I'll mend it with a largess:-Take your papers too, And let me have them very well perfum'd; For she is sweeter than perfume itself, 2 To whom they go. What will you read to her? Luc. Whate'er I read to her, I'll plead for you, GRE. O this learning! what a thing it is! HOR. Grumio, mum!-God save you, signior GRE. And you're well met, signior Hortensio. Whither I am going?-To Baptista Minola. About a schoolmaster for fair Bianca:3 And other books,-good ones, I warrant you. HOR. 'Tis well and I have met a gentleman, Hath promis'd me to help me to another, A fine musician to instruct our mistress; * To whom they go.] The old copy reads-To whom they go to. STEEVENS. -for fair Bianca :] The old copy redundantly reads— STEEVENS. " for the fair Bianca." help me- The old copy reads-help one. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. STEEVENS. So shall I no whit be behind in duty To fair Bianca, so belov'd of me. GRE. Belov'd of me,-and that my deeds shall prove. GRU. And that his bags shall prove. [Aside. HOR. Gremio, 'tis now no time to vent our love: Listen to me, and if you speak me fair, I'll tell you news indifferent good for either. Here is a gentleman, whom by chance I met, Upon agreement from us to his liking, Will undertake to woo curst Katharine; Yea, and to marry her, if her dowry please. GRE. So said, so done, is well :Hortensio, have you told him all her faults? PET. I know, she is an irksome brawling scold; If that be all, masters, I hear no harm. GRE. No, say'st me so, friend? What countryman? PET. Born in Verona, old Antonio's son:" My father dead, my fortune lives for me; And I do hope good days, and long, to see. GRE. O, sir, such a life, with such a wife, were strange: But, if you have a stomach, to't o'God's name; You shall have me assisting you in all. But will you woo this wild cat? Will I live? PET. [Aside. PET. Why came I hither, but to that intent? old Antonio's son:] The old copy reads-Butonio's son. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. STEEVENS. Think you, a little din can daunt mine ears? Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang? And do you tell me of a woman's tongue; That gives not half so great a blow to the ear," 6 。 and trumpets' clang?] Probably the word clang is here used adjectively, as in the Paradise Lost, B. XI. v. 834, and not as a verb: 66 an island salt and bare, "The haunt of seals, and orcs, and sea-mews clang." I believe Mr. Warton is mistaken. Clang, as a substantive, is used in The Noble Gentleman of Beaumont and Fletcher: "I hear the clang of trumpets in this house." Again, in Tamburlaine, &c. 1590: hear you the clang "Of Scythian trumpets?". Again, in The Cobler's Prophecy, 1594: "The trumpets clang, and roaring noise of drums.” Again, in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607: "Hath not the clang of harsh Armenian troops," &c. Again, in Drant's translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1567 : "Fit for a chorus, and as yet the boystus sounde and shryll "Of trumpetes clang the stalles was not accustomed to fill." Lastly, in Turberville's translation of Ovid's epistle from Medea to Jason: "Doleful to me than is the trumpet's clang." The Trumpet's clang is certainly the clang of trumpets, and not an epithet bestowed on those instruments. STEEVENS. 7. so great a blow to the ear,] The old copy reads-to hear. STEEVENS. VOL. IX. F As will a chesnut in a farmer's fire? Tush! tush! fear boys with bugs." GRU. GRE. Hortensio, hark! For he fears none. This gentleman is happily arriv'd, My mind presumes, for his own good, and yours. HOR. I promis'd, we would be contributors, And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe❜er. GRE. And so we will; provided, that he win her. GRU. I would, I were as sure of a good dinner. Enter TRANIO, bravely apparell'd; and BION DELLO. TRA. Gentlemen, God save you! If I may be bold, Tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way To the house of signior Baptista Minola? GRE. He that has the two fair daughters :-is't [Aside to TRANIO.] he you mean?9 This aukward phrase could never come from Shakspeare. He wrote, without question: so great a blow to th' ear. WARBURTON. The emendation is Sir T. Hanmer's. MALONE. So, in King John : "Our ears are cudgell'd; not a word of his "But buffets better than a fist of France." STEEVENS. with bugs.] i. e. with bug-bears. So, in Cymbeline: are become "The mortal bugs o' the field." STEEVENS. 9 He that has the two fair daughters: &c.] In the old copy, this speech is given to Biondello. STEEVENS. TRA. Even he. Biondello ! GRE. Hark you, sir; You mean not her to PET. Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray. TRA. I love no chiders, sir:-Biondello, let's away. Luc. Well begun, Tranio. HOR. Sir, a word ere you go; Are [Aside. you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea, or no? TRA. An if I be, sir, is it any offence? GRE. No; if, without more words, you will get you hence. TRA. Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me, as for you? GRE. But so is not she. TRA. For what reason, I beseech you? It should rather be given to Gremio; to whom, with the others, Tranio has addressed himself. The following passages might be written thus: Tra. Even he. Biondello! Gre. Hark you, sir `; you mean not her too. TYRWHITT. I think the old copy, both here and in the preceding speech, is right. Biondello adds to what his master had said, the words— "He that has the two fair daughters," to ascertain more precisely the person for whom he had enquired; and then addresses Tranio: "is't he you mean?" You mean not her to-] I believe, an abrupt sentence was intended; or perhaps Shakspeare might have written her to woo. Tranio in his answer might mean, that he would-woo the father, to obtain his consent, and the daughter for herself. This, however, will not complete the metre. I incline, therefore, to my first supposition. MALONE. I have followed Mr. Tyrwhitt's regulation. STEEVENS. 2 |