Bian. In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.4 Luc. Mistrust it not; for, sure, acides Was Ajax,-call'd so from his grandfather.

Bian. I must believe my master; else, I promise you, I should be arguing still upon that doubt:

But let it rest. Now, Licio, to you:

6

Good masters, take it not unkindly, pray,

That I have been thus pleasant with you both.

Hor. You may go walk, [to Luc.] and give me leave awhile;

My lessons make no musick in three parts.

Luc. Are you so formal, sir? well, I must wait, And watch withal; for, but I be deceiv'd,'

Our fine musician groweth amorous.

[Aside.

Hor. Madam, before you touch the instrument,
To learn the order of my fingering,
I must begin with rudiments of art;
To teach you gamut in a briefer sort,
More pleasant, pithy, and effectual,
Than hath been taught by any of my trade:
And there it is in writing, fairly drawn.

Bian. Why, I am past my gamut long ago.
Hor. Yet read the gamut of Hortensio.

Bian. [reads] Gamut I am, the ground of all accord,
A re, to plead Hortensio's passion:

B mi, Bianca, take him for thy lord,
C faut, that loves with all affection:

4 In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.] This and the seven verses that follow, have in all the editions been stupidly shuffled and misplaced to wrong speakers; so that every word said was glaringly out of character. Theobald.

5- for, sure, Eacides &c.] This is only said to deceive Hortensio, who is supposed to listen. The pedigree of Ajax, however, is properly made out, and might have been taken from Golding's version of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book XIII:

The highest Jove of all

"Acknowledgeth this Eacus, and dooth his sonne him call.

"Thus am I Ajax third from Jove." Steevens.

6 Good masters,] Old copy-master. Corrected by Mr. Pope.

7

Malone.

but I be deceiv'd,] But has here the signification of unMalone.

D sol re, one cliff, two notes have I;
E la mi, show pity, or I die.

Call you this-gamut? tut! I like it not:

Old fashions please me best; I am not so nice,
To change true rules for odd inventions.

Enter a Servant.9

8

Serv. Mistress, your father prays you leave your books,

And help to dress your sister's chamber up;
You know, to-morrow is the wedding-day.

Lian. Farewel, sweet masters, both; I must be gone. [Exeunt BIAN. and Serv. Luc. 'Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay.

Hor. But I have cause to pry into this pedant;
Methinks, he looks as though he were in love:—
Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble,
To cast thy wand'ring eyes on every stale,
Seize thee, that list: If once I find thee ranging,
Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing.

SCENE II.

The same. Before Baptista's House.

[Exit.

[Exit.

Enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, TRANIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, LUCENTIO, and Attendants.

Bap. Signior Lucentio, [to TRA.] this is the 'pointed day

That Katharine and Petruchio should be married,

8 To change true rules for odd inventions.] The old copy reads -To charge true rules for old inventions: The former emendation was made by the editor of the second folio; the latter by Mr. Theobald. Old, however, may be right. I believe, an opposition was intended. As change was corrupted into charge, why might not true have been put instead of new? Perhaps the author wrote:

And yet we hear not of our son-in-law:
What will be said? what mockery will it be,
To want the bridegroom, when the priest attends
To speak the ceremonial rites of marriage?
What says Lucentio to this shame of ours?

Kath. No shame but mine: I must, forsooth, be forc'd
To give my hand, oppos'd against my heart,
Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen;1

Who woo'd in haste, and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantick fool,
Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour:

And, to be noted for a merry man,

He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage,
Make friends, invite, yes, and proclaim the banns;2
Yet never means to wed where he hath woo'd,
Now must the world point at poor Katharine,
And say,-Lo, there is mad Petruchio's wife,
If it would please him come and marry her.

Tra. Patience, good Katharine, and Baptista too;
Upon my life, Petruchio means but well,
Whatever fortune stays him from his word:
Though he be blunt, I know him passing wise;
Though he be merry, yet withal he 's honest.

Kath. 'Would Katharine had never seen him though! [Exit, weeping, followed by BIAN. and others. Bap. Go, girl; I cannot blame thee now to weep; For such an injury would vex a saint,3

3

Much more a shrew of thy impatient humour.4

1-full of spleen;] That is full of humour, caprice, and inconstancy. Johnson.

