year, GRE. Two thousand ducats by the of land! TRA. Gremio, 'tis known, my father hath no less Than three great argosies; besides two galliasses," And twelve tight gallies: these I will assure her, And twice as much, whate'er thou offer'st next. GRE. Nay, I have offer'd all, I have no more s 1 Gre. Two thousand ducats by the year, of land! My land amounts not to so much in all: That she shall have; besides ] Though all copies concur in this reading, surely, if we examine the reasoning, something will be found wrong. Gremio is startled at the high settlement Tranio proposes: says, his whole estate in land can't match it, yet he'll settle so much a year upon her, &c. This is playing at cross purposes. The change of the negative in the second line salves the absurdity, and sets the passage right. Gremio and Tranio vying in their offers to carry Bianca, the latter boldly proposes to settle land to the amount of two thousand ducats per annum. My whole estate, says the other, in land, amounts but to that value; yet she shall have that: I'll endow her with the whole; and consign a rich vessel to her use over and above. Thus all is intelligible, and he goes on to out-bid his rival. WARBURTON. Gremio only says, his whole estate in land doth not indeed amount to two thousand ducats a year, but she shall have that, whatever be its value, and an argosy over and above; which argosy must be understood to be of very great value from his subjoining: What, have I chok'd you with an argosy? HEATH. *-two galliasses,] A galeas or galliass, is a heavy lowbuilt vessel of burthen, with both sails and oars, partaking at once of the nature of a ship and a galley. So, in The Noble Soldier, 1634: -to have rich gulls come aboard their pinnaces, for then they are sure to build galliasses." STEEVENS. If And she can have no more than all I have; you like me, she shall have me and mine. TRA. Why, then the maid is mine from all the world, By your firm promise; Gremio is out-vied.3 BAP. I must confess, your offer is the best ; And, let your father make her the assurance, She is your own; else, you must pardon me : you should die before him, where's her dower? TRA. That's but a cavil; he is old, I young. If GRE. And may not young men die, as well as old? BAP. Well, gentlemen, I am thus resolv'd:-On Sunday next you know, And so I take my leave, and thank you both. GRE. Adieu, good neighbour.-Now I fear thee not; Sirrah, young gamester, your father were a fool. -out-vied.] This is a term at the old game of gleek. When one man was vied upon another, he was said to be outvied. So, in Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592: "They draw a card, and the barnacle vies upon him," &c. Again, in The Jealous Lovers, by Randolph, 1632: "Thou canst not finde out wayes enow to spend it; • Sirrah, young gamester,] Perhaps alluding to the pretended Lucentio's having before talked of out-vying him. See the last note. MALONE. Gamester, in the present instance, has no reference to gaming, To give thee all, and, in his waning age, An old Italian fox is not so kind, my boy. [Exit. and only signifies-a wag, a frolicksome character. So, in King Henry VIII: "You are a merry gamester, my lord Sands." STEEVENS. Yet I have faced it with a card of ten.] That is, with the highest card, in the old simple games of our ancestors. this became a proverbial expression. So, Skelton: 66 So that Fyrste pycke a quarrel, and fall out with him then, "And so outface him with a card often." And, Ben Jonson, in his Sad Shepherd: 66 a hart of ten "I trow he be." i. e. an extraordinary good one. WARBURTON. A hart of ten has no reference to cards, but is an expression taken from The Laws of the Forest, and relates to the age of the deer. When a hart is past six years old, he is generally called a hart of ten. See Forest Laws, 4to. 1598. Again, in the sixth scene of The Sad Shepherd: a great large deer! 66 "Rob. What head? "John. Forked. A hart of ten." The former expression is very common. So, in Law-Tricks, &c. 1608: "I may be out-fac'd with a card of ten." Mr. Malone is of opinion that the phrase was "applied to those persons who gained their ends by impudence, and bold confident assertion." As we are on the subject of cards, it may not be amiss to take notice of a common blunder relative to their names. We call the king, queen, and knave, court-cards, whereas they were anciently denominated coats or coat-cards, from their coats or dresses. So, Ben Jonson, in his New Inn: "When she is pleas'd to trick or trump mankind, Again, in May-day, a comedy, by Chapman, 1611: "She had in her hand the ace of harts and a coat-card. She led the board with her coat; I plaid the varlet, and took up her ; 'Tis in my head to do my master good:- A [Exit. coat; and meaning to lay my fingers on her ace of hearts, up started a quite contrary card.". Again, in Rowley's When you see me you know me, 1621: "You have been at noddy, I see. "Ay, and the first card comes to my hand is a knave. "I am a coat-card, indeed. "Then thou must needs be a knave, for thou art neither queen nor king." STEEVENS. if I fail not of my cunning.] As this is the conclusion of an act, I suspect that the poet designed a rhyming couplet. Instead of cunning we might read-doing, which is often used by Shakspeare in the sense heré wanted, and agrees perfectly well with the beginning of the line-" a child shall get a sire." After this, the former editors add 66 Sly. Sim, when will the fool come again ? * "Sim. Anon, my lord. Sly. Give us some more drink here; where's the tapster? "Here, Sim, eat some of these things. "Sim. I do, my lord. "Sly. Here, Sim, I drink to thee." These speeches of the presenters, (as they are called,) are not in the folio. Mr. Pope, as in some former instances, introduced them from the old spurious play of the same name; and therefore we may easily account for their want of connection with the present comedy. I have degraded them as usual into the note. By the fool in the original piece, might be meant Sander the servant to Ferando, (who is the Petruchio of Shakspeare,) or Ferando himself. It appears, however, from the following passage in the eleventh when will the fool come again?] The character of the fool has not been introduced in this drama, therefore I believe that the word again should be omitted, and that Sly asks, When will the fool come? the fool being the favourite of the vulgar, or, as we now phrase it, of the upper gallery, was naturally expected in every interlude. JOHNSON. VOL. IX. H ACT III. SCENE I. A Room in Baptista's House. Enter LUCENTIO, HORTENSIO, and BIANCA. Luc. Fiddler, forbear; you grow too forward, sir: Have you so soon forgot the entertainment Luc. Preposterous ass! that never read so far Book of Thomas Lupton's Notable Things, edit. 1660, that it was the constant office of the fool to preserve the stage from vacancy: "79. When Stage-plays were in use, there was in every place one that was called the Foole; as the Proverb saies, Like a Fool in a Play. At the Red Bull Play-house it did chance that the Clown or the Fool, being in the attireing house, was suddenly called upon the stage, for it was empty. He suddenly going, forgot his Fooles-cap. One of the players bad his boy take it, and put it on his head as he was speaking. No such matter (saies the Boy,) there's no manners nor wit in that, nor wisdom neither; and my master needs no cap, for he is known to be a Fool without it, as well as with it." STEEVENS. 7 -this is] Probably our author wrote-this lady is, which completes the metre, wrangling being used as a trisyllable. We should read, with Sir T. Hanmer: MALONE. But, wrangling pedant, know this lady is. RITSON. |
