Perhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all.
Luc. O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
Such as the daughter of Agenor* had,
That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand.

Tra. Saw you no more? mark'd you not, how her sister

Began to scold; and raise up such a storm,
That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?
Luc. Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,
And with her breath she did perfume the air;
Sacred, and sweet, was all I saw in her.

Tra. Nay, then, 'tis time to stir him from his

trance.

I pray, awake, sir; If you love the maid,

Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it

stands:

Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd,

That, till the father rid his hands of her,
Master, your love must live a maid at home;
And therefore has he closely mew'd her up,
Because she shall not be annoy'd with suitors.

Luc. Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!
But art thou not advis'd, he took some care
To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?
Tra. Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now 'tis plotted.
Luc. I have it, Tranio.
Tra.

Master, for my hand, Both our inventions meet and jump in one. Luc. Tell me thine first. Tra.

You will be schoolmaster, And undertake the teaching of the maid: That's your device.

Luc.

It is: May it be done?

*-daughter of Agenor] Europa, for whose sake Jupiter transformed himself into a bull.

Tra. Not possible; For who shall bear your part,

And be in Padua here Vincentio's son?

Keep house, and ply his book; welcome his friends; Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?

5

Luc. Basta; content thee; for I have it full. We have not yet been seen in any house; Nor can we be distinguished by our faces, For man, or master: then it follows thus;Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead, Keep house, and port,' and servants, as I should: I will some other be; some Florentine,

Some Neapolitan, or mean man of Pisa.
'Tis hatch'd, and shall be so:-Tranio, at once
Uncase thee; take my colour'd hat and cloak:
When Biondella comes, he waits on thee;
But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.

Tra. So had you need. [They exchange habits. In brief then, sir, sith it your pleasure is,

And I am tied to be obedient;

(For so your father charg'd me at our parting;
Be serviceable to my son, quoth he,
Although, I think, 'twas in another sense,)
I am content to be Lucentio,

Because so well I love Lucentio.

Luc. Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves: And let me be a slave, to achieve that maid Whose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye.

Enter BIONDello.

Here comes the rogue.-Sirrah, where have you been?

5 Basta;] i. e. 'tis enough; Italian and Spanish.

6

- I have it full.] i. e. conceive our stratagem in its full extent, I have already planned the whole of it.

7

port,] Port is figure, show, appearance.

Bion. Where have I been? Nay, how now, where are you?

Master, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes?
Or you stol'n his? or both? pray, what's the news?
Luc. Sirrah, come hither; 'tis no time to jest,
And therefore frame your manners to the time.
Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
Puts my apparel and my countenance on,
And I for my escape have put on his;
For in a quarrel, since I came ashore,
I kill'd a man, and fear I was descried.
Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
While I make way from hence to save my life:
You understand me?

Bion.

I, sir? ne'er a whit.
Luc. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth;
Tranio is chang'd into Lucentio.

Bion. The better for him; 'Would I were so too! Tra. So would I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,

That Lucentio, indeed, had Baptista's youngest daughter.

But, sirrah,-not for my sake, but your master's,I advise

You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies:

When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;
But in all places else, your master Lucentio.
Luc. Tranio, let's go:-

One thing more rests, that thyself execute;
To make one among these wooers: If thou ask me

why,Sufficeth, my reasons are both good and weighty. [Exeunt.

- good and weighty.] The division for the second Act of this play is neither marked in the folio nor quarto editions. Shakspeare seems to have meant the first Act to conclude here, where

1 Serv. My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play.

A good matter,

Sly. Yes, by saint Anne, do I. surely; Comes there any more of it? Page. My lord, 'tis but begun. Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady; 'Would't were done!

SCENE II.

The same. Before Hortensio's House.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.

Pet. Verona, for a while I take my leave,
To see my friends in Padua; but, of all,
My best beloved and approved friend,
Hortensio; and, I trow, this is his house:-
Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

Gru. Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there any man has rebused your worship?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly. Gru. Knock you here, sir? why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate,
And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.
Gru. My master is grown quarrelsome: I should
knock you first,

And then I know after who comes by the worst.
Pet. Will it not be?

'Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll wring it; I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.

[He wrings GRUMIO by the ears.

the speeches of the Tinker are introduced; though they have been hitherto thrown to the end of the first Act, according to a modern and arbitrary regulation STEEVENS.

9

-wring it;] Here seems to be a quibble between ringing at a door, and wringing a man's ears. STEEVENS.

Gru. Help, masters, help! my master is mad. Pet. Now, knock when I bid you: sirrah! villain!

Enter HORTENSIO.

Hor. How now? what's the matter?-My old friend Grumio! and my good friend Petruchio!How do you all at Verona?

Pet. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray?

Con tutto il core bene trovato, may I say.

Hor. Alla nostra casa bene venuto, Molto honorato signor mio Petruchio. Rise, Grumio, rise; we will compound this quarrel.

Gru. Nay, 'tis no matter, what he 'leges in Latin.'-If this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service,-Look you, sir,—he bid me knock him, and rap him soundly, sir: Well, was it fit for a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, (for aught I see,) two and thirty,-a pip out? Whom, 'would to God, I had well knock'd at first, Then had not Grumio come by the worst.

Pet. A senseless villain!-Good Hortensio, I bade the rascal knock upon your gate, And could not get him for my heart to do it. Gru. Knock at the gate?-O heavens! Spake you not these words plain,-Sirrah, knock me

here,

Rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly? And come you now with-knocking at the gate?

Pet. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.

'what he 'leges in Latin.] i. e. I suppose, what he alleges in Latin. STEEVENS.

2 —— knock me soundly?] Shakspeare seems to design a ridicule on this clipped and ungrammatical phraseology; which yet he has introduced in Othello:

"I pray talk me of Cassio."