Take you [To HOR.] the lute, and you [To Luc.] the set of books, You shall go see your pupils presently. Sirrah, lead Enter a Servant. These gentlemen to my daughters; and tell them both, These are their tutors; bid them use them well. We will go walk a little in the orchard, PET. Signior Baptista, my business asketh haste, BAP. After my death, the one half of my lands: And, in possession, twenty thousand crowns. PET. And, for that dowry, I'll assure her of Her widowhood,2-be it that she survive me, 1 And every day I cannot come to woo,] This is the burthen of part of an old ballad entitled The Ingenious Braggadocio: "And I cannot come every day to wooe." appears also from a quotation in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, 1589, that it was a line in his Interlude, entitled The Woer: It "Iche praye you good mother tell our young dame "I cannot come a woing every day." STEEVENS. Her widowhood,] Sir T. Hanmer reads for her widowhood. In all my lands and leases whatsoever : BAP. Ay, when the special thing is well obtain❜d, This is, her love; for that is all in all. PET. Why, that is nothing; for I tell you, fa- I am as peremptory as she proud-minded; For I am rough, and woo not like a babe. BAP. Well may'st thou woo, and happy be thy speed! But be thou arm'd for some unhappy words. PET. Ay, to the proof; as mountains are for winds, That shake not, though they blow perpetually. Re-enter HORTENSIO, with his head broken. BAP. How now, my friend? why dost thou look so pale? HOR. For fear, I promise you, if I look pale. BAP. What, will my daughter prove a good musician? The reading of the old copy is harsh to our ears, but it might have been the phraseology of the time. MALONE. Perhaps we should read-on her widowhood. In the old copies on and of are not unfrequently confounded, through the printers' inattention. STEEVENS. HOR. I think, she'll sooner prove a soldier; Iron may hold with her, but never lutes. BAP. Why, then thou canst not break her to the Tute? HOR. Why, no; for she hath broke the lute to me. 3 I did but tell her, she mistook her frets," them: And, with that word, she struck me on the head, As on a pillory, looking through the lute: way; And twangling Jack; with twenty such vile terms, As she had studied to misuse me so. 3 PET. Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench her frets,] A fret is that stop of a musical instrument which causes or regulates the vibration of the string. JOHNSON. * And-twangling Jack ;] Of this contemptuous appellation I know not the precise meaning. Something like it, however, occurs in Magnificence, an ancient folio interlude by Skelton, printed by Rastell: ye wene I were some hafter, "Or ellys some jangelynge jacke of the vale." STEEVENS. To twangle is a provincial expression, and signifies to flourish capriciously on an instrument, as performers often do after having tuned it, previous to their beginning a regular composition. Twangling Jack is, mean, paltry lutanist. MALONE. HENLEY. I do not see with Mr. Malone, that twangling Jack means "paltry latanist," though it may "paltry musician," DOUCE. she had] In the old copy these words are accidentally transposed. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 5 I love her ten times more than e'er I did: Proceed in practice with my younger daughter; you? and HORTENSIO. 6 And woo her with some spirit when she comes. When I shall ask the banns, and when be married:- Enter KATHARINA. Good-morrow, Kate; for that's your name, I hear. As morning roses newly wash'd with dew:] Milton has honoured this image by adopting it in his Allegro: "And fresh-blown roses wash'd in dew." STEEVENS. 1 Good-morrow, Kate; &c.] Thus, in the original play: KATH. Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing; They call me-Katharine, that do talk of me. "Kate. The divel you do; who told you so? "Feran. My mind, sweet Kate, doth say I am the man, "Must wed, and bed, and marrie bonnie Kate. "Kate. Was ever seene so grosse an asse as this? "Feran. I, to stand so long and never get a kisse. "Kate. Hands off, I say, and get you from this place; "Or I will set my ten commandements in your face. "Feran. I prithy do, Kate; they say thou art a shrew, "And I like thee better, for I would have thee so. "Kate. Let go my hand, for feare it reach your eare. "Feran. No, Kate, this hand is mine, and I thy love. "Kate. Yfaith, sir, no; the woodcoke wants his taile. "Feran. But yet his bil will serve, if the other faile. Alfon. How now, Ferando? what [says] my daughter? "Feran. Shee's willing, sir, and loves me as her life. "Kate. 'Tis for your skin then, but not to be your wife. "Alfon. Come hither, Kate, and let me give thy hand, "To him that I have chosen for thy love; "And thou to-morrow shalt be wed to him. "Kate. Why, father, what do you mean to do with me, "To give me thus unto this brainsicke man, "That in his mood cares not to murder me? [She turnes aside and speaks. "But yet I will consent and marry him, "(For I methinkes have liv'd too long a maide,) 66 Alfon. Give me thy hand: Ferando loves thee well, "And will with wealth and ease maintaine thy state. "Here Ferando, take her for thy wife, "And Sunday next shall be our wedding-day. "Feran. Why so, did I not tel thee I should be the man? "Father, I leave my lovely Kate with you. "Provide yourselves against our marriage day, "For I must hie me to my country-house "In haste, to see provision may be made "To entertaine my Kate when she doth come," &c. STEEVENS. Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing;] A poor quibble was here intended. It appears from many old English books that heard was pronounced in our author's time, as if it were written hard. MALONE. |