Then give me leave to read philosophy,
And, while I pause, serve in your harmony.
HOR. Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine.
BIAN. Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong,
To strive for that which resteth in my choice:
I am no breeching scholar in the schools;
I'll not be tied to hours, nor 'pointed times,
But learn my lessons as I please myself.
And, to cut off all strife, here sit we down:-
Take you your instrument, play you the whiles
His lecture will be done, ere you have tun'd.

;

HOR. You'll leave his lecture when I am in tune? [TO BIANCA.-HORTENSIO retires. Luc. That will be never;-tune your instrument. BIAN. Where left we last?

Luc. Here madam :·

Hac ibat Simois; hic est Sigeia tellus ;
Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis.
BIAN. Construe them.

Luc. Hac ibat, as I told you before, Simois, I am Lucentio, hic est, son unto Vincentio of Pisa, -Sigeia tellus, disguised thus to get your love ;— Hic steterat, and that Lucentio that comes a wooing, -Priami, is my man Tranio,-regia, bearing my

8

no breeching scholar-] i. e. no school-boy liable to corporal correction. So, in King Edward the Second, by Marlow, 1598:

-

"Whose looks were as a breeching to a boy." Again, in The Hog has lost his Pearl, 1614:

66

he went to fetch whips, I think, and, not respecting my honour, he would have breech'd me."

Again, in Amends for Ladies, 1618:

"If I had had a son of fourteen that had served me so, I would have breech'd him."

STeevens.

port,-celsa senis, that we might beguile the old pantaloon."

HOR. Madam, my instrument's in tune.

¿

[Returning. [HORTENSIO plays.

BIAN. Let's hear;

O fye! the treble jars.

Luc. Spit in the hole, man, and tune again.

BIAN. Now let me see if I can construe it: Hac ibat Simois, I know you not; hic est Sigeia tellus, I trust you not;-Hic steterat Priami, take heed he hear us not;-regia, presume not;-celsa senis, despair not.

HOR. Madam, 'tis now in tune.

LUC.

All but the base. HOR. The base is right; 'tis the base knave that jars.

How fiery and forward our pedant is!
Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love:
Pedascule, I'll watch you better yet.

BIAN. In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.2 Luc. Mistrust it not; for, sure, acides Was Ajax,3-call'd so from his grandfather.

- pantaloon.] The old cully in Italian farces.

JOHNSON. 'Pedascule,] He should have said, Didascale, but thinking this too honourable, he coins the word Pedascule, in imitation of it, from pedant. WARBURTON.

I believe it is no coinage of Shakspeare's, it is more probable that it lay in his way, and he found it. STEEVENS.

2 In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.] This and the seven verses that follow, have in all the editions been stupidly shuffled and misplaced to wrong speakers; so that every word said was glaringly out of character. THEOBALD.

-for, sure, Eacides &c.] This is only said to deceive

BIAN. I must believe my master; else, I promise

you,

I should be arguing still upon that doubt:
But let it rest.-Now, Licio, to you :—
Good masters, take it not unkindly, pray,
That I have been thus pleasant with

you both.

HOR. You may go walk, [To LUCENTIO.] and give me leave awhile;

My lessons make no musick in three parts.

Luc. Are you so formal, sir? well, I must wait, And watch withal; for, but I be deceiv'd," Our fine musician groweth amorous.

[Aside

HOR. Madam, before you touch the instrument,
To learn the order of my fingering,
I must begin with rudiments of art;
To teach you gamut in a briefer sort,
More pleasant, pithy, and effectual,
Than hath been taught by any of my trade:
And there it is in writing, fairly drawn.

BIAN. Why, I am past my gamut long ago.
HOR. Yet read the gamut of Hortensio.

Hortensio, who is supposed to listen. The pedigree of Ajax,
however, is properly made out, and might have been taken from
Golding's version of Ovid's Metamorphosis, Book XIII:
The highest Jove of all

66

"Acknowledgeth this Eacus, and dooth his sonne him

call.

"Thus am I Ajax third from Jove." STEEVENS.

Good masters,] Old copy-master. Corrected by Mr. Pope.

MALONE.

5

but I be deceiv'd,] But has here the signification of unless. MALOne.

BIAN. [Reads.] Gamut I am, the ground of all accord,

A re, to plead Hortensio's passion ;
B mi, Bianca, take him for thy lord,
C faut, that loves with all affection:
D sol re, one cliff, two notes have I;
E la mi, show pity, or I die.
Call

you this-gamut? tut! I like it not: Old fashions please me best; I am not so nice, 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. Farewell, sweet masters, both; I must be gone. [Exeunt BIANCA and Servant. Luc. 'Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay. [Exit. HOR. But I have cause to pry into this pedant; Methinks, he looks as though he were in love :

• To change true rules for odd inventions.] The old copy reads -To charge true rules for old inventions: The former emendation was made by the editor of the second folio; the latter by Mr. Theobald. Old, however, may be right. I believe, an opposition was intended. As change was corrupted into charge, why might not true have been put instead of new? Perhaps the author wrote:

To change new rules for old inventions.

i. e. to accept of new rules in exchange for old inventions.

MALONE. "Enter a Servant.] The old copy reads-Enter a Messenger -who, at the beginning of his speech is called-Nicke.

RITSON. Meaning, I suppose, Nicholas Tooley. See Mr. Malone's Historical Account of the English Stage. STEEVens.

Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble,
To cast thy wand'ring eyes on every stale,
Seize thee, that list: If once I find thee ranging,
Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The same. Before Baptista's House. Enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, TRANIO, KATHARINE, BIANCA, LUCENTIO, and Attendants.

BAP. Signior Lucentio, [To TRANIO.] this is the 'pointed day

That Katharine and Petruchio should be married,
And yet we hear not of our son-in-law:
What will be said? what mockery will it be,
To want the bridegroom, when the priest attends
To speak the ceremonial rites of marriage?
What says Lucentio to this shame of ours?

KATH. No shame but mine: I must, forsooth, be forc❜d

8

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,

'-full of spleen;] That is, full of humour, caprice, and inconstancy. JOHNSON.

So, in The First Part of King Henry IV :

"A hare-brain'd Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen."

M. MASON.