And, honest company, I thank you all, Pet. I am content you shall entreat me stay, But yet not stay, entreat me how you can. Kath. Now, if you love me, stay. Pet. Grumio, my horses. Gru. Ay, sir, they be ready; the oats have eaten the horses. Kath. Nay, then, Do what thou canst, I will not go to-day; your boots are green; For me, I'll not be gone, till I please myself;"Tis like you'll prove a jolly surly groom, That take it on you at the first so roundly. Pet. O, Kate, content thee; pr'ythee, be not angry. Kath. I will be angry; What hast thou to do? Father, be quiet; he shall stay my leisure. Gre. Ay, marry, sir; now it begins to work. Kath. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner : I see a woman may be made a fool, If she had not a spirit to resist. Pet. They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command: Obey the bride, you that attend on her: Go to the feast, revel and domineer 15, Be mad and merry, or go hang yourselves; But for my bonny Kate, she must with me. She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing; -Grumio, Draw forth thy weapon, we're beset with thieves; Rescue thy mistress, if thou be a man :— Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch thee, Kate; I'll buckler thee against a million. [Exeunt PET. KATH, and Gru. Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones! Gre. Went they not quickly, I should die with laughing. Tra. Of all mad matches, never was the like! Luc. Mistress, what's your opinion of your sister? Bian. That, being mad herself, she's madly mated. Gre. I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated. Bap. Neighbours and friends, though bride and bridegroom wants For to supply the places at the table, Tra. Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it? Bap. She shall, Lucentio.-Come, Gentlemen, [Exeunt. let's go. 15 That is, bluster or swagger. So in Tarleton's Jests: 'T. having been domineering very late at night with two of his friends' 16 Delicacies. ACT IV. SCENE I. A Hall in Petruchio's Country House. Enter GRUMIO. Gru. Fye, fye on all tired jades! on all mad masters! and all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten; was ever man so rayed1? was ever man so weary? I am sent before to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm them. Now, were not I a little pot, and soon hot, my very, lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I should come by a fire to thaw me:-But I, with blowing the fire, shall warm myself; for, considering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold. Holla! hoa! Curtis ! Enter CURTIS. Curt. Who is that, calls so coldly? Gru. A piece of ice: If thou doubt it, thou may'st slide from my shoulder to my heel, with no greater run but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis. Curt. Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio? Gru. O, ay, Curtis, ay: and therefore fire, fire; cast on no water 3. Curt. Is she so hot a shrew as she's reported? Gru. She was, good Curtis, before this frost: but, thou know'st, winter tames man, woman, and beast; 1 Bewrayed, dirty. 2 A little pot soon hot is a common proverb. 3 There is an old popular catch of three parts in these words: 'Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth, Fire, fire;-Fire, fire, Cast on some more water.' for it hath tamed my old master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis. Curt. Away, you three-inch fool! I am no beast. Gru. Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot; and so long am 15, at the least. But wilt thou make a fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand (she being now at hand) thou shalt soon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot office. Curt. I pr'ythee, good Grumio, tell me, How goes the world? Gru. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and, therefore, fire: Do thy duty, and have thy duty; for my master and mistress are almost frozen to death. Curt. There's fire ready: And, therefore, good Grumio, the news? Gru. Why, Jack boy! ho boy! and as much news as thou wilt. Curt. Come, you are so full of conycatching: Gru. Why, therefore, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. Where's the cook? is supper ready, the house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs swept; the serving-men in their new fustian, their white stockings, and every officer his wedding garment 4 Grumio calls himself a beast, and Curtis one also by inference in calling him fellow: this would not have been noticed but that one of the commentators once thought it necessary to alter myself in Grumio's speech to thyself. Grumio's sentence is proverbial: 'Wedding, and ill-wintering tame both man and beast.' 5 Curtis contemptuously alludes to Grumio's diminutive size; and he in return calls Curtis a cuckold. 6 This is the beginning of an old round in three parts, the music is given in the Variorum Shakspeare. NN 2 7 on? Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets laid 3, and every thing in order? Curt. All ready; And therefore, I pray thee, news; Gru. First, know, my horse is tired; my master and mistress fallen out. Curt. How? Gru. Out of their saddles into the dirt; and thereby hangs a tale. Curt. Let's ha't, good Grumio. Gru. Lend thine ear. Curt. Here. Gru. There. [Striking him. Curt. This is to feel a tale, not to hear a tale. Gru. And therefore 'tis called a sensible tale: and this cuff was but to knock at your ear, and beseech listening. Now I begin: Imprimis, we came down a foul hill, my master riding behind my mistress: Curt. Both on one horse? Gru. What's that to thee? Curt. Why, a horse. But hadst thou not Gru. Tell thou the tale: crossed me, thou should'st have heard how her horse fell, and she under her horse; thou should'st have heard, in how miry a place: how she was bemoiled9; how he left her with the horse upon her; how he beat me because her horse stumbled; how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; how he swore; how she prayed-that never prayed before; how I cried; how the horses ran away, how her bridle was 7 It is probable that a quibble was intended. Juck and jill signify two drinking vessels as well as men and maid-servants. 8 The carpets were laid over the tables. The floors, as appears from the present passage and others, were strewed with rushes. 9 i. e. bedraggled, bemired. |