Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

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-husband? My men should call me-lord; I am your good-man. 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

4

Above some fifteen year and more.

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

Sly. 'Tis much;

alone.

-Servants, leave me and her

Madam, undress you, and come now to bed.

"Boy. Oh that my lovelie lord would once vouchsafe To looke on me, and leave these franticke fits!

"Or were I now but halfe so eloquent

"To paint in words what Ile performe in deedes,

"I know your honour then would pitie me.

"Slie. Harke you, mistresse; will you eat a peece of bread?

"Come, sit downe on my knee: Sim, drinke to her, Sim;

"For she and I will go to bed anon.

"Lord. May it please you, your honour's plaiers be come

"To offer your honour a plaie.

"Slie. A plaie, Sim, O brave! be they my plaiers?

"Lord. I, my lord.

"Slie. Is there not a foole in the plaie ?

"Lord. Yes, my lord.

"Slie. When will they plaie, Sim?

"Lord. Even when it please your honour; they be readie.

"Boy. My lord, Ile go bid them begin their plaie.

"Slie. Doo, but looke that you come againe.

"Boy. I warrant you, my lord; I will not leave you thus.

[Exit Boy.

"Slie. Come, Sim, where be the plaiers? Sim, stand by me, "And we 'll flowt the plaiers out of their coates.

"Lord. Ile cal them my lord. Ho, where are you there? "Sound trumpets.

"Enter two young gentlemen, and a man, and a boy." Steevens.

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 amendment,

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 com-
monty a Christmas gambol, or a tumbling-trick?5
Page. No, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff.
Sly. What, houshold 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 be younger. [They sit down.

4 Madam wife,] Mr. Pope gives likewise the following prefix to this speech from the elder play:

"Sly. Come, sit down on my knee. Sim, drink to her." Madam, &c. Steevens.

5 Is not a commonty a Christmas gambol, or a tumbling trick?] Thus the old copies; the modern ones read—It is not a commodity, &c. Commonty for comedy, &c. Steevens.

In the old play the players themselves use the word commodity corruptly for a comedy. Blackstone.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

A lord.

Christopher Sly, a drunken tinker. Hostess, page, players, huntsmen, and other servants attending on the lord.

[blocks in formation]

Baptista, a rich gentleman of Padua.
Vincentio, an old gentleman of Pisa.

Lucentio, son to Vincentio, in love with Bianca. Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, a suitor to Katharina. Gremio,

suitors to Bianca.

[blocks in formation]

}

servants to Petruchio.

Curtis,

Pedant, an old fellow set up to personate Vincentio.

[blocks in formation]

Sometimes in Padua; and sometimes in Petruchio's house in the country.

ACT I.....SCENE I.

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,1
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,
Most trusty servant, well approv'd in all;
Here let us breathe and happily institute
A course of learning, and ingenious2 studies.
Pisa, 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. 3

1

for fruitful Lombardy,] Mr. Theobald reads from. The former editions, instead of from had for. Johnson.

Padua is a city of Lombardy, therefore Mr. Theobald's emendation is unnecessary. Steevens.

2

ingenious

I rather think it was written-ingenuous studies, but of this and a thousand such observations there is little certainty. Johnson.

In Cole's Dictionary, 1677, it is remarked-" ingenuous and ingenious are too often confounded."

Thus, in The Match at Midnight, by Rowley, 1633:-" Methinks he dwells in my opinion: a right ingenious spirit, veil'd merely with the variety of youth, and wildness."

[ocr errors]

Again, in The Bird in a Cage, 1633:

66

deal ingeniously, sweet lady."

Again, so late as the time of the Spectator, No. 437, 1st edit. A parent who forces a child of a liberal and ingenious spirit," &c. Reed.

3 Pisa, renowned for grave citizens, &c.] This passage, I think, should be read and pointed thus:

Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,
Gave me my being, and my father first,

4

Vincentio his 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

A merchant of great traffick through the world,
Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii:

In the next line, which should begin a new sentence, Vincentio his son, is the same as Vincentio's son, which Mr. Heath not apprehending, has proposed to alter Vincentio into Lucentio.

It

may be added, that Shakspeare in other places expresses the genitive case in the same improper manner. See Troilus and Cressida, Act II, sc. i: "Mars his ideot." And Twelfth Night, Act III, sc. iii: "The Count his gallies." Tyrwhitt.

I am

Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.] The old copy reads—Vincentio's. The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. not sure that it is right. Our author might have written: Vincentio's son, come of the Bentivolii.

If that be the true reading, this line should be connected with the following, and a colon placed after world in the preceding line; as is the case in the original copy, which adds some support to the emendation now proposed:

Vincentio's son, come of the Bentivolii,
Vincentio's son brought up in Florence,
It shall become, &c. Malone.

▲ Vincentio his son,] The old copy reads-Vincentio's. Steevens. Vincentio's is here used as a quadrisyllable. Mr. Pope, I suppose, not perceiving this, unnecessarily reads-Vincentio his son, which has been too hastily adopted by the subsequent editors.

Malone. Could I have read the line, as a verse, without Mr. Pope's emendation, I would not have admitted it. Steevens.

5 to serve all hopes conceiv'd,] To fulfil the expectations of his friends. Malone.

6 Virtue, and that part of philosophy -] Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read-to virtue; but formerly ply and apply were indifferently used, as to ply or apply his studies.

Johnson. The word ply is afterwards used in this scene, and in the same manner, by Tranio:

"For who shall bear your part, &c.

"Keep house and ply his book?" M. Mason. So, in The Nice Wanton, an ancient interludé, 1560: "O ye children, let your time be well spent,

[ocr errors]

Apple your learning, and your elders obey."

Again, in Gascoigne's Supposes, 1566: "I feare he applyes his study so, that he will not leave the minute of an houre from his booke." Malone.

« AnteriorContinuar »