To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds a:
And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,
Virtue, and that part of philosophy
Will I apply, that treats of happiness
By virtue 'specially to be achiev'd.
Tell me thy mind: for I have Pisa left,
And am to Padua come, as he that leaves
A shallow plash, to plunge him in the deep,
And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.
TRA. Mi perdonate, gentle master mine,

I am in all affected as yourself;
Glad that you thus continue your resolve,
To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
Only, good master, while we do admire
This virtue, and this moral discipline,
Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray ;
Or so devote to Aristotle's checks b,

As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd:

с

Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,
And practise rhetoric in your cominon talk:
Music and poesy use to quicken you;
The mathematics, and the metaphysics,
Fall to them, as you find your
stomach serves you:

No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en ;-
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Luc. Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.

If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,
We could at once put us in readiness;
And take a lodging, fit to entertain

Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.
But stay awhile: What company is this?
TRA. Master, some show, to welcome us to town.

• This passage has been a source of perplexity to the commentators; but it appears to us sufficiently clear: Pisa gave me my being, and also first gave my father being-that father was Vincentio, &c. It shall become Vincentio's son, that he may fulfil the hopes conceived of him, to deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds.

b Checks. Sir W. Blackstone proposes to read ethicks. In Ben Jonson's 'Silent Woman' we have "Aristotle's ethicks." This emendation is ingenious; but it is scarcely necessary to disturb the text.

• Balk. This word of the original has been changed into talk, "corrected by Mr. Rowe." By this correction the meaning of the passage has been destroyed. Tranio draws a distinction between the dry and the agreeable of the liberal sciences. Balk logic-pass over logic-with your acquaintance, but practise rhetoric in your common talk;-use (in the legitimate sense of resorting to frequently) music and poetry to quicken you, but fall to mathematics and metaphysics as you find your inclination serves.

Enter BAPTISTA, KATHARINA, BIANCA, GREMIO, and HORTENSIO. LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand aside.

BAP. Gentlemen, importune me no farther,
For how I firmly am resolv'd you know:
That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter,
Before I have a husband for the elder:

If either of you both love Katharina,
Because I know you well, and love you well,

Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.
GRE. To cart her rather: She's too rough for me:
There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?
KATH. I pray you, sir [to BAP.], is it your will

To make a stale of me amongst these mates a?
HOR. Mates, maid! how mean you that? no mates for you,
Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.
KATH. I' faith, sir, you shall never need to fear;

I wis, it is not half way to her heart:

But, if it were, doubt not her care should be
To comb your noddle with a three-legg'd stool,
And paint your face, and use you like a fool.
HOR. From all such devils, good Lord, deliver us!
GRE. And me too, good Lord!

TRA. Hush, master! here is some good pastime toward;
That wench is stark mad, or wonderful froward.

Luc. But in the other's silence do I see

Maids' mild behaviour and sobriety.

Peace, Tranio.

TRA. Well said, master; mum! and gaze your fill.
BAP. Gentlemen, that I may soon make good

What I have said, Bianca, get you in:
And let it not displease thee, good Bianca;
For I will love thee ne'er the less, my girl.

KATH. A pretty peat'; 't is best

Put finger in the eye-an she knew why.

BIAN. Sister, content you in my discontent.
Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe:

My books and instruments shall be my company;

On them to look, and practise by myself.

Luc. Hark, Tranio! thou mayst hear Minerva speak.

[Aside.

• Douce says that this expression seems to have been suggested by the chess term of stale-mate. Surely the occurrence of mates and stale in the same line does not warrant this assertion. A stale is a thing stalled-exposed for common sale. Baptista, somewhat coarsely, has offered Katharina to Gremio and Hortensio, "either of you;" and she is justly indignant at being set up for the bidding of these companions.

Peat-pet-spoiled child.

And, for I know she taketh most delight
In music, instruments, and poetry,
Schoolmasters will I keep within my house,
Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,
Or signior Gremio, you, know any such,
Prefer them hither; for to cunninga men
I will be very kind, and liberal

[Exit BIANCA.

[Exit.

[Exit.

To mine own children in good bringing-up; And so farewell. Katharina, you may stay; For I have more to commune with Bianca. KATH. Why, and I trust I may go too. May I not? What, shall I be appointed hours; as though, belike, I knew not what to take, and what to leave? Ha! GRE. You may go to the devil's dam; your gifts are so good, here's none will hold you. Their loveb is not so great, Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly out; our cake's dough on both sides. Farewell:-Yet, for the love I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means light on a fit man to teach her that wherein she delights, I will wish him to her father.

