam, 'tis not so well, that I am poor: though many of the rich are damn'd: But, if I may have your ladyship's good will to go to the world 9, Isbel the woman and I will do as we may.

Count. Wilt thou needs be a beggar?
Clo. I do beg your good will in this cafe.
Count. In what cafe?

Clo. In Isbel's cafe, and mine own. Service is no heritage: and, I think, I shall never have the bleffing of God, till I have issue of my body; for, they say, bearns are bleffings.

Count. Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry. Clo. My poor body, madam, requires it: Iam driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go, that the devil drives.

Count. Is this all your worship's reason ?

Clo. Faith, madam, I have other holy reasons, fuch as they are.

| Count. May the world know them?

Clo. 1 have been, madam, a wicked creature,

They, that least lend it you, shall lack you first.
King. I fill a place, I know 't.-How long is't as you and all flesh and blood are; and, indeed, I

:

count,

do marry, that I may repent.

1

That is, cover petty faults with great merit. 2 i. e. he made allowances for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. 3 i. e. by condescending to stoop to his inferiors, he exalted them and made them proud; and, in the gracious receiving their poor praise, he humbled even his humility. Approof is approbation. 5 Mr. Tollet explains this passage thus: "His epitaph or infcription on his tomb is not fo much in approbation or commendation of him, as is your royal speech." • A Clown in Shakspeare is commonly taken for a licensed jester, or domestick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, tince fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the thouse. 7 i. e. to equal your defires. 8 i. e. You are fool enough to commit those irregu-2 larities you are charged with, and yet not fo much fool neither, as to difcredit the accusation by any defect in your ability. 9 i. e. to be married. See note 1, p. 128,

Countr

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