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Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst;
Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.

Tra. Master, it is no time to chide you now;
Affection is not rated2 from the heart:

If love have touch'd you, nought remains but so,3-
Redime te captum quam queas minimo.4

Luc. Gramercies, lad; go forward: this contents; The rest will comfort, for thy counsel's sound.

Tra. Master, you look'd so longly on the maid, Perhaps you mark'd not what 's the pith of all.

Luc. O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
Such as the daughter of Agenor had,

That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand.

Tra. Saw you no more? mark'd you not, how her sister Began to scold; and raise up such a storm,

That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?

2

is not rated] Is not driven out by chiding. Malone. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

66 'tis to be chid,

"As we rate boys." Steevens.

3 If love have touch'd you, nought remains but so,] The next line from Terence shows that we should read:

If Love hath toyl'd you,

i. e. taken you in his toils, his nets. Alluding to the captus est, habet, of the same author. Warburton.

It is a common expression at this day to say, when a bailiff has arrested a man, that he has touched him on the shoulder. Therefore touch'd is as good a translation of captus, as toyl'd would be. Thus, in As you Like it, Rosalind says to Orlando: "Cupid hath clapt him on the shoulder, but I warrant him heart-whole."

M. Mason.

4 Redime &c.] Our author had this line from Lilly, which I mention, that it may not be brought as an argument for his learning. Johnson.

Dr. Farmer's pamphlet affords an additional proof that this line was taken from Lilly, and not from Terence; because it is quoted, as it appears in the grammarian, and not as it appears in the poet. It is introduced also in Decker's Bellman's Night-Walk, &c. It may be added, that captus est, habet, is not in the same play which furnished the quotation. Steevens.

5

longly - i. e. longingly. I have met with no example of this adverb. Steevens.

6

daughter of Agenor -] Europa, for whose sake Jupiter transformed himself into a bull. Steevens.

Luc. Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move, And with her breath she did perfume the air; Sacred and sweet, was all I saw in her.

Tra. Nay, then, 'tis time to stir him from his trance. I pray, awake, sir; If you love the maid,

Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands:-
Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd,

That, till the father rid his hands of her,
Master, your love must live a maid at home;
And therefore has he closely mew'd her up,
Because she shall not be annoy'd' with suitors.
Luc. Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!
But art thou not advis'd, he took some care
To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?
Tra. Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now 'tis plotted.
Luc. I have it, Tranio.

Tra.

Both our inventions meet and jump in one.

Luc. Tell me thine first.

Tra.

Master, for my hand,

You will be schoolmaster,

And undertake the teaching of the maid:

That's your device.

Luc.

It is: May it be done?

Tra. Not possible; For who shall bear your part,
And be in Padua here Vincentio's son?

Keep house, and ply his book; welcome his friends;
Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?

Luc. Basta; content thee; for I have it full.9
We have not yet been seen in any house;
Nor can we be distinguished by our faces,
For man, or master: then it follows thus ;-
Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead,
Keep house, and port,1 and servants, as I should:

7

she shall not be annoy'd -] Old copy-she will not. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone.

8 Basta;] i. e. 'tis enough; Italian and Spanish. This expression occurs in The Mad Lover, and The Little French Lawyer, of Beaumont and Fletcher.

Steevens.

9 I have it full.] i. e. conceive our stratagem in its full extent. I have already planned the whole of it. So, in Othello: "I have it, 'tis engender'd-" Steevens.

1

-port,] Port is figure, show, appearance. Johnson.

I will some other be; some Florentine,
Some Neapolitan, or mean man of Pisa.
'Tis hatch'd, and shall be so:-Tranio, at once
Uncase thee; take my colour'd hat and cloak:
When Biondello comes, he waits on thee;
But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.
Tra. So had you need.

[They exchange habits. In brief then, sir, sith it your pleasure is, And I am tied to be obedient;

(For so your father charg'd me at our parting;
Be serviceable to my son, quoth he,

Although, I think, 'twas in another sense,)
I am content to be Lucentio,

Because so well I love Lucentio.

