The jeweller, that owes the ring, is sent for,
And he shall surety me. But for this lord,
Who hath abus'd me, as he knows himself,
Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him:
He thinks himself, my bed he hath defil'd;
But 'twas his wife who then became with child:

And now behold the meaning.

King.

Re-enter Widow, with HELENA.

Is there no exorcist

Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes?

Is't real, that I see?

• Hel.

No, my good lord;

'Tis but the shadow of a wife you see, The name, and not the thing.

Ber.

Both, both; O, pardon! Hel. O, my good lord, when I was like this maid, I found you wondrous kind. There is your ring, And, look you, here's your letter; This it says, When from my finger you can get this ring, And are by me with child, &c. - This is done: Will you be mine, now you are doubly won?

Ber. If she, my liege, can make me know this

clearly,

I'll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.

Hel. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue, Deadly divorce step between me and you! O, my dear mother, do I see you living?

Laf. Mine eyes smell onions, I shall weep anon : Good Tom Drum, [TO PAROLLES.] lend me a handkerchief: So, I thank thee; wait on me home, I'll make sport with thee: Let thy courtesies alone, they are scurvy ones.

King. Let us from point to point this story know, To make the even truth in pleasure flow : If thou be'st yet a fresh uncropped flower,

[TO DIANA.

Choose thou thy husband, and I'll pay thy dower;
For I can guess, that, by the honest aid,
Thou kept'st a wife herself, thyself a maid. -
Of that, and all the progress, more and less,
Resolvedly more leisure shall express:
All yet seems well; and, if it end so meet,
The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.

[Flourish.

Advancing.

The king's a beggar, now the play

All is well ended, if this suit be won,

is done:

That you express content; which we will pay,
With strife to please you, day exceeding day:
Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts,
Your gentle
and take our hearts.

us,

[Exeunt.

8 i. e. Take our parts, support and defend us.

TAMING

OF

THE SHREW.

CHRISTOPHER SLY, a drunken tinker.
Hostess, Page, Players, Huntsmen and

other Servants attending on the Lord.

}

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

Persons in

the Introduction.

LUCENTIO, son to Vincentio, in love with Bianca.

PETRUCHIO, a gentleman of Verona, a suitor to Ka

tharina.

PEDANT, an old fellow set up to personate Vincentio.

KATHARINA, the Shrew;

} daughters to Baptista.

1

BIANCA, her sister,

Widow.

Tailor, Haberdasher, and Servants attending on Baptista and Petruchio.

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

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.

A Lord, &c.

SLY.

A Tapster.

Page, Players, Huntsmen, &c.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

ALPHONSUS, a merchant of Athens.

JEROBEL, Duke of Cestus.

AURELIUS, his son,

FERANDO,

POLIDOR,

}

suitors to the daughters of

Alphonsus.

VALERIA, servant to Aurelius.

SANDER, servant to Ferando.

PHYLotus, a Merchant who personates the Duke.