GRE. For this reason, if you'll know,—— That she's the choice love of signior Gremio. HOR. That she's the chosen of signior Hortensio.

TRA. Softly, my masters! if you be gentlemen, Do me this right,-hear me with patience. Baptista is a noble gentleman,

To whom my father is not all unknown;
And, were his daughter fairer than she is,
She may more suitors have, and me for one.
Fair Leda's daughter had a thousand wooers;
Then well one more may fair Bianca have:
And so she shall; Lucentio shall make one,
Though Paris came, in hope to speed alone.

GRE. What! this gentleman will out-talk us all. Luc. Sir, give him head; I know, he'll prove a jade.

PET. Hortensio, to what end are all these words? HOR. Sir, let me be so bold as to ask you, Did you yet ever see Baptista's daughter? TRA. No, sir; but hear I do, that he hath two; The one as famous for a scolding tongue, As is the other for beauteous modesty.

PET. Sir, sir, the first's for me; let her go by. GRE. Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules; And let it be more than Alcides' twelve.

PET. Sir, understand you this of me, insooth ;The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for, Her father keeps from all access of suitors; And will not promise her to any man, Until the elder sister first be wed: The younger then is free, and not before. TRA. If it be so, sir, that you are the man

Must stead us all, and me among the rest;D
An if you break the ice, and do this feat,'-
Achieve the elder, set the younger free
For our access,-whose hap shall be to have her,
Will not so graceless be, to be ingrate.

HOR. Sir, you say well, and well you do conceive;

And since you do profess to be a suitor,
You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman,
To whom we all rest generally beholden.

TRA. Sir, I shall not be slack: in sign whereof,
Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,"
And quaff carouses to our mistress' health;
And do as adversaries do in law,3-

Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

1

this feat,] The old copy reads-this seek. The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS.

* Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,] Mr. Theobald asks what they were to contrive? and then says, a foolish corruption possesses the place, and so alters it to convive; in which he is followed, as he pretty constantly is, when wrong, by the` Oxford editor. But the common reading is right, and the critic was only ignorant of the meaning of it. Contrive does not signify here to project but to spend, and wear out. As in this passage of Spenser:

"Three ages such as mortal men contrive."
Fairy Queen, B. XI. ch. ix.

WARBURTON.

The word is used in the same sense of spending or wearing out, in Painter's Palace of Pleasure. JOHNSON.

So, in Damon and Pithias, 1571:

"In travelling countries, we three have contrived
"Full many a year," &c.

Contrive, I suppose, is from contero.

So, in the Hecyra of

Terence: "Totum hunc contrivi diem." STEEVENS.

3

as adversaries do in law,] By adversaries in law, I believe, our author means not suitors, but barristers, who, how

GRU: BION. O excellent motion! Fellows, let's

begone.*

HOR. The motion's good indeed, and be it so;Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto.

[Exeunt.

ever warm in their opposition to each other in the courts of law, live in greater harmony and friendship in private, than perhaps those of any other of the liberal professions. Their clients seldom "eat and drink with their adversaries as friends." MALONE.

Fellows, let's begone.] Fellows means fellow-servants. Grumio and Biondello address each other, and also the disguised Lucentio. MALONE.

ACT II. SCENE I.

The same. A Room in Baptista's House.

Enter KATHARINA and BIANCA.

BIAN. Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself,5

To make a bondmaid and a slave of me;
That I disdain: but for these other gawds,
Unbind my hands, I'll pull them off myself,
Yea, all my raiment, to my petticoat;
Or, what you will command me, will I do,
So well I know my duty to my elders.

6

KATH. Of all thy suitors, here I charge thee,"

tell

Whom thou lov'st best: see thou dissemble not.
BIAN. Believe me, sister, of all the men alive,
I never yet beheld that special face
Which I could fancy more than any other.

KATH. Minion, thou liest; Is't not Hortensio ? BIAN. If you affect him, sister, here I swear, I'll plead for you myself, but you shall have him.

5

nor wrong yourself,] Do not act in a manner unbecoming a woman and a sister. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Master Ford, this wrongs you." MALONE.

6

but for these other gawds,] The old copy reads-these other goods. STEEVENS.

This is so trifling and unexpressive a word, that I am satisfied our author wrote gawds, (i. e. toys, trifling ornaments ;) a term that he frequently uses and seems fond of. THEobald.

7

"I charge thee,] Thee, which was accidentally omitted in the old copy, was supplied by the editor of the second folio.

MALONE.

KATH. O then, belike, you fancy riches more; You will have Gremio to keep you fair.8

BIAN. Is it for him you do envy me so?
Nay, then you jest; and now I well perceive,
You have but jested with me all this while:
I pr'ythee, sister Kate, untie my hands.

KATH. If that be jest, then all the rest was so. [Strikes her.

Enter BAPTISTA.

BAP. Why, how now, dame! whence

dame! whence grows this

insolence?

Bianca, stand aside;-poor girl! she weeps:-
Go ply thy needle; meddle not with her.

9

For shame, thou hilding of a devilish spirit,
Why dost thou wrong her that did ne'er wrong

thee?

When did she cross thee with a bitter word?

KATH. Her silence flouts me, and I'll be reveng'd.

[Flies after BIANCA.

BAP. What, in my sight?-Bianca, get thee in. [Exit BIANCA.

KATH. Will you not suffer me?1 Nay, now I see, She is your treasure, she must have a husband; I must dance bare-foot on her wedding-day,

to keep you fair.]_ I wish to read-to keep you fine. But either word may serve. JOHNSon.

hilding-1 The word hilding or hinderling, is a low wretch; it is applied to Katharine for the coarseness of her behaviour. JOHNSON.

1 Will you not suffer me?] The old copy reads-What, will, &c. The compositor probably caught the former word from the preceding line. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.