Luc. Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves:
And let me be a slave, to achieve that maid
Whose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye.
Enter BIONDELLO.

Here comes the rogue.-Sirrah, where have you been?
Bion. Where have I been? Nay, how now, where

are you?

Master, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes?
Or you stol❜n his? or both? pray, what's the news?
Luc. Sirrah, come hither; 'tis no time to jest,
And therefore frame your manners to the time.
Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
Puts my apparel and my countenance on,
And I for my escape have put on his;
For in a quarrel, since I came ashore,
I kill'd a man, and fear I was descried: 3
Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,

So, in The Merchant of Venice:

""Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,

"How much I have disabled mine estate

"By something showing a more swelling port

"Than my faint means would grant continuance." Reed.

2 —— or mean man of Pisa.] The old copy, regardless of mereads-meaner. Steevens.

tre,

3

and fear I was descried:] i. e. I fear I was observed in the act of killing him. The editor of the third folio reads-I am descried, which has been adopted by the modern editors.

Malone

While I make way from hence to save my life:
You understand me?

Bion.

I, sir? ne'er a whit.

Luc. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth; Tranio is chang'd into Lucentio.

Bion. The better for him; 'Would I were so too! Tra. So would I, 'faith, boy, to have the next wish after,

That Lucentio indeed had Baptista's youngest daughter. But, sirrah,-not for my sake, but your master's,-I

advise

You use your manners discreetly in all kind of com

panies:

When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;
But in all places else, your master5 Lucentio.
Luc. Tranio, let's go:-

One thing more rests, that thyself execute;

To make one among these wooers: If thou ask me

why,

Sufficeth, my reasons are both good and weighty.“

[Exeunt." 1 Serv. My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play. Sly. Yes, by saint Anne, do I. A good matter, surely; Comes there any more of it?

Page. My lord, 'tis but begun.

Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady; 'Would 't were done!

4 So would 1,] The old copy has-could. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone.

5

your master] Old copy-you master. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. Malone.

6 good and weighty.] The division for the second Act of this play is neither marked in the folio nor quarto editions.— Shakspeare seems to have meant the first Act to conclude here, where the speeches of the Tinker are introduced; though they have been hitherto thrown to the end of the first Act, according to a modern and arbitrary regulation. Steevens.

7 Exeunt.] Here in the old copy we have "The Presenters above speak."-meaning Sly, &c. who were placed in a balcony raised at the back of the stage. After the words-" Would it were done,” the marginal direction is―They sit and mark.

Malone.

SCENE II.

The same. Before Hortensio's House.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.

Pet. Verona, for a while I take my leave, To see my friends in Padua; but, of all, My best beloved and approved friend, Hortensio; and, I trow, this is his house:Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

Gru. Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there any man has rebused your worship?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

9

Gru. Knock you here, sir? why, sir, what am I sir, that I should knock you here, sir?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate,

And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.
Gru. My master is grown quarrelsome: I should
knock you first,

And then I know after who comes by the worst.
Pet. Will it not be?

'Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll wring it;1
I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.

[He wrings GRU. by the cars. Gru. Help, masters, help! my master is mad. Pet. Now, knock when I bid you: sirrah! villain! Enter HORTENSIO.

Hor. How now? what's the matter?-My old friend

has rebused your worship?] What is the meaning of rebused? or is it a false print for abused? Tyrwhitt.

9 Knock you here,] Grumio's pretensions to wit have a strong resemblance to those of Dromio in The Comedy of Errors; and this circumstance makes it the more probable that these two plays were written at no great distance of time from each other. Malone.

1

wring it;] Here seems to be a quibble between ringing at a door, and wringing a man's ears. Steevens.

2 Help, masters,] The old copy reads-here; and in several other places in this play, mistress instead of masters. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. In the MSS. of our author's age, M was the common abbreviation of Master and Mistress. Hence the mistake. See The Merchant of Venice, Act V, 1600, and 1623:

"What ho, M. [Master] Lorenzo, and M. [Mistress] Lorenzo." Malone.

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