And Roman Lucrece for her chastity: And to conclude, we have 'greed so well toge ther, That upon Sunday is the wedding-day. KATH. I'll see thee hang'd on Sunday first. GRE. Hark, Petruchio! she says, she'll see thee hang'd first. TRA. Is this your speeding? nay, then, good night our part! PET. Be patient, gentlemen; I choose her for myself; If she and I be pleas'd, what's that to you? How much she loves me: O, the kindest Kate!- "The plaie of Patient Grissel.” Bocaccio was the first known writer of the story, and Chaucer copied it in his Clerke of Oxenforde's Tale. STEEVENS. The story of Grisel is older than Bocaccio, and is to be found among the compositions of the French Fabliers. DOUCE. She vied so fast] Vye and revye were terms at cards, now superseded by the more modern word, brag. Our author has in another place: "time revyes us," which has been unnecessarily altered. The words were frequently used in a sense somewhat remote from the original one. In the famous trial of the seven bishops, the chief justice says: " We must not permit vying and revying upon one another.' FARMER. It appears from a passage in Green's Tu Quoque, that to vie was one of the terms used at the game of Gleek" I vie it.". "I'll none of it;" "nor I." The same expression occurs in Randolph's Jealous Lovers, 1632: That in a twink she won me to her love. 3 A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew.- BAP. I know not what to say: but give me your hands s; God send you joy, Petruchio! 'tis a match. GRE, TRA. Amen, say we; we will be witnesses. PET. Father, and wife, and gentlemen, adieu ; I will to Venice, Sunday comes apace :- "All that I have is thine, though I could vie, "A piece of gold." STEEVENS. Vie and Revie were terms at Primero, the fashionable game in our author's time. See Florio's Second Frutes, quarto, 1591: "S. Let us play at Primero then. A. What shall we play for? S. One shilling stake and three rest.—I vye it; will you hould it? A. Yea, sir, I hould it, and revye it." To out-vie Howel explains in his Dictionary, 1660, thus: "Faire peur ou intimider avec un vray ou feint envy, et faire quitter le jeu a la partie contraire." MALONE. This 'tis a world to see,] i. e. it is wonderful to see. expression is often met with in old historians as well as dramatic writers. So, in Holinshed, Vol. I. p. 209: " It is a world to see how many strange heartes," &c. STEEVENS. A meacock wretch -] i. e, a timorous dastardly creature, So, in Decker's Honest Whore, 1604: "A woman's well holp up with such a meacock.” Again, in Glapthorne's Hollander, 1640: "They are like my husband; mere meacocks verily." Again, in Apius and Virginia, 1575: "As stout as a stockfish, as meek as a meacock," STEEVENS We will have rings, and things, and fine array; And kiss me, Kate, we will be married o'Sunday. [Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHARINE, severally. GRE. Was ever match clapp'd up so suddenly? BAP. Faith, gentlemen, now I play a merchant's part, And venture madly on a desperate mart. TRA. 'Twas a commodity lay fretting by you: 'Twill bring you gain, or perish on the seas. BAP. The gain I seek is quiet in the match.* GRE. No doubt, but he hath got a quiet catch. But now, Baptista, to your younger daughter;— Now is the day we long have looked for; I am your neighbour, and was suitor first. TRA. And I am one, that love Bianca more Than words can witness, or your thoughts can guess. 4 GRE. Youngling! thou canst not love so dear as I. GRE. in the match.] Old copy-me the match. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. * But thine doth fry.] Old Gremio's notions are confirmed by Shadwell: "The fire of love in youthful blood, "It slowly burns, and long remains; "It glows, and with a sullen heat, "Like fire in logs, it burns, and warms us long; "And though the flame be not so great, "Yet is the heat as strong." JOHNSON. So also, in A Wonder, a Woman never vex'd, a comedy, by Rowley, 1632: Skipper, stand back; 'tis age, that nourisheth. TRA. But youth, in ladies' eyes that flourisheth. BAP, Content you, gentlemen; I'll compound this strife: 'Tis deeds, must win the prize; and he, of both, That can assure my daughter greatest dower, es Shall have Bianca's love.— Say, signior Gremio, what can you assure her? GRE. First, as you know, my house within the city Is richly furnished with plate and gold; In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns; In cypress chests my arras, counterpoints," "My old dry wood shall make a lusty bonfire, when thy green chips lie hissing in the chimney-corner.'" The thought, however, might originate from Sidney's Arcadia, Book II: 1594: "Let not old age disgrace my high desire, "O heavenly soule in humane shape contain'd! STEEVENS. counterpoints,] So, in A Knack to know a Knave, "Then I will have rich counterpoints and musk.” These coverings for beds are at present called counterpanes; but either mode of spelling is proper. Counterpoint is the monkish term for a particular species of musick, in which, notes of equal duration, but of different harmony, are set in opposition to each other. In like manner counterpanes were anciently composed of patchwork, and so contrived that every pane or partition in them, was contrasted with one of a different colour, though of the same dimensions. STEEVENS. Counterpoints were in ancient times extremely costly. In Wat Tyler's rebellion, Stowe informs us, when the insurgents broke into the wardrobe in the Savoy, they destroyed a coverlet, worth a thousand marks. MALONE. Costly apparel, tents, and canopies," Fine linen, Turky cushions boss'd with pearl, TRA. That, only, came well in-Sir, list to me, I am my father's heir, and only son: If I may have your daughter to my wife, I'll leave her houses three or four as good, Within rich Pisa walls, as any one Old signior Gremio has in Padua ; Besides two thousand ducats by the year, Of fruitful land, all which shall be her jointure.What, have I pinch'd you, signior Gremio? 7 ·tents, and canopies,] suppose by tents old Gremio means work of that kind which the ladies call tent-stitch. He would hardly enumerate tents (in their common acceptation) among his domestick riches. STEEvens. I suspect, the furniture of some kind of bed, in the form of a pavillion, was known by this name in our author's time. MALONE. I conceive, the pavillon, or tent-bed, to have been an article of furniture unknown in the age of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. * Pewter -] We may suppose that pewter was, even in the -time of Queen Elizabeth, too costly to be used in common. It appears from "The regulations and establishment of the household of Henry Algernon Percy, the fifth Earl of Northumberland," &c. that vessels of pewter were hired by the year. This Household Book was begun in the year 1512. See Holinshed's Description of England, p. 188, and 189. STEEVENS. |