But that his beard grew thin and hungerly, [Music. Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, BAPTISTA, HORTENSIO, GRUMIO, and Train. Pet. Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for your pains. I know, you think to dine with me to-day, And have prepar❜d great store of wedding cheer; To this most patient, sweet, and virtuous wife : Tra. Let us entreat you stay till after dinner. Gre. Let me entreat you. Pet. It cannot be. Kath. Let me entreat you. Pet. I am content. Kath. Are you content to stay? Pet. I am content you shall entreat me stay; But yet not stay, entreat me how you can. Kath. Now, if you love me, stay. Pet. Grumio, my horses. Gru. Ay, sir, they be ready; the oats have eaten the horses.2 Kath. Nay, then, Do what thou canst, I will not go to-day; [1] It appears that this was also part of the marriage ceremonial. STE. [2] There is still a ludicrous expression used when horses have staid so long in a place as to have eaten more than they are worth-viz. that their heads are too big for the stable-door. STEEVENS. 5 VOL. III. ད No, nor to-morrow, nor till I please myself. You may be jogging, whiles your boots are green; Pet. O, Kate, content thee; pr'ythee, be not angry. If she had not a spirit to resist. Pet. They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command: She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing; And here she stands, touch her whoever dare; Draw forth thy weapon; we're beset with thieves; Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch thee, Kate; [Exe. PET. KATH. and GRUMIO. Luc. Mistress, what's your opinion of your sister? Bap. Neighbours and friends, though bride and bridegroom wants For to supply the places at the table, You know, there wants no junkets at the feast ;- [4] Alluding to the tenth commandment: "-thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house,-nor his ox, nor his ass." RITSON. And let Bianca take her sister's room. Tra. Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it? Bap. She shall, Lucentio.-Come, gentlemen, let's go. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I-A Hall in PETRUCHIO's Country House. Enter GRUMIO. Grumio. FIE, fie, on all tired jades! on all mad masters! and all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? was ever man so rayed was ever man so weary? I am sent before, to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm them. Now, were not I a little pot, and soon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I should come by a fire to thaw me :-But I, with blowing the fire, shall warm myself; for, considering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold.-Holla, hoa! Curtis ! Enter CURTIS. Curt. Who is that, calls so coldly? Gru. A piece of ice: If thou doubt it, thou may'st slide from my shoulder to my heel, with no greater a run but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis. Curt. Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio? Gru. O, ay, Curtis, ay: and therefore fire, fire; cast on no water. Curt. Is she so hot a shrewd as she's reported? Gru. She was, good Curtis, before this frost: but, thou know'st, winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis. Curt. Away, you three-inch fool !6 I am no beast. Gru. Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot; [5] That is, was ever man so marked with lashes. JOHNSON. It rather means bewrayed, i. e. made dirty. So Spenser, speaking of a fountain, "Which she increased with her bleeding heart, Again, in book III. cant. 8. st. 32. "Who whiles the piteous lady up did rise, TOLLET. [6] i. e. with a skull three inches thick, a phrase taken from the thicker sort of planks. WARBURTON. But wilt thou make a and so long am I, at the least. fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand (she being now at hand) thou shalt soon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot office. Curt. I pr'ythee, good Grumio, tell me, How goes the world? Gru. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and, therefore, fire: Do thy duty, and have thy duty; for my master and mistress are almost frozen to death. Curt. There's fire ready; And therefore, good Grumio, the news? Gru. Why, Jack boy! ho boy !7 and as much news as thou wilt. Curt. Come, you are so full of conycatching ; Gru. Why, therefore, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. Where's the cook? is supper ready, the house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs swept; the serving-men in their new fustian, their white stockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on? Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets laid, 9 and every thing in order? Curt. All ready; and therefore, I pray thee, news? Gru. First, know, my horse is tired; my master and mistress fallen out. Curt. How? Gru. Out of their saddles into the dirt; And thereby hangs a tale. Curt. Let's ha't, good Grumio. Gru. Lend thine ear. Curt. Here. Gru. There. [Striking him. Curt. This is to feel a tale, not to hear a tale. Gru. And therefore 'tis called, a sensible tale: and this cuff was but to knock at your ear, and beseech listening. Now I begin: Imprimis, we came down a foul hill, my master riding behind my mistress: [8] I believe the poet meant to play upon the words Jack and Jill, which signify two drinking measures, as well as men and maid-servants. The distinction made in the questions concerning them, was owing to this. The Jacks being of leather, could not be made to appear beautiful on the outside, but were very apt to contract foulness within; whereas the Fills, being of metal, were expected to be kept bright externally, and were not liable to dirt on the inside like the leather. STEEV. [9] In our author's time it was customary to cover tables with carpets. Floors, as appears from the present passage and others, were strewed with rushes. MAL. Curt. Both on one horse ? Curt. Why, a horse. Gru. Tell thou the tale :-But hadst thou not crossed me, thou should'st have heard how her horse fell, and she under her horse; thou should'st have heard, in how miry a place: how she was bemoiled; how he left her with the horse upon her; how he beat me because her horse stumbled; how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; how he swore; how she prayed-that never prayed before; how I cried; how the horses ran away; how her bridle was burst; how I lost my crupper;-with many things of worthy memory; which now shall die in oblivion, and thou return unexperienced to thy grave. Curt. By this reckoning, he is more shrew than she. Gru. Ay; and that, thou and the proudest of you all shall find, when he comes home. But what talk I of this?-call forth Nathaniel, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugarsop, and the rest; let their heads be sleekly combed, their blue coats brushed, and their garters of an indifferent knit: let them curtesy with their left legs; and not presume to touch a hair of my master's horse-tail, till they kiss their hands. Are they all ready? Curt. They are. Gru. Call them forth. Curt. Do you hear, ho? you must meet my master, to countenance my mistress. Gru. Why, she hath a face of her own. Curt. Who knows not that? Gru. Thou, it seems; that callest for company to Countenance her. Curt. I call them forth to credit her. Gru. Why, she comes to borrow nothing of them. Nath. Welcome home, Grumio. Phil. How now, Grumio? Jos. What, Grumio! Nich. Fellow Grumio! Nath. How now, old lad? Gru. Welcome, you ;-how now, you ;-what, you; -fellow, you ;-and thus much for greeting. Now, my spruce companions, is all ready, and all things neat? Nath. All things is ready: How near is our master? 5* VOL. III. |