velure, which hath two letters for her name, fairly set down in studs, and here and there pieced with packthread.

Bap. Who comes with him?

Bion. O, sir, his lackey, for all the world caparisoned like the horse; with a linen stock 8 on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, gartered with a red and blue list; an old hat, and The humour of forty fancies pricked in't for a feather: a monster, a very monster in apparel; and not like a christian footboy, or a gentleman's lackey.

Tra. 'Tis some odd humour pricks him to this fashion!

Yet oftentimes he goes but mean apparell❜d.

Bap. I am glad he is come, howsoever he comes.
Bion. Why, sir, he comes not.

Bap. Didst thou not say, he comes?

Bion. Who? that Petruchio came?
Bap. Ay, that Petruchio came.

Bion. No, sir; I say, his horse comes with him on his back.

Bap. Why, that's all one.

Bion. Nay, by Saint Jamy, I hold you a penny, A horse and a man is more than one, and yet not many.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.

. Pet. Come, where be these gallants? who is at home?

Bap. You are welcome, sir.

7 Velvet.

8 Stocking.

9 Warburton's supposition, that Shakspeare ridicules some popular chap book of this title, by making Petruchio prick it up in his footboy's hat instead of a feather, has been well supported by Steevens; he observes that a penny book, containing forty short poems, would, properly managed, furnish no unapt plume of feathers for the hat of a humourist's servant.'

Pet.

And yet I come not well.

Bap. And yet you halt not.

Tra.

As I wish you were.

Not so well apparell'd

Pet. Were it better, I should rush in thus.
But where is Kate? where is my lovely bride?—
How does my father?-Gentles, methinks you frown:
And wherefore gaze this goodly company,

As if they saw some wondrous monument,
Some comet, or unusual prodigy?

Bap. Why, sir, you know, this is your weddingday:

First were we sad, fearing you would not come;
Now sadder, that you come so unprovided.
Fye! doff this habit, shame to your estate,

An

eye-sore to our solemn festival.

Tra. And tell us, what occasion of import Hath all so long detain'd you from your wife, And sent you hither so unlike yourself?

Pet. Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear: Sufficeth, I am come to keep my word,

Though in some part enforced to disgress 10;
Which, at more leisure, I will so excuse
As you shall well be satisfied withal.

But, where is Kate? I stay too long from her;
The morning wears, 'tis time we were at church.
Tra. See not your bride in these unreverent robes;
Go to my chamber, put on clothes of mine.

Pet. Not I, believe me; thus I'll visit her.
Bap. But thus, I trust, you will not marry her.
Pet. Good sooth, even thus; therefore have done
with words;

To me she's married, not unto my clothes:
Could I repair what she will wear in me,
As I can change these poor accoutrements,
10 i. e. to deviate from my promise.

"Twere well for Kate, and better for myself.
But what a fool am I to chat with you,
When I should bid good-morrow to my bride,
And seal the title with a lovely kiss?

[Exeunt PET. GRU. and BION. Tra. He hath some meaning in his mad attire: We will persuade him, be it possible,

To put on better ere he go to church.

Bap. I'll after him, and see the event of this.

[Exit. Tra. But, sir, to her11 love concerneth us to add Her father's liking: which to bring to pass, As I before imparted to your worship,

I am to get a man,-whate'er he be,

It skills 12 not much; we'll fit him to our turn,-
And he shall be Vincentio of Pisa;
And make assurance, here in Padua,
Of greater sums than I have promised,
So shall you quietly enjoy your hope,
And marry sweet Bianca with consent.

Luc. Were it not that my fellow schoolmaster
Doth watch Bianca's steps so narrowly,
"Twere good, methinks, to steal our marriage;
Which once perform'd, let all the world say-no,
I'll keep mine own, despite of all the world.
Tra. That by degrees we mean to look into,
And watch our vantage in this business:
We'll overreach the greybeard, Gremio,

11 The old copy reads, But, sir, love concerneth us to add, Her father's liking.' The emendation is Mr. Tyrwhitt's. The nominative case to the verb concerneth is here understood.

12 'It matters not much,' it is of no importance. Thus in the old phrase book, Hormanni Vulgaria, 1519, 'It maketh little matter, or it skilleth not whether thou come or not.' Shakspeare has the phrase again in Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1, p. 391.— 'it skills not much where they are delivered.' See also K.

Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 1.

The narrow-prying father, Minola;
The quaint 13 musician, amorous Licio;
All for my master's sake, Lucentio.-

Re-enter GREMIO.

Signior Gremio! came you from the church?
Gre. As willingly as e'er I came from school.
Tra. And is the bride and bridegroom coming home?
Gre. A bridegroom, say you? 'tis a groom, indeed,
A grumbling groom, and that the girl shall find.
Tra. Curster than she? why, 'tis impossible.
Gre. Why, he's a devil, a devil, a very
fiend.
Tra. Why, she's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam.
Gre. Tut! she's a lamb, a dove, a fool to him.
I'll tell you, Sir Lucentio: When the priest
Should ask-if Katharine should be his wife,
Ay, by gogs-wouns, quoth he; and swore so loud,
That, all amaz'd, the priest let fall the book:
And, as he stoop'd again to take it up,

The mad-brain'd bridegroom took him such a cuff,
That down fell priest and book, and book and priest:
Now take them up, quoth he, if any list.

Tra. What said the wench, when he arose again? Gre. Trembled and shook; for why, he stamp'd and swore,

As if the vicar meant to cozen him.

But after many ceremonies done,

He calls for wine :-A health, quoth he; as if
He had been aboard carousing to his mates

13 Quaint had formerly a more favourable meaning than strange, awkward, fantastical, and was used in commendation, as neat, elegant, dainty, dexterous. Thus in the third scene of the fourth

act of this play :

"I never saw a better fashioned gown

More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable.'

We have 'quaint spirits' in The Midsummer Night's Dream. And Prospero calls Ariel, my quaint Ariel.'

After a storm:-Quaff'd off the muscadel14,
And threw the sops all in the sexton's face;
Having no other reason,-

But that his beard grew thin and hungerly,
And seem'd to ask him sops as he was drinking.
This done, he took the bride about the neck;
And kiss'd her lips with such a clamorous smack,
That, at the parting, all the church did echo.
I, seeing this, came thence for very shame;
And after me, I know, the rout is coming:
Such a mad marriage never was before;
Hark, hark! I hear the minstrels play.

[Musick.

Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, BAPTISTA, HORTENSIO, GRUMIO, and Train. Pet. Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for pains:

I know

your

you think to dine with me to-day, And have prepared great store of wedding cheer; But so it is, my haste doth call me hence, And therefore here I mean to take my leave.

Bap. Is't possible, you will away to-night? Pet. I must away to-day, before night come: Make it no wonder; if you knew my business, You would entreat me rather go than stay.

14 The custom of having wine and sops distributed immediately after the marriage ceremony in the church is very ancient. It existed even among our Gothic ancestors, and is mentioned in the ordinances of the household of Henry VII. For the Marriage of a Princess:- Then pottes of Ipocrice to be ready, and to bee put into cupps with soppe, and to be borne to the estates; and to take a soppe and drinke.' It was also practised at the marriage of Philip and Mary, in Winchester Cathedral; and at the marriage of the Elector Palatine to the daughter of James I. in 1612-13. It appears to have been the custom at all marriages. In Jonson's Magnetic Lady it is called a knitting cup : In Middleton's No Wit like a Woman's, the contracting cup. The kiss was also part of the ancient marriage ceremony, as appears from a rubric in one of the Salisbury Missals. N N

VOL. III.