CHARACTERS IN THE INDUCTION

To the Original Play of The Taming of a Shrew, entered on the Stationers' books in 1594, and printed in quarto in 1607.

POLIDOR,

Suitors to the Daughters of Alphonsus.

VALERIA, Servant to Aurelius.

SANDER, Servant to Ferando.

PHYLOTUS, a Merchant who personates the Duke.

Tailor, Haberdasher, and Servants to Ferando and Al

phonsus.

SCENE, Athens; and sometimes Ferando's Country

House.

A Lord.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

CHRISTOPHER SLY, a drunken Tinker. Persons in the
Hostess, Page, Players, Huntsmen, and
other Servants attending on the Lord.

BAPTISTA, a rich Gentleman of Padua.
VINCENTIO, an old Gentleman of Pisa.

Induction.

LUCENTIO, Son to Vincentio, in love with Bianca. PETRUCHIO, a Gentleman of Verona, a Suitor to Katharina.

CURTIS,

PEDANT, an old fellow set up to personate Vincentio.

KATHARINA, the Shrew, Daughters to Baptista.
BIANCA, her Sister,

Widow.

Tailor, Haberdasher, and Servants attending on Bap

tista and Petruchio.

SCENE, sometimes in Padua; and sometimes in Petruchio's House in the Country.

'LL pheese1 you, in faith.

Host. A pair of stocks, you rogue!

Sly. Y'are a baggage; the Slys are no rogues: Look in the chronicles, we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore, paucas pallabris; let the world slide: Sessa 3!

1 So again in Troilus and Cressida, Ajax says of Achilles :"I'll pheese his pride." And in Ben Jonson's Alchemist :

"Come, will you quarrel? I'll feize you, sirrah." Mr. Gifford says, "This word does not mean to drive, but to beat, to chastise, to humble, &c. in which sense (in the west of England) it may be heard every day." This is conformable to Skinner's interpretation of "Fease or Feag, Virgis cædere, Flagellare." It appears formerly to have sometimes been used in the sense of to drive away, as in Stanyhurst's Translation of Virgil:-" Feaze away the drone bees." And again :

"We are toused, and from Italy feazed."

Thus in Baret's Alvearie, 1573:-"A feese, or race; Procursus." I find it in Ray's Proverbs, ed. 1737, p. 269, as communicated to him by a Somersetshire man:-"I'll vease thee, that is, hunt, drive thee."

2 Pocas palabras, Span. few words. 3 Cessa, Ital. be quiet.

Host. You will not pay for the glasses you have burst? Sly. No, not a denier: Go by, S. Jeronimy ;—Go to thy cold bed, and warm thee*.

Host. I know my remedy, I must go fetch the headborough 5. [Exit. Sly. Third, or fourth, or fifth borough, I'll answer him by law: I'll not budge an inch, boy; let him come, and kindly.

[Lies down on the ground, and falls asleep. Wind Horns. Enter a Lord from Hunting, with Huntsmen and Servants.

Lord. Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds:

Trash Merriman,—the poor cur is emboss'd,
And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach7.

This line and the scrap of Spanish is used in burlesque from an old play called Hieronymo, or the Spanish Tragedy. Mr. Dyce has adduced many similar passages, where "Go by, Jeronimo," occurs in ridicule of the old play; there is additional humour in Sly making a saint of Jeronimo.

The mention of head-borough brings third-borough into Sly's mind, an officer, whose authority equals that of a constable.

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6 "Emboss'd," says Philips in his World of Words, “is a term in hunting, when a deer is so hard chased that she foams at the mouth; it comes from the Spanish Desembocar, and is metaphorically used for any kind of weariness." The etymology is erroneous. Skinner has pointed out its most probable derivation from the Italian word Ambascia or Ambastia, which signifies difficulty of breathing coming from excessive fatigue;" and which is also used metaphorically, like the English word, for weariness. Emboss'd is used in both these senses by Shakespeare and Spenser, as well as in the more common and still usual one of swelling with protuberances. Thus an emboss'd stag is a distress'd stag foaming and panting for breath, like the brach or hound Merriman in the text.

1 Brach originally signified a particular species of dog used for the chase. It was a long eared dog, hunting by the scent. The etymology of the word has not been clearly pointed out; it is from the Gothic racke, hence the Saxon ræc, and the English rache or ratche. In the Book of St. Alban's, among "the names of dyvers manere houndes," we have "raches;" and among "the com

Saw'st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good
At the hedge corner, in the coldest fault?
I would not lose the dog for twenty pound.

1 Hunt. Why, Belman is as good as he, my
He cried upon it at the merest loss,
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 Echo were as fleet,
I would esteem him worth a dozen such.

But

sup them well, and look unto them all; To-morrow I intend to hunt again.

1 Hunt. I will, my lord.

lord;

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

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

This were a bed but cold to sleep so soundly.

Lord. O monstrous beast! how like a swine 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, Wrapp'd in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers, A most delicious banquet by his bed,

And brave attendants near him when he wakes;

panyes of bestys," &c. "a kenel of rachys." And again :"all other bestes that huntyd shall be,

Shall be sought and found with ratches so free." Skelton also, in his Interlude of Magnificence, printed in the reign of Henry VIII.—

"Here is a leyshe of ratches for to renne a hare." Hence brache and brach. A similar name for a hound is found in most European languages. It came at length to be used in England for a bitch, probably from similarity of sound, and this was a very general acceptation of the word in Shakespeare's time, as appears from Baret's Dictionary:-" a brache or biche, Canicula; Petite Chienne." The reason is assigned in The Gentleman's Recreation, 8vo. p. 27:-" A brach is a mannerly name for all hound bitches" The old copy has Brach Merriman, by error for Trash, i.e. keep him back.