My father dead, my fortune lives for me; And I do hope good days, and long, to see. Gre. O, sir, such a life, with such a wife, were strange: But, if you have a stomach, to't o'God's name; But will you woo this wild cat? Will I live? Pet. [Aside. Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang? And do you tell me of a woman's tongue; That gives not half so great a blow to the ear, As will a chesnut in a farmer's fire? Tush! tush! fear boys with bugs. Gru. Gre. Hortensio, hark! This gentleman is happily arriv'd, For he fears none. [Aside. My mind presumes, for his own good, and yours. [Aside. Enter TRANIO, bravely apparell'd; and BIONDEello. Tra. Gentlemen, God save you! If I may be bold, Tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way To the house of signior Baptista Minola? Gre. He that has the two fair daughters:-is't [Aside to TRANIO.] he you mean? Tra. Even he. Biondello! Gre. Hark you, sir; You mean not her to Tra. Perhaps, him and her, sir; What have you to do? Pet. Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray. Tra. I love no chiders, sir:-Biondello, let's away. Luc. Well begun, Tranio. Hor. Sir, a word ere you go; [Aside. Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea, or no? Tra. An if I be, sir, is it any offence? Gre. No; if, without more words, you will get you hence. Tra. Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me, as for you? Gre. But so is not she. Tra. For what reason, I beseech you? That she's the choice love of signior Gremio. Hor. That she's the chosen of signior Hortensio. Tra. Softly, my masters! if you be gentlemen, Do me this right,-hear me with patience. Baptista is a noble gentleman, To whom my father is not all unknown; And so she shall; Lucentio shall make one, Gre. What! this gentleman will out-talk us all. Luc. Sir, give him head; I know, he'll prove a jade. Pet. Hortensio, to what end are all these words? Hor. Sir, let me be so bold as to ask you, Did you yet ever see Baptista's daughter? Tra. No, sir; but hear I do, that he hath two; The one as famous for a scolding tongue, As is the other for beauteous modesty. Pet. Sir, sir, the first's for me; let her go by. Gre. Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules; And let it be more than Alcides' twelve. Pet. Sir, understand you this of me, insooth;- Tra. If it be so, sir, that you are the man Hor. Sir, you say well, and well you do conceive; And since you do profess to be a suitor, You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman, To whom we all rest generally beholden. Tra. Sir, I shall not be slack: in sign whereof, • Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,] Contrive does not signify here to project, but to spend and wear out; probably from contero. And do as adversaries do in law,"— Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. begone. 8 Hor. The motion's good indeed, and be it so ;Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. The same. A Room in Baptista's House. Enter KATHARINA and BIANCA. Bian. Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself, To make a bondmaid and a slave of me; Kath. Of all thy suitors, here I charge thee, tell Kath. Minion, thou liest; Is't not Hortensio ? 7 as adversaries do in law,] By adversaries in law, I believe, our author means not suitors, but barristers, who, however warm in their opposition to each other in the courts of law, live in greater harmony and friendship in private, than perhaps those of any other of the liberal professions. Their clients seldom "eat and drink with their adversaries as friends." MALONE. 8 Fellows, let's begone.] Fellows means fellow-servants. Grumio and Biondello address each other, and also the disguised Lucentio. MALONE. I'll plead for you myself, but you shall have him. Bian. Is it for him you do envy me so? Enter BAPTISTA. [Strikes her. Bap. Why, how now, dame! whence insolence? Bianca, stand aside;-poor girl! she weeps:- When did she cross thee with a bitter word? Kath. Her silence flouts me, and I'll be reveng'd. [Flies after BIANCA. Bap. What, in my sight?-Bianca, get thee in. [Exit BIANCA. Kath. Will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see, She is your treasure, she must have a husband; I must dance bare-foot on her wedding-day, And, for your love to her, lead apes in hell.' 9 - hilding-] The word hilding or hinderling, is a low wretch; it is applied to Katharine for the coarseness of her behaviour. JOHNSON. 1 And, for your love to her, lead apes in hell.] " To lead apes" was in our author's time, as at present, one of the employments of a bear-herd, who often carries about one of those animals along with his bear: but I know not how this phrase came to be applied to old maids. MALONE. That women who refused to bear children, should, after death, be condemned to the care of apes in leading-strings, might have been considered as an act of posthumous retribution. STEEVENS. |