TRA. Even he. Biondello ! GRE. Hark you, fir; You mean not her to▬▬▬ TRA. Perhaps, him and her, fir; What have you to do? PET. Not her that chides, fir, at any hand, I pray. TRA. I love no chiders, fir:-Biondello, let's away. Luc. Well begun, Tranio. HOR. Sir, a word ere you go;→ [Afide. Are you a fuitor to the maid you talk of, yea, or no? TRA. An if I be, fir, is it any offence? GRE. No; if, without more words, you will get you hence. TRA. Why, fir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me, as for you? GRE. But fo is not she. TRA. For what reason, I beseech you } It should rather be given to Gremio ; to whom, with the others, Tranio has addreffed himself. The following paffages might be written thus: Gre. Hark you, fir; you mean not her too. TYRWHITT I think the old copy, both here and in the preceding speech is right. Biondello adds to what his master had said, the words"He that has the two fair daughters," to afcertain more precifely the perfon for whom he had enquired; and then addreffes Traniois't he you mean?" You mean not her to] I believe, an abrupt fentence was intended; or perhaps Shakspeare might have written her to woo. Tranio in his anfwer might mean, that he would woo the father, to obtain his confent, and the daughter for herself. This, however, will not complete the metre. I incline, therefore, to my firft fuppofition. MALONE. I have followed Mr. Tyrwhitt's regulation. STEEVENS. GRE. For this reafon, if you'll know, That she's the choice love of fignior Gremio. HOR. That fhe's the chofen of fignior Hortenfio. TRA. Softly, my masters! if you be gentlemen, To whom my father is not all unknown; GRE. What this gentleman will out-talk us all. Luc. Sir, give him head; I know, he'll prove a jade. PET. Hortenfio, to what end are all these words? HOR. Sir, let me be fo bold as to ask you, Did you yet ever fee Baptifta's daughter? TRA. No, fir; but hear I do, that he hath two; The one as famous for a fcolding tongue, As is the other for beauteous modefty. PET. Sir, fir, the firft's for me; let her go by. GRE. Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules; And let it be more than Alcides' twelve. PET. Sir, understand you this of me, infooth ;The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for, Her father keeps from all access of suitors; And will not promife her to any man, Until the elder fifter first be wed: The younger then is free, and not before. TRA. If it be fo, fir, that you are the man Muft ftead us all, and me among the reft; For our accefs,-whose hap fhall be to have her, HOR. Sir, you fay well, and well you do con ceive; And fince you do profefs to be a fuitor, You muft, as we do, gratify this gentleman, 2 TRA. Sir, I fhall not be flack: in fign whereof, Please ye we may contrive this afternoon, And quaff carouses to our mistress' health; And do as adverfaries do in law,3 Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. 2 reads-this feek. The emenSTEEVENS. Pleafe ye we may contrive this afternoon,] Mr. Theobald afks what they were to contrive? and then says, a foolish corruption poffeffes the place, and fo alters it to convive; in which he is followed, as he pretty conftantly is, when wrong, by the Oxford editor. But the common reading is right, and the critic was only ignorant of the meaning of it. Contrive does not fignify here to project but to spend, and wear out. As in this paffage of Spenfer: "Three ages fuch as mortal men contrive.” Fairy Queen, B. XI. ch. ix. WARBURTON. The word is used in the fame sense of spending or wearing out, in Painter's Palace of Pleafure. JOHNSON. So, in Damon and Pithias, 1571: "In travelling countries, we three have contrived Contrive, I fuppofe, is from contero. So, in the Hecyra of Terence: "Totum hunc contrivi diem." STEEVENS. 3 as adverfaries do in law,] By adverfaries in law, I believe, our author means not fuitors, but barristers, who, how GRU. BION. O excellent motion! Fellows, let's begone.4 HOR. The motion's good indeed, and be it fo; Petruchio, I fhall be your ben venuto. [Exeunt. ever warm in their oppofition to each other in the courts of law, live in greater harmony and friendship in private, than perhaps those of any other of the liberal profeffions. Their clients feldom "eat and drink with their adverfaries as friends." MALONE. 4 Fellows, let's begone.] Fellows means fellow-fervants. Grumio and Biondello addrefs each other, and also the disguised Lucentio. MALONE. ACT II. SCENE I. The fame. A Room in Baptifta's House. Enter KATHARINA and BIANCA. BIAN. Good fifter, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself,5 To make a bondmaid and a flave of me; KATH. Of all thy fuitors, here I charge thee,7 tell Whom thou lov'ft beft: fee thou diffemble not. BIAN. Believe me, fifter, of all the men alive, I never yet beheld that special face Which I could fancy more than any other. KATH. Minion, thou lieft; Is't not Hortenfio? BIAN. If you affect him, fifter, here I fwear, I'll plead for you myself, but you fhall have him. 5 nor wrong yourself,] Do not act in a manner unbecoming a woman and a fifter. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "Mafter Ford, this wrongs you." MALONE. but for thefe other gawds,] The old copy reads-thefe other goods. STEEVENS. This is fo trifling and unexpreffive a word, that I am fatisfied our author wrote gawds, (i. e. toys, trifling ornaments ;) a term that he frequently uses and seems fond of. THEOBALD. 7-I charge thee,] Thee, which was accidentally omitted in the old copy, was fupplied by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. |