HOR. So will I, signior Gremio: But a word, I pray. Though the nature of our quarrel yet never brooked parle, know now, upon advice, it toucheth us both, that we may yet again have access to our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca's love,-to labour and effect one thing specially. GRE. What's that, I pray?

HOR. Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.

* Cunning-knowing-learned. Cunning, conning, was originally knowledge, skill; and is so used in our translation of the Bible. Shakspere, in general, uses cunning in the modern sense, as in 'Lear:'

"Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides."

But in this play the adjective is used in two other instances in the same way as in the passage before us (see Act II., Scene 1):—

แ Cunning in music and the mathematics."

"Cunning in Greek, Latin, and other languages."

Their love. Mason would read our love; Malone, your love. Their love, it appears to us, refers to the affection between Katharine and her father, who have been jarring throughout the scene. Baptista has resolved that Bianca shall not wed till he has found a husband for his elder daughter. Gremio and Hortensio, who aspire to Bianca, think that there is so little love between the Shrew and her father, that his resolve will change, while they blow their nails together—while they submit to some delay.

• Wish him-commend him.

VOL. I.

Z

GRE. A husband! a devil.

HOR. I say, a husband.

GRE. I say, a devil: Think'st thou, Hortensio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool as to be married to hell?

HOR. Tush, Gremio, though it pass your patience and mine to endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all faults, and money enough.

GRE. I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this condition,-to be whipped at the high-cross every morning.

But, come;

HOR. Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten apples. since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall be so far forth friendly maintained, till by helping Baptista's eldest daughter to a husband, we set his youngest free for a husband, and then have to 't afresh.-Sweet Bianca! -Happy man be his dole! He that runs fastest gets the ring. How say you, signior Gremio?

GRE. I am agreed: and 'would I had given him the best horse in Padua to begin his wooing, that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her. Come on. [Exeunt GREMIO and HORTENSIO. TRA. [Advancing.] I pray, sir, tell me,-Is it possible

That love should of a sudden take such hold?

Luc. O Tranio, till I found it to be true,

I never thought it possible, or likely;
But see! while idly I stood looking on,
I found the effect of love in idleness:
And now in plainness do confess to thee,-
That art to me as secret, and as dear,
As Anna to the queen of Carthage was,—
Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
If I achieve not this young modest girl:
Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst;
Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.
TRA. Master, it is no time to chide you now;

Affection is not rated from the heart:

If love have touch'd you, nought remains but so,—
Redime te captum quam queas minimo.

Luc. Gramercies, lad; go forward, this contents;

The rest will comfort, for thy counsel 's sound.

• If love have touch'd you. Monck Mason, one of the most prosaic of the commentators, very gravely refers the exquisite word touch'd to the shoulder-clap of the bailiff:-" It is a common expression at this day to say, when a bailiff has arrested a man, that he has touched him on the shoulder." One would think it impossible for a reader of Shakspere to forget how favourite a word this is with him, and how beautifully he uses it, as he does a thousand other words, to convey, by a syllable or two, an idea which feebler writers would have elaborated into many lines. Who can remember

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,”

and not smile at Monck Mason with his bailiff?

TRA. Master, you look'd so longly on the maid,
Perhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all.
Luc. O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,

Such as the daughter of Agenor had,

That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand".
TRA. Saw you no more? mark'd you not, how her sister
Began to scold; and raise up such a storm,
That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?
Luc. Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,

And with her breath she did perfume the air;
Sacred, and sweet, was all I saw in her.

TRA. Nay, then, 't is time to stir him from his trance.
I pray, awake, sir: If you love the maid,

Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands :-
Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd,

That, till the father rids his hands of her,
Master, your love must live a maid at home;
And therefore has he closely mew'd her up,
Because she shall not be annoy'd with suitors.
Luc. Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!

But art thou not advis'd, he took some care
To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?
TRA. Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now 't is plotted.
Luc. I have it, Tranio.

TRA. Not possible. For who shall bear your part,

And be in Padua here Vincentio's son?

Keep house, and ply his book; welcome his friends;
Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?

Luc. Basta; content thee; for I have it full.
We have not yet been seen in any house;

Nor can we be distinguish'd by our faces,
For man or master: then it follows thus ;-
Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead,

Keep house, and port, and servants, as I should:

• Shall. In the original, will. Rowe made the correction.

Port-state, show. Thus, in 'The Merchant of Venice,' Act III., Scene 2:

"And the magnificos of greatest port."