GRE. Here's packing, with a witness, to deceive us all! VIN. Where is that damned villain, Tranio, That fac'd and brav'd me in this matter so? BAP. Why, tell me, is not this my Cambio? BIAN. Cambio is chang'd into Lucentio. Luc. Love wrought these miracles. Bianca's love Unto the wished haven of my bliss:- VIN. I'll slit the villain's nose, that would have sent me to the gaol. BAP. But do you hear, sir? [To LUCENTIO.] Have you married my daughter without asking my good-will? VIN. Fear not, Baptista; we will content you, go to: But I will in, to be revenged for this villainy. [Exit. BAP. And I, to sound the depth of this knavery. [Exit. Luc. Look not pale, Bianca; thy father will not frown. [Exeunt Luc. and BIAN. GRE. My cake is dough: But I'll in among the rest; Out of hope of all, but my share of the feast. [Exit. 'Here's packing,] i. e. plotting, underhand contrivance. So, in King Lear: "Snuffs and packings of the dukes." STEEVENS. 4 My cake is dough:] This is a proverbial expression, which also occurs in the old interlude of Tom Tyler and his Wife: "Alas poor Tom, his cake is dough." PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA advance. KATH. Husband, let's follow, to see the end of this ado. PET. First kiss me, Kate, and we will. KATH. No, sir; God forbid :-but ashamed to kiss. PET. Why, then let's home again :-Come, sirrah, let's away. KATH. Nay, I will give thee a kiss: now pray thee, love, stay. PET. Is not this well?-Come, my sweet Kate; Better once than never, for never too late. Again, in The Case is alter'd, 1609: [Exeunt. "Steward, your cake is dough, as well as mine." STEEVENS. It was generally used when any project miscarried. MALONE. Rather when any disappointment was sustained, contrary to every appearance or expectation. Howel, in one of his letters, mentioning the birth of Louis the Fourteenth, says "The Queen is delivered of a Dauphin, the wonderfullest thing of this kind that any story can parallel, for this is the three-andtwentieth year since she was married, and hath continued childless all this while. So that now Monsieur's cake is dough." REED, SCENE II. A Room in Lucentio's House. A Banquet set out. Enter BAPTISTA, VINCENTIO, GREMIO, the Pedant, LUCENTIO, BIANCA, PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, HORTENSIO, and Widow. TRANIO, BIONDELLO, GRUMIO, and Others, attending. Luc. Atlast, though long, our jarring notes agree: And time it is, when raging war is done, To smile at 'scapes and perils overblown.— My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome, While I with self-same kindness welcome thine:- 6 After our great good cheer: Pray you, sit down; For now we sit to chat, as well as eat. 5 [They sit at table. PET. Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat! when raging war is done,] This is Mr. Rowe's emendation. The old copy has-when raging war is come, which cannot be right. Perhaps the author wrote-when raging war is calm, formerly spelt calme. So, in Othello: "If after every tempest come such calms-." The word "overblown," in the next line, adds some little support to this conjecture. MALONE. Mr. Rowe's conjecture is justified by a passage in Othello: 66 News, lords! our wars are done." STEEVENS. My banquet-] A banquet, or (as it is called in some of our old books,) an afterpast, was a slight refection, like our modern desert, consisting of cakes, sweetmeats, and fruit. See note on Romeo and Juliet Act I. sc. v. STEEVENS. BAP. Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio. PET. Padua affords nothing but what is kind. HOR. For both our sakes, I would that word were true. PET. Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow." WID. Then never trust me if I be afeard. PET.You are sensible, and yet you miss my sense; I mean, Hortensio is afeard of you. WID. He that is giddy, thinks the world turns round. PET. Roundly replied. KATH. Mistress, how mean you that? WID. Thus I conceive by him. PET. Conceives by me!-How likes Hortensio that? HOR. My widow says, thus she conceives her tale. PET. Very well mended: Kiss him for that, good widow. KATH. He that is giddy, thinks the world turns round: I pray you, tell me what you meant by that. WID. Your husband, being troubled with a shrew, Measures my husband's sorrow by his woe: " And now you know my meaning. 7 fears his widow,] To fear, as has been already observed, meant in our author's time both to dread, and to intimidate. The widow understands the word in the latter sense; and Petruchio tells her, he used it in the former. MALONE. • You are sensible, and yet you miss my sense;] The old copy redundantly reads-You are very sensible." STEEVENS. 9 shrew,- woe;] As this was meant for a rhyming couplet, it should be observed that anciently the word-shrew was pronounced as if it had been written-shrow. See the finale of the play, p. 195. STEEVENS. KATH. A very mean meaning. WID. Right, I mean you. KATH. And I am mean, indeed, respecting you. PET. To her, Kate! HOR. To her, widow! PET. A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down. HOR. That's my office.' PET. Spoke like an officer:-Ha' to thee, lad. [Drinks to HORTENSIO. BAP. How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks? GRE. Believe me, sir, they butt together well. BIAN. Head, and butt? an hasty-witted body Would say, your head and butt were head and horn. VIN. Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken'd you? BIAN. Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll sleep again. PET. Nay, that you shall not; since you have begun, Have at you for a bitter jest or two.3 1 -put her down. That's my office.] This passage will be best explained by another, in Much Ado about Nothing: "Lady, you have put him down. So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools." STEEVENS. 2 Ha' to thee, lad.] The old copy has to the. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALone. • Have at you for a bitter jest or two.] The old copy reads a better jest. The emendation, (of the propriety of which there cannot, I conceive, be the smallest doubt,) is one of the very few corrections of any value made by Mr. Capell. So, before, in the present play: "Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour." |
