Are, to plead Hortensia's passion;
B mi, Bianca, take him for thy lord,

Cfaut, that loves with all affection;
D fol re, one cliff, but two notes have I.
Elami, show pity, or I die.

Call you this Gamut ? tut, I like it not;
Old fathions please me beft ; I'm not so nice (17)
To change true rules for odd inventions.

Enter a Servant.
Serv. Mistress, your father prays you leave your

books, And help to dress your sister's chamber up; You know, to morrow is the wedding-day. * Bian. Farewel, sweet masters, both; I must be gone.

Exit. Luc. Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to itay.

[Exit. Hor. But I have cause to pry into this pedant; Methinks, he looks as tho' he were in love: Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble, To cast thy wandring eyes on every Stale; Seize thee, who list; if once I find thee ranging, Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing. (Exit. Enter Baptista, Gremio, Tranio, Catharina, Lua

centio, Bianca, and attendants. Bap. Signior Lucentio, this is the 'pointed day That Catb’rine and Petruchio should be married; And yet we hear not of our son-in-law. What will be said ? what mockery will it be, (17) Old Fashions please me beft: I'm not so nice

To change true Rules for new Inventions.] This is Sense and the Meaning of the Passage ; but the Reading of the Second Verse, for all that, is sophisticated. The genuine Copies all concur in Reading,

To change true Rules for old Inventions. This, indeed, is contrary to the very Thing it should express: But the casy Alteration, which I have made, restores the Sense, but adds a Contrast in the Terms perfectly juft. True Rules are oppos'd to odd Inventions ; i. e. Whimses,

то

To want the Bridegroom, when the Priest attends

To speak the ceremonial rites of marriage?
What says Lucentio to this shame of ours?
Gath. No shame, but mine; I must, forsooth, be

force
To give my hand oppos'd against my heart,
Unto a mad-brain Rudesby, full of spleen;
Who woo'd in haste, and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantick fool,
Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour:
And to be noted for a merry man,
He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage,
Make friends, invite, yes, and proclaim the banes;
Yet never means to wed, where he hath woo'd.
Now must the world point at poor Catharine,
And say, lo! there is mad Petruchio's wife,
If it would please him come and marry her.

Tra. Patience, good Catharine, and Baptista too;
Upon my life, Petruchio means but well
What ever fortune stays him from his word.
Tho’ he be blunt, I know him pafling wise;
Tho' he be merry, yet withal he's honeft.
Cath. Would Catharine had never seen him tho'!

[Exit weeping
Bap. Go, girl ; I cannot blame thee now to weep;
For such an injury would vex a Saint,
Much more a Shrew of thy impatient humour.

Enter Biondello. Bion. Master, Master; old news, and such news as you never heard of.

Bap. Is it new and old too? how may that be?

Bion. Why, is it not news to hear of Petruchio's coming ?

Bap. Is he come?
Bion. Why, no, Sir.
Bap. What then?
Bion. He is coming.
Bap. When will he be here?

Bion;

Bion. When he stands where I am, and sees you

there. Tra. But, say; what to thine old news?

Bion. Why, Petruchio is coming in a new hat and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches thrice turn'd; a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another lac'd ; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town-armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless, with two broken points ; his horse hip'd with an old mothy saddle, the stirrups of no kindred; besides, pofseft with the glanders, and like to mose in the chine, troubled with the lampasse, infected with the fashions, full of windgalls, sped with spavins, raied with the yellows, paft cure of the fives, stark {poiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots, waid in the back and Mouldershotten, near-legg'd before, and with a half-checkt bit, and a headftall of sheep's leather, which being restrain'd, to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repair'd with knots; one girt fix times piec'd, and a woman's crupper of velure, which hath two letters for her name, fairly set down in ftuds, and here and there piec'd with packthread.

Bap. Who comes with him?

