As Stephen Sly, and old John Naps o' the Green,
And Peter Turf, and Henry Pimpernell;

And twenty more such names and men as these,
Which never were, nor no man ever saw.

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

Sly. I thank thee; thou shalt not lose by it.

Enter the Page, as a lady, with Attendants. Page. How fares my noble lord?

Sly. Marry, I fare well; for here is cheer enough. Where is my wife?

Page. Here, noble lord: What is thy will with her?

Sly. Are you my wife, and will not call me hus

band?

My men should call me lord: I am your geodman. Page. 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. Al'ce madam, or Joan madam ?

Lord. Madam, and nothing else: so lords call ladies.

Sly. Madam wife, they say that I have dream'd, And slept above some fifteen year or more.

Page. 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.

8 Blackstone proposes to read, "old John Naps o'the Green. Probably there is an allusion to some place in Warwickshire, then known by the name of Greece."

H.

Page. Thrice noble lord, let me entreat of you To pardon me yet for a night or two;

Or, if not so, until the sun be set;

For your physicians have expressly 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.

Sly. Ay, it stands so, that I may hardly tarry so long. But I would be loth to fall into my dreams again; I will therefore tarry, in despite of the flesh and the blood.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. Your honour's players, hearing your amend

ment,

Are come to play a pleasant comedy;

For so your doctors hold it very meet,

Seeing too much sadness hath congeal'd your blood, And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy:

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 a Christmas gambol, or a tumbling trick?

9

Page. No, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff.
Sly. What, household stuff?

Page. It is a kind of history.

Sly. Well, we'll see't: Come, madam wife, sit by my side, and let the world slip; we shall ne'er [They sit down.

be younger.

• For comedy.

ACT 1.

SCENE 1. Padua. A public Place.

Enter LUCENTIO and TRANIO.

Luc. Tranio, since, for the great desire I had
To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,
I am arriv'd for fruitful Lombardy,
The pleasant garden of great Italy;

And, by my father's love and leave, am arm'd
With his good will, and thy good company,
My trusty servant, well approv'd in all ;
Here let us breathe, and haply institute
A course of learning, and ingenious' studies.
Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,

Gave me my being, and my father first,

A merchant of great traffic through the world,
Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.

Vincentio's son, brought up in Florence,

It shall become, to serve 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 philosophy
Will I apply, that treats of happiness
By virtue 'specially to be achiev'd.
Tell me thy mind; for I have Pisa left,
And am to Padua come, as he that leaves

Ingenious and ingenuous were used indifferently by oid

writers.

2 That is, to fulfil the expectations of his friends.

3 Apply for ply is frequently used by old writers. Thus Baret: "With diligent endeavour to applie their studies." And in Turberville's Tragic Tales: "How she her wheele applyde."

A shallow plash,' to plunge him in the deep,
And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.

Tra. Me perdonato, gentle master mine,
I am in all affected as yourself,

Glad that you thus continue your resolve,
To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
Only, good master, while we do admire
This virtue, and this moral discipline,
Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray;
Or so devote to Aristotle's ethics,

As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd.

7

Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,
And practise rhetoric in your common talk:
Music and poesy use to quicken you:
The mathematics, and the metaphysics,

Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en :

In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Luc. Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise. If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,

We could at once put us in readiness,

And take a lodging fit to entertain

Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.

But stay awhile: what company is this?

Tra. Master, some show, to welcome us to town

Small piece of water.

Me being pardoned.

The old copy reads Aristotle's checks. Blackstone suggests that we should read ethics, and the sense seems to require it.

7 So in the original: commonly but injuriously changed to talk. The proper meaning of balk is, to omit, pass over, which is just the sense required in the text. Leave out logic with your ac. quaintance, and use rhetoric in your talk with them.

H.

Enter BAPTISTA, KATHARINA, BIANCA, GREMIO, and HORTENSIO. LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand aside.

Bap. Gentlemen, importune me no further,
For how I firmly am resolv'd you know;
That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter,
Before I have a husband for the elder.

If either of you both love Katharina,
Because I know you well, and love you well,
Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure
Gre. To cart her rather she's too rough for

me:

There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?

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

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

Tra. Hush, master! here is some good pastime
toward:

That wench is stark mad, or wonderful froward.
Luc. But in the other's silence I do see
Maid's mild behaviour and sobriety.

Peace, Tranio!

The expression seems to have a quibbling allusion to the chess term of stale-mate. So in Bacon's twelfth Essay: 66 They stand like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir." Shakespeare sometimes uses stale for a decoy, as in the second scene of the third act of this play.