Now, my spruce companions, is all ready, and all things neat? 1 NATH. All things is ready: How near is our master? GRU. E'en at hand, alighted by this; and therefore be not,Cock's passion, silence!——I hear my master. Enter PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA.2 PET. Where be these knaves? What, no man at door,3 All things is ready:] Though in general it is proper to correct the false concords that are found in almost every page of the old copy, here it would be improper; because the language suits the character. MALONE. * Enter Petruchio &c.] Thus, the original play: "Enter Ferando and Kate. "Ferand. Now welcome Kate. Wheres these villaines, "Heere? what, not supper yet upon the boord! "Nor table spread, nor nothing done at all! "Where's that villaine that I sent before? "San. Now, adsum, sir. "Feran. Come hither you villaine; Ile cut your nose "You rogue: help me off with my bootes: wil't please "You to lay the cloth? Sowns the villaine "Hurts my foote: pull easily I say: yet againe? [He beats them all. They cover the boord, and fetch in the meate. 66 Sowns, burnt and scorch't! who drest this meate? "Will. Forsooth, John Cooke. [He throwes downe the table and meate, and all, and beates them all. "Feran. Goe, you villaines; bring me such meate? "Out of my sight, I say, and bear it hence. "Come, Kate, wee'l have other meate provided: "Is there a fire in my chamber, sir? "San. I, forsooth. [Exeunt Ferando and Kate. "Manent serving men, and eate up all the meate. "Tom. Sownes, I thinke of my conscience my master's madde since he was married, VOL. IX. K To hold my stirrup, nor to take my horse! ALL SERV. Here, here, sir; here, sir. PET. Here, sir! here, sir! here, sir! here, sir!You logger-headed and unpolish'd grooms! What, no attendance? no regard? no duty?— Where is the foolish knave I sent before? GRU. Here, sir; as foolish as I was before. PET. You peasant swain! you whoreson malthorse drudge! Did I not bid thee meet me in the park, GRU. Nathaniel's coat, sir, was not fully made, And Gabriel's pumps were all unpink'd i'the heel; There was no link to colour Peter's hat,* "Will. I laft what a box he gave Sander "For pulling off his bootes? "Enter Ferando again. "San. I hurt his foot for the nonce, man. "Feran. Did you so, you damned villaine? [He beates them all out again. "This humour must I hold to me a while, As was the Thracian horse Alcides tamde, [Exit. STEEVENS. at door,] Door is here, and in other places, used as a dissyllable. MALONE. no link to colour Peter's hat,] A link is a torch of pitch. Greene, in his Mihil Mumchance, says" This cozenage is And Walter's dagger was not come from sheathing: There were none fine, but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory; The rest were ragged, old, and beggarly; Yet, as they are, here are they come to meet you. PET. Go, rascals, go, and fetch my supper in.[Exeunt some of the Servants. Where is the life that late I led3— used likewise in selling old hats found upon dung-hills, instead of newe, blackt over with the smoake of an old linke." STEEVENS. Where &c.] A scrap of some old ballad. Ancient Pistol elsewhere quotes the same line. In an old black letter book intituled, A gorgious Gallery of gallant Inventions, London, 1578, 4to. is a song to the tune of Where is the life that late I led. RITSON. This ballad was peculiarly suited to Petruchio's present situation for it appears to have been descriptive of the state of a lover who had newly resigned his freedom. In an old collection of Sonnets, entitled A handeful of pleasant Delites, containing sundrie new Sonets, &c. by Clement Robinson, 1584, is " Dame Beautie's replie to the lover late at libertie, and now complaineth himselfe to be her captive, intituled, Where is the life that late I led: "The life that erst thou led'st, my friend, "Was pleasant to thine eyes," &c. MALONE. Soud, soud, &c.] That is, sweet, sweet. Soot, and sometimes sooth, is sweet. So, in Milton, to sing soothly, is to sing sweetly. JOHNson. So, in Promos and Cassandra, 1578: "He'll hang handsome young men for the soote sinne of love." STEEVENS. These words seem merely intended to denote the humming of a tune, or some kind of ejaculation, for which it is not necessary to find out a meaning. M. MASON. This, I believe, is a word coined by our poet, to express the noise made by a person heated and fatigued. MALONE. Re-enter Servants, with supper. Why, when, I say?-Nay, good sweet Kate, be merry. Off with my boots, you rogues, you villains; When? It was the friar of orders grey," [Sings. Out, out, you rogue! you pluck my foot awry: hence, And bid my cousin Ferdinand come hither :9[Exit Servant. One, Kate, that you must kiss, and be acquainted with. 7 It was the friar of orders grey,] Dispersed through Shakspeare's plays are many little fragments of ancient ballads, the entire copies of which cannot now be recovered. Many of these being of the most beautiful and pathetic simplicity, Dr. Percy has selected some of them, and connected them together with a few supplemental stanzas; a work, which at once demonstrates his own poetical abilities, as well as his respect to the truly venerable remains of our most ancient bards. STEEVENS. Out, out, you rogue !] The second word was inserted by Mr. Pope, to complete the metre. When a word occurs twice in the same line, the compositor very frequently omits one of them. MALone. 9 And bid my cousin Ferdinand come hither:] This cousin Ferdinand, who does not make his personal appearance on the scene, is mentioned, I suppose, for no other reason than to give Katharine a hint, that he could keep even his own relations in order, and make them obedient as his spaniel Troilus. STEEVENS. Where are my slippers?-Shall I have some water? [A bason is presented to him. Come, Kate, and wash,' and welcome heartily:[Servant lets the ewer fall. You whoreson villain! will you let it fall? [Strikes him. KATH. Patience, I pray you; 'twas a fault un willing. PET. A whoreson, beetleheaded, flap-ear'd knave! Come, Kate, sit down; I know you have a stomach. Will you give thanks, sweet Kate; or else shall I?— What is this? mutton? 1 Come, Kate, and wash,] It was the custom in our author's time, (and long before,) to wash the hands immediately before dinner and supper, as well as afterwards. So, in Ives's Select Papers, p. 139: "And after that the Queen [Elizabeth, the wife of King Henry VII.] was retourned and washed, the Archbishop said grace." Again, in Florio's Second Frutes, 1591: "C. The meate is coming, let us sit downe. S. I would wash first. What ho, bring us some water to wash our hands. -Give me a faire, cleane and white towel." From the same dialogue it appears that it was customary to wash after meals likewise, and that setting the water on the table was then (as at present) peculiar to Great Britain and Ireland: "Bring some water (says one of the company,) when dinner is ended, to wash our hands, and set the bacin upon the board, after the English fashion, that all may wash." That it was the practice to wash the hands immediately before supper, as well as before dinner, is ascertained by the following passage in The Fountayne of Fame, erected in an Orcharde of amorous Adventures, by Anthony Mundy, 1580: "Then was our supper brought up very orderly, and she brought me water to washe my handes. And after I had washed, I sat downe, and she also; but concerning what good cheere we had, I need not make good report." MALONE. As our ancestors eat with their fingers, oyer-clean before meals, and after them cannot wonder at such repeated ablutions. which might not be must be greasy, we STEEVENS. |