Bion. Oh, Sir, his lackey, for all the world caparifon'd like the horse, with a linnen stock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, garter'd with a red and blue lift, an old hat, and the humour of forty fancies prickt up in't for a feather : a monster, a very monster in apparel, and not like a christian footboy, or a gentleman's lackey. Tra. 'Tis some odd humour pricks him to this

fashion ;
Yet oftentimes he goes but mean apparellid.

Bap. I am glad he's come, howsoever he comes,
Bion. Why, Sir, he comes not.
Bap. Didst thou not say, he comes ?
Bion. Who? that Petruchio came ?
Bap. Ay, that Petruchio came.

Bion. No, Sir; I say, his horse comes with him on his back,

Вар.

Bap. Why, that's all one.

Bion. Nay, by St. Jamy, I hold you a penny, A horse and a man is more than one, and yet not many.

Enter Petruchio and Grumio fantastically habited. Pet. Come, where be these gallants ? who is at

home?
Bap. You're welcome, Sir.
Pet. And yet

I come not well.
Bap. And yet you halt ņot.
Trá. Not to well 'parell’d, as I wish you were.

Pet. Were it better, I should rush in thus.
But where is Kate ? where is my lovely bride?
How does my Father? Gentles, methinks, you frown:
And wherefore gaze this goodly company,
As if they saw some wondrous monument,
Some comet, or unusual prodigy?

Bap. Why, Sir, you know, this is your wedding-day: First, were we fad, fearing you would not come; Now fadder, that you come so unprovided. Fie, doff this habit, shame to your estate, An eye-fore to our solemn festival.

Tra. And tell us what occasion of import Hath all so long detain'd you from your wife, And sent you hither so unlike your self?

Pet. Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear: Sufficeth, I am come to keep my word, Tho' in some part enforced to digress, Which at more leisure I will so excuse, As you shall well be satisfied withal. But, where is Kate? I itay too long from her ; The morning wears ; 'tis time, we were at church.

Tra. See not your Bride in these unreverent robes ; Go to my chamber, put on cloaths of mine.

Pet. Not I; believe me, thus I'll visit her.
Bap. But thus, I trust, you will not marry her.

. Pet. Good sooth, even thus; therefore ha' done with

words ; To me she's married, not unto my cloaths : Could I repair what she will wear in me,

As

1

As I could change these poor accoutrements,
'Twere well for Kate, and better for my self.
But what a fool am I to chat with you,
When I should bid good morrow to my Bride,
And seal the title with a lovely kiss ?

[Exit.
Tra. He hath some meaning in his mad attire:
We will persuade him, be it possible,
To put on better ere he go to church.

Bap. I'll after him, and see the event of this. [Exit.
Tra. But, Sir, our love concerneth us to add
Her Father's liking; which to bring to pafs,
As I before imparted to your Worship,
I am to get a man, (whate'er he be,
It skills not much; we'll fit him to our turn;)
And he shall be Vincentio of Pisa,
And make assurance here in Padua
Of greater sums than I have promised:
So fall you quietly enjoy your hope,
And marry sweet Bianca with confent.

Luc. Were it not, that my fellow school-master
Doth watch Bianca's steps so narrowly,
"Twere good, methinks, to steal our marriage;
Which once perform d, let all the world say, no,
I'll keep my own, despight of all the world.

Tra. That by degrees we mean to look into,
And watch our vantage in this business :
We'll over-reach the gray-beard Gremio,
The narrow-prying Father Minola,
The quaint musician amorous Licio ;
All for my master's fake, Lucentio.

Enter Gremio.
Now, Signior Gremio, came you from the church?

Gre. As willingly as e'er I came from school.
Tra. And is the Bride and Bridegroom coming home?

Gre. A Bridegroom, say you? Pris a groom, indeed, A grumbling groom, and that the girl shall find.

Tra. Curster than she? why, 'tis impoflible.
Gre. Why, he's a devil, a devil, a very,

fiend. Tra. Why, she's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam.

Gre.