Give me thy hand, Kate: I will unto Venice,
To buy apparel 'gainst the wedding-day:-
Provide the feast, father, and bid the guests;
I will be sure, my Katharine shall be fine.

Bap. I know not what to say: but give me your hands; God send you joy, Petruchio! 'tis a match.

Gre. Tra. Amen, say we; we will be witnesses.

Pet. Father, and wife, and gentlemen, adieu;
I will to Venice, Sunday comes apace:-
We will have rings, and things, and fine array;
And kiss me, Kate, we will be married o’Sunday.

[Exeunt Pet. and Kath. severally. Gre. Was ever match clapp'd up so suddenly?

Bap. Faith, gentlemen, now I play a merchant's party And venture madly on a desperate mart.

Tra. 'Twas a commodity lay fretting by you: 'Twill bring you gain, or perish on the seas.

Bap. The gain I seek is-quiet in the match.?

Gre. No doubt, but he hath got a quiet catch.
But now, Baptista, to your younger daughter;
Now is the day we long have looked for;
I am your neighbour, and was suitor first.

Tra. And I am one, that love Bianca more
Than words can witness, or your thoughts can guess.

Gre. Youngling! thou canst not love so dear as I.
Tra. Grey-beard! thy love doth freeze.
Gre,

But thine doth fry.8

So, in Decker's Honest Whore, 1604:

“A woman 's well holp up with such a mieacock." Again, in Glapthorne’s Hollander, 1640:

“They are like my husband; mere meacocks verily." Again, in Apius and Virginia, 1575: “ As stout as a stockfish, as meek as a meacock."

Steedens. in the match.] Old copy-me the match. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone.

8 But thine doth fry.] Old Gremio's notions are confirmed by Shadwell:

“ The fire of love in youthful blood,
“ Like what is kindled in brush-wood,

“ But for the moment burns:-
“ But when crept into aged veins,
“ It slowly burns, and long remains;

Skipper, stand back; 'tis age, that nourisheth.

Tra. But youth, in ladies' eyes that flourisheth.
Bap. Content you, gentlemen; I'll compound this

strife:
'Tis deeds, must win the prize; and he, of both,
That can assure my daughter greatest dower,
Shall have Bianca's love.
Say, signior Gremio, what can you assure her?

Gre. First, as you know, my house within the city Is richly furnished with plate and gold; Basons, and ewers, to lave her dainty hands; My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry: In ivory coffers I have stuff’d my crowns; In cypress chests my arras, counterpoints, Costly apparel, tents, and canopies, i

9

1

“ It glows, and with a sullen heat,
“ Like fire in logs, it burns, and warms us long;
“ And though the flame be not so great,

“ Yet is the heat as strong.” Johnson. So also, in A Wonder, a Woman never vex'd, a comedy, by Rowley, 1632:

My old dry wood shall make a lusty bonfire, when thy green chips lie hissing in the chimney-corner.”

The thought, however, might originate from Sidney's Arcadia, Book II:

“Let not old age disgrace my high desire,

“O heavenly soule in humane shape contain'd!
“Old wood inflam'd doth yeeld the bravest fire,
“When yonger doth in smoke his vertue spend."

Steevens. counterpoints,] So, in A Knack to know a Knave, 1594:

“Then I will have rich counterpoints and musk.” These coverings for beds are at present called counterpanes; but either mode of spelling is proper.

Counterpoint is the monkish term for a particular species of musick, in which, notes of equal duration, but of different harmony, are set in opposition to each other.

In like manner counterpanes were anciently composed of patchwork, and so contrived that every pane or partition in them, was contrasted with one of a different colour, though of the same di. mensions. Steevens.

Counterpoints were in ancient times extremely costly. In Wat Tyler's rebellion, Stowe informs us, when the insurgents broke into the wardrobe in the Savoy, they destroyed a coverlet, worth a thousand marks. Malone.

tents, and canopies, I suppose by tents old Gremio means work of that kind which the ladies call tent-stitch. He would

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VOL. VI.

Fine linen, Turky cushions boss'd with pearl,
Valance of Venice gold in needle-work,
Pewter? and brass, and all things that belong
To house, or housekeeping: then, at my farm,
I have a hundred milch-kine to the pail,
Sixscore fat oxen standing in my stalls,
And all things answerable to this portion.
Myself am struck in years, I must confess;
And, if I die to-morrow, this is hers,
If, whilst I live, she will be only mine.

Tra. That, only, came well in- -Sir, list to me,
I am my father's heir, and only son:
If I may have your daughter to my wife,
I 'll leave her houses three or four as good,
Within rich Pisa walls, as any one
Old signior Gremio has in Padua;
Besides two thousand ducats by the year,
Of fruitful land, all which shall be her jointure.
What, have I pinch'd you, signior Gremio?

Gre. Two thousand ducats by the year, of land!
My land amounts not to so much in all:
That she shall have; besides an argosy,

hardly enumerate tents (in their common acceptation) among his domestick riches. Steevens.

I suspect, the furniture of some kind of bed, in the form of a pavillion, was known by this name in our author's time. Malone.

I conceive, the pavillion, or tent-bed, to have been an article of furniture unknown in the age of Shakspeare. Steevens.

2 Pewter -] We may suppose that pewter was, even in the time of Queen Elizabeth, too costly to be used in common. It appears from "The regulations and establishment of the house. hold of Henry Algernon Percy, the fifth Earl of Northumberland,” &c. that vessels of pewter were hired by the year. This Household Book was begun in the year 1512. See Holinshed's Description of England, p. 188 and 189. Steevens. 3 Gre. Two thousand ducats by the year, of land! My land amounts not to so much in all:

That she shall have; besides - ] Though all copies concur in this reading, surely, if we examine the reasoning, something will be found wrong. Gremio is startled at the high settlement Tranio proposes: says, his whole estate in land can't match it, yet he'll settle so much a year upon her, &c. This is playing at cross purposes. The change of the negative in the second line salves the absurdity, and sets the passage right. Gremio and Tranio vying in their offers to carry Bianca, the latter boldly pro

4

That now is lying in Marseilles' road:
What, have I chok'd you with an argosy?

T'ra. Gremio, 'tis known, my father hath no less
Than three great argosies; besides two galliasses,
And twelve tight gallies: these I will assure her,
And twice as uch, whate'er thou offer'st next.

Gre. Nay, I have offer'd all, I have no more;
And she can have no more than all I have;
If
you

like me, she shall have me and mine. Tra. Why, then the maid is mine from all the world, By your firm promise; Gremio is out-vied.5

Bap. I must confess, your offer is the best;
And, let your father make her the assurance,
She is your own; else, you must pardon me:
If you should die before him, where 's her dower?
Tra. That's but a cavil; he is old, I

young.
Gre. And may not young men die, as well as old?

Bap. Well, gentlemen,
I am thus resolv'd:-On Sunday next you know,
My daughter Katharine is to be married:
Now, on the Sunday following, shall Bianca

4

poses to settle land to the amount of two thousand ducats per annum. My whole estate, says the other, in land, amounts but to that value; yet she shall have that: I'll endow her with the whole; and consign a rich vessel to her use over and above. Thus all is intelligible, and he goes on to out-bid his rival. Warburton.

Gremio only says, his whole estate in land doth not indeed amount to two thousand ducats a year, but she shall have that, whatever be its value, and an argosy over and above; which argosy must be understood to be of very great value from his subjoining:

What, have I chok’d you with an argosy? Heath.

two galliasses,] A galeas or galliass, is a heavy low-built vessel of burthen, with both sails and oars, partaking at once of the nature of a ship and a galley. So, in The Noble Soldier, 1634:

“ – to have rich gulls come aboard their pinnaces, for then they are sure to build galliasses.” Steevens.

out-vied.) This is a term at the old game of gleek. When one man was vied upon another, he was said to be out-pied. So, in Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592: “They draw a card, and the barnacle vies, and the countryman vies upon him,” &c. Again, in The Fealous Lovers, by Randolph, 1632:

“ Thou canst not finde out wayes enow to spend it;
“ They will out-vie thy pleasures.” Steevens.

5

6

Be bride to you, if you make this assurance;
If not, to signior Gremio:
And so I take my leave, and thank you

both. [Erit.
Gre. Adieu, good neighbour.-Now I fear thee not;
Sirrah, young gamester, your father were a fool
To give thee all, and, in his waning age,
Set foot under thy table: Tut! a toy!
An old Italian fox is not so kind, my boy. [Exit.

Tra. A vengeance on your crafty wither'd hide! Yet I have faced it with a card of ten.?

6 Sirrah, young gamester,] Perhaps alluding to the pretended Lucentio's having before talked of out-vying him. See the last note. Malone.

Gamester, in the present instance, has no reference to gaming, and only signifies-a wag, a frolicksome character. So, in King Henry VIII:

“ You are a merry gamester, my lord Sands.” Steevens. 7 Yet I have faced it with a card of ten.] That is, with the highest card, in the old simple games of our ancestors. So that this became a proverbial expression. So, Skelton:

“ Fyrste pycke a quarrel, and fall out with him then,

“ And so outface him with a card of ten." And, Ben Jonson, in his Sad Shepherd:

a hart of ten “I trow he be.” i.e. an extraordinary good one. Warburton.

A hart of ten has no reference to cards, but is an expression taken from The Laws of the Forest, and relates to the age of the deer. When a hart is past six years old, he is generally called a hart of ten. See Forest Laws, 4to. 1598. Again, in the sixth scene of The Sad Shepherd:

a great large deer! " Rob. What head?

“John. Forked. A hart of ten.” The former expression is very common. So, in Law- Tricks, &c. 1608:

“ I may be out-fac'd with a card of ten." Mr. Malone is of opinion that the phrase was “ applied to those persons who gained their ends by impudence, and bold confident assertion."

As we are on the subject of cards, it may not be amiss to take notice of a common blunder relative to their names. We call the king, queen, and knave, court-cards, whereas they were anciently denominated coats, or coat-cards, from their coats or dresses. So, Ben Jonson, in his New Inn:

“ When she is pleas'd to trick or trump mankind,

“Some may be coats, as in the cards.” Again, in May-day, a comedy, by Chapman, 1611: