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 Or my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes? 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: Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes, While I make way from hence to save my life: You understand me? Bion. I, sir, ne'er a whit. 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'sI 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 master Lucentio. 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 29. 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, 'twere done! SCENE II. The same. Before Hortensio's House. Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO. Pet. Verona, for a while I take my leave, Gru. Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there any man has rebused your worship? Pet. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly. Gru. Knock you here, sir? why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir1? 29 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. 1 Malone remarks that Grumio's pretensions to wit have a strong resemblance to Dromio's, in The Comedy of Errors; and the two plays were probably written at no great distance of time from each other. I have elsewhere had occasion to observe that the idiom, Knock me here,' is familiar to the French language. Thus Molière, in The Tartuffe, Act iii. Sc. 2: 'Ah! mon dieu! je vous prie, Avant que de parler, prenez-moi ce mouchoir.' Dumarsais, in his Principes de Grammaire, p. 388, thinks the same expletive form of speech is to be found in The Heautontimorumenos of Terence, Act i. Sc. 4: fac me ut sciam.' your Pet. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate, And rap me well, or I'll knock 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; I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it. [He wrings GRUMIO by the ears. 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 Grumio! and my good friend Petruchio!-How do you all at Verona! Pet. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray? Con tutto il core bene trovato, may I say. Hor. Alla nostra casa bene venuto, Molto honorato, signor mio Petruchio2. 3 Gru. Nay, 'tis no matter what he leges 3 in Latin. -If this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service. Look you, sir, he bid me knock him, and rap him soundly, sir: Well, was it fit for a servant 2 Gascoigne in his Supposes has spelt this name correctly Petrucio, but Shakspeare wrote it as it appears in the text, in order to teach the actors how to pronounce it. So Decker writes Infeliche for Infelice. 3 3 i. e. what he alleges in Latin. Grumio mistakes the Italian spoken for Latin. Tyrwhitt suggests that we should readNay, 'tis no matter what be leges in Latin, if this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service.' That is, "Tis no matter what is law if this be not a lawful cause,' &c. Mason approves this, and says, as Italian was Grumio's native language, he could not possibly mistake it for Latin.' This is true, but it is not certain that Shakspeare's attention was awake to the circumstance, as his Italians speak English throughout the play, with the exception of a few colloquial phrases. to use his master so; being, perhaps, (for aught I see), two and thirty,—a pip out? Whom, 'would to God, I had well knock'd at first, Pet. A senseless villain-Good Hortensio, Spake you not these words plain,-Sirrah, knock me here, Rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly*? And come you now with-knocking at the gate? Pet. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you, Hor. Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge: Why, this a heavy chance 'twixt him and you; Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio. And tell me now, sweet friend,-what happy gale Blows you to Padua here, from old Verona? Pet. Such wind as scatters young men through To seek their fortunes further than at home, And I have thrust myself into this maze, 4 This passage has escaped the commentators, and yet it is more obscure than many they have explained. Perhaps it was passed over because it was not understood? The allusion is to the old game of Bone-ace or one-and-thirty. A pip is a spot upon a card. The old copy has it peepe. The same allusion is found in Massinger's Fatal Dowry, Act ii. Sc. 2: You think, because you served my lady's mother [you] are thirty-two years old, which is a pip out, you know.' There is a secondary allusion (in which the joke lies) to a popular mode of inflicting punishment upon certain offenders. For a curious illustration of which the reader may consult Florio's Ital. Dict. in v. Trentuno. 5 In a few means the same as in short, in a few words. VOL. III. K K Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home, Hor. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee, And very rich: thou'rt too much my friend, And I'll not wish thee to her. Pet. Signior Hortensio; 'twixt such friends as we Few words suffice: and, therefore, if thou know One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife, (As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance), Be she as foul as was Florentius' love", As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd As Socrates' Xantippe, or a worse, She moves me not, or not removes, at least, Affection's edge in me; were she as rough As are the swelling Adriatick seas; I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; If wealthily, then happily in Padua. Gru. Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is: Why, give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet, or an aglet-baby; or an old trot 6 This allusion is to a story told by Gower in the first book of his Confessio Amantis. Florent is the name of a knight who bound himself to marry a deformed hag provided she taught him the solution of a riddle on which his life depended. This story may have been taken from the Gesta Romanorum: Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale is of a similar kind. 7 i. e. 'a diminutive being, not exceeding in size the tag of a point,' says Steevens; a small image or head cut on the tag of a point or lace,' says Malone. It was no such thing; an aglet was not only a tag of a point, but a brooch or ' jewel in one's cap,' as Baret explains it. An aglet-baby, therefore, was a diminutive figure carved on an aglet or jewel; such as Queen Mab is described: In shape no bigger than an agate stone On the fore finger of an alderman.' Shakspeare was fond of the image, and refers to it again in Much Ado about Nothing : |