So, in The First Part of King Henry IV;

"A hare-brain'd Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen."

M. Mason.

2 Make friends, invite, yes, and proclaim the banns;] Mr. Ma

lone reads:

Make friends, invite them, &c. Steevens.

Them is not in the old copy. For this emendation I am answerable. The editor of the second folio, to supply the defect in the metre, reads, with less probability in my opinionMake friends, invite, yes, and proclaim, &e. Malone.

3 vex a saint,] The old copy redundantly reads-vex a very saint. Steevens.

4

of thy impatient humour.] Thy, which is not in the old copy, was inserted by the editor of the second folio. Malone.

a

Enter BIONDELLO.

Bion. Master, master! news, old news," and such news as you never heard of!

Bah. Is it new and old too? how may that be?

Bion. Why, is it not news, to hear of Petruchio's coming?

Bap. Is he come?

Bion. Why, no, sir.

Bap. What then?

Bion. He is coming.

Bap. When will he be here?

Bion. When he stands where I am, and sees you there. Tra. But, say, what:-To thine old news.

Bion. Why, Petruchio is coming, in a new hat, and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches, thrice turned; a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless; with two broken points: His horse hipped with an old mothy

6 old news,] These words were added by Mr. Rowe, and necessarily, for the reply of Baptista supposes them to have been already spoken; old laughing-old utis, &c. are expressions of that time merely hyperbolical, and have been more than once used by Shakspeare. See note on Henry IV, P. II, Act II, sc. iv. Steevens.

6 a pair of boots-one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless; with two broken points:] How a sword should have two broken points, I cannot tell. There is, I think, a transposition caused by the seeming relation of paint to sword. I read, a pair of boots, one buckled, another laced with two broken points; an old rusty sword-with a broken hilt, and chapeless. Johnson.

I suspect that several words giving an account of Petruchio's belt are wanting. The belt was then broad and rich, and worn on the outside of the doublet.-Two broken points might therefore have concluded the description of its ostentatious meanness.

Steevens.

The broken points might be the two broken tags to the laces.

Tollet,

that have been candle-cases,] That is, I suppose, boots long left off, and after having been converted into cases to hold the ends of candles, returning to their first office. I do not know that I have ever met with the word candle-case in any other place, except the following preface to a dramatic dialogue, 1604, entitled The Case is Alter'd, How?"I write upon cases, neither knife-cases, pin-cases, nor candle-cases.”

8

saddle, the stirrups of no kindred:7 besides, possessed with the glanders, and like to mose in the chine; troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions, full of windgalls, sped with spavins, raied with the yellows, past cure of the fives, stark, spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots; swayed in the back, and shoulder-shotten; ne'er-legged before,1 and with a half-checked bit, and a head-stall of sheep's leather; which, being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots: one girt six times

And again, in How to choose a Good Wife from a Bad, 1602: "A bow-case, a cap-case, a comb-case, a lute-case, a fiddlecase, and a candle-case." Steevens.

71

the stirrups of no kindred:] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Lib. III: "To this purpose many willing hands were about him, letting him have reynes, pettrel, with the rest of the furniture, and very brave bases; but all comming from divers horses, neither in colour nor fashion showing any kindred one with the other."

Steevens.

8 infected with the fashions,past cure of the fives,] Fashions. So called in the West of England, but by the best writers on farriery, farcens, or farcy.

Fives. So called in the West: vives elsewhere, and avives by the French; a distemper in horses, little differing from the strangles. Grey.

Shakspeare is not the only writer who uses fashions for farcy. So, in Decker's comedy of Old Fortunatus, 1600:

"Shad. What shall we learn by travel?

"Andel. Fashions.

"Shad. That's a beastly disease.”

Again, in The New Ordinary, by Brome:

"My old beast is infected with the fashions, fashion-sick.” Again, in Decker's Guls Hornbook, 1609: "Fashions was then counted a disease, and horses died of it." Steevens.

9 swayed in the back,] The old copy has-waid. ed by Sir T. Hanmer. Malone.

Correct

So, in Philemon Holland's translation of the 28th Book of Pliny's Natural History, ch. iv, p. 300: " - for let them be swaied in the backe, or hipped by some stripe